The Gathering of True Israel

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 11, 1889

The Gathering of True Israel

A MISCONCEPTION of the meaning of the term "Israel," leads many to suppose that the Scriptures teach that the Jews will yet be gathered into their own land. We do read of the Root of Jesse (Isa. 11:10, 12), that "he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth," but this has no reference whatever to those who are now called Jews. "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; . . . but he is a Jew which is one inwardly." Rom. 2:28, 29. "Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; that is, 'they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.' Rom. 9:6, 7. Or as the apostle elsewhere expresses it: "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. 3:19.

There will be a glorious gathering, not of the Jews—literal Israel,—but of those who are Christ's—the true Israel,—for "they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." Luke 13:29. And this is the only gathering of Israel yet future, of which the Scriptures speak.