I.  What  is  the  Church  and  the  Destiny  of  the
Church?  The  church  is  an  altogether  New  Testament
institution.  Nowhere  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures
is  there  said  anything  about  the  church,  the  expression
so  often  used,  the  Old  Testament  church,  or,  the
Jewish  church  is  therefore  incorrect.  It  springs  from
the  view  that  Israel,  the  seed  of  Abraham,  was  the
church  in  the  past  and  that  since  Israel  has  rejected
Christ,  the  Christian  Church  has  become  Israel  and
all  the  promises  made  to  Israel  are  now  being  fulfilled
in  a  spiritual  way.  This  theory  plays  havoc  with  the
Word  of  God  and  leads  into  confusion.  The  present-
day  condition  of  Christendom  is  to  a  great  extent  the
result  of  this  erroneous  view.  Israel  is  not  the  church,
nor  has  the  church  taken  the  place  of  Israel.  All  who
believed  in  Old  Testament  times  were  saved  by  grace,
in  the  same  way  as  believing  sinners  are  saved  during
this  dispensation.  They  were  Saints,  as  we  are  Saints.
But  where  is  there  in  any  portion  of  the  Scriptures  of
the  Old  Testament  (so-called)  a  statement  that  these
Jewish  believers  formed  the  church  of  God,  the  body
and  the  bride  of  Christ?  Israel  was  not  the  church
in  the  past  and  it  is  equally  impossible  that  the  people
Israel  in  their  future  day  of  restoration  and  blessing


62  STUDIES   IN  PROPHECY

can  become  the  church.  Israel's  calling  is  earthly;
the  calling  of  the  church  is  a  heavenly  calling.  Israel
will  some  day  possess  the  earthly  Jerusalem  while  the
church  will  be  in  the  heavenly  Jerusalem.
Our  Lord  mentioned  the  church  for  the  first  time.
