These are a few verses that show Israel is a nation and a remnant of believers will be saved; Israel has not be "superseded" by the Church; there is no replacement of Ethnic (or nation) Israel by the Church
Nation Israel, a chosen people of God
The Apple of the Lord's eye
But the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage. "He found him in a desert land, and in the howling waste of the wilderness; he encircled him, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the LORD alone guided him, no foreign god was with him.
Deuteronomy 32:9-12.
Why are the Jews chosen? It is so the nations might know God is one and is all powerful
"For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Deuteronomy 7:6-8.
God cannot forget His people
"Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
Isaiah 49:15.
For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage;
Psalms 94:14.
Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you."
Deuteronomy 31:6.
Only if the fixed laws of physics be broken would nation Israel be given up
Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD of hosts is his name: "If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever."
Jeremiah 31:35-36.
God's unconditional covenants with the Jews are for all time
God's unconditional covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
"Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God."
Genesis 17:4-8.
And God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name." So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, "I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body. The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give the land to your offspring after you."
Genesis 35:10-12.
Covenant made by the Everlasting God
Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD, the Everlasting God.
Genesis 21:33.
Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sake remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God: I am the LORD."
Leviticus 26:44-45.
The advantage of a Jew is they have given the covenants and the law
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
Romans 9:4-5
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
Romans 3:1-2.
I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.
Ezekiel 36:24.
Apostle Paul, proud to be a Jew
For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
Philippians 3:3-5.
Nation Israel has not been usurped by any, including the Church
Israel
Has God rejected His people to be succeeded by the Church?
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
Romans 11:1-2a
If the Church as usurped Israel, how is it that Israel will be saved after the full number of gentiles are saved, according to the Apostle Paul?
Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob";
Romans 11:25-26.
If Israel is usurped, it cannot be saved.
Thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country, and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness."
Zechariah 8:7-8.
This is not salvation from Exile or else the verse would only speak of Babylon a nation to the east.
The Church
The Church is the body of Christ, born at Pentecost
And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
Colossians 1:18.
Membership of the church is by Spirit-baptism
Member of the Church is by spirit-baptism; this did not occur prior to Acts, therefore the Church did not exist before that time, thus did not exist in any form in the Old Testament
Foretold by Jesus
For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now."
Acts 1:5.
Confirmed by Apostle Paul
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
1 Corinthians 12:13.
Happened as told by Jesu
As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'
Acts 11:15-16.
What about verses that appears to show Church is Israel?
Use of the word Israel in the New Testament
The word Israel is mentioned 73 times in the New Testament, with the vast majority concerning ethnic Israel, that is Nation Israel.
Galatians 6:16 (Israel of God)
And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
Galatians 6:16
The error occurs due to failure to follow basic Greek gramma along with forgetting the first rule of interpretation - observation of the context. Simply, the book is to a church in gentile territory (Asia Minor, today's Turkey), a church dominated by Jews who wanted the Gentiles to obey the Law of Moses. Paul writes to two groups of people within the congregation: Gentile believers and Jewish believers. Galatians 6:16 provides a salutation to both groups, "them"; (1) the Gentiles and (2) the Jew who are the "Israel of God." If it were not so, the kai between these two phrases would be superfluous, and not used. The Greek grammar clearly places an "and" between these two, not a "dash" as many do English translations.[1] This is one of only two verses out of mentions of Israel in the New Testament that is used so convolutely "prove" Church replacement theory.
Galatians 3:6-9 (Spiritual Jews if such a thing could exist)
Even as Abraham "believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"? Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons [followers] of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Galatians 3:6-9.
If one is to believe using these verses that if Gentiles become the children of Abraham it would make all Arabs, Jews, since the are descendants of Abraham. But this is false; a Jew is a descendent of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What this verse teaches is that since Abraham was based on his faith declared righteous, the true followers (sons) of Abraham are those whose righteousness have been imputed to them based on their faith (because faith has always been the means to salvation). The Galatian Gentiles were not becoming Jews, but rather followers [sons] of Abraham because they like Abraham believed God. For a Gentile to become a Jew, he or she would need to become a child of Jacob, and this notion is never entertained by the Bible.
Roman 2:28, 29
For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
Romans 2:28-29.
One could suggest these words at most means a Gentile becomes a Jew inwardly since that is what makes a Jew, but does it? Again, like the interpretation of Galatians, this view can only be held if the context is done away. This section of Romas is solely about Jews; the Gentiles are nowhere in view; the section pertaining to Gentiles is Romans 1:18-2:16. What this passage is saying is being a Jew physically (from being a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – and thus taking on the token of circumcision) does not make a Jew righteous. A Jew needs to be believe, which is an inward and heart- based action, and thus a true Jew is one both outwardly (by descent & circumcision) and inwardly by circumcision of the heart.
References
The Modern State Of Israel In Bible Prophecy https://www.arielcontent.org/dcs/pdf/mbs189m.pdf
[1] As S. Lewis Johnson, Jr points out (TMSJ 20/1 (Spring 2009) Paul and “The Israel of God”: An Exegetical And Eschatological Case-Study, pp41-55) that if kai ot rendered "and" the view suffers from the grammatical and syntactical weakness of endorsing the meaning of the Greek particle kai as “namely,” a rare usage of that word. The question asked of Johnson and others, why are those of this view so opposed to Ethnic Israel?
