(Quotes from NASB unless noted otherwise, bold emphasis added)

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By Tom Case.

There are a few folks calling themselves full preterists teaching the idea that the gospel and salvation were only for the twelve tribes of Israel, specifically only Abraham and his blood descendants, i.e. the Hebrew race. These few are not representative of the majority of full preterists. Unfortunately I've seen a few folks persuaded by their arguments. It's claimed by the Israel only proponents that Gentiles that heard and accepted the gospel during the apostolic period could only refer to the bloodline of the divorced ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel (Jer. 3:8) who were sent away and dispersed throughout the Gentile nations. Thus, Gentiles not of the Hebrew bloodline would not be included, nor would anyone else after the AD 70 judgment of Jerusalem... ever! A primary citation offered as proof of exclusivity is, Jer. 31:31 "Behold, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." That's frequently followed with Jesus' statement in, Mt. 15:24 “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Did He mean only to the bloodline of the ten tribes dispersed among the Gentiles? Let's look at some relevant passages. In the OT there was a distinction between the house of Israel and the house of Judah. We don't find that clear distinction in the NT. "House of Israel" occurs 6 times, "house of Judah" occurs only in the Heb. 8:8 quote of Jer. 31:31. House of Judea (Greek for Judah) is not found.

Earlier in His hometown of Nazareth (Mt. 9:1) Jesus instructed His disciples: Mt. 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans. 6 but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." That instruction to the 12 being sent out in pairs excluded the areas the ten tribes had been dispersed to. However, in His travels Jesus did have His disciples accompany Him to some of those areas. For instance, let's look at the context of Mt. 15:24 given above, my comments in brackets:

Mt. 15:21 Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon [Gentile area]. 22 And a Canaanite [Gentile] woman from that region came out and began to cry out, saying, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed." 23 But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, "Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us." 24 But He answered and said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 25 But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, "Lord, help me!" 26 And He answered and said, "It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." 27 But she said, "Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters' table." 28 Then Jesus said to her, "O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed at once.

Was that Gentile woman of the Hebrew bloodline, a descendant of the dispersed 10 tribes? Mark's parallel account in Mk. 7:24-30 clarifies: 25 But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. 26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race...

"Race" is from G1085, genos. Many versions and 3 interlinears checked translate as "race." Several versions render as Syrophoenician born (or by birth). The woman was not of the Hebrew bloodline. Seems an example that the gospel reach would not be discriminatory.

However, the gospel was to go to the Jew first (Lk. 24:47; Jn. 4:22; Ro. 1:16). Acts 2 records the events of Pentecost during which; 5 "there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews (G2453, Judeans), devout men, from every nation under heaven." Included were; 9 "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes (G4339), 11 Cretans and Arabs..." In verse 14 Peter addressed the crowd as, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem..." then in verse 22 as, “Men of Israel..." So, it seems at that time Jesus and Peter considered the house of Israel consisting only of the two Judean tribes that had not been divorced, since the divorced tribes had become "not My people" (Hos. 1:9). Looking at Eze. 23 we see that Jerusalem was even more corrupt in her harlotries than Samaria, they were lost children indeed. However, since Jesus was to come from the line of Judah, there was no divorce of Jerusalem and the southern kingdom. Many of those individual lost children would come to Christ, but the nation would face the judgment of execution.

After his vision of the great sheet containing all kinds of four-footed animals, Peter addressed Cornelius and the others present: Acts 10:28 And he said to them, "You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean." The word "foreigner" is from G246; foreign, of another tribe or race. Young, Rotherham, and Mounce are among some versions that translate as "another race," so it cannot be definitively stated that the Roman Cornelius, his kinsmen and friends were descendants of those dispersed ten tribes.

In Acts 17:17-20 we see while in Athens Paul reasoned in the Jewish synagogue and in the market place with those who "happened to be present" (G3909), and with some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who took him to the Areopagus (supreme court named after Greek god of war) for questioning. In 17:21 we see mention of "strangers," would those refer to the dispersed 10 tribes? Possibly, or maybe simply foreigners to Greece. No matter, Paul distinguished those from the Athenians. In 17:22-32, Paul noted the Athenians worshipped an unknown god, he then explained the true God to them and said, "God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent." That explains the preaching to whoever "happened to be present" noted above. In 17:32-34 the context is still the Athenians questioning him; some mocked, others said they would hear him again, and as Paul left some joined him and believed.

Acts 9, 22, and 26 describe Jesus' special selection of the apostle Paul, whose main task would be spreading the gospel among the Gentiles. In his letters to the various churches he revealed many mysteries. One that is most relevant to this topic is: Eph. 3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- 2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; 6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, 7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. 8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; (cf Col. 1:21ff).

Now the argument may be made that since Paul in Eph. 2:11,12 wrote of, "formerly you, Gentiles in the flesh" who had been "excluded from the commonwealth of Israel" (divorced 10 tribes), that those are the Gentiles in view in Eph. 3. But wait, that hadn't been hidden. Prophets of old told of the re-gathering, the re-joining of 2 sticks, the "not My people" once again becoming "My people." Paul was confirming the ongoing fulfillment of those prophecies. But in Eph. 3 Paul was revealing a mystery, something God had kept hidden until Paul received it by revelation. What breaking news could that have been? In 2:19 Paul had assured those dispersed aliens that they were "no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God." He revealed the mystery in 3:6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ through the gospel. How was that a revelation of a hidden mystery? Paul was revealing that ALL Gentiles (cf Acts 17:30) could become members of the same "household of God" that the dispersed aliens he had just mentioned in 2:19 had already become members of! Now THAT revelation would have been big news! And it is consistent with his statement to the Galatians:

Ga. 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "And to seeds," as referring to many, but rather to one, "And to your seed," that is, Christ. ...26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise (cf Ro. 9:1-9).

Differences in ethnicity, status, and gender are removed in Christ.

There are four lexical entries for "Greek." The one used above is G1672, the definition is inclusive of all except Jews: 1)a natural Greek, whether a native of the main land or of the Greek islands or colonies; or 2)any nations not Jews that made the language, customs, and learning of the Greeks their own. Number 2 would include - but not be limited to - the dispersed ten tribes (as would the more frequently used "Gentile," G1484). If Paul had wanted to exclude native Greeks from his evangelism he could have used "Grecian," G1675. In Col. 1:28 we see the apostles preached to "every man," even, as 3:11 says, to barbarians and Scythians (G4658, inhabitant of Scythia, modern day Russia).

It's claimed by Israel only proponents that the end of the Old Covenant age judgment in AD 70 was the end of God's relations with people, and that since then humans simply live then cease to exist when they die. But in Mt. 12:32 and Mk. 10:30 Jesus contrasted the then present age with the "age to come." Paul did the same in Eph. 1:21. Lk. 18:30 and Heb. 6:5 referenced the "age to come." These surely must be understood to mean the Old Covenant age was NOT the last age. Jesus also spoke of the "this generation" of His age, so, "to all the generations of the age of the ages" (Eph. 3:21 YLT) surely looked forward to continuing generations of the much better New Covenant age. And He warned of speaking against the Holy Spirit in "this age or in the age to come" (Mt. 12:32).

In Re. 7:4 John wrote of hearing "the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel." In verses 5-8 he names each tribe noting that 12,000 from each tribe were sealed. In Re. 14:1-5 we see special attributes of the 144,000 and the special blessings for them. They had been "purchased from the earth (G1093, land)" and "purchased from among men (G444, humans)." They were the "first fruits to God and to the Lamb." That implies other fruits to follow. John acknowledged those other fruits as he continued in Re. 7:9; "After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands." That included peoples other than those of the twelve tribes of Israel who were able to be counted.

The claim that no one before Abraham would receive the promise is clearly contradicted by Heb. 11. The generations since AD 70 are blessed: Re. 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, "Write, `Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!' " "Yes," says the Spirit, "so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them."

"From now on," that is, after the Old Covenant fully ended when the New Covenant instituted at the cross fully replaced the Old in AD 70 (Heb. 8:13). Note that it says they will go to their rest (eternal rest in heaven) and their deeds will follow, not that they will be judged by them (besides, in Jn. 5:24 Jesus said believers would not face judgment). No more waiting for a resurrection as in the Old Covenant - death and the grave are defeated!