Is the church or Israel the bride of Christ?<\/p>\n\t
In the Old Testament, Israel was depicted as God’s bride in several prophecies. But she was declared to be a faithless wife. God declared that He was a husband to Israel (Jeremiah 31:32), but Israel broke the marriage covenant. She became a spiritual adulteress. “So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees<\/em>” (Jeremiah 3:9). In Ezekiel 16, God discusses this at length, calling Israel a degenerate harlot because she won’t accept pay for her harlotry, she paid others. ““How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord GOD, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot. You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned payment. You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband. Men make payment to all harlots, but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry. You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.”<\/em>” (Ezekiel 16:30-34). See “Jerusalem as an Unfaithful Woman<\/a>” for more details.<\/p>\n In the New Testament, the church is depicted as Christ’s bride. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish<\/em>” (Ephesians 5:25-27). It is the new Jerusalem, not the old, that is presented, “Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband<\/em>” (Revelation 21:2). As Paul stated, “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ<\/em>” (II Corinthians 11:2).<\/p>\n The reason for the depiction of God’s people as being married to God is that a solemn covenant forms a marriage. “Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, with whom you have dealt treacherously; yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant<\/em>” (Malachi 2:14). Both ancient Israel and the church have entered into a covenant with God. “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second<\/em>” (Hebrews 8:6-7). Just as a marriage forms an exclusive relationship between a man and a woman, our covenant with God is exclusive. God has the right to protect His relationship (II Corinthians 11:2). He has the right to expect us to be faithful to our commitment.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Is the church or Israel the bride of Christ? Answer: In the Old Testament, Israel was depicted as God’s bride in several prophecies. But she was declared to be a faithless wife. God declared that He was a husband to Israel (Jeremiah 31:32), but Israel broke the marriage covenant. She became a spiritual adulteress.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[448,557,76],"class_list":["post-8111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church","tag-israel","tag-terminology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14130,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-god-divorce-all-of-israel-or-only-the-northern-tribes\/","url_meta":{"origin":8111,"position":0},"title":"Did God divorce all of Israel or only the northern tribes?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In Jeremiah 3:8, who did God divorce? Was it the House of Israel (ten northern tribes) only or all twelve tribes? Thank you. Answer: \"Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, \"Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33706,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-gomer-the-same-woman-mentioned-in-hosea-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":8111,"position":1},"title":"Was Gomer the same woman mentioned in Hosea 3?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was Gomer the same wife of Hosea mentioned in Hosea 3 or did Hosea take another wife? Also is Romans 9:25 quoting Hosea 2:23? Answer: To keep what happens in Hosea clear, we have to follow both the story of Hosea and the illustration God makes using Hosea's life.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16078,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-harlot-in-revelation-17-18-the-roman-catholic-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":8111,"position":2},"title":"Is the harlot in Revelation 17-18 the Roman Catholic Church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm reading the prophetic book of Revelation and comparing it with Daniel for I heard they are talking about the same subject. In chapters 17 to 18, it seems to be specific in symbolism for it points out that the woman, who is a whore, is a kingdom that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25403,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-hoseas-wife-a-harlot-and-were-some-of-her-children-not-his\/","url_meta":{"origin":8111,"position":3},"title":"Was Hosea’s wife a harlot and were some of her children not his?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I would like to have your input about Hosea marrying a harlot.\u00a0 Some scholars seem to think that she was not really a harlot when she married Hosea but had the mindset of the people of that day and time which was idolatry.\u00a0 Because of that mindset, a while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14793,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-god-take-israel-and-judah-back\/","url_meta":{"origin":8111,"position":4},"title":"When did God take Israel and Judah back?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When exactly did God take both Israel and Judah back? Answer: When Judah returned from the Babylonian captivity, they did not come alone. \"So all Israel was enrolled by genealogies; and behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel. And Judah was carried away into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29728,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-christians-individually-married-to-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":8111,"position":5},"title":"Are Christians individually married to Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 26, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does the Bible talk about individuals being a bride of God or a bride of Christ? It is my understanding that the church as a whole is the bride of Christ, and I think it is not accurate to say things \"I am married to God\" or \"Christ is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}