We need to gain God’s perspective in His creation of man and His plans for mankind. We should ask; “What is God’s purpose in having “Israel” and having “the Body of Christ”?

Consider first that … before Genesis 1:2 Satan had already fallen from the highest heaven to lower heavens (cf. Isa. 14:12, Eph 2:2, Lk. 10:18-19) and the original perfectly created earth had already fallen to Lucifer as “the God of this world” (2 Cor 4:4) and “the Prince of the Power of the air (atmosphere)” (Eph. 2:2). When Jesus came, he did not dispute Satan’s authority over the world (Luke 4:6-7). Note that below we see the earth had already become an empty waste under God’s very first judgment waters in Genesis 1:2. This was long before Noah’s judgment waters.

“IN THE beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form and an empty waste, and darkness was upon the face of the very great deep (waters). The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the (frozen) waters.” Genesis 1:1-2 (AMP)

Then God proceeded to recover the earth. He created Adam to “have dominion,” to “subdue,” to “replenish” (KJV) and thereby recover the earth. Adam was created to reign over everything in God’s stead, including the “creeping things”– implying the Serpent and his angels. (See “Serpent” in Gen. 3:1, 14; Rev. 12:4, 7, 9; Luke 10:19)

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. ²⁷ So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ²⁸ And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Genesis 1:26-28 (KJV)

The word “replenish” as used in v28 of the KJV (above) tells us the earth had already been occupied once, before Adam was created. There are many more proofs of this in other Scriptures.

Dominion Lost: Fallen Lucifer, in the form of “the Serpent” quickly deceived and usurped God’s “man.”

“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? ² And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: ³ But of the fruit of the tree (of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, Gen. 2:9) which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

⁵(The Serpent replied) For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, … knowing good and evil. ⁶ And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Genesis 3:1-3, 5-6 (KJV)

The result was of man believing the Serpent instead of God’s one requirement was that Satan’s Sin-Spirit came into Adam. The Serpent thereby usurped all mankind, thus thwarting God’s plan for man. Now note below the words “the spirit… in” – the Serpent’s spirit was now in man’s flesh!

“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh IN the children of  (Adam’s) disobedience: Ephesians 2:2-3 (KJV)

How would God now accomplish recovery of “the heaven and the earth,” since man became corrupted?

Gods wisdom is unsearchable, inscrutable, mysterious (Rom. 11:33), we have the revelation of His word.

Dominion Regained: “⁸(for)… this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.” (1Jn 3:7-8b KJV)

Jesus “redeemed” man but; “When will God’s fully recover “the heaven and the earth”?

“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:” Ephesians 1:10 (KJV)

Both “the heaven and the earth” will be fully recovered, purged, and reigned over forever, at the end of all ages… forever.

1) A Believing “remnant” of Israel will co-reign with Christ on the new earth, forever (Rev. 5:10, 20:6)

2) Before that, at the Rapture of “the body of Christ” they be resurrected to co-reign with Christ “in the heaven,” forever. (Philip. 3:20-21, 2Tim. 2:12, 2Cor. 5:1)

“For our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: ²¹ Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21 (KJV)
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle (our body) were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Corinthians 5:1 (KJV)

Now we have a glimpse into ‘why’ God has both an “Israel of God” and also the “body of Christ.”  

Having this background, we can now proceed to study the “Two Israels and the Body of Christ” as seen in the Bible.

In this Study Series of “Two Israels and the Body of Christ” we will explain why there are two Israels just as there are today two groups claiming to be Christians, while only one is the true “church, which is His body.”