As stated, and proven earlier, the “Body of Christ” is not “the Bride of Christ?” though it be contrary to what many denominationalists commonly believe. We should not repeat what we have heard in the ‘church’ organizations of man all of our lives, without consulting “the word,” both the living Word and His written “Word of truth” … in their context. For many, it’s all too shocking to learn that the Bible very often does not say what people and so many pastor/teachers presume it says.

By example, never once. in the King James Bible, do we find the term, ‘the Bride of Christ.’ It is a ‘religious’ term borne of corrupted religious systems of mankind, devoid of Bible support. But it is a core doctrine in Protestantism that sprang forth from the Roman Catholic Church. Never once does the Bible refer to the Church, “the Body of Christ” as ‘the Bride of Christ.’ This should indicate to us that the concept is nothing more than a man-made concept, a corrupt ‘tradition of men,’ aimed at deceiving and robbing us of the clarity of God’s Word, while it furthers the man-made theological system. Paul wrote:

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after The Tradition of Men, after the rudiments of the world [this corrupt age], and not after Christ” (Col. 2:8, emphasis added).

We do find the following phrases and terms in the KJV: “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Rev. 19:7, 9), “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared ‘As A Bride’ adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2), and “the Lamb’s wife” (Rev. 21:9). A marriage is certainly occurring in the closing chapters of the book of the Revelation, but who is marrying whom? In the words of the Old Testament prophets, JEHOVAH God clearly referred to the Nation Israel as “the Lamb’s wife,” and Christ as believing Israel’s “Husband” (Jer.3:14, 30).

• Jer. 2:32: “Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my [JEHOVAH’s] people [Israel] have forgotten me [JEHOVAH], days without number.”
• Jer. 3:14,20: “Turn, O backsliding children [of Israel], saith the LORD; for I Am Married Unto You: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: [20] Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.”
• Isaiah 54:5-6: “For thy [Israel’s] Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. [6] For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a ‘wife’ of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.”

The book of Hosea recalls how JEHOVAH married the Nation Israel when He brought her out of Egyptian slavery and gave the Old Covenant, “the Law,” to them in Exodus 24. Hosea recounts how Israel became unfaithful to Him, as a wife would cheat on her husband. Israel polluted herself with the idols of her pagan neighbors; willfully going after other gods. Eventually, God had to divorce Israel; essentially, He sent her into Gentile captivity, exemplified most fully in the book of Lamentations, when Jerusalem was destroyed 586 B.C.

Here, Hosea summarizes how JEHOVAH will forgive Israel of her sins, restore her, remarry her, bring her back into her homeland (the Promised Land), where she will be His earthly people forever:

“And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. [16] And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi [“my husband”]; and shalt call me no more Baali (“my master”). [17] For I will take away the names of Baalim [the Canaanite Gods] out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. [18] And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. [19] And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth [engage to marry] thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. [20] I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD. [21] And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; [22] And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. [23] And I will sow her  [fruitfully] unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them [Israel] which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.” (Hosea 2:15-23)

Jeremiah 31 explains how God will forgive Israel of her sins:

“³¹Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: ³²Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I Was An Husband Unto Them, saith the LORD.” Again, JEHOVAH says that He was Israel’s husband.

God wanted the Nation Israel to be His representative Nation in the earth (Exo. 19:5-6; Psa. 37:11; Isa. 2:1-4; Mat. 5:5; Rev. 5:10). Israel is His redeemed earthly Nation by whom God will ultimately rule over the earth. The planet Earth, which Satan has polluted, but Israel will one day be redeemed. God will save the nation Israel and Marry Her to The Land, the Promised Land, the land of Canaan, thus marrying Himself forever to that Land as well.

“For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. ²And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.

³Thou [Israel] shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. ⁴Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy LAND any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah [“my delight is in her”], AND thy land Beulah [Heb. meaning “to be married”]: for the LORD delighteth in thee, AND THY LAND SHALL BE MARRIED. ⁵For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee [the LAND]: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.” (Isaiah 62:1-5)

To summarize the above Old Testament passages, Jesus Christ will return to Earth one day, to restore the nation Israel, to redeem her and make her His earthly people under a “the New Covenant” of Jer. 31:31-34, Rom. 11:26-29, Heb. 8:8-13, Heb. 10:15-17.

At that time, JEHOVAH God will fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 12:1-3) to evangelize Gentiles through Israel, and enforce the Palestinian Covenant (Gen. 15:18-21) to give Israel her land, and the Davidic Covenant (2 Sam. 7:12-16) to give Israel her literal, physical, visible kingdom in accord with David’s royal bloodline… that leads to Jesus Christ as the legitimate “King of kings.”

The way Jesus Christ will restore Earth unto Himself is by using the nation Israel in His Millennial kingdom to bless all the families of the earth. This Millennium period is often called the “1,000-year reign,” “Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ,” “kingdom of heaven [on earth],” to name a few titles. These passages and verses we mentioned at the beginning of this study to interpret the marriage of Christ, Israel, and “the Land.”