Just like the divide between the “church” and the Hebrew Roots movement, there is a similar one between mainstream christians and those who see certain physical Jews as fake, and other physical Jews as real. And, just like with the other divide, the real issue is lack of spiritual understanding on both sides (read: no Holy Spirit). Sadly, there are “pastors” who publicly espouse both sides of this, demonstrating their complete lack of spiritual sight (i.e., John Hagee vs. Chuck Baldwin).
Neither side understands who the true Jew is, so on one side, there are folks who claim that the physical Jews in the earthly nation of Israel are “God’s people,” and that the real meaning of “Israel” is some earthly land, and on the other side are those who stay worked up about which physical Jews are the “real Jews,” when the physical definition hasn’t been spiritually relevant since Messiah broke down the barrier between the two (Ephesians 2).
Paul said that the true Jew is the person whose heart has been circumcised—physical circumcision was merely a foreshadow (Romans 2:29). The physical Jews were a foreshadow. The earthly promised land was a foreshadow. Both of these sides have no problem understanding that a literal lamb never saved anybody through sacrifice, but that it was only a foreshadow (picture) of the Perfect Lamb of Yah being sacrificed for His bride.
In fact, both sides tend to reject the actual day Messiah was crucified (Passover, which fell on a Wednesday that year) and rose again (during the night on the Feast of Firstfruits), and rather embrace the pagan easter/ishtar and its false corollary “good Friday.”
And, speak of any of the other myriad foreshadows in scripture, and they simply cannot (or will not) see them. Thus, even though scripture reveals to us that nobody is a true Jew because of anything physical, and that Y’isra-el is Messiah Yahoshua’s bride who is made up of true Jews, and that the promised land on earth is just a foreshadow of heaven, both sides continue to see the physical as being the spiritual real substance. That is a result of having no spiritual understanding.
My physical heritage is mostly Irish, Scottish, and English, but scripture says I am a Jew both by adoption (justification) and by marriage (covenant). All Y’isra-el WILL be saved, because she is Messiah’s bride, and that has nothing to do with physical bloodline or geography.
Keeping one’s focus on what is physical (that which is in the world) will always keep one’s focus off of what is spiritual. And, in the end, only the spiritual matters.
For more information: Circumcision and Spiritual Reproduction