After Pentecost, is Israel still Israel?

The short answer Settled

Yes. Paul still names Jews and the church of God as separate groups. Jesus withheld the timing of Israel's restored kingdom without denying it. And after Pentecost, Peter said Christ remains in heaven until the restoration the prophets foretold.

Jews, Greeks, and the church of God

Paul closes his instructions about food offered to idols with one command: "Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God" (1 Corinthians 10:32). He names three groups side by side. The verse does not define who belongs to each group, and it does not say they never overlap. But it keeps Jews and the church of God as two separate names. The church had not erased Jews as a distinct people.

Not yet, not no

After His resurrection, Jesus spoke to the apostles about the kingdom of God. They asked, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). Their question names the act, "restore," the one it is for, "Israel," and the point they wanted to know, "at this time."

Jesus answered, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority" (Acts 1:7). He answered the question about timing. He did not replace Israel with someone else, redefine the kingdom, or say the restoration would not happen. The passage does not itself say when the restoration will come; it shows that Jesus withheld the timing rather than correcting the hope.

Until the times of restoration

In the next chapter, after Pentecost, Peter speaks to the "Men of Israel" at the temple (Acts 3:12). He calls them to repent, so that times of refreshing may come "and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before" (Acts 3:20). Then he says of Christ, "whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:21).

Peter is speaking after the Spirit has come, and he still points to a restoration Christ remains in heaven until. So Pentecost is not the restoration in Peter's sentence. He ties that restoration to what the prophets had already said. The passage does not list everything included in "restoration of all things" or give its date.

The usual objection

The objection says that once Jews and Gentiles were brought into the church, Jewish identity stopped mattering, the apostles' hope for Israel's kingdom was simply a misunderstanding, and Pentecost fulfilled the prophets' restoration promises in a spiritual way.

Each passage answers one part of that. Paul still names Jews apart from the church. Jesus withheld the timing of the restoration the apostles asked about without denying it. And Peter, after Pentecost, still places the prophets' restoration at the end of Christ's time in heaven.

The words behind it