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ORIGINAL: Stephanos

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ORIGINAL: notmycity

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ORIGINAL: MrFribbles

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Not at all.

SCRIPTURE teaches that the church is Christ’s body, never His bride.

Again, the only mention EVER of “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” is in Revelation 21.

Christ never taught bridal theology, and neither did His apostles.

The Roman church “fathers” however did teach this from as early as the 4th century.

Explain why God calls Israel His bride in the OT, then.

Jer 3:14
14 Turn, O backsliding children, 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:
(KJV)


Ezek 16:8-15
8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.
9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.
10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.
11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.
12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.
13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.
14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.
15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.
(KJV)

Above are some references.

It is true that Israel is quite often spoken of as an unfaithful wife, but what has that to do with the church?

Are you a replacement theologist?

Replacement? No...But neither separatist!

Paul in Romans 11:16-21 tells us that the believing church is grafted onto the existing tree. We do not replace it, but neither are we seperate from the tree. We are one. As such, some promises given to the tree apply to us as well. Yet there are also differences when talking about different parts of the tree.

Some of God's promises to Israel also apply to us. Not because we replaced Israel, but because we are now one with them.