SPIRITUAL JEWS, ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM
The bible uses physical people, places and things to symbolically represent spiritual truths. Failure to keep symbolism in view leads to religion born out of confusion. It also leads to gross misunderstanding of Jews, Israel and Jerusalem.

Therefore, when reading the bible it is always necessary to discern  Israel and Jerusalem symbolically represent communities of people (i.e. spiritual Jews) whose hearts have been circumcised and who live in covenant relationship with God and each other.  Symbolic Israel and Jerusalem, then and now, are populated by people who might otherwise be called either Jews,  Christians or Muslims. Thus these spiritual communities include people of any ethnicity anywhere in the world that are true Jews.

A true Jew is any individual of any ethnicity whose heart is circumcised. New Covenant disciples  are true Jews. True Israel, and true Jerusalem, therefore, are also New Covenant disciples whose hearts have been circumcised.

New Covenant disciples do not refer to themselves or identify themselves by any worldly labels that people typically use to identify themselves and the various religious communities to which they belong. They understand that they are true Jews and that they are residents of spiritual Israel and Jerusalem even though they live in other parts of the world. True Jews do not refer to themselves as either Jewish or Christian or by any denominational label. They feel no need to identify themselves by worldly labels because they know that God knows the condition of their hearts. Consider how God views the use of labels in the following scripture:

2 Corinthians 3:1-6: Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your hearts, to be known and read by all men; 3 and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. 4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, 6 who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.

COMMENTARY: Paul says here that the presence of the Spirit in their heart is all that people need to identify themselves as New Covenant disciples. No written or verbal labels or statements are necessary for commendation and recommendation in the community of New Covenant believers or in the world at large. God alone communicates his character and he does that spiritually — not in words. Just as God does not want or need anything physical to reveal himself to people, New Covenant disciples also do not identify themselves with labels or clothing or rituals. True Jews understand these truths and do nothing that interferes with God’s  purposes in them.

STUDY TIP: See Third Commandment for more about God’s purposes.

Written laws and doctrines, are manifestations of Old/First Covenant religion. Religious leaders who preach and teach these laws promote Old/First Covenant religion. Their preaching and teaching is the fruit of Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Old/First Covenant religiosity is the stuff of the flesh and the world — not of the Spirit. It is Defiled Religion. Because anyone can say and do the things that the world equates with one religion or another, what people choose to call themselves means nothing to God. Thus, even unbelieving imposters can wear religious clothing, say religious things and conduct religious services. Those who do these things while wearing religious labels are imposters who exhibit fleshly behaviors that reveal nothing about the heart condition. They are purveyors of Defiled Religion. Because anyone can do these religious things, God is very choosy about whom he sends to speak for him.

STUDY TIP: See False Prophets for identification of purveyors of defiled religion.

Old/First Covenant people use fleshly mediators (i.e. people who wear labels such as prophet, priest, pastor, etc.) and employ written codes (i.e. labels of many kinds that identify religious status) to identify themselves and legitimize the things they do. They do this because they lack confidence that their spiritual status and identity (i.e. the character/name of God) is established (i.e. written, engraved, recorded) on their hearts. They also use these labels to commend and recommend themselves to others so that others will know who they are and the communities to which they belong. They do this to gain recognition, favor and acceptance from others or to distinguish themselves from other communities that do not share the same history, qualities, values and goals.

Adopting labels is a common practice in all  kinds of communities (e.g. politics, education, ethnicity, geographical, social, religious, etc.). In modern times the use of labels is known as branding.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Making a Name for Yourself for more about religious branding.

Labels and brands are useful tools to help people identify with each other and form alliances of one kind or another. They are also very useful in commerce. That religious organizations use labels is another example of the worldly nature of religion and the commercial nature of religion.

AUTHORS’ NOTE: See Commercial Religion for more about the commercial nature of religion.

While religious organizations depend heavily on labels and branding for survival, New Covenant disciples reject the use of labels and all external identification because they are confident that the Spirit is the only commendation they need. They know that God knows the condition of their hearts and they rest with that knowledge. For them, labels represent the world’s way and not God’s way. For truly spiritual people, the only label they need is the Spirit written on their heart. They would not want to be associated with or identified with any group of people that finds its identity in a name that is associated with a known religious organization. They trust, as Paul says in  2 Corinthians 3:1-6 that they are “ letters of recommendation to be known and read by all men to show that they are letters from Christ written by Spirit of the living God on the tablet of their heart.”

True Jews understand that God’s use of “name” in the Bible does not refer to a worldly name but to the character of a person. When God refers to the place where he causes his name to reside, he is referring to individuals in whom his spirit resides. Such people know that they are New Covenant disciples in whom the law is written on their hearts, and they know that God’s character is established in them. Therefore, they have no need or desire for any worldly labels (e.g. Jew, Christian, etc.) by which they might be identified. They do not violate the Third Commandment.

When reading about Jews, Israelites and Jerusalem, the following rules of thumb must be observed:

With these rules of thumb in mind, the following conclusions may be made from scripture — depending on the context:

With these rules of thumb in mind, Biblical references to Israel, Jerusalem and Jews should be carefully considered to discern their symbolic value.