The Adulterous Wife And The Virgin Bride

Q. Thanks for the opportunity to ask you this question.  I was raised a Baptist, and after age 30 I changed to Assembly of God.

I know a Bible teacher there who holds a meeting once a week and I am very concerned about this doctrine he teaches.   He says that God has a wife, and that wife is the old testament Jews. Next, he says that Christ has a separate Bride.

I have never heard this before and I am sure it is wrong.  This particular “doctrine” would change the whole bible!!  Can this teacher actually be a Christian?  Should I attend his meetings anymore? 

A. I don’t know how this teacher presented his view, but in the Old Testament, God called Israel His adulterous wife (as in Ezekiel 16:32), and in the New Testament, the church is called the virgin bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). These are terms that symbolize the difference between the Law and Grace. God often described Israel’s disobedience as spiritual infidelity, especially when it involved idolatry. To Him worshiping idols is like cheating on Him.

But when Jesus went to the cross He took all of our sins with Him washed us clean with His blood. Now He sees the Church as if we’ve never sinned at all, as if we’re as pure as He is. If the truth be told we’re no better than Israel, because we worship things other than God, too. Instead of statues, we worship money or material possessions or other things of this world. So it’s God’s view of us that’s different, and that happened because of what He did for us, not because of anything we’ve done for Him.