HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 28, 2025 – According to the results of several recent DNA studies, a large and increasing percentage of people today who identify as Jewish are not descended from Biblical Hebrews but from a mish-mash of other peoples, including Eastern Europeans, Iranians, and even Russians. If these results are accurate, it at the very least raises some compelling questions about the validity of claims regarding Jews’ Biblical right, based primarily on genetics, to the so-called Promised Land.

It is not, however, the role of this blog to get involved in geopolitics. Jesus never got involved beyond the odd comment now and then, and so I don’t get involved, either. But he did advise us to watch, and that I do, and what I see in the ebb and flow of the fortunes and misfortunes of the past and present state of Israel is fascinating. The drama never seems to end (although we know it will some day), with Israel perpetually painting itself as the victim perpetually owed special status and reparations of one sort or another. And woe betide anyone who comes against that resurrected state, not because God is fighting its battles, but because the devil is. You don’t want to go up against the devil, because whatever he does, he’s gotten prior permission from God to do, which means that if you fight against the devil you’re essentially fighting against God.

Not a smart move. Not gonna win that war.

Which is why Jesus steered clear of geopolitics. Let the fallen and the worldly duke it out among themselves. We in the spiritual Kingdom of Israel have better things to do.

And we are the spiritual Kingdom of Israel. We are the prophesied remnant whose pedigree is unquestionable. Israel 2.0 is not a geopolitical realm but a spiritual one, and the entrance to that realm is by rebirth, not natural birth. In the Kingdom, our natural genetics are all over the place, which is fine (and scriptural) because genetics don’t matter here. All that matters if that we’re genuinely born-again. Rebirth – and rebirth alone – constitutes the basis for citizenship in Israel 2.0.

Despite being the valid inheritors of God’s Biblical promises, we claim no right to any land or worldly wealth here. In Heaven, literally endless land and wealth await us, but here on Earth we’re promised only that our daily needs will be met and that we’ll have access to the appropriate resources when required. We are the prophesied poor and afflicted remnant, so we should expect to be poor and afflicted, though never destitute, never without hope, and always blessed. You would think that being poor and afflicted would negate the being blessed part, but miraculously it doesn’t. There’s joy solely in the presence of God’s Holy Spirit, and if you’re genuinely reborn, God’s Spirit is always with you to a certain measure, sometimes more and sometimes less. The greater the measure of God’s Spirit, the closer you are to God and the greater your abiding joy.

In the end, then, it wouldn’t really matter even if 100% of modern Jews were found to be genetically identical to the Hebrews of Old Testament times. Your genetics don’t grant you entrance to the prophesied Israel 2.0; the presence of God’s Holy Spirit does.