Does the wordJewishrefer to a race or a religion?

No, any Jew, converted after our Lord ascended and the Spirit has given, would cease to be a Jew religiously, and would become a Christian, and form part of the Church of God.

If one of Abraham’s race believes today, he surrenders gladly earthly hopes and aspirations. He ceases to be a Jew (or an Israelite, if he could know himself to be one), religiously, he becomes a Christian, and part of the assembly that is called out from the nations to be a people for God’s Son.

When a Jew is converted today he turns his back upon the synagogue and embraces Christianity—he gives up the hope of an earthly calling and embraces that of the heavenly calling. The Epistle to the Hebrews brings this out when it speaks of “a better hope”—“a better covenant”—“a more excellent ministry”—contrasting the law principle that Judaism clings to with Christianity—with grace reigning “through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 5:21).

The Jew's rejection of Christ brought in a new era, that of Christianity. A Jew who gets converted to-day drops Judaism religiously, and embraces Christianity. And until the Church is raptured to glory it will be true that "blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in" (Rom. 11:25).

But if one is excommunicated from the synagogue, one is no longer a Jew. "What religion have you now?" would be the question. And, indeed, we may well ask, "What is our religion? "You are no longer a Jew, because the Jews have excommunicated you. What are you?

The Jewish nation had its birth in Abraham, the Jewish kingdom in David, but the Jews' religion started when the law was given at Sinai. In the law of Moses God formulated His righteous demands upon men. He joined with these demands much in the way of ceremonial observance, which had the effect, if observed by Israel, of making them a peculiar people and hindering their free intercourse with the nations. These barriers were purposely erected to act as a kind of insulation so that the test which the law proposed might be carried out under the most favourable circumstances. He also connected with His demands the system of sacrifice which foreshadowed the way in which all the questions which the law raised and left unanswered, would in due time be settled to His glory.

The law teachers were boasting in the Galatians who had received circumcision, and so outwardly had become Jews. But this did not make them God's people. In chapter 3, verses 7, 9, and 29, we find much the same thought. "The ones on the principle of faith, these are the sons of Abraham." So now in contrast to the false teachers making false Jews, the Apostle cries in triumph, these are "the Israel of God." These who walk by the rule of the new creation are the true Israelites, not those wearing the badge of circumcision. The people of Israel had three names: Hebrews, Jews and Israelites. Jews were especially those of the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, though many others had joined them under this name. "Israel" means "prince of God," and was the name given to Jacob by God Himself, when he wrestled with the angel and prevailed. "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob (means 'cheater'), but Israel (a prince of God): for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." Gen. 32:28. This name includes all the descendants of Jacob, all the twelve tribes, not the two tribes only as the name "Jew" means. It is most interesting to notice that this name Israel, is the name chosen by God's earthly people today, as they once again begin to take possession of their own land. But the true Israelites are those "born again" into God's household.

showing that the word Israelite is applied generally. The late Rev. David Baron, a well-known Christian of Jewish birth, who carefully examined the British-Israel theory, wrote: “The name of ‘Jew’ and ‘Israelite’ became synonymous terms from about the time of the Captivity. It is one of the absurd fallacies of Anglo-Israelism to presuppose that the term ‘Jew’ stands only for a bodily descendant of Judah. It stands for all those from among the sons of Jacob who acknowledged themselves, or were considered subjects of the theocratic Kingdom of Judah.”

Who, then, were the JEWS? Turn to Romans 9:3-4, and 5, "For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are ISRAELITES; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law (note this), and the service of God, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen." This is a brief description of what the JEWS were. They were a separated people — a distinct nation set apart to God. But an earthly nation they were. Hence you will find God, speaking of them through the prophets, says — "Jehovah hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, and ISRAEL for His peculiar treasure" (Ps. 135:4). And, again, "For JACOB my servant's sake, and ISRAEL mine elect, I have called thee by name, though thou hast not known me" (Isaiah 45:4). The Lord had set barriers, if I may so say, around them, separating them from all other nations.

Israel, or Judaism, was an earthly body, a company on earth, a nation with earthly hopes. There was a special class of priests, the inner sanctuary where the priests alone could come, and the people worshipped afar off. There were continual sacrifices for sin and a veil that shut the worshipper out from the presence of God. The congregation was composed of a mixed company of those who had true faith and those who did not, be lievers and unbelievers mingled together on a national basis, and seeking to keep the law as a ground of acceptance before God. The term "synagogue" means "a gathering together," and that was the principle of Judaism, a mixed people gathered together with nationalistic hopes on earth.