[Mrs. Don-o]

To the extent that they are defectors, they are the anti-Church.

Was the Church on the day Christ died embodied in Judas the betrayer? Peter the denier? The rest of them, cringing in fear under their beds somewhere? Or was the Church embodied in that small group --- John, Mary, a few others --- at the foot of the Cross?

[count-your-change]

The church was/is made up of people with Christ as their head, those Jesus called his brothers. The difference between Judas and Peter was in the practice of sin and whether they repented.

The nation of Israel as a whole was condemned, it could not be reformed or returned to some former glory days. There might have many “good” people in Jerusalem but the only means of avoiding her fate was to leave while possible.

Yes, but this is “the church” we’re talking about! some may say....Paul warned that even these grafted in limbs could be lopped off what came to be spiritual Israel.

“Was the Church on the day Christ died embodied in Judas the betrayer?”

Judas had already been expelled from the church before Christ's death and Peter repented and was forgiven as Jesus foretold.

c