About the Good Olive Tree Messianic Fellowship

Why the name 'Good Olive Tree'?

"how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!"
(Romans 11:24)

Various metaphors are used in the bible to describe the people of God.

Not Just an Olive Tree

It would not be enough to call our congregation 'Olive Tree'. In order to distinguish between the cultivated and the uncultivated Olive tree, it would have to be called a cultivated Olive tree. Cultivated Olive trees are not in any way superior by virtue of their genetic disposition, because they are genetically the same as uncultivated Olive trees.

In nature, all Olive-producing Olive trees were originally wild. It took hundreds of years of caring, irrigating, soil improvement and pruning for these Olive trees to be transformed into the cultivated Olive trees that they are today. Cultivated Olive trees produce bigger and juicier Olives than their uncultivated counterparts, bringing in greater dividends for their owners.

In Romans 11, the people of Israel are likened to not just an Olive tree, but a cultivated Olive tree. Why would the people of Israel be likened to a cultivated Olive tree, when all other nations were likened to uncultivated Olive trees?

The reason is simple enough: before Christ came, Israel was the only nation on the face of the Earth to be cared for, watered, improved and pruned by the Almighty.

God cared for Israel as a shepherd would care for his flock (Psalm 80:1.) God watered Israel with his Torah (Word, teaching, commandments) as it says in Isaiah 55:10 "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth..." God improved Israel as a nation through hundreds of years of his disciplining them (Judges 2:14).

Inasmuch as the people of Israel persisted in disobeying God, so that they were subjected over and over again to his punishment, God’s promises to Israel will ultimately prevail: "This is what the LORD says: 'Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,' declares the LORD." (Jeremiah 31:37)

A Cultivated Olive Tree Custom Made For The Jewish Nation

"...how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!" (Romans 11:24)

The household of God is likened to a cultivated Olive tree, into which the Gentiles, having been "cut out of an Olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into" (Romans 11:24)

This cultivated Olive tree is called 'their (Israel’s) own Olive tree'. It is Israel’s Olive tree. It is an Olive tree that was custom made for Israel and the Jewish people.

The church should be a place where saved Jewish people should feel totally at home, a place where saved Jewish people can fully relate to what they are being taught, because the church is 'their OWN Olive tree'.

For this reason, Good Olive Tree Messianic Fellowship is a place where the Old Testament is valued and taught, the New Testament being concealed in the Old Testament, inasmuch as the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament. It is a place where the biblical feasts are celebrated, not out of any religious obligation, not for the purpose of salvation, which is by faith in Jesus, but because the biblical feasts were custom made for Jewish people and the body of Christ is saved Israel’s own household and Olive tree.

A Cultivated Olive Tree For All Nations

Once you are grafted into the cultivated Olive tree, it makes no difference whether you are a Jew or a Gentile. It makes no difference what race, ethnic group or colour you are, for "you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root..." (Romans 11:17)

Therefore, having accepted Christ by faith, you benefit from the same Holy Spirit, the same light of God, the same heavenly glory, whether you are Jew or Gentile.

Whether you are a Jew or a Gentile, because you are grafted into the cultivated Olive tree, which is the Israel of God, whose root that nourishes you is Christ himself, you receive the same benefits that were promised to Abraham and to his descendants.

We believe: