Critiquing a Calvinist Reinterpretation of Paul’s Mystery
Question
Dr. White, for a long time, you have insisted that reformed theology overlooks the mystery and the revelation that God gave to Paul. I have now arrived at the conclusion to your confusion.
You say that Paul received a mystery. To that, I say I am fine with that. However, your definition of that mystery is wrong. Ezekiel 36:19 explains that God scattered the northern kingdom from among the heathen. Ezekiel 37:5 shows God resurrecting a people from dry bones. Romans 9:24 explains that God has now called both Jews and Gentiles: “Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.” The Jews are the literal remnant of Israel representing the southern kingdom. Paul’s mystery was that God resurrected the northern kingdom through the calling of the Gentiles. Therefore, Hosea is not about God regathering the scattered Israelites, but the resurrection of spiritual Israel. This is the mystery. We are Israel.
Sincerely, Dave McPiper
Originally published in Vol. 1, Number 9, September 2026, Ask The Theologian Journal.
Answer
Paul’s claim to have received a “mystery” is not something any interpreter can dismiss or redefine at will. He repeatedly says that a mystery was given to him, that it was hidden in God, not known in other ages, and only then revealed. Any proposal about the nature of that mystery has to satisfy two basic tests: it must actually be a mystery (that is, previously unrevealed), and it must fit the explicit statements and contexts of Scripture.
Your proposal is that the mystery is this: God permanently rejected the northern kingdom of Israel, scattered among the nations, and then resurrected that northern kingdom spiritually by calling the Gentiles; thus, the Gentiles are the resurrected northern kingdom, and “we are Israel.” You appeal to Ezekiel 36–37, Hosea, and Romans 9. This sounds tidy, but it breaks down exegetically and theologically at several points.
1. A biblical mystery cannot be fully found in the Old Testament
Paul explicitly defines the mystery as something:
“which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men” Eph 3:5
and
“from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God” Eph 3:9
If you can construct your entire “mystery” by stringing together Ezekiel and Hosea, you have defined something that, by Paul’s own standard, is not a mystery. Reading Ezekiel 36–37, Hosea 1–2, and similar passages already tells you about Israel’s scattering and regathering. There is nothing hidden there about Gentiles becoming a resurrected northern kingdom. You have simply reinterpreted Israel as Gentiles and then called that reinterpretation a mystery.
A genuine Pauline mystery must be something that was not accessible by exegesis of the Hebrew prophets. It must be a new revelation, given to and explained by Paul, involving new ground rules for God’s dealings with humanity.
2. Ezekiel 36–37 promises real restoration of Israel, not replacement by Gentiles
You begin with Ezekiel 36:19:
“And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them.”
The context supports that this scattering concerns Israel in the land, including the northern kingdom.
But you stop short of the core promise. Continue in Ezekiel 36:
“For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.” Ezek 36:24–25
God is still speaking to the same scattered Israel. He promises to gather them out of all countries and bring them into their own land. There is no move in the text to shift these promises away from Israel to a non‑Israelite Gentile entity. This is a national, territorial restoration of Israel for the sake of God’s name, not a spiritualization into the church.
Then Ezekiel 37:
“Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live.” Ezek 37:5
When Ezekiel asks what the dry bones represent, the answer is explicit: they are the whole house of Israel, including both Israel and Judah. The text interprets itself. For your definition of the mystery to stand, you must effectively override the divine interpretation given in the chapter. You are taking a symbol God has already explained and assigning a different meaning: not national Israel, but Gentile believers as a spiritualized northern kingdom.
That is not sound exegesis; it is theological overlay.
3. Hosea foretells Israel’s temporary rejection and future restoration, not replacement
You also appeal to Hosea, via Romans 9. In Hosea 1 God commands:
“Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.” Hos 1:9
But the very next verse overturns final rejection:
“Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.” Hos 1:10
The “children of Israel” here are not Gentile nations; they are the same Israel that had been declared “not my people,” and they are said to be restored, in the same place where that judgment was pronounced. Hosea’s child Lo‑ammi is a sign of temporary judgment on Israel, followed by ultimate restoration. That pattern precisely matches the promises of Ezekiel 36–37. Temporary rejection, scattering, then gathering and cleansing.
When Paul cites Hosea in Romans 9:25–26, he demonstrates that God is free in his mercy—he can call those who are “not my people” to be his people. That illustrates God’s gracious principle and prefigures how he can also show mercy beyond Israel. But Paul does not say that this cancels God’s specific, national promises to Israel. In fact, in Romans 9–11 he labors to show that God’s faithfulness to Israel stands.
Your reading assumes that Hosea’s “not my people” becomes the basis for permanently rewriting Israel as a spiritual category fulfilled in Gentiles. That ignores the explicit “yet” in Hosea 1:10 and the clear restoration language.
4. Jesus’ earthly ministry contradicts the idea that Gentiles replaced the northern kingdom
In your scheme, the northern kingdom is permanently written off and Gentiles receive its promises, becoming the resurrected spiritual Israel. But Jesus’ own words and actions do not fit this.
He speaks of “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” Matt 15:24. He directs his disciples:
“Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matt 10:6
This is precisely the scattered Israel you say has been utterly abandoned. Yet the Messiah treats them as the target of his earthly ministry, not as a closed chapter whose promises are being handed over to Gentiles.
Consider his interaction with the Syrophoenician (Canaanite) woman. He says:
“I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. …It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.” Matt 15:24, 26
He explicitly distinguishes Israel (“the children”) from the Gentiles (“dogs”) and says his mission is to Israel. If the true mystery were that Gentiles are the resurrected northern kingdom, then Jesus’ statements here would be profoundly misleading. He treats Israel and Gentiles as distinct categories and affirms covenant priority for Israel.
Christ does not speak as though Gentiles are already or soon to become the northern kingdom. He speaks as though Israel’s promises remain with Israel.
5. Paul’s actual mystery concerns a new, non‑covenantal body, not a reshuffled Israel
When Paul explains the mystery in places like Ephesians and Colossians, he does not describe it as the northern kingdom resurfacing in Gentiles. Rather, he speaks of a new entity, the body of Christ, in which Jew and Gentile are united on equal footing apart from Israel’s covenants and law.
For example:
“That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.” Eph 3:6
The mystery is not that Gentiles replace Israel or absorb the northern tribes. It is that Gentiles, as Gentiles, can be joint‑heirs in a new body, where the distinction of covenantal status is set aside in Christ. This was not revealed in the prophets, because the prophets consistently anticipate Israel’s national restoration and the nations being blessed through that restoration, not merged into Israel or made Israel.
The prophets foresee saved nations alongside a restored Israel; Paul reveals a trans‑national body in which those distinctions do not define standing before God. That is genuinely new and genuinely mysterious, unlike your construction which simply reassigns Israel’s name to a different group.
6. Two fundamental failures in the proposed “mystery”
Your proposal fails on two key counts:
6.1. The mystery is not new
You claim to derive the mystery from Ezekiel and Hosea. But again, a mystery “hid in God” and “not made known in other ages” cannot be exegeted directly from the prophets. If your mystery can be systematized from the Old Testament text, it is by definition not Paul’s mystery.
6.2. The proposal disregards large sections of the very texts it uses
To sustain your view, you have to:
Ignore or spiritualize Ezekiel 36:24–28, where God promises to bring the same scattered Israel back into their own land and cleanse them.
Ignore the explicit identification of the dry bones as the whole house of Israel and Judah in Ezekiel 37.
Override Hosea 1:10, where the same “not my people” Israel is later said to be “sons of the living God” in the same place.
Flatten Paul’s use of Hosea in Romans 9 into a replacement of Israel, even as Romans 11 affirms Israel’s future restoration.
In doing so, you end up with a system that casts Israel aside and recasts God’s faithfulness as canceling one people in order to prioritize another. Ironically, that is the very sort of error that arises when the real Pauline mystery of the body of Christ is not understood. The mystery becomes centered on “us” instead of on what God has actually revealed.
Your zeal for a coherent system is understandable, but it must be governed by the whole counsel of Scripture and by Paul’s own definition of the mystery. When those standards are applied, the suggested “mystery” that Gentiles are the resurrected northern kingdom cannot stand.