Israel is a land about which God says—uniquely, prophetically, redemptively, and repeatedly in the Bible—“This is Mine.” God refers to Israel as He does to no other land on Earth. Israel was raised up to be a light to the Gentiles. The Church at its inception was virtually entirely Jewish, and it remained so until the Gospel began to spread. Ultimately the Gospel spread to Antioch—where the first Gentile congregation began—the base from which the Gospel spread into all the world.