DUH! The dispensation of the grace of God is not about Israel.... but what came BEFORE was.... and what will come LATER is.
It's not a "proof text", it's an important Bible FACT.
Why don't you like facts?
In the NEW Jerusalem on the NEW earth.... the NAMES on the GATES of the CITY are the NAMES of the TWELVE TRIBES of ISRAEL.
What is your feeble explanation of that?
"But what came before was [about Israel]"; sorry that's where you leave the NT with your D'ist pals. It's not there. In fact, its the issue vs Judaism, without which there is no issue.
this is why I ask you guys every week: so...what was the conflict between the apostles and Judaism? I have heard crickets ever since. Because you are in league with Judaism; D'ism is neo-Judaism.
It is why the believers in hebrews were persecuted and needed to persist. Their ch 12:22 Jerusalem conflicted totally with what Judaizers thought was supposed to be there.
While I did not get to pursue it as far as I would have liked in grad school seminary, the Essenes also had a 'Jerusalem' that they believed was pure and believed that the existing was corrupt. They had the pure one operating over at Qumran, etc. The apostles had a similar disruptive belief but, of course, were not Essene. Judaism throughout the region, persecuted the christians because they were the more powerful departure from 'temple Judaism.' Acts 26:9, 26:2, 25:19, 24:14 (it is the Way but they call it a sect), 18:6.
re the new jerusalem image:
IT IS AN IMAGE TO EVOKE OR SUGGEST. There are not going to be people there who are 'gates' or 'walls' or 'foundations stones.' That's the mistake documented in the archeology tour of Israel at Pureflix, where some guy thinks he has found the granite blocks called Salvation and Praise that are the wall. He found them in the 1950s and still thinks something will happen there--instead of getting to know Jesus Christ the Temple.
Rev makes clear--in a comment that distinguishes between corporeality now and then--that 'there was no temple [AS WE KNOW THEM] there in the NHNE, because Christ was the temple.
Prepare to have your mind altered!