Who is the Bride?

When my sister’s WMSCOG study leader was trying to explain to me that the Bride of Christ was Mother Jerusalem, she said that NOWHERE in the Bible is the church presented as the Bride. She said that the church is presented as the guest at the Wedding but NEVER as the Bride. She emphasized that point—NEVER.  The World Mission Society Church of God's goal is to eventually have you believe that the bride of Christ is the Korean woman Zahng Gil-Ja.

But on the contrary, there are many places in the Bible where the Bride/Wife of the Lord is clearly either the church or the nation of Israel. Here are some examples with my own commentary….

Ephesians 5:22-27
23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. 24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

Remember studying analogies in high school? Here is the analogy from these verses… husband is to wife as Christ is to _____________ … yes, the answer is “church”. The relationship between a husband and wife is like the relationship between Christ and the church.

2 Corinthians 11:2
For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
If the church is being presented as a virgin to the husband, Christ, but NOT to be the wife…does that make the church the concubine?

Jeremiah 2:1-2 (NIV)
The word of the LORD came to me: 2 "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:
" 'I remember the devotion of your youth,
how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the desert,
through a land not sown.
By reading this chapter we see that the “you” in this verse is the nation of Israel.

Hosea chapter 2—In this chapter, the wife is the nation of Israel and the children are the Israelites themselves. If Mother Jerusalem is the wife here, then she’s had a serious problem. I’ll just pull out a few verses, but really the whole chapter is relevant.
Hosea 2:2-5
2“Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;
      For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
      Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,
      And her adulteries from between her breasts;
      3 Lest I strip her naked
      And expose her, as in the day she was born,
      And make her like a wilderness,
      And set her like a dry land,
      And slay her with thirst.
      4 “ I will not have mercy on her children,
      For they are the children of harlotry.
      5 For their mother has played the harlot;
      She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
      For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
      Who give me my bread and my water,
      My wool and my linen,
      My oil and my drink.’ 
Let’s assume here the wife is Mother Jerusalem… the woman god has been adulterous, unfaithful to the man god, chasing after other lovers. And the poor children of Mother are illegitimate, conceived in disgrace. God punishes her and refuses to show love to her children. But after the punishment, He woos her again and restores their relationship. I never knew the heavenly couple of Mother Jerusalem and Ahnsahnghong had such drama in their marriage…

Hosea 2:16-17
16 "And it shall be, in that day,”
      Says the LORD,
      “That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’
      And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’
      17 For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
      And they shall be remembered by their name no more.

Hosea 2:19-20
19 "I will betroth you to Me forever;
      Yes, I will betroth you to Me
      In righteousness and justice,
      In lovingkindness and mercy;
      20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
      And you shall know the LORD.
Remember that to “betroth” means to promise to marry. Again, these verses do not make sense with the story of Mother Jerusalem.

Isaiah 54:4-7
4 "Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed;
      Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame;
      For you will forget the shame of your youth,
      And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.
      5 For your Maker is your husband,
      The LORD of hosts is His name;
      And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel;
      He is called the God of the whole earth.
      6 For the LORD has called you
      Like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit,
      Like a youthful wife when you were refused,”
      Says your God.
      7 “For a mere moment I have forsaken you,
      But with great mercies I will gather you.

These are more verses that would be scandalous if they were talking about Mother Jerusalem—shamed in her youth and abandoned by God? The bride/wife here is obviously the nation of Israel.

How about Jeremiah chapter 3? Here are verses 14 and 20:
14 “Return, O backsliding children,” says the LORD; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
20 Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband,
      So have you dealt treacherously with Me,
      O house of Israel,” says the LORD.

If Jude 1:12 and Prov. 25:14 can be used to say that clouds=flesh, then surely Jer. 3:20 must mean that wife=Israel, not Mother Jerusalem.

But what about Rev. 22:17?
And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
The WMSCOG will tell you that since only God can give life, and the “bride” is inviting us to come and take the water of life, then the bride must be God (“Mother God”).
But the very next sentence has the hearers (ordinary people) also inviting us to come and take the water of life. But the same argument would say that we also are gods, and we know that isn’t so.
Therefore, it is not necessary that the bride is God, and it is entirely possible that the bride is the church.  And not just possible...the Bride IS the Church.

PS--You can find an update to this post here.