Israel in Bible Prophecy: Past, Present & Future

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Gomer. According to Genesis 10:2-3, Gomer was one of Noah’s grandsons. Some scholars place the territory in modern Germany because of the similarity of their names. Nobody needs to remind the world of Germany’s history with the Jewish people in World War II. If Germany were to become Russia’s ally against Israel, it would not be the first time anti-Semitism has played a part in her history. Against all odds, the Jewish people have once again returned to the “land of milk and honey” promised by God in Exodus and as exclaimed by prophets throughout the Old Testament. Reformed theologians believe something decisive happened in Christ. His covenant affected not simply the covenant of Moses, making a new and timeless form of salvation, but also every other Jewish covenant, including Abraham’s covenant. Christ fulfills the expectations of Jewish covenant life and renews the people of God rooted in the Old Testament and Judaism. Thus, Jesus is the new temple, the new Israel. Dispersion throughout other lands — referred to as the Diaspora — which, of course, could easily have resulted in absorption into other cultures through mixed marriages and simple assimilation or absorption, yet did not. My ‘Rule of Thumb’ is an idea I had yesterday! I noticed that in many cases the simple rule is often the right one.

But when we look at the history of the people in the land after the return and in the next four centuries, it is hard to see much evidence of the national and spiritual renewal and revival that Ezekiel had envisaged. It was not surprising, therefore, that in the intertestamental period people began to dream of a time when God would intervene in miraculousways to ful l the visions of the prophets. Some of these hopes centred round the gure of a messiah, who would be either a supernatural figure coming on the clouds or a military figure overcoming oppressive foreign rulers and restoring Israel’s independence. Obviously not. That war took place just 40 years later. Jesus is expressly talking about events leading up to the close of the age, after a period subdivided in Matt 24:4-8 into (i) Jews looking for other Messiahs, (ii) the hearing of wars and rumours of wars, presumably when the Jews are not in the land (NB “the end is not yet”), (iii) a period of international war(s) – (iii) being but the beginning of the birth pangs. He then goes on to describe the last days.To the terrorists who have chosen this fight, hear this, what you do to Israel, god will do to you. Despite today’s weeping, joy will come because he [god] who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps,” CUFI, whose founder believes the presence of Jews in Israel is a precursor to Jesus Christ returning to Earth, wrote.

The dry bones. Israel, in exile, without hope, and cut off from their God, and yet, still with God’s promises of a return to their land. Their entire land. To him ( Ezekiel 36:27).Thanks for such a detailed response. I can see that a future destruction of Jerusalem could well be different. I can see it may involve some desecration of the church at that time. I can see the holy city in Rev 11 is probably the church since inn ch 21 it is the holy city.

For people not immersed in evangelicalism – a conservative strand of Christianity which emphasises adherence to the Bible – the overt biblical references may have seemed unusual to hear in a geopolitical context. theology of land as being being set in the material world and a return to the land of the diaspora is necessary. This is not an attempt to convert you to amillenialism, and you are covering a lot of scriptural ground which is probably more book shaped than blog shaped. For the purposes of brevity, both OT and NT participants in covenantal blessing are part of the covenant of grace.Or putting this another way, this type of Reformed theology views the Church as existing from the beginning of history and carrying through to the end of the age! In other words, Israel is ultimately subsumed in the Church! Ezekiel’s Temple has no heights mentioned…or not much. Therefore it is a plan. This plan came to fruition as Jesus the New Temple. Herod’s temple was not commissioned by the Lord neither did the Shekinah Glory bless it (as he did previously to both Tent and Temple). But Jesus was endorsed by the Glory at the transfiguration.

Ezekiel’s visions of the restoration of Israel led to a glorious climax in the temple in which God was going to ‘live among the Israelites for ever’ (43.7) and in the city whose name would always be ‘The Lord is there’ (48.35). If we believe, therefore, that it was uniquely in Jesus that God has come to live among us, we should not be looking to see the fulfilment of Ezekiel’s visions either in the twentieth-century return of Jews to the land, or the establishment of the state of Israel, or the present city of Jerusalem or in a future millennial reign of Jesus in Jerusalem. Perhaps Ezekiel, the priest turned prophet, was using the only language and imagery that were available to him at the time (related to the land, the nation, the city and the temple) to hint at something much more glorious than a return to the land, the revival of the nation and the restoration of a building. Perhaps God was using him to prepare his people and to open their minds for what it would mean when, ve centuries later, ‘the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us’ (John 1.14) and ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself’ (2 Cor. 5.19). And the Book of Revelation tells us that the best is yet to come—not in the land or in Jerusalem, but in ‘the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God’ and in ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ (Rev 21.1–4). It seems you have not read Gen 17 carefully enough. Ishmael and Esau were circumcised but were not heirs to the promise. The promise was to Abraham and his seed, which excluded Ishmael (Gen 17:20-21). Reply The spiritual root of Christian Zionism is dispensationalism, whose themes have fully permeated many American churches. Dispensationalism was born in the 1800s as an attempt to divide human history into a series of seven biblical categories (or dispensations) of time: the eras of Adam, of Noah, and others. We live in the era of the church, followed by the end of time. Dispensationalism embraced a pessimistic view of history, thinking the world was coming to its end and judgment day was near. As a result, it became sectarian, separating itself from mainstream society, calling sinners to repent and be saved from the impending catastrophe… A resident of ancient Judea was called a Judean; so when the 2nd draft of the KJV Bible was introduced in the 1800’s a NEW WORD was ADDED to replace IEWE and that was the word “Jew” (an abbreviation for a “Judean”— a person living in ancient Judea — but Yahusha (aka: Jesus Christ) is NOT from Judea and NEVER WAS and therefore Yahusha (JESUS) IS NOT a “Jew” or a Judean!

If physical descent from Abraham is key, then the descendents of Ishmael and Esau are also included in the promise. I’d suggest that this is the place where continuity and discontinuity between the Old and New meet. Or as Steve more memorably puts it, the mid point of an hour glass. Jacob’s 12 sons were the forefathers of the 12 tribes that became the Jewish nation — the nation of Israel. Is not the church the body of Christ, the bride of Christ (together with Jewish believers) in union with him, the *called -out* ones with the remnant of Jewish believers, or as the reformed of old would say *old testament saints* who looked forward to the Promised One. We see in the rear view mirror, even as we look ahead to the consumation.

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Jesus’ homily in John 15 says the same. The Old Testament image of Israel is that of a vineyard filled with vines rooted in the soil of the Holy Land. You can see this outlined beautifully in Isaiah 5. But Jesus upends this. We see a vineyard again, but now we learn that there is one vine—Christ—and the only concern is not on gaining access to the land but being attached to him. First the new covenant. It is indeed made with Israel and Judah. When Jesus inaugurated it at the first ‘Lord’s supper’ those present were Jewish. But as with the other covenants Gentiles who were strangers to the covenants of promise were brought in (Eph 2). The new covenant (the basis of the Kingdom) belongs to all God’s people in this first stage of the completed kingdom. To say ‘made with the church’ is really to say ‘made with eschatological Israel and the Gentiles who through faith share in her blessings’. And yet, with all of this, the people of Israel have endured. Charles Krauthammer once had this to say about the Jews of Israel: