By Jan Willem van der Hoeven
In her article: “Beware the new axis of evangelicals and Islamists” Melanie Phillips writes:
“Last weekend the Revd Stephen Sizer, vicar of Christ Church , Virginia Water appeared at an anti-Israel meeting with an Islamist called Ismail Patel. Patel has not only accused Israel of ‘genocide’ and ‘war crimes’ but considers Disney to be a Jewish plot and supports Hamas , Iran and Syria . Sizer is a virulent opponent of Christian Zionism and of Israel , which he has said he hopes will disappear just as did the apartheid regime in South Africa . He has also applauded Iranian President Ahmadinejad for having ‘looked forward to the day when Zionism ceased to exist’.
“Another participant at the All Nations meeting was Colin Chapman, the father of the UK movement against Christian Zionism – and whose animosity is rooted in a theological prejudice against the Jews. Chapman’s hugely influential book, Whose Promised Land, resurrects the ancient Christian canard of ‘supercessionism’ – the belief that because the Jews denied the divinity of Christ, God transferred His favours to the Christians while the Jews were cast out as the party of the Devil. This doctrine lay behind centuries of Christian anti-Jewish hatred until the Holocaust drove it underground. In his book, Chapman writes that violence has always been implicit in Zionism and that Jewish self-determination is somehow racist. He also subscribes to the canard of sinister Jewish power.”
In response to the very serious attacks and allegations made by people like Sizer, Chapman and others who recently banded together in All Nations Christian College in Ware in a joint attack against Israel and those who believe in the ultimate wonderful biblical destiny of God’s people – the Jews, I feel it right to express the following:
Years ago, when I was still at the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem, Colin Chapman paid me a visit. We had both received our education at the same College in London, England, so that was a link. We had also both spent time serving the Lord among the Arabs in the Middle East. After some time I was asked by the British Organization for the Garden Tomb, Jerusalem, to take over the custodianship of that beautifully kept and serene site many believe was the place of Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. I was then married to a Christian Arab woman who has since gone to be with the Lord.
In my conversation with Chapman – who, also perhaps due to his long years of service among the Arabs was a willing advocate of their sentiment – I tried to bring a more biblically-based response to the problems in the Middle East. But as I quoted from Scripture he remarked – and I will never forget this – ‘If you cannot prove from the New Testament that God still has a destiny for the Jewish people, then don’t come with any of your Old Testament verses to prove the biblical case for Israel. To me, these have now been fulfilled in relation to the Church.
“If you cannot prove it from the New Testament you cannot convince me!”
I later felt prompted by the Lord to write a defense of our biblical position on Israel using a number of New Testament Scriptures. If the New Testament – not just the Tanach or Old Testament – clearly teaches that God has still an end-time, glorious destiny for His Jewish people, then those who refuse to come to terms with this clear teaching no longer have an excuse not to be on the obvious side of God’s Word and Plan. They, like many Middle Eastern Christians have done, prefer to skip over or cleverly explain away these verses rather than admit the biblically unsound position of their wrong and biased points of view.
The New Testament Basis for the Restoration of Israel
Moments before His ascension, Jesus was asked by His disciples whether He would at that time restore the kingdom to Israel:
Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8)
Jesus’ answer implied that although the time of favor for Israel was at that moment to pass over to the Gentiles, there would be a time when God would restore again the “Kingdom to Israel”. This truth is clearly taught throughout the Scriptures: after the fullness of the Gentiles is brought into the kingdom of God, He will again give His ancient people, the Jews, another time of grace and favor.
There are a number of verses in the New Testament which further spell out this principle. Peter, speaking to the Jews, said:
And He shall send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:20-21)
Later in the book of Acts, James says:
Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: ‘After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up’ (Acts 15:14-16)
It is quite clear from these verses that before “restoring the kingdom to Israel” and “rebuilding the tabernacle of David,” God would turn in grace to the Gentiles and call out of them a people unto His name. Then, after this, He will restore the tabernacle and the kingdom.
This agrees with two other passages that state that, when the fullness of the time of the Gentiles is fulfilled, Jerusalem will again be restored to Jewish sovereignty.
… Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled… (Jesus speaking as recorded in Luke 21:24)
And:
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:”The Deliverer will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. (Paul writing in Romans 11:25-26)
Here the same point is stressed: the completion of God’s purposes with the Gentiles marks the beginning of His renewed grace to the people of Israel. After the time of the Gentiles has been fulfilled, after the fullness of the Gentiles has come into the kingdom, then ALL ISRAEL will be saved; the “times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord”. (Acts 3:19)
This agrees with the many Old Testament passages which clearly refer to an eternal – as it says “everlasting” – purpose of God for His ancient people; eternal promises that will be fulfilled to them, not just in a temporary way as if they were only God’s example from ancient times for the “Church Age”, but practically, literally and completely.
Paul, in his fundamental chapters 9, 10 and 11 of the Epistle to the Romans, teaches these same principles concerning the Jewish people:
I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! (Romans 11:1)
It is obviously the plan of God to receive them back in mercy:
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. (Romans 11:29)
There are many Old Testament prophecies that have not yet had their fulfilment, and cannot in all honesty be explained away as having been spiritually fulfilled through the first coming of Christ. The New Testament also makes clear reference to prophecies that are yet to be fulfilled. Only in the light of these New Testament verses do the as yet unfulfilled Old Testament prophecies make sense. For example, it was spoken by Simeon at the birth of Jesus:
For my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel … Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel … (Luke 2: 30-34)
It should be evident from these verses that Jesus would be first a light to the Gentiles and cause the fall of many of His own people, but afterwards He would become the glory of Israel and cause the rising again of many in Israel. Such New Testament promises underline that all the glory God has promised through the prophets for Israel in the latter days will indeed be revealed:
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat. (Isaiah 11:6)
The people shall beat their swords into plowshares. (Isaiah 2:4)
The nations shall come up to Jerusalem to learn the ways of the Lord. (Isaiah 2:3)
The Lord will be King in Jerusalem and reign on His holy hill where He desires to dwell forever. (Psalms 2:6)
Israel will be back in her land that God promised to her as en everlasting possession. (Isaiah 11:10-12)
Righteousness and peace will flow like a mighty river from Jerusalem and cover the earth like the seas. (Isaiah 11:9)
The Lord will become the glory of His people Israel. (Luke 2:32)
These are but a few of the prophecies which have not yet been fulfilled but are promised by God. As Jesus said:
Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. (Matthew 5:17-18)
This emphasizes that everything the prophets foretold will be fulfilled, not just convenient portions of it. Jesus Himself states that He will see to it that all the prophecies will come to pass before any of God’s word is removed. This includes those prophecies which were not fulfilled by Jesus’ first coming.
In the light of these clear New Testament passages, it is therefore right to expect a literal fulfillment of all that has been promised through Israel’s prophets concerning her future.
Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness! … For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Romans 11: 12, 15)
What a wonderful time in which to live!
Recognizing this truth brings the apostle Paul to great joy. We Gentiles ought to share in that joy, for in Christ we are allowed to inherit with Israel all these biblical promises that have yet to be fulfilled.
For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. (2 Corinthians 1:20)
Not for nothing did Christ teach us to pray: Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
It is difficult to see how the first coming of Christ could have fulfilled all of the promises which have clearly been made by God. The prophets foretold that there would be a day on earth, under the reign of the Messiah in Jerusalem with His nation when:
All wars would cease.
Each man would live “under his fig tree” in equality and justice.
The child would play with the viper so that there would be harmony between mankind and the animal world (no more killing of whales).
Nature would be fully restored: the trees would “clap their hands” and the Dead Sea would become a sweet water lake.
The Jewish people know that these are to be the fruits of the coming of the Messiah, and so find it difficult to believe that He has already come since these things as yet have not been fulfilled. We believe with Paul that the Messiah has come once; and we join him in rejoicing at the restoration of Israel, for we know that it signals the return of the Messiah and the fulfilment of all the prophecies:
For the Lord shall build up Zion; He shall appear in His glory. (Psalm 102:16)
For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become Hiscounselor? Or who has first given to Him and it shall be repaid to him?” For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:32-36)
So it is abundantly evident that all those who in arrogance and conceit reject the clear teaching of the New and Old Testaments concerning the future destiny and restoration of God’s people, the Jews, fall exactly into the trap that Paul the Apostle warns Gentile believers to beware of when he says:
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience, even so these also have now been disobedient, that through the mercy shown you they also may obtain mercy. For God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.
Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! (Romans 11:25-26, 29-33)
Therefore as Paul says in the same chapter:
Do not be haughty, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off. (Romans 11:20b-22)
© Israel My Beloved
