QUESTION
Are the Jewish Nation still
God's people and do they still figure in His plans? My pastor says
one thing but the apostle Paul seems to say something totally
different. Didn't God reject the Jews - how then can they figure so
largely in the prophecies of the future just as though they remain
fully God's holy nation?
This is really puzzling me.
BRJ
Kentucky
MY ANSWER
While this question lies in an area
where Museltof Countercult and Apologetics UK say that
Christians should allow some differences of opinion between each
other, if we are asked a direct question like this, we must
give a direct and biblical answer!
In the first place, since I
like to back up the position of the pastors of the people who write
to me, I am rather saddened that here I cannot.
From other
things the questioner tells me in his much longer e mail, it is
obvious that he comes from a tradition which has accepted the
teachings of J.N. Darby. Though Darby was British (or Irish), his
teachings never had much impact in the UK, but when Darby went to the
States, many Americans accepted his teachings. Yet they would have
remained largely unknown but for Scofield. Scofield accepted Darby's
'Dispensationalism' hook, line and sinker and wrote a reference work
called the Scofield Reference Bible - this was basically a
King James Bible with Scofield's notes added. Being a wholehearted
supporter of Darby's Dispensationalism, Scofield was determined to
popularise the teaching and his 'reference work' proved very
successful. While undoubtedly a very sincere man, however, Scofield's
theological knowledge was highly questionable.
Basically
Darby divided the Holy Bible up into seven dispensations, or ages,
during which God dealt with Mankind in different ways. According to
this view, Jesus was surprised by the Jews rejection of Him. The
rejection (according to the theory) forced God to put His
working with Israel 'on hold' while He did a work with the Church
which He (apparently) never originally intended! The quite staggering
thing about Darby's so-called 'dispensations' is that they have been
accepted by thousands of American Christians despite the fact that
his whole scenario is imposed upon the Bible.
As many
have pointed out, dispensationalism is actually rooted in Jewish
Talmudic writings. The Jews expected their Messiah to institute a
'golden age', hence the question, 'Will you at this time restore
the kingdom to Israel?' - they expected a prosperous Jewish
kingdom on earth because of their misunderstanding of Old Testament
prophecies. Of course, a few Christians have always been
'premillenialists' (putting a literal interpretation on the 1,000
years of Revelation 20 despite the fact that the whole of Revelation
is heavily symbolic and very rarely literal), but Darby's teachings
went much further than this and premillenialists were led much
further into error.
The Bible never talks about
Darby's 'dispensations' but it does talk rather a lot about the
fact that, in Christ, the New Covenant has now replaced the Old, or
Mosaic, Covenant.
The very plain teaching of the New
Testament is that, rather than being a temporary inserted period
until God gets back to His chief interest in physical Israel, the
Church is now Spiritual Israel! The Church was no kind of
afterthought, but was God's plan from time immemorial (Genesis 3:15,
Revelation 13:8). Darby turned clear biblical teaching on its
head! This teaching is so abundantly clear that it is hard to see how
a few apparently are unaware of it!
But does this mean that Jews
now have no hope? Not at all, because the offer of faith in Christ is
now open to all peoples - yes, including Jews! Moreover, God has not
entirely forgotten fleshly Israel and the day will come when a great
work will be done among them. See Romans 11:25-32;
this Scripture reveals
that
the hardening of Israel (national Israel), was only ever intended to
be temporal! When 'the full number of Gentiles has come in',
God again opens the door to National Israel. But are they not
now rejected as the true Israel in favour of the Church? Yes, in a
very real sense they are, yet God still has a sense of loyalty toward
them:
'As far as the gospel is concerned, they (that is
the Jews) are enemies on your account; but as far as election is
concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, for God's
gifts and His call are irrevocable.' (Verses 28-29).
So God continues to be faithful to the whole principle of working through Israel and the 12 tribes and, in fact, in Revelation 7, the 144,000 are numbered through them. But to see how God willingly adds non-physical Israelites to the '12 tribes' carefully read Matthew 22:2-10, but especially verses 8-10, and also Romans 11:15-20.
Yet it remains true that True Jews are now
Spiritual Jews (Christians!). Let me quote H.C. Heffren:
'Like the true child of Abraham (Isaac), the true Jew is
the product of faith and not of the flesh. To claim to be a Jew on
any other grounds is declared to be blasphemy in Revelation 2:9, "I
know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but
are the synagogue of Satan."....Faith is required in order to be
truly of the chosen people. In John 3:6 Jesus said, "That which
is born of the flesh, is flesh," and in chapter 6:63 He said,
"The flesh profiteth nothing." That applies to all natural
flesh, even the literal descendants of Abraham.'
(Page23,
H.C. Heffren, 'Thine is the Kingdom', Gospel Contact Press, 1981)
Of course, Paul makes this abundantly clear in Romans 9:6-8
in any case:
'For they are not all Israel which are of
Israel; neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all
children; but, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which
are the children of the flesh, THESE ARE NOT THE CHILDREN OF GOD; but
the children of the promise are counted for the seed'
(Romans
9:6-8, my emphasis)
It is very odd really that even many who
otherwise hold to Darbyism will freely admit that Old Testament
Israel as 'the congregation in the wilderness' were often typical of
the Church, and yet they will usually refuse to see that the Church
are now fully 'Spiritual Jews' (Romans 2:28-29).
So far as
physical Israel are concerned, God fulfilled everything that He
promised to them: the land, the blessings and the prosperity. As far
as the promise of the line of kings from David is concerned, that is
plainly fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Since they broke the covenant,
there remains nothing for Israel in a national or fleshly sense. In
His mercy, God abrogated their covenant and established a new and
better one, based on much greater promises:
'But the
ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant
of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded
on better promises'
(Hebrews 8:6, NIV)
This new, and
better, covenant includes a believing 'remnant' of the first Israel
together with all others who put their faith in Christ.
'What
then? What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, BUT THE
ELECT DID. The others were hardened, as it is written:
"God
gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and
ears so that they could not hear, to this very day."'
(Romans
11:7-8, NIV, my emphasis).
So Israel having failed to fulfil
the requirements of the covenant, God has now rejected them as His
people.
This is made plain in many verses, including some of the
parables of Jesus. Look up the Parable of the Tenants in Matthew
21:33-45, especially noticing verse 43. And note in verse 45 that the
Jewish religious authorities had little doubt that Jesus was saying
that their period of influence was coming to an end! Also notice
Matthew 22 and the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, verses 1-14. It is
essential to note that these parables speak of a replacement of
the people of God - not an addition to it!
God's Israel
is composed of saved people; people who are His by faith - not by
birth! The promises of God are now applicable to these people. See 2
Corinthians 1:20 and compare Romans 9:27 with Romans 11:5-7.
However, all the foregoing does not mean that God is now
totally unconcerned about national Israel – indeed, as we have
seen, Romans 11 makes it plain that many, many Jewish people will
finally accept Jesus; Romans 11:16-32.
Regarding the argument
of the so-called 'vacant throne' of Israel to which I referred in
passing a little earlier, perhaps I need to say a little more. Look
at Jeremiah 33:
'For thus saith the Lord; David shall
never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel;
neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer
burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice
continually'
(Jeremiah 33:17-18, KJV)
In verses 19-22
of this chapter, we are told that God's promises are as sure as the
stars in the sky and the moon in its orbit. In Jeremiah 31, we have
this:
'If those ordinances depart from before me, saith
the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a
nation before me forever'
(Jeremiah 31:36, KJV)
So
here we have not one but 3 promises:
1. David will not lack
anybody to sit on his throne.
2. The priests will not lack
anybody to offer sacrifices.
3. Israel shall not cease from being
a nation.
In consideration of these promises, H.C. Heffren, D.D.
made these comments:
'We all know that there has not been
a human occupant on David's throne for over two thousand years. The
priests ceased to offer sacrifices after the destruction of Jerusalem
in A.D. 70 and the dispersion of the Jews throughout the world. At
that time the nation of Israel ceased to exist. However, prophecy was
fulfilled in that Christ, who is the Seed of David, sits eternally on
the throne of the Kingdom of God. He is also the high priest and He
has offered up eternal sacrifices satisfying to God...Likewise the
Israel of God has never ceased to exist as a nation. In 1 Peter 2:9
it says, "Ye are a chosen generation, a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, AN
HOLY NATION." And it is this holy nation, that is the Israel of
God over which Christ is king, and we who believe on His name are His
loyal subjects. The proof that the believers are heirs to all God's
promises, both present and future, is very convincing. Romans 4:16
states that the promise is to those who are of "the faith of
Abraham" who is father of us all. Galatians 3:16 says, "Now
to Abraham and his seed were the promises made, he saith not, and to
seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ."
Now referring to Galatians 3:29, "And if ye be Christ's then are
ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise." These
plain Scriptures show that Christians inherit all the promises of
God.'
(Heffren, pages 34-35).
So God continues to be utterly faithful to His choice to work through Israel, but we have to understand that the New Covenant defines Israel spiritually rather than racially. Yet even now God promises to do a great work through national Israel at some time in the future.
Robin A. Brace
2003.
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