The nation of Israel remains, and will remain, in the news today. The Near East is one of the world’s hot spots, and rightly or wrongly, Israel is one of the reasons why. It is quite common for televangelists and other preachers within Christendom today to argue that God gave the Jews the land of Palestine forever, intended for them to live in it, and thus the Jews, Biblically, have every right to that land today and Christians should support Israel. Whether Christians should support Israel can be debated politically, but the other three points are dead wrong. God did not give the Jews that land forever (or, until the end of time), He did not intend for them to live in it, at least not beyond the Christian age, and the Jews have no Biblical right to that land today.
Folks, read my next statement very carefully and let your mind wrap around it for a little while because it’s going to take some time for it to sink in. According to true, New Testament Christian theology, there shouldn’t even BE any Jews in the world today! God wants everybody to be a Christian; He doesn’t want this mass of unconverted Jews out there who still reject His Son, Jesus Christ. How can Israel today be in God’s plan if there aren’t even supposed to be any Jews left? Didn’t Jesus die to make EVERYBODY a Christian, back then and ever since?
The Old Testament prophets pointed their people to Jesus, to the spiritual Israel, the church. In Galatians 6:16, Paul calls the church the “Israel of God.” Old Testament, physical Israel was a type of New Testament, spiritual Israel, the church. The Jews were selected by God to be the people through whom the Messiah would come (Gal. 4:4). Thus, Abraham and his descendents were given the land of Canaan (Gen. 12:1-3), and God delivered a constitution to the nation of Israel through Moses (Deut. 5:1-4). This was a tremendous honor that God gave to the Jews—to be the people through whom the Savior of the world would come, and to be custodians of His word. What other peoples were granted such a great, great privilege? Obviously, none, and the Jews should have been infinitely grateful for the honor God bestowed upon them. But once they delivered the Messiah into the world, the role Jehovah intended for them to play was finished. Jesus is the Savior of all, and God wants all men to be saved (I Tim. 2:4). And that salvation can only come through Jesus.
The Jews rejected Him. They weren’t supposed to, but they did. Ideally, every single, solitary Jew and Gentile was/is to be converted to Jesus. There should be no Jews, Muslims, Buddhist, Shintoists, etc. If God had HIS way, everyone would be a Christian. So all the gifts and promises God made to the Jews were fulfilled and ended in Christ. They had the rich blessing of bringing Him into the world; they should have had the humility and thankfulness to accept Him and become Christians. They did not. But just because they didn’t, doesn’t mean God still has a plan for them. He destroyed their system of theology (as written in the law of Moses) in 70 A.D., something Jesus predicted in Matthew 24, and such destruction was a result of their mass rejection of Him (read the chapters leading up to, and including, Matthew 24). The Jews, Israel, have no more part to play in God’s designs for humanity. The only thing God wants for mankind today…is for everybody to become a Christian.
If today’s pro-Israeli televangelist today is correct, then the apostle Paul is a heretic. He wrote in Romans 10:1, “Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.” No, Paul, God did NOT want the Jews of your day to be saved. You see, God still has a plan for Israel 2,000 years after your time, Paul, and that means that He planned for the mass of Jews over the last 2,000 years to reject Jesus, be lost, and go to hell so that He could fulfill whatever designs He has for Israel in the 21st century. So, Paul, whatever YOUR heart’s desire was—that the Jews might be saved—was certainly not in GOD’s heart because, if you had had your way, Paul, and if all the Jews had turned to Christ, become Christians, and been saved, then there wouldn’t be any Jews left 2,000 years later to build an Israel that God could use!
I really cannot think of a more unBiblical, un-Godly doctrine than the teaching that God still has a plan for Israel today. Because if that’s true, then again, God intended for the mass majority of Jews over the last 2,000 to reject Jesus and be lost. And go to hell for eternity. That was His plan?? That, of course, makes every Biblical statement about the love of God for all of mankind and His desire for all men to be saved just so much bunkum. I would think it would be revolting to God to imply that He deliberately intended for millions of people to be lost so He could fulfill some sort of plan 2,000 years after the death of Christ.
There is no plan, in the Bible, for Israel today. Or, I’ll take that back, there IS a plan, and that is for all Israel (Jews) to be saved through Jesus Christ. But that was the plan…from the very moment man first sinned and God put a scheme of redemption into operation (Gen. 3:15). It was the plan before Abraham, to Abraham, under Moses, under the prophets, under Jesus, under Paul…and it’s the plan today. The only plan. And to say otherwise, in effect, makes God a liar by saying that He did NOT want all men to be saved.
How can so many supposed “Christians” be so pro-Jewish?
Thursday, June 3, 2010
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You make a great point, but the Jews of Jesus' time were blind to the identity and purpose of Jesus and through that blindness the Jews served a purpose-- a prophecy became fulfilled. (Judas was wromg, but he served a purpose also.) Perhaps Israel is still in the playbook and we are caught up in the fact that we are 2,000 years removed? Thanks for the perspective.
ReplyDeleteut that "blindness" was voluntary, not because God planned it. If He had, again, that would have made Him culpable for their rejection of Jesus. Indeed, the rejection of Jesus by the Jews was prophesied by the OT prophets, but there is a difference between something being predicted and being planned. God may know, in advance, that I'm going to hell, but that doesn't mean He purposed it, planned it, or wanted it. God certainly has the wisdom to use people in their rebellion, but their rebellion is their own, and to say that God, 2,000 years ago had a "plan" for Israel is to say that God planned their rebellion. That's the problem that I have with it all.
ReplyDeleteAs always, your comments are appreciated and thought provoking.
Interesting! My thoughts lead me to wondering if the crucifixion was a plan or just wisdom. Could it have been avoided? Why can some of "us" see, hear, and understand, but others cannot?
ReplyDeleteWheeee...when we start digging TOO deep into the mind of God, we're heading into vast, unknown areas. But Ephesians 3:11 and Acts 2:23 SEEM to indicate that God knew, before He ever created the worlds, that man would sin and He thus provided a plan to cover that eventuality. Why God would create the world under such conditions, I have no idea, and will in no way attempt to speculate. Again, God can know something will happen in advance without being the direct cause of it. He knew Israel, as a whole, would reject Jesus, but that certainly wasn't His desire (II Peter 3:9) and He didn't force them to reject Christ in order that He might fulfill some plan 2,000 years later. Otherwise, that would, as my article indicates, mean that God intended for all those Jews over the centuries to be lost eternally, which is contrary to II Pet. 3:9, I Tim. 2:4, and the whole theology of the cross.
ReplyDeleteMark, are you there? This is Gary Anderson (now living north of Memphis, TN). gldjanderson@gmail.com
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