This paper is a response to David R. Reagan’s article of the same title, which can be read here: https://www.oneforisrael.org/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/has-the-church-replaced-israel/. I was motivated to write this refutation after being asked by a brother in Christ to express an opinion. I do not know Reagan and my aim is not to criticize him as a person. His arguments are however, generally representative of Dispensationalism and therefore useful as a referential base. Some readers may object to the strong, categorical tone of this paper! Please understand that I have absolutely no desire to offend anyone. Rather, I hope to jolt your mind to soberly ponder the testimony of Scripture on this important topic.
Replacement theology, also called Supersessionism, is the belief that the Church has replaced Israel in God’s eternal plan. Neither title is particularly accurate, probably because they were coined by their Dispensationalist opponents, many of which add the ultimate pejorative, calling it “the heresy of replacement theology.” However, Reagan himself admits that Replacement theology has been the pre-dominant Christian understanding of the Word since the time of the Apostles. I add that it was virtually the universal Christian belief until just a few centuries ago. This paper intends to take a careful look at the Scriptural basis for replacement theology – but not of Dispensationalism in general – to see what the Bible says about national Israel retaining its place as God’s chosen people.
One of the most important principles of Bible interpretation is “aggregate investigation,” which means to study all of the relevant passages concerning a particular topic and then synthesize them into a robust doctrine that does not contradict the Word at any point. Many, many false doctrines have plagued the churches of Christ because they have not been careful to follow that standard. Instead, they work from the position that is sometimes called “proof-texting,” which is the technique of citing the verses in support of a pre-decided belief, while avoiding those Scriptures that would undermine such belief. That’s how the JW’s end up saying Jesus is not God and how the Adventists claim that wicked men will not be eternally punished in Hell. Closer home, that’s how others have come to embrace the false doctrines of Calvinism and Dispensationalism in recent centuries. Some of you will be tempted to stop reading right here. I encourage you to continue on, for my fervent goal is to not to think or go above that which is written (1Cor 4:6).
Obviously, Dispensationalism and the idea that God has NOT replaced Israel with the Church are intricately related. They rise and fall together. Nevertheless, the focus of this article is upon so-called “Replacement Theology.” (Later I show that the title does not express our actual belief.) I defer an examination of full-blown Dispensationalism, yet enter it briefly to make this basic point: Dispensationalism relies heavily on Old Testament prophecies to organize its eschatology. For instance, Reagan cites 9 OT passages and just 2 NT passages in his outline of “God’s plan for the Jews in the end times.” This is a flashing warning alert. Jesus came to fulfill the Old; the New Testament explains the Old. It is imperative that we allow the New Testament to act as the divine and infallible interpreter of the Old Testament.
And this is particularly important in the case of prophecy, for the entire Old Testament was written before the Jews returned from their Babylonian Captivity (or during it). So the hundreds of prophecies that refer to the Jews returning to their land, rebuilding their temple, offering sacrifices to God, and once again experiencing the general blessings of God did actually take place, but centuries before Jesus was born. How can Reagan dare to base his ten-point scheme of Israel in the end-time almost entirely on those Old Testament prophecies? Well, let me tell you a poorly-kept secret about Dispensationalism: The New Testament does not support it.
Make no mistake, if there were NT passages that teach the basic tenants of Dispensationalism, Reagan would have certainly included those citations. They don’t exist. Not one NT passage prophesies that, 1) the Jews will return to the land of Israel, 2) the temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem, 3) the nation of Israel will rise to prominence at the end-times, 4) the Jews will turn to God en masse before the end of the world. Those prophecies are found frequently in the OT, but they were fulfilled in the Jews’ deliverance from Babylon under Ezra. That is a simple matter of fact. Dispensationalists make the vague claim that they weren’t “entirely” fulfilled and so there must be a future fulfillment. Okay, then why don’t we find them repeated in the New Testament?
The function of the prophets was to encourage the people of God to conduct themselves as His people should, and to warn them of the consequences if they acted otherwise. Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah and the others interacted daily with the people to that end. Without doubt, the Spirit wove prophecies of the future into their contemporary issues, but the OT prophets’ first purpose was to preach to the people of their own time. The same is true of NT prophecies, so we should look there first in things relating to the Church Age.
The New Testament report of the Jewish race
The main objective of Reagan’s article is apparently to defend the Jewish race and decry antisemitism. I say that because one must read down to the last few paragraphs of the article before arriving at his first Scriptural citation. He details the world’s mistreatment of the Jews in history and then generally absolves them from crucifying their Messiah by criticizing anyone who speaks against them. Here are a few New Testament assessments of the natural Jews according to the flesh.
(They have) both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost (1Th 2:15-16).
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it (Acts 7:51-53).
The governor answered and said unto them, Whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children (Mat 27:21-25).
Let’s not mince words to diminish Jewish guilt. Their chastisements down through the centuries of time are deserved. It is bad enough that the Jews accepted the guilt of killing an innocent man, but this was the Son of God. Shocking wickedness. Nicodemus, and by extension his fellow Council members, knew that Jesus was come from God – because no mere man could do the signs that He did (John 3:1). They worked to have him killed Him because He was not the Messiah that they wanted. That is the blatant truth of the matter, and it’s in full view in the Gospel accounts. Now, I don’t believe that those wicked Jews had authority to bring down guilt on their posterity, but I do believe that their words were included in the Scriptures for our benefit in a prophetic manner much like Caiaphas unknowingly prophesied of Jesus’ death (John 18:14). The Pharisees’ call for guilt upon their race has not only turned out to be eerily true, but ever since then the Jews have been the most hardened of all races unto saving faith in God.
In choosing Barabbas, the Jews chose the Devil. In refusing Jesus, they refused God. In accepting His blood upon their hands, they rejected His blood over their sins.
The Romans crucified Jesus upon a single cross, but at the destruction of Jerusalem they crucified so many fleeing Jews that, according to Josephus, they ran out of land and wood to erect more crosses. So they hung three or four men upon the same cross. His blood be on us, and on our children. How dreadful those words! In the history of the world, no tribe has suffered more death and discrimination than the Jews according to blood. However, the real reason Jews remain the most hated and afflicted race on earth is because they continue to show themselves obstinate, selfish and rebellious. They are opposed to Godly Faith. Some will now call me antisemitic. I’m not. My best friend is a Jew.
Science has shown that human DNA contributes much to the traits, tendencies and personality of the individual, but recent politics doesn’t allow us to say that anymore. Jews are by nature a highly gifted race: intellectually brilliant in mind, very astute in legal and business matters. However, that blessing is accompanied by the negative dispositions of that race which I’ve already mentioned. And their history emphatically confirms that assessment.
All people groups are under the curse, but there seems to be a special curse hanging over the Jews down to this day – not specifically for crucifying their God, but for rationally choosing to reject Him again and again and again. Salvation is available! But they must look to the One upon the tree, and so few of them will do that. Far from being a mark of God’s blessing, their existence as a nation and race is a perpetual witness of the calamities and judgments that are destined for all those who refuse the only Name whereby salvation is attained. I do not say that based on opinion nor human reason, but because that’s what the Word of God exactly says (see Deut 28; Acts 4:12). The Jewish race has always shown itself to be contrary to all men, stiffnecked against Truth and crucifying afresh their greatest Prophet.
In fact, Jesus’ words surpass even the Apostles’ recriminations: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation (the Jewish race). O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate (waste, desert, wilderness). For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord (Mat 25:35-39).
The tenor of this passage is that the Jewish nation will be spiritually barren of fruit until the coming of the Lord at the end of the Age. Why then, do Dispensationalists cite this passage to support their belief that the Jews will return to the Lord? Because it’s about the best support they can find in the NT. Jesus pronounced these words to the Jewish generation just before His death, saying that they would not see Him again until He returned in the clouds of heaven with His holy angels to finish His work of righteousness (Rom 9:28). At that moment all the tribes of the earth will mourn (Mat 24:30) and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Him before God (Rom 14:11). These desolated, blood-guilty Jews won’t be rejoicing as they say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord – they will be finally admitting their error and reverencing Him as the Christ (Rev 3:9). Even the ones who pierced Him will behold His coming in the clouds of heaven. All these will bitterly mourn their loss, for the day of repentance has passed (Zech 12:10; cf Rev 1:7).
Another salient prophecy of Christ concerning the Jews is the cursing of the fig tree (an OT type of Israel) as He entered the city of Jerusalem during His last days on earth (Mat 21:18-19). Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. His pronunciation accurately describes the moral decadence of the Jewish people over the last 2000 years. Jesus followed that broadcast with two devastating parables predicting the imminent end of the Judaic nation – the parable of the two sons in Mat 21:28-32 and the parable of the householder in Mat 21:33-44. And He closes with this resounding declaration: Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof (Mat 21:43). That’s pretty solid stuff.
Some will think me a racist for saying that God has gifted the people groups of the world in different ways. Yet the proof is in the pudding! Without dispute, some of history’s most intelligent people have been Jews (Einstein, Marx, Freud come to mind) and they continue to wield tremendous influence in world affairs (such as Facebook’s Zuckerberg, Google’s Page and Brin, moneymasters Soros and Bloomberg, supreme court justices Breyer and Kagan, etc). Nevertheless, Jews continue to be among the most selfish, anti-God people in the world. Many centuries ago, God said of the Jewish race, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiffnecked people (Deut 9:13; Ex 33:3). That refrain is repeated many times in the Bible (Neh 9:16-17; Mat 23:23-25; Acts 7:51; 1Th 2:15). And to this very day, the Jews are renowned for their general obstinacy and self-centeredness. They are adept at finding ways to make large sums of money and influence people, but are bankrupt when searching for God and Truth.
Has the Church replaced Israel as God’s new “chosen people?”
The historical record over 2000 years shouts, “Yes!” How can it possibly be thought that God is favoring the Jews and the nation of Israel? They have lived in fear of their lives for two full millennia. How can Dispensationalists claim that God has been saving them alive in order to bless them? Clearly, their existence is a standing example of what happens to those who reject Him! And their terrible, ages-long mistreatment by the people of the world is a constant reminder of what happens to those that ignore the New Covenant that God has so graciously extended to every kindred, tongue, people and nation (Rev 5:9).
Again, that’s not my opinion, it’s what God warned way back when the Jews were set to enter the Promised Land. All nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger? Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers…And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book: And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day (Deut 29:24-28). Hundreds of years later, the prophets repeated that warning. Here’s one example: The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate (Is 24:5-6; Eze 14 is another). We’ve already given the New Testament equivalents, but one bears repeating in this context: They please not God, and are contrary to all men…the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost (1Th 2:15-16).
In spite of these clear Scriptures, Dispensationalists think that the hand of God has worked in the last century to return the Jews to their land “in unbelief to show just how great is His grace” (see Reagan). God has never worked that way. He gives grace to those who want it, never to those who reject it. God cannot act contrary to His character and He does not lie. He will not force Himself upon people who do not want it – that’s not an opinion, it’s a Bible fact. Do the research. From Noah in the Old Testament to Mary in the New, God chooses to grace those who choose to honor Him (Gen 6:8; Luke 1:30). There isn’t even one example of God forgiving or blessing someone who is rejecting Him.
The visible evidences show that the truly blessed people of God are not the natural Jews in Israel, but the spiritual Jews of the Church. All praise and thanks to Him. Yet, satisfying as they are, visible evidences that the Church is the new Israel of God (Gal 6:16) are not enough. We need to hear the NT witness. It is far from silent. Beware of the concision, the Apostle Paul said, For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (Php 3:2-3). The ultimate identification mark of being a Jew was to be circumcised on the eighth day. There was simply no greater proof to being Jewish. Yet Paul says the Christian, not the Jew, is the truly circumcised person of God! In another passage he even strengthens that statement (if it be possible). For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God (Rom 2:28-29).
Today, the force of these verses has been lost because the Jew/Gentile cultural clash has greatly diminished. Try substituting two contemporary races in Paul’s words to get the full effect. Some would accuse Paul of “cultural expropriation.”
Nevertheless, a Christian living in the New Covenant is the true Jew – not by physical blood but by spiritual attributes. Paul explains in Galatians 3:7-29, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham…That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith…For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus…There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. The promises to Abraham have fallen on the new children of Abraham. Israel after the flesh has not obtained them (Rom 11:7).
So the Christian is a child of Abraham, a Jew by adoption according to faith in Christ. There is no difference between blood Jews and Greeks, for God is no respecter of persons. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit (1Cor 12:13).
Finally, consider the Apostle Peter’s usage of very Jewish terms to describe the Church: But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. What dreadful cultural expropriation! (See Ex 19:5; Deut 7:6; 14:2; 26:18.) Peter takes specific, identification terms that had always been claimed by the Jews to be exclusively theirs and applies them to the New Testament Church of Christ. Has the Church replaced Israel as God’s people? The answer of the New Testament is abundantly clear.
The Olive Tree of the Lord
The Apostle Paul likens God’s eternal plan to a single olive tree that begins as entirely Jewish but then receives Gentile branch-grafts into its stock. This, and not “replacement theology,” accurately describes our beliefs concerning natural Jews and Gentiles. The Church has not literally replaced the Jews as God’s people, but continues the ages-old chosen generation of God. Jews and Gentiles together make up His new peculiar people. Read the beautiful portrait of God’s olive tree in Romans 11:15-25. The root of the tree (referring to Abraham and the Jewish patriarchs) was holy, but when some of the branches did not bear good fruit, God purged them from His tree (John 15:1-6). The holy firstfruit was contaminated by a little leaven which had leavened the whole lump (1Cor 5:6-7; Gal 5:9). Yet, cannot the Potter make from the same lump of clay a new vessel (Rom 9:21)? Yes, and He did it in stunning, unthinkable fashion – taking a people which in time past were not a people and making them now the people of God (1Pet 2:10).
Tree grafting makes an apt analogy of the people of Christ’s Kingdom, for it illustrates beautifully the origins of the New Covenant. God didn’t cut down the Jewish olive tree and plant a new Gentile tree, nor did He just ignore the unfruitful Jewish tree and cultivate a new Gentile tree. Instead, He worked in a marvelous way with the Jewish tree so that it would accept and nourish Gentile branches! The olive tree represents the true people of God, which are now found in Jesus Christ’s Covenant of Peace (Eze 34:23-26). Even today the secular world recognizes the olive branch as a symbol of peace. The prophet Jeremiah spoke of Israel as a green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit, but on account of her evil ways, the Planter had caused her branches to be broken off (Jer 11:16-17).
The two key points in this analogy is that God has only one tree and by nature it is Jewish. The Jews are the natural branches and the Gentiles branches are taken from a wild olive tree. This is the unfailing doctrine of the NT, which, as we have seen, presents the New Covenant people in OT terms and identifies the children of Abraham spiritually instead of genetically. The true Jew is determined inwardly, and that allows the Gentiles to be considered “the true circumcision” instead of Israel after the flesh (Php 3:3; Col 2:11). Natural Israel are all those that say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan (Rev 2:9; 3:9). The Gentile with faith in Christ is a child of Abraham and so a Jew; not by blood but by adoption, by being graffed in.
The Scriptures consistently, constantly teach that the true people of God in the New Covenant are Jews. They are no less vigorous in teaching that God has only one tree, or people (Heb 8:10). I am the vine, ye are the branches (John 15:5). There is one fold, and one Shepherd (John 10:16). He has once and for all broken down the middle wall of partition between us (Eph 2:14). There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek (Rom 10:12). They are one stick in His hand (Eze 37:16-28), one body (Eph 4:4) of God’s (one) building (1Cor 3:9), an holy temple (Eph 2:21), and a spiritual house (1Pet 2:5).
How can it be thought that God will undo these affirmations and return to make a covenant with natural Israel, the Jews after the flesh? There is just one tree. And the Keeper of this olive tree works with all branches so that they might bring forth good fruit (Mat 7:17-19). Some branches will not produce and must be cut off and burned. Other branches are graffed in wild, to partake of the root and fatness of the olive tree. The wild branches have become one with the natural branches. Together they receive the same blessings that were given to Abraham.
For the hope of Israel, the incarcerated Paul preached to the Jews in Rome. What did the Apostle hold forth to them as “the ideal Jewish hope?” That they might receive again God’s blessing in their land and temple? That they might return to the head of the nations? That God would renew the Israelite Covenant with them? No! The Scriptures say that Paul, preaching the hope of Israel…expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets (Acts 28:16-24). The real hope of Israel is to again become part of God’s olive tree by choosing faith in Jesus Christ. For they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again (Rom 11:23). Note however, that there are conditions – they will be graffed in only if they abide not still in unbelief.
Christ has reconciled Jew and Gentile into one body, the new Household of God.
The book of Ephesians has long been recognized as the treatise par-excellence on the Church of God. In it, the Apostle shows that from the beginning He had planned this “gathering together in one all things in Christ…such that He is head over all things for the Church” (1:10, 22-23). Then in chapter 2, the Spirit shows this powerful fusion of all bloods into one body, one building, one people, one temple in the Lord. It is nothing less than the spotless, blameless, holy, unblemished Church of Jesus Christ (5:27). This is not some short, obscure reference, but a careful, detailed explanation! Read for yourself:
(Ephesians 2:11-21) Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14) For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us…for to make in Himself of twain one new man…and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross…and preached peace to you which were afar off, AND to them that were nigh. 18) For through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father…therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20) And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21) In whom all THE building fitly framed together groweth unto AN holy temple in the Lord.
The Scripture here is abundantly clear. Yes, the Church has replaced Israel as God’s chosen people! And who is the Church? Gentiles and Jews together growing into a holy temple in the Lord. This is the true commonwealth of Israel, not those circumcised in the flesh, but those that have been circumcised in heart and spirit (Rom 2:29). These twain are now together the true household of God – one building with its foundation in both the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament Apostles. Amen. Audaciously, Dispensationalists propose that this holy, spiritual temple of God is going to be set aside so that Christ can rebuild the physical temple in the city of Jerusalem! Why? And where are their NT texts?
The wrestings and manipulations that the Word of God has suffered at the hands of unlearned and unstable false teachers are appalling and astonishing (2Pet 3:16-17). We are the circumcision! The Church is the holy nation, the peculiar people of God! The natural Jew is an unbeliever, an alien to the commonwealth of Israel, a stranger and foreigner to the household of God. That is the constant witness of the New Testament.
Completing the picture of the Jews’ future in Romans 11
The dangerous error of proof-texting (see paragraph two of this paper) obliges us to consider two or three other Scriptures which speak of the Church replacing Israel and of the Jewish future. Let’s return to Romans 11, for while the powerful analogy of the Lord’s single olive tree is found therein, it also contains a couple of NT “proof-texts” of Dispensationalism.
The book of Romans is a careful explanation of God’s eternal plan of salvation for both the Gentiles and natural Israel. The Apostle’s closing appeal to his Jewish countrymen in chapters 9-11 is a masterpiece of persuasion coupled with humility. Reagan cites Romans 11:1 in support of his theory that God will re-establish a covenant with the Jews, yet dishonestly ignores the surrounding verses that show the Apostle’s real intention is otherwise. Here is a condensed paraphrase of Romans 11:1-15.
“Has God cast away His people the Jews? No! I myself am a Jew. Remember that Elijah thought he was the only man of God left in Israel when there were actually 7000 who had not bowed to Baal. Even so today a remnant of Jews, the election of grace, has obtained the Promise. Meanwhile, Israel after the flesh has stumbled into deep slumber. Yet, their stumble has resulted in spiritual riches for the Gentiles. Would not their restoration to God be highly blessed? We believing Gentiles may help to restore them in fullness; for might we not provoke some of them to jealousy when they see God’s blessings being poured out upon us? If their casting away means the world is reconciled unto God, to receive them back again would be life from the dead.”
Reading the book of Romans, it would be possible to think that God had cut off the Jews from any chance at salvation (i.e. Rom 10:16-21), but in chapter 11 the Apostle affirms that is not the case. Many thousands of Jews were saved, many became leaders in the churches of Christ, a holy remnant did receive grace by believing the Gospel. These were true branches on the olive tree of the Lord. Even now, whenever a Jew turns to the Lord, the vail of spiritual blindness is removed (2Cor 3:13-15). Meanwhile, the astounding offenses of natural Israel ended with God dispossessing them. Now, His chosen ones are the new Israel of God made up of Jews and Gentiles according to the faith of Abraham instead of physical blood lineage. God has turned the stumbling of the Jews into beauty, for through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles.
Paul did not openly distain the Jewish race for their contumacy, but expressed his fervent wish that they be saved with the Gentiles. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? (Gk-pleroma, to fill up, fulfill, full). That is, “If their diminishing resulted in Gentile blessing, would not their fulness be even more blessed?” Yes, it would, but during the last 2000 years we haven’t seen natural Jews becoming jealous of the Gentiles being accepted by God. Rather than softening their stance on Jesus Christ, Jews in general have stiffened themselves even more against Him. The Apostle, however, yearned for the olive tree to be filled up with Jewish branches too, and finishes with this hope: if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them (v14).
Romans 11:15-24 contains the analogy of the Lord’s single olive tree, which we have already discussed. And after that the Apostle writes:
25) For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 26) And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 27) For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. 28) As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. 29) For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. 30) For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: 31) Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. 32) For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
While a holy remnant was saved (9:27), most of natural Israel were blinded (v25). This blindness in part will continue until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. Dispensationalists say this indicates an end to the Gentile Covenant and a renewal of the Jewish Covenant. While one could infer that, we need to rightly divide the Word and not just take a possibility to be a certainty. The phrase matches Christ’s words, And they (the Jews) shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (Luke 21:24). This is the Church Age, or present Era of Grace that ends with the Second Coming of Christ (2Pet 3:9-15), for only then will the Gentiles have “filled up” their share in the Kingdom. That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him (Eph 1:10).
Peter’s pre-Gentile sermon to the Jews agrees: But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. 19) Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20) And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21) Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3:18-21). There is wide agreement among students of eschatology that this phrase refers to the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the Age.
So Paul’s candid, consistent idea in Rom 11:25 is that natural Israel will remain blinded to the Gospel during the Church Age and right up to the final consummation. If his real intent was to predict the return of the Jews to God’s favor before the end of the world, why didn’t he plainly say so? Because that would entirely undo what he has been saying to this point! For three long chapters he has explained the sad situation of natural Israel and is even yet teaching the simple analogy of the single olive tree of the Lord made up of Jewish and Gentile branches being broken off and graffed back in based on faith in Christ (v23-24). Are we expected to hear him suddenly undo all that by predicting a new hope of Israel based on a different covenant which excludes the Gentiles? The idea is impossibly contrary to the Apostle’s teaching in these chapters.
The book of Romans has unequivocally defined the genuine Jew to be a spiritual child of Abraham by faith (Gal 3:29). Jesus told the frightfully hardened Jews who saw His miracles and yet refused to believe: If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham…ye are of your father the devil (John 8:39-44). The above truths have no end-point; they’re still in force today. In another place Jesus warned: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham (Mat 3:9). Well guess what, He practically did just that by grafting Gentile branches into the Jewish olive tree. The idea that God will someday cut off all Gentile branches from His tree is entirely contrary to His character. It would be no less than denying the victory of Christ in dying for the sins of the whole world, Gentile or Jewish.
And so all Israel shall be saved. Here Paul quotes Isaiah 45:17-25, Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation…in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. The book of Romans has presented the true Israel of God to be made up of Jews of faith and not by blood. All Israel shall indeed be saved – Jewish and Gentile branches together. There are probably hundreds of OT prophecies that promise salvation and blessings for natural Israel, but the NT prophets say the promises have fallen upon spiritual Israel – the remnant gathered into the early church which was divinely expanded to include all nations of the world just as this epistle describes.
There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer. Continuing to quote the prophet Isaiah, but from a different chapter, Paul describes how all the true seed of Israel is saved. The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob (Is 59:20). While both titles are appropriate, Christ as the Redeemer or Ransomer of His people is an especially emotive picture of Jesus coming to the Israelite nation. The Gaal (kinsman-redeemer, Ruth 4:14) arose in Zion to give His life a ransom for many (Mat 20:28; John 12:15). Christ was the chief corner stone placed in Sion, that spiritual city of the living God where the saints of the Kingdom now dwell in the peace of His salvation (Rom 9:33; Heb 12:22; 1Pet 2:6). These additional verses further confirm the Apostle’s point – all Israel shall be saved at His appearing and His Kingdom (2Tim 4:1), in which there is neither Jew nor Greek.
For this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. The quote continues in Isaiah 59:20-21, but the last phrase is drawn from an earlier chapter: Therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be taken away; and this is his blessing, when I shall have taken away his sin (Is 27:9, LXX). The birth angel famously informed Joseph of this Messianic purpose: Thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins (Mat 1:21). “His people” are the true spiritual Jews of all bloods, nations and races, for He hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth (Acts 17:26). The Son was manifested to take away our sins (1John 3:5). These verses again link the salvation of the Jews to the same cleansing fountain that has come to the Gentiles (Zec 13:1; Rev 21:6), the same new, better and everlasting Covenant (Heb 8:6-13; 12:24; 13:20) that Christ ratified with His own blood.
Dispensationalism takes Paul’s quotation of Isaiah to be a prophecy of Jesus saving national Israel: There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. Yet, the Deliverer has already come out of Sion! He has already worked a miraculous, unimaginable way of grace for Jacob to be justified. He has already opened My Covenant unto them and has sealed it by His own blood at Calvary. He has already taken away their sins by bearing them in His own body. Are we to ignore these extraordinary, singular events and expect a different salvation in a future age? A return to the Old Covenant? God forbid.
In effect, Dispensationalists read the Isaiah quotation as, “And then all Israel shall be saved.” This, they think, gives license to briefly place the mind of the Apostle far into the future, in vision of another Jewish age that will be ushered in after the rapture of the Christian church. There is simply no basis for this grammatical transformation. And so, means, “Like this,” or “In this way.” The Apostle is showing how all Israel will be saved – by looking to the Deliverer and accepting the one and only Covenant that really can take away sins (Heb 10:1-13).
Any attempt to make all Israel refer to natural Jews will be extremely troubled, for under what construct can we conceive that all Israel after the flesh will be saved? Adam Clarke, himself a believer in a future salvation of the Jews, illustrates the extreme vexedness of this case. He writes: “for no man can conceive that a time will ever come in which every Jew then living, shall be taken to the kingdom of glory. The term saved, as applied to the Israelites in different parts of the Scripture, signifies no more than their being gathered out of the nations of the world, separated to God, and possessed of the high privilege of being his peculiar people.” What an astonishing, dumbfounding admission! In this particular case, Clarke wishes us to know, “all” doesn’t mean all, and “saved” doesn’t mean unto salvation.
It is far more satisfying and Biblically logical to see all spiritual Israel truly saved by the Deliverer taking away their sins. The underlined words are a literal word-for-word translation of Rom 11:26, except for my addition of that one word, “spiritual.” By this time the Apostle expects us to have understood him well enough to supply that word ourselves. After all, he has said it so many times and in so many ways in the book of Romans. Does he really expect us to insert the alternate word? And so all natural Israel shall be saved. It is either one or the other! Honest analysis of the Scripture emphatically favors the former.
And so all Israel shall be saved, meaning all true Israel, the olive tree of elect Jews under both covenants along with the grafted-in Gentiles, shall be finally gathered together into the eternal Kingdom of the Father (Mat 24:31). This is the Apostle’s conclusion of the topic. Excluded from Israel are the faithless Jews that rejected the Prophets, excluded are the scribes and Pharisees who condemned their Messiah to death, excluded are all those who do not confess the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 10:9-10). For a remnant according to the election of grace in Israel were indeed saved (Rom 11:5) with the Gentiles (Rom 11:11).
It would be appropriate at this point to examine the Dispensationalist idea that Christ will return for His Church more than 1000 years before the end of the world, but the intention of the present paper is to show that the Church has indeed replaced Israel as God’s chosen people. For my thoughts on the former topic, I refer the interested reader to my book study on the Revelation.
But as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. The election is the believing remnant of natural Israel (v5) who did receive the promises along with the graffed in Gentiles. Natural Israel is God’s enemy because they have forsaken Him (Is 63:10; Mal 3:7). And so it is even in the present Age of Grace. They have labored long under tribulation and curse because they continue to reject the Lord! The strange work that the prophet Isaiah continues, for the Lord has risen up in wrath against the unfaithful Jews who will not accept His Son (Is 28:16-21).
The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. It is fitting that, in the middle of his explication of Israel rejecting Christ, Paul reminds us that God’s promises will not fail nor will His Word return unto Him void: All Israel will indeed be saved; but they are not all Israel which are of Israel (Rom 9:6). God never changes. He offers salvation to repentant Jews even today. The Calvinist however, takes this verse to mean that God will bless natural Israel in spite of her rebellion and rejection of His Son. “Because the gifts and calling of God are unchanging, He will return the Jews to their land even in unbelief,” the Dispensationalist claims. Now, I don’t doubt the first part of that statement, but the latter does not Scripturally follow! Nor is it compatible with His character. God has said He will restore them to the olive tree when they believe upon Him, not before, and not in spite of their unbelief.
God has fulfilled His word to the prophets and patriarchs and He will always keep His Word and Covenants. He does not change from time to time (Num 23:19; Heb 13:8); nor is there in Him any variableness, neither shadow of turning (James 1:17). Thus, Jesus Christ came to the Jewish nation and lived as a devout Jew under the Mosaic Law; He was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers (Rom 15:8). God’s invitation to natural Israel has not been withdrawn. If she were to confess the Christ of the Covenant, surely He would accept them again into the olive tree. But she won’t. Natural Israel will be blinded to Christ until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (v25).
Dispensationalist affirmations notwithstanding, the promises of the Covenant will never be awarded to those who fail to keep the conditions of the Covenant (Ex 19:5; Heb 8:6-13). If ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which He sware unto thy fathers (Deut 7:12). This is the constant witness of Scripture. God cannot gift a person or nation who refuses to receive the gift. He ever seeks the willing heart upon which to shower His favor (2Chr 16:9).
Natural Israel did not hearken. And so God has revised the Covenant to accept the Gentiles as actual, true Jews of the New Covenant (Php 3:3). In spite of this, many Christians today mistakenly hold blood Jews in special honor. A personal acquaintance, citing this verse along with Genesis 12:2, actually chooses to buy from unrighteous Jews at the local farmer’s market instead of Christian sellers because he is afraid that God will otherwise curse him! How sad. How unbiblical. The New Testament teaches that Christ-followers are the true Jews and all others are imposters (see Rev 3:9).
The fact of God’s immutability must be reconciled with many occasions where He did “change His mind.” He told the Ninevehites that He was going to destroy their city in 40 days, but repented of that plan when they humbled themselves in sackcloth and ashes. Indeed, the prophets were so familiar with this trait that Jonah cited it as the reason he fled from Nineveh instead of preaching there: I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil. God “changes His mind” because His goodness and mercy are wonderfully deep and marvelously powerful. If natural Israel were to repent, without doubt God would receive them. He calls them even as before; they have not been shut out of His mercy – God hath not cast away His people which He foreknew (Rom 11:2).
Yet, one might ask, has God not changed? After all, He annulled the Jewish sacrifices, rituals and laws of the Old Testament. But no! The New Testament explains in many ways and places how God has re-applied the physical precepts and laws of the Old into the spiritual reality of a New Covenant – the new and better way. The literal requirements of the Old Covenant have been refitted to spiritual forms. The physical OT sacrifices for sin are now realized in the spirit, by grace through faith. The old rituals and feasts continue on, yet expressed in NT truths of mercy, love and worship.
The Kingdom of Christ is a world-encompassing spiritual rule in the hearts and minds of all with faith as Abraham. God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him. (Acts 10:34-35). Jews, Greeks and every other race have equal access to God through Jesus Christ.
Let us not give heed to Jewish fables (Titus 1:14); namely that Christ is going to restore the Jewish nation to God’s favor, rebuild the temple and reinstate the Old Covenant. Jesus prophesied at length of the fall of Jerusalem and the natural Jews – and He did not predict their return God’s favor. Instead, in dozens of parables and teachings, He ALWAYS showed the absolute end of the Jewish Covenant (ej Mat 22:1-14; Mark 12:1-10; Luke 13:6-9).
Natural Israel is blinded to Christ. Hear the Apostle once more in another epistle: Not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 14) But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. 15) But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. 16) Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away (2Cor 3:13-16). Or as other versions translate this last verse, But whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. The hope of Israel is to turn to Christ and the cleansing blood of the New Covenant – not rebuild the physical temple and worship Christ on a literal throne!
Other New Testament passages concerning natural Israel
In A.D. 27, Messianic expectations in Judea soared to fever pitch with the heralding of this new, urgent message: The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand! The Baptist, Jesus, and His disciples preached the coming Kingdom throughout the land of Israel (Mat 3:1; Mark 1:14; Mat 10). The people went to hear in droves, enchanted by the stunning new doctrine of the Nazarene. However, they all completely misunderstood the Kingdom, right down to the chosen twelve Apostles. The Jewish people had long been taught that Messiah’s coming would precipitate Israel’s return to head the nations again, that He would unify the Jewish people and drive out the Romans from Judea, that He would raise up the Davidic throne and rule in righteousness and honor.
This Jewish hope is veiled in the Spirit’s announcement at the birth of John: And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David; as He spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He sware to our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life. And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace (Luke 1:67-79).
This was the real ministry of John the Baptist and Christ, yet, it was only after years that the Apostles began to actually understand Zacharias’ prophecy, for all during His ministry, they held to the natural Jewish hope. That’s why Peter took Jesus aside and rebuked Him for saying He was going up to Jerusalem to die (Mat 16:21-23). That’s why the disciples were so devastated when they saw Him dead, for they trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel (Luke 24:21). That’s why the Pharisees rejected Him – for He was so clearly no man of war; rather, He was humble and meek, riding on a donkey instead of stallion. That’s also why Jesus had to depart alone to the mountains, because He perceived that they would come and take Him by force, to make Him a king (John 6:15). Amazingly, the one man you would think should have been afraid of this King of the Jews was not. Pilate’s trial was based on that very claim (Luke 23:20; John 18:33-38).
This Jewish expectation was still latent within the disciples forty days later, when just before His ascension they asked, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Surely now was the time, they thought, surely now their Messianic hope would become reality! Yet His answer created far more doubts than answers. And He said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power (Acts 1:6). Wow. Far from hinting at “when,” He declined to assure them that Kingdom would ever be restored to Israel.
Upon further thought, His answer makes perfect sense. For while the Kingdom that Jesus had been preaching had certainly begun, they had not yet seen the Kingdom of God come with power (Mark 9:1). Yes, He had ratified the covenant with His blood, He had saved and redeemed Israel, He was ascending even now to the heavenly throne; however, astonishing, unthinkable events remained to be realized! The Spirit had not yet been poured out, the thousands of remnant Jews had not yet entered the Church, the Word of God had not yet been given to human hands – and they still had no idea that the Gentiles would be given place in the Kingdom!
It amazes me that Dispensationalists would cite Jesus’ words in Acts 1:6 to support their idea that God will re-establish His Covenant with the Jews at some future date. And it illustrates the paucity of their biblical argument. Jesus neither hints nor prophesies about restoring the Kingdom to Israel and instead refuses to answer their question. The Dispensationalists are grasping at prophetic straws here. Presented the opportunity, Jesus particularly declined to affirm any restoration of Israel.
Another NT text that is sometimes construed to refer to natural Israel is 2Thessalonians 2:1-12, even though that passage never once mentions the Jews or Israel and is particularly speaking about the coming of Christ for the purpose of our gathering together unto Him. The Apostle warns that a great falling away must precede the return of Christ, and that this mystery of iniquity would be the work of a sinister man of sin who was even then preparing himself to appear. This son of perdition (Judas Iscariot’s title) is most evidently the Pope, who shortly arose in the Christian Church and who exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. I cannot imagine a more accurate description, indeed it is his very title. The terms “Vicar of Christ” (Latin) and “Antichrist” (Greek) have perfectly similar transliterations – “in the place of Christ.”
Hear Pope Nicholas: “I am all in all and above all, so that God Himself, and I, the Vicar of God, have both one consistory, and I am able to do almost all that God can do…wherefore, if those things that I do be said not to be done of man, but of God, what can you make me but God? No marvel then if it be in my power to dispense with all things, yea, with the precepts of Christ.” Now that is dragon speech (Rev 13:11). The popes bear responsibility for the spiritual deaths of billions of souls and they will “wear out the saints” (Dan 7:25) until the Lord destroys them with the brightness of His coming (2Thes 2:8).
Dispensationalists ignore the obvious fulfillment and say the Apostle is speaking of a future man of sin who will arise in the endtime. And, they tell us, he will sit in the rebuilt Jewish temple of God demanding the worship of the world. Do the research. Paul uses the term temple of God on various occasions in his epistles, but never once in reference to the Jewish temple. Rather, the Church is the temple of God (i.e. 1Cor 6:19; 2Cor 6:16; 1Cor 3:16-17; Eph 2:21). Moreover, Israel and the Jewish temple are utterly foreign subjects to the entire second epistle to the Thessalonians! The Apostle is specifically warning of a coming apostasy in the Christian church – not in Israel or among the Jews.
Notably, we have not entered the book of Revelation in this paper. I have avoided that important prophecy because Dispensationalists and A-millennialists hold deeply conflicting premises as they read this final Word of Christ to His people. Is it written for the Church, or for the Jews? Obviously there is little benefit in quoting the Revelation’s view of the beautiful olive tree of the Church to those who adamantly believe that Rev 4-22 will take place after God has removed the Church from the earth. I spent seven years in writing a study of the Revelation and was greatly impressed by that highly divisive fact. If the two viewpoints cannot even agree on the era of fulfillment (to say nothing about the intended audience, Jew or Gentile), then it is no wonder that they cannot agree on particular prophecies and verses in those chapters. They end up talking past one another.
On the other hand, the Revelation is only infrequently cited by Dispensationalists in their arguments that God will again choose Israel, for while it does figure large in Futurist eschatology, it is silent concerning a return to the Jewish covenant, etc. Instead, Dispensationalists will take verses like Rev 11:1-2 to assume that Israel has rebuilt its temple, or Rev 7:4-8 to assume that God has chosen the Jews again. Yet we have seen that the NT Scriptures teach that a Jew in the New Covenant is determined not by blood but by spiritual attributes. And in the New Testament, there is no physical temple, but the people of God are the temple where He has chosen to dwell (1Cor 3:16-17; 2Cor 6:16).
Nevertheless, let’s take a quick look at what is probably the principle text in the Revelation used by Dispensationalists to support their idea of a future Jewish restoration to covenant with God. And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months (Rev 11:1-2).
Surely this must be a spiritually intended vision. One doesn’t measure worshippers with a reed, nor leave out the court for it has been given to the Gentiles while the temple and its altar are, what…Jewish? If we read this passage using the New Testament meanings of those terms, the picture is quite clear: God has perfect knowledge of each worshipper in His temple, the church; each one has been cleansed at the Altar, they have entered into the Holy of Holies with Christ (Heb 9). All those without are unbelievers and strangers (Gentile or Jew), and these shall possess Jerusalem until the mystery of God is finished. The 42 months represent the time between the Cross and the Consummation (see my commentary, “The Mystery of Christ in the Revelation”).
The Revelation draws deeply on Old Testament imagery to depict spiritual beauties in the New Covenant. The altar of incense before the throne of God in heaven (Rev 8), the Lamb standing on Mount Sion with the redeemed of all the earth (Rev 14), the tabernacle of the Testimony opened in heaven to reveal the angels administering before God (Rev 15), the marriage of the Lamb (Rev 19) and many more. The scene of the temple being measured fits well in these contexts, not as a literal building in Jerusalem but as a spiritual home of Christ with His people.
Selected Old Testament passages concerning natural Israel
This paper does not intend to make an exhaustive review of the Old Testament’s picture of natural Israel. As we have mentioned, all of the prophets wrote before or during the Jewish return from Babylon. Instead, we have turned the focus brightly upon NT “proof-texts” of the proposed Jewish restoration, coupling them with other passages in order to view this topic in biblical fullness. In this section however, I’d like to examine some oft-cited Old Testament passages that supposedly pertain to Jewish eschatology. For simplicity, I will divide these into several classes.
The first and most important class of Jewish prophecy concerns the Jews as a blood race forever being blessed by God, just because they are Jews. Here are a few examples of this type of prophecy:
And I will make of thee (Abram) a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed (Gen 12:2-3).
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee (Israel). Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me (Isaiah 49:15-16).
Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar…If those ordinances depart from before Me…then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me forever…If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD (Jer 31:35-37)
For thus saith the LORD of hosts…he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye (Zech 2:8).
Remember however, the New Testament’s revelation that Jews in the New Covenant are identified by faith in the God of Abraham, not by being his blood descendants. So then, these beautiful OT promises are for the new people of God in the Age of Grace (Gal 3:14, 29). I have to chuckle when dispensationalists appropriate for themselves the following oft-memorized OT promise: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end (Jer 29:11). This beautiful encouragement was spoken specifically to the captive Jews in Babylon, yet we see it cited in Christian circles everywhere, artists have incorporated it into popular wall-hangings and decorations. Under what criteria do Dispensationalists discover that verse is for the Christian Church, but the ones we cited above are not?
Another class of Old Testament prophecies involves the promise that God would give the land of Judea to the Jews forever (i.e. Josh 14:9; 1Chr 28:8). Reagan even states that “the Jews have never occupied all the land that was promised them in the Abrahamic Covenant.” Yet the book of Joshua says otherwise: And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass (Josh 21:43-45).
Reagan also makes the following claim: “David wrote in the psalms that the land promise is everlasting in nature and is yet to be fulfilled” (Ps 105:8-11). How can an everlasting promise not be fulfilled? Once made, is it not perpetually fulfilled from that moment? Yet the Jews have controlled Judea for only about 800 of the roughly 4000 years since Abraham. Now, I do not dispute that God’s covenants are everlasting (remember Rom 11:29), but I do dispute with all vigor the idea that God’s covenants are somehow unconditional. Read the last words of Moses to the children of Israel over three long chapters (Deut 28-30). Again and again he says, “If you hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord, then I will establish you, but if you will not hearken, then all these curses will fall upon you.” The idea that God will restore the Jews to the land of Israel even in unbelief would radically contradict His words in those chapters! If they repent and obey His voice, then will He deliver them from their captivity (Deut 30:1-3).
The real fulfillment of the land promises is spiritual in nature, not physical. Thus, in the charter of Christ’s Kingdom we read, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven…Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth (Mat 5:3-5). And the Apostle says, For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith (Rom 4:13). In the new Kingdom, Jesus said, worshippers are not tied to the land of Israel nor the temple, but worship the Father in spirit (John 4:19-24). Furthermore in that passage, Jesus affirmed that salvation is of the Jews – not according to blood, but according to faith in Christ. The whole earth is the Lord’s (1Cor 10:26),
Another class of Old Testament citations focuses on the everlasting covenant that God made with Abraham (Gen 17:7-9). We do not deny these to be fervently true! Yet we are convinced by the New Testament Scriptures that the promises to Abraham have fallen upon his seed according to faith (Rom 4:16). Less known is that God also made an everlasting covenant with Aaron to minister before Him by a perpetual statute…by an ordinance forever (i.e. Num 25:12-13, 18:8; 1Chr 23:13; Lev 24:3-9). The Aaronic priesthood has, however, ceased to exist and its genealogical line has been lost to the mists of deep time, demonstrating once again that there are conditions to every covenant. The Jews did not keep the statutes of the Covenant. Aaron’s posterity did not keep the statutes.
Conversely, Dispensationalists and Calvinists teach that both the Old and New Covenants are “unconditional,” and that the party of Man does nothing to become part of the Covenant. They claim he cannot choose to leave the Covenant, nor act in such a manner that he is disqualified. To the Dispensationalist, the physical Jew is forever and unconditionally part of the everlasting covenant that God made with Abraham, while the Calvinist believes that the Christian is forever and unconditionally part of the New Covenant.
The absurdity of an “unconditional covenant” is plainly evident by briefly contemplating the definition of a covenant – “an agreement between two or more parties upon determined and mutually agreed conditions.” The covenants that God has made with the children of men always have conditions. Sometimes they appear in other passages or are linked with other covenants, but they are always there. The Dispensationalist invention of an “unconditional covenant” would be laughable if so many people hadn’t fallen for it.
Summary of Dispensationalist Eschatology
Dispensationalism teaches that before the final disintegration of the world, God will bring about the general salvation of the Jewish population. There is a wide range of ideas concerning how, what and when all this will take place, but one point all Dispensationalists agree is that the natural Jews are still God’s chosen people and the Church has not replaced Israel. Their typical explanation is that the Church Age is a “parenthesis” in God’s time-scheme. The real Covenant was made with Abraham and his seed, they say, and it was eternal, unconditional and irrevocable. When the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, God interjected the Church Age into His larger Grand Plan as an interim arrangement until such time that the Jews WOULD accept Him. Because of this, Dispensationalists say, the New Testament is not really seen in the Old. All the promises, all the prophecies, all the history of the Old Testament revolves around Israel and the Jews. To them, the Church Era delayed the time-clock of prophecy for an indeterminate period. Daniel’s 490-year prophecy stopped at year 483 and now the Church parenthesis has gone on for 2000 years. The clock will start to count off the last seven years of that prophecy after the Church Age has ended. They liken this to a valley between two mountain peaks. From a distance one can only see the peaks, not the valley below. Just so, the prophets of old did not see the valley, but prophesied the peaks at Jesus’ first and second comings.
I find these tenants of Dispensationalism to be breathtakingly unbiblical and deeply detrimental to the character of God and His Son, as well as His confessed, chosen Bride – the Church of the Living God. Moreover, Dispensationalist doctrine has served to confuse and distract the people of God from their true purpose in life – seek ye first the Kingdom of heaven. Many Christians are so distracted by “signs” and “fulfillments” of the end-time that they forget the Great Commission.
Reagan begins his article by out-right admitting that from the earliest beginnings of the Church, all of its eminent members have been anti-Dispensationalist. He disparages many of the apostolic-age Christian writers as anti-Semites – Justin Martyr, Ireneaus, Ignatius, Tertullian, Origen – all were church leaders and immediate successors to the Apostles. Some had probably met the Apostle John in person and heard him speak about his visions. Surely they wrote what they believed the Apostles to be teaching in the churches! These were people who lived practically in the time of the Twelve Apostles. They read the Scriptures in their own language. They knew first-hand the idioms of culture and literature of both the Jews and Greeks. These all believed and taught the same anti-dispensationalist doctrine, that God had “taken the Kingdom from the Jews and given it to a nation which bring forth the appropriate fruits” (Mat 21:43). Using Reagan’s criteria, Christ and the Apostles would also be anti-semites.
Reagan also writes, “But the distinctive Jewish flavor of early Christianity was not to last long. As the Church began to spread beyond Judea, its message was embraced by more and more Gentiles who had no interest in maintaining contact with the Church’s Jewish roots.” Wait, isn’t that exactly what Jesus wanted to happen? The Church is not the Jewish institution of the Old Covenant, it’s a new, all-embracing Kingdom that encompasses every tribe, nation and language under heaven. The Jewish remnant that converted to Christianity had to reject Judaism. Paul counted the Old Covenant to be rubbish and dung in order to win Christ (Php 3:4-8). There’s a reason it’s called the Old Testament, for that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away (Heb 8:13).
Reagan details the antisemitic behavior of the Catholics and many Protestants (which I find equally appalling). However, he then makes some startling conclusions, alleging that the reason the Jews are rabidly anti-Christian is on account of their mistreatment by Jesus’ people. This ignores several obvious facts. First, the best friends the Jews have ever had are the true people of God – not the Catholic Church, not the Protestant reformers, but the real Christian who loves all men and worketh good unto all. It was good Christian men and women who risked their lives to hide the Jews during the Holocaust. Second, there is a wealth of true Jewish blood running in the veins of many Christians today. The entire early Church was Jewish – thousands upon thousands of them – until the Spirit revealed to Peter that the Gentiles were going to be grafted in also. These Jews willing gave up their ancestry and names to be counted with Christ. Their physical genealogical record is lost, but their sons and daughters are sitting in our church benches today. On the other hand, the sons and the daughters of the blinded are blinded still (largely). Presently about two-thirds of the Israelite population classify themselves as either atheist or not religious. And that’s the better conclusion to why the Jewish people reject Christ.
Reagan wonders: “Why would God continue to pursue such a stubborn and rebellious people? The answer is that they are witnesses of God, and through them God is demonstrating His unfathomable grace….He pursues us in love despite our sinfulness, and regardless of how stiff-necked we may be, He never washes His hands of us.”
He is using the erroneous Reformation-era definition of Grace that the Protestants invented and which surely contributed to the later rise of Dispensationalism. Grace is God’s favor working on man’s behalf. It is never, ever bestowed upon unwilling, rebellious people. Every time that grace is seen at work in Man it is because the person wished to receive that grace. I certainly believe that God “pursues us in love despite of our sinfulness,” but He will not graciously cleanse us without our consent. Yet, in Protestant theology, He does just that, saving whomsoever He will whether they want to or not, and damning whomsoever He will just because He has so chosen. That’s the Protestant idea of Grace and it is a deeply pernicious doctrine.
The above fits quite well with the Dispensationalist mind, for if God really chooses to give grace arbitrarily, why would He not choose the Jews even though they are among the most anti-God race that history has ever known? We have not so learned Christ. He is all-good, all-wise, all-righteous, all-true, all-just. He cannot lie. He cannot act contrary to His character. The tenants of general Protestantism upend those beautiful attributes of God, making Him an uncaring, unmerciful tyrant. Dispensationalism is linked at the hip with Calvinism, yet many Anabaptists have failed to make the easy connection.
Why have many Christians accepted Dispensationalism? It is an important question, for this paper has shown that it is not a New Testament doctrine. I believe a key part of the answer is that many Christians harbor deep sentimental feelings for the Jews. I know that I do. Although I am convinced it has nothing to do with Bible prophecy, I cannot help but hope the Jews make a place for themselves in the land of Israel. Their ages-long history and culture remind me of God and Christ – all the prophets and apostles were devoted Jews. Seeing them in Palestine is like seeing again the relatives of old friends. We want the Jews to succeed. We are amazed at their Old Testament experiences with God. Unfortunately, this “sentimentalism” works to cloud the bare teaching of the New Testament concerning natural Israel. Beware: analyzing facts using the emotions always leads to deception. Do not simply “follow your heart” (Jer 17:9), but follow the Truth (John 17:17), follow the Man of Truth and Life (John 14:6).
Conclusion: does all this even matter?
In the past, I spent quite a bit of time reading and studying eschatology. I immersed myself in the prophecies of the Bible. I worked to cross-link this passage with that doctrine. I read the prophets, studied the contexts and surrounding histories. And I’ve satisfied my mind on the big picture – Christ has taken the Throne of His kingdom and will reign over the earth until the end, at which moment He will return in the clouds of heaven to end the world and resurrect the dead in the twinkle of an eye for all eternity.
When Christ returns for the saints of the Kingdom, time will be no more – there will be no future covenant with the Jews, a thousand year literal reign of Christ in Jerusalem, etc. I live with the constant belief that this world will generally continue in normal life until, without warning, the sign of the Son of Man suddenly appears in the air. And that’s the end.
What if I’ve come to the wrong conclusion? What if time does continue after Christ returns for the saints? Well, surprise, surprise – it makes very little difference to you and me. We Christians won’t be here either way; whether it’s the end (as I believe) or just the first phase of “Christ’s second coming in the air” (as Dispensationalists believe). As it affects personal salvation, I say that what you believe about the Second Coming of Christ matters virtually nothing.
In fact, my interest in end-time prophecy waned considerably when I came to understand that the Big Sign of Christ return is this: there will be no sign. He comes at an hour that we think not, when all are least expecting Him (Luke 12:40). Life will be going on normally, eating and drinking, peace and safety, when sudden destruction falls (Mat 27:38; 1Thes 5:3). But of that day and of that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven (Mark 13:32). It will come as a thief in the night (2Pet 3:10), when many are sleeping (Mat 25:5). So take heed to yourselves, lest… that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell upon the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy…to stand before the Son of man (Luke 21:34-36)
However, while one’s beliefs on the end-time are of little consequence to personal salvation, they are of great consequence to the salvation of others. Because of their Dispensationalist beliefs, many well-meaning Christians are offering false hope to natural Israel. They give money to the Jews, invite them to speak in their churches (!), promote their agendas and travel to Israel to work in their projects and synagogues. They profess to be motivated by prophecy – “we need to do this so that Christ can return.” But guess what – God didn’t need help from the Jews to bring fulfillments to the prophecies of the Old Testament. And He is abundantly capable of orchestrating the necessary conditions for Christ to return exactly as He has decided. Second, the Jews tried to help Jesus carry out His mission too – and remember how that turned out for them.
The biggest concern, however, is the commitment of valuable Kingdom resources to enemies of the Gospel, (Rom 11:28). Let us learn from Christ’s example of evangelism. He was ever ready to share with those who were truly interested, yet would not answer the hardened Pharisees (Mat 21:23-27) and refused to explain His parables to those who rejected Him (Mat 13:10-17). Jesus told His evangelists, “If they don’t receive your message, shake off the dust of your feet against them and go to another city” (Luke 9:5). The Spirit led Paul to preach to people that were open to the Gospel and forbade him to go to others (Acts 16:6).
Dispensationalists face this huge conflict: on one hand they think that by converting a Jew to Christianity they’ve done God a special favor, they’ve saved a soul that He has especially loved above all others; but on the other hand they believe the Jews need to return to the Old Covenant and get that temple rebuilt so they can go about sacrificing and sprinkling ashes again. Those are vigorously different goals! Which will it be? Reagan and others have made their choice. Witness the full-slate of Christian websites dedicated to actively support the Orthodox Jews’ plan to rebuild the temple – even though that would further separate them from Christ. Under the pretense of fulfilling Bible Prophecy, Christians report on the search for red heifers, assist in making the special temple utensils and furniture, help to re-formulate “biblical crimson,” etc – how can they fail to see that they are undoing the Gospel?
The Apostles’ hardest labor was to convince the Jews to abandon the physical works of the Law and put their faith only in Christ (Php 3:4-11). Paul wrote, O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth…This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?…Christ is become of no effect unto you (who think to be) justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace (Gal 3:1-2; 5:4). Jews and Gentiles are saved in the same way – by believing that Jesus is the Son of God who shed His blood for the remission of sins (Mat 26:28). There is no other name under heaven whereby Man can be eternally saved (Acts 4:12).
Will there be an end-time revival among the Jewish people? That is not given for us to know (Acts 1:7). With the apostle Paul, we hope for that (Rom 10:1). Yet the only way to God is to be grafted back into olive tree of Christ, not make themselves a great nation again. The big point in this: there is no prophetic requirement, and I repeat, NOT EVEN ONE, that natural Israel will either be saved or will turn to Christ before the end of the world. The glimmers and inferences of a handful of proof-texts are far out-weighed by Christ and the Apostles’ emphatic, direct descriptions and teachings concerning the destitution of natural Israel in favor of the new Israel of God – the Church of Jesus Christ.