Answer to Reformed Objections continued

Continued from previous post:

Rather, the promise of an inheritance is made to those only who have faith in Jesus, the True Heir of Abraham. All spiritual benefits are derived from Jesus, and apart from him there is no participation in the promises. Since Jesus Christ is the Mediator of the Abrahamic Covenant, all who bless him and his people will be blessed of God, and all who curse him and his people will be cursed of God. These promises do not apply to any particular ethnic group, but to the church of Jesus Christ, the true Israel.

Yes, we understand this. This is the New Testament revelation of the meaning of the Old Testament and it is absolutely correct.

HOWEVER, not ALL the promises of God apply to Christ and His church in such a direct way. The 69 weeks of years mentioned above were a pointer to the coming of Christ but they were a literal 69 weeks of years literally fulfilled. God DID promise Abraham that his descendants would inhabit the land of Canaan and they literally did. God's prophets did warn of coming disasters that were also historically fulfilled. God did reveal through Daniel that four great empires would arise one after the other -- all types of the human and no doubt also demonically inspired rebellion against God -- and this was historically fulfilled.

In fact, think about it -- the whole last "week" of years is pretty much the time of the devil, the Antichrist and the Human Rebellion come to its pinnacle of expression. Daniel's visions were predominantly of the growth of evil in the world, the enemies of God, and the Book of Revelation echoes his themes. The revelation of Christ's Kingdom as "not of this world" shows the true heavenly mission of redemption and salvation, but meanwhile there is still an unfinished drama to be played out on planet Earth. It will be a time when evil is completely unrestrained. We look forward to the coming of Christ (and speaking for myself I yearn for that more and more these days), but I have the impression that scripture is telling us that there is to be a massive culmination of the "mystery of iniquity" before that happens, in a specially marked-out time for that purpose -- the time when the Anti-king does his damnedest, you could say, to demonstrate his right to reign, only to be destroyed when the true King appears.

NOBODY (?I hope) is arguing that earthly Israel is some kind of perfection of God's plan, while it was originally God's picture of His plan of redemption, it would now, after Christ, be a miscarriage of God's plan and that is the whole point. If the temple is restored, just as Israel is restored, it is so that the forces of evil get to play themselves out to the hilt.

The Book of Revelation calls the "holy city" by the name of the evil city Sodom and the evil empire Egypt.

Re 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

And yet there will be these two true witnesses of God alluded to in that verse denouncing it all, and there will be many who will come to see the truth, believe and be saved, giving glory to God -- EVEN in a time of the purest unrestrained evil imaginable, the full blossoming of fallen human "perfection" under the influence of the devil.

Why not, Reformed people? I don't see how this violates the plan of God's revelation on earth at all. It brings the ancient drama to a fitting if horrifying climax just before the return of Jesus Christ.

The people of God, whether the church of Israel in the wilderness in the Old Testament or the Israel of God among the Gentile Galatians in the New Testament, are one body who through Jesus will receive the promise of the heavenly city, the everlasting Zion. This heavenly inheritance has been the expectation of the people of God in all ages.

See my responses above. Except I might caution that even the unsaved Israelis as an "ethnic group" most likely have more importance in God's eyes than this document is willing to recognize.

7. Jesus taught that his resurrection was the raising of the True Temple of Israel. He has replaced the priesthood, sacrifices, and sanctuary of Israel by fulfilling them in his own glorious priestly ministry and by offering, once and for all, his sacrifice for the world, that is, for both Jew and Gentile. Believers from all nations are now being built up through him into this Third Temple, the church that Jesus promised to build.

Again, no argument, but again I make the suggestion that there are levels to prophecy, levels to the Temple, the one a type, yes, and the other its fulfillment, but it may be that God still has a use for the type in bringing the world to heel.

8. Simon Peter spoke of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus in conjunction with the final judgment and the punishment of sinners. Instructively, this same Simon Peter, the Apostle to the Circumcision, says nothing about the restoration of the kingdom to Israel in the land of Palestine. Instead, as his readers contemplate the promise of Jesus' Second Coming, he fixes their hope upon the new heavens and the new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

It only makes sense that he would focus on the true fulfilled spiritual meaning of Israel, our true hope. A restored physical Israel isn't our hope, but it does seem to have acquired a separate secondary significance in our time as eschatalogical theories are proliferating and there are other signs of the last days rapidly approaching.

9. The entitlement of any one ethnic or religious group to territory in the Middle East called the "Holy Land" cannot be supported by Scripture. In fact, the land promises specific to Israel in the Old Testament were fulfilled under Joshua. The New Testament speaks clearly and prophetically about the destruction of the second temple in A.D. 70. No New Testament writer foresees a regathering of ethnic Israel in the land, as did the prophets of the Old Testament after the destruction of the first temple in 586 B.C. Moreover, the land promises of the Old Covenant are consistently and deliberately expanded in the New Testament to show the universal dominion of Jesus, who reigns from heaven upon the throne of David, inviting all the nations through the Gospel of Grace to partake of his universal and everlasting dominion.

Yes, all this is true. The Jews misunderstand the everlasting promise of the land to them as a people and are blinded to its fulfillment in Christ (though Abraham understood, and of course others). They are continuing to act out the types.

But that doesn't preclude the possibility that God is using these things to draw them back to the land for purposes of His own, and it seems to some of us that He has even demonstrated His watchfulness over Israel in certain miraculous protections in their various wars. In fact I think it takes a peculiar blindness not to notice these things playing out in history right before our eyes. Two levels. They have to come to Christ to be saved, but God may lead them there through their fleshly misunderstandings and through a great tribulation.

10. Bad Christian theology regarding the "Holy Land" contributed to the tragic cruelty of the Crusades in the Middle Ages. Lamentably, bad Christian theology is today attributing to secular Israel a divine mandate to conquer and hold Palestine, with the consequence that the Palestinian people are marginalized and regarded as virtual "Canaanites."

No! Now here I have to say that this is NOT what is happening. I wouldn't claim that Israel is especially righteous since they are a worldly nation without God, but anyone with eyes to see ought to be able to see that Israel is completely on the defensive among peoples who only want her dead, while she has gone great lengths to try to accommodate the Palestinians, who, first of all, have no right to that land (that's a historical fact) and second, have been offered land nevertheless and have always turned it down, and third, are kept in their marginalized position NOT by Israel but by their Islamist leaders and the surrounding Arab nations who are using them as pawns in their satanically inspired Islam-based war against israel.

The "bad theology" here, the theology that is likely to bring about bloodshed, however unwittingly, even another Holocaust, is the very Reformed theology of this document.

This doctrine is both contrary to the teaching of the New Testament and a violation of the Gospel mandate. In addition, this theology puts those Christians who are urging the violent seizure and occupation of Palestinian land in moral jeopardy of their own bloodguiltiness. Are we as Christians not called to pray for and work for peace, warning both parties to this conflict that those who live by the sword will die by the sword? Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring both temporal reconciliation and the hope of an eternal and heavenly inheritance to the Israeli and the Palestinian. Only through Jesus Christ can anyone know peace on earth.

ABSOLUTELY TRUE. And perhaps we SHOULD be warning that living by the sword will bring death by the sword, and not only to these two warring parties but all warring parties in the world.

BUT THAT IS NOT PALESTINIAN LAND, that is a complete fiction designed to keep Israel on the defensive. I'm really sorry to see Reformed theologians defending a false understanding of what is going on over there, manufactured in perhaps unknowing collusion with Islamists who seek the death of Jews (and Christians and all other nonMuslims ultimately).

I don't think the Reformed thinkers behind this document are anti-semitic but they are certainly at least unwittingly playing into the growing anti-semitism of our time, which is spearheaded by Islam, and which will most likely build up to a new Holocaust under the Antichrist when he appears -- and that will fulfill the prophecy of "the time of Jacob's trouble" as prophesied in scripture:

Jeremiah 30:7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

Meanwhile, yes yes yes, only the gospel of Christ can bring peace to this earth, in that situation or any situation, so let us take the gospel to the people with fervor -- fervor to the point of willingness to be beheaded because that is the likely cost of seriously evangelizing Muslims. It's what we should be doing. But no no no, your political analysis is all wrong.

The promised Messianic kingdom of Jesus Christ has been inaugurated. Its advent marks the focal point of human history. This kingdom of the Messiah is continuing to realize its fullness as believing Jews and Gentiles are added to the community of the redeemed in every generation. The same kingdom will be manifested in its final and eternal form with the return of Christ the King in all his glory.

True, but you seem to be glossing over quite a bit of prophecy on the way to that grand finale, Jesus' Olivet Discourse for instance, and the whole Book of Revelation and its types in the Old Testament for instance.

Of all the nations, the Jewish people played the primary role in the coming of the Messianic kingdom. New Testament Scripture declares that to them were given the oracles of God, the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises. Theirs are the fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and from them, according to the flesh, came Christ. Salvation is, indeed, of the Jews. While affirming the Scriptural teaching that there is no salvation outside of Christ, Christians should acknowledge with heartfelt sorrow and grief the frequent oppression of the Jews in history, sometimes tragically done in the name of the cross.

But what are we to make of the unbelief of Israel? Has their unbelief made the faithfulness of God without effect for them? No, God has not completely rejected the people of Israel, and we join the apostle Paul in his earnest prayer for the salvation of his Jewish kinsmen according to the flesh. There always has been and always will be a remnant that is saved. While not all Israel will experience the blessing of participation in the Messianic kingdom, yet Jews who do come to faith in Christ will share in his reign throughout the present age and into eternity. In addition, it is not as though the rejection of some in Israel for unbelief serves no purpose. On the contrary, because they were broken off in unbelief, the Gospel has gone to the Gentiles, who now, through faith, partake of the blessings to the fathers and join with believing Jews to constitute the true Israel of God, the church of Jesus Christ.

The drama of the last days that some of us see as likely to unfold is to bring in such a glorious harvest of Jews and others to make this "all things going on as usual" understanding look pretty anemic.

The present secular state of Israel, however, is not an authentic or prophetic realization of the Messianic kingdom of Jesus Christ.

No, in itself it is not the REALIZATION of the Messianic kingdom, of course not, but it may be a prophetic realization ON THE WAY to the final fullness of that Messianic kingdom, leading up to the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On the way to that desired end some pretty miserable situations have to develop and the reclamation of the land of Israel seems to be a major stepping stone. I would hope this idea that it embodies some kind of happy fulfillment could be done away with. If it is held by some it is certainly not held by many. A lot has yet to happen to bring the people of Israel into the Kingdom of God, it isn't going to stay a secular state. It's going to be ultimately replaced by the heavenly Jerusalem, although I don't yet have a settled view of how and when. If the "literal" reading of the Book of Revelation is correct, the last days are going to entail unimaginable sufferings, unimaginable evil, but the end result is going to be a purification and a fitting for the Kingdom of God of the overcomers. The secular state is NOT the goal. PLEASE -- who is saying it is???? I hate to think that there are many Christians who believe as this document thinks they do. I have to think this is a monumental straw-man misrepresentation.

Furthermore, a day should not be anticipated in which Christ's kingdom will manifest Jewish distinctives, whether by its location in "the land," by its constituency, or by its ceremonial institutions and practices. Instead, this present age will come to a climactic conclusion with the arrival of the final, eternal phase of the kingdom of the Messiah. At that time, all eyes, even of those who pierced him, will see the King in his glory. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever.

In light of the grand prophetic expectation of the New Testament, we urge our evangelical brothers and sisters to return to the proclamation of the free offer of Christ's grace in the Gospel to all the children of Abraham, to pray for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and to promise all humanitarian sympathy and practical support for those on both sides who are suffering in this current vicious cycle of atrocity and displacement. We also invite those Christian educators and pastors who share our convictions on the people of God, the land of Israel, and the impartiality of the Gospel to join their names with ours as signatories to this open letter.

Advent

In the Year of our Lord 2002

Soli Deo Gloria

[A long list of signers follows]

Well, I probably repeated myself much too much in the above and may come back and try to refine it later.

The upshot of my response to this document is that while its declarations of the gospel are unimpeachable, they've got the historical and political factor wrong, they aren't appreciating the gloriously Biblical foundation of the view of Israel's resoration that they are objecting to, and worst of all they are feeding the very anti-semitism they decry. ABSOLUTELY UNINTENTIONALLY!!!! -- I underscore that. This is not anti-semitism, it is simply a deplorable misreading of the historical facts through a theological lens that for all its laudable emphasis on the gospel of Christ trivializes it by stripping it of its full context.