The Restoration of Israel in the New Testament

[EricH]

I think part of the intellectual issue for many of us Eric, is the idea of Christ dealing with a nation. Our faith is one of individual salvation; God saves us individually not corporal. So if I happen to be living in country X or am ethnically Y, that has nothing to do with the question of my individual faith, my individual judgement, and my individual salvation.

So I think all of us have always seen the true Church in that light, it is not made up of nation states, or ethnic people, it is made up of individuals who have faith. So now, when we start talking about promises made to an ethnic group living in a nation state, it just does not compute for must of us, even if it is true! I realize that Shilo has been saying that these promises have nothing to do with salvation. For me though, if it has nothing to do with salvation, who cares? We know that Israel and the US and this whole world will be burned up according to scripture, and something brand new will replace it. But I think both are true, I believe the promises to Israel do have to do with salvation. It is part of the mystery of salvation.

So WHY should you care? Good question; the answer is that because God's integrity regarding His promises to Abraham about the Land, and to Israel about their final restoration to the Land hang in the balance. It goes back to God keeping His Word. It also goes back the truth that even when we are faithless, God is faithful. Israel is a shining example of the faithfulness of God. The restoration of Israel and promises connected with it are not transferrable to someone else. God made an eternal covenant, Abraham and his physical descendents. He promised the Land to Abraham as an eternal possession, forever. He is quite emphatic about this. God cannot go back on His Word, without His Name be reproached.

In Ezekiel 36, God says that the very reason He is restoring Israel is for the sake of His Name, in the eyes of the world. The restoration of Israel is a showcase of God's mercy to the unfaithful. It is a testimony that He can be trusted to keep all the promises He has made. Instead seeing God's workings among the Jews as counter to the Gospel, we should use this showcase of His faithfulness a testimony to augment the gospel to the world. It is one more evidence to the world that God is real, and that He is a merciful faithful God, even to those who don't deserve his mercy or faithfulness.

Amen. It is about His glory and covenant love. If He were to break it in the case of Israel, how could we trust it to save us to the uttermost

[nebula]

Spot on!

[nebula]

Zechariah 12

1 The burden* of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him: 2 "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. 3 And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. 4 In that day," says the Lord, "I will strike every horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in the Lord of hosts, their God.' 6 In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place--Jerusalem. 7 "The Lord will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of Judah. 8 In that day the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them.

9 It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. 11 In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.* 12 And the land shall mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves; 14 all the families that remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.

[Guest shiloh357]

Btw Eric I had asked you earlier (my post has since been deleted by the mods) what your position was on dispensationalism including the reintroduction of the bloody sacrifices of

[Guest shiloh357]

The second point in this study now centers on the regathering of Israel. I want to be clear about something, that I have not made clear in the past. There are actually two regatherings. I have been focused primarily, in times past, on the current regathering in unbelief as prophesied in Ezekiel 35, 37, Zechariah 12: 1-10, Amos 9:14-15, Jeremiah 31, etc.

There is another regathering after Israel's regeneration which occurs after the Tribulation:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.

(Isaiah 11:11-13)

In that day, refers to the Millenium. During the Millenium God will again regather His people from the corners of the Earth. The Millenium is the fulfillment of all that God had promised Abraham and his natural offspring. Ezekiel tells us what the boundaries of Israel will be. Ezekiel gives us 17 landmarks that describe the Land that Israel will encompass during the Reign of Messiah from the throne of David:

And this shall be the border of the land toward the north side, from the great sea, the way of Hethlon, as men go to Zedad; Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath; Hazarhatticon, which is by the coast of Hauran. And the border from the sea shall be Hazar-enan, the border of Damascus, and the north northward, and the border of Hamath. And this is the north side. And the east side ye shall measure from Hauran, and from Damascus, and from Gilead, and from the land of Israel by Jordan, from the border unto the east sea. And this is the east side. And the south side southward, from Tamar even to the waters of strife in Kadesh, the river to the great sea. And this is the south side southward. The west side also shall be the great sea from the border, till a man come over against Hamath. This is the west side. So shall ye divide this land unto you according to the tribes of Israel.

(Ezekiel 47:15-21)

This second regathering is outlined for us in Deut. 29, 30.

The core Scripture we will examine is Deut. 29:1-30:20. This is a separate Covenant from the Mosaic Covenant as is indicated by the words of the first verse:

These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.

(Deuteronomy 29:1)

The Mosaic Covenant is temporal and conditional. This covenant often called the "Palestinian covenant" in theological parlance, is unconditional and eternal.

After Moses in vv. 2-9 recounts for them what the Lord has done for them and all that has happened thus far, as they stand ready to enter the Promised Land. vv. 10-13 is where God establishes this covenant with them and makes Israel his people (v.13).

In vv. 14-21, Israel is warned about turning away from God, but tragically, the verses that follow prophecy that they will do exactly that. (vv. 22-29) and God will as result of their worshipping other Gods, pull them from the Land of Promise.

In chapter 30, starting at verse 1, the children of Israel will recall these promises while they live among the nations that they were scattered to all over the world.

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,

(Deuteronomy 30:1)

It is during this time among the nations that God promises the most severe persecutions and hatred by nations in another place in Deut. :

The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all the peoples whither the LORD shall lead thee away.

(Deuteronomy 28:36-37)

And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: in the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

(Deuteronomy 28:65-67)

Also, the Bible says:

And I will persecute them with the sword, with the famine, and with the pestilence, and will deliver them to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach, among all the nations whither I have driven them:

(Jeremiah 29:18)

The Bible could not be more accurate where the persecution of the Jewish people among the nations is concerned. The 1700 years devastated the Jewish people and ended with an attempt at their annihilation.

Yet Moses prophesies of a regathering.

That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outermost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

(Deuteronomy 30:3-5)

This passage tells us that the children of Israel will be regathered even from "outermost parts of heaven" which is an unmistakable reference to a worldwide regathering and is not limited to particular area. It is a not reference to the return from the Babylonian exile.

IN verse six, it says that God will circumcise their hearts and cause them to love Him once again.

And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

(Deuteronomy 30:6)

According to Moses, there is a future regathering that will occur after Israel fully returned to the Lord as outlined in Jeremiah 31, which I covered in my last installment. One day, Israel will be the nation God intended for her to be:

And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day. And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers: If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.

(Deuteronomy 30:8-10)

This has not happened yet, but it will. God is not finished with the nation of Israel. He has not set it aside and replaced with a new group of people. He has not relegated it to the dust bin of history, never again to see the light of day, as some "Christians" have throughout the last 1700 tried to assert. God's heart is still soft toward Israel, and His promises to this Land and its people will come to pass just as He has said in this because of his conditional promise to restore the people to their Land.

[Guest shiloh357]

We now come the to the third facet of Israel

[EricH]

Now Eric makes the statement,

[billie]

Aren't they supposed to rebuild the Temple and start animal sacrifice again during the trib?

[EricH]

EricH

Hmm, I have looked at 1 Corinthians 10:18 and do not see the colloqation "Israel of God". Please provide me with the greek text you are using that allows you to see it there. Please also provide the texts where this phrase is also attested. I made the claim that the phase "Israel of God" only occurs in Galatians, and I stand by it.

I don

[George]

I would be careful quoting Justin Marytr as a source.

The following quotes are from "Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew" by Justin Marytr in the Anti-Nicene Fathers.

Jews have forfeited the title of Israel according to Justin Marytr:

Since then God blesses (the Gentiles), and calls them Israel and declares them to be His inheritance, how is it that you repent not of the deception you practice on yourselves, as if you alone were the Israel, and of exacrating the people whom God has blessed? ... "What then?"says Trypo, "are you Israel? And speaks He such things of you?" ... I continued: "... We are from Christ, who begat us unto God, like Jacob, and Israel, and Judah, and Joseph, and David, are called and are the true sons of God, and keep the commandments of Christ." And ... I saw that they were perturbed because I said that we are the sons of God..."

Gentiles Christians are the 'true Israel'

As, therefore, Christ is the Israel and the Jacob, even so we, who have been quarried out of the bowels of Christ, are the true Israelitic race ... Such are the words of Scripture; understand, therefore, that the seed of Jacob now referred to is something else, and not, as may be supposed, spoken of your people. God has shown that those who are selected out of every nation have obeyed His will through Christ -- whom He calls also Jacob, and names Israel -- and these, then, as I mentioned fully previously, must be Jacob and Israel. For the true spiritual Israel, and decendants of Judah, Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham ... are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ, as shall be demonstrated while we proceed."

This was the beginning of replacement theology.

Just so you know,

Your brother in Christ with much agape love,

George