What is God's Plan for Israel?
Understanding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Light of God's Redemptive Plan for Humanity
In light of the rising war between Israel and Gaza Strip, particularly between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization, I am sure that many Christians are reflecting on Biblical prophecy again. If you have watched the “Left Behind Series” or have read much of modern evangelical literature, then you probably have an inkling of some of the more dispensationalist interpretations of the end times. Maybe you hold to a dispensationalist interpretation of the end times. I hate to state exactly what that is because I know dispensationalists debate that among themselves heavily. But I would summarize it something along the lines of that many of the prophecies in Revelation refer to a future date in which there will be great tribulation, which will be followed by the coming of Christ out of heaven to set up His rule in the earthly city of Jerusalem and rule there for a literal 1000 years. This view of the end times in many cases places a high level of importance on the existence of a physical nation-state of Israel. We can debate the various millenial positions independent of dispensationalism, but this particular one is often linked into the dispensationalist perspective.
There are many critiques of dispensationalism out there. They would include a great documentary named “Late Great Planet Church: the Rise of Dispensationalism” which is a critique of Hal Lindsay’s “Late Great Planet Earth.” There is also a book by O Palmer Robertson entitled “Christ of the Covenants” which is a critique of the exegetical and hermeneutical method of dispensationalism. I am sure that you can find other critiques of dispensationalism out there by both Baptist and Reformed authors. These Biblical critiques back up some of what I have to say below.
On October 10, I wrote this on Twitter:
I have no problem with the existence of the nation-state of Israel in the Middle East although I don't ground that in a clear Biblical command. The Biblical title of "holy nation" now belongs to the Church. I would simply ground it in principles of natural law and the right for nations to exist.
I do believe though that each individual nation-state of the Middle East must be evangelized, taught the Holy Scriptures (both Old and New Testaments) and are called to bow the knee to Jesus Christ who is King of kings and Lord of lords.
A couple days later I wrote this on Twitter:
I'm praying for Palestinian Christians in the Gaza strip today.
May the Lord strengthen His Church there for service and protect them from harm.
Dispensationalism, along some of the attempts to ground an argument for the modern nation-state of Israel in a Bible command or even eschatological expectation, have caused a lot of confusion within the modern church and even in the broader world about where humanity is headed. For example, Rev. Victor Atallah speaks in this article about how the pro-Israeli overtones of modern dispensationalism has led to suspicion from Islamic governments towards Christians in Iraq. I will quote here from that article:
From the beginning it was not difficult to gain government recognition for these Reformed congregations. In the sixties, however, some visiting non-Reformed preachers introduced dispensationalist eschatological teachings with pro-Israeli overtones. This caused a great deal of turmoil to the churches and led to the imprisonment of several people including one of the pastors. By the Lord's grace, the churches have been able to withstand those difficulties and ably proved to the authorities that they advocate biblical loyalty to the authorities divinely ordained over the country.
I can only imagine what kind of suspicions Christians have had to endure from Islamic governments throughout the Middle East given modern dispensational teachings that have involved a push for a physical nation-state of Israel.
What is important is that in the promises of the Old Testament, we do not see the reign of Christ limited to a strip of land in the Middle East. We read in Psalm 72:8: “May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!” This future plan for dominion “to the ends of the earth” is much bigger than what God promised to the people of Israel in Exodus 23:31: “And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you.” The prophet Zechariah speaks of a similar plan in Zechariah 9:10: “I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.” We see that promise in Psalm 2:8: “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.” We read in Habakkuk 2:14: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” We read the same promise also in Isaiah 11:9: “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” This is the promise that we find in Revelation 1:4–7: “John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.” The spread of the gospel in Acts and throughout the letters of the New Testament, demonstrate the spread of the reign of King Jesus in His Church.
In the time before the second coming of Christ we live in the time of “now but not yet.” The kingdom of Christ has already broken in to the world, but not in its fullness. The Church is the heavenly Jerusalem, descending from out of heaven as we find in Galatians 4. And so Christ already is ruling in Jerusalem as the Church fills the earth.
It is for these reasons that I don’t have a problem with the existence of an Israeli nation-state or a Palestinian nation-state. I do condemn terrorism and barbarism in all its forms. I defend the right of any nation-state to defend itself from terrorism and barbarism. I pray for both the Christian Church in Israel and in the Gaza Strip. I condemn any hatred of an ethnic group, whether Jewish or Palestinian. I pray that both Israel and Palestine, that even the leaders of Hamas, would confess their sins and bow the knee before the throne of Jesus Christ who the Apostle John testifies is “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.”
When will Israel and Palestine lay down their arms and beat their AK-47s into plowshares? They will when they both confess that Jesus is Lord.
Right on!!