Articles by Tony Pearce (with permission):  http://www.lightforthelastdays.co.uk

Is the church the new Israel?

The New Anti-Semitism

IS THE CHURCH THE NEW ISRAEL?

Tony Pearce

When I became a Christian in 1970 I read most of the Bible and came to three main conclusions:

1. That the Bible is the Word of God.
2. That Jesus is the one way to God.
3. That we are living in the last days.

A major factor influencing me to believe point 3 was the return of the Jewish people to Israel and the resulting conflict which tied in with such prophecies as Jeremiah 30, Zechariah 12-14, Matthew 24 and Luke 21. I saw also many factors in contemporary world events which seemed to be pushing us in the direction of the Great Tribulation and the reign of Antichrist prophesied in the Bible. Somewhat naively I imagined that Christians who took the Bible literally came to roughly the same conclusion.

I soon discovered that this was not the case as I encountered a quite different interpretation of the Bible and contemporary events which looked for a great revival of Christianity which would take the nations for Jesus and cause the global triumph of Christianity with great signs and wonders convincing people of the truth of the Gospel as all other political and religious systems fail. In this scheme of things prophecies relating to the restoration of Israel in the last days should in fact be applied to the church because the church has replaced Israel (or is the New Israel).

In 1983 I read an article in the magazine ‘Restoration’ which described a vision given to Bryn Jones in which he summed up this exciting prospect in store for those who took this line of interpretation:

1. Ordinary Christians would be equipped with supernatural powers, laying hands on the sick with extraordinary miracles taking place in public places. Poverty would be abolished among them as multitudes turn to the Lord and have their material needs met through His provision.
   
   
2. The powers of darkness would be overthrown - governments and religious systems based on principles opposed to the Bible would be shaken as the Church emerges in power and glory.
   
   
3. All nations would reach out to God as the Church is established as the ‘mountain of the Lord’s house, the highest of nations’. Heads of government in despair at their own failure to solve the problems of humanity will turn to the revived church asking them to ‘teach us the ways of the Lord’ (see Isaiah 2:1-4).
   
   
4. Following this great revival the Lord will return for His glorious church and wind up history.

Bible literal or allegorical?

However exciting this vision appeared, my problem was that it did not line up with the scriptures which spoke of ‘evil men and seducers waxing worse and worse’ (2 Timothy 3:13) in the last days, of apostasy, persecution and the rise of ‘Mystery Babylon the Great, mother of harlots and abominations of the earth’ (Revelation 17:5), and of a coming time of such great tribulation that if God did not cut short those days no flesh would be saved (Matthew 24:21-22).

The only way to make out that the church would end up triumphant in this age was to take the Old Testament prophecies of Israel’s restoration in the Millennium (i.e. after the return of Jesus the Messiah) and apply them to the church at the end of this age (i.e. before the return of Jesus). This in fact is what Bryn Jones is doing in the quote above, taking the words of Isaiah 2, which apply to the reign of the Messiah from restored Zion after His second coming and applying them to the church today. The church then replaces Israel and rules and reigns over the nations before the second coming as a result of the great end time revival.

In order to do this consistently one has to take the allegorical view of the prophetic scriptures which has in fact been the dominant church view since the time of Origen and Augustine, both of whom taught that the church replaces Israel and that the millennial reign of Christ is now taking place through the church. An example of this line of interpretation would be to say that the fulfilment of the regathering of ‘the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth’ to the land of Israel (Isaiah 11:10) is the coming of the Gentiles from the east, west, south and north into the kingdom of God (Luke 13:29).

It is vital for ‘Dominion theology’ to take this line of interpretation, because without it there are no scriptures to justify the idea of the triumph of Christianity in the last days of this age. Therefore those who insist on taking the literal view that Israel means Israel in the Old and New Testaments are seen as a threat and their views criticised and suppressed. However it is the literal view which makes sense of both the prophecies themselves and the current world situation. Let us now examine the evidence that Israel remains Israel in prophetic interpretation, after the Church has come into being. For the sake of brevity I have simply given the references of most of the passages referred to. To understand the issue it is necessary to look up these passages.

1. God made a covenant with Abraham, repeated to Isaac and Jacob, to give him a multitude of descendants and the land of Canaan as an ‘everlasting possession’ (Genesis 15, 17, 26:2-5, 28:13-15). This was conditional on God’s word, not on the faithfulness of Abraham’s descendants. If they were unfaithful God reserved the right to remove them from the land as a punishment for disobedience (Leviticus 26:27-39, Deut. 28:58-68). However every reference to the removal of the people from the land is always followed by a promise of restoration (e.g. Deuteronomy 30:1-6).
   
   
2. Even after the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34, God promises that only if the sun, moon and stars cease to give their light will ‘the seed of Israel cease from being a nation before me for ever’ (Jeremiah 31:33-37). This passage significantly points to the continuation of Israel as a nation after the giving of the new covenant.
   
   
3. In the New Testament the words Israel and Israelite are used 74 times. In all but 3 occasions (one of which is the word Israel coming twice in the same verse) there is no question that these words are used to mean exactly the same as they mean in the Old Testament. Let us look at four examples out of 71 in which Israel has to mean Israel.

   a) Matthew 2.20. While in Egypt after the flight from Herod, Joseph is told in a dream to go to the ‘land of Israel’ (note he was not told to go to Palestine!).
   
   b) Luke 2:32. Jesus is described by Simeon as ‘a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.’
   
   c) Luke 7:9. Jesus speaking to the Roman centurion: ‘I say to you I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.’
   
   d) Romans 9:4. Paul writing of his kinsmen ‘according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, etc.’

Replace Israel or Israelite with the church or Christian and you reduce any of these verses to meaninglessness.

What about the possible exceptions?

Romans 9:6: ‘For they are not all Israel who are of Israel.’ (A similar thought is to be found in Romans 3:28-29). Looked at in context the point Paul is making is not that Jews cease to be Jews when they don’t believe in Jesus or that Gentiles become Jews when they do. Romans 9 deals with the question of the ‘remnant’, an idea familiar to the Hebrew prophets, whom he quotes at length to make his point. Within the nation of Israel there are those who are unfaithful and unbelievers as far as Yahweh, the God of Israel is concerned, and there are those who are faithful. The spiritual remnant of Israel obeyed the Torah and heeded the words of the prophets. The backsliding majority did not - and came under judgment, the most severe judgment being their removal from the land. However there was always the possibility that the unfaithful Israelites would repent and return to the Lord and become believers, obeying the Torah. That was the purpose of the preaching of the prophets.

Now that the Messiah had come, the spiritual remnant of Israel recognised him and became Hebrew Christians / Messianic Jews. The unspiritual majority rejected him. However Paul goes on to say in Romans 11 that ‘blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.’ Rom. 11:25-29.

Therefore Israel will remain a people even in unbelief because of the covenant which God made with ‘the fathers’ (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). The remnant of Israel will be saved at the end of this age. This is backed up by point 2 above.

In the meantime individual Israelites may turn to the Messiah, as Paul himself has done, and become part of the true church made up of Jews and Gentiles united in Messiah. Therefore Paul urges the church to pray for Israel to be saved and to take the Gospel to them (Romans l:16, 10:l).

Galatians 6:16: ‘And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be upon them and mercy, and (or even) upon the Israel of God.’ The linguistic key to the interpretation of this verse rests on the Greek word ‘kai’ translated ‘and’ in the AV and ‘even’ in the NIV. If ‘and’ is the correct reading, there are two groups of people in question: ‘those who walk according to this rule’ and ‘the Israel of God.’ If ‘even’ is correct then there is one group, those who walk according to this rule who are even the Israel of God. As a result of the latter interpretation ‘the Israel of God’ becomes a synonym for the Church.

Paul’s argument in Galatians has been with those Jewish Christians who have been trying to impose observation of ritual aspects of the Torah (e.g. circumcision and dietary laws) on the Gentiles. He is therefore dealing with two groups of people, Jewish Christians, who are trying to influence Gentiles to be circumcised and keep the Law, and Gentiles who are being influenced. So the AV version using the word ‘and’ makes sense, because Paul is commending both Jewish and Gentile Christians who are resisting the pressure of the Judaisers. The ‘Israel of God’ therefore simply means the Jewish believers who have understood correctly the implications of the new covenant. This is consistent with the usual translation of ‘kai’ as ‘and’ and not ‘even.’

So we can see that even these possible exceptions do not contradict the rule that Israel means Israel in the New Testament.

Does the New Testament imply a future for Israel?

The Old Testament contains many prophetic passages speaking of a worldwide restoration of Israel, many of which are connected with the events of the ‘last days’ and the ‘time of Jacob’s trouble’ (e.g. Deuteronomy 30:1-6, Isaiah 11:10-12, Jeremiah 16:14-15, 30-31, Ezekiel 36-39, Zephaniah 3:20, Zechariah 12-14). It has been said by some commentators that the New Testament has nothing to say about this subject and therefore as far as Jesus was concerned this was no longer on the agenda. However Jesus treated the Old Testament as the infallible Word of God and assumed it would be transmitted without alteration to His followers (Matthew 5:17-18). In the light of this we can assume that Jesus did not wish to add or take away anything from what had already been revealed through the prophets on the subject of Israel’s dispersion and restoration. There are however significant New Testament references which imply a future for Israel:

a) For Jesus’ own words concerning His second coming (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) to be literally fulfilled there has to be a Jewish presence in Jerusalem and Judea (Matthew 24:15-22, Mark 13:14-20, Luke 21:20-24). Some opponents of this view argue that Jesus’ prophecy of the ‘abomination of desolation’, the flight from Jerusalem and the great tribulation was fulfilled in the siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70. There was no doubt a partial fulfilment of this prophecy then, but there is no way that this can be a complete fulfilment, since in all three Gospels these events end in the visible return of the Lord in glory, something which clearly did not happen in AD 70 and has not yet happened to this day.

b) Matthew 23:39, announcing the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the desolation of the Temple, Jesus prophesies to Jerusalem: ‘Behold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, you shall not see me again, until you say, Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord.’ The phrase ‘Blessed is He that comes in the name of the Lord’ is the Jewish greeting for the coming Messiah (note Psalm 118:19-29, Matthew 21:1-16). This expectation of a Jewish reception committee in Jerusalem for the returning Messiah harmonises with the prophecy of Zechariah 12:10 and the outpouring of the Spirit upon the Jewish remnant in besieged Jerusalem as a result of which ‘They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son.’

c) Luke 21:24: ‘And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.’ Whether or not the final fulfilment of this prophecy took place in 1967 (and my view is that it did not), it clearly implies a future restoration of Jerusalem to Jewish rule, after the long years of their dispersion in which they are ‘led away captive into all nations.’

d) In Acts 1 Jesus had the perfect opportunity to settle the matter once and for all. In the time between His resurrection and ascension He had spoken to the disciples of ‘the things pertaining to the kingdom of God’ (Acts 1:3). Most important He had put them right on the matter of Messianic prophecy (Luke 24:44-46), showing them that He had fulfilled the prophecies of the Suffering Servant Messiah. We are not told which passages He referred to, but we can assume that Isaiah 53 was a major subject of this Bible study. There remained prophecies which He did not fulfil at His first coming, notably Isaiah 2:1-4, which concerns the reigning King Messiah who would rule the Gentile nations from a restored and redeemed Jerusalem and cause there to be world peace.

In the light of this the disciples’ question, ‘Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ makes sense. What they were saying was: ‘We understand that you had to first fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah 53 by dying as a sacrifice for sin. Are you now (at this time) going to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah 2:1-4, drive out the Romans and restore the Davidic kingdom to Israel and bring world peace?’

Jesus does not say ‘Forget about restoring the kingdom to Israel. That’s finished now because everything is transferred to the church.’ He does say that their priority is to receive the power of the Holy Spirit and to preach the gospel worldwide (which is still our priority). But the implication of Acts 1:7, ‘It is not for you to know the times and the seasons which the Father has put in His own power’, is that the Father has a time for the restoration of Israel. This will be sometime in the distant future at a date which the disciples will not know (because it is linked to the second coming - see Matthew 24:36).

e) Romans 11:25-26: ‘So all Israel shall be saved.’ Replacement theologians say that Israel in verse 26 means the church, but this makes nonsense of the text and the context. For three chapters Paul has been discussing Israel’s unbelief and need of the Gospel, so logically Israel in verse 26 must mean Israel. The theme of a future spiritual restoration of Israel harmonises with several Old Testament passages and is implied in Revelation 7, 11 and 12. For Israel to be saved at the end of this age, there must have been a physical survival of the Jewish people throughout the Christian era.

The response of the true Church to Israel’s unbelief should have been to follow Paul’s injunction to ‘pray for Israel that they might be saved.’ The failure to do this has resulted in tragic loss for both Israel and the Church. Now that we see the events of the end times which centre on Jerusalem and the Jewish people unfolding before us, God is looking for a faithful remnant amongst the believing Christians to pray for Israel and to point Jewish people to the only one who can save them, the Messiah Yeshua (Jesus).

MORE ARTICLES BY TONY PEARCE CAN BE READ AT:

http://www.lightforthelastdays.co.uk/docs/articles.html

Light for the Last Days began in 1988 when Tony Pearce was working as a school teacher in north London and wrote a few articles about Bible prophecy which he circulated to his friends. It has now become a regular magazine appearing four times a year and distributed world wide. The website contains past and present articles from the magazine. Many people today are concerned about the state of our world. What kind of a future is there for our children, our grandchildren, even for ourselves? Environmental destruction, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, the growing violence and breakdown of order in society - all these things threaten the world and leave us feeling insecure and afraid of the future. The Bible is very clear that this age will come to an end at the second coming of Jesus Christ and that this great event will be preceded by a unique period of trouble known as the Great Tribulation. According to Jesus' own words, if God did not cut short those days, 'no flesh would be saved' (Matthew 24.21-22). In other words those days would lead to the end of all life on this planet, if God did not intervene by sending Jesus back again. Jesus also said, 'When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near' (Luke 21.28). In other words certain things happening on the earth would be a sign of the soon coming of the Lord Jesus. What are these things? This website is designed to answer this question by pointing you to the connection between current world events and the Bible prophecies of the second coming of Jesus. 'The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel.' Mark 1.15. THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM Mahathir Mohamad, the long serving Prime Minister of Malaysia who stepped down on 31 October 2003 after 22 years in power, used his speech at the opening session of the 57-state Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Putrajaya, Malaysia, on 16 October 2003 to argue that the Jews control the world: “They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong; so that they can enjoy equal rights with others. With these they have gained control of the most powerful countries and they, this tiny community, have become a world power.” He also said that : “the Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.” The speech got a standing ovation from the assembled kings, presidents, sheikhs and emirs. The idea of a Jewish conspiracy ruling the world was first put out in ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’, which was circulated in Tsarist Russia to foment anti-Semitism and used by Hitler as one of the foundations of his programme to exterminate the Jewish people. Today the same myth is being propagated in the Muslim world to demonise the Jews as part of the campaign against the existence of Israel. The Protocols have been translated into Arabic and widely circulated in the Arab world. Egyptian TV broadcast a 40 part adaptation of the Protocols called ‘Horsemen without a Horse.’ According to ISIC Briefing 26 produced by the Barnabas Fund: ‘Anti-Semitism is now part of mainstream Islamic thought, and the anti-Semitic propaganda emanating from multiple media channels across the Muslim world is accepted as self-evident truth by most ordinary Muslims from Mauritania to Indonesia, even though most have never met a Jew. The Muslim world has now become the main repository of a deep hatred for Jews, reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Anti-Semitism is taught in schools, preached in mosques, propagated by the media, and expressed by leaders of state and society. A wave of anti-Semitic discourse has swept over the whole Muslim world. This new type of Muslim anti-Semitism sees Jews everywhere and at all times involved in a sinister plot to destroy Islam. All Jews everywhere and at all times are enemies of God, of humanity, and of Islam. It dehumanises Jews as monkeys and pigs and caricatures them as devils. It has revived the ancient blood libel allegations against Jews as well as the modern conspiracies about a secret Jewish plan to control the world.’ Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, who currently has the Presidency of Europe wanted to put out a statement from the EU condemning Mahatir saying he used ‘expressions that were gravely offensive, very strongly anti-Semitic and strongly counter to principles of tolerance, dialogue and understanding between the Western world and the Islamic world.’ This move however was vetoed by French President Chirac on procedural grounds. The French move highlights the growing power of Islam to influence opinions in Europe and the acceptance of attitudes which are clearly anti-Semitic. Melanie Philips in an article entitled ‘A Leftist axis of anti-Semitism against Israel’ makes the following point: ‘A strategic nexus has been forged between Europe and the Arabs. Europe has waited more than 50 years for a way to blame the Jews for their own destruction. So instead of sounding the alarm over genocidal Islamist Jew-hatred, the Europeans have embraced a narrative that depicts the Jews as Nazis. The result is that anti-Semitism, underground since the Holocaust, has reemerged under the guise of anti-Israelism. The old anti-Semitism wanted to destroy the Jews; the new anti-Semitism wants to destroy the Jewish state. So Israel is demonized and delegitimized. Many in Britain now believe Israel is as illegitimate as was apartheid South Africa.’ In her article she describes what happened when she appeared on a BBC current-affairs show : ‘An Israeli in the audience asked why Israel was being condemned for taking action against terrorists similar to the moves America was making in its own war on terror. My fellow panelists, including a Labour and a Conservative member of Parliament, deplored Israel’s brutality and the “terrorism on both sides.” The audience was even more hostile. When it was my turn, I said there was a double standard; I wondered why people were sympathetic when Israelis died, but not sympathetic when they tried to prevent themselves from dying; and said that the Palestinian Authority was a sponsor of terror and incited violence daily against Israelis and Jews across the world. The audience responded by hissing at me. Even worse, when I said that Israel was a democracy, they laughed derisively. A fellow panelist then accused me of having “double loyalties” because I was a Jew.’ She also describes how she appeared on a radio programme broadcast from Wokingham, Berkshire, the heartland of Conservative England. The audience cheered and clapped when revolutionary Marxist, Tariq Ali, said that America was the fount of all evil, that President Bush was more of a threat to peace than Saddam Hussein and that if there was a rogue state equipped with nuclear arms to be dealt with, it was Israel. When Melanie said the opposite she was booed and hissed. The reason she gives for this situation is that the political Left has : ‘captured the Establishment: the media, politics, civil service, legal profession and the churches. As a result, its worldview has increasingly become the received wisdom of the public. And it is the Left which now openly promulgates the opinions that Israel should not exist, that it is a Nazi state and that the Jews control America.it is the Left which now openly promulgates the opinions that Israel should not exist, that it is a Nazi state and that the Jews control America.’ The result is a radical hatred of Israel which is sweeping society, especially our universities and creating a climate of opinion which can even sympathise with suicide terrorists seeking to kill and main Israelis and Jews around the world. Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA, organized an ‘anti-Israel hate fest’ in October 2003. The flyer advertising this event showed a hooded suicide bomber holding up a copy of the Koran. The text read: ‘At Rutgers, you can’t kill Jews. But you can help people who do. Support Palestinian homicide bombers.’ Christian Friends of Israel has produced a video, ‘Lest We Forget’, which shows the connection between Nazi propaganda which demonised the Jews and prepared Germany and Europe for the Holocaust and the anti-Israel propaganda which is now creating the same mentality. We recommend this video for everyone to see (available from us for £15 plus £1.50 postage and packing). Unfortunately there is nothing new about the ‘new anti-Semitism’. It is the same malign spirit which has expressed itself in many guises, including institutional Christianity, which has denied its Jewish roots and Saviour by persecuting the Jews in Jesus’ name. On the other hand many believing Christians who study God’s word and believe it to be true are recognising today that the return of the Jewish people to Israel today is a significant event fulfilling Bible prophecies. They believe the nations should take heed of the words of Jeremiah 31.10: “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd does his flock’.” Psalm 83.3-4 speaks of a time when the nations surrounding Israel would seek to destroy her: “They have taken crafty counsel against your people, and consulted together against your sheltered ones. They have said, ‘Come let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.’” Many passages in the Bible speak of a time of trouble coming for Israel and the Jewish people in the last days of this age. In Daniel 12.1 we read: “At that time Michael shall stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book.” As Jesus rode into Jerusalem he wept over the city saying, “Would today that you knew the things that make for your peace” (Luke 19.42). He went on to prophesy the coming destruction of the Temple and fall of Jerusalem with the dispersion of the Jewish people which happened in 70 AD. He said “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21.24). The complete fulfilment of this prophecy will not happen until the second coming of Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem and He will be King over all the earth, bringing to an end the war which will be raging over the city and the land of Israel (Revelation 16 and 19, Zechariah 12-14). Then He will establish world peace and cause all people to live in peace and safety under his rule of the earth (Isaiah 2.1-4, 11). In the meantime, God is looking for believing Christians to stand by Israel and the Jewish people and to oppose the spirit of anti-Semitism, which is always anti-Christian in essence as well. We should remember that Jesus was Jewish and therefore whoever hates the Jews hates Jesus also. It is significant that the main sources of the ‘new anti-Semitism’ are radical Islam and the radical Left. Both of these forces, when they have power, always persecute true Christians as well. As Paul wrote in Romans 11.28-9 the Jewish people are ‘beloved for the sake of the fathers, for the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.’ On a spiritual level the reason for the whole huge controversy over Israel and the Jewish people is that Satan knows that Jesus is coming again soon to destroy his evil world system and he is throwing everything he can against Israel and the Jewish people in the vain attempt to prevent this from happening. He will not succeed, because the day is coming when : ‘The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah and He shall reign forever and ever!’ (Revelation 11.15).