The Hope of the Gospel (Future: Israel Interlude)

 Over the last several articles, we have been looking at eschatology, at what the Bible has to say about end time events using 1 and 2 Thessalonians as our base. We looked specifically at the Rapture/Resurrection which is the hope of all Christians. We have hope that all those who are in Christ will meet Jesus when He returned, will be transformed and enabled to join Him in eternity. We also briefly touched on the Tribulation or the reign of the antichrist, which seems to come immediately before or after the Rapture. And in our last article, we looked at the Millennium and tried to figure out where it fits into all of this.

By in large, we have been looking at the church. But there is also prophecies in the Bible that have to do with the nation of Israel. So I want to take a brief interlude or detour from our main study to talk about this subject. We have talked about the hope of the Christian, but what is the hope of the Jews?

When we speak of Christians and Jews, our mind have an image of two circles--parallel, distinct, and symmetrical. However, that is not an accurate picture. Look at what Paul said about the Jews and non-Jews in Ephesians 2:14: “For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.” Or again, in Galatians 3:28: “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.”

Two, independent circles would be an accurate diagram of the Jews and the Gentiles, but not of Jews and Christians. To be a Jew is a matter of bloodline and culture; it is something of biology and sociology. To be a Christian is a matter of faith; it has to do with our relation to God, not our relation to our ancestors. Rather than seeing Jews and Christians as separate, parallel groups, we should see Christians as a separate group that intersects with Jews--like two, overlapping circles. We have Jews who are not Christians and Jews who are—most of the New Testament church, certainly in its early days, was comprised of Jews who were Christians. These two circles intersect because they are not the same; they are different kinds of categories—one of the flesh, the other of the spirit.

So the question "What is the hope of the Jews?" is somewhat misleading. Ultimately, there is only one hope for anyone on earth, regardless of their ethnicity--and that is to be ready to stand before Christ when He returns; to be part of His people when they are delivered from this world. Remember what I said when we went over the Rapture; it is a hope for all Christians, not just for some specific group.

And I want to emphasize this point for a reason. In modern eschatology, there is a tendency to treat the Jews as a separate and parallel group to the church; some go as far as to imply that God has separate plans of salvation for the Jews and the Gentiles. And I do not think that is a Biblical position; I think that goes against everything we know about God's plans. Whatever God's plans specifically for Israel as a national and ethnic unit, they do not contradict the gospel which is ultimately the only hope for anyone, Jew or Gentile.

But what are the prophecies specifically for Israel as a nation or ethnic group? In a previous lesson, we read a passage from Daniel which many take to be a description of the actions of the antichrist: “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.” (Daniel 9:26-27)

The passage is somewhat unclear, but a common suggestion is that the statement “he shall confirm the covenant with many” means that the antichrist will form an alliance with Israel, as a nation—an alliance that he will subsequently break. It speaks of someone bringing an end to sacrifice and oblation. This would imply that there had been religious rituals going on which he brought an end to. This might parallel the statement of Paul in 2 Thessalonians that the antichrist will sit in the temple of God. On this theory, the antichrist will initially support Israel and, specifically, a revival of orthodox Judaism. There would also have, at some point, to be a rebuilding of the temple, whether this happens during the tribulation or before it. Later, as the antichrist becomes bolder, he will demand to be worshipped, will turn the temple into a shrine for himself.

In Revelation 12, John saw a woman in labor who was persecuted by Satan. “And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” (Revelation 12:5-6) The manchild who is rule the nations is obviously Jesus. That would make his mother Mary. But we have no record of Mary being persecuted or miraculously delivered after Christ's ascension (though we really no nothing about Mary's history so we can't say it didn't happen.) So many people take the woman of this verse to refer to the Jewish nation. Jesus, physically, was born out of the Jewish people, so it makes sense. On that basis, some would say that the Jews will be persecuted by Satan (assumably through the agency of the antichrist) during the Tribulation, but will also experience divine protection. Notice that the woman is in hiding for 1260 days, which works out to about 3 ½ years which is half of seven years—so take that for what it's worth.

At the end of this chapter, we read: “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Revelation 12:17) If the woman is the Jewish nation, we could assume that “her seed” refers to Gentile Christians, those who have inherited the religious tradition of the Jewish fathers without actually being Jews. And this fits with what we saw before regarding the actions of the antichrist against Christians.

But all of that specifically deals with the Tribulation. There are some other prophecies regarding future events concerning the Jews; events which it is more difficult to date. Specifically, there are three things which are prophesied:

(1) Messianic Revival. We talked about this in a previous article; Paul prophecies that there is coming a time when all Israel will be saved; this seems to mean that there will be a great revival among the Jews; that there is a time when many will be saved, though not necessarily every individual. I call this a 'messianic' revival because it will be a time when the Jews, or many of them, recognize Jesus as their messiah and will be saved through faith in him.

(2) National exaltation. There are prophecies throughout the Old Testament that picture Israel, as a nation, receiving an exaltation. Originally, I wrotedown the word 'restoration.' But that isn't accurate. What the prophets seem to picture is that Israel will come into a glory that it never had before at any point in its history. In recent history, Israel was restored as a nation and is something of an important nation, but it is nothing like what the prophecies seem to indicate. This is a giant rabbit hole that would take an entire serious to investigate, but here are a couple typical prophecies: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 14:16-17) “And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.” (Zechariah 14:16-17)

Here we see Israel as a nation acting as a world center and specifically as a religious center, with other nations from around the world coming to Israel for instruction and joining in the Jewish religion. This will also be a time of peace and prosperity: “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.” (Zechariah 8:4-5)

(3) A rebuilt temple. Ezekiel saw a vision of a temple which takes up seven chapters of his book. When Ezekiel was writing, the temple built by Solomon had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Years later, that temple would be rebuilt and then later expanded. But that second temple was destroyed by the Romans. And to this date, there is no Jewish temple and, from a purely human standpoint, no likelihood that there every will be one.

So, we have these three prophecies and the question is: when do any of these happen? 

If the Tribulation comes before the Millennium, we can work out the timetable like this. The temple must be rebuilt before the Tribulation or during it if the antichrist is to cause the sacrifices in it to cease. The revival of the Jews would probably take place during the Tribulation—seeing the oppression of the antichrist would drive them to return to God. And then during the Millennium, the Jews, as a nation, will be exalted and the temple which the antichrist defiled will be rebuilt or restored.

However, there are problems with this reconstruction. We talked about one in our previous article:  in Ezekiel's vision of the temple, sacrifices are still being made for sin. This seems inconsistent with a return to Christ. 

Furthermore, as we read in Zechariah, this national restoration seems to involve a continuation of normal life, specifically of marriage and childbirth. But if the Jews are saved during the Tribulation, then one would suppose they would be resurrected and glorified at the end of the Tribulation, and it seems implausible to suppose that those who have been resurrected will be capable of giving birth to children. If they do not experience the Resurrection at that point, then when do they?

So what other explanation is for these prophecies? There is a possibility that all of this happens before the Tribulation. To understand this theory, you have to remember that “Jew” is both an ethnic term and a religious one. There are Jews who are part of the Jewish ethnic group or even cultural group but are not personally involved in the Jewish religion. The theory is that there will be a time when there is a revival of Judaism among Jews, a general return to the religion of Abraham. This would include rebuilding the temple (and whatever sort of world-shaking events would have to take place to make that possible.) And because this is a step in the right direction, God will honor it and bring some national exaltation. And out of this, there will come a recognition of Jesus as the Messiah and a turning to Christ.

The problem with this viewpoint is that if there is all this stuff that has to happen before the tribulation and the rapture, it seems Paul wouldn't mention that in 2 Thessalonians when speaking of the timing of these events. And this would all take such a large period of time that it does seem to take the edge off the Biblical warnings to watch for Christ's return.

So there is a third view of these prophecies. But to understand it, we have to go back to the relation of the Jews and the Christians. I said that these two groups are like two intersecting circles, but some would argue that this is not an accurate picture.

Earlier, we read Paul's statement that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek but only Christ. He follows that up with this: “And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29) In Romans 11:17-18, Paul uses the image of a tree: “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.”

There seems to be some sense, at least, in which Christians—whether they are Jewish or Gentile in their ethnicity—are truly Jews, are, in a sense, more Jewish than ethnic Jews who have rejected Christ. One might picture Christians (Jewish or Gentile) as a circle within the larger circle of purely biological or cultural Judaism. So some scholars see all these prophecies, at least in the Old Testament, as being symbolic of the church and of Christ's reign through the church. 

In a lot of cases, this does make sense and this theory probably does cover some prophecies. But it is hard to see why you would have such precise and detailed prophecies—such as the careful measurements of the temple in Ezekiel—if the whole thing was merely symbolic.

So the short answer to all of this is that I do not actually know the answer to these questions, and why I am going to be glad, in our next article, to return to the more definite and clear doctrines of eschatology.