Anti-Semitic Eschatology or Pro-Israel Theology?

The person who regards events in modern Israel as the direct fulfilment of Bible-prophecy, feels that another person who regards those prophecies as already-fulfilled, must be anti-Semitic.

But which of the two views of Bible-prophecy is most anti-Semitic?

The first view portrays God as having snubbed Israel for nearly 2,000 years; and portrays God as having only recently begun to show interest in Israel again. And since God is now showing interest sovereignly – unconditionally – it follows that if anyone would have tried to make God interested in Israel any sooner, he might have found God to be flatly disinterested.

The second view, on the other hand, portrays God as the faithful performer of His promises to Israel without there having been any long, painful delays; and, having fulfilled His promises faithfully and on-time, it portrays God as having never revoked the promises. It means that God’s goodwill towards Jews was never put on hold: any Jew, at any time, could therefore have immediately experienced the promises just as soon as he turned from unbelief to faith in Jesus. God has always been so interested in Jews that He can never become more interested than He already is.

Which of the two sounds more like the Gospel!

The first view of Bible-prophecy regards future suffering as inevitable for Jews, seeing conflict is a major theme of the prophecies. It also implies that Israel’s sufferings are deserved, because that’s what the Bible-prophecies said. All of this can breed a political resignedness.

The second view leaves no blessing out of reach of Israel, seeing it views the Jews as being on the other side of Bible-prophecy – on the fulfilled-side of Bible-promises. Seeing the promises have been fulfilled, the promises are seen as still available at any time through faith. That breeds political optimism.

And there’s another way the first view conflicts with the Gospel. If Bible-prophecies are only now being fulfilled, then aside from negating faith as the means of salvation and blessing, it also implies that all nations must revert to Old Covenant rituals in future, or else suffer a curse.

But that’s not how the Apostles explained the Gospel nor understood the Prophets. The Apostles taught that God had faithfully fulfilled all of His promises regarding the nation of Israel, including the promised salvation and righteousness through the Messiah. They explained, and proved it from the Prophets, that only believers could experience the promised salvation – including Gentiles – seeing no-one had been able to be justified through the works of the Law, which has now passed away.

Their message meant that the door was left wide open for Jews and Gentiles alike. There’s no anti-Semitism or anti-anyone there!

Israel became a nation again in 1948, not because that was necessary in order to fulfil any specific Bible-prophecy or time-frame for the first time, but because a number of believers stirred themselves up at that time to ask God for it in Jesus’ Name – and we know they were asking according to God’s will seeing the promises and prophecies, having already been fulfilled, had never been repealed. Fulfilled-prophecy gives us an idea of what God is willing to do in the present. The door had always been left ajar. And the door was called faith.

The leaves of the tree are still for the healing of the nations.

Whosoever will may come…

That’s the Gospel – the good news.

There’s not been a failure nor a delay of God’s purposes. The Gospel is God’s purpose. God has no additional program, no additional means – and nothing else need ever be added to our lifestyle, either now or at any time in the future.

The Gospel.