Posted on 02/04/2017 5:15:51 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Do Old Testament verses regarding Israel apply today to the State of Israel, Jews around the world, or the Church?
Many Christians believe that God's words to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, where after He instructs him to leave his homeland He says "I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you," as well as other verses regarding Israel, are still in effect today. Favorable foreign policy toward modern Israel, then, is seen as a doorway to blessings from God.
But for others a theological quandary exists as to just who and what constitutes "Israel" and what "blessing Israel" looks like. Such questions are rising in light of the Barack Obama administration facilitating a U.N. resolution against Israel on Dec. 23 and a new Donald Trump administration appearing to back away from its campaign promise to relocate the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Richard Land, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, told The Christian Post in a Jan. 5 interview that he believes God made specific promises to the Jews as a people that he did not make to the Gentiles. Some of those promises include the land of Canaan "forever," his words to Abraham in Genesis 12:3, and that the Messiah will come from the lineage of Abraham.
"[Israel] is ethnic, the seed of Abraham. It is literally the seed of Abraham," Land said. "If you're Jewish, you are part of the promise."
"Does that involve the state of Israel? Not explicitly," he added. "It involves the Jews around the world, all of them."
Land is among those who, like the Christian Zionist scholars CP interviewed on Dec. 31, regards the regathering of millions of Jews to their historic homeland during the last half of the twentieth century and first part of the twentieth century as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy.
Paul Copan, professor of philosophy at Palm Beach Atlantic University, takes a different view.
"When we understand who the people of God are in the New Testament, it does become clear that God's purposes for Israel for ethnic Jews are intermingled with his purposes for the Gentiles as well," Copan told CP in a mid-January phone interview.
"And so that in the fulfillment of the gospel [regarding] the Gentiles, it's the promise of Abraham that comes to fruition through whom all the nations of the earth will be blessed," he said.
In Romans 2 Paul talks about who a true Israelite is, which is "one who has the Spirit of God, they have been circumcised of heart," he said. "We also read in Romans chapter 9 verse 6 that Paul says not all Israel are those who are descended from Israel."
"The modern state of Israel may be in a sense a residual blessing that comes but nothing in terms of theology from Scripture to talk about this being predicted," he said, adding that he does not believe the nation-state of Israel born in 1948 fulfilled biblical prophecy.
When judgement fell on Jerusalem in AD 70, Copan thinks that marked the "decisive end" of national Israel as the people of God.
As to whether or not a potential relocation of the American embassy constitutes a "blessing," Land offered that "we have to defer to the Jews to tell us what they think blesses them and what they think doesn't bless them. It is not for us to tell the Jews what blesses them and what doesn't bless them."
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Today’s ‘Israel’ is Judah, just as the prophecy in the word of Yehova says it would be.
That is what the “two sticks” are all about.
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The Land of Israel and the People of Israel are the same. The State of Israel, inasmuch as it sees itself as a secular Western nation, suffers the same misfortunes, except that the Land and the People will never disappear.
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This is a really poorly thought out piece.
It grossly misunderstands prophecy.
Israel, Biblically speaking, is the spiritual seed of Abraham, and they will be migrating to the land soon.
The coming jubilee will be increasing the size of Israel on a grand scale to accommodate the massive migration that is soon to begin.
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My guess is the current state of Israel is made up of the ancient kingdoms of Judea, Israel, Samaria, Galilee and maybe Tyre. Probably some others too.
I think modern Israel is the fulfillment of God’s promise.
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>> “ the Land and the People will never disappear.” <<
That may be the understatement of all time.
Few in this world are prepared for what is about to happen.
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Modern Israel will soon be that fulfillment.
Its not even close yet.
The church is Israel.
God’s favorite place is Zion. Notice that Israel is a nation not only in its formation but in the fact that it has won all battles against all odds.
Genetically, real Jews are non-existent.
But your mother and grandmother will not hear that.
Why is a Christian website presenting anti-Semitic alternative views as equivalently valid?
the Messiah won’t come until Israel and the Jersalem temple are fully restored....for starters...
so this old canard of a ‘question’ (which only raises the ugly supercesionist bs all over again)...is really not very important. ... at least not if we are looking forward to the Messiah!
in which case, we are all trying to help Israel/Judea rebuild (including ... eventually the Temple...albeit that’s somewhat delayed in light of the Israeli govenment’s efforts to protect the mosque thing there...but ...so much prophecy has already come true....it is reasonable to look forward to, eventually, all of it coming to pass! ).
RE: Why is a Christian website presenting anti-Semitic alternative views as equivalently valid?
Anti-Semitic: One who discriminates against or who is hostile toward or prejudiced against Jews.
How is Paul Copan’s view anti-semitic based on the above definition?
I am in over my head in this discussion but I do think it is interesting.
Israel will not go quietly in the night. In fact they will own the night and at dawn emerge victorious.
That's not anti-semitism (though I didn't read the whole article). From what he says there, he is simply teaching scripture.
The scripture is clear that the Church--that is, the entire body of believing Christians of all nations and tribes--is the "Israel of God," made such by being joined to the body of Jesus Christ. (Note that the scripture even calls Christ "Israel," and applies prophecies relating to Israel to him) That is why, in Galatians, we are all called the children of Abraham, Jews and Gentiles alike, who are believers, while unbelieving Jews--such as in the book of Romans--are declared to be nothing at all, since they are unbelievers and are in need of spiritual regeneration.
If this is antisemitic, not only is Christian theology for almost 2000 years "antisemitic," but so is the scripture itself!
If I was Jewish I wouldn’t consider the modern secular state of Israel to have any relation to the Israel of old. I can’t think of too many things that would be more sacrilegious than an annual “gay pride” parade in Jerusalem.
I am curious. Please elucidate on this and reference it back to the seven tribes and the present genetic makeup of "most" Jews. Just curious.
The word promises no church. Israel is the assembly of the bride from Adam onward to the present.
These are the people of the renewed covenant of Jeremiah 31
Jeremiah 31:
[31] Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
[32] Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
[33] But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
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