Who Really Stands with Israel?

American Vision ^ | 6/07/2006 | Gary DeMar

[topcat54]

David Brog has written Standing with Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State. The ten reviews I read on Amazon were quite favorable, and it is being advertised on WorldNetDaily. The fact that the Foreword was written by John Hagee, author of Jerusalem Countdown, From Daniel to Doomsday, Beginning of the End, and Final Dawn over Jerusalem, is a clear indication that the book’s thesis fits with the modern-day prophetic system known as dispensational premillennialism. I doubt that the book covers what this article reveals.

In my debate with Tommy Ice at American Vision’s Worldview Super Conference (May 26, 2006), Ice pointed out that one of the unique features of the dispensational system is that near the end of a future, post-rapture, seven-year tribulation period, Israel will be rescued by God. After nearly 2000 years of delayed promises, God will once again come to the rescue of His favored nation. Ice and other dispensationalists imply by this doctrine that they are Israel’s best friend, and anyone who does not adopt their way of interpreting the Bible is either anti-Semitic (Hal Lindsey) or a methodological naturalist (Tommy Ice).

In the debate, I wanted Tommy to explain how a belief in Israel’s glorious future results in the slaughter of two-thirds of the Jews living at the time the Great Tribulation nears the end of its seven-year run. I quoted the following dispensational writers to show that there is no glorious future for “all Jews who are under siege,” to use Tommy’s words, in the dispensational version of the Great Tribulation.

• According to the Tim LaHaye Prophecy Study Bible, of which Tommy is an editor, “Prior to Israel’s conversion, Zechariah [13:8] predicts that two-thirds (‘two parts’) of the Jewish people in the land will perish during the tribulation period. Only one third of the Jewish population will survive until Christ comes to establish His kingdom on earth” (991).
• In his book The Living End, Charles Ryrie writes the following in a chapter he titles “A Bloodbath for Israel”: “Jacob’s trouble [Great Tribulation] is that coming period of distress described by Jesus as He spoke to His disciples on the Mount of Olives. Jeremiah labeled it ‘Jacob’s trouble’ and said it would be unique in all history (Jeremiah 30:7). Jesus called it a period of unprecedented tribulation (Matthew 24:21). This will be the time of Israel’s greatest bloodbath” (81).
• In his Israel in Prophecy, John Walvoord writes: “The purge of Israel in their time of trouble is described by Zechariah in these words: ‘And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith Jehovah, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried’ (Zechariah 13:8, 9). According to Zechariah’s prophecy, two thirds of the children of Israel in the land will perish, but the one third that are left will be refined and be awaiting the deliverance of God at the second coming of Christ which is described in the next chapter of Zechariah” (108).
• Eugene Merrill, in his Exegetical Commentary: Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, writes: “The restoration and dominion cannot come until all the forces of evil that seek to subvert it are put down once and for all. Specifically, the redemption of Israel will be accomplished on the ruins of her own suffering and those of the malevolent powers of this world that, in the last day, will consolidate themselves against her and seek to interdict forever any possibility of her success. The nations of the whole earth will come against Jerusalem, and, having defeated her, will divide up their spoils of war in her very midst” (342).

There are geopolitical implications to the dispensational system that some people have picked up on.

Convinced that a nuclear Armageddon is an inevitable event within the divine scheme of things, many evangelical dispensationalists have committed themselves to a course for Israel that, by their own admission, will lead directly to a holocaust indescribably more savage and widespread than any vision of carnage that could have generated in Adolf Hitler’s criminal mind.(1)

Dispensational theology as it relates to Israel is alarming to some Jewish leaders as well. Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, asks, “To what extent will a theological view that calls for Armageddon in the Middle East lead [evangelicals] to support policies that may move in that direction, rather than toward stability and peaceful coexistence?”(2) The most probable scenario is that prophetic futurists will sit back and do nothing as they see Israel go up in smoke since the Bible predicts an inevitable holocaust. It is time to recognize that these so-called end-time biblical prophecies have been fulfilled, and Zechariah 13:7–9 is certainly one of them. Those Jews living in Judea prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and who fled before the assault on the temple were saved (Matt. 24:15–22).

1. Grace Halsell, Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War (Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill & Co., 1986), 195.

2. Quoted in Jeffery L. Sheler, “Odd Bedfellows,” U.S. News & World Report (August 12, 2002), 35.

Gary DeMar is president of American Vision and the author of more than 20 books. His latest is Myths, Lies, and Half Truths.

Permission to reprint granted by American Vision P.O. Box 220, Powder Springs, GA 30127, 800-628-9460.

[Lee N. Field]

That wasn't my question. My question was has Israel ever "literally" occupied all the land outlined in that promise?

I believe that it dominated that entire area, during Solomon's reign.

[Alex Murphy]

Toughen up and really be adventurous. Become a pretrib and stand at the front of the line for the judgment of works.

I'm a Victor In Christ!

[Lee N. Field]

What is a DP?

Dispensational Premillenialist

[blue-duncan]

I just had a day like that. And I received a wonderful sign from the Lord that tomorrow could be worse. Something like "sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof".

[Alex Murphy]

A good part of the time, these things degenerate into a 400+ post DP vs. everyone else flamefest

Hey, as long as someone doesn't accuse me of being an anti-semite for being postmil, I don't take offense at any of the other comments (and b-d has given me quite a few good zingers along the way). These aren't flamefests, they're mosh pits :D

[blue-duncan]

Look, the first rule of eschatology is don't take yourself too seriously 'cause just when you think you got it you ain't. Try to settle on the position of "on the one hand-on the other hand". Or a paraphrase of what Satchel Paige use to say "just keep your eschatological position moving 'cause they might catch up to you".

[P-Marlowe]

Dispensational Premillenialist

Is there any other kind?

[Alex Murphy]

Is there any other kind?

As a matter of fact, yes. Unless I'm mistaken, B-D's views reflect the more historic version.

[P-Marlowe]

Hey, as long as someone doesn't accuse me of being an anti-semite for being postmil...

If you hate everyone, doesn't that make you an anti-semite... too.

Let me rephrase that to eliminate "personal pronouns":

If one hates everyone, doesn't that make one an anti-semite... too?

...Three ...four.

[P-Marlowe]

As a matter of fact, yes. Unless I'm mistaken, B-D's views reflect the more historic version.

But you see, BD has this little problem with... sanity.

So, if BD is not a DP then is he a CD, or a DVD?

[Alex Murphy]

If one hates everyone, doesn't that make one an anti-semite... too?

No, it makes them French.

[P-Marlowe]

No, it makes them French.

So if the French hate everyone, why would anyone be surprised that they hate the Jews?

If all Cretans are liars, can you believe anyone if they say they are from Crete?

[conservatative strategery]

"uninstrumented colonoscopy"

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

[fortheDeclaration]

There will not be a great apostasy prior to the rapture

Yes, there will be, the Laodican church will be lukewarm.

Paul predicted that the church would degenerate (Acts.20, 1Tim.3, 2Tim.4) and so did Peter (2Pe.2)

[blue-duncan]

"Yes, there will be, the Laodican church will be lukewarm."

Out of the seven churches, 4 are praised but there are deficiencies that need repentance and work, 2 are praised without any remonstrance and Laodicia is warned she is in trouble. There is no great apostasy in the churches, in fact they are raptured for there is nothing further said of the churches after the third chapter until chapter 21.

I don't see any great apostasy in the churches before the rapture in the other scriptures you cite. They are general warnings of potential heresies and divisive spirits that any seminary student would hear today. The rapture will take place without any signs, "a thief in the night".

[fortheDeclaration]

Yes, there will be, the Laodican church will be lukewarm." Out of the seven churches, 4 are praised but there are deficiencies that need repentance and work, 2 are praised without any remonstrance and Laodicia is warned she is in trouble. There is no great apostasy in the churches, in fact they are raptured for there is nothing further said of the churches after the third chapter until chapter 21. I don't see any great apostasy in the churches before the rapture in the other scriptures you cite. They are general warnings of potential heresies and divisive spirits that any seminary student would hear today. The rapture will take place without any signs, "a thief in the night".

The seven churches are not only types of churches they are the history of the church itself through the last 2,000 years.

The final period is the Laodican period which is now, a lukewarm church that thinks it is rich but it is poor.

It is the church of the 'purpose-driven life', 'seeker churches' rock music in the churches, false bibles the pews, and false teachers in the pulpits.

[ladyinred]

Hal Lindsey has to rewrite his scenarios over and over again while claiming they are still the same. He is still clinging to the revived Roman Empire nonsense while Islam is attacking right and left. He should be believed by no one.

[ladyinred]

I don't like Hal at all, but I read many of DeMars books and I can't understand his Jesus returned in 70 AD theory at all. I even wrote to him and didn't understand the reply. Makes no sense to me at all. I believe in a visible second coming and it doesn't appear he does. While of course some of Matthew 24 was fulfilled in AD 70, clearly not all of it was.

[ladyinred]

I wish to add my attaboys to Alex's. I also enjoy these kind of threads.

[Alex Murphy]

I believe in a visible second coming and it doesn't appear he does.

Trust me on this, DeMar believes in a visible, literal second coming, and the events of 70AD ain't it. Hopefully Topcat and I can dig up something basic to help you understand the ("partial") preterist view on this.