Rev. Malcolm Hedding | ARTICLE | 17-04-2021
“I say then, has God cast away His people?
Certainly not!
Romans 11:1
The Christian Zionist movement is not a new phenomenon or new theological position in the church. Great preachers through history have embraced this biblical point of view including the Wesley brothers. So, the biblical credentials undergirding the return of the Jewish people to the Holy Land are found in every part of scripture and not just the prophetic ones. The major and minor prophets foretold the events that are unfolding before our eyes today but the New Testament validates Israel’s modern day restoration completely as it affirms the unchangeable nature of the Abrahamic Covenant.
So then, having said this, it is also nevertheless true that these prophetic passages do not constitute the biblical foundations upon which Biblical Christian Zionism stands. In addition, it must also be stated that the movement is also not “driven” by some bizarre longing for Armageddon and therefore sees the restoration of Israel as a vital step to this end. The Jewish people are not pawns in our “end time game of chess.”
In actual fact the biblical credentials of Biblical Zionism are found in a unique promise or covenant that God made with Abraham some 4,000 years ago. This covenant that God made with Abraham was everlasting (Genesis 17:7-8, Psalm 105:7-12) and constituted the dawn of the redemptive initiative that has culminated with the finished work of Jesus on the cross. Essentially, it amounts to a promise to save the world through the Jewish people. “In you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3). Jesus and Paul echoed this reality when they said, “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22) and “we share in their spiritual things” (Romans 15:27).
Moreover, the New Testament teaches that the Abrahamic Covenant bequeathed to the Jewish people a role in history as custodians of the word of God (Romans 3:1-2)(Romans 9:1-5) that has never been removed from them (Romans 11:29). This role can be summed up as; to serve the world with “redemptive products” and this makes Israel the “vehicle of world redemption.” It can also be argued from scripture that the Abrahamic Covenant alone could not deliver the salvation of the world as God promised in it. It was therefore given authority, power, and ability by the additions (Galatians 3:19) of the Mosaic and New Covenants to it. Paul writes in Galatians three that, if we belong to Christ then we are in fact “Abraham’s children according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29) That is, we are God’s children according to the promises made by God in the Abrahamic Covenant. (Romans 4:13)
So, scripture affirms that John the Baptist and Jesus came in order to fulfill the promises that God made in the Covenant with Abraham (Luke 1:54-55; Luke 1:72-75). Paul makes the same conclusion when he says in Romans 15:8-9 that Jesus came to make good the promises that God made to the founding fathers (patriarchs) of Israel.
It is this covenant, or promise, that God made with Abraham that also bequeathed to Israel the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession (Genesis 17:8-9). Without land, the nation of Israel could never be formed, and because of the land, God’s redemptive initiative on behalf of the world could be and has been executed. Israel has the land as an everlasting possession for the blessing of the world.
For instance, her destruction and exile in 586 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar conquered the region would have frustrated the redemptive purpose of God if it had not been reversed. This has always been the intention of the powers of darkness and we see this no more vividly demonstrated than in Hitler’s Holocaust. Thankfully, as is the case now, a remnant returned 70 years later to their ancient homeland and as a consequence the Messiah Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This, as we have seen, as recorded by the Gospel writer Luke, is the fulfillment of God’s faithfulness to the Abrahamic Covenant.
The Messiah will come again in the future because of the Abrahamic Covenant. Of this we can be sure! God does not undertake “half jobs!” The conclusion of His redemptive promise and initiative that began with Abraham will be the resurrection of the dead (Daniel 12:1-3) (Romans 11:15).
Israel’s return to Canaan in our time is because of God’s promises to Abraham. She is on a journey that will witness the dealings of God with her in matters relating to justice, truth, mercy, righteousness and redemption. (Micah 6:8) All these issues regulate her possession of the Holy Land and how much of it she will live on. Not until she reaches the point of redemption will all of the land promised to her, be hers (Ezekiel 36:24-28).
This view of scripture, while held by many great Christian leaders is challenged by those who
embrace Replacement Theology and thereby see absolutely no significance in Israel’s modern day restoration. Israel’s restoration for these people is merely an accident of history having no biblical significance because God has now adjusted the Abrahamic Covenant in order to bequeath to the Church all the promises made in it. The Church is the new “Israel of God” and the Jews, by virtue of their spiritual failure, have lost their land and calling.
This is a false notion having no biblical backing as the New Testament demonstrates that none of the good promises that God made to Israel in the Abrahamic Covenant have been adjusted or abolished. Indeed they cannot be because God Himself swore by His word and character that they cannot be changed in any way. (Hebrews 6:13-20) This means that in the end, through a process of restoration in the land of Canaan, the people of Israel will inherit everything that God ever promised them, including a great family from the nations.
Until that day dawns, we must place our spiritual feet firmly upon the foundation of God’s word and we must embrace our calling to pray for Israel, comfort Israel and declare God’s word to her.
Our love must equally “fall upon” all the peoples of the region and, as one speaker recently put it, “If we don’t have a heart for the Arab peoples of the region, we don’t really have heart for Israel, and we don’t reflect God’s heart!”
