(Editor’s note: Joseph Farah is leading a tour of Israel through Nov. 21 with messianic rabbi and best-selling author Jonathan Cahn. His columns during this time will be devoted to the Holy Land and the introduction of his new book, available the first week of December, “The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age.”)
JERUSALEM – I understand why Israel is increasingly hated by the rest of the world.
I really do.
I understand the growing anti-Semitism in America and around the globe.
If you are a Bible-believing Jew or Christian, it’s no mystery.
In fact, it is predicted – prophesied.
What I don’t get is why some professing Christians actually reject the reality of Israel as fulfillment of Bible prophecy. For to reject the Jews and their nation state is to reject the very foundation of Christianity. Even to be lukewarm when it comes to the Jews and Israel is to fundamentally reject the olive tree to which we are grafted in as a wild branch, as Romans 11:24 explains.
If, as the Apostle Paul explains so eloquently, Christians, or non-Jewish believers in Jesus the Messiah, are indeed “grafted in” to the olive tree of Israel’s redemptive promise, why do some of them reject the olive tree? It makes no sense.
In other words, non-Jewish Christians become part of the covenantal promises to Israel. That’s who we are. The promises to Israel become promises to us. We are “grafted in” to the olive tree of Israel. We thus become part of Israel – not a replacement of Israel.
If the promises to Israel are null and void and dead, then where are the promises to the non-Jewish believers? Are we grafted in to a dead olive tree?
What many of today’s Christians have witnessed with the rebirth of Israel in their own lifetimes is described in the Bible as a miracle surpassing the parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, the giving of the law on Mount Horeb and all the other works of God associated with the Exodus and the entering of the children of Israel into the Promised Land. That’s what we learn in Jeremiah 23:7-8.
Yet an evil doctrine known as Replacement Theology, every bit as ugly as Liberation Theology, has taken root in the church. I’m sorry to say it, but you’ve got to discard or allegorize much of the Bible to adopt either one of these views and still call yourself a Christian.
Meanwhile, Jewish children are being executed in cold blood on videotape in France. Some of the most well-known “Christians” in America are trying to find common ground with Muslims, who they claim worship the same god. Boycotts of Israel are being organized by people who claim to be Christians. The United Nations continues to approve more resolutions against Israel than against all the rest of the world’s nations combined. The world stands by as a nation sworn to annihilate Israel and the world’s Jews prepares to deploy nuclear weapons and delivery systems. And you know the world will condemn Israel if it lifts a finger to protect itself.
I have a problem with all this.
I have a problem because I see too many Christians on the wrong side or standing on the sidelines.
Anti-Semitism is virulent in our world today. It’s reaching proportions not seen since the Third Reich.
Where’s the church?
Obviously not reading the Bible.
The Word of God not only predicted the return of the Jews to Israel, it also predicts the way Jerusalem would become a burdensome stone to the whole world (Zechariah 12:3).
But it also predicts Israel will triumph over all the adversity and that people and nations will be judged on how they treated Israel (Micah 4) – the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8).
The world hates Israel because the prince of this world hates Israel (John 16:11).
But what about the Christians?
What Bible are they reading?
Nowhere in the pages of Scripture does it remotely suggest the “church” has replaced Israel’s promises. In fact, it states unequivocally the opposite. God doesn’t change His mind. He’s the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Christians have their promise only because they have been adopted as the step-children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob through faith in the Jewish Messiah.
This is a Bible study that easily could be book length. But let me conclude with Isaiah 62: “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.”
(That means God is never going to give up on Israel. He chastises Israel when it turns away from Him just as He chastises Christian believers who turn away from Him. But He lovingly and patiently awaits our repentance.)
“And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.”
(This means all Gentile believers will eventually see Israel’s special place in God’s plan. Why fight it? Obviously, this is not a promise to the “church.” It’s a promise to Israel, through which Gentiles can be grafted in. Isaiah 62 continues – with more promises to Israel.)
“And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.”
(This means all Gentile believers will eventually see Israel’s special place in God’s plan. Why fight it? Obviously, this is not a promise to the “church.” It’s a promise to Israel, through which Gentiles can be grafted in. Isaiah 62 continues – with more promises to Israel.)
“Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
“Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.
“For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
“I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,
“And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
“The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured:
“But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness.
“Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.
“Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
“And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.”
By the way, Christians, this hasn’t happened yet. But God doesn’t go back on His promises.
You can get the full-length Bible study when my new book comes out Dec. 5. It’s called “The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age.”
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
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