Tag Archives: Israel has a future

God Has Not Rejected Israel

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A Christian evangelist recently wrote to me and said, “Israel will never be restored as a nation, the jews are cooked, the church has replaced Israel, there is no special promise made to unbelieving jews today nor in the future except hell fire if they don’t repent (as other gentiles). Dispensationalism is junk and a man-made doctrine of the 1800’s by John Nelson Darby and Cyrus Scofield.” Sadly, there are numerous people who think this way.

That statement is not merely an attack on dispensationalism. It is a direct contradiction of Scripture. Worse, it reflects contempt for a people whom God loves with an “everlasting love” (Jer 31:3). God created Israel. God chose Israel. God established covenants with Israel. God gave Israel the land. God entrusted Israel with His word. God brought the Messiah into the world through Israel. Moses declared, “The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession” (Deut. 7:6). Paul states that to Israel belong “the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises” (Rom. 9:4). God established those realities. Human opinion does not cancel them.

Israel is presently under divine discipline because of unbelief (Matt. 23:37-39). That is biblical. But discipline is not rejection, and temporary judgment is not permanent abandonment. Paul asks, “God has not rejected His people, has He?” Then comes the emphatic answer: “May it never be!” (Rom. 11:1). Paul repeats the point: “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” (Rom. 11:2). Israel is presently under a “partial hardening” that lasts “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Rom. 11:25). Partial means partial. Until means until. Words mean things. Israel has a future.

Paul goes further. Concerning unbelieving Israel, he writes, “From the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers” (Rom. 11:28). Beloved. Not discarded. Not replaced. Not “cooked.” Why? “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29). God made covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. God will keep those promises because God cannot compromise His own character. God has integrity and keeps His word. Lewis Chafer states:

“That Jehovah loves Israel with ‘an everlasting love’ is assured in Jeremiah 31:3. An everlasting love includes a love from all eternity past and extends on into eternity to come. This nation is thus loved in spite of their evil and multiplied rejections of Jehovah. That everlasting love will yet prevail and this unworthy people will inherit all that Jehovah has determined.”[1]

This does not mean an unbelieving Jew possesses eternal life because he is Jewish. He does not. Jew and Gentile alike must believe in Jesus Christ for eternal life. Jesus said, “He who believes has eternal life” (John 6:47). Nor does biblical support for Israel require blind support for every decision of the modern State of Israel. The OT prophets loved Israel and repeatedly condemned Israel’s sins. Biblical love does not require political blindness. It requires divine viewpoint.

But saying “the Jews are cooked” is not divine viewpoint. It is certainly not Paul’s viewpoint. Paul wrote, “my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation” (Rom. 10:1). Paul grieved for unbelieving Israel. Paul prayed for Israel. Paul evangelized Israel. And Paul still called Israel “beloved.” There is no place for antisemitism in Christianity. None. Christians worship Israel’s Messiah. We read a Bible written by Jewish authors. We believe the Jewish prophets. We possess a salvation that Jesus said is “from the Jews” (John 4:22). Jesus was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, died as Israel’s Messiah, rose from the dead, and will return as “the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah” (Rev. 5:5). Contempt for the Jewish people has no place in biblical Christianity.

The biblical position is simple. God loves Israel. God presently disciplines Israel. God has not rejected Israel. Israel remains beloved for the sake of the fathers. Israel still possesses the covenants and promises God gave her. Israel has a certain future because God keeps His word. Period.

Paul wrote Romans 9-11 eighteen centuries before John Nelson Darby was born. The issue is not Darby. The issue is not Scofield. The issue is not whether someone likes dispensationalism. The issue is whether God means what He says. “God has not rejected His people” (Rom. 11:2). They remain “beloved for the sake of the fathers” (Rom. 11:28). And “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29).

God said it. Believe God.

Steven R. Cook, D.Min., M.Div.

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[1] Lewis Sperry Chafer, Systematic Theology, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1993), 317.

God Loves Israel

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Israel FlagIsrael is a special nation that was created by God Himself. The Lord said of Israel, “I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King” (Isa 43:15). This makes Israel unique among all the nations of the world! He even calls Israel, “My glory” (Isa 46:13). And God loves Israel, declaring, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness” (Jer 31:3). God is eternal, and His love is eternal, which means it never fades for His people, Israel. To possess the love of God is to love that which He loves. One cannot claim to have God’s love, and simultaneously hate Israel, His chosen people. There is no place for anti-Semitism in the heart of anyone, especially the Christian! According to Lewis S. Chafer, “When the Christian loves with a divine compassion he will acknowledge what God loves. Therefore, he too must love Israel.”[1]

To love the people of Israel is not a blanket endorsement of all their beliefs and behaviors. God, who loves Israel and chose them to be His people (Deut 7:6-8), also called them to be holy (Ex 19:5-6; Lev 11:45), and to live righteously (Deut 6:24-25). Under the Mosaic Law, God blessings and curses for them were conditioned on their obedience or disobedience (Deut 11:26-28; 28:1-68). For much of Israel’s history, we know they failed to walk with God, sometimes rejecting His love for them and walking in the ways of the world (see 2 Ch 36:15-16; Jer 7:25-26; 25:4-7). The national rejection and crucifixion of Jesus (Matt 27:22-23; Acts 2:22-23; 4:27-28), Israel’s promised Messiah (Deut 18:15; Isa 7:14; 9:6-7; 53; 61:1; Matt 1:1, 17; Luke 1:31-33), is their greatest historical failure.[2] Did Israel act alone in crucifying Jesus, their Messiah? No! God foretold Israel’s Messiah would suffer and die (Psa 22:11-18; Isa 53); and, according to His sovereignty, He used wicked men, both Jews and Gentiles, to accomplish His will (Acts 22:22-23; 4:27-28). Lewis Sperry Chafer wrote:

If it be inquired, as constantly it is, who put Christ to death? It may be pointed out that He was offered by the Father (Psa 22:15; John 3:16; Rom 3:25), of His own free will (John 10:17; Heb 7:27; 9:14; 10:12), by the Spirit (Heb 9:14), and by men—Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles, and Israel (Acts 2:23; 4:27). To this may be added that part of His death was contributed by Satan (cf. Gen 3:15).[3]

God, who loves Israel with an everlasting love, continues to keep His Word to them. Israel has a future hope because of the promises and covenants God made through the patriarchs and prophets (Gen 12:1-3; 15:18; 17:8; Deut 30:1-10; 2 Sam 7:16; Psa 89:33-37; Jer 31:31-33). Though unbelieving Israel is currently under divine discipline (Matt 23:37-39), God’s covenants and promises are still in effect (Rom 9:1-5), and will remain in force until Jesus returns and is accepted as their Messiah.

Furthermore, it is wrong to think the church has replaced Israel, for “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew” (Rom 11:2), even though there is a “partial hardening” among them until Messiah returns (Rom 11:25-27). Until then, unbelieving Israel is under spiritual darkness and divine judgment. The apostle Paul—a biological Jew himself—revealed that God’s promises and covenants are still valid for Israel, and wished all would come to faith in Christ. Paul said:

I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart [for unbelieving Israelites]. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh [to whom Paul is related biologically], who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh [i.e. Messiah], who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. (Rom 9:1-5)

Today, Jews and Gentiles alike become partakers of the church, the body of Christ (Eph 1:22-23; cf. 1 Cor 10:32), when they believe in Jesus as their Savior (Gal 3:26-28). These believe the gospel message, that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-4). Christians are looking forward to the rapture of the church, in which He will catch us away (ἁρπάζω harpazo – to seize, catch up, snatch away) to heaven (1 Th 4:13-17). Until God resumes His prophetic plans for Israel, Christian are called to love them, pray for them, and share the gospel of grace that they may turn to Jesus as the Messiah and be saved (Rom 1:16; 1 Cor 1:18-24; 15:3-4).

Dr. Steven R. Cook

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[1] Lewis S. Chafer, “Israel” in Systematic Theology, Vol. 7 (Grand Rapids, MI., Kregel Publications, 1993), 206.

[2] Even Jesus, at the time He was pronouncing judgment upon the nation because of their rejection of Him, still had great affection for them, saying, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling” (Matt 23:37). There is great tenderness in the heart of Jesus for His people.

[3] Lewis S. Chafer, “Christology” in Systematic Theology, Vol. 7 (Grand Rapids, MI., Kregel Publications, 1993), 80.