Is the nation of Israel today the fulfillment of biblical prophecy? – Greg Albrecht

Question: 

Was it a fulfillment of prophecy when Israel became a nation in 1948?  

It seems to me that the religion many adhere to within Christendom (you call it “Christ-less” and I am beginning to agree with you! ) turns them into political advocates for unconditional support of Israel, including warfare and bloodshed, as if Jesus who taught us to love our enemies would urge his followers to be involved in such a way. 

It seems to me that many preachers on television and many more conservative political commentators believe Israel is a nation given to the Jews by God, in some special and unique way. And they quote the Bible to make their case.  

But when I read your magazines and listen to your daily audio programs you consistently point toward Jesus as the focus of our faith. When Jesus told the lady at the well there’s going to come a time when one doesn’t have to go to a mountain or Jerusalem to worship God. It’s spiritual. 

Thanks — your ministry and your many resources ground me in faith, and comfort me and point me toward Jesus.  

Response: 

  1.  While there are many evangelical teachers and preachers who say that the modern state of Israel, founded in 1948, is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy, Plain Truth Ministries disagrees. Their claims are flawed, for several reasons, but perhaps the primary one is …  
  2. This event was not a fulfillment of biblical prophecy is that in order to make this claim one must pick and choose, cherry-pick if you will, specific old covenant statements and then disregard the gospel of Jesus Christ, the new covenant in him, his birth, life, death and resurrection… 
  3. If one is making such a bold and audacious claim, that in fact God today loves the piece of land in the Middle East called Israel more than any other piece of land on this earth and the people who live there, many passages should be consulted, but I would recommend Ephesians 2:11-22 in combination with Galatians 3:26-29 for a start. 
  4. The old covenant was a system of laws resulting in blessing and cursing, and among the blessings was the land in which the Hebrews/nations of Israel and Judah lived. The land in which these peoples lives was often taken away when they disobeyed the laws of the old covenant.
  5. The new covenant makes it clear that the gospel of Jesus Christ was for all nations and races and peoples — no “favorite nation” status was given as the old covenant did. The promise of the new covenant is eternal life with God in his kingdom, rather than a piece of real estate on planet earth.
  6. The old covenant promised physical land as an inheritance. The new covenant promises eternal life in the spiritual kingdom of God. So the idea, so very popular with many, for so many reasons, that God gave the land which we know as the present day nation of Israel (and much more than the land they now occupy according to some) has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
      
  7. Well said on your part — the woman at the well. A Samaritan woman talking with Jesus, a Jew.  Jesus tells the lady that a particular piece of land, a physical “holy” place where one is told that God must be worshipped is not the focus of faith — not the Samaritan’s “holy” mountain (Mt. Gerizim) nor the Jew’s “holy” city of Jerusalem. We all, regardless of nationality, background, race, former religious affiliation, are invited to be one in Christ and worship God in spirit and in truth, rather than in hostility, animosity and bloodshed, which continues to soil the land of the Middle East. 
  8. As Christ followers our hope and our faith is in the peace of God, the grace, mercy and love of God, which overwhelms all hatred and lust — we yearn for the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior. We give thanks and rejoice, renewed in hope, knowing that Jesus has conquered death and the grave, rising to life, a life that he offers to us all, by the grace of our loving heavenly Father. 

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