An often misunderstood aspect of the postmillennial worldview is God’s plan for ethnic Israel, the modern day Jews. According to some dispensationalists, the postmillennial view of the kingdom of God must be incredibly anti-Jewish, since it denies a literal one-thousand-year rule of Jesus from an earthly throne at Jerusalem with the converted Jews at the center of the millennial society.
The dispensationalist view has the Church in effect failing at the Great Commission. Only after the rapture occurs are the Jews converted. Then it becomes the job of the Jews to convert the world. When Jesus returns to inaugurate the millennium, the center of the world’s civil government literally becomes David’s throne with Jesus ruling from an earthly Jerusalem.
Postmillennialism does not deny the importance of the Jewish people in God’s end-time purposes. The main difference is the timing of the Jews’ conversion. Dispensationalists have taught that the conversion of the Jews will occur after the Second Coming of Jesus. Just a brief survey of postmillennialists (and most amillennialists and classic premillennialists) throughout history shows that God’s plan for the conversion of the Jews is an event occurring prior to the Second Coming. In the postmillennial view, this mass conversion of the Jewish people adds greater glory to a unified Church throughout the world. The Apostle Paul explained this in terms of the following order. Since the first century Jews had rejected their Messiah, the Gospel would then go to the Gentiles but finally the Jews would be converted.
For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins” (Romans 11:25-27).
Although the Gospel was preached first to the Jews, finally God hardened part of them so that they could be provoked by the mass conversion of the Gentiles. Thus salvation comes first to the Gentile nations, then the Jews. The incredible result is, “And so all Israel will be saved.”
The controversy that has ensued over this one verse is more than we can cover here!
What is meant here by “all”?
Who or what is “Israel”?
Sparks fly at the mere mention of these questions. However, the Reformed consensus of the past 500 years has been that Paul was indeed speaking of God’s plan for the conversion for the Jews. The resistance of ethnic Israel to be thoroughly converted to Christ in Paul’s day is described in Romans chapters 9 through 11. Paul’s explanation of this “mystery” is that in the “fullness of time” after the majority of the Gentile nations will converted, the majority of ethnic Jews in the world will be saved, added to the Church – now made up of Jews and Gentiles – and thus “all Israel will be saved.”
B.B. Warfield made the following bold statement in a commentary on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.
[T]he nature of the whole dispensation in which we are living, and which stretches from the First to the Second Advent, [is] a period of advancing conquest on the part of Christ … The prophecy [of Romans 11] promises the universal Christianization of the world.
To make a complicated controversy simple, just as New Covenant “Israel” refers to the Church – and not geopolitical Israel – so the “Church” is made up of Jews and Gentiles. Christians throughout the last 2000 years have looked forward to a time when Israel would be converted to a saving faith in the Messiah, King Jesus.
What does “All Israel shall be saved” actually mean?
This is another controversy.
Does this mean all Jews?
The majority of Jews?
The nation”state of Israel?
The future conversion of the Jews was taught in a marginal note for Romans 11:26 in the 1560 Geneva Bible.
He sheweth that the time shall come that the whole nation of the Jews, though not every one particularly, shall be joined to the church of Christ (1560 Geneva Bible).
In verse 25, the Apostle Paul refers to the ethnic Jews of Jesus’ day, “blindness in part has happened to Israel.” Therefore, it would be unlikely for “Israel” in the next sentence – “And so all Israel will be saved” – to mean something other than ethnic Israel. As F.F. Bruce has also pointed out, Israel is clearly ethnic Israel.
“All Israel” is a recurring expression in Jewish Literature, it does not mean “every Jew without a single exception” but “Israel as a whole” (F.F. Bruce, The Epistle of Paul to the Romans).
In Hebrew biblical literature, the term “all Israel” usually refers to the vast majority of Israel in contrast with a “remnant,” which denotes a minority.
Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace (Romans 11:5).
And so all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:25).
John Calvin understood this verse to mean ethnic Jews.
I extend the word Israel to all the people of God, according to this meaning – when the Gentiles shall come in, the Jews also shall return from their defection to the obedience of faith; and thus shall be completed the salvation of the whole Israel of God, which must be gathered from both; and yet in such a way that the Jews shall obtain the first place, being as it were the first born in God’s family (John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans).
The leader of America’s First Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards, also held this view.
Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion of the Jews in Romans 11. Besides the prophecies of the calling of the Jews, we have a remarkable providential seal of the fulfillment of this great event, by a kind of continual miracle, their being preserved a distinct nation, the world affords nothing else like it. There is undoubtedly a remarkable hand of providence in it. When they shall be called, that ancient people, who alone were so long God’s people for so long a time, shall be his people again, never to be rejected more. They shall be gathered together into one fold, together with the Gentiles.
Princeton scholar, Charles Hodge, wrote:
The second great event, which, according to the common faith of the Church, is to precede the second advent of Christ, is the national conversion of the Jews…. As the rejection of the Jews was not total, so neither is it final…. As the restoration of the Jews is not only a most desirable event, but one which God has determined to accomplish, Christians should keep it constantly in view even in their labors for the conversion of the Gentiles…. The conversion of the Jews … is to be national. As their casting away was national, although a remnant was saved; so their conversion may be national, although some may remain obdurate (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology).
This promise of God to ethnic Israel – the flesh and blood descendants of Abraham – comes not because the Jewish people are in some way superior, but the promise comes because of God’s calling of Abraham and the covenant that He made with his descendants.
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).
God’s covenant with Abraham and Abraham’s response, not only blessed the great patriarch – but it spills over to his descendants as well. God’s supernatural work in Israel to bring ethnic Jews to himself will be one aspect of God’s demonstrating himself to the nations. This miracle will aid the Church in her witness. And so we should seek the support of all believers to pray for the conversion of Israel in these “last days.”
The Final Greatness of the Kingdom
Finally, it is important to note once more that God’s promises to the His Covenant people, both Jew and Gentile, are beyond measure. The Apostle John wrote in Revelation:
And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. The city is laid out as a square; its length is as great as its breadth. And he measured the city with the reed: twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal (Revelation 21:15”16).
The Church, the New Jerusalem, is depicted as a cube of equal lengths – a symbol of spiritual perfection in the Bible. But note that each side is 12,000 furlongs or 1500 miles in length. Just the surface area of 2,250,000 square miles would dwarf what the Jews of John’s day thought of as “Israel.” The image is given here to demonstrate that the proportions of God’s heavenly city, the Church, are incredibly vast. The end result to the Church’s missionary efforts will far surpass our mere human expectations because God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20)
Although the histories written during the Post”Exile period (Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, 1 and 2 Chronicles) are fairly straightforward, the prophecies (Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi) can be confusing to modern readers due to the apocalyptic language that appears in some of the passages. Modern dispensationalists tend to force the fulfillment of these prophecies into an end”times scenario that assumes that they speak of a restored geo”political Israel with a separate purpose from the Church.
The preterist view assumes a covenantal unity of Scripture. Israel is the Old Covenant “Church” (Acts 8:37) and the New Covenant Church is the “Israel of God” (Galatians 6:16). Thus everything that occurs in the Old Testament histories serves as an example to the New Covenant Church. Every promise of God in Old Testament prophecy is to Israel and the Church as one people.
Is there such a thing as “replacement theology”?
Dispensationalists often accuse those who see a unity in the Covenant of God of teaching “replacement theology.” In short, this is a straw man argument based on a misnomer.
Covenantal theology does not teach that there are “two people of God,” “two ways of salvation for Jews and Gentiles,” “the Gospel of the kingdom vs. the Gospel of salvation,” “two dispensations of law and grace,” or “two Covenants.”
Covenantal theology teaches there is only one Covenant renewed again and again throughout Scripture between God and His people. The Book of Hebrews in particular reveals that salvation has always been through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ from the time of Abel through Abraham, from Moses through the time of the prophets, until the time of the New Testament (cf. Hebrews 11).
The charge of “replacement theology” can only be made when a dispensationalist paradigm is assumed. Since there is only one people of God and one Covenant, Israel is the Church and the Church is Israel. There is nothing to “replace.” So”called difficult passages, such as Daniel 12:1, may confuse the modern reader. Daniel 11 covers Judea’s history prior to Christ – then Daniel 12 shifts abruptly to the destruction of the Temple in AD 70. This is only a problem if we assume that a prophet of the sixth century BC would make a strict separation between the Israel and the Church.
“At that time Michael shall stand up,
The great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people;
And there shall be a time of trouble,
Such as never was since there was a nation,
Even to that time.
And at that time your people shall be delivered,
Every one who is found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1).
We must interpret this to include the first century Jewish Christians who were the “new Israel” living in Judea, even while God was judging the disobedient element among the ethnic Jews. Likewise, when Haggai speaks of a shaking of the heavens and the earth (Haggai 2:6), he is speaking of a winnowing of the people of God so that only the true seed of Christ will remain. When Zechariah seems to jumble up the history of Judea with messianic prophecy and the separation of a faithful remnant (cf. Zechariah 12”14), it only becomes confusing when we presuppose that a prophet of the sixth century BC is predicting events in the end”times. To reach that strained conclusion, we must assume that Israel and the Church are “two separate people of God.” A Jew coming out of exile in Babylon would not understand such a distinction. In fact, this is an erroneous hermeneutic that arose only in the past 200 years. This way of interpretation has been retrofitted into biblical prophecy through the works of dispensationalist teachers.
Two Questions for Christian Zionists
- Is God’s covenant with Abraham and the promise to possess the land conditional or unconditional?
- How “Jewish” do you have to be to inherit the land in the modern day nation”state of Israel?
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel” (Exodus 19:5”6).
But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy (1 Peter 2:9”10).
And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth” (Revelation 5:9”10, emphasis mine).
From these verses we can conclude that God’s covenant is conditional on obedience. We also see that it is not conditional on Israelite ancestry since His people are called from all nations.
Another error that dispensationalists make is that there are two “nations” – Israel and the Church – who are called of God. In fact, there are not two people, but one Church called out of many nations. Granted, it is a complex and controversial issue to hash out the differences between dispensational theology and covenantal theology. However, the Zionist idea that the Jews as an ethnic group have a God given mandate to possess a piece of territory in the Middle East today can be solved by answering some questions.
Is there such a thing as a “pure blooded” Jew who has only ancestors who descended directly from one of the twelve sons of Jacob?
Note that it is difficult to show this given the fact that there are Ethiopian Jews, Asiatic Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews, and others, each coming from a mixed ethnic lineage.
If there is no such thing as a pure Jewish genealogy, how “Jewish” do you need to be in order to claim the land promises of Israel?
In the New Testament’s genealogical records of Jesus, Luke mentions that in the line of Jesus were three women, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, who were ethnic Gentiles. “Jewishness” is not based on a pure line of genealogy, but on culture and religious practice. This was true even in the time of the Old Testament. To be a part of Israel, you did not have to be descended from Abraham, but you had to obey the Covenant. The Apostle Paul regarded all those who were joined to Christ as part of the everlasting Covenant.
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God (Romans 2:28”29).
The above is culled from three of my books, In the Days of These Kings, The Harrowing of Hell, The Fourth Political Theory in Biblical Perspective. All on Amazon.com
