home  > articles  > Eschatology >  Is Israel God’s Unfinished Business?

It’s become a multi-billion dollar industry. There’s a lot at stake! God help anyone who dares challenge this belief. It is a belief that is promoted by powerful Washington lobbyists, very prominent journalists, and the most popular TV preachers. Anyone who even questions this program is labelled as an Anti-Semite or worst still – a heretic. It comes in various forms (or extremes) but nearly all of its proponents deride their opponents as promoting Replacement Theology. But what if those who promote the preeminence of Israel and the validity of the Old Covenant being ‘their’ current covenant for today are actually the true promoters of ‘Replacement Theology’? Is Israel really God’s unfinished business? 

“Replacement theologians teach that God is finished with Israel. In their view, Israel has been rejected and replaced by the church to carry out the work once entrusted to Israel.”
John Hagee, “In Defense of Israel” page 145

And how do Dispensationalists respond to those like me – who disagree with them? They make shrill accusations like-

“Replacement theologians are now carrying Hitler’s anointing and his message.”
John Hagee, Should Christians Support Israel? page 132

No Mr Hagee, my message is not the message of Hitler. I love the Jewish people but I also simultaneously love Palestinians. My message is not one of hatred toward anybody. Rather, my message is the message that the Church has declared for two millennia: God loves all people regardless of the race, address, religion or skin colour and this love has been demonstrated by the exclusive work of Christ who is the true Israel of God, the real Promised Land, the Holy Temple of God, the Ultimate Fulfilment of the Promises of God and the Antitype of all animal sacrifices.

 

DOES MODERN ISRAEL HAVE A BIBLICAL RIGHT TO THE ‘PROMISED LAND’ TODAY?

These Dispensationalists promote the idea that God’s Covenant with Abraham gives Jews exclusive rights to the ‘Promised Land’ today-

The biblical mandates for supporting Israel began with Genesis 12:3. I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you. Secondly, David said in Psalms 122:6, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love you.” Because of the fact that in history, if Jerusalem is at war, the world is at war. If there’s peace in Jerusalem there’s peace in the world. When Israel became a state, in 1948 I remember well sitting at the table in our home and we heard that announcement come over the radio. And my father said, “This is the most important biblical day in the 20th Century. For all the prophets of the Old Testament have now been vindicated and Israel has been born.”

The way some Christians present the Bible you would be forgiven for thinking that it talks of little more than Israel and their right to the territory promised to Abraham. In this scheme, Jesus came so that He could return. And when He returns He will sit upon the Throne of David and reign from Jerusalem over the whole earth for a thousand years. John Hagee goes so far as to say that the Jews of Jesus’ day can not be held accountable for their rejection of Him because He never claimed to be their Messiah! (John Hagee, PBS Documentary).

In fact, according to the way these Dispensationalists, such as Hagee, read the Bible, God has two ways to be saved. According to an interview with John Hagee by Julia Duin of the Houston Chronicle in 1988 (30th April), we learn the following –

Trying to convert Jews is a “waste of time,” he [Hagee] said…

“The Jewish people have a relationship to God through the law of God as given through Moses,” Hagee said. “I believe that every Gentile person can only come to God through the cross of Christ. I believe that every Jewish person who lives in the light of the Torah, which is the word of God, has a relationship with God and will come to redemption.”

“The law of Moses is sufficient enough to bring a person into the knowledge of God until God gives him a greater revelation. And God has not,” said Hagee.

 Watch

The way Hagee and other Dispensationalists see it, because the Jews were never able to accept Jesus as Messiah, God did not do away with His Covenant with them and they can therefore be saved by virtue of either racial covenant or faith in Christ! Not only is this, but such Dispensational extremists as Hagee and even Dispensational moderates like Greg Koukl, claim that God has not yet fulfilled His covenant promises of territory to Israel. While Hagee is readily dismissed for his appalling handling of the Biblical text, respected Bible teachers such as Greg Koukl are not as quickly dismissed.

But the Palestinians have never owned the land. I want you to hear this very clearly. The land of Israel was given to Abraham, Issac and Jacob and their seed in an eternal covenant. It is recorded in the book of Genesis. The boundaries are there in the Bible. And that land belongs to the Jewish people today, tomorrow and forever because it is their covenant by the word of God.
John Hagee, September 18, 2005

Yet the Scriptures contradict Hagee – 

Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
Joshua 21:45 

 

DID JEREMIAH PROPHESY THE PERPETUAL OCCUPATION OF THE LAND BY JEWS?

The case for Israel being Gods unfinished business today is largely built upon Jeremiah 31 where the prophet declares that Israel shall never cease to be a nation before Him.

Thus says the LORD,
who gives the sun for light by day
and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—
“If this fixed order departs
from before me, declares the LORD,
then shall the offspring of Israel cease
from being a nation before me forever.”
Jeremiah 31:35-36

Andrew Corbett with Greg KouklGreg Koukl (pictured with me, left) often defaults to this passage for his justification of his Dispensational view of Israel. He attempts to link this prophetic assurance with the Abrahamic Covenant. Accordingly, God’s covenant with Abraham to Israel centres on the territorial claim over the Promised Land, and is not only still valid – but prophesied here by Jeremiah! While Koukl admits that there is only one salvation covenant available today (something that Hyper-Dispensationalists like John Hagee, Rod Parsley, Cindy Jacobs, and Pat Robertson, don’t seem to declare to their Jewish audiences) he asserts though that Jews today still enjoy the Abrahamic Covenant (having exclusive land-rights to “the Promised Land”). He then goes on to say that because Jeremiah declared that Israel would always be a nation before the Lord, this national identity will continue necessarily after the return of Christ. This then becomes the basis for Koukl’s Dispensational ideas.

But is Jeremiah prophesying that God’s covenant with Abraham will be a perpetual covenant for all time with Israel? Koukl suggests that the Abrahamic Covenant was both spiritual (accessed by faith) and physical (accessed by Jews only). The context of Jeremiah 31 includes a time-frame for Judah’s exile into Babylon (70 years, Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10) and that God promised to sustain Israel as a nation while in exile, then ensure that they would be returned to the Land (Jer. 31:10 “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away; say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock.’) The Prophet then declares that God will establish a new covenant with the Houses of Israel and Judah that will be written upon their hearts-

¶ “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jeremiah 31:31-33

While Greg Koukl seems to argue that this is an additional covenant to the Abrahamic Covenant and that it is spiritual (therefore it applies beyond Jews), the New Testament doesn’t seem to support this interpretation. The writer to the Hebrews cites Jeremiah with some helpful insights. He prefaces his citation of this passage by stating that a new covenant made previous covenants obsolete. Greg Koukl’s arguments are that while we have a New Covenant which has replaced the Old Covenant there is no reason to think this New Covenant also replaces the previous Abrahamic Covenant. The problem with this idea though, is the Abrahamic Covenant was the covenant that made Israel God’s chosen people (“You shall be My people”), while the Mosaic Covenant gave Israel God’s Laws, and both Jeremiah and the writer to the Hebrews incorporates both covenantal aspects into the New Covenant-

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
¶ For he finds fault with them when he says:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah,
not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
For they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
Hebrews 8:7-10

The writer to the Hebrews makes the point the New Covenant is the fulfilment of what Jeremiah prophesied and that this Covenant is not based on race but on faith in Christ made possible by the grace and election of God. This therefore means that Gentiles are included in the scope of what Jeremiah prophesied in Jeremiah 31. But does this mean that Gentiles are also beneficiaries of the Abrahamic Covenant or this just for Jews only? Paul argues in Galatians that Gentiles in Christ are indeed the recipients of the Covenantal promises made to Abraham-

so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.
Galatians 3:14

Greg Koukl’s argument that the Jeremiah 31 passage links the fixed natural order of the sun, moon and stars to the existence of Israel fails to appreciate the consistent usage of the expression “sun, moon, and stars” throughout Scripture which speaks metaphorically of Israel (first used in Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37, and consequently by the prophets who described Israel’s rebellion toward God as the sun no longer giving forth its light, the moon being darkened and the stars falling from the skies). Similarly, God’s use of the term “fixed order” is a covenantal expression-

Thus says the LORD: If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth,
Jeremiah 33:25

Therefore, it is quite legitimate to understand Jeremiah 31:35-36 as saying that as long as God only  has the Old Covenant in place, Israel would continue to be a nation before Him. Historically of course it can be proven that when the elements of this Old Covenant (the Temple, Priesthood, Sacrifices) were removed in A.D. 70 when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem that Israel actually did cease to be a nation! If we accept Greg Koukl’s understanding of Jeremiah 31:35-36 then we are left to conclude that God was unfaithful to His Word for nearly 19 centuries since Israel was not a nation for that period(?).

Therefore, there is nothing in the Jeremiah 31 passage that prophesied that Israel would always possess the Promised Land or that the Promised Land would be their land-right in the New Covenant. (To get an even more comprehensive understanding of these issues, in a Bible study commentary format, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, download my free eBook on Hebrews.)

 

DOES GOD HAVE TO RE-ESTABLISH JEWS TO THE PROMISED LAND IN ORDER TO FULFIL HIS ULTIMATE BIBLE PROPHECIES?

Dispensationalism is a particular way of reading Bible prophecy which divides the Bible into two stories. There’s a story about God’s earthly people, Israel. And then a story about God’s heavenly people, the Church. And the basic premise of dispensationalism is that all Bible prophecies concerning earthly events applies to the Jews. And all of those events will be fulfilled literally in the End Times. So, Israel must be returned to the land. They must stay in the land. Without Israel in the land, there can be none of the other events prophesied in the Bible. There can be no rise of Anti-Christ. There can be no rebuilding of the Temple. There can be no Battle of Armageddon. And there can be no second coming of Jesus Christ. So everything is riding on the Jews, getting them there and keeping them there in the Holy Land.
Dr Timothy Weber, PBS, Bill Moyers Journal

According to Dispensationalists it is absolutely imperative that Jews are firmly established in the Biblical Promise Land in order for God’s program to be on track (see Dr Weber’s explanation above).

Biblical borders of Israel
The Biblical Borders of the Promised Land

Israel's 1949 borders
Israel’s 1949 Borders

The Bible describes the boundaries of the Promised Land as being from the Nile to the Euphrates Rivers.

On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give* this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,
Genesis 15:18

Zion's Christian Soldiers?In his excellent and highly recommended book, “Zion’s Christian Soldiers?”, by Stephen Sizer, he makes the statement-

“If these boundaries were applied today, and depending on the route of the southern border from Eilat to the Euphrates, parts of Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, and even Kuwait and parts of Saudi Arabia would be incorporated. Some Zionist groups lay claim to all this territory using the term ‘Eretz Israel HaShlema’ to denote the whole or complete land Israel.”
Stephen Sizer, “Zion’s Christian Soldiers?”, page 78

There is nothing in the New Testament that requires God to restore the nation of Israel to its former Biblical dimensions. The Epistle to the Ephesians makes a clear case for God having one covenant and one people. I have written an eBook on Ephesians which explains this further. The prophecies of Matthew 24 have been fulfilled. I explain the reasons for this in my eBook, “The Most Embarrassing Verse In The Bible“. It is an eisegetical imposition on the text to claim that Matthew 24 deals with the return of Christ and not (as it should be understood) with the coming (note the use this expression in Isaiah 19:1; 26:21; Psalm 96:13; 98:9) of Christ in vindication to end of the Old Covenant’s elements (the Temple, the Priesthood and the Sacrifices). Dispensationalists, including Greg Koukl, claim that Matthew 24 foretells the glorious return of Christ in a yet-to-happen future. This then necessitates a rebuilt Temple and a reinstituted Israel to their Promised Land in order for Matthew 24 to be fulfilled in the future, according to Dispensationalists. But Matthew 24 is not about the end of the world (Matthew 24:3, ‘world’= Greek, aion, English= “age” or “era”), rather it is about the Temple/Sacrifice Age. Jesus said in Matthew 24:34 that this would take place within the life-time of His audience, not 2000 years later!

I have written a fuller explanation of God’s intention for Israel in an appendix within my eBook- THE MOST EMBARRASSING BOOK IN THE BIBLE).

Partly because of the false interpretation of Bible prophecy countless people, both Jews and Palestinians have needlessly died. Zionism, both Jewish and Christian, is a distortion of the intention of Scripture, the heart of God, and true focus of Bible prophecy. Is Israel God’s unfinished business? No. God’s unfinished business is His glory.

Amen.

 Dr. Andrew Corbett, Legana, Tasmania, February 27th 2008

12 Comments

  1. Marq George

    Acts 1:6 When they therefore were come together they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

    7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times, or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

    χρόνῳ τούτῳ ἀποκαθιστάνεις τὴν βασιλείαν!

    Yeshua had the perfect opportunity to straighten out His disciples. They obviously believed the promises were still intact and Yeshua could have said those days are over; explanations ahead. He told them instead that that timing (restoring the kingdom to Israel) is in G-d’s hands. He will fulfill it! If what you say is true than Yeshua is a deceiver.

    Reply
    • Andrew Corbett

      Thank you for your comment Marq. Christ’s answer did “straighten out” the disciples. Christ Himself is the ultimate fulfilment of all the promises to Israel. There is now just one Covenant. Hebrews 8:13.

      Reply
      • Marq George

        So you believe He lied to them that day.

        You’re correct about the TV Evangelists being con artists.

        God never reneges on His promises. Do you believe His promises are only good if men are sovereign? Who is the New Covenant with? Yisrael! Do you refuse to accept what it says?

        Heb 8:10 For this is the Testament that I will make with the house of Israel, After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my Laws in their mind, and in their heart I will write them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

        The first covenant was conditional, the second was unconditional. Moses was the intermediary when God said he would wipe Yisrael out for their disobedience to start all over like you believe. Moses rightfully pointed out to G-d concerning His promises to Abraham. It was unconditional! If He wiped out Yisrael it would show that God was not sovereign He would be just as weak as all other G-ds.

        Ex. 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidest unto them, I will multiply your seed, as the stars of heaven, and all this land, that I have spoken of, will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.
        14 Then the Lord changed his mind from the evil, which he threatened to do unto his people.

        You see that promise was totally unconditional and depended totally on G-d! Do not reject G-d’s unconditional promises, because He cannot break them.

        Reply
        • Andrew Corbett

          Marq, you are gravely mistaken and your deliberate misconstruing of my views is very telling and quite frankly troublesome if your intention is to have a genial discussion. Your original challenge was based on Acts 1:6 where the disciples ask our Lord, “Will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” You seem to claim that this reveals some unfulfilled promise to Israel. I pointed out that Christ’s answer was a direct response to this misguided question. You are now suggesting that I am claiming that Christ lied to them? It is difficult for me not to find your manner at best disingenuous and at worst quite mischievous. In your last comment you seem to citing the promise that God originally gave to Abraham and his descendants about possessing the Promised Land. This promise and its associated promised blessings were fulfilled as stated plainly by Joshua-

          Josh. 21:43 ¶ Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there.
          Josh. 21:44 And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands.
          Josh. 21:45 Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

          And again in Joshua 23:15, with the conditional warning –

          Josh. 23:15 But just as all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the LORD will bring upon you all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the LORD your God has given you,
          Josh. 23:16 if you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”

          As we read through the book of Jeremiah (note https://vimeo.com/13448561) we see the prophet warning the remaining tribes of Israel that they were in danger of this negative promise also being fulfilled. The people did not heed Jeremiah and were indeed evicted from the land. Jeremiah’s prophecy regarding their return to the land was indeed fulfilled within the time-frame he also gave – which Daniel recognised (Dan. 9:1-3ff) – and we read of its fulfilment in the accounts of Ezra and Nehemiah. The promised King in the line of David who was to come and be their deliverer was identified by Jesus as Himself (Matt. 22:42) and declared to be so by John the Baptist as this Messiah.

          There is not one Post-Exilic prophecy of Israel being restored, or its people being gathered to its former geographic territory to once again possess the Land it had forfeited through the breaking of their covenant with God. Not one. The disciples’ question in Acts 1:6 reveals a misunderstanding about the nature of the Kingdom being particularly Jewish. Christ’s answer may have been shocking and perhaps even confusing for them – that the Gospel of Kingdom was for the whole world, not just Jews.

          Acts 1:7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
          Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

          You cite Hebrews 8:10 and then flip its intended meaning to somehow mean that God has promised to restore Israel to its Promised Land. But this directly counter to the whole flow of thought throughout this epistle. The writer to the Hebrews is quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34 which prophesied the New Covenant which we read was not to be like the Old Covenant. This New Covenant was to encompass Jew and Gentile as Hosea prophesied –

          Hos. 1:10 ¶ Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”

          The Apostle Paul cites this in Romans 9 to make his case that both Jew and Gentile are united in Christ, grafted into Him, and are, as he states in Ephesians 2, “one new man” (Eph. 2:15).

          Eph. 2:14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
          Eph. 2:15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
          Eph. 2:16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

          Marq, God’s purpose for Israel was never about dirt. It was about the redemption of the world through Christ.
          -Andrew

          Reply
          • Marq George

            Andrew, I’m saying he didn’t refute them. Therefore he was lying or deceiving. They, as you pointed out, believed the kingdom would be restored to Israel.

            If as you claim it ended with Jeremiah, then Yeshua should have told His disciples that they were in sin for being in a place that G-d had kicked them out of.

            As to the restoration.

            Isaiah 11:11 And in the same day shall the Lord stretch out his hand again the second time, to possess the remnant of his people, (which shall be left) of Assyria, and of Egypt, and of Pathros, and of Ethiopia, and of Elam, and of Shinar, and of Hamath, and of the isles of the sea.

            12 And he shall set up a sign to the nations, and assemble the dispersed of Israel, and gather the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the world.

            The promise to Abraham was unconditional. The Torah was conditional. You are conflating the two.

            The promise to Abraham was contingent on G-d’s faithfulness. The Torah was contingent upon Israel’s faithfulness, The second covenant was again back to G-d’s faithfulness.
            What you fail to see was that Israel was a sign to the world of G-d’s faithfulness despite the sinfulness of man.

            Why do you not see what Paul said that Israel’s obstinacy was only partial until the fullness of the Gentiles come in.

            Joel 3:1 For behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

            2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people, and for mine heritage Israel: whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

            See verse one where G-d uses the word אָשׁוּב meaning second time. When has G-d ever brought all the ethnic groups to the valley of Jehoshphat?

            3 And they have cast lots for my people, and have given the child for the harlot, and sold the girl for wine, that they might drink.

            4 Yea, and what have you to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia? will ye render me [e]a recompense? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I render your recompense upon your head:

            5 For ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly and pleasant things.

            6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have you sold unto the Grecians, that ye might send them far from their border.

            7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place where ye have sold them, and will render your reward upon your own head.

            8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall send them to the Sabeans, to a people far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.

            9 Publish this among the Gentiles: prepare war, wake up the mighty men: let all the men of war draw near and come up.

            10 Break your plowshares into swords, and your scythes into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

            11 Assemble yourselves, and come all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: there shall the Lord cast down the mighty men.

            12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.

            13 Put in your scythes, for the harvest is ripe, come, get you down, for the winepress is full: yea, the winepresses run over, for their wickedness is great.

            14 O multitude, O multitude, come into the valley of threshing: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of threshing.

            15 The sun and moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their light.

            16 The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

            17 So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, mine holy Mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers go through her anymore.

            18 And in that day shall the mountains drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall run with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the House of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

            19 Egypt shall be waste, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the injuries of the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

            20 But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

            21 For I will cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed, and the Lord will dwell in Zion.

            Now concerning my somehow insinuating Hebrews 8 as referring to Israel being restored. What I was saying is the second covenant was to the House of Israel. Since it was obvious Israel could not keep the first covenant because of the flesh. The New Covenant was made on G-d’s ability to be faithful and not them as the First Covenant demanded.

            Galatians 3:17 And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed afore of God in respect of Christ, the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

            18 For if the inheritance be of the Law, it is no more by the promise, but God gave it freely unto Abraham by promise.

            Moses reminded G-d of that promise. G-d freely gave it to Abraham and repeated it to Issac and Jacob with no attachments. The apostle Paul says it can’t be disannuled. You would lose in a court of law!

            abrogate/disannul
            v. to annul or repeal a law or pass legislation that contradicts the prior law. Abrogate also applies to revoking or withdrawing conditions of a contract.

            Since we are grafted in than we share that inheritance with Israel!

            BTW, I did not mean nor would I ever insult you! I was only stating what I believe to be the obvious.

            ~Marq

          • Andrew Corbett

            Marq,
            None of the examples of prophecies of Israel’s restoration to the Land are Post-Exilic: Isaiah, Exodus, Joel are Pre-Exilic.
            Your comment- “If as you claim it ended with Jeremiah, then Yeshua should have told His disciples that they were in sin for being in a place that G-d had kicked them out of.”
            Marq, this question reveals very poor hermeneutics. The restoration of Israel to the Land so that the plan of redemption through Jesus, Yeshua, could unfold was necessary for them to be restored to the Land. Therefore, why would Christ have accused them of sinning??? The Jewish nation’s rejection of Christ, fulfilled His warning that they would indeed be surrounded by armies (Luke 21:20), and the point of the parable in Matthew 21:41 which foretold their expulsion from the Land (which was fulfilled).

          • Marq George

            Andrew something caught my eye that I missed before while rereading your post and that was
            Yet the Scriptures contradict Hagee –
            Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.
            Joshua 21:45

            You as I had mentioned in an earlier post about conflating the promises to Abraham with the Torah. The promises to the House of Israel is not the promises to Abraham. Also, that verse you quote was only His promise to bring them to the land flowing with milk and honey and establishing them in the land. It had absolutely nothing to do with His promise to Abraham of them being there forever.

            Genesis 13:14 Then the Lord said unto Abram, (after that Lot was departed from him) Lift up thine eyes now, and look from the place where thou art, Northward, and Southward, and Eastward, and Westward:
            15 For all the land which thou seest, will I give unto thee, and to thy seed forever,…

            Have you ever watched Steve DeNoon with his Israeli News Live. We share your concern for the Palestinian’s and their mistreatment by the IDF.

            You can watch him here concerning what’s going on in the Mid-East.
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shzs42QEDIc

            Shalom, Marq

          • Marq George

            Andrew, since you haven’t responded to Zechariah and his prophecy concerning The Jews and Jerusalem I’ll take it that you have no answer.

            You also never answered why the Feast of Tabernacles is to be observed during the millennium.

            Yeshua was born on the first day of the feast. It fulfilled G-d’s promise to tabernacle amongst His people. So also when Yeshua comes to reign in Jerusalem He will once again tabernacle amongst His people.

            Do you celebrate Christ’s birth on the pagan holiday christmas set up by the romish church? Do you also celebrate the pagan holiday ishtar set up by the same false church?

            I’m so surprised, as Yeshua was with Nicodemus, that you are in the position you are and don’t know these things.

  2. Marq George

    I noticed my comment didn’t make it into the public arena. Does that mean you want to keep up the deception? Just wondering since I don’t see any public comments.

    BTW I do not subscribe to any televangelists as they are all deceivers. That includes Contemporary Christian artists. My grandfather was a 32nd degree Freemason before leaving. All of these TV deceivers and musicians use the Masonic symbols.

    It pains me so because my wife and children attend Rod Parsley’s and I go to assuage them sometimes. My wife’s brother-in-law is 2nd to Rod. I pray for them. My wife gets angry when I point out errors.

    Reply
    • Marq George

      It doesn’t matter if it was pre or post. It says they would be restored a second time. The second time they would never be uprooted again.

      You seem to want to ignore the fact that Abraham’s promise was unconditional; therefore the law can’t abrogate that. Why do you choose to ignore that? Psalm 83:4 They have said, Come and let us cut them off from being a nation: and let the name of Israel be no more in remembrance.

      Moses pointed that out. You know he did. Yet you keep refering to the Torah. The second Covenant was to the House of Israel reestablishing the Abrahamic Covenant.

      Joel 3:1 For behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

      2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people, and for mine heritage Israel: whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

      When did that happen? It hasn’t and you know it.

      Since you insist on Post-Exilic than I’ll give it to you.

      Zechariah 12:1 The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel, saith the Lord, which spread the heavens, and laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him.
      2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of poison unto all the people round about: and also with Judah will he be in the siege against Jerusalem.
      3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all people: all that lift it up, shall be torn, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.
      4 In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness, and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.
      5 And the princes of Judah shall say in their hearts, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God.
      6 In that day will I make the princes of Judah like coals of fire among the wood, and like a firebrand in the sheaf, and they shall devour all the people round about on the right hand, and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.
      7 The Lord also shall preserve the tents of Judah, as afore time: therefore the glory of the house of David shall not boast, nor the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem against Judah.
      8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and he that is feeble among them, in that day shall be as David: and the house of David shall be as God’s house, and as the Angel of the Lord before them.
      9 And in that day will I seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
      10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of compassion, and they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced, and they shall lament for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and be sorry for him as one is sorry for his firstborn.
      11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad Rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.
      12 And the land shall bewail every family apart, the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart: the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart:
      13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart: the family of Shemei apart, and their wives apart:
      14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

      All nations will be gathered against Judah, but G-d will destroy them all as he had done before. You can’t point to any other time this has happened, because it never has.

      Zechariah 14:2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses spoiled, and the women defiled, and half of the city shall go into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
      3 Then the Lord shall go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
      4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of olives, which is before Jerusalem on the Eastside, and the mount of olives shall cleave in the midst thereof: toward the East and toward the West there shall be a very great valley, and half of the mountain shall remove toward the North, and half of the mountain toward the South.

      When did the above ever happen? or this? Acts 1:10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel.
      11 Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing into heaven? This Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as ye have seen him go into heaven.
      12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount that is called the mount of Olives, which is near to Jerusalem, being from it a Sabbath day’s journey.

      Zechariah 14:11 And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more destruction, but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.
      12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all people, that have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away, though they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume in their holes, and their tongue shall consume in their mouth.

      There is only one thing that can cause a person or animals to be turned into a skeleton while still on their feet.

      Zechariah 14:16 But it shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations, which came against Jerusalem, shall go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of Tabernacles.
      17 And who so will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall come no rain.
      18 And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, it shall not rain upon them. This shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the heathen, that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
      19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations that come not up to keep the feast of Tabernacles.
      20 In that day shall there be written upon the bridles of the horses, The holiness unto the Lord, and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar.
      21 Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy unto the Lord of hosts, and all they that sacrifice, shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.

      Finally, why is the Feast of Tabernacles, a Torah Feast, so important that during the millennium all nations must come to worship and celebrate that holiday?

      So your Post-Exilic clearly shows that Judah and Jerusalem will be safely inhabited by Jews after a world wide war on Jerusalem and then the Yeshua HaMachiach will reign from Yerushalayim!

      Reply
  3. Andrew Corbett

    Marq, on the contrary. I feel your take on the Book of Zechariah so skewed, that I am compelled to write a response in the form of another article. I appreciate your engagement with these important matters. They are obviously important to you as they are to me.

    Reply
  4. Marq George

    Sounds good to me I’ll be watching.

    Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

The Rapture Examined
About Apostles
A Non-Futurist Vision of The Future
Is Preterism Biblical?
Who Is The Man Identified With The Number - 666
Is Israel God's Unfinished Business?
The divine divorce of Israel
The Binding of Satan
What The Bible Teaches About Alcohol
About Apostles
AC-wp-Banner-Lion-Lamb
AC-wp-firstcentury-eschatology-banner
ac-climate_change-end-times
The Rapture Examined
AC-wp-Banner-5proofs
AC-wp-the_eschaton_and_THE-ESCHATON-header

AC-wp-Zechariah-Banner
AC-wp-great-tribulation
AC-USA_Revelation-Banner
About Apostles
New_Heavens_Earth_Banner1
AC-wp-every-eye
A Non-Futurist Vision of The Future
Is Preterism Biblical?
AC-Dax-Dear_God-Article-Banner
Who Is The Man Identified With The Number - 666
About the "great-tribulation"
AC-wp-the_eschaton_and_THE-ESCHATON-header
AC-Growing-In-Confidence-Banner
AC-environmental-theology-banner
AC-wp-Armageddon-banner
AC-dating-revelation-banner
AC-wp-feasts-of-Israel
Is Israel God's Unfinished Business?
AC-wp-heavens-melt-banner
The-divine-divorce-of-israel
AC-wp-marriage-supper-lamb
The Binding of Satan
AC-wp-Banner-fortune-telling
AC-wp-narnia
What The Bible Teaches About Alcohol
About Apostles
AC-wp-symbolism-revelation
AC-age-of-earth-bible-banner
AC-wp-new-jerusalem-header
AC-wp-the-trinity-header
AC-wp-revelation-is-a-revelation
AC-wp-donot-despise-prophecy-article-banner
AC-wp-could-we-be-in-the-end_times
previous arrow
next arrow

Subscribe To Our Finding Truth Matters (ftm) Perspectives eMail

Subscribe to receive the latest news, updates and discounted special offers.

Thank you for subscribing to the Finding Truth Matters PERSPECTIVES with Dr. Andrew Corbett regular eMail