A car can have a huge windshield with side and rear windows allowing for excellent visibility, but as any experienced driver knows, there can also be an area called a “blindspot.” This is an area of the vehicle where it looks clear and safe, but in reality, where true visibility is suspended. And that can be dangerous.
There are two blindspots in the church today regarding the nation of Israel. Both blindspots are birthed in anti-Semitism! One arrogantly dismisses Israel as no longer important. The other feigns concern for Israel, but would desert her during her greatest hour of need. Neither view is Biblical.
1) ISRAEL AS NO LONGER IMPORTANT – Part of the church today believes Israel no longer matters. They believe the church has replaced Israel in God’s affections.
In the Old Testament, there were hundreds of prophecies given about the coming Messiah. Of the prophecies concerning Christ’s birth, ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection, all were literally and historically fulfilled. The remaining prophecies concerning His second coming, judgment, and millennial kingdom will also be literally and historically fulfilled. The blindspot ignores the fact that these prophecies revolve themselves around the nation of Israel.
A serious study of the prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 reveals a remaining 7-year period of significant Jewish history yet to be fulfilled. Jesus Himself referred to Daniel’s prophecy in Matthew 24:15-31. Read this passage carefully. It has not yet been fulfilled. We know this, because Jesus ties it into His second coming!
In order for the final 7-year period of Daniel’s prophecy to run, the Jews have to be in their land as a nation; Jerusalem must be their capital; and a temple must be standing. The prophecy is “determined upon” these things being in place.
From 70 A.D. until 1948, it looked as though Daniel’s prophecy needed a re-interpretation, because there existed NO nation of Israel. For almost 2000 years, Israel had been dead. She was long dead, as the dry bones of Ezekiel’s prophecy. But, on May 14, 1948— just as Isaiah prophesied— Israel became an official nation “in one day” on the scene of history. In 1967, Israel regained Jerusalem as her capital. And today, she stands on the cusp of rebuilding her temple!
During the nearly 2000 years when Israel was gone off the scene of history, Christian theologians began to theorize that Israel had been replaced by the church. Once that idea took root, then the difficulty of explaining the book of Revelation happening only to the bride of Christ, was dealt with by spiritualizing or allegorizing the events of end times as just spiritual struggles Christians encounter in life. Armageddon became a battle between good and evil fought within one’s heart and not on a literal battlefield on the plains of Jezreel in Israel. Some major denominations embraced this view and still espouse it to this day.
But when the Jews’ restoration to the land of Israel actually started taking place (beginning in the late 1800’s), it forced a more literal re-interpretation of end times among evangelicals. Since it was Israel who figured significantly in end times, where did that leave the church?
2) THE CHURCH WILL NOT UNDERGO THE END TIMES WITH ISRAEL- The pretrib rapture theory emerged as a theological explanation for what happens to the church during the end times. It teaches a triumphant, empowered church, bringing the kingdom of God to this fallen world, and then being miraculously removed just prior to the ax falling on Israel. This is the viewpoint of many evangelicals.
BOTH BLINDSPOTS ARE SCRIPTURALLY FLAWED.
The Bible teaches a literal unfolding of the events of end times, centered around the resurrected nation of Israel. But, the church will also enter the 70th week with Israel, just as the Gentile Ruth entered the land of Israel with her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi, during a season of hardship for them both. It was only when the Jewish kinsman-redeemer, Boaz, took note of Ruth’s faithfulness toward Naomi that salvation came to both women. To Ruth, she became the bride of Boaz. To Naomi, she became the adoptive mother of Ruth and Boaz’s offspring.
In Romans 11, Paul unfolds God’s wise and unsearchable plan for both Jew and Gentile. And that plan was this: out of Israel would come a Redeemer for the whole world. But, Israel would experience a partial blindness in accepting this Redeemer, in order that the fullness of the Gentiles could also come in. Once that fullness was accomplished— with the gospel going out to “all nations”— then the end of this age would wrap up. Redemption will come full circle, back to Israel once again! The final seven years of this age will once again center upon Israel, whose blindness concerning Messiah will be taken away during this period!
And what will Israel’s acceptance of Christ mean for the church? “Life from the dead,” (Romans 11:12-15). Read this passage carefully, so you can grasp the correlation Paul lays out between Israel’s actions on one hand, and its benefit to us on the other.
Like Ruth and Naomi, the church will enter the final seven years with Israel. The true church will be a faithful companion to Israel during her great tribulation. Then things suddenly change for both when Israel’s Messiah and the church’s Bridegroom appears in the clouds. At that point, Israel will look upon Him whom they pierced and repent. And the church will be taken into the presence of her Groom. Israel’s enemies will then undergo trumpet and bowl judgments that resemble the ancient plagues poured out on Egypt. Satan will, once again, be forced to “let My people go.” Then the triumphant Groom, His bride, and His people will travel to Armageddon to dispatch Israel’s great enemy, Antichrist and his forces.
In the story of Ruth, the Jewish mother, Naomi, had a second daughter (in-law) named Orpah. Like Ruth, Orpah expressed her love for Naomi in a willingness to accompany her back to the land of Israel. But, when faced with a bleak picture of the future with Naomi, Orpah chose to leave. Orpah is not heard of again.
Yet, the faithfulness of the Gentile daughter, Ruth, will forever be celebrated in eternity:
“Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.”
May the church remain as faithful to Israel as Ruth was to Naomi.
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