NATIONS IN PROPHECY
ISRAEL
NATIONS IN PROPHECY
ISRAEL
A BRIEF HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
ISRAEL. What a name. A name that has evoked so much emotions, both of the positive and the negative kind. Israel was a name specifically given by God and it means 'Prince with God'. It was a name given for prevailing with God. The man Israel has since his day, produced millions of descendants called by his name. And though millions have hated the bearers of this name, God has purposed that this name i.e. the bearers of this name shall still eventually stand before Him. For the nation of Israel shall not be cast off forever but in the last days, they shall again see and bow their knees to their true Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The nation of Israel has been through many severe trials since biblical times. Time and time again, they had been in danger of annihilation, being victims of a fierce, at times cruel anti-Semitic sentiment. And in the last days, the scriptures foretell another disaster that will befall the Jewish people, a 7-years period called 'Jacob's Trouble' or the Great Tribulation. This coming period of history will again claim many Jewish lives. It is clear from the scriptures that Israel's troubles today stemmed largely from their spiritual blindness and rejection of the Lord Jesus as their Messiah. But the Lord will in the soon coming time, turn the tables on their behalf and then they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn (Zech 12:9-10).
While Israel suffered and is still suffering at the hands of her enemy, what has the Church, the spiritual Israel done? History unveils a tragic truth - the Church has been guilty also of the blood of the Jews for the Church is one of the sources of anti-Semitism. How is this so?
Since the founding days of Christianity, the hostility between the orthodox Jews and the Christians had festered and the war of the Church against the Jews began with the early Church Fathers. The Church Fathers were very vocal, and sometimes vehement in their attacks on the Jews who had refused to believe that the Lord Jesus was their Messiah. Because of the rapid spread of Christianity, the Jews had feared and hated the Christians whom they felt were distorting their scriptures. The Christians on the other hand were threatened by the Jews' strong adherence to Judaism and the Torah, which if proven valid would make Christianity invalid.
As a result, the Church Fathers such as Origen, Hippolytus and Augustine began to formulate and teach a theology called Replacement Theology today. Replacement Theology maintains that Judaism was a prelude to Christianity and that Israel as a people and nation ceased to exist after the Diaspora and that the Church is now the true Israel. Bible prophecies of the restoration of the nation of Israel in the end of days are not taken literally for there will be no Temple and no Millennial Kingdom where Jerusalem is the capital. All the promises God had made to Israel are transferred to the Church, the New Israel. This theology took a strong foothold about AD 400 when Augustine clearly articulated it in his well-known work, 'The City Of God'. Since then, the majority of the Church has held this view about Israel.
It is also a recorded fact that the Church from the 4th century onwards, participated in active opposition against the Jews such as burning their synagogues and exercising social and political discrimination against them. The Jews were called 'slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, advocates of the devil ….. and worse terms.
This anti-Semitism and Replacement Theology continued from the 4th century till the 19th century when God began to do a new thing. And the new move was in preparation for the fulfillment of Bible prophecies when God would bring the Jews back to their land and the stage be set for the last days and the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The time had come for God to resurrect the nation of Israel from its broken past, out of the ashes of about 1900 years during which Israel had been dispersed all over the world.
God began in the latter half of the 19th century, to work on 2 fronts. The first was among the Jews where He raised up the Zionist movement. The Zionist movement is a religious, sociological and political movement that fervently promotes the return of the Jews to their homeland, Palestine. The movement was founded by a Jew, Theodore Herzl who campaigned for a permanent homeland for the Jews after centuries of persecution and hatred faced by the Jews in the lands where they had settled. The increased persecutions of the 19th century leading to the Holocaust during the time of Hitler motivated millions of Jews to seek a safe haven and finally in 1948, approval was given for the re-birth of the nation of Israel. Jews from all over began to migrate and pioneered the settlement into the Land of Israel, thus fulfilling Bible prophecies (Eze 37:11-12,21).
The second was in the church when different ones began to re-discover the scriptures regarding the standing of Israel and the early church's attitudes towards her. These believers began to teach that Christ will return to earth before the Millennium and Jerusalem will be His capital. They believed in the restoration of Israel as a nation in their ancient homeland and in all the other promises that God had given to Israel as applying to Israel. The new theology they propagated was called the Premillennial or Dispensational Theology. Not all in the Church however accepted these new teachings.
Thus today, while Israel has fought many odds to survive since that eventful day in 1948, the Church has not fully recognized God's plan for her and wholly stood by her. Those who still embrace the Replacement Theology and organizations such as the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches have for the last half-century, favoured the Arab and Moslem enemies of Israel. Israel will always be a dividing line and the scriptures say, 'Those who bless her will be blessed and those who curse her will be cursed.'
Rev Anna Lim
BA(B.S), B.Arch,M.Th
Vice Principal
El-Shaddai ConventionsCopyright © Anna Lim, 1997
This article was first published in the Word Aflame Newsletter, of El-Shaddai Conventions,
The Training Arm of our Vision.
Bibliography (other sites)
http://www.levitt.com/dh/dh.html
http://ddi.digital.net/~billw/ANTI/anti-semitism.html