from Israel My Glory, Volume 69, Number 3
Connecting the Dots
May/June 2011 Editorial
by Elwood McQuaid
Nehemiah had his work cut
out for him. God had promised
to return the Jewish people
to their land after their captivity
in Babylon. And true to His Word,
God brought Nehemiah back to Israel
to help the Jewish people rebuild the
walls of Jerusalem while surrounded
by enemies trying to destroy them.
The current situation in Egypt
and the Middle East shows us that
not much has changed. Israel is in
its land; and its enemies—including
the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaida,
Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iran—are
determined to destroy the Jewish state
and disperse its people.
And though God’s promises are
on Israel’s side, many self-anointed
“Bible scholars” stubbornly maintain
the Lord is finished with Israel. They
attack the Bible’s integrity, not believing
that promises made will be promises
kept; and in so doing they misinform,
confuse, and discourage other
believers. Furthermore, they ridicule
anyone who accepts a literal, orderly,
biblical prophetic progression in
which Israel plays a major role.
Christian Zionists who believe in a
future Temple (Ezek. 40—48) and in
God’s promises to make Jerusalem the
Jewish capital of a future Millennial
Kingdom are accused of blasphemy.
In fact, the accusers are so hostile to
Israel they question the very idea of
revering Jerusalem as the Holy City
and claim Christian Zionists endorse
the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians.
Today there is deep-seated theological
hostility toward dispensational
teaching; and it reflects an obsessive
prejudice against Israel and denies
Jewish people their rightful place in
God’s program. As one nondispensationalist
put it, “The church is Israel in a newly reformed and expanded
phase of existence. . . . The church is
really the continuation of Israel.”
So, following that reasoning, when
Psalm 122:6 instructs us, “Pray for
the peace of Jerusalem,” it actually
means to pray for the “true Israel”
that supposedly consists of every
person who, through faith, has been
adopted into the family of God?
Nonsense. Such an interpretation
completely distorts the meaning
and intent of Scripture (a serious
offense in itself) and turns biblical
history into a muddle of pointless,
spiritualized generalizations.
This distortion is not what our
Lord intended when He gave us His
Word, which makes clear the direction
of the world, the church, and
Israel by clarifying the great issues of
the last days. Those of us who pray
earnestly for discernment receive
answers in the orderly revelation
prewritten in the Word of God.
The Rapture (Jn. 14:1–3; 1 Th.
4:15–18; Ti. 2:12–13)
The Tribulation (Jer. 30:7; Dan.
9:24–27; Mt. 24:21–25)
The Second Coming (Mt. 24:27–
31; Rev. 1:7; 19:11–16)
The Millennial Kingdom (Dan.
11; Zech. 8:20–23; 14:16–21;
Rev. 20:1–6)
The Future Eternal State (Jn.
10:27–29; Rev. 21—22)
An integral part of the biblical
prophetic scenario includes Israel
and the Jewish people—and that fact
takes nothing away from the church,
which is unique and distinct in every
aspect of its past, present, and
future. Trying to absorb Israel’s
inheritance into the church not only
mutilates what God makes plain but
manifests a pattern of theological
anti-Semitism or, at the least, a regrettable
form of elitism that excludes
Israel from its own Scriptures.
The entire relationship between
our Lord and His Chosen People is a
story of everything desirable, enriching,
and instructive and should properly
command our close attention. At
the heart of the narrative is the revelation
of God’s character, providing
indispensible insights into the essence
of a Sovereign who is trustworthy,
faithful, just, honest, and caring and
whose ability to love far exceeds our
capacity to comprehend.
Israel confirms the depth of our
God’s commitment to a program that
is a whole entity, rather than a smattering
of promises made and suspended.
God never leaves things
unfinished, nor does He depend on
man’s ability to make things work.
The consistent study of the entire
body of prophecy connects all the
dots, so to speak. It reveals how
God called out a people and promised
to preserve them, give them a
land, use them to bless the world
through the Messiah, see them
through the darkest of dark days,
bring them back to the Promised
Land, put His Messiah-King on the
throne of David to reign with equity
and justice, and usher in a time
when peace covers the earth as the
waters cover the sea.
Today Israel may be in much the
same predicament as it was in the
days of Nehemiah. But a new day
will come when God will give Israel
everything He has promised, just as
He will give the church everything
He has guaranteed us as well.
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