In this article, which is a continuation of the previous two, I hope to question some assumptions about modern Israel that have been widely embraced by evangelical Christians who have been influenced, either knowingly or unknowingly, by Israel-centric dispensational theology. I have already shown in my previous article, God’s purpose in entering into a covenant with ancient Abraham was not centered around God’s love for the descendants of one of his grandsons, but God’s love for all the families/nations of the earth. That is an undeniable fact. A special descendant of Abraham—who would also be God’s Son—would die for the sins of the entire world (1 John 2:2).

Perhaps the most common assumption I hear is this: “God gave Canaan’s land to the descendants of Israel. Ever since then, it has belonged to them by divine right. So, as God’s people, we should support that right.”

Of those three sentences, only the first one is correct. The second one, according to the Bible, is dead wrong. And since the third sentence is the logical progression from the second wrong sentence, it too is wrong.

Here’s the biblical view: God gave Canaan’s land to the descendants of Israel (Josh. 1, 21:43–45; Deut. 1–3, 6–9). He warned them if they ever started acting like the Canaanites whom they dispossessed, they would forfeit the land (Lev. 18:24–30; 20:22–24). They started acting like the Canaanites and God kept His promise. The large majority of Jacob’s/Israel’s descendants became exiles in foreign lands between 722 BC and 586 BC (2 Kin. 17:5–6, 18–24; 24:10–16; 25:1–21; 2 Chron. 36:15–21). Most of them never returned except for a small repentant remnant primarily from the tribes of Judah/Benjamin/Levi (Ezra 1:5; 2:64–65; 4:1; 9:8–9, 15; 10:9; Neh. 1:2–3; 9:32–37; Zech. 8:6, 12; Isa. 10:20–22; Jer. 23:3; Ezek. 11:13–17). During the ensuing centuries, including during Jesus’ earthly life, Israel was subject to foreign domination and, except for a brief period between 140–63 BC, never regained sovereignty as a nation. By and large, the Jews rejected their Messiah, Jesus, and in AD 70, God’s judgment fell upon them at the hands of the Roman legions (Luke 19:41–44), something Jesus wept over decades before it happened. Jewish historian Josephus wrote that over a million Jews died during Jerusalem’s siege (although some think he exaggerated). As many as 97,000 Jews were exiled. The temple in Jerusalem was completely destroyed, which made the continuation of Israel’s sacrificial system impossible, and it has never been rebuilt to this day. From AD 70 until 1948, there has been no Jewish state.

No one can intelligently argue against any of those historical facts.

Clearly, if the descendants of Jacob/Israel possessed a divine unconditional right to the land of Canaan, history would be different. But history confirms what the Bible repeatedly declared: The divine right given to Jacob/Israel’s descendants to Canaan’s land was conditional. It hinged on their obedience. And, as history shows, no alleged “unconditional” land promise in the Abrahamic covenant superseded or suspended that condition through more than 25 centuries.

All of this helps us to better interpret what happened in 1948 when Israel became a modern state, followed by decades of immigration by Jews from around the world. I am not going to go into the historic details of what led up to 1948, because I have done that in great detail in the past. (If you want to read that history, visit https://www.davidservant.com/the-20th-century-regathering-of-jews-to-israel-a-fulfillment-of-prophecy-1/). But because we have reams of revelation in the Bible about God, His unchangeable character, and how He has historically related to people, both descendants and non-descendants of Jacob/Israel, we should interpret Israel’s birth as a modern state in 1948 and the subsequent Jewish immigration in that light of all that. If God suddenly started favoring descendants of Jacob/Israel without any reference to their obedience, God changed in 1948. But He didn’t change. He never changes (see Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8; Jas. 1:17).

An Objection

“But what about the fact that Old Testament prophecies foretold of a future restoration of Israel and gathering of descendants of Jacob/Israel? Surely, that is what we have been seeing since 1948. God must be favoring the Jews, even if it has caused harm and suffering to others.”

Those last two sentences, albeit often spoken by well-meaning people, are assumptions that cannot be proved. Although the reestablishment of the state of Israel in 1948 after ancient Israel’s fall 1,800 to 2,500 years earlier is certainly unusual and amazing, it is not entirely unprecedented, as the histories of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Armenia reveal. All four nations experienced long periods of foreign domination but preserved their ethnic, linguistic, and religious identities to emerge once again as independent states, and no one is claiming any of it was miraculous. On the other hand, I would say that God’s hand was involved in Israel’s 1948 rebirth, if for no other reason than the fact that Paul once said, “He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God” (Acts 17:26-27a). As has been so often said, “History is His-story.”

There were many explainable historical, political, and human factors that led up to Israel’s rebirth as a nation in 1948. No one can claim, “It was all the miraculous hand of God,” as they could, for example, of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Yes, I know there are many anecdotal stories of miracles during Israel’s various wars since its declaration of statehood. They may or may not be true. Keep in mind, however, that God’s intervention is not necessarily proof of His approval or great favor. It could simply be proof of His mercy.

Without writing a dissertation, God has revealed Himself as being both merciful and just, two things that are inherently always in tension. Justice calls for just recompense, while mercy calls for, patience and even pardon. We have all experienced the inner conflict between justice and mercy every time we’ve disciplined one of our children. In God’s case, recall that Jesus wept when He thought about Jerusalem’s coming destruction in AD 70 (Luke 19:41-44). That’s mercy displayed. But in AD 70, He poured out His wrath in the form of a Roman siege in which hundreds of thousands perished. That’s justice. As Paul wrote, “Behold then the kindness and severity of God” (Rom. 11:22).

We should not conclude that God’s feelings toward the people of modern Israel are positioned at either extreme. Dispensationalists are likely to err on the side of His kindness, to the point of believing God favors descendants of Jacob/Israel over everyone else on the planet. Non-dispensationalists are likely to err on the side of His severity as they point out the evidence of modern Israel’s transgressions. The truth is somewhere in the tension of the middle, and it fluctuates over time, all depending on God. Plus, He not only judges people as members of groups, but as individuals. It’s complicated!

Dispensationalists often quote Romans 11:28 (which follows six verses after 11:22, that I quoted above): “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers.” Erring on the side of the “kindness” Paul mentioned in 11:22, dispensationalists say, “See, they are beloved, and God’s love for them is not based on their behavior, but on God’s love for their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So God’s love for them is unconditional, which is why He favors them over Arabs.”

However, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have always been “beloved for the sake of the fathers.” They were beloved when they were conquered and deported to Assyria in 722 BC. They were beloved when they were conquered and deported to Babylon in 587 BC. They were beloved when they were conquered, slaughtered, and deported throughout the Roman Empire in AD 70. I could go on and on to reference every time God’s mercy was overwhelmed by His justice. To claim that God would never judge descendants of Jacob/israel now because they are “beloved for the sake of the fathers” is not only unbiblical, but antibiblical.

All of this is to say, God may well have mercifully intervened at various times over the past century-or-so to establish and maintain a national homeland for descendants of Israel/Jacob. Perhaps He did have mercy on them after the Nazi Holocaust (which no one can deny He allowed.) Whose heart does not feel sympathy for what Jewish people have suffered over the centuries (and which I elaborated upon in my above-referenced article)? But it is quite clear from Scripture that, if people whom God has shown mercy don’t repent, when they die, He will cast them into hell where there is no mercy. From what we can tell, that is the path the majority of Jews in Israel are currently on. But, as we will shortly see, there is yet another judgment coming to Israel that will be followed by a tidal wave of mercy.

The Prophetic Problem

As we try to correctly understand God’s feelings toward modern Israel, we should also take into consideration the many Bible prophecies that foretell of a certain future Israel-centered war, a certain future exile, and a certain future national spiritual awakening. Some of those prophecies were uttered from the lips of Jesus Himself. For example, in the Olivet Discourse, Jesus made it very clear that things are going to be very difficult in Israel just prior to His return:

Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea [southern Israel, which included Jerusalem] must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short… For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be… But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other (Matt. 24:15-22, 27, 29-31, emphasis added.)

Unless you subscribe to a theology known as Preterism, you don’t believe everything Jesus foretold in His Olivet Discourse was fulfilled in AD 70 (when Jesus, according to Preterists, “returned in wrath” rather than personally and visibly as He Himself described He would). So, note that Jesus’ foretelling of events just before His return presuppose a Jerusalem temple (otherwise there would be no “holy place” for the “abomination of desolation” to stand), which presupposes a national Israel. It also presupposes Christian believers living in Judea. We’ve currently got everything except the temple.

The apostle Paul identified the “abomination of desolation” standing in the “holy place” as the antichrist when he “takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God” (2 Thes. 2:4). That singular event is the sign for Christians in Judea to flee, presumably to preserve their lives. If the antichrist claims to be God, obviously those who don’t believe in him will become targets of his persecution. Earlier in the Olivet Discourse, Jesus foretold that in those final days, many believers would become martyrs: “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name” (Matt. 24:9). That sounds like world-wide persecution.

My main point, however, is this: That one event marks the beginning of, according to Jesus, the worst tribulation the world has suffered or ever will suffer. That means worse than WWI, when 15 to 22 million people perished. Or WW2, when 60 to 85 million died. In fact, if it were not for the fact that God will cut short that worst-ever tribulation, “no life would have been saved.” It will be cut short “for the sake of the elect,” who are not unbelieving Jews, as some claim, but believers in Jesus, whom God’s angels will gather “from the four winds” and who will not be misled by false signs and wonders performed by false prophets and Christs (Matt. 24:24, 31).

And the epicenter of it all is Jerusalem and obviously Israel. Do you suppose anyone in Israel will perish then? Will Israel maintain its sovereignty? If the 20^th– and 21^st-century return of Jewish people to Israel from all over the world is a sign that God favors them to the degree that dispensationalists claim, why will He allow their ancient homeland to become the epicenter of WW3?

Adding weight to these questions is Luke’s version of Jesus’ Olivet Discourse. Luke did not include Jesus’ words regarding Daniel’s foretelling of the “abomination of desolation.” But there are many parallels:

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are in the midst of the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; because these are days of vengeance, so that all things which are written will be fulfilled. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people; and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:20-28, emphasis added).

The question is if Jesus was speaking in Luke 21:20-24 exclusively of the fall of Jerusalem that would occur about four decades after His Olivet Discourse, or of the yet-future fall of Jerusalem to the armies of the antichrist, or to both. In the four verses that follow 21:20-24 (the first paragraph above), there is little doubt Jesus was speaking of events that will directly precede His coming, which would lead us to think that, even if He was referring to Jerusalem’s fall in AD 70, they also have application to its future fall to the armies of the antichrist. From a non-physical perspective, it will be because “these are days of vengeance,” although we are not told who will be taking revenge. It could be nations that hate Israel or, because it was spoken through Jesus’ lips, God. It will also be, according to Jesus, fulfillment of prophecy. He also said there will be “great distress upon the land and wrath to this people,” obviously Jewish people. The word “wrath” is often associated in Scripture with God’s anger. Many will die, and many will be “led captive into all the nations.” Jerusalem will be controlled by Gentiles until God decides otherwise.

Again, if all of those things are applicable to the future fall of Jerusalem, they certainly cause us to question even more that idea that God has reestablished Israel and regathered Jews from around the world in order to favor and bless them above everyone else. On the other hand, if all those things only have application to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, they at least teach us about God’s perspective of Christ-rejecting Israel in AD 70. His wrath resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of descendants of Jacob/Israel. And since He never changes, that gives us some understanding of His perspective today (although those who rejected Jesus during His earthly ministry have far more guilt, as they saw His miracles).

Even if Jesus was foretelling only of the AD 70 fall of Jerusalem, take note that the Abrahamic covenant that supposedly (in the mind of some) granted unconditional land rights to descendants of Abraham’s grandson didn’t prevent the loss of the entire city, and beyond, then.

Zechariah 14

The Olivet Discourse is not the only prophetic Bible passages that refer to the yet-future invasion of Israel just prior to Jesus’ return. Take a look at the first few verses of Zechariah 14:

Behold, a day is coming for the Lord when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you (Zech. 14:1).

The first verse is a summary of what Zechariah is about to reveal in more detail. It is a promise of victory after invasion, defeat, and confiscation of property.

For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city (Zech. 14:2.)

Note that God takes the credit for gathering “all the nations against Jerusalem for battle.” That isn’t blessing. That’s judgment.

As a result of that God-initiated invasion and battle, Jerusalem will be “captured.” The invading soldiers will then go through homes, taking what they want, and while they are at it, they will rape women. Zechariah 12 indicates that invasion will extend beyond Jerusalem: “When the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah” (Zech. 12:2). Remember that in His Olivet Discourse, Jesus told all of His followers in Judea to flee.

But it gets worse. Zechariah foretold that half of the city will be exiled. The greater metropolitan region of Jerusalem is currently 1.3 million, of which approximately 62% are Jews, 36% are Muslim, and 2% are Christian. I wonder if there will be a religious test to decide who is exiled.

Will people from any other Israeli cities besides Jerusalem be exiled? What about Tel Aviv, with a current metro population of 4.5 million? (It didn’t exist when Zechariah and Jesus prophesied.) What about Haifa, at 1.2 million? It doesn’t seem logical that half of Jerusalem’s citizens would be exiled at the close of a war involving “all the nations” against Israel while other cities would be untouched.

To where will 650,000 people be exiled? Inside the borders of Israel but outside Jerusalem? To other Middle Eastern nations? We are not told. How will those exiles be treated? We are not told. In ancient times such folks would be used as slaves. Where will the United States be in this war? We don’t know.

Zechariah next launches into the good news. Although God won’t prevent the invasion of Israel (in fact, He will orchestrate it) or initially defend Jerusalem, after more than half a million people have been exiled, Jesus will return:

Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle. In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south. You will flee by the valley of My mountains, for the valley of the mountains will reach to Azel; yes, you will flee just as you fled before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord, my God, will come, and all the holy ones with Him! (Zech. 14:3-5, emphasis added).

Dispensationalists are dishonest when they describe Zechariah 14 simply as “God’s future rescue of Israel.” It is “God’s judgment on Israel in the form of an invasion by ‘all the nations’ followed by Jesus’ return and His judgment on those invading nations.” His return—which will be seen by everyone on the earth (see Matt. 24:30)—will spark an awakening and repentance in Israel and among Jews worldwide (and I assume many others), something Zechariah foretold a few chapters earlier in his book:

I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem (Zech. 12:10-11).

Returning to where we left off in Zechariah 14, we next learn that Jesus’ return marks the beginning of His rule over the nations:

In that day there will be no light; the luminaries will dwindle. For it will be a unique day which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but it will come about that at evening time there will be light.

And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea [the Dead Sea] and the other half toward the western sea [the Mediterranean Sea]; it will be in summer as well as in winter.

And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one (Zech. 14:6-9).

A few verses later, Zechariah describes God’s judgment upon those who went to war against Jerusalem. It sounds like something out of the Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark:

Now this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth. It will come about in that day that a great panic from the Lord will fall on them; and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another. Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered, gold and silver and garments in great abundance (Zech. 14:12-14).

This sequence of divine judgment followed by judgment on the former tool of divine judgment is certainly not unprecedented. There are scores of biblical examples of God judging Israel/Judah by means of a wicked nation and then Him judging the wicked nation that was the instrument of His judgment on Israel/Judah. Regarding Israel and Assyria, see 2 Kin. 17:5-23 with Isa. 10:5-19; 2 Kin. 19:35–37; Isa. 37:36–38. Regarding Judah and Babylon, see 2 Kin. 24-25; 2 Chron. 36; Jer. 25:1-11 with Isa. 13-14, 47; Jer. 50-51; Dan. 5; Ezra 1.

I hope you are now seeing, if you never saw it before, how overly-simplistic it is to conclude: “Since Israel was reborn in 1948 and Jews from all over the world have immigrated there, that is sure proof that God favors them above everyone else on the earth.” I hope you are also starting to question if the 20^th– and 21^st-century regathering of Jews to Israel from many nations is a sure and final fulfillment of God’s many promises to regather the descendants of Jacob/Israel in light of the future exile of what could be millions of Jewish people who currently reside in Israel. When I hear dispensationalists claim that Jeremiah 23:6, “Israel will dwell securely” is being “fulfilled before our eyes,” I know they are ignoring Jesus’ Olivet Discourse and Zechariah 14.

Beyond that, when we consider the Bible’s many prophetic passages that actually speak of God’s regathering of Jacob’s/Israel’s descendants from foreign nations, we can’t help but question if the 20^th– and 21^st-century return of Jews from all over the world is the fulfillment. In my next teaching on this subject, we will look at a few of those passages—authored by prophets Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. You may be surprised by what you find in their prophecies that dispensationalists have been hiding from you!