By Deji Yesufu
A few weeks ago, I got into an argument with an elderly Christian gentleman at church over the question of Israel. I had suggested, while making a remark, that God was not favourably disposed to the nation of Israel today but rather his heart is with the church.
This person was visibly offended: he went to great length to explain that God has never relinquished his preference for Israel since Biblical times.
He believes that the fact that Israel thrives among antagonistic Arab nations is proof of God’s favourable disposition to Israel. I was not convinced by his argument and I thought I would share some of my thoughts against his in this article.
Israel today enjoys the backing of Christian nations all around the world because of what I would respectfully call a similar defective notion shared by my senior Christian friend above. Indeed, as stated in the Old Testament, Israel as a nation is God’s elect. Being descendants of Abraham, God dealt with that nation on covenant bases. It meant that when Israel was faithful to God’s laws, he blessed them. When they were not, he cursed them. One of such curses led to their over seventy years of exile in Babylon. Subsequently, they were restored.
It is my argument that the correct perception of how heaven views Israel today, and how the Church should view her, should not be taken from Old Testament stories; but rather from the New Testament and historical facts. If we understand this, it would go a very long way in how the Church ought to view Israel and subsequently how Christian nations must deal with her.
After God entered a covenant with Israel, he made it clear to them that he was going to be instituting a better covenant with them in the days to come (Jeremiah 31:31-33). This covenant, we would learn, was to be established around the life, ministry and death of Jesus Christ. Now this is where it gets interesting.
When Jesus Christ was born and while he lived and carried out his ministry on earth, his biggest opposition were the Jews. In the end, when our Lord was to fulfil God’s purpose for his coming to the earth, it was the Jews that took him and had him crucified on a Roman cross (Acts 2:23). They even went to the extent of saying that Jesus’ blood be placed upon them and their children.
When Jesus rose from the dead, and he commissioned his Apostles to go everywhere to preach the gospel, the Apostles made it clear to the Jews that they were the ones that killed the Lord of life (Acts 2:36). Throughout Acts of the Apostles, the biggest impediment to the spread of the gospel were the Jews. At some point, Paul was so put off by their ways that he renounced any ministry to the Jews and turned to the Gentiles. The testimony of the New Testament is that the Jews were thoroughly antagonistic to Jesus and to his gospel.
But Jesus, while on earth, warned about the consequences of the Jews’ rejection of God’s plan for them through Christ (Luke 19:43). Paul also said that it was a righteous thing for God to recompense tribulation to all who troubled the Church (2 Thessalonians 1:6). The early church expected God’s judgement on the Jews, especially as Christ had warned them in his short talk with them about signs of the end in Matthew 24.
According to both church and world history, Paul the Apostle was martyred sometimes around AD 68. About this time, there was a rise in Jewish nationalism. The Jews had never enjoyed being ruled by the Romans and thus in AD 70, there was a popular Jewish revolt in Jerusalem. It led to the killing of a number of Roman soldiers. The Roman Emperor subsequently sent in General Titus, who moved into Jerusalem and mowed the city down.
Titus destroyed the Jewish temple built for them by Herod (after this the Jews have not built a temple again and the Church should not support the building a Jewish temple in Jerusalem today). Titus subsequently ordered the execution of thousands of Jews and ultimately wiped out everything that was left of the Jewish nation. Most of the Jews that survived this mayhem fled into gentile nations where they lived for many centuries afterwards. Jerusalem was destroyed in AD 70.
Based on Christ’s warning in Matthew 24 and following numerous prophetic utterances among the earth church at that time, many Christian had escaped the mayhem that was brought upon Jerusalem by Titus and his soldiers. In fact, the general consensus among Christians then was that the Jews were suffering tribulation for rejecting their Saviour: Christ the Messiah . While none of them rejoiced at the killing of the Jews, at the same time they felt no pity for them: the Jews were receiving just recompense for the actions of their fathers on Jesus.
The Jews remained in exile for almost 1900 years. By God’s own providence and because of the uniqueness of their religion, Judaism, the Jewish people remained select people among the nations of the world. Some people argue that there is no pure Jew today because many of them have intermarried with the nations of the earth. That however is something that may be difficult to prove.
What is clear, from the foregoing, is that historically the Jewish nation has never been a friend of Jesus nor is it a friend of the Church. Christian nations that support Israel today do it based upon a wrong understanding of historical facts both from scriptures and from the world.
While I will not argue against a Jewish state today, as every nation and people have a right to self determination and preservation, I will support the position of Bob Gonzales of the Reformed Baptist Institute, USA, that says that the resolving of the conflict between Israel and Palestine should be based upon the “principle of natural justice”.
It was justified that Israel be given a nation of its own, especially following years of self determination from Jewish nationalist groups and especially after millions of Jews were executed during the Nazi occupation of Europe in the second world war.
But just as we seek a nation for Israel, the world must also accept that while Israel was away on exile for 1900 years, its land had become occupied by another set of people whom we call the Palestinians today. This is why most people who have called for a peaceful resolution of the Jewish/Palestine impasse, have almost always suggested a two state solution. A situation where the world would recognize both Israel and Palestine as two distinct nations living on the same geographical land space.
The Christian Church should not join apostate America in its decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is a holy land that has equal claims to it by Muslims, Christians and Jews. But a correct Christian perspective should show us that the true Church has no business over a debate on the land of Jerusalem. Our Jerusalem is a city set up by God himself in heaven that will come with Christ. If anything at all, the church should be a mediating force between Arab nations and the Jews. There is nothing mediating about Donald Trump relocating the American Embassy to Jerusalem. It is an irresponsible act that is only furthering the conflict in that region.
The right Christian perspective to the Arab/Jewish impasse are the words of Jesus: “It is not for you to know times and seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority… but you will be my witnesses…” (Acts 1:7-8).
Jesus is saying that his concern today is not the building of political kingdoms but the building of a spiritual kingdom, where he is head. God in his wisdom has permitted the institution of a Jewish state in Palestine today. We thank God for this but the business of the Church is not defending Israel against Arab nations. Our business is in allowing natural justice to prevail in that region. As we do this, the Arab nations will see truth and they would see justice, then they would recognize the Christian spirit that commends these virtues. As they do this, God may open their hearts to hear and believe the gospel. But when the Church is antagonistic to Arab nations while it defends Israel’s murderous activities in Palestine, these people would not see justice and their minds would be closed to our gospel and they would not be saved.
If God has permitted conflict in the Middle East today, he has done it because he wishes to bring the truth of the gospel to all men in that region. The propagation of the gospel in the Middle East is God’s concern; and not the preservation of a land for Israel. God’s true Israel today is the Christian Church and not a people living in modern Palestine who have a morbid hatred for his Son, Jesus Christ.
I have not written this for Christians to hate Jews. This is the extreme that Hitler took the theology of Martin Luther to that led to his anti-Semitic actions. The Jews are not the enemy of the Church; neither are they our friends. An average Jew needs to hear the gospel and be saved in the same way we wish to recommend the gospel to Muslims. I hope that a proper comprehension of this article will help Christians have a proper biblical and historical understanding of the Jewish people; particularly our mission to bring the Christian gospel to them.
http://mouthpiece.com.ng/israel-and-the-church-today/
