Israel's Divine Calling and Restoration: A Unifying Vision for God's Kingdom
There is something profound in the Lord’s eyes for those from Abraham’s natural lineage. Paul said, “Concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers” (Romans 11:28, NKJV).[i] This verse implies that Israel is elected (chosen) by God. Chosenness is deeply misunderstood. To be chosen means to be entrusted with a role, task, or mission more significant than your small self. Chosenness infers we have meaning, destiny, and a greater purpose that is God-given rather than self-motivated. Paul said, “For so the Lord has commanded us: I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:47). Divine election carried Israel to a whole new level, and she is beloved for the sake of the fathers.[ii] When God assigned Israel her purpose, she became the fulfillment of that purpose in the form of a nation, and her irrevocable calling was and is to be a light to the Gentiles.
But here is the great mystery. Once God established Israel as His covenant nation, there was no way for the Jewish people to back out of their calling. Israel’s identity, once imputed by the Lord, can never be erased. There are no atheist Protestants, Catholic Muslims, or Hindu Christians. However, there are Jewish atheists, Jews that have converted to Buddhism, Islam, and other religions, and of course, Jews who believe in Jesus. In other words, a Jew cannot suddenly become an un-Jew by changing their religion.[iii]
God chose the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which might imply a tribal identity or ethnic affiliation. However, He never precluded others from joining Him through Israel, where it is written, “And when a stranger dwells with you and wants to keep the Passover to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as a native of the land” (Exodus 12:48). A native of the land implies the right to inherit the land from the tribe he joined. This verse infers equality between the native-born and the proselyte (the stranger, ger in Hebrew) who joined himself among God’s people.
Therefore, Israel’s identity is much greater than tribal, ethnic affiliation, or religion. It implies citizenship, not just citizenship in any nation, but specifically citizenship in the Kingdom of Israel. And the children of Israel were promised to inherit the Kingdom of God.[iv] Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world…” (John 18:36). “But you are those who have continued with Me in My trials. And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:28-30).
In a Kingdom, the King makes you, his subject. Our identity is in the King, and our relationship with Him establishes our citizenship in the Kingdom. The Lord said, “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name” (Revelation 3:12).
Citizenship in the Kingdom of God first requires God’s covenant. In this regard, the Jewish people are unique because they are the only nation on the earth to be formed by God’s covenants. Second, citizenship requires God’s chosenness. The Jewish people are also unique because they are God’s only chosen group to become His nation and Kingdom. It is written, ”Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying: You only have I known of all the families of the earth...” (Amos 3:1-2). But now, in Christ, the Gentiles have also been chosen by God and grafted into Israel so they might share in all her covenant promises.
The identity of an Israelite is inherited in the same way citizenship in the Kingdom of God is inherited. You must be born into the Kingdom or born of a parent who is already a citizen of that Kingdom.[v] For this reason, no person can become a citizen of the Kingdom unless they are first born again and become a child of God. Jesus said, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3), implying that no person can become a child of God unless they are born anew of the Spirit of God. John said, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).
The children of Israel are the rightful heirs to the Kingdom of God.[vi] However, God has the authority to define the terms of His citizenship, and He can sovereignly expand it.[vii] Jesus said, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out” (Luke 19:40). God’s term for citizenship requires us to be in Christ, born again of the Spirit of God. Therefore, we are called heirs to the Kingdom. As heirs, our inheritance is received through citizenship in His Kingdom. We read, “Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?” (James 2:5).
Regarding Israel being the natural heirs, Paul said, “For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed” (Romans 9:6-8). While citizenship in the Kingdom of God was promised to the Jewish people, it also implies a sense of responsibility between citizens and certain privileges that, under the Old Covenant, were conditional. The New Covenant fulfills these now unconditional promises in Christ Jesus.
Therefore, to inherit the Kingdom, the Jewish people must come under the Lordship of their King, Jesus. Refusing His Lordship is akin to rejecting the promise of His citizenship. They are still Jews (God’s chosen people), but they have refused to submit and have, therefore, renounced their citizenship. For this reason, they will receive a stern judgment from God. Jesus said, “Many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness” (Matthew 8:11-12).
Because of Israel’s unbelief, some of the natural branches have been cut away and removed, and branches from the nations have been grafted, contrary to nature, in their place. Paul said it like this, “If some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you” (Romans 11:17-18).
Being grafted into God’s Kingdom does not require the Gentiles to become Jewish. However, it does impart to them a degree of Jewishness, in other words, a Jewish heart. The church’s foundation, the Kingdom of God, is Jewish, or as I prefer, Hebraic. Paul referred to the Kingdom as the Commonwealth of Israel, defined as “an aggregate or grouping of communities, bodies, or countries with shared interests.”[viii] Israel was one nation comprised of twelve independent tribes. Similarly, the Kingdom of God is also one nation consisting of every tribe and tongue, and people.[ix]
Therefore, an Israelite who accepts Jesus has not necessarily converted to Christianity per se but has converted to a new way of thinking—that Salvation cannot come through the works of the Mosaic Law, but only through faith in saving works of their Messiah. We do not cease to be Jews, but instead, we become saved Jews who have received Abraham’s promise and are now a new creation in Christ. By faith, we believe what Christ had done when we heard what He did on the cross, even though we did not witness it ourselves. Our apprehension of Christ has come through God’s Divine wisdom and understanding that He has given us.
Likewise, a Gentile who accepts Jesus is also not converting to Christianity per se, as if Christianity were somehow a new religion that was established without its Hebraic foundation. The Gentiles have also converted to a new way of thinking, believing by hearing that salvation only comes through the Messiah of Israel—Jesus. These also become a new creation in Christ and “one new man” with Abraham’s natural descendants. There is only one path to salvation through Jesus,[x] so our identity in Christ is the same. We are all adopted children of God. Yes, Israel is His firstborn nation, but we are all His children.[xi]
Paul stipulates that some, but not all, native (Israelite) olive branches have been cut away. However, he also says that God can and will graft them back in again, so this is God’s sovereign will, not ours. An Israelite who remains zealous for God through his faith in the one true God will not have his sin permanently taken away until he either believes by faith in the gospel of salvation or, at an appointed time, receives the visible revelation of Jesus.[xii] Since the Lord chooses the time of His revealing to Israel, their redemption is associated with the fullness (full number) of the Gentiles entering the Kingdom. Paul said, “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (Romans 11:25).
Therefore, Israel’s “partial” blindness or hardening implies they are blind towards “part” of the Godhead—their Messiah—but not all the Godhead. This explains why they can remain zealous for the “God of Israel” by believing in the one they have not seen. Yet, the Jewish people will not be washed of their sins or have intimate knowledge of who He is until they receive His complete outward and inward revelation. In other words, until they see Jesus. “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory” (Mark 13:26).
For this reason, Paul says, “For I bear them witness [of Jesus, i.e., telling them what I saw] that they have a zeal for God, but not according to [inward] knowledge” (Romans 10:2). And if an Israelite were to receive Jesus’s complete revelation and continue to reject Him, they also would be permanently cut off like the generation in the wilderness. Just the same, an Israelite can hear the Word of God and believe in their Messiah whom they have not seen. In this Premillennial dispensation, those who accept Jesus will be taken as firstfruits to the Lord and will make the entire remnant of Israel Holy. As Abraham is the root of the olive tree, his imputed righteousness nourishes all the branches and makes them all holy.
Paul’s analogy of a cultivated olive tree is a spiritual picture of the great assembly called the ecclesia (kahal in Hebrew). This universal (as in Catholic) church comprises Israel and the nations of the earth joined to her as one people of God.[xiii] And the partial blindness of Israel’s heart was not to condemn eternally nor to annihilate God’s chosen nation but to preserve a remnant of the Jewish people according to His grace by the covenant of faith He made with Abraham.
At God’s appointed time, Israel will be given the revelation, the sight of her Messiah, as the Lord said: “Then the Lord will be seen over them, And His arrow will go forth like lightning” (Zechariah 9:14); “And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for [the death of] his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for [the death of] a firstborn?” (Zechariah 12:10). At that time, faithful Israel, the true children of the Divine promise, will see their Messiah, who they rejected and lay bare when they condemned Him to be crucified. They will repent, be saved, and enter God’s Kingdom.
God’s miraculously delivered the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt was a unique event in all human history. At that moment, Israel became His people, heritage, and holy nation. This had never happened to any group of people; still, the Lord promised that one day He would do something even more spectacular and demonstratively powerful. The Lord declared, “Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, but, The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers” (Jeremiah 16:14-15).
Hence, the restoration of Israel is one of God’s most significant promises in the Bible, so much so that God declares, “Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul” (Jeremiah 32:41). God’s entire heart and soul are consumed with this promise. He has reaffirmed in so many verses that a whole chapter could be filled. Every prophet spoke of Israel’s return and restoration:
“But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you. For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. Since you were precious in My sight, You have been honored, And I have loved you; Therefore I will give men for you, And people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west; I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not keep them back!’ Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth—Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him” (Isaiah 43:1-7).
These scriptures do not speak of a God who has cast away His people, Israel. Certainly not. And the restoration of Israel involves more than the Jewish people; it is deeply connected to the land God promised to Abraham. In this sense, God’s people and His land are inseparably one. But Israel is also intricately connected to the nations, as we read, “When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations, When He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:8).
Israel and the nations are joined as one global family, a commonwealth, and a company of nations, as promised to Abraham. God is King, and a king must have royal subjects. But a king must also possess the land where His royal subjects reside. We read, “Your people shall all be righteous; They shall inherit the land forever, The branch of My planting, The work of My hands, That I may be glorified” (Isaiah 60:21).
The reference to “your people” is clearly to Israel, but it also speaks of Jerusalem. It says, “The sons of foreigners shall build up your walls, And their kings shall minister to you; For in My wrath I struck you, But in My favor I have had mercy on you. Therefore your gates shall be open continually; They shall not be shut day or night, That men may bring to you the wealth of the Gentiles, And their kings in procession. For the nation and kingdom which will not serve you shall perish, And those nations shall be utterly ruined” (Isaiah 60:1-12).
Jesus and the Jewish people are inseparably one. But also, Israel is married to her land. As we read, “You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the Lord delights in you, And your land shall be married” (Isaiah 62:4). Hence, it is impossible to remove Jesus from His people or His land as these collectively are the Kingdom of God.
When we speak of Israel, we need to recognize that in the Millennial Kingdom, there is an unregenerate group that survives the great tribulation and a regenerated group that is the church. The church is a redeemed and spiritually reborn people taken out of the world from every tongue, tribe, nation, and people, including a remnant of the Jewish people. While the church and Israel are intricately connected, they are also dispensationally somewhat different. Jesus spoke of two resurrections, promising a special blessing to those who are part of the first one.[xiv]
When Jesus died on the cross, many graves were opened, and the dispensation of the first resurrection began.[xv] Hence, The Church and the Old Testament saints are part of this first resurrection.[xvi] We will be transformed from this mortal body to one imperishable and undefiled by sin and will return with Christ to gather the lost tribes of Israel from every nation where God scattered them, and we will rule and reign with Jesus in the Kingdom over the earth.[xvii] The church, in essence, is part of “faithful Israel” and “spiritual Israel,” but not the physical nation and people who will inherit its land when Jesus returns. Jesus said, “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30).
Therefore, the restoration of Israel, and thus, the restoration of God’s Kingdom, is predicated on the return of the Jewish people to the land God promised to Abraham. These cannot presently be fulfilled through the church. Jesus’s First Advent and ministry were exclusively focused on Israel’s repentance, as He said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
But His Second Advent will be consumed with salvation and restoration of the last remnant of the Jewish people who survive the tribulation, bringing to dwell in His Kingdom forever. We read, “And it shall come to pass in that day That the Lord will thresh, From the channel of the River to the Brook of Egypt; And you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. So it shall be in that day: The great trumpet will be blown; They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt, And shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem” (Isaiah 27:12-13).
Biblical truth regarding Israel should be of the utmost importance to every Christian as it speaks to the coming of Christ’s Kingdom that will be established in Israel from Jerusalem. The early church of the Patristic Era (A.D. 100-500) recognized Old Testament prophecies and Paul’s words in Romans chapter eleven concerning the restoration of Israel. And included in this restoration was the return of the Jewish people to the Land promised to Abraham. Even through the twelfth century, Christian theologians held to an end-times belief that Israel would be saved: Tertullian, Origen, Cyril, Chrysostom, Jerome, Anselm, Bernard, and many others. Even though he spiritualized many of the prophecies concerning Israel, Saint Augustine believed in the Jewish people's salvation at the end of the age. In his comprehensive study of church history, Dennis Fahey says, “The Jews will be converted… towards the end of the world can be proved from the texts of the Fathers, century by century.”[xviii]
For early theologians, the salvation of Israel would be a spectacular “last days” occurrence. Tertullian said, “For it will be fitting for the Christian to rejoice, and not to grieve, at the restoration of Israel, if it be true, (as it is), that the whole of our hope is intimately united with the remaining expectation of Israel.”[xix] Origen also affirmed the future salvation of Israel in his commentary to the Romans, saying, “Now indeed, until all the Gentiles come to salvation, the riches of God are concentrated in the multitude of believers, but as long as Israel remains in its unbelief it will not be possible to say that the fullness of the Lord’s portion has been attained. The people of Israel are still missing from the complete picture. But when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and Israel comes to salvation at the end of time, then it will be the people which, although it existed long ago, will come at the last and complete the fullness of the Lord’s portion and inheritance.”[xx]
In studying the history of Israel and the church, we discover a parallel—that God has been working for centuries to restore both. While they seem on different and diverging paths, the Lord has brought Christians and Jewish leaders together for centuries.
The Jewish Enlightenment period and the rise of Zionism began in the late 1800s. Struggling with persecution and antisemitism in Europe, a group of Jewish leaders formed a movement called Zionism to bring the Jewish people back to the land of Israel.[xxi] Theodor Herzl officially established the organization in 1897 and held the First Zionist Congress that year in Basel, Switzerland. Herzl also formed and became the first president of the World Zionist Organization.[xxii] Between 1882 and 1903, approximately thirty-five thousand Jews relocated to Palestine and roughly another 40,000 between 1904 and 1914.[xxiii] Sadly, this Zionist vision would not be fully realized until after the ashes of the Holocaust.
And what of the church? With the Protestant Reformation in 1517, the Lord began to restore His written word to the body of Christ. The term “reformation” derives from the Latin word reformatio and means “restoration” or “renewal.” Christian Zionism also began during this period with its roots in the pietistic Protestants and, a century later, the English Puritans.[xxiv] The Lord brought the first and second great awakenings to the church from the 1730s through the 1800s, also known as the Restoration Movement, bringing back the power of His Holy Spirit to the church. And within a couple of hundred years, Christian Zionism had grown to include leading writers, theologians, and politicians.
The third great awakening began in the 1850s and continued through the 1900s. Mainstream Christian Zionism started during this time in the late 1880s. Its roots can be traced to a man by the name of William Hechler, who had befriended Theodor Herzl and worked with him to raise support for Zionism, forming a committee of Christian Zionists that helped move Jewish refugees to Israel after a series of pogroms in Russia.
By the twentieth century, Christian Zionism was supported by some of the most distinguished individuals in British society, including the conservative politician and British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour, who penned the Balfour Declaration in 1917. The Declaration was sent in a letter from Balfour to the British Zionist Federation president in London, Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, expressing the British government’s support for establishing a Jewish home in Palestine. This text was later included in the document issued by the League of Nations in 1923, called the Mandate for Palestine, which gave Great Britain the responsibility of establishing a Jewish national homeland in British-controlled Palestine.
After World War II, in the summer of 1947, a UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) investigated the mounting Arab-Jewish in the region. With input from Christian leaders, such as Reverend John Grauel, Reverence William Hull, Canadian delegate Justice Ivan Rand, and the Guatemalan Ambassador Jorge Garcia-Granados, the majority of UNSCOP members recommended ending Britain’s role in Palestine. After several iterations, they recommended a partition of the region, creating separate Jewish and Arab states. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly accepted the modified UNSCOP plan and adopted the UN Partition Plan, Resolution 181, to partition an area of Palestine for the Jewish people.[xxv] The United States played a crucial role in the UN Partition. And on May 14, 1948, a gathering of Jewish leaders in Tel Aviv signed a proclamation that declared the establishment of a Jewish state known as the State of Israel.
In 1949, more than 249,000 Jewish immigrants arrived in Israel, the most significant number in any year. Nineteen years later, in June 1967, during the six-day war, Israel regained control of the Temple Mount for the first time in nearly two thousand years. The Lord’s prophetic words had been at least partially fulfilled as He began the restoration of His Kingdom.
The crescendo of the Awakening movement is frequently called the “Azusa Street revival” and birthed the Pentecostal church that moved in great signs, wonders, miracles, and healings. And from the 1960s through the 1970s, the church experienced the fourth great awakening and the explosion of the Messianic movement. This last move initiated the final preparatory phase of God’s restoration to the church—to bring the Messianic Jewish people together with their gentile brethren as “one new man.” This move of the Holy Spirit was divinely timed with the return of east Jerusalem and the Temple Mount to the Jewish people in 1967.
Today, the Christian Zionist movement has tens of millions of believers, mainly in the United States. With the restoration of God’s word, the power of His Holy Spirit, and the awakening of many Jewish people back to their Messiah, the church today is poised to receive the last great outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will culminate in the final restoration of Israel and the return of Christ.
God has not rejected the Jewish people nor fulfilled His plans for them. So, the question of Israel’s restoration is not if but when. And the church remains central to God’s plans for Israel’s restoration and the establishment of His Kingdom. While Israel’s calling of bringing the Gospel to the nations is irrevocable, it is primarily the Gentile church and a small number of Jewish believers that have been sharing this message with the nations, and they have been anointed to provoke Israel to jealousy.[xxvi] If we truly understand God’s heart for Israel, the church will also help to save and rebuild her. As it says, “And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the foreigner Shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers” (Isaiah 61:4-5).
So, while Israel and the church are distinctly unique for this season, temporarily separated as it would appear, we are also eternally connected.[xxvii] There will come a time when God will restore all things; as it is written (emphasis added), “Therefore He shall give them [natural Israel] up, Until the time that she [the church] who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren [natural unsaved Israel] Shall return to the children of Israel [faithful Israel]” (Micah 5:3). In this verse, we discover the dispensations of God’s salvation for Israel and the nations. Paul said it this way, “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles” (Romans 11:11). Thus, Israel’s salvation and final redemption will come in two parts.
For a season, God has given them up, meaning He would turn away from Israel, not entirely abandoning them, but focus His attention on the salvation of the nations to provoke Israel to jealousy. However, a remnant of Israel has always been saved by grace and deeply connected to the church.[xxviii] Paul said, “God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew” (Romans 11:2). But this current dispensation is the time or fullness of the Gentiles and will continue until the resurrection and rapture of the church. At that time, we who are in Christ will receive our final redemption and be birthed and revealed to the creation when we return with Him.
In our current dispensation, God is saving a remnant of Israel and the nations in Christ. But afterward, He will gather the unsaved remnant of the Jewish people, drawing them back to Himself and the land He promised to Abraham. We read:
“For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return; The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness” (Isaiah 10:22).
“Then it will happen on that day that the Lord Will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain. And He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:11-12).
“I will also bring them back from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, until no more room is found for them” (Zechariah 10:10).
“Therefore say: This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will gather you from the nations and bring you back from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you back the land of Israel again” (Ezekiel 11:17).
“The Lord will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and have ruined their vines” (Nahum 2:2).
At first, the Lord will draw the children of Israel like a fisherman. But if they harden their hearts, then He will bring judgment against them and upon the nations where they were scattered. As it is written, “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks” (Jeremiah 16:16).
Twice we read in the book of Jeremiah, “Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob, says the Lord, nor be dismayed, O Israel; For behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, and no one shall make him afraid. For I am with you, says the Lord, ‘to save you; Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, Yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, and will not let you go altogether unpunished” (Jeremiah 30:10-11).
Twice clearly indicates God’s assured promise to bring the children of Israel back to Himself and their land, but also to judge them severely for their rejection of Him. As it is written, “They shall walk after the LORD. He will roar like a lion. When He roars, Then His sons shall come trembling from the west” (Hosea 11:10). Israel’s return to their land will happen per God’s word and cannot be altered. And if we understand the eschatological timeline correctly, Israel’s return to the land will predominantly occur before the tribulation. However, redemption and returning are not the same. Redemption is our deliverance from sin, and this fallen world into the Kingdom of God. Returning is merely the physical act of moving to the land of Israel.
The Lord is currently returning Israel to the land so they might receive Christ before the first resurrection and rapture. Therefore, we surmise that the rebirth of Israel in 1948 was for this purpose—to bring the Jewish people back, after that, to bring them to repentance. But as we read in scripture, only a remnant will believe, and the rest will go through the refinement of God’s purifying fire—the tribulation. As it is written, “For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, A remnant of them will return; The destruction decreed shall overflow with righteousness” (Isaiah 10:22). The Prophet Daniel wrote concerning the time of the Anti-Christ: “Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand” (Daniel 12:10).
The church is called to restore and rebuild God’s Kingdom and the nations. But, most importantly, we are called to love the Jewish people, sharing the gospel will all who might receive the Spirit of truth.[xxix] And we are called to protect and help the Jewish people return (make Aliyah) to their land, now and in their coming sorrow. When Christ returns with His resurrected church on the Day of the Lord, He will deliver and redeem the last remnant of Israel with great signs and wonders, forgiving their sins and forever planting them in the land He promised to Abraham, as we read in Micah:
“As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them wonders. The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; They shall put their hand over their mouth; Their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent; They shall crawl from their holes like snakes of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of You. Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob And mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old” (Micah 7:15-20).
The Lord will fulfill every word of prophecy concerning the Jewish people and the land of Israel—the heart of God’s Kingdom and His Holy city, Jerusalem. We read, “When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning” (Isaiah 4:4). For the Lord declared: “For you [Israel] are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6). “In the days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and sprout, and they will fill the whole world with fruit” (Isaiah 27:6).
On that great Day of the Lord, when Jesus stands on the Mount of Olives, opposite the Temple Mount, and Christ’s Holy ones, His church is with Him; the remnant of unsaved Israel will return to the true children of Israel, who are in Christ, and we will be joined with them and those of the nations that survived the tribulation. Israel’s restoration will be complete, and the church will be joined with Israel to become one people of God and the Kingdom of God will be established on the earth as it is in heaven. Together, we will reign with Christ as kings and priests over the nations for all eternity— “A great multitude [the ecclesia and church of God] which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, [will stand] before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and [will cry] out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10).
[i] All Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Bible (NKJV) unless otherwise noted, Thomas Nelson Inc., 1982.
[ii] Romans 11:28-29.
[iii] Freeman, Tzvi. Who is a Jew? Chabad.org.
[iv] The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are referenced more than one-hundred times in the New Testament.
[v] Psalm 87:5, Isaiah 66:8.
[vi] Romans 9:3-4.
[vii] Amos 9:12, Romans 9:15, Acts 15:17.
[viii] Oxford Dictionary.
[ix] Revelation 5:9, 7:9.
[x] Exodus 12:49, John 14:6.
[xi] John 1:12.
[xii] Revelation—from late Latin revelatio(n-), from revelare “lay bare.”
[xiii] Zechariah 2:11.
[xiv] Revelation 20:5-6.
[xv] Matthew 27:51-53.
[xvi] 1 Peter 4:6.
[xvii] 1 Corinthians 15:53. 1 Peter 1:4.
[xviii] Fahey, Dennis. The Kingship of Christ and the Conversion of the Jewish Nation. Kimm age, Dublin: Holy Ghost Missionary College, 1953. 107.
[xix] Tertullian, On Modesty 8, ANF 4:82.
[xx] Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture [hereafter ACC]: New Testament, ed. Gerald Bray (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1998) 6.291.
[xxi] Zionism. History.com. 2017.
[xxii] Ibid.
[xxiii] Ibid.
[xxiv] Donoghue, Rachel O. The Armageddon Mosaic and What It Says about Israel’s Relationship with Evangelical Christians. Israel365news.com.
[xxv] Parsons, David. The Christian Role in Israel’s Founding. ICEJ.
[xxvi] Romans 11:11, 14, 29.
[xxvii] Zechariah 2:11.
[xxviii] Romans 11:5.
[xxix] 2 Thessalonians 2:10.