No, Israel’s Restoration Is Not A Novel Idea

Dr Simon Smelt

“Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome; or declare to us the things to come.” Isaiah 41:22

A popular trope among those who oppose Israel is to deny that any Christians before Nelson Darby in the 19thC saw a prophetic future for the Jews. Dr Taylor Marshall – a popular blogger - calls those arguing for such a future “infantile”; Tucker Carlson calls Christian Zionism “heresy” and a “brain virus.” These critics position themselves as guardians of mainstream Christians and commonsense.

In my book, Israel’s Land and People in History & Prophecy, I debuk the narrative and attacks on Zionism as settler-colonialism etc. favoured by such sources, But what of the Bible?

Set aside debates about the detail and sequence of end time events and we arrive at two basic propositions on Bible prophecies over Israel:

1. that the Lord promises the renewal of ethnic Israel to Himself, and this promise is active and trustworthy

2. that the Lord promises the restoration of the Holy Land to ethnic Israel, and this promise is active and trustworthy.

Of course, there is a wide variety of views about Israel’s prophetic future. We can trace the roots of both those that promote such a future and those that deny it back to the early church. Both have developed over time, so that their current positions can both be described as “recent.”

Here is a list of some pre-19thC notable people and writings who support one or both of A and B above:

• Origen (c185-253) early theologian: A

• John Chrysostom (c347-407) archbishop of Constantinople, strongly against Jews and Judaism: A

• Augustine of Hippo (354–430) founding father of theology, who spiritualised much prophecy, but not Israel’s spiritual restoration: A

• Joachim of Fiore (c1135-1202) visionary monk, spoke to King Richard I en route to 2nd Crusade: A

• Albertus Magus (c. 1200–1280) influential philosopher: A

• Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) the rock of Catholic theology: A

• John Calvin (1509-1564) leader of the Reform movement: A

• 1560 edition Geneva Bible: A, arguably B

• Thomas Draxe (? - 1618) English classicist, published about Jews’ return 1609: A, B

• Thomas Brightman (1562-1607) influential work on Jews’ return to the Holy Land published 1615: A, B

• Following Brightman in 17thC England: Henry Finch, Jospeh Mede, William Bridge, Giles Fletcher, John Owen, Henry Oldenburg: A, B

• 1619 Canons of Dordt: Preamble: A, B

• John Dury (1596-1680) Scottish Calvinist: A, B

• Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680) his 1649 sermon to Parliament officially printed: A, B

• Johannes Cocceius (1603-1669) Dutch theology professor, notably close to dispensationalism: A, B

• John Milton (1608-1674) eminent poet: A, B

• 1645 Westminster Directory for the Publick Worship of God: Public Prayer before Sermon: A*

• 1648 Westminster Larger Catechism (191): A*

• 1658 Savoy Declaration (26.5): A*

• Increase Mather (1639-1723) New England preacher: A, B   

• Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727) eminent scientist: A, B

• Nicolaus Zinzendorf (1700-1760) leader of the Moravians: A, B

• Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) American revivalist:  A, B

• John Wesley (1703-1791) evangelist: A, B

• Charles Wesley (1707-1788) hymn writer: A, B    

*Signatories to these statements mostly or all believed B also, but chose not to constrain others.

“Of All The Ancient Race
Not One Be Left Behind,
But Each, Impelled By Secret Grace,
His Way To Canaan Find.

We Know It Must Be Done,
For God Hath Spoke The Word:
All Israel Shall The Saviour Own,
To Their First State Restored”
Charles Welsey, “Almighty God Of Love”

All those listed above understood the Bible as pointing to a future fulfilment of prophesy for Israel. Indeed, the great 19thC Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon said that to deny such a future was “treason to God’s word.” (Spurgeon, incidentally, was a fierce critic of Nelson Darby.)

To declare this future as a recent “heresy” is false. The frequency of such charges shows both the power of social media and the desperation of those who preach against Biblical prophecy as it is fulfilled before our eyes.

The early gentile church largely put aside the Old Testament other than as a precursor to the New. The spiritual restoration of the Jews survived this treatment because Paul restates it in Romans 11. But its basis in the Old Testament was mostly ignored.

Until the 16thC, illiteracy and the vast cost and rarity of the huge, hand-written Bibles (mostly chained to church pulpits), plus the grip of the Catholic Church, choked peoples’ ability to study Scripture. The Protestant reformation and the Gutenberg revolution of printing opened wide the Bible. Its prophecies were rediscovered.

Replacement theology – the view that church replaces Israel – was revitalized in the late 19th and early 20thC by German liberal scholars such as Ferdinand Baur, Julius Wellhausen and Adolf von Harnack. They dismissed the Old Testament, saw the Jews as a negative force, and emphasized instead the church’s march forward. This fed into Nazism. When Hitler spoke of Christ’s “tremendous struggle for this world against the Jewish poison,” he was reflecting the words of Baur. We should not be surprised by the strong, anti-Semitic bent now emerging in some churches.

Today we hear about “fulfilment theology.” Here, the emphasis is less on the church replacing Israel than on the church fulfilling prophesy. If anything, this is worse. For example, the popular “seven mountains mandate” takes the prophesy of Isaiah 2:2 - about the mountain of the house of the Lord becoming the chief of the mountains - and applies it to the church seizing control of the commanding heights of society. If the church by its own works fulfils end times promises, Jesus is out of a job. No need for His return - the church does it all. Nor can the “apostles” of this movement bear any distinct moment or role for Israel. Back instead to a materialistic and nationalistic church.

Such theologies are insidious for they degrade God’s word, acclaim the church, and crush our future hope in a fallen world (John 14:1-3).

The Nakba

Stolen Land?

The Empire and the Jews