Scriptures About Israel Becoming a Nation Again
Every fourth dimension the situation in Israel-Palestine hits the news, for Christians 1 of the issues that emerges is whether or not the modernistic Country of Israel is a fulfilment of biblical prophecy. The principal prophetic text appealed to is the afterward chapters of Ezekiel, particularly Ezekiel 39. Just in society to understand whether there is connection betwixt these texts and events in the modern world, we need to await carefully at what Ezekiel says, how it was understood, and most importantly of all, how the writers of the NT understood these passages in relation to the ministry of Jesus.
Colin Chapman, who has written widely on the subject of the Middle East, engages with just these questions in the latest Grove Biblical booklet B 87Prophecy Fulfilled Today? Does Ezekiel Accept Anything to Say About the Modern State of Israel?He starts by noting that this question has been a concern of Christians for virtually 400 years.
It is in give-and-take nearly the fulfilment of prophecy in contempo history that at that place is most sectionalization among Christians. Since the fourth dimension of the Puritans in the seventeenth century many have believed that prophecies in Ezekiel and the other prophets concerning the return to the land and the restoration of Israelwould 1 day be ful lled literally. This view is generally known as 'restorationism.' And since the kickoff of the Zionist movement in the 1880s many Christians take been convinced that these prophecies—together with biblical promises almost the land—were being fulfilled.
To appoint with this question, the first thing Chapman does is to put Ezekiel and his prophecy in its context—when Ezekiel was writing, what was the situation, and what questions he is seeking to accost.
Ezekiel's offset task was to explain to his people that the fall of Jerusalem and the exile were God's judgment for the ways in which they had cleaved the covenant. God had taken away four of the nigh fundamental and pregnant gifts included in the covenant—the land, the city of Jerusalem, the temple and the monarchy. Having explained the reason for the exile, in the 2nd role of the book Ezekiel gives his people promise for the futurity (capacity 33–48). Non only will they be able to return to their land, but they will see that God is going to practice something radically new in and through the restoration of the state, the city, the temple and the monarchy.
But when we look at the history of the people in the land afterwards the return and in the next four centuries, it is hard to run across much bear witness of the national and spiritual renewal and revival that Ezekiel had envisaged. It was non surprising, therefore, that in the intertestamental period people began to dream of a time when God would intervene in miraculousways to ful l the visions of the prophets. Some of these hopes centred round the gure of a messiah, who would be either a supernatural figure coming on the clouds or a military effigy overcoming oppressive foreign rulers and restoring Israel's independence.
These were the kind of hopes of a better time to come that were held by many Jews in the commencement century, and summed up by Luke in expressions similar 'the consolation of Israel' (Luke ii.25), 'the redemption of Jerusalem' (Luke 2.38), 'the one who was to come' (Luke seven.xviii) and 'the one who was going to redeem Israel' (Luke 24.twenty). People must have thought, 'If the visions of Ezekiel and the other prophets have hardly been fulfilled in the history of the nation until at present, surely God has to intervene in a dramatic style to demonstrate his faithfulness to his promises!'
Chapman's central chapter then looks at seven major themes that are associated with the restoration from exile, detail in Ezekiel 34 to 37, and to encounter how these themes are taken upward in the NT. These themes include God acting through a shepherd-male monarch, the hallowing of the name of God, enjoying prosperity in the land, cleansing from sin, the gift of a new heart leading to obedience, a covenant of peace, and God's temple presence amongst his people. The most pertinent of these relates to the country.
The promise to bring exiles dorsum to the land looks at beginning sight as if it has no echoes in the NT. But scholars like N T Wright take argued that Jesus' employ of OT texts concerning the render from the Babylonian exile—taken mostly from Isaiah—suggests that Jesus saw his people as still in a state of exile, and announced that he was going to atomic number 82 them out of exile. The clearest examples come in his accost in the synagogue in Nazareth ('The Spirit of the Lord is on me…' Luke 4.xviii–nineteen, quoting Isa 61.1–two), and his response to the disciples of John the Baptist, in which he describes his healing miracles in the poetic language used by Isaiah to describes the exiles returning to the land ('The blind receive sight, the lame walk…' Luke seven.22, quoting Isa 35.5–6).10 Information technology may seem strange to include the words of Jesus nearly the Son of Man sending his angels to 'assemble his elect' (Mark 13.27) in this context. But since the word angelos tin can exist translated every bit either 'angel' or 'messenger,' it is perfectly possible that Jesus could be speaking nigh the proclamation of the gospel every bit a way of gathering the elect into the kingdom of God…
NT writers use OT terminology near the land (in particular the word 'inheritance,' kleronomia) to speak most what all believers possess in Christ. Thus Paul in his cheerio address to the Ephesian elders, echoing Joshua'south farewell address (Josh 23.1–16), speaks nearly 'the give-and-take of his [God's] grace, which…tin give yous an inheritance among all those who are sanctified' (Acts 20.32). Peter speaks of how all believers experience 'new birth into a living hope…and into an inheritance that tin can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in sky for yous…' (one Pet 1.three–4). The Letter to the Hebrews was addressed primarily to Jewish followers of Jesus, who might accept been expected to hold onto the promise that promises and prophecies about the country would one day be fulfilled in a very literal mode. Merely the author gives no hint of whatever expectation of a literal fulfilment, and instead develops the theme of the country in a completely new direction. He speaks of the land as 'that rest,' saying that 'We who have believed enter that rest' (Heb 4.3). And traditional Jewish hopes almost Jerusalem for the author are no longer centred on the bodily city of Jerusalem: 'But you have come to Mountain Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the urban center of the living God…to the church of the start born…to God…to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant…' (Heb 12.22–24)…
Christians generally have no difficulty in seeing most of these themes of Ezekiel's prophecy—about the Davidic shepherd-male monarch, the sanctification of the name of God, the nations knowing that he is God, cleansing from sin, the gift of a new heart and of God's Spirit, the covenant of peace and God's sanctuary beingness amongst his people for ever—as being fulfilled in the coming of Christ. If the themes apropos the nation and the land can too exist related to Jesus and to everything that is offered to every human being through him,it becomes much harder to believe that prophecies nearly the people and the land are in a special category, dissever from all the other themes of Ezekiel'sprophecy, and therefore need a literal fulfilment.
In the final section of the booklet, Chapman turns the lens the other way around, and asks whether the modern creation of the State of Israel actually matches what Ezekiel predicted—and he expected the return to be marked by peace, by repentance (in fulfilment of the conditions fix out in Deut 30), and with all the other features noted to a higher place—which are notably absent from the current situation. And in contrast to Ezekiel, when Jesus talked of the destruction of Jerusalem in Marking thirteen, Matt 24 and Luke 21, he brand no mention of the possibility of return and restoration. And Luke's gospel is the i that sets out most clearly thatall the promises of restoration are met in Jesus.
Ezekiel's visions of the restoration of State of israel led to a glorious climax in the temple in which God was going to 'live amongst the Israelites for ever' (43.7) and in the city whose name would always exist 'The Lord is there' (48.35). If nosotros believe, therefore, that information technology was uniquely in Jesus that God has come to live amongst united states of america, we should not be looking to see the fulfilment of Ezekiel's visions either in the twentieth-century return of Jews to the land, or the establishment of the state of Israel, or the present city of Jerusalem or in a futurity millennial reign of Jesus in Jerusalem. Perhaps Ezekiel, the priest turned prophet, was using the only language and imagery that were available to him at the time (related to the country, the nation, the city and the temple) to hint at something much more glorious than a render to the land, the revival of the nation and the restoration of a building. Mayhap God was using him to fix his people and to open their minds for what it would mean when, ve centuries subsequently, 'the Discussion was made flesh and dwelt among us' (John 1.14) and 'God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself' (2 Cor. 5.19). And the Volume of Revelation tells us that the best is still to come—not in the state or in Jerusalem, but in 'the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God' and in 'a new heaven and a new world' (Rev 21.ane–4).
This booklet will be of involvement to anyone trying to make sense of the current state of affairs, and wanting to relate it to Scripture in whatsoever fashion. The claim that Ezekiel prophesied the beingness of the modern Land of State of israel is made by many, and this booklet is an essential tool in assessing whether than claim is valid.
You lot can guild the booklet for £3.95 post-free on the Grove website, or purchase an e-book PDF delivered past email.
Follow me on Twitter @psephizo.Like my page on Facebook.
Much of my piece of work is washed on a freelance basis. If you accept valued this post, would you considerdonating £ane.20 a calendar month to back up the product of this web log?
If you enjoyed this, do share it on social media (Facebook or Twitter) using the buttons on the left. Follow me on Twitter @psephizo. Like my page on Facebook.
Much of my work is done on a freelance footing. If you take valued this post, you tin can make a single or echo donation through PayPal:
For other means to back up this ministry, visit my Support page.
Comments policy: Skillful comments that appoint with the content of the mail service, and share in respectful fence, tin can add real value. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Brand the most charitable construal of the views of others and seek to learn from their perspectives. Don't view debate as a conflict to win; address the argument rather than tackling the person.
Source: https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/does-the-state-of-israel-fulfil-biblical-prophecy/
0 Response to "Scriptures About Israel Becoming a Nation Again"
ارسال یک نظر