Spiritual Blindness and the Nation of Israel

Late in the third century AD, the intellectual elite of the Christian faith decided to ‘allegorize’ certain Scripture, regarding the nation of Israel, rather than take those Scripture literally.

In 135 AD, after having suppressed the Bar Kokhba revolt against the Roman Empire, Caesar decided to put a permanent end to Israel’s constant uprisings.  The Israelites were removed from Jerusalem and scattered around the Empire to put an end to their revolts.

Moses told the Israelites they would be removed from the land, as a temporary judgment against them for their defiance, but that they would one day return:

30 “And when all these things come upon you (the nation of Israel), the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.

4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) possessed, that you may possess it.”

We know Moses was not referring to just the temporary dispersions of Israel and Judah, by the Assyrians and Babylonians, because there will be a final restoration of Israel to the land that will be forever (Genesis 13:15, 48:4; I Chronicles 16:15-18; Isaiah 60:21; Jeremiah 31:36; Ezekiel 37:24-26; Amos 9:14-15). 

When the Jews and the nation of Israel were scattered among the nations, they were warned that they would be treated harshly due to their disobedience.  God warned:

“…and you (Israel) will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth (Deuteronomy 28:25).”   You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule in all the nations where the Lord will drive you.”  They (the curses of God) will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever (Deuteronomy 28:46).”

This prophecy continues to this day, especially where the Jews are concerned, and is the motivating force that will drive the remaining dispersed Israelites to return to the land of Israel.

God promised repeatedly that he would return his people to the land to fulfill the promises he had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  And that the last return would be permanent. 

For this promise to be fulfilled, the nation of Israel had to exist.

The prophet Isaiah proclaimed:

“Can a nation be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment?  Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children (Isaiah 66:8).”

At midnight on May 14, 1948, the provisional government of Israel declared itself a nation.  The United States immediately moved to recognize the nation of Israel, and the rest of the non-Muslim world fell in line.

Yes, a nation can be born in a day.

In the third century, however, the elites of the faith decided that God had disposed of the people of Israel in favor of the church forever.  They surmised, and enforced under threat of excommunication, anyone who resisted their new interpretation of the Scriptures. 

Once Israel returned to the world stage, the elites were surprised and unprepared to deal with it doctrinally.  However, they were unwilling to abandon the orthodoxy that had been falsely taught for so long.

After 1,700 years of false orthodoxy, even though the Israelites had returned to the land as prophesied, the Christian elite continued to refuse to admit their error and have doubled down on bad theology.

The ancient church historian Eusebius gives us a clue as to how this error occurred in his book on Church history.  We find it in “The Schism of Nepos” where the ‘Christian inquisitor’ Dionysius was attempting to ‘purify’ the faith.  He complained:

They (the literalists) rely heavily on a treatise of Nepos (who wrote the book Refutation of the Allegorists) as indisputable proof that Christ’s kingdom will be on earth (the thousand-year Millennium of Christ).   Now in general I (Dionysius) endorse and love Nepos (Bishop of Egypt) for his faith and industry. His study of Scripture…But truth is paramount, and one (Dionysius) must honor what is correct... (Nepos was a strong opponent of the Gnostics and a great defender of the faith).

…but persuade them to hope in a kingdom of God for what is petty, mortal, and like the present (The Allegorists believed that the Millennial reign of Christ was metaphorical) (Note: The Allegorists also objected to Scripture being taught “in a more Jewish fashion” even though, as Jesus said, “…salvation is of the Jews (John 4:22)).

When they (followers of Nepos) brought me this book (Refutation of the Allegorists; A.D. 265) as some invincible fortress, I sat with them three days in a row … criticizing what had been written (by disparaging the idea that God will set up his Millennial Kingdom on earth, and then offering misapplied theology to support that rendering of Scripture). 

In the end, Coracion, the originator of this teaching…agreed and promised us that he would no longer adhere to it, mention it, or teach it, since he was convinced (or intimidated) by the counterarguments.  As to the rest, some (but not all) rejoiced at the conference and the concord achieved (Eusebius Book 7). 

The arrogance of the Allegorists was so excessive that they twisted Scripture to deny the future Millennial Reign of Christ on earth (Revelation 20).  They also ‘reinterpreted’ all the prophecies regarding Israel and their return to the land which only compounded their error.

These errors are perpetuated in our seminaries today.  The intellectual elite of the Christian faith are being taught these dangerous falsehoods and continue teaching them to our future pastors and teachers.

The intellectuals of the faith, in the third century, eventually forced their will on the visible church and dispensationalism (a literal interpretation of Scripture, especially regarding Israel) was suppressed for about 1,700 years.  However, in the 1830’s, John Darby and others began to bring the dispensational view of Scripture back to the attention of Christendom.

In 1970, Hal Lindsey corrected this error completely to the dismay of the intellectual elite of the faith.  His book, “The Late, Great Planet Earth,” took the Christian world by storm and renewed interest in the rapture and the soon return of Christ.

His work also restored the ‘keep watch’ command of our Lord.

Lindsey showed that the nation of Israel was a crucial element in the understanding of eschatology.  The fact that this nation was back on the world stage was a sign that the rapture and the Tribulation were not far off.

Despite this great promise and blessing to the Jews and the people of Israel, the prophet Ezekiel reminded the nation of Israel and the world:

22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes (Ezekiel 36:22-23).”

There is no question that the nations of the world, at the behest of Satan, intend to destroy the modern State of Israel to thwart the will of God.  The Bible makes this very clear and only one who has been blinded by God himself could fail to see this scheme.

The beginning of WWIII, which is the world’s final attempt to destroy Israel, will start when Russia and many Muslim nations align and move to wipe them out (Ezekiel 38-39).  Ezekiel prophesied that in ‘latter years’ a horde will come against Israel to plunder God’s tiny, reestablished nation. 

This war, which ultimately concludes seven years later at Armageddon, is a war against God and his divine will; the nation of Israel is the prize.

God draws these nations in so that he can display his glory.  When they arrive at the doorstep of Israel, his anger will be aroused.  He will send a “great earthquake in the land of Israel” and the earth will tremble in his presence (Ezekiel 38-39). 

The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble, and every wall will fall to the ground.  In the resulting confusion, the invading nations will turn on one another and they will slaughter each other. 

God will then pour down torrents of rain, hailstones, and burning sulfur on the remaining troops. 

God will show his greatness, his holiness, and make himself known in the sight of the world.

For any Christian intellectual elite who claims this war has already occurred, can you provide a date for that?  Or is this war just an allegory?

Finally, the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus will return because the nation of Israel is under siege.  Jesus intends to defend it.  The evidence of this cannot be denied.

·       God will make Jerusalem a cup that sends all nations reeling.  The nations of the earth will gather against her, but it will be an immovable rock (Zechariah 12:2-5).  We will wait patiently until our elites tell us the date this occurred in the past.

·       Jesus returns to destroy the nations that come against Israel at the battle of Armageddon which is in northern Israel (Revelation 16:16).

·       God will enter into judgment against all nations concerning his inheritance, his people Israel, who scattered his people among the nations and divided up His land (Joel 3:1-3).

·       Satan has deluded the nations into believing they can occupy Jerusalem so that Jesus will be unable to set up his Millennial Kingdom.  They intend to make war with Christ, and this is why they will be mercilessly slaughtered (Revelation 19:13-16). 

·       After the slaughter, Jesus stands on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:4).

·       Jesus sets up his Millennium Kingdom in Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2).

There is no question that these are future events, predicted in Scripture, that God has planned for the nation of Israel.  Any Christian who wishes to dispute these facts will need to provide dates of their past occurrences. 

Or they can enlighten us with how these prophecies about Israel actually apply to the church. 

The prophet Jeremiah was so clear that only one under the judgment of God could come to believe that God has rejected the nation of Israel forever. 

37 This is what the Lord says:

“Only if the heavens above can be measured    and the foundations of the earth below be searched outwill I reject all the descendants of Israel    because of all they have done,”declares the Lord (Jeremiah 31:37).

I wonder if our Christian intelligentsia has measured the heavens yet.

These facts raise several questions, however, regarding the quality of the faith of Anti-Zionist Christians.  These questions are:

1.    Why would any Christian support a ‘two state’ solution in Israel when that is clearly contrary to God’s wishes?

2.    Why would any Christian want to divide the nation of Israel, by creating a phony ‘Palestinian State,’ when that is clearly against God’s wishes?

3.    Why would any Christian passionately believe the propaganda of a terrorist group (ex. starving children, Israeli atrocities), like Hamas which has infiltrated the corrupt U.N., that is designed to defame a nation that God is preparing to bless?

4.    Why would any Christian demand that the U.S. separate from this excellent ally, even from a worldly perspective, that God still loves and cares for?

5.    Why would a Christian falsely state that pro-Israel politicians are ‘bought off’ by the government of Israel rather than seeing their support for Israel as honoring the Lord?

6.    Why would any Christian accuse Netanyahu and the nation of Israel of being war mongers against Muslims, who they claim only want peace, when the opposite is the truth?

There are way too many professing Christians who are bearing false witness against the people of Israel, and pro-Israel politicians, in a devious effort to defame a nation that God has brought back from ruin. 

Clinging to a false orthodoxy, regardless of how long that falsehood has been accepted and promulgated, is both foolish and dangerous.

The reestablishment of Israel in 1948 was a miracle.  The fact that it has survived numerous Muslim invasions is an even greater miracle. 

When we consider the evidence, we can only assume that there is something terribly wrong with the faith of the Anti-Zionist ‘Christians.’

What spirit has convinced these people to become fools?  Or have they been bought off?

Any nation that wants to stay in the good graces of God should be a blessing to the nation of Israel.  That does not mean we support everything they do; it means that we defend them against the destruction the world so desperately wants to visit upon them.

Even though Israel stands as an enemy of the Gospel, this condition is going to change.  God has made promises to this nation that he intends to fulfill.  Any nation that stands against these promises will have to give an account to the Lord for their disobedience.

A day is coming when the Marxists and the Muslims will have the power to persecute Christians with the backing of governments worldwide.  Sadly, that day is not too far off.  For many Western nations, that day is already here.

Those professing Anti-Zionist Christians will find themselves on the receiving end of the same types of horrors that the people of Israel, and especially the Jews, have been receiving for the last 1900 years.

Please refer to the persecution of Christians in Rome between 303 to 313 to get a better idea of what that looks like.  This persecution of Christians occurred not long after the Christian faith was ‘purified’ by inquisitors like Dionysius. 

I suppose that could be a coincidence.

And this persecution will be well-deserved since Anti-Zionist ‘Christians’ came down on the side of Satan, the Globalists, the Marxists and the Muslims.

America is blessed by God because we are aligned with the tiny nation of Israel against the world that wishes its destruction.  When we consider the spiritual state of our churches today, no one can claim we are blessed because our faith is so great.

It is incumbent upon Christians who stand on sound doctrine to correct the arrogance of the Christian intellectual elite who are bringing the wrath of God down upon us (Romans 11:17-24).

Final note: I have issued a challenge to anyone who believes that the church has replaced Israel forever in Scripture.  It can be found at my website www.gospelist.net under the title ‘Israel v. The Church.’

If you are an ‘Allegorist’ and cannot meet this challenge, do us all a favor and please be quiet because you do not know what you are talking about.