Last Fall we invited people to submit questions about the end times and Jesus’s return; the results indicated two topics of great interest. One was the rapture, which I discussed in last week’s post and the other was Israel – both how to view current war from a Christian worldview and how these events may fit into the biblical description of the end times.
As with other topics related to the end times and return of Jesus, Christians have different views and don’t agree about all the details. Our church’s statement of faith does not adopt one particular view, thus I’ll offer the position I hold, which is not idiosyncratic but fairly common in the Reformed tradition. Before giving my view, I want to first highlight some critical points of agreement among Christians about the covenants and promises found in the Bible. I will follow this by discussing the most common views of how and when these promises are fulfilled since these have implications for questions concerning how to view modern-day Israel and the conflict in the Middle East.
The Covenant Promises Found in the Bible
There is a general consensus among Christians as it relates to the covenantal storyline of the Bible. In Genesis 12:1-3, God promises to bless Abraham and make him into a great nation, with the result that all the nations of the earth should be blessed through him. This promise included reference to land, as Abraham was called to go to the place God would show him (Genesis 12:1) and give Abraham’s offspring (Genesis 12:7). The Bible then recounts the fulfillment of these promises, as God gives Abraham a child whose children multiply and become a nation (Israel) that would then go to the land that was promised (Canaan).
In that process of fulfillment of these promises, God establishes other covenants. One is made with Israel in Moses’s time. This covenant says they will remain in the land if they are faithful, but if they rebel from the laws God had given them, they will be ejected from the land (see Deuteronomy 28-29). Alongside those promises of blessings and cursing is a promise that God would restore His people and change their hearts so they can follow Him (Deuteronomy 30). While the people are in the land, God makes a promise to King David that his descendants would reign, noting that God would discipline them if they are unfaithful but also that this throne would be established forever (2 Samuel 7:11-17).
The Old Testament then recounts the failure of David’s descendants and the rebellion of the people, the result of which causes the people to be removed from the land and David’s descendants removed from the throne. In the midst of the people’s failures, though, God speaks through the prophets spoke of a new covenant that recalls the promises God made to Moses about restoration and renewal (see Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:24-28) and looks to a coming figure from the line of David as a perfect ruler who rules a peaceful and prosperous kingdom to which the nations flock (see e.g., Isaiah 9:1-7; 11:1-9; Jeremiah 33:14-26).
The people of Israel return to the land in the Old Testament and the temple rebuilt (see the books of Ezra-Nehemiah), but there is no Davidic ruler, the glory of God does not reside in the temple, and the people’s hearts aren’t yet transformed. Thus, these promises still needed to be fulfilled, but there are different perspectives on the timing and manner in which this happens.
