I believed he had disparaged the Rapture as well as those of us who watch for Jesus’ imminent appearing. Later that day, I wrote an email to the associate pastor asking him about his morning sermon on John 11.
He denied doing so, but responded by telling me that after a previous pastor took him through the Bible passages supporting the pre-Tribulation Rapture and premillennialism, he adopted those beliefs. However, after reading a couple of books authored by amillennialists, those who don’t believe in a literal thousand-year reign of Jesus, he adopted their view of the Millennium and added that he no longer believed in the Rapture.
In other words, when this assistant pastor relied on Scripture, he believed in Jesus’ imminent appearing and a literal fulfillment of Revelation 20:1-10. But when guided by human wisdom, he adopted a spiritual interpretation of John’s words concerning the Lord’s thousand-year reign.
The Prophet Isaiah made a startling comparison between those who trust the Lord’s guidance, the words of Scripture, versus those who walk by the light that they themselves generate (by their own insight or wisdom): “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment.” (Isaiah 50:10-11)
At the end of a chapter full of references to the Messiah, the prophet contrasts those who rely on God versus those who walk by their own light or understanding.
Despite the many warnings of judgment that came through the Prophet Isaiah along with circumstances that already seemed dire, Isaiah urged the people to remain confident in the Lord rather than rely on their own insight into the future of Israel.
Torch Lighting
Do you see how this applies to our day? The path to unbiblical teaching always begins with those who illuminate the paths before them with their own wisdom rather than the light that comes from the words of Scripture. How many times have we heard people say that Jesus is not the only way to eternal life, despite the clarity of what He said in John 14:6?
In my dealings with those who adhere to the various forms of amillennialists, I have discovered a consistent reliance on their own interpretations of Bible prophecy rather than the words of the prophets and apostles. Some believe that the nation’s rejection of their Messiah negated God’s promises to the Jewish people (despite the clarity of Romans 11:1-2). Others assert that the church is the continuation of Israel and thus heirs to all the promises the Lord made to the nation.
Both camps dismiss modern Israel’s place in Bible prophecy, and based upon that assumption, they retrofit all the Scriptures that say otherwise to fit their own understanding of Israel and the church. They illuminate their self-guided journey through Bible prophecy rather than follow the advice of the Psalmist: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).
Retrofitting Bible Prophecy
In order to support their view of Bible prophecy, those who deny a future restoration of Israel must change the original intent of what the authors of Scripture wrote about it. With the well-known messianic prophecy of Isaiah 9:6-7, they must change mid-sentence from a literal interpretation to one based on the erroneous premise that the church is the new Israel.
How would the initial readers of Isaiah’s prophecy have regarded phrases such as “the government will be upon his shoulder?” Would they not have pictured a literal kingdom when they heard the promise that the Messiah would sit upon the “throne of David?” Of course, they would’ve pictured a physical realm. What other option was there?
When Gabriel announced the Savior’s birth to Mary, she would not have pictured a spiritual reign when the Lord promised that her Son “would reign over the house of Jacob forever” (Luke 1:29-33). How could she have possibly understood the angel’s words apart from a literal restored kingdom of Israel? On what basis could she have envisioned a spiritual realm rather than one with a visible King ruling over “the house of Jacob?” The Lord, through His angel Gabriel, promised Mary that her Son would one day rule over a united Israel.
How can those who deny Israel’s place in Bible prophecy make the following verses fit with the church without doing irreparable damage to the plain sense of God’s Word?
In Ezekiel 36:22-24 we read, “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. 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. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.”
The remainder of Ezekiel 36 makes it abundantly clear that the Lord is promising a physical restoration for Israel in spite of the past behavior of its people. These things can’t possibly refer to the church.
And how do the modern torch-lighters interpret Amos 9:14-15, which also specifies a future restoration of Israel?: “I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them on their land, and they shall never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them, says the Lord your God.”
In the above text, the Lord promises a physical restoration of Israel from which its people will “never again be uprooted out of the land that I have given them.” Has that ever happened to Israel? On what basis can anyone change the Lord’s intent to a spiritual message for the church?
Consider the words of Jeremiah 31:35-36: “Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the Lord of hosts is his name: ‘If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.'”
Could the Lord be any clearer about the enduring place of Israel as a nation in His sight? How can one read these verses and then claim that modern Israel has no place in Bible prophecy? The Lord says otherwise.
The words of Hosea 3:4-5, taken in the way that the Lord intended, verify that the Israel of today is the beginning of the fulfillment of what God promised to His people long ago: “For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.“
The above passages are just a sampling from God’s Word that point to the future restoration of a kingdom for Israel. Dozens of Psalms, along with all the major prophets and most of the minor ones, tell of Israel’s restoration, with many providing details of Jesus’ reign over the nations during a time when wars no longer exist and the peoples obey and serve Him.
Yes, there are verses that, taken by themselves, might suggest that Jesus was the culmination of all of God’s saving purposes for both Jews and Gentiles. However, such interpretations contradict a multitude of Old Testament passages that specify Israel’s never-ending place in Bible prophecy. There are viable and credible ways to interpret New Testament verses, such as those in Galatians, which don’t negate God’s Old Testament promises to the Jewish people. Scripture must always interpret Scripture.
People and Place
People and place. Those words also confirm modern-day Israel’s place in Bible prophecy. Notice how both people and place factor into Daniel’s seventy weeks prophecy: “Seventy weeks are decreed about your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.” (Daniel 9:24)
This prophecy concerns Daniel’s “people,” the Jewish people, and the “holy city,” Jerusalem. People and place. Yes, both played a role in Jesus’ atonement for “iniquity.” But according to the above verse, both the Jewish people and Jerusalem will also play an essential role in bringing “everlasting righteousness” to the earth, which clearly has not yet happened.
Several scholars have calculated that the first 69 “weeks of years” of Daniel’s prophecy ended precisely on the day Jesus rode triumphantly in the Jerusalem after which, according to the prophecy, “an anointed one shall be cut off” (Daniel 9:26). The Lord told Daniel that there would be gap of time before the last week during which time a coming prince would defile the temple in Jerusalem (Daniel 9:26).
Has the seventieth week of Daniel’s prophecy happened? No, it has not. We know that this last period of seven years hasn’t yet occurred because the key event of Daniel 9:27, the defiling of the temple, has never occurred since the time Jesus referred to it in Matthew 24:15.
In a previous article, The Biblical Necessity of the Seven-Year Tribulation, I demonstrate why it’s impossible for Titus to have fulfilled this prophecy in AD 70, which signifies that the prophesied desecration of the temple awaits a future fulfillment. And since the key event of the seventieth week has never happened, the Lord’s purpose for the entire seventy weeks remains intact (Daniel 9:24).
God’s redemptive purposes for the Jewish people and the place, Jerusalem, remain firmly in place.
The torch-lighters tell us that modern Israel is a fluke and has nothing to do with the future fulfillment of Scripture. They are very much mistaken.
The belief that modern Israel has no place in Bible prophecy is extremely popular in churches today, even in many that profess to believe in the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture. God’s Word, however, tells a different story.
Israel’s miraculous reappearance as a nation is not only the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, but also the key sign that we live in the last days leading up to Daniel’s seventieth week, the seven-year Tribulation.
Don’t let the modern torch-lighters dim your hope of Jesus’ imminent appearing. Those who dismiss modern Israel’s place in Bible prophecy, without fail, also refuse to recognize the Rapture as a unique event.
We didn’t invent our “blessed hope” in Jesus’ appearing (Titus 2:11-14). Our belief comes from the words of passages such as 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11, 1 Corinthians 15:47-55, Philippians 3:20-21, Revelation 3:10-11a, and many more. Don’t let the naysayers diminish the light that comes from the promises of these passages.
Scripture not only lights our path to understanding modern Israel’s vital role in Bible prophecy, but it also illuminates the way to the pre-Tribulation Rapture.
