| |
Two
Major Problems
I have found several conflicts in the
Bible relating to the idea that the nation of
Israel has a prophetic role during the Great
Tribulation. Since this response has to be short
due to the length of this article, I would like
to present two significant problems. The first
concerns the Old and New Covenants. The second
problem concerns the rapture, the 70th
week and the judgment of Christ.
Problem
1: Two different Covenants – Two Different
Schematics
Many Christians believe that salvation’s
prerequisites change from dispensation to
dispensation. In other words, advocates of
dispensationalism believe that a person is saved
in different ways at different times throughout
history. I cannot accept this teaching because I
believe that salvation – from Genesis
through Revelation – always comes
through faith. Hebrews 11 (New Testament)
obviously indicates that salvation came
through faith during Old Testament times. In
fact, I believe the Bible teaches that faith in
God (a willful submission to the call and will of
God) was necessary in Heaven before sin began and
I believe that faith in God will be necessary
throughout eternity. Lucifer and one -
third of the angels were cast out of Heaven
because they refused to trust God. Adam and Eve
sinned because they did not trust God. God’s
children, whether fallen or unfallen, sinful or
sinless, are called to live a life of faith.
Absolute trust in God is the only way finite
beings can live with an infinite God “whose
ways are not our ways.” (Isaiah 55:9)
Abraham had a heart for God. When God
called Abraham to leave his home, the Bible says
that by faith Abraham “went out, not knowing
whither he went.” (KJV, Hebrews 11:8)
Abraham’s departure from home required a lot
of faith in God and the Bible states that God
counted Abraham as a righteous man because of his
faith! (Genesis 15:6) In other words, because
of his faith, God considered Abraham a saint
instead of a sinner he actually was. (Romans
1:17; 4:16, Galatians 3:9) Remember, this
happened before God made a covenant with
the nation of Israel. Because Abraham humbly
walked with God (lived in harmony with God’s
calling and will), Jesus honored Abraham’s
faith by making three unconditional
promises to him. First, Jesus promised to
give Abraham’s descendants the land of
Canaan. (Genesis 15:18) Second, Jesus promised a
childless Abraham that his descendants would
someday be as numerous as the stars in the sky.
(Genesis 15:5) Third, Jesus promised Abraham that
all nations would be blessed through him.
(Genesis 18:18)
About four hundred years after making
these promises. Jesus miraculously delivered
Abraham’s descendants from Egyptian slavery
and took them into the desert to prepare them
for service. These slaves were the
descendants of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, whose
name had been changed to Israel because of
his faith in God. At mount Sinai Jesus entered
into a covenant with the nation of Israel. It is
important to understand that God’s covenant
with the nation of Israel was not for the
purpose of salvation. God does not save
people in groups. Salvation is an intimate,
personal matter. Salvation comes to one person at
a time when he surrenders his life to God’s
control (lives by faith).
The covenant that God offered the nation
of Israel was that of serving as trustees of
His gospel. From the beginning of sin, the
plan of salvation has operated as a living trust.
A living trust has three elements: A benefactor,
one of more trustees, and one or more
beneficiaries. In a living trust, the benefactor chooses
trustees to deliver his benefits to his
beneficiaries. Prior to Mount Sinai, the
patriarchs were the trustees of the gospel. They
spoke for God and the gospel preached contained
important information that was otherwise unknown.
After God dispersed humanity at the Tower of
Babel and nations formed, He decided to use one
nation to reach al the other nations. So, God
– the Benefactor – chose Israel as
trustee through which He would bless all nations
(beneficiaries). The wonder thing about the
eternal gospel is that whosoever will may
come and enjoy the benefits of God’s
salvation. As the Creator of mankind, God is not
exclusive; instead, He is inclusive. At Mount
Sinai the nation of Israel agreed to do whatever
the Lord commanded. (Exodus 24:3) It is most
important to understand the nature and structure
of God’s covenant because God’s
covenant with Israel was conditional
from the beginning. Look at
two passages (there are many) from the Old
Testament showing that the covenant between God
and the nation of Israel was conditional:
1. “Then Moses went up to
God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain
and said, ‘This is what you are to say to
the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the
people of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen
what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on
eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now
if you obey me fully and
keep my covenant, then out of all nations you
will be my treasured possession. Although the
whole earth is mine, you will be for me
a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
These are the words you are to speak to the
Israelites.’” (Exodus 19:3-6,
underlines mine)
2. “If you
fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow
all his commands I give you today, the Lord your
God will set you high above all the nations of
earth… However, if you do not
obey the Lord your God and do not carefully
follow all his commands and decrees I am giving
you today, all these curses will come upon you
and overtake you.” (Deuteronomy 28:
1,15, underlines mine)
Fifteen hundred years after establishing
His covenant with Israel at Mount Sinai, Jesus
came to Earth as the Messiah. The very nation
(Acts 3:15) that He had chosen to be His
representatives on Earth rejected and killed Him.
“He came to that which was his own, but
his own did not receive him.” (John
1:11; Luke 20:9-16) The Old Testament is
unmistakably clear! For 15 centuries, God did
everything possible to get Israel to fulfill His
objectives, but Israel rebelled at every turn.
(Ezekiel 23, Romans 11:20,21) Israel’s
rejection of Jesus as the Messiah was “the
straw that broke the camel’s back.” The
eternal gospel of Jesus could not be given to the
world by a rebellious group of trustees. How
could Israel teach the world about faith in God
when a majority of people in Israel
refused to live by faith? So, Jesus, the
Benefactor, terminated His covenant with the
nation of Israel by pronouncing this benediction:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who
kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how often [over the past 1500 years] I
have longed to gather your children together, as
a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but
you were not willing. Look, your house
[your nation] is left to you desolate [of
God’s covenant, blessings and presence]. For
I tell you, you will not see me [extending
grace to this house ever] again until you [are
forced by overwhelming circumstances to] say,
‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the
Lord [at the Second Coming*], “’
Matthew 23:37-39, insertions mine, See Matthew
26:64 and Revelation 1:7.)
A few days after Jesus terminated His
covenant with the nation of Israel, He
implemented a New Covenant (Luke 22:20) because
Jesus wants the benefits of His gospel to go
throughout the whole Earth. Now, the New
Covenant differs from the Old Covenant in two
critical ways. First, instead of
choosing a nation of people to serve as trustees
of the gospel, the New Covenant opens the door
and allows “whosoever will” to become a
trustee of the gospel. In the New Covenant, there
is neither Jew or Gentile, male or female (these
distinctions had been important in the Old
Covenant). (Romans 10:12) Under the New Covenant,
God approves every sinner who chooses to live
by faith to serve as a trustee of the gospel
of Jesus. Said another way, the Old Covenant
pertained to a selected group of trustees,
but the New Covenant pertains to a self-selecting
group of trustees. One could also say that
after Israel failed (Plan A), God created even a
better covenant for those who would choose to
participate in Plan B. (Romans 11:15, Hebrews
8:6) Keep in mind that a new covenant was
required when the covenant with Israel was
terminated because the plan of salvation operates
as a living trust – there is a Benefactor,
trustees, and beneficiaries.
The second difference between the Old
Covenant and the New Covenant is profoundly
important: These two covenants have different
laws, different promises and different
prophecies. Mixing and merging the terms and
conditions of these two covenants will produce
disastrous results. Millions of Protestants
are hopelessly confused about Bible prophecy
(including what will occur during the Great
Tribulation) because pastors and theologians are
mixing and merging the terms and conditions of
the two covenants. The prophecies and promises
given to ancient Israel under the Old Covenant
will not be fulfilled because God terminated
that covenant with the nation of Israel. Even
though God abandoned the nation of Israel as
trustees, any Jew who surrenders to the gospel of
Christ by faith in Him can receive salvation
because the New Covenant does not distinguish
between Jews and Gentiles. (Early Jewish converts
understood this concept well. See Romans 11:23.)
Consider this: The Old Covenant does not
say one word about the Second Coming because
everything in the Old Covenant centers around the
First Coming which was supposed to be the only
coming! Jesus would not have returned to
Heaven and He would have established His kingdom
on Earth just as John the Baptist predicted!
(Mark 1:15) Everything promised and prophesied
in the Old Testament would have been fulfilled
just as it was written in the Old Covenant if
Israel had remained faithful as trustees and had
accepted Jesus Christ as Messiah. The past 2,000
year’s of Earth’s history would be
entirely different than we now know it if Israel
had met the terms and conditions of the Old
Covenant. Sadly, the Old Covenant had to be
terminated because Israel persistently
refused to cooperate with God and accomplish His
objectives. Therefore, God made a New Covenant
for those who are faithful to Him.
Israel
Redefined Not Displaced
Given this discussion on the two
covenants, you may be wondering what all of this
has to do with modern Israel and the end of the
world. Here is the point: You might be surprised
to learn that Jesus’ new trustees are
also called “Israel” because He
made three unconditional promises to Abraham. To
fulfill these unconditional promises, Jesus had
to redefine Israel: that is, Jesus redefined the
“heirs of Abraham.” Consider this
verse: “If you belong to Christ, then you
are Abraham’s seed [the Greek word for
seed is sperma], and [therefore] heirs
according to the promise [that will be
fulfilled at the appointed time].”
(Galatians 3:29, insertion mine) “It is
not as though God’s word had failed
[when He established the New Covenant]. For
not all who are descended from Israel [Jacob]
are [part of] Israel. Nor because they
are his descendants are they all Abraham’s
children. On the contrary,
[biology means little to God. Faith means
everything to God. This is why God said to
Abraham] ‘It is through Isaac [the
son who was promised to you and Sarah, not
Ishmael] that your offspring will be reckoned.’
In other words, it is not the natural [biological]
children who are God’s children, but it
is the children of the promise [like Isaac,
those who live by faith] who are regarded as
Abraham’s offspring.” (Romans
9:6-8, insertions mine)
The Apostle James knew that Israel had
been redefined because he calls the believers in
Christ the twelve tribes of Israel. (See
James 1:1 and 2:1.) Of course, current saints do
not know which tribe is theirs, but this
information will be clarified when the time comes
for them to enter the Holy City. (By the way, no
one belonging to the Jewish race today knows
their biological tribe or origin either. The
Roman army destroyed all of Israel’s
genealogical records in the first century A.D.)
So, biological origin, temple services,
sacrificial offerings, circumcision, and all of
the Old Covenant terms and conditions mean
nothing to God today. (Galatians 2-4, Romans
2:28,29, Hebrews 7-10) God has terminated the Old
Covenant, with its promises and prophecies, and
has declared it null and void because there is a
New Covenant, a group of trustees and new
promises and prophecies.
Because the twelve tribes have been
redefined, the 144,000 will come from all
nations and religions. They are identified as the
“twelve tribes” of Israel in Revelation
7 because the 144,000 will be people who have
faith in God, just like Abraham and Jacob (also
call Israel). These people will love God with all
their heart, mind and soul as Abraham and Jacob
did. Carefully study the passage and notice how
Jesus defines the issue of ancestry: “’Abraham
is our father,’ they
answered. ‘If you were
Abraham’s children,’ said
Jesus, ‘then you would do the
things Abraham did. As it is, you are
determined to kill me, a man who has told you the
truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do
such things…. You belong to your
father, the devil, and you want to
carry out your father’s
desire…’” (John 8:39-44,
emphasis mine) If our behavior reflects the faith
of Abraham, God considers us children and heirs
of Abraham. If our behavior reflects the
rebellion of the devil, God considers us children
of the devil.
Throughout the ages, the saints of God
have been tested with persecution and the same
holds true for the Great Tribulation. (Revelation
3:9, 12:17, 13:7) The Great Tribulation will
separate people of faith from people of
rebellion. Thus, in the end, all Israel will
be saved (Romans 11:26) because the Israel of
God (the descendants of Abraham) consists only of
people who have a faith in God like Abraham and
Jacob. When the Israel of god goes marching into
New Jerusalem at the Second Coming, the twelve
tribes will enter through their respective gates!
(Revelation 21:12) Think about that glorious day!
When the time arrives for all of Abraham’s
children to enter into the Holy city, twelve
great processions will form, and after marching
through those pearly gates, a numberless group of
“Jews” will gather around the throne of
God and together as one man, they will bow down
before Jesus, the Messiah, the eternal King of
the Jews. (Mark 15:2, John 19:19-22)
A thousand years later, when the Holy
city comes down from God out of Heaven and lands
on Earth, the three unconditional promises
made to Abraham will THEN be fulfilled. (1) The
Holy City will physically encompass all of the
land that was promised to the patriarch. Abraham’s
descendants will possess the land, and the Holy
city will be their home throughout eternity.
Incidentally, the Holy City, built by God
Himself, is the city that Abraham anticipated.
(Hebrews 11:10) (2) When the saints of all ages
are gathered around the throne, Abraham’s
heirs will be as numberless as the stars in the
sky. They will come from all nations and
religious backgrounds, and a “once childless”
Abraham will rejoice as he looks over the vast
throng. Among the redeemed, Abraham will be known
as “the father of the faithful.” (3)
Last, there will be rejoicing throughout Heaven
at the end of sin’s drama because the
redeemed will realize that all nations were truly
blessed with the gift of salvation through
Abraham’s seed. Jesus, the Lamb of God and
the Lion from the tribe of Judah, will be
eternally praised to the highest Heavens for the
salvation that He so generously provided to all
who were willing to live by faith. Thus, the
three unconditional promises given to
Abraham will be fulfilled.
The salient point is that in this
marvelous drama, the modern nation of Israel is
not in the picture. The establishment of modern
Israel is no different than the recent
establishment of Serbia. Neither event is
prophetically significant. For further study,
please review these four articles:
http://www.wake-up.org/daystar/ds2006/jan.htm http://www.wake-up.org/Revelation/Rev144.htm http://www.wake-up.org/Alpha/Chapter7.htm http://www.wake-up.org/Alpha/Chapter8.htm.
Problem 2: The Judgment, the Rapture,
and the 70th Week
Because the terms and conditions of the
two covenants are often mixed up and
inappropriately merged together, advocates of
dispensationalism have devised a mechanical
solution (called “a pretribulation rapture”)
to solve their problems of mixing and merging the
two covenants. In a nutshell, dispensationalists
believe that God is still obligated to fulfill
His promises to the biological offspring of
Abraham because God’s calling and promises
are irrevocable. (Romans 11:29)
Let me be clear, God’s unconditional
promises are irrevocable. Heaven and Earth
will pass away before God’s Word fails.
(Matthew 5:18) For this reason, we can be sure
that God will fulfill everything He unconditionally
promised to Abraham, but His conditional
promises to the nation of Israel are another
matter. In fact, if it were not for the
revocation of the Old Covenant, there could not
be a New Covenant! Jesus terminated the Old
Covenant because the nation of Israel passed the
point of no return. “But God found
fault with the people and said: ‘The
time is coming,’ declared the Lord,’
when I will make a new covenant
with the [redefined] house of Israel and
the house of Judah.’” (Hebrews 8:8,
insertion and emphasis mine) See also Isaiah 24:5
and Ezekiel 23.
Because Israel refused to receive Christ
as the Messiah, dispensationalists believe that
God raised up Christians to temporarily
fulfill the gospel commission – that is,
Christians were appointed as trustees of the
gospel until the times granted to the Gentiles
are fulfilled. (Luke 21:24) Then they believe,
when the world is seven years away form the
Second Coming, Jesus will remove “the
believers” from Earth via a pretribulation
rapture so that he can fulfill His promises to
the nation of Israel. Dispensationalists believe
this event will somehow cause 144,000 people
within the Jewish race to convert to
Christianity and these people will then go
throughout the Earth during the seven years of
the Great Tribulation proclaiming the gospel of
Jesus.
I have several problems with this
schematic. Here are three: First, let us suppose
there was a pretribulation rapture and all the
Christians were removed from Earth. Isn’t it
true that anyone converting to Jesus Christ after
the rapture would have to fall under the
provisions of the New Covenant? Think
about this: The Old Covenant required converts to
be adopted into the nation of Israel (Genesis
17:12,13, Exodus 12:48, Deuteronomy 23) and this
adoption process involved circumcision and it
required the services of priests from the tribe
of Levi. (Hebrews 7:11) The problem now is that
Jesus Christ, the High Priest of the New Covenant
sits at the right hand of God and He comes from
the tribe of Judah! In other words, if the
terms and conditions set forth in the Old
Covenant are still valid and binding, who from
the tribe of Levi is worthy to mediate in Heaven
for those who missed the rapture? It makes no
sense to remove the trustees of the New Covenant
with a pretribulation rapture so that the terms
and conditions of the Old Covenant – terms
such as circumcision, temple sacrifices and a
Levitical priesthood – can be reestablished.
The Old Covenant was abolished long ago.
(Colossians 2)
The second problem with the
pretribulation rapture and modern Israel’s
role during the Great Tribulation concerns the 70
weeks of Daniel 9. I believe advocates of
dispensationalism have badly distorted Daniel 9
to make the rapture doctrine plausible and the
result is total confusion. Dispensationalists
claim the 70th week is detached
from the 69 weeks. They believe that a gap of
almost 2,000 years must be inserted between the
69th week and the 70th
week. I cannot find any support for this claim in
the Bible. I believe the Bible affirms that the
70th week immediately followed the 69th
week which immediately followed the 68th
week, etc. In other words, the Bible does not
teach there is a gap of centuries between any of
the 70 weeks, including the 69th week
and the 70th week. This is easily proven
in two ways. First, time itself is an
unbroken continuum. When one day ends, another
begins. When one month ends, another begins. When
one year ends, another begins. Therefore, it is
impossible to insert a span of 2,000 years within
a period of 490 years (70 weeks). Second, and
more importantly, history proves the 70th
week immediately followed the 69th
week because the specifications given in Daniel 9
were fulfilled between 457 B.C. and A.D. 33. The
70 weeks of Daniel 9 began and ended on time.
Here is a brief explanation on the
fulfillment of the 70 weeks. The decree that
marked the beginning of the 70 weeks was issued
by King Artaxerxes in the spring of 457 B.C. Of
the four decrees issued to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem, only one decree occurs in a Sunday
year – always the first year in a week of
seven years, and 457 B.C. also happened to be a
Jubilee year. It is important to know that 457
B.C. was a Jubilee year because Daniel 9 divides
the 69 weeks into two segments by calling them
“seven weeks and 62 weeks.” God divided
the 69 weeks into two segments to give Israel an
important clue. He wanted Israel to know that the
decree that started the 70 weeks would occur in a
Jubilee year – which is always the first
year of a Jubilee cycle of 49 years.
According to Daniel 9:25, Messiah would
appear of the beginning of the 70th
week. According to Luke 3, Jesus was baptized by
John the Baptist in A.D. 27. A.D. 27 is the
first year of the 70th
week and it is a Sunday year, exactly 484
years (counting inclusively) from the decree of
Artaxerxes. Jesus appeared on time and Jesus died
on time, in the middle year of the 70th
week. (Galatians 4:4) Astronomy and Bible history
leave no wiggle room on this. Zero. Jesus died in
the middle of the 70th week (a
Wednesday year) in A.D. 30. Jesus, the Author of
oblations and sacrifices caused oblations and
sacrifices to end at the cross. Daniel 9 has been
fulfilled. The 70th
week followed the 69th
week and everything predicted for the 70th
week has been fulfilled. The bottom line is
this: Someone has to give the gospel to the world
during the Great Tribulation. Will it be the
twelve tribes from all religions preaching
under the terms and conditions of the New
Covenant, or will it be the people from the
Jewish race preaching under the terms and
conditions of the New Covenant? (This really is
not a valid question because under the new
Covenant, there is no distinction between Jews
and Gentiles.) (For further study on the 70th
week, please review these articles:
http://www.wake-up.org/Daniel/Danchap6.htm.
http://wake-up.org/daystar/ds2000/Great%20Clocks.htm.)
The third and final problem is that of
the judgment bar of Christ. Dispensationalists
have tied modern Israel’s end-time role and
a pretribulation rapture together and made them
codependent doctrines. Given the intricate
relationship between these two concepts, here is
a problem that every rapture believing Christian
should thoughtfully consider: Many advocates of a
pretribulation rapture doctrine have not stopped
to realize that the rapture doctrine requires
two separate and distinct judgments of the
living. In other words, the rapture doctrine
presupposes a judgment of the living before
the rapture (to see who will be taken and who
will be left behind) and then there’s a
second chance. A second judgment of the living
must be held near the end of the Great
Tribulation to see who will be saved at
the Second Coming. The problem is that the
Bible does not teach a second chance nor does it
teach there will be two judgments for the living!
The judgment bar of Christ occurs once for the
living. “For we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may
receive what is due him for the things done while
in the body, whether good or bad.” 2
Corinthians 5:10) Since the rapture doctrine
requires two judgments of the living and the
Bible does not teach a second chance not multiple
judgments, this is an insurmountable problem,
The Bible reveals without ambiguity that
the saints of God will be persecuted during
the Great Tribulation. “The beast was
given a mouth to utter proud words and
blasphemies and to exercise his authority for
forty-two months. He opened his mouth to
blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his
dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He
was given power to make war against the
saints and to conquer them, And he was
given authority over every tribe, people,
language and nation.” (Revelation 13:5-7
God permits persecution to rise during the Great
Tribulation to separate the sheep from the goats.
The sheep will put their faith in God and give up
their lives if required, but the goats will do
everything possible to save themselves. “For
whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but
whoever loses his life for me will find it.”
(Matthew 16:25) For more information on this
topic, please review:
http://www.wake-up.org/Alpha/Chapter12htm
http://www.wake-up.org/Alpha/Chapter13.htm
Summary:
A House of Cards
My friends, I am convinced the combined
doctrines of a pretrib rapture and the alleged
prophetic role of Israel during the Great
Tribulation stem from mixing and merging Old
Covenant and New Covenant promises and
prophecies. Without trying to sound arrogant, I
believe these concepts are flimsy and like a
house of cards, they will fall one day. Of
course, the passage of time will prove all
things. I hope you all will continue to study
this topic by reviewing the various articles
listed above. May the Holy Spirit grant you
wisdom as you study further into the deep
mysteries of Christ and His saving grace.
|
