The Everlasting Hatred (7 page)

For God to give His Word in a promise is enough to make it unbreakable. But God swore an oath by Himself that He would fulfill this promise concerning the land. Thus by two immutable
things, His Word and His oath, it is made certain beyond all things.
So let all who contest Israel's right to that land today beware
.

A prophecy was also given to Abraham as to when his descendents would first take possession of the land. It would be after they spent four hundred years in the land of Egypt. The reason for the delay was two-fold. First, it was because Abraham's descendents had to grow in sufficient numbers to be able to take over the land.

And second, because the sin of the present inhabitants had not yet reached the full measure of iniquity worthy of their destruction. God graciously gave them four hundred more years to repent, which they never did. They only got worse, burning their own children alive as a sacrifice to demon idols. When God later brought the Israelites back from Egypt, the minds of all the residents of Canaan had become utterly perverted beyond reformation. They were like a cancer that had to be exorcised before their perversion infected the rest of society.

How Abraham understood this covenant is revealed in a later statement he made to his steward upon sending him to find a wife for Abraham's son Isaac:

The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, “To your offspring
I will
give this land”—he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there. If the woman is unwilling to come back with you, then you will be released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.
¹⁵

In the light of the previous Scripture, to say, as some teachers within Christendom do, that there was no unconditional covenant made with Abraham's descendents is to accuse God of willfully deceiving Abraham. And it would be even more ludicrous to suppose that the LORD would record Abraham's wrong understanding of this covenant if in fact it was wrong. God warned that He would discipline the Israelites, but never disown them. [Note: Translators use all caps “LORD” to indicate that the original is “Yahweh,” God's most solemn name which means “I AM.”]

There are false teachers within the church today who would deny that the Israelites have a right to the land of their forefathers. They are known by such titles as “Dominionists,” “Preterists,” “Amillennialists,” or “Postmillennialists.”

What is common to all of these theological systems is that they allegorize all unfulfilled Bible prophecies and covenants—especially those that apply to the future of the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They say that the covenants were “conditional,” and therefore were canceled by Israel's rejection of the Messiah, Jesus. They teach that Israel has no future in God's plan as a distinct people and nation. They teach that the church inherited all of these covenants and promises when Israel rejected their Messiah, Jesus.

In other words, they believe that the church has now become “Israel” in place of the literal physical descendents to whom the promises were exclusively made. This is called “Replacement Theology.” Augustine laid the groundwork for this teaching in the fifth century A.D. He taught that the church had become Israel and was now God's kingdom on earth. This became the rationale for the “conquistadors” to conquer and pillage the Americas in the name of the Roman Catholic Church. It also was the philosophy that set up the “Holy Roman Empire” over Europe.

This resulted in such shameful atrocities as the Crusades and the inquisitions in “the name of Jesus.” These actions violated the most basic teachings of Jesus Christ. The knights of Europe under the orders of the popes slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent people, particularly the Jews.

In the first-century Roman Church, some Christians were inclined to turn against the Jews and think they had permanently replaced them in God's plan. This is God's answer to that error:

For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel
until
the fullness [full number] of the Gentiles has come in; and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” And, “This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are
irrevocable.
¹⁶

The Apostle Paul reveals that the present rejection of Israel is not total, nor is it final. It is only temporary
until
the full number of Gentiles is saved. Then he quotes specific promises of God that guarantee that “all Israel will be saved when the Deliverer, the Messiah Jesus, comes from Zion in the Second Coming.”

The Epistle to the Romans in chapter nine carefully defines “true Israel” as the physical descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who also believe in God's provision of salvation. They are called “the believing remnant.” As it is written, “And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the sons of Israel be
as the sand of the sea,
it is the remnant that will be saved
; for the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly.'”
¹⁷

The practice of allegorizing these specific promises, which started with the fifth-century theologian Augustine, became the foundation of anti-Semitism in the church. Sadly, anti-Semitism spread from the church to the rest of the world.

Moses predicted two destructions of Israel and two dispersions from their land. It is amazing that he predicted this just before they first took possession of the land.

The reason for their national destruction is given: “All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.”
¹⁸
Moses then predicted the first destruction: “The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young.”
¹⁹
This was fulfilled by the Babylonian destruction led by Nebuchadnezzar at the end of the seventh century B.C.

Moses also predicted the second, more severe destruction and dispersion:

Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with
longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and in the evening, “If only it were morning!”—because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see.
²⁰

This terrible catastrophe took place in A.D. 70 when Titus and the Roman Tenth Legion destroyed Judah and Jerusalem and drove the survivors into exile. This dispersion lasted until it began to be reversed with the rebirth of the state of Israel in June 1948.

These predictions cut to the heart of the current Arab-Israeli Conflict. They show that the “Title Deed to the land of Israel” was never revoked. It is still binding on the basis of the divine oath by which it was originally given. The Muslims absolutely reject this. So their current attempts to drive Israel out of the Holy Land are in direct defiance of God.

Moses predicts the following at the end of the same message that he made the above predictions:

When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and
bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.
²¹

It is important to note that God does not say “if” but “when” throughout this prediction. This is because God views the repentance as certain, since He will cause it to happen. It is also very clear that God addresses this promise to the believing remnant of the physical descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—not to some allegorical offsprings in the church.

The prophet Ezekiel also speaks of this final restoration from the worldwide Roman dispersion:

This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I will deal with you as you deserve, because you have despised my oath by breaking the covenant.
Yet I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you
. Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your sisters, both those who are older than you and those who are younger. I will give them to you as daughters, but not on the basis of my covenant with you. So I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD. Then, when I make atonement for you for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your humiliation, declares the Sovereign LORD.
²²

Note that God anticipated that Israel would despise His oath and break the Mosaic covenant. He warns that He will discipline them, as they deserve. Yet despite all they will do, He still promises that He will fulfill to them the covenant made with their fathers.

There is no excuse for those who call themselves Christian to deny the clear, simple, literal statements of God's Word about the Israelites' covenant rights. The traditional prophetic view of
many mainline churches that is based on unwarranted allegorical interpretations of these passages has caused great chaos and suffering to the descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

David Levi and Isaac Da Costa, who were Christian Biblical scholars of the nineteenth century, clearly point out a great inconsistency in the interpretation of Biblical prophecy concerning the nation of Israel by theological systems such as Preterism, Amillennialism, and Postmillennialism. “What can be more absurd,” they write, “than to explain the prophecies, which foretell the calamity to befall the Jews, in a literal sense, and then those, which bespeak their future blessing, in a mystical and spiritual sense?”
²³

Ezekiel locates Israel's final restoration to the land and her rebirth as a nation in the “Last Days.” It is imperative to note the sequence of this prophecy. It clearly shows that God will restore the Israelites to the land and cause them to be reborn as a nation
before
they repent and believe in their true Messiah:

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 my holy name
, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord. God, when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight. For
I will
take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and
bring you into your own land
. (emphasis added)

Then I will
sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean;
I will
cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
Moreover,
I will
give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and
I will
remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And
I will
put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and
I will
be your God.'”
²⁴

This prophecy clearly adds a new dimension to all of the predictions about Israel's restoration to the land. It emphasizes that it is not being done because the people deserve it. They are returned to the land and reborn as a nation
before
they are cleansed and reborn spiritually.

The paragraph beginning with
“Then I will
” clearly marks out the sequence of events. It is only after they are returned to the land that they are brought to spiritual restoration. In every way the prophecy declares that all of this will be done by sovereign unconditional acts of God despite the unworthiness of the Israelites. God swears an oath that He will do all of this with seven sovereign
“I Wills
.”

Ezekiel lays out more clearly than any other prophet the sequence of events in the Last Days. He shows that a restored Israel is the key to all Last Days prophecy.