Israel and the Second Coming

When the late 19th- early 20th-century fervor over the Second Coming arose, there was no nation of Israel. Jews were scattered all over the earth. There were a few living in the land known as Palestine. Larger scale immigration to the land began after 1881 as Jews fled eastern European pogroms.

Second Coming fervor did not depend on the existence of Jews in a nation called Israel. However, as more and more Jews returned to the land, American and British evangelicals and Pentecostals began to see the references to Israel in Biblical references to eschatology. Rather than spiritualizing Israel, they understood a modern Israel, both the nation and location, as the key player in end-times prophecy.

Israel's emergence as a nation in 1948 and its conquest of Jerusalem in 1967 completely changed the landscape. Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth, originally published in 1970, articulated this position for the masses. In our circles (not among my Lutheran friends, however) it is an article of faith that when the Bible refers to Israel in prophecy, it is the current nation that is being referred to.

Therefore, the re-emergence of Israel is proof that we are now in the last days. Israel will exist until the end, be nearly destroyed by the Anti-Christ, and saved at the last minute by the return of Christ. I heard one man teach that if Israel gave up any land that it had conquered, then the promises of the Bible must not be true. Therefore, giving up land can not happen.

Further, the modern, secular, Christian-persecuting nation of Israel is seen by this branch of the Church as the inheritor of God's blessings and that this nation must be supported in all its decisions. The Arab nations (Muslims) are always wrong and Israel (Jews) are always right.

Excuse me a minute, but I have some questions: Just because a group of Jews move into the historic land of Israel, from which they were driven 19 centuries previously, why does it necessarily follow that the resulting nation is the inheritor of God's blessings? If an Israeli nation does exist in the land at the end times, how can we say that it will not be this nation, but one that comes into existence 100 or 1000 years from now? Is the Old Testament theology of the land still valid in the New Testament or has the Land been fulfilled in a different way as many other OT concepts have been? (This is a subject that I would appreciate feedback on now and that I want to address another day.)

I think the argument that the modern nation of Israel is necessarily God's nation is based on a circular argument: We originally believe that we were in the last days. The nation was established. The existence of the nation proves that we are in the last days.

I believe in the second coming. Jesus may return before I finish writing this blog entry. But there is nothing that is happening in the world today--including the existence of Israel--that demands its happening is imminent. You and I, like many before us, may die without seeing its fulfillment. This does not mean that he is not returning, only that we have no idea when.