FICTION vs FACT: Fulfillment of the Promise and Covenant

FICTION: There is no spiritual or biblical significance to the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.

FACT: Almost all the Hebrew prophets — most of whom wrote from exile — speak of the future restoration of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.

• He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth (Isaiah 11:12).
• “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers (Jeremiah 16:14-15).
• “I will put My Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it,” says the Lord’” (Ezekiel 37:14).
• They shall remember Me in far countries; they shall live, together with their children, and they shall return (Zechariah 10:9).

FACT: The Jewish people have remembered God and their connection to the Land throughout their dispersion, and they have returned.

We pray to You, have pity, Lord Our God, on Israel Your People, on Jerusalem Your City, on Zion Your glorious dwelling place, and on Your Temple. Restore Jerusalem, the city of the Holy One, speedily in our days and bring us to it.

— Passover Seder

Lead us with song to Zion Your city, with everlasting joy to Jerusalem, Your sanctuary.

— Yom Kippur and the Three Pilgrimage Festivals

May You enable us to see Your city Zion comforted and Jerusalem, Your holy city rebuilt, for You are the provider of salvation and comfort.

— Sabbath Grace After Meals

FACT: There is much, even in the Christian Testament, that shows God’s eternal covenant with the people and land of Israel includes the future regathering of the people in the land.

Jesus talked about the regathering of the Jews to Jerusalem, the physical and spiritual center of the nation of Israel. When his disciples asked him if he was about to restore the kingdom to Israel, he did not deny it would happen. He simply replied that it was not yet time (Luke 21:24-28).

FACT: The Christian Testament mentions Israel nearly 80 times with the same meaning for Israel as that derived from the Hebrew Bible.

• When Jesus’ parents brought him to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem according to the law, Simeon recognized that Jesus would be “a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your [God’s] people Israel.”

“So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said: ‘Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel.’”

— Luke 2:27-32

• The apostle Paul proudly identifies himself as a member of the nation of Israel in his letter to the Philippians.

“Circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee.”

— Philippians 3:5

FACT: The Christian Testament never calls the Church the New Israel. It never refers to Gentiles as Israel. There are many references to Jews and Gentiles, showing that Christian Testament writers distinguished Gentiles from those who belong to the house of Israel.

• In Acts 3, Peter starts his sermon by addressing the “men of Israel.” The people gathered in Jerusalem and available to hear Peter’s sermon were in Jerusalem to celebrate the biblical holiday of Shavuot.
• In Romans 11, Paul writes that Israel is the root of the olive tree that Gentile believers have been grafted into, and Jews are the natural branches.
• In Romans 11:17-19, Gentile believers should not be arrogant and boast against the Jewish people, because they have been grafted into the tree, which is Israel.

FACT: God has a glorious future for Israel and the Jewish people.

• There is a national destiny for Israel that began with Abraham in Genesis 12 (Romans 11:25-26).
• The eternal and unconditional covenant made with Abraham’s descendants through Isaac and Jacob is affirmed by Paul, who declared, “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).

Since the fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant is bound to the character of God, it cannot be annulled (Galatians 3:16-17).

Sources used for this fact sheet (hyperlinked titles are available digitally):

1. Noam Furer, “Passover Seder Plate,” Wikimedia Commons.

2. Shaula Haitner, “The Western Wall in 1914,” Wikimedia Commons.

3. Guercino – Sotheby’s London, “Giovanni Francesco Barbieri – Saint Paul,” Wikimedia Commons.

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This article first appeared on CAMERA’s website.