1 Why 1948 Must Correct Wrong Theology About AD 70 Samuel Whitefield The fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 and the subsequent dispersion of the majority of the Jewish people from the last of Israel radically impacted Christian Christian theology because it happened at the same time that the church began transitioning to predominantly gentile leadership due to the spread of the gospel among the gentiles. In that transition it was not long until gentile leaders began separating Christianity from the Jewish people. Theologians correctly understood that God was doing something new with Israel under Jesus, but incorrectly assumed that the events of AD 70 meant that God s plan going forward was no longer connected to the Jewish people. For the last 2,000 years the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 has affected Christian theology far more than we realize because many theologians took that event as the sign that God is no longer committed to the distinct promises He made to the Jewish people. They used it a key proof of supersessionism, the view that is commonly referred to as replacement theology. In fact, to this day, most of the church still believes that God is working through a new spiritual Israel that has no connection to the Jewish people and people underestimate just how much that belief is undergirded by the events of AD 70. The tragedy is that we have failed to learn the lesson of Obadiah. In the book of Obadiah we find God s rebuke to Edom because Edom was opportunistic when Israel fell to a foreign invader. When Israel fall to the ancient Babylonians, Edom saw it as a chance to seize Israel s promises and possessions. Edom cooperated with Israel s misfortune rather than standing as in intercessor for Israel s promises and inheritance. The Edomites were the sons of Esau which meant they should have wept for Israel as a brother, instead they came in as a thief. While it is true that God brought the Babylonian invasion upon Israel because of Israel s sin, it is critical that we understand how God s discipline functions. God disciplined Israel severely through Babylon s invasion but that discipline was just that - discipline. It was part of God s ongoing relationship with Israel, not the end of His relationship with her. The Edomites took it as an opportunity to try to seize Israel s inheritance and God rebuked Edom with great rage over Edom s presumption and jealousy. God responded as any father would if someone tried to take a son s inheritance when he received discipline from his father. Discipline is not to remove a child from their inheritance, but to ultimately prepare him for it. Our sin is serious before God, but it is not the end of the story. Our failures create a context for God to demonstrate his mercy and righteousness. Edom should have interceded for her neighbor rather than trying to leverage God s judgment against Israel for personal gain.
2 We must head Obadiah s warning because there are parallels in what happened after Israel's crisis in AD 70. While the gospel does welcome the gentiles into Israel s spiritual benefits, some Christian theologians have gone a step further and dispossessed Israel of her convent future. Like the Edomites, they assumed that Israel s suffering was the end of Israel s story and propagated the idea that God is finished with His purposes for Israel because of her sin. Gentile believers have exposed Israel s sinfulness and freely taken Israel s spiritual inheritance without intercession for Israel to receive the inheritance of the first born. While the gospel does open the door for the gentiles to receive an inheritance in Israel (Ephesians 2:12-13; 3:6), the inclusion of the gentiles does not dispossess Israel of her promises. God s decision to expand His promises does not not mean He reassigned them. Any theology that promotes the idea that Israel lost her unique inheritance because of her sinfulness misses the whole theology of grace and redemption that Paul preached. Paul recognized that the basis of salvation by faith alone is found in Israel s history because Israel s promises were secured by God s ability and Abraham s faith (Genesis 15:6), not Israel s own works of righteousness. This is a divine message to the nations that our salvation is ultimately secured, not by our strength but by God s mercy. Israel s story is meant to give us confidence in God s redemption, and therefore confidence in our own redemption. Israel s sin is always serious because of Israel s covenant relationship, but Israel s sin is not because Israel was more sinful than the nations, it is simply because Israel is caught in the plight of humanity. When Israel comes short, it is not demonstrating the failure of the Jewish people it is demonstrating the failure of man. Therefore, Israel s failures are essentially our failures. Her mercy is our mercy. Her salvation is our salvation. This is why we must heed the message of Obadiah - any believer who will dispossess Israel of her promises because of the fires of AD 70 does not understand their own gospel and their own salvation. Because of the massive effect of AD 70 on Christian theology, we must recognize that 1948 was a divine shout on the stage of world history. It was God s answer to Christian theologians who have declared Jesus to be Israel s King, but also taught that God was finished with the Jewish people. When a Jewish state suddenly reemerged on the stage of history, it was God s divine statement that there is a future dimension to the kingdom of Israel which includes a present and future calling and salvation for the Jewish people (Acts 1:6; Romans 11:26-27). 1948 is God s statement to the nations that His work in the earth is incomplete without the salvation of the Jewish people and the fulfillment of the promises He has made to them. Jesus will receive the worship of the nations, but He will not rule and reign until He receives the welcome of the Jewish people (Matthew 23:39). This is why God was not content with 1948, but went event further and in 1967, Israel took Jerusalem and Jerusalem has since become the most controversial city in the earth. Across the church there has been a failure to do with 1948 theologically. Many theologians almost derisively refer to 1948 as little more than an end times sign on the dispensational calendar as if it s nothing more than a sign for end times. In reality the events of 1948 struck an enormous blog to the prevailing supersessionism in the church by shattering one of its
3 primary presuppositions. For nearly 2,000 years the events of AD 70 were assumed to be God s statement in support of supersessionism. However, if AD 70 were God s final statement on the Jewish people why did they become the center of 20th century history both through the horror of the Holocaust and the miracle of 1948. If Israel has lost her calling due to her sin and God wants to de-emphasize natural Israel, why is it suddenly - miraculous - the center of controversy in the earth? The church has to recognize both the Holocaust and 1948 as theological events and nor merely historical events. They are more than end times signs, they are statements of a covenant keeping God. They reveal in great and gruesome ways that both God and His enemy still see the Jewish people as central in His plan in the earth. So long as we fail to deal with the Holocaust and 1948 theologically we fail to recognize all that God is doing in the earth. To be sure the events of the last century are significant in their implications for how we understand eschatology, but the events of the last century are more than indicators related to how we understand the end times - they are filed with theological significance that we must recognize and apply properly. Amazingly, the idea that God is finished with Israel has somehow survived after 1948. In addition, the further we get from 1948, the more normal the modern state of Israel seems. It has now been long enough that many believers see the existence of Israel as something that almost seems normal and ordinary. Israel s weaknesses and failures, like any other nation, have become evident and that has led the western church to assume that Israel therefore has little significance. Western culture tends to have very short memory and we tend to not recognize what God is doing over long spans of time. We tend to live in the now, and not recognize the overall trend. That is why we need to step back and recognize again what a phenomenal event 1948 was. While most of us have lived in a a generation with a Jewish state, for 2,000 years that earth lived without one. In fact, for the last 2,500 years there was only a brief time when there was an independent Jewish state under it s own leadership. Now, after an enormous delay, it exists again. It has political implications, but more than that it has theological implications for how we understand God and what He is doing. Israel s weaknesses and failures should never serve to minimize the prophetic significance of what God is doing, but rather they serve the illustrate the mercy of God and they setup the perfect context for the salvation of God. Biblical heroes are all fatally flawed and many are guilty of the worst sins and the glory of God is found in His salvation. Israel s flaws provide a canvas on which God is going to paint the story of His salvation. Her flaws do not diminish her calling or prophetic significance any more than our own flaws are individuals render us unusable by God. We have be true to our gospel. We are committed to looking at individuals through the lens of the gospel - we need to look at Israel through that lens. It is time for the global church to recognize what a divine statement 1948 was. While we want to avoid speculative end-time timelines, we have to understand the significance of the event.
4 We do not base our theology on events, we base it on the Word of God, but we must also recognize how the events of AD 70 has influenced our reading of the Scripture and how the events of 1948 must influence that reading as well. 1948 was God s statement to the nations and to the church that He remembers His promises and that He will not conclude His plan in this age without the Jewish people. This is why the nations, both Islamic and secular, rage against Israel - they recognize the significance of the salvation of the Jewish people. God made His statement when Israel reemerged. The nations are raging. The tragedy is that some in the church are raging and others are ambivalent. It is time to change that. We have to recognize the significance of AD 70 on Christianity theology and therefore also recognize the significance of 1948 to correct that theology. We also have to recognize just how significant Obadiah s message to Edom is for how we understand the gospel. Obadiah gives a warning to the gentile who is quick to claim Israel s calling and blessing and then consider Israel s calling is invalid because of Israel s unbelief. Any theology that promotes the idea that Israel lost her divine inheritance because of her sinfulness misses the whole theology of grace and redemption that Paul preached. Paul recognized that the basis of salvation by faith alone is found in Israel s history precisely because Israel s promises were secured by God s ability and Abraham s faith, not Israel s own works of righteousness (Genesis 15). This is a divine message to the nations that our salvation is ultimately secured, not by our strength but by God s mercy. Israel s story of ultimate redemption is meant to give us confidence in God s redemption, and therefore confidence in our own redemption. Calling before God is not based on performance, it is based on the God who calls (Romans 9:11). We have to recognize, like Paul, that Israel s unique calling remains in tact even when Israel is in sin (Romans 11:29). If their calling was not based on their own achievement, then it cannot be lost by their achievement. If Israel s calling is not secured by their righteousness - and the OT is clear it is not - then why is their calling forfeited because of their unrighteousness? We have to be consistent on this because it is the very heart of the gospel. Man fell and his calling remained intact. Israel fell, but her calling remains in tact. God is redeemed man s calling by saving a remnant. God is going to redeem Israel s calling by saving the nation. God didn t cancel man s calling because he fell, and the same same goes for Israel. However, to fulfill his calling man has to be raised up to new life in Jesus and the same also goes for Israel. 1948 is God s statement to the earth that Israel s promises remain, but 1948 is not God s final statement. To inherit those promises, Israel must come into right relationship with God s Son (Zechariah 12:10-14; Matthew 24:30; Revelation 1:7). This is precisely why Paul warns us to avoid arrogance. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul s word anticipate the shock of the events of AD 70. The nations would be tempted with arrogance - they would be tempted because of God s gracious offer to share in Israel s blessings and because of the severity of AD 70 to assume that Israel s sins disqualified her as a people and that now all her promises are transferred to the nations. However, Israel s condition in AD 70 and her condition now are not the end of her covenant. That is not our
5 gospel. Our gospel is that God has the power to secure and fulfill His promises. What He has said He will do.