Prophecies concerning Israel

OT predictions concerning the role of ancient Israel under the covenant relationship, here considered especially with respect to Israel’s witness to the true God, to the coming of Messiah, and to the establishment of the Messianic kingdom. Seventh-day Adventists regard these predictions as a declaration of the divine purpose with respect to Israel as the covenant people and as conditional upon their cooperation with God’s purpose for them as a nation. Origin of the Seventh-day Adventist View. Millerite Interpretation . William Miller and his associates firmly rejected the then popular millennarian belief (of Literalist premillennialism) that the prophecies of the Bible predicted the last-day “return of the Jews, as such, either before, at, or after the Advent of Christ, to Palestine, to possess that land a thousand years” (Josiah Litch, in Advent Shield 1:47, 48, May 1844). All of them shared the conviction that Christ’s return to this earth was imminent and that His coming would end human probation and that He would purify the earth by fire and set up His eternal kingdom. J. V. Himes is quoted as saying in 1850 that the Millerites had always battled against the prevailing “Judaizing notions” in regard to the age to come, because “Judaism and Adventism are two different things” (Isaac C. Wellcome, History of the Second Advent Message, p . 592). By “Judaism” and “Judaizing notions” he was referring to the belief that the coming age would see the Jews restored not only to Palestine but also as God’s chosen nation, ruling over mortal nations in a millennial kingdom on earth, in which sin and death would continue. That opposition to this was a distinctive point of Adventist doctrine from the first is seen from the recommendation of the twelfth Millerite Second Advent Conference (in 1842) that “all persons who reject the doctrines of temporal millennium and the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, either before or after the Second Advent, and who believe the Second Advent of Christ and the first resurrection to be the next great events of prophetic history, be invited to enroll their names as member[s] of this conference” (The Signs of the Times 3:69, June 1, 1842; see SB No. 1083 ). It is also affirmed: “No portion of the New Testament scriptures [gives] the most indirect intimation of the literal restoration of the Jews to old Jerusalem; we believe that the arguments drawn from the Old Testament prophecies are based on a mistaken view of those prophecies” ( ibid .). Branding the millennarian view a “vain supposition,” William Miller declared: “There is not a text, promise or prophecy, written or given of God” to support the application of OT prophecies concerning a future restoration of the Jews (Views of . . . William Miller, ed. 1842 by J. V. Himes [Second Advent Library, No. 1], p . 233). Early Seventh-day Adventist writers differed from the Millerites in expecting the renewal of the earth, not at the Second Advent, but at the end of the millennium, but with them held that the Second Advent and the first resurrection will end human probation and usher in the reign of the glorified saints-all the redeemed, both Jew and Gentile-and that this allows no place for a post-Advent kingdom of restored Jews in the mortal state. Not much appears in SDA publications on the subject until the “Age to Come” disaffection of the early 1850s brought the topic into discussion. Probably the first major treatment of the subject was part of a series of articles by J. H. Waggoner in early 1856 ( see Review and Herald 7:177, Mar. 6; 7:185, Mar. 13; etc.). Reasons Given in SDA Writings . Reasons given by Miller and early SDA writers for rejecting the millennarian view as unscriptural may be summarized as follows: 1. The OT prophecies were a declaration of God’s purpose for literal Israel, and their fulfillment to literal Israel was strictly conditional upon Israel’s cooperation with the divine purpose. “All of God’s purposes of grace to man are conditional, [and] as the blessings set before them [the Jews] were conditional, they could claim them only on the fulfillment of the conditions. . . . We consider that this was a conditional prophecy, the promises of which have been forfeited” (J. H. Waggoner, The Kingdom of God [1859], pp . 87–109). “This [the old] covenant was made at Horeb, and was conditional, as recorded in Ex. xix . The Lord said to them, ‘ If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people” (J. H. Waggoner, in Review and Herald 9:77, Jan. 8, 1857). “The promise to Abraham and to his seed of the possession of the literal land of Canaan was conditional [ Deut. 4:1 , 2 ; 5:32 , 33 ; 6:1–3 ; 8:1 cited in proof]” (A. S. Hutchins, in Review and Herald 9:197, Apr. 23, 1857). On this point of conditionality, Ellen White comments: “Through the Jewish nation it was God’s purpose to impart rich blessings to all peoples” ( COL 286). “[But] the glorious possibilities set before Israel could be realized only through obedience to God’s commandments” ( ibid . 305; cf . PP 118, 368, 369). “These promises were conditional on obedience” ( PK 704). “As they would obey the divine laws, they would receive the divine blessing” (in SDACom 2:998). “The promises and the threatenings of God are alike conditional” ( Ev 695). 2. The promises to literal Israel were based on the old covenant relationship, and because of the nation’s failure to comply with the conditions God attached to the promises, the Jewish people forfeited their right to those promises. “Do the Scriptures teach that the natural descendants of Jacob are entitled to any special privileges or blessings under the new covenant [either now or in the future]? We affirm that they do not, and appeal to the testimony of God’s word” (J. H. Waggoner, The Kingdom of God [1859], p . 88). “The promises of the kingdom . . . were forfeited under the old covenant” ( ibid ., p . 101). “They could claim them only on the fulfillment of the conditions. . . . Therefore it must be admitted that they can receive nothing in the future for any consideration in the past” ( ibid ., p . 87). At Sinai, Israel “entered into a solemn covenant with God, pledging themselves to accept Him as their ruler, by which they became, in a special sense, the subjects of His authority” ( PP 303). “God had separated them from the world, that He might commit to them a sacred trust. He had made them the depositaries of His law, and He purposed, through them, to preserve among men the knowledge of Himself. Thus the light of heaven was to shine out to a world enshrouded in darkness, and a voice was to be heard appealing to all peoples to turn from their idolatry to serve the living God” ( ibid . 314). They were thus to “stand forth under His wise and holy rule as an example of the superiority of His worship over every form of idolatry” ( ibid .). “All who . . . turned from idolatry to the worship of the true God were to unite themselves with His chosen people. As the numbers of Israel increased they were to enlarge their borders, until their kingdom should embrace the world” ( COL 290). “If Jerusalem . . . had heeded the light which Heaven had sent her, she might have stood forth in the pride of prosperity, the queen of kingdoms. . . . She might through Him have been . . . the mighty metropolis of the earth” ( DA 577). “Had Israel as a nation preserved her allegiance to Heaven, Jerusalem would have stood forever, the elect of God” ( GC 19). “Had Israel remained true to God, this glorious building [the Temple] would have stood forever, a perpetual sign of God’s especial favor to His chosen people” ( PK 46). “Christ would have averted the doom of the Jewish nation if the people had received Him. . . . [But] they rejected the Light of the world, and henceforth their lives were surrounded with darkness as the darkness of midnight. The doom foretold came upon the Jewish nation” ( ibid ., p . 712). “A nation’s sin and a nation’s ruin were due to the religious leaders” ( DA 738). “When Christ should hang upon the cross . . . , Israel’s day as a nation favored and blessed of God would be ended” ( GC 21). 3. The restoration promises were made prior to, or in connection with, the return from Babylonian captivity, and applied to the restoration period. “There is not a text, promise or prophecy written or given of God, which was not given before their return from Babylon, and I believe was then literally fulfilled” (William Miller, Views, p . 233). “Had Israel been true to God, He could have accomplished His purpose through their honor and exaltation” ( DA 28). “The captivity would not have been necessary” ( PK 564). The covenant promises might “have met fulfillment in large measure during the centuries following the return of the Israelites from the lands of their captivity” ( ibid . 703, 704). 4. The Jews are now entitled to salvation on the same basis as the people of every other nation, and OT promises not already fulfilled to them belong now in principle to the church, the spiritual seed of Abraham from all nations, in so far as they are applicable to the new historical situation. The Boston Second Advent Conference went on record to the effect that “the Old Testament prophecies . . . have been fulfilled in what the gospel has already done, or remain to be fulfilled in the gathering all the spiritual seed of Abraham into the New Jerusalem” ( The Signs of the Times 3:69, June 1, 1842; see SB No. 1083 ). “There are other [ OT ] prophecies that cannot apply in the first dispensation, but to a state more glorious than the present, where death and mortality cannot enter” (F. M. Bragg, in Review and Herald 9:11, Nov. 13, 1856). The Israelite people “forfeited their blessings as His chosen people.” Nevertheless “the glorious purposes which He had undertaken to accomplish through Israel were to be fulfilled. All who, through Christ, should become the children of faith were to be counted as Abraham’s seed: they were inheritors of the covenant-promises” ( PP 476). “That which God purposed to do for the world through Israel, the chosen nation, He will finally accomplish through His church on earth today” ( PK 713, 714). The prophecies of the OT concerning Israel’s Messianic role “are today meeting fulfillment in the advancing lines of mission stations that are reaching out into the benighted regions of earth” ( ibid . 375). 5. For a valid application of OT prophecies in the new NT historical situation to the Christian church, we must look to the inspired writers of the NT for guidance. The Boston Second Advent Conference of 1842, as has been noted, based its rejection of a literal application of the OT prophecies to a future kingdom of the Jews in Palestine for a thousand years on the fact “that no portion of the New Testament scriptures” contains even an “indirect intimation of the literal restoration of the Jews to old Jerusalem.” The same point is made in an early SDA book: “All of our views of the Old Testament promises and prophecies must bow to the expositions in the New Testament” (Waggoner, The Kingdom of God [1859], p . 97). Biblical Basis of Seventh-day Adventist View. Promises to Israel Based on the Covenant. All of God’s dealings with the Israelites in OT times were based on the covenant that had originally been ratified between God and Abraham ( Gen. 12:1–3 ; 15:18 ; 17:2–7 ). At Mount Sinai, more than four centuries later, Israel took an oath of allegiance to God, accepting Him as their sovereign and becoming in a special sense subjects of His authority ( Ex. 19:5–8 ; 24:3–8 ; Deut. 7:6–14 ). This covenant continued in force until the leaders of the nation formally rejected Jesus as the Messiah and declared before Pilate their allegiance to “no king but Caesar” ( Matt. 21:43–45 ; 23:36–38 ). Under the covenant relationship the people of Israel pledged themselves to obey God ( Ex. 19:1–8 ; 24:3–8 ), and He, on His part, promised to give them the land of Palestine as their inheritance ( Gen. 15:18 ; Deut. 1:7 , 8 ) and to endow them with unique physical, intellectual, and material blessings designed to render them the greatest nation upon the face of the earth. Among these covenant blessings were health, vigor, and immunity to sickness and disease ( Ex. 15:26 ; Deut. 7:12–15 ); superior mental acuity and sound judgment ( Deut. 4:6 ); skill in the cultivation of the soil that would gradually restore their land to the fertility and beauty of Eden, and bring prosperity to their flocks and herds ( Deut. 7:13 ; 28:3–5 , 8 , 12 ; Isa. 51:3 ; Mal. 3:10 , 11 ). As a result of obedience Israel would enjoy unparalleled prosperity and reach the highest standard of living of any nation ( Deut. 8:18 ; 28:11–13 ), and become the greatest nation on the face of the earth ( Deut. 4:6–8 ; 7:14 ; 28:1 , 2 , 10 , 13 ; Jer. 33:9 ; Mal. 3:12 ). All of these blessings were predicated on Israel’s wholehearted cooperation with the revealed will of God, and to their best effort He would add Heaven’s rich blessing ( Deut. 4:9 ; 28:1 , 13 , 14 ; 30:9 , 10 ). Israel was thus to be a living example and a witness to the world of the infinite superiority of the worship and service of the true God ( Deut. 4:6–9 ; 7:12–15 ; 28:1–13 ; Isa. 49:3 , 6 ; 61:9 ; 62:1 , 2 ), and one by one the nations would unite with Israel in serving Him ( Isa. 2:2 , 3 ; 11:10 ; 14:1 ; 19:18–22 ; 45:14 ; 55:5 ; 56:6 , 7 ; 60:1–12 ; Jer. 3:17 ; 16:19 ; 33:9 ; Zech. 2:11 ; 8:20–23 ). But as a result of apostasy, Israel forfeited possession of the land of Canaan, which was theirs only by virtue of the covenant relationship, and spent 70 years as captives in Babylon ( 2 Chron. 36:14–17 ; Isa. 5:1–7 ; Jer. 25:5–7 ; 29:18 , 19 ; 32:21–23 ; Eze. 7:2–9 ; 12:3–28 ; 20:28 , 35–38 ; 21:25–32 ; 36:18–23 ; Micah 2:10 ; cf . Hosea 9:3 , 15 ), where they were to learn in adversity the lessons they had failed to learn during times of prosperity ( Jer. 25:5–7 ; 46:28 ; Eze. 20:35–38 ). Restoration After the Exile . After the Captivity, God renewed His covenant with Israel, restored them to their own land, and promised that all the covenant promises might yet come to pass if they would be loyal to Him ( Jer. 31:3–38 ; 33:3–26 ; Eze. 36:8–11 , 21–38 ; 43:10 , 11 ; Micah 4:8–12 ; Zech. 1:17 ; 2:12 ; 6:15 ; 10:6 ). It is significant that all OT promises looking forward to a time of restoration for the Jews as the covenant people anticipated their return from Babylonian captivity ( Isa. 14:1–7 ; 27:12 , 13 ; Jer. 16:14–16 ; 23:3–8 ; 25:11 ; 29:10–14 ; 30:3–12 ; 32:37–44 ; Eze. 34:11–16 ; 37 ; Amos 9 ; Micah 2:12 , 13 ). A probationary period of 490 years was allotted to Israel in which to measure up to God’s purpose for them as a nation ( Dan. 9:24–27 ; cf . Jer. 12:14–17 ). This period of time was to culminate with the coming of Messiah and the establishment of His kingdom. The Kingdom Forfeited in the Rejection of the Messiah. At the time appointed Messiah came, but His own people “received him not” ( John 1:11 ). Three days prior to the crucifixion Christ pronounced Heaven’s verdict upon the Jewish nation: “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof”; “your house is left unto you desolate” ( Matt. 21:43 ; 23:38 ). The Babylonian captivity did not mark “a full end” of Israel’s role as the covenant people ( Jer. 4:27 ; 5:18 ; 46:28 ), but when the Jews rejected their Messiah there was no assurance of reinstatement; this rejection was permanent and irrevocable ( cf . Jer. 12:14–17 ). The Kingdom Transferred . With the irrevocable rejection of Israel as the covenant people at the cross, the rights, privileges, promises, and blessings of the covenant relationship passed to the Christian church as God’s chosen representative on earth ( Matt. 28:19 , 20 ; 2 Cor. 5:18–20 ; Acts 10:34 , 35 ; Gal. 3:9 , 27–29 ; 1 Peter 2:9 , 10 ; Rom. 9:24–26 , 30 , 31 ; 10:12 , 13 ). Like everyone else, individual Jews could still find salvation, but they must do so as believers in Christ and not as descendants of Abraham ( Rom. 9:6 ; 11:1 , 2 , 11 , 15 , 22–26 ). NT writers often reinterpret OT prophecies originally addressed to literal Israel, in terms of the new historical situation, applying them to the church ( Acts 2:17–21 ; 15:15–17 ; Rom. 9:25–29 ; 1 Cor. 9:9 , 10 ; Gal. 3:11 , 16 ; 4:22–31 ; Heb. 4:1–10 ; 8:8–12 ; 1 Peter 2:9 , 10 . Many OT prophecies-such as those affirming Israel’s worldwide mission and the ingathering of the Gentiles, and those pointing forward to the eternal rest in Canaan-never were, and now never can be, fulfilled to Israel as a nation. The concept that the covenant promises must be fulfilled to literal Israel is based on a misconception of the conditional nature of prophecy. Since the Jews forfeited their special status as the covenant people, there is no valid scriptural basis for relating the present-day return of the Jews to Palestine, and the modern state of Israel, to the OT covenant promises. Fulfillment Under the New Testament. After the transfer of the covenant relationship to the church, many OT promises not already fulfilled to literal Israel would never be fulfilled because they were strictly conditional upon Israel’s retaining its status as the covenant people. Others would be fulfilled to the Christian church, as spiritual Israel, in principle-bu t not necessarily in detail, because of the fact that many details of the prophecies were made with respect to Israel as a literal nation situated in the land of Palestine, whereas the Christian church is a spiritual “nation” scattered all over the world. Obviously, such details cannot apply to the church, at least in a literal sense. Inasmuch as all the OT promises originally applied to literal Israel, it is only when a later inspired writer applies them to the new historical situation, in which the church is God’s chosen instrument, that we can be positive of the validity of this application. Details that depended upon the Jews continuing as God’s chosen people in the land of Palestine have lapsed by default. To lift selected passages out of their literary and historical context in the OT and to apply them arbitrarily to our day is not valid exegesis. In summary, the OT prophecies concerning Israel constitute a declaration of God’s purpose with respect to the Jews as the covenant people; these prophecies were strictly conditional upon their cooperation; by rejecting Jesus as the Messiah the Jewish nation withdrew from the covenant relationship and forfeited its special relationship to God under the covenant; the covenant promises and privileges were permanently transferred to the Christian church as the new covenant people, to be fulfilled to the extent that they are applicable under the new historical situation; details dependent on literal Israel retaining its status as the covenant people, resident in Palestine, have lapsed by default; we are dependent upon later inspired writers for a valid application of these OT predictions to the church.