A gracEmail subscriber asks if the return of Jews since 1948 to the modern state of Israel is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and a sign of Jesus' soon return. * * * The Old Testament prophets repeatedly anticipate a time when God will gather Jews who have been scattered around the world back to their ancestral homeland (Isa.11:10-12; 52:1-10; Ezek. 36:22-24; 37:1-12; Zech. 10:6-12; 12:3,6). Many biblical scholars believe that these prophecies will be fulfilled literally. Other scholars note that the New Testament sometimes explains such literal-sounding promises in … [Read more...]
JUBILEE
A gracEmail subscriber who is reading through the Bible has come to Leviticus 25 and God's instructions for observing the Year of Jubilee. "Did Israel practice Jubilee?" he asks. "If so, for how long? I don't recall any mention of it in Judges, Samuel, Kings or Chronicles." * * *As you know from your reading, Jubilee was part of a group of ecological instructions that God gave to Israel long before "green" was fashionable (Lev. 25). Every seven years, the Israelites were to give the farm land a sabbath (rest) year by not planting any crops or working the soil. The year after the … [Read more...]
ISRAEL’S PROMISES AND OUR CROPS
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "God told the Jewish nation if they obeyed him, he would bless their fields and orchards. I believe as an individual Christian that I am a 'true Jew.' Does this mean that God will protect my garden and fruit trees from rabbits and deer if I do not put up a fence?" * * * We believers in Jesus from among the nations are spiritual descendants of Abraham, but we are not "true Jews," in my understanding of the Bible (Rom. 4:9-18). Jews are Jews -- although not all Jews are God's elect as evidenced by their lack of faith -- and Gentiles are Gentiles (Rom. 9:6-7; … [Read more...]
2 CHRONICLES 7:14
A gracEmail subscriber asks whether God's conditional promise in 2 Chronicles 7:14 to forgive his people and to heal their land applies today to Christians living in the United States of America. * * *In this passage King Solomon has just dedicated the Temple and God appears to the king at night to assure him that he will hear prayers offered from this place (2 Chron. 7:12-18). For example, suppose that God's covenant people Israel commit sin and God punishes them with drought, locust or disease. If they then repent, turn to God and reform their ways, God will forgive them … [Read more...]
GENTILES
A gracEmail subscriber writes: "My husband and I were discussing that all persons are descendants of Adam and Eve. Since Isaac and Ishmael are the fathers of the Jews and the Arabs, we were curious as to what descendent of Adam and Eve was the father of the Gentiles?" * * * That would be Noah, who with his wife, their sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and the sons' three unnamed wives were the only humans who survived the Flood (Gen. 7:13, 23). Everyone born after the Flood descended from one of Noah's three sons (Gen. 9:18-19). In the Bible, the Gentiles (literally "the peoples" or "the nations") … [Read more...]
THE TRUE ISRAEL
A gracEmail subscriber asks whether "true Israel" today consists of both Jews and Gentiles (non-Jews from all nations) who are part of Christ's kingdom and his spiritual body. * * * On this subject the Bible presents a variegated picture and we must include the complexity if we accurately describe that biblical picture. There is a larger sense in which Abraham is "father" of all believers, whether Jews or Gentiles (Rom. 4:11-12), and all believers are Abraham's spiritual "descendants" and "heirs" (Rom. 4:16-18; Gal. 3:29). All who trust in God as Abraham did are blessed … [Read more...]
JEWS STILL ‘CHOSEN PEOPLE’
A gracEmail reader in Eastern Europe asks, "Are the Jews still God's 'chosen people?' Why they did not receive the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ?" * * * The Apostle Paul struggles with the heart-wrenching situation of Israel's present rejection of Jesus in Romans chapters 9-11. Along the way, he notes three important points. First, not every descendant of Abraham is one of God's "chosen," as even the Old Testament story makes plain. God counted Abraham's offspring through Isaac, not through Ishmael (Gen. 21:12; Rom. 9:7). When Isaac's wife Rebekah had twin … [Read more...]
WHY MUSLIMS HATE THE WEST (2)
"So what if Muslims hate my country?" I ask myself. Should we do anything differently for that reason? As one Christian citizen of the U.S., desiring to think with "the mind of Christ" but not presumptuous enough to suppose that I always do, I raise some questions for further thought. For example, do we too easily go along with the immorality that characterizes contemporary American culture? Must Muslims be the voice of conscience for our country? I certainly do not want the Muslim (or non-Muslim) world to associate the media-promoted life of sex, drugs and booze -- or even of materialism, … [Read more...]
WHY MUSLIMS HATE THE WEST (1)
It is astounding to realize that millions of Middle-Eastern Muslims hate the West (and the USA in particular). I am not talking about the terrorists -- barbarian savages who launch suicidal attacks on innocent men, women and children. I am speaking of day laborers and artisans, mothers and school-children, regular people sometimes referred to as "the Arab street." Political correctness says they hate us because they disagree with our democracy, our capitalism, our cherished freedoms -- often summed up as our "way of life." That is a comfortable answer, to be sure, but it is also wrong. In … [Read more...]
MIDDLE EAST PERSPECTIVE
A gracEmail subscriber asks: "What is your biblical perspective on the Middle East situation -- the tension between Israel and the Palestinians, the militant Muslims?" * * * In general, I have the same biblical perspective regarding the Middle East that I have about any other part of the world. I do not believe that the modern political state of Israel has any special standing in God's eyes and I do not see it as the fulfillment of any particular biblical prophecy -- concerning either the restoration of the people of Israel and Judah to their ancient homeland or concerning … [Read more...]