The Messiah and Future Israel: Below are the concluding thoughts from Larry Pettegrew’s chapter (The Messiah’s Lecture on the Future of Israel) of Forsaking Israel. I recommend the book, and especially the first chapter: The Curious Case of the Church Fathers and Israel.
The Conclusion
The Olivet Discourse is a majestic lecture presented by the Messiah in which He outlines Israel’s future in the age between Israel’s recent rejection of Him and the Second Coming when Israel finally embraces her Messiah. Supersessionists, including posttribulationists, argue that the lecture is about the church and the rapture, not Israel and the Second Coming. The disciples, they say, represent the church, and so the lecture must be about the future of the church. But the correct interpretation of this passage is not settled by whom the disciples represent. The questions that the disciples ask at the beginning of the Discourse settle it. Do they ask about the future of the church or the future of Israel? Clearly, they ask about the future of Israel in relationship to her temple, Messiah, and kingdom. And thus Christ answers these questions. [Bold and underline mine]
This does not mean that the discourse has no application to the church. All Scripture is profitable to all believers for doctrine. reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness. But Jesus Christ is not teaching some form of replacement theology in this lecture. Israel’s Messiah knows that Israel’s story has not ended ~ Larry Pettegrew
A stark comparison
Dr. Pettegrew mentioned posttribulationists, but the same may be said of leading Prewrath Rapturists. Consider the following problematic statements.
Robert Van Kampen,
…it is my firm conviction that the Olivet Discourse is written for the church, and that its application is to believers and not to unsaved Israel which, by definition, has no interest whatsoever in the New Testament or its warnings concerning the unbelieving nation of Israel. (The Sign p 487, Revised Edition 1993)
This from our previous article:
In recent years Alan Hultberg (Three Views on the Rapture) wrote that, Jesus in some way has replaced Israel; that He “fulfills the role of Israel itself.” Hultberg wrote, “Thus for Matthew, to belong to Israel one must belong to the Messiah, Jesus.” He concluded that Jesus had rejected Israel as a whole… [Hultberg’s position is that] Matthew views the church as in a sense “the inheritor of the Jewish Kingdom.” Regarding that last statement Dr. Larry D. Pettegrew notes that that would mean Jesus was a supersessionist. For more, see page 279 in the book edited by Pettegrew, “Forsaking Israel.” [End quote]
Considering the above, I found this Eschatos Ministries article ironic on more than one level. See Are there seven problems with pretrib?
Pretrib anti-Semitism & Israel replacement
Even where such extremes (?) aren’t adopted, proponents cherry pick. For example, they’ll note the Greek word for gathering (episunago) in Matt 24:31 and point to Paul’s use of it in 2 Thess 2. So they conclude that this is the rapture of the church. But they tend to ignore the fact that Christ used the same term in Matt 23 for Israel’s gathering.
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Mat 23:37
We’re told that God can simultaneously work with Israel and the church, so there’s no reason He can’t continue to do so throughout Daniel’s 70th Week. I’ve even seen bizarre charges of anti-Semitism against pretribulationism because the position removes the church and leaves Israel behind.
And yet the prewrath view has the church removed (At the worst possible time?) while Israel endures the continuing Great Tribulation, plus God’s wrath. See my brief article on that logic HERE. Tony Garland addresses another allegation of anti-Semitism in this Q & A.
If the pretrib view is to be labeled anti-Semitic, what might be said about removing Israel from the Olivet Discourse and replacing it with the church? Let’s be careful about these charges.
Maranatha!
Further reading
Dispensationalism: A Step Up for the Israel of God.
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