Heart for Israel

Is There a Jewish Kingdom to Come?

Many people want to spiritualize much of the Bible when it comes to Bible prophecy. Often, those very same people will interpret the Bible literally in most passages. However, when they see the terms: Kingdom, Israel, Jerusalem, all of a sudden, it becomes the church or heaven or something other than what it really means.

If they would take the same hermeneutical principles and apply them to those passages, they could not come up with the idea that there is no future for Israel. Dwight Pentecost, in his book “Things to Come,” quotes from a Covenant theologian who is quite honest about this very topic: “Now we must frankly admit that a literal interpretation of the Old Testament prophecies gives such a picture of an earthly reign of the Messiah as the Premillennialist pictures. That was the kind of  Messianic Kingdom that the Jews of the time of Christ were looking for on the basis of a literal interpretation of the Old Testament promises”. (F. E. Hamilton, The Basis of Millennial Faith, pp. 38-39 quoted in Pentecost, Things to Come, p.2).

This is an amazing confession from a man who understands what the Jews in Jesus’ day were looking for based on Old Testament prophecy. Of course, the entire Old Testament is looking forward to a Jewish Messianic Kingdom. Many Orthodox Jews today are still looking for the coming of a Messiah who will establish such a Kingdom. One can not read, for example, Psalm 2:6 “I have set My King upon My Holy Hill of Zion…”. This is God the Father placing His Son, Jesus the Messiah, on the throne as King in Zion.

Many of the Prophets wrote concerning the Kingdom to come. They were enamored and consumed with such a time as the Kingdom. Jesus promises the Apostles that they will sit on the thrones of the 12 tribes of Israel, judging them or ruling over them in the Kingdom to come (Mt.19:28). He sets the time as when the “Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory”. Jesus is either telling the truth or lying; it is one or the other. Why make such a promise and then go back on your word? If He knows this is not going to happen, why make such a statement?

The only other option is that Jesus is telling the truth because He knows a future day is coming for the Nation of Israel in a Messianic Kingdom. After spending 40 days with the Apostles after His resurrection, just prior to His ascension, the Apostles asked Him in Acts 1:6, “…Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”.  This was a perfect time for the Lord to correct their thinking if the Kingdom was now the Church or just a spiritual kingdom. But His response was in v7, “…it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power”. In other words, it will happen, but He was not telling them when it would happen. Their concern was to be out preaching the gospel, not only in Israel but to all nations.

Those who advocate a replacement theology viewpoint have a hard time reconciling these passages. If there is a future for Israel, Zionism today is legit, and this may be the generation of Jews who repent, turn to the Lord and call for the Messiah to come!