20 Scholars on the Restoration of Israel

Israel: replaced or restored?

In my ongoing informal series of pieces discussing fulfillment or replacement theology, I here want to focus on one important recent volume that all people – regardless of where they stand on this issue – should be aware of. I refer to The Future Restoration of Israel: A Response to Supersessionism edited by Stanley Porter and Alan Kurschner (Pickwick, 2023).

This is one of the best single-volume compilations of scholarly essays arguing for a Zionist position and reacting against supersessionism. The twenty scholars featured in the book are these: Darrell L. Bock; Michael L. Brown; William S. Campbell; Robert B. Chisholm; Helene Dallaire; Craig A. Evans; David J. Fuller; Mitch Glaser; Alan Hultberg; Walter C. Kaiser, Jr.; Alan E. Kurschner; Stanley E. Porter; Mark F. Rooker; David Rudolph; Mark R. Saucy; Jim R. Sibley; J. Brian Tucker; Michael G. Vanlaningham; Michael J. Wilkins; and David I. Yoon.

Before proceeding, let me say that while a number of my pieces in this sub-section do feature those questioning replacement theology, I have far more books by those arguing the other side. One of the leading voices here would include N. T. Wright, of whom it is said that Israel almost disappears in his thought. Yes that is correct, and it can be troubling. However his case needs to be heard, and I do have over 50 of his volumes. And one chapter in this volume is devoted to Wright and his thought. So I am quite aware of how various non-Zionist Christians think on this issue.

Of course the harsher critics of what can be called Christian Zionism will claim they are simply dispensationalists or theological illiterates. But important Christians from the past 2000 years have affirmed the place of Israel and its future restoration. And a number of the scholars here write from decidedly non-dispensational perspectives.

Let me share some quotes from the book. The editors finish their Introduction this way:

Christians from the very beginning have affirmed that Jesus is the predicted One of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Messiah who was a Jew, a member of Israel. By virtue of this, Christians necessarily have taken some posture toward the Jewish people. Soulen notes, “The question, then, has never been whether Christians should speak and act with reference to the Jewish people; rather, how should they do so . . .” The posturing expressed in most of church history has been supersessionist, that is, that the special role God had with the Jewish people is a thing of the past. It served its purpose. It is a fool’s errand to think that God promised to restore them as a redeemed nation at the consummation. Israel then was no longer considered a unique people. But Soulen asks, “If the God of Israel ordains a salvation in the midst of history that renders the existence of the Jewish people irrelevant, what can be the power of this salvation to mend the wounds of human history as a whole?” (p. 9)

Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser says this in his conclusion to his essay on the Christian church and how it is built on the foundation of the Abrahamic, Davidic, and New Covenant:

The Abrahamic-Davidic new covenants all were unconditional unilateral promises made by God with no conditions or terms attached to their enduring relevancy. Those in Israel who believed were the first recipients of this grace to which were added in Old Testament times believing gentiles, whose number began to expand enormously under the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul.

 

It was in the plan of God to restore Israel back to her land, not because she had earned that right or deserved it, but because God had declared he would do this to magnify his name and his glory. In the meantime, those who were in the “full number” of believing Gentiles, who had been grafted into the olive tree of Israel, where the natural branches had been lopped off, were not to boast or to act in a conceited way toward the Jewish people, but this converted group was to wait and pray for the day when “All Israel will be saved.” God had planned a massive conversion of his longstanding intransigent people to suddenly sadly realize that the one who had been pierced was the Jewish Messiah they had consistently overlooked and avoided (Zech 12:10). That event would be a great day of salvation from the Jewish people, because God’s “gifts and his election” of Israel were “irrevocable.” There would be no replacement by the church; instead, there would be one united “people of God.” (p. 50)

Mark Saucy in his essay on “One Nation Under God” says this early on:

This essay will examine this traditional soteriological narrative against a biblical-theological and anthropological study of the role of national identity in human life. To be a member of a people with a homeland is an intrinsic dimension of what it means to be human according to the image of God, and therefore, theocracy, or “government of god,” is a necessary aspect of a fully formed and biblical soteriology. All people have a theocratic reality. In Scripture’s story, the nation of Israel is the key to realising this aspect of our humanity as both an Old Testament paradigm and a prophetically envisioned hope for the future. Without a re-born nation and the global, culture-level restoration it represents for this earth, messianic soteriology does not claim the fullness of human life that Jesus intended when he stated, “salvation is from the Jews.” (p. 126)

And this is part of his conclusion:

“Salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22b) is a narrative-controlling statement from Jesus. It captures the entire redemptive plan of God for his creation and defines God’s intent to restore the deepest regions of our humanity for his glory in the world. God will not suffer anything less for the sake of his name and the fulfillment of our calling. To be human is to belong to a people, and with our people to know God and execute his Edenic cultural ideals on this earth even in the presence of adversarial forces. It is to participate in the living God’s theocratic order. In the theocracy of Israel, God offers the world an object lesson of his intention to re-claim all aspects of human life in his theocracy, including the socio-political dimension of our nations. And in its future role on the world’s stage, national Israel will lead the way again as the exemplar of the greatness of God’s name in salvation. (pp. 138-139)

Alan Hultberg writes about “The Future Restoration of Israel.” He says this:

[E]ven granted the “fulfillment” of Old Testament restoration promises found presently in Christ and the church, there is no logically, theologically, or hermeneutically necessary warrant for the assumption that this excludes a further, future fulfillment involving empirical Israel. Indeed, there is good reason to hope that the whole of Scripture argues otherwise. So, I certainly agree that the New Testament affirms (sometimes implicitly and sometimes explicitly) that Jesus, as Messiah, incorporates in himself and in the Church of fulfillment of Old Testament kingdom promises to Israel’ all the promises of God are affirmed in Christ (2 Cor 1:20) precisely because he is Christ. But that does not mean that all the promises of God are completed in the first advent of Christ. In fact, to suggest as much is to deny a greater fulfillment of Kingdom promises in the new heavens and earth, when the mediatorial form of the kingdom comes to an end (1 Cor 15:25-28). The second coming is, after all, still part of the one revelation of Christ! Even so, the Church of Jews and Gentiles, may itself be an inaugurated form of the mediatorial, messianic kingdom, a proleptic fulfillment of the more tangible reign of Christ from national Israel over all the nations of the earth when Gentiles will be incorporated with Israel as God’s people and share in Israel’s new covenant blessings. In fact, the New Testament itself seems to anticipate a broader fulfillment, and one that includes Israel as a nation, at the second coming (Matt 19:28; Acts 1:3; 3:19-21; Rom 11:12, 15). This suggests that the dichotomy proposed by supersessionists (that New Testament application of Kingdom promises to the first advent of Christ precludes any future fulfillment in Israel at the second advent) is indeed false. Beyond this, there are at least three important theological reasons that a spiritual fulfillment of messianic kingdom promises in the first advent and the Church cannot be the end of the story…. (pp. 162-163)

A final quote comes from Mitch Glaser as he discusses “The Impact of Supersessionism on Jewish Evangelism”. He writes:

Unfortunately, the suffering of Israelis is not fully discussed, and even when it is, the sufferings are often portrayed as far less than the sufferings of Palestinians. This unbalanced portrayal of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has done much to paint an insidious view of Israelis. Israelis are portrayed as land-grabbing monsters that have no regard for human life. If this is the case then who would want to reach people like this with the gospel? We witness to those we care about or for whom we have sympathy and compassion. How we paint the image of Israel and the Jewish people in Christian communications impacts the degree to which Christians are moved to witness to the Jewish people.

 

This combination of supersessionism and anti-Israel politics is hurting twenty-first-century missions to the Jewish people. These are just some of the many reasons this viewpoint needs to be intelligently and carefully countered.

 

In conclusion, issues related to Israel, the Jewish people, and the Palestinians will continue to be difficult and, at times, cause conflict between brothers and sisters in the Lord. We must do all we can to focus on Jesus as the One who draws us together and sharpen iron with iron, provoking one another to produce more light than heat, and recognizing that, ultimately, we must do all we can to create a better climate for authentic reconciliation and the proclamation of the gospel. It is therefore important for Christians to present a picture of both Israelis and Palestinians, and of both Arabs and Jews, that touches the hearts of sincere Christians and moves them to share the gospel with both communities. (p. 394)

Differing viewpoints will continue to abound on these matters, and just as there are many differences found by those holding to the supersessionist perspective, so too there is a wide variety of points of view when it comes to those who still argue for a present and future role for Israel.

But those wanting to get in one volume perhaps the most complete, the most detailed, and the most comprehensive set of replies to the fulfilment theologians thus far written will find no better book than this.

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