End-Times Distractions

It’s easy to get sidetracked. We start searching for a product online then quickly find ourselves looking at something else.

Like us, the disciples were constantly getting distracted. After Jesus rose from the dead, Luke records this episode:

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”

He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:4-8)

The disciples were focused on the wrong thing so Jesus redirected their attention. They were thinking about politics. Jesus was focused on evangelization. They were thinking about the land of Israel. Jesus was focused on the whole world.

Luke makes the same point near the end of his Gospel. When two disciples were walking on the road to Emmaus, they told the stranger who joined them about Jesus of Nazareth then said, “we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel” (Lk 24:21), meaning deliver Israel from the Roman Empire. They were hoping Jesus would free them from Roman occupation.

Is it possible we are distracted by the same thing? Many who teach about end-times prophecy garner much attention for their geopolitical predictions about Israel and neighboring countries.

Old Testament vs. New Testament

The Old Testament contains many political prophecies, which makes sense. At the time, God’s people were one nation, threatened by other nations. But now under the New Covenant, God’s people are found in every nation.

Instead of focusing on one nation, we should make it our goal to spread the gospel to all nations. Consider these statements from the Gospels:

• Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matt 28:19-20)

• Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. (Mk 16:15; cf. 13:10)

• He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.” (Lk 24:46-48)

• Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (Jn 20:21) . . . But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (v. 31)

Our content is the good news of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection and our audience is the world. As Paul said, “He is the one we proclaim” (Col 1:28).

State of Israel

I believe many Christians have an unhealthy interest and even devotion to the modern state of Israel. In one sense, this devotion makes sense. We read much about Israel in our holy book. And the key events of our salvation occurred in that land—Christ’s ministry, death, and resurrection. So we have a natural affinity for that place and we want to protect it.

But ancient Israel and modern Israel are not the same thing. Ancient Israel was a theocratic nation centered on the Torah and the temple. Modern Israel is a secular state with many atheists. And even if modern Israel was a theocratic state centered on the Torah and temple, believers in Christ are under a different covenant. There may be purely political reasons for supporting Israel, but we shouldn’t confuse them with spiritual reasons. We need to remember the following:

• Jesus didn’t show any interest in reclaiming the land for Israel and he lived during the Roman occupation when this issue was fiercely debated. He said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place” (Jn 18:36).

• The apostles didn’t encourage military acquisition of any region.

• We are now in the New Covenant, which means the Old Covenant is obsolete (Heb 8:13). Hence, followers of Christ should not seek to build a third temple in Jerusalem because the entire temple system was part of the Old Covenant. Believers are now the temple of God and the lamb of God has already been offered.

Was the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 a fulfillment of biblical prophecy?

I don’t think so.

The prophecies of a return are always connected to a return to Yahweh, but that was not the goal of modern Israel, which doesn’t have an official state religion. Moreover, Israel returned to the land at the end of the Old Testament period as recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah.

Are there any prophecies about the nation of Israel in the New Testament?

Jesus predicts that the temple would be destroyed, which occurred in AD 70 (Mk 13:1-2), but that’s about all we have. Some believe Paul predicts a large-scale or even universal conversion of Jews to Christ in Romans 11:26, but that is debated, and he says nothing about the nation or territory.

Political Prophecies?

Does the New Testament contain other political prophecies?

Not really.

Jesus gave a general prediction of international conflict:

You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. (Matt 24:6-8)

And Paul talks about “a man of lawlessness” without stating his exact role or nationality:

Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thess 2:3-4)

What about the prediction of Babylon’s fall in Revelation 18? Isn’t that a political prophecy? As described in Revelation, Babylon is the epicenter of human and demonic corruption so it represents something more than one human city. The prediction, then, is a general condemnation of the world system, rooted in deception, greed, and rebellion against God.

So we mostly have general predictions of world events. But even if we had specific political predictions, our mission would still be to make disciples not political junkies.

Controversy

If the New Testament data is clear, why are Christians divided over Israel?

First, some think that to be blessed we must bless the nation of Israel. They base their thinking on God’s promise to Abram: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse” (Gen 12:3). But what blessing are we missing if we have already been blessed with “every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Eph 1:3)? Was Christ’s work deficient? This fear-based reasoning denigrates Christ. The way we bless Abraham is not by giving blanket approval to Israel’s action. The prophets certainly didn’t do that. It’s by receiving the son of Abraham, the Messiah. This is what makes us—Jews and Gentiles—Abraham’s seed or descendants. Paul writes, “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:29). Ultimately, our ethnicity is irrelevant to God because he does not show favoritism. What matters is attaching ourselves to his Son.

Second, the controversy stems from how to understand Old Testament prophecies. Some believe God must still fulfill promises he made to the people of Israel in the Old Testament. Others say God’s promises to Israel were conditional and the unconditional promises have been fulfilled in Christ. As Paul says, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God” (2 Cor 1:20). Moreover, in Romans Paul states that God’s word to Israel has not failed because “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel” (Rom 9:6). In other words, genetics is not enough. The promises pertained to the remnant or a smaller group within Israel because “only the remnant will be saved” (v. 27). And God has always preserved this remnant, which includes Paul and all first-century Jewish followers of the Messiah.

As you can see, the first group thinks God has two peoples—ethnic Israel and the church—and he has two distinct plans for these peoples. The second group thinks God only has one people—the church made up of Jews and Gentiles, and hence, there is only one plan. The second view has been called replacement theology, but that’s incorrect because Jewish believers have not been replaced. The line of salvation extends from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to David to the disciples who accepted the Jewish Messiah. No one has been replaced. Instead we have an addition of a large number of Gentiles to the remnant of Jewish believers, which gives us a third entity.

As Paul says, “he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups [Jews and Gentiles] one . . . His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace” (Eph 2:14-15). Whether you are in the first or second group (I’m in the second), we should not allow current events to distract us from spreading the good news of Christ.

Les Bridgeman

After graduating from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, I served as a Bible and theology teacher in Asia and the U.S. My new book explores the amazing doctrine of the Trinity.