How Many Isaiahs?

When I was a student at the University of Missouri - St. Louis, I took a course called "Literature of the Bible". It was taught by a former rabbi whom, I concluded, had lost his faith. He introduced us to the realm of "textual criticism" which caused me to re-examine many of my beliefs about scripture. I was surprised to learn that it was naive and unlearned to regard the Book of Isaiah as actually written by the prophet Isaiah, as was commonly thought.

With its 66 chapters, Isaiah is the longest prophetic book of the Old Testament. Most scholars agree that the book falls naturally into two major sections, Chapters 1-39 and Chapters 40-66.
The first section has a distinctive style which changes noticeably in the final section. It is easy to remember since it parallels the Bible itself, with 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament. (But don't make too much of this; the chapter divisions, as we know them, were added in the 13th century.)

The Deutero-Isaiah Theory

The "textual critics" have insisted that the Book of Isaiah is a compilation of two different writers, each calling himself Isaiah but writing at different times. This "Deutero-Isaiah" theory is surprisingly prevalent in many modern ("liberal") commentaries. (There are some that even advocate a three-Isaiah theory.)

The first section of the book deals with God's approaching judgment on the nation of Judah. In some of the most striking passages in all the Bible, the prophet announces that God will punish His people because of their sin, rebellion, and worship of false gods. While this section includes many references to the coming Messiah, including His virgin birth and his rule on the throne of David, the style of this section is distinctive and certainly fits the subject matter.

The last section, in contrast to the first, is noticeably different. It emphasizes the Messianic expectation and an ultimate comfort for God's people. (Most of Handel's Messiah was drawn from this section of the Book of Isaiah.) The heart of his stunning prophecy occurs in Chapter 53, as Isaiah presents the role of the coming Messiah in its highest point. Some call this passage the "Holy of Holies" of the Old Testament. The Servant's suffering and death and the redemptive nature of His mission are clearly foretold. Although mankind deserved God's judgment because "we have turned, every one, to his own way," God sent His Servant to take away our sins. According to Isaiah, it is through His suffering that we are reconciled with God, since "the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."

It is principally on the basis of the stylistic changes between the two sections that critics have developed the Deutero-Isaiah theory. Those who assign Chapters 40-66 to a "Second Isaiah" point out that the two major sections of the book seem to be set in different times. Chapters 1-39 clearly belong to the eighth century b.c., a turbulent period in the history of Judah.

But Isaiah 40-66, according to these scholars, seems to be addressed to the citizens of Judah who were being held as captives in Babylon about two centuries after Isaiah lived and prophesied. These scholars also point to the differences in tone, language, and style between the two major sections as proof that the book was written by two different authors.

The Traditional View

There are, however, conservative scholars who insist the entire book was written by the famous prophet Isaiah who ministered in the southern kingdom of Judah for 40 years, from about 740-700 b.c. They point out that the two sections of the book have many similarities, although they are dramatically different in tone and theme. Many phrases and ideas that are peculiar to Isaiah appear in both sections of the book.

A good example of this is Isaiah's unique reference to God as "the Holy One of Israel." The appearance of these words and phrases can be used to argue just as convincingly that the book was written by a single author.

In the second section of his book, Isaiah looked into the future and predicted the years of the Captivity and the return of the Covenant People to their homeland after the Captivity ended. If the prophet could predict the coming of the Messiah over 700 years before that happened, he could certainly foresee this major event in the future of the nation of Judah.

The style of each section deliberately matches its subject matter.

The Valley of Doubt

Doubts about the authorship and authenticity of any book in the Bible can have tragic consequences for those who are attempting to take the Bible seriously. As I look back on my own spiritual journey, I recall the many years that these views introduced a subtle doubt in my mind and hampered my real growth in the Word.
Is there a way to resolve this without getting drawn into the distressing debates and arrogant displays among erudite scholars and "textual critics"? Indeed, there is. I only wish I had discovered it earlier in my own travels through God's wondrous Word.

The Discovery in John 12

In John's gospel he quotes in Chapter 12 from Isaiah:

Though he had done so many signs before them, yet they did not believe in him; 38 it was that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: "Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" 39 Therefore they could not believe. For Isaiah again said, 40 "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and turn for me to heal them." 41 Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

In this passage we first encounter a quote, in verse 38, familiar to many, that begins the famous chapter of Isaiah 53. This would be in the section attributed to the "Second Isaiah."

In verse 40 we have a quote from Isaiah Chapter 6 (v. 10), as verse 41 also highlights what occurs when Isaiah beholds the throne of God. This is, of course, in the first section of Isaiah.

Oh, how I am grateful for verse 39! Notice that John tells us that "that Isaiah said again" when he links the two passages and, thus, the two sections and attributes them both to "that" (same) Isaiah! If you take John seriously, and recognize the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, then one does not need to doubt the authorship of Isaiah - both "sections."

If one accepts the inspiration of scripture, we can see that 66 books penned by over 40 different authors are integrated together in a way that tells a single story. Every detail is the result of careful and skillful engineering.

Isn't God wonderful? If we would just learn to take Him at His Word.

The Pursuit of Happiness

"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6:4-7


As he sat in my office, pain was written all over his face. His marriage of 28 years was in shambles. He had just spoken to his 2 sons and daughter about why he was moving out. It was a conversation that cost him (and them) dearly. Tears ran down his cheeks. Yet, it was difficult to feel sympathy for him as the decision to end his marriage was his own. Too many years without joy he said. Too many unresolved issues. And, he had met someone new.

It is a story I hear repeatedly. I will call him "Bill" which is not his real name. Bill was someone who had grown up in the church and been involved in leadership for over 20 years. He had taught Sunday School classes and served as a deacon. Bill regretted that I could not support his decision to tear his family apart. "But, I am confident in my relationship with God. I know that God wants me to be happy." If I have heard it once, I have heard this a thousand times from people like Bill. I wondered which Book in the Bible taught this timeless truth? Then, I realized that this was same lie that Satan told Eve in the Garden of Eden. "Go ahead and eat that fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil so you can be happy" is another translation of Genesis 3:6.

Where does this thinking come from that suggests that our pursuit of happiness trumps obedience to God? From the world around us. Every commercial we watch tells us that if we brush with the right toothpaste, gargle with the right mouthwash and use the correct deodorant that we can all be "happy"! The authors of our Declaration of Independence declared that we have "right" to pursue it. So we take a little of the holy, mix in what we want to justify our actions, and we produce decisions that determine our priorities. It is what the church in Corinth was doing. Forget the cross and the part about "denying" yourself. Who needs humility and the agape love of I Cor. 13? It is all about what makes one "happy". It is what the church at Laodicea did confusing material wealth and security of their city with the kind of gold that comes only from God. Bill was simply listening to the voices of the world around him. The heart of every believer can justify one's actions by the doctrine of the pursuit of happiness. But, when we listen to the Word of God, that all gets stripped away. Faith without works is dead. Love without obedience and piety is meaningless.

Moses told the people in the words of the Shemah what they were to do. Jesus came along and decanted that into what we now call the "Great Commandment" and coupled it with "Love your neighbor as yourself" as being the essence of the only law that we ever need. However, until we understand that our obligation is to love God first and obey him, we will never discover for ourselves the meaning of true happiness. What the Lord wants from us is faithfulness. We have to learn to distinguish the voices of the world from the voice of God. When we lose that capacity, we become lost.

Issac Newton - The Creationist

Intelligent Design is not a recent phenomena.

"This most beautiful system [The Universe] could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being." - Isaac Newton


Sir Isaac Newton, the brilliant mathematician who redefined physics for the world in the 17th century, was also a bit of a theologian. While he's most famous for his ideas about gravity and the laws of motion, Newton also wrote commentaries on Daniel and Revelation. The man who invented Calculus also argued that the Jews would return to the Holy Land before the end of the world, and wrote that the Apocalypse would not occur until after A.D. 2060. Now, a number of Newton's original papers and letters have been put on display in Jerusalem, offering the world a broader glimpse of this great scientist's deeply religious nature.

For 250 years, many of Newton's papers remained locked away in a trunk at the estate of the Earl of Portsmouth. In 1936, they were auctioned off and most were acquired by two very different sorts of men; the very secular economist John Maynard Keynes, and the Jewish Oriental Studies scholar Abraham Shalom Yahuda, who was devoted to proving the Pentateuch's authenticity. While Keynes' collection went to Cambridge University, Yahuda bequeathed his collection to the new State of Israel in 1951. In 1969 the manuscripts were locked away at Israel's National Library, to be read only by select scholars. They have now been brought out of hiding and are on display at the Jewish National and University Library at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from June 18 - July 17, 2007. See more here.

These manuscripts offer to the world a greater understanding of Newton's mystical side. While today's secular scientists work to separate "religion" from "science," Newton believed that the physical world revealed and glorified God. According to Israel's National Library web site:
"There are at least three reasons why these papers are important, even though they do not always speak directly to the canonical Newton. First, the manuscripts help illuminate Newton's science. Newton's piety served as one of his inspirations to study nature and what we today call science. But Newton's theological papers also tell us much about his inductive methods and his views on the unity of God's Creation."Second, the manuscripts illuminate the person of Newton. The figure once viewed almost uniformly as an icon of cold rationality, now appears as an alchemist, a biblical scholar and a religious devotee who pored over the symbols of the Books of Daniel and Revelation for decades in an attempt to decode the meaning of the future foreordained by God. Newton can now be studied as an alchemist and a theologian in his own right.

"In one of the letters in the collection, Newton's words have been taken as a prediction that the Apocalypse would occur in 2060, 1260 years (3.5 years x 360 years) after the Holy Roman Empire was formed in A.D. 800. His precise words are, "The time times and half a time do not end before 2060 nor after ___," and he leaves the second date blank, as though he forgot to go back and fill it in. Newton was only a human being, after all.Ultimately, however, this brilliant mind appreciated the foolishness of date setting. He wrote, "This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.

"Many researchers love to point out Newton's interest in alchemy, his disagreements with the Church of England, and his tendency to question the Anglican description of the Trinity. Newton's passion for the Scriptures, however, is obvious throughout his writings, matched by his passion for studying the universe that God created. Newton would fully reject the idea that science and religion cannot mix. He admired God's excellence in designing the universe, and in inspiring the Bible.

"The system of revealed truth which this Book contains is like that of the universe, concealed from common observation yet...the centuries have established its Divine origin." - Isaac Newton

Judging Motives

Which is more important, the action or the motive behind the action? For example if someone does a good deed, does the motive matter, or is it just great that a good deed was done? What if the good deed was done to outdo someone else’s good deed? And if someone does something wrong, but they didn’t mean to do wrong, their intention was actually good, but they didn’t think it through and some how in the method someone got hurt, was their action still wrong? Even our human courts seem to deal with the issue of why something was done, and not just focus on the crime. There are different punishments for the same wrong action that differs due to the motive behind the action. Is this how God looks at things?

"And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. (1 Chr 28:9)

Are we to try to determine the motives of others? We often don’t even understand our own motives.

All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD. (Prov 16:2)

Although motives are important, we have to be careful in trying to judge motives, yet do we not have to try to understand a person’s motives to help them deal with their wrong actions and do better in the future? And yet I have heard it said that we are to save the judging of motives to when the Lord returns.

Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. (1 Cor 4:5)

Does this mean we are not to make any kind of judgment of a person’s motivation behind their action? Or is it saying that we function with an effort to understand motivation with the help of the Lord’s wisdom and the Holy Spirit, but we live in realization that we can’t understand completely and we await the Lord’s full revelation?

I am to remember that I am not to judge or I too will be judged, and in the same way I judge others I will be judged (Mat. 7:1-2). But the truth of the matter is that I need people to whom I am accountable who will help me see my true motives. I need to practice the Golden Rule in judging, in the same way I want others to practice it with me, but we need honest evaluations of our motives by people who love us and want to help us. I don’t need people thinking, “His attitude stinks,” and not tell me because they are condemning themselves for “judging me.” I need them to be careful about how they judge me and my motives and they need to have the right motivation in what they do to help me. But I don’t need them to just see that I did something wrong, and complain about it. I need them to help me understand why I did what I did and help me correct the problem and not do it again. On the other hand, I don’t need someone thinking that they know what my motivation is without getting to know me and talking to me about it. I don’t need to be assuming that I know exactly why another person did what they did and condemning them for it. In fact, I need to be questioning my own motivation for why I would do such a thing!

I think this whole idea of “not judging” is often misapplied, what do you think?

Father's Job

Sunday is Father’s Day! It doesn’t seem to get the attention that Mother’s Day does, except for the advertisements to buy all that stuff for Dad. And that’s not for father’s, that’s for sales! Okay, I know moms deserve a special day more than dads do, so I will not go too far down that road. However, when it comes to the Bible there are some pretty strong things said to fathers about their responsibilities in the family and in raising children. One of the most interesting is in Ephesians 6:1-4

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother"--which is the first commandment with a promise-- "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. (NIV)

Now we have it right here in this passage that both moms and dads deserve to have a special day, “Honor your father and mother.” Actually this is quoted from the 10 Commandments (Ex. 20:12; Deut. 5:16) and when researched with other Scripture it is clear that the intention of “honor” carries far more responsibility than having a special day. It includes showing respect, obeying, and even caring for them. So children have some major responsibilities in this simple passage. But it also comes with a blessing!

But look at the responsibility given to dad in this passage. They are responsible for bringing their children “up in the training and instruction of the Lord.” But what does that mean? And notice they are not to “exasperate” their children. What does that mean? Since it seems to stand in contrast to the “bringing the children up in the training and instruction of the Lord,” not fulfilling this responsibility must in some way “exasperate” their children, but how? What is it about not being the father that one should be, including helping children grow spiritually, that causes one’s children to be exasperated, or infuriated, maddened, frustrated, and annoyed? And would this passage be saying that there is a possibility that if my children seem to regularly be angry with me that it may be my fault because as a father I am not fulfilling my responsibility to them to assist them in their spiritual maturation by training and instructing them in the ways of the Lord?

The Heavens Praise His Name

My daughter Hannah took this photo today of the clouds over our house from the backyard.

I thought this picture says more than a thousand words. Sunlight, blue sky, dark clouds all wrapped up together.....much like life itself. Celebration and lament, joy and grief, companionship and sorrow. It only makes sense that the world reflects the Creator. Or as John says in the first chapter of his gospel:

2 He was in the beginning with God; 3 all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Or as the Psalmist says in Psalms 89:

5 Let the heavens praise thy wonders, O LORD, thy faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! 6 For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD

There is something inside of me at times that resonates when I look up into the heavens. The heavens do praise the wonders of the Creator. We are not alone.

Answered Prayers: Waiting on God

When I pray, I want God to answer my prayers right away. The concept of "waiting upon the Lord" does not fit well with my self-centered theology. Trying to understand "why" things happen reminds me of the disciples asking Jesus about the blind man in chapter 9 of the Gospel of John:

"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" 3 Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him.

Our puny little finite minds cannot grasp the mind of God. From God's perspective the blind man was there to manifest the Messiahship of Jesus. It had nothing to do with who sinned. In the same way, when Lazarus was sick and dying, his sisters called for Jesus to come. However his response was:

So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

I have to confess that if I were Mary or Martha, I would have been disappointed that Jesus did not come AT ONCE! God sat there for two days while Lazarus died. Even though we know the story from God's perspective, how it all works out for the best; Mary and Martha went through the grief of watching their brother die. I can't help but speculate that they felt that their prayers had not been answered? And, I know at times, each of us feels that way. Learning to be patient while we pray is a virtue that is always before us. Learning to see it from God's point of view is what it is all about.

Eden, the Temple and the Church's Mission

One of the reasons I teach is that it forces to me to study. When I take the time to read and research, I find such treasures. A recent article to which I am in indebted was written by Gregory K. Beale and can be viewed here. In this article he shows how the Garden of Eden is really the first temple. It is the place in which God walked with man. Adam was the first priest. He was given a charge to "cultivate and keep" the garden. Those same words in Hebrew can mean to "serve and guard". Adam failed in his mission and God had to drive him out of the garden and place 2 cherubim at the entrance to then guard it. When the world turned so evil that God decided to destroy the world with a flood, Noah was given the same charge. The ark becomes a symbol of God's preservation. Again, when Noah came out of the ark and worshipped he and his sons failed to follow the charge that God had given them.

God then starts over with Abraham and makes his covenant with him in Genesis 12. Through Abraham's descendants, Israel establishes the tabernacle in the wilderness and later the temple in Jerusalem. The use of the cherubim on the mercy seat of the ark and on the veil in the temple that separates the Holy of Holies ties back to the creation story. Both the tabernacle and the temple foreshadow the culmination of God's design to reunite himself with mankind through his Messiah. Jesus becomes the epitome of the temple when he came and dwelt among us. Through his life, burial and resurrection he re-establishes the ability of God and man to once again dwell in union. While the "new" heaven and earth is something we look forward to in the future, the fact is that right now God dwells among his people through the power of the Holy Spirit by living in our hearts. When the church gathers it becomes God's temple, or as Paul says in I Cor. 3:16: " Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? "

Beale writes:

The temple was a symbol to Israel of the task God wanted them to carry
out; the same task that Adam (and likely Noah) should have carried out but
did not, Israel was to execute: to “multiply and fill the earth and subdue it”
(Gen 1:28) by expanding the local boundaries of the temple (where God’s
special revelatory presence was) to include the entire earth. That is, Israel
was to spread God’s presence throughout the entire earth. Interestingly, the
land of promise, the land of Israel, was repeatedly called the “Garden of
Eden” (cf. Gen 13:10; Isa 51:3; Joel 2:3; Ezek 36:35) partly perhaps because
Israel was to expand the limits of the temple and of their own land to the
ends of the earth in the same manner as should have Adam. That this was
Israel’s ultimate task is apparent from a number of OT passages prophesying
that God will finally cause the sacred precinct of Israel’s temple to
expand and first encompass Jerusalem (see Isa 4:4–6; 54:2–3, 11–12; Jer 3:16–
17; Zech 1:16–2:11), then the entire land of Israel (Ezek 37:25–28), and then
the whole earth (Dan 2:34–35, 44–45; cf. also Isa 54:2–3).
Similarly, as we have seen, God gave Israel the same commission as Adam
and Noah: e.g. to Isaac, the progenitor of Israel, is said, “I will greatly bless
you and greatly multiply you . . . your seed shall possess the gate of their
enemies” (Gen 22:17; cf. Gen 12:2–3; 17:2, 6, 8; 26:3–5, 24; 28:3; 35:11–12;
47:27; 48:3–4; on Noah’s commission, see Gen 9:1, 7). Interestingly, Gen 1:28
becomes both a commission and a promise to Isaac, Jacob, and Israel.
Israel, however, did not carry out this great mandate to spread the temple
of God’s presence over the whole earth. The contexts of Isa 42:6 and 49:6 say
that Israel should have spread the light of God’s presence throughout the
earth, but they did not. Exodus 19:6 says that Israel collectively was to be
to God “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,” going out to the nations and
being mediators between God and the nations by bearing God’s light of revelation.
Instead of seeing the temple as a symbol of their task to expand
God’s presence to all nations, Israel wrongly viewed the temple to be symbolic
of their election as God’s only true people and that God’s presence was
to be restricted only to them as an ethnic nation. They believed the Gentiles
would experience God’s presence only through judgment.
So God sent them out of their land into exile, which Isaiah 45 compares
to the darkness and chaos of the first chaos before creation in Genesis 1 (cf.
Isa 45:18–19). So God starts the process of temple building all over again,
but this time he planned that the local-spiritual boundaries of all the past
temples of Eden and Israel would be expanded finally to circumscribe the boundaries of the entire earth.


The corollary to the church today is significant. When we become exclusivistic in our thinking that "we are the only ones" and that our goal is to preserve ourselves as "God's only true people" we betray the mission of the church to spread the light of the gospel unto world. Within the larger context, this is the same mission that God gave to Adam in the Garden of Eden. It is nothing new. Viewed in the context of history we see that the plan of God began with the Garden and will end in Paradise regained. Our purpose then is temple building; but, not with earth or stone. Instead, we are to build with "living stones". We exist to fill the earth with the message of the kingdom of God and bring every heart into submission.

Israel

25 Lest you be wise in your own conceits, I want you to understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, 26 and so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob"; 27 "and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins." 28 As regards the gospel they are enemies of God, for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. 29 For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. 30 Just as you were once disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all. Romans 11:25-32.

Night

I was on vacation last week and have not had a chance to post anything in a while. What I love about vacations is finding time to read. I read 5 books last week. One of books I read was given to me by my son-in-law. The book is by Elie Wisel called Night. It is his story of a young Jewish boy who witnessed the death of his family in the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz. It is one of those books that you don't want to read; but, once you start you can't put it down. The horror of a family being stripped of everything they owned, loaded into a boxcar and shipped to death camp is beyond comprehension. But, his story is so personal and compelling that one cannot ignore the degree of evil and destruction in what transpired in a modern European nation during World War II. It is a story that needs to be told and remembered.

The Re-birth of the Nation of Israel

It was the collective guilt of the modern world over the death of six million Jews that caused the United Nations to vote the nation of Israel into existence in 1948. Never before has any nation been destroyed, its people dispersed to the ends of the earth, and then, nearly two thousand years later, re-gathered to their homeland and re-established as a nation. Even more amazing is that at the time of Israel's independence, no less than seven Arab states with modern armies attacked Israel to wipe it off of the face of the earth. The Israelies were outnumbered 100 to 1. Israel not only repelled the invaders but acquired more of Palestine than was granted in the UN partition plan. Yigael Yadin, Israel’s commander of operations in that war, had a terse explanation of Israel’s victory. "It was a miracle!"

History of Israel:

Why is so much of the Bible focused on the history of Israel and the future of its people? Why was one nation called out as "God's chosen people"? These questions are answered when we examine God's ultimate purpose for Israel. When God made His unconditional promise to Abraham that He would make his descendants a great nation, God also promised to bless all people through that nation (Genesis 12:1-3). Therefore, Israel was never considered a sole recipient of God's blessings, but rather, a channel for God's blessings to all mankind.

God's miracles for Israel, such as their dramatic deliverance from Egypt, were intended not only for the Israelites themselves, but as evidence of God's absolute power and uniqueness for a watching polytheistic world (Exodus 7:5; 14:18; Joshua 2:9-11). The Messiah that would come through the nation of Israel was always intended to be the Savior for all mankind (Isaiah 49:6). The Old Testament also contains many invitations to the entire world to come and worship the one living God in Israel (Psalm 2:10-12; 117:1). Based on recent events in the Holy Land, it is clear that God's promise to Abraham is still being fulfilled. Accordingly, God's promise to bless all peoples through Israel is still absolutely apparent. The teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the growth and influence of His church, were made possible through God's choice of Israel as His people. All people who accept Jesus as their Messiah, whether Jew or Gentile, receive the great blessings of God channeled through His chosen people, the nation of Israel.

Replacement Theology

There are some who would teach that the church has replaced the Israel of old. Some suggest that the church is the new "spiritual Israel" and that the modern state of Israel has nothing to do with the Bible. The problem with that interpretation flies in the face of Paul's declaration in Romans 11 that the call and gifts of God are irrevocable. Paul warns Christian gentiles against being proud of their position. He declares that God intends for Gentiles to make Israel envious of the church's relationship with the God of Abraham.

Moses told the Israelites:

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples; 8 but it is because the LORD loves you, and is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:7-8

Although Israel rejects the gospel today, it still remains chosen and deeply loved by God because of HIs promises to Abraham.