The recent unrest in the Middle East has again brought up questions about the land of Israel. Despite the relative lack of natural resources in the region, Palestine sits at an important crossroads between Europe, Asia, and Africa. Historically, many different kingdoms have controlled the land. In the Bible, we see it possessed originally by the Amorites (Genesis 15) and then the Israelites for much of the Old Testament. However, after Israel is taken into exile, the land is then controlled by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17:6), the Babylonians (2 Kings 25:22), and the Persians (2 Chronicles 36:23), the Greeks (Daniel 11:1-5), and finally the Romans (Luke 3:1). Since the time of the New Testament, the ownership of the land has continued to be disputed as the Byzantine, Ottoman, and British empires have all ruled for periods of time.
However, there were two major turning points that significantly affected the region over the past couple of centuries. In Christianity, John Nelson Darby (1800-1882) began to teach a method of Biblical interpretation that came to be known as Premillennial Dispensationalism. This is the belief that biblical history is divided into seven “dispensations” or periods of time. Among the signs of these dispensations, Darby taught was that the end of the sixth dispensation would take place when the Jewish people returned to the land of Palestine, which God had permanently given to them. Premillennial dispensationalism is in contrast to the Lutheran belief in amillennialism, which says that the end of time will be marked by Jesus’ return once and for all, at which time “He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end.” (Nicene Creed)
As Darby was beginning to promote these beliefs, Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), a lawyer and journalist from Vienna, Austria began to promote the idea of a permanent homeland for the Jewish people, who had faced violent antisemitism in Europe for much of the 1800s. His work resulted in the First Zionist Congress at Basel in 1897. Numerous congresses continue to be held every three to six years, with the most recent being held in Jerusalem in 2020. These meetings focus on facilitating Jewish settlement in Palestine.
Following World War I, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration which gave British backing to the proposal to create “an autonomous commonwealth” for the Jewish people in Palestine. In the next couple of decades, the number of Jewish settlers in Palestine more than doubled. Violent Arab opposition-held down Jewish immigration for much of the next decade, but in the aftermath of World War II, a flood of refugees from Hitler’s concentration camps began flowing into Palestine. Shortly thereafter, on May 14, 1948, the independent state of Israel was established in the land partitioned by the United Nations.
In the past few decades, Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye have popularized premillennial dispensationalist ideas in their “Left Behind” series of books, going as far as to call the return of the Jewish people to the land of Palestine a “super sign of biblical prophecy” that will trigger the rapture of the Church and ultimately Christ’s return. Their writing brought new life to the Zionist movement and influenced a new generation of Christians around the world.
As Lutherans, we believe that all the earth is the Lord’s. In Deuteronomy 6:10-11, God reminds Israel of “the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you.” However, in Leviticus 26 God gives the warning that if they do not listen to him and “walk contrary to me… I myself will devastate the land… and I will scatter you among the nations.” When the Jewish people of the Old Testament began to act like they owned the land and not God, they were exiled. Jesus prophesies the ultimate destruction of Jerusalem in Luke 19:41-44, “they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation” and He teaches His disciples instead to follow Daniels’s prophecy to look for the return of “the Son of Man.” Peter clarifies this hope in 2 Peter 3:13 when he reminds us that “we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
Jesus’ disciples held onto the belief that Jesus would restore the kingdom of Israel in this world until the Day of Pentecost. (Acts 1:6-7) However, after the Pentecost, their perspective turns around completely. From then on, their focus is on “an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” (1 Peter 1:4) This inheritance cannot be anything in this world, so we as Lutherans do not believe that the modern state of Israel has anything to do with the fulfillment of prophecy. Instead, those who are spiritual descendants of Abraham, both Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ and have faith in Him, will receive the inheritance of a new kingdom in heaven after the first heaven and the first earth pass away. (Rev. 21:1) The recently established nation of Israel cannot fulfill the promises to Abraham that were fulfilled in Christ. As He Himself tells Pontius Pilate in John 18:36, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
The author of Hebrews talks about those who lived and died with faith in the true God, that they are not seeking a homeland in this world, “but as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” (11:16) With all the violence we have recently seen in Palestine and the deaths of both Jews and Palestinians, we continue to work and pray for peace and justice, and for all those who live there to come to faith in the Prince of Peace Himself, Jesus Christ, our Lord.