Gary points out how much disagreement and confusion exists in popular media and Christian pastors about the future of Israel.
The whole nation of Israel never was and never will be elected. It’s only the remnant that will be saved:
“Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED’” (Rom. 9:27).
Paul makes the same point later in his epistle to the Romans by referring to Elijah who believed that he was the only one who had not bowed the knee to Baal (11:3). God retorts: “‘I HAVE KEPT for Myself SEVEN THOUSAND MEN WHO HAVE NOT BOWED THE KNEE TO BAAL.’ In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time [Paul’s time] a remnant according to God’s gracious choice” (Rom. 11:4; 1 Kings 19:18). Israel’s election is governed by God’s election of a remnant. If this remnant idea is yet future, as dispensationalists believe, then “all Israel” (Rom 11:26) is not every Israelite throughout time but only the elect of Israel at a certain point of time in history. One does not have to be a premillennialist to believe that God is going to save a remnant of Israel, and there is no need for a reconstituted national Israeli State to save a remnant of Israelites. Jews were being saved throughout the diaspora in Paul’s day and continue to be saved today.
As we will see, long before dispensationalism developed into a system, Calvinist Bible commentators and their doctrinal confessions made specific reference to the future salvation of Israel. To claim that only dispensationalism takes the promises made to Israel seriously is an exercise in historical revisionism and exegetical manipulation, especially when Calvinist postmillennial commentators and their Confessions are considered.
Keep in mind that dispenstionalism is a nineteenth-century invention and was not systematized until 1909 with the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible. The future place of Israel in prophecy has had a long history among postmillennial Calvinists.
What dispensationalists have yet to explain is how their future hope for Israel is more favorable toward Jews since the dispensationalist future for the Jews is that two-thirds of them will be slaughtered before the promises are fulfilled (Zech. 13:8) in what Charles Ryrie has described as “the worst bloodbath in Jewish history.”
Ten Popular Prophecy Myths Exposed and Answered
Millions of books have been sold proclaiming countless false prophecies. Many Christians are beginning to take a second look at the biblical prophetic record. A seismic shift in biblical eschatology is taking place around the world because Christians, some for the first time, are willing to challenge what they have been taught based on what the Bible actually says. Gary DeMar has taken on the task of exposing some of the popular myths foisted upon the public by prophetic speculators.
Buy NowGary points out how much disagreement and confusion exists in popular media and Christian pastors about the future of Israel. The very prophetic system that most of them hold to teaches that the next thing on the prophecy clock for Israel is a terrible holocaust where two-thirds of them will be killed.