There are numerous prophecies regarding the end times, known in the Scriptures as the Day of the Lord. For nearly two thousand years, theological discussion had to include explanations accounting for Scriptures that made promises and predictions about Israel, when there was no state of Israel. One explanation popular among evangelicals was that “Israel†was now the church, and that the church was the “new Israel.â€
While that was an interesting tautology, it made a shambles of consistent interpretation. The promises and predictions about Israel were a poor fit and Scriptures like Revelation 12, simply no longer fit anywhere. In Revelation 12, both the church and Israel appeared simultaneously and side by side in the prophetic record, and no other explanation would leave the text intact. Then, with the rebirth of the nation of Israel, the tautology was no longer necessary, but that did not mean that some were not slow to abandon it.
My first introduction to Revelation 12 was a sermon by Terry that I have cloned to the best of my ability several times. The sermon intrigued me so much about Revelation 12 that it launched me on an on and off quest to understand the entire Revelation, and then onto prophecy in general, that has endured for over 35 years. Of course, I am captivated by these Scriptures to the extent of my limited formal training in theology and probably contaminated by my Restoration Movement orientation, which starts from the text, treats the text as self – interpreting to the extent it is rationale to do so, and disdains interpretation by analogy or by use of extrinsic sources, unless no other alternative makes sense.
The challenge prior to 1948 for Bible scholars was how to get from prophecies about the state of Israel and promises to Israel to the fulfillment of those promises and prophecies, when, for nineteen hundred years, there was no Israel. The other challenge was to interpret the Scriptures in light of the re-establishment of Israel and then its destruction by the Roman Empire, and still make sense of Revelation 12. It was clearly unreasonable to take a prophecy most likely written by John after the destruction of Jerusalem, and the Herodian Temple, and bend it backwards to fit prior events. Now, it is no longer necessary to do so.
Moreover, the prophecies that seemed to describe precursor events did not necessarily refer to interim historical events, but more likely to the time described in or near Revelation 12:
When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, 2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. 7 The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. 8 You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today. 9 Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, 10 if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
Deuteronomy 30:1-10 (NIV). It would not be unreasonable to “date†the “effective date†of this prophecy to a time when the Diaspora was more than just from Jerusalem to Babylon. Indeed, the Diaspora described would most likely refer to conditions immediately after World War II, when Jews were running from Nazis, Communists, and other despotic rulers.
Other texts seem to permit a similar view:
31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the LORD.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the LORD
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NIV). This text refers to a time of “spiritual enlightenment†when teaching and evangelism will no longer be necessary. It must be a time when the Great Commission will, from any objective view, stand fulfilled. That time is not yet and it is not a time that has ever been.
That time must be much closer than it was because the condition precedent, a house of Israel with which a new covenant can be made, came about in 1948. Thus, it appears that the Second Coming, or at least the events preceding, commenced in 1948.
But, do we live as if that is true? So many churches are so busy presenting variety shows instead of worship services, preaching self-help and New Age philosophy rather than the Gospel, and advancing the cause of materialism rather than evangelism, that references to the Second Coming are missing but not missed. Because of the time pressure, and the dead air pressure, that so many churches fear, the time to consider the events in the world and how they might relate to the Scriptures is not available.
Strangely, that sounds very familiar. See, Matthew 24:37-38.
