6. Relating the Prophecies
of Israel’s Restoration, Continued
- Reconstructionist 25 Blindness: Failure to Discern the Portraits
Despite
the plainness of this evidence, many live now—as in Haggai’s and Yeshua’s
days—who still fail to perceive where the Holy Spirit is regeneratively headed
with Israel. It’s safe to say in fact that the large majority of Messianic
believers (ie, the Messianic Zionists), together with the at-large western
prophetic and intercessory movements do not have this discernment.
Committed
to identifying the present return as restoration, reconstructionist prophets,
theologians, rabbis, intercessors and zealots fail to distinguish between the
prophetic restoration portraits, morphing them into one unseemly picture. They
wishfully superimpose interpretations of foretold glorified reality upon
today’s failing events even though the conditions between what the prophecies
predict and today’s “fulfillment” are as different as night and day.
Conversely,
reconstructionists avoid applying the sub-glorious prophecies that truly do
align with modern Israel’s condition—those which predict an unbelieving people
repatriated under divine summons for trial, remaining under disciplinary
international affliction for the purpose of—as the Immerser put it—separating
eternal wheat from chaff.
·
Discerning
Divine “Activity Among” from “Habitation Within”
A
significant factor fueling reconstructionist blindness is ignorance of the
Spirit’s ways in human events. As in Yeshua’s day, reconstructionist
visionaries today can’t tell between divine actions
(such as miracles) and divine intent.
So they attribute motive to the Spirit’s activity concerning Israel that does
not truly reflect the intent behind His actions. They don’t perceive that God
is not “IN” everything that He “DOES.”
Elijah’s
cave experience sheds vital light on this spiritual reality. The Lord created
supernatural power displays of wind, fire and earthquake. He did these things. But Elijah knew God
was not in any of those displays. It
was only in hearing the still small voice that Elijah knew God had manifested
Himself. God was in the Voice to the heart.
This
truth applies to God’s work in human events. The Spirit is active among men
today. But His activity among men neither defines nor proves His habitation within men, nor therefore His
pleasure with them. This is true of His activity whether in the church or among
nations. It is also critically true about
His activity among the Jewish people now.
No
spiritually informed person disputes God has been miraculously at work in
Israel today—that He orchestrated the Jews’ return and that His Spirit moves
among them now. But these actions past and activities present neither define
His habitation within the Jewish nation nor prove the fulfilling of His
restoration promises!
By
its very meaning, the Restoration is about God’s indwelling the hearts of the Jewish people via the cross—not about
a pillar of fire among their buildings or actions of angels on behalf of the
IDF (Israeli Defense Force). Moreover, Yeshua cannot inhabit the Jewish nation
until the nation corporately repents to receive Him into their dwelling as part
of and together with Eternal Israel. And where there is no habitation, there is neither restoration nor inheritance—not
according to the Spirit.
But
reconstructionist prophets and intercessors interpret evidences of the Spirit’s
activity in Israel as proofs of divine habitation on a par with His indwelling
of the Church today. Thus they look for carnal events to fulfill glorified
prophecies, and assign glorified interpretations to what are plainly gross
fleshly actions, however divinely orchestrated
the actions may (or may not) be.
Momentarily,
we’ll discover a truer explanation of God’s activity in Israel according to the
prophecies. In course of so doing, we will see that the blindness of Jewish /
Messianic reconstructionism regarding the prophecies actually is itself a part
of their fulfillment.
&&&&&&&&&&
Failure
to regeneratively discern the prophecies and the nature of divine activity is
at the heart of today’s misunderstanding of God’s heart and mind regarding
Israel. Reconstructionist unbelief lurks behind the carnal zealotry that flourishes
on behalf of Zionism, as well as behind the wholesale abandonment of New
Covenant apostolic truth regarding the transnational identity of God’s one and
only people—Eternal Israel. By seeking to assign regenerative fulfillments to
an unregenerate Israel, today’s reconstructionists court the very error that led to Messiah’s crucifixion.
Our
encounter here with the spirit of reconstructionism introduces us to the wider
world of thought known as Messianic Judaism, to which it is intrinsic. We will
consider the larger arguments and issues raised by Messianic Judaism against
New Covenantal Christian faith in the second treatise.
- Conclusion
Christ came as the regenerative fulfiller of the “Law and the prophets”—not of the Law only, but also the prophets. This means the prophecies of Israel’s restored inheritance can be truly fulfilled only through Christ and the glorified regenerated New Covenant Seed that springs forth from Him alone.26
They cannot be fulfilled merely by divine actions on the carnal plane—including a national return of the Jews to the Promised Land.So
in interpreting today’s events by prophetic light, the challenge remains as in
Haggai’s age: to account for Israel’s return according to the Spirit’s
regenerative Intention, distilling that Intention from the appearance of divine
action that does not satisfactorily fulfill what the prophets have predicted.
The
Spirit remains clear: no prophecy or evidence of divine exploit may be
legitimately interpreted in any way that cancels out God’s Eternal perspective
of Israel or turns the clock back on His transnational revelation to us through
Christ. We are forbidden from misconstruing today’s return as God’s intent to
“reconquer” the Promised Land, “reconstruct” the past Davidic kingdom, “revive”
the Mosaic covenant—or in any way that denies Eternal Israel’s priority claim
on the Land through the New Covenant.
Any question of how a
prophecy applies to modern Israel must be decided in favor of the Spirit’s
progressive regenerative purpose—not to reinforcing expectation for the carnal
rebuilding of what God says He has put away through Christ. Because this is so,
we must have another way to interpret God’s hand toward modern Israel—one that
accurately understands the prophecies in a way that harmonizes today’s faulty
work of the flesh with the Spirit’s progressive purpose across the ages and
promises for tomorrow.
25 The terms reconstruction
and reconstructionist as used in this
treatise are objectively chosen and apply solely to those beliefs which
advocate the rebuilding of Israel’s past carnal order under the Mosaic covenant
(including the Levitical system of worship and Davidic monarchal order)—especially
as found in the Messianic and Messianic-sympathetic prophetic and intercessory
communities. These terms should not be confused with or seen as targetedly
applying to the fourth major denomination of Judaism known as the
Reconstructionist Movement, including the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation
and the teachings of the 20th century rabbi Mordecai Kaplan. My use
of the term does have incidental application to the Christian Reconstructionist
movement founded by Rousas Rushdoony—a movement that does advocate return to
the Mosaic legal system through its doctrine of Theonomy—but that movement is
also not the target of this discussion.
26 Israel’s
restoration can’t be separated from the spiritual plan of national identity
transformation birthed through Messiah and transmitted through the gospel
entrusted to Paul—a plan still in force whose discipleship remains built on the
principles of heritage denial.