RemnantInWilderness

The Tribulation: God’s Judgment On the “Church” Or Redemption of All Israel?

Bernard Pyron

Dispensationalism starts from the belief that physical and unsaved Israel is still God’s chosen people and must be honored. This theology teaches that God has one plan for the Jews and another different plan for the “Church.”

Another part of the basic teaching of dispensationalism says that in the end time there will be a completion of God’s plan for the redemption of Israel. Dispensationalists interpret several Old Testament texts to say that in the end times, perhaps during the Tribulation, God will return to his plan to redeem physical Israel, that is, the people called the Jews. This view implies that Christ in part failed in his mission to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Matthew 15: 24 “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

At the time of Christ “Jew” and “Israelite” were interchangeable But usually in Scripture the house of Israel referred to the Israelites of the northern kingdom of Israel who were defeated and taken captive by Assyria in about 721 BC. So Christ was probably talking about being sent to the entire people who were descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, both Jews and descendants of the northern tribes. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah were physical Israel and were under the Old Covenant.

But the vast majority of physical Israel were left behind under the New Covenant. They were broken off as Paul says in Romans 11: 20 because of unbelief. They rejected Christ when he was in human flesh on earth and the vast majority continue to reject him.

The dispensationalists have tried in their theology to say that God will return to his Old Covenant people during the Tribulation to redeem them also. Some dispensationalists teach that the Jews do not have to come to redemption through Christ, but are redeemed by their genetics. In fact, dispensationalists follow a Jewish Supremacy belief which says that physical but unsaved Israel - the Jews - are yet God’s chosen people.

These two starting points of dispensationalism - that Christians and physical Israel are both God’s people, but he has different plans of redemption for his two peoples, and that God will redeem all physical Israel during the Tribulation - are basic also to Christian Identity, the Sacred Name Theology and recently varieties of theologies from Messianic Judaism and the Hebrew Roots movement.

On a Hebrew Roots web site http://www.hebroots.org/twohousemeeting.htm Dan Juster, Monte Judah and Eddie Chumney say “…we believe in this present time, as in times past, the house of Judah and the house of Israel have been physically separated and have not physically joined together and have not been physically reunited as a corporate people in the land of Israel as described by the prophets. The prophets of Israel associate this event with the Messianic Era when Messiah will set up His tabernacle with His people and establish a covenant of peace (Ezekiel 37:24-27)…The prophesied physical joining together of the two houses is the future restoration of Jacob. We believe that the future restoration of the two houses will be completed in conjunction with other events known as the Greater Exodus, Jacob’s trouble, the Great Tribulation and the return of the Messiah (Jeremiah 30:1-7). Therefore, teachings and discussions in our day concerning how the two houses of Israel will be physically reunited are primarily eschatological (study of the end of days) in nature and substance. This physical reunion of both houses of Israel in the end of days is like a song of joy (Revelation 15:30)”

At least in great part for the Hebrew Roots followers as for the dispensationalists the Tribulation is not to be a period of God’s judgment on Christians for falling into false doctrines - but it is to be a time of the completion of redemption for physical Israel.

This Hebrew Roots web site statement goes on to say “We believe that the house of Israel, led by Ephraim, who is scattered in the nations and their future reunion with the house of Judah is one of the most significant Messianic prophecies concerning the role and function of the Messiah of Israel. Yeshua / Jesus stated that He needed to die on the tree so that His two houses or sheepfolds could become one (John 10:14-17).”

The Hebrew Roots people want to bring physical unsaved Israel into Christianity in mass during the end times. But they set this joining up in a way which compromises the truth of Scripture. Above all, like the dispensationalists they claim that Christ in part failed in his mission to redeem Israel, and so he must return to this task in the end times. Following the rapture theory of some dispensationalists, God will return to carry out the redemption of unsaved physical Israel after the “Church” has been raptured off the earth. Many dispensationalists can come to reject this pre-tribulation rapture theory, but still stick to the basic starting points of dispensationalism, that God has two peoples and deals with the two in different ways and that God will return to deal with physical Israel during the Tribulation.

John 10: 16 says “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”

Christ is talking about gentiles as being his other sheep, not about Ephraim or the northern tribes. Christ was to join the gentiles to the Israelites, both Jews and descendants of the northern tribes (Ephraim), to form one fold. We will see later that Ezra 6: 22, II Chronicals 30: 6 and Nehemiah 12: 47 say that members of the northern tribes had returned from captivity and had joined with the Jews as one people by the time of the re-building of the temple and wall at Jerusalem.

There are several variations of the Hebrew Roots or Messianic Judaism
theologies dealing with the two house split. Apparently some Messianic Jews do identify Ephraim or Manassah with Eurpean Germanic and Celtic peoples or even with England and the U.S., a theology akin to that of the Christian Identity people.

Sacred Name people also get into the identification of the Ten Lost Tribes with European peoples. But Eddie Chumney, who follows two house theology
claims that Ephraim is not associated with British Israelism. Some variation of the old identification of Ephraim and Manassah with England and the U.S. persists within the two house people who are not strictly speaking dispensationalists but start from some of the same beliefs as do the dispensationalisfs.

Justin Martyr, an early Church Father, disagrees that God has two peoples who he will redeem. Justin says “Isaiah 42:1-4 Then is it Jacob the patriarch in whom the Gentiles
and yourselves shall trust? or is it not Christ? As, therefore, Christ
is the Israel and the Jacob, even so we, who have been quarried out
from the bowels of Christ, are the true Israelitic race.”

Here is the longer statement by Justin:

The following is from Justin Martyr’s Dialogue with Trypho.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/justinmartyr-
dialoguetrypho.html

“Isaiah 42:1-4 Then is it Jacob the patriarch in whom the Gentiles
and
>yourselves shall trust? or is it not Christ? As, therefore, Christ
is
>the Israel and the Jacob, even so we, who have been quarried out
from
>the bowels of Christ, are the true Israelitic race. But let us
attend
>rather to the very word: ‘And I will bring forth,’ He says, ‘the
seed
>out of Jacob, and out of Judah: and it shall inherit My holy
>mountain; and Mine Elect and My servants shall possess the
>inheritance, and shall dwell there; and there shall be folds of
>flocks in the thicket, and the valley of Achor shall be a
>resting-place of cattle for the people who have sought Me.
>
>But as for you, who forsake Me, and forget My holy mountain, and
>prepare a table for demons, and fill out drink for the demon, I
shall
>give you to the sword. You shall all fall with a slaughter; for I
>called you, and you hearkened not, and did evil before me, and did
>choose that wherein I delighted not.’ Isaiah 65:9-12 Such are the
>words of Scripture; understand, therefore, that the seed of Jacob
now
>referred to is something else, and not, as may be supposed, spoken
of
>your people. For it is not possible for the seed of Jacob to leave
an
>entrance for the descendants of Jacob, or for God to have accepted
>the very same persons whom He had reproached with unfitness for the
>inheritance, and promise it to them again; but as there the prophet
>says, ‘And now, O house of Jacob, come and let us walk in the light
>of the Lord; for He has sent away His people, the house of Jacob,
>because their land was full, as at the first, of soothsayers and
>divinations;’ even so it is necessary for us here to observe that
>there are two seeds of Judah, and two races, as there are two houses
>of Jacob: the one begotten by blood and flesh, the other by faith
and
>the Spirit.”
>-Justin Martyr, Chapter 135, Dialogue with Trypho.

Dispensationalists have one dispensation for physical Israel and a
separate one for “the Church.” But we do not find “the Church” in
Scripture as it has existed since perhaps Constantine. Paul’s brief
description of one of his home churches in I Corinthians 14: 23-29,
especially verse 26, shows us a fairly small group of Christians who
meet in homes and members tend to participate.

“The Church” became an institution of society, in large part under
governments and recently a 501c(3) Internal Revenue Service
incorporated entity. Except for singing, the congregation sits
silently in their pews and the preacher does all the talking.
The “Church” also became, in part, identified as a building.

Paul’s discussion in Romans 11 and elsewhere shows that saved
Christians are grafted into spiritual Israel, seen metaphorically as
the olive tree in Romans 11. We are spiritual Israel, but under the
New Covenant. Ezekiel 11: 19 says “…I will put a new spirit
within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh,
and will give them a heart of flesh.”

It is important to know who you are in Christ. If you, in effect, give up your
position in Christ to physical, unsaved Israelites, are you not
doing something similar to what Esau did when he traded a bowl of
lentils for his birthright?

The Messianic Judaism and Hebrew Roots people interpret Ezekiel 37: 16-22 to say that in the end times, probably during the Tribulation, the houses of Judah and of Ephraim - representing all the northern tribes - will be joined together. Lets look at Ezekiel 37: 16-22 and see if it is to be fulfilled only in the end times.

Ezekiel 37: 19-22 says “Behold, I will take the stick of
Joseph, which is in the hand of Epharim, and the tribes of Israel
his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of
Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine
hand…Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the
heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side,
and bring them into their own land: and I will make them one nation
in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be
king to them all…”

When was Israel, the people from the northern kingdom, and Judah,
those from the southern kingdom, to be joined again in one nation?

The two house theory of the dispensationalists might say that when
God creates a kingdom for physical and national Israel in the end
times - perhaps during the tribulation - then Judah and Israel will
be joined. The Christian Identity people might not go along with
that idea, since many of them want to distinguish clearly between
Jews and the “pure white Adamic race” of the ten “Lost” tribes of
Israel, the northern kingdom.

There are some Old Testament texts the dispensationalists use to
support their claim that God will create a kingdom in the end time
Just for Jews. These are Isaiah 54: 1-5, Hosea 3: 5, and Amos 9: 11

James in Acts 15:16 quotes Amos 9: 11. Acts 15: 16 says “After this
I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which
is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will
set it up.”

James in verses 14-15 says “Simeon hath declared how God at the
first did visit the gentiles, to take out of them a people for his
name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written:”

James then quotes Amos 9: 11 above. Peter in verse 9 had said that
God has put no difference between the Jews and Gentiles. James than
says that Amos 9: 11 agrees with what Peter said.

Hosea 3: 5 says “Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and
seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall fear the
Lord and his goodness in the latter days.”

Isaiah 54:3 says “For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and
on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles; and make the
desolate cities to be inhabited.”

James and Peter in Acts 15 disagree with the dispensationalist
theory of an end time all Jewish kingdom from these Old Testament
texts.

If the joining of a remnant from the northern kingdom of Israel with
the people of Judah is not to happen during the exclusive Jewish end
time kingdom of the dispensationalists, then when did it occur?

Some of the northern kingdom were in their land during the time of
King Hezekiah of the southern kingdom, according to II Chronicles
30: 1-2, 10-11. This was after the time when many of the people of
the northern tribes were taken into captivity by the Assyrians.

Nehemiah 12: 47 says “And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel, and in the days of Nehemiah, gave the portions of the singers and the porters, every day his portion: and they sanctified holy things unto the Levites; and the Levites sanctified them unto the children of Aaron.”

The Jews are Israelites and so it might be argued that “all Israel” refers to all Jews. So lets look at two more texts and see if they support the “all Israel” of Nehemiah 12: 47 as being both Judah and Ephraim.

Ezra 6: 21-22 says “And the children of Israel, which were come again out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves unto them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the LORD God of Israel, did eat, And kept the feast of unleavened bread seven days with joy: for the LORD had made them joyful, and turned the heart of the king of Assyria unto them, to strengthen their hands in the work of the house of God, the God of Israel.”

The “king of Assyria” identifies the “children of Israel” as being from the northern tribes. The king or kings of Assyria had no control over the Jews who were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, not the Assyrians. Even in Daniel’s lifetime the Medes and Persians took Babylon and the kings of the Persians then had control over the Jews. It was the Persian king who allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem, not the king of Assyria.

A text indicating that members of the northern tribes were back in their northern lands at the time of Hezekiah king of Judah is II Chronicals 30: 1, 6,10- 11 which say “And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and wrote letters also to Ephraim and Manassah, that they should come to the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, to keep the passover unto the LORD God of Israel… So the posts went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria…So the posts passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh even unto Zebulun: but they laughed them to scorn, and mocked them. Nevertheless divers of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. 12 Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to do the commandment of the king and of the princes, by the word of the LORD.”

Note that II Chronicals 30: 6 says “Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and he will return to the remnant of you, that are escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria.” This indicates the Children of Israel, the Israelite peoples of the northern tribes, escaped out of the hands of the kings of Assyria, implying they had been in captivity.

Ezekiel 37: 16-22 on the joining of the two sticks into one stick was fulfilled in the time of king Hezekiah sometime between 726 and 697 BC when more than a few people of the people of the “lost Tribes” were back in their land. ERzekiel 37 does not say that every one of those taken captivity had to join with the tribes of Judah for this prophecy to be fulfilled.

The letter of Hezekiah “passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh” suggests more than a few people of the northern tribes, the supposed “lost tribes,” were in their lands at the time of Hezekiah, who, according to http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/hezekiah.html ,reigned from 726 to 697 BC. The fall of Samaria and the northern kingdom was in 721 or 722 BC according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaria.

Sometime during the reign of king Hezekiah of Judah, after the Assyrian captivity of about 721 BC, there were members of the northern tribes present in their lands. Bernard

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