I hope to demonstrate in this article that the New Covenant forever changed how we should view the Jews and the land occupied by Israel.
There is nothing quite so humiliating and infuriating as being deceived by a con man. The devil is a master liar who has been deceiving mankind for a long time. He is so good at what he does that he has even been able to persuade many Bible believers into accepting and promoting anti-biblical principles and teachings. This article will attempt to show that such has been the case when it comes to claiming that the modern nation of Israel is located on what should still be identified as the “Holy Land” and to believing that the Jews still retain the status as “God’s chosen people.”
It is important for us first to make a couple of important distinctions.
There is a huge difference between Old Testament Judaism and modern
Talmudic Judaism, which derives largely from ancient Babylon.
In addition, there is firm distinction between modern Judaism and what is called Zionism.
Talmudic Judaism is quite different from what the Jews practiced during the time of Moses for example. Suffice it to say at this point that the Talmud contains occult and anti-biblical teachings.
The god of the Talmud is not God the Father of Christians. Jesus said that we cannot deny the Son and still claim the Father.
Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. 1 John 2:23 (NASB95)
Any person, group, or religious doctrine that denies that Jesus is the Messiah is by definition antichrist. Any nation that persecutes Christians is being motivated by the antichrist spirit.
I will leave it to you to do your own research into Talmudic Judaism. Here is a link to some questions I posed to Perplexity AI about the matter.
The political movement called Zionism began in 1897 when when Theodor Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. Continuing persecution of the Jews in Europe led to the idea of creating a Jewish homeland where they could dwell in relative peace. Perplexity AI put together the following summary.
Theodor Herzl had a profound influence on later Zionist leaders by laying the ideological and organizational foundation for the Zionist movement. He transformed Zionism from a scattered set of ideas and local initiatives into a political movement with a clear goal: establishing a Jewish state. Herzl’s vision and actions provided a unifying framework and a diplomatic strategy that later leaders would build upon.
Key Influences on Later Leaders
-
-
Herzl’s publication of Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) laid out the political rationale and vision of a Jewish homeland, inspiring subsequent Zionist leaders to pursue statehood as a realistic goal rather than a mere aspiration.
-
By convening the First Zionist Congress in 1897, Herzl created the World Zionist Organization, establishing a structured political entity that later leaders used to mobilize Jewish communities worldwide and coordinate efforts toward state-building.
-
Herzl’s diplomatic initiatives, though not immediately successful, set a precedent for Zionist leaders to engage with global powers to gain political and territorial support for Jewish statehood.
-
His emphasis on the necessity of Jewish immigration and settlement in Palestine became a central strategy for later Zionist pioneers and leaders.
-
Herzl’s inclusive vision of a democratic and pluralistic Jewish state shaped the political culture and aspirations of the Zionist movement, influencing leaders such as Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion.
-
He instilled a sense of Jewish national identity and collective responsibility that helped overcome divisions within the Jewish diaspora, uniting different factions under the goal of statehood.
-
Herzl is often referred to as the “spiritual father of the Jewish State” because his vision and leadership inspired the political, diplomatic, and practical efforts of subsequent generations, ultimately culminating in the founding of Israel in 1948. His ability to combine political activism, visionary writing, and diplomacy provided a blueprint for Zionist leadership that endured long after his death in 1904.
Initially Western nations, such as the USA, were lukewarm toward the proposal. “Coincidentally” Cyrus Scofield, a proven fraud who abandoned his first wife and children and later claimed to have a PhD, but did not, developed and published what is called the Scofield Reference Bible about this time.
In it he proposed and taught an entirely new way of interpreting end-time scriptures. He and John Darby taught that God worked with mankind on the basis of “dispensations” rather than covenants. He also taught that the nation of Israel is still the focus of God’s kingdom activity on the earth, the church being a sort of “plan B”. I have written several articles about this serious error, which can be accessed through the following link.
By syncretistically blending the Old Covenant with the New, Scofield created a false gospel (Galatians 1:7) that has convinced multitudes of well-meaning Christians to unconditionally support national Israel.
The thinking is that for Jesus to return, Israel must once again possess the land promised to Abraham. The current residents are compared to the ancient Canaanites and must be driven out and even at times annihilated, even though many of those residents have been there for centuries and are believers in Christ.
We have been taught that any refusal to support Israel will bring God’s curse upon us. God did promise Abraham that those who blessed him would be blessed (Genesis 12:3), and those who cursed him would be cursed. This blessing must have been passed from Abraham to Isaac because we see Isaac pronouncing the same blessing upon Jacob in Genesis 27:29. These men experienced God’s blessing and protection under the covenant God established with Abraham, through which all the nations of the earth would be blessed. (Genesis 12:3) We know now that this promise was fulfilled perfectly by the coming of Jesus, the Lamb of God, who died for our sins and rose again as the glorious Lord of lords.
This same Jesus delivered us from the curse of the Law and procured for us the blessing God promised to Abraham.
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE”— 14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Galatians 3:13–14 (NASB95)
Consequently, the idea that our relationship to national Israel determines whether we are blessed or cursed is an unfounded and harmful idea which denies what Christ accomplished on our behalf.
Everything in the Old Covenant pointed toward Christ. Once our Lord fulfilled the Old Covenant promises, patterns, and symbols, they were no longer of any use and have been set aside or rendered obsolete..
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Hebrews 8:13 (NASB95)
When we retain Old Covenant symbols and practices and incorporate them into New Covenant practice, we are guilty of syncretism and falsifying the gospel.
And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined. 38 “But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins. Luke 5:37–38 (NASB95)
Paul warned against such syncretism which he discovered existed in the church located in Galatia.
But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years. 11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. Galatians 4:9–11 (NASB95)
The New Covenant has nothing whatsoever to do with maintaining elements of the Old Covenant.
Today if we become enamored with facets of Old Covenant Judaism and begin to celebrate and observe feast days, sabbaths, and dietary laws as a means of attaining to a deeper spirituality, it means we have fallen from relying upon grace, replacing faith with obsolete religious observances.
And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. 4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. Galatians 5:3–4 (NASB95)
Likewise, just as Christ fulfilled the Law, Israel’s purpose was fulfilled when Christ arrived on the earth.
God used that nation to preserve his promises and the scriptures and to provide a human pedigree for the Messiah.
who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. Romans 9:4–5 (NASB95)
Once the Messiah appeared, Israel’s role, as was John the Baptist’s, was to give the preeminence to Jesus and recede from view. (John 3:30)
God removed John through his execution at Herod’s hands. The nation of Israel proved to be very recalcitrant, however. Israel’s leaders resisted, rejected, and finally murdered their long awaited Messiah and afterward persecuted the fledgling church.
Knowing this would happen, Jesus prophesied the action God the Father would take in coming days.
“Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it. 44 “And he who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter him like dust.” 45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. Matthew 21:43–45 (NASB95)
The Lord was extremely patient with the Israelites leading up to this final rebellion against Christ’s rule because his plan was to use this disobedient people to provide his Messiah King to save the world and reestablish his authority upon the earth.
After their final act of defiance against God, his patience ended, Israel’s purpose having been fulfilled.
Israel’s arrogant rejection and murder of their Messiah, followed by the martyrdom of Stephen, brought to a climax that nation’s long history of rebelliousness and idolatry, which extended all the way back to Mt. Sinai. The murder of Stephen was a prophetic marker provided by Daniel, which signified that Israel’s place in salvation history had come to a close. The final working out of that judgment was fulfilled years later when the Roman army sacked Jerusalem and destroyed the glorious old covenant temple in 70 AD, ending the sacrificial system.
Once the Lamb of God shed his blood, animal sacrifices became an abomination.
Now God’s true worshipers, those who come to God through faith in Jesus, worship in Spirit and truth in God’s temple, the body of Christ, the church. (John 4:24)
When the old covenant ended, everything connected to it became obsolete and faded away.
- The Jews who were previously called “God’s chosen people” were a type of that which was to be revealed. God’s “elect” from every tribe and kindred from all over the earth are now understood to be God’s chosen people. The old covenant Israelites who trusted God by faith are included in this group. There is only one “chosen people,” those God foreknew and drew to Christ from before the foundation of the world, the church, the “one new man”, the body of Christ. (Ephesians 1:4) Some denigrate this truth by labeling it “replacement theology.” It is New Testament theology, a fulfillment of what was prefigured in the Old Testament.
- The new birth is the defining “marker” by which a person gains entrance into God’s kingdom. Physical lineage and outward circumcision were replaced by the inner work of the Holy Spirit. (Galatians 6:15-16)
- The significance of Jewish religion, including the sacrificial system, adherence to the Law of Moses, the keeping of feasts and the Sabbath, the dietary laws, and other traditions came to a close. (Hebrews 8:13) These things still have cultural significance to modern Jewish people, but we now can only come to God through Jesus. (John 14:6) We now worship God in Spirit and truth (John 4:23-24), not using old covenant traditions. If Gentile Christians adopt Jewish traditions in a vain attempt to pursue a deeper way of relating to God, it reveals a dreadful lack of understanding of the New Covenant and opens the door to more errors.
- In addition, the old covenant “Holy Land”, as it is often called, has been superseded by a much larger and more inclusive “promised land” that swallows up that small area of land in the Near East.
Holy means set apart. God set apart Canaan as a land of promise to Abraham and his descendants. That promise was fulfilled during the days of Joshua and the reigns of Kings David and Solomon. It was the land upon which Jesus’ feet trod and where he was crucified, and God may yet accomplish some significant things there, but it is not set apart to God’s people (the Israel of God) any longer.
The land promised to Abraham has been replaced in the New Covenant by God’s promise of new earth. (Revelation 21:1, 2 Peter 3:13)
Jesus told us that those who follow him will inherit the entire earth (Matthew 5:5). Paul corroborated this interpretation of the Greek word “ge” as pertaining to the whole world and not just the land promised to Abraham.
For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world [cosmos] was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith. Romans 4:13 (NASB95)
God will be glorified in Christ and his church through all eternity, not in the nation of Israel. We will occupy a new heaven and earth, not the Old Covenant Canaan land.
Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:21 (NLT) Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. Revelation 21:1–2 (NASB95)
Only those descendants of Abraham who acknowledge that Christ is Lord will be included in what is called the Israel of God. (Galatians 6:16)
When all the elect Jews and Gentiles are finally born again and become part of the church, the “one new man” in Christ, the end will come and “all Israel” (the true Israel of God) will have been saved. (Romans 11:26)
If that includes a large number of biologically Jewish people coming to Christ at the very end, I am all for it. Nevertheless, God told us that only a remnant will be saved. (Romans 9:29) Today the true born-again Israel of God is being assembled from every nation under heaven.
And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. 10 “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” Revelation 5:9–10 (NASB95)
