By Louis F. Were
Jesus told the Jewish leaders, “Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me.” John 5:39.
The opening words of Revelation distinctly inform us that its prophecies have been given as “the Revelation of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 1:1. Interpretations of prophecies that do not find their center in Jesus as Savior and Destroyer of Evil are wrong applications of Scripture.
The Jewish scholars were masters in scriptural knowledge, yet they did not understand the prophecies. Not only were prophecies fulfilled before their eyes, but they themselves helped to fulfill them and yet were spiritually blind to their fulfillment. Why? In Acts 13:27, we are told the reason: “For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him.” Because they knew not Jesus—because they were not right with God who had sent Jesus—they misread the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of His kingdom.
Had they been right with God, they would have recognized God’s character in Christ, and thus would have seen the fulfillment of Haggai’s prophecy regarding the second temple: “The desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts.” Hag. 2:7. When Jesus said, “I say unto you, that in this place is One greater than the temple,” they would have recognized the presence of God, who alone is greater than the temple. Matt. 12:6; 2 Chron. 6:18. They would have seen the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi 3:1: “The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple.” So, when the Messiah “came unto His own, …His own received Him not.” John 1:11.
The Jews rejected Christ because His interpretation of the prophecies was not what they wanted. They were not prepared for the kind of kingdom He preached. They expected all the predictions regarding Israel’s exaltation to have their grand fulfillment in the first advent of the Messiah. They failed to heed the truth that the first phase of the kingdom had to do with humiliation and the battle against evil within. The proud human heart would like to share in the glory, but not in the humiliation and the suffering, which are essential for entrance into the kingdom. See Acts 14:22. Christ had to suffer before entering into glory. See Luke 24:25, 26, 46; 1 Pet. 1:11. Similarly, the “Israel” associated with Him would likewise first suffer before they reigned in glory with Him. 2 Tim. 2:12; 1 Pet. 4:13.
Failing to read the prophecies in the light of Christ’s work of salvation caused the Jews to misunderstand the prophecies. They forgot or overlooked the moral purpose of prophecy—personal salvation from sin.
Similarly today, thousands of professing Christians interpret the prophecies and misapply them in the same way. Their beliefs actually oppose the plain teachings of the New Testament. The Jews pointed to the prophecies picturing the triumph of Israel over her foes (such as those in Ezekiel 38 and 39; Joel 3; Zechariah 12 and 14, and others) and felt certain of the protection and blessing of God. Today, Christian expositors teach the same as did the Jews regarding those prophecies. They overlook the spiritual qualifications required by those who would be victorious and blessed.
The New Testament clearly teaches that the church has inherited all the promises and blessings assured to Israel. To the Jews, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you [literal Israel] and given to a nation [spiritual Israel] bringing forth the fruits thereof.” Matt. 21:43. Those who bear the fruit of the Spirit are assured of the blessing and protection of God. Gal. 5:22, 23; Matt. 21:33–43; John 15:1–11. That the church now is the nation of Israel is maintained throughout the New Testament. This fact has been emphasized by many esteemed Bible commentators. We will quote one, representing a large number of others: “The Christian church absorbs the Jewish, inherits her privileges, and adopts, with wider and nobler meaning, her phraseology…. The Israel of God, the church of Christ, takes the place of the nation Israel.”1
But alas, the time-tested belief that the kingdom prophecies of the Old Testament have found their larger, moral fulfillment in the New Testament church, is being thrust aside by futuristic interpretations of prophecy. Futurism teaches that these prophecies will be literally fulfilled in a Jewish kingdom in the future.
Futurism is based on a faulty and unscriptural literalism, which, in prophecy, ignores the typical and preparatory character of the Old Testament. This futuristic system of Bible interpretation is popular today for obvious reasons. Literal interpretation makes Bible study easy and seemingly reverent. It argues, “God must have said just what He means, and must mean just what He has said; and what He has said is to be taken just as He said it, i.e., literally.” But the New Testament makes it plain that literal prophetic interpretation was a stumbling block to the Jews. It concealed from them the most precious truths of Scripture.
Because the book of Revelation uses abundant imagery pertaining to Israel, futurists say that it largely pertains to the literal Jews in Palestine. Yet, Old Testament terminology is employed in Revelation because the church has taken the place of Israel, because the church is Israel.
God had a moral reason for giving Jacob the name Israel, because his character was changed after a night in prayer. See Gen. 32:24–30; Hosea 12:3, 4. Jesus said to Nathanael, who had spent time (in the secrecy of an overhanging fig tree) with his God in prayer, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!” John 1:47. “The remnant of Israel” will be those of whom it is said, “In their mouth was found no guile.” Zeph. 3:13; Rev. 14:5. A true Israelite (like Jacob and Nathanael) knows from experience what it means to pour out the soul before God, clinging to Him and trusting in His love and mercy. Only those who thus commune with God and who have no guile can fully understand or accept Christ’s message in the Revelation.
Futuristic interpretations teach that the antichrist is a literal person who is yet to arise and do his deadly work against literal Jews in Palestine. During the Protestant Reformation, the papacy fostered this interpretation because it wanted to counteract the biblical application of the papacy as the antichrist—a spiritual organization—portrayed in Revelation as persecuting spiritual Israel.
God’s solemn warnings against worshiping the beast and his image or receiving his mark, as well as so many of the startling prophecies in the Revelation, lose their moral relevance when interpreted according to the futuristic system of literal Palestine. Rev. 14:9–11. Futurists can only read these prophecies as spectators, to know what events will occur to other people who live in Palestine in the future. The Lord gave these prophecies as vital messages for His true Israelites living today; and unless our interpretations of prophecies reveal Christ, we too will fail to grasp their true meaning.
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Charles J. Ellicott, ed., “Notes on Revelation,” Ellicott’s Bible Commentary, pp. 96–125.
The late Louis Were wrote many books on prophecy, including The Moral Purpose of Prophecy, The Certainty of the Third Angel’s Message, and The King of the North at Jerusalem.