The debate among orthodox Christians concerning eschatology centers on millennium: amillennialism, postmillennialism, and premillennialism. Immediately related to that is the role of Jews and Gentiles in the Kingdom plan, or the role of Israel and Church. Premillennialism emphasizes the distinction between the two (separate at certain time in certain way, e.g., the rapture of the church, only Jews in the tribulation); amillennialism emphasizes the unity between the two (even though some accept the saving of the Jews as a whole in the end). The debate has been long and complicated, and there is no need to repeat. Here we would like to propose a sort of different way of looking at biblical eschatology.
How to understand the Jews/Gentiles issue? On the surface, it seems that the OT is heavily on the Jews, and the NT, especially after the Lord’s resurrection, is largely on the Gentiles. The Scripture defines itself and explains itself. I think there is a biblical precedent that should guide our understanding of prophecies. This precedent is the NT interpretation of the New Covenant prophesied in the OT.
Here are two major OT passages on the New Covenant:
Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more…Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be sacred to the Lord. It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever. (Jer. 31:31-40. ESV)
I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant, that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations. (Ezk. 36:24-30, see 36:22-37:28. ESV)
The New Covenant prophesied here has two elements: the spiritual regeneration (sin forgiven, new heart, knowing God, obeying God), and the national restoration (return to the land and prosper). Both premillennialists and amillennialists agree that the spiritual regeneration is true and it extends to Jews as well as Gentiles. But they disagree about the latter. The premillennialists think the latter is literally true and applies to Israel; the amillennialists think it is symbolic and applies to the church including all believers.
Probably no one would deny that the audience of Jeremiah and Ezekiel regarded those prophecies as for the Jews (and Jews only). Other OT texts refer to blessings to Gentiles, but the prophecies of New Covenant are predominantly Jewish. The New Covenant in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36-37 is unquestionably Jewish in nature. The Gentiles were not in the immediate texts or contexts of these passages (therefore, even the premillennialists are not reading it “literally”). Then how does the Gentiles come into the New Covenant? Are the NT authors forcing something alien to the OT texts into the OT?
Listen to the explanation of Apostle Paul:
For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Eph. 3:1-6. ESV. Emphasis added)
The inclusion of Gentiles into the promises in Christ was a mystery under the OT (though there were clues here and there), and this mystery was revealed only under the NT (this is often ignored). It is under the NT that we understand the full reality of God’s promise, and the full reality of the New Covenant. What the Apostle speaks in Ephesians echoes what he speaks in Romans 11. The Gentiles are grafted on, sharing in the nourishing root of the olive tree. When you look at the tree before grafting, there is no sign of a foreign branch. The NT sheds a new light into the New Covenant promised in the OT, shall we consider a possibility of NT shedding a new light into the material element also? Shall we “expand” the spiritual promise to the Gentiles while looking at the material promise to the Jews only? There seems to be an inconsistency in the premillennial view.
On the other side, the amillennialists are quick to dismiss the material promise in total. All the material is a shadow of the spiritual; all the Jewish aspects are shadows of the universal (church). This appears to be arbitrary, and not consistent with the NT either (as many premillennialists have pointed out). The NT does not speak of a separation between Jews and Gentiles in Christ, but there remains a distinction (just as no serious student denies the male/female distinction based on Gal. 3:28), nor is there a spiritual/material dichotomy. Our Lord says, “They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” (Lk. 21:24). This certainly means a Jewish Jerusalem remains in the future (in contrast to Gentiles). The Lord did not correct the apostles when they expected a restoration of the kingdom to Israel (Ac. 1:6-7). The Kingdom spoken by the Lord and His apostles has material elements (food, drink, houses, new heaven and new earth). There were shadows under the OT, but not all were shadows (a lot are “literally” true, not symbolic).
Here we tentatively propose a view that avoids the above inconsistencies from both sides. Rather focusing on the spiritual blessing and material blessing, one should focus on Christ the spring of all blessings. The New Covenant spiritual blessing prophesied in the OT is grounded in Christ. Any Gentile who has Christ has this blessing (grafted in, sharing in the root). This does not mean the Jews are irrelevant. No, the Jews are “natural branches”. At the “fullness of the Gentiles”, “all Israel will be saved”. Probably we could interpret the material blessing in the same way. The material blessing is not about a Jewish Kingdom (just as the spiritual is not simply about Jewish regeneration), it is about the Messianic Kingdom, the last Kingdom prophesied by Daniel. The restoration of Israel is not an isolated event, but integrated to the establishment of the Messianic Kingdom, a Kingdom in which Gentile believers as well as Jewish believers reign with Christ. The conflict between Jews and their pagan neighbours in the end time points to the conflict between Christ’s people and their enemies.
In both the spiritual and material blessings, the OT prophecies centered on the Jews “expand” to encompassing both Jews and Gentiles under the NT. The key to interpretation is not literal or allegorical, but a promise to the Jews established on Christ extends to Gentiles. If anyone is in Christ, he has the blessings given in Christ. It is not appropriate to separate Jews and Gentiles as premillennialists do, nor to separate the material and spiritual as amillennialists do.
