In his primary book on premillennial theology, The Millennial Kingdom, John F. Walvoord wrote, “According to the Scripture, Israel will also be…regathered from all over the earth and brought back to her ancient land, and there blessed spiritually and materially” (p. 182).
The Old Testament indeed does mention God giving Israel land and even bringing them back to that land after their exile, but the clear teaching of the Scriptures is these promises have been fulfilled. God promised Abram that his descendants would, after being oppressed 400 years by the Egyptians, receive the land of Canaan in which he sojourned (Genesis 15:13-21). When Israel was on the verge of receiving this land, Moses, who was instrumental in leading them from Egypt, gave God’s warning that if they disobeyed then they would be “plucked from off the land” (Deuteronomy 28:63). The regathering of Israel to this land is prophesied in Deuteronomy 30:1-10. This was fulfilled in Nehemiah’s day as he says in his prayer:
Remember, I unbeseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. (Nehemiah 1:8-10).
The Bible teaches that God’s promise to regather fleshly Israel to the land of Canaan was fulfilled over two and half millennia ago, not an event for which we ought to be looking today.
While Premillennialists often claim that the land promise was never completely fulfilled, the book of Joshua clearly teaches otherwise. Joshua is a book about Israel going in and possessing the land that God promised to give them (Joshua 1:1-4). Joshua 21:43-45 shows God made good on His promise:
And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.
Though many religious people are taught this will happen again, God driving out other nations so that fleshly Israel can possess the land of Canaan, Joshua 23:13-16 shows that God had not failed to fulfill His promise and if Israel disobeyed He would “no more drive out any of these nations from before you.”
God is no respecter of persons in regard to physical nations (Acts 10:34-35). God does not hold physical lineage above what is in one’s heart (Romans 2:28-29). Physical Jews are no better than Gentiles (Romans 3:9). There is no difference between the two in God’s eyes (Romans 10:12). God keeps His promises both for blessing and for wrath. He has driven wicked people off their land and removed their blessings in the past. We should be thankful for what He has given us and not pursue wickedness, lest we also have the blessings of our land revoked. Not even Old-Testament Israel could keep their land perpetually if they disobeyed God.
-Mark Day
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