Can You Blame Them?

I am not sure why the Jerusalem Post originally wrote an article saying that Jerry Falwell believed that non-Christian Jews could go to heaven without believing in Christ. Falwell responded by publishing a public response. If you will pay close attention to Falwell’s comments in his public statement, it seems to say what he was denying.

While I am a strong supporter of the State of Israel and dearly love the Jewish people and believe them to be the chosen people of God, I continue to stand on the foundational biblical principle that all people — Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Jews, Muslims, etc. — must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to enter heaven.

Notice he says they are the “chosen people of God”. I am always amazed what the New Testament says about national Israel verses what many Evangelicals say. It is true that in the flesh, national Israel had the promises and covenants. Paul however teaches in Romans chapter 9 that there is a new Israel. To say that they [national Israel] are God’s chosen would be to assume there is still some covenant binding God to them. The statement states clearly that both Falwell and Hagee deny such a covenant exists.

Again, I do not follow this teaching of “dual covenant” theology and I believe it runs counter to the Gospel.

He then says:

I want to reaffirm that I am a Zionist in terms of Israel’s entitlement to its homeland.

Entitlement? Would that not mean the Old Covenant is still in force? I agree that God may ingraft national Israel back into the promises (as defined by the New Covenant) of God as possibly predicted in Romans 11. The point of the New Testament however is that the land promises were changed under the New Covenant by Christ Himself (read Matthew 5). Jesus says in John 4:21-24

Jesus said to her, Woman, believe Me that an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is of the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father also seeks such, the ones worshiping Him. God is a spirit, and the ones worshiping Him must worship in spirit and truth.

To take passages like these and somehow force them to remain solely to national Israel is to turn Jesus’ own eschatology on its head. Jesus was clear about His intentions for national Israel when He gave His Olivet Discourse. The context preceding His prediction in that great discourse was the parable of the Vineyard in Matthew 21 and the denunciation of the Pharisees in chapter 23.

In the end, it may be the language and theology of Dispensationalists that causes them to be misunderstood. Can you blame them?