http://steve-finnell.blogspot.com/2017/03/land-promised-to-israel-forever-by.html
Land Promised to Israel Forever
by David Vaughn Elliott
As
the Israelis and Palestinians battle over land that both claim as their
own, American futurists (dispensationalists) side with the Israelis,
claiming the Bible is on their side. Indeed, did not God promise
Abraham: "All the land which you see, to you will I give it, and to your
seed forever" (Gen. 13:15). Forever. "It is because of such verses,"
says futurism, "that Israel is again in their land today and must
inhabit it during the coming millennium. Prophetic promises must be
fulfilled."
But
wait a minute. They tell us to expect the literal fulfillment of God's
"forever" promise, right? Now, what if I would tell my bride, "I'm yours
forever." Then I would live with her for 15 years. After that I go to
live with another woman for 20 years. Finally I come back to my original
bride and tell her, "Since I promised to live with you forever, here I
am again." Does that make sense? Futurism says Israel must live in the
Promised Land now, and then also during the millennium, in order to
fulfill the "forever" promise. But what about nearly 1,900 years, from
A.D. 70 to 1948, when there was no Jewish nation in Palestine? What
happened to "forever" during nearly two millennia?
Did
God fail to keep His promise? We need to read the fine print. The
promise had conditions! God never said that "forever" was unconditional.
God never implied that Israel could behave as they pleased and still
continue to claim the "forever" promise.
In
fact, before Moses died, he solemnly warned the children of Israel:
"When you shall beget children... and you shall have remained long in
the land... and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord your God, to
provoke him to anger... you shall soon utterly perish from off the
land... and the Lord shall scatter you among the nations" (Deut.
4:25-27).
When
Solomon built that magnificent temple, God told him: "If you shall at
all turn from following me, you or your children... then will I cut off
Israel out of the land which I have given them" (1 Kings 9:6-7).
Many
such warnings could be cited. History shows that Israel did not heed
the warnings and that God kept His word. In 722 B.C., God used the
Assyrians to expel the Northern Kingdom of Israel from the Land of
Promise, never to return as a political entity. Less than a century and a
half later, God used the Babylonians to do the same to the Southern
Kingdom of Judah. In the case of Judah, God told the people through
Jeremiah that the captivity would be for 70 years. God had plans to
bring the Messiah into the world and He needed Judah in their land to
accomplish that.
But
then came the ultimate sin: the leaders of Israel, and Israel as a
nation, rejected their own Messiah, the Son of God. Peter charged them
on the day of Pentecost: "Him... you have taken, and by wicked hands
have crucified and slain" (Acts 2:23). The end result was the
destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the removal of the Jews from
Palestine, and the scattering of the Jews throughout the entire world --
just as God had warned. They did not return in significant numbers for
nearly 1,900 years.
"Forever"
had conditions; and no matter what the Jews have done since 1948, they
have already failed to have possession of Palestine, Canaan, the
Promised Land "forever." No supposed possession of Palestine for "the
millennium" can fulfill the "forever" promise. The historical fact
remains that the Jews have not -- have not -- dwelt in Palestine
"forever." Why did they not? Jehovah clearly attached conditions to the
prophetic promise, and the children of Israel failed to keep those
conditions.