By Dave Hunt
Question: In light of Joshua 21:43-45, and 2 Corinthians 1:20, do you have a list of the specific unfulfilled promises to Israel...not fulfilled by either the initial entering into the Promised Land, and/or by Jesus Christ Himself? It has always been very curious to me that dispensationalism, as a major, influential doctrine within the church (actually, only within the United States, to be more accurate), rose in prominence at precisely the same contemporary time period as political Zionism under Theodor Herzl and the World Jewish Congress (I refer, of course, to the initial publication and promulgation of the Scofield Reference Bible as the crowning achievement of the efforts introduced in America by Darby a few decades earlier in the 19th century). So, is modern Israel a move of God or a satanic counterfeit?
Response: Joshua 21:43-45 tells us,
"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."Some believe this to mean that all prophecy concerning Israel and the land was fulfilled at this time.
Yet, the Book of Judges records that Israel did not act upon every promise of God concerning the land. Manasseh didn't drive out the inhabitants of Bethshean...Ephraim didn't...Zebulon didn't...Asher didn't...etc. (Jdgs 1:27-31 et al.). Looking at other verses, the Jews haven't received all that God has promised (Gn 15:18-21, Nm 34:1-15, Ezk 47:13-20).
Second Corinthians 1:20 states,
"For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us."All prophecies concerning Jesus' life, ministry, death, burial, and resurrection are "yea and amen" by the Father. But other prophecies tell of His triumphant return and earthly reign. Zechariah 12:10 says,
"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."This hasn't been fulfilled.
Furthermore, some say that most, if not all, prophecy was fulfilled in AD 70. Some even say we are now in the Millennium. During the Millennium, the "wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them" (Is 11:6). Today when the lamb dwells with the wolf, the lamb is inside the wolf!
We do not have space within the confines of a Q&A for an exhaustive list of unfulfilled prophecies, but the few examples given are a good start.
John Darby and the Brethren movement were birthed in Britain, not America. Not influential in Britain? It is the conclusion of some that British Prime Minister Lloyd George was greatly influenced by dispensational doctrine of the return of the Jews to Israel, as was Lord Balfour. It has been said that modern Israel might not have been birthed were it not for evangelical influences on the British government. Although Darby is alleged to have invented premillennialism, interpretations by a number of Puritan writers predate Darby's by centuries. (See For Zion's Sake, Paul Wilkinson).
Isn't it reasonable to consider that the "coincidental" emergence of Zionism, dispensationalism, Darby, et al., was the orchestration of the Lord?
"Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children" (Is 66:8).
