Historical Christian Teaching
3. All earthly promises to Israel have been either fulfilled or invalidated through disobedience and unbelief.
Dispensationalist Teaching
3. God's promises concerning the return to the land, rebuilding the temple, etc., were never fulfilled. They are therefore still future.
This passage shows God has no problem reversing certain promises that He makes.
Please notice that the promises are only ones concerning a nation and a kingdom, not promises to individuals.
Jeremiah 18:7-10
7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. |
Is the Historical Christian teaching correct?
Did God completely abandon the children of Israel as a nation because of their refusal to repent?
No, because God will remember the covenant was made with individuals, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Leviticus 26:42-45
42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God.
45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord. |
At this time, Israel is not completely rejected, but only blinded until the end of the time of the Gentiles.
Romans 11:25
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. |
The Dispensationalist teaching on this is true, God's promises concerning the return to the land, rebuilding the temple, etc., were never fulfilled. They are therefore still future.