Prophetic and Prescriptive Scripture: Finding a place between what God says he will do, and what we must do

Abstract

Should Christians love and support Israel? Some answer with much more than “yes.” Some assert that Gentiles have a “spiritual debt” to the Jews, which presumably can be paid off by support for the modern state of Israel (Brown 2023). Worse still, many make prosperity promises in exchange for blessing the descendants of Abraham, which can be accomplished by support for the current state of Israel. The answer amongst others has been tragically more than a “no.” Many have said that the physical descendants of Abraham have no more spiritual role to play. Many have gone even further to suggest that the Jewish people continue to exist only to be in perpetual servitude of Christians, the true people of God who have superseded their now obsolete Religion (Kaplan 2019). Like most persistent theological debates, there is enough Scripture and truth on both sides to keep one side from ever finally winning. And as with most of such debates, it becomes the burden of thoughtful believers to attempt to reconcile the two frayed ends, while remaining content that the full knowledge of God’s mysteries only belongs to those who have been called home. The thesis of this present work hopes to unite those two frayed ends. It will do so by drawing an important, and very intuitive distinction between facts of prophecy and commands of prophecy. Or put another way, and to borrow the language of reformed scholars, prescriptive and descriptive prophetic narrative. This paper will first lay out what the author feels are the most unavoidable evidence of Israel's prophetic role in Scripture. Then it will treat the clearest teaching in the New Testament of full equality between Jews and Gentiles. It will then offer a framework for believing in both truths, such that faithful followers of the Messiah can be righteous and compassionate as they pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and call Muslims and Jews to saving faith in Jesus.