The Natural and the Spiritual (Israel and the Church)

There is an order to things.  It is inescapable and required.  See it in the building of a house: one thing must precede another.  It is observable throughout the whole of nature—it’s the foundation of “natural science”.   (A biblical foundation for our thinking together is I Corinthians 15:42-49.)There is a parallel of this same order, the natural and the spiritual, between Israel and the church.  Simplistically put, perhaps too much so, what happens to Israel, as a nation, “in the natural” will happen to the church “in the spiritual”.

Taking May 14, 1948, Israel’s Declaration of Independence, voiced by David Ben-Gurion, and establishment as a nation, this process immediately becomes observable, but only in retrospect.  Following the horrors of the Holocaust, which the Jews experienced in large measure because they were a dispossessed people, to establishment of their own homeland, previously known as Palestine, is a miracle absolutely beyond reckoning—three years from the end of WWII to statehood! 

Here, is the “natural” founding of the modern state of Israel.  What do we see happening in the “spiritual” realm—in the church?  There is a tremendous unleashing of new evangelistic and healing ministries.  These ministries started in 1948:  Billy Graham, Derek Prince, A. A. Allen, Oral Roberts, Jack Coe, Gordon Lindsay, T. L. Osborn. Other notable ministries were founded shortly afterward.

The very next day after Israel’s founding as a nation, surrounding Arab nations—Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq—attack the new state.  Israel emerges victorious.  Graphically illustrating the truth of God’s promise, “You shall arise, and have mercy upon Zion:  for the time to favor her, yes, the set time is come” (Psalm 102:13).

Israel’s victory here, in 1948, and subsequent battles, particularly in the “6-Day War” of 1967, when Israel regained control of the old city of David for the first time since 70 A.D., see the church continue to make advances, especially internationally.  A notable event nationally was the maturation of the “Charismatic Movement”.

Now in 2013, things are “bogged down” in Israel, making small, but very important advances like bringing home to Israel members of the Lost Tribe of Menasseh, Bnei Menashe, still holding its enemies at bay; so it is with the church, particularly in America.

Christians should be fervently praying for Israel, her protection, and great wisdom and courage for her leaders.  For the time is coming when her enemies will coalesce and advance against her in insuperable numbers, no matter, Israel will triumph even if it takes overt and demonstrable, supernatural power on her behalf.  This could well signal the collapse of the Muslim faith for it is as much a political entity as a spiritual one and their god, Allah, who Muslims think, through them, should conquer the world, will be shown to be the false god that he is—no god at all.  (This spiritual battle is at the heart of what’s going on in the Mid-East.)

With these events the church will make explosive, evangelistic strides, turning multitudes from unbelief to fervent belief in Jesus as their Savior.

What a day to be alive!