3429 — Were the Old Prophets Mistaken?
By Alonzo T. Jones
We condense two large pages into the following: Were the old prophets mistaken in their predictions concerning Israel, as in Isa. 11: 11-16; Jer. 16:14, 15; 31:31, and other prophecies? There are certain principles which will help us greatly to understand the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning Israel, if we will learn and apply the principles. Otherwise all is confusion. 1. All God's promises and covenants in Old and New Testaments are to Israel. They come through the Jews to Gentiles. They are not to the Gentiles as such. Rom. 9:4. The Gentile, the stranger, the foreigner, is blessed only as he takes hold of God's covenants. Isa. 56:1-8; Eph. 2:11-22; Rom. 11:17. "Salvation is of the Jews." John 4:22. 2. Some of these promises and prophecies of the ancient prophets were fulfilled in the restoration from Babylon. 3. Some of these predictions are what may be called double prophecies, in which the prophet's vision included events close at hand and far off, just as in one's view of the mountains two peaks appear as one, tho when we reach them we find them separated by miles of valley. Those fulfilled before Christ would be fulfilled under the typical covenant conditions then existing; those fulfilled after Christ, according to the confirmed, antitypical covenant conditions. In the times previous to Christ the Jews as a nation would have occupied the center of the field; since Christ it is the Israel by faith, God's remnant church wherever found. 4. Some of these prophecies are conditional, depending upon Israel's acceptance or rejection. These conditions are very clearly stated in Jer. 18:7-10. The prophecy of the sanctuary of Ezekiel (chapters 37 to 48) is one of these. That sanctuary will never be built. 5. He who attempts to read the ancient prophecies of God concerning Israel without taking into consideration the clearer revelations of the New Testament is bound to go astray. Read the emphatic words of Paul: "How that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery; . . . which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the Gospel." Eph. 3:3-6. It therefore follows that whoever fixes up a theory that excludes God's great Gospel work to the world, for all alike, in which "there can not be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian," is astray, and is bound to go farther astray. In harmony with these principles our inquirer will have no trouble in settling many difficulties. He may find many obscure texts. Let him abide by the principles; the texts will sooner or later fall into line. The new covenant of Jer. 31:31 was confirmed by the death of Christ upon the cross. See Heb. 8:8-10. Its blessed fruitage is forever, and all brought in by it will be of Israel.