In this article, I want to share a couple of astonishing quotes that I’ve recently run across. The first quote is by someone I have neither acquaintance with nor knowledge of. The secretary at New Hope Baptist Church, where I am presently serving as interim pastor, shared an e-mail with me she received from a retired Baptist minister, James McCutchan. According to Rev. McCutchan, “The primary reason the United States has been so blessed by God is that it has been a safe haven for God’s people, the Jews.” Furthermore, Rev. McCutchan contends, “That’s about the only thing left that stays God’s wrath from coming big time on [our] country.” I don’t know about you, but to suggest that a nation’s treatment of Jewish people, irregardless of how it treats others, is the determining factor in whether it is blessed or judged by God is way over the top in my opinion.

I know many will accuse me of anti-Semitism for saying such a thing. When it comes to today’s premillennial dispensationalists, anything short of a belief in Jewish supremacy is condemned as anti-Semitism. Yet, I’m not now nor ever have been an anti-Semite. I just believe what the Bible says: Christians, like Christ, should be no respecters of persons. We should be equally concerned for everyone’s soul for whom Christ died, regardless of their ancestry and ethnicity.

This is not to say that Israel has not played a prominent part in the eternal plan and purposes of God or that the future unfolding of God’s plan does not include a further role for Israel to play, as I believe the Apostle Paul makes clear in Romans 9–11. It is to say, however, that the outlawing of the Gospel on a street corner in Jerusalem is just as egregious to God as the outlawing of the Gospel on a street corner in Mecca. Israel’s rejection of Christ and opposition to the Gospel is no less serious of an offense toward God than Saudi Arabia’s rejection of Christ and opposition to the Gospel.

The second astonishing quote is by a well-known Christian author, Dave Hunt, a man I often disagree with but greatly respect, due to his defense of the faith in these perilous times. In the September edition of The Berean Call, Hunt writes: “Unquestionably, Israel is the major subject of God’s Holy Word.” Far from being unquestionable, I find Hunt’s statement indefensible, especially in light of the fact of who said it—a leading apologist of our day. Without doubt, the major subject of God’s Holy Word is God’s beloved Son, Jesus Christ. As it has been rightfully observed, “You can cut the Bible anywhere and it will bleed with the blood of the Lamb.”

Jesus once condemned the Jewish leaders of His day with these words: “[You] search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye may have life.” (John 5:39-40). The whole purpose of the written Word of God—the sacred Scripture—is to point us to the living Word of God—the saving Savior. If the Bible fails to lead us to Christ, then it cannot help us, since Christ alone can save us. Thus, Christ is not only the subject permeating Scripture and the purpose behind Scripture’s penning, but he is also the object to whom the Scripture points.

The problem with many Christians today is that they become infatuated with Scripture’s pointing fingers; that is, with Scripture’s myriad types, shadows and symbols of Christ. By doing so, they fail, as did the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, to turn their attention away from the shadows—types of Christ—to the substance—Christ Himself. As the Pharisees’ over concern with the ceremonial law caused them to overlook the One it pictured, many evangelicals today are overlooking Christ because of their over concern with Middle Eastern real estate, rebuilt temples, and rediscovered arks of the covenant. It’s not that the Pharisees should have been unconcerned with the schoolmaster and signpost of the law; it’s just that they should have been more concerned with the One whose coming the law was meant to prepare them for and point them to. Likewise, today’s Christians should not be unconcerned about Middle Eastern Jewish real estate, but just far more concerned about the eternal state of all the people of our world.

In the August edition of The Berean Call, Dave Hunt went so far as to suggest that Christ “is coming in power and glory to punish the world for its abuse of His people Israel…” Such an over the top statement of Israel’s inflated importance in the divine program could lead one to believe that their eternal destiny hinges upon their treatment of Jewish people, not upon their acceptance of Jesus Christ. While anti-Semitism, like all other forms of racism and fascism, is inexcusable, it is not the reason for God’s impending judgment upon our world. Rather, it is this world’s rejection of God’s unspeakable gift, His Son Jesus Christ, which has put our world in the crosshairs of divine retribution.

For years now premillennial dispensationalists have been trying to work the prophetic puzzle by forcing pieces into place. Although it has much to offer, this school of eschatology, like all of the others, has failed to work the prophetic puzzle. As a result, many are beginning to abandon the premillennial dispensationalist's camp in order to go back to the drawing board and rethink their end time convictions.

Apparently, some premillennial dispensationalists, like Dave Hunt, are panicking at the prospect of so large an exodus from what has been for so long a forgone conclusion in conservative Christian circles. Thus, like Charismatics who insinuate that the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is committed by everyone who disagrees with them about the baptism of the Holy Ghost as evidenced by speaking in tongues, some premillennialist dispensationlists are now threatening others with divine retribution for disagreeing with them over the supremacy of the Jews and the boundaries of national Israel.