Why Everyone Is Talking About Israel

“Why Everyone Is Talking About Israel”

For many years the debate about Israel in the headlines has been shaped by a single popular belief. Premillennialism held the dominant position in American Christianity, teaching that ethnic Israel would one day accept Christ in the last days and therefore Christians must support the modern nation of Israel at all costs. This view became so widespread that many never questioned it. But that long held position is now being challenged. More and more believers are re-examining Scripture and discovering that what the Bible actually teaches about Israel is very different from what they were told. And the evidence is clear once you look closely. Let me explain.

A major part of premillennial teaching is the claim that the Jews will eventually rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem and reinstate animal sacrifices. According to this view, the sacrificial system of Moses will be restored in the last days, functioning alongside Christ’s reign. But a growing number of believers, especially in this generation are re-evaluating that idea and finding it impossible to reconcile with the New Testament.

The reason is simple: Scripture teaches that Jesus’ sacrifice ended the entire sacrificial system once for all.

Hebrews says that the old covenant is “obsolete,” that the sacrifices can never take away sins, and that Christ offered “one sacrifice for sins forever.” The veil of the Temple tore from top to bottom, declaring the end of the old order. To believe that God desires a return to animal sacrifices is to suggest that the once for all blood of the Messiah is not enough. Even worse, Ezekiel’s temple often used by premillennialists, is filled with sacrifices for sin, which directly contradicts the New Testament’s teaching. A restored Temple with restored animal offerings would deny the sufficiency of the cross. For this reason, many believers now recognize that the rebuilt-temple doctrine is not merely unlikely, it is unbiblical. The cross cannot coexist with the old covenant sacrificial system; it fulfilled and replaced it.

And this ties directly into the broader issue. Judaism today is not the same Judaism that existed in the days of Jesus. In Jesus’ time the faith of Israel centered on the Temple, the priests, the sacrifices, and the written Scriptures. Worship revolved around the altar God commanded. The priests offered sacrifices morning and evening. The people went to Jerusalem for the feasts God appointed. The Law of Moses was the foundation, and the Pharisees added their oral traditions on top of it. This is the Judaism Jesus confronted and corrected.

But everything changed in AD 70 when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and burned the Temple to the ground. From that moment forward, biblical Judaism as established by God through Moses could no longer exist. The sacrificial system stopped forever. The priesthood ended. The altar and holy place were gone. The Sadducees disappeared. The Temple was never rebuilt. The entire structure God commanded in the Law was gone. With the destruction of the Temple came the end of Second Temple Judaism, the very Judaism Jesus lived among. What followed was something entirely new.

The Pharisees were the only group able to survive without the Temple, and they completely rebuilt Judaism in a new direction. Since they no longer had sacrifices, they replaced them with prayers. With no priests, they elevated rabbis. With no altar, they shifted focus to the synagogue. They gathered their oral traditions and created a new authority alongside Scripture. These traditions were written down around AD 200 in the Mishnah. Then the rabbis debated and expanded these traditions for centuries, producing the Gemara. Together these became the Talmud around AD 500. This new system, Rabbinic Judaism, is the foundation of modern Judaism. But it is not the same faith that existed in the days of Moses or Jesus. It is a post Temple religion built on tradition rather than the sacrificial system God commanded.

In simple terms, the Judaism of the Bible ended in AD 70.

This leads to the vital question behind today’s debate: If biblical Judaism ended, who now carries forward the identity of the true people of God?

The New Testament answers this clearly. The followers of Jesus are the continuation of Israel’s faithful remnant. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and prophets. His first followers were Jews. The early ekklesia was Jewish at its core. They did not believe they were forming a new religion. They believed they were receiving the promises given to Abraham, fulfilled in the Messiah.

Paul teaches that believers in the Messiah are the true circumcision, the true children of Abraham, and the true Israel of God. Gentiles who believe are grafted into the same olive tree. Ethnic lineage alone never guaranteed covenant standing; faith always did.

Modern Rabbinic Judaism, built centuries later, is not the same Judaism Jesus knew. The biblical system ended with the Temple. The people who hold the covenant, promises, and identity of Israel today are those who belong to the Messiah. In this sense, believers are the Jews spiritually,the Israel of God, the heirs of Abraham, the faithful remnant, and the true continuation of what God began.