Question: What will be the church’s role in restoring Israel during the End Times? | thebereancall.org

TBC Staff

Question: What will be the church’s role in restoring Israel during the End Times?

Response: I don’t believe that the church is going to somehow play an active role in the restoration of Israel. The disciples’ very question—“Lord wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”—suggests that He, rather than we, will do the job. This is the message also of Peter’s second sermon in Acts:3:19-26—“Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution….”

If He remains in heaven until it is time for the restoration, then it is clear that there will be no restoration of Israel’s place in this world until Christ comes back to do the job that only He can do. Such is the picture we have in Zechariah 12, when Christ returns to intervene at Armageddon, rescue Israel, and destroy those who were in the process of destroying her. Clearly that is when the restoration takes place, not before, and not by any effort of, or revival in, the church—but by Christ’s personal intervention of heaven, with us being alongside the armies of heaven (He comes with all His saints to take vengeance) in glorified bodies, to reign with Him under His direction and empowerment.

As for the restoration of the church to “first-century purity and power,” the Bible doesn’t hold out any hope for that but instead warns of worsening apostasy. Moreover, even if the church of today would be thus transformed, that would not suffice. We who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, compared with the vast numbers who have died in Christ and are now in His presence, will constitute but a small fraction of the complete church.