# Restoring the Kingdom to Israel



## blhowes (Apr 7, 2013)

I was just wondering what your thoughts were about these verses.

Acts 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: 
Acts 1:6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 
Acts 1:7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.​
For a little over a month, Jesus spoke to the disciples about the kingdom of God. I'm curious, after being taught about the kingdom for 40 days, why they would ask him about restoring the Kingdom to Israel. If they were mistaken about the idea that the kingdom would be restored to Israel, wouldn't Jesus have just told them that it wasn't going to be restored to Israel. It sounds like in verse 7 that Jesus is saying it will happen, but it was not for the disciples to know when.


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## arapahoepark (Apr 7, 2013)

blhowes said:


> I was just wondering what your thoughts were about these verses.
> 
> Acts 1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
> Acts 1:6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
> ...



Remember this stands in contrast to Israel: Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, so in a sense he is dismissing their notion of restoring to just Israel whether or not that means all Israel or just the elect, I am not sure.


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## Branson (Apr 7, 2013)

I read the same verses the other day, and was pondering the same question. I read my Bible in the morning and then go back in the afternoon and read Matthew Henry concerning those chapters. This is what he said concerning Acts 1:6 -

, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Two ways this may be taken:—1. "Surely thou wilt not at all restore it to the present rulers of Israel, the chief priests and the elders, that put thee to death, and, to compass that design, tamely gave up the kingdom to Caesar, and owned themselves his subjects. What! Shall those that hate and persecute thee and us be trusted with power? This be far from thee.’’ Or rather,2. "Surely thou wilt now restore it to the Jewish nation, as far as it will submit to thee as their king.’’ Now two things were amiss in this question:—(1.) Their expectation of the thing itself. They thought Christ would restore the kingdom to Israel, that is, that he would make the nation of the Jews as great and considerable among the nations as it was in the days of David and Solomon, of Asa and Jehoshaphat; that, as Shiloh, he would restore the sceptre to Judah, and the lawgiver; whereas Christ came to set up his own kingdom, and that a kingdom of heaven, not to restore the kingdom to Israel, an earthly kingdom. See here, [1.] How apt even good men are to place the happiness of the church too much in external pomp and power; as if Israel could not be glorious unless the kingdom were restored to it, nor Christ’s disciples honoured unless they were peers of the realm; whereas we are told to expect the cross in this world, and to wait for the kingdom in the other world. [2.] How apt we are to retain what we have imbibed, and how hard it is to get over the prejudices of education. The disciples, having sucked in this notion with their milk that the Messiah was to be a temporal prince, were long before they could be brought to have any idea of his kingdom as spiritual. [3.] How naturally we are biassed in favour of our own people. They thought God would have no kingdom in the world unless it were restored to Israel; whereas the kingdoms of this world were to become his, in whom he would be glorified, whether Israel should sink or swim.


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## Contra_Mundum (Apr 7, 2013)

True understanding comes with the pouring of Holy Spirit.

The dawning came with the resurrection, the scales were falling from their eyes. But their questions reveals still the persistent power of the old way of thinking, a Jewish-centric notion of the new age; an earth-bound perception of the new kingdom that had was represented in the risen Lord, cosmic rather than national in scope. They still thought the old wineskin could contain the new, or rather their awareness of what concepts they held were old-order construction itself had to undergo reconfiguration.

That metamorphosis was what the outpouring of the Spirit accomplished.


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## jogri17 (Apr 7, 2013)

Jesus clearly said, " My kingdom is not of this world". This elimates any biblical form of dispensationalism.


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## Peairtach (Apr 7, 2013)

The whole Earth -including what was once the Holy Land (Zech. 2:12) - is, now, Christ's Kingdom, and is to be inherited, including what was once the Holy Land, by the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16), the Church.

The Israel of God (the Church) , always includes some Jews ("whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came", Rom. 9:5) whatever other nationalities may or may not be included in it (blindness has only happened to Israel _in part_, Rom 11:25)

So the Kingdom - including the original Land - will be restored again to Israel - including those of our Saviour's own Israelite people, although not in the way the disciples were speaking about; far more gloriously, in fact.

The return of converted and unconverted Jews to what was once the Holy Land in God's providence is part of God's outworking of the restoring of the Kingdom (the Earth) to Israel (converted Jews and Gentiles and their children).


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## blhowes (Apr 8, 2013)

Thank-you for your responses.


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