Reformed books about Jewish return to Israel in 1948

[moral necessity]

I was looking for recommendations for reformed books that talk about prophecy in regard to the Jewish return to Israel and eventual establishment of the Jewish state in 1948. I am nearly finished reading "The Judgment and Destruction of Jerusalem" by Patton/Holford that I got from Reformation Heritage. Both were written in the 1800s, and I'd like to see a perspective from the 1900s after the re-establishment of Jews in their homeland. Any ideas?

Thanks and blessings,

 

[83r17h]

The Israel of God, by O. Palmer Robertson.

 

[Jerusalem Blade]

I don't have Robertson's book here in Cyprus, though I think I remember it as not holding present political Israel as the Israel of the Bible, but rather the Israel of God is the multinational nation of all those who bow the knee to the Saviour of the world, our Lord Jesus (I could be wrong; as I said, I don't have the book with me).

Here is a booklet (60 pages) I wrote, A Poet Arises In Israel, which touches on the topic (in PDF):

 

[loomster2000]

I haven't read either of these books, but from their titles, they may address the topic you are seeking to read about.

Hal Lindsey and the Restoration of the Jews - Steve Schlissel and David Brown
The Restoration of Israel - Errol Hulse

 

[moral necessity]

Thanks, everybody, for the information!
If you think of any others, please add them to the thread at your convenience.

So, I'm gathering that Robertson (and others) see the return of the Jews in 1948 as insignificant...Christians are the "Israel" of God.
Both Jews and Gentiles come to Christ through the Church, obviously, and not via a reconstruction of their State or Temple.

So, would they view the "partial hardening of the Jews" Paul mentions as still occurring?

Blessings!

 

[Pilgrim]

Hulse is the main one I can think of. He does see it as being significant. The first edition of the book was written around the time of the Six Day War in 1967. He was a postmil who believed in the restoration of the Jews. That's a definite rarity today but it wasn't that rare back in the 1800s. The Schlissel/Brown volume is from a similar point of view. Schlissel has an introductory essay (the book was somewhat deceptively packaged so as to perhaps fool people into thinking that it was by Hal Lindsey, who had just published "The Road to Holocaust" aimed at reconstructionism) but most of the book is by David Brown and is from the 1800s. He is the Brown of the Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown commentary. In addition to his book on the restoration of the Jews (which is available on Google Books, Internet Archive, etc.) he also wrote a book against premil.

Another writer who is broadly Reformed is the Anglican Gerald McDermott. Within the past decade he has published a couple of books on the subject, "Israel Matters" and "The New Christian Zionism." I'm not a fan of the "New Christian Zionism" title because his whole point is that it isn't new. I don't know if maybe that was forced on him by the publisher. I guess it is "new" in the sense that it is sort of a coalition of Zionists that isn't limited to dispensationalism. "The New Christian Zionism" is more of an academic work that has essays from multiple contributors. "Israel Matters" is more of a popular level follow-up.

 

[arapahoepark]

Another writer who is broadly Reformed is the Anglican Gerald McDermott. Within the past decade he has published a couple of books on the subject, "Israel Matters" and "The New Christian Zionism." I'm not a fan of the "New Christian Zionism" title because his whole point is that it isn't new. I don't know if maybe that was forced on him by the publisher. I guess it is "new" in the sense that it is sort of a coalition of Zionists that isn't limited to dispensationalism. "The New Christian Zionism" is more of an academic work that has essays from multiple contributors. "Israel Matters" is more of a popular level follow-up.

Interesting! When researching his edited work on race I came across that and immediately thought 'dispensationalist!' So good to know its not.

 

[Pilgrim]

Thanks, everybody, for the information!
If you think of any others, please add them to the thread at your convenience.

So, I'm gathering that Robertson (and others) see the return of the Jews in 1948 as insignificant...Christians are the "Israel" of God.
Both Jews and Gentiles come to Christ through the Church, obviously, and not via a reconstruction of their State or Temple.

So, would they view the "partial hardening of the Jews" Paul mentions as still occurring?

Blessings!

There are basically 3 views:

1) There is no such thing as a Jew today, or if there is there is no prophetic significance whatsoever and there won't be any great ingathering in the "end times." (This view would appear to contradict the Westminster Standards, which says "The Jews Called" is one event preceding the Second Coming.)

2) There will be a great "end time" conversion of the Jews but the Promised Land is of no prophetic significance

3) The Jews are to be converted and restored to the Promised Land.

 

[Pilgrim]

Few who are familiar with Lloyd-Jones will be surprised to learn that he had no interest in social or political crusades. But a reason he gave near the end of his life is surprising coming from a contemporary amillennialist:

Nonetheless, it is overly simplistic to lay fundamentalist sociopolitical isolation at the feet of dispensationalist eschatology. For example, in 1980, Carl Henry interviewed D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the renowned Calvinist pastor of London’s Westminster Chapel, for Christianity Today. Lloyd-Jones dismissed Henry’s inquiry about a distinctively Christian response to the economic situation. “Because man is a sinner, any human contrivance is doomed to fail; the only hope for the world is the return of Christ—nothing else,” Lloyd-Jones responded. “It amazes me that evangelicals have suddenly taken such an interest in politics; to do so would have made sense 50 or 60 years ago, but such efforts now seem to me sheer folly for we are in a dissolving world.” Lloyd-Jones went on to offer a particularly eschatological reason for his political dis-engagement: “All my life I’ve opposed setting ‘times and seasons,’ but I feel increasingly that we may be in the last times.” This was based, Lloyd-Jones explained, on his belief that the Jewish occupation of the whole of Jerusalem since 1967 was a fulfillment of Luke 21:24, which speaks of Jerusalem under siege “until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” He joined this observation with his belief that the conversion of the Jewish people as prophesied in Romans 11 was taking place in contemporary Israel. There was, he concluded, “nothing but collapse” for Western civilization.

Moore, Russell. The Kingdom of Christ (p. 68). Crossway. Kindle Edition.