Book Review: Future Israel

Horner, Barry E. Future Israel: Why Christian Anti-Judaism Must Be Challenged. NAC Studies in Bible & Theology. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2007. Jacketed Hardcover, xxii + 394 pages. $19.99.

(Review copies courtesy of B&H Academic.)
Purchase: B&H | Amazon | CBD

ISBNs: 0805446273 / 9780805446272

Note: This is volume 3 in the NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY STUDIES IN BIBLE AND THEOLOGY.

Features: Footnotes; 5 Appendices including an Annotated Bibliography of Jewish-Christian Relations in Church History; Author, Subject, and Scripture Indexes

LCCN: BM535 .H68 DCN: 261.26

Subjects: Eschatology, Judaism, Christianity, Biblical Theology

Barry E. Horner (D.Min., Westminster Theological Seminary, California; M.Div., Western Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary) is pastor of Christ’s New Covenant Church in Sahuarita, Arizona. He has also written several works on the writings of the seventeenth-century Puritan, John Bunyan (see www.bunyanministries.org).

In one of my former churches, I remember my pastor warning us about the dangers of non-dispensational approaches to the Bible, especially those systems that taught that the church had replaced Israel as God’s chosen people. There were great dangers if we didn’t keep Israel and the church separate or if we spiritualized Old Testament promises to Israel and applied them to the church. I understood hermeneutically why it was proper to take that position. I was a dispensationalist and agreed with him, but he never really elaborated on those dangers or where a contrary hermeneutic might lead.

In his book, Future Israel, Barry Horner makes the case for God’s continued faithfulness to His covenant people Israel, that all the Old Testament promises based on the Abrahamic covenant will yet be literally fulfilled. He also identifies the real dangers, often realized repeatedly in history, that often occur when replacement theology (i.e., the church replaces Israel in the New Testament economy) rules the thinking of the day.

Horner commences by contrasting two theological positions. On one hand, he presents the supercessionist* view of Augustine and Calvin in which the New Testament church supersedes Israel and all the Old Testament promises to Israel evolve into spiritually fulfilled promises to the church. Horner identifies Augustine’s position regarding Israel as both foundational for all those who would eventually hold a supercessionist view and influential in promoting an anti-Judaic mindset among those same people. By using terminology such as “Jews … deservedly reprobated for its perfidy” and interpreting Psalm 59:11 to say “make them [the Jews] homeless wanderers” he promoted a non-Pauline (Rom. 9:3) hostility towards the Jewish people. On the other hand you have the perspective of Horatius Bonar and C. H. Spurgeon. These men saw a future hope for the Jew and an eventual recovery of both their promised land and their relationship to the Lord. This theological position fostered a love and respect for the Jewish people that produced an authentic passion to see them evangelized.

With these two positions staked out, Horner begins his repudiation of the supercessionist position and his confrontation of the anti-Judaism, if not outright anti-Semitism, that such a position so often generates. For those who hold the contrary viewpoint, Horner’s strategy is probably not going to motivate them to give him the hearing that he deserves. Instead of beginning with an exposition of the relevant passages and nailing down his position scripturally, he instead assumes the correctness of his view and attempts to invalidate his opponents view by showing the bad fruit of such a theological position. He says that good doctrine produces good fruit not bad fruit, and bad doctrine produces bad fruit (Matt 7:17-20). Consequently the historic outworking of supercessionist cannot be neglected. The overwhelming testimony which follows will inevitably lead to questioning of the viability of the underlying eschatology. In a real sense, history is the proving ground of revealed truth” (p. 16). Those who disagree with Horner will likely find this approach offensive.

Nevertheless, with that in mind, Horner proceeds to work his way through history, detailing along the way the bad fruit of Augustinian supercessionist eschatology. He ends his historical journey with Hitler and the failings of the German churches that for the most part did nothing to stop the horrific slaughter of the Jews. In my mind, this is the weakest part of the book. While I am prepared to acknowledge that some people would indeed use a theological system to justify in their minds the mistreatment of the Jews, I do not think it is fair to saddle Augustine and all those who would follow after with an incipient anti-Judaism that is just waiting to manifest itself in the horrors of Nazi anti-Semitism. That is going too far and hurts Horner’s case, in my opinion.

Now to be fair to Horner, he does document some rather unsavory writings from theologians past and present that are fairly hostile to the Jewish people. I’m not going to take the time to list every instance, but he cites Chrysostom, who wrote eight Homilies Against the Jews, Luther’s last sermon in which he urges all Jews to be expelled from Germany, and Albertus Pieters, professor at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, who proclaimed, “Is it not monstrous to hold that by reason of this wickedness the said undesirable group are now heirs to the many exceedingly precious promises of God!” So he does have a point to make, even if he overstates his case by regarding any argument for a supercessionist position as fundamentally anti-Judaic.

The bulk of his book consists of historical and contemporary examples of said anti-Judaism. Horner examines the writings of people such as Loraine Buettner, O. Palmer Robertson, Colin Chapman, Stephen Sizer, Patrick Fairbairn, Kim Riddlebarger, and George Ladd. He also refutes their key arguments. In so doing he brings up several important objections along the way.

First, one common error that these people make is that portions of the Abrahamic covenant, in particular the promise of the land, were done away with by the coming of Christ in the same way that the symbolic elements of the Mosaic Law became obsolete. In other words, the promise of the land to Abraham was just a shadow of the real promise to the New Testament church. Horner rightly shows, however, that the Mosaic Law had a built-in obsolescence while the Abrahamic covenant was an unconditional, eternal covenant reemphasized over and over again throughout the Old Testament. Paul specifically says in Galatians 3:17 that the Law did not revoke the Abrahamic covenant. Thus, while the New Covenant does supplant the Old, that supplanting does not affect the promises of the Abrahamic covenant.

Second, while the Mosaic Law ties possession of the land to obedience and loss of the land to disobedience, the weight of Old Testament prophecy indicates that disobedient Israel will one day be restored to their land and a right relationship with God (cf., Deut. 4:28-31; Isa. 62:1-5, among others).

Third is the idea that future unity among God’s people precludes ethnic diversity. Even though all believers are one in Christ and there is neither Jew nor Greek (Gal. 3:28) that does not mean that God has eradicated those ethnicities. If that were true, then God would also have to eliminate the category of male and female. Instead it means that those social distinctions no longer prevent fellowship as they once did. All believers have the same standing before God in Christ and gain that standing in the same way. Peter says in Acts 15:11 that Jews are saved by grace in the same way that Gentiles are saved by grace. Gentiles do not have to become Jews to be saved, and Jews do not have to become Gentiles. They retain their ethnicity and will do so in eternity (Rev 5:9).

The real meat of the book finally comes in the last several chapters. It is in these sections that Horner deals with (1) the prophecy of the land in the Old Testament and the “NT indications that the land of Israel has retained its validity during the Church age, particularly because ‘the gifts [emphasis added] and calling of God are irrevocable’ (Rom 11:29)” (p. 229). Here again he interacts quite effectively with several supercessionist arguments against his position. (2) The interpretation of Romans 11 and the implication that Israel has not been ultimately and finally rejected by God. In this section he also explains several passages that opponents sometimes use to support supercessionism, namely Galatians 6:16 (“Israel of God”), Ephesians 2:11-22 (“one new man”), Philippians 3:2-3 (“we are the circumcision”), and 1 Peter 2:9-10 (“you are a chosen race … now you are God’s people”). (3) A detailed look at Romans 11:28, where Paul depicts Israel as God’s beloved enemy. The point here—and probably the clincher to Horner’s entire argument—is that unsaved Jews who are currently the enemy of God are still beloved because of the promises made to their forefathers. Thus unbelieving Jews in the church age are still objects of God’s covenant love and therefore should still expect the promises made to their forefathers to be fulfilled. (4) A plea for Gentile love toward the Jew that mimics Paul’s obvious affection for his people (Rom 9:3) in the interest of effective Jewish evangelism. It is in these chapters that Horner is most persuasive.

In 2002, a group of reformed evangelicals released an Open Letter to Evangelicals and Other Interested Parties regarding the U.S. support of the State of Israel by the popular evangelical community. This letter, which Horner deals with in his book, says that any support of modern-day Israel based on biblical principles regarding God’s promises to Abraham are misguided and wrong. I remember reading this document when it first came out and wondering if there really was any legitimate biblical basis for supporting an Israeli state made up of unbelieving, rebellious Jews. While the political situation in the Middle East is certainly complex, and we really don’t know how close we are to the eschatological events prophesied in the Scriptures, Horner’s book makes a strong case that we should regard these dear people as a nation that still has a special future in the plan of God.

Note:
*This is the spelling Horner uses throughout his book. It is an alternate spelling; the more common spelling being supersession, -ist, -ism.

Andy Efting attends Grace Baptist Church (Dacula, GA) where he serves as deacon, treasurer, and Adult Sunday school teacher. He has degrees in Mathematics from Bob Jones University (Greenville, SC) and Clemson University (Clemson, SC) and currently works for Emory University (Atlanta, GA) as a Network Security Analyst. He is married to Daphne and has three wonderful children—JD, Jennifer, and Anna Grace.

Related Reviews:

• Hamilton, James M., Jr. God’s Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old & New Testaments. NAC Studies in Bible & Theology. (B&H Academic, 2006).
• Thomas R. Schreiner and Shawn D. Wright, eds. Believer’s Baptism: Sign of the New Covenant in Christ. NAC Studies in Bible & Theology. (B&H Academic, 2006).

Click here to learn more about SharperIron book reviews.