The Restoration of Israel

One of the primary tenents of premillenialism is that Israel has yet to be restored. This means that they have yet to return to the land, that the 144,000 have yet to be assembled, and that the Wrath to Come has yet to happened.

If it can be established that Israel has already been restored, then this primary tenent is falsified.

Is Israel yet to be restored?

The prophets of Israel tied the restoration of Israel to the destruction of the old temple, the putting away of sin, the avengement of the martyrs and the saints and the restitution of all things!

Jesus said that he would deliver the Kingdom in the first century:

Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. (Matthew 24:34)

Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. (Matthew 16:28)

Once again, either Jesus' Work is completed, or He failed.

Identifying the Timing of the Restoration

Amos 9:14-15 is often referred to as being a future event. Let's look at the passage:

And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel , and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God. (Amos 9:14-15)

The context of the passage must me established. Verse 9:

For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

When did this happen? By 721BC, the House of Israel (the northern kingdom – not the “Jews”) was captured and scattered by the Assyrians. The account of this begins in 1 Kings 12. The vast majority of all Israelites were affected; even later in that year as the final pass by the Assyrians captured most of Benjamin and Judah; leaving only a shell of the southern House of Judah (the “treacherous sister remained.”)

This was also prophesied by Hosea (a prophet to the northern House of Israel) in Hosea Chapter 3:

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:

Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

Both Amos and Hosea made the same promise with regard to the fact that Yahweh would not, in the end, desert His covenant people:

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

The prophets were referring to the Diaspora (those Israelites from the old northern house who were divorced from their husband, Yahweh) who were to be later remarried to Him (John detailed this in his description of the marriage of the 144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel to God)

If the Savior has yet to return, then there has been no restoration of Israel from their diaspora. If there has been no restoration, then there has been no gathering of the elect, and Yahweh is not married yet to his bride, Israel . If there has been no consummation, then we are not yet his people!

The Restoration in Israel's Eschatology

The "time of the Gentiles" (Luke 21:24) is the period of time where the Gospel was preached to the Disapora. Paul proclaimed that the Gospel had been preached (thus, he was expecting the "end" to come.) Rome afterward turned on their province of Judea (after Herod's friend Antony fell out of favor) leaving the invading armies - consisting largely of racial kinsmen to the Jews - to gather for battle against the Holy City. It was, indeed, the region where the Diaspora became "not a people" that they would once again become a people:

Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel . And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. (Ezekiel 11:17-20)

It was those Israelites which had been scattered hundreds of years earlier, and had become “gentiles,” which were to return to their old land in their restoration. Zion was to be plowed (Jeremiah 26:18, Micah 3:12 ). It was the racial kinsman of the Jews who were to ride the plow:

And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods. (Hosea 10:11)

The Gospel was given first to the Jews (who plowed) but it was the nations where the House of Israel were scattered that were to ride! Mainstream Christianity has a very, very bad blind spot. They generally believe that the words “Jew” and “Israelite” are interchangeable. This can no more be than claiming all dogs are poodles because all poodles are dogs. In reality, the vast majority of Israelites were never called “Jews” and never considered themselves “Jewish.” They were, however, called “gentiles” and “heathen” by the Jews because they were uncircumcised and outside the people of promise (Hosea 1:9). However, they were also promised that – in the very place they were cast out – that they would be once again to be restored as a people to their God.

.In Romans 9, Paul even quotes Hosea – a prophet to the house of Israel , as well as Isaiah - to describe the people who were called during his time:

As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: (Romans 9:24-27)

It will not do to argue that the people to whom Paul was writing were non-Israelites, because Paul applied prophecies specific to Israel to his audience.

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. (Romans 8:29-33)

And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac … (Romans 9:10)

The Israelites who had become “not a people” were to, once again, be His people – and He would be their God. Though they had been cast out into hopelessness, without their God, Paul (who was an “apostle to the gentiles”) was revealing to them the answer to the great mystery!

The eschatology and soteriology of Israel, so mangled today by mainstream "prophecy experts", was all about the restoration of the two houses of Israel. Today, mainstream Christianity has completely missed what Paul was saying in Romans 8-12, and to whom he was addressing.

The Conclusion

The tribes of Israel has been restored. The fathers were longing for what we have now. Why do we continue to long for something which has already occurred – and must have occurred if Yahshua cannot fail?