Israel

The ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians continues to raise fundamental issues and many questions about the land itself. Does modern Israel have a legitimate 'right' to occupy the land in the same way as Israel of the Old Testament? Were the promises about possession of the land made to Abraham to be 'for ever', and if not what has changed? What is the significance of the declaration of the State of Israel in 1948, and does Palestine remain 'a land without a people waiting for a people without a land', as some claim? This book will not answer fully all of these questions in the complex tangle surrounding the present conflict, but it sets out some major elements of biblical teaching about claims to this small territory in the Middle East. These claims continue to arouse passionate feelings and feed long held tensions within the whole region with tragic results for all concerned. It is argued here that the issue of the land cannot be seen in isolation, and needs to be viewed within the wider context of the teaching of the Bible as it relates to prophecies about Israel, and New Testament teaching about the 'last things'. Other issues considered relate to the current debate as to whether the Church replaces Israel in God's purposes, Dispensationalism, Christian Zionism, and the sensitive question - who is a Jew? The author also stresses the primary place and significance of the New Covenant, with the centrality of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of all the Old Testament promises made to Israel as the key to understanding the 'land problem' today.