Having completed our study of the Book of Revelation, we’ll take the last few weeks of this year to address some of the most common questions about Revelation.

 

What is considered the biggest omission?

 

There is no mention of the restoration of Israel in this prophecy.

 

How could this be? Many believe this to be the most important sign of the end of the age. However, this not being mentioned in Revelation does not belittle its importance. A major fallacy about Revelation is that it is a revelation of the end of the age—it is a “revelation of Jesus Christ.” Just as John wrote in the beginning of it, these things would “shortly come to pass.” They began to come to pass almost immediately after he had the vision. It is an unfolding of history written in advance from the time that John received it, not just about the end times.

 

Still, Revelation does go to the end of this age and the beginning of the next. It seems that there would be some mention of such an important event. For it to be left out, there must be an important reason.

 

First, as expansive as the Revelation given to John is, it is not comprehensive. The most any know, see, or prophesy is “in part.” The stream of revelation shown was specifically a “revelation of Jesus Christ” and the unfolding anti-Christ system that would dominate much of “the times of the Gentiles” until Christ’s ultimate victory over it.

 

There are so many other biblical prophecies about the exile of the Jews from their Promised Land and then their restoration to it that there was no need to be redundant about this in Revelation. Even so, one would think there would at least be a mention of it, so we do want to understand why it was left out, but first let’s discuss how important Israel is in the prophecy of these times.

 

Restored Israel is one of the major signs marking the end of the age. Israel is a spiritual barometer of humanity and a prophetic clock. Restored Israel is also a basic piece of The Lord’s strategy for restoring the earth and mankind. The entire Bible, with the exception of just six chapters, is about restoration—the restoring of the earth and mankind from all the consequences of the fall. The only chapters in The Bible that are not about this are the first three and the last three. The first three lead up to the fall, and the last three conclude with the complete recovery from the fall. Understanding what has happened, what is yet to happen, and where we are now in this saga is crucial to understanding the times.

 

It would be difficult to impossible to understand some of the major purposes of God in this age without understanding Israel’s place in them because The Bible is full of prophecies about it. It all has to do with God’s heart for restoration, which He links repeatedly to His faithfulness to His promise of restoring Israel to their land. This is one reason why “replacement theology” is considered so harmful. Replacement theology basically applies all of the promises made to Israel to the church, thereby distracting from the basic message that Israel is in relation to the purposes of God.

 

Certainly, many of the promises made to Israel relate to the Jews according to flesh and also those who are according to The Spirit. The promise to Abraham that his seed would be as the sand of the seashore and the stars of heaven was not just about numbers. This was also a prophecy that he would have both earthly and heavenly—or spiritual—posterity. As the Apostle Paul, possibly the greatest theologian and teacher of the church age, explained in Galatians 3:6-9, 26-29:

 

    Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

    Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.

    The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU."

    So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer….

 

   For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

   For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

   There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

   And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise.

 

The New Covenant does not negate any of His former promises to Israel or the Jews according to the flesh, but it does expand some of them to those who are “Jews according to the Spirit.” There are some that are unique to each seed, the natural and the spiritual. Understanding the right distinctions can help us avoid many of the errors that  only cloud our understanding of the times. This has caused some to be arrogant toward those who are also the seed of Abraham, which is warned about very seriously in the Bible. For this reason, we will dig deeper into this in the remaining weeks before the end of this year.