What, if any, was the significance to Christianity of the setting up of Israel in 1948? If there was no significance, why?
A lot of individuals (particularly premillennialists) teach that the setting up of the political state of Israel in 1948 was an important steppingstone in the restoration of the kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6). However, those who hold such a view fail to realize that the apostles said that very thing was being done in their day through their inspired preaching! The result of that work is the church (Acts 2:47)!
Notice this prophecy from Isaiah. “And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). Does this seem familiar? “Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth” (Acts 13:46-47).
[Editor’s Note: There are innumerable references in both testaments of the Bible that identify the promised kingdom of God with the church of the New Testament (Isaiah 2:2-3; Joel 2:28-3:2; Acts 216-21; Daniel 2:31-45; Matthew 16:18-19; Colossians 1:13; Revelation 1:9; Ephesians 3:9-11; etc.). Brother Daniel Rogers above concisely and definitively addressed one of the prophecies and fulfillments regarding the eternal kingdom. Premillennialism is not in either testament of the Bible, but the eternal kingdom of God, otherwise identified as the church of the Bible, is prominent in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament. ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]
