Piper pipes up on Israel as a covenant-breaking nation 5

21 Jun 2012   | Uncategorized

John Piper (theologian)

John Piper says this:

Today, Israel as a nation is a covenant-breaking people—they are rejecting their Messiah, Jesus. In this condition of unbelief and disobedience, she has no “divine right” to the Land of Promise.

Please understand that he says this in the context of supporting the Jewish people as God’s special people and backing their right to defend themselves against terrorism. This, however, is the first time I’ve come across this particular line of thinking.

He precedes the above statement with

Thus, when Israel broke her covenant in protracted disobedience, God, after much mercy, brought judgments on her, including eviction from the Promised Land. “The king of Assyria carried the Israelites … because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God but transgressed his covenant” (2 Kings 18:11–12). “Because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey his voice, this thing has come upon you” (Jer. 40:3; cf. Deut. 28:45; Ps. 78:56–61).

Is “Israel as a nation” (it’s not clear whether he’s talking about the secular nation of Israel or the people of Israel known today as the Jewish people) breaking a covenant by rejecting Messiah? Yes, they may be sinning by rejecting Him, but is that covenant breaking and, if so, which covenant? And does that negate their “divine right” to the Land as a result? Or was that only the punishment for their earlier transgressions in the Scripture cited?

Or is this just another twist on “Some of my best friends are Jews” supercessionism?

What do you think?

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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  • http://www.manantialabierto.org José Luis Saldaña García

    Fortunately God is not a covenant breaker, as men are, He promised to Abraham that the land belonged to him and his descendants FOREVER. I guess that when we consider if we actually deserve anything, we would not have anything. But God does not go back on His word! Israel has ALL the right to the land, whether they behaved or not, God says so!

  • Seth

    I these comments of Piper’s are key:

    “Moreover, I also believe the promise of the Land to this redeemed ethnic Israel is both conditional and irrevocable. Irrevocable means they will finally have it as a special dwelling place when the Deliverer comes from Zion and banishes ungodliness from Jacob (Rom. 11:26).

    The Land is part of God’s everlasting covenant with Israel. “He confirmed to Jacob as … an everlasting covenant, saying, ‘To you I will give the land of Canaan’” (Ps. 105:10–11). “All the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever” (Gen. 13:15). “I will give to you and to your offspring … the land of your sojournings … for an everlasting possession (Gen. 17:8).”

    Also, regarding the secular state…

    “In this condition of unbelief and disobedience, she has no “divine right” to the Land of Promise. This does not mean that other nations have the right to molest her. She still has human rights among nations. Nations that gloated over Israel’s divine discipline were punished by God (Isa. 10:5–13). ”

    In the end, I find nothing biblical objectionable with Piper’s views on the matter. He does not espouse supersessionism because he still maintains ethnic Israel’s future redemption as a people, complete with the inheritance of the Land, while also avoiding unbiblical dispensationalism that divides the people of God into separate periods and covenants.

  • http://dailyminyan.com Gene Shlomovich

    ““In this condition of unbelief and disobedience, she has no “divine right” to the Land of Promise.”

    It’s for G-d to determine what “divine rights” Israel has at any given moment, not for Piper, not for anyone else. Today, in spite of all odds, G-d, by his grace, has restored His People to their Land that He gave them. Only G-d could accomplish such a feat, to re-establish a nation straight out of the fires of the supersessinism-inspired Holocaust, a nation that survived onslaught after murderous onslaught of its enemies who breath her destruction. One has to be oblivious to ignore such a thing. Whether the Jewish people will retain the Land until Messiah comes or whether they once again be uprooted, it’s for G-d alone to determine. But the Land is theirs no matter whether they are in it or not.

    Piper is indeed a supersessinist in his views. He tries to moderate it with conciliatory talk of some future perfected Israel (as if G-d does not work with sinners), but he speak presumptuously for G-d.

  • http://dailyminyan.com Gene Shlomovich

    Elsewhere, Piper’s expressed views on Israel and Church is classic Supersessionism:

    “Jesus is the point in redemptive history where the true Israel becomes the church of Christ and the church (Jew and Gentile) emerges as the true Israel.”

  • Barry Miller

    From the moment the Light and the Furnace walked between the pieces of cut up animals for Abram in Genesis 15, Abram and the children of promise after him not only had the right but the Guarantee in blood covenant that the land was theirs.
    Since we know from Revelation 1 who the Light and Furnace was and we know its impossible for him to lie. I can’t think of a more sure divine right!