POSTED 01 JANUARY, 2004

Who Restores the Kingdom?

by J.K. McKee
editor@tnnonline.net

In recent days as the Two-House teaching of Judah and Israel/Ephraim coming together has made advances among Believers, the subject of scattered Ephraim’s return to the Land of Israel has received some discussion. It is good that this subject is receiving discussion, because there are significant Bible prophecies that speak of the return and repatriation of scattered Northern Kingdom Israelites to their native soil (Isaiah 11:12, 14; Jeremiah 3:18; Ezekiel 37:19, 24; Zechariah 10:7, 10). However, some of the handling of these prophecies and the subject of the return of Ephraim have been anything but good.

There have been some non-Jews, who believe themselves to be returning Northern Kingdom Israelites, who are trying to make inroads with the Jewish community in the Land of Israel. They claim to represent the House of Israel/Ephraim and are trying to open up a dialogue with Orthodox Jews. Some of them even claim to have been given a dialogue with members of the Israeli government to establish formal criteria for their return.

While this may be an intriguing phenomenon, there are serious theological issues that need to be explored regarding the return of the House of Israel/Ephraim to the Land of Israel. The return of the House of Israel/Ephraim to the Land of Israel will ultimately result in the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel and then the return of Yeshua the Messiah. Sadly, this emphasis has been lost among some who are advocating the establishment of an “Ephraimite element” of Israeli society. Specifically, the emphasis has been on what we are supposed to do, with little or no emphasis on the atoning work of Yeshua the Messiah, and His role as the true Leader of the people of Israel, and how we are to be led by the Holy Spirit. This has led to some denying Yeshua in an effort to gain an audience with the Orthodox Jewish community in Israel.

What is to be done about this problem? In this article we explore some of the issues at hand and address the critical issue of who restores the Kingdom.

The Time Was Not Then

Prior to Yeshua’s ascension into Heaven, His Disciples asked Him whether or not He was going to restore the Kingdom to Israel, defeat Israel’s enemies, and establish His Eternal Throne from Jerusalem. Yeshua answered their questions with telling them that then was not the appropriate time, but that they were to be His witnesses in the world, and accomplish His purposes:

“So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, ‘Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth’” (Acts 1:6-8).

Yeshua commanded His Disciples to go out into the world and to make new disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). This was to be accomplished by proclaiming the good news of salvation available in Him to the world, and then instructing those new disciples in the truths of the Scriptures. Yeshua tells us in Matthew 24:14, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” The end will not come until the good news of the Kingdom is proclaimed to the entire world. This is not only the message of personal salvation available in Yeshua the Messiah, but is also the message of the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel.

The most important message to be proclaimed to the world is that forgiveness from one sins and reconciliation with God is available in Yeshua the Messiah. Knowing that the restoration of the Kingdom was not going to occur in their day, the Disciples of Yeshua went out and proclaimed the gospel to others, saw many people come to faith, and established many congregations outside of the Land of Israel. By-and-large, this is what has been occurring in the days since the Messiah’s Ascension into Heaven.

The problem that has arisen in recent days in the Two-House Messianic community is that the emphasis has been placed more upon on the restoration of the Kingdom by a few, and less on the King. There has been no appropriate balance of personal salvation of the individual, and national salvation of all Israel. Because of this, and because many have failed to emphasize Yeshua’s Kingly role as the Head of Israel, it has been very easy for some to loose sight of the Messiah and perhaps later deny Him.

What the Prophecies Tell Us

What do the prophecies of the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel tell us? In the Ezekiel 37 prophecy of the two sticks, arguably the most important of all the prophetic references, we are told that it is the “Son of Man” (v. 16) who takes the stick of Judah and the stick of Joseph and joins them together. This is a direct reference to Yeshua the Messiah. When the two Kingdoms are reunited, we are told that “My servant David will be king over them” (v. 24). This is a direct reference to Yeshua the Messiah, who is of the kingly line of David (see the Messiah’s genealogy in Matthew 1). Only Yeshua and only He can restore the Kingdom to Israel. Any and all attempts to restore the Kingdom to Israel without the focus being Yeshua will fail.

There are, of course, a variety of critical prophecies regarding the end-time restoration of the Kingdom to Israel and the reintroduction of Northern Kingdom Israelites into the Middle East.

The Lord will gather the dispersed remnants of Israel from all over the world:

“And He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:12).

“In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance” (Jeremiah 3:18).

“Ephraim will be like a mighty man, and their heart will be glad as if from wine; indeed, their children will see it and be glad, their heart will rejoice in the Lord…I will bring them back from the land of Egypt and gather them from Assyria; and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon until no room can be found for them” (Zechariah 10:7, 10).

Both Northern and Southern Kingdom Israelites will expand Israel’s borders into the Gaza Strip, West Bank, and the country of Jordan:

“They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west; together they will plunder the sons of the east; they will possess Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon will be subject to them” (Isaiah 11:14).

“‘For behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.’ The Lord says, ‘I will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers and they shall possess it’” Jeremiah 30:3).

These are some of the basic prophecies that speak of the ingathering of the Northern Kingdom Israelites into the Land of Israel. These prophecies must be taken into consideration in any end-time scenario. However, it is notable that there has been very little action taken regarding the formal development of a Two-House prophecy scenario, or any kind of plausible eschatology for that matter, and as such there is much speculation going on regarding how these prophecies are supposed to occur.[1] Because of this, some have taken matters into their own hands and are trying to force the return of scattered Ephraim into the Land of Israel. These people are not allowing the Lord to work at His pace and instead believe themselves responsible for Ephraim’s return to the Land of Israel.

A New Twist on an Old Teaching

A devastating occurrence coupled with those who are trying to force the issue of the dispersed House of Israel/Ephraim’s repatriation to the Land of Israel is a teaching that Yeshua does not return before the 1,000 year Millennium. This is based on an errant reading of Hosea 1:11, which tells us “And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one leader, and they will go up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.” Critics of pre-millennialism, that is the belief that the Messiah returns before the 1,000-year Millennium, believe that this somehow indicates that the people of Israel will “elect” a leader. Many of them fail to examine the entire scope of what the Prophet Hosea is actually saying in this verse.

The people of Judah and Israel, after being assembled together, will “appoint for themselves one leader.” This does not mean any popular election of any kind. The Hebrew verb sim (~yf), appearing in the Qal stem (simple action, active voice) has a variety of meanings, including, “put, set, place” (CHALOT).[2] What happens when Israel is finally reunited is that all of regathered Israel will both formally recognize Yeshua as the rosh (var) or Leader of Israel. Some will have already recognized Him, and others will acknowledge Him for the first time. The blindness will finally be removed from the eyes of Judah because scattered Ephraim will have truly provoked him to jealousy (cf. Romans 11:13-15).

Israel does not convene a special assembly and then painstakingly choose a leader from among human men. Some actually believe that it is not Yeshua who is appointed King of Israel, but perhaps a resurrected King David, or a least a human being from the Davidic line. Thus, Yeshua will not return until the end of a 1,000-year period of Earthly kings from the Davidic line. Quite frankly, we could expect to hear rhetoric like this from those who deny the Messiahship of Yeshua, but not from those who are truly Believers and are eagerly anticipating His return.

But what about “going up” from the Land of Israel? This often goes unanswered, because it tells us what is involved when this Leader, who we believe is Yeshua, is formally recognized as the King of Israel. The Hebrew verb alah (hl[), translated as “ascend” in ATS, means “go up, ascend, climb” (BDB)[3] in the Qal stem. The translation of alah as anabaino (anabainw) in the Greek Septuagint, which means “to be in motion upward, go up, ascend” (BDAG).[4] This gives us a clue as to what is actually happening here. In Acts 1:11, the angels tell the Disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Yeshua, who has been taken up [analambanow, analambanw; a related verb] from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” In other words, just as Yeshua was taken up into the clouds, so will Judah and Ephraim, of regathered Israel, be taken up into the clouds when they recognize Yeshua as their Leader. We will meet Yeshua in the clouds and then return to Earth together as the Battle of Armageddon, or Jezreel, occurs:

“For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Messiah will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Revelation 20:6 tells us “Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Messiah and will reign with Him for a thousand years.” Those who participate in the first resurrection, that of the righteous, will reign with Yeshua the Messiah on Earth for 1,000 years.

Those who are advocating Two-House post-millennialism are doing so with very poor Scriptural support. It is almost as if they do not want Yeshua the Messiah to return. But perhaps what is most ironic is that the Two-House post-millennialists are making the argument that the pre-millennial perspective is a “Church teaching,” and thus it must be rejected. But Scripture should be the standard, not whether something is taught by mainstream Christianity.

First of all, realize that both the pre-tribulation rapture and post-tribulation rapture positions are pre-millennial. One advocates that Yeshua gathers the saints before the Tribulation period or Seventieth Week of Israel, and another advocates that He gathers the saints at the end of it. We advocate a post-tribulational return of Yeshua, but we are pre-millennial in that we believe He returns before the 1,000-year Millennium.

Secondly, post-millennialism, the belief that Yeshua returns after the 1,000-year Millennium, is not a new teaching and can very much be considered “Christian theology.” Millard J. Erickson comments in his book Contemporary Options in Eschatology, “One of the first to challenge [the pre-millennial] view was Tyconius (d. 390?), an African Donatist. He introduced an interpretation of Revelation 20 that in various forms (especially as modified by Augustine) dominated exegesis of that passage for approximately the next thirteen centuries….Augustine (345-430) popularized and promulgated Tyconius’s view…”[5] What is ironic, is that in rejecting modern pre-millennialism, a mostly Protestant teaching, Two-House post-millennialists have actually accepted a Catholic interpretation of Scripture that was popular for thirteen centuries, giving it their Two-House perspective. What they have actually done is forgotten Yeshua and have made the Millennial Kingdom and reunion of all Israel something that humankind can establish for God on Planet Earth, without any Divine help and certainly without the focus of the restoration being the Messiah’s return.

Establishing an “Ephraimite Halachah”

What is even more disturbing right now are moves to establish a comprehensive “Ephraimite Halachah” in relation to the return of scattered Ephraim to the Land of Israel, and then have that halachah forced on all non-Jews wanting to live in the State of Israel. First and foremost, the establishment of any “Ephraimite Halachah” is premature, without a comprehensive understanding of the end-time prophecies regarding the return of all Israel. The return of scattered Israel/Ephraim occurs in conjunction with other end-time prophecies like the rise of the antimessiah/antichrist, globalization or the founding of a world government, and the establishment of the mark of the beast economic system. Secondly, any dialogue with Orthodox Jews in the Land of Israel regarding the return of scattered Ephraim will be a mostly fruitless endeavor, as the Orthodox community in Israel today is a small minority and they do not determine immigration policy in the Israeli government.

But what of the “halachah,” specifically? From what we have heard, those trying to establish an “Ephraimite Halacha” are doing so with little or any input from non-Jewish Believers living outside the Land of Israel. A halachah determines how a person is to live his life and apply Torah in his daily affairs. Orthodox Jewish halachah is largely determined by the writings of the Mishnah and the Talmud. It is believed by some that returning Ephraim must have a halachah as well. But the problem that exists is that only a small few are developing the halachah for the larger body. And, this halachah includes many things that many non-Jewish Believers will find offensive or perhaps even opposed by Scripture. The biggest problem concerning this halachah is that Yeshua is not the focus of it. Yeshua the Messiah is not #1. The true motivation of the halachah is to get Ephraim into the Land—not proclaim the gospel or recognize Yeshua as the King of Israel. It will fail, and rightly so, because it demeans and cheapens who the Messiah is. We should be glad that this has not been received with great enthusiasm in the Two-House Messianic community at large.

The return of scattered Ephraim to the Land of Israel will be something that will have to occur in the Lord’s timing. It is not going to occur by some rogue individuals going over to Israel and having a dialogue with a few members of the Orthodox community. The return of Ephraim will have to be orchestrated by God moving upon the pragmatic politicians and secular Zionists whose primary concern is the preservation of the State of Israel. The floodgates to letting scattered Ephraim into the Land of Israel will only be opened when those who control immigration policy have a legitimate political reason to change things. The reason will have to be that Israel needs as many people as possible because they will be loosing the population war against its Arab neighbors. Then and only then will scattered Ephraim be able to return to the Land. Not before. Until then, those who may participate must spiritually prepare ourselves and mature—realizing that it will occur in conjunction with the end-time prophecies of the Tribulation.

Who Restores the Kingdom to Israel?

The question of Israel/Ephraim’s return to the Land of Israel is a question of who restores the Kingdom to Israel. Is it our job as human beings to restore the Kingdom to Israel? No, it is not. We have a job to play in the restoration process of the Kingdom of Israel, but ultimately it must be Yeshua the Messiah who performs the restoration and we must be sensitive to what the Holy Spirit would have us to do. If we take our eyes off Yeshua the Messiah, then Israel will not be Biblically restored.

There are some serious issues that the Two-House community is going to face in the coming years. The biggest issue is what we are going to do with Yeshua and whether or not we are going to remain loyal to Him or not. We must choose to keep Him as the primary focus of everything that we do. We have to be opposed to anything that demeans or cheapens His atoning work for us, and the present moves to establish an “Ephraimite Halachah” and make the restoration of the Kingdom a work of man rather than a work of God. We have a long ways to go, and there are some people who are doing more damage than good at the moment.

J.K. McKee (B.A., University of Oklahoma; M.A. Student, Asbury Theological Seminary) is the editor of TNN Online (www.tnnonline.net) and is a Messianic apologist. He is author of several books, including: The New Testament Validates Torah, Torah In the Balance, Volume I, and When Will the Messiah Return?. He has also written many articles on the Two Houses of Israel and Biblical theology, and is presently focusing on Messianic commentaries on various books of the Bible.

NOTES