Christian Zionism - New Life Tabernacle of Chattanooga

hunt them down on every mountain and every hill and from the crevices of the
rocks.’ Jewish people in the Diaspora are encouraged to return to Israel but
are also warned that if they delay, further persecution may come. 861 The
context of the verse, however, clearly indicates that Jeremiah is comparing an
impending return to the land with the Exodus from Egypt, not with two
previous returns. Furthermore both ‘fishermen’ and ‘hunters’, are terms used
to describe a conquering army. In the next verse Jeremiah explains why God
was going to send them. ‘My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden
from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. I will repay them double for
their wickedness and their sin because they have defiled my land.’ (Jeremiah
16:17). In this passage, therefore, the fishermen were not being sent to
rescue but to discipline. Only after Israel had repented of their previous sins in
the land was there any prospect of a return to it.
This arbitrary and futurist interpretation is one of several examples in
which dispensationalists mishandle biblical texts concerning the exile and
restoration in order to maintain their dispensational scheme. The prophets,
while warning of judgement and chastisement, also offered the promise of
return and this was fulfilled under Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah. However,
Scofield and Lindsey insist promises such as those made by Jeremiah and
Ezekiel refer to a third return thousands of years later on the premise that
certain messianic aspects have not yet been fulfilled literally and
completely. 862
Scofield also claims two passages in the New Testament speak of this
third return, Luke 1:30-33 and Acts 15:13-17. Scofield dwells on the latter in
which James simply quotes from Amos to show that Pentecost had been
predicted long ago, promising that Gentiles would also seek the Lord along
with Jews. ‘After this I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent. Its ruins I will
rebuild, and I will restore it, that the remnant of men may seek the Lord, and
all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things that
have been known for ages’ (Acts 15:16-18). For Scofield, ‘dispensationally,
this is the most important passage in the NT’, since he claims, ‘It gives the
861 http://www.exobus.org
862 Scofield, Scofield, op.cit., fn. 1, p795.
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