Christian Zionism - New Life Tabernacle of Chattanooga

false prophet), having formed an unholy alliance with the Roman Church (the
Antichrist), would be destroyed followed by ‘the calling of the Jews to be a
Christian nation’, leading to ‘a most happy tranquillity from thence to the end
of the world.’ 107 His commentary on Daniel 11-12, first published in 1614, was
subtitled, ‘The restoring of the Jewes and their callinge to the faith of Christ
after the utter overthrow of their three enemies is set forth in livelie colours.’ 108
Brightman was also convinced that ‘the rebirth of a Christian Israelite nation’
would become ‘the centre of a Christian world’. 109 Brightman’s preaching and
writings attracted considerable attention and his views were influential even in
English government circles. In 1621, for example, Sir Henry Finch, an
eminent lawyer and member of Parliament, developed Brightman’s views
further, publishing a book entitled, The World’s Great Restauration (sic) or
Calling of the Jews, (and with them) all the Nations and Kingdoms of the
Earth, to the Faith of Christ. In it he argued:
‘Where Israel, Judah, Zion and Jerusalem are named [in the Bible] the
Holy Ghost meant not the spiritual Israel, or the Church of God
collected of the Gentiles or of the Jews and Gentiles both ... but Israel
properly descended out of Jacob’s loynes. The same judgement is to
be made of their returning to their land and ancient seats, the conquest
of their foes ... The glorious church they shall erect in the land itself of
Judah ... These and such like are not allegories, set forth in terrene
similitudes or deliverance through Christ (whereof those were types
and figures), but meant really and literally the Jews.’ 110
Other Reformers such as Richard Sibbes, Samuel Rutherford and John
Owen, also postmillennialists, were equally convinced that one day the Jews
would be brought to faith in Jesus Christ and become part of the Church, for
which they prayed earnestly. 111 This belief in the conversion of the Jews was
so universally embraced that it was written into the Westminster Larger
Confession and Congregationalist ‘Savoy Declaration’ of 1658. The latter
affirmed:
and Joseph Mede,” Bulletin of the Evangelical Theological Society, Vol. XI (1968), 181-193.
107
Edward E. Hindson, ‘Medieval and Reformation Backgrounds of Dispensationalism’
The Conservative Theological Society (2001), http://www.conservativeonline.org
108
The English translation was published in 1644.
109 Toon, op.cit., pp30-31.
110 Mayir Verete, ‘The Restoration of the Jews in English Protestant Thought, 1790-1840’,
Middle Eastern Studies, 8, p14. See also Wagner, op.cit., p87.
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