Acts 1:6 and the restoration of the kingdom to Israel

[Guest]

This email from a Jewish believer living in Israel came to me yesterday. His question is one commonly asked so I thought I would post it with my answer.

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You say on one tape that nowhere does the NT allude to a restored kingdom in israel. How about Acts 1:6, when the disciples ask Jesus if He now will restore the kingdom to Israel. David Pawson, from England, says this clearly implies that there will be such a carnal restoration, and Jesus did not answer that the question was ridiculous, but merely that they could not know God's timing. i would appreciate your feedback on this.
Michael


Hi Michael,
With regard to the disciples' question in Acts 1:6, this is, of course, frequently raised as a proof of a future kingdom to be restored to Israel in the Millennium. However, I would make the following observations—

1. This statement is not an affirmation of Christ, nor of the apostles after Pentecost. It was merely a question reflecting their current understanding at the time. It is true that Jesus did not bother to correct their notion (a fact that leads many to assume He agreed with it), but I see His evasion of the topic consistent with His comment, which He made a few weeks earlier to them in the upper room: "I still have many things to say to you, but you can not bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth" (John 16:12-13).

The truth of the kingodm of God being restored to an Israel that was not strictly ethnically Jewish was, I think, something that the disciples could not "bear" at the time they asked the question. In fact, much later, when Peter visited the house of Cornelius, the brethren in Jerusalem were scandalized that he would visit a Gentile (Acts 11:2-3). Peter himself had to be persuaded by visions to even consider talking to Cornelius. The "mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men...that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs" (Eph.3:4-6) was slow in dawning upon them, and not quickly embraced—even after they had the Holy Spirit. How much less would they have grasped the concept prior to Christ's ascension.

2. It is true that Jesus only mentioned the "timing" and not the "method" of His restoring the kingdom to Israel, but that may be due to His matching the answer to their actual question. They asked about timing, and He answered with reference to timing. Had they asked about "how" He would restore the kingdom to Israel, He might well have said, "It is not for you to know (at this time) the methods by which God will fulfill His promises." Since the disciples did not ask that question, it is mere speculation what answer Jesus may have given, but this would have been an answer in keeping with the New Testament theology.

3. The disciples were not wrong in thinking that Jesus would restore the kingdom to Israel. They simply did not know what manner of "kingdom" was to be restored to what manner of "Israel"—and they were not yet prepared to know. That the kingdom, rather than being political, would consist of "righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom.14:17); that it would "not come with observation" (Luke 17:20); that it could not be experienced without a spiritual rebirth (John 3:3, 5); and that the "Israel" that would receive this kingdom would not be natural Israel, but rather "a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matthew 21:43), of whom "not all [natural] Israel" would be a part (Rom.9:6), were not concepts that the disciples,up to that time, had thoroughly processed.

As for the "times and the seasons" in which Christ would fulfill this vision, it would be fair to say that it occurred at Pentecost (to which Christ alludes in His answer to them (Acts 1:7-8). But that same answer speaks of a process (just as the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven, and Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the "stone" do). The kingdom came and continued to come, first, to Jerusalem, then Judea and Samaria, and ultimately to the uttermost parts of the earth. When will "all Israel be saved" and "the kingdoms of the world become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ"? Well, even we don't know that. So Jesus' response to them would be as appropriate to us today.

In any case, I don't believe that Jesus affirmed the millennial beliefs of His pre-pentecostal disciples.