A well-informed follower of Jesus Christ and friend responded to a piece titled “Reclaiming Israel: Why the Next Generation Must Hear the Bible, Not the Commentators” by Dr Tim Orr on The Daily Declaration (November 21, 2025) and sent it to me for comment. Her razor-sharp analysis is perfect. Below I repost it (with her permission). But The Daily Declaration responded by removing my friend’s comments. Such is the gross lack of integrity of such an organisation which claims to be a Christian News site. More fake news.
Dear Dr Orr,
I would like to respond to your article. If I may, I will need to do so in a few ‘posts’.
• You are absolutely correct in your assertion of the necessity of, ‘Reclaiming Israel: Why the Next Generation Must Hear the Bible, Not the Commentators’!
However, most sadly, it is both yourself and those in agreement with you who ‘avoid the biblical texts themselves’, or at least, gravely misunderstand it.
It was Darby and Schofield, and now, people like yourself and your supporters who have, and are now engaged in the ‘rewriting of Israel’s narrative’ divorced from Scripture, Old and New Testaments, the words of Jesus, the writings of the Apostles and the Church Fathers.
• You wrote, ‘Christian children learn about Israel from commentators rather than from God’s Word’, and that, ‘to correct this, the Church must return to the biblical story God Himself has authored — a story in which Israel is not a footnote but a central thread’.
At this point, you fail to recognise that you and those with you have elevated Scofield’s own commentary in his footnotes over and ABOVE the actual Biblical text. For Scofield, the heart of the whole of the biblical message is Israel and ‘the glorious future for Israel under the reign of Christ’. (Preface to 1917 edition p.x. The New Scofield Reference Bible, Oxford University Press, London, 1967.) In fact, for students of Scofield, the MODERN political state called Israel has replaced CHRIST as central.
Yet, it is CHRIST that the Law and Prophets point to: The Lamb of God who ‘takes away the sin of the world’. (John 1: 29)
Not only is Christ the heart of the entire Biblical message, it is ALSO the promise of the Kingdom of God as Jesus declared: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and put your trust in the Gospel”. (Mark 1:15)
ISRAEL’S purpose was to bear and bring forth The Christ – The Messiah – and to point to HIM as Lord and God, to declare HIM to the nations.
It was NOT Christ’s purpose to extol Israel!
• This statement of yours is correct, ‘A sober reading of Scripture reveals that Israel is not a metaphor or an obsolete symbol, but a concrete people whose existence is tethered to God’s covenantal faithfulness’.
However, the Israel the Bible speaks of in the New Testament has NOTHING to do with genetics, or ancestry, nor adherence to religious rites with Judaic overtones or even habitation in a particular tract of desert-land bordering the Mediterranean Sea.
Rather, as the beloved Apostle John wrote, ‘He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to ALL who DID receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born NOT of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of GOD’. (John 1:11-13)
It is by The Spirit and water and by being born from above that one becomes a child of God whether one is called a Jew or not. (John 3:1-18)
• And so, to the issue you raise, namely, ‘the biblical meaning of Israel’, yes, it is helpful to turn to the Bible and not to commentaries.
Jesus was clear. Israel broke her marriage Covenant with God time and again. God was long suffering, receiving the harlot back to Himself over and over. Finally, when confronted by Jesus with the parable of the ‘Wicked Tenant Farmers’, the chief priests and elders who rejected Him, declared their own doom and just end: “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers“. (Matthew 21:33-46)
At NO time is it recorded in Scripture, that Jesus claimed that the Mosaic people of Israel would remain in the land or continue to be stewards of God’s Kingdom. It would be given to others!
Jesus was clear, that shortly, soon and during the lifetime of THAT generation he addressed on earth, Jerusalem would be sacked and the then current ‘Heaven and earth’ or the Mosaic ‘order of things’ would be removed – the Temple, the priesthood and the Unbelieving Jews. (Matthew 23:13-39 and chapters 24 & 25)
John the Baptist was certainly to the point! Seeing the Pharisees and Sadducees, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? … and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you, that God is able to from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Matthew 3:7-12)
The Apostle Paul was blunt! ‘Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does NOT say, “AND TO SEEDS,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “AND TO YOUR SEED”, THAT IS, Christ.’ (Galatians 3:16) ‘And if you are Christ’s, then YOU are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.’ (Galatians 3:29)
Finally, Paul declares this: ‘For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the FLESH, and the son of the free woman through the PROMISE. This contains an allegory: for these women are two covenants, one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.
Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.
But the Jerusalem above is free; she is our mother. And you brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise.
But at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now.
But what does the Scripture say?
“CAST OUT THE BONDWOMAN AND HER SON, FOR THE SON OF THE BONDWOMAN SHALL NOT BE AN HEIR WITH THE SON OF THE FREE WOMAN”.’ (Galatians 4:22-31)
The Apostle Paul, a Pharisee educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strictness of ancestral Jewish law and an arch persecutor of Jesus was chosen by The Lord God to bear HIS Name before the Gentiles and kings AND the sons of Israel. (Acts 22:3, 23:6 and 9:15)
He was not chosen to bear or glorify the name ‘Israel’ to the Gentiles! Or to the Jews.
PAUL was APPOINTED BY JESUS (Acts 26:6-23 and Galatians chapters 1 and 2) to explain that in the light of the Scriptures, the Old Covenant was soon to be swept away and COMPLETELY replaced by the promised New Covenant. This would occur in Paul’s generation – forty years after Christ’s declaration. (Matthew 24:34)
Paul, taught by The Messiah was clear, writing: “For he is NOT a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one INWARDLY; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God”. (Romans 2:28)
Even AI can explain. ‘The phrase “not all Israel is Israel” from Romans 9 in the ESV translation means that not all who are physically descended from Israel are part of the spiritual Israel. This distinction is made to affirm that God’s word has NOT failed, as the promises ARE fulfilled for the true Israel, the Spiritual Israel, rather than all physical descendants of Israel.
Paul uses this statement to address the question of God’s faithfulness to His promises, emphasising that the promises of God holds true for the true Israel, the Spiritual Israel, but NOT for all the PHYSICAL descendants of Israel.
This concept is further elaborated in Romans 9, where Paul clarifies that being a child of God is NOT determined by physical descent but by being a child of the promise.’
Paul was ABSOLUTELY clear. Writing to the Galatians he insists: “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then YOU are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise”. (Galatians 3:26-29)
Scofield’s bible footnotes and commentary have been exulted over and above the text of Old and New Testament Scriptures and have REPLACED the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His chosen theologian the Apostle Paul.
• You claim, ‘ The covenant with Abraham is not presented as provisional’.
But, you are sincerely mistaken! Covenants were ALWAYS conditional.
Abraham was to be circumcised as a sign of the covenant. And yet ultimately, it was the circumcision of the heart The Lord required, not of the flesh. Speaking of the New Covenant that was to come, Moses promised and declared that, “… The Lord your God will circumcise your HEART and the heart of your seed, to love The Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:6)
When The Lord appeared to Isaac, he said; “I will be with you and bless you for to you and your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath I swore to your father Abraham. And I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your seed all these lands; and by your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed BECAUSE Abraham obeyed Me (hearkened to my voice) and kept My charge, MY COMMANDMENTS, MY STATUTES, AND MY LAWS.” (Genesis 26:3-5)
The Lord declared through Moses, “If you are NOT careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear (reverence) this honoured and awesome name, The Lord your God … then …
And it shall come to pass that as The Lord delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so The Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you shall be torn from the land you are entering to possess it.” (Deuteronomy 28:58 & 63) (See also Deuteronomy chapters 6, 7 and 8)
Consider this. In his farewell address to the Israelites, Joshua exhorted them, “Be very firm, then, to keep and do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, so that you may not turn aside from it to the left or the right.
Now behold, today, I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and in all your soul, that NOT ONE of all the good words which The Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed; ALL HAVE BEEN FULFILLED FOR YOU, not one of them have failed.
And it shall come about that just as all the good words which The Lord your God spoke to you have come upon you, so The Lord will bring upon you all the threats, until He has destroyed you OFF THE GOOD LAND which The Lord your God has given you. WHEN you TRANSGRESS the COVENANT of The Lord your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods, and bow down to them, THEN the anger of The Lord will BURN AGAINST YOU, and you shall PERISH QUICKLY OFF FROM THE GOOD LAND WHICH HE HAS GIVEN YOU”. (Joshua 23)
And again, “If you forsake The Lord and serve foreign Gods, THEN He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you”. (Joshua 24:20)
Let us not forget Scripture. God DOES keep His promise concerning the land, or rather He DID keep His promise concerning the land of Israel under the leadership of Joshua and later, both King David and King Solomon. He GAVE them the land. HE kept His promise.
• You assert, ‘The prophets do not speak of Israel’s return to the land as poetry or symbol. They describe a real, geographical, historical restoration that follows judgement but precedes full spiritual renewal. Ezekiel 36–37 lays out this sequence with precision. Isaiah 11 speaks of a second, global regathering—an event without precedent until the modern era. Jeremiah 31 ties Israel’s continued existence to the stability of creation itself’.
Exactly! ALL THESE promises WERE fulfilled with the return of the exiles from Babylon as recorded in the Old Testament Scriptures.
Instead of posing questions such as ‘Whose is the land’ today, this question if answered will prove most helpful: ‘WHO is The Land’?
It is IN Christ, IN the New Covenant that we discover the Promised Land and the promised Kingdom of God with all of her riches.
• You wrote, ‘If God is restoring Israel, then the Church must recover the theological framework that makes sense of this restoration. Modern discourse treats Israel as a geopolitical issue. Scripture treats Israel as a covenantal reality’.
Isaiah prophesied, “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such a thing? Can a land be born (travailed with) in one day? Can a NATION be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?” Says the Lord. …’ (Isaiah 66:7-9)
Isaiah 66 prophesies the birth of the church – yes, uniquely Jewish at that time, in an instant, in a day when the Holy Spirit fell on the believers in the upper room on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 believers in Jesus were added to their number. (Acts 2)
Isaiah here, does NOT refer to or prophesy concerning the establishment of the modern political state of Israel in 1948 as many believe. THAT was established by the Rothschild’s banking family.
It is set up for the rebuilding of a temple.
Yet, in Scripture, Stephen, in his speech before his martyrdom, summed up the whole story of the Bible beautifully in Acts chapter 7. Quoting Isaiah, Stephen declared, “ … The Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:
‘HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND EARTH IS THE FOOTSTOOL OF MY FEET; WHAT KIND OF HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME?’ says The Lord; OR WHAT PLACE IS THERE FOR MY REPOSE? WAS IT NOT MY HAND WHICH MADE ALL THESE THINGS?’ (Acts 7:48-50)
Scripture is clear.
To be looking to future fulfilment of Scripture especially for the Jewish people is a mistake.
It is done! He HAS been absolutely faithful to His own word and fulfilled EVERY promise IN Christ.
The Lord’s word in Matthew 24 WAS fulfilled in AD 70. “This generation” of forty years.
The Revelation to John on Patmos was given in the few years PRIOR to the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.
Israel’s Last Days or end days are in the past when finally, the Mosaic Age ended with the removal of every vestige of Old Covenant worship and practices when the temple was burned and the unbelieving Jewish survivors taken away as prisoners.
EVERY believing Jew fled Jerusalem in obedience to The Lord’s warning. Not one was lost or perished.
Jesus warned that not one stone of the temple would remain. HIS words were fulfilled.
At NO time did JESUS speak of the rebuilding of the temple. NO where is such an event recorded in the New Testament.
That point is KEY!
Christians are wrongly taking Old Testament and Old Covenant prophecy as yet to be fulfilled.
Perhaps, it’s time to get out the HISTORY books and read. Josephus and Tacitus are a good place to start.
Just as Rothschild’s wealth financed the establishment of the modern state called Israel, so the Ashkenazi Rothschild family financed and distributed the Schofield bible that maintains there are still two covenant people, that Gentiles are judged according to their treatment of Jews and that there will be a re-built Jewish temple with a stone throne where ‘the christ’ will sit to rule with an iron rod.
The Evangelical Church has swallowed Scofield’s false doctrines hook, line and sinker.
Dr Orr, you are absolutely correct.
• ‘The modern Church HAS quietly surrendered one of THE most important theological battles of our time: the BIBLICAL meaning of Israel. Into that silence, secular [and Christian] commentators have stepped with confidence and influence. For many Christian families, the primary voices shaping their children’s understanding of Israel are not pastors, teachers, or Scripture itself, but political personalities whose authority rests on charisma, not covenant. The result is predictable. An entire generation is forming its worldview around Israel through lenses detached from the God who actually defines Israel’s identity and vocation.’
Scofield’s bible footnotes have been exulted over and above the text of Old and New Testament Scriptures and have been used by many including such commentators as Sir Robert Anderson, John F. Walvoord and by charismatic personalities such as Israel-apologists and Zionists Jack Hibbs and Amir Tsarfati to REPLACE the Words of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His chosen theologian the Apostle Paul.
To sum up, the Apostle Paul takes great pains to identify Israel- the ‘Seed of Abraham’.
It is not unbelieving Jews.
It is not an unbelieving people who call themselves Jews or live in a land named Israel.
It is Christ Himself! He Himself IS Israel. He fulfilled that which Mosaic Israel failed to fulfil. The Scriptures declare it!
And so, those who are IN Christ, whether BELIEVING Jew or BELIEVING Gentile ARE The Israel of God.
ALL God’s promises to Israel HAVE been fulfilled IN CHRIST.
Not one has been missed.
Fulfilment is NOT future.
It HAS been completed.
Sadly, “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
Those who do not embrace Scofieldism are repeatedly and increasingly marginalised and demonised on this ‘largest Christian news site’ that claims to be ‘dedicated to providing a voice for Christian values in the public square’.
The vision of the Canberra Declaration is stated as, ‘to see the revitalisation of our Judeo-Christian values for the common good’. That in itself is an oxymoron and untenable.
The Scriptures bear witness to the fact that Judaism stands in total opposition to Christ.
There is not now two covenant people groups but ONE only – those of the faith – those IN Christ – whether believing Jew or believing Gentile. THESE are the seed of Abraham as numerous as the stars in the heavens.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God!
‘By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is GOD.
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the EARTH.
For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
But as it is, they desire a BETTER country, that is a HEAVENLY one.
Therefore GOD is NOT ashamed of them, to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.’ (Hebrews 11:8-16)
YES! It is time to reclaim Israel as did Matthew (Matthew 2:15) who cited Hosea (Hosea 11:1) identifying Christ as Israel – God’s Son.
It is essential ‘The Next Generation Must Hear the Bible, Not the Commentators’!
Related Reading
- The True Israel of God
- Jack Hibbs: Is It Time to Give Up on Israel?
- Genocide Apologist Amir Tsarfati Says The Mass Killing of Palestinians Is Not Genocide Because God Told Them To Do It
- The Blessings of God on Abraham
- Salvation Is For All Regardless of Race
- Judaism is False Religion
- Biblical Morality Comes from Jesus Christ
- Christians Should Follow the Teachings of Christ
- Christian Zionists are the Modern Judaizers
- Christian Zionism is the Problem
- Faith in Jesus Christ Is Not Based on Judaism
The Good News – the Gospel
- Do You Know Him?
- The Salvific Power of Christ
- How Do You Know You Are Saved?
- Can You Do Anything To Be Saved?
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