Exploding the Israel Deception

Rating:
Summary: Guts
Review: It takes guts to write a book like this. Seldom does truth don the clothes of popularity, and since the Left Behind Series has sold so many millions of copies, Wohlberg's book certainly will come under fire.

Since Wohlberg is himself a physical Jew, he writes with a clarity and understanding which us Gentiles lack. Not only does the book challenge popular thinking, it also synthesizes stacks of Biblical references in their context. I have been blessed by the clarity with which he has written. Shattering presuppositions and assumptions, Wohlberg confronts the Biblical truth of God's special people. A veritable feast of clear Bible teaching!

Rating:
Summary: Guts
Review: It takes guts to write a book like this. Seldom does truth don the clothes of popularity, and since the Left Behind Series has sold so many millions of copies, Wohlberg's book certainly will come under fire.

Since Wohlberg is himself a physical Jew, he writes with a clarity and understanding which us Gentiles lack. Not only does the book challenge popular thinking, it also synthesizes stacks of Biblical references in their context. I have been blessed by the clarity with which he has written. Shattering presuppositions and assumptions, Wohlberg confronts the Biblical truth of God's special people. A veritable feast of clear Bible teaching!

Rating:
Summary: God has truly blessed this author.
Review: So much of what bible prophecy teachers present today is based on their own preconceived understandings that lead them to conclusions, that lead to assumptions and still more conclusions that are not based on the pure words of scripture. NOT SO WITH THIS BOOK. This author brings a purity of understanding and an approach that allows the scriptures to speak for itself and the truth to plainly be told. Scripture MUST be compared to scripture for any proper interpretation to follow. To allow the Bible to be its own interpreter is absolutely necessary if the terms such as "Israel" and "Temple" are to be understood in the manner that God intended. This author's approach does not allow preconceived ideas to interfere with the message that God wants us to have to be prepared for these last days. The truth is often not what most people think. When you read chapter 2, "A New Look at Jesus Christ", you will gain a new and profound appreciation for the name "Israel".

Rating:
Summary: A Gem Among The Flood of Futurist Dispen-sensational Books
Review: Steve Wohlberg's book "Exploding the Israel Deception" is a breath of fresh air - it clears the stale air of too many Futurist books constantly overemphasizing the "literal" approach - indeed, Wohlberg's book shows the beautiful balance between "literal" and "symbolic" in the Scriptures. Origen went too far one way (allegorical or symbolic); Futurist go too far the other way (literal). Wohlberg shows that Jesus' first coming was both "literal" and "symbolic"; viz., the 70-Weeks Prophecy of Daniel 9 was symbolically shown as "seventy weeks" - which everyone agrees were symbolic "weeks of years" where a DAY equals a YEAR, and not 'literal' weeks of 24-hour days by any means; and yet Jesus also "literally" came to fulfill the symbolic 70-Weeks Prophecy concerning himself, his work, and the literal Cross, since he came "on time" and "in the fulness of time". Wohlberg takes a large bull by the horns, namely, the "Left Behind" bull-headed mentality of Tim LaHaye, Tommy Ice & Company who preach mainly the literal "days" of the prophetic Scriptures. Wohlberg, on the other hand, shows that the fulfillments of these "days" - 1,260 days, 1,290 days, 1,335 days, and the 2,300 days, etc. - have rather been literal years figured symbolically at "1 Day = 1 Year" - again, showing the biblical balance of literal and symbolic that the popular end-time speculative scenarios often sorely lack. "Exploding..." is a true countervailing weight against the overemphases by the popular Futurist "Left Behind" scenarios of end-times prophecy books that populate the majority of shelf-space at Christian Bookstores. Wohlberg's book is indeed a gem of shining brilliance found among the drab Futurist 'popular' and highly speculative, but deceptive, views of end-time Bible prophecy events which flood the media and the shelves of Christian bookstores.

Rating:
Summary: Just another covenant theologian
Review: This book is just another attempt by the malcontented and misinformed to steal the promised blessings of physical Israel. Here is another one who spiritualizes away everything Israel of old had, including the "land" promises that were given to Abraham's physical descendants. Of course the land promises are simply spiritualized away as well. This sort of hermeneutic bleeds the heart and soul out of scripture, especially when these people apply their supernatural methods to historical sections involving the land covenants.

God gave His chosen physical Israel unconditional promises, signed and sealed by Himself, that have not yet been fulfilled. Until they are, Christians like Wohlberg (Jew or Gentile)should stop robbing physical Israel of God's eternal hope.

The author has tied himself into such a supernal mess that he turns physical temples into spiritual ones when the text demands a physical interpretation. Wohlberg claims that the Revelation speaks of no "physical" Temple and that "every" occurrence of Temple in the Revelation relates to the heavenly; he misses the clear indication that the temple being referred to in Revelation 11:1-2 is physical and not heavenly, as it has been given over to the "gentiles" to be trampled on.

Mr. Wohlberg dismisses the Matt. 24 "fig tree" parable because Luke 21 adds "...and all the trees." The prophets symbolize Israel's surrounding (sabib)enemy nations with "trees" a number of times, one being the second chapter of Isaiah. If Wohlberg had taken the time to study carefully chapters 12:14,15 and 45 to 50 of Jeremiah he would have seen that "all the trees" relates very well to a restoration of Israel's ancient enemies "sabib" surrounding them. This restoration began as a result of the British dividing up the Ottoman Empire early last century, in the same half-century that the "fig tree" began to blossom.

The "all things which are written may be fulfilled" phrase of Luke 21:22 is an aorist passive participle (undefined aspect)that permits the translation, "all things which are written may continue to be fulfilled." In other words, these "days" (not day) of vengeance are another fulfilment in that line of fulfilments that began with the birth pregnancy of Miriam.

How these writers who continue to usurp God's Old Testament pre-Mosaic promises to physical Israel can be so bold before God is something that is inexplicable to me. I'm just glad that I'm not in their shoes and that I will not have to answer God when He asks them, "Why did you keep intruding into my business with My beloved?"

Rating:
Summary: Provocative, Timely and Right On!
Review: Without a doubt, this is a most provocative book that will stir Christians around the globe to study their Bibles more carefully. Read for yourself and see who Israel is and isn't from the New Testament. The conclusions emerge right from the plain teachings of the Scriptures, but often challenge popularly held views. You'll be shocked! But along with the apostle Paul you will be led to conlude that "he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly...but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumsion is that of the heart." Romans 2:28,29

If you're not convinced from the book, then get the video series offered by the same author entitled "Israel in Prophecy".

Now is the time to study. Now is the time to pray. Now is the time to know the truth!

Rating:
Summary: Provocative, Timely and Right On!
Review: Without a doubt, this is a most provocative book that will stir Christians around the globe to study their Bibles more carefully. Read for yourself and see who Israel is and isn't from the New Testament. The conclusions emerge right from the plain teachings of the Scriptures, but often challenge popularly held views. You'll be shocked! But along with the apostle Paul you will be led to conlude that "he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly...but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumsion is that of the heart." Romans 2:28,29

If you're not convinced from the book, then get the video series offered by the same author entitled "Israel in Prophecy".

Now is the time to study. Now is the time to pray. Now is the time to know the truth!

Rating:
Summary: And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed...
Review: ~Exploding the Israel Deception~ takes a look at the current popularity of seeking fulfillment of prophecy in the Middle East and the state of Israel. Steve Wohlberg is a Jewish convert who has arisen to become an evangelical Christian pastor. This book essentially is a refutation of the dubious dispensationalist notion that God has two plans of redemption: plan A for Israel and a plan B for the Gentiles. Dispensationalists presuppose a "secret rapture" of Gentile believers of faith around the time of a Great Tribulation while the Jews will be subjected first to the delusions and then to persecutions of the Anti-Christ. Wohlberg shuns these presuppositions, which emanate from the hermeneutical framework of Bible interpretation known as dispensationalism that is wildly popular with American evangelicals. Dispensationalism made its assent with the works of Darby and Scofield in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It reached a fevered pitch in the later twentieth century, with the rise of prophecy teachers like Hal Lindsay and Tim LaHaye. Who is the Israel of the Bible and who are the heirs of the covenant promises? The Scriptures purport a profound unity within the body of Christ, which includes peoples of all nations (Eph 2:12-14; Heb 11:24-26; Rom 11:16-17). The focus of Wohlberg's exegetical reading of the Scripture, of course, is the third chapter of Paul's letter to the Galatians. God in his forbearance has by no means cast his people off. The true Promised Land for Jews and Gentiles of faith is a celestial or heavenly kingdom!

In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul explains that all those of faith are heirs to the covenant promises of Abraham: 16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds," as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed," who is Christ... 19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator... 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus... 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
(Galatians 3:16,19,26,28,29)

I went to Christian colleges such as Liberty and Regent and it's good to get a break from dispensationalist dogma and let the Word speak for itself. This is not what dispensationalists pejoratively denigrate as "replacement theology" but rather it is "expansion theology." As the Apostle Paul makes clear, God has not cast his first people off by any means, but there is a remnant according to election (Rom. 11:1-8). Standing up for the truth of the Gospel means standing against flawed hermneutical frameworks like Dispensationism. There not wrong on everything, so we must not throw the baby out with the bath water but Scofield, Ryrie, and LaHaye make many erroneous claims. Bravo to Mr. Wohlberg for standing by the courage of his convictions.