The Bible recounts the story of
Israel, both Old Testament Israel and New Testament Israel. The plot line of the entire scripture then
follows the benchmarks of that story. It
is not surprising, then, to discover that Jesus’ story is told according to the
outlines of Israel’s story as its fulfillment.
The church’s story is then told according to this same pattern built on
Jesus’ fulfillment.
Story of Israel Jesus’ Story as Story of Israel Fulfilled Church’s Story as Israel/Jesus’
Story
Key elements of the Church’s Story as Israel/Jesus’ Story included the
following:
1.
Exodus from Egypt/Jesus’ great Exodus at the Cross and Resurrection (Lk.9:31);
Church participates in Jesus’ Exodus through baptism (Rom.6:1-4; 1 Cor.10:1-7)
2.
Journey to
Promised Land/Commissions at close of Gospels (Mt.
28:16-20, Mk.1:8; Lk.24:44-49; John 20:19-23)
3.
Conquest/Settling
of Promised Land/Holy War/Evangelism (Acts; 2
Cor.10:3-6)
4.
Life in Promised
Land/New Creation (Heb.12:22ff.;Rev.21-22)
I want to focus on #3, the
analogy of Evangelism to the Conquest/Settling/Holy War part of Israel’s
story. I’m not interested in explaining
or justifying the phenomenon of Holy War in Israel here, just in developing the
analogy between Holy War and Evangelism.
First let’s note eight characteristics of Holy War in Israel (see https://www.biblicaltraining.org/blog/curious-christian/6-19-2012/what-were-characteristics-holy-war-old-testament
for more detail) with a suggested analogy to the New Testament practice of
evangelism as the way the church extends and implements Jesus’ victory.
A. Israel had no
standing army/likewise, evangelists in the church were
gifted as such and the whole community was tasked with spreading the message; no
pros!
B. No pay for
soldiers or personal spoil or plunder/no personal gain
for the Christian or Church
C. Only for the
conquest and defense of the Promised Land, not for expansion/same for church; world already belong to Christ and is
inheritance of God’s people (Rom.4:13)
D. King has no
right to declare war, it has to come from God through a prophet/Evangelism too is at God’s command and initiation delivered
through Jesus his Prophet
E. Yahweh does the
real fighting/Yahweh fights in Evangelism too;
conversion is Yahweh’s work and achievement
F. It is a
religious undertaking not a piece of secular military strategy/likewise evangelism is an offering to God not a strategem to
achieve political or other purposes
G. The idea of the
total annihilation of the enemy/same (2 Cor.10:3-6;
Rev.19:11-21)
H. Compromise is failure/same
Of course, let me quickly say that as an analogy to Holy
War, evangelism is also quite different in some central respects. Primarily, the “Holy War” of evangelism is
prosecuted by peace, by the “violence of love” (Oscar Romero). It is
transformed by Jesus fulfillment of Israel’s Story into an instrument of
pacifying the world according to the peace of Christ establishing the
well-being of creature and creation through
Whatever one thinks about Israel’s practice of Holy War,
to consider it as wholly unsuitable for Christian reflection is to sacrifice
the richness of evangelism as an analogy to Holy War. I hope this brief exploration may help us
recover these dimensions of evangel
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