Examining Seven Biblical Proofs
Critics claim that Israel already received all the land God promised in the Old Testament, so no future restoration is needed.
This study examines what Scripture says about this claim.
Critics claim that Israel already received all the land God promised in the Old Testament, so no future restoration is needed. They point to several texts:
And the LORD gave unto Israel all the land which he sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. And the LORD gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the LORD delivered all their enemies into their hand. There failed not ought of any good thing which the LORD had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass.
not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spake concerning you
there hath not failed one word of all his good promise
And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt: they brought presents, and served Solomon
…to give the land of the Canaanites… to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous
Since Scripture itself says "all came to pass" and "there hath not failed one word", the land promise was fulfilled. Solomon's reign matched the Genesis 15:18 borders. Therefore, no future land inheritance for Israel is needed.
Joshua 21:43-45 is a historical marker showing what God did at that moment. He gave the land, gave them rest from their enemies, and kept His word. It celebrates God's faithfulness, not the completion of every land promise.
The same book of Joshua holds both truths side by side:
Now Joshua was old and stricken in years; and the LORD said unto him, Thou art old and stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed.
A detailed list of unconquered regions follows (Joshua 13:2-6).
And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you?
The land was given (Joshua 21:43) but not fully possessed (Joshua 13:1, 18:3).
Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward. And the LORD your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the LORD your God hath promised unto you.
Nations still "remain." God will expel them if Israel obeys.
Else if ye do in any wise go back, and cleave unto the remnant of these nations, even these that remain among you, and shall make marriages with them, and go in unto them, and they to you: Know for a certainty that the LORD your God will no more drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land which the LORD your God hath given you.
Conclusion: God was faithful. The people's "sluggishness" (Calvin) kept them from the full benefit God offered. Joshua 21 celebrates what God did; Joshua 13, 18, and 23 show what Israel did not do.
Judges 1:19-36: Tribe after tribe "did not drive out" the inhabitants:
And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel; and he said, Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua.
Now these are the nations which the LORD left, to prove Israel by them, even as many of Israel as had not known all the wars of Canaan... namely, five lords of the Philistines, and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites...
If Joshua 21 meant "every border fully occupied," Judges 1-3 would contradict it.
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.
The Euphrates is mentioned only once in the entire book of Joshua — as a promise, not a fulfilment. Israel never reached it under Joshua.
Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be.
Estimated size: The promised territory is about 300,000 square miles. Israel held roughly 10,000 square miles — about one-thirtieth of the promise (Gregory H. Harris, The Master's Seminary Journal).
And Solomon reigned over all kingdoms from the river unto the land of the Philistines, and unto the border of Egypt: they brought presents, and served Solomon all the days of his life.
The kingdoms "brought presents, and served Solomon." This is tribute from subject nations, not Israel living in and owning the land.
As Jeffrey Townsend explains: "Much of the Promised Land was not under direct Israelite sovereignty but was only under tribute."
Even during Solomon's reign, the kingdom began to shrink:
And the LORD stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite... And God stirred him up another adversary, Rezon the son of Eliadah... And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon...
Edom and Damascus rebelled. Solomon's control eroded before his death.
Logical problem: Critics use both Joshua 21 and 1 Kings 4:21 as proof the promise was fulfilled. But if Joshua 21 already fulfilled it, why would we need Solomon? And if Solomon fulfilled it, then Joshua 21 did not. "The two proof texts cancel each other out" (Gregory H. Harris).
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance.
Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.
Written about 600 BC, 800 years after Joshua.
Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever.
God was still promising the land "for ever and ever" 800 years after Joshua. The promise was clearly still open.
Israel lost the land repeatedly:
A possession that is lost is not an "everlasting possession." As John F. Walvoord wrote, the claim of fulfilment under Solomon "breaks down under every requirement."
If the promise was finished in Joshua's or Solomon's day, why did God keep promising it?
If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers... Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land... And I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.
And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee... That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee... And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
This pattern — exile, repentance, regathering — was never fulfilled in Joshua's time.
And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.
Written about 760 BC. Israel was "pulled up" again in 586 BC and AD 70. Amos 9:15 is still future.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob. And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God.
And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all... And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
Ezekiel 47:13-48:29: Detailed future tribal borders for all twelve tribes. This distribution never happened in history.
He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.
And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and he shall speak peace unto the heathen: and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth.
The Euphrates border will be fulfilled under the Messiah.
And foundest his heart faithful before thee, and madest a covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, to give it, I say, to his seed, and hast performed thy words; for thou art righteous:
Yes, God gave it. He performed His word. But in the same prayer:
Behold, we are servants this day, and for the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we are servants in it: And it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.
Nehemiah is a servant of Persia in the land. That is not the permanent, sovereign possession God promised.
And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
Stephen declares: Abraham personally has never received the land. That requires resurrection.
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them... And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
Hebrews itself says the promise was not fulfilled in the Old Testament.
For if Jesus [Joshua] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Joshua's entry was not the final rest. This cuts directly against the claim that "Joshua 21 fulfilled everything."
As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Israel's promises are not cancelled.
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
There is a time limit, and something follows it.
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
The disciples ask "wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Jesus corrects the timing, not the expectation.
Some argue the land promise was "spiritualized" or widened to heaven and the new creation.
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God... But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
Answer: This does not cancel the earthly land. Abraham will inherit both:
The "two phases" pattern is the same as the Revelation 21 vs Jeremiah 31 issue: millennial Jerusalem on earth, then the New Jerusalem on the new earth.
For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Answer: In context, Paul explains this as Abraham being "the father of many nations" (Romans 4:17-18). It is about his seed from all nations (Jew and Gentile believers), not a widening of the land promise.
Even scholars who partly disagree accept that if the Messiah reigns from Jerusalem, "there is no obvious reason to deny a restoration of Israel to its land" (Brian Collins).
Joshua 21:43-45 proves God was faithful: He gave the land and none of His words failed.
But the same book says "there remaineth yet very much land to be possessed" (Joshua 13:1).
Solomon only received tribute from the Euphrates kingdoms (1 Kings 4:21), not possession.
Israel lost the land in 722 BC, 586 BC, and AD 70.
Prophets writing after Joshua and Solomon still promise a regathering after which Israel will "no more be pulled up out of their land" (Amos 9:15).
Abraham himself never owned "so much as to set his foot on" (Acts 7:5).
The full, permanent possession of all the land, from the river of Egypt to the Euphrates, is still future.
It will be fulfilled when Christ reigns from Jerusalem.