The Messianic People

The place of Israel within a reformed framework

This book is an attempt to dialogue. Therefore it should not be considered as a definitive solution to a theological problem. Neither is the Messianic People the first reformed work in the field of questions regarding church and Israel. It is a journey of discovery, in which Dr. G.J. Boender seeks to find out what reformed theologians and thinkers have said throughout the ages concerning the position of Israel in God's plan with this world. Gradually a new theological framework develops wherein creation, humanity, church and Israel each receives a place.

Is there a need for a discussion about a new (reformed) theological framework? The Holocaust during the Second World War and the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948 gave rise to a plethora of new ideas concerning the position of church/community on one hand and the Jewish people on the other in God's plan of salvation with His world. Now, fifty years after the end of the Second World War, most thinkers and theologians have come to the conclusion that replacement theology has been superseded. The Church has not taken the place of Israel upon Christ's suffering and death. God's promises to His people Israel remain fully valid.

However, this conclusion is far-reaching. For two-thousand years the Church has thought to be the rightful inheritor of the promises and blessings belonging to Israel in the Old Testament. In the Church, who saw itself during the first centuries after Christ as the New Israel, there developed a new theological framework – a new way of looking at reality – based on replacement thinking. Abandoning this model in the twentieth century implies the necessity of developing a new theological framework.

The Messianic People, the place of Israel within a reformed framework, is an attempt to contribute to the development of this new framework. Boender takes the Messiah as the centre, the Saviour of the world and the King of Israel. The redemption of the world and its reunification with God is the framework wherein God's dealings take place. The basis for His action is His love that is expressed in the covenant of redemption, the way of salvation and the kingdom of peace.