Teaching article

His Feet Will Stand on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem

By Rev Willem J.J. Glashouwer - 6 October 2021

Mount of Olives in Jerusalem at sunrise | Photo: Wikimedia Commons by Andrew Shiva

Replacement theology caused a blockage in the thinking of the Church on many fronts. The Holy Scriptures had to be read and understood spiritually, they said. When the city of Jerusalem was mentioned in the Bible, one had to think of the heavenly Jerusalem. We, the Christians, were on our way through the desert of this world with all its troubles and cares, until we finally would arrive in the Promised Land, that is heaven, and in the heavenly Jerusalem.

Replacement theology caused a blockage in the thinking of the Church on many fronts

Reading the Scriptures typologically and allegorically in this way had many consequences.
No more place for the Jewish people as the chosen people of God.
No more place for God’s eternal covenants with Israel.
No more place for this tiny country as the Promised Land to Israel.
No more place for a foretold return by the prophets from the entire world of the Jews to Israel.
No more place for the future of the earthly Jerusalem as the city where He would make His Name dwell again.
No more place for a Kingdom on earth from the city of Jerusalem under the leadership of the Messiah of Israel.

And actually, no longer any place either for the physical resurrection of the body.
Why a resurrection of the body if my soul will go to heaven anyway?
No more place for Jesus’ promise to rule with Him in His Kingdom on earth, as He says in Revelation 2:26-27: “… And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of my Father…”

Why a resurrection of the body if my soul will go to heaven anyway?

But the Scriptures speak differently.
Acts 1:11 “…Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven…
Zechariah 14:4 “…And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east…”

We don’t know when He will return, but we do know where He will return.
On the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. Zechariah 12:6b “…and they of Jerusalem shall yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem…”.

The Author

Rev Willem J.J. Glashouwer

Rev Willem J.J. Glashouwer is the President of Christians for Israel International. He holds an honorary knighthood bestowed upon him by Beatrix, former Queen of the Netherlands and is Honorary President of the European Coalition for Israel. He is also an ordained minister of the Dutch Reformed Church and a former director of the Evangelical Broadcasting Company in the Netherlands. Rev. Glashouwer has played a key role in the establishment of the Dutch Institute for Evangelical Higher Education and in addition to several books, articles and Bible studies on Israel and the Christian faith. He also published a Daily Devotional on the Book of Revelation. He is married to Marianne and they have 4 children and 8 grandchildren.