Dear One,

The implications of this study, had Israel accepted Jesus as Messiah, would have been staggering, if it had occurred. What I want you to get from all this is that when God commands you to repent, it is not because you are unworthy, or that He is trying to punish you, or take something from you, it’s that He is trying to bring something WONDERFUL into your life!

This study was first presented as an oral lecture to the masters and doctoral students at our POTAMI University in Lusaka, Zambia on March 24, 2026.

Love you! KRP

WHAT IF ISRAEL HAD ACCEPTED JESUS AS MESSIAH?

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matt 4:17 NKJV

All culture is downstream from biblical and spiritual constructs. All societies have built their moral, social, economic and even political foundations on the bedrock of what they believe about God, who He (he/she/it) is and how they are to relate to Him (him/her/it). This reality makes our work as students and teachers of God’s Word of paramount importance. We expect our doctoral students especially to think, to challenge, to question, to examine consensus thinking, even to speculate based on their study of Scripture, and push to develop their contribution to the Body of Christ and its calling. This is not new believer’s bible class. This is the research heart of the Body of Christ being developed.

What if Israel has repented and accepted Jesus as Messiah? What if, at His public exposure by Pilate, when he said to the chief priests and all Israel, “Ecce Homo!” (Behold the Man!) that they had said, ‘FREE HIM! FREE HIM!’ instead of ‘CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM!’? Is it possible that Israel could have repented and accepted Messiah rather than reject Him? Also, if the day of Pentecost is the inauguration of the Church of the Body, why were only Jews present in Jerusalem at the outpouring?

We are going to look at the conditional promises that would have been fulfilled had Israel repented, what couldn’t be changed regarding Messiah, what could be changed, and what it might have looked like if they had. First, the calling and the command:

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matt 4:17 NKJV

Jesus’ first statement in public ministry is in Matthew 4:17. The first of anything is singularly important. This is the opening of the section of the Gospel where He proclaims the Kingdom, and His command is, Repent! Had Israel repented, then these four statements would have been fulfilled immediately, and not held in abeyance for the future.

PART ONE – THE CONDITIONAL PROMISES

Israel could have repented and accepted Jesus as Messiah. There are four statements, conditional promises, that point to this reality in the book of Matthew. You don’t see the conditional aspect of these promises in the English translation. They appear as plain statements of fact. But in the Greek text there is the particle AN that indicates a  conditional or hypothetical statement.

When they persecute you in this city, flee to another. For assuredly, I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes. Matt 10:23 NKJV

Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Matt 16:28 NKJV

…for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'” Matt 23:39 NKJV

Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place. Matt 24:34 NKJV

Did these things come to pass? No. They will, in some form, come to pass in the future. But the point is, they could have come to pass immediately if Israel had repented and accepted Jesus as Messiah.

PART TWO – WHAT COULDN’T HAVE CHANGED HAD ISRAEL REPENTED AND ACCEPTED YESHUA HA MASHIACH (Jesus the Messiah)

We will list seven realities here – this list is not comprehensive in part due to the length of the lecture, and the fact I’m not THAT smart – that could not be changed even if Israel had accepted the Messiah.

1). Regardless of Israels response, He had to fulfil the promise of Genesis 3:15, the first promise of Messiah, regarding the Seed of the Woman:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Gen 3:15 NKJV

When we consider Israel, we must realize that they were called in Abraham, many generations after the original promise regarding the seed of the Woman. Jesus would have to fulfil His purpose as the Seed of the woman in crushing the head of the serpent by His ministry as High Priest in offering Himself as the Passover Lamb for the sins of all mankind. Which leads to the next two realities that could not be changed, that He would be a man of sorrows and have to die, be raised and ascended.

2). He would have to be a man of sorrows. Yes, it is possible that this could occur without Israel rejecting Him, as we shall see.

He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 

6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isa 53:3-6 NKJV

I’ve been reading recently about the shroud of Turin, which we can attest is the burial cloth of Jesus. Not being a Catholic and into relics, I never gave much thought to the shroud as evidence of the Resurrection because I had the witness of the Resurrection (Acts 1:8) in speaking in tongues. But over one hundred scientific studies have been done on the shroud by top laboratories around the world, proving that its linen cloth is like a ‘photographic negative’ that was blasted by the effects of six gigabytes of energy in a fraction of a second in the Resurrection. Holy Canoli! Astonishing scientific results! You know, the thing about scientific results is that they don’t publish them unless they are independently verifiable, in other words, proven repeatedly. They apparently have devices that prove that the shroud has 3-D characteristics, enabling us as viewers to see the man in the shroud in 3-D. You want to see the face of Jesus? You go research it yourself; you’ll get blessed!

3). He would have to die, be raised and ascend. He couldn’t come back in the clouds to descend upon the mount of olives if He had not ascended.

Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, 11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.” Acts 1:9-11 

And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley; Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. Zech 14:4 NKJV

4). Jesus would be betrayed.

Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Ps 41:9 NKJV

There is some speculation that Judas betrayed Jesus to force His hand to declare Himself as the King of Israel, which might explain why he committed suicide after that clearly didn’t happen. Israel had always looked for Messiah to be a military leader like David, but Jesus would not be a political man or a military leader. He told Pilate that His Kingdom was not of this world (i.e. a spiritual Kingdom), and when He came back, He would be a Shepherd King, and He would have another role as well…

5). The Holy Spirit would still come, and the body of Christ would be fulfilled. You would still be born and get born again…whew! Here is why…

“But now I go away to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’  6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.  7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. John 16:5-7 NKJV

Israel was called in Abraham but the body of Christ, made up of Jews and Gentiles, was called from before the foundation of the world. This was the mystery kept secret from before the foundation of the world which none of the princes of this world knew, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1Cor. 2:8). The Holy Spirit would still come to indwell the new believer with Christ within, the new birth, and still impart the gifts of the Spirit.

…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, Eph 1:4-6 NKJV

Being chosen in Him requires you to be born and that means ancestors. My people on my father’s side have been Americans for three hundred years. All those people had to be born, and thankfully some of them were born again, so that I could be born, and be born again. So, in any speculation of what could have changed regarding Jesus and Israel, the Church would still have to inaugurated on the day of Pentecost and all the generations of people born so that you and I could get born and be born again. Do you understand? The Church age could not be compressed, time wise.

6). There will always be unbelievers – they are everywhere (just fly in a middle seat on an airplane!). It’s fascinating that after everything that occurs in the book of Revelation – you would think these people would wake up! – Satan is still able to deceive the nations and have them come against the new Jerusalem, which is when Jesus finally cleans everything up.

7). All Israel will be saved.

20 “The Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” says the Lord. 21 “As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.” Isa 9:20-21 NKJV

This could have been fulfilled a lot sooner than it shall be if Israel had repented and accepted Jesus as Messiah.

PART THREE – WHAT COULD HAVE CHANGED IF ISRAEL HAD REPENTED AND ACCEPTED JESUS.

This had me stumped for awhile until I realized that the Jews didn’t physically kill Jesus, the Romans did! Herod, the monster, a Roman wannabe, had tried to kill Jesus at His birth…

Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. 17 Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying: 

18 “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” Matt 2:16-18 NKJV

Numbers 1-4 in the last section could still be fulfilled even if the Jews had repented and accepted Jesus as the Messiah. Here is where we get into some holy speculation…

Pilate hears that all Israel is coming to the Messiah, expecting Him to be King and a ruler like David. His apostles are speculating on who will be secretary of war, who will be vice president and who will be general of the army. Jesus’ rebukes do not calm the rising desire among the nation for Him to be King! Pilate realizes he doesn’t personally want any part of this situation, and he washes his hands of the decision regarding Jesus by kicking it up the food chain to the emperor. The emperor, an Italian like Don Corleone, replies, “Get someone to betray Him, have a nice, fair trial, then execute Him, even before their Passover. Get it done Pilate…I’ll be watching you!”

Pilate through his people entices Judas to betray Jesus. He is arrested in the garden, tried and scourged by Pilate, presented to Israel in His beaten state, and the people cry FREE HIM! FREE HIM! But Pilate replies, after washing his hands, “Its out of my hands, guys, the emperor has decreed his judgment!” This occurs at noon on Tuesday. Finally on the early morning of Wednesday, he is led away to be crucified, and the rest is His-story…

PART FOUR – WHAT IT COULD HAVE LOOKED LIKE IF ISRAEL REPENTED AND ACCEPTED MESSIAH

Numbers 5-7 could have been fulfilled at the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter two. Think about this fact…only Jews were present from all over the world. Here is a cultural fact that is still true in some parts of the world – if the head of the house, the father repents and believes, the whole house will repent and believe. This was true in Israel. The crowds from all over the known world had come to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost, and they all heard the twelve apostles speak in tongues in the court of the Gentiles – I believe the initial outpouring at Pentecost was not in an upper room, but in the Temple at the first hour of prayer.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs — we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.” 12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” 

And what about the fulfilment of number six?

13 Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.” Acts 2:4-13 NKJV

It was about the third hour. Peter and the Twelve have been praying in tongues for about three hours now. As for Peter, the lightning of God is flowing through his soul like a mighty current; his heart is on fire and he must speak…the last call to all Israel to repent and accept Messiah!

But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. Acts 2:14-15 NKJV

His words reverberate off the Temple walls like a natural amphitheater, and he speaks to the heart of all Israel in Holy Ghost anointed power, and the spirit of conviction falls upon a nation!

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.” 37 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” 

38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.” Acts 2:36-39 NKJV

In our speculative what-could-have-been scenario, not three thousand get saved but all Israel responds to the call and command of Peter to repent. Peter echoes Jesus words, the words He opened His ministry to Israel, “Repent! The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” After weeping and repentance, as if guided by an unseen Hand, the whole crowd of tens of thousands turns and looks as Jesus descends upon the mount of Olives, fulfilling the promise of Matthew 16:28. The crowd bows in holy fear as the mount is cleaved and Jesus walks across the bridge that existed across the Kidron Valley to the Temple area and enters the eastern gate with a joy that is transcendent, and says, with His arms wide open, with the biggest smile on his face and joy in His eyes, “Behold it is I! Look at my hands and feet! I make all things new!” And the joy is incomprehensible…all Israel is saved!

The promises of Matthew are fulfilled.

Now, what about the you and I the body of Christ? We all still must be born again and saved. In our speculative what-could-have-happened scenario, the King, the Head of the Body, rules from Jerusalem not as a political or military leader (that comes later in the Millenium), but as a Shepherd – King to Israel and through the Holy Spirit directs the Body worldwide. The world is a very different place with the King reigning in Jerusalem but there are still forces of darkness and unreached peoples. The Church still has the command to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. But at least we get to go to Jerusalem for conferences with the King!

This is what COULD have happened had Israel responded affirmatively to the preaching of Jesus and the apostles. Then the promises in Matthew would have been fulfilled. The lesson here is REPENT when God commands you to repent, because He has something WONDERFUL (Is.9:6) for you if you will!

Thank you for the joy of letting me present this lecture. Love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…