They Will Always Be Preserved…
In other words we don’t need Pastor Hagee and Johnathan Cahn’s Protestant misinterpretation, via suspect scholarship, of the Bible and the creation of Christian Zionism (while attacking Catholics as “Replacement Theologists”). The Jews are already part of God’s spiritual equation and eternal calculus…
As the late, great British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge said, “God’s always got a trick up his sleeve!”
“For he who is not against us is for us.’” -Jesus
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QUOTE:
🕎 1. The Jews still bear witness to the Scriptures and the promises.
In City of God (Book XVIII, ch. 46), Augustine famously says that the Jews, though not believing in Christ, still serve a divine purpose by preserving the Scriptures and testifying—often unknowingly—to their truth:
“The Jews who slew Him, and would not believe in Him, because it was necessary that Christ should be slain, are by their dispersion among all nations become the most signal witnesses of the truth of our Scriptures, in which Christ was foretold.”
So even in their unbelief, they are instrumentally blessed — they carry and transmit the words of God, preserving the Old Testament faithfully. Augustine even sees this as a sign of divine providence: they remain as a “living testimony” to the truth of prophecy.
✝️ 2. They remain “beloved for the fathers’ sake.”
Augustine, following St. Paul (Romans 11:28–29), explicitly says that God has not rejected the Jews:
“For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.”
(City of God XVIII.46 again alludes to this passage.)
He interprets this to mean that the Jewish people still carry a kind of covenantal dignity, even though the fullness of blessing (salvation) is realized only in Christ.
🌿 3. Their eventual conversion is foreseen.
In City of God XX.29 and elsewhere (notably Tractates on the Gospel of John), Augustine affirms the future conversion of Israel — that, at the end of time, a large number of Jews will come to believe in Christ:
“The Jews shall believe in the true Christ, that is, our Christ, towards the end of the world.”
(City of God, Book XX, ch. 29)
So the blindness symbolized by Isaac’s blindness is temporary — a mystery within God’s plan, leading ultimately to mercy for all (Romans 11:32).
🕊️ In summary
In Augustine’s theology:
- The spiritual blessing (covenantal grace) passes to the Church.
- The Jews still receive an indirect blessing — by being keepers of Scripture and witnesses to prophecy.
- They remain beloved by God, destined for eventual reconciliation in Christ.
So yes — they are inadvertently blessed, even in unbelief, because their history and preservation serve the redemptive plan that culminates in Christ and will, in Augustine’s view, one day include them again fully.
Book XVI, Chapter 37 — The Story of Isaac Blessing His Sons Jacob and Esau Is Allegorical of Things to Come.
Now Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see; and he called Esau, his elder son, and said unto him, My son. And he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death; now therefore take, I pray you, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison, and make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die.*
But Rebecca, hearing this, commanded her son Jacob to bring her two kids of the goats, that she might make savory meat for his father, as he loved; and she clothed Jacob in Esau’s garments, and put the skins of the kids upon his hands and the smooth of his neck, that his father, feeling, might believe him to be Esau. And thus he brought the meat, and received his father’s blessing.
This blindness of Isaac signifies the blindness of the old age of the world, when Christ was to come in the flesh; for it was then that the light of faith and understanding was to wax dim among the Jews, and the spiritual blessing was to pass to the younger people—that is, to the Christian people, who were the younger by grace. For the elder people, that is, the Jews, served the younger, even as it was said before to Rebecca, “The elder shall serve the younger.” And thus the blessing was given to Jacob, as to one who personified the younger people, the people of Christ, though he obtained it by a kind of fraud and deceit, because it was not yet manifestly known that the blessing was to pass to the Gentiles.
And this was typified in the garments of the elder brother, which Jacob put on; for the younger people, who were to inherit the blessing, clothed themselves in the outward sacraments and visible institutions of the elder people, namely, the law and the prophets, which they interpreted to Christ. The father’s dimness of sight also signified that this transfer of blessing was hidden, not clearly seen by those who were then the elders in understanding. But when the time came that Christ should be openly revealed, then the mystery which had been veiled in figure and prophecy was made manifest, and the blessing which Isaac gave in blindness was fulfilled in truth.
In summary, Augustine sees:
Isaac’s blessing → God’s favor resting finally upon the Church through Christ.
Isaac’s blindness → spiritual blindness of the Jews at the coming of Christ.
Jacob’s deception → the hidden mystery of grace passing to the Gentiles.
Esau’s garments → the Church wearing the outward signs of the old covenant.