"John Gill predates Zionism. He would indict you as an apostate for what you think of present day Israel™.
Zionism - The belief that Jewish people share the right to live safely, freely, and independently in their historic homeland.
Charles Spurgeon shared the same pulpit and followed very much in the footprints of
John Gill.
Spurgeon on Zechariah – “This vision and prophecy graciously reveal the future history of
Jerusalem. We may
spiritualize it and say Jerusalem signifies the church, but we should not forget the
literal meaning of the words. The Jewish people and their royal city will remain the center of the manifestations of divine glory. The nations of the earth will be joined to the Lord, a suburban population to the chosen city.
Jerusalem will be rebuilt in more than her former splendor;
the Jews will be restored to their own land; and Messiah will reign as a prince of the house of David.” The Spurgeon Study Bible
John Gill on Amos 9:14 - “And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel,....
Which is not to be understood of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and their return from thence, with whom some of the ten tribes of Israel were mixed; for they were not then so planted in their own land as no more to be pulled up again, as is here promised; for
they afterwards were dispossessed of it by the Romans, and carried captive, and dispersed among the nations again; but the captivity both of Judah and Israel is meant, their present captivity, which will be brought back, and they will be delivered from it, and return to their own land, and possess it as long as it is a land; see Jer_30:3; as well as be freed from the bondage of sin, Satan, and the law, under which they have been detained some hundreds of years; but now shall be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of God, of Christians, with which Christ has made them free:
and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them;
literally the cities in Judea wasted by the Turks, and others; and mystically the churches of Christ, of which saints are fellow citizens, and will be in a desolate condition before the conversion of the Jews, and the gathering in the fulness of the Gentiles;
but by these means will be rebuilt, and be in a flourishing condition, and fall of inhabitants:
and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them; which, as before,
will be literally true; and in a spiritual sense may signify the churches of Christ, compared to vineyards and gardens, which will be planted everywhere, and be set with pleasant and fruitful plants, and will turn to the advantage of those who have been instruments in planting them; see Son_6:2.”
John Gill on Romans 11:26 - And so all Israel shall be saved,.... Meaning
not the mystical spiritual Israel of God, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, who shall appear to be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation, when all God's elect among the latter are gathered in, which is the sense many give into;
but the people of the Jews, the generality of them, the body of that nation, called "the fulness" of them, Rom_11:12, and
relates to the latter day, when a nation of them shall be born again at once; “
There is no reason to spiritualize the prophecies of the regathering of the Jews to their homeland. Many Reformed theologians believed in a future conversion of national/ethnic Israel that don’t don’t conform 100% to your beliefs.
Phil Layton surveys noted theologians who believed Romans 9–11 and other prophecies teach a future conversion of national and ethnic Israel.
www.monergism.com
