On April 8, Michael Marissen started quite a stir with an article in the New York Times, entitled "Unsettling History of That Joyous 'Hallelujah'". (If you do not have access to the New York Times, you can search around a bit and find the article reprinted in several places on the internet. I found it at the PretBlog at PreteristArchive. There is a fuller treatment here with links to read some of the source material).

This prompted several responses on the blogosphere.
Orrin Judd at BrothersJudd Blog - "It's Not Called 'Maybe a Messiah'"
Dispatches from the Culture Wars - Handel's Messiah and Anti-Semitism
Robert Elisberg at The Huffington Post - You Can't Handel the Truth

I like the title to that last one the best.

Marissen's history of "Messiah" is very good and well documented. His theology? Not so good. I have to admit I have a newfound love for the "Messiah." I've always enjoyed it and my wife and I have been listening to it a lot lately.

Consider the Scriptures used in the "Messiah." In Part Two, #31 is Isaiah 53:8, "He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgressions of Thy people was He stricken." Here we have the Crucifixion. In #33, the Resurrection ("Who is this King of Glory?" Psalm 24) In #36, the Ascension ("Thou art gone up on high" Psalm 68).

Then, the spread of the gospel. #37 ("great was the company of preachers" Psalm 68); #38 ("How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace" Isaiah 52:7); #39 ("Their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world." Romans 10:18).

Then the nations rage #40 (Psalm 2:1-2) and in #42 "He that dwelleth in Heav'n shall laugh them to scorn." (Psalm 2:4). Then the last before the "Hallellujah" chorus: #43 "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron" Psalm 2:9.

Yes, the "Hallelujah" chorus is about the destruction of Jerusalem. The text of it is all from Revelation:
Hallelujah: for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. (19:6)
The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord,
and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. (11:15)
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. (19:16)

The destruction of Jerusalem was the "sign of the Son of Man in heaven" (Matthew 24:30). The destruction of Jerusalem declares that God has "raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named" (Ephesians 1:20, 21). It declares that God "has put all things under His feet" (Ephesians 1:22).

Christ reigns. And as the Temple has been destroyed, no more sacrifice can be made for sin. Christ "appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" (Hebrews 9:26). The Temple has been destroyed and there is no reason for it to ever be rebuilt. This is all very good news!

Is this anti-Semitism? Has God rejected the Jews? Paul answered this is Romans 11, "By no means!" He explains in verse 25, "a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in."

Even though Israel as a whole was cut off, some continue in true faith (v. 1-7).

He says, in vs. 11-12, "So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean!" In verse 15, "For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?" And in verses 23, 24, "And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree." So they will be saved, as the Gentiles are, by evangelism.

"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:14-17)

These are grafted back into the olive tree. "For [Christ] himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility" (Ephesians 2:14) He has "reconciled us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility" (Ephesians 2:16). "For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise" (Galatians 3:26-29). To say there is a distinction between Jew and Gentile within the body of Christ is to deny the Gospel.

Israel will not be restored as the Kingdom. Jesus Himself said, "Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits" (Matthew 21:43). To the elect, Peter said, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." Everyone has equal footing in the Kingdom of God. "In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, 'Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.'" (Isaiah 19:24-25)

After the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, all Israel will be saved. Then we will truly see the fulfillment of Isaiah 19:9: