Over 60 years of
Israeli Statehood

A Celebration of
Prophecy Fulfilled

 

 At the 50th anniversary of Israeli statehood, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in an interview during the festivities, “I Think Israel is the greatest success story of the 20th century, and in many ways, it is the greatest triumph of a people of all the nations of history.” We agree. The return of the Hebrew nation to Israel is as great a story in the annals of history as is the Hebrew’s Exodus from Egypt. We cannot agree with the Prime Minister when he declared that it is a triumph of the people. It is not a triumph of the people. This is God’s triumph fought in the open-air arena of prophecy where the entire world could look on and witness the miraculous and mighty arm of God in action. It has now been 60 years since the inception of the Israeli state, after 2,500 years Israel has been resurrected into a nation with its capitol city, Jerusalem, this being one of the greatest and surest signs that Jesus Christ is about to return from heaven to earth. 

Included in the month long celebrations during that jubilee celebration were memorials to honor the 18,748 who died defending the nation as well as a slew of ceremonies remembering the day in May 1948 when 25 members of the quasi political group of Jewish leaders calling itself the National Council met in Tel-Aviv to sign the newly drafted “Declaration of Independence”. Led by a short white-haired man named David Ben Gurion these men and women seized the moment. The British Empire had tucked its tail and ran, only abruptly announcing that they would be withdrawing as “Protectorate” of Palestine in a few days; and the scramble for power was on. The Arabs, unprepared for the abrupt vacuum of power so quickly created, hesitated. David Ben Gurion and his fellow patriots did not. As history tells it, Ben Gurion convinced his fellow Jews that they should act boldly and swiftly to immediately form a Jewish state. Within twenty-four hours of the declaration for Jewish statehood President Truman gave US diplomatic support and the Egyptians began bombing Jewish strongholds in Palestine. Miraculously, the Jews went on to win the battle and then the war and were able to secure borders for their fledgling state. It was all a miracle – from the beginning to end.

Hiam Shapira, one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence said later, “I felt I was living the words of Psalm 126: ‘When the Lord caused us to return to Zion, we were as dreamers.’ It was a dream which we had never believed would come true in our lifetime. A miracle had happened.”

The American born school teacher from Chicago, Golda Meir, who was also among the elite group of signatories, and later became prime minister, said of that time: “Whatever price any of us would have to pay for it; we had recreated the Jewish national home. The long exile was over. Now we were a nation like other nations, masters – for the first time in 20 centuries – of our own destiny.”

Like Golda Meir, the Jewish nation as a whole believes that their will has brought Israel into existence. But the truth is that the Jews are not masters of their own destiny. God is. What has happened is simply a matter of God keeping His promise made over three and a half millennia.

The Jews did not return to their homeland under their own impetus or genius. We celebrate God’s sovereignty over all the events of history. The Jews were compelled to go “home” by a series of miracles orchestrated by God in accordance to what the prophets of old had said would occur. Starting with Moses 3,500 years ago and running through the prophets of the Old Testament, the theme of a return of Jews, who were scattered throughout the world, has been consistently and dramatically preached in the Bible. Its fulfillment had taken so long that even the most faithful servants on earth had begun to believe that its interpretation must be spiritually applied to the Church and that Israel would never again return to the land promised to them by God. But in His time and according to His perfect plan God has made it happen. It took persecutions, World War II and an awful holocaust for the Jews to migrate back. Only such catastrophic things could have ever moved an entire people to leave the security and convenience of the lives they had built for themselves in every nation of the world to converge on a tiny desert wilderness barren from centuries of neglect. The prophets had told of the day of this revival of a nation and we have seen it come to pass with our own eyes; and for this we glorify God!

The prophet Joel (3:1-3) foretold of it; Zephaniah (3:17-20) had a vision of it; Isaiah (10:20-22) saw it and he wrote about it in chapter 51: “Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorry and mourning shall flee away.” The prophet Jeremiah proclaimed the return of Jews in chapter 30: “For, lo, the days come saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.” Ezekiel was given an entire vision of the return and the revival process. The vision in chapter 37, known as the dry bones vision, is the classic prophecy of the Jews’ miraculous return after centuries of dispersion.

“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones…

 And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest…

 Thus saith the Lord unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:

 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

 And when I beheld lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

 Then he said unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall plave you in your own land: thus shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.”

 

            As the Jews celebrate the miracle of the life of their “dry bones” they look ahead with unfounded, yet understandable, hope that the next fifty years will be in a world that has accepted them and made peace with them. But it will not happen that way (read Zechariah 14:1-9) The Jews must come to accept Christ as their Messiah for them to be prosperous and safe in the world. But that shall not happen until certain Tribulation events take place, i.e. the Antichrist sitting on the throne in Jerusalem declaring himself to be God; also, a great earthquake in Jerusalem after the Two Witnesses are resurrected (see Revelation 11), and not until Jews as an entire nation look upon their Messiah repentantly and with love toward, “Him whom they have pierced.”

            We cannot celebrate Jewish false hopes. We do not share in the excitement of G. Meir when she exclaimed, Now we are a nation like other nations! For this was exactly the opposite of God’s true intent for His chosen seed, and remains so today, that Israel should be separate and unlike any other people, set aside as His inheritance. Yet, Christians can celebrate this landmark of prophetic history because Jesus prophesied that the return of Israel to the Promised Land would signal His close return (see Matt 24, Mark 13, Luke 21). Referring to Israel as a fig tree He said, “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is night: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things (mentioned before in Matt. 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) know that it (my return) is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."

            We rejoice because Jesus heavily implies here that once Israel becomes a state again His return will happen within a generation. If God is counting a generation as 70 or 80 years then how close must the world be to the Rapture and the beginning of the last period of judgment before Christ’s return which the prophet Daniel reported as the 70th and last week of Israel’s salvation story, what Jeremiah has called the time of Jacob’s Trouble?

            We rejoice because the re-creation of Israel as a nation is one of the greatest miracles of history. It is God’s triumph. It is a testimony to the truth of Bible prophecy, no matter how long it takes. It gives us reason to look up knowing that our redemption is drawing nearer and nearer with every breath we take.

 

 

ThePhiladelphiaFaith.org believes in following the Signs of Christ’s Return now so that it will prepare us to ‘follow the lamb whithersoever He goeth’ for all of eternity. …


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          > Miraculous Return of the Jews 

 



EDITOR’S NOTE: Starting with Moses 3,500 years ago and running through the prophets of the Old Testament, the theme of a return of Jews, who were scattered throughout the world, has been consistently and dramatically preached in the Bible. Its fulfillment had taken so long that even the most faithful servants on earth had begun to believe that its interpretation must be spiritually applied to the Church and that Israel would never again return to the land promised to them by God. But in His time and according to His perfect plan God has made it happen. It took persecutions, World War II and an awful holocaust for the Jews to migrate back. Only such catastrophic things could have ever moved an entire people to leave the security and convenience of the lives they had built for themselves in every nation of the world to converge on a tiny desert wilderness barren from centuries of neglect.



This is the Generation of Jesus’ Return
                                                                                            by Eloise Gardenier

In view of the current state in Israel, I felt urged to address the 'fig tree signs' from Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21.

"Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: Lo likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." (Matt. 24.32-34)

''Now learn a parable of the fig tree; when her branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is near, So ye in like manner, when ye shall see these things come to pass, know that it is nigh, even at the doors." (Mark 13.28-29)

''Behold the fig tree, and all the trees: when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." (Luke21:29&30)

What is this parable of the fig tree? In order to find the answer, we must go back to the Old Testament. In Jeremiah we read this; 

"Then said the Lord unto me, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil. And again the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge, them that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again unto this land ..." (Jeremiah 24:3-6) 

 Some might ask; "What does this have to do with the current conditions of Israel now"? It is pretty clear that God is likening the nation Israel to figs. In this passage he not only says He will scatter them, but He will gather them again to the land He gave to their fathers. There may be more but, in my own study of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God speaks through His prophets of the scattering of Israel nine times, and twelve times of the re-gathering of the nation. The promise is also found once in Exodus and once in Amos. Is there any doubt how important this matter is to the Lord? I am convinced there are more references to this matter in the Old Testament that I haven't taken notice of. Let me share three of the most obvious: 

''But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land." Jer. 23:8

"Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.” Ezekiel 11:17

"And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." (Amos 9:14&15)  

As I mentioned before, three gospels make mention of Jesus' instructions to learn the parable of the fig tree! When studying the combination of both the Old and the New Testament references to this matter, it is clear that Israel's scattering from, and regathering to the land is what the parable spoken of by Jesus is all about.
      Here I want to borrow a segment from Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth, a section he calls "Perfect Parable":
     "When Jesus looks into the future and describes the conditions which would prevail at His coming, He puts the Jews back in the land as a nation." ... "The most important sign in Matthew has to be the restoration of the Jews to the land in the rebirth of Israel. Even the figure of speech "fig tree" has been a historic symbol of national Israel. When the Jewish people, after nearly 2000 years of exile, under relentless persecution, became a nation again on 14 May, 1948 the "fig tree" put forth its first leaves.”

Jesus said that this would indicate that He was 'at the door,' ready to return. Then He said, “Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place". Matt. 24:34 What generation is he talking about here? Obviously, the generation that would see the signs. A generation in the Bible is traditionally forty to eighty years. Since 1948, all these prophetic wonders have taken place and it stands to reason we are in the generation spoken of in the Gospels. Three of the gospels (Matt., Mark and Luke) that mention the "fig tree sign" we find this verse; "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled". What things? All those things that Jesus told His disciples, and is telling us today, those signs, would signal His soon return.
     Are you a watching GENERATION? Are you listening? Are you keeping track of Jesus' own prophesies coming to pass daily in our presence? Have you ever studied His Words as He sat on the Mount of Olives and instructed those closest to Him whom He dearly loved? If you haven't now is the time! Matthew, Mark and Luke!

THE FOLLOWING IS QUOTED FROM:
THE REDEMPTION PLAY:

 Act 5 scene 2 "The Fig Tree has Budded"

 

“According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.

Therefore will I be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:

I will meet then as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.

O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee.
(Hosea 13.6‑10)

 

“For lo, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Lord; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.” (Jer. 30.3)

    

    After two thousand years the Jews came home in 1948. After wandering, and tears, and blood, they came home. Notice the animals used in Hosea's prophecy, they are the same animals that make up the Beast, the beasts that trampled Israel during the time of the Gentiles. As the prophet Hosea had said, the Antichrist Empires of Babylon (lion), Greece (leopard), Persia, (bear), and Rome (the wild "beast") had torn Israel into pieces and scattered her across the face of the earth, they had devoured and slain her, so she could know by experience that God is her only helper. All of the trespasses of the Beast upon Israel were allowed under the promise that she would eventually return home to possess the Promised Land.

    The return of the Jews to Israel is the greatest single sign that the last week of Daniel's prophecy and the reign of the Antichrist is closing in on the world. The end of the time of the Gentiles is at hand, judgment is coming on the earth and the King of Kings is readying to set up his throne in Jerusalem, where he will rule the nations in righteousness.

    The prophet Jeremiah pre‑scribed the history of the return and eventual salvation of the nation in this passage of Scripture:

 

“Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.

For I am with thee saith the Lord, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee: but I will correct in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.

For thus saith the Lord, thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous.

There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.

All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.

Why criest thou for this affliction? thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased I have done these things unto thee.

Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.

For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

Thus saith the Lord, behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling places; and the city shall be builded upon her own heap, and the palace shall remain after the manner thereof.

And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry; and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

Their children shall also be as a foretime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them.

And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord.

And ye shall be my people and I will be your God.

Behold the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.

 The fierce anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it. (Jer. 30.10-24)

 

    "And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled." It is vital that a man know the times in which he lives. Jesus strongly rebuked his people for knowing how to read the signs in the skies so they could forecast the weather from day to day while not being able to read the spiritual signs of the time. The Jewish nation as a whole did not know it was the time for the first coming of the Messiah because they ignored the signs of their day. Likewise today, the world and unfortunately much of the Church, ignore the signs of the second coming with a willful ignorance. (2 Pet. 3.3‑5) More than any other sign of the end, the budding and shooting forth of the nation Israel makes possible the fulfillment of all the promises to the Jews, the judgment concerning the nations, and the final rule and worship of the Beast in Jerusalem.

    The prophet Jeremiah likened the nation of Israel to figs, while the Song of Solomon symbolically tells us that the coming of the Beloved One of Israel would occur when the fig tree budded and the green figs shot forth. Israel is God's very own personally planted, watered, pruned, and purged fig tree. This is the tree from which God will reap the harvest of a redeemed nation with a pure heart toward Him. God planted the tree with the root of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; he watered it and gave it increase with David; he pruned it by captivity; and purged it through dispersion and persecution. Israel was cut to the stump after the coming, and death, and resurrection of its King. All, so the Gentiles could be grafted into the tree of life according to God's wisdom and mercy. And now, in our day; in these End Times, we consider the fig tree's new life.

     A nation long dead is revived; Israel's dry bones raised to life. Them bones, them bones, oh, them dry bones, from Ezekiel 36, once just a spiritual sung longingly by the black slaves of America, has literally come to pass. Israel's rebirth serves as a constantly flashing red stop sign along the prophetic way, warning all, to stop and consider: the time of the end is at hand."