It is fitting to share this report as the holiday of Hannukkah (or Chanukah), the Jewish holiday known as the Festival of Light, a holiday that started on December 8th of the 2023rd year of our Lord, comes to its end eight days later, taking place in the midst of Israel's war against and annihilation of evil Moslems terrorists (not just Hamas, ALL so-called "Palestinians" are terrorists, as are vast majority of the Moslem world), who love to hate Israel and Christians and religious freedom and yea, hatred of all mankind, deluded believers of promoting jihad and barbarism like their demon-possessed founder, Muhammad, so that they are violent by very nature, being full of every sort of most atrocious evil and demons, for they are indeed the children and worshippers of Satan, even as the newly elect Prime Minister of Holland Greet Wilders stated in a recent speech.
Hannukkah, an eight-day holiday, celebrates the miracle of light for eight days, when they only had enough oil for one day, during the Macabee revolt during the 3rd century B.C.--when the temple and Holy of Holies was desecrated and Israel was persecuted harshly by the Greeks, where even circumcision and celebration of Jewish festivals was punishable by death--and thus religious freedom in general.
Israel's history is absolutely nothing short of astounding, amazing and miraculous, with God's gracious and merciful hands noted upon every aspect of it, even though Israel as a nation has always been unsaved spiritually, and rejected God's salvation. Every true born again believer has a vested interest in knowing Israel, for that is the tree where Gentiles, a wild olive branch, have been grafted into (Rom 11:11-24). I would say that its an important evidence of salvation, gaining a newfound love for the Jewish people from the moment of conversion. When we look at Israel in the Middle East, we should understand that God continues to roll out His plan for her. Her prominence in world headline news and her preeminence at the evil, Antichrist United Nations schemes and time consumption, year after year, month after month, day after day, one of the tiniest nations in the world, would make absolutely no sense apart from the Bible. Recently it was exposed that the UN's UNICEF doesn't really like Israeli children, which is no shock. The UN hates Israel. A Jewish group called UNICEF to donate money to Israeli children, only to find out you can help Muhammadan children but not Israeli ones. Thats right, there is no support for the 130,000 displaced Israelites from the Oct 7th Islamic Hamas massacre, but plenty of support for the endless children of Islamic devils (source). This site is documenting the awful atrocities by the savage, evil and demonic Moslems on the innocent Jewish people. Extreme viewer discretion is advised.
Israel's enemies are many. Not only Moslems (all Moslems, not just Hamas), but Liberals, Lefties, Marxists, Communists (like China), Nazis, United Nations and more, all in unison with the Antichrist. Their true hatred is actually not the Jew but the God of the Jew, Whom is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The rage and wrathful passion of these evil heathens is to rid the world of Jews, thus upending God's plan and purpose for the world. Heathen rulers and kings of the earth take counsel together for this purpose, against His anointed but also against the Lord to sever not only the Jewish people but God Himself from the earth, but He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure. They ought to careful heed God's Word and God's Son, or they will be broken into pieces with His rod of iron and slaughtered by Him (stated so: Ps 2; Lk 19:26-27; 20:18; Th 1:6-9; Rev 14:18-20; 19:11-21).
Listen to the warning and counsel of the Psalmist, ye "liars, evil beasts, slow bellies" (Ti 1:12 ) in Psalm 2:
"Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth." (Ps 2:1-10)
If the sun, moon, stars, and the ocean waves cease to exist, then Israel will cease to exist. In other words, Israel will never cease to exist!
“Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever” (Jer 31:35-36)
I love Israel. I love the Jewish people. I love them even though they are some of the most rabid enemies I face. I don’t love Israel because I am a “Christian Zionist” or because of the Scofield Bible (which I reject, with its unscriptural commentary notes) or Darby dispensationalism. I love Israel because the Lord Jesus Christ through the Word of God leads me and teaches me to love Israel. My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the greatest Jew that has ever lived. He loves the Jewish people much more than I do or that I could ever, which He showed not only in His incarnation and death for their sins firstly (Matt 1:21), but also how He wept over them on the eve of His crucifixion (Lk 19:41) and said on the cross, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34), and then when He rose from the dead and commanded that the gospel be preached “among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Lk 24:47). Yet He was killed cold bloodily by the very people He loved, came for, and died for first and foremost. Paul the Apostle, a once Pharisee of the Pharisees, expressed his great love for his people Israel, even in her lost, rebellious, and gospel-rejecting condition (Rom 10:1-4) and by his lifelong ministry to Israel even in the face of her stubborn persecution of the gospel (16x in Acts we read he preached in the synagogues) and by his teaching that the gospel is for the “Jew first” (Rom 1:16), and by the fact that he was willing to have his own soul accursed from Christ for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh, the children of Israel (Rom 9:1-3).
My love for the Jewish people and Israel started at the very moment of my new birth. Before that I was literally clueless, you could say. But at that very moment of my superdramatic and supernatural conversion, God opened my eyes and gave me understanding through the Word of God and His indwelling Spirit. For the first time I truly understood what was occurring in the Middle East (where I was converted), and what it meant for Israel to be back in her land and where all the evil, anti-Semitism truly stemmed from. Like Ezk 34:30 says,
"Thus shall they know that I the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God."
We can perceive what is occurring in the Middle East by examining the landscape through the lens of Scripture. Those who embrace the unBiblical and damnable heresy of Replacement Theology (where the church has allegedly replaced Israel, and there is only one chosen people, not two), are very confused when it comes to Israel-type of events in these last days of last days, and very frequently corrupt the Millennial kingdom and the proper literal, exegetical manner of Bible interpretation alongside their confusion and heresy. They cannot (or will not) reconcile these events with Scripture, severely limiting the scripture they even address, and those that they do touch on, they allegoricalize or spiritualize or corrupt in other ways in order to support or fit their false teaching. Since the time of the so-called "church fathers" (who were essentially all heretical and ungodly men), Israel has been the subject of false teachings and unbiblical thinking amongst professing Christians. Through the influence of these so-called "church fathers," Roman Catholicism subsumed these heresies and then later, came part of the plenty of heretical baggage brought out of Rome by Protestants (which also included a false gospel/salvation of baptismal regeneration and keeping of the Lord's Supper), especially by some of their popular heretical voices such as Martin Luther, John Calvin (see also here), and Ulrich Zwingli. The invention of Replacement Theology and the subsequent horrible history of persecution of Jews by professing Christians, was by none other then these "hero" "church fathers" and "Protestant fathers." Luther did not get his ideas about burning synagogues filled with Jews from Scripture rightly divided.
Replacement Theology is a "doctrine of devils" (1 Tim 4:1), which we will cover in yet greater detail.
Yes, I am a Zionist, and proudly so. Based on an accurate view of history, Zionism is historical. According to the Bible, it is Biblical. In a philosophical way, Israel better represents the nationalistic purpose of God. Arab’s having lived on that land for centuries doesn’t negate Israel, any more than American Indians negate Canada or America (furthermore, Israel existed in the land for thousands of years prior to the Arabs or Amalekites). The tribulation of Hamas and other Islamic identities and nations upon Israel is a possible means to God’s ends, but it is not a sign, as some people characterize it. There will be signs, and they will be obvious, but its possible that occurrences will occur to lead to those signs.
In understanding the Bible and literal interpretation of Scripture (which results in some dispensationalism, not extreme or hyper), its not difficult to perceive, discern and understand what is occurring, like the recent war in Israel after the Islamic terrorist group Hamas attacked innocent Jewish families and slaughtered hundreds of them, including many young Israelites at a musical festival and many families with children and babies. God’s Word is truth. You cannot reference Israel without referencing what the Bible says. Everything occurring in Zion is prophetically explained. On the other hand, some overshoot and use Israel as their prophetic pin cushion.
What has been amazing to see over the course of its modern history, is Israel’s love for her enemy neighbours despite her unregenerate condition, in spite of the Satanic hatred experienced at their hands, as noted in this report. But the patience and love runs dry when the enemy starts killing, raping, burning, beheading, murdering your innocent elderly people, babies, women, children, family members, neighbours. Then its time to exact wrath on the evil and savage beasts.
The Birth of Israel and the Jewish Race
Israel (and the Jewish race) was founded by God with the conversion of Abraham to Christ, which took place in Gen 15:1-6 (written on here in some detail). In preaching His gospel to Abraham, the Word of God (aka., the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Holy One of Israel) informed Abraham that his offspring would be as the stars of heaven in number, which has both physical (fleshy, children of Israel) and spiritual (all born again believers, he is the father of our faith, Gal 3) connotations, along with "the seed" (the Lord Jesus Christ Himself), would come through his lineage (Gal 3:16-18), which are the three blessings that come through the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 12:1-3).
"And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be." (Gen 15:5)
Abraham and his wife Sara, were around the age of one hundred when this promise took place, and up to this point, Abraham had not believed God that a physical seed would come forth from his elderly loins, something the LORD God had preached to him on multiple occasions. This unbelief might be considered reasonable to many since no woman can have children typically at this age, but with God all things are possible, nothing is too hard for Him, so Abraham's salvation hinged upon believing the Lord, as is the case with every conversion (it begins with believing what the Bible says, all of it, including what the Bible says about you, your evil nature, and your deserving place in the eternal fires of hell--e.g. Rom 10:17; 1 Pet 1:23). This particular time of enlightenment by God the Son's peaching was different. Abraham believed God and the Lord saved his soul, regenerating him in the twinkle of an eye, and he became the father of true saving faith for the new birth:
"Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. . . . And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." (Gal 3:7-9, 29)
These passages in Galatians confirm that the children of God are the seed of Abraham. But the children of Israel, the offspring of the 12 patriarchs fathers and tribes of Israel, are also the seed of Abraham (though that does not automatically grant them salvation, only partakers of the covenants of God besides the new covenant, which is through the new birth, and other special privileges, Rom 9:3-4, detailed further on), as is the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Bible speaks of Abraham's seed, any or all three of these could be in reference, depending on the context.
Abraham's salvation occurred in the land of Israel (later referred to as the land of Canaan), around 1922 B.C., thus nearly 4,000 years ago. It was at this point in Gen 15 that the LORD God again confirmed that the land of Israel was Abraham's inheritance of the LORD:
"And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." (Gen 15:7)
Abram (changed to "Abraham" after his conversion, in Gen 17:5, which name means the father of many nations) had left Ur of the Chaldees as the Lord had directed him (though Abram at this point was yet unconverted, he obeyed the words of the Lord by faith), with his father Terah and traveled to Haran where Terah died (Gen. 11:31-32; Neh. 9:7). The Lord then instructed Abram to leave Haran "unto a land that I will show thee" (Gen 12:1), and that He would make of him a great nation and would bless him and make his name great (Gen 12:2-3). So Abram obeyed the words of the Lord (Gen. 12:4; Heb. 11:8), and thereafter was converted to Christ through the preaching of Christ Himself in Gen 15:1-6, becoming the father of a great earthly nation (Israel) and great spiritual kingdom whose king was to be Jesus Christ and whose citizens would be obedient born again believer of all nations, both Jew and Gentile (Gal. 3:14-16; 4:22-28). Abraham then, by faith, dwelled in the land that God promised him (Gen 12:6), the land of Israel.
From the moment of Abraham's conversion, the Jewish people, Israel, have been the apple of God's eye (Ze 2:8; De 32:10; Ps 17:8; Lam 2:18).
"For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye." (Ze 2:8)
That means Israel is special and beloved by the Lord, above all people. The True and Living God of the Bible identifies Himself as “the God of Israel” 203 times, “the God of Jacob” 28 times, “the God of Abraham” 17 times, and “the God of Isaac” 13 times. Never is He called the God of any other ethnic group. These designations are foundational to everything the Bible teaches, including the very character of God. To profess to believe in the God of the Bible and at the same time hold a prejudice against God’s chosen people, the Jews, or against Israel, which turns these clear biblical identifications into meaningless titles, casts serious doubt upon whether such a one really knows the true God of Heaven, Earth, the Bible and Israel. The same charge is given towards those who believe in the damnable heresy of Replacement Theology.
In His refutation of the Sadducees’ denial of the resurrection, Christ’s primary argument was based upon God’s statement to Moses:
“I AM . . . the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob . . . this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations” (Ex. 3:14-15)
Clearly, this was the identity of the true God then; today and forever. God never changes.
Abraham and Sarah had Isaac miraculously by the hand of God in their old age, who would go on, with Rebekkah his wife, and bear twins, from whence came the twelve tribes of Israel, through the younger twin Jacob, who was to be served by the elder (Esau). Jacob's 12 sons, which are the 12 tribes of Israel, were: Juda, Reuben, Gad, Aser, Nepthalim, Manasses, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zabulon, Joseph, and Benjamin. This is the order given in Rev 7, even though Reuben is the oldest, and this order because Christ's lineage would come through Juda. He became the prominent son of Jacob, and that was because of his genuine penitence in Gen 44, and the history that followed, known by God in His foreknowledge.
In spite of God’s great love for Israel and her special place in His sovereignty, she has never been spiritually saved as a nation. Meaning, majority have never been converted to Christ, born again, only ever a remnant. Not only was she unsaved in the wilderness, Israel has remained unsaved ever since that time. The only time in the history of the nation that they’ve been a truly saved people was when they consisted of two people: Abraham and Sara, or three, Isaac including. But there is a day coming when Israel will be saved, and that will occur in the wilderness during the Great Tribulation, the 1/3 of Israel that exists at the time, the number of Israelites that will survive the slaughter of the Antichrist after they flee into the wilderness for their life (Rev 12:6-17), where they will finally call upon Him whom they pierced and hanged on a tree:
"But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them." (De 4:29-31)
The Bible is very clearly that Israel would be restored to her land, converted, and then reside at the heart of Christ’s millennial reign, as the rest of this report will expound.
For those who reject the Jews as a specific race of preserved people, they are extremely confused and foolish. The Jews are definitely a people, everything in Scripture reads that way. There are twelve Jewish tribes that exist today as they always have, from the time of the Patriarchs. If the Jews weren't a preserved race of people, the entire Bible is a convoluted mess of confusion. But its not, and we can know the truth when we submit ourselves to the truth.
God's Covenants with Israel
To understand Bible theology, Bible history, and Bible prophecy it is necessary to understand the covenants that God has made with Israel.
God's covenants with Israel are everlasting, and will never be broken. For the heathen to rage and attempt to break Israel's band asunder, is utter foolishness.
“I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, . . . Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” (Ps. 89:3, 33-34)
“For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.” (Ps 135:4)
“For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy. There will I make the horn of David to bud: I have ordained a lamp for mine anointed. His enemies will I clothe with shame: but upon himself shall his crown flourish.” (Ps. 132:13-18)
Jehovah made a covenant with Abraham (Gen. 12:1-4; 15:8), Isaac (Gen. 26:1-4), Jacob (Gen. 28:11-15) and David (2 Sam. 7:8-16).
Psalm 89 makes it very clear that Gods covenants with Israel shall never be broken. Solomon emphasized that Jehovah is the God who “keepest covenant, and shewest mercy” (2 Ch 6:14-15).
Gods unconditional covenants to the Jewish people are as follows:
the Abrahamic Covenant — promising a mighty nation (Gen. 12:1-3, 7; 13:14-17; 15:5, 18; 17:8),
the Palestinian Covenant — promising a land (De. 30:1-10; Ps 105:6-15),
the Davidic Covenant — promising an eternal kingdom (2 Sam. 7:10-16; 23:5; 2 Chr. 13:5), and
the New Covenant — promising new hearts (Jer. 31:31-34).
Note that God gives a solemn promise here that Israel will not cease to be a nation (Jer. 31:3-7). Gods covenants with Israel are everlasting (Ezk 16:60; 34:30; 2 Sam. 7:24; 22:51).
Abrahamic Covenant
To lost Jews, Peter the Apostle, a Jew said:
“Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” (Ac. 3:25-26).
Israel is the consummation of the Abrahamic Covenant, promises still unfulfilled. God’s covenant with Abraham is one of the most important matters in human history. It was through this covenant that God created the nation of Israel, brought the Holy Scriptures and the Saviour to the world, and provided redemption and salvation by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to the sinful human race.
"Now the Lord had said unto Abram, . . . And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. . . . And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land:" (Gen 12:1-7)
"Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac; And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance." (1 Ch 16:16-18)
"Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the Lord. These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses." (Lev 26:42-46 )
"The land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance" covenant was "made with Abraham . . . and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant" (Ps. 105:8-15, 42-45).
Words could not be plainer, especially what we read in Lev 26. Israel’s rebellion does not annul the covenant that God made with her through Jacob. In the passages above, God is talking about the people of Israel and the land of Israel, and there is no legitimate way to apply this to "the church."
The Abrahamic Covenant could be divided into three elements of blessings (Gen 12:1-3), which cover the three usages of "seed" in Scripture. Personal blessings, national blessings and believer blessings.
Abrahamic personal blessings refers to God's promises towards Abraham of wealth, greatness and prominence, and to him alone, “I will bless thee, and make thy name great,” (Gen 12:2). Abraham was a great man of God, becoming one of the most important men in the history of the world. He is mentioned 311x in the Bible. God blessed him with wealth as promised (Gen 24:35). Through Isaac, Abraham is the father of the Jews and the Christians, and through Ishmael, he is the father of the Arabs. God named paradise after Abraham (Lk 16:22), because he is the father of saving faith (Rom 4:11; Gal 3:14). Through him would also come the Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Abrahamic national blessings refer to God's promise towards the Jewish nation through Abraham (“I will make of thee a great nation,” Gen 12:2), the people who would come forth from Abraham's loins, the 12 tribes of Israel, seed as the sand on the seashore and as the stars of the heavens. Israel inherited the covenant through Isaac (Gen 26:1-4) and Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. God said to Jacob, “And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land” (Gen 35:9-12). To national Israel belongs the land that was promised to Abraham (Gen 12:7; 13:14-17; 15:7). In 1 Ch 16:13-16 David affirmed that Abraham’s covenant passed through Isaac and Jacob to Jacob’s children, the nation Israel, and that the promise includes the inheritance of the land. We see seed from Abraham here includes both the nation of Israel which shall inherit the land (Gen 15:13-21), but also the greater Seed, the Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:16).
Abrahamic believers blessing, the spiritual seed through Christ (Gal 3:16, 29) by the new birth (Jn 3:3-18), refers to all born again believers, the redeemed, both OT and NT saints, who inherit the spiritual salvation blessing component of the Abrahamic covenant (Gen 12:2-3 "...in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed") through faith in Jesus Christ (Gal 3:6-14). This does NOT mean that the institution of the Church has replaced the nation of Israel. There are three entities existing before God today: Jews, Gentiles, and the church of God (1 Cor 10:32). Born again Gentile believers do not inherit Israel’s national promises in Abraham (Rom 11:25-29); they do not possess the land of Israel and our hope is not tied to that land. We will rule and reign with Christ (1 Cor 6:1-3; Rev 5:10), not as Israel, but as Christ’s Bride. How exactly the church will relate to Israel in the Millennial kingdom is not revealed in Scripture.
The rebellion of Abraham’s national seed, Israel, does not annul the promises that God has made to her. Everywhere in Scripture we are taught that national Israel would be judged for her sin, but that she will be restored to her own land and to the place of God’s blessing when she repents (De 28-30; Hos 3:4-5; Am 9:8-15; Ac 3:18-21; 15:13-18; Rom 11:25-29).
God promised to bless those who bless Abraham and to curse those who curse him. Laban testified that God blessed him for Jacob’s sake (Gen 30:27). Potiphar testified that God blessed him for Joseph’s sake (Gen 39:2-3). The principle of cursing those who curse Abraham and blessing those who bless him is applicable to Abraham’s national seed. God has blessed and cursed nations for how they have treated Israel. God has used many nations to judge Israel when she sinned, but He always judged those pagan nations afterwards.
Isa 33:1 pronounces woe upon “the spoilers,” referring to the spoilers of Israel. God used "the spoilers" to judge sinning Israel, but He pronounced woe upon the spoilers. This happened to Assyria (Isa 10:25) and to Babylon (Jer 51:11). God took vengeance on Babylon for destroying Israel’s temple. In Ze 2:8-9, God says that Israel is the apple of His eye, and He warns that He will judge those who destroy Israel. The prophet Ezekiel pronounced judgment upon many nations for hating Israel. For instance, Ezk 25:3-7 (Ammonites), Ezk 25:8-11 (Moab), Ezk 25:12-14 (Edom), Ezk 25:15-17 (Philistines), Ezk 26:2-5 (Tyre), Ezk 28:22-24 (Zidon), Ezk 35:3-15 (Edom). See also Joel 3:19; Am 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 13; Ob 10-16; Zeph 2:8-11. Ezekiel promises that Israel will be regathered, restored, sanctified, and blessed in the land that God gave to Jacob, but that God will judge “all those that despise them round about them” (Ezk 28:25-26).
Israel is under God judgment today for her unbelief and rebellion, but she is still Israel, and she still belongs to God, and she is still under God’s watchcare, and those who curse her are still cursed. I, for one, would not curse Israel, even in her most apostate condition. When Israel was wandering in the wilderness because of her sin and unbelief, God did not allow Balaam to curse her:
“How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied?” (Num 23:8).
The remaining covenants essentially stream out of this first covenant, the Abrahamic Covenant. Without the Abrahamic Covenant, none of the others would exist.
Palestinian Covenant
The Palestinian (Israel) Covenant is a Land Covenant that says God is not finished with Israel (De 28-30). It guarantees that same Israel that would rebel and be cast out of the land and suffer great indignation (De 30:22-28) would one day return (De 30:1-9). This covenant was made in the land of Moab (De 29:1) with the 12 tribes of Israel at the end of Israel's sojourn of 40 years in the wilderness just prior to entering the Promised Land. The covenant promises that Israel will be restored to the land and blessed after the judgments of God are finished (De 30:1-9), but it will only be fulfilled when Israel, scattered among the nations, repents (De 30:1-2). This proves that apostate Israel of the diaspora is the Israel that will fulfill this covenant. God gave the children of Israel possession of the land, which could only be enjoyed by the Hebrews while they walked with God, and for that they needed to be converted. So there is a caveat attached: obedience, thus repentance.
"O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the Lord our God: his judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people; He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm." (Ps. 105:6-15).
"When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them." (De 4:30-31)
“And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it. . . . But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof:)” (Num 33:50-34:2).
The land of Israel was given to the Jews by God, it is His eternal covenant with them. But to keep it, comes with a clause or condition. Apostate Israel will repent and fulfill its condition.
Thus, the covenant is not fulfilled in Israel today, but it will be fulfilled when Israel is converted during the time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jer 30:7).
The Palestinian Covenant is given to us in Gen 13:15; Lev 25:23; Num 33:50-34:2; De 1-3; 28-30, especially De 30, a most amazing passage of scripture. It gives the conditions under which Israel entered the land of promise, which is through obedience, and these conditions can only be met through the new birth (De 30:6); thus the call to obedience is a call to salvation. That is why only Caleb and Joshua entered the Promised Land of Paradise from the Hebrew group out of Egypt, likewise it'll be in the fulfillment of the covenant. Blessings and eternal life would come forth upon conversion and its subsequent fruit of obedience, while rejecting the call to repentance would result in cursing, and expulsion from the land. God's will and desire was for Israel to obey Him because they loved Him, out of genuine love for Him. Loving Him (v. 6) would bring forth obedience (v. 10), as it does with all truly regenerate saints (cf. Matt 7:21-23; Jn 14:15-23; 15:1-10; 1 Jn 2:3-5; 2 Jn 1:5-6; etc), because God circumcise's the heart from the flesh of the repentant sinner (v. 6a; cf. Col 2:10-15) which leads to loving the Lord thy God will all thine mind, heart, soul, and strength (v. 6b; cf. De 6:5; Matt 22:37-40) whereupon all of God's laws and commandments hang (Matt 22:40). This is the fruit of obeying the non-hidden words of God heard preached, and/or read in His Book, the words which fall on the soil of the mind and heart, words very nigh thee (vv. 11-15, which Paul the Apostle preached in similar circumstances, Rom 10:1-10ff.) and bring forth the blessing of God upon the land of the Hebrews.
This is choosing between life and death, good and evil, or life and good or death and evil. The surrendered, submitted, broken, contrite and repentant heart (2 Ch 7:14; Is 55:1-7) is choosing life and good, while those who refuse (cf. Jn 3:19-21), are choosing death and evil. This is the reality of ones choice in response to God's reproof (Pr 1:20-32, see also here).
This is exactly what De 30:1-20 is teaching, and all Jewish readers must give urgent and careful heed:
"And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee. And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord , and do all his commandments which I command thee this day. [9] And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers: If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."
Upon her repentance, Israel will be restored to the place of God’s blessing (De. 30:9).
Israel remains in a dead, lifeless spiritual condition. She has not obeyed the words of De 30. Thus God’s promises to Israel will be fully fulfilled when the times of the Gentiles is complete (Rom 11) and Jesus returns, for this is the time of Israel's repentance and cry to the Messiah whom they hung on a tree:
"Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee [i.e. the Gentile nations]: but I will not make a full end of thee [i.e. Israel], but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished." (Jer. 46:28)
"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Rom 11:25-29)
"But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." (1 Cor 3:14-16)
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Lk. 13:34-35)
Davidic Covenant
The Davidic covenant is an extension of the covenant God made with Abraham. In the Davidic covenant, God gives more details about the national kingdom aspect of the Abrahamic Covenant. The Davidic Covenant promises the following: First, the house and throne of David will be established forever (2 Sam 7:13, 16). Second, David’s children will be chastised for sin, but the covenant can never be annulled (2 Sam 7:14-15). Third, the Davidic covenant will be fulfilled through Jesus Christ, David’s Son, who inherits David’s throne (Matt 1:1) and who will establish the Davidic kingdom (Is 9:6-7). The Messiah, the “Son of David,” would reign forever on Jerusalem’s throne (1 Ch 17:11-14), which is the throne of David
"And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever. I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee: But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore." (1 Ch 17:11-14)
The "Kingdom of Heaven (God)" is the future, earthly Davidic kingdom promised in the OT (1 Ch. 17; cf. Mk. 14:25; 13:28-30; 21:31; 22:28-30), where God the Son Himself will sit on the throne of David and rule the world from Jerusalem, which we know as the Millennial Kingdom, the 1,000 reign of Christ as King of kings.
The Psalmists mention the Davidic covenant and interpret it literally (Ps. 18:50; 89:3-4, 20-37; 132:11-18), and teach us that the Davidic Covenant is the means whereby God will establish His kingdom on earth (Ps. 89:20-29). Ps 72 describes in much detail the physical, earthly kingdom of David’s Son Jesus the Messiah. The prophets also often mention the Davidic covenant and interpret it literally (Is 9:6-7; 16:5; 22:22-24; 55:3-5; Jer 23:5-6; 30:9; 33:15-26; Ezk 34:23-24; 37:24-25; Am 9:11-15; Ze 12:7-13:1; Hos 3:4-5). For instance, Hos 3:4-5:
“For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days."
This is the Bible’s teaching about Israel and her future in a nutshell. Israel would rebel against God’s Word, be judged, abide many days without a king or a sacrifice or a priesthood (e.g., no kingdom and no temple and no sacrifices), then return, repent, and be restored and blessed. The restoration will occur “in the latter days.”
New Covenant
The New Covenant is prophesied in Is 61:1-12 and Ezk 36:22-38. Jehovah is the Author of the New Covenant with Israel (Jer. 31:31-34) which further tells us God is not finished with Israel (Jer 31-33) The New Covenant is God’s promise to convert rebellious Israel (Jer 31:31) restoring her to her own land, and blessing her, and will result in the promise of Israels regathering (Jer. 31:6-11), the spiritual conversion of the people and cleansing from sin (Jer. 31:33-34), God’s blessing upon Israel’s land (Jer. 31:4-5, 12-14, 24-25), which is often referred to the land as “the land of Israel” by Ezekiel when he prophesies of Israel’s restoration (Ezk 11:17; 20:38, 42; 37:12; 38:18-19; 40:2; 47:18), the reestablishment of Israel’s kingdom and the possession of the land (Jer. 31:35-37) and also blessing upon Jerusalem as the capital of the kingdom (Jer 31:38-40).
The New Covenant is unconditional and sure (Jer. 33:19-26). God goes out of His way to make this absolutely clear.
“In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness. For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; Neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. And the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season; Then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers. As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me. Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which the LORD hath chosen, he hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to berulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them.” (Jer 33:19-26)
Here in Jer. 33:19-26 God specifically corrects those who say that He has cast off the families of Israel that they should be no more a nation. This is exactly what Replacement Theology says.
When Christ returns and fulfills the New Covenant in Israel, Israel will be called “Jehovah our righteousness” (Jer. 33:16). The name of the LORD will be known and spoken of throughout the earth. The very theme of the prophecies of Ezekiel is “ye shall know that I am the LORD [Jehovah]” (Ezk 6:7, 10, 13-14; etc). This statement appears 63 times. The purpose of God’s judgments upon and dealings with Israel over the past 2,600 years is that Israel will know that Jehovah is the true and living God.
This is the New Covenant.
The New Covenant (partially applied to Gentiles, the spiritual aspects only) is described in Heb 8:6-13,
"But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away."
This New Covenant has nothing to do with "the Church." If the New Covenant is not fulfilled in "the church," why does the writer of Hebrews quote it (Heb 8:6-13; 10:15-19)? (1) Hebrews does not say the New Covenant is fulfilled in the church. It twice states, rather, that the New Covenant belongs to “the house of Israel” (Heb. 8:8, 10). (2) Hebrews refers to the New Covenant to show that the Mosaic law was only temporary and that even the OT promised that it would be abolished and replaced by another covenant. The Old Covenant was a schoolmaster to bring the sinner to Christ (Gal 3). (3) The writer of Hebrews indicates that the NT believer partakes of the spiritual blessings of the New Covenant through Christ (Heb 10:15-18), but nowhere does he say that this covenant has been transferred from national Israel to the church or that the physical aspects of the covenant should be spiritualized. Since the spiritual aspects of the New Covenant (and the spiritual aspects only) are cited in Heb 8:8-11 (from Jer 31:31-34), it appears that Gentile believers participate only in the spiritual blessings of the New Covenant through Christ’s atonement. (4) Paul taught that the New Covenant will be fulfilled literally in Israel following the church age (Rom 11:25-27). In v. 27 Paul refers to the covenant of Jer 31:31-34.
Ps 89:31-37 describes Israel with her unbelief, disobedience, and then God’s faithful implementation of His unilateral covenants:
"If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven."
The unconditional covenants made by the LORD to Israel through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will be fulfilled in their entirety when Israel believes in Jesus Christ as the Messiah at His return (1 Ki 8:56). Israel will then be fully restored to their everlasting land and fulfill their initial design of becoming the ruling nation and a light to the world during the millennial reign of Christ. (De 30:1–6; Ezk 11:17; 20:33–38; 34:13–16; Is 42:6–7; Jer 33:6–9; Mic. 4:6–13; Ze 8:3–8; 10:6; Rom 9:27; 11:26).
God's Land, Given to the Jews Forever
God gave the land to Israel because He owns it. All of it. He owns the entire world, but Israel is His living quarters, His glory, and He specifically gave that land to His chosen people, the Jewish nation.
God gave the land of Israel to Abraham and to his seed, Isaac (Gen. 12:7; 13:14-17; 15:18-21; 17:7-8; 26:1-5), and then to Jacob who was renamed Israel (Gen. 28:12-15; 48:4).
"And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land:" (Gen 12:7)
Even without the promises of God to Israel, Israel still deserves the land. She is not beyond criticism, but she is exponentially better than the evil, no good, uesless and utterly corrupt diabolical Islamic nations surrounding her.
God gave the Hebrews the land of Canaan, before the Gentile nations inhabited it.
When God gave the land to Abraham, no Gentile nations existed in the land of Canaan. It was known at that time, and as Abraham got large materialistically and wealthy, and then having Isaac and Jacob, that the land belonged to Abraham. It was only after Israel returned from the 400 year captivity in Egypt, that Gentile nations had squatted in the land, seven nations in fact had inhabited the region (unlawfully): the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Girgashites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These people were steeped in idolatry and committed horrendous atrocities. God then instructed the Hebrews to take the land back, and it would from thence be a theocracy under His leadership.
“And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou art shall see the work of the Lord: for it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee. Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite.” (Ex. 34:10-11)
Oh, you don't like "theocracy"? You actually don't like God the Son in other words, who will rule the world with a rod iron from Jerusalem for 1,000 years; the millennial kingdom of Christ.
Skeptics of the Bible sometimes doubt that Israel was present in the land of Canaan during the time period specified by the Bible. They allege that the Biblical record was made up many centuries later. The Merneptah Stele is powerful validation of the accuracy of the Biblical narrative's account of early Israel's presence in Canaan.
God gave the land to the Jewish people,
“But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people.” (Lev. 20:24).
The Lord God Almighty in Gen 17, specifically states that the title to Canaan is not to Ishmael, the ancestor of the Arabs, but to Isaac and his seed for ever.
“And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.” (Gen. 17:19)
This covenant was confirmed to Isaac:
“Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father;” (Gen 26:3)
This covenant was also confirmed to Jacob:
“And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed;” (Gen 28:13)
Later God confirmed these same promises and covenant to Moses and appointed Jerusalem to be the place where His name would be worshipped (De 12:5, 11, 14, 18, 26; 30:3-5; etc).
“That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.” (De. 30:3-5)
“And the LORD spake unto Moses in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan; Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: And ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it. And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among your families: and to the more ye shall give the more inheritance, and to the fewer ye shall give the less inheritance: every man's inheritance shall be in the place where his lot falleth; according to the tribes of your fathers ye shall inherit. But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell. Moreover it shall come to pass, that I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land of Canaan; (this is the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof:)” (Num 33:50-34:2).
About 500 years after that, God promised king David that his house and kingdom would be “established for ever,” and that there would always be one of his descendants to sit upon the throne of Israel.
David writes, as inspired by God, the title to the land is to the Jews and the descendants of Jacob:
“Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.” (Ps. 105:9-12)
This line can be traced to both Mary the mother of Jesus Christ, and to Joseph the husband of Mary, thus making Jesus Christ the son of David and heir to the throne (2 Sam. 7:12-16; Matt. 1:1-16; Lk. 1:30-33). When Jesus Christ came in fulfilment of many OT prophecies, Israel rejected her Messiah (Jn 1:11); and in fulfilment of Jesus’ own words Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD, after which the nation was scattered around the world (Lk. 21:20-24).
There is absolutely no debate as to the ownership of the land of Israel; this question has been settled for nearly 3,500 years.
“And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land.” (Gen 12:5-7)
“Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac; And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance.” (1 Ch 16:16-18)
The land was given to Isaac, the father of Israel, not to Ishmael, the father of the Arabs. The UN thinks it can give the land to whomever it pleases, but this is a delusion by men who are in rebellion to God’s Word. Even today there remains a large number of the Jews themselves who are willing to trade their God-given land for “peace,” such as when Moshe Dayan returned the Temple Mount to the control of the Jordanians in 1967 and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon gave Gaza to the wicked so-called "Palestinians" (whom are in fact the Amalekites) in 2005. This is very sad, but it is what happens when you have a zeal for God but remain blind and cold to the truth that the Messiah has already come and is awaiting Israels redemption during the time of Jacobs trouble, the 70th week of Daniel, so that the Bible remains a closed anf lifeless Book to them.
The prophetic Scripture warns the Gentile nations that God will judge them harshly for parting the land:
“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, AND PARTED MY LAND.” (Joel 3:1-2; see also Ze 7–8)
Note that God says that this land is “my land.” It has never been given to the oversight of the UN or to American presidents or to the EU. It belongs to God, and He gave it to Israel as an everlasting possession (Gen. 17:8; 48:4).
What are the borders of the land that God gave the Jewish people?
To Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, and to his descendants after him, God gave all the land from the river Euphrates to the river of Egypt for an “everlasting possession” (Gen. 15:18-21; 17:1-8; 1 Cor. 10:32).
"Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast." (Jos 1:3-4)
What about the so-called "Palestinians"?
One of the modern day attacks on Israel is that they are occupying "Palestinian" land. If Israel is occupying Palestinian land, can someone please explain the basis of international law for Palestinian ownership of this land? They all likely assume that there was a previous Palestinian state that the Israelis occupied and destroyed, but in reality, there has never been a Palestinian state of any kind, ever, at any point in history. There is no Palestinian history or culture. There has been a region known as “Palestine” since 134 AD, when the Romans applied that name pejoratively to the land that had previously been known as Judea, that is, land of the Jews. But “Palestine” could be seen akin to “Vancouver Island” — it was only the name of a region, never of a people or a nation.
After nearly 2,000 years of exile, the people of Israel were returning home, and there were Arabs around Israel who do not like it because they hated Jews, zealously and demonically. What did these Arabs and their lefty, liberal, woke evil counterparts do? They invented a fictitious people and claimed fictitious rights in the Land of Israel, with the sole intentions of fighting the Zionist movement and annihilating Israel, "from the river to the sea," as they diabolically chant. Its a homicidal and genocidal chant, for your information.
The "Palestinian" Arab hoax was born in 1963, when the foes of Israel hit upon a new strategy that would turn the tide of international public opinion against Israel and give new impetus to the jihad against it. Before that, as The Palestinian Delusion: The Catastrophic History of the Middle East Peace Process shows, amid all the drama surrounding Jewish settlements in Israel, the rise of Zionism, and the establishment of the Jewish state, the Palestinians are nowhere to be seen.
The Moslem Arab diabolical lie has three major objectives: (1) Establish a Palestinian people when there was none; (2) place Palestinian Arabs in the Holy Land long before Arabs actually arrived there; and (3) characterize Jews as religious adherents, not a people. NO, Jesus was NOT a "Palestinian," a lie and demonic hoax parroted by demented "liars, evil beasts, slow bellies" (Ti 1:12) mostly those of the Satanic ideology of Islam. The Romans didn't (unofficially) change the name of this region from Judea to Palestine until about 135 AD, long after Jesus' death: thus there was no Palestine during Jesus life, and therefore no Palestinian nationality. There were also no Arabs in the Holy Land until about 650 AD, so there is no Palestinian Arab nationality either. Most Arabs arrived in the Land of Israel at the same time as the Jewish immigration and the beginning of Zionism, purposefully. There's no historical mention of a group of Arabs identified as "Palestinians" until the 1960s. The first "Palestinians"—both in ancient times and in modern times were the Jews, who lived in the Holy Land when it was pejoratively called Syria Palestina and who in the early 20th century gave their institutions such names as the Palestine Symphony Orchestra, the Palestine Post, Palestine Electric Co., Palestine Brigade (WWII), etc. Before Israel’s statehood in 1948, the name “Palestinian” meant a Jew living in that land, not an Arab.
It is no accident that neither Mark Twain, or any other English traveller who traveled through desolate Palestine over the centuries ever mention the “Palestinian” people. They speak of encountering Arabs, Jews and Christians, and others, but no one, among multitudes of people who wrote about Palestine, ever refers to any "Palestinians." Nor do the many British White Papers and other documents the British government produced during the Mandate period ever mention the Palestinians, for during this time, the Arabs of Palestine generally considered themselves to be Syrians, and Palestine to be Southern Syria. The opposing factions in those documents are the Jews and the Arabs. Of course there is a very simple reason for this: there were no "Palestinians."
Amusingly, in Birzeit of Israel, there is a "Palestinian" Museum since 2016 and its not referring to the Jewish people either. Its a "Museum" without an exhibition. Its been very difficult for the curators to find anything that has to do with Palestinian history. They don't have any artifacts in their multimillion dollar museum. People line up to see all the ancient proof of them as a people, but oh no that's something wrong; there is nothing of historical value.
The Arabs calling themselves "Palestinians" is one of the greatest hoaxes of the 20th-century, since the hoax didn't exist before that. The “Palestinian" people is propaganda fiction. It’s time to stop playing along. There is no such nation, race, ethnicity, nationality, or culture, and never has there been. They are Arabs, and more likely Amalekites, with their evil homicidal and genocidal anti-Semitic and anti-Christian Islamic jihad right on par with the Amalekites of old.
Conventional wisdom today suggests the new state of Israel in 1948 was to blame for the creation of the Arab refugee problem, and that repatriation of Arab Palestinians in a new homeland of their own would solve the conflict. There is just one major problem with the concept: it's patently untrue. Here are some oldies but goodies – not the words of Jews and Israelis, but the actual words of Arabs closer to the time of the events, retrieved from "Arab leaders caused the Palestinian refugee problem" (WND):
"The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agree upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem." – Emile Ghoury, secretary of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee, in an interview with the Beirut Telegraph Sept. 6, 1948
"The Arab state, which had encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies, have failed to keep their promise to help these refugees." – The Jordanian daily newspaper Falastin, Feb. 19, 1949
"Who brought the Palestinians to Lebanon as refugees, suffering now from the malign attitude of newspapers and communal leaders, who have neither honor nor conscience? Who brought them over in dire straits and penniless, after they lost their honor? The Arab states, and Lebanon amongst them, did it." – The Beirut Muslim weekly Kul-Shay, Aug. 19, 1951
"The 15th May, 1948, arrived . . . On that day the mufti of Jerusalem appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country, because the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their stead." – The Cairo daily Akhbar el Yom, Oct. 12, 1963
Any one can know this historical truth – if they actually care enough to read. Its readily available out there, though history changers are busy doing their evil work. There was never any sort of Jewish conspiracy to chase Arabs out of their homes in 1948. It never happened, and in fact, the very opposite did occur. Plenty of historical records show the Jews pleading with their Arab neighbours to stay and live in peace and harmony. Yet, despite the clear, unambiguous words of the Arab observers at the time, history has been successfully rewritten to turn the Jews into the bad guys.
That is also part of Satans pogrom against God's chosen people. Roughly 68% of the Arab Palestinians who left in 1948 (perhaps 300,000 to 400,000 of them) never actually saw an Israeli soldier. Even more importantly, the revised history has given the guilty a free ride. The Arab states that initiated the hostilities have never accepted responsibility. In spite of their enormous wealth and their ability to assimilate tens of millions of refugees in their largely under-populated nations, they have done nothing of the sort (understandably, they despise the "Palestinian" people because of the evil trouble they always create, like they did in Jordan & Bahrain). And other states have failed to hold them accountable.
How modern Israel came into being, by the providence of God.
Just prior to the evil Ottoman Empire's (aka. “The Sick Man of Europe”) collapse in the early 1920's, it conceded control of the region of "Palestine" and the land Transjordan, now knwon as Jordan, to the League of Nations (today know as the UN), land it had sovereignty over. On July 24, 1922, the League granted administrative control over these territories to Britain with specific instructions to create a “national home for the Jewish people.”
Britain immediately turned over 77% of the Mandate to the Arabs to create Jordan but remained generally committed to establishing a Jewish national home in the remainder. This was known as the Mandate for Palestine. Sometimes Leftists and Moslems point to it as the Palestinian state that supposedly predated Israel, but this claim relies on the ignorance of the fact that this British territory had been explicitly set aside for Jewish settlement. Furthermore, nine years before the founding of the modern state of Israel, a 1939 flag of “Palestine” sports a star of David.
When the State of Israel was founded in 1948, it immediately had to go to war to fight for its survival against the surrounding Arab nations that had vowed to destroy it. At that time, an occupation actually did occur — in fact, two: Egypt occupied Gaza and Jordan occupied Judea and Samaria (which it renamed the West Bank). Israel won back those territories in the Six-Day War of 1967, but that was actually ending an occupation, not starting one: the only international law governing sovereignty over those territories stipulated that they were to be part of a national home for the Jewish people.
Israel's land has never been stolen, but the Arabs have tried, repeatedly, albeit unsuccessfully. The land was NOT stolen from the Ottomans, who had ceded it to the League of Nations. Not from the league, which had granted administrative powers over it to the British. Not from the British, who only had it in order to help create a Jewish state there. And not from the Palestinians, who didn’t even exist until the 1960s, when the KGB and Yasir Arafat bestowed Palestinian nationality upon a group of Levantine Arabs (likely the Amalekite people, who have been the most evil people towards the Israelites in its history) as a rhetorical weapon to use against Israel. And it has worked beautifully. The idea that Israel is occupying "Palestinian" land was furthered in the 1990s by the Oslo Accords, to which Israel unwisely acceded, and in which it agreed to work toward the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, which would only become a new base for more Moslem jihad attacks against a diminished Jewish state. But a Palestinian state, if it is ever created, would be the first-ever such entity in the history of the world. There is actually no Israeli occupation at all, nor has thre ever been. Anyone that opposes these clear facts of history, is either ignorant or purposefully malicious and Satanically anti-Semitic.
God is Definitely NOT Finished With The Jewish People
Most definitely not! Many prophecies and Scripture speak to Israel's future.
2 Sam 7:24,
"For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee for ever: and thou, LORD, art become their God."
Paul speaking to the Gentiles, reminds them that,
"As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes." (Rom. 11:28)
That passage alone makes it clear that God is not finished with Israel, who are His elect servants. But the context, makes it even further clear.
The covenant's also very clearly, and plainly, express the truth that God is not finished with Israel.
The Bible prophecies the return of the nation of Israel in sections of Genesis, Psalms, Deuteronomy, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Amos. Before 1948 most people did not believe that would happen.
While God beforehand had declared that the Jewish people would be driven out of their land into all the nations of the earth (an historical event known today as the Diaspora), He promised to restore them to their land (Ezk 36:22-24); and that once they were brought back, they would “no more be pulled up out of their land” (Am 9:15).
Why the Diaspora, and Jewish anguish over 2,000 years?
Lev 26:14-46 explains this in great detail. It was because of God’s wrath initiated by Israel's rejection of His Son, whom came to redeem them from their sins (Matt 1:21). Starting v. 31, the judgment that will come upon Israel because of her sin against God is described, but it says further that Israel will be restored when she repents and acknowledges her sin, and this restoration is because of the covenant that God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Because of Gods wrath upon the Jewish people:
"Who [the Jews] both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost." (1 Th 2:14-16)
The 1st-century AD was a time of judgment on Israel and worldwide dispersal of the Jewish people. Moses had prophesied that the time would come when Israel would be “scattered among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other” (De 28:64). The scattering had actually already began with the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities in the 6th-century BC, but it was Rome that brought it to completion. The Emperor Hadrian sent 1/3 of the Roman army, which was 10 legions, to deal with Israel. The Roman historian Cassius Dio said 580,000 Jewish men were killed in battle and countless others died of starvation, disease, and fire, including burning the Temple down filled with Jews. Tens of thousands of Jews were sold as slaves and carried away to other nations. After the war, Hadrian determined to forever erase the name of Israel from the land of Israel. He renamed it Syria Palestina, hence the name Palestine. He razed Jerusalem to the ground, and built a Roman city over the ruins. He minted a coin depicting him driving a team of oxen to plow up Jerusalem, which was a dramatic fulfillment of Jer 26:18, “Zion shall be plowed like a field.”
Moses had further prophesied that during the era of worldwide dispersal, Israel would have no might to resist her enemies (De. 28:32). Israel would “become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations” (De. 28:37); “among these nations shalt thou find no ease” and “thy life shall hang in doubt before thee” (De. 28:65-66). This is a precise description of the diaspora in the 1st century. As century after weary century rolled along, there was no Jewish army and Israel was dispersed. There was no Joshua or Gideon or David or Judah Maccabee to lead Israel against her enemies.
Moses said Israel would become a desert. The rain would be powder and dust (De 28:23-24), and the land would become “brimstone, salt, and burning” (De 29:23). When Mark Twain visited the Holy Land (then referred to as Palestine which was a reference to the Jewish people, slanderously so named by the Romans 1st-century, Syria Palestina) in 1867, he gave the following dismal description of the land:
"Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince. The hills are barren, they are dull of color, they are unpicturesque in shape. The valleys are unsightly deserts fringed with a feeble vegetation that has an expression about it of being sorrowful and despondent. . . . It is a hopeless, dreary, heart-broken land. Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes. Over it broods the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies. ... Nazareth is forlorn; about that ford of Jordan where the hosts of Israel entered the Promised Land with songs of rejoicing, one finds only a squalid camp of fantastic Bedouins of the desert; Jericho the accursed, likes a moldering ruin, today, even as Joshua’s miracle left it more than three thousand years ago; Bethlehem and Bethany, in their poverty and their humiliation, have nothing about them now to remind one that they once knew the high honor of the Saviour’s presence; . . . Renowned Jerusalem itself, the stateliest name in history, has lost all its ancient grandeur, and is become a pauper village, the riches of Solomon are no longer there to compel the admiration of visiting Oriental queens; the wonderful temple which was the pride and glory of Israel, is gone, and the Ottoman crescent is lifted above the spot where, on that most memorable day in the annals of the world, they reared the Holy Cross. . . . Palestine is desolate and unlovely. And why should it be otherwise? Can the curse of the Deity beautify a land? . . . There is not a solitary village throughout its whole extent--not for thirty miles in either direction. There are two or three small clusters of Bedouin tents, but not a single permanent habitation. One may ride ten miles, hereabouts, and not see ten human beings." (Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad)
Mark Twain’s description of the land is a dramatic description of the fulfillment of the great prophecy of De 28. For instance,
“And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed” (De 28:23-24).
When Israel entered the land in the 15th-century BC it was fruitful like a garden, and God gave the land the early and latter rains. God described it as a land “flowing with milk and honey,” which speaks of a well-watered land full of cattle and flowering plants (De 31:20). Because of Israel’s sin and idolatry and refusal to repent and be converted, God stopped the rains. Crops continue to be grown in most parts of Israel only through irrigation. 80% of the land is arid or semi-arid.
This refutes the Palestinian myth and lie that the land was developed under Arab rule. In fact, it was a wasteland until the Jews began to return in significant numbers in the early 20th century. The Arabs never loved Canaan.
Over the course of two millennial during the Jews diaspora, there was very, very little intermixing of Jews and Gentiles. In fact, in most nations it was illegal. The world has always been extremely anti-Semitic, and that of course is because "the god of this world" (2 Cor 4:4) is Satan who hates God and His chosen people.
The return of the Jews.
The Scriptures are clear that the Jews from all corners of the world would eventually be gathered back to the Holy Land in preparation for their spiritual restoration and reconciliation to their Messiah, and that Gentiles will be called to assist them (Is. 11:11-12; 49:22; Ezk. 36:26).
The Lord will bring them back into the land of Israel, they shall no longer be scattered or two nations. They shall no longer be separate peoples.
“Here the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.” (Jer 31:7-10)
They would be one nation upon the mountains of Israel; as it is written:
“And say unto them, Thus saith the LORD God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.” (Ezk. 37:21-22).
The twelve apostles, themselves Jews, will be their rulers, administrators and judges, according to the promise which the Lord Himself promised (Matt 19:28).
By the end of 2019, the State of Israel has taken in around 3.3 million immigrants since its inception in 1948, when it had just 806,000 residents. Between 1948 and 1980, around 850,000 Jews came to Israel from Arab and Moslem countries. Immigration from Arab countries has all but ceased due to the simple fact that there are hardly any Jews left in the other countries of the Middle East.
Is 11:11-12,
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
Is. 49:22,
“Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.”
Jer. 24:4-7,
“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 to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. And I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto me with their whole heart.”
Since the 1947 UN vote in favour of partitioning “Palestine” into two states, the Jews have nearly disappeared from Moslem lands where they once existed by the hundreds of thousands. Between 1920 and 1970, 900,000 Jews were expelled from Arab and other Moslem countries. 600,000 settled in Israel (Shmuel Trigano, “The Expulsion of the Jews from Moslem Countries,” Nov. 4, 2010, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs). Consider how the numbers have changed in some of the Islamic Middle Eastern nations:
In 1948, there were 120,000 Jews in Egypt; as of 2017, 18 elderly Jews remained. The once-bustling Cairo synagogue mostly sits empty. Maimonides’ 12th-century synagogue is visited only by tourists.
In 1948, there were 150,000 Jews in Iraq; as of 2016 there were 10. The synagogues and cemeteries are in ruins.
In 1948, there were 265,000 Jews in Morocco; as of 2017 there were 2,000.
In 1948, there were 105,000 Jews in Tunisia; by 2017 there were 1,700.
In 1948, there were 40,000 Jews in Syria; as of 2018 there were 100.
In 1948, there were 38,000 Jews in Libya; as of 2017 there were none.
In 1948, there were 140,000 Jews in Algeria; as of 2018, there were 50. In 1994, the last remaining synagogue was abandoned.
In 1948, there were 55,000 Jews in Yemen; as of 2018 there were 50.
In 1979, there were 100,000 Jews in Iran; today there are fewer than 10,000.
This has been and continues to be fulfilled in our day. In the late 19th century and early 20th century the Jewish diaspora started returning to her land. After the horrible atrocities of the Holocaust and the 2nd World War, British politicians started the process of recognizing Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, in spite of the severe resistance against them. Thomas Herzl had predicted in 1898 that the Jewish people would have their nation back in 50 years, and almost to the day, 1948, Israel was recognized as the193rd nation of the world. She will never be pulled out of her land again, though 2/3 will be slaughtered by the Antichrist (Satan), whose age will force the surviving 1/3 Israelites to flee into the wilderness for a short period of time during the Great Tribulation, better known to the Jews as the Time of Jacobs Trouble, where she will be rescued by her loving and patiently longsuffering Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
When God is finished calling the Gentiles and building the (local) pillar and grounds of the truth, and the Gentiles have had their time to be converted (though more will converted in the Tribulation, mainly the half brothers of the Jew), the nation Israel will be saved. This is God's promise to Israel, which we can read of in Rom 9-11. In Rom 11:1 the Apostle Paul asks a rhetorical question:
"I say then, Hath God cast away his people?
Why even ask the question? Israel as a nation doesn’t even believe (Rom 9). But that was Israel’s fault (Rom 10), not God's. His covenants and faithfulness remains steadfast.
Answer: No. Paul gives the answer in the strongest possible negative: “God forbid.”
"God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin."
The “God forbid” used by Paul here, corresponds to OT teaching, such as Ps 94:14,
“For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.”
1 Sam 12:22,
“For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.”
Rom. 11:15, 25-29,
“For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? . . . For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”
The term “mystery” means something that was hidden to the OT prophets but which is revealed in the NT. See Rom. 16:25-26.
The prophecies pertaining to Israel will be fulfilled literally. God is not finished with Israel (Rom. 11:26). Paul quotes Is. 59:20-21. The next chapter (Is. 60) describes the establishment of the kingdom.
The covenants pertaining to Israel will be fulfilled literally. Paul refers to the New Covenant, which is described in Jer. 31 and other prophecies.
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31:31-34)
Ze 13:8-9 speaks of Israel being back in her land, 2/3 being killed and 1/3 being converted:
"And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God."
This is the 2/3 that will be killed by the Antichrist and the 1/3 that will be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ because they will call upon Him for salvation and security. We read of this in the Book of Revelation where it is fulfilled, during the Great Tribulation:
"And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. . . . And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Rev 12:6, 14-17)
So the time for God to save and have mercy on Israel is soon; we can see the birth pangs occurring before our very eyes.
"Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come." (Ps 103:13)
God's Love for Israel, the Jewish People
De 7:6-8,
"For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt."
God hasn't changed his mind.
"For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." (Mal 3:6)
And that is why Satan hates Israel so terribly. That is why Islam hates Israel so much, which religion was founded and inspired by Satan himself, Allah being Satan. That is why he is attempting to destroy and eliminate the Hebrew people and the land of Israel, permanently. Of course he never will. Its an exercise of futility and folly, though he will come close, and has come close in the past (i.e. Holocaust. 1st Century).
God's Purpose for Israel and the Jewish People
God choose the Jewish people:
"For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that areupon the face of the earth. The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face." (De 7:6-10)
For what purpose did God choose Israel and the Jewish people?
The nation of Israel, in the land of Canaan, was God's institution for His worship, for passing on the truth about the coming Messiah, and for preaching the gospel to the nations both in picture through the sacrificial system and through direct calls to the nations to repentance and faith in Christ in texts such as: "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him" (Ps. 2:12) and through the sending of missionaries, such as Jonah to Nineveh (Book of Jonah).
God's desire and purpose is for Israel to fear the Lord:
“For the LORD your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over: That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the LORD your God for ever.” (Jos. 4:24).
God's purpose was to redeem Israel, and do great things for them and make His name great through them, so that they would be a light to the evil and sinful Gentile nations:
"And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?" (2 Sam 7:23)
The privilege and advantage of the Jew.
"What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. . . . Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.” (Rom. 3:1-2; 9:4-5).
Seven-fold Privilege of the Jew (Rom 3:1-2; 9:4-5):
The Adoption. They were a special nation (De. 7:6) that God had elected (Rom. 9:9-11). The entire nation had been adopted by God (Ex. 4:22; De. 14:1; Jer. 31:9).
The Glory. This is a reference to the shekinah cloud (which was the Lord Jesus Christ) that signified God’s presence (indeed, it was God the Son) and led them across the wilderness (Ex. 13:21-22; Num. 9:17-22), filled the tabernacle during Moses’ dedication (Ex. 40:34-48) and the temple during Solomon’s dedication (1 Ki. 8:10-11) and was removed during Ezekiel’s time (Ezk. 10:4, 18-19).
The Covenants. The Abrahamic Covenant, Palestinian Covenant, Davidic Covenant, and New Covenant, described previously.
The Law. Two Greatest Commandments (De 6; Lk ), which encompass the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20; De. 5). This is a great light in this dark world and has always been “a schoolmaster to being us unto Christ” (Gal. 3:24)
The Service of God. It was Israel which ministered in both the tabernacle and the temple (Leviticus; Heb 9:6-7).
The Promises. Promises of the OT that were fulfilled in the NT. Saviour from sin. Life. Eternal life. Salvation. The Messiah. Reconciliation. Justification. Sanctification.
The Messiah—the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the Jewish lineage would come the Messiah (Matt. 1:1-16; Lk. 3:23-38). The Lord Jesus Christ was of the seed of Abraham (Gen. 22:18; Matt. 1:1), of the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10; Heb. 7:14), of the lineage of David (Is. 9:6-7; Matt. 9:27), born in Bethlehem, Judea (Mal. 3; Matt. 1-2; Lk 1-2)
They had the fathers. Israel enjoyed a regenerate ancestry, which included such giants as Abraham, Moses, and David.
God created Israel and put her in the midst of the nations to be a light to a dark world. It was an act of God’s great love and unmerited favour.
“Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her” (Ezk 5:5)
They were to be a special people unto God, a light in the world, a witness of salvation for God to the Gentiles:
"Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth." (Ac. 13:46-47)
"And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe." (Ac 15:7)
All people born into one of the 12 tribes of Israel, is a child of Israel. He or she is partaker of the earthly related covenants of God, such as the wisdom and material blessing He gives to them, and inheritance in the land of Israel.
The true spiritual Jew however is not only born as a Jew, but born again as a child of God, one inwardly whose heart has been circumcised, whose praise is of God:
"For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." (Rom 2:28-29)
The Jews are God's Elect People, But That Doesn't Automatically Grant Salvation. Israel will be Saved in the 70th Week of Daniel
The election of salvation and the election of Israel are two entirely different things. Calvinism might teach that they are the same, but its a Satanic lie. They are required to believe that, in order to make their presuppositions and doctrine fit, to keep the Augustinian system breathing.
I certainly believe in election—the election taught in God’s Word, and not that of Calvinists who blasphemously change the Word and character of God to make it fit their perverted TULIP system and heretical sovereignty of God. God elected Israel (Jacob), "being not yet born" (Rom 9:11), “Jacob” was “his chosen” (Ps 105:6). His choice, election, was based upon His own terms, mercy and foreknowledge most importantly. Nothing occurs by chance with God, nothing catches Him by surprise. His choice wasn't random. The election occurred between Jacob and Esau, when “the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth.” (Rom 9:11). This proves foreknowledge. God choose Jacob because He knew the future and which one would be converted and where each lineage would go, with or without His intervention in their lives. It is also of no coincidence that election enters at this point, and not before with Abraham, or Isaac. Rebekah was giving birth to twin boys, both equally capable of being the recipients of God’s covenants with Abraham—according to the mind of man that is—who has no foreknowledge, yet it could only go to one and it obviously had to go to him who would repent, for there are no unsaved people in the lineage of the seed, the Messiah, which is the genealogy from Abraham down to Joseph (Gen 3:15; 2 Sam 7:12-13; Rom 1:3; Gal 3:6, 19; 2 Tim 2:8; Heb 2:16). God didn’t blindly or randomly choose Jacob over Esau, before birth, like picking a name out of a hat, as Calvinism would have it. “For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.” (Ps 135:4). There was a reason and that reason was based upon His foreknowledge, not predetermination.
In Rom 9:1-4, Paul “could wish that [he] were accursed" for the salvation of Israel. So right there at the very start of Rom 9 is where we begin seeing the contradiction to Calvinism. Why would Paul be willing to be "accursed from Christ" (Rom 9:3) for those God chose before the foundations of the world to damn forever? Paul surely wasn't more loving or more righteous than God. Would he not be out of bounds in expressing such sympathy for those for whom Christ Himself did not die, if limited atonement were true? Only if God Himself were unwilling for the Israelites, His chosen people, to perish and if Christ Himself had died for them does Rom 9:1-5 make any sense (read also Matt 1:21 and Jn 1:11).
Gen 21 makes national promises, but physical descent alone didn’t guarantee the Jew would receive the all the blessings of those promises. The nation will unconditionally, but the individual persons may not. God will save those Israelites who do not reject the advantages God gave (Rom 9:4-5) and repent (De 10:12-16; Is 55:1-7). Jews who thought they would receive the blessings of the covenants just because they were Jews were sorely deceived (Matt 3:9-12; Jn 8:31-59; Rev 20:11-15). Isaac and Ishmael were both sons of Abraham, but both didn’t receive the covenant. Only Isaac did and he’s a picture of the true child of God — of which all receive the spiritual universal blessings of God's covenant with Abraham (Gal 3:7-9, 29).
This illustrated to Israel that it wasn't physical descent that made one a child of promise. God didn't have to save every descendant of Abraham. Rom 9:9 quotes Gen 18:10, 14 for this illustration. The point is that like Sarah and Isaac were chosen over Hagar and Ishmael (Rom 9:7-9), spiritual Israel is chosen over physical Israel. Heb 11:11 elucidates further on what occurred: "Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised." God does make His choices on His own terms which are always based upon His foreknowledge — He's done it in the past and He does it again today.
Gen 25:23 tells us,
“And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.”
We can see from the OT passage itself that the election is national. First, it says "two nations," but, second, if it is personal, then every person in the one "nation" of "people" was saved, which was not the case. We know that based upon how history unfolded, which reveals just the opposite, the vast majority in Israel have never been saved. The very point Paul is making is that every person in the nation was not saved, and so wasn’t true Israel (Rom 9:6). When we take Gen 25 and Paul's quotation of it literally in Rom 9:10 we are dealing with "two nations" and "two manner of people.” The election here relates to Israel's rule, glory, covenants, servantship, etc. The rest of the OT will show that this election continued to be fulfilled.
The election of Jacob is national election. It contradicts a belief in personal, unconditional election unto eternal life or eternal damnation. Calvinism in its interpretation of Rom 9 miserably fails in a proper consideration of the OT texts to which Paul refers in the chapter, in properly understanding God’s foreknowledge. Noted in the same text of scripture of De 10:12-16, is both national unconditional election of Israel (vv. 14-15) and conditional personal election of the Jew, and everyone else for that matter (vv. 12-13 and 16). The elect concerning salvation are those whom God “hath chosen . . . in [Christ] before the foundation of the world” (Eph 1:4; 2 Tim 1:9). That choice is based upon foreknowledge and foreknowledge is based upon knowing man's response.
Election guarantees glorification (Rom 8:30) and promises no condemnation (Rom 8:31-34; 1 Pet 1:2-5; Jn 3:18) but security for the believer (Rom 8:28-39). Based on these passages we know that salvation election and Israel's election are two entirely different things. Sinners, whether Gentile or Jew, are not chosen unconditionally, like national election of Israel, but through their wilful and intellectual response to the Spirits conviction of sin, by repenting and believing (Is 55:1-7; Ac 20:21; 2 Th 2:10-13). Personal election does not destroy human responsibility, for man has a free will and God saves no man against his own will (2 Th 2:10-13; cf. Ac 13:46 and 48).
Rom. 11:2, 26-27,
"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. . . . And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins."
Over and over in the Scriptures, God refers to Israel as "my people," "His people," etc. He calls them these things even when utterly unregenerate and wicked, even when worshipping the golden calf (Ex 32:11-14). They were still called "His people" (e.g. Ex 32:14), in spite of their wicked and unsaved nature.
God will never forsake his people Israel. Though this is also true of all born again believers, whether Jew or Gentile, it is also true specifically of the children of Israel. The context of course makes that very, very plain.
"For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people." (1 Sam. 12:22)
Israel, as God’s chosen people, is central to God’s plan for the human race and He assures us that only if “the heavens can be measured” or the sun, moon and stars ceased to exist, will “the seed of Israel . . . cease from being a nation before me for ever” (Jer. 31:35-36).
Israel is the wife of Jehovah. Israel is the wife of the Father (Jehovah God): (Is 54:5-8ff.; Jer. 2:2-3, 32; 3:1, 8-9, 14, 20; Ezk. 16:8, 15; Hos. 2:1, 16-20; 3:1-3) whereas all born again believers in the age of the Gentiles is the bride of Jesus Christ which will be accumulated at the great marriage supper of the Lamb in Heaven. God has put his wife aside for the time being, a temporary divorce due to her backsliding (meaning apostasy, always referring to unregeneracy) whoredom (Jer 3:8-9, 14, 20), until the time of her reconciliation.
"But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." (Is. 49:14-16)
But Israel is in a state of unregeneracy and apostasy today. She has actually always been unsaved, besides a remnant, but that is a subject for another report, nearly complete. She is back in her land, but utterly lost. I love Israel but I am sad at her stubborn rejection of God’s Word. I do look forward to her conversion and beyond to ruling and reigning with the redeemed of Israel in Christ’s millennial kingdom and beyond that, in the New Jerusalem, the gates of which are named for the twelve tribes of Israel and the its foundations named for the twelve apostles of the Gentile age of the ekkelsia (Rev 21:12-14).
Israel's restoration will take place in two stages. (1) The first stage is partial and in unbelief. This is due to Gods sovereign dealings with His covenant people, starting the completion of His covenant promises, and is not preconditioned on her repentance. It is part of Gods plan to bring Israel to repentance, salvation and reconciliation. Only partial numbers of Israelites are back in the land, and almost entirely in unbelief, including the Orthodox Jews and the Messianic Jews. (2) The second stage is complete and redeemed. In Ezk 39:28 we read of the last days when every Jew would be saved and located in the promised land:
"Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there."
Israel's salvation and redemption occurs likely towards the end of the Great Tribulation, the 70th Week of Daniel, I believe, immediately preceding the second coming of Christ to the earth. But not all of Israel will be back in the land — this will be entirely consummated with Christ's return. It is a fulfillment of Gods promise under the Palestinian Covenant (De 28-30; Lev 26) in which God has bound Himself to return every Jew to the land upon repentance. He will send His angels to ensure their safe return (Matt. 24:30-31) and the “ships of Tarshish” (Britain and USA) will bring the first of them back (Is. 60:8-9).
These returns of Israel is described in the amazing prophecy of Ezk 37:
“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 caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD 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 said he 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 place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD” (Ezk 37:1-14).
In Ezk 37 above, Israel is described as a valley of dry bones. Verse 11 provides the interpretation: “these bones are the whole house of Israel.” Dry bones well reflect Israel’s dead condition for the past two millennia. She was scattered to the ends of the earth, and it appeared that she was dead and finished.
But God.
Ezekiel is told that Israel will be brought to life and restored in two stages, by the LORD. First, she will be brought back to the land but in a spiritually dead condition. Verse 8 says the dead bones were raised but “there was no breath in them." Secondly, she will experience spiritual revival, i.e., the new birth. This will happen during the seven year Great Tribulation, also known as Time of Jacob's Trouble and the 70th Week of Daniel, just prior to the return of Christ.
The first part of Ezekiel’s prophecy is where Israel stands today, which process began in the late hours of the 19th century, and consummated with the rebirth of the nation of Israel on May 14, 1948, though Israel is not consummated with her Groom, Jehovah God. The official declaration of the announcement given by the State of Israel:
“We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine, to be called Medinath Yisrael (The State of Israel). . . . The State of Israel will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion . . . Our call goes out to the Jewish people all over the world to rally to our side in the task of immigration and development and to stand by us in the great struggle for the fulfillment of the dream of generations for the redemption of Israel. With trust in Almighty God, we set our hand to this Declaration, at this Session of the Provisional State Council, on the soil of the Homeland, in the city of Tel Aviv, on this Sabbath eve, the fifth of Iyar, 5708, the fourteenth of May, 1948.”
Jews celebrated throughout the world. Thanksgiving services were held in synagogues everywhere, which feast was born in ancient Israel. In Rome the Jews paraded under the Arch of Titus, which memorializes the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Proclaiming, “We’re back from the dead!” They marched under the Arch in the opposite direction from that used for triumph marches into Rome in ancient days. They thus signified that though Rome had marched them out of their land and into captivity 1,900 years ago, they are now marching out of captivity and back to their land.
This was a most dramatic fulfillment of Ezk 37. The ancient Roman Empire with all of its glory is gone, but Israel remains.
Ezekiel’s amazing prophecy tells of Israel’s sin, her punishment at the hands of the Babylonians and, from chapter 34 to the end, how the nation will come to repentance and millennial blessing. It begins with the glory departing from the first Temple (Ezk 1-11) and concludes with the glory of God returning to the millennial Temple (Ezk. 43:1-9).
The same Scripture that was fulfilled in these amazing prophecies further prophesies the remainder of Israel’s history. She is back in the land to prepare for the Antichrist (Dan 9:27). She is back in a spiritually dead condition in preparation for her repentance and conversion (Ezk 37:1-14). First a remnant of Jewish evangelists will be converted and be born again through Jesus Christ, their Messiah. They number 144,000, which are made up of the 12 tribe of Israel, 12,000 from each tribe. A remnant of Israel will be converted and receive Jesus as the Christ (Ezk 20:37-38; Ze 12:10-13:1), and converted Israel will be the chief nation in Christ’s worldwide kingdom (Is 2:1-5). Only then will Israel live in peace and war will cease from the earth.
Over the course of its history, the Jews have had a zeal for God but not according to knowledge. They are ignorant of Gods righteousness and have not submitted to His righteousness but rather have attempted to establish their own righteousness:
"For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." (Rom. 10:2-4)
Israel is divinely protected and will one day be saved, when they come to repentance (Jer 32:1-20; etc), for His Names sake (Ps. 106:8).
Israel has been spiritually blinded during the Church age, blinded providentially by the Holy One of Israel because of her rejection of her Messiah,
"What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy." (Rom 11:7-11)
The Jews wanted Jesus to be their King (Jn. 6:15), but not their Messiah. They didn't think they needed a Messiah (Jn 8:34-59). They actually hated their Messiah (Ac 8:32-59), out of envy (Matt 27:18; Mk 15:10; Ac 13:45; 17:5; cf. Pr 27:4) and self deception (2 Cor 4:3-4), and eventually would have Him put to death, boldly proclaiming, "His blood be on us, and on our children." (Matt 27:25). Well, that is exactly what has transpired. Much Jewish blood has been shed because the blood of Christ is on their hands. This is why Israel has suffered what she has, including the Holocaust. No thats not anti-Semitic. Its called truth, whether you like it or not, and its straight out of God's Word. They "denied the Holy One and the Just," (Ac 3:14). But even in the horror and evil that took place, the severity of God allowing it, out of it came His goodness and purpose — a land they could call home once again.
Through Israel, God gave the world the holy Scriptures and Christ the Saviour, gifts of infinite value. Israel is God’s nation even in her rebellion to God, which is her present condition. The past 2,000 years of Israel’s history was prophesied in detail in De 28 more than 3,400 years ago, before the 12 tribes even entered the Promised Land. De 30 and many other Scriptures prophesy Israel’s spiritual conversion, which has not yet occurred. Israel will not have peace until she receives the Prince of Peace as her Messiah, the very Prince whom they crucified (Ac 2:36), whom they murdered and slew on a tree.
The Jews have paid a very heavy price for rejecting their Messiah, the Prince of Peace, and killing Him on the tree. Indeed, the Jewish people killed the Lord Jesus Christ. They also killed all the prophets that came before Him, but the Gentiles were complicit in the crime of killing the Messiah:
"Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation." (Lk. 11:47-51)
"Then Peter [a Jew], filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole." (Ac. 4:8, 10)
Peter speaking to the Jewish council, which included the high priest (Ac. 5:27), declared,
"The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree." (Ac. 5:30)
Stephen, moments before being stoned to death, proclaimed,
"Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth." (Ac. 7:51-54).
For nearly 2,000 years God's severity has been on Israel, while His goodness been on the Gentiles; Rom 11:22 has been going on:
"Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell [Israel], severity; but toward thee [Gentiles], goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."
But the tide is about to change, and with Israel being back in her land, her conversion is on the horizon:
"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance." (Rom 11:25-29)
Israel will be saved in the seven-year Great Tribulation, also known in the Bible as the 70th week of Daniel and the Time of Jacob's Trouble. She will turn to the Lord during this most awful time ever known to mankind (Ezk 39:22-29; cf. Matt 24), with the Antichrist ruling the world (Rev 13-14).
For seven years Israel will experience the "time of Jacobs trouble" (Jer. 30:7), a terrible time of persecution and tribulation as such the world has never seen. Its also referred to by Jesus as the "great tribulation" (Matt. 24:21). Its completion with Christ's return is referred to as the "day of the Lord" (Is. 2:12; 13:6, 9; 34:8; Jer. 46:10; Lam. 2:22; Ezk. 30:3; Joel 1:15; 2:1-32; Ob. 1:15; Zeph. 1:7-18; 2:1-15; Ze. 14:1-8; Mal. 4:5-6; Ac. 2:20; 1 Th. 5:2; 2 Pet. 3:10). The seven years are divided into two portions of 3.5 years each (42 months). According to Joel 2:23-32, Israel will repent in the first half of the Great Tribulation, quite possibly in the first month of the first year she will turn to the LORD. The judgement of the Gentiles in the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Joel 3:1-21) will occur towards the end of the Great Tribulation spoken of in Ezekiel, Daniel and Revelation.
When it is God’s time, He will graft the Jews back into the olive tree (Rom 11). It will happen when they turn to Him in sorrowful repentance, trusting in their Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as their Lord and Saviour, in surrender to Him as their Lord. Thereafter they will be faithful to Him.
It would be incorrect to state that modern Israel's presence is not in God's timing, as numerous scriptures testify that the Lord will bring them back into the land before their ultimate end-time national repentance (Jer. 5:10, 18; 30:11; 46:28; Ezk. 11:13, etc.).
In Matt. 23:39, the Lord prophesied to Israel that,
"Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."
In Ze 12:9-10 we read,
"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."
Clearly, these verses show that the Jews are already in the land upon their repentance.
In past dispersals from the land, there is no national repentance seen when Israel was brought back to the land (for example) following 70 years of captivity, though there was personal repentance by one of the main men responsible for Israel’s captivity, Jechonias, the king of Judah. The Lord had prophesied 70 years in Babylon and then they would be returned, with no indication of a national repentance.
2 Cor 3:12-16 speaks to the time that Israel will finally believe, the veil will be removed thats upon their heart, and they will turn to the Lord:
"Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away."
Israel must give heed to God's words in 2 Chronicles 7:14, His answer to Solomons prayer of the previous chapter.
"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
The Rabid and Satanic Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is always Satanic. It is a pure expression of Satan's character and modus operandi.
Anti-Semitism has been awful over the last 2,000 years, just like God stated it would. Evil men and women have expressed their satanic hatred towards the Jewish people, because they hate the God of the Jews, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
As bad as Anti-Semitism has always been, its been on the march globally such as hasn't been witnessed in a long time. It is also rampant on North American university campuses, thanks in large part to the woke, leftist, evil ideologies that have been taught there, and the diabolical, evil immigration polices that have allowed demonic anti-Semitic, anti-Christian Moslem beasts into the west, who are behind most of the demented, violent, and anti-Israel protests. But the leftists and communists are right there marching with them.
“Yesterday, many thousands of Islamofascists and leftists turned out across the globe for pro-Hamas demonstrations, celebrating the massacre of October 7 and demanding the extermination of Jews. Trafalgar Square was packed to overflowing. Hundreds of thousands turned out in Paris. Some might find the idea of a ‘kill the Jews’ rally in Berlin alarming. And, of course, many thousands rallied to support genocide against the Jews in Washington, D.C. It looked almost like an insurrection” (“Genocide Is Popular,” PowerLine, Nov. 5, 2023).
Among the worst, wicked Moslems hate Israel, the Jews, and have no issue slaughtering innocent Jewish people, including the elderly and babies. This occurred recently as the world knows, with the cowardly diabolical and barbaric attack by Moslem Hamas terrorists on Israel communities on the holiday of Yom Kippur (Oct 7, 2023). These Moslem savages identify as "Palestinians" (which is a farce), but are in fact the Amalekites whom king Saul was commanded to kill and annihilate (2 Sam 7).
Hatred of the Jews, promoting lies about the Jews, comparing Israel with Hamas, calling for the destruction of the state of Israel--none of this is reasonable. In 1932, Harold Laski, said of Hitler’s anti-Semitic propaganda,
“If the Jews trusted to reason only for the defense of their lives their chance of survival would be relatively small. For the temper in which they are attacked is inherently unamenable to rational discussion” (cited from “Thought for the Day,” PowerLine, Nov. 5)
Laski was right, and this is a 2,000-year-old irrationality, but why? The answer is found only in the Bible. It has to do with the age-old battle between God and a world in rebellion, a world of which Satan, Lucifer, or the Devil is “the god” (2 Cor 4:4). The chief voices of anti-Semitism—Islam, Marxism, Humanism—are of the Devil. Israel is not right with her God at present, but that is absolutely no reason to hate her. God will take care of Israel and bring her to repentance, as He has promised to do in many prophecies of Holy Scripture.
Knowing that only the Messiah — Who descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — can defeat him, Satan has inspired 3,000 years of raging anti-Semitism. Destroying all Jews would have prevented Messiah from being born two millennia ago. Satan lost that round. But if all Jews were destroyed today, God couldn't fulfill His promises that Christ would reign as King of the Jews on David's throne at His second coming. God would be a liar and Satan the winner. God's integrity and eternal purposes are linked to Israel's survival.
Islamic terrorist groups like Hamas are whistling in the dark. Even in her present unrighteous condition, Israel is God’s chosen nation and that land is Israel’s by divine decree. All of the armies of the world cannot change that. In about 700 BC, speaking the infallible Word of God, the prophet Hosea summarized Israel’s future as follows.
“For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days” (Hos 3:4-5).
The many days without a king and sacrifice and ephod (priesthood and temple) are nearly finished, and the conversion and restoration is at hand. “David their king” is a reference to David’s Son Jesus Christ who was promised an eternal throne:
“Now therefore so shalt thou say unto my servant David, thus saith the Lord of hosts . . . when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever” (2 Sam 7:8, 12-13).
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, The everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this” (Is 9:6-7).
Israel will continue to lurch from problem to problem and will continue to be under the heel of the Gentile nations until the Times of the Gentiles is complete, which is soon, and her Messiah returns to establish His glorious kingdom. That won't happen until Israel turns to the Lord Jesus Christ, which will only occur after the Antichrist slaughters 2/3 of Israel and the remaining 1/3 flees into the wilderness, where they will call upon the name of the Lord. In fact, it will get much darker before the light finally shines, because the Bible says that apostate Israel will accept the Antichrist as the peacemaker and problem solver he will appear to be when he comes on the scene. The Third Temple will be built, but it will be occupied by the Antichrist, also called “the man of sin,” who will then make the devil’s final attempt to destroy Israel. But Israel can no more be destroyed than God can be destroyed.
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Th. 2:3-4)
As the multitudes rage against Israel and her God, we pray for the safety and the repentance and the salvation of Israel. God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, will rule Israel and the world, and absolutely no one and nothing can stop it (Ps 2; Dan 9; Rev 19). All the nations banded together with all their might, with Satan at their head, cannot come even close to stopping it, as the great prophecy of Ps 2 proclaims (quoted below). It announces the future in the present tense, because everything is in the present tense with the Eternal God, who declares the end from the beginning (Is 48:10).
Ps 2:1-10,
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.”
We don’t know how this present war will turn out, but we know from Bible prophecy, which has never been wrong, that Israel’s greatest trouble remain future, maybe not so far ahead. In her zeal for peace, Israel will receive a false messiah, the anti-christ, the man of sin, the son of perdition, who will come upon the scene in desperate times as a charismatic, awe-inspiring figure, a magnificent peace-monger, a world-class problem solver. He will make it possible for the Jews and the Moslem nations to agree to a seven-year peace treaty, and for the third temple to be built as we read in Rev 11, but he will show his true character when he sets himself up in that very temple as God.
“... and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” (2 Th 2:3-4; cf. Matt 24).
"But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:" (Mk 13:14)
Regardless of Israel’s apostasy, Israel is still Israel, and God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel) is still true.“
"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee” (Gen 12:3).
When God says something, the wise heed His words. We bless Israel, because God has instructed us to do so. Woe be unto those who curse her.
The Heresy of Replacement Theology
Replacement theology (also known as supersessionism) essentially teaches that the NT church has replaced Israel. Adherents of this corrupted theology believe the Jews are no longer God’s chosen people, and God does not have specific future plans for the nation of Israel.
We are told by many that God is finished with Israel, that she has been replaced with the church, and that the church is Zion, and the earthly Jerusalem has been replaced with the heavenly Jerusalem. Reformed covenant theologians are parroting this who follow the “church fathers” that devised this view. Even some so-called Independent Baptists such as Steve Anderson, a false teacher and wolf in sheep's clothing, brashly promotes this heresy. In the video Marching to Zion, Anderson teaches that Israel today, the Israel that returned to the land and established a modern state, is not the Israel of the Bible. Rather, God is finished with the nation Israel and NT believers are the “true Israel.”
“It’s those of us who believe in Jesus Christ that are Israel. . . . We Christians are the true people of God. We are the true Israel. And we are marching to Zion” (Steve Anderson, Marching to Zion).
Heretics like D. James Kennedy and R.C. Sproul, and dozens of others have declared that Israel has no special title to land in the Middle East, having been replaced by the church (i.e., replacement theology), which happens to very common amongst reformed Calvinists. They have claimed that all of God’s “land promises specific to Israel in the OT were fulfilled under Joshua.” One trembles at their defiance of God, who has said:
“Behold, the days come . . . that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, the LORD liveth, 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 23:7-8)
The obvious fulfillment of such promises in our day, since 1948 (not in Joshua’s day), rebukes those who say that the church has replaced Israel! To even entertain the idea while knowing Israel is finally back in her land again (and they, the reformed calvinist heretics and others, are not), reveals how spiritually reporbate these "liars, evil beasts, slow bellies" (Ti 1:12) really are. In the last 80 years or so, Jews have returned by the millions to Israel from more than one hundred nations. Those who deny God’s promises to and prophecies of Israel for today, which is denying God’s covenants with them (which span hundreds of verses), need to genuinely repent and be truly converted to the true Lord Jesus Christ of Scripture, not the one of John Calvin or some other man-centred hero.
This heretical philosophy of Replacement Theology would be one of the “doctrines of devils” that the Bible warns of:
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;” (1 Tim 4:1).
There are many Scripture passages covered in this report that very clearly, crystal clear, reflect the truth that God will never be done with Israel and that Israel and the ekkelsia are two very different entities, even though saved Jews and Gentiles are of the same spiritual body, i.e., local church and family of God. Here are a few of those passages:
“And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God” (Lev 26:44)
“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, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished” (Jer 30:11)
“For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days” (Hos 3:4-5)
Replacement theology teaches that the church is the replacement for Israel and that the many promises made to Israel in the Bible are fulfilled in the Christian church, not in Israel. The prophecies in Scripture concerning the blessing and restoration of Israel to the Promised Land are spiritualized or allegorized into promises of God’s blessing for the church. Major problems exist with this view, such as the continuing existence of the Jewish people throughout the centuries and especially with the revival of the modern state of Israel. If Israel has been condemned by God and there is no future for the Jewish nation, how do we explain the supernatural survival of the Jewish people over the past 2,000 years despite the many attempts to destroy them? How do we explain why and how Israel reappeared as a nation in the 20th century after not existing for 1,900 years? Most importantly, how do you explain away the hundreds and hundreds of Scripture that refer to Israels covenants, return to the land, reservation, repentance and reconciliation with her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? There is A LOT of Scripture that has to be plainly ignored or wrested in order to deny Israel and spiritualize the church. How on earth do you argue away the 70th week of Daniel that remains unfulfilled?
The Bible is so exceedingly clear that Israel and the church (meaning visible, autonomous local churches, not some universal platonic organism) are two entirely entities. Reading the Bible as “the church” (which isn’t a platonic, universal entity but local, visible, physical congregations) being Israel, isn’t just excessively confusing and contradictory but also unscriptural and heretical. Its a "doctrine of devils" (1 Tim 4:1). Thus--historical records proving--true born again Christians over the course of two millennia have rejected the heresy of Replacement Theology, because that is not what the Bible teaches and they do love the nation of Israel from the time of their conversion, for God's Word teaches to bless the Jews (Gen 12:3; 27:29; Num 24:9), and to oppose Satan's hatred of the Jews (1 Ch. 21:1; Rev. 12:13) which are God's chosen people ( and because of all the things that came through the Jewish peiple (Rom 3:1-2; 9:4-5). Israel is the elect of God, but that is not referring to salvation. Absolutely everything in the entire Bible, thousands of verses, reflect this truth, and it’s not difficult.
"The church" is NOT the same as Israel (Rom. 9–11). Far from it.
In Jer. 33:19-26 God specifically corrects those who say that He has cast off the families of Israel that they should be no more a nation. This is exactly what Replacement Theology says.
Neither the Abrahamic, Palestinian, or Davidic covenant can be applied to “the church” without doing serious violence to Biblical language. They pertain ONLY to people who were scattered among the nations and then brought back to the very land possessed by their fathers. According to Replacement Theology, Jesus is currently sitting on David’s throne in heaven and this is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, but this requires some serious allegorical and mental gymnastics. It requires “spiritualizing” the plain words of the Davidic covenant and the New Covenant but there is no way to make this fit "the church" without doing violence to plain Bible language and to the clear promises of God.
This teaching frequently ties together with the perverted methodology of Bible interpretation, that of allegoricalism (spiritualizing scripture), in fact it almost requires it since that is how this theology is derived out of scripture: by spiritualizing scripture.
Among the different views of the relationship between the church and Israel one finds the abhorrent philosophy that the church has replaced Israel (replacement theology) AND the church is an expansion of Israel (covenant theology). Replacement Theology (aka., Supersessionism) and Covenant Theology are equally “doctrines of devils” (1 Jn 4:1).
The apostle Paul taught the early churches that God’s covenants with Israel do not belong to the church and will yet be fulfilled. Consider the following clear teaching from Rom 11 which answers the question, “Hath God cast away his people?”
Paul rhetorically answers the question, “Hath God cast away his people?” with an emphatic expression of negation, “God forbid.” (Rom 11:1)
Paul proves that God has not permanently cast away Israel by the fact that there is presently a remnant, of which he is a member (Rom 11:1-5). The nation Israel is preserved before God through the believing remnant. This has always been the true Israel (Rom 9:6-8), as in both children of Israel and children of God (Rom 9:6-8; Ac 2:28-29)
The present fall of Israel has a divine purpose, that of bringing salvation to the Gentiles, and Israel’s fall is not permanent but will end in their fulness (Rom 11:11-12).
The same Israel that has been cast away will be reconciled (Rom 11:15).
Israel is likened to an olive tree. Branches have been broken off, but the tree remains (Rom 11:17-24). When Israel ceases to abide in unbelief, by repentance, they will be saved or “graffed into their own olive tree.”
Israel’s present blindness will only last until the end of the age of the Gentiles, “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Rom 11:25).
Israel will be saved either just preceding or at the coming of Christ and God’s New Covenant will be fulfilled in them (Rom 11:26-27).
Less Israel be restored again to her own land, her native land, the larger part of the book of Revelation, certainly chapters 7 through 20, would be almost entirely without meaning, for they relate nothing at all to the Gentile churches. Those chapters are largely Jewish, and relate to events that will take place in the 70th week of Daniel, the Time of Jacob's Trouble, to a considerable extent in Palestine and the beloved city of Jerusalem.
The only biblical and true view is that the church is completely different and distinct from Israel (dispensationalism/premillennialism). The whole Bible refutes Replacement Theology. That God is not finished with national Israel is taught from Genesis to Revelation. For instance, Is 10:20-22; Ezk 37:1-14; 38-39; Dan 9:24-27 and Daniel’s 70 Week Prophecy; Hos 3:4-5; Am 9:8-15; Matt 23:38-39; 24:15-21; Lk 19:11-27; Ac 1:3-8; Rev 7-20; etc.
The common belief surrounding this damnable heresy of replacement theology, regardless of who it is that embraces the heresy, is that since Jews rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah and have continued in unbelief and disobedience to God and since Judaism today is not based on the Bible but on the Talmud, Israel today is not the true Israel. She has been rejected by God and replaced with the church. God is finished with her.
This arrive at this conclusion by corrupting, perverting, twisting, wresting, manipulating and proof texting scripture such as Matt 21:43; Rom 2:28-29; 9:6; 11:16-24; Gal 3:16, 26-29; 4:21-26; 6:15-16; Eph 2:13-16, 19-22; Phil 3:3; Heb 12:22-23. Proponents of Replacement Theology take these verses completely out of context (immediate context, Book context, and whole Bible context) and use them to attempt to overthrow the teaching of the entire Bible. This, of course, is the standard operation procedure of false teachers.
To know the proper Biblical view and teaching is not difficult to perceive but it does require true conversion so that the child of God can properly interpret and understand the scriptures through the indwelling Spirit of God.
If one uses the normal, literal method of Bible interpretation, the whole Bible is found to speak with one thunderous voice about Israel and her future, and a handful of isolated proof texts (eisegetically utilized to support Replacement Theology) cannot change or overthrow this clear teaching.
Israel's Future
Israel just celebrated Hannukah, the Festival of Light, but is not in the Light. They walk in darkness.
Israel is living in rebellion to her God today, but she is still the seed of Abraham, to whom God said,
"I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee . . . And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee" (Gen. 12:3).
That doesn't make Israel saved. She is not. But she will be.
Israel will never be destroyed, because God's covenants with her are certain and eternal (i.e., Jer. 31-33), but she will go through the "time of Jacob's trouble" (the seven year Great Tribulation, the 70th week of Daniel), to bring her to repentance (Jer. 30:7). The book of Revelation describes this in great detail, beginning in chapter six. When Israel repents and her Messiah returns, her enemies will be destroyed.
"In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." (Ze. 12:6-9)
"For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins" (Rom. 11:25-27).
At that time, Islamic terrorists will be annihilated by the Lord Jesus Christ, for the Bible says,
"In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee" (Is. 54:14).
"Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day." (2 Th 1:6-10)
As noted, during the Great Tribulation, God will save all of Israel (Rom 11:26; Lk 13:35), when she turns to His Son, their Messiah, the one referred to as the "Holy One of Israel" (2 Ki 19:22; Ps 71:22; 89:18; etc), "the pillar of fire by night, and cloud by day" (Ex 13:21-22; Neh 9:12, 19), "Emmanuel, meaning God with us" (Matt 1:23) so national Israel is chosen as His people in this world unconditionally as His servants to show forth His glory, but that on its own didn’t guarantee their personal salvation, just much greater advantage and opportune for it (Rom 3:1-3; 9:4-5).
Who are the Israelites whom God will save? They are those whom He elects on the condition of personal repentant faith in Him, which will be 1/3 of Israel. Paul distinguishes between personal and national election in Rom 9, and he makes this crystal clear. So God continued faithful and loving to Israel, and His Word, especially as found in the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic covenants, did not fail.
Paul begins Rom 9:6 by saying that God's Word was still in effect for Israel, the Israel that God would save, which was not all of Israel (Rom 9:6b). True Israel, spiritual Israel, would receive the promises God made to the nation (Rom 9:7-8). Rom 2:28-29 speaks to this, distinguishing between the Jew who won’t receive God’s promises, which is merely “one outwardly,” and the one who would, the true Jew, who is one “inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” These are “the children of God” which are “the children of the promise,” and “are counted for the seed,” not merely “the children of the flesh” (Rom 9:8) from the loins “of Abraham” (Rom 9:7), though there was great privilege and advantage with that, and continues to be.
To understand modern Israel, we must turn to the great prophecy of Ezk 37, which teaches that Israel will return from her Diaspora, described in terms of a valley of death, in two stages, and in the first stage she will return in a spiritually dead condition (vv. 7-10). Verse 8 says,
“... lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: BUT THERE WAS NO BREATH IN THEM.”
This is exactly what and where Israel is today prophetically.
Modern Israel is setting the stage for the fulfillment of the last stage of Daniel’s prophecy of 70 Weeks (Dan 9:24-27, described in detail here), which describes the entirety of God’s dealings with Israel from the time of the Babylonian Captivity to the second coming of Christ. The prophecy is specifically said to pertain to Daniel’s people, Israel, and it is specifically said to describe the finishing of Israel’s transgression, the making of reconciliation for her iniquity, and the bringing in of everlasting righteousness, which will begin with Christ’s return (v. 24). By this prophecy we know that one prophetic week of seven years remains of God’s final dealings with Israel, and at the beginning of that week the antichrist will arise and make a seven-year peace covenant with many in Israel (likely a peace treaty of sorts between Israel and her Moslem neighbours), called the Great Tribulation in the NT (Matt 24:15-22), but half way through the seven years, he will break the covenant and desecrate the third temple as the abomination of desolation (putting himself in the Holy of Holies as god) and cause the renewed sacrifices to cease, which will initiate the last half of the seven years. The seven-year Great Tribulation is divided in two:
“And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.” (Dan 12:12-13)
The Great Tribulation will last seven years, but it is divided into two parts. In Rev. 11:3, we are told the first half of the tribulation will last 1,260 days; and in Rev. 12:6, the last half will also last 1,260 days. Dan 12:12, though, speaks of 1,290 days, and v. 13 speaks of 1,335 days. This appears to be the last three and one-half years of the Tribulation, during which the Antichrist will reign, plus an additional two months. Though we do not know the exact significance of these particular numbers, we do know that he who “waiteth, and cometh to these days” is blessed, because the wrath associated with Christ’s return and the judgments which will follow (Matt 25) will be over.
It is during the second half of the Great Tribulation that Satan will kill 2/3 of the Israelites, likely due to their refusal to worship him as God (Rev 13:15), and the remaining 1/3 will flee to the wilderness (Ze 13:8-9; Rev 12:4-6).
"And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God." (Ze 13:8-9)
Modern Israel is setting the stage for these events. She is back in her own land, having partially returned from the nations. She is preparing for the building of the third temple. She is looking for a peace-making, temple-building Messiah, which is a perfect definition of the antichrist at the beginning of his reign. They will be deceived (which didn't have to be the case, since there are 144,000 Jewish evangelists preaching throughout Israel and the world [Rev 7:1-8], 12k from each tribe, and furthermore, two witnesses in Jerusalem preaching during the first of half of the Tribulation until they are killed in a fierce battle with the false prophet, Rev 11:3-14) and it will cost the lives of 2/3 of Israel (the 144k Jewish evangelists will also be beheaded, Rev 14:1-5), but 1/3 will escape and call upon the name of the One they crucified and slew.
The only way Israel will be saved is through her national repentance.
God will save Israel, but the onus lies on Israel to repent and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and so Mic 7:18-20 be gloriously fulfilled:
"Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old."
The father of John the Baptist, Zacharias, prophesied of the Messiahs deliverance of Israel from her enemies, if they would believe:
“And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.” (Lk 1:67-75).
Is. 53 is the future confession of a repentant Israel, which fits with a lot of other prophecy, including Ze 12-14; Jer 31; Ezk. 36, and several other places. It also fits with what the Apostle Paul says in Rom 11:26. This is not some sort of hyper-dispensationalism. Its Bible. When Israel is surrounded by her enemies in the tribulation, she will look upon Him, whom she has pierced, and turn to Him as Messiah. Only 1/3 of the nation will turn to Him, but that will constitute the nation of Israel.
And 1 Ch. 16:7-36 will come to pass, and "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord":
“Then on that day David delivered first this psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren. Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually. Remember his marvellous works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; O ye seed of Israel his servant, ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones. He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth. Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations; Even of the covenant which he made with Abraham, and of his oath unto Isaac; And hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant, Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance; When ye were but few, even a few, and strangers in it. And when they went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people; He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Sing unto the Lord, all the earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen; his marvellous works among all nations. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols: but the Lord made the heavens. Glory and honour are in his presence; strength and gladness are in his place. Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The Lord reigneth. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof: let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein. Then shall the trees of the wood sing out at the presence of the Lord, because he cometh to judge the earth. O give thanks unto the Lord ; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever. And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever. And all the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord."