NOTES AND QUOTES FOR TODAY:
No Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict – VII
The Jews: Their prospects – Tribulation,
Conversion, and Restoration:
(Concluding Remarks)
“.… 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 …… which my covenant they brake, …. 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…. for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Ezekiel 31-31-34
When Frederick the Great asked his court-Chaplain for a single proof of the Bible’s infallibility, he replied, “Sir! The Jews!” Multitudes these days- by far and large the body of professing Christians need to consider the origin of Israel, her preservation through the centuries, and the predictions of her future deliverance. When one remembers all that the Jews have endured it seems nothing short of a miracle the there are nay of them alive to-day. Look at it any way, the Jew stands out as a remarkable figure. He can not be explained on purely natural grounds.
As a race, the Jews are the World’s phenomena having a divine origin ( it is Divine, in the sense that Isaac was a miracle born son of Abraham and Sarah). They have divine history, and Divinely predicted future. Yes, the Jews today are in the state of unbelief regarding Christ the Messiah. But God is going to change that. There are many prophecies in both the Old and the New Testaments which speak of Israel’s salvation. Romans 9-11 aptly summarizes their history.
In Romans 9 we have the Jews in the past. We read in Romans 9:3-4, “who are the Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants , and the giving of the law, and the service of God and the promise; whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all God blessed forever. Amen.” This speaks of their being chosen and with privilege, to be custodians of the oracles of God, and being a channel through which our Lord came to this world.
In Romans 10 we have the Jews in the present Dispensation: Romans 10:16, “but I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sounds went into all the earth, and their words unto the end of the world. But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people. And by a foolish nation I will anger you….. But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.” What was, and still is Israel’s problem? “an evil heart of unbelief: Like the rest of the world today. But thank Go, today, individual Jews can put their faith and trust in Christ Jesus and be saved.
In Romans 11 we have the Jews prospects. We read in Romans 11:25, “For I would not brethren that ye should be ignorant of this mystery that blindness in part is happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become in. And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall take away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.” This verse clearly depicts that Israel will be reconciled, and restored to take their place as the head of the nations, after passing through the “tribulation the Great one.” Now, in this dispensation we are in – the dispensation of the Church, although the Gospel has always possessed saving power for ALL, cultures, the emphasis is today on the Gospel proclamation to the Gentiles. Yes, the Jew as a nation and as a race is set aside by God for now, “until that fullness of the Gentiles become in”.
The Jews Prospects as foretold In the Old Testament: The Jews final restoration of is Predicted over and over again In the Old Testaments Scriptures, that no one reading the Bible with an open mind could miss out. The problem has become that some read the Bible with pre-conceived notion, with much of the time adding their thoughts to it!
In Isaiah 54:4-6 reads, “Fear not: for thou shalt not be ashamed neither be thou confounded: for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shall not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thine Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name: and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel……For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit….. in a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.”
The tragedy of Jewish history is that all privileges were perverted. Israel prostituted her unique position. Her history is strewn with disobedience to the law of God. We read in Deuteronomy 4:25- 31, “When thou shalt beget children, and children’s children and ye shall have remained long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make a graven image, or the likeness of anything, and shall do evil in the sight of the LORD thy God, to provoke him to anger…… and the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen….. and there ye shall sever gods, the work of men’s hands…..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 shall be obedient to his voice (for the LORD thy God is a merciful God:) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee…”
Tribulation, Conversion, and restoration: These three words summarize Israel’s persecuted yet promised prospect. Yes, Israel’s to-morrow is both gloomy and glorious. We discount the false teaching of those who affirm that the Jew has no future. Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones contradicts their theory. Dark days are to be expected before the dawn of the promised bright era. The prophesied prosecution of the Jewish remnant and God’s miraculous deliverance are vividly described in Revelation 12 (which we considered in detailed in our last article). Both the Prophets and our Lord prophesied against the Jewish people (Isaiah 1:4; 5:5; 13:6-13; Matthew 24:15-26 etc., etc..) The trouble of Jacob will be unprecedented. “None like it.” Yet, God’s ultimate purpose will be accomplished through such tribulation.
During Israel’s hour of anguish many are to penitently turn to the Lord. While the mass of the Jews will follow the devil’s messiah, the believing remnant remain true to their Messiah. Now so far as the land rights are concerned, the Scriptures forever settle the land issue! The passage in Genesis 15:8-21 makes plain the eventual borders that land, and it is the Jews and not for Arabs or the Muslims, that will control and own the sacred property that is so volatile that it could cause a world war at any moment. Over two decades ago, a group called he “Temple Mount” laid the cornerstone for that future temple at the bottom of that 38 acre site! As they can not presently transport it to the Temple Mount itself, as it would probably cause the out break for a major world war -that is not some far fetched prediction, but a definite possibility if such an action occurred today.
Yes, an actual blue-print has been prepared for the construction of that future temple and simply awaits the proper timing. Sadly, that future Temple will not be Christ’s temple, it will become the Anti-Christ’s temple. In 2nd Thessalonians 2:3-4. We read, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there shall be a falling away first, and that the man of be revealed, the son of perdition.; who opposeth and esxalteh 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.” After this temple is rebuilt – probably after the Rapture, in the middle of the Seven years Tribulation period – the anti-Christ will enter that temple and demand that the Jews worship him as the Messiah.
This action of 2nd Thessalonians 2:3-4 will fulfill Christ’s prophecy of Matthew 24:15-16 which reads, “ When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whosoever readeth, let him understand). Then let them which be in Judea flee unto the mountains:” Here Christ refers to Daniel’s prophecy in Daniel 9:27, which our Lord calls “ the abomination of desolation.” In that verse Daniel notes the anti-Christ, who will deceivingly appear as the Jews best friend, will make a Seven years peace pact to protect the Jews. And the Jews will place their complete trust in this well-known religious swindler, so that they will dwell in “ unwalled villages (unprotected towns)” that do not have either “bars nor gates.”
In the middle of that agreement, after 3and half years, the anti-Christ will suddenly, without prior notice, break his solemn pact, and enter the Jew’s temple and demand to be worshipped. When they refuse his demands, according to Revelation 13:9-17, the Jews will face an unprecedented three- and-half years of persecution like they have never experienced. This opposition will become so intense, that All the word’s nations will oppose this small ethnic band of people from all quarters of the world – Joel 3:2, Zechariah 13:2. The world’s nations will gather and suddenly untie their forces in one great goal : annihilate and extinguish the Jews. They will nearly succeed as two-third of all the living Jews will be assassinated or murdered – Zechariah 13:8-9 .
Just when it appears that the devil and the anti-Christ associates are about to achieve their goal of Jewish annihilation, a magnificent event will occur in the heavenlies, Christ and his heavenly armies will appear in the skies. And the Scripture declares, that the Jews will “look upon” the one whom they pierced centuries earlier. The Jews will accept Christ as their promised Messiah.
An important fact often overlooked, is Messiah’s return to this earth to set up His millennial reign which waits in the heart of Israel towards the Messiah. Christ will plant his feet on the Mt. Of Olives which will split in two, and the armies from heaven will demolish all of the Anti-Christ forces as Revelation 19:11-21 predicts. The fowls from Heaven will have the feast of the life as they feed off dead bodies with a massive river red blood. Christ will then set up His millennial Kingdom, with Jerusalem as the capital- (Isaiah 2:2-4 )– and the Jews as the major world power. For the first time in world history, the nation will then “beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks,” and genuine world peace will prevail. In the gospel of Luke we have a summary of the glorious conclusion stated us: “ And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke 1:33
From The Staff of The Peoples Gospel Hour
How to be Saved …and KNOW it – your most important stop on this site.
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The Bible reveals two ways which people are following to get into heaven. One way, the true way, is God’s way. God’s way into heaven is the way of peace and truth and righteousness. It is the only way approved of God. This way centers in the Lord Jesus Christ who said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). The Bible declares that there is another way. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12).
There are so many popular ways today filled with lost multitudes all over the land, such as the way of morality, the way of respectability, the way of religion, the way of churchianity, the way of baptism, the way of christening, the way of confirmation, the way of penance, the way of confession, the way of “doing the best I can”, the way of self, the way of education, the way of philosophy, the way of false isms and cults that crowd the street. Little wonder then when we speak to people about the way of salvation, that so many have asked, “How can I know which is the true way? There are so many different ideas and so many religions.”
But there is ONE difference between God’s way of salvation and man’s way, and that difference is found in a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. You will notice that man leaves Christ out of the center of his way. You will discover that the modern false cults and isms demote Christ to a mere man and add something to what He has already done for your salvation and mine. We become children of God through a supernatural birth. Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Jesus also said, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7)
“May the Lord bless you, and make you a blessing!” – The PGH Staff.
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