Why Still Care about Israel?

I just finished reading Why Still Care about Israel by Sandra Teplinsky.

I was drawn by the title of this book to learn more about Israel and what is going on today. In reading the book I was blessed with understanding of Romans 9 – 11. (And this after studying Romans for a year with Bible Study Fellowship!

I challenge anyone considering buying this book to first read Romans 9 – 11, then read the book and then go back and read Romans 9 – 11 again! You will be amazed how your eyes are opened!

Romans 9 – 11 9 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— ² I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, ⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. ⁵ Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen

⁶ It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. ⁷ Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” ⁸ In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring. ⁹ For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. ¹¹ Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: ¹² not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” ¹³ Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷ For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

¹⁹ One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” ²⁰ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” ²¹ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?

²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? ²³ What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴ even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”²⁶ and,

“In the very place where it was said to them,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

²⁷ Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
²⁸ For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”

²⁹ It is just as Isaiah said previously

“Unless the Lord Almighty
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.

³⁰ What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹ but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. ³² Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. ³³ As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall,
and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.

10 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. ² For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. ³ Since they did not know the righteousness of God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. ⁴ Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.

⁵ Moses writes this about the righteousness that is by the law: “The person who does these things will live by them.” ⁶ But the righteousness that is by faith says: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) ⁷ “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). ⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: ⁹ If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ¹⁰ For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. ¹¹ As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” ¹² For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, ¹³ for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

¹⁴ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? ¹⁵ And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

¹⁶ But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” ¹⁷ Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. ¹⁸ But I ask: Did they not hear? Of course they did:

“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.”

¹⁹ Again I ask: Did Israel not understand? First, Moses says,

“I will make you envious by those who are not a nation;
I will make you angry by a nation that has no understanding.”

²⁰ And Isaiah boldly says,

“I was found by those who did not seek me;
I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.”

²¹ But concerning Israel he says,

“All day long I have held out my hands
to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

11 I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ² God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: ³ “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? ⁴ And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵ So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ⁶ And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

⁷ What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, ⁸ as it is written:

“God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes that could not see
and ears that could not hear,
to this very day.”

⁹ And David says:

“May their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them.
¹⁰ May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever.”

¹¹ Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. ¹² But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!

¹³ I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry ¹⁴ in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶ If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

¹⁷ If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, ¹⁸ do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹ You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” ²⁰ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

²² Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. ²³ And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴ After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

²⁵ I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, ²⁶ and in this way all Israel will be saved. As it is written:

“The deliverer will come from Zion;
he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.
²⁷ And this is my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.”

²⁸ As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies for your sake; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, ²⁹ for God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable. ³⁰ Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, ³¹ so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God’s mercy to you. ³² For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

³³ Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
³⁴ “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?”
³⁵ “Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay them?”
³⁶ For from him and through him and for him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Disclosure: I was given this book by Chosen Books to review on my blog. They did not ask for a positive review; only an honest one.

The Lifestyle of a Prophet

I just finished reading The Lifestyle of a Prophet by James W. Goll and wanted to share his list of how to grow in the prophetic:

1. Go to church – be around God
2. Love mercy. Micah 6:8 says to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.
3. Pray in the spirit
4. Ask God! Listen! Seek!
5. Don’t share everything God tells you. Sometimes it’s God’s secret. Ask permission.
6. Love the anointing. The presence of the Holy Spirit. “Some things are better ‘caught’ then ‘taught’”.
7. Risk! Move out of your comfort zone. Step out in faith. Keep taking progressive steps and you’ll grow. Climb out of your boat and trust the Lord.

Goll tells us we are to have intimacy with God. We must lean on Jesus. Surrender to Him. Be passionate about the cross. And like good friends hang out together. Have a relationship that is established over time. Share your heart with Him. The way we hear His voice is through a relationship with Him. And what we hear we share.

I received this book from Chosen books in exchange for an honest review. The book is not an easy read if you are really trying to “get it”. But it is worth the effort.

Explaining the 3 Heavens

Dr. Jimmy DeYoung explained the 3 Heavens the last night of the Prophecy Conference.

2 Corinthians 12:2-3 gives evidence that there are 3 heavens:

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows

The first heaven is what we see in the daytime: the sun and clouds
The second heaven is what we see at night: the moon and the stars
And the third heaven is where God is.

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

These principalities and evil spirits are gathered in the first two heavens and dispatched to earth to wage spiritual warfare.

2 Corinthians 11: 14- 15 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

Satan has his own ministers doing things for him. That’s why we have to compare everything we hear and read with scripture.

We know that before war breaks out in heaven, that Satan has access to the third heaven by these 2 verses:

Revelation 12:7 Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back

Revelation 12:10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
“Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God,
and the authority of his Messiah.
For the accuser of our brothers and sisters,
who accuses them before our God day and night,
has been hurled down.

Who are the Palestinians? And why do they hate the Jews?

Night three of the Prophecy Conference:

On the 20^th of September the Palestinians are going to the United Nations to declare their Palestinian state. There has never been one before. And they want it to be in Jerusalem.

On May 14, 1948 the United Nations allowed the Jewish people to have a state. 500,000 Jews established Israel. Within an hour they were surrounded by about 2 million Palestinians, who attacked.

The Palestinians had sent their wives and children across the Jordan thinking they’d come back after they defeated the Jews. But that didn’t happen, so 70% of the area across the Jordan is made up of Palestinians.

Yasser Arafat came in to that area to form terrorist groups to go after the Jews. Fatah was his organization and PLO was a group of organizations he put together. Eventually he was driven into Jordan where he tried to overthrow King Hussein. The king killed 10,000 Palestinians in one day. Arafat then took his people and went to Lebanon first and then Tunisia.

In September of 1993 he went to the White House to sign the Oslo accords peace treaty between he and Israel. Then Arafat came back into Israel, first to Jericho where he built a palace, but then decided he really needed to be in the Gaza strip where so many Palestinians were.

The Palestinians control the Temple mount, which we saw in yesterday’s post has a long and strong Jewish history.

The story of the feud between the Jews and the Palestinians goes all the way back to Genesis 25:19-25 when the twins Jacob and Esau struggled in Rebekah’s womb. God’s plan was always for the elder (Esau) to serve the younger (Jacob) and he told Rebekah that. But she and Jacob plotted and connived to steal Isaac’s blessing to Esau anyway.

Esau said he would kill Jacob for stealing his birthright and his descendents have been trying to do that ever since!

In 1^st Samuel 15 King Saul was told to kill all the Amalekites and their animals. (The Amalekites were descendents of Esau) But Saul didn’t and on that day he lost his authority as king. Every personality in the Old Testament who ever wanted to kill the Jews was also a descendent.

In the New Testament, Herod the Great who killed all the baby boys trying to kill the King of the Jews, was also a descendent. There were even descendents from Bosnia fighting with the Germans in World War II. In more modern times? Yasser Arafat and Suddam Hussein.

Satan uses the Palestinians because he wants every Jew dead. If he can do this that means that God’s promises to the Jews won’t be fulfilled, which would make Him a liar.

These promises are found in the four covenants that the Lord made with the Jewish people down through the years. The first was the "Abrahamic Covenant", Genesis 12,  made to Abraham that God would make him a great nation through the "sons of promise", Isaac and Jacob.

The "Land Covenant", Deuteronomy 30 is the eternal for the Jews and the "land" that God will give them at the time of the Kingdom.

Speaking of the Kingdom, it is to be an eternal Kingdom, headquartered in Jerusalem with the Messiah, Jesus Christ on the "throne" in a "Temple" on the Temple Mount, as promised by the "Davidic Covenant", 2 Samuel 7. 

The "New Covenant" is given, not to the Church, but to the Jewish people, Jeremiah 31:31, and it will be fulfilled when the Lord puts His Word in the hearts of the Jews and they become His people and God becomes their God.

Prophecy Conference Night Two – The Importance of Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the spiritual capital, the physical capital and the eternal capital of the world.

Psalm 132:13-14 says that God chose Jerusalem for His people. In Zechariah 1:12 Jesus appeared to the prophet and said, “I am jealous for Jerusalem,” (Meaning “I am aggressively possessive of Jerusalem.”) “and displeased with the heathen (the nations) who are against it.”

And in Ezekiel 5:5 God put Jerusalem in the center, surrounded by the other countries, who will one day attack her. But Zechariah 12:1-9 says that God will deliver Jerusalem from those nations.

2^nd Samuel 7:13 and 16 tells us that God promised David Jerusalem will be there forever.

Zechariah 1:16 says that Jesus will come back and build His temple there and rule!

Why is Jerusalem key? This is where Abraham offered up Isaac on the Temple Mount. The same spot was also where David paid for the site. And where Solomon built the first temple. After it was torn down the second temple was built there. All the sacrifices took place there.

And! It’s where the Garden of Eden was!

In Genesis 1:26 God told Adam and Eve to rule the first kingdom, Eden. At the end, the last Adam and His bride (the church) will rule from the Garden of Eden (Jerusalem)!

Prophecy Conference Night 1

John and I went to a four night prophecy conference that a group of Baptist churches in Taylorsville, NC hosted. The speaker was Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, a radio favorite of mine.

The first night he talked about understanding Revelation by studying it chronologically.
In Revelation 1:1 God gave the revelation to Jesus who gave it to an angel who gave it to John.

I’m not one of those people who think about angels being around us all the time, but Dr. DeYoung says they not only played a big part in Christ’s first coming; they’ll also play a big part in the second coming. Angels deliver 14 of the 21 judgments in Revelation. He also made the comment they are often in church because angels come to hear every teaching about God. And apparently there are millions of angels!

Chapter 1 of Revelation tells us about the person and power of Jesus Christ. Chapters 2 and 3 are the last words of Jesus to the church. (The 7 letters to the 7 churches.) Chapter 4 is the Rapture of the church. Starting with chapter 5 is the 7 years of tribulation before Christ returns. The church is not mentioned in chapters 5 – 18 because they are no longer on earth.

After Christ returns, there’s the 1000 year reign, then the Great White Judgment where the unbelievers are sent to the lake of fire. Then the eternal heaven and the eternal earth.

http://www.prophecytoday.com

Conclusion of Proof that the Bible is the Inspired Word of God

Israel’s Plan to Rebuild the Temple

The Bible tells us that Israel will rebuild the Temple in the last days.
Isaiah 2:2 In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.

There are several other prophecies about that in the Bible. One of the things they will need is a special oil God commanded the Israelites to use to anoint the temple and the priests. This was in Exodus 30:25-26. One of the 5 ingredients needed to make the oil was afans’mon which was seemingly lost forever in AD 70 when the Romans destroyed the Temple and burned the only 2 groves where this grew.

In 1989 Dr. Joseph Patrich of Hebrew University found a clay flask buried near the Dead Sea caves filled with this ancient oil. Scientists confirmed the oil is 2000 years old and composed of the precise ingredients described in Exodus. It’s enough to anoint the rebuilt Temple and the priests.

The rebuilt Temple will also need sacred vessels and linen robes, described in Ezekiel 44:16-17. The Temple Institute in the Old City of Jerusalem had already prepared over 75 of the objects, vessels and linen priestly garments required for the future Temple services, as of 1996 when this book was written.

The Jewish Bible colleges in Jerusalem had already trained 500 young men from the tribe of Levi to correctly fulfill their future duties of Temple worship and sacrifice.

The Bible also foretold the revival of the Roman Empire in the final Generation when Christ comes back. Both Daniel 7 and Revelation 13 and 17 talk of a unique form of a ten-nation super state.

In 1957 6 countries signed the Treaty of Rome. Since then, the Maastricht Treaty consolidated the 15 nations of the European Union into the world’s first super state.

One of the most unusual of the Bible’s prophecies reveals that the city of Babylon would be rebuilt and later destroyed by God at Armageddon by supernatural fire from heaven like Sodom and Gomorrah. (This is in Isaiah 13:6, 19) Saddam Hussein spent over 1 billion dollars rebuilding the ancient city of Babylon. This city is built over an underground lake of asphalt and oil. God has already provided the fuel for its final destruction!

In another prophecy in Isaiah God said the city would burn forever. Several years ago in the Gulf War we had a foretaste of this burning when Saddam Hussein set hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells on fire and covered the desert with smoke and fire.

Earthquakes

Jesus prophesied that the last generation of this age would witness the greatest earthquakes in history. Other prophets, including Ezekiel, Zechariah, Haggai and John also predicted this. We have been seeing massive earthquakes, and scientists warn these are only a foretaste of the coming “big one”.

Major “killer” quakes (7.2 or greater on the Richter scale) occurred only once a decade before the 1900s. From 1900 – 1949 they averaged 3 per decade. From 1949 through the 50s they averaged 9, in the 60s – 13, in the 70s – 56, 80s – 74 and from 1990 – 1996 – 125.

Tribulation

Lots of prophecies about the tribulation period we won’t take the time to go into: terrible plagues and horrible sores. We already know what Aids and skin cancer can do.

Worldwide famine – a billion people are in danger of starving right now and another billion suffer from malnutrition.

The mark of the beast – tiny computer chips are already capable of holding all your medical and financial records and can be embedded under your skin and read by scanners from a distance.

We are already used to credit cards and “smart cards”. Using fingerprints and eye iris’s for identification to enter places.

Worldwide TV communications: the Bible talks about the 2 witnesses for God during the tribulation who will die and lie in the streets of Jerusalem for 3 and a half days. And the whole world will watch in astonishment as God resurrects these 2 to Heaven. (Revelation 11:9-10) People used to wonder how everyone would watch this…before CNN.

The Gospel will be preached in all the world. (Matthew 24:14) The Bible has been translated into more than 3850 languages, in every nation, tribe and dialect on the planet. You can even listen to the Bible on your ipod.

In 1996 85,000 plus people were being saved everyday! There has never been such an explosion of the Gospel since Pentecost. In China alone from 1949 to 1996 Christians grew from 1 million to 100 million.

The book of Daniel predicted an explosion of knowledge and a huge increase in travel in the last days. And on and on. Only God could have predicted and inspired the writers of the Scriptures to tell these things. Jesus said in Luke 21:28, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up our heads, because your redemption draws near.”

So what do we do with this knowledge? We have 2 choices: For those who reject the Bible as God’s Word, either Jesus Christ is wrong or they are. Well, all the fulfilled prophecy proves He isn’t mistaken. So I would suggest you make the 2nd choice: to believe the Bible is what He says it is, the inspired Word of God, our plumbline, our guide, a revelation to us of Him. If we can’t or won’t believe that, how do we believe anything?

But, after that, you have to do something with it. Satan and his demons know Scripture too you know!

Acts 16:31 says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.” Our personal relationship with Jesus Christ will determine our eternal destiny. The decision to accept Christ as our personal Savior is the most important one we will ever make. The author ends this book with this sentence: “You have seen the evidence. The decision is yours.”

Part 5 of Proof that the Bible is the Inspired Word of God

Let’s look at some prophecies fulfilled closer to our lifetime. The author of this book, “The Signature of God” has studied Biblical prophecy for over 30 years and he believes Christ will return in our lifetime. (And this book was written 10 years ago already.) Now I know a lot of people, including the 1st century Christians believed that and it didn’t happen, but there is nothing left on God’s calendar that is predicted to happen before the Rapture, which hasn’t already happened.

The rebirth of Israel

Jesus foretold this in His prophecy of the “fig tree” budding in Matthew 24:32-35. No other ancient nation ever ceased to exist for a period of centuries and then returned to its place. Most nations evolved gradually over the centuries: like Egypt or France. Isaiah said Israel would happen in a day. (Isaiah 66:8)

And that day was May 15, 1948

Also, 3000 years ago God inspired King David to predict that the reborn nation of Israel would be immediately surrounded by enemies, including the Arab nations of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria (Psalm 83:2-8)

2 See how your enemies are astir,
how your foes rear their heads.
3 With cunning they conspire against your people;
they plot against those you cherish.
4 "Come," they say, "let us destroy them as a nation,
that the name of Israel be remembered no more."
5 With one mind they plot together;
they form an alliance against you-
6 the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites,
of Moab and the Hagrites,
7 Gebal, Ammon and Amalek,
Philistia, with the people of Tyre.
8 Even Assyria has joined them
to lend strength to the descendants of Lot.

Those are the ancient names of the modern states of the Middle East joined with the Palestinians in their attempt to destroy the Jewish state in the last days.

The prophet Zephaniah predicted the restoration of the dead language of Hebrew as the living, spoken language of Israel. Hebrew had ceased to be the common language of the Jews before the life of Christ. Remember Paul’s list of things about himself that showed his impeccable Jewish background? One was he could speak Hebrew, it wasn’t common anymore. (Read Zephaniah 3:9) No other nation has ever lost its language and later recovered it.

Just in the 1900’s a Jewish scholar began working in Israel to revive the dead language of Hebrew. His name was Eliazar ben Yehuda. He used the original 7000 words and invented new words for things like airplane and fountain pen. He created modern Hebrew as the living language of 5 million Israelites. As the people began to move back to their Promised Land in 1948 from all over the world - from 70 different nations – after 2000 years in exile – the government and army began to unify them by teaching them the revived Hebrew language.

In addition to recovering their homeland, their lost language and people, the prophet Isaiah predicted Israel would become fertile again (Isaiah 27:6) The returning Jews have transformed the previously deserted and desolate land into the most agriculturally efficient land on earth according to the United nations. Israel now supplies over 90% of the citrus fruit consumed by hundreds of millions of Europeans.

The prophet Joel said the nation of Israel would experience tremendous increases of rain in the last days (Joel 2:23) Rainfall over there has risen over 10% every decade for the last century. The returning Jews planted over 200 million trees and transformed the Promised Land. (Isaiah 35:7)

Why do we study prophecy?

28% of the Bible is dedicated to prophecy. About 100 prophecies predicted Christ’s first coming and Jesus fulfilled every one of them. There are five times that many prophecies in the Bible that concern His second coming, and if Christ came back today, no prophecy of the end times necessary for His return would go unfulfilled.

Although Jesus tells us in the New Testament that we aren’t to know the day, only the Father knows that, we can know the season. And we are in the season.

Why do we study prophecy?

We study prophecy that’s already history to show us we can believe God and trust His promises.

We study the prophecy of the end times because; it challenges believers to holy living in an unholy age. Ephesians 5:17-21 tells us to walk in the spirit. We need to be in God’s will. Studying future prophecy also gives the church a greater challenge to evangelize and to fulfill Christ’s great commission, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19) When we share our faith with others, not only do we help others, but also our own convictions are strengthened.

And we study prophecy so we are not deceived. Jesus said the truth shall set you free. We are to know the Bible! Daily reading of the Bible is a must for Christians. Proverbs 3:6 tells us to seek God’s guidance in life and teaching. 1 John 4:1-3 tells us to ask if the message or teaching glorifies Jesus Christ.

Doing all of this keeps us in a state of readiness. In Matthew Jesus tells a parable of a servant who expects his master’s return at any minute. He doesn’t waste time running to the door, but diligently pursues his work so it’s completed to the master’s approval at His coming. We are commanded both to work and watch so we are ready.

God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to behold!

There is much that we can know in this life, knowledge upon knowledge, but unless we discover the love of God and a love for humanity and of all God’s creation, we are nothing. 1 Cor.13