If you would have asked me that question 4 years ago, I would have said, "Yes! Absolutely!" and dogmatically defended that position, while simultaneously using it as a "time-piece" for calculating the times we are living in, looking forward to the Rapture. I know many of you are doing that today as well.
Now, I am not so sure. I've been studying the Torah for 3 years now. And if Isaiah 46:10 is true, then everything we want/need to know about the end was declared from the beginning.
As a result of my more recent studies, I confess, I truly do struggle with this idea of Israel having become a nation in 1948. Nothing I read in the Torah or the Old Testament prophetic Scriptures concerning YHVH bringing Israel back to the land fits what we saw happen in the mid-20th Century. Read the following Scriptures and see if you agree.
Let's begin with Leviticus 26 - for what is required from Israel in order to be returned to YHVH's land:
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Leviticus 26
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
Rewards for Obedience
1 You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images or pillars, and you shall not place figured stones in your land, to worship at them; for I am the Lord your God. 2 You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.
3 If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, 4 I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.5 Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and live securely in your land. 6 And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land. 7 You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. 8 Five of you shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. 9 I will look with favor upon you and make you fruitful and multiply you; and I will maintain my covenant with you. 10 You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new. 11 I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you. 12 And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. 13 I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no more; I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect.
Penalties for Disobedience
14 But if you will not obey me, and do not observe all these commandments, 15 if you spurn my statutes, and abhor my ordinances, so that you will not observe all my commandments, and you break my covenant, 16 I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you; consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you. 18 And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. 19 I will break your proud glory, and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like copper. 20 Your strength shall be spent to no purpose: your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
21 If you continue hostile to me, and will not obey me, I will continue to plague you sevenfold for your sins.22 I will let loose wild animals against you, and they shall bereave you of your children and destroy your livestock; they shall make you few in number, and your roads shall be deserted.
23 If in spite of these punishments you have not turned back to me, but continue hostile to me, 24 then I too will continue hostile to you: I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins. 25 I will bring the sword against you, executing vengeance for the covenant; and if you withdraw within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into enemy hands. 26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven, and they shall dole out your bread by weight; and though you eat, you shall not be satisfied.
27 But if, despite this, you disobey me, and continue hostile to me, 28 I will continue hostile to you in fury; I in turn will punish you myself sevenfold for your sins. 29 You shall eat the flesh of your sons, and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters. 30 I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars; I will heap your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols. I will abhor you. 31 I will lay your cities waste, will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your pleasing odors. 32 I will devastate the land, so that your enemies who come to settle in it shall be appalled at it. 33 And you I will scatter among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword against you; your land shall be a desolation, and your cities a waste.
34 Then the land shall enjoy its sabbath years as long as it lies desolate, while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and enjoy its sabbath years. 35 As long as it lies desolate, it shall have the rest it did not have on your sabbaths when you were living on it. 36 And as for those of you who survive, I will send faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; the sound of a driven leaf shall put them to flight, and they shall flee as one flees from the sword, and they shall fall though no one pursues. 37 They shall stumble over one another, as if to escape a sword, though no one pursues; and you shall have no power to stand against your enemies. 38 You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall devour you. 39 And those of you who survive shall languish in the land of your enemies because of their iniquities; also they shall languish because of the iniquities of their ancestors.
40 But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their ancestors, in that they committed treachery against me and, moreover, that they continued hostile to me— 41 so that I, in turn, continued hostile to them and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, 42 then will I remember my covenant with Jacob; I will remember also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land. 43 For the land shall be deserted by them, and enjoy its sabbath years by lying desolate without them, while they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they dared to spurn my ordinances, and they abhorred my statutes. 44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God; 45 but I will remember in their favor the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, to be their God: I am the Lord.
46 These are the statutes and ordinances and laws that the Lord established between himself and the people of Israel on Mount Sinai through Moses.
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Here we see clear rewards for obedience to YHVH's Torah. But we also see a severe penalty for disobedience, which will lead to exile. And the ONLY way out of such exile is repentence and a return to obedience to YHVH's commandments, statutes and ordinances. Did the people of modern Israel comply with Leviticus 26:40-46? Are they walking in the Torah (Constitution of their Land)? Have they been giving the land its seven year Sabbath rests? Not to my knowledge. By in large, it is a completely secular nation. But let's say I'm wrong in that observation. OK, then read the following chapters:
Jeremiah 23
Jeremiah 30
Jeremiah 31
Ezekiel 37
There are many other Scriptures we could look at (especially in the "minor prophets"), but the above listed are the most potent in my opinion.The fact that the current "Israel" fits none of the above, and that it exists under the "star of Remphan" spoken of (with contempt) by Stephen in Acts 7:43 tells me this is a counterfeit - and therefore no prophetic, eschatological "time-piece" is accurate if they are basing anything on 1948 (or even 1967).
I like the way Todd Bennett put it in his book, The Redeemed (pictured above):
"The United Nations has no legal significance in the eyes of YHWH and that "ungodly" organization has no authority to establish any part of YHWH's kingdom. Therefore, I do not automatically assume that the date 1948 is as significant as some believe." (page 184)
"Again, I do not believe that it is up to the United Nations to "rubber stamp" the existence of Israel. Interestingly, some Orthodox Jewish groups have declared that the nation is a violation of the Torah because the Messiah was not the One to establish this state." (page 185)
I absolutely agree with both of the above statements as well as this one from page 186:
"Therefore, just because the current state of Israel calls itself "Israel" does not mean that it is the Yisrael that we read of in the Scriptures - which consists of all of the Redeemed of YHWH. While a group of genetic offspring of various tribes of Yisrael have returned to the Land, the majority have done so for reasons not entirely consistent with the type of restoration seen in the Scriptures."
Dear Christian brothers and sisters, if this is true, then we must be very, very careful about what we believe in the coming years. If this is a counterfeit, do not be surprised if certain things transpire leading to the so-called "chosen people" ending up being vomitted out of the Land we now call Israel. We have to be on guard - the Bible tells us that there is a Coming Great Deception, that will be SO great that even the elect could/will be deceived by it. I believe many things will be involved to make this deception so great. One of them may be this counterfeit nation in the Middle East.
Here is a MUST SEE documentary (by my friend Leonard Ulrich) that explains some of the issues regarding Israel, Political Zionism and the New World Order:
New Testament prophetic Scripture also appears to be sending us a clear warning regarding a counterfeit:
Revelation 2:9
I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Revelation 3:9
Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan,which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.
Further confirming my suspicions about who current State of Israel serves, is the Statue of Nimrod sitting out in front of the Hebrew University:
As I have already shown in most of my research, I believe Nimrod is the Antichrist. He is the source of false sun-god religions and occult mystery schools. His name means, "We shall rebel."
Rebellion is what got Israel sent into captivity in the first place! Forcing themselves back into the land through rebellion (contradicting the mandate of Leviticus 26) cannot be a good thing!
Furthermore, Scripture tells us how and where Israel will be brought back - and it wasn't by any third party, secular, pagan agency, nor was it actually in the current plot of land:
Hosea 2
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
14 Therefore, I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
[NOTE: It was in the wilderness that YHVH assembled Israel the first time too]
15 From there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
[NOTE: It appears this will be their entrance point back into the Land after they are assembled in the wilderness]
There she shall respond as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
[NOTE: Indeed, this is very close to the same region they entered the land after their Exodus from Egypt and 40 years in the wilderness the first time around]
16 On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer will you call me, “My Baal.” 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more.
[NOTE: In other words, they won't call Him "LORD" anymore, which is what Baal means. And Baal is associated with Nimrod, so this is also saying that Israel - i.e. the Church - will no longer associate paganism connected with Nimrod to worship of YHVH]
18 I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety.
[NOTE: Weapons were never removed from the Land in 1948 and the current state of "Israel" has had anything but peace and safety]
Hosea 2
King James Version (KJV)
19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
YHVH said that He would personally sow them back into the Land after a gathering in the wilderness. That most certainly did not happen in 1948!
Now, I know some or all of this is likely to ruffle a few feathers and possibly cause an uproar from various groups of people. So, let me just say, save your ammo. I'm not the enemy. I am simply a person seeking answers from the Scriptures, while looking at current events. From my perspective, nothing about 1948 or the current State of Israel lines up with very specific prophecies concerning her return to the land. Are there real Israelites living in the Land? Certainly. But I suspect whatever remnant there is in the Land will be asked/commanded (by God Himself) to leave (see Matthew 24:15-28 and Revelation 12:13-17) when the leader (Nimrod) of those from the "synagoue of Satan" shows up. But please do not take my word for any of this. Rather, toss out the traditions, history and eschatology books of man and...
2 Timothy 2:15
King James Version (KJV)
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Let the Scriptures define what it will look like when Israel is brought back to the Land. If you do, I think you'll find that very little of what happened in 1948 is a match. Again, please consider:
Jeremiah 23
Jeremiah 30
Jeremiah 31
Ezekiel 37
One final thought...
If the nation of Israel truly fit Leviticus 26, Jeremiah 23, 30 & 31, Ezekiel 37 and Hosea 2 (among MANY other prophetic Scriptures describing how YHVH will regather the whole House of Israel and place her in HIS land), would they really need our help?
Searching for truth,
- Rob
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