Israel in Bible Prophecy: Past, Present & Future

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Any Christian can of course be a Zionist as a political stance, and there’s a strong case for saying they should be (using the core definition only, not how the word is used is polemics). As you can see, these verses emphasize the future role of Jerusalem as a central location in God's plan for the end times. They speak to the significance of Jerusalem as a place where God will dwell, where His law will go forth, and where all nations will gather. Additionally, they point to Jerusalem's role in end-time events, including conflicts and the ultimate establishment of God's kingdom. The Current State of Israel

Ironically, perhaps, the Book of Isaiah is most widely known and loved just for those comforting words—which may not be his. A passage in the Babylonian Talmud (one of the two Talmud compilations, the other being Palestinian) can say that from beginning to end the book is consolation. The presence of Isaiah scrolls in the archives of the Qumrān (Dead Sea) community is not surprising. By that time (c. 1st century bce) it had become the fashion to assume that prophets spoke not to their times only but of things to come, and in times of stress men studied prophetic texts intent on learning when redemption was to come. On the demand that I withdraw my comparrison with China, I accept and apolgise. It was not my intent to suggest that Israel is guilty of genocide when it plainly isn’t, thought I think you reading something I didn’t say. The temple is no longer, and never shall be again, the place of God’s dwelling….the place where blood sacrifice is offered…the place where forgiveness of sins is found…the place where you go to hear God’s voice and to earn about who he is,This radical shift in Israel, when she will lower her defenses, will occur at the beginning of the Tribulation or just before it. At the time of the Rapture, the Antichrist will make a seven-year deal with Israel in which he will promise to protect the nation. Israel will become dependent upon the Antichrist, disarm her army, and devote all her energy to increasing her wealth. The country will be defenseless against the northern coalition. A resident of ancient Judea was called a Judean; so when the 2nd draft of the KJV Bible was introduced in the 1800’s a NEW WORD was ADDED to replace IEWE and that was the word “Jew” (an abbreviation for a “Judean”— a person living in ancient Judea — but Yahusha (aka: Jesus Christ) is NOT from Judea and NEVER WAS and therefore Yahusha (JESUS) IS NOT a “Jew” or a Judean! If you say you are a “Jew” today…. you are also saying you’re 85-90% Ashkenazi Eastern European from one of several countries in Eastern Europe who have mostly Khazarian ancestors. So modern so called “Jewish” people have absolutely no connection whatsoever because they are not even remotely a Semitic people and HAVE NO CONNECTION AT ALL (through Ancestry or by religion) to Abraham and the 12 tribes of Hebrew Israelites. And modern so called Israel has absolutely no connection to ancient Biblical Israel. How DARE THEY even call it today “Israel”. It is an ABOMINATION. The first reason that promise fulfilment is a trajectory that involves the church is that fulfilment is ultimately located in Christ. He is the seed of promise… the Abrahamic Son… God’s beloved son, the servant. In other words he is the true Israel. He is the true Vine. All God’s promises find their fulfilment in relation to him. Abraham had one offspring to whom all the promises belong and that is Christ. Every blessing resides in him. Gals 3,4 develop this fully. Yahusha IS from Galilee so He IS a Galilean and was known as such and called as such throughout the New Testament!

Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off’(v. 11). A person living in the region of ANCIENT Israel known as Judea (NOT in today’s so called “Israel”) was known and called a “Judean” without regard to their actual race or religion…. I could go on but I’ll stop by saying if one sees the temple of Ezekiel as something yet to be built then you are saying Jesus has not yet fulfilled all prophesy. He has. He is the New Temple and we are the sacrifices. ReplyIt’s fair, but again, I’d be interested in knowing which country you would like now to use as your example which has its ‘crimes’ universally reported on as much as Israel. Sorry – the answer is “NO” if you said Arabs (a true Semitic people). Many Arabs are Muslim, but there are Muslims in every country and from every culture, just like Christians). A dispensationalist looks at the sacrifice in the temple of Ezekiel and concludes that when the temple is built sacrifices will resume. I see it fulfilled already in every Christian coming to Christ. Subjugation — many nations did not willingly accept the Jews into their countries. Russia, for example, was known for its harsh treatment of the Jews, who had no rights. Even during the British rule of their lands, the Jews suffered a great deal of violence at the hands of nearby Arab populations. If Ezekiel’s Temple is Jesus. We are in it, coming in from the north or south gate, his left and right, as he walks upon the sea of history towards the west.

Meshech and Tubal. These were also grandsons of Noah (Genesis 10:2). Their descendants established cities or territories bearing their names. C. I. Scofield identifies Meshech as “Moscow” and Tubal as “Tobolsk.” 2 Other scholars identify these as territories in modern Turkey. Four hundred years of exile and slavery in Egypt, then escape only to wander in the desert for another 40 years before arriving in the “land of milk and honey.” As a teenager I was interested in timelines. I inherited some books from a grandfather who was a Brethren. I find the whole thing futile now in my mid 60s. The eschatological Jerusalem in Isa 54 is said by Paul in Gals 4 to be the Jerusalem above to which all NT believers belong. Christians generally have no difficulty in seeing most of these themes of Ezekiel’s prophecy—about the Davidic shepherd-king, the sanctification of the name of God, the nations knowing that he is God, cleansing from sin, the gift of a new heart and of God’s Spirit, the covenant of peace and God’s sanctuary being among his people for ever—as being fulfilled in the coming of Christ. If the themes concerning the nation and the land can also be related to Jesus and to everything that is offered to every human being through him,it becomes much harder to believe that prophecies about the people and the land are in a special category, separate from all the other themes of Ezekiel’sprophecy, and therefore demand a literal fulfilment.The overwhelming theme has been: this war is prophetically significant, but no one is willing to really claim exactly how,” Hummel said. I, too, have concern that the church’s attitude can result in rejection of the nation state of Israel, even as zionism sees 1948 as a turning point in history a crucial to the end times and return if Christ. I’ve encountered open hostility in the church to the Jews and the nation state of Israel, let alone far from balanced media reporting, and peoples who would like it come to an end. The Greek translation of Isaiah by Jewish scholars (the Septuagint), accomplished before the Christian Era, reflects a developing tradition of interpretation; it renders the Hebrew ʿ alma (“young woman”) as parthenos (“virgin”) in the verse (7:14) about Immanuel, thus drawing Isaiah further into the messianic ring. Now it is a virgin who “shall conceive and bear a son.” The promise of a more than ordinary king, a “messiah,” was enticing. According to the New Testament accounts, when Jesus entered a synagogue in Nazareth and got up to read, they handed him a scroll of Isaiah. He read the beginning of chapter 61, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me…,” and he said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled.”

The Hebrew word for prophet is naviʾ, usually considered to be a loanword from Akkadian nabū, nabāʾum, “to proclaim, mention, call, summon.” Also occurring in Hebrew are ḥoze and roʾe, both meaning “seer,” and neviʾa, “prophetess.” There is also a Zionism for Christians which can come from another, theological place. Catholic scholar Gavin D’Costa argues for a minimalist Catholic Zionism. It’s based on the idea that in Catholic thought the fact that Gd’s covenant with Israel (Jewry) is not revoked has come to mean the affirmation of rabbinic Judaism as an expression of that covenant. Indeed, in the above, the difference between the covenants *superseded* and the covenants *fulfilled* must have some real content: there must be a Jewish Israel which is (in Gd’s eyes) not superseded by the Church. It follows that the heart-beat of Revelation which Jews rightly honour still has force. And in that Revelation, there is no doubt that the Land is a divine Gift to the People (conditionally, though), and is a character in its own right. Christians (in this argument) can affirm this theologically as well as pragmatically. But! But nothing to do with End Times (unless and until such End Times unfold). Reply The future of that remnant (Israel) lay in the reign of an ideal king (as described in Isaiah), indicating that the prophets were not antiroyalists. Though they could and did oppose individual kings, the prophets could not make a separation between Yahweh and the reign of his chosen king or dynasty. Their messianic ideology, referring to the messiah, or anointed one, is based on old royal ideology, and the ideal king is not an eschatological figure (one who appears at the end of history). In that respect, the prophets were nationalistic. They believed that the ideal kingdom would be in the promised land, and its centre would be Jerusalem. We may expect that fulfilment lies with those who are united to Christ and so it proves to be. Jesus tells Israel that the kingdom will be taken from her and given to a nation producing its fruits. See the context. He was referring to his disciples. He had deliberately chosen 12 as the nucleus of a new Israel, a new eschatological people of God, his own messianic community. Initially this new ‘holy nation’ was composed of Jews upon whom the eschatogical gift of the Spirit fell at Pentecost then they were joined by Gentiles who also received the Spirit putting them among the new covenant community. In Acts 15 this is seen as referring to the rebuilding of the ruins of the tent of David… Eph 2 puts Jew and gentile together as heirs to the covenants of promise. All is realised in Christ.

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I was not trying to play a relativistic game, I was simply suggesting that Israel is not uniquely singled out for criticism of particular crimes, and crimes of the type I listed above are near-universally reported on. Is that fairer at least, even if you still disagree? In conclusion, and by way of example, I wonder how many contributing to this post are aware that words such as “everlasting”(as in the covenant promises made to Abraham and given that those promises included the land of Canaan), might no longer be construed as meaning everlasting [Genesis 17: 7,8]? Reply