Modern Israel and Fulfilled Bible Prophecy
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PAUL M. WILLIAMS BIBLE PROPHECY AND THE LAST DAYS – PART 7 [20/11/15] MODERN ISRAEL AND FULFILLED BIBLE PROPHECY Introduction In this this teaching we are continuing to look at fulfilled Bible prophecy as it relates to Israel. When we use the name modern Israel, we simply do so to distinguish it from ancient Israel. AD 70 marked a decisive and pinnacle year in the history of the Jewish nation, just as 586 BC had done, half a millennia before; the Jewish temple was destroyed, Jerusalem was conquered and the Jewish people were slaughtered, being exiled en- mass, scattered across the vast mass of the Roman Empire. This event is known as the diaspora (Greek for scattering), the final wave taking place in AD 136 following the last of the Jewish-Roman wars known as the Bar Kokhba revolt, . Whereas in the first diaspora, the Jewish exile lasted only seventy years, the diaspora of the first/second century would last some 1900 years!! To comprehend this astonishing statistic and to put it into context, the Jewish presence in the land promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob from the time of Israel’s entering in under the leadership of Joshua up until AD 70 was approximately 1500 years. Thus the history of Israel en-mass post-AD 70 has been one outside the Promise Land and has eclipsed the length of its history in the land by nearly half a millennia!! From the time of Abraham to the time of Christ was only 2000 years!! So it was, exactly as the prophets foretold: 64And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. 65And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: 66And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: 67In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. (Deu 28:64-67) Following the conquest of Jerusalem under the command of Titus, the Romans ruled Israel for 600 years, the last 300 years of which were ruled by the Eastern leg of the Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) after the Roman Empire was split in the 4th Century. It was during the rule the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century that the geographical land mass of Israel was changed to the name Syria Palaestina in an attempt to wipe out the identity of Israel and is where the modern name Palestine has been derived. Following Roman rule, Muslim invaders seized control of Israel in the 7th century AD ruling Israel for the next 400 years. Following this, the Roman Crusaders captured the Holy Land controlling it for the next 200 years who were then succeeded by the Islamic Mamluks of Egypt who took control ruling for a further 200 years. Finally, the last ruling empire to have control of Israel was the Islamic Turkish Ottoman Empire who occupied the land for 400 years from the fourteenth century up until the turn of the last century in 1917. Throughout these many centuries there remained a continuous minority Jewish presence in the Holy Land who lived and suffered at the hands of foreign invaders. From 1917 to 1948, Britain occupied and governed Israel as World War 1 drew to a close. It is in the last century that we focus our study this teaching. Aliyah, the Holocaust and the Beginning of Zionism At the end of the 19th century due to growing widespread anti-Semitism in Europe Jews began leaving Eastern Europe and a small minority headed for Israel. This saw the start of Zionism, a movement whose primary goal was to establish a home for the Jewish people in their ancient Biblical homeland of Israel. A British census of 1918 estimated around 700,000 Arabs and 56,000 Jews living in Israel at that time. The Jewish migration and settlement in Israel was and still is known as “Aliyah (ascent)”. Between 1882 and 1939 in a wave of five stages, 450 000 Jews moved and settled in the land of Israel. 10…He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock (Jer. 31:10b) In 1917 in a historic letter known as the Balfour Declaration, Britain expressed its desire and approval to see a Jewish national homeland in Israel. However, after the Fifth wave of Aliyah in the 1930’s, due to mounting Arab tensions and rioting in the land of Israel, the British increasingly restricted Jewish immigration into the Holy Land sending many escaping Nazi Germany back to perish at the hands of Hitler. One cannot mention the modern history of Israel without mentioning the single greatest loss of Jewish life in Jewish history, namely the holocaust. On January 30th 1933, Adolf Hitler was named the chancellor of Germany. By the end of 1934, Hitler was in full control of Germany and his propaganda campaign against the Jews was in full sway, claiming that the Jews corrupted the pure German culture with their foreign and mongrel influence. Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 which saw the start of World War 2. Poland had the largest concentration of Jews in Europe, some roughly 3 million. Jews were forcibly removed from their homes and were forced to live in ghettos isolated from the rest of society. By 1941, Hitler had begun his “Final Solution” to the Jewish problem and his hit squad commando units had murdered more than 1.3 million Jews. By 1942, he had established six killing centres in Poland, the most notorious being Auschwitz. Jews were imported by train to these death camps from all over Europe to die in Hitler’s gas ovens. Between 1939 and 1945, some 6 million Jews had been slaughtered in Hitler’s holocaust almost a quarter of which were children. Two thirds of the Jewish community in Europe had been wiped out which amounted to more than a third of Jews worldwide!! To put that into context, the amount of Jews living in Israel today is the same as those who perished at the hands of Hitler!! Even seventy years after World War 2, it is only now that the Jewish population is returning to the levels pre-World War 2, which as of the year 2015, numbers some 16.5 million. 3And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. (Jer 23:3) After World War 2, holocaust survivors for obvious reasons did not want to return to their European homes where anti-Semitic hatred of the Jews still persisted and where they had suffered such brutal persecution. After the war in 1945, many borders in Western Europe were closed to these homeless survivors and instead they were housed in DP (displaced persons) centres in Allied controlled zones in Germany, Austria and Italy. Many in these camps dreamed of returning to their homeland of Israel. During the period of 1945-48 thousands of Jewish holocaust survivors tried to gain entrance illegally into the Promised Land aboard ships, known as “Aliyah Bet”. Many of the ships were intercepted by British Navy fleets and turned back to Germany, and many more Jews were captured and housed in detention camps on the island of Cyprus. In 1947 in an historic turn of events the United Nations passed an international resolution partitioning the land of Israel into two states giving 56% to the Jews and 43% to the Arabs with Jerusalem being an international zone; Britain abstained in the vote, whilst 33 other countries voted in favour with 13 countries voting against and 9 other countries besides Britain abstaining. In 1948, British forces officially left Israel as their mandate came to an end and in May 14, 1948 Israel declared its national independence and immediately immigration restrictions were lifted. If you would have suggest to a Jew immediately following the holocaust that in three years’ time Israel would become an independent nation back in the land of Israel after nearly 1900 years, fighting and winning a war against six surrounding Arab nations and thus securing its existence in the land, he would probably have died laughing. Since 1948, millions of Jews from more than 100 different countries have poured into their Biblical homeland of Israel which now comprises nearly 6 million Jews (over 40% of the worldwide Jewish population). In the words of American-Jewish columnist Charles Krauthammer: "Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store." - Charles Krauthammer, At Last Zion, The Weekly Standard, May 11, 1998 http://www.weeklystandard.com/print/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/009/581gsydf.asp?page=3 Defying all possible odds, surviving a nationwide campaign of genocide with European Jewry tinkering on the edge of annihilation, fighting and winning seven wars in just 65 years, the first of which took place no sooner than Israel declared its independence in 1948 which saw no less than six Arab nations - Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon simultaneous descend into Israel’s borders; Israel is still standing, a miracle of God’s doing!! The wonder of the modern state of Israel which has seen the return of literally millions upon millions over the last century is truly God’s doing and is in exact fulfilment of the prophecies contained in His word!! God said clearly in his word that in the last days, He would gather His people Israel from every corner of the world and bring them back into the Promise Land.