Nuggets from Countdown to the Second Coming—Israel’s Rebirth (Part 4)

So far, the periodic fighting that breaks out over Israel has been confined to the Middle East. Everyone knows, however, that sooner or later a battle over that controversial land will explode into Armageddon. This, too, the Bible foretold 2,500 years ago:

I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle.... Then shall the LORD go forth and fight against those nations....And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives....And the LORD shall be king over all the earth. (Zechariah:14:2-4 [2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. [3] Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. [4] And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
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Modern Israel has many faults, for which we do not excuse her and for which she will yet taste God’s judgments. She is back in her land not because of her own merit but because God is fulfilling His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as He swore that He would in the last days. We may be certain that the God who brought her back to her land in fulfillment of His promises, though she continues to reject her Messiah, will not allow Israel to be uprooted again (Jeremiah 30-32; Ezekiel 35-39).

The importance of Israel in last-days events and of understanding the prophecies concerning her and her land cannot be overstated. Even though Christ defeated Satan at the cross and gave proof of His victory by rising from the dead, there could be no final resolution of this battle if Satan could, by destroying the Jews, prevent God’s solemn promises to Israel from being fulfilled. So far, all such attempts have failed. However, the Antichrist will stage one massive final effort to effect a permanent solution to what Hitler called the “Jewish problem.” Christ himself will personally return to earth at that time to save those who have “endured to the end” (Matthew:24:13But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
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Nothing else in all of history comes even close to the preservation of the Jews as an identifiable ethnic group—despised worldwide, hated, persecuted, killed as no other people, exactly as foretold, and then brought back to their ancient land. Modern and tiny Israel has the greatest impact of any nation upon today’s world, all in fulfillment of specific prophecies. The irrefutable fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies provides conclusive proof that God exists, that the Bible is His exclusive revelation to man, and that the Jews are His chosen people, the “apple of his eye” (Deuteronomy:32:10He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
See All...; Zechariah:2:8For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.
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