Will Jews be expelled again from their Land?
that ill-prepares the people of God for what is ahead for both Israel and the church. Preterism puts the tribulation in the past. Amillennialism conceives of a “little season” of Satan’s release at the end of this age, with little specificity, and certainly no definite relationship to Israel. Historicism, with its often failed ‘year day’ theory, spreads the tribulation out over history, with an intensive resurgence at the end, while Pre-tribulationism exempts the church from any presence or role in the tribulation, so that “Jacob’s trouble” is only “Jacob’s problem”, since the church is in heaven at the wedding feast while Israel suffers the Antichrist. Hence, ours is a comparatively rare perspective that sees both Israel and the church together in a literal period of 3 ½ years of unequaled trial and persecution. It will be the church’s task to “instruct many” concerning the meaning of these events (Dan 11:33; 12:3), amid a common experience of world wide flight and persecution (Rev 12:6, 17).
Those that acknowledge the church’s presence in the coming persecution see the purpose of the tribulation as primarily concerned with the purification of the church. The church will indeed be tested and purified (Dan 11:35; 12:10; Rev 7:14), but the primary purpose of the tribulation is to bring Israel back into the bond of the covenant (Ezek 20:33-34, 35, 37). Through the attrition of “Jacob’s trouble” (Jer 30:6-7; Dan 12:1; Mt 24:21), the self-reliance of Israel is finally broken (Deut 32:36 with Dan 12:7), as “the Deliverer comes out of Zion to turn away ungodliness from “Jacob” (Ro 11:25-26). The tribulation aims to bring Israel back to God and the church will be witness to the prophetic significance and purpose of these events.
Jesus spoke of the end of the ‘times of the gentiles’ (Lk 21:24, compare also Ezek 30:3), as Paul spoke of “the fullness of the gentiles” (Ro 11:25). In Jewish perspective, the times of the gentiles is the entire time of exile when God’s face would be hidden from the larger nation (Deut 31:17-18; 32:20; Isa 8:15; Ezek 39:29). Only after the Spirit is poured out upon the penitent remnant that survive Jacob’s trouble (Ezek 39:29; Zech 12:10) will the inheritance of the Land be secure, never again to be “trodden down” by the gentiles.
The term, “the times of the gentiles” (Lk 21:24) has been interpreted to describe the age long occupation of the Land by the gentiles, which many believe came to an end in 1967 when the city passed back into Jewish hands. However, there is also the recurrent them of a final “treading down” of Jerusalem that implies a much more concentrated period of only brief duration (Isa 10:6; 28:18; 63:18; Dan 8:13; Rev 11:2). This is clear from such passages as Dan 9:27; 12:11 with Mt 24:15 and Rev 11:2.
there is yet another “treading down” of the holy city that is taking place when Christ returns to destroy the Antichrist (Dan 7:11; 11:45; 2Thes 2:8; Rev 13:5). So here too, we must distinguish between the long exile (“desolations of many generations” (Deut 28:59, 63; Isa 32:10-15; 58:12; 61:4; Ezek 38:8; Hos 3:3-4), and the short tribulation (a kind of brief exile) of the last 3 ½ years.
It is everywhere shown in scripture, that before the Deliverer comes out of Zion to “turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Isa 59:21; Ro 11:26), the recently re-gathered nation (Ezek 38:8; Zeph 2:1-2), will pass through “the time of Jacob’s trouble”. Though of very brief duration (Dan 7:25; 9:27; 12:7, 11; Rev 11:2-3; 12:6, 14; 13:5), it is a time like no other. “Alas! for that day is great so that none is like it …” (Jer 30:7; see also Dan 12:1; Joel 2:2, with Mt 24:21).
A comparison of Jer 30:7 with Dan 12:1 and Mt 24:21 will show beyond reasonable question that this is the great tribulation that precedes Christ’s return and the resurrection of the dead (Dan 12:1-2; Mt 24:29-31). It is important to observe that it begins in the Land after Israel has recently become a nation again (Ezek 22:19-22; Ezek 38:8; Dan 12:1-2, 11; Mt 24:15-16).
I will never forget the first time that I heard Israel called, “the Ark of Safety”. I was with Art visiting the Corrie Ten Boom house in Haarlem, Holland near Amsterdam. The view expressed was that if such a disaster was not to be repeated, Christians should unite to do all in their power to help Jews from every country return to Israel, as the divinely protected, “Ark of Safety”. There was no doubting the sincerity of concern for the people of the ancient witness, but I could hardly believe my ears.
Were these dear believers unaware that the Antichrist reign of terror begins in the Land and makes Jerusalem its first target? It made me to wonder, not only how such an error could survive the plain sense of scripture[1] of scripture (plain sense), but why has this found such widespread acceptance among the friends of Israel, the very ones that should have been the prophetic watchmen on her walls.
It is the return of an ancient heresy that scholars of Jewish history call, “the inviolability of Zion.” It is the presumption that God has pledged unconditionally to protect the nation from the success of her enemies. The enemy may assail, but he can never prevail.
After suffering its first death by the vindication of Jeremiah’s prophecy (Jer 25:11; Dan 9:2), the doctrine of Zion’s inviolability was revived through the successful Maccabean resistance against the Syrian tyrant, Antiochus IV (Epiphanes) against all odds. Such a precedent of Jewish victory against the tyrant would embolden the Jewish resistance in three successive, but futile revolts against Rome (66-70, 115-117, 132-135 A.D.)
The modern revival of belief in the “inviolability of Zion” is defended by three basic arguments:
1) The modern re-birth of the nation in 1948 (Isa 66:8 and Ezek 36-37 are often cited in support).
2) The belief that the “time of Jacob’s trouble” was the Holocaust of Nazi Europe and passed into history with the re-birth of the modern state.
3) The amazing military success in the fledgling new nation’s struggle for survival, once more, ‘against all odds’.
The first argument confuses May 14, 1948, with the spiritual birth of the nation, which comes at the day of the Lord. As the surrounding context confirms, the sudden regeneration of the nation “in one day” (Isa 66:8; Ezek 39:22; Zech 3:9; 12:10; 14:17), happens at the day of the Lord, which marks the beginning of the millennium with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the surviving remnant of Israel (Ezek 39:29; Joel 2:28-32; Zech 12:10).
“From that day and forward” (Ezek 39:22), there will be no more remnant, because every Jewish survivor and all the children that will be born to Jewish parents will know the Lord (Isa 4:3; 54:13; 59:21; Jer 31:34; Ezek 39:22, 28-29). With the Deliverer’s return to “turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Isa 59:19-21; Ro 11:26), the Antichrist is destroyed (Dan 7:11; 2Thes 2:8) and the millennium begins (Ezek 39:22-29). Then will Israel be the “Ark of Safety”, as an all righteous nation is made permanently safe in the Land (Jer 23:6; 30:10; 32:37; Ezek 34:25, 28). Abiding peace in the Land is never promised independently of the regeneration of the nation that comes only after the last tribulation.
The second argument is refuted by the fact that Jacob’s trouble and all the passages that deal with Israel’s last suffering are set ‘in the Land’. It begins in the Land (Ezek 22:19-22; Zech 13:8-9; Dan 12:11; Mt 24:15-16, 21) and ends in nothing short of Israel’s final and ‘complete’ deliverance (Dan 12:1), Christ’s return, the destruction of the ‘Man of Sin’ (2Thes 2:8), and the resurrection of the righteous dead (compare Mt 24:21, 29-31; with Dan 12:1-2).
As to the third argument, there can be no doubt that Israel’s return to nationhood is a fulfillment of prophecy (Ezek 38:8; Dan 12:1). Before the judgment of the tribulation and Antichrist, and before the day of national repentance, Israel is granted a probationary tenure in the Land (Ezek 38:8; 39:26). According to Zeph 2:1-2, there is a ‘self-gathering’ of Israel that is at once also a divine gathering to the Land sometime shortly BEFORE the last tribulation (Ezek 22:19-22).
Therefore, so long as the larger part of the nation remains estranged from the “bond of the covenant” (as only fulfilled in Christ), the curses and judgments of the broken covenant continue to threaten Israel’s peace in the Land. And while covenant jeopardy threatens Jewish safety in any land at all times, it is particularly “in the Land” where two thirds will be cut off in the time of great tribulation (Zech 13:8-9). Therefore, if we believe that these are the last days, how can we presume to assist Jews back to the Land, without due warning of what awaits them there? (see Ezek 33:6).
The victories of the past do not guarantee that the enemy will not one day prevail for a season (Dan 7:21, 25; 12:7; Rev 11:2; 13:5). While it is certainly true that Israel will be abundantly saved at the “set time” (Ps 102:13), it is not before she has passed through “what has been determined” (Dan 11:35-36). It is no mere matter of interpretation, but only the greatest sorrow that constrains us to face the perspicuity[1] of scripture concerning the high cost of Israel’s coming judgments on her way to predestined resurrection and glory. “Until the end of the war, desolations are determined” (Dan 9:26).
It is only Scripture that compels us to point out that great affliction and another exodus of wilderness flight and refuge, awaits Jews all over the world, both in the Land and in the nations (Jer 30:7 with Dan 12:1 Mt 24:16; with Rev 12:7, 14), as it awaits all who will expose themselves to peril through association with this hunted people (Rev 12:16-17). The true church will be distinguished from the false in no small measure by its willingness lay down its life in shared suffering with Israel, as certain scriptures lead us to infer that it will be the Antichrist’s first objective to eliminate the Jewish race (Rev 12:6, 13-14). Costly identification with the hated Jew will in all probability bring upon the saints the hatred and fury of the Antichrist (Rev 12:16-17)
The doctrine of Zion’s inviolability implies an unjustified optimism that reflects ignorance of what is necessary for the covenant to be fulfilled. It is the necessity of death before resurrection. We are offended at the lengths God will go, and must go, in order to bring again Jacob. We are ignorant of this for them, because we’ve not sufficiently known it for ourselves. There is a travail of the Spirit that forms Christ in the heart (Gal 4:19). It is the principle behind Paul’s statement: “So then death works in us, but life in you” (2Cor 4:12). That is why Israel’s deliverance is often depicted as a birth that is preceded by travail (Isa 13:8; 66:8; Mic 5:3; Jer 30:6 etc.)
The reason for such tribulation is manifest (Acts 14:22). Fallen human nature cannot be conquered except by the inward work of the cross, applied by the Spirit, through the quickening of divine revelation. This is why Jacob must be brought to the end of his power (Deut 32:36; Dan 12:7) before the veil can be taken away (2Cor 3:16; Zech 12:10). How can it be different for the church? The veil is lifted and Christ revealed at the end of strength (“confidence in the flesh”). That is the pattern for all the true “Israel of God”. It is death before resurrection and travail before birth.
It is the plain reading of the covenant, that ‘until’ the Jewish people are “all holy” at once and forever (see Isa 4:3; 54:13; 59:21; 60:21; Jer 31:34; Jer 32:40), there can be no lasting security in the Land. Until the transgression is finished, and “everlasting righteousness” has come in finally and forever Israel (Dan 9:24: Jer 32:40), there will always remain the “quarrel of My covenant” (Lev 26:25). The broken covenant, the coming short of the glory of God in Christ, will always be a liability that leaves open the peril of further judgment, even expulsion and exile.
Since the covenant requirement is met nowhere but in Christ, by faith in Christ, to suppose that Israel is not subject to further exile, even if very brief (3 ½ years) is a humanistic presumption that is in great danger of being offended at the lengths God must go to accomplish the resurrection of a nation in Christ (Ezek 37; Ro 11:15). Although no enemy can ever have final success in accomplishing Satan’s futile desire to eliminate the Jewish race, biblical history is full of examples of severe chastisement that have often ended in expulsion from the Land.
Why should it be different with the final Antichrist? The Assyrian who was a type of the coming Antichrist was called by Isaiah, “the rod of my chastisement” (Isa 10:5). The Antichrist functions under God’s sovereignty as the rod of divine discipline, and while God has set definite limits, it is foolish to imagine that the covenant chastisement that will come through the final Antichrist will be less than any of the other cruel oppressors of Jewish history. If Jewish writers can call the modern Holocaust, the “tremendum”, what will be “the time of Jacob’s trouble”, so that none is like it? (Jer 30:7; Dan 12:1; Mt 24:21).
The ancient Jewish sages and rabbis confess with one voice that salvation comes to Israel in the hour of their greatest extremity. This is far from supposing that the enemy will not have cruel success and prevail for a season and a time (Dan 7:21, 25; Rev 11:2; 13:5). The final desolation of Jerusalem is a constant theme of Old Testament prophecy confirmed and understood as literal by Jesus and the apostles (Isa 63:18; 64:10-11; Ezek 22:19-22; Dan 9:27; 11:31, 12:11; Mt 24:15-16; Rev 11:2).
Even before the New Testament revelation of the mystery of the gospel (Ro 16:25; Eph 6:19), the Old Testament was clear in its witness that God would accomplish His unconditional promise to bring Israel into covenant obedience through the gift of the Spirit in the day of national contrition and repentance (Isa 59:21; Ezek 39:29; Zech 12:10). Even the writings of the people of the Dead Sea Scrolls and many Jewish commentators throughout the ages show their expectation that this would follow a final tribulation of brief but unequalled severity (Jer 30:7; Dan 7:25; 9:27; 12:1, 11).
This will be the time when God will once again bring the fleeing remnant into the wilderness to “plead with them there” through great judgments, mighty signs in nature, and also tender appeals (Isa 35:6; 40:3; 41:19; 42:11; 43:19; Hos 2:18; Jer 31:2; Ezek 20:35). [Note: Scholars see that the final redemption is set in the context of a second exodus out into the wilderness, but tend to interpret it as poetic metaphor.]
The New Testament confirms the Old Testament’s witness to a final wilderness experience for the people of God (both Jews and grafted in branches) that begins with the descent of the nations upon unsuspecting Jerusalem (Isa 34:8; Joel 3:2; Zech 12:2-3; Mt 24:15-16; Lk 21:24; Rev 11:2). A careful comparison of related passages will show that after this, when the “great trumpet” sounds (Isa 27:13), the surviving remnant of Israel begins their long trek back home, not only from the countries, but from places of refuge in such places as the neighboring wilderness of Edom.
When the abomination is placed in the holy place in Jerusalem, speedy flight from that area will be a matter of life or death (Mt 24:15-16, 21). A remnant will escape into the outlying regions, such as the wilderness of Petra in southern Jordan (Isa 16:1-4; 26:20; 42:11; Dan 11:41). It is significant to observe that the Jews that are returning to the Land after the day of the Lord are called, “the outcasts” (Isa 11:12; 16:3-4; Isa 27:13), “the escaped of Israel” (Isa 4:2; 10:20; 66:19), “those who were ready to perish” (Isa 27:13), and “those who were left of the sword” (Jer 31:2).
Manifestly then, the modern return, though prophetically significant, cannot be the return that Isaiah calls, “the second time” (Isa 11:11). A careful comparison of Isa 11:11-12, 15-16 with Isa 27:12-13 will show that this return must be accompanied by a miraculous crossing of the Nile on dry land. Moreover, this return is signaled by the sounding of the “great trumpet” (Isa 27:13).
Can it be doubted that this is the post-tribulational trumpet that Jesus refers to in Mt 24:31, and that Paul calls, the “last” (1Cor 15:52)? Paul’s citation of Isa 25:8 in 1Cor 15:54 (“then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written”), makes clear that he has in mind a trumpet that sounds in connection with the post-tribulation resurrection of the OT righteous (see also Isa 26:19). Clearly, the “great trumpet” of Isa 27:13 is the same trumpet that both Jesus and Paul have in mind in relation to the gathering of the elect and the resurrection (Mt 24:31; 1 Cor 15:52, 54; 2Thes 2:1).
Therefore, since it is clear that the return of Isa 11:11-12, 15-16 is the same return that begins with the post-tribulational trumpet of Isa 27:12-13, it follows that the modern return is not the return that Isaiah calls “the second time.” We must distinguish between the present partial return and the full and final return that follows the full and complete national regeneration that comes only at the day of the Lord.
Not only throughout the nations of the Diaspora (compare the term “outcasts” in Isa 11:12; 16:3-4; 27:13), but even more locally and regionally in the neighboring countries adjacent to Israel (Dan 11:41 with Isa 16:3-4; 42:11), Jews will be driven into places of hiding (Isa 16:3-4; 26:20; 27:13 {“ready to perish”}; Rev 12:6, 14).
[Note: The word translated rock in Isa 42:11 is not the usual Hebrew word for rock. It is Petra in Edom / modern Transjordan, see 2Kings 14:7; Isa 16:1; 26:20; with Dan 11:41]
These and a number of parallel passages combine to show that the day of salvation will find many in the wilderness. The reason is clear. It is because Jerusalem has very recently become a wilderness of desolation through the assault of the Antichrist (see Isa 4:2-4; 63:18; 64:10-11; Ezek 22:19-22; with Dan 11:31; 12:11; Mt 24:15; Rev 11:2; 13:5).
Therefore, it is a great error to confuse the present return and re-establishment of the unbelieving nation with the complete return that comes only after Israel’s post-tribulational deliverance and spiritual transformation. Until then, they are a chosen people under the curse of the broken covenant. However, the preliminary return that we see today was absolutely foretold, as it is necessary to the complete return that follows the end of the tribulation. All of prophecy presupposes and requires a substantial Jewish presence in the Land, existing again as a nation (Dan 12:1), albeit under judgment (Ezek 22:19-22; Dan 12:1; Zeph 2:1-2). To make light of the modern miracle of Israel is not merely an issue of interpretation, it is an issue of the heart.
After the conference, I plan to work with a friend and colleague from New Zealand (Dalton Lifsey) on a joint writing project that aims to present the full case from scripture for this crucial distinction concerning the order of the return. Manifestly, the present return is only probationary at best (Ezek 38:8; 39:26), since it anticipates the unequaled tribulation that MUST precede the nation’s repentance at the day of the Lord. Then, “from that day and forward” (Ezek 39:22), God’s face will never again be hidden from the prodigal nation (Isa 8:17; Ezek 39:29).
We must see that there is a return that precedes the trouble, and another return that follows it. The first is partial and in unbelief. The second is in penitent faith and includes every Jewish survivor (Zech 13:8-9) to the last man (Deut 30:3-4; Isa 4:3; 11:11, 16; esp Ezek 39:28).
Much has been made of the passage in Ezek 36:24-25 where great stress is put on the word “then” that seems to imply that Israel is “first” gathered to the Land before the time of national cleansing. The same may be said of Ezek 37 where a case can made for the prior resurrection of the nation before the breath of the Spirit effects the promised regeneration. However, just as much stress should be put on the wording of verse 33, which says, “In ’the day’ that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities (past tense), I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be built. And the desolate land shall be tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed by. And they shall say, ‘This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden;’ and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it” (Ezek 36:33-36).
There is a mystery here that is the cause of much of the puzzlement. It is solved when we understand that there is an age long exile of desolation and depopulation of the Land that is followed by a re-gathering that precedes the desolations of the great tribulation (Jer 30:3; Ezek 38:8; 22:19-22 and Zeph 2:1-2). Though unsurpassed in severity and apocalyptic devastation, this time of desolation and flight into the wilderness is very short (Isa 16:1-5 ASV; Ezek 20:35-37; Jer 31:2; Hos 2:14; Mt 24:16; Rev 12:6, 14).
You are correct that Art became persona non grata to most of the messianic leaders in Israel for referring to this time as another “expulsion.” I believe this was to “make a man an offender for a word” (Isa 29:21), since many agree that Jews will be required to flee to places of safety, many to outlying regions that will provide hiding from the face of the Antichrist (Isa 16:3-4; 26:20; 42:11; Ezek 20:35; Dan 11:41; Mt 24:16; Rev 12:6, 14).
Art also was understood to teach that there would be no survival for Jews left in the Land. Whether he failed to qualify his remarks on those occasions, I do not know. I do know that there will be a remnant of Jewish life that survives in the Land. The scripture says as much (Zech 14:2; Mt 10:23; Rev 11:13). However, it appears to be quite scarce and rare, as it would be a great presumption to not heed the Lord’s warning to flee into the wilderness (Mt 24:16). Note that Zech 13:8-9 says that a third of those “in the land” escape the sword. However, it is an open question whether survival is in the Land or because one third managed to escape into places of hiding outside the Land. But given what the scripture says of conditions in the Land, together with Jesus’ clear warning to flee, it is more probable that the survival of the “third part” will be because the greater number managed to escape to such places as the wilderness of Petra in southern Jordan (Isa 16:1-5, 26:20; 42:11), which Daniel says will escape the direct domination of the Antichrist (Dan 11:41).
See the following scriptures as evidence that Israel’s flight into the wilderness is concurrent with Jerusalem’s final desolations (Isa 63:18; 64:10-11; Jer 30:7; Dan 9:27; 11:31-35; 12:11; Zech 14:2; Mt 24:16; Rev 11:2; 12:6, 14). Significantly, Jer 30:18 says that the Jerusalem will “be built upon its own heap.”
This is the picture that we see in the larger context of Ezek 35-36. The final return is always AFTER the surrounding nations (Edom in particular) have been humbled for their ‘everlasting hatred’ against the children of Israel (Joel 3:19-21). The time is clear: It is “in the day of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end” (Ezek 35:12, 15; 36:2-3; Obad 13).
It is after this final judgment on the persecuting nations (i.e., ‘times of the gentiles’; Ezek 30:2-3; Lk 21:24) that the waste and ruined cities of Israel shall again be built and re-inhabited (Ezek 35:4; 36:3-4, 10, 34-36, 38), never again to be “bereaved of men” through war (Ezek 36:12, 14 with Isa 49:19-20).
Thus, we must distinguish between “the desolations of many generations” (Isa 61:4), and the brief and final desolations of the great tribulation. We must be clear: There is a return before the tribulation (Jer 30:3; Ezek 38:8; Zeph 2:1-2) and there is another that is AFTER the tribulation (Isa 11:11-12, 15-16; 27:12-13; 49:19-20; Jer 30:10; 31:8-9, 11-12; 32:37-40; Ezek 34:12-15; 25, 28, 30; 36:33; 39:28-29; Joel 2:18, 3:1-2;, 15-16; Zech 8:8-9; 10:6; 10-11; 14:11).
Though no less a fulfillment of prophecy (by no means an accident of history, as some would have us believe), Zephaniah presents the pre-tribulational gathering of Israel as a “self-gathering” (See Zeph 2:1-2). In contrast, the final return is attended by great signs of supernatural divine power (Isa 11:15-16; 27:12-13; 35:1, 6; 41:17-18; 43:19-20).
If context is duly considered, it is this post-tribulational return of Israel in penitent faith that is so gladly assisted by gentiles (Isa 49:22; 60:9; 66:20; Zech 8:23). I do not discount the possibility that certain circumstances might justify assisting a Jewish family in their desire to return to the Land. However, to assist Jews back to the Land with no clear warning concerning what awaits them there is reprehensible in the extreme (Ezek 33:6). These covenants of silence are shameful evidence of the church’s own deep humanism. What an irony that in the interest of recovering our “Jewish roots”, we should so radically depart from our ‘apostolic roots’ (Acts 4:20).
Yours in the Beloved, Reggie
Original Question:
Reggie,
I am teaching a three part series over the next three Sundays, pt 1 The restoration of Israel pt 2 & 3: The Jewish Road to Calvary
Ezek 36 does appear to be referring to ruins during the apocalyptic period just before the return of the Lord. Verse 15 states no less than three times. V 29 “deliver you from all your uncleanness” compares with Zech 12:1. Again V 33 “On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities.” Again V 30 “never again to bear the reproach of famine among the nations.” Then in v 36 we have “the nations which are left all around you shall know that I the lord have rebuilt the ruined places.” Ruins being rebuilt are also referred to in 10 & 33.
More than anything else, Art was probably hated for this one thing: i.e., his suggestion that these ruins are modern day Israel.
In terms of arguing the case against this premise (and I say that because I want to be solid in my arguing the case for Art’s position), can anyone point to any time in history when Ezek 36:36 has been fulfilled? Was there any such demolition during any of the three deportations into Babylon and then into Egypt with poor Jeremiah? There was no such demolition of the nations round about, was there? It was Israel that was being demolished and not the surrounding nations!
What about other periods of history? Could this verse be used in any of those in an attempt to deflect it away from the glaring reality of a coming holocaust? So, can anyone argue that verse V 36 has been fulfilled at a time prior to today? If not, then it does stand, does it not, that much of modern day Israel will yet be turned to rubble? Indeed, the fact that rebuilding is such a prominent feature in this chapter and in other books, such as Isaiah etc., the language of the prophecies are intended to imply the kind of massive building projects we see in the land today, such as never seen in all its history.
As some parts of my knowledge of the whole history of Israel are a bit patchy, would this last statement be correct in your thinking?
Peter
I am sorry to be so long getting to your question, Peter, but its importance is part of the reason I knew it deserved more than a quick reply. Above is part of a reply to some friends in Germany that have expressed concern over the ‘Aliyah’ movement among Christians to assist Jews to return to their Land. Hopefully this will address both questions.
- Perspicuity: 1- clarity, plainness, intelligibility. 2- transparency. 3- Perspicuity, perspicacity are both derived from a Latin word meaning “to see through.” Perspicacity refers to the power of seeing clearly, to clearness of insight or judgment [↩ back] [↩ back]
