Israel's Right To Exist Poem by Joseph Narusiewicz

Israel's right to exist is from God according to the Holy Scriptures. Those that deny Scripture will also deny Israel's right to exist or deal with modern Israel only within the realm of politics, history and modern secular thought.
We as orthodox Christians eaccept the Old Testament record as Holy Scripture and believe Israel came out of Egypt into the wilderness and into the land of Canaan by the command of God not as invaders.
Post modern Christianity with its acceptance of higher criticism only accepts the portions of Scripture they want and scrutinizes the rest with so called modern techniques, that fit into their agenda. They hack and whack away the Scripture while claiming a existential Christ that is separate from the Scripture. Genesis becomes a laughing stock to them and hard to understand Scriptures concerning the battles with the tribes of Canaan are dismissed as barbaric. There are books written by haters of the Bible on the Divine Genocide and the killing of the Canaanites.
The purpose of this essay is to go through some of the fundamentals of Scripture concerning Israel. We believe Israel was and is called by God to have a promised land. My approach is based on faith in the Bible's authenticity.
I agree with Rudolph Bultmann's 'Theory of Demythologization' in the sense that if you're not going to believe in the Old Testament you can't believe in the New Testament. Jesus, Paul and all of the New Testament writers quoted extensively from the Old Testament.
Trying to find a modern kergyma where scholars see the Old Testament as myth only leads to making the New Testament a myth as well. Those that let go of orthodoxy and the faith once delivered to the saints now cling to a weak Kierkegaardian leap of faith. I call it a rabbits foot to deal with their angst.
When a person has faith in Christ according to the Scriptures they rest with a simple but profound faith. When someone says they have faith in Jesus Christ but they don't believe in all of the Bible they are in a church of doubt with ever changing ideologies, so called new scholarship of the historic Jesus, new discoveries in science that their theologies must adjust too. Their rabbits foot faith is a huge intellectual mess with no peace. Their faith becomes Hegelian and reflects the times rather than the universal. I feel sorry for them because their heresy only leads to despair while they embrace liberation theologies, Marxism and political solutions amidst the genocidal culture we are in. They don't believe in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and think knowledge, revolution, technology, politics etc can bring in the better world we all want. They don't believe that lucifer and a third of the angels fell and are mixed in with our sin, our governments, our personal life's. It's very painful to see global warming go unchecked along with so many species gone and going. I am so happy I know Jesus Christ will make all things right and that I know Israel will come out of the Great Tribulation soon to come with a new millennial of peace. My hope is not in the enlightenment or man but in the living Christ of the Scriptures. This doesn't mean we reject reason but it does mean we accept miracles and Gods written word.
God created the heavens and the earth and in Genesis 3 man fell and a promised seed was promised. This promised seed would be the messiah. The story and narrative of Genesis and the Old Testament is this promised seed setting up an eternal kingdom.
We as Christians believe this promised seed is Jesus Christ who was born in Bethlehem in what is modern day Israel. He was from the tribe of Judah. He was a Jew.
The decedents of faith in Genesis lead us to Abraham of Haran. He left that area which today is in Iraq and came to Israel. He was told to leave his land in Genesis 12: 1-7 and given promises one of them being that he and his decedents would be given the land. The promised seed was to pass through Abraham and Sarah and through the coming nation of Israel. The spiritual was linked with the physical in time, space, place, geography, history and blood. The promise also said that the entire earth and world would be blessed. Abraham became the father of the faithful.
Abraham and Sarah gave birth to the promised seed of Isaac and Isaac and Rebecca gave birth to Jacob.
Jacob eventually had his name changed to Israel. He gave birth to 12 sons - Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin. Levi would be the priest tribe and not given land and Joseph's two sons became part of the 12 tribes -Manasseh and Ephraim.
Joseph was almost killed by his brothers and ended up in Egypt where he prospered by God and he became a great leader under Pharaoh and during famine he was reunited with his brothers and father. These families multiplied in Egypt and became a great nation. Times changed and a Pharaoh arose that knew not Joseph
Moses was born in a time of repression and persecution and Israel was oppressed and had become slaves. His mother let him go and a princess in Pharaoh's palace found him and he was raised like a prince in Egypt. He killed a task master around his 40th year and he fled Egypt and went to Midian. He was a shepherd for 40 years then he meets God in the burning bush and he is called back to Egypt by God to bring Israel into the desert and the promised land of Canaan.
We see the ten plagues in Exodus that finally caused Pharaoh to let Israel go. We see the crossing of the Red Sea then Israel entering the wilderness.
In the wilderness at Mt Sinai God gives the law, the ten commandments and the tabernacle plan with all the furniture and details to Moses. Israel is set in order by tribes and made into a nation with the intention to conquer the Land of Canaan. The Land God promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who is called Israel as is the nation. Here are several Scriptures concerning this in the book of Genesis:
Genesis 12: 1...God had said to Abraham: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee.”
Genesis 12: 5...“And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.”
Genesis 12: 7... The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So Abram built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.
Genesis 15: 12 - 21....12 As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him.13 Then the LORD said to him, 'Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.' 17 When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.18 On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram and said, 'To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates- 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites,20Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites,21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites and Jebusites.'
These Scriptures show explicitly that there was a land of promise in space and time. If one believes the Bible they believe Israel exists by the promises of God in the book of Genesis. They show that Israel is totally linked with Christianity as the Apostle Paul writes in Hebrews 11: 8...By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out unto a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.”
The very fact that Israel is back in their promised land today is a miracle to me. I believe we are in times of prophecy.
Do I believe Israel is the perfect nation under God it will be? No! But I believe God has called them back and they will go through the Great Tribulation and come out the leaders of a new time period in history of peace and joy on a world level.
The entire Old Testament has to do with Israel and the land. Look at Leviticus 26: 40-45...40 ' 'But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers- their treachery against me and their hostility toward me,41 which made me hostile toward them so that I sent them into the land of their enemies- then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin,42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.43 For the land will be deserted by them and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will pay for their sins because they rejected my laws and abhorred my decrees.44 Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the LORD their God.45 But for their sake I will remember the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought out of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the LORD.' God says here he will remember the land. What is time to our God?
All through the Old testament we see Leviticus 26. God told them what they would suffer when they backslide and the ultimate was losing the land. Look at Jeremiah 16: 14 -16.... (KJV) Jeremiah 16: 14-16 14 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 15 But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
Ezekiel 37 is where we are at today with Israel. This chapter aptly tells of Israel coming back to their own land out of the nations with no northern or southern kingdom like they had after Solomon's son Rehoboam came to power and the ten northern tribes split leaving only the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin making up the southern kingdom around 950BC. Israel in this chapter comes back to the land in the latter years. Historically all historians of Israel will tell you that the ten tribes of the northern kingdom were taken to Assyria around 722BC and never restored with the southern kingdom. Judah was taken to Babylon in 586BC and came back around 536BC but never the northern kingdom. During the time of Christ it was the same all the up to 70AD when the Roman General Titus destroyed Jerusalem. Ezekiel 37 really lets everyone know the healing of Israel takes place with no northern or southern kingdom.
The book of Ezekiel was written around 550BC and was translated into Greek in the Septuagint around 260BC. Making Ezekiel 37 absolute prophecy concerning the future of Israel. We are living in prophecy.
The future of Israel as a nation with Jerusalem is going to come and the world will know peace...Isaiah 2: 1-5 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be lifted up above the hills;
and all the nations shall flow to it,
3 and many peoples shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go the law,1
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide disputes for many peoples;
qand they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore.'
I believe Israel's right to exist in their own land today can never be separated from Genesis and the rest of the Holy Scriptures.
When the church embraces higher criticism and puts revelation aside along with the Bible they look at Israel with the eyes of anthropology, political science, sociology, secular history and not the promises or Word of God...thus they look at Israel as any other nation or even an invader.
Neo-orthodoxy doesn't accept the Scripture as authoritative and neither do they accept Israel going into prophecy written about them both in the Old and New Testaments. The truth is anyone who truly takes the Bible seriously will take Israel seriously. Israel's right to exist Comes from God.
Why did God want Israel to take the land of Canaan? The next part of this essay I will try to answer this question.
Man fell from grace at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God warned them and told man not to eat of this tree in Genesis 2: 17. Genesis 3: 1-7 tells how the devil beguiled Eve. Man kind entered into sin and a league with the devil. When Jesus Christ was tempted by the devil in the wilderness in Luke 4: 5 we see that the devil had power over the kingdoms of the world...5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.
When Israel came out of Egypt it was deliverance from the power of the devil.
When Israel entered into Canaan land it was God taking this promised land from Satan. This is what really is going on. The tribes of Canaan as a collective with their culture were demonically involved and God was setting up an area in the world where he was in control through Israel. He led them out of Egypt into the wilderness where he gave them the law and a tabernacle plan with furniture and feast days all symbolizing the Messiah. They were led by God to take Canaan Land and take the land as a Holy Nation in a Holy Land.
The Apostle said in: Ephesians 6: 12 (KJV) ..12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Gods plan is real and He intended to bring his plan forth in this region called the Holy Land for the whole world and he has and will. The real story in the Bible is good and evil waring and man is in the middle. This story isn't just abstract but in space and time. Israel is at the center of it. Man was given a garden area with free choice. Man fell. God called various men but with Abraham he brings his call and promises and plan into a place and time with the nation of Israel.
Look at what the Scriptures say in Deuteronomy 18: 9-12 9 When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.10 Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,11 or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.12 Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you.
Israel was at war with the devil and evil. When a modernist looks at the Israel coming into the promised land they don't see this.
Israel coming out of the wilderness into Canaan land was coming into spiritual warfare. They were being helped by the Angel of the Lord Ex 23: 20. Israel was to keep the laws God gave them in the wilderness and practice the religion he gave them. They were not to compromise with the religions, practices and ways of the Canaanites.The Canaanites openly paraded sorcery and witchcraft They held public orgies of homosexuality and bestiality. The Canaanites took their children and literally slaughtered them before their demon gods.
Here is another passage of Scripture concerning the ways of the Canaanites - The Lord said to Moses,2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘I am the Lord your God.3 You must not do as they do in Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not do as they do in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. Do not follow their practices.4 You must obey my laws and be careful to follow my decrees. I am the Lord your God.5 Keep my decrees and laws, for the person who obeys them will live by them. I am the Lord.
6 “‘No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.
7 “‘Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother.She is your mother; do not have relations with her.
8 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonor your father.
9 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.
10 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; that would dishonor you.
11 “‘Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.
12 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
13 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.
14 “‘Do not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.
15 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; do not have relations with her.
16 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother.
17 “‘Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.
18 “‘Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.
19 “‘Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.
20 “‘Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.
21 “‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.
22 “‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
23 “‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
24 “‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled.25 Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
In verse 24 we see that the Canaanites were involved with these practices. Other Scriptures let us know their religion was a reinforcement of gross immorality and the sacrifice of their children to false gods and idols. The spirit of religion, culture and morality of the Canaanites was demonic and the devil today still hates Israel and the Bible.
God says you should love the stranger who dwells with you. Leviticus 19: 33-34 (NIV) 33 “‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born.Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
When we read the Scriptures we see Ruth is a gentile, a Moabites and a great grandmother to King David and in the lineage of Jesus Christ. God is not against individuals or nations but those parleyed with the devil. The tribes of Canaan were under the power of the devil and God chose Israel for his plan. Jerusalem was soon to come and the Messiah of the world would come to this land.
God does not delight in the death of the wicked....Ezekiel 3: 11 even says: 'As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.'
Look at Genesis 18. God hears the prayer of Abraham and won't destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if he can find 10 righteous people. God doesn't want to destroy people he wants to save them. We have to accept all Scripture concerning Israel taking the land of Canaan. We have to believe Gods wisdom and not deny Scripture or we end up with a rabbits foot Christianity based on the so called scholar, intellectual, scientist, theologian etc.
The Scripture says the whole world and earth is the Lords - Deuteronomy 10: 14
Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. There are many Scriptures like this. Look what God says to Israel in Leviticus 25: 23 concerning the LAND..“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. The land of Israel is part of Gods plan for blessing the entire world and the devil hates it.
We as Christians must hold firm to faith in Jesus Christ according to the Holy Scriptures and understand God is not done with Israel. We can't just spiritualize Israel as something from the past with no future in Gods plan and Word.
Next we shall go into more of the New Testament concerning Israel.
Moses is named 80 times in the New Testament. Abraham,73 times, David 59 times and Elijah 29 times. The New Testament is the completion of the Old Testament and completely united with the Old Testament. Remember all the early preachers of the New Testament including our Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle Peter and Paul preached and taught out of the Old Testament. The last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation has 404 verses and half of them come from the Old Testament. Both the New and Old Testaments are inextricably linked.
The New Testament never spiritualizes the nation or the land of Israel as if God is done with the nation or the land. In Matt 15: 24 Jesus says I am sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He preached and taught all over the land of Israel. He spoke in synagogues and the Temple in the 4 Gospels.
Matt 5: 17-19 (KJV) says..17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus fulfilled the law and all the Jewish feasts of Lev.23. He is our sabbaths and new moons and our Feast Days.
Christ was our Passover lamb - 1 Corinthians.5: 7 and unleavened bread with no sin
He was our First Fruits with his resurrection 1 Corinthians 15: 20 Colossians 1: 18. He has fulfilled these Jewish Feast Days
In Deuteronomy 16: 16 and Exodus 23: 14-17 Devout Jews were commanded to appear together for celebrations dealing with the harvest and feast days. The first three Jewish feast days Christ fulfilled with his dying on the cross, burial and resurrection and Devout Jews were there from all over the Roman Empire and beyond.
The next feast day was the feast of weeks or Pentecost. The orthodox Jew celebrates this as the day Moses received the law on Mt. Sinai. Christ poured out his Spirit in Acts 2: 1-40 and opened up the Church age and time of grace and Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3: 3 that the law was written on our hearts when we received the Spirit. Pentecost was another time when devout Jews came to Jerusalem for this feast as commanded in Exodus 23: 14-17.
The next feast day is Trumpets which is the catching away of the Bride of Christ 1 Corinthians 15: 51 1 Thessalonians 4: 17 then The Day of Atonement called Yom Kippur when Israel will know Jesus Christ as their Messiah during the Great Tribulation period. During this last half of Daniels 70th Daniel (9: 24-27) week or 31/2 years of the Great Tribulation is also the feast of Jubilee (Leviticus 25: 9) . Here is when the land is taken back from the Devil and Satan is bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. The Jubilee was to bring the land back to the original tribe every 50 years after 7 land sabbaths which was every seven years. No one in Israel was to a mass the land and the land always was to back to the original family and tribe. The Scripture says in 2 Chronicles 36: 20-24 that Israel went to Babylon because they didn't keep these land sabbaths and Jubilee years. Christ's first sermon was in Luke 4 on being the Jubilee out of Isaiah 61: 1-4. He preached this when he came out of the wilderness being tempted by the devil for 40 days. The devil showed him the kingdoms he had but during the total fulfillment of the day of Atonement Christ takes land completely back of the entire world from all the greed and minions of Satan and binds the devil and brings peace to not only Israel but the entire world.
The orthodox Jew also celebrates the Day of Atonement as the day Moses finally brought the second set of tablets from Mt Sinai that ended up in the ark of covenant. Remember Moses broke the first ones on the golden calf? They see that he came back on the 10th of Tishri the day of Atonement and this is when the Jews will see him whom they pierced as an entire nation and in the millennial fulfill Isaiah 2 and many other portions of Scripture. During the great time of peace where the lion will lie down with the lamb like Isaiah 11: 6-9 says.
We are soon to come to Rosh Hashanah and hear the trumpet because 1 Peter 4: 17 says judgement first begins with the house of God. Our books are straightened out by the Kinsmen Redeemer Jesus Christ and we have passed from death to life and our names are written in the Book of Life by his cross.
The Kinsmen Redeemer could buy back the land sold in Leviticus 25: 25 and the books that would've had to be opened up on Jubilee by the lawyers, elders and priests with the families to get back their inheritance is not needed. We are in the book of life. Our debt settled by our Kinsmen Redeemer.The devil has no claim on us and like Ruth in the Book of Ruth we are married to our Kinsmen Redeemer. We as a church are the Bride of Christ
The Day of Atonement where the sin was rolled up to the Messiah with blood put on the mercy seat of the ark is considered the Holiest of the Feast Days in Judaism. What isn't recognized or emphasized enought is the Jubilee and the second set of tables of the law given this day. These are prophetic and eschatological in nature. The fall Feast Days are soon to come with the catching away of the church then God deals with Israel amidst the anti-christ, false church and false prophet.
I was at a bus stop in Israel in Jerusalem and a orthodox Jew was waiting with me and we started talking. I asked him about Israel and he told me 'This Israel you see now isn't the Israel under the Messiah but the gathered out of the nations soon to know the Messiah in Jacobs trouble. He said we shall be attacked by Russia and her allies of Ezekiel 38. He was not a Christian but knew the Old Testament.
Matthew 24 has much to say concerning the future of Israel. In verse Matthew 24: 1-2 Jesus tells of the destruction of the second Temple that Titus destroyed in 70AD. Matthew 24 speaks clearly of the 70th week of Daniel out of Daniel 9: 24-27 when the third temple will be built and defiled by the anti-christ. The seventieth week is the last 7 year period of these weeks of years that stopped with the cutting off of the Messiah.69 weeks are gone and one 7 year period left which will be the Great Tribulation period and Israel will see whom they have pierced
Matthew 24: 15-22 -(NIV) 15 “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation, ’[a] spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.17 Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house.18 Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak.19 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! 20 Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.21 For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again.22 “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. These passages say 'no flesh would be saved! Genocide! God will shorten the days and no period in history has ever happened like this before nor will ever again. There was no abomination of desolation in the Titus destruction. The leader who defiles this temple is to come after 70AD during the temple which still isn't built though the plans for it are being laid out and formed and the Temple Society in Israel has built much of the furniture to be used.
-Many false teachers try to say the book of Revelation was written about Nero and the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD but all credible early church writers and historians say the Apostle John was banished to the Island of Patmos in the Aegean Sea under the Roman Emperor Diocletian who ruled from 81-95AD.Many say John went back to the church of Ephesus and died in 96AD. John wrote the Book of Revelation after the destruction of the second Temple.
The book of Revelation was not about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. under the Roman General Titus...the modernist hate and are afraid the Revelation deals with wars still to come concerning Jerusalem....The early church attributed authorship to the apostle John. Justin Martyr (100-165 A.D.) quotes John the Apostle that Jesus Christ would dwell in Jerusalem one thousand years. Irenaeus (120-200 A.D.) is quoted in every chapter of Revelation. Tertullian (155-220 A.D.) also quotes from almost every chapter of Revelation and attributes John the Apostle as author. Hippolytus (170-235 A.D.) also attributed Revelation to John, he quotes Revelation chapter 17 and 18 a great deal. Clement of Alexandria (150-211 A.D.) and Origen (185-254 A.D.) also attribute John the Apostle as the author of Revelation. Ignatius (30-108 A.D.) writes regarding John the Apostle,
The Apostle Paul also mentions the anti-christ defiling the temple to come during the Great Tribulation period.2 Thessalonians 2: 1-6...Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ[a] had come.3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin[b] is revealed, the son of perdition,4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God[c] in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
We also need to look at the Book of Romans where Paul explicitly tells us all Israel shall be saved after the fullness of the gentiles be brought in.
Romans 11: 24-26 (KJV) ...24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? 25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Look Romans 11: 24-26 in several translations and it is clear that the church age will end and God will deal again with Israel in the fulness of his glorious plan.
Modern Israel cannot be separated from Gods plan like so many modern churches and Christians do. Since the Diaspora of 70AD the Jews have always wanted a home land. The creation of modern Israel in 1948 sprang from this innate desire. Their religion is simply linked to the Holy Land.
This desire has been secularized and modern Israel is very diverse with many agnostics and intellectuals who do not regard the Old Testament as the word of God. Israel is not a religious state as some presume. Israel does not present itself as a nation before the United Nations and the world with a right to exist based on Bible passages.
One thing that the majority of Israelis have in common is the state. The persecutions, pogroms and anti-semiticism of eastern and western European Jewry has made the desire for a homeland and state paramount. The Ashkenazi Jews of Europe begin to insist on a Jewish state. Their culture producing Yiddish and bonds transcending the various nations they were living in. They survived through the medieval period into the enlightenment. Many felt a homeland was essential because of the various persecutions. Many didn't think the old Bible land possible but they wanted a state.
Theodore Herzl became a leader in the latter 1900's and his writings were powerful and eloquent on the need for a return to their original homeland of Palestine. He wrote statements like this: 'Nothing prevents us from being and remaining the exponents of a united humanity, when we have a country of our own. To fulfill this mission we do not have to remain literally planted among the nations who hate and despise us.' Zionism started to become a reality.
By 1866 the majority of people living in Jerusalem were Jewish people. By 1878 the first Zionist agriculture settlement was founded in Palestine by Orthodox Jews. Between 1882 and 1903 many Jews arrived in Palestine and migrations were being started deeply influenced by Zionism. Sephardic Jews of non european backgrounds were also starting to come. In 1897 The First Zionist Congress convened by Theodor Herzl was held in Basle, Switzerland. Between 1904 and 1914 many Jews arrived from Russia and Poland. In 1909 the first kibbutz, Degania, was founded: also the first Jewish self-defense organization is founded to replace Arab guards protecting Jewish settlements.1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement - A secret agreement between Great Britain and France regarding the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. In 1917 Britain issues the Balfour Declaration, viewed as an endorsement of a national Jewish homeland in Palestine. In 1919 approximately 40,000 Jews arrive from Russia. In1920 the Histadrut (Jewish labor federation) and Haganah (Jewish defense organization) founded. In 1925 the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is created ion Mt Scopus. In 1929 67 Jews killed by Arab militants in Hebron massacre.
Modern Israel has never really had peace and was founded in the fire... in 1947 UN proposes establishment of two separate states for the Arabs and the Jews. All this history and much more leads to the creation of the Jewish State in 1948.1948-49 The war of independence between 1948-1952 there were mass immigrations from Arab and European countries. In 1949 The Armistice agreements signed with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria; Jerusalem declared capitol of Israel and divided under Israeli and Jordanian rule; first Knesset elected, led by David Ben-Gurion; Israel admitted to UN as 59th member. In 1956 The Sinai Campaign – fought to put an end to the terrorist incursions into Israel and to remove the Egyptian blockade of Eilat. In 1964 The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) established. In 1967 Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser closes straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping. The Six Day War leads to reunification of Jerusalem under Israeli rule. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 - establishes principles to guide the negotiations for future Arab-Israeli peace settlements. From 1967-1970 Israel struggles with Egypt. In 1973 in the Yom Kippur War - surprise attack on Israel by Egypt and Syria. Israel has gone through peace negotiations since these 4 wars and things are as tense as ever. In 2006 Terrorist organization Hezbollah attack Israel, killing 8 soldiers and kidnapping 2 others. The attack triggered a monthlong military conflict during which Hezbollah launched 3,970 missiles at Israeli cities and towns, killing 162 Israelis (men, women, children – Arabs and Jews) .4,262 civilians were treated in hospitals for injuries and more than a million citizens have been forced from their homes or are compelled to live in bomb shelters. We see the so called 'Arab Spring' and the collapse of Syria and deep unrest and confusion in the region. Israel exists daily in a volatile struggle.Israel has been through Nazi Germany and concentration camps and mass murder and they will never again endure such torture from the world. They long for peace but will not stand for enemies that want too annihilate them.
Jesus said in Luke 21: 24 (KJV) And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.'
Israel is surrounded by enemies and more and more nations according to Zechariah 12: 3 will go against her..
On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.' She is soon to go into this Great Tribulation period and have her third Temple brokered by a false peace with the anti-christ and supported by the false prophet and false church. Jerusalem will be an international city and the Temple Mount will have both the Mosque of Omar and the third Temple. The peace will seem to settle the region down but will not last long. Israel will have the great attack from the north of Ezekiel 38 and 39. The anti-christ will come into the Holy Land and Jerusalem and defile the Temple like
Antiochus Epiphanes did. Then Israel has its day of Atonement and Jacobs Trouble
Jeremiah 30: 1-7 (NKJV) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,2 “Thus speaks the Lord God of Israel, saying: ‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you.3 For behold, the days are coming, ’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah, ’ says the Lord. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’”
4 Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah.5 “For thus says the Lord: We have heard a voice of trembling, Of fear, and not of peace.6 Ask now, and see, Whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins
Like a woman in labor, And all faces turned pale? 7 Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble,
But he shall be saved out of it.
The liberal Christians who deny revelation in the Bible qoute Galatians 6: 16. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule-to the Israel of God. Here Paul refers to the church as the Israel of God and they try to do away with Israel as a nation in future prophecy. We that truly know Jesus Christ is real know every Word in the Bible is true. Israel is soon to experience their eyes opened to the messiah and this scripture:
Zechariah 12: 8-10 (KJV8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10 And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
The New Testament refers to this Scripture in Revelation 1: 7 'Look, he is coming with the clouds, ' and 'every eye will see him, even those who pierced him'; and all peoples on earth 'will mourn because of him.' So shall it be! Amen.
The Scriptures tell us that God loves the land of Israel -
Deuteronomy 11: 12 (INV) It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
Remember Gods blessing to the entire world comes through Israel and blessings to all who love Jerusalem
Psalms 122: 6 (KJV) Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love you.