So I decided to go way back and see if I could find out the whole story on Israel. From the dispersion of the twelve tribes out into the whole world and then the "new Israel" that was formed again. Throughout the Dispersion, there have always been some Jewish people living in the area that is now called Israel. They seemed to live in Galilee but occasionally some were also able to get to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The conviction in both Christianity and Judaism was that the Jews would one day return in number to the homeland at the "end times".
But there was no serious movement back to the homeland until the Zionists began to organize their movements in the last part of the 19th century. Zionism in the 20th century has brought home more than a million of the world’s 15 million Jews which are now living in the Promised Land just as it was foretold in the Bible!
So what Is Zionism? Zionism is a religious, sociological and political movement that promotes the return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. It's religious because its based on the Biblical promises and rabbinic interpretations about the restoration of Israel.
Its sociological too because the attraction of the promised land alone probably wouldn't have motivated the Jewish people to return.They would have had to leave their homes, businesses and probably relatives and friends to undertake the hardships of pioneering life in a harsh and new environment. But Israel started to be seen a safe haven to which they could escape from the age-old persecution they constantly faced in other parts of the world. The motivating persecutions of the19th century started with the encounters with Russia and Eastern Europe and came to a terrorizing head in the Nazi death camps.
Zionism is also a political movement. Would these nations who had and still do persecute the Jews now become their defenders and friends because they had returned home? Uh...nope! For there to be a valid return there would have to be a new Israel with its own government and its own army for protection.
It took all the organizational skills not to mention supreme intelligence, hard work and bravery of the returned Jewish people to create their economy, their democratic government and their dependable army. To the
amazement of the world peaceful Jews forged an army of citizens that has become a military wonder. This small but mightily skilled army has waged four full-scale wars and a slew of lesser battles in a hostile Arab environment that the Russian Communist empire supported and still supports for today.
It has taken all this to entice millions of Jews to return to home again, build up their economy and protect Israel from its many enemies. But she did it...just as God said she would!
The Balfour Declaration was announced by the British Government in 1917 and it was monumental in the development of Zionism. God used this declaration in the restoration of new Israel just the way He used the Declaration by the Persian King Cyrus in the restoration of Israel after the Babylonian Captivity.
Here is the declaration of King Cyrus (Ezra 1:1–4):
Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that the word of the
Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the
spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all
his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying,
Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia: The Lord God of heaven hath given me
all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house
at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
Who is there among you of all his people? His God be with him, and let
him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord
God of Israel (he is the God), which is in Jerusalem.
And whoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of
his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with
beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in
Jerusalem.
Here is the Balfour Declaration:
His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the right and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. November 2, 1917.
An interesting note: Even though Balfour had accomplished many significant achievements in the British
government, it is said that on his deathbed he felt the most important thing he had accomplished in his life was the Declaration to encourage the resettlement of the Jewish people in their homeland.
Apparently some Jewish leaders were worried that the British recognition of a Jewish return to Palestine (the Arabs dubbed the land of Israel as Palestine) might adversely affect their status as citizens in England and other countries. So when they had the wording that they considered safe, it was sent to President Woodrow Wilson for approval. President Wilson readily agreed to the proposal and advised the British government that it met with the approval of the American government. Isn't it strange, how America and England seem to consult with each other for approval even though we fought them for our self same freedom! In ancient times God used political events in the transition of power from Babylon to Persia in the time of Daniel to restore Israel to the Land.
The Balfour Declaration was all that was needed to increase the tiny trickle of Jews returning home to a veritable tidal wave. This was the beginning of the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies and this meant that the time for the judgment of Satan and the establishment of our Beloved's kingdom on earth was and is coming ever closer. The long divine process of returning the Dry Bones to the Land was actually under way.
During the Tribulation Satan will be cast out of heaven and his time will be short. He is already lashing out against Israel. I believe we saw a preview of this hatred in the unfolding of the terrible Nazi Holocaust. Of approximately 18 million Jews in the world at that time he was able to kill 6 million of them. Hitler singled out the Jews for extinction in the way that I believe that false prophet will act in the end towards Christians. They died along with millions of other civilians and soldiers through the Nazi-inspired Axis of Evil during WW II. The Nazis killed one third of the Jewish people in the world during the Holocaust. This is a bitter taste of the future and what the Antichrist and False Prophet will do to the Jews AND Christians in the Tribulation.
But of course Satan failed, as he always does, in stopping the creation of Israel. As a matter of fact as what so often happens to him, Satan’s plan backfired. Because instead of keeping the Jews from returning to the
promised land the Holocaust convinced the Jews that it was THE ONLY safe place to be! They must have their own sovereign state in a world in which anti-Semitism and Satan's hatred surrounded them.
The earlier tidal wave of Jewish migration into Israel/Palestine now became a tsunami after the Holocaust. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were now desperately striving to escape from Europe and other countries to get to their homeland.
When the critical votes in the U.N. and diplomatic recognition came in 1947–8, the major powers were prepared to back the infant State of Israel. But the Arab and Muslim nations were upset with the British for allowing the Jews to come to their so called Palestine in such large numbers. The British were heavily dependent (even then) on petroleum from the Middle Eastern countries. What else is new? Wouldn't you think that by now they would have come up with an alternative, being as there are so many out there? Why be dependent on these very volatile people for anything? But I digress. London was under major pressure from the Arabs to stop or at least limit the immigration of Jews into Palestine to only a few thousand a year. They were interdicting boatloads of Jews and holding them on the island of Cyprus during this debate.
The most famous story of this is about a ship called Exodus, a bedraggled vessel that held hundreds of Jewish
refugees fighting to escape post-war Europe and get to Israel/Palestine. But when they arrived in the harbor the British government forced them to turn around and escorted this ship to the Isle of Cyprus where they were then put into concentration camps and held until a determination could be made. Nice huh? What tragic irony there was for the poor Jews to escape from the death camps of the Nazis only to find themselves in British detention camps in Cyprus. Well, its coming here soon too...they have the camps all ready for us with incinerators, coffins, bars and even a booklet with the so called rules we will be following in their slave labor camps. History does not lie, they can and will do it again.
The new Israel did not take this lightly. They began an intensive campaign to remove the British army from the area, and to declare an independent State of Israel....hmmm sounds familiar. Now they were waging a diplomatic campaign along with a guerrilla warfare campaign to get the British government out of the region. After awhile the British agreed to withdraw and in 1947 the U.N. voted to partition Palestine into an Israeli section and an Arab section. Israel then declared independence.
Now that Israel had actually become an independent nation Satan was really determined that this new nation was going to die at its birth and he had two very willing allies in the fanatical Muslim Arabs in the surrounding nations and the Soviet Union. The Arab nations did not and do not recognize or accept the U.N. partitioning of Palestine into the Jewish and Arab sections. When Israel declared independence, their Arab neighbors declared war on Israel and in the first months of its existence the Jewish people had to defend themselves
with the very meager weapons they had against an onslaught of the combined armies standing against them. But God is always on their side and that is all they really need.
The fanatical Muslims would not tolerate an official Jewish presence in Palestine and especially in Jerusalem. Islam considers the Temple Mount with its famous Dome of the Rock and Al Aksa Mosque the most
sacred holy sites ranking behind only the sites of Mecca (where they worship their black cube) and Medina.
The development of the religion of Islam in the seventh century was one of the great master strokes of Satan in the world, if he has any. Interestingly before Islam, the vast Arab population and much of Africa and Asia was essentially neutral toward passive Judaism and evangelistic Christianity. With the religion of Mohammed came a rejection of and a negative attitude toward the truths of the Old and New Testaments. The Koran deliberately removes Israel from its historical and theological position as the Chosen Nation and people and replaces it with the Arab people, the descendants of Ishmael. One annual feasts of Islam is called ISHMAEL and demonstrates this. They now actually twist the Scriptures and celebrate this feast as a commemoration of the willingness of Abraham to offer Ishmael and NOT Isaac to God. So according to Islam, Ishmael and the Arabs displace Isaac and the Jews as the promised seed out of which many nations would rise.
Further, the Koran considers Jesus to be a prophet but denies the deity of Christ, the redeemer. It rejects the substitutionary atonement of the death of our Lord as well as His resurrection. The Koran invents the theory that Jesus did not die on the Cross but rather only “swooned” or fell unconscious and then later recovers and
pretends to have risen from the dead, making Him a great deceiver...which is one of Allah's many names. Now who do YOU know by THAT name? The religion of Mohammed became a major problem for the biblically based Judaism and Christianity. This was exacerbated when Islam occupied Jerusalem and made it one of its main holy places. Now there are three religions competing over the territorial rights to Jerusalem.
For hundreds of years God has been laying the groundwork for the restoration of Israel in preparation for the Second Coming of Christ and Satan has been fighting that restoration every step of the way. Its really an
amazing thing when you think that at the same time God was developing the early stages of that restoration Satan was also busy organizing a counter movement to try to stop that restoration and once Israel was a nation again, to destroy it. You can clearly see the Principalities and Powers that we fight against when looking back at history like this.
What we cannot see is far more powerful than what we can. That is why we must all draw close to God at this time and pray to be counted worthy to not have to face His wrath. There is much more to this story and I will continue it in part two. This will give you a much better understanding of what is transpiring right now. God bless and keep you all safe.
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