New Prophecy Book

When Will the Tribulation Begin?
By Dr. Louis Arnold
Due off the press the last of January.

The author takes a fresh look at End-time Events.
According to the author, we are now living in one of four
end-time periods. The rapture is near, but the tribulation
is more than 33 years away. Only the return of the Lord
will keep all life on earth from being destroyed.

This book is a must read.
Only $10.00 Post paid.
To order phone 1-800-854-8571.

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Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

New chapters will be posted from time to time.

Below is the first chapter of:

Jesus is coming to the earth again. The first time He came, He came to be our Saviour; the second time He comes He will come to reign on the throne of David. His first coming fulfilled Bible prophecies concerning redemption; His Second Coming will fulfill the promises made to Israel. The fact that the nation of Israel is now in the Land of Palestine indicates that the stage is set for the Second Coming.
In order for prophecies concerning the Second Coming to be fulfilled, God has preserved Israel through the centuries, and He has moved in the affairs of men and has returned them to their ancient land.
In our day Israel has declared statehood, fought and won her War of Independence, and been victorious against all enemies since that time. In the process many prophecies have been fulfilled, and we have been privileged to watch the Israeli Countdown to Eternity.
Fulfilled prophecy is the signature of God. It proves the existence of God, and the inspiration of Scripture. The Jews are known as the people of “Promise.” They are also the people of “Prophecy.” God has worked through them in fulfilling prophecy in ages past, and He continues to use them in the fulfilling of prophecy today.
Israel has been a miracle from its inception. Centuries ago God called a reluctant Abram to leave his land and kindred to go to a land that He would show him. God called him for the purpose of producing a miracle nation through which He could work. Through this nation the purposes of God were worked out in the past; they are being worked out in the present, and God has promised to use the seed of Abraham in a most marvelous way in the future.
In an hour when men were worshiping gods they had made instead of worshiping the God who made them, God called Abram to leave his country and go to a land He would show him. Thus God separated him from his land and his race that He might use him to again give the world a knowledge of the God who created them.
It was God’s plan to call prophets from the seed of Abraham. They, along with the writers of the New Testament, would give to the world the Holy Bible. It was also in the plan of God to use the seed of Abraham to give the world a Saviour. And that was only the beginning. For it was His plan that His virgin-born Son, Jesus, would found the church and that through it He would bless the world. The plan of God also included the preservation of Israel through the centuries and the eventual reign of His own Son over regathered Israel and the world.
It was a miracle that there was ever a nation called Israel. Abraham was slow to answer God’s call and incomplete in obedience. When he started on his way, he stopped in Haran, halfway to Canaan. There be tarried until the death of his father. Only then did he finally obey God and go to Canaan. Then he soon backslid into Egypt, because of a famine, and dwelled there until he was thrust out by Pharaoh. When he finally settled in the Land of Canaan, where God wanted him, he was more than 75 years old.
It was a miracle that Isaac, the son of promise, was born. Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah was 90 when God confirmed His promise to give Abraham a son by Sarah. The very idea of bearing a son at this age made Sarah laugh.
The birth of Isaac was only the beginning of miracles. By a miracle the seed of Abraham was preserved during the great famine in Egypt. By many great miracles, including the parting of the Red Sea, they were delivered from slavery in Egypt. Since that time Israel has been preserved through famines, wars, persecutions, captivity and through nearly two thousand years as a people without a country, scattered through the nations. Yet they have survived.
In our day miracles have not ceased with this God-called people. It was a miracle that on May 14, 1948 a Jewish State was born. It was a miracle that the baby state survived that first brutal war with hostile neighbors on every side. It is a miracle that they have fought and won five wars since the birth of their state. There is only one word in the English Language that can explain this often despised, warred upon, banished, scattered, persecuted people surviving to this hour. That word is MIRACLE. They cannot be eliminated or ignored, for God is yet working out His purposes through them. Their existence is necessary to the fulfilling of prophecy, and God’s future plan to bless all the nations of the earth through them. So God has preserved them to this hour, and He continues to work through them as He sets the stage for end-time events and the glorious hour when Jesus shall reign as King of the Jews.

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"But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the King Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days . . .” (Dan. 2:28).

In this day the future is most uncertain, and it is fraught with dangers too terrible to contemplate. As more and more nations achieve nuclear capability, the possibility of a nuclear holocaust continues to increase. And as nations reach the capability of conducting warfare in the heavens, it is impossible to imagine the dangers future generations will face. Never has the possibility of the destruction of the human race appeared more likely than it is in the present hour. To those who are not born again and do not believe God’s Word, the hope for the future must be dismal indeed. However, those of us who are Christians do not have to wonder what the future will bring. We believe God’s Word, and God has told us what to expect in the future. So we have an entirely different outlook. We know what the future will bring, for: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy . . .” (2 Pet. 1:19).

God has not left man to fly blindly through the night of time or to drift on a storm-tossed sea without chart or compass until at last the earth crashes in ruins on the rocks of some hidden shore whose distance is unknown. God is a revealer of secrets. He has told us what to expect in the future (Dan. 2:28). God has given us the Bible to shine as a light in the darkness and to be a chart to guide us through the unfolding tomorrows. In ages past, holy men of God wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. We are told, "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost” (2 Peter 1:21).
The Word of God is divinely inspired, therefore we can depend on the prophecies that are recorded therein. Not one prophecy of the Bible has ever failed. Thousands of prophecies have been fulfilled, many of them in recent years, and others are in process of fulfillment today. As God continues to unfold the pages of time according to His own plan, the prophecies made in the Word of God will surely continue to be fulfilled.
The future is no secret to God. No event in history has ever taken God by surprise. As far as man is concerned, this world is out of control. It is like a runaway train speeding down hill without brakes and with the bridge out across the chasm. And man does not have the wisdom or the power to save the world from destruction. But from God’s viewpoint, everything is under control. One cannot easily imagine God sitting in the heavens wringing His hands over a runaway world that is about to be destroyed by man. The Psalmist wrote of God’s control in the affairs of men in these words, "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision”(Psa. 2:4).
God still controls in the affairs of men and moves the events of time so that prophecy is fulfilled in minute detail. So He knows the end from the beginning and is not troubled about the final outcome, and He has not left us without revelation. He has told us what to expect in the future.

Among the prophecies of the Bible there are clear, concise outlines of earth’s history from the time the prophecies were given to the dawn of eternity and beyond. For example, during the Babylonian Captivity, around 600 B.C., God unfolded His plan for future ages through a dream given to King Nebuchadnezzar and interpreted by Daniel (Dan. 2:31-45).
In the dream the king saw a great image with head of gold, breast and arms of silver, belly and thighs of brass, legs of iron and toes part of iron and part of clay. Daniel told the king that in his dream he had also seen a stone, cut out without hands, smite the image and break it in pieces so fine they were like the chaff of a summer threshing floor, and that they were carried away and there was no place found for them. And he saw the stone become great and fill the whole earth.
In the interpretation of the dream, Daniel told the king that the head of gold represented the kingdom of Babylon, that the silver portion of the image stood for an inferior kingdom that was to follow. The brass portion represented yet another kingdom, and that was followed by the legs of iron which represented a kingdom so strong that it would break and subdue all other kingdoms. The feet and toes, part of iron and part of clay, were partly strong and partly broken—unable to bond. Nebuchadnezzar was told that the ten toes would be ten kings. Further, in the dream, Nebuchadnezzar saw a stone, cut out without hands, which broke in pieces the entire image. Thus he was shown that God is going to destroy the kingdoms of this world, and that He will set up a kingdom that will fill the earth. Thus we see that, in the fullness of time, Christ, the Stone rejected by the builders, will indeed become the head and corner (1 Pet. 2:7) and that His Kingdom will fill the whole earth and last through unending ages (Luke 1:31-32).
We now know that the Kingdom of Babylon was followed by the Media-Persia Empire, and that it was followed by the Grecian Empire. These kingdoms were followed by the mighty Empire of Rome. As the legs of the image were divided, so in time the Roman Empire was divided into Eastern and Western Divisions. The feet, part of iron and part of clay, picture well the unstable conditions that have existed since the fall of the Roman Empire. The ten toes picture the federation of kings that shall rise in the last days. These ten kings will be taken over by the Antichrist during his rise to power in the last days (Dan. 7:7, 8, 23, 24) and will be the foundation of his worldwide dictatorship.

The worldwide kingdom of Antichrist will set the stage for the “stone cut out without hands” to crush the kingdoms of this world and set up an everlasting kingdom at the time of the glorious Second Coming of the Lord (Dan. 7:9, 14).

The Lord has also given us an outline of the future from the religious point of view. This outline reaches from the beginning of the Church Age to the reign of Christ upon the throne of David. In Acts 15:14-18 we read:

“Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.”

This outline begins with the Church Age. Now, in the Church Age, God is calling out a people for His name. Each time a soul is saved, God has called out one more for His name. When the Lord has finished this part of His program, He will return to build again the fallen kingdom of David. Then He will reign from Jerusalem over regathered Israel and over all the earth. This will be done that both the Jews and the remaining remnant of the Gentiles may have an opportunity to be saved.
Under the reign of their Messiah, the Jews will at last fulfill their destiny. A final miracle will occur when at last they receive Jesus as their Messiah and worship and serve Him.

"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" (Zech. 12:10).

Jesus is coming the second time as the promised Messiah of the Jews. Then He will reign, not only over Israel, but over the entire world. "And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one" (Zech. 14:9).
As already noted, the kingdom that Jesus will set up is to be an everlasting kingdom. Not only will He reign through the Millennium, He is to reign forever.

"And David my servant (Jesus the seed of David) shall be king over them . . . And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant . . . even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever" (Ezek. 37:24,25).

In order for prophecy to be fulfilled, in order for Jesus to reign as king over Israel, the Jews had to be preserved. Their preservation through the centuries of exile, through centuries of persecution and numerous attempts at extinction is a notable miracle. If the Jews had been exterminated, or if they had simply been absorbed by the other nations and lost to history, the prophecies of their future could not have been fulfilled. But God preserved them, and He is using them in the Countdown to Eternity. Passing strange, is it not, that their contemporaries have long since disappeared from the earth, while they remain and have become a nation among the nations of the earth in our day. Gone are the Hittites, the Canaanites, the Philistines, the Babylonians, the Assyrians and others who were contemporaries of ancient Israel, while they remain, despite centuries of banishment and persecution. There is a reason. God does not need these long dead nations in the Countdown to Eternity. He is using Israel; He has preserved them that He might bring them back to their land in the latter days. It is God’s plan that they remain a distinct people, that they may be in the earth and brought back to their land that they may be there for Jesus to reign over when He returns to reestablish the throne of David (Acts. 1 5:16).

We live in the day when the stage is being set for the most climactic event of history, the glorious appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. More prophecy has been fulfilled since December 10, 1917 than had been fulfilled from 70 A. D., to that date. It was on December 10, 1917 that Jerusalem fell to the British forces, led by General Sir Edmund Allenby. Rather than bomb the Holy City, in a show of strength, he sent his bombers roaring over the city at such low altitude that silverware vibrated on the tables. The population was demoralized and the city fell without a shot being fired. This also was a fulfillment of prophecy. Many years before the prophet Isaiah had prophesied, "As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it" (Isa. 31:5).
The fall of Jerusalem to the British was the beginning of a chain of events that continues to be forged link by link to this present hour. The many prophecies fulfilled since that eventful day, point like an index finger to the soon coming of the Lord. The events are like the thunder before the storm, like the stillness before the tornado, like the rumblings and smoke and fumes and fire before a volcano erupts. They warn of that which is soon to take place.
Each time a prophecy is fulfilled, it is an indication of the coming of the Lord and the judgments that will take place at His coming. Many miraculous fulfillments of prophecy have taken place in our day. Events such as the fall of Jerusalem, the British Mandate, the Balfour Declaration, the founding of the Zionist Organization, the United Nations’ vote to partition Palestine, the birth of the Jewish State and the Jews being victorious in the wars that followed have all been like cogs in a wheel moving us ever nearer to the Second Coming of our Lord.
Had not God moved in history to set the stage, these events could never have come to pass. World War I had to occur in order to place the Land under the British Mandate. There had to be a Balfour Declaration to allow the Jews to begin to go back to the Land. There had to be a United Nations, growing out of World War 11, to vote to partition the Land. There had to be the preservation of the Jewish Race through all the centuries of persecution and attempts at extermination. And there had to be a Jewish dream that would not die. There had to be Jews fleeing from the gas chambers of Hitler’s Germany to join with other Jews in carrying on ceaseless gorilla warfare in the Land. There had to be Jews with the courage to defy the United Arab World and declare statehood. There had to be Jews willing to suffer and die on bloody battlefields in order to win their independence. And there had to be a string of miracles to make it possible for the Jews to win their War of Independence.
It is exciting that we are living in the day when so many prophecies are being fulfilled. We are seeing the Countdown to Eternity.

The birth of the State of Israel was a modern miracle. Even though the Jews had long dreamed of a state of their own in Palestine, statesmen of the world were convinced that their dream could never become a reality. It was a miracle that the Jews had survived through the ages, and it was a miracle that many of them had been allowed to settle in the Land, but a state was unthinkable. It was further conceded that in no way could they win a war against the combined might of the Arabs. Yet they did win the war that was declared against them when they declared statehood. As will be noted in a succeeding chapter, they won that war against impossible odds. And they have won four additional wars since that time. All of this adds up to a miracle of fulfilled prophecy.
As time passes we continue to see prophecies fulfilled, and every fulfilled prophecy demonstrates the fact that God lives and that His Word is true. Further, every fulfilled prophecy tells us that the coming of the Lord draws near. The future is known to God. He has declared the end from the beginning. Fulfilled prophecy is God’s handwriting upon the walls of time, The future is no secret to us, for God has outlined it for us.

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“. . . Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, 0 Lord GOD, thou knowest” (Ezek. 37:3).
The birth of the State of Israel was a giant step in the Israeli Countdown to Eternity. As long prcdicted by the prophets, Israel has returned to her homeland and has been reborn as a nation in our day.
In the vision God gave Ezekiel, as recorded in chapter thirty-seven, a strange and miraculous event transpired. The prophe states that the hand of the Lord was upon him, and that the Lord carried him in the spirit and set him down in a valley that was filled with dry, dead bones.
The prophet was then commanded to preach to the bones, and when he did miraculous things started occurring. Where there had been only stillness and silence, there was a shaking and a noise among the bones; and dead, dry, long-separated bones started moving and coming together, “. . . bone to his bone.” Skeletons were formed. Then sinew, flesh, and skin covered the bones. Their bodies were as complete as the body of Adam the day God created him. And, like Adam, they only lacked the breath of life to make them live.
The Amazed prophet was next commanded to prophesy to the wind and to tell the wind to breathe upon those who had been slain. When the prophet delivered the message, the breath came into the newly formed bodies, and they stood up, ". . . an exceeding great army.”
How astonished the prophet must have been by this miracle. Yet, amazing as this miracle was, it did not compare with the miracle it pictured. It was a prophecy of the resurrection of the long-dead nation of Israel. Many now living remember the events that led to the founding of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. They saw the dead, drys scattered, disjointed, long-dead nation brought togetber and resurrected from the dust of past centuries.
The Jews themselves, were well aware of the facts of history. Testifying before the United Nations in 1947, the Chief Rabbi of Israel is reported to have said, "We have come out of the graves of Europe.” That terse statement sounds like an echo of Ezek. 37:11, ". . . these bones are the whole house of Israel.”

The birth of the State of Israel was made possible by a long history of miracles. It is a miracle that there is a Jew alive in the world today. It is a miracle that they have survived the ravages of the centuries to become a modern nation and take their place among the nations of the world.
Ezekiel’s prophecy has been fulfilled; the dead bones live. To understand the magnitude of the survival of the Jews and the birth of the State of Israel, one must recall that the judgments that befell them were because of their sins. God had warned them again and again that if they sinned they would be judged and punished. Yet despite the frequent warnings and the judgments that befell them, they continued to sin.

The Jews had been warned by the prophets again and again, and Jesus, Himself, gave them a final warning that judgment would come upon them as a result of their sin. On His last trip into Jerusalem, as He came over the crest of the Mount of Olives and beheld the beloved city, He wept over it and foretold its doom. “And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known . . . For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee . . . And shall lay thee even with the ground . . . because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:41-44).
The darkest hour the Jews had ever known was soon to come upon them. A short 40 years later, in 70 A.D., the Roman Dictator, Titus, besieged the City of Jerusalem. The siege started in the spring and lasted 6 months. At length Titus was successful in destroying the city and the Temple. As a result of his attack more than a million Jews perished. In one morning 500 Jews were crucified in a ring of horror around the city. When the city fell, greedy soldiers disemboweled 2 thousand Jews, searching for gold or jewels they thought they might have swallowed. Of the Jews that did not perish 97 thousand* were carried captive to Rome.
This dreadful time was not the beginning of their troubles, nor was it the end. Still fresh in their memory was the slaughter of 30 thousand Jews by the Romans in A.D. 50, and that was only one of many such disasters they suffered during their long history. A bare 65 years after their defeat under Titus, another 500 thousand Jews were killed when they attempted to return to Jerusalem.

* Josephus Book VI, Chapter IX , Section III.

For centuries following that they were forbidden, under sentence of death, to return to Jerusalem.
After that the Jews were scattered among the nations, and were without a national homeland for nearly 2000 years. It is a miracle that the Jews did not all perish and become lost in the dust of the centuries. There is only one explanation: God preserved them that He might use them in the Countdown to Eternity.
The Jews have continued to suffer through the centuries. Laws have been enacted against them; property has been taken from them; they have been segregated, banished, recalled and banished again. They have been imprisoned, condemned to death, assassinated, and have seen wives and children murdered before their eyes. Finally, in the horror camps and death chambers of Adolf Hitler’s Germany, another 6 million perished. All the persecution, and suffering, and the taking of so many lives leads to the inevitable conclusion: It is a miracle that there is a Jew alive in the world today.
The Jews have proven to be indestructible. For they have survived through the centuries against all odds. They saw the Egyptians perish in the Red Sea. They witnessed the fall of mighty Babylon. They were there when the Media-Persians were defeated, and they saw the decay of the Grecian Empire. They have outlived the Caesars, for they saw the decline and fall of the mighty Roman Empire. They lived through the Dark Ages, and they have lived through modern civilizations. They have gone through wars and have shared the death toll. They have suffered in the calamities of others and have endured tribulations of their own, yet they have survived.
Though they were scattered among the nations, though they occupied no country of their own, though they were obliged to learn to speak many languages and had to earn a livelihood under many different cultures, yet they survived and retained their identity. They remained and are and ever shall be Jews.

Jonah was obviously a type of the Jews. Like Jonah they had a mission to the Gentiles, and like Jonah they refused to do the will of God. As Jonah was swallowed by the whale but not digested, they were swallowed by the nations but not digested. Jonah was preserved and delivered from the whale that he might yet go to the Gentiles. Because of the ministry of Jonah many of the Gentiles repented and the wicked City of Nineveh was spared. In like manner, because of the future testimony of the Jews, many Gentiles will be saved.
It was a miracle that Jonah remained alive in the whale; it is a Miracle that the Jews remained alive in the nations. It was a Miracle that Jonah was delivered from the whale; it is a miracle that many Jews have come from many nations to migrate to the State of Israel. Jonah was not digested by the whale; the Jews have not been digested by the nations. They have been preserved for the work God has for them yet to do.Without them there would be no Countdown to Eternity. Despite all that has happened to the Jews through the centuries, they have remained a distinct people. They have remained Jews by birth, by religion, by culture, by appearance, and by the undying dream that one day they would return to their Land.
Bring to America, the melting pot of the nations, a German, a Frenchman, an Englishman, an Irishman, a Pole or a Russian, and in a few years they will intermarry and their children will be Americans. Place Jews in this land, or any other land, and century after century their offsprings will be Jews. There are American Jews, German Jews, Russian Jews, ad infinitum. We refer to no other people in this manner. The Jew always has been, and ever shall be a miracle.
It is a miracle that the Jews are in their Land today. More than 2500 years ago Jerusalem was overrun by the Babylonians. This was only the beginning. Later they were overrun by Media-Persia, by the Greeks, by the Egyptians, by the Romans, by the Turks and finally by the English. The Turks held possession of The Land for 401 years, from 1516* until 1917. It took World War I to bring an end to their domination of the Land. Then came the British Mandate* which lasted until the spring of 1948. By that time the British were utterly worn-out with trying to settle the ceaseless conflict between Jew and Arab. The prophecy of Zechariah was literally fulfilled in the case of the British. "Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about . . . And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces . . .” (Zech. 12:2,3).

*In 1516 the Turks conquered Palestine, Compton’s, Vol 2, P. 36.
*Mandate Established, 1922, Funk & Wagnalls’. Vol. 14, P. 50-53.

Eventually, the British set the date when they would end the Mandate—May 15, 1948. Actually, the British troops sailed from Haifa Harbor on May 14. That very day the Jews declared statehood, and ten minutes later the United States Government recognized the new State of Israel.* Two days later the State of Israel was recognized by the Russians. A miracle had occurred. The State of Israel was in existence, and prophecy had been fulfilled in the process of the state coming into being. The dead bones lived.
Nearly 600 years before the birth of Jesus, the Prophet Ezekiel had written, " . . . Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel . . .” (Ezek. 37:21,22).
Ezekiel’s prediction is echoed again and again in the writings of other Old Testament prophets. Doubtless, through the centuries the Jews read these prophecies, and that nourished the dream that one day they would return to their Land.

*Jerusalem Post, May 16, 1948.

Further, it was a fulfillment of prophecy when the Land was partitioned. Partition had long been discussed as a possible solution to the Jewish and Arab claims and counterclaims concerning possession of the Land. Many plans for partition had been advocated, and several had been given serious consideration. For example, a plan of partition was suggested and a map was drawn when the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917. Several other plans followed, but they were all rejected. Then in July, 1939 a Royal Commission, under Lord Peel’s chairmanship, again advocated partition. This plan was also rejected. Thirty years after the Balfour Declaration, the United Nations drew a map showing their plan for partition. And in 1948 Count Bernadotte brought forth his Plan. All these Plans were the plans of men and all of them were destined to fail, for God had His own plan.
God’s Plan was predicted long before any man-made plan. Eight hundred years before the birth of Christ, God had predicted through the Prophet Joel that the nations would be gathered to battle over the Land and that the Land would be partitioned (Joel 3:2). Nearly five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the Prophet Zechariah predicted partition of the Land and gave these details concerning its implementation.

(1) All nations would gather to battle against Jerusalem.
(2) The city would be taken.
(3) Half of the city would remain in captivity.
(4) The residue of the people (Jews) would not be cut off from the city (Zech. 14:2).

It is amazing, though to be expected, that this prophecy was fulfilled in such nlinute detail.
When the United Nations voted partition and the Jews declared statehood, their Arab neighbors declared war. The Jews called it, “The War of Independence.” When that war ended, the prophecies concerning partition had been fulfilled and, not only was the City of Jerusalem divided, there was a corridor of land that joined the city to other Israeli Territory. Thus we see that The Land was not divided according to any plan of man but as God had predicted it would be divided.
As Zechariah had predicted, the City of Jerusalem was divided, and the Jews inside the part of the city they occupied were not cut off from the Jews living in occupied land outside Jerusalem. Jerusalem was not to be a island city, such as the City of Berlin was, but it was to be easily accessible to Jews living outside the city. This is only an example of many prophecies that have been fulfilled in this century.
The people of no century since the ascension of our Lord have witnessed the fulfillment of as many prophecies as have the people of the present century. Many now living have witnessed the events of two world wars, the birth and preservation of the State of Israel and the fulfillment of the many prophecies that are related to those events.
Since the birth of their state in 1948, Israel has been undefeated in five wars, even though she fought against the combined forces of her Arab neighbors, backed by the might of the Soviet Union. This in itself was a miracle, and we shall see in future chapters how God intervened on their behalf in these wars. Thus prophecy was fulfilled and Israel was preserved as a nation. There is no logical explanation for the historical events of our time, other than the fact that prophecy was being fulfilled and that God was setting the stage for the Second Coming of Christ.
The prophecies that were fulfilled, leading to the establishing and the preservation of the State of Israel underscore the following facts:

1. There is a God.
2. The Word of God is true.
3. The prophecies of the Bible are reliable.
4. God is using Israel to fulfill prophecy.
5. The Second Coming of Jesus is a reality.
6. We are living in the closing days of this age.

Truly the State of Israel, established and functioning in their land, a nation among the nations of the earth, is a miracle. Events that led to the establishing and preservation of the State could only have come to pass by the direction and intervention of God.

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That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee (Deut. 30:3).
For centuries the Jews were banished from their land, scattered among the nations, a people without a country. Through these centuries they were persecuted, oppressed, robbed, tortured and killed, yet in the Jewish heart there lingered the dream that one day they would return to their land. That was a dream that would not die.
To nourish that dream, the Jews have practiced a ritual through the centuries. Year after year, from generation to generation, at Passover time they have intoned, “Perhaps next year, perhaps next year.” The meaning of that oft repeated phrase is, “Perhaps next year we will observe the Passover in our own Land.”

Fourteen-hundred and fifty years before the birth of Jesus, God used the Prophet Moses to tell the people of Israel that He would bless them in obedience and curse them in disobedience. In Deuteronomy 28:15 Moses warned, But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not harken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.
The remaining 53 verses of the chapter were required to tell the Jews of all the blessings God would bestow upon them in obedience and to describe all the judgments that would come upon them in disobedience. They were told that in disobedience judgments would fall upon their possessions, their occupations, their homes, their families and their bodies. They would have disappointments, financial reverses, sorrows, sickness and fear. They would suffer siege and face famines so great that they would eat the flesh of their own children. They would be defeated in battle, lose their land and be scattered to the end of the earth as a result of their disobedience. They were further told that they would be destroyed until they would be few in number, though they had been compared to the sands of the seashore and the stars of heaven for number. However, despite the judgment of God, despite their banishment, God promised that He would gather them and bring them back to their own land. That promise was the basis for the dream that would not die.

Through her long history Israel has disobeyed Jehovah again and again, and, as a result of her disobedience, Israel has been judged again and again. In short, the people of Israel have experienced all the things Moses predicted would come upon them. Through the centuries they have known famine, pestilence, war, banishment from their land and attempts at annihilation. Yet, through all their perils, they have had an undying love for their land and a dream of returning to it.
In the early history of Israel, they were driven into Egypt by famine and made slaves in the brickkilns of Pharaoh. There, as they suffered under the lash of cruel taskmasters, they cried to God until He raised up Moses to lead them out of Egypt and through the wilderness and Joshua to lead them across the Jordan and back to their own land.
From the time they left Egypt, forty years were to pass before they again set foot in Palestine. When at last they were again established in their land, they turned back to their old ways and again and again they fell into sin. So again God had to judge them again and again for their disobedience.
Seven-hundred and twenty-two years before the birth of Christ, horrendous judgment overtook them. They were defeated in war, and ten tribes were carried away by the Assyrians and lost to history. Then in 597 B.C.,* Nebuchadnezzar carried most of the remaining two tribes into captivity, and they were made slaves in far-away Babylon. The extent of their misery there was underscored by the Psalmist, when he wrote of how their captors mocked them and said, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
Concerning that experience, he wrote, We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.
Further the Jews said, How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a strange land?
Then they lamented, If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy (Psa. 137:2, 4-6).

* New Bible Dictionary, Eerdmans’, P. 873.

Fifty years later, Cyrus issued a decree to allow the Jews to go back and rebuild their city. They prospered for a time after they went back. Then they were overrun by Alexander the Great. After that they passed under Egyptian rule, and that was followed by the rule of the Syrian Kingdom of the north. In 165 B.C. the Nlaccabean Revolt brought them the only independence after the day of their captivity.* That lasted only a short time, and in 65 B.C. Pompey the Great captured Jerusalem and Palestine passed under Roman Rule.*

* New Bible Dictionary, Eerdmans’, P. 763.
* Funk and Wagnalls’, V ol. 14, P. 5221.

In 70 A.D., the final judgment fell. Titus marched his legions against Jerusalem, and after a long and bitter siege, the city fell and was destroyed and the temple was burned. Untold thousands of Jews were massacred and other thousands were sold into slavery. They were literally scattered among all nations. The Prophet Ezekiel wrote a remarkably clear prophecy of this event more than 600 years before it occurred.
And I scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through the countries: according to their way and according to their doings I judged them (Ezek. 36:1 9).
From that hour until 1948 they remained a people without a country. Yet their dream would not die. Passover after Passover they continued to repeat again and again, “Perhaps next year, Perhaps next year.”
When a Jew grew old and knew that he could never return to the Land, he would ask his family to send for a bag of dust from Palestine and that they would bury him with that bag of dust under his head, so that, at least in death, his head would rest upon the soil of his native land. The dream would not die.
Surely the Jews had a right to dream and to pray, for God had promised them again and again that one day they would return to their native Land. A good example of such prophecies is found in Ezekiel 34:12,13. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.
The Jews could not easily forget this and other prophecies, such as the one found in Ezekiel 11:16,17. . . . Thus saith the Lord God . . . although I have scattered them among the countries . . . I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. Through all the trials the Jews have known through the centuries, prophecies such as these have helped to nourish the dream that would not die.

The dream of the Jews returning to their homeland became an organized effort in 1897 *when Theodor Herzl called for the first International Zionist Congress to meet in Switzerland. Tremendous persecution that had broken out in Germany, Austria, Hungary, France and Russia gave impetus to the movement. The calling of the congress was the first tiny step toward the eventual day when a Jewish State would once again be planted in Palestine. Then, with the coming of World War 1, prophecies were fulfilled that made possible the beginning of the fulfillment of the dream.
During the conduct of that war, the British ran short of explosives, and they needed a better method of producing smokeless powder. The then English Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, took the problem to an outstanding Jewish chemist, named Chaim Weizniann. Weizniann discovered and supplied the formula needed by the British in that crucial hour. In gratitude, the British Prime Minister offered him any honor he might choose as a reward for his services. Chaim Weizmann asked nothing for himself. Instead, he requested a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

* Funk and Wagnalls’, Vol. 25, P. 9471.

At least, partly in response to that request, in November 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration. This document said in part, “His Majesty’s government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this objective.” This was another step toward the Jews realizing their dream. Prophecy was continuing to be fulfilled and the Countdown to Eternity was continuing on schedule.
The hand of God can be clearly seen in the events that followed. The Western allies, and especially the American people, were told that World War I was a war to end all wars. It certainly did not do that, and none of the nations that fought in that war achieved their objectives. But God used that war to work out His purposes in relation to the Jews and their land, but there was much that yet had to come to pass before the Jews could again have an organized state in Palestine.
The issuing of the Balfour Declaration by the British did not make it possible for the Jews to go back to Palestine in great numbers or without great difficulty. The Turks were yet in control of the Land. They had been there for four hundred years, and they were not about to give up the Land just because the Jews wanted to come back and the British had said that they could. But God was moving, and another link in the chain was soon to be forged.

On December 9, 1917, while General Edmund H.H. Allenby was in prayer in his tent on the west of Jerusalem, a Turkish delegation, led by the mayor of Jerusalem, came out to surrender the city. As a result, on December 11, General Allenby rode his horse to the Jaffa Gate, dismounted and walked into Jerusalem, refusing to ride on the stones over which his Saviour had carried His cross. The Holy City had been taken by the British without a shot being fired against it. As a consequence, the fall of Jerusalem made it possible for Jews, under the British Mandate, to migrate to the Land and begin buying property and setting up residence in the Land. The realization of their dream was beginning.

Stormy days of violence and conflict followed. The controversy of Zion was beginning to come to a head. The Prophet Isaiah refers to this controversy in these words. For it is the day of the Lord’S vengeance and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion (Isa. 34:8).
The controversy of Zion is old, and it is not yet resolved. The Jews say, “This is our Land. God gave it to our Father Abraham to pass on to his seed after him.” The Arabs say, "This is our Land. God gave it to our Father Abraham to pass on to his seed after him.” That is what the conflict between Jew and Arab is about to this very day. The British Mandate did not solve the problem. The later vote of the United Nations to partition the Land did not solve it. And all the wars that have been fought, and all the peace conferences that have been held have not solved it. World War I did not solve the controversy and World War II did not solve it, but each of those wars did bring the Jews a bit nearer to the realization of the their dream of a home in Palestine.
In World War II, as in World War I, none of the participants gained their objectives, but both wars brought about events that helped toward the fulfillment of the Jewish dream. World War II was fought to make the world safe for democracy we were told. It certainly did not do that, but, like World War 1, it did play a part in helping the Jews toward the realization of their dream.
As a result of the Second World War, two events are noteworthy. The persecutions of the Jews and the death of 6 million of their number in Hitler’s Germany, during the war, awakened the conscious of the world to the realization that something must be done toward settling the Jews in a land of their own. The problem, at last, was given to the United Nations which had been founded as a result of the wars. A special committee on Palestine set up by the United Nations, recommended the ending of the British Mandate, and the division of the Land into Jewish and Arab sectors.
There were three earthshaking events that dovetailed at this time, the ending of the British Mandate, the United Nations resolution to partition the Land, and the Jewish Declaration of Statehood. Of the three, the most far-reaching was the birth of the Jewish State.

On Friday afternoon, May 14, 1948, leaders of the Zionist movement convened in the Tel Aviv Art Museum for the purpose of founding a Jewish State. At precisely four o’clock David Ben-Gurion called the meeting to order. The ceremony was impressive but short. Thirty-eight minutes later Ben-Curion struck his gavel on the table and said, “I hereby declare this meeting adjourned. Our State has been established.”

* This Is Israel, Boni & Gaer, P. 54, 55.

In these few tense, emotion-filled moments, history had been made and prophecy had been fulfilled. For the first time in centuries a Jewish State was in existence in the Land that God gave to Abraham and his seed for a perpetual possession. A giant step had been made on the countdown to Eternity.
At another time in history, the Jews had been in captivity and had been allowed to go home. Of that occasion the Psalmist wrote of their return from captivity in these words, When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them. The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad (Psa.126:1-3).
Jews rejoiced around the world at the founding of their state, and Christians rejoiced that prophecies were being fulfilled, prophecies that indicated that the Second Coming of Christ was drawing near.

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. . . so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion . . . (Isa. 31:4).
Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle (Zech. 14:3).
When the Jews declared statehood in 1948, it appeared impossible for the new state to survive, and the Arab nations that declared war on the new state were convinced they would have an easy victory. Egypt was one of those nations, and it was reported that there was dancing in the streets of Cairo as the battle cry rang out again and again, “On to Tel Aviv! On to Tel Aviv!” Egyptian soldiers were promised a short war. They were promised that they would be home in one week, and that they could have all the loot they could carry and all the Jewish girls they wanted for wives.
Around the world, newspaper headlines predicted that the new state would be crushed within a week, and the best military authorities in the world gave the new state from four to seven days to survive. Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha, Secretary General of the Arab League boasted, “This war will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongol Massacres of the Crusades.”*

*This Is Israel, Boni & Gaer, P. 21, Ill.

There were good reasons for this gloomy outlook. The new state was small. In all of Palestine there were 1 million 300 thousand Arabs. There were 310 thousand Arabs in the part of the land that became the Jewish State. At the time there were only 650 thousand Jews in the Land.
The tiny new state had its back to the sea and was completely surrounded by hostile Arab states. They were bordered by Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and these states were backed up by Saudi Arabia and Iraq. These seven states had a combined population of 30 million. These 30 million Arabs, in turn, were supported by the 300 million people of the Moslem world. So there appeared no way the Jews could win.
To make matters even worse, the Jews were ill prepared to fight a war. They did not have enough shoes, canteens, rifles, or ammunition. They had no artillery, bombers or fighter planes. Their first armored vehicles were made by covering the cab, sides, top and rear of trucks with armored sheet metal. Their mortars were hand built. At times there was only one rifle for two or three men. Their only contact with the outside world was with a few small radios and two Piper Cub Airplanes. They even had to use a homemade cannon and a terrible contraption, made of scrap iron, that did no damage beyond the noise it made. This they used in an effort to frighten the enemy.
When at last the Jews did get a few small tanks, they moved them under cover of darkness from one battlefield to another to make it appear that they had tanks on every front. Yet, despite their lack of equipment, they did the impossible. Against all odds, they won the war. Surely God fought for them.
The Israeli Army included in its ranks middle-aged men, 16 year old boys, and women. Most of these had little training, and the recruits, coming from many countries, spoke a variety of languages. This made unified command a virtual impossibility. To make matters worse, the British sided with the Arabs. They wanted to make Abdullah Ibn-Husien their puppet king, and they went so far as to blockade the coasts so no arms could be shipped in to the Jews. Also, the United States declined to license any shipment of arms to the area. The prospect for the new state could not have been worse. Yet, to the amazement of the world, the Jews started winning battles and kept on winning them. The one week of war stretched into one year, and the State of Israel was still in existence. Surely God was fighting for them.
As the war progressed the Jews captured all of Northern Palestine, including Lydda, important for its airport. They captured most of the Negev, and they captured half of Jerusalem. By the time the United Nations called for a cease fire, the Jews had successfully partitioned the Land, and prophecy had been fulfilled in the process. By this time they were rapidly gaining ground in the south and were rolling on toward Egypt. There is but one explanation for their victory. God was fighting for them.

Aside from divine assistance, there is no way to explain how the Jews won against such great odds.
During the war there were many incidents (since then widely published) that clearly indicate the intervention of God.
Traveling in Israel, in 1954, when the nation was only six years old, I asked my taxi driver how the Jews were able to win the war against such great odds.
“We had to win or be pushed into the sea, and how long can you swim?” he replied.
“But that doesn’t answer my question,” I persisted.
Then he related the following story:
“One night there were five of us in a foxhole guarding the front. Late that night we saw the enemy advancing in great strength. We had but four rifles for five men. These were all old World War I rifles of various foreign manufacture. Of the four rifles, one was unsafe to fire. That left three rifles for five men, and we had very little ammunition.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“We fired the rifles until we ran out of shells, but the enemy kept advancing,” he replied. “We had a few hand grenades, and we threw these until they were all gone, but the enemy kept coming.”
“And then what did you do?”
“We leaped from the foxhole and started beating on some empty oil drums and yelling as loud as we could.”
“And then what happened?”
“The enemy became frightened and started running away. In their mad flight, they killed several of their own men, and they left behind tons of equipment.”
Talk about Gideon and his pitchers! Here it is all over again in a modern setting. God was fighting for them.
Many incidents such as this have been widely publicized in leading papers and magazines. These incidents were so numerous and so marvelous that they defied logical explanation. One must, in all honesty, conclude that the Jews could not and did not win the war without divine assistance.

Efforts have been made to find a rational explanation for the fact the Jews have won five wars since the birth of their state in 1948. Some have said that the Jews are better strategists than the Arabs. Of course this is not true, but it has been used in an effort to explain how the Jews have been able to win time after time against impossible odds. If some logical explanation could be found, men would not have to concede that God is fulfilling prophecy.
The following story is an attempt to convey the idea that Jews are better strategists than the arabs. In the membership of a large church in Detroit, Michigan, there was a Jewish family and a Arab family who were good friends. The two families sat together in church each Sunday morning.
When war broke out between the Jews and Arabs in 1973, the pastor wondered if a war almost half a world away would spill over into his church and cause trouble between these two families. On the first Sunday after the outbreak of the war, he watched closely to see what would happen between the two families when they arrived for church. It happened that both families entered the vestibule at the same time, and the pastor saw the two men talking and soon they were laughing together. So he knew everything was all right between them.
After the service he sought them out and asked what they had been laughing about. He learned that the Arab had told the Jew the following story:
A Jew and an Arab lived next door to each other in the Negev. They became good friends and their families were close. Their wives shopped together and their children played together. When war broke out between the Jews and the Arabs, the men got together to talk over the situation.
The Arab asked? “What are we going to do? We are friends, but we are supposed to be enemies.”
The Jew asked: “How can we fight and remain friends?”
At last one of them suggested that they let their dogs fight. That way they could be involved and still remain friends. They both went after their dogs.
The Arab brought out a dog that was a monster. He was so big he looked like a calf. The Jew brought out a short-legged, blunt-tailed dog with a turned up nose. He hardly looked like a dog. They sicced their dogs and got them involved in a fight, and the Jew dog devoured the Arab dog. He annihilated him.
The Arab cried: “Call off your dog before he kills my dog. You win! You win! But what kind of dog is that?”
The Jew replied, “Before we had his nose fixed, he was an alligator.”
That was strategy, but that does not explain how the Jews have been able to win every war they have fought against the Arabs since the birth of their state. The reason for their victories is that God is fighting for them.
There are some who say the Jews are better fighters than the Arabs, but this is not true. In 1973 the Arabs proved that they can fight. In the early days of that war, the Jews came close to losing. Yet there are those who insist that the Jews always win because they are better fighters than the Arabs.
There is a story that has been told to indicate that the Jews are better fighters than the Arabs. This rather ridiculous story goes as follows:
There was a Jewish bandit who lived in the desert and preyed upon every camel train that passed his way. In the same area lived an Arab Sheik named Abdullah. He had an army of 110 thousand men under his command. At last the Arab Sheik decided to rid the country of the bandit.
When the sheik and his army arrived in the vicinity of the headquarters of the bandit, he heard a mocking voice, echoing across the desert, “Abdullah, come and get me. Abdullah, come and get me.”
Abdullah promptly dispatched 2 thousand of his men to go and get the bandit. There was a clash of arms, and before Abdullah realized what was happening, the entire 2 thousand men were destroyed. Again the sheik heard the mocking voice: “Abdullah, come and get me.”
Determined to destroy this bandit, Abdullah sent 3 thousand men against him. Again the impossible happened. The 3 thousand men were destroyed.
Once again, there was that mocking voice: “Abdullah, come and get me.”
Abdullah was on the point of committing his remaining 5 thousand men in a last desperate effort to destroy the bandit, when he saw a lone, wounded survivor crawling across the desert toward him. So he waited to get a report from the wounded man.
As soon as the wounded man was in calling distance, he called, “Abdullah, don’t send any more men. It’s a trick. There’s two of them.”
This story is a rather crude attempt to say that the Jews have won every war they have fought against the Arabs because they are great fighters. That certainly is not the case. The Jews have not been able to win because of better strategy or because they are better fighters. The only explanation is that God was fighting for them.
God wants us to know that He exists, and that His word is true. In this day, men have scoffed at the Word of God and have denied the existence of God, and God is writing upon the sands of time through fulfilled prophecy.
The test of a prophet is the fulfillment of his prophecy. If he makes one prediction that fails, that disqualifies him as a true prophet of God. God tells us in His Word:
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him (Deut. 18:22).
If one Bible prophecy were to fail, that would discredit the Bible. Should the Word of God be proven unreliable, that would give men cause to doubt the existence of God. But, each time a Bible prophecy is fulfilled, it demonstrates that God does exist and that His Word is true.

God not only wants men to know He lives and that His Word is true, He wants them to know that the end of the age is drawing near. God does not intend for us to be able to set the date when the age will end, but He does want us to know when it is drawing near. Jesus himself said: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors (Matt. 24:33).
Another purpose God has in fulfilled prophecy is to warn men to repent and to serve God. In 2 Peter Chapter 3, beginning with the first verse, Peter writes of the day of the Lord and the frightful events that will occur at that time. Then in verses 11 and 12, he writes, Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?
In times past God spoke in various ways we are told in Hebrews 1:1,2. GOD, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son . . . Surely, in these days God is speaking through His Word and through fulfilled prophecies. Not the least of these fulfilled prophecies being the return of the Jews to their Land, the declaration of statehood, and the victories they have won in five wars. Surely God is fighting for them, that prophecy may be fulfilled and that men may know that there is a God.

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And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh (Luke 21:28).

The atmosphere in the room was charged with excitement as we started an exclusive interview with Rabbi Isaac Halevli Herzog, Chief Rabbi of Israel. The year was 1954, just six years after the birth of the State of Israel. The Jews were excited about their new state, and many of them were expecting the soon coming of their Messiah. We preachers were excited also. Many prophecies were being fulfilled before our eyes, and that made us believe also that the return or Jesus was drawing near.
The author and a half dozen other ministers sat around a long, walnut conference table with the rabbi and some three associates. After the usual amenities, we started the interview with Dr. B. R. Lakin and myself leading the questioning. Among the questions asked were the following:

“Rabbi, three years ago you said that, in your opinion, Messiah could come within six years. Do you still believe that to be true?”
There followed a moment of awesome silence during which all eyes were turned upon the sober, scholarly, white-bearded rabbi. When he responded to the question his voice fell upon the silence of the room like the blows of a hammer.
“I can see His footprints in the Land already,” he announced. Then he added solemnly, “That which is happening in this Land today is the doings of Almighty God!”
It was evident that the rabbi believed strongly that God was intervening on the behalf of the Jews and that the coming of their Messiah was drawing near. It is not difficult to understand his conviction and his elation when one considers events that had transpired since 1917.
We who were seated around the conference table could not have been more in agreement with the rabbi. Events during and following World Wars I and II, and present happenings in Palestine had given Bible believing Christians reason to conclude that the Second Coming of the Lord could not be far away.
Not long after the birth of the State of Israel, I was in a Bible conference in Florida. That day, as we were having lunch, Dr. Jacob Gartenhaus, a well-known Christian Jew,turned to me and said, “I believe Messiah is soon coming.”
Two nights later, I was in an Indian church in the Everglades. During the service an Indian youth said in his testimony, “I believe Jesus is soon coming.”
A few days after that, I boarded a bus in Havana, Cuba to go is search of a mission station in the interior. While I was waiting for the bus to leave, a Cuban came to the window and started witnessing to me in broken English. When I made him understand that I was a Christian, he became so excited he got on the bus with me and, pointing to Matthew 24 in his Bible, he said excitedly in broken English, “The Lord is soon coming.”
Not long after that I found the same expectancy among some Jews in Israel. Prior to the Six-Day War of 1967, when the Jews could not reach the Wailing Wall, they kept their vigil at the Tomb of King David. When I visited King David’s tombin 1952, I found Jews around it praying in Hebrew loud enough to be heard for a city block. When I ask what they were praying for, I was told that they were praying for the coming of their Messiah.
In the early days, after the founding of the State of Israel, the Chief Rabbi instructed the people to use extreme caution in preparation for the observance of the Passover. For said he, “We are now in the Land and Messiah may come this year.”
In 1953 a taxi driver lost his way in Nazareth and approached a home to ask directions. The front door was standing ajar and the family was observing the Passover. As was the custom, there was a vacant chair and an unused plate near the door. At the appropriate time in the observance, the youngest child was to ask the meaning of the open door, the vacant chair and the unused plate. He would be told that Elijah was to come before the appearance of Messiah, that he might even come tonight. He might pass their house and see the open door and the unused plate and come in and be their guest.
Just at the moment when that part of the ceremony had been finished, the taxi driver rapped on the door. Instantly the youngest child ran to the door, looked up into his face and asked,”Mr., are you Elijah?” This is just one of many indications of the belief among the Jews that Messiah may soon come.
In 1980 an article was published by UPI, Dateline Jerusalem, entitled “Jews Buzz Over Year of Messiah.” In that article it was stated that Israelis ultra-orthodox community is filled with speculation to the effect that Messiah will come during the New Year (1980). The article went on to report that aged rabbis have had dreams that have led them to believe that Messiah will come this year. One of them asks for his walking stick each morning so he could go out and look for Messiah. The article went on to sight how many religious leaders in the Jewish Community are expecting the coming of their Messiah. Of course, we now know that Messiah did not come in 1980, but this article gives another indication that the Jews, as well as Christians, are expecting Messiah to come.
When one considers the prophecies that have been fulfilled in the Holy Land in recent years, it is easy to believe Rabbi Herzog was right when he said, “I can see His footprints in the Land already.” No event in history has added so much weight to that conviction as the founding of the State of Israel.

On November 29, 1947 the United Nations voted in favor of the partition of Palestine, and before dawn the following morning, amid general celebration, a snow-white flag, containing the blue Star of David in its center, was raised over the Jewish Agency Building under the brilliant glare of searchlights. The Jewish State was on the way. Then, in a few short months, on May 14, 1948, statehood was declared. For the first time in centuries there was a Jewish State in the Land. More than 26 hundred years earlier Isaiah had written, “Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once?” (Isa. 6:8). Indeed a nation was born at once when the Jews declared statehood.

Another of the many prophecies that was fulfilled on that occasion was Ezekiel 37:22. “And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel . . . and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.”
Israel is not a new nation but an ancient nation, returned from many countries and reborn. God has kept His oft’ repeated promise to regather them. An example of that promise is found in Ezekiel 36:24. “For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.”

Because of their disobedience, God scattered the Jews among all nations and left them buried for centuries, but He never forsook them, for He had promised, “Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come” (Ezek.11:16). In other words, as God dwelt in the sanctuary of the temple, He promised to will dwell with His people during their banishment.
Through the centuries God has kept the Jews from losing their identity, and their enemies have not been able to destroy them. Despite all their adversities, God has blessed and prospered them. And now, in our day, God has brought them back to their own Land. Since 1948 they have been functioning as a nation in the land God gave to Abraham, and despite all odds the Israeli Flag is now proudly flying in that Land.

The Israeli Flag and the solid gold, seven-branched candlestick, national emblem of the State of Israel, are ties to their ancient past. When Titus destroyed Jerusalem, in 70 A.D., he pillaged the Temple and carried all the sacred articles it contained back to Rome. When the Arch of Titus was constructed to commemorate his triumph, replicas of these articles were sculptured in stone on the inside of the arch.
There, sheltered from the weather, the work of some ancient artist has been preserved through the centuries. When the Jewish State was born, they sent photographers to Rome to photograph the likeness of the candlestick, and using this exact model, they produced copies of the original and made it their national emblem. Such candlesticks are now found throughout Israel, even on the Parliament Building, on their coins, and on their postage stamps.

Walk through the Land today, and fulfilled prophecy is evident on every hand. To see prophecy being fulfilled in the land, all one needs is a knowledge of the Bible and open eyes. For example, Jews now living in Jerusalem, remind us of the words of Zechariah. “And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness” (Zech. 8:8). We have seen at least a partial fulfillment of this prophecy.
On the streets of Jerusalem today, one may see among the Jews, old men and old women as the prophet Zechariah predicted. “Thus saith the LORD of hosts; There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, and every man with his staff in his hand for very age” (Zech. 8:4). Or one may walk the streets of the new part of the city and see groups of happy, laughing Jewish children at play in the streets and recall that the prophet wrote: “And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof” (Zech. 8:5).
Also today, one can see Jewish farmers tilling the soil in Israel and know that prophecy is being fulfilled. In other lands the Jews are not noted for being farmers. Instead they are in the arts and sciences, in politics, business, and in the professions. But in the land of Israel, a majority of the Jews have turned to the pursuit of agriculture. Nearly 600 years before the birth of Christ, Ezekiel predicted that the Jews would become farmers. Chapter 36, of this prophecy, is addressed to the physical land of Israel. Over and over in that chapter, the prophet addresses the physical characteristics of the Land. He addresses the mountains six times, the hills two times, the rivers two times, the desolate land one time, the waste three times, and the desolate waste one time. He addresses the cities four times, the land seven times, and the valleys one time. The ruined places are addressed one time, and the land is addressed as “it” one time and as “thee” and “thou” and “thy” five times. Thus the Lord, speaking through the prophet, addressed the land 35 times in this one chapter. So there can be no question that this chapter is directed to the physical land of Israel.
One of a number of precise predictions in this chapter is that the Jews will return to the land and become farmers. To the land He says, “. . . and ye shall be tilled and sown: And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it . . .” (Ezek. 36:9,10).

In our generation miracles have taken place in that Land.
For centuries the land has been waste. Through the centuries, in war after war, trees were cut down for fuel and for battering rams until there were few trees left. Then when the Turks levied a tax on the trees, the tax hating Arabs promptly cut down most of the remaining trees. Thus the land was stripped and the elements did their work. Erosion stripped the land of its soil, and bedrocks jutted above the sparse soil that remained. The land became dry, barren, and desolate. It is a miracle that this land has been reclaimed and made suitable for cultivation. The Jews had to literally break out the rocks with air hammers and haul them away by truck loads until soil covered the once rock-covered land. The land was then put into cultivation, and thus prophecy was fulfilled.
Where the land was suitable, trees were set out. This too was a fulfillment of prophecy. In verse 8 of Ezekiel 36 the prophet has written: “But ye, 0 mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come.” In an early year of the existence of the State of Israel, the Jews set out 6 million trees, one for every Jew who died in the horror camps of Hitler’s Germany. They have been planting trees ever since. There are now more than millions of trees in the Land. There is everything from the tiny seedling to mature trees. Truly the land is shooting forth its branch. Isaiah has also foretold that trees are to again grow in the land. “I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it” (Isa. 41:19,20). Thus is prophecy being fulfilled in our day. We have lived to see the day when, “The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing ...” (Isa. 35:1,2).
Other countries in the area have not been reclaimed as has the State of Israel. For example, where once the Cedars of Lebanon waved their branches against the sky, the hills are now barren. On the other hand, Sharon is blazing with beauty as the Rose of Sharon blossoms in profusion. Sharon is fruitful and productive, and Carmel overlooks the beautiful, modern city of Tel Aviv. Its heights are covered with trees and flowering shrubs, and its soil is carpeted with green grass and nodding flowers of every hue. Isaiah further predicted “... the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God” (Isa. 35:2,3).

That which we have seen in recent years, the Jews returning to their ancient homeland, the birth of the nation of Israel, the reclamation of the soil, the return of the rain, and the many other fulfilled prophecies indicates that we are living in the closing days of the age. Rabbi Herzog was right. The footprints of Messiah are in the land.

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“And they shall be upon thee for a sign and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever” (Deut. 28:46).
More than three-thousand years ago, God inspired Moses to write some predictions regarding things that would befall the Jews, and how He would deal with them in a way that would make them “a sign and a wonder.” These predictions have been and are being fulfilled to this day. Fulfilled prophecy has indeed made the Jews “a sign and a wonder.” The literal fulfillment of these prophecies prove the existence of God and the reliability of His Word.
Frederick the Great once said to his court chaplain: “If the Bible you preach is true, you should be able to prove it in a word.”
After a moment’s thought the chaplain replied, “Your Majesty, it so happens that I can demonstrate the proof of the Bible with one word.”
“What is this magic word?” asked the emperor.
“The Jews, your Majesty,” was his reply.
We have a further word of testimony from Napoleon. One night he and a group of his generals were seated around a campfire talking. At length the conversation drifted to a discussion of religion. Most of the men seated around that campfire were infidels and expressed themselves as such. At last they turned to Napoleon and asked if he believed in God. The great Napoleon pointed to Marshall Messene, a Jew, and said, “Gentlemen, there is the unanswerable argument that there is a God.”
The history of the Jews proves beyond question the divine character of the Word of God. Deny the inspiration of the Bible and you have a greater miracle to account for. How else can we explain the 5 thousand years of tragic yet glorious, miraculous, unequaled history of the Jewish people. Indeed they are a sign and a wonder.
God has spoken through the Jews in times past, and He continues to speak through them today. In this day, when men are denying the existence of God, He is speaking through the Jews in thunderous tones, that all men may know that He is God.
In Ezekiel, chapters 35 through 39, there are many prophecies that have been fulfilled since the founding of the State os Israel, and there are many others to be fulfilled in the future. All of these prophecies relate to the Jews in one way or another. God is demonstrating the reality of His existence and the reliability of His Word each time a prophecy is fulfilled.
Concerning the fulfillment of these prophecies, God says again and again that they will be fulfilled that men may know that He is God. In these chapters, God repeats 17 times, I do these things that ye (or they) may know that I am the Lord. Nine times He said, that they (the heathen) may know that I am the Lord, and eight times He said, that ye (Israel) may know that I am the Lord. In this very day, God is using Israel as “a sign and a wonder.”

The land that God gave the Jews is in itself a miracle. This little land, known originally as Palestine, is bordered by rivers, deserts, and a sea. It is a small country, one-fourth the size of Alabama, yet it has affected the history of every country in the world in the past, and it is affecting every country in the world today. Nothing so excites the governments of the world today as an outbreak of war involving this tiny country. Why is this so? It is because God has given them “for a sign and a wonder.”
This small country is the connecting link between three continents, Africa, Asia, and Europe. It is the shortest land, air, and sea routes between Europe and Southern Asia. It is sacred to three world religions, Judaism, Mohammedanism and Christianity. This little land is the Land of Promise; it is also the Land of Prophecy. It is also the Land of Destiny. The destiny of the nations of the earth is wrapped up in this tiny country.
It is to this land that God called Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees. It was in this land, on what later became the Temple Mount, that God told Abraham to offer his son, Isaac. In this land the Bible was written. In this land Jesus was born, lived, was crucified, was buried, and rose from the dead. In this land the church was founded, and here was launched the missionary program that eventually brought the Gospel to the Western World.
It is to this land that the Jews have returned and founded their state. And it is to this land that Christ is to return. We are told that when He comes in His glory, His feet will touch down on the Mount of Olives. According to the prophecy of Zechariah, at the time of the Second Coming, the Mount of Olives will split, forming a valley and opening the way for Christ to walk into Jerusalem through the, now closed, Golden Gate. And in Jerusalem He will sit upon His throne and reign over regathered Israel and over all the earth (Zech. 14).
It is evident that the stage is being set for the coming of the Lord. In order for Jesus to reign, He must have a land. That land is to be the ancient Land of Israel. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that Jesus will reign upon the throne of David from Jerusalem, and that He will reign over all the earth.
Until the events of 1947 and 1948, the United Nations’ vote to partition the land, the Jewish declaration of statehood and the war that followed, it appeared to be an impossibility for the Jews to ever again become a nation or occupy one foot of Palestine. Yet all of this did come to pass, and by the end of the war, the young nation had successfully partitioned the land, thus carving out a territory for the new state. This, and the regathering of Jews from all over the world, was a first step in securing a land, and preparing the way for the Second Coming of the Lord.
After the “War of Independence,” Jerusalem was a divided city. The old part of the city remained in Arab hands. At that time it did not appear that the Jews would ever occupy all the city. But in the Six-Day War of 1967 the Jews occupied all of Jerusalem and all the territory to the West Bank of the Jordan, the Gaza Strip, and the Golan Heights. This, of course, included the Mount of Olives, and thus we were brought one step closer to the time when Jesus will come to the Mount of Olives and enter Jerusalem to reign as King.

It was a historic day when the Jews occupied the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. For the first time in centuries, the Jews had access to the Wailing Wall, now called the “Western Wall.” When, on June 7, 1967, Jewish troops drove out the Jordanian forces, the dream of the centuries had come true. Moshe Dayan wrote a prayer on a piece of paper and pressed it into a crack in the wall, saying with controlled emotion, “We have returned to our holiest of holy places, never to leave them again. No power on earth will remove us from this spot.”
Since then the Jews have said again and again that they will never give up Jerusalem. They will negotiate with reference to other captured lands, but they declare that Jerusalem is not negotiable. All these events are preparing the land and the city for the coming of the King.
The outcome of the Six-Day War also brought the world a step nearer to the end of the “Time of the Gentiles.” For the first time since A.D. 70 Jerusalem is no longer under Gentile control. . . . and Jerusalem shall be trodden down (under control) of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (Luke 21:24). Since 1967 all Jerusalem has been under Jewish control.
In the Six-Day War Israeli territory increased more than fourfold, from 8 thousand square miles to 34 thousand square miles, thus carving out additional territory for the coming King.
Not only is the territory being made ready, but the people who will be the subjects of the kingdom are increasing. For many years, there have been some Jews in the land, but in recent years their number has increased dramatically. In 1882 there were 24 thousand Jews in the land. That number had increased to 47 thousand by l890. By l9l4 the number had increased to 85 thousand, still only a handful, surrounded by a vast sea of Arabs. In 1927 there were 150 thousand Jews in the land. In 1948, the year of statehood and the War of Independence, there were still only 650 thousand Jews in the land. Since that time they have returned much more rapidly. In 1978, when the nation was 30 years old, they reported a population of 3,677,000. By 1984 the population had climbed to 4,630,000. The population continues to increase, by birth and by migration, thus ever adding subjects for the future kingdom.
This modern return of the Jews is quite different from their return from the captivity of Babylon. Then they came from only one nation. In our day they have come from all nations, thus fulfilling prophecy. For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land (Ezek. 36:24).

The Jews have returned to their Land to stay, at least until the day when they will flee temporarily from Antichrist. Since the beginning of the new state, the Arab’s have cried for its destruction, but the combined might of the Arab world, aided and abetted by Russia, (when Russia was yet a super power) has been unable to bring this to pass.
The Arabs have threatened, used violence, and fought wars in attempts to remove the Jews from the land, but they are still there. This also is a fulfillment of prophecy. For God has promised, And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God (Amos 9:1 5).
God has given His answer to Egypt, to Jordan, to Lebanon, to Syria, and to all other enemies of Israel. If they can blot out the sun, the moon and the stars, if they can measure the heavens above, if they can measure the foundations of the earth, then and only then can they destroy the State of Israel. Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar ... If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD” (Jer. 31:35-37).
The Jews are in their land and they are there to stay. And though they may not know it, they are there to await for the return of their King.

In the Word of God there are three classifications of signs of the Second Coming of the Lord. There are Gentile signs, Church signs, and Jewish signs. This is not surprising since everything in the Bible is either written about or directed to one of these three groups. All three of these groups of signs point alike to the fact that the coming of the Lord is drawing near. Evidently we are living in the twilight of time’s day, and the hour of midnight cannot be far away. We are living in the Saturday night of time’s week, and the glorious Sabbath, when the King shall reign in righteousness, cannot be far away. We are living in the December of time’s year, and the New Year cannot be far away. Looking at the ages we cannot but conclude that aged “Father Time” is about to reach the end of his days, and the glorious dawn of the Millennium Age must not be far away.
While all the signs point to the coming again of our Lord, this is particularly true of the Jewish signs. God has given them for “a sign and a wonder,” and He is speaking through them in wondrous fashion in these last days. That is why the eyes of the world remain focused on Israel. That is why the nations of the world become so excited and so often involved in outbreaks of hostilities in that part of the world. Surely we should heed the words of our Saviour and lift up our heads with rejoicing in these days. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh (Lk. 21:2 8).

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We have a small number of Israeli Countdown to Eternity books in stock. When these are gone the book will be out of print. While they last, they can be ordered from Arnold Publications at $5.00 per copy + 2.00 P&H. To order, phone 1-800-854-8571.

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