Islam teaches a form of replacement theology unlike the West has ever known. Some believe that the Church is the Israel the Bible was speaking about. The replacement of all the promises that God gave to Israel are now forwarded to the Church.
To the replacement theology followers, there was no longer a need for Israel.
This idea however was shattered by the establishment of Israel exactly as the Bible foretold. Regardless of this, Muslim fanatics teach that Israel needs to be annihilated. The Jew in the Bible is indestructible. This unassimilated people have gone through long, intense and awful suffering. Palestine, the land of God, which has been given to the Jew, has been fought over like no other on earth. Since the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 it has told many tales of horror and bloodshed. The Jew has been an object of extermination in one country after another, and on many occasions they have been on the verge of annihilation. Several attempts in history have ended in absolute failure. God has promised to preserve them (An unconditional agreement between God and Abraham).
The Egyptians tried to finish them by enslaving them and killing their male newborn babies, then the Assyrians, then by Nebuchadnezzar in 588 B.C.
In 170 B.C. Antiochus Epiphanes sought their destruction and also failed.
Titus destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D. and killed over one million Jew and carried 97,000 into captivity to Rome.
Christ made the startling prophecy; "Verily I say unto you, there shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." (Matthew 24:2). Which to the amazement of His followers was literally fulfilled.
The Jewish blood flowed down the temple steps like water. Thousands upon thousands of Jews perished and the studded crosses on the mountains of Jerusalem were as far as the eye can see. For several centuries they were labeled as "Christ killers", burned on the stake and enslaved by the order of dictators and tyrants.
No one can honestly deny the frightening holocaust that took place under Hitler. The world has always tried, even King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who became idolized in history by equipping Columbus for his journey, they also made 500,000 Jews homeless.
The Soviet Union led several pogroms of torment and humiliation to the Jews. The challenge is to find a single nation or people in history that has suffered a fraction of what the Jews went through. The ironic thing is that all was done in the name of God and justice. Nowhere in the Bible is this hate of the Jew justified. Yet from the small remnants put forth as the result of all the attempts to exterminate the Jews, the Jewish population today grew to several millions, fulfilling God's promise in the Bible; "Hath God cast away His people? God forbid. God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew." (Romans 11:1-2). And this should settle the question forever. To ensure this God declared in the Bible; "Thus saith the Lord, who giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, who divideth the sea when its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me forever. 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.".
Many civilizations throughout history rose, prospered and died. Babylon, Greece, Rome and others. However, the nation of Israel persisted to live against all odds. While the Arabic nations occupy land five hundred times larger than Israel, they still persisted in attempting to destroy her. The tiny Jewish nation survived against all odds. Why?
Men throughout the ages have criticized the Bible with its multiple prophecies about the restoration of Israel, how could the poor Jew make a state and be re-gathered? Yet man can finally conclude that the Bible can be proven beyond any shadow of a doubt to be true Gold, not only by hundreds of ancient prophecies that came to pass, but by one ancient word created by God from the time of Jacob until our generation, for all who doubt, and that word was and still is 'Israel'.
Israel's existence today, and the re-gathering of the Jews from all parts of the world is an irrefutable proof that the holy Bible is the true word of God. God scattered them throughout the whole world, and God re-gathered them again from ALL nations back to their original land, in fulfillment of his promises made in the distant past, made good in our present. Israel is the only nation in the world that ceased to exist and returned to play such an important roll in world history.
No one in the world today can ignore amazing Israel, although many promises were made in the Old Testament to her restoration, as God said:
"I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive." (Jeremiah 29:14). If one is asked a Christian in 1943, how could these prophecies be true when the Jews were dying by the masses in the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Treblinka? One would only have to wait a few more years to be stunned by God's shocking surprise when he made good His promises.
No serious person should question God's eternal and unchangeable Bible, the very living and speaking God who never ceased to talk to the whole world. He is the same God who parted the Red Sea, destroyed the walls of Jericho, and gathered his scattered Jews from all over the globe.
It is a mockery of God when man by his foolish pride dictates how God His maker should operate the world, it is He who chooses the way He wants to be honored. The following prophecies are so simple to understand, that they needed no interpretation for anyone who witnesses the recent historical events on Israel;
"Thus says the Lord: "Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people to inherit -- behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. "Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will have compassion on them and bring them back everyone to his heritage and everyone to his land." (Jeremiah 12:14-15).
"Therefore behold, the days are coming says the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, but The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them. For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers." (Jeremiah 16:14-15).
The great exodus from Egypt in the time of Moses is small compared to the re-gathering of the Jewish people from all over the world. The mighty God of Israel is still bringing them from all the lands and from the land of the north (former Soviet Union). This reference of the land of the north is also referred to by the prophet Jeremiah; "Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child together: a great company shall return thither." (Jeremiah 31:8). The great outpouring of Jews from Russia (far north of Israel) to the promised land is one of the most exciting events God made for His people. Russia has persecuted the Jews since the time of the Czars until the recent breakup of the Soviet Empire.
Against all odds the miracles fulfilled by God to restore their identity, language, and land is still part of what is about to come. Russia's 40% Muslim population which belongs to the Turkish-Mongol tribes, who are seeking greater autonomy still are appointed for their destiny for destruction with other Islamic nations as prescribed in Ezekiel 38. The accuracy of Bible prophecy is a warning to the Muslim nations that God will fulfill the rest of His promises to the enemies of Israel. It is not a joking matter when The Awesome God speaks, but a message to be delivered for man to heed. Not only was God specific about the re-gathering, but He named the very name the land shall be called, as it was called Palestine for over a thousand years He declared; "Therefore say, `Thus says the Lord God: I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you from the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.'" (Ezekiel 11:17).
It must be known that God declared the name for that land, anyone who changes this name or harms His people will end up paying a heavy price for He said speaking of Israel; "For thus says the Lord of hosts: He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye." (Zechariah 2:8).
It is indeed a warning to anyone who harms the Jews. Notice how even the Lord (God) speaks to God as He says; "He sent Me", how could God send God unless God The Father sends God The Son? As He continues in verse 10; "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord." (Zechariah 2:10). This is a literal coming of the Lord (God in the flesh) to dwell in Jerusalem. This was prophesied by the prophet Zechariah long before Christ came.
How could the Jews who today do not believe in Christ be accused of corrupting His word? Yet they kept these verses despite their rejection of Christianity. Even the name of the city He promised to give them was included in the deal; "I will bring them back, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be My people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness." (Zechariah 8:8).
Even the language Israel spoke thousands of years ago is today the main language of Israel after it has been dead all these years. No other nation in history lost it's language then later restored it except the nation of Israel. That is a big statement to make, yet the prophet Zephaniah prophesied exactly of this; "For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one consent" (Zephaniah 3:9). They eventually will call on God when Christ comes the second time.
Even the abundance of fruits today in Israel which allowed her to export to Europe 90% of Europe's citrus fruit. God said through Isaiah the prophet; "He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit" (Isaiah 27:6). Even the desert in Israel is blossoming due to the increasing rain in the last days, a 10% increase in rain fall is measured every decade, millions of trees were planted, and God transformed the whole environment of the land which God through Isaiah prophesied of; "Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month" (Joel 2:23). To study the Law of probability of these and many other prophecies would again prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that God exists and His name is Jehovah the redeemer of Israel as He declared. To anger God is to ask for the wrath of God, as the prophet Joel declares; "For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land." (Joel 3:1-2). The Bible tells us of the restoration of Israel and after is Judgment day for the world why?
The world pressure against Israel who divided the land to a Palestinian state and a Jewish state is temporal, it is not without repercussions as it angers God. This is the judgment that Muslims ignore to understand when Christ comes back again, and do not understand the consequences of. This is a warning from God to the nations of the world, yet the world is sleeping through His warnings.
In few previous verses; "And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. he sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord." (Joel 2:31).
This is also similar to the borrowed prophecies of Muhammad (see Muhammad's greater prophetic signs), which are but an infinitesimal fraction if compared to Bible prophecy, which we are covering but a few in this book: Zechariah 8:8, Jeremiah 29:14, Jeremiah 30:3, Jeremiah 30:16 & 30:24, Jeremiah 31:8-10, Jeremiah 31:31-33, Jeremiah 32:37-38, Ezekiel 34, Ezekiel 37, Ezekiel 39:25-27. Isaiah 11:11-12, Isaiah 46:13, Isaiah 49:3, and Zephaniah 3:9-10.
-- On the recent ongoing exodus of the Jews from Russia to Israel
Read Jeremiah 16:14-15, Jeremiah 31:8, and Zechariah 2:6.
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