Today millions of Christians are intensely interested in Bible prophecy. They want to know “what’s coming down the pike,” or what will happen in the end-days. Unfortunately, many false prophets and charlatans realizing this have made fortunes on this legitimate desire of believers.
We need to realize that although God has given us plenty of clues about the end-days, he has given them in a sort of code. In other words, we see through the glass darkly. While we can be fairly certain about the main events, we are not privileged to know many of the details. This is where some people get into trouble. They start talking about specifics with the naming of names and setting of dates. This is a futile exercise and will in time only prove them to be false prophets.
Others try to read their own schemes and pet theological interpretations into the end day events. This also is futile. We need to read the Bible with an open mind and heart and see what it really says. Then we need to simply believe it. We should believe it even if we do not understand it at the present time.
Although we cannot see the future clearly, there are some things concerning the future that are quite certain. We will be kept safe if we concentrate on these.
ISRAEL WILL COME HOME AND HER LAND WILL BE RESTORED
The Children of Israel will be gathered home and their land and nation will be restored. This is an oft repeated theme of the prophets. They all knew that someday the people of Israel would be returned for the second time to their land. Isaiah 11:11 reads: “In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea” (cf. Isa. 43:5-7; Jer. 31:7-9). This miracle is happening in our day. Just in the last decade alone over a million new immigrants have returned home to Israel. This has amounted to a 20% increase in the total population of the nation.
When the people of Israel are returned to their land, the prophets are sure that many other good things will happen. The land, even the desert areas, will become exceedingly fruitful again (Isa. 35:1-2; 62:4-5; Ez. 36:34-38). The old cities will be rebuilt and inhabited (Isa. 61:4) The nation will be reborn quickly and accepted into the family of nations (Isa. 14:2; 66:8).
It is also very clear from scripture that God will bring other people home with the people of Israel. When Israel came out of Egypt, many Egyptians cast their lots with the Israelites and also came out. In Isaiah 56:8 we read: “The Sovereign LORD declares—he who gathers the exiles of Israel: ‘I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered.’” We can safely assume that the “others” spoken of are Gentiles and more than likely include Gentile Christians. The prophets mention that these Gentiles will become shepherds, plowmen and vinedressers (Isa. 61:5). Today there are thousands of Christians who have taken up residence in Israel and who are there to assist and bless the covenant people in these last days.
THERE WILL BE AN INCREDIBLE SPIRITUAL AWAKENING IN ISRAEL
It is clear from the prophets that once Israel is again in the land, there will be an incredible spiritual awakening. This awakening will produce a profound spiritual change in the whole house of Israel.
We see this sequence in Ezekiel 36:24-25: “‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.” In this same chapter God also promises Israel a new heart and a new spirit. In Jeremiah 31:31-33, God speaks of making a new covenant with Israel and writing his laws upon their hearts. Israel will then begin to cry out for her Messiah as we see in Matthew 23:39.
We are led to believe that soon after this awakening the beautiful new unity between Israel and the Church will begin to appear. This unity is pictured for us in Ephesians 2:14-22. In verse 14 we read: “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility…” (Eph. 2:14).
AS ISRAEL AWAKES, ALL HELL WILL BREAK LOOSE
In recent years the gates of hell seemingly have drawn much closer. Our times are beginning to look like the end-days. Everywhere there is a disintegration of moral fiber with extreme lawlessness taking root. The days are beginning to look like those described by Paul in 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Not only are terrible times upon us, but also terrible people are upon us too. “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” It is certainly alarming that these deceived people will claim to be religious.
It seems that as a culmination to this lawlessness, the Lawless One himself will at last appear (2 Thess. 2:3). He will usher in a dreadful time wherein the righteous will be severely persecuted (Rev. 13:7). He will then move against the nation of Israel. We can be assured that this is part of God’s plan to deal with evil and to rescue his chosen people. We learn from scripture that it is the Lord himself who draws all the nations to battle (Zech. 3:8). In Revelation 19:19, we are assured that it is the Antichrist who is leading the battle.
We realize that this great battle is “…a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion’s cause” (Isa. 34:8). As a result a horrible war will break forth in Israel. It will be so horrible and with such a loss of life that the Messiah himself, the deliverer of Israel, will be beckoned and will appear.
JESUS WILL COME AND REIGN
We Christians have always known that our Messiah will one day stand again on the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem (Zech. 14:4; Acts 1:11). Perhaps we have never asked ourselves why he would appear at that place. In Zechariah 14:2-4, the question is answered. Our Messiah is coming for the express purpose of defending Israel against the rage of Antichrist and the assault by all the nations of the world. We read in Revelation chapter 19, that the Messiah will have an immediate and devastating victory over the forces of Antichrist. The Antichrist or Beast will be taken in battle. Along with him will be the False Prophet. Both will be thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
After this great battle, the Messiah will then rule in Jerusalem for a thousand years with his victorious saints (Rev. 20:6). At that time Satan will be bound. This period is best understood as a prototype reign of Christ on earth, spoken of by the prophets of old. It will be a period of wonderful blessing and peace where “The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox…” (Isa. 65:25).
In this period the Law will go forth from Zion to the ends of the earth (Isa. 2:2-4). The nations will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. There will be peace in all the earth. Shortly after this millennial period, Satan will be released and there will be one last war against Israel brought on by Gog and Magog (Rev. 20:7-10). Afterward, time will come to an end and the final judgment of peoples and nations will begin.
We should realize by this brief scenario that the end-days will be very Israel-centered. When that sparkling new Jerusalem does come down from heaven it will have the names of Jewish apostles written on it. Imagine, names like Shemon Kepha (Simon), Bar Talmai (Bartholomew), Yohanan (John), and Yakov ben Zebdai (James)! There will be Jewish tribes written on the gates; names like Ye-hu-dah, Ze-vu-lon, Issachar. They will even be singing Jewish songs (Rev. 15:3-4), like the song of Moses, taken from Deuteronomy 32. In this song they will be singing about Israel, and as another writer has pointed out, it behooves us Gentile believers to start getting in tune with this heavenly chorus.
-Jim Gerrish
March, 2002