Israel and The End Times

I've been reading and thinking a lot about the end times and the startling way our world is falling right in line with what the Bible says will happen in the last days.  We are living in an unprecedented time.  Bible predictions that seemed impossible a few years ago could now actually happen.  For example, in the book of Revelation 13:16-17 it says that the Antichrist will "cause all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads.  And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name".  Several years ago it would have been difficult to imagine that a mark on the body could allow people to buy and sell.  Today it makes perfect sense.  With technology it is easy to see how a small chip could be planted in each person's body.  These chips would hold all of the information that would allow folks to purchase and sell food, water, gas, and other necessities.  

Later in Revelation it talks about two witnesses who will preach the gospel to the world for three and a half years.  They will be killed in the streets of Jerusalem.  In Revelation 11:9-10 it says, "For three and a half days men from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth".  Before the Internet and 24-hour news channels, it would have been difficult to imagine how men from every nation could gaze on two dead bodies in a short three and a half day period.  It is no longer difficult to imagine.  

These are just two of countless examples of how Revelation, as well as many other books in the Bible predict what will befall this world.  Is it true?  I choose to believe it.  Not only because I believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God, but because the Bible has already made hundreds of predictions that HAVE come true.  The Bible has never been wrong, so I can place my trust that the predictions still to come will happen with perfect accuracy as well.  Check out this link to see some of the Bible predictions written hundreds of years before Jesus that came true through his life, death and resurrection. Awesome!!!

Scholars believe that every prediction that must come true before the Rapture of the Church and the Tribulation can begin have happened, the most significant being the regathering of the Jews to their homeland, Israel, in 1948.  This is prophesied in Ezekiel 36:24 and 37:21 and Isaiah 11:11-12.  Before 1948 many people had difficultly believing there would come a day when the Jews would be reunited from all over the earth to their own nation of Israel.  But that's what God said would happen, and it did!   It is estimated that there are between 13 and 14 million Jews in the world.  Today more Jewish people live in Israel, a country the size of New Jersey, than in the United States.  It is estimated that 6 million of them live in Israel in 2013, the same number that were killed during the Holocaust.  This is significant because it shows that more and more Jewish people are moving to their homeland each year.  

Israel will be the center of attention during the end times.  It is so important that Christians educate themselves on the importance of Israel in our story of salvation.  We should be up to date on events that affect her and be in prayer for our Jewish friends who live there.  They have been, and will continue to be the center of conflict until Jesus’ return.  It is amazing that such a tiny country has caused so much controversy, and continues to find itself in headlines across the world, just as the Bible said it would.  Here is a link with more information about Israel’s role in the end times.  Amazing! 

I could go on and on about all of the signs of the times that are happening all around us:  from natural disasters, affairs in our government and the United Nations, turmoil in the Middle East, economic instability and the moral decline of our world today.  All of this can be scary and overwhelming, but it shouldn't be.  God is in control and knows his children.  Those who know Jesus as their Lord and Savior can be at peace, because according to Revelation 3:10, “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.”  Isn’t it a blessing to know we can rest in God’s care no matter what the future holds?!