A Thought For Your Christian Journey:

Israel And The End Times

Revelation 7:4 ⁴ And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

One does not have to read much of Bible prophecy, New Testament or Old Testament, to realize that Israel figures prominently in the Biblical account of the end times.  This has not weighed heavily upon my view of future events until just recently.  I have never known a world without the nation of Israel.  However, the truth is that Israel has not always been a nation among nations.  Hence, the reestablishment of Israel as a nation is an undeniable sign that we are living in those days that immediately precede the fulfillment of those Bible prophecies yet to be fulfilled. 

The evidence of Israel as a nation as a sign of the times was heightened in my theology as I listened to Dr. David Jeremiah’s series entitled “What In The World Is Going On.”  All I can say is that this is an incredible sermon series that accurately links our world’s current events with those things written in the Bible concerning future events.  I highly recommend the whole series. 

I am reminded of a story I heard of the pastor who served at Immanuel Baptist Church in the 1950’s, 1960’s, and early 1970 (the first Church I pastored in the 1990’s).  Dr. John V. Ray established Immanuel Baptist College and Seminary which hosted some great preachers of the day like Dr. R.G. Lee and Dr. Curtis Hudson.  The testimony is that when Israel was declared a nation by the United Nations (I think this was about 1953) Dr. Ray was so certain that the Lord would almost immediately rapture His people that he had a mild heart attack. 

When I first heard this testimony I did not understand why this single event so impact Dr. Ray and many others of the day.  The event had the impact it did because Israel is so prominent in Bible prophecy that the end times events just could not take place without a nation of Israel.  Yet, Israel had not been a nation for more than 1800 years.  But now, here they are.  Few of the other nations that existed in biblical times still exist today and those that have ceased to exist (the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites) are no where to be found.  No one is walking around saying “I am a Hittite.”  But Israel is back and they are governing in their land. 

Israel as a nation is a requirement for the implementation if God’s revealed plan for future events.  Hence, we should be reminded that things are ready for the rapture, the anti-christ, and all of the other end times events.  My Christian brothers and sisters, be ready, be pure, be a bride prepared for the arrival of her bride groom. Because our Lord cometh!

CrossRoads Email January 6, 2009

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