Implosion

by Joel C. Rosenberg

  [After the Holocaust,] the Jewish people rose from ashes and destruction, from a terrible pain that can never be healed. Armed with the Jewish spirit, the justice of man, and the vision of the prophets, we sprouted new branches and grew deep roots. Dry bones became covered with flesh, a spirit filled them, and they lived and stood on their own feet. As Ezekiel prophesied, “Then He said unto me, These bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; we are doomed.’ Prophesy, therefore, and say to them, Thus said the Lord God: I am going to open your graves and lift you out of your graves, O My people, and bring you to the land of Israel.” I stand here today on the ground where so many of my people perished—and I am not alone. The State of Israel and all the Jewish people stand with me. We bow our heads to honor your memory and lift our heads as we raise our flag, a flag of blue and white with a Star of David in its center. And everyone sees. And everyone hears. And everyone knows—that our hope is not lost.[141]

  It was an extraordinary moment. Rarely has any world leader given a major address on an international stage declaring that End Times prophecies from the Bible have come true. Yet that is exactly what Netanyahu did.

  Other Hebrew Prophets Foretold Israel’s Rebirth

  Ezekiel was by no means the only Hebrew prophet who foretold Israel’s miraculous rebirth and the Jews’ return to the Holy Land after centuries of exile. Consider several other key passages of Scripture:

  • Isaiah 66:8-9—“‘Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?’ says the LORD. ‘Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?’ says your God.”

  • Jeremiah 16:14-15—“‘Therefore behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when it will no longer be said, “As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” but, “As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.” For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.’”

  • Jeremiah 31:3-9—“The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness. Again I will build you and you will be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! Again you will take up your tambourines, and go forth to the dances of the merrymakers. Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the planters will plant and will enjoy them. For there will be a day when watchmen on the hills of Ephraim call out, “Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.” . . . Behold, I am bringing them from the north country, and I will gather them from the remote parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and she who is in labor with child, together; a great company, they will return here. With weeping they will come, and by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, on a straight path in which they will not stumble; for I am a father to Israel.’”

  • Amos 9:11-15—“‘In that day I will raise up the fallen booth of David, and wall up its breaches; I will also raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old; that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by My name,’ declares the LORD who does this. ‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; when the mountains will drip sweet wine and all the hills will be dissolved. Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; they will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit. I will also plant them on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them,’ says the LORD your God.”

  Jesus and the Rebirth of Israel

  The Lord Jesus himself repeatedly reaffirmed the teachings of the Hebrew prophets from the Old Testament. Indeed, he challenged people for not having read or understood the Scriptures.

  • Matthew 5:17—“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

  • Matthew 19:4 (NLT)—“‘Haven’t you read the Scriptures?’ Jesus replied.”

  • Matthew 22:29 (NLT)—“Jesus replied, ‘Your mistake is that you don’t know the Scriptures, and you don’t know the power of God.’”

  By reaffirming the truth and the value of the Old Testament Scriptures, the Lord Jesus reaffirmed the truth and the value of God’s promises to resurrect the people and the land of Israel in the last days.

  What’s more, Christ specifically spoke of the rebirth of Israel in Matthew 24:32-33. “Now learn the parable from the fig tree,” Jesus said. “When its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door.”

  What is the “parable from the fig tree” to which Jesus referred? The fig tree repeatedly symbolizes the nation of Israel throughout the Old Testament. In Jeremiah 24, for example, the Lord referred to the Jewish people as figs—some good, some bad—as he promised to bring them back from captivity to the Promised Land. Hosea 9:10 says, “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.” In Micah 4, in a passage specifically about the last days and people coming to Jerusalem to visit the Lord’s Temple, Micah writes that when it comes to the Jewish people in the last days, “each of them will sit under his vine and under his fig tree.”

  When the Lord Jesus spoke of the “parable from the fig tree” in Matthew’s Gospel, he was referencing these and similar passages. He was saying that when you see the State of Israel reborn, and Jews coming back to the Holy Land, and the land of Israel turning green and flourishing again—and when you see this happening in the context of all the other signs, all the other “birth pangs”—then you should know we are in a special and distinctive moment in history, a moment unlike any other. At that time, while we won’t know the day or hour of Christ’s return, the Lord Jesus told us to “recognize that He is near, right at the door” (Matthew 24:33).

  The Apostles and the Rebirth of Israel

  The apostles believed the prophecies about Israel would one day come to pass. In Acts 1:6, they asked the Lord Jesus after his resurrection if he was now going to bring the prophetic promises to fulfillment, end the Roman occupation, and rebuild the kingdom of Israel. It is reasonable to believe they expected Israel to be reborn as a politically independent state at any moment.

  “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” they asked. Jesus did not say that theirs was a stupid question. He did not say those prophecies about Israel’s future rebirth were inaccurate or irrelevant or canceled by Jewish unfaithfulness to God, or that his followers were misinterpreting those passages. Rather, he said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority” (Acts 1:7). For Christ and his apostles, it was not a matter of if the Father would fulfill his promises to Israel and the Jewish people, but when. And since the Lord Jesus knew the promises would not be fulfilled for more than 1,900 years, he mercifully chose not to give the disciples any details, for it may well have discouraged them.

  The apostle Paul also repeatedly affirmed the truth and value of all the Hebrew prophecies in the Scriptures. In so doing he reaffirmed the rebirth of Israel and the regathering of the Jews in the last days. In 2 Timothy 3:16, for example, Paul wrote, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching.” That certainly covers all the prophecies in the Old Testament, including those describing the future resurrection of Israel. In Romans 9:3-4, Paul writes about his deep love for “my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites” and explains that to the children of Israel “belongs the adopti
on as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises.” When he speaks of “the covenants,” Paul speaks of all the covenants. He does not exclude the Abrahamic covenant, in which the Lord unconditionally promised the land of Israel to the Jews, his chosen people according to Genesis 12 and 17, among other passages. What’s more, when Paul speaks of “the promises,” he speaks of all God’s promises to the Jewish people. He does not exclude the promises of Ezekiel 36, 37, 38, or any of the other promises of resurrecting the nation of Israel or regathering the Jewish people to Israel.

  Implications for the United States

  There is another critically important passage of Scripture we must consider in this context of the prophetic rebirth of the State of Israel and its implications for the future of the United States.

  Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

  GENESIS 12:1-3

  Later in the Bible, these promises to Abram were passed down to his grandson Jacob, who was renamed Israel.

  Then his father Isaac said to him . . . “Cursed be those who curse you, and blessed be those who bless you.”

  GENESIS 27:26, 29

  Still later in the Bible, the Lord again explicitly repeats these promises. “Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel. . . . Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe; and the Spirit of God came upon him,” we are told in Numbers 24:1-2. Then the Lord spoke through Balaam:

  The oracle of him who hears the words of God. . . . How fair are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel! . . . Blessed is everyone who blesses you, and cursed is everyone who curses you.

  NUMBERS 24:4-5, 9

  The Bible’s message is clear: God promises to bless individuals and nations who bless the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and he promises to curse those who curse Jews and Israel.

  The good news is that America has been Israel’s most faithful friend and ally for the past six decades, since helping to bring about the prophetic rebirth of the Jewish state. We have blessed the Jewish people here at home and around the globe. And in so many ways, the Lord has, in fact, blessed the United States of America as a result. If we remain faithful allies of Israel and continue to bless the Jewish people in real and practical ways—while we increasingly turn our hearts back to the Lord, who made this promise in the first place—then I believe God will continue to bless America and help us recover from our many challenges and our many sins. God made this wonderful promise, and we can depend upon him to be true to his Word.

  But let us make no mistake: if the United States stops blessing Israel and the Jewish people and either abandons them or begins actively working against them, then we will no longer be eligible for the blessings of God. Rather, we will face God’s curse. This is a fate no nation can long endure. Certainly not ours. Indeed, given all the other enormous and existential economic, fiscal, spiritual, and moral challenges we face, I have no doubt that America will most certainly implode if we stop actively and consistently blessing Israel and the Jewish people.

  God will not be mocked. One way or another, America will reap what she sows.

  Bottom Line

  Do there remain skeptics, cynics, opponents, and enemies of Israel here at home and around the world? Yes.

  Will their numbers grow and their hatred of Israel and the Jewish people intensify as we go deeper into the last days? Unfortunately, yes.

  But does their skepticism or cynicism or opposition nullify the truths of the Bible that Israel will be reborn and the Jews regathered to the Holy Land in the last days? Not at all.

  Indeed, the rebirth of Israel is a remarkable development in our time. Some scholars have described it as the definitive sign—the “super sign,” as it were—that we are not merely living in an interesting or extraordinary period of history but, in fact, living in what the Bible calls the last days before the return of Christ. I believe that. Furthermore, I believe God’s promises that if we as Americans continue to bless Israel and the Jews—God’s chosen people—then God will bless us. But if the U.S. abandons or works against Israel and the Jewish people, then God will curse us.

  Given the unprecedented challenges we already face as a nation, the stakes could not be higher.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ARE WE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS?

  So far we have reviewed some of the different signs the Bible tells us to watch for in the last days.

  We have examined events and trends that the Bible tells us will be increasingly visible and evident as we get closer to the second coming of Christ. It’s important to be aware of such things if we are to accurately address the question of whether we are living in the last days at all and the issue of whether Bible prophecy has any bearing on the future health and stability of the United States of America.

  Having examined the evidence, what do you believe? Are we living in the last days?

  I believe we are. After decades of studying Bible prophecy, reading hundreds of books on these subjects, discussing prophecy with many Bible teachers and scholars in the U.S. and around the world, analyzing geopolitical events, global economic trends, and spiritual and cultural trends, and seeing so many prophetic signs come to pass, I have come to the conclusion that the Rapture of the church is increasingly close at hand.

  In an upcoming chapter, I will explain what the Rapture is and why it is important to the future of the United States. For now, let me just say that I have no specific idea when the Rapture will occur. What’s more, I am strongly opposed to speculating about dates and times.

  Some may criticize me for denying the so-called doctrine of imminency, which states that Jesus could come back at any moment, without any advance warning. To be clear, however, I do believe in the doctrine of imminency. I do not deny it. But it is important that we are clear as to what this doctrine does and does not entail.

  Tim LaHaye, one of the foremost teachers of Bible prophecy in the world today, has written that “Imminency is the word we use to refer to the doctrine that Christ could come at any moment to call His bride [the church] to be with Him in His Father’s house. That is why Scripture has so many admonitions to watch, be ready, and to look for Him to come at any moment.”[142]

  I agree entirely with this statement, and I seek to be ready for the Lord to come at any time.

  Thomas Ice, another leading Bible prophecy scholar, has written that “imminence in relation to the Rapture has been defined as consisting of three elements: ‘the certainty that He [Christ] may come at any moment, the uncertainty of the time of that arrival, and the fact that no prophesied event stands between the believer and that hour.’”[143]

  I agree entirely with Ice’s statement as well. I am certain Jesus is coming back. I don’t know when he is coming—he could come at any moment. And no prophesied event stands between us and Christ’s return.

  That said, let’s be clear about something else: While all the signs of the last days have to happen before the second coming of Christ, no sign of the last days has to happen before the Rapture occurs. However, that does not mean that no sign will happen before the Rapture occurs. For example, the Rapture could have happened at any time from the first century to the present. No signs had to precede it—not the “birth pangs” of which Jesus spoke or any other. Even the rebirth of Israel as a nation didn’t have to occur before the Rapture. Theoretically, Israel could have been reborn after the Rapture of the church. Nevertheless, Israel was re-created as a nation before the Rapture. Likewise, the apostle Peter—citing a sign foretold by the Hebrew prophet Joel—said the Holy Spirit would be poured out on all mankind around the world in a more dramatic fashion
in the last days than ever before. This didn’t have to happen before the Rapture either. Yet it did begin to happen in chapter 2 of the book of Acts, and it has dramatically accelerated in our times.

  Again, while no prophetic sign has to precede the Rapture, that does not mean no sign will occur before the Rapture. This is a critical point. Indeed, as we look at the events of the past century or so—and specifically at events that are occurring here in the twenty-first century—we can see that so many of the prophetic signs related to the last days, the “birth pangs,” have already come true.

  That has significant implications for your life and mine and for the future of the United States.

  How Long Will the Last Days Last?

  The overall length of the period leading up to the second coming of Christ is never defined by the Bible. To the contrary, the Lord Jesus specifically said that “no one knows” when he will return (Matthew 24:36), and it is precisely because we don’t know exactly when he is coming for us that we are to be constantly ready for him—living lives of holiness and purity, being faithful in daily prayer and Bible study, sharing the gospel with others, making disciples of all nations, and so forth. “Therefore be on the alert,” Jesus told his disciples, “for you do not know which day your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42).

  One thing we are not supposed to do is guess or set dates with regard to either the Rapture or the Second Coming. To do so is unbiblical, unwise, and evidence of false teaching, which is sternly forbidden in the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus said, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (Matthew 24:36). The apostle John concluded the book of Revelation by warning that when it comes to “the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19).