The biggest Christian hoax of the Twentieth Century was that the present
nation of Israel was the direct result of God’s promise to restore the
Jewish State. Evangelical Christians felt vindicated in their view of
Biblical prophecy, in 1948, when Israel was recognized by the U.S.A. as
a nation-state. They were either willfully ignorant, or didn’t have a
clue, as to the clear process God foretold in Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and the
other prophets that the restoration of Israel was to be His work.
The Evangelicals have given unending support to Israel. They rejoiced
“that prophecy was being fulfilled before our very eyes.” This indicated
that they had never seen the truth that the present dispensation is a
parenthetic dispensation and was never the subject of prophecy. As one
who recognizes that an unprophesied dispensation, the Mystery, suddenly
burst upon the world scene after God set aside Israel, WE cannot support
the idea that any of the political events taking place in the
Middle-East is the subject of prophecy! None of God’s prophecies have
come to pass in this dispensation! Therefore, WE must conclude that the
notion of Israel being the fulfillment of God’s promise to them is a
Grand Hoax. It is a deception of great magnitude; orchestrated by the
“prince of this world.” It is a diversion from “right division.” It is a
“red herring” for Christians.
The present Israeli state was the result and work of the Zionist
Movement. If you are not aware of the fact that the foundation of the
state rests upon mass expulsions, mass murder, and mass looting, you
haven’t done your homework. There is abundant information on how Israel
became a nation-state, and it “ain’t pretty.”
The Israeli government, today, is made up of unbelieving Jews
administering a socialistic government which depends mostly upon the
U.S.A. for its sustenance. When the true descendents of the three
Patriarchs occupy the Land, they will depend on the LORD their God, and
in no-one else will they trust. They will be totally dependent upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. And, He will meet every need of His re-gathered
people.
Evangelical Christians, for the most part, know nothing of right
division of the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15). Even in the year of Our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, 2006, they believe the “end times” are
being played out, or at least as some say, “the stage is being set for
the “end times.”
If you read Christian periodicals, and even secular publications and
secular websites, a great deal of articles concern Armageddon, America
in Bible prophecy, the Rapture, and the END TIMES. The term, “end
times,” is not a biblical term at all. The nearest thing to “end times”
is “the time of the end” which is used five times in Daniel (Dan 8:17,
11:35, 11:40, 12:4, and 12:9).
“Bible names for Bible things,” as Dr. E. W. Bullinger used to say. To
this, WE agree. The authors of the “Left Behind” series of novels have a
website, we believe, which is “The Left Behind Series Prophecy Club;
Compelling Signs of the End Times.” In the Dispensation of Grace, there
are no signs, compelling, or otherwise! Christians have a way about
making up names for Biblical events. A good way to peddle the Word of
God is to build upon unbiblical words and phrases—such as, the END TIMES
and COMPELLING SIGNS TODAY.
We noted an article, the other day, on “WorldNetDaily” about a book
titled, “Are We Living in the Last Days?” by Greg Laurie. The
sub-headline was, “Greg Laurie takes a clear refreshing look at the END
TIMES. Greg is an author, evangelist, and pastor of the largest church
in America,” said WND. Headline on a website today; “Hurricane Katrina:
Sign of the Last Days?” The short answer is absolutely NO!
Many Peddlers of the Word focus on the “End Times Prophecies,” and it
centers on Israel being in their “homeland.” They falsely teach, for
profit, that the events occurring in the Middle-East are rushing us
toward Armageddon Now! How titillating, how scary! No wonder so many
people are unclear about right division. The voices of the Peddlers are
loud and deceptive. They make millions peddling this hoax. We know of no
END TIMES truth. We know truth about the “time of the end” and the
“sunteleia” (consummation) of
the age (Matt. 24:3), but absolutely nothing concerning the “end times.”
We will not adopt this terminology. Who made up this phrase?
Fundamentalists, pre-millennial dispensationalists, teachers of
prophecy, and the vast majority of Christians believe the modern day
Israelis are the people of God in the Land of Palestine awaiting
conversion. This is the Grand Hoax.
Let’s not confuse them with the Israel Who God prophesied about when He
declared He would bring them out from among the nations wherein He
scattered them. The Bible teaches that the Lord scattered them, and that
He will be the One Who brings about their restoration.
The present State of Israel is the result of man’s doing. It is a
government instituted by man and is governed by man. The works of man do
not survive. They all collapse. Don’t be surprised if the State of
Israel collapses. Should that happen, what will it do to all of the
Christian rhetoric which was surreptitiously introduced as Christian
Doctrine? It would make their rhetoric “become as sounding brass, or a
tinkling cymbal (1 Cor. 13:1). Not only that, but the wrong-division of
dispensational truth will “shipwreck” the faith of many (1 Tim. 1:19)
and “overthrow” the faith of many others (2 Tim. 2:18).
Before you say that we are hateful and anti-Semitic, let’s open The Book
and see “What saith the Scripture” concerning how the Lord said how He
would gather His ancient people and send them back to their Promised
Land.
“As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely with a mighty hand, and with a
stretched out arm, and with fury poured out,
will I rule over you” (Ezekiel
20:33).
“With a mighty hand,” and “a stretched out arm,” and “with fury poured
out,” He will rule over the true descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. This speaks of the Divine skill, and power, and fury He will
exercise over them. This will be the labor He exerts when He begins His
work of restoration. It is of paramount importance to know that He rules
over them before they are gathered out from the nations wherein they
have been scattered. The Lord Jesus Christ is not ruling over the
present Jewish state, nor has He ever done so since 1948. When the Lord
re-gathers Israel, He will not allow any unbelieving Jew to enter the
Land. The Israeli state is comprised of unbelievers. Yes, there are a
few Messianic Jews there, but they are few in number.
“And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered,
with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured
out “ (Ezekiel 20:34).
We should note, carefully, that the LORD will “rule” over them before
He brings them out of the countries in which they have been scattered.
If present day Israel is the work of God, He did a very poor job of
securing the Land for them. The Jews had to take what little piece of
land they call their own by bloodshed and terror. For fifty-seven years,
Israel has been under constant attack. When the Lord does His work in
the restoration of Israel, not a single shot will be fired in anger. The
Jews will return as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they will
receive their promised inheritance without strife or war.
Isaiah 2:4 informs those “who have ears to hear” that He shall set the
nations straight by ruling over them and settling all disputes.
Universal peace will prevail when God begins to deal with the Jews
during His Kingdom.
If the Israeli State is the work of God, He has not given them all of
the land He had promised. In fact, Jerusalem is not even their capitol
city. Not only that, but one portion of Jerusalem is not even theirs. It
is partitioned off for the Moslems.
“And I will bring you into the wilderness of
the people, and there will I
plead with you face to face” (Ezekiel 20:35).
The word, “wilderness,” occurs eight times in Ezekiel 20:10-21, and they
are all a reference to the wilderness in which His disobedient people
wandered for forty years. The LORD said; “I
will bring you into the wilderness of the people;” that
is to say, He will move the resurrected Jewish saints, and those who
will be living at the time of His Appearing and Kingdom, to a location
in the wilderness of old—around Mount Sinai. He was speaking through
Ezekiel to those Jews living during Ezekiel’s day. “I will bring you
(those living in the time of this prophecy) into the wilderness of the
people.” For the promise to be fulfilled, these “people” will have to be
raised from the dead.
Are any of the Israelites living in Palestine, today, the fruits of the
grave? Were any of them relocated to Mount Sinai by the LORD before they
entered the Land? If not, then today’s Israel is not God’s handiwork. On
top of this, we read that in the wilderness of the people, “there
I will plead with you face to face.” To “plead” is to
judge, to govern, to vindicate, to punish; just as He did with their
ancestors in the wilderness.
“Like as I pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of
Egypt, so will I plead with you, saith the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 20:36).
The LORD has not raised them from the dead, nor moved them and the
living to the people’s wilderness in order to “plead” with them
face-to-face. This truth is missing from the Grand Hoax.
“And I will cause you to pass under the rod,
and I will bring you into the bond of the
covenant” (Ezekiel 20:37).
It will be in the Hebrew’s wilderness that the LORD makes them “pass
under the rod.” We’ll not recount what others say about this passage.
“To pass under” has the idea of submitting. Submitting to what? The rod.
The Hebrew word is shebet
which means, in the context, a scepter (a mark of authority), or a baton
of royalty which are symbols of government. It will be here that the
LORD brings them into the bond of the new covenant. Jeremiah wrote in
Chapter 31:33, “I will put my law in their
inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and
they shall be my people.”
Today’s Israel is in no covenant relationship with God at all!
It will be in “the wilderness of the people,” where Moses organized and
arranged his government at Sinai that the Lord Jesus Christ will arrange
and set up the Government of His Kingdom. This future event will take
place while the Lord Jesus Christ remains in Heaven. The LORD will work
through His emissaries, establishing the Dynasty that will govern the
world. But, it will govern the “Israel of God” first. The resurrected
David will be their King and Prince, and under the Authority of Christ,
he and the twelve Apostles will be the vessels through which His
Government will be established. The restoration of Israel’s Kingdom
requires that David and the Twelve Apostles be on the scene. They are
absent in today’s Israel, but not AWOL.
“And I will purge
out from among you the rebels,
and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the
country where they sojourn, and they
shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall
know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 20:38).
The LORD even brings the rebels among them to “the wilderness of the
people,” and there, purges the rebels (i.e. those with a rebellious
heart), and they shall not enter into the Land of Israel. Note,
carefully, what is said; “I will bring them (the rebels) out of the
country where they [had] sojourned, and they shall not enter …” Thus,
they will be a people without a country!
“There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of
God, and you yourselves thrust out” (Luke 13:28).
All of the Divine skill, power, and fury which will be exerted to bring
the “Israel of God” into the Land of Israel will be accomplished by Him!
From Ezekiel 20:33-38, the LORD uses the personal pronoun, “I,”
eleven times. It will be all of His doing. He uses no nation, or
nations, to help Him accomplish His promise.
There, in “the wilderness,” the “Israel of God” will be completely
organized by family and tribe (through the work of Elijah). Their
allotment of land will be known beforehand. Their Shepherd-King, David,
the Twelve Apostles, and all of those who will have prominent places in
the Kingdom will be totally equipped to possess the Land of Promise. The
well known text in Isaiah 40:3 calls for the construction of a highway
from Sinai to Jerusalem (Mt. Zion); “make
straight in the desert a highway for our God.” When the
call comes from on high to possess the Land, the new Nation will move
out. This will be a magnificent sight to behold—as untold millions of
Jews—go marching upward to Zion.
“For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel,
saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in
the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require
your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your
holy things” (Ezekiel 20:40).
God will require His Israel to make offerings and give the firstfruits
of their oblations. Clearly, the present State of Israel has not made
Him any offerings, nor given to Him the firstfruits of their oblations.
This, certainly, disqualifies them from being the restored “Israel of
God.”
The present State of Israel doesn’t qualify in any of the particulars as
being the Israelites the LORD will bring into the Land of Promise. Yet,
teachers of prophecy all insist that it is the Christian’s duty to bless
and support today’s Israel which is not truth for today! The restoration
of Israel will take place in the next dispensation, not during the
present one. Truth that belongs to a future
dispensation must not be read into the present. When it
is, undispensational terms are invented [such as, “the End Times”],
and error develops. The error pointed out in this paper has led to the
Grand Hoax. The Hoax is accepted as Truth because of the collective
ignorance of Christians.