The Prophetic and End-Time Significance of the Modern State of Israel

The following program is recorded content created by the Truth Network. We're going to open the scriptures today and show you the prophetic end-time significance of the modern state of Israel. It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown.

Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on the line of fire. And now here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown.

Thank you so much for joining us today on The Line of Fire. This is Michael Brown coming your way live from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Those who are watching on YouTube or Facebook will see that we are audio only.

Those listening on radio podcasts, the same voice as ever. This is going to be a really, really important broadcast. So in fact, take a moment if you're watching on YouTube, click the thumbs up right now and then click subscribe if you're not getting our broadcast.

If you're not a subscriber to the Ask Dr. Brown YouTube channel. If you're watching on Facebook, click like and share. This is a really important broadcast. We want to get it out as widely as possible. We'll make it as rich and deep and scriptural as we can. We're going to start with the phenomenon of the modern state of Israel and demonstrate from the Scriptures why this is of prophetic importance. Why this is of biblical and spiritual importance.

Why this is of even end time importance based on the Bible. That's where we're going to start. Now I may be able to get to call us.

I've got a ton of content. But if I do, the number to call is 866-34-TRUTH. 866-348-7884. If you're listening carefully and you feel that I'm not being fair to the text of Scripture or have a question or want to push back, I may be able to get to some calls.

866-34-TRUTH. Okay, so we're going to dig into that subject. Then I did a broadcast on Thursday but we had five different problems all unrelated to one another that happened in one broadcast from before the show to during the show.

Because of that the quality of the sound was not good and we just pulled all the links to YouTube etc. We just pulled those. But I talked about how Charles Spurgeon rebuked replacement theology. So I am going to read from the Puritans and from Charles Spurgeon today as well. Then hopefully if we have time, I want to read you a really moving account from some of our spiritual family in Israel right now. Hopefully I'll be able to get to all of that today. Let me say a few things up front so there is no confusion.

I've been through this over and again but not everyone gets to hear everything and some of you are just tuning in for the first time. Number one, salvation is only through Jesus the Messiah. Salvation does not come by being an ethnic Jew or by living in the land of Israel. Salvation comes only through repentance and faith in Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah, the Savior and the Lord. There is no salvation outside of Him. Therefore, yes, the most important thing we can do in terms of Israel and the Jewish people is pray for the salvation of the Jewish people and seek to find ways to bring the Gospel to them.

That is number one, most important of all. Number two, the shedding of Palestinian blood is just as grievous as the shedding of Jewish blood. A Palestinian baby that dies is just as grievous as a Jewish baby that dies. We do not take our stand for justice, take our stand for what is right, take our stand for mercy. Based on the fact that God has called the Jewish people back to the land, God has brought the Jewish people back to the land.

Therefore, whatever Israel does is fine. No, no, that is not my position. So I want you to understand that. I also want to say emphatically, as I said over and over again for years, I am not a dispensationalist. I do not believe in a pre-Trib rapture.

I want to make that clear. So don't write this off to dispensationalism. I don't believe in the great planet Earth left behind.

So that is not my end time position. If you want to know my view on that, Professor Craig Keener and I wrote a book, Not Afraid of the Antichrist, Why We Don't Believe in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture, where we lay those things out plainly. So we would be, and even me, more firmly than Dr. Keener in terms of the final working out of things, historical premillennial.

This dates to well before dispensationalism in the 1800s. In fact, it can be established as the most clear and prominently stated position of the early Church Fathers, historical premillennial in the early centuries of the Church. But the ultimate question is, what does Scripture say?

I just want to lay out all these caveats because there is always a misunderstanding and then things get read into what I am saying. So I want to cover all the bases possible up front so we can just look at the Scriptures together. And I am not setting dates based on Israel being back in the land, but I am saying it is of prophetic significance. It is of end time significance. As lovers of the Word and lovers of the Lord, this should be important to us as well. Okay, last point. Now I am going to make a general statement and then look at Scripture.

My last point is this. In my own history, I came to faith in a church that believed in pre-Trib rapture, dispensationalism, and that Israel today was a fulfillment of prophecy. So I just kind of took that for granted when I came to faith. When I started to study more, when I questioned some of my Pentecostal roots, some of my Arminian roots, I questioned this as well. And I remember reading Milton Terry's book, a famous post-millennial book on biblical hermeneutics, because I had read all the dispensational books and I had embraced that system. Now I began to question the whole system. So once I abandoned the idea of a pre-Trib rapture, and this is not to divide over or to mean those who differ, but once I abandoned that position, then I questioned my overall eschatology. Why should I hold to this view? The amillennial view had a lot of appeal because everything was now spiritualized and it was all about Jesus and a heavenly church and so on.

And I kind of mocked the idea, oh, so if there is prophecy about the people of Israel for the end, does that mean the Moabites are going to come back and the Ammonites are going to come back and everyone has to be on horses and chariots and so on. So I was very critical of the position for a number of years, actually during my Calvinist years when I tried to be a cessationist as well. The reason I'm not a cessationist is first and foremost because I was convinced by the word that the gifts were to continue and then my own experience confirmed that. The reason I'm not a Calvinist with all respect to my Calvinist friends, my cessationist friends, is that I was convicted by the word that I should not hold to Calvinists. Well, the same thing happened to me with my views about Israel.

When I just went back to Scripture and looked at it and said, okay, I have to accept that there are literal promises for literal Israel and that God continues to work with the Jewish people, that he scattered us, that he has re-gathered us. All right, so what I want to do is make a general statement and then look at Scripture together with you. All right, fair enough? So, number one, and this is my general statement.

Hang on, let me get the right screen up here. Here we go. Just speaking in broad generalities, no people has ever been scattered from its homeland, then lived outside of its homeland. The great, great majority of the people, the vast percentage of the people, 99%, whatever, lived outside of the homeland, scattered around the world. This has not happened to any people that over centuries and centuries and centuries and centuries and centuries and centuries, scattered around the nations, they have not only maintained their identity, but then come back to their original homeland. It has never happened. It is a phenomenon that is absolutely unparalleled in world history.

Not anything comes close to it. Now, since God promised to preserve us, he would scatter us and yet he would preserve us. Since he said we would be scattered in all the nations and then re-gathered, that should get your attention. The fact that it happened and it just happened with no people, there is no example that comes close to it. I mean, even your own ancestry, unless you get some DNA sample, right, it is like, well, I think it is like Italian blood and some German blood.

Why? Because people scatter, they immigrate, they become parts of the nations, they can swallow it up, they lose in war, whatever it is, and it does not take that many generations and they have lost their identity, especially as a whole people. So this is absolutely, totally, and completely 100% unprecedented in world history. Nothing even compares to it, and yet it is laid out in scripture in advance. So we move from this general statement to the Bible. The scattering of the Jewish people, the tribes of Israel around the world, and remember, among the Jewish people are representatives from all the different tribes and then there are scattered lost tribes that are still remnants, still being discovered. The scattering of the Jewish people all around the world is written in scripture explicitly, and that God said he would re-gather us. It did not happen with the return from Babylon. It did not happen with that prophesied return.

There is something beyond it. Let me just share some scripture with you. First, let's take a look over in the words of Jesus. Let's look at the words of Jesus in Luke chapter 21 when he is speaking of the judgment that is to come on Jerusalem in the year 70.

Luke 21 beginning verse 23, Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days for there will be great distress in the land and wrath on this people. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled by the Gentiles until, note that word, until, underscore that word, until times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

We will come back to that until in a moment. But Jesus said, we as the Jew I speak, we would fall by the edge of the sword in Jerusalem and hundreds and hundreds of thousands did. Josephus is right, a million Jews died in the tragic war in the year 70 culminating then. They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all the nations.

But there is an until with it. So let's go over to the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 16 verse 14 says this, Surely the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no longer be said, as the Lord lives who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt, but it will be said, as surely as the Lord lives who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north, so speaking of the exile in Babylon and Syria because you come north around the Euphrates, it will be said, as surely as the Lord lives who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north, and out of all the countries where he had banished them, for I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors. This did not happen in the days of the Babylonian captivity and the return in the 530s BC.

It has not happened in any point in history and yet it is explicit. Jesus said it would happen that we would be scattered among all the nations and here explicitly God says, I will bring you back, I banished you to the nations and I will bring you back. There are many verses that say that quite explicitly.

The question is, what are we going to do with those verses? And remember I have emphasized this time and again, under divine decree, when God closes the door no one can open it. When he opens the door no one can close it. When he blesses no one can curse. When he curses no one can bless. When he smites no one can heal. When he heals no one can smite. When he scatters no one can regather. When he regathers no one can scatter.

So I just want to put this out once again. God said he would scatter us around the world. God said he would bring us back. Well it has happened so who did it? A special appeal to my Calvinist friends.

Are you telling me that God who is sovereign regathered the Jewish people from around the world against all odds and in harmony with scripture yet it has nothing to do with scripture? Really? In a world filled with many health challenges your immune system is your shield, your protector to fight off viruses, infections and foreign invaders. This is Michael Ellison founder of TriVita Wellness. Fortifying your immune system defense is crucial especially this time of year to help keep you healthy and vibrant through the winter months. I would like to introduce to you TriVita's elderberry supplement with zinc and vitamin C. It's a power packed weapon to support your immune defense and elderberry has been used for centuries to support overall wellness. Now we've harnessed its incredible antioxidant health benefits along with zinc and vitamin C. Zinc is known as the immune gatekeeper with its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties to help regulate immune function.

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subscribe regularly to our broadcast just go ahead and click on our channel okay to review as I speak of the prophetic and eschatological significance of the modern state of israel the prophetic and end time significance of the modern state of israel number one the scattering of the jewish people around the world and then maintaining an identity as a people and this is being secular religious somehow maintaining identities of people with somebody trying to wipe us out still maintaining an identity even when it was costly to do so and then regathered back to the land this has never happened ever in world history that should get our attention number two it's explicitly prophesied in the bible that we'd be scattered to all nations and then regathered by god number three if god scattered in judgment only god can regather otherwise what's the use of judgment he scattered us like we don't care we're coming back he smites just like i don't care i'll just get healed no no when he smites there is no healing that's why the curses in deuteronomy 28 there it's mentioned a couple of times you'll have illnesses sicknesses diseases that cannot be cured why because god's moat and god's the healer if he smites no one can heal in the same way when he says i'm going to keep you and no one will scatter you when he does that nobody can scatter so when he scatters us the only way we can regather is when he brings us back and again just from my reform friends and for all those who believe in the sovereignty of god so you would say hey if the jewish people are back in the land that's because god ordained it but he also ordained the war with ukraine and russia he ordained all kinds of other things what does that prove he ordains history as it unfolds that may be your view as a reformed christian or a christian who believes in in a certain expression of the sovereignty of god but are you telling me that that god who is sovereign we gather the jewish people from around the world back in land against all odds and in explicit harmony with scripture it has nothing to do with scripture it has nothing to do with god's plan revealed in scripture that would seem very odd number four the scriptures speak of an end time war against jerusalem and the jewish people the scriptures speak of an end time war against jerusalem and the jewish people do i believe that this current war is the end time war i i don't believe so do i believe it's going to blow up into a major world war i certainly hope not but it's possible but even so i still don't feel and believe that it's the final way it could be but that's not my own sense of my own understanding of scripture but the bible does say that these things will happen and that they'll happen in terms of the end of the age the final climactic things zechariah 12 a prophecy the word of the lord concerning israel the lord who stretches out the heavens who lays the foundation of the earth and reforms the human spirit within a person declares i'm going to make jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling druder will be besieged as well as jerusalem on that day when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her i will make jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations all to try to move it will injure themselves that that has never happened friends all the nations have not come up against jerusalem yet that's number one and number two god says that he will fight for his people and defend them that hasn't happened when israel was besieged northern israel by the israelians southern israel juda by the by the babylonians when israel was overcome by the greeks when israel was overcome by the romans there there were times of some victory limited pushback here and there but no no there has not been all the nations coming against jerusalem number one and number two they've never had the supernatural defense and number three verse 10 i'll pour out on the house of david and the inhabitants of jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication the look on me the one they have pierced and mourned for him is when mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son that has not happened yet he said well john 19 it says that when he was pierced it was fulfilled yes in other words he had to be pierced so that this could come that this passage could be fulfilled but there has not been a universal outpouring the house of david the inhabitants of jerusalem of repentance towards the messiah and then chapter 13 the first verse says says this it says on that day a fountain will be open to the house of david and the inhabitants of jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and purity and all the idols will be removed this has not happened yet this is still a future event so the fact that there's going to be an end time war against jerusalem with all nations coming up against it tells you that there needs to be a jewish jerusalem that the jewish people need to be back in the and they're not believers yet according to this passage they are not yet believers that's why the grieving the repentance and the recognition of the one looking to the one they've pierced bringing the cleansing this this is all written in the bible and and i want to be really candid there we all have theological systems that we've come to whether we can put them in categories or names or not but this happens over a period of many years we we come to certain views we have certain convictions right so over over time you come across some verses or passages that seem to go against your viewpoint well like i could make a good argument for calvinist i'm not a calvinist but i can make a good argument for calvinism go through romans nine in particular in other passages and ephesians one and other passages in acts 13 48 you know various verses or romans 8 28 to 32 or 28 to 37 and 39 i i go through those and i could make good arguments as a calvinist i'm not a calvinist but i see where it's coming from and here and there will be a verse like hmm i don't have an answer for that so what do i do do i try to twist it to fit my system no i said i don't have an answer for that and i'll come back to it and try to understand because if i see a hundred versus saying a and two versus saying b can i put them all together no that's not working should i reinterpret the hundred clear ones based on the two no so i'll go with the hundreds that are clear and take the two that are not totally clear and and step back and think about but i won't try to twist them to make them fit friends zechariah 12 and zechariah 14 are just crystal clear they're explicit they're definite they have not happened yet if they don't fit your system rather than twisting them which i've seen done in unbelievable ways i remember being on a call with someone and says yeah zechariah 4 12 and 14 were fulfilled in the book of esther it's like what are you talking about buddy are you serious someone show us on like what what on earth are you talking about in any case in any case the point is this just just look at what the word says plainly look at it simply look at it plainly and and ask yourself am i trying to make that fit my theology or am i willing to fit my theology into what the word says okay number five jesus is coming back to jerusalem and will be welcomed back by his people there he is coming back to jerusalem that is a literal promise and and it says in acts one the same way he went up he's coming down he went up literally from the mount of olives he's coming back literally to the mount of olives and zechariah 14 says it explicitly his feet will touch on the mount of olives it is an explicit promise that will happen so jewish people being back in jerusalem growing controversy around the world continues to stir around jerusalem more and more hostility of nations towards israel we're moving towards a fulfillment of something it may not come to fullness for 50 years or 100 years and maybe 20 years but we are moving towards that and it is a sign that god is at work okay one more point before the break all this is happening so number six all this is happening at the same time that we see the fullness of the gentiles coming in romans 11 25 promises it before the final salvation of israel and leading up to the final salvation of israel the fullness of the gentiles will come in and we saw jerusalem in luke 2124 it being trampled underfoot by the gentiles until the times of the gentiles was fulfilled we're coming to the end of that time the fullness of the gentiles hundreds of millions of gentiles around the world coming to faith it's all laid out in scripture hey friends dr michael brown here do you remember when people thought i was crazy when i said that it's not too late for america that god can still do something in our country that there is going to be a pushback a gospel-based moral and cultural revolution and you remember when people thought that you were crazy because you felt the same way because you believe what i was saying and already felt it in your heart well friends that pushback is here the gospel-based moral and cultural revolution we've been talking about for 25 years is unfolding and we are right in the thick of it and the line of fire broadcast is divinely positioned for such a time as this friends you would be so gratified and blessed as as as i hear if you could hear what i hear testimony after testimony as leaders young people old people moms dads students people from all backgrounds come up to me and say dr brown you're providing a template for us you're providing a blueprint for us you're showing us how to do this how to have hearts of compassion backbones of steel but friends it's a joint effort we do this together and with your support we can amplify this broadcast around the nation and amplify this voice to shake the nation join our support team today become a torchbearer with a dollar or more per day here's the number to call to sign up 800-538-5275 that's 800-538-5275 or go to askdrbrown.org askdrbrown.org and become a monthly supporter click on donate monthly support i want to immediately give you two classic books compassionate father or consuming fire who is the god of the old testament and revolution which will really show you what it means to be a jesus follower today plus you get free access to our online classes and so much more sign up today askdrbrown.org it's the line of fire with your host dr michael brown get on the line of fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH here again is dr michael brown i just i just looked at our youtube channel and hey most of you didn't click the thumbs up so if you're watching give it a click right now it's easy to click thumbs up and then click share it's really important to get this broadcast out to the maximum number of people because of the scriptural content and to quote derek prince great bible teacher from the last generation israel is like the top button on the shirt and if you button that wrong you get everything else wrong so you don't when you don't understand what god has said about israel and israel in prophecy remember i'm not a dispensationalist i'm not a date setter i'm sober in my approach to all this but i'm saying when god is doing something in front of the entire world and when we see the irrational spirit of jew hatred rising all around the world when we when we see that as blatantly as we do that then absolutely for sure we have to say okay okay something is going on here and we we need to spiritually take hold of what is going on and we need to understand it so let me go on with a few more points and then i want to get to the Puritans and Charles Spurgeon so number seven we are instructed to pray until Jerusalem becomes the praise of all the earth isaiah 62 if you say well that no longer applies to Jerusalem let's replace my theology then when god's speaking about a literal city with literal promises and literal people and you say well that applies now to the heavenly church of the heavenly Jerusalem that's now replacement theology you have replaced a literal earthly promise and now spiritualized it away that's the essence of replacement theology you might say i don't hold to replacement theology whatever words you used to describe it expansion theology fulfillment theology covenant theology transferral theology the end result is the same the end result is the same why why is it so important to pray until Jerusalem becomes the praise of all the earth and that of course will only happen when the jewish people welcome back their messiah and he establishes his kingdom there so it's not about the jewish people it's about jesus but why is this so important because this is the city to which the messiah will return then this is the city of the people jim god gave promises despite our sin despite our evil despite our rebellion despite our wickedness despite us being like other nations with our own sin and our own needs god has given us promises because of his goodness all right number eight jesus himself spoke of the apostles ruling over the 12 tribes of israel in the regeneration of all things so this is in matthew chapter 19 it's an interesting passage and we often don't hear it it preached but it's a and and even the phrase there that's referenced the regeneration is extremely interesting but look at what he says he says i tell you matthew 20 1928 excuse me matthew 1928 truly i tell you at the renewal of all things when the son of man sits on his glorious throne you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of israel and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father mother wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life well who are the 12 tribes of israel there it's the 12 tribes of israel who do you think they thought he meant so at the renewal of all things when the son of man sits on his glorious throne you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of israel and and along with that is is this promise in acts the third chapter so this is peter preaching here right and and he's calling his jewish people to repent and turn to god for rejecting the messiah for crucifying the messiah and he says repent turn to god that your sins may be wiped out acts 3 beginning verse 19 that times of refreshing may come from the lord and that he may send the messiah who has been appointed for you even jesus heaven must receive him until the time comes for god to restore everything as he promised long ago through his holy prophets so go read what the prophet said go read about their vision of the jewish people restored back to the land and now in right relationship with god and the nations of the earth and the kingdom to come streaming into jerusalem excuse me to learn from the god of israel all that was promised in the wolf lying down with the lamb and no war on the earth and the whole earth filled with the knowledge of the glory of the lord as the waters cover the seas this happens when the messiah returns that's when it happens it has not happened yet so go back and read the prophets and peter peter not some dispensationalist not some end time date setting preacher but peter says that that that god will restore everything as he promised long ago through the prophets and the greek word used there for restore the noun the verb of it is often used in the hebrew bible in the septuagen translation to refer to the regathering of the jewish people back to the land that is part of the promised restoration okay what did the puritans have to say about god's promises to the jewish people in the 1600s and what did charles spurgeon and godly so a baptist preacher and godly presbyterians what did they have to say about the promises to the jewish people in the 1800s and what did an anglican leader like jc ryle have to say about the promises to the jewish people in the 1800s these were not dispensationalist these were not end time date setters these were jesus exalting christians in fact the majority of them were calvinists reformed in their theology what did they have to say now this is not all of them but i want you to hear what many of them had to say because whether they spoke of a physical return of the jewish people back to the land they recognized that the jews remained a chosen people they recognized that even in sin and in unbelief and in need of jesus for salvation they still understood that the chosenness was there as paul explicitly says in romans 11 28 and 29 and the reality is that god doesn't take back his word so listen to what john owen said 1616 to 1683 considered the greatest of the period and theologians he said this the jews shall be gathered from all parts of the earth where they are scattered and brought home into their homeland now whether he saw it unfolding the way it has in modern times where the jewish people come back to the land in the unbelief or whether he saw it as happening in conjunction with them all turning to the messiah either way he believed in a literal restoration of the jewish people back to the land god would do it and it's from all the parts of the earth where they're scattered and then this is what he said about the importance of the jewish people in god's plan there is not any promise anywhere of raising up a kingdom unto the lord jesus christ in this world but it is either expressed or clearly intimated that the beginning of it must be with the jews he wasn't just talking about the past he's talking about the future there is not any promise anywhere of raising up a kingdom unto the lord jesus christ in this world but it is either expressed or clearly intimated that the beginning of it must be with the Jews. Robert Layton, contemporary of Owen, said this. By the way, all these quotes are in my book, Our Hands Are Staying with Blood.

Make sure you get the update at Revised Edition 2019. Our Hands Are Staying with Blood. Robert Layton said this. They forget a main point for the Church's glory, who pray not daily, daily, for the conversion, meaning the salvation, the turning of the Jews. Undoubtedly, that people of the Jews shall once more be commanded to arise and shine, and their return shall be the riches of the Gentiles. And that shall be a more glorious time than ever the Church of God did yet behold. Robert Layton, a Puritan, wrote this.

Don't write it off as dispensationalist or some end-time date setter. A Puritan said these very words. Samuel Rutherford, who spurged and said his letters are the most spiritual thing you find outside the Bible, Rutherford also a Puritan, said this, I could stay out of heaven many years to see that victorious, triumphing Lord act that prophesied part of his soul-conquering love, and taking into his kingdom the greater sister, the kir, the church of the Jews. Oh, what joy and what glory would I judge it if my heaven should be suspended, till I might leave to run on foot to be a witness of that marriage glory, and see Christ put on the glory of his last married bride and his last marriage love on earth, and when he shall enlarge his love bed and set it upon the top of the mountains, and take in the elder sister, the Jews, and the fullness of the Gentiles.

So he's looking forward to this happening. Put aside the physical land and the physical state of Israel. He recognized that there was a chosenness that remained on the Jewish people and he spoke of it very plainly, very very passionately. Okay, let's move over to Robert Murray McShane, one of the godliest men of his generation known as Holy McShane. 1839, he returns from a Jewish mission to Palestine and he preaches a sermon from Romans 1 16 called Our Duty to Israel. Robert Murray McShane read his memoirs and remains of Robert Murray McShane edited by Andrew Bonar, a classic. He said this, that the gospel should be preached first to the Jews, meaning by us today.

Why? Number one, because judgment will begin with them. Number two, it is like God to care first for the Jews. Number three, because there is peculiar access to preach the gospel to the Jews throughout the world, meaning they're all around the world.

Number four, because they will give life to the dead world. The Puritans, these Presbyterians were convinced as far as Israel was concerned, quote, blessed is he that blesseth thee. So in 1839 when revival broke out in the Scottish city of Kilseth through the preaching of William C. Burns, McShane and his contemporaries felt they knew why. There had been much prayer, fasting and sacrifice. There had been a powerful proclamation of the cross, but there was something else.

1839 was the year of the Jewish mission to Palestine and that's why it happened. McShane was sure that this would be the pattern, reach out to the Jewish people and the spirit will be poured out. Andrew Bonar, speaking in 1889, said this, Scottish Presbyterian, Israel is the everlasting nation who are to be life from the dead to all nations and the sure word of prophecy declares he that scattereth Israel shall gather them. I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever. Yea, I will rejoice over them and will plant them in their own land and surely with all my heart, with all my soul. They expected the Jewish people to come back to the land and they were not dispensationalists. Crowned with their fairest hope, the church shall triumph with her Lord and earth her jubilee shall keep when Israel is restored.

I could go on and on and on, but now we move to Charles Spurgeon. He's almost 30 years old. He preaches his message, the restoration and conversion of the Jews. And he's preaching from Ezekiel 37, 1-10, the vision of the dry bones. And he acknowledged the passage could be interpreted to, quote, describe the revival of a decayed church. But that was not the prophet's primary intent.

No, Spurgeon tells us. He was talking of his own people, of his own race and of his own tribe. He surely ought to have known his own mind and led by the Holy Spirit he gives us an explanation of the vision. Not, thus saith the Lord, my dying church shall be restored, but I will bring my people out of their graves and bring them into the land of Israel. So Spurgeon in 1864 is saying it's going to happen. He says this, the meaning of our text, as opened by the context, is most evidently, if words mean anything, first, that there shall be a political restoration of the Jews to their own land and to their own nationality. And then secondly, there is in the text and in the context the most plain declaration that there shall be a spiritual restoration, a conversion in fact, of the tribes of Israel. First, the physical and the natural.

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1-800-771-5584 or online at trivita.com. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH.

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the Line of Fire. So much content to cover. I apologize if I'm not able to get to calls. I still may be able to, but so much more to still cover here.

Okay. As we go on, I started with Scripture, and I could quote much more Scripture to indicate that modern Israel, the modern state of Israel, is ongoing fulfillment of prophecy and of end-time significance. But what I've done also is said for those who just want to cast this off, well, it's just a dispensationalist view or some modern view.

No, it's actually not. I can go back further in history, but Puritans, Spurgeon, are going to read other quotes, Scottish Presbyterians. I thought that's enough just to remind you of this. And I want to read what Spurgeon said again. The meaning of our text as opened up by the context is most evident with Charles Spurgeon in 1864, speaking of Ezekiel 37. If words mean anything, first, that there shall be a political restoration of the Jews to their own land and to their own nationality. So first, the physical, political, earthly restoration. And then secondly, there is in the text and in the context a most plain declaration that there should be a spiritual restoration, a conversion, in fact, of the tribes of Israel.

And he goes on with incredible eloquence. Israel is now blotted out from the map of nations. Her sons are scattered far and wide. Her daughters mourn beside all the rivers of the earth. Her sacred song is hushed.

No king reigns in Jerusalem. She bringeth forth no governors among her tribes. But she is to be restored. She is to be restored as from the dead. What her own sons have given up all hope for her. Then is God to appear for her. She is to be reorganized.

Her scattered bones are to be brought together. There will be a native government again. There will again be the form of a body politic.

A state shall be incorporated and a king shall reign. Israel has now become alienated from her own land. Her sons, though they can never forget the sacred dust of Palestine, yet die at a hopeless distance from her consecrated shores.

But it shall not be so forever. For her sons shall again rejoice and her land shall be called Beulah. For as a young man marrieth the virgin, so shall her sons marry her.

I will place her in your own land. As God promised to them, they shall again walk upon her mount and shall once more sit under her vines and rejoice under her fig trees. And they are also to be reunited.

There shall not be two nor ten nor twelve but one Israel praising one God serving one king and that one king the son of David, the descendant Messiah. So first the natural restoration and then the spiritual. And you go to Israel and you realize how desolate the land was and how undeveloped the land was and on and on.

You see it today with all its sin, with all its problems, with all its issues. You go there and you think, who restored this? Who rebuilt this?

Who did it? Well God, as he said he would in the Bible. And Spurgeon said this, if there be anything clear and plain, the literal sense and meaning of this passage or meaning not to be spirited or spiritualized away must be evident that both the two and the ten tribes of Israel are to be restored to their old land and that a king is to rule over them. And he said this, I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough about it but certainly if there is anything promised in the Bible it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual restoration of the children of Israel. Even if you say, well I believe there will be a spiritual conversion at the end. But that still means then that there are special promises that remain to Israel and that they remain chosen in a certain way. It still remains.

J.C. Ryle, older contemporary of Charles Spurgeon, this is what he said. Suppose, you are having a conversation, right? There is a Christian talking to a Jewish person. The Jewish person doesn't believe in Jesus. And the Christian says, hey look, Jesus literally fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies. He was born of a virgin. He was born in Bethlehem. He died a criminal's death. He rose from the dead. As it was written, it literally happened.

So now he imagines this conversation. But suppose the Jew asks you if you take all the prophecies of their Old Testament, their simple literal meaning. In other words, literal promises about the first coming were fulfilled. Do you believe the literal promises about the rest will be fulfilled? Suppose he asks you if you believe in a literal personal advent of Messiah to reign over the earth in glory, a literal restoration of Judah and Israel of Palestine, a literal rebuilding and restoration of Zion and Jerusalem. Suppose the unconverted Jew puts these questions to you.

What answer are you prepared to make? Will you dare to tell them that Old Testament prophecies of this kind are not to be taken in their plain literal sense? Will you dare to tell them that the word Zion, Jerusalem, Jacob, Judah, Ephraim, Israel do not mean what they seem to mean but mean the church of Christ?

I'm just going to interrupt and say this. There are many promises to Jacob in the New Testament, excuse me, many promises to Jacob in the Old Testament, reaffirmed in the New, but many in the Old Testament. Do you believe the church is the new Jacob? Do you believe the church is spiritual Jacob? Now you never hear that taught. Well, what about all the promises to Jacob?

Who's that talking about? Israel, the Jewish people. Will you dare to tell them that the glorious kingdom, Ryle writes, and future blessedness of Zion so often dwelt upon in prophecy mean nothing more than the gradual Christianizing of the world by missionaries and gospel preaching? Will you dare to tell them you think it carnal to expect a literal rebuilding of Jerusalem, carnal to expect a literal coming of Messiah to reign? Oh reader, if you are a man of this mind, take care what you are doing.

I say again, take care. So Ryle lived 1816 to 1900 and he said this, time would fail me if I attempted to quote all the passages of scripture in which the future history of Israel is revealed. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Zephaniah, Zechariah, all declare the same thing. All predict with more or less particularity that in the end of this dispensation the Jews that are to be restored to their own land and to their favor of God. I lay no claim to infallibility and interpretation of scripture in this manner. I am well aware that many excellent Christians cannot see this subject as I do. I can only say that to my eyes the future salvation of Israel as a people, their return to Palestine and their national conversion to God appears clearly and plainly revealed as any prophecy in God's Word. And when he dug deeper and when he analyzed it he says best as he can tell they will first come back to the land in unbelief and then from there, from there, they would turn to Jesus the Messiah.

Friends don't argue with me on this. Look at the scriptures, dig into them. If I am challenging someone what you believe, rethink it. Maybe you threw this out because of the church circles you were in and a lot of flaky end time teaching. Well, maybe it is time to re-examine and go back and look again, lest what is happening in front of our eyes as predicted in the Bible is passing us by. Remember when God gave the children of Israel the Promised Land the first time around, there was war. There was war. The fact there is war now is no surprise. But the day will come when there is no war and that is when Israel welcomes back her Messiah as the fullness of the Gentiles have come in, massive harvest all around the world.

I want to read you this email from part of our spiritual family, one of our co-workers in the land and he says, it is a very dear and horrible time, married with a bunch of kids. The loss is immense as you know. We have all been touched by the events of October 7th. We know personally several who were killed.

Our neighbor directly across from us was one of many we know. Just today a dear young soldier from a family of believers who is good friends with our oldest daughter was in Gaza and just lost both legs and might lose his eyes as well. The horrors are staggering. I will say though it has given huge opportunity for the Gospel as now practical ministry and helping others makes a powerful impact and has given the Messianic body a platform to show and share who we really are. I have been volunteering in the IDF and supplying different bases with supplies. Just yesterday my daughter and I delivered hundreds of items to soldiers and when we went to the footlocker to buy a ton of shoes they needed the young workers all wanted photos with us and asked about our organization and what are Messianic Jews. My daughter shared to the entire staff and they were cheering.

It was wild. Just a couple of months ago these same people would have probably mocked us and made us leave the store with all this yeshoo talk. But now they are open and listening and this goes for the soldiers, the majors, the colonels, generals also. And the same is going for work with civilians. In a kind of wild happenstance we started working with the mayor of a particular city and we are helping him open a school for the hundreds of dispatched kids in this area. As we are dealing with a term we have never heard before Israeli refugees. We are seeing such a despair but a solidarity together in this crisis.

People are more humbled and broken and the stories from the survivors are unreal. I was at one army base that I had supplied some special media equipment. I asked them what in the world they would use it for and they gave me clearance and took me into their base and I saw dozens and dozens, maybe hundreds of bags in the cleared area under a tent and they were shifting through it. We are documenting in these sacks the remains of people from such and such a town.

I didn't mention the name for the email. A cold chilled you through my bones and they showed me that. When they showed me that it has just been overwhelming pain and suffering and atrocities of biblical proportions.

My daughter, another name is going in the army. At the end of this month my other kids are dealing with some trauma and issues from things they have seen. We try to keep them from it but it is everywhere and the stories are being told everywhere. Schools are irregular. The schedules of everyone have changed. We go to the bomb shelters at a moments notice. We don't know if we should travel away from home sometimes and half of our team is called up to fight.

They have to have spouses fighting. So ministry has changed as we pivoted to war relief. But in the end we feel we have been preparing this our whole lives. All the prayers seeking God, abiding in him in the word and worship, revival.

It's all for now and I believe we are going to see his harvest come out of this horrible one. That's from one of my spiritual sons. Married to one of my spiritual daughters. Folks we are real close to. Friends stand with us today. We are on the front lines and we are part of sacred work taking place around the world.

Every day of my life we are pouring into others. We are training, teaching, equipping others to have more and more folks just like them in Israel and around the world. This is a sacred time for your partnership because the hour is urgent and we must spread this message and we must help get the gospel to our Jewish people. So right now stand with us. Help us reach more Jewish people in the land. Help us stand with our spiritual family around the world. Go to AskDrBrown.org.

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