ISRAEL THE KEY TO PROPHECY

THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES BEING FULFILLED

by Paul McGuire

 

 

“And when he was come hear, he beheld the city, and wept over it…

 

O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

 

Behold, your house is left desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord…

 

And they…shall be trodden away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

 

Luke 19:41;13:34-35;21:23

 

In the above passage of scripture Jesus Christ predicted the Jerusalem would be “trodden down of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” For 1,935 years since the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Jerusalem has been under control by Gentile powers. The fact, that the Temple Mount is not under the control of the Jews is an indication that “the times of the Gentiles” have not been fulfilled.

 

The “the times of the Gentiles” will not end until all the Gentile nations are defeated at Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ occurs when Jesus Christ will rule and reign from Jerusalem.

 

Jesus Christ’s words that Jerusalem would be “trodden down of the Gentiles” is confirmed in history. First the Babylonians captured Jerusalem, then the Medes and Persians. Alexander the Great conquered Jerusalem for the Greek empire in 333 B.C. After that the Egyptians and the Syrians went back and forth controlling it until the Romans under Pompey conquered Jerusalem in 64 B.C. and maintained control until the Fourth Century A.D. In A.D. 70 the Romans destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem. In A.D. 130 the Romans rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city and built a pagan temple to the god of Jupiter where the temple formerly existed. This caused the Jews to revolt and about 500,000 Jews were slaughtered or sold as slave. In retaliation the Romans renamed Israel “Syria Palaestina.” The Jews who lived in Jerusalem began to be called Palestinians.

 

It is important to note that there was never a Palestinian people or nation. The land was formerly called Canaan and inhabited by the Canaanites. Canaan was the Promised Land that God gave to Abraham and his descendants. The people who claim to be Palestinians today are simply Arabs who came from the surrounding Arab countries when they saw the Jews return to the land and create prosperous farms. The actual name Palestine is taken from the Philistines who had invaded Canaan from Crete and Asia Minor.

 

Israel’s right to the land of Israel goes back over 4,000 years to Abrahams’s purchase of the cave in of Machpelah in Hebron. In that cave Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah are buried. It is in the city of Hebron that David was crowned King of Israel.

 

For over 3,000 years Jerusalem was the capital of Israel. At the very center of Jerusalem is what is called the Temple Mount which is on Mount Moriah. It was on Mout Moriah that Abraham built an altar to sacrifice his son Isaac.

 

King David purchased the Temple Mount area to build an altar to God. It was here that Solomon built the first temple. Now the Islamic Dome of the Rock occupies the area were Solomon’s and Herod’s Temple existed. It is interesting to note that Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran. 

 

In the Seventh Century Islamic armies occupied the city until they were driven out by the Crusaders of the Holy Roman Empire from Europe. They occupied Jerusalem until Saladin who was the Sultan of Egypt took the city in 1187 A.D.

 

The Mamelukes of Egypt controlled Jerusalem and then the Ottoman Empire controlled by the Turks occupied Jerusalem for over 400 years. Since the Turks made an alliance with Germany in World War I. When Britain and the allies won the war, Britain was given a mandate in 1917 to manage the area.

 

On January 22, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson put together a peace proposal that the United States would support allowing for the establishment of an international organization of the major countries of the world to prevent war. This organization was called the League of Nations. James Balfour, British Foreign Secretary announced Britain’s approval of some kind of Jewish homeland in Palestine. This was called the Balfour Declaration and it was announced in 1917. In 1920, the Supreme Council of Allied and Associated Powers assigned Britain with the responsibility of overseeing Palestine. Sir Herbert Samuel, a British Jews, was made governor of Palestine. In 1922 there were approximately 650,000 Arabs and 85,000 Jews living there. Then in 1933 the number of Jews increased to 250,000. Jealousy broke out over the fact that the educated Jews were creating industry and commerce in Palestine. The Arabs began to riot and in May of 1939, Britain issued its famous White Paper which restricted Jewish immigration to a total of 75,000 over the next five years and after that no more Jews would be allowed into Palestine. This was viewed as a violation of the original intent of the Balfour Declaration.

 

World War II erupted and Adolph Hitler murdered 6 million Jews in what was called the Holocaust. After World War II was over Jews were desperate to flee the horrible conditions in Europe. Many Jews attempted to immigrate into Palestine. However, the British government blockaded the coast of Israel and confined Jews in concentration camps in Cyprus. By 1947 through illegal immigration into Palestine the Holocaust survivors raised the Jewish population to around 600,000. Britain went to the United Nations and asked for help with the situation. On May 15, 1948 Britain evacuated its troops from Palestine. The United Nations held intensive meetings on the issue of the Jews and Palestine. On November 29, 1947 they approved a plan to divide Palestine west of the Jordan River. 18 percent of the land was to be given for a Jewish homeland and 82 percent was to be given to the Palestinian Arabs. Jerusalem was to remain under international control. The Palestinians and Arab nations were violently opposed to the Jews receiving any land. Since Britain had removed its troops there was nobody there to maintain any kind of peace. The armies of Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia invaded Palestine. Miraculously on March 9, 1948 the Jewish underground defense force, Haganah mobilized Jews between the ages of 17 and 45 years old. On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv, David Ben-Gurion became the first Prime Minister of the newly created nation of Israel. Finally, Israel won its 1948 War of Independence.

 

This war drove out 800,000 Palestinian Arabs from Palestine. Had the Arab nations simply accepted Israel’s right to exist they could have been living in a Palestinian State inside the borders of Israel.

 

 

PROPHECIES OF DANIEL & SEVENTY WEEKS OF DANIEL 

 

The prophet Daniel in Daniel 2 and 7 Daniel give us an outline of the Gentile kingdoms that would rule over Israel and much of the world until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. In Daniel 7:1-3 these kingdoms predicted:

 

Babylon (612-539 B.C.) which were depicted by a head of gold and a lion that wings like an eagle.

 

Medo-Persia (538-331 B.C.) that were represented by a silver upper body and a bear.

 

Greece (330-63 B.C.) represented by a belly and thighs made of bronze and a leopard with four wings and four heads.

 

 Rome (63B.C.-A.D. 476; Tribulation) –This kingdom is represented by legs of iron and a coming beast (Revived Roman Empire) with feet toes that are mixed of iron and clay. Also, ten horns or ten kings.

 

69 X 7 X 330 = 173,880 DAYS

 

444 B.C. to A.D.33 = 476 years

 

476 years 365.2421989 days = 173,855 days + days between March 5 and March 30 = 173,880 days.

 

Daniel 9:27 “He (the Antichrist) will make firm a covenant with many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering: and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

 

At the beginning of the second half of Daniels final seventh week of years, the Antichrist will break his covenant with Israel. This broken covenant will last for three-and-a-half years, or “time, times and a half time.” Daniel 7:25; 12:7; Revelation 12:14. The 69 weeks (or 69 sevens) have already been fulfilled. The seventh seven or seven weeks of years is yet to be fulfilled.

 

7 weeks (49 years) started in 444 B.C. with Artaxerxes decree for the Jews to rebuild the temple and Jerusalem.

 

62 weeks (434 years) Temple rebuilt in 19 B.

 

A.D. 33. Messiah will be cut off. Daniel 9:26

 

70 A.D. “People of the Prince who is to come (Romans) destroy Jerusalem and the Temple. Daniel 9:26

 

Daniels final 70th week begins with the Rapture and lasts a literal 7 years. A seven year tribulation period?

 

1 week = 7 years. Two 1,260 day periods plus 75 days. Complete destruction poured out upon Antichrist.

 

Third Temple Rebuilt Tribulation Temple in the first 1,260 days of the seven year Tribulation period.

 

Fourth Temple the Millennium Temple during David’s everlasting kingdom.

 

 

360 Day Years

 

 ½ week – Daniel 9:27

 

Time, times, and half time – Daniel 7:25;12:7 Revelation 12:14

 

1,260 days – Revelation 11:3;12:6

 

42 months – Revelation 11:2;13:5

 

42 months = 1,260 days –time, times, half a time = ½ week

 

Month = 30 days;year = 360 days.

 

 

WHEN ALL ISRAEL SHALL BE SAVED

 

In Romans 11:26 it says “and so all Israel shall be saved.” What did the Apostle Paul mean by that term? The day is coming when all the Gentile armies of the world will come against Jerusalem to destroy her. In Jeremiah 30:7 it says, “Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it.” This prophetic promise is often linked to Ezekiel 37:1-14 which tells the story of the valley of dead bones coming to life. Some have suggested that this passage states that every Jew that ever lived, no matter how evil will be resurrected as a saint to go to heaven, But, that is not what the passage means. The Bible teaches that not everyone who claims to be a Jew is a true Jews. “For they are not all Israel which are of Israel.” 

 

Romans 9:6 Just because a person is born a Jew does not mean that that the promises given to Israel are given to them. People confuse the difference between physical and spiritual Jews.