WILL THE MID-EAST EVER FIND PEACE?
ISRAEL
STATEMENT OF BELIEFS
In history, God chose to promise Abraham, Isaac & Jacob and their descendants the eternal inheritance of the physical land of Israel, many descendants who would ultimately lead to the Messiah, Jesus, and the promise that all the world would be blessed through Him. God promised to David, one of their Descendants, that the throne of Israel would forever belong to his lineage. Jesus Christ will return to earth to Israel to sit on that throne. God gave a covenant to Moses to deliver to the nation of Israel to govern their behavior and their fellowship with Him. Obedience promised many blessings. Disobedience promised many curses. One of the curses was that of occupation of the land of Israel or exile from it.
Because they followed other gods, Israel was taken over by many other occupying nations including Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. As promised, Jesus indeed came for the salvation of mankind, and presented Himself as the King of Israel, during the Roman occupation. This was a partial fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. A few in the Jewish nation accepted Jesus as their Messiah when He came, but most, and their leadership, did not. Instead they had the Romans crucify Him. This rejection of Jesus as the Jewish King resulted in their removal from their land as was promised by God when the Romans sacked Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and the Jews were scattered.
For nearly 2,000 years, the Jewish people were scattered among nations all over the world. But God promised that He would bring them back physically to their land - a promise He fulfilled in 1948. He also foretold that they will return to Him spiritually and will accept Jesus as their Messiah and King. This will happen at the end of the 7 Years, when they realize they have been deceived by the Antichrist, believe the witness of those God sends to them, and will accept Jesus at His return to set up His Kingdom in Israel.
REFERENCES
Genesis 12, 15, 17, 22; Exodus 19-20; Leviticus; Deuteronomy; Deuteronomy 32:8; 2 Samuel 7:1-29; 2 Chronicles 13:5; Psalm 105:8-11; Ezekiel 36:26-27; Daniel 9:24-27, 12:1; Isaiah 54:10, 55:3, 59:21; Jeremiah 30:1-24, 31:31-34; Joel 2-3; Malachi 3:6; Matthew 24:1-51; Luke 22:20; Acts 1:1-11; Romans 3-5, 9-11; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3; Hebrews 8:6-3, 9:11-15, 12:24; Revelation 11:2, 12:1-17, 13:5, 19-20