Bible Prophecy Fulfilled: The Jewish Restoration

Bible Prophecy Fulfilled:

The JewishRestoration

Jesus Predicts The Destruction Of The Jewish Temple

Matthew 24:1-2

‘Now as Jesus was going out of the temple courts and walking away, his disciples came to show him the temple buildings.

And he said to them, “Do you see all these things? I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another. All will be torn down!”’

Ruins Of The Temple

These stones, which used to be part of the Temple buildings, were thrown down from the top of the wall to the right.

The are a silent witness to the truth of Christ’s warning.

Jesus Predicts The Conquest And Exile Of The Jews

Luke 21:24

‘They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away as captives among all nations.

Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.’

The Arch Of Titus

The Roman general Titus, who destroyed Jerusalem in fulfilment of Christ’s prophecy, raised a monument to his victory.

On this monument he depicted the Roman armies carrying away Jewish captives and spoil from the Temple.

In subsequent wars the Romans sent the Jews into exile:

132-135 AD: The Bar Kochba revolt in Israel is crushed by Rome

• The Romans rename Jerusalem ‘Aelia Capitolina’

• Jews are forbidden to live there, and the city is surrounded by a wall

• Thousands of Jews are sold into slavery outside Israel

• It is forbidden to teach the Jewish religion or read the Scriptures

• Pagan temples are built in Jerusalem, including on the Temple site

• Jews are forbidden to return on pain of death

Destroyed and scattered, the Jewish people wandered the earth:

Leviticus 26:33

I will scatter you among the nations and unsheathe the sword after you, so your land will become desolate and your cities will become a waste.

‘The passage is terrible in its content. When the citizens of one country are exiled, they are sent to the same distant spot: they are able to comfort each other with their own presence.

Whereas Israel is scattered like chaff, with no one piece coming into contact with the others.’

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki, commentary on Leviticus 26:33, 1040-1105 AD

For centuries they were persecuted, derided, and mocked:

By Christians:

‘The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon.

Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jew must live in servitude forever. God always hated the Jews. It is essential that all Christians hate them.’

John Chrysostom, 407 AD

‘The Jew can never understand the Scriptures and forever will bear the guilt for the death of Jesus.’

Augustine, 354 – 407 AD


By Christians:

‘The Jews' guilt of the crucifixion of Jesus consigned them to perpetual servitude, and, like Cain, they are to be wanderers and fugitives. The Jews will not dare to raise their necks, bowed under the yoke of perpetual slavery, against the reverence of the Christian faith.’

Pope Innocent III, 1237

‘Set Jewish synagogues on fire for the honor of God. God will see we are Christians when we get rid of the Jews. Likewise homes should be destroyed; they should be put in a stable; they are not heirs of promises of God and deserve to die.’

Martin Luther, 1543


By Deists:

‘You will only find in the Jews an ignorant and barbarous people, who for a long time have joined the most sordid avarice to the most detestable superstition and to the most invincible hatred of all peoples which tolerate and enrich them.’

Jean-Marie Francois Voltaire, 1694 – 1728

‘And you, [Jews] angry and brutish people, vile and vulgar men, slaves worthy of the yoke which you bear... Go, take back your books and remove yourselves from me.’

Denis Diderot, 1713 – 1784


By Deists:

‘It is much to be lamented that each state, long ago, has not hunted them down as pest to society and the greatest enemies we have to the happiness of America.’

George Washington, 1732 – 1799

‘I fully agree with General Washington, that we must protect this young nation from an insidious influence and impenetration.

The menace, gentlemen, is the Jews.’

Benjamin Franklin, 1787


By atheists:

‘The Jews could be put down very plausibly as the most unpleasant race ever heard of. As commonly encountered they lack many of the qualities that mark the civilized man: courage, dignity, incorruptibility, ease, confidence.’

HL Mencken, 1732 – 1799

‘The Jews are worse than my own people. Those Jews who still want to be the chosen race (chosen by the late Lord Balfour) can go to Palestine and stew in their own juice. The rest had better stop being Jews and start being human beings.’

George Bernard Shaw, 1932

But even those who scorned them could not explain their survival:

‘...If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky way.

Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of.

[…]

He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.’

Mark Twain, ‘Concerning The Jews’, Harper's Magazine, 1898

Or how they had outlived their worst enemies:

‘The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone. Other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.

The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind.

All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains.

What is the secret of his immortality?’

Mark Twain, ‘Concerning The Jews’, Harper's Magazine, 1898

Many Christians said the Jews would never return:

‘…they have been cast out, dispersed, and utterly rejected for almost fifteen hundred years. By virtue of their own merits they still hope to return there again. But they have no such promise with which they could console themselves other than what their false imagination smuggles into Scripture.

[…]

But during the past fifteen hundred years not even a dog, much less a prophet, has any assurance concerning the land.

Therefore the scepter has now definitely departed from Judah.’

Martin Luther, ‘On The Jews And Their Lies’, 1543

And for centuries this falsehood was repeated:

‘These persons must be informed that the kingdom of Israel was led into captivity and destroyed, that it never returned home and never will return home...’

Martin Luther, ‘On The Jews And Their Lies’, 1543

‘I also saw that old Jerusalem would never be built up, and that Satan was doing the utmost to lead the minds of the children of the Lord into these things now in the gathering time, to keep them from throwing their interests into the work of the Lord and to cause them to neglect the necessary preparation.’

Ellen G White ‘Early Writings’, page 75, 1882

Many Christians remained blind to the Scriptural prophecies:

‘Certain prophecies of Ezekiel are sometimes cited as lending support to the idea of the future re-constitution and earthly dominion of the Jewish nation.

But on the contrary, they contain many clear warnings of judgments to come upon the house of Israel and the city of Jerusalem; and they also contain predictions - not so clear perhaps as threatened judgments, because they are capable, like other O.T. prophecies, of being interpreted according to the desires of the carnal Jewish mind - concerning the recovery that was to be accomplished through the work of the coming Redeemer.’

Philip Mauro, 'The Hope of Israel', chapter XI, 1922

Denying the very words of Scripture, even as they were being fulfilled:

‘What then does the New Testament say as to the reconstitution hereafter of the Jewish nation; as to the re-occupation by that nation of the land of Canaan… not one word.’

‘Therefore, no other conclusion is possible from a careful examination of the Scriptures cited in the article we are discussing, than that the doctrine of a yet future restoration of the Jewish nation has not a scriptural leg to stand upon.’

Philip Mauro, 'The Hope of Israel', chapters XIII, and XIX, 1922

‘The facts and prophecies prove that natural Jews will never again be a chosen regathered people.’

‘Let God Be True’, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, page 208, 1946

But God had not forgotten His people:

Jeremiah 33:25-26

“But I, the Lord, make the following promise:

I have made an agreement governing the coming of day and night. And I have established the fixed laws governing heaven and earth.

Just as surely as I have done this, so surely will I never reject the descendants of Jacob.

Nor will I ever refuse to choose one of my servant David’s descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Indeed, I will restore them and show mercy to them.”

Ezekiel 37:1, 7-8

‘The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.

There was a sound when I prophesied—a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone.

I saw on them sinews and flesh, and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath in them.’

Ezekiel 37:12, 21

‘Therefore prophesy, and tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look, I am opening your graves and will raise you from your graves, my people. I will bring you to the land of Israel.

Then tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look, I am taking the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from round about and bring them to their land.’

Ezekiel 37:21 Luke 21:24

21 Then tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look, I am taking the Israelites from among the nations where they have gone.

I will gather them from round about and bring them to their land.

24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away as captives among all nations.

Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

Revelation 16:12

Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and dried up its water to prepare the way for the kings from the east.

Their return was also prophesied here in Revelation.

It was to be the modern Exodus.

Exodus 9:10 Revelation 16:2

So they took soot from a furnace and stood before Pharaoh, Moses threw it into the air, and it caused festering boils to break out on both people and animals.

So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth. Then ugly and painful sores appeared on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.


Moses and Aaron did so, just as the Lord had commanded. Moses raised the rod and struck the water that was in the Nile right before Pharaoh’s eyes and before the eyes of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood.

Next, the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea and it turned into blood, like that of a corpse, and every living creature that was in the sea died.


Moses and Aaron did so, just as the Lord had commanded. Moses raised the rod and struck the water that was in the Nile right before Pharaoh’s eyes and before the eyes of his servants, and all the water that was in the Nile was turned to blood.

Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water, and they turned into blood.


So Moses extended his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.

Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast so that darkness covered his kingdom, and people began to bite their tongues because of their pain.

Exodus 14:21-22 Revelation 16:12

And Moses stretched out his hand toward the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go apart by a strong east wind all that night, and he made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.

So the Israelites went into the midst of the sea on dry ground…


Isaiah 51:10 Revelation 16:12

Did you not dry up the

sea, the waters of the

great deep?

Did you not make a path

through the depths of the

sea, so those delivered

from bondage could cross

over?


Careful students of Bible prophecy had been predicting this event, understanding the importance of the 6th vial of Revelation:

Date (AD) Name Drying Up of the Euphrates Coming of the Kings of the East

1605 Thomas Brightman Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1621 Sir Henry Finch Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1649 Cartwright Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1649 John Owen Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1654 Thomas Goodwin Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1657 James Durham Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1685 Matthew Poole Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1695 William Torrey Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1754 Thomas Newton Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1758 T Osborne Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1763 Lachlan Taylor Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1798 James Bicheno Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1804 William Burkitt Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1820: Turkish Empire Begins To Wane

Less careful students of prophecy simply couldn’t see it.Those with a ‘Futurist’ perspective ridiculed the interpretation:

‘We take this to refer to the actual river Euphrates. All else in the chapter is literal; and so is this. There is no reason why it should not be so.

Those who assert that this means the wane of the Turkish Empire say so on their own responsibility. There is not a word about it here, and there is nothing to lead us to imagine it; especially when we think of the object for which the river is to be dried up.’

‘The Vial is connected with judgment, and not with mercy; and therefore to interpret these kings of the Ten Tribes, or of "Christian princes," or of any propitious or auspicious event, is out of all harmony with the whole scope of the context.’

E W Bullinger, ‘The Apocalypse’, 1909

Those with a ‘Praeterist’ interpretation were equally blind:

‘What then does the New Testament say as to the reconstitution hereafter of the Jewish nation; as to the re-occupation by that nation of the land of Canaan… not one word.’

‘Therefore, no other conclusion is possible from a careful examination of the Scriptures cited in the article we are discussing, than that the doctrine of a yet future restoration of the Jewish nation has not a scriptural leg to stand upon.’

Philip Mauro, 'The Hope of Israel', chapters XIII, and XIX, 1922

In hindsight, we all know who was proved correct:

You can trust Bible prophecy. It’s not still in the future. It hasn’t all happened in the past.

It’s happening now.

Date (AD) Name Drying Up of the Euphrates Coming of the Kings of the East

1821 Archibald Mason Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1831 Alexander Keith Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1854 J C Philpot Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1848 Brother Thomas Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1862 Edward Elliott Erosion of Turkish Empire Undecided

1870 David Steele Erosion of Turkish Empire Conversion of the Jews

1888 Grattan Guinness Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1897: Zionist Congress Held – Proposal To Re-establish Israel As A Jewish Homeland

1800’s Family NT Notes Erosion of Turkish Empire Undecided

1916: Turkish Power In Palestine Removed By British Forces

c. 1922 R E Streeter Erosion of Turkish Empire Return of the Jews to Israel

1948: The Nation Of Israel Is Declared

Thomas Brightman, 1605

‘Apoc. xvi. The Vials are poured out.

[…]

The sixth upon Euphrates; whereby a way shall be prepared for the Jews of the East…’

‘Apocalypsis Apocalypseos’, page vi

John Owen, 1649

‘The great river Euphrates, the strength and fulness of whose streams doth yet rage so high that there is no passage for the kings of the east to come over.

Wherefore this must be dried up... Rev.xvi.12.

...and then it may well enough denote the Turkish power; which, proud as it is at this day, possessing in peace all those regions of the east, yet God can quickly make it wither and be dried up.’

‘The Shaking and Translating Of Heaven And Earth’, sermon

William Torrey, 1695

‘Considering how these dry bones of Israel lie scattered most parts of the world over, and do hardly know themselves of what nation they are, much less do others know, and it may be speak divers languages, I rather incline to think that God will, in some way or another, first bring the Jews into their own Land, and give them advantage to return by drying up the river Euphrates, that is, as I conceive, by diminishing and abating the great power of the Turk in and about that part of the world; and that either by intestine commotions or wars with other nations, or both.

Now is the time when those dry bones will come together and stand upon their feet, and become an exceeding great army, and have breath breathed into them, and have a civil life put into them, but no spiritual life till after they be in their own Land.’

‘Prophetical Considerations In New England’

John Gill, 1748

‘…as the sounding of that trumpet looses the four angels bound in the great river Euphrates, which founded the Turkish empire, as we have seen; so the pouring out of this sixth vial affects the same empire, and brings it to ruin. And the water thereof was dried up; the Ottoman empire will be extinct, just as the destruction of the Babylonish monarchy is expressed by the drying up of its sea, Jer 51:36 so the destruction of the Turkish empire is signified by the drying up of the water of this river, which is in the heart of it: and this is the passing away of the second woe, Re 11:14…’

‘Commentary On the Bible’, note on Revelation 16:12

Thomas Newton, 1754

‘The preservation of the Jews is really one of the most signal and illustrious acts of divine providence.

… and what but a supernatural power could have preserved them in such a manner as none other nation upon earth hath been preserved?’

‘Dissertations On The Prophecies’, volume I, page 130-1

‘About the time of the fall of the Othman empire and of the Christian Antichrist, the Jews shall turn to the Lord, and be restored to their own land.

Innumerable are the prophecies concerning the conversion and restoration of this people.’

‘Dissertations On The Prophecies’, volume III, page 405

Thomas Newton, 1754

‘As the Jews were to be led away captive into all nations, so Jerusalem was to be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

And accordingly Jerusalem has never since been in the possession of the Jews, but hath constantly been in subjection to some other nation, as first to the Romans, and afterwards to the Saracens, and then to the Franks, and then to the Mamalucs, and now to the Turks.’

‘When the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, then the expression implies that the Jews shall be restored: And for what reason, can we believe, that though they are dispersed among all nations, yet by a constant miracle they are kept distinct from all but for the farther manifestation of God’s purposes towards them?’

‘Dissertations On The Prophecies’, volume II, pages 61-2, 75

James Bicheno, 1798

‘If we are right in our conjectures, respecting the pouring out of the sixth vial, the proof will be, not only that it will be followed by the general coalition already noticed, but, that the Ottoman empire will be overturned; the Jews restored to their own land, and a time or trouble (of wars and revolutions), succeed, as never was since there was a nation.’

Appendix To Signs Of The Times’, page 210

William Burkitt, 1804

‘Quest. But what is meant by Euphrates here?

Ans. Probably the Turkish empire, according to Mr. Mede and Dr. More, the Turks first taking up their habitation about this great river so that by Euphrates may be understood the people inhabiting about Euphrates; and by drying up its waters, the diminishing and lessening of their empire. By the kings of the east, the Jews are said to be understood, who inhabit the eastern countries, to whom God made a promise, Ex 19:6 that they should be a kingdom of priests.’

‘New Testament Notes’, note on Revelation 16:12

Alexander Keith, 1831

‘But to what degree, and in what manner the present convulsions of the Turkish empire, combined with the peculiar, and in many instances, novel condition of the Jews throughout Europe and America, shall be the means of facilitating their eventual restoration to their own land, no mortal can determine.

It is enough for Christians to know, that two thousands of years, through nearly which period it has been dormant, can neither render extinct the title, or prescribe the heaven-charted right of the seed of Abraham to the final and everlasting possession of the land of Canaan; that God will remember the land, and gather together unto it his ancient people…’

‘Prophecies Concerning the Final Restoration of the Jews and Their Return to the Land of Judea’

John Thomas, 1849

‘They will emigrate thither as agriculturists and traders, in the hope of ultimately establishing their commonwealth, but more immediately of getting rich in silver and gold by commerce with India, and in cattle and goods by their industry at home under the efficient protection of the British power.’

‘Elpis Israel’, pages 441-2

Edward Elliott, 1862

‘It seems to me manifest that the same Turkish power is here intended that was described under the sixth Trumpet as loosed from the Euphrates.’

‘Horae Apocalypticae’, volume III, 5th edition, pages 422-3

‘The reader is doubtless familiar with the predictive clause as one most generally explained of the restoration of the Jews to their land, following on the decay and fall of the Turkish empire: an explanation to which the recent political changes, and present troubled aspect of things in Syria and Palestine, must be allowed to have lent not only a new interest, but perhaps also an increased probability.’

‘Horae Apocalypticae’, volume III, 5th edition, page 455

David Steele, 1870

‘Vs. 12-16.-"The great river Euphrates" is the object of the sixth vial.

By the very general consent of expositors the Turkish empire is intended by this symbol; and they seem to be equally agreed that the sixth vial in now in process of pouring out. The object of the sixth trumpet is the same, (ch. ix. 14.) […] By the "kings of the east" may be understood the Jews, agreeably to the symbolical nature of this book; (Is. xli. 2, 3;)…’

‘Notes On the Apocalypse’, pages 241-2

Grattan Guinness, 1888

‘In the prophecy of Ezekiel we have, in the vision of the valley of dry bones, and its interpretation, a very full account of the final restoration and conversion of Israel (Ezek. xxxvii. 7-14).

According to the representation of that vision the restoration is to take place in successive and perfectly distinct stages.’

‘Light For The Last Days’, chapter 7

Grattan Guinness, 1888

‘Thus the prophet saw that, before the giving of life to the dry bones, which symbolized the house of Israel, before the clothing of them with flesh, sinews, and skin, there was first of all ‘a noise and a shaking, and bone came to bone, each bone to his fellow;’ that is, he saw in the first place a preliminary organization, the necessary antecedent of all that followed.

[…]

This prediction as to the beginning of the final restoration is being very literally fulfilled.

[…]

The climax of the Jewish renaissance is, as we know, to consist in their restoration as a nation to the land of Palestine, - a climax which has not yet come, but which is perceptibly nearer than it was even a quarter of a century ago.’

‘Light For The Last Days’, chapter 7

R E Streeter, 1922

‘In considering the sixth trumpet the river Euphrates was interpreted to represent that which bound or held in check for a time, the four angels—the Turkish-Ottoman forces in their invasion of the Eastern or Greek Christendom. […] For nearly thirteen centuries with the exception of a brief period of about ten years, the great Ottoman or Turkish Empire held possession of Jerusalem and the land of Palestine.’

‘In 1917, a very significant date in symbolic time prophecy, this Turkish power was forced to deliver over the government of that land to England—an event most remarkable in connection with the fulfillment of the prediction of the drying up of the Euphrates.’

‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ’, chapter 37

R E Streeter, 1922

‘This, however, does not complete the fulfillment of the symbol in even its earthly aspect. The complete drying up of the great river Euphrates, would be accomplished only in the Jews’ gaining complete possession of their land under a government of their own.

This would require that even England, a friendly power to the Jews, would have to relinquish its governmental authority in that land.

Furthermore, there would be required the removal of all those obstacles in the land itself, that is, the removal of the peoples now living in the land; either their removal or their cessation of opposition to the ownership and rulership of the Jews over Palestine.’

‘The Revelation of Jesus Christ’, chapter 37

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Bible Prophecy Fulfilled: The Jewish Restoration