Israel's Role in the End Times

END TIMES
Everywhere Jonathan goes, people speculate whether these might be the last days. “Even people who don’t consider themselves religious are talking about it,” he says.  “There are many reasons this is true.”  There is hatred and complete disregard for human life around the world with massacres occurring on an almost daily basis.  There are unrelenting wars that continue throughout the Middle East; civil war has left Syria in ruins and causing refugee crisis, and there is continued bloodshed in Israel where terror attacks are common and more than 15,000 rockets have rained down since 2001.  “The end of the age is near,” says Jonathan. “But that is not a bad thing for those who belong to God and serve Him diligently.”  The role of Israel is foundational to understanding God’s redemptive plan for the world.  Jonathan says there are seven keys to understanding Israel’s past, present and future.   “I am convinced it is vital for the church to recognize these seven keys and to understand the role all believers play in the return of our Messiah and Savior,” says Jonathan.

1. Key One: The Seed Promise:  God decreed a death sentence over Satan which comes to pass through the seed of the woman.  “The Messiah comes from the seed of the woman to redeem the world and right the wrong of the fall,” he says.  Satan hates the Jews with a passion and will do anything to destroy them.  
2. Key Two: The Abrahamic Blessing:   Through Abraham the world is blessed because God pronounced an eternal blessing upon the children of Israel. The Messiah will come through Abraham and that explains anti-Semitism: a satanic plot to keep the seed promise from coming.  The logic is to destroy Israel and keep God’s plan of redemption from happening.
3. Key Three: The New Covenant:  God promised to redeem the world through the Jewish people and will not break his covenant with them.  The promise was made first to Israel and is available to us through the new covenant.  All of Israel will be saved because the Messiah has to physically return to a Jewish controlled Jerusalem. They are experiencing a temporary blindness that will come off their eyes at a set time in history.
4. Key Four: The Restoration of Jerusalem: This is the corporate blessing of the Jewish people.  They have contributed to society in arts, sciences, medicines and physics, but the one contribution they gave us is the patriarchs.  “We are spiritual sons of Abraham.  When the early apostles expounded on the scriptures, they were using the Old Testament.  It became the foundation for the new. If you don’t have the Jewish people, you don’t have the foreshadow of the Messiah.”
5. Key Five: The Gospel to the Jew First:  “God is not done with the Jewish people.  He has preserved them,” says Jonathan.  Paul uses himself as proof in Romans 11:11. He speaks of the rejection of the Jewish people but only to provoke them to jealousy. “If their rejection brought you salvation, what will happen when they come back?  They will bring life from the dead.  Something greater happens when they reject Christ because it brings Gospel to the world, but even greater, it brings life from the dead,” he says. “Israel is linked to the nations. Israel triggers what happens in the nations.  I see it as worldwide revival.”
6. Key Six: Bringing Life from the Dead: Through Christ’s resurrection, God was showing that even death is not final. The ultimate result of Israel’s acceptance of their Messiah would bring “life from the dead” to the world and the return of Yeshua to the earth.
7. Key Seven: The Restoration of All Things: Israel is at the center of all this.  The Jewish people play an important role in the return in the Messiah which explains why there is so much Christian and anti-Semitism.  

Believers play an important role in these final days of human history.  “People are not going to be saved unless they believe; and for that to happen they must hear,” says Jonathan.  “One of the most important ways you can be directly involved in Yeshua’s return is to spread the good news of eternal life by sharing your faith with those around you!”