The Biblical Truth About Israel and the Promised Land

The people in Israel now, do not belong there. The United States’ support of Israel rests on two points; a political purpose and a religious one. The political reason is because Europe and the US want access to the resources of the Middle East, the oil rich lands and the minerals of Northern Africa. The religious reason is because the religious right and theologians of the United States truly believes that supporting Israel is a blessing from God.

Church leaders in the US vote accordingly and base their support from a scripture that says, “and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” Genesis 12:3. From this scripture, US church leaders fear they should stand behind Israel if they want the favor of God.

Without further study or understanding of the scriptures however, US church leaders have overlooked a vital part of God and Israel’s relationship since that decree. The promise was meant for an Israeli nation that was obedient to God, not a nation who became disobedient and who cursed themselves. Though God’s promises are not without repentance, He clearly removed His blessing from Israel as they left Him for idols throughout the years.

“…but I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.” Zechariah 7: 14.

So, the religious reasoning behind why US church leaders and the now Congress people write policy and stand behind Israel is basically null and void. This is because Israel broke their promise to God yet He remained faithful to His word and drove them out of the land He promised them. Today, believers of God and His Son Jesus Christ are required to pray for Israel only, not to support them politically or in whatever endeavor they take part in, such as the wars in the Middle East.

Concerning the political reasons, the United States took sides with the Jewish state back in 1948 when they were adopted into the forming of the new Israeli nation in the then land of Palestine. “In 1917, Chaim Weizmann – scientist, statesperson, and supporter of the effort to establish a state of Israel – persuaded the British government to issue a statement favoring the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine.

At midnight on May 14, 1948, the Provisional Government of Israel proclaimed a new State of Israel. On that same date, the United States recognized the provisional Jewish government as de facto authority of the Jewish state (de jure recognition was extended on January 31, 1949).

While President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared to be sympathetic to the Jewish cause, his assurances to the Arabs that the United States would not intervene without consulting both parties caused public uncertainty about his position. When Harry S. Truman took office, he made clear that his sympathies were with the Jewish people and accepted the Balfour Declaration, explaining that it was in keeping with former President Woodrow Wilson's principle of "self-determination." Truman initiated several studies of the Palestine situation that supported his belief that, as a result of the Holocaust, Jewish people were oppressed and also in need of a homeland.”

So, out of shame from the Holocaust, the US government sided with the British to take the occupied land of Palestine in favor of the Jews. And this can be considered the beginning of the modern-day conflicts of the Middle East and Israel. The problem with both lines of reasoning, religious and political, was that God had driven the Jewish, Israeli people out of that land because of their disobedience and idolatry and the land was given to the Gentile nations, by God.

Literally, the land was compromised away from the occupying Gentile nation despite God’s punishment for Israel and given to some people who were persecuted by Germany and who were considered the Jews during those days. There is a passage in Revelation prophesied by John that says, “These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David…Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.” Revelation 3:7, 9.

The land during that time was occupied by Palestinians of Arabic and African nationality, cousins of the Hebrew people. The Jews that came back to Palestine were a mixture of Jewish, German and European nationality. Way before that time era, the Jews had been pushed out of the land God promised them and were scattered around the world. He told them He would do this as far back as Deuteronomy 30:3-5, and most pronounced in the book of 1 Kings where he said:

“And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments: then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel for ever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel. But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people: and at this house, which is high, every one that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, Why hath the LORD done thus unto this land, and to this house? And they shall answer, Because they forsook the LORD their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath the LORD brought upon them all this evil.” 1 Kings 9:4-9.

God told the nation of Israel many times throughout the Old Testament that if they did not obey Him, and they went a whoring after false gods and idols, He would push them out of the land and scatter them throughout the world. So, the Israelites assimilated among many nations around the world, Europe and Germany being one of them.

As a political move, Europe and the US felt obligated to appease the Jews by giving them the land that was once promised to them. The problem is, they are not supposed to be there right now. Jesus told them this after He came and they asked about restoring them to the land. “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:6-8.

Jesus went on to tell them that this will not happen until the time of the Gentiles were fulfilled. Meaning, after the Jews rejected Him as their king, Jesus turned and offered salvation to all other nations who were not Jewish. This is the New Covenant made by God to Israel. “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Romans 11:25.

Jesus also told them from within the New Covenant that they would be scattered throughout the world and fall victim to their captors until a certain time that He would not tell them. That time has not yet come as of this day, “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” St. Luke 21:24.

The Old and New Testaments foretold of this scattering of the Jewish people so the establishment of the Jewish state currently is illegitimate and against God’s true will. One of the prerequisites to the reestablishment of Israel is that the gospel must be preached around the world before the time comes, and that has not happened yet. The gospel is still being preached. “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” St. Matthew 24:14.

Another misinterpretation of the bible end times that many of today’s church leaders speak of is the wars in the Middle East as a sign that the return of Jesus is near. However, every war that happens in the Middle East are predicted as the one that will bring Jesus back. This is partially true but the timelines are way off. Currently, they are talking about Russia as being Gog and their allies as being Magog. They get this concept from the scriptures of the Old Testament that speak on Gog and Magog, nations that will come against the land of Israel for war.

They religiously claim Ezekiel 38 which reads, “After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.” Verse 9.

Since the war in Gaza has been fought by Israel, other nations such as Russia, Iran, and Turkey have joined together to oppose Israel and their attacks on the Palestinian people and lands. But no matter how violent the war has been and how many innocent people, women and children, have been killed by Israel, US church leaders and Congress people still stand behind them for the same reasons of biblical misinterpretation.

They are teaching that these nations will come against Israel to destroy it and then the Lord will return. But this is biblically false. The wars of Gog and Magog against Israel will not come for another thousands of years, in another time age. There will be another world war in this day and age, but it is not the war spoken of in Ezekiel 39.8. The coming war is the one that will bring the return of the Lord, the tribulation period and the gathering of His saints. But the war by many nations to destroy Israel is not yet to come.

Ezekiel 38 says that in the latter times Gog will come into a land that has been brought back and has been gathered out of many people. Remember, Jesus said that only when the times of the Gentiles have been fulfilled will Israel be brought back to the land. The time of tribulation has to be over before Israel is restored. 

The scripture says, “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” Revelation 20:4.

Once the tribulation period is over, the Lord will return and set up the kingdom on earth for a thousand-year reign. Verse 4 of Revelation explains that the church, His bride will come with him on His return and them and people from the tribulation period will live with the Lord, those who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and did not take the mark of the beast.

He says He will then bind Satan for a thousand years so he will not deceive the nations any longer. “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” Revelation 20:1-3.

Once the thousand years is over, the scripture says, “And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” This is when the nations of Gog and Magog will come against Israel and the camp of the saints, not the nations of today such as Russia and Iran.

God says He will destroy those nations and He then invites the fowls of the air to come and feast on the bodies of soldiers and the flesh of kings. Ezekiel says the same thing in chapter 39:9, which reads, “Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.” Ezekiel 39:4.

So, Ezekiel 38 and 39 cannot be talking about any wars of today or fulfill the prophesy of nations coming against Israel. This happens only when Israel is returned to their land after the tribulation period and after God destroys the armies who come against them. Jesus himself says, “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” St. Matthew 24:27, 28.

“And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.” Revelation 19:17, 18. This happens only after God destroys Gog and Magog and their armies.

Again, US support for Israel and their false prophesies of Gog and Magog coming against Israel in these latest wars is not based on biblical prophecy but on man’s misinterpretation of the bible and their longing for power over the earth’s resources in certain parts of the world. They wish for the coming of the Lord so they hurry the process along claiming that Israel have been returned to their land already in 1948 so the next move is for the Lord to return. This is all false doctrine and does not line up with scripture. Jesus clearly stated that “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” St. Matthew 23:37-39.

Israel will be restored to their land as promised by God, but only after a series of events take place that will bring the tribulation period, the gathering of the saints and Jesus’ return to set up the thousand-year reign, and the binding of Satan for a thousand years. So, the Jews who occupy the land today should not be there according to the will of God and His word. Basically, Israel will not return to their land until all the world has seen the coming of the Lord and Satan is bound and evil defeated.

“I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?” Romans 11:11, 12.