I talked about 7 keys you can use to interpret and understand biblical prophecy. In the 7th key I talk about how a lot of prophecies in the bible relate to the nation of Israel. To really understand what is going to happen in the last days you got to know Israel’s role. I will expand on that and give some background on this page. I have mentioned key 6 which talks about having a basic understanding and knowledge of history. I am amazed that most people don’t know the history of Israel and the events that happened over the last 130 years. You got to know this in order to gain a deeper understanding of how Israel is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. When you see the way events unfold not only will you will be amazed with biblical prophecy, but you will be frustrated with all the lies and propaganda told about Israel.

It has amazed and frustrated me that most of what you see in the press about Israel are nothing but lies, propaganda, and inversions of truth. Upon a closer look you should be frustrated at the way the press, people and governments with hidden agendas have shaped our foreign policy. This is leading to the events that are laid out in Zachariah and other scriptures in the bible.

Before we continue you need to know about a heresy that has gripped the church and has been taught over the centuries. It is still taught today in some circles. That is the teaching that the Church replaced Israel. Nothing could be further from the truth. I will argue throughout this post that the church and Israel are not the same thing. They have a different purpose and a different destiny. Most people don’t know the history of Israel so we will start there. I will give both a biblical background and a historical background.

Israel gets it start in Genesis chapter 12. Abraham is the father of this nation. He had a son named Isaac. Isaac had twin boys. One was named Esau and the other one was named Jacob. Now Jacob had 12 sons. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel and his 12 sons became known as the 12 tribes of Israel. All this can be found in the book of Genesis from chapter 12 on. At the end of the book of Genesis Israel is still a family. They go down into Egypt. When they emerge from Egypt in the exodus they are a nation. The Exodus happened 400 years after Jacobs’s family moves to Egypt. The exodus is regarded as the birth of Israel. Which is around 1500 BC.

God led them to the Promised Land and Moses sent 12 spies. 10 gave a bad report and 2 gave a good report. Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Then they went into the Promised Land under Joshua’s leadership. This enters a period of time when Israel is ruled by judges

Israel demands a king like. Saul is made the first king of Israel. He is from the tribe of Benjamin. This is a little earlier then 1000 BC. Saul is replaced by David from the tribe of Judah. Now David goes on to conquer Jerusalem from the Jebusites and he makes Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Jerusalem first shows up under the leadership of Melchizedek from the book of Genesis. According to Genesis the ruler of Jerusalem in the time of Abraham was Melchizedek.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jebusite

David’s son Solomon goes on to build the temple in Jerusalem. The temple is dedicated in about 917 BC. After Solomon’s death the kingdom is divided between the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The southern Kingdom follows the lineage of David. (Tribe of Judah) It refers to itself as the house of Judah. The northern Kingdom follows the lineage of Saul. (Tribe of Benjamin) It refers to itself as the house of Israel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon’s_Temple

The northern kingdom goes bad quickly and God judges them and they are conquered by the Assyrians. The southern kingdom has bad kings and good kings, but finally it gets conquered by Babylon. Judah is led away in captivity into Babylon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Assyrian_Empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Babylonian_Empire

About 539 BC Cyrus rises to power and leads the Persian Empire. He Conjures Babylon and releases the Jews so they can return and rebuild the temple. Later Nehemiah is a cup-bearer to the king and he persuades him to let him go back and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. About 322 BC Alexander the Great conquers the Persian Empire. He is the leader of the empire of Greece. Alexander dies at a young age and his kingdom is divided up between 4 of his generals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_Empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greece

War develops between two of the generals. The Ptolemaic dynasty and the Seleucid dynasty were at war with each other and Israel was caught in the middle. This is outlined in detail in the book of Daniel. He was a captive in Babylon at the time when Israel was captive in Babylon. Chapter 11 details the struggles of this centuries before it took place. The king of the north is Seleucid (north of Israel) The king of the south is Ptolemaic. (south of Israel)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seleucid_dynasty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptolemaic_dynasty

Now Rome comes into power and it conquers Greece. The Mediterranean sea is one huge Roman lake. There is a rival empire east of Rome known as the Parthian Empire. They achieve a fragile peace and Israel becomes a buffer region between Rome and Parthia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthian_Empire

Herod is listed as being king of the Jews. He is king in name only. When a fragile peace is achieved between Parthia and Rome, Herod goes into Jerusalem and begins a massive rebuilding effort. Israel essentially becomes a buffer zone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great

Jesus was born during the last years of Herod’s life. Jesus died for all mankind and was raised again on the third day. Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD. The temple was also destroyed. It caught fire and burned. The gold melted between the stones. The Romans tore up the temple stone by stone in an effort to get the melted gold. This starts a period of time when Israel is dispersed throughout the entire world. The remnants were wiped out at Masada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Jerusalem_(70)

A man rose within the Jewish ranks named Bar-kokhba. He led a revolt against Rome in 132 AD. He succeeded in wiping out most of the Roman 12th legion. This is something Rome never really recovered from. The Roman Emperor Hadrian attempted to root out Judaism, which he saw as the cause of continuous rebellions. He prohibited the Torah law and the Hebrew calendar, and executed Judaic scholars. In an attempt to erase any memory of Judea or Ancient Israel, he wiped the name of Israel off the map and replaced it with Syria Palestrina after the Philistines.

So in spite of what you see on today’s Christian bible maps. The area known as Israel was called Israel in Jesus day. It was not called Palestine until after the rebellion that happened in 132 AD. Rome had a tactic that it would rename a land it conquered after the enemies of that land in order to subdue the land. The British used this name later for the similar reasons.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/revolt1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Kokhba_revolt

About 3 centuries after Christ Constantine becomes emperor of Rome. He becomes disgusted with Rome and moves the capital from Rome to Byzantine. He renames this city and calls it Constantinople. He ends crucifixion as a form of Roman execution and he professes Christianity as his religion. He makes Christianity Legal. He begins to merge Christianity with Pagan beliefs. At this time half the empire was Christian and the other half was Pagan. This was all in an effort to unite the empire

Many people know that Rome fell in 476 AD. It was conquered by the  Germanic leader Odoacer. Constantinople remained in power centuries after this event until it finally became part of the Ottoman Empire. Today we know this city as Istanbul.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople

In 570 AD there is a man born in Mecca by the name of Muhammad. He was the founder of Islam. Even though he is not literate Mecca is a caravan center and he learns a lot. He picks beliefs and concepts from available backgrounds such as Christianity and Pagan belief systems. He selects the moon God Allah. He is known as the author of the Koran.

The worship from the time of Chaldeans and Nebuchadnezzar was the moon God El Allah. All the traditions of Islam predate Islam by many centuries. In Arabia the moon God was called al Ella. Muhammad was able to unify this into a monotheistic belief system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad

http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/moongod.htm

In 610 Muhammad declares himself a prophet. He was rejected at Mecca. In 622 he fled to Medina. He was received and he becomes a warrior. He began to spread his faith by the sword. In 630 he enters Mecca and makes a treaty. Then he abrogates it and wipes out all the 360 idols. He dies in 632.

Islam as a religion begins to sweep the world. Syria falls in 634, Jerusalem in 637, Egypt in 638, Persia in 640, North Africa in 689, and Spain in 711. It would have gone all through Europe but it was stopped in France because of Charles Martel. He was able to stop Islam at Tours France in 732. Because of this Europe did not become Islamic. The Arabians dominated Islam from 622 to 1058.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Martel

The Crusades

Now this brings us to the times of the crusades. The first crusade was between 1095 and 1099. Christian solders held contest to see how many Jewish babies they could get on a sword. You need to understand the crusades from a Jewish perspective. There is even today a teaching that holds that the Church is the new Israel. The church takes the place of Israel. This teaching is a heresy! God has very different objectives for the Church and Israel. God is not done with Israel, He has a plan for this people that will still unfold, but you can see this belief take root in the Crusades. There were nine Crusades in total. There were other Crusades that targeted other regions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crusades

Toward the end of the Crusades Jerusalem was run by Mamluk. The Mamluk Sultanate was a regime composed of mamluks who ruled Egypt from the mid-13th century to the early 16th century. Then the rise of the Ottoman Empire replaced Mamluk. The Ottoman Empire is perhaps the longest running empire the world has seen. The empire began to decline around 1828. During this period, the empire faced challenges in defending itself against foreign invasion and occupation. The Empire ceased to enter conflicts on its own and began to forge alliances with European countries such as France, the Netherlands, Britain, and Russia. It chose the wrong side in World War 1

The Young Turk government had signed a secret treaty with Germany and established the Ottoman-German Alliance in August 1914, aimed against the common Russian enemy but aligning the Empire with the German side. The Ottoman Empire entered World War I after the Goeben and Breslau incident, in which it gave safe harbor to two German ships that were fleeing British ships. These ships then—after having officially been transferred to the Ottoman Navy, but effectively still under German control—attacked the Russian port of Sevastopol, thus dragging the Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers, in which it took part in the Middle Eastern theater. There were several important Ottoman victories in the early years of the war, such as the Battle of Gallipoli and the Siege of Kut, but there were setbacks as well, such as the disastrous Caucasus Campaign against the Russians. The United States never declared war against the Ottoman Empire.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres, the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire after World War I was solidified. The new countries created from the former territories of the Ottoman Empire currently number 39.

Iraq was one of many nations that emerged after the dividing up of the Ottoman Empire. Iraq did not exist before this. It was created by three provinces of the old Ottoman Empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mamluk_Sultanate_(Cairo)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Ottoman_Empire

Alfred Dreyfus was a French artillery officer of Jewish background whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason became one of the most tense political dramas in modern French and European history. Known today as the Dreyfus Affair, Mr. Dreyfus was completely exonerated later on.

Theodor Herzl was a journalist who covered the Story. After seeing what happened to Dreyfus he became convinced that the Jewish people need a homeland. They would not be tried or treated fairly by the rest of the world. Anti-Semitism was on the rise at this time. Theodor is regarded as the father of modern political Zionism which had an end result in the State of Israel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Dreyfus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_affair

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl

Chaim Weizmann was a chemist. He held a few patents. He traveled around scientific and Jewish circles. He promoted Zionism and later became the first president of Israel when it was established as a nation. His nephew Ezer Weizman also became president of Israel. Chaim Weizmann is buried beside his wife in the garden of his home at the Weizmann estate, which is located on the grounds of Israel’s science research institute, The Weizmann Institute of Science. Chaim was influential in Zionism and his meetings with Arthur Balfour led to the Balfour Declaration. This declaration declared,

“His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country”

This declaration allowed Jews to return to their homeland. The Jews took this statement as a promise to make a Jewish state.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaim_Weizmann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Balfour

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration_of_1917

In 1916 the British gain control of Palestine. France controls Lebanon and Syria. After World War I the Jews claim a home in Palestine. The Arabs claim an Arab state from Iraq to Yemen. At that time the Arabs had no interest in Palestine. This was discussed during the Paris Peace Conference. This is the same conference that brought us the League of Nations and dealt with other issues after the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Mandate_for_Palestine

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal%E2%80%93Weizmann_Agreement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Peace_Conference,_1919

In 1921 The British decide to install Abdullah and 200 Bedouins as rulers of Transjordan. They give them 78 percent of the land that was promised to Israel. The. Transjordan was supposed to be the Arab state. Between 1916 to 1918, Abdullah worked with the British guerrilla leader T. E. Lawrence also known as Lawrence of Arabia. He played a key role as architect and planner of the Great Arab Revolt against Ottoman rule.

Herbert Samuel was appointed High Commissioner of Palestine. Samuel’s appointment to High Commissioner of Palestine was controversial. The Zionists welcomed the appointment of a Zionist Jew to the post, the military government headed by Allenby and Bols, called Samuel’s appointment “highly dangerous.” In an effort to show fairness and not appear to show favoritism, Samuel appoints Haj Amin al-Husseini as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. This was the third highest office in Palestine. This was a big mistake. Al-Husseini was a Yasser Arafat kind of guy. He not only attacked Jews, but he attacked moderate Arabs. He wanted the Arabs radical against Israel.

Husseini was and remains a highly controversial figure. Historians debate as to what extent his fierce opposition to Zionism was grounded in. Was it nationalism or Antisemitism or a combination of both.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_I_of_Jordan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Samuel,_1st_Viscount_Samuel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haj_Amin_al-Husseini

Around 1929 and 1930 there are Arab riots in Palestine. In 1933 Hitler comes to power. The British field commission asserts that the Jewish national home cannot be built in Palestine. In 1937 Britain halts immigration to Palestine. This one act by Britain condemned millions of Jews to the holocaust.

Israel became a nation on May 14th 1948. When Israel was established as a nation there were 5 nations that attacked them in a war of independence. Much to the amazement of the rest of the world Israel wins that war. When the British left Palestine they gave their arms to the Arabs. Israel was out numbered and out gunned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Arab%E2%80%93Israeli_War

Conclusion

Israel was destroyed in 70 AD. 1876 years later Israel becomes a nation again. There are numerous bible scriptures that talk about Israel’s role for the last days. I created this page to give a brief overview and provide links to Israel’s past. Now you can research this for yourself. We are still laying a foundation here. Do you remember the keys to understanding biblical prophecy? One key was a basic understanding of history another key was a basic understanding of Israel. We will finish this in part 4.