Oldmantook
Well-Known Member
Good question. While Scripture does indeed promise the Jewish people a return/establishment of their homeland, the germane issue is: Is present day Israel the result of that promise? Is modern Israel a fulfillment of Bible prophecy? I submit that it is not.What exactly is that difference? Zionism is the political movement to establish and defend a sovereign state for the Jewish people in what was thought of by its proponents as the traditional land of the Jewish people.
That state is the modern state of Israel, established in Palestine in 1948.
Zionism is man's efforts to establish the Jewish State - not God's. Present day Israel is the result of man's will - not God's will being done. How do we know that?
We know that the tribes of Israel were scattered among the nations because of their disobedience. Yet to this day, Israel remains disobedient to God and does not recognize Jesus Christ/Yeshua as her Messiah. Israel is a secular nation and even the observant Jews among them do not acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah - the Son of God - their Savior. So how could God who scattered the Jews because of their disobedience return the Jews and have established Israel in 1948 in spite of her continued disobedience?
Deut 29:25-28 And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them. Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book. The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’
Exodus 19:5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;
Jeremiah 4:1 If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,
Jeremiah 31:36 “If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the LORD, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever.”
Isaiah 1:19 If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;
Ezekiel 37:21-28 you are to tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will take the Israelites out of the nations to which they have gone, and I will gather them from all around and bring them into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will rule over all of them. Then they will no longer be two nations and will never again be divided into two kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols or detestable images, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all their apostasies by which they sinned, and I will cleanse them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God. My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes. They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They will live there forever with their children and grandchildren, and My servant David will be their prince forever. And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary among them forever. My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people. Then the nations will know that I the LORD sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is among them forever.’”
God's promise to the Jews of a homeland is and always has been conditional - based upon their continued obedience. Does this reflect the spiritual state of Israel today? Hardly. Therefore Zionism is by man's efforts - both politically and militarily - not to be confused with God's will, done according to His timing alone.
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