A TIMELY STUDY FOR BOTH JEWS
AND GENTILES
DO YOU KNOW:
That Israel was God’s first chosen people
(Deuteronomy 7:6; Psalms 135:4; 147:19,20; Amos 3:2)?
That when in Eden God justly sentenced His
disobedient children to death (Genesis 2:17; Ezekiel 18:4,20), He graciously intimated
that ultimately the Seed of the woman would bruise the Serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15)?
That later God promised Abraham that his Seed would
be multiplied greatly (Genesis 15:5; 17:4, 7, 16), and that in him and his seed all the
families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3; 22:18)?
That after God had tested Abraham’s faith and
loyalty, He confirmed the Covenant with an oath (Genesis 22:16- 18), reaffirmed it to
Isaac and Jacob (Genesis 26:24; 28:14), and established it with Israel for "an
everlasting covenant" (Genesis 17:7; Psalms 105:6- 10)?
That God promised Israel blessings if they would obey
His Law, and threatened them with punishments if they would disobey it (Deuteronomy 28),
and that for centuries they received such blessings and punishments?
That additionally God threatened Israel four times
(Leviticus 26:18,21,24,28) with a final punishment of "seven times" at the hands
of the nations (Gentiles), among whom He would scatter them (Leviticus 26:33- 45), if
despite previous punishments they would continue to walk contrary to His law?
That the scriptures use the word "time"
prophetically to indicate a literal year or a symbolic year (Daniel 4:16,23,25,32; 7:25;
11:13; margin; Daniel 12:7)?
That in prophetic Scriptures a day sometimes
represents a year and a week seven years (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:4- 6; Daniel 9:24- 27)?
That the threatened "seven times" of
punishment upon Israel have been fulfilled, not as a seven literal times, or years ( for
their earlier punishments had often lasted longer then seven literal years), but, in
harmony with Scriptural usage elsewhere, as seven symbolic times, or years, i.e., seven
periods of 360 years each, making 2520 (7 x 360 = 2520) years?
DO YOU KNOW:
That these 2520 years of Gentile dominion over and
punishment of the Jews began in 607 B.C. (6061/4 years B.C.) when Nebuchadnezzar overthrew
Zedekiah, Judah’s last king, and desolated the land, and ended in the fall of 1914
(1913- 1/4 years A.D.), when by the World War God began to dispossess the Gentile powers
in the great Time of Trouble (Daniel 12:1; Psalms 46:6- 10; 110:2,5,6; Joel 2:1,2;
Zephaniah 1:18; 3:8)?
That God fulfilled these" seven times" to
the day:on the tenth day of the fifth lunar month in 607 B.C. the temple. king’s
house, etc., in Jerusalem were fired by the Babylonians (Jeremiah 52:12,13), and exactly
2520 years later on the tenth day of the fifth lunar month the World War began, viz., on
Aug. 1, 1914?
That by the image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream
(Daniel 2:31- 45) God pictured the four universal empires of the Gentiles: the head of
gold- Babylon; the breast and arms of silver- Medo- Persi; the belly and thighs of brass-
Grecian Empire; the legs of iron- the Roman Empire (Eastern and Western), the feet and
toes of iron mixed with clay representing the present mixture of civil governments (iron)
and churchianity (clay) in Europe’s ten language nations?
That the stone smiting the image on its feet and
breaking it into pieces represents God’s real Kingdom smiting the mixed governmental
and ecclesiastical powers posing as God’s Kingdom (even as an iron and clay mixture
resembles stone) in this great "time of trouble such as never was since there was a
nation" (Daniel 12:1), and dashing them into pieces (Psalm 2:9), prior to filling the
earth (Daniel 2:34,35,44)?
That the Jews were to be trodden down of the Gentiles
only until the "seven times" (2520 years), the "times of the
Gentiles," would be fulfilled, which fulfillment occurred in 1914, when the World War
broke out between the Gentiles powers, and that since then God has remarkably prospered
their return to His favor and to Palestine as their National Home?
That the Jews’ sufferings since 1914 are not a
part of their special 2520 years’ punishment, but are sufferings for sins as humans,
which both Jews and Gentiles experience since 1914, in the great Time of Trouble (Daniel
12:1), and sufferings as a part of Phase 1 of "Jacob’s trouble" (Jeremiah
30:5- 11), which roots them up elsewhere to cause them to return to Palestine?
DO YOU KNOW:
That though Israel in 607 B.C. began to suffer the
2520 years’ punishment, they as a nation were not finally destroyed until over 600
years later, and that the desolation of their land and cities, and their dispersion
throughout the Gospel Age, in many lands, is forecast in many Scriptures (e.g., Leviticus
26:31- 29; Deuteronomy 29:22- 28; #Isaiah 17:4- 6; 43:5; 5,6; Jeremiah 4:20, 26- 29; 12:4,
7- 13; 16:13- 18; 19:7- 9; 29:14,17,18; 30:11; 32:36; 37; Amos 3:14; 5:3,5,7:8,9)?
That Israel’s preservation as a separate people
while dispersed among all nations (Hosea 3:4,5) is one of the miracles of history?
That Israel’s return to their land and
God’s favor is also prophesied (e.g., Leviticus 26:40- 45; Psalm 22:23- 31; 102:13-
28; #Isaiah 2:2,3; 14:1; 40:1,2; Jeremiah 23:5- 8; 24:6; 30:7- 11, 18- 24; 31:8- 12;
33:7,10,11; Ezekiel 16:53- 55, 60- 63; 36:1- 15, 24- 38; 37; Hosea 3:4,5; Joel 3:1,2,17-
21; Amos 9:14,15; Zephaniah 3:10- 20; Zechariah 8)?
That the "double" of #Isaiah 40:2;
Zechariah 9:12 refers to the Gospel Age as counterpart, or parallel, of the Jewish Age;
also, that Jeremiah 16:18 states that Israel’s punishment would be a
"double" (Hebrew, mishneh)- a period of disfavor during the Gospel Age equal to
their period of favor during the Jewish Age- they to be without God’s special favor
again (v.13) until its end?
That this double has been fulfilled, that
Israel’s "appointed time is accomplished," that God’s Word indicates
that now is the time to preach comfort to, and God’s forgiveness of, Israel, and that
God exhorts us to do So (Isaiah 40:1,2)?
That the "fishers" of Jeremiah 16:16 are
those who hold forth to Israel the attractive bait of Zionism, while the
"hunters" are Israel’s persecutors and tormentors, and that God has used
both of these instrumentalities to help bring Israel back to Palestine as their homeland?
That shortly after the Berlin Congress of Nations met
in 1878 and removed the barriers on the Israelites’ return to and stay in Palestine,
they began increasingly to return, and that this was given an impetus by the Zionist
movement, especially in the 1890’s along political lines, and in 1910 along religious
lines?
DO YOU KNOW:
That one of the objects of the Allies in the World
War was to establish in Palestine a national home for the Jews, and that the Balfour
declaration of 1917 pledged Britain to this end, it being favored by America also?
That increasing numbers of Jews have returned to
their land, especially since the State of Israel was set up in 1948, with the populations
growing from less than 50,000 Jews in 1914 to over 3,000,000 now?
That God foretold that Israel would return
nationally, before they recognize the Messiah, before His Kingdom on earth is set up, and
the New Covenant is made with them (Ezekiel 37:21- 28; Zechariah 12:10; Jeremiah 31:23-
34)?
That Israel’s return to their land and to
God’s favor are preludes of Millennial blessings upon them, and through them upon all
nations (Jeremiah 31:5- 34; Ezekiel 16:44- 63; 36:21- 38; Amos 9:11- 15; Micah 4:1- 4;
Zechariah 8:20- 23; 14:16- 21)?
That you will be blessed if you love and favor
Abraham’s Seed (Genesis 12:3; 27:29; Numbers 24:9; Zechariah 8:23), for the time to
favor Israel, yea, the set time, has come (Psalms 102:13), that God now bids us to speak a
message of comfort to the Jews (Isaiah 40:1,2), and that we will glad to have you join us
in this blessed work of preaching the Kingdom?
