Before Jesus the Messiah can return, there must be:<\/b><\/p>\n
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Ezekiel 36:8-12 <\/i><\/b>But you, <\/span><\/i>O mountains of Israel<\/i><\/b>, you shall <\/span><\/i>shoot forth your branches and yield<\/i><\/b> your fruit to My people Israel<\/i><\/b>, for they are about to come. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 9\u00a0<\/span><\/i>For indeed I am for you, and I will turn to you, and <\/span><\/i>you shall be tilled and sown<\/i><\/b>. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 10\u00a0<\/span><\/i>I will <\/span><\/i>multiply men upon you<\/i><\/b>, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the <\/span><\/i>cities shall be inhabited and the ruins rebuilt. <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n 11\u00a0<\/span><\/i>I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bear young;<\/span><\/i> I will make you inhabited as in former times, and do better for you than at your beginnings<\/i><\/b>. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 12\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Yes, I will cause men to walk on you, <\/span><\/i>My people Israel; they shall take possession of you, and you shall be their inheritance; no more shall you bereave them of children.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zechariah 8:3-5<\/i><\/b> Thus says the Lord: \u2018I will return to Zion, and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Jerusalem shall be called the City of Truth, the Mountain of the Lord of hosts, the Holy Mountain.\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 4\u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u201cThus says the Lord of hosts: \u2018<\/span><\/i>Old men and old women shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem<\/i><\/b>, each one with his staff in his hand because of great age.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 5\u00a0The <\/span><\/i>streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets<\/i><\/b>.\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zechariah 2:3-5 <\/i><\/b>…. and another angel was coming out to meet him, <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 4\u00a0<\/span><\/i>who said to him, \u201cRun, speak to this young man, saying: \u2018<\/span><\/i>Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it<\/i><\/b>. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 5\u00a0<\/span><\/i>For I,\u2019 says the Lord, \u2018will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Let\u2019s look to see if the Lord is fulfilling His covenant promises regarding the Land and His people.<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1987 Zionist Congress<\/b><\/p>\n In 1897 Theodore Herzl met in Basel, Switzerland at the first meeting of the Zionist Congress with the intent of having a Jewish homeland. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1917 – Beersheba, Balfour Declaration and Jerusalem<\/b><\/p>\n Toward the end of World War 2, the Australian, New Zealand and British troops had a break through in the village of Beersheba – 31 October 1917. The beginning of the demise of the Ottoman Empire. The very same day in the war cabinet of Great Britain, Prime Minister Lloyd George and Foreign Minister Arthur Balfour and the British Cabinet made a decision to declare the intention to support the initiative of a homeland for the Jewish people. It was called the Balfour declaration. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 1917, General Allenby entered Jerusalem and liberated it from the Turks for the first time in 400 years. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1920 Mandate for Palestine<\/b><\/p>\n (Get the wording right for this – In1920? in San Remo Italy, the League of Nations (forerunner to the UN) put the Balfour declaration into international law and then gave Britain the Mandate to reestablish a sovereign state of Israel -a homeland for the Jewish people. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1922 – Britain carves up the land<\/b><\/p>\n Britain immediately carved up the land, creating the state of Jordan and the state of Israel and then reneged on its sacred trust, and limited the numbers of Jewish people who could return and enforced that rule. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1939-1945 World War 2 and the Holocaust<\/b><\/p>\n When Hitler came to power and the persecution of the Jewish people became what we know as the holocaust, with millions of Jewish people being slaughtered in death camps, the British would not allow more than the bare minimum of Jewish people back into the land. 6 million Jews died.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1947 – UN Resolution 181<\/b><\/p>\n In 1947, the United Nations made a resolution (181) to reestablish ( get wording right)<\/span><\/p>\n The British, who had failed in their sacred trust, moved out. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1948 – The Restored Nation of Israel and War of Independence<\/b><\/p>\n In 1948 Israel became a state. This land included everything west of the Jordan river. This was considered a totally impossible event – but God brought it to pass to fulfil His covenant to Abram, Isaac and Jacob.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n A nation born in a day.<\/b><\/p>\n Isaiah 66:8-10<\/i><\/b> The sound of noise from the city! A voice from the temple! The voice of the Lord, Who fully repays His enemies!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 7 \u201cBefore she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came, she delivered a male child.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 8 Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? <\/span><\/i>Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? <\/i><\/b>For as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her children.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 9 Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?\u201d says the Lord. \u201cShall I who cause delivery shut up <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n the womb?\u201d says your God.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 10 \u201c<\/span><\/i>Rejoice with Jerusalem<\/i><\/b>, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her…<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n (Say \u201cGod is fulfilling His covenant regarding the LAND and His PEOPLE.\u201d)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The next day -war of independence.<\/b><\/p>\n The day after Israel celebrated becoming a nation,<\/span> 6 Arab Islamic nations attacked the baby nation of Israel. By the power of God, Israel defended itself, \u00a0<\/span>but the mountains of Israel were overrun and armistice lines were drawn <\/b>in the West bank and in Jerusalem. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The little amount of land that Israel was given by the League of Nations, was carved up by Britain. The little they had left was then carved even smaller illegally by this war.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1967 – The Six Day War<\/b><\/p>\n In 1967, with Arab troops amassing on its borders, Israel preemptively struck Egypt, Jordan and Syria in a dawn attack destroying aircraft and runways In those nations. Within 6 days, the amassed Arab troops surrendered in what was called a miracle battle – God fought for Israel for 6 days and on the seventh day He rested. All the land that had been taken by the Arabs in 1948 was restored to Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Return of the Jewish People from the Nations<\/b><\/p>\n Since then millions of Jewish people from all over the world have returned.<\/span><\/p>\n From Russia, Ethiopia, Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, America, China, <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zechariah 8:<\/i><\/b>7-8<\/i><\/b> \u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u201cThus says the Lord of hosts: \u2018Behold, I will save My people from <\/span><\/i>the land of the east and from the land of the west;<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n 8\u00a0I will bring them back, and <\/span><\/i>they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem<\/i><\/b>. They shall be My people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness.\u2019<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jeremiah 23:7,8<\/i><\/b> \u00a0\u201cTherefore, behold, the days are coming,\u201d says the Lord, \u201cthat they shall no longer say, \u2018As the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,\u2019 <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 8 but, \u2018As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel <\/span><\/i>from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.\u2019 And they shall dwell in their own land<\/i><\/b>.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jeremiah 31:8-9<\/i><\/b> Behold,<\/span><\/i> I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth,<\/i><\/b> among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and the one who labours with child, together; a great throng shall return there.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 9 They shall come with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n (Say \u201cGod is fulfilling His covenant regarding the LAND and His PEOPLE.\u201d)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Coming back on the shoulders of the Gentiles.<\/b><\/p>\n Isaiah 49:5-8, 12-13, 19,22<\/i><\/b> \u00a0\u201cAnd now the Lord says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to <\/span><\/i>bring Jacob back to Him,<\/i><\/b> so that <\/span><\/i>Israel is gathered to Him<\/i><\/b>, (for I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and My God shall be My strength),<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 6 Indeed He says, \u2018It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to <\/span><\/i>raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.\u2019\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 8 Thus says the Lord: \u201cIn an acceptable time I have heard You, and in the day of salvation I have helped You;<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n I will preserve You and give You as a covenant to the people, to restore the earth, to <\/span><\/i>cause them to inherit the desolate heritages;<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 12 Surely <\/span><\/i>these shall come from afar<\/i><\/b>; look! Those <\/span><\/i>from the north and the west, and these from the land of Sinim.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n 13 Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And <\/span><\/i>break out in singing, O mountains<\/i><\/b>! For the Lord has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His afflicted. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 19 \u201cFor <\/span><\/i>your waste and desolate places, and the land of your destruction, will even now be too small for the inhabitants<\/i><\/b>; and those who swallowed you up will be far away.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 22 Thus says the Lord God: \u201cBehold, I will lift My hand <\/span><\/i>in an oath to the nations<\/i><\/b>, and set up My standard for the peoples; <\/span><\/i>they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders<\/i><\/b>