The Christ in Prophecy Journal

Storm Warning: The Sign of Israel (Part 1 of 3)

The Sign of Israel

I was having lunch with a fellow and we were talking about the Bible. All of a sudden, he leaned across the table and said, “David, wouldn’t it have been exciting to live in Bible times?” And I replied, “Brother, we are living in Bible times!”

We are living at a time when we’re seeing biblical prophecies fulfilled that had been prophesied some 2,700 years ago. This is an exciting time to be living in! There’s no time in all of history more exciting, except the First Coming of Jesus Christ.

For the past 42 years, I’ve spent my life teaching about the signs of the end times, trying to convince people that we are truly living on borrowed time, because Jesus could break from the heavens at any moment for the Rapture of the Church.

In the process of teaching about these signs over the last four decades, I have put them into six categories: the signs of nature, the signs of society, the spiritual signs both positive and negative, the world political signs, the signs of technology, and of course, the signs of Israel. I have always pointed out that the signs of Israel are the most important, even more important than all of the rest of the categories put together, because that is what end time Bible prophecy focuses on — the nation of Israel.

But, in the last few years, I have really decided that there is a sign more important than the signs of Israel, and that is the sign I call Convergence. For the first time in all of history, all of the signs have converged. There’s not a single sign that is missing from the scene. It is proof positive that we really are right on the threshold of the Tribulation, so that our time left in this world is very, very short. And that, of course, means that the Rapture itself is more imminent now than it has ever been in the history of mankind.

In this series, I want to take a quick look at a sign of Israel that has been largely overlooked. It’s about the Jewish preparations for the Messiah.

The Many Signs of Israel

Over the years, I have pointed out many, many signs of Israel that point to the fact we are living in the end times, signs such as the worldwide regathering of the Jewish people. All of these signs are a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Other signs of Israel include the re-establishment of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948, and the revival of the Hebrew language. I wish I had time to go into detail about that sign as it’s an amazing fulfillment of prophecy, because the Hebrew language ceased to be spoken when the Jews were exiled from their land in 70 A. D., and yet biblical Hebrew has come back from the dead.

There’s also the reclamation of the Holy Land. God revealed through Moses that once the Jews were distributed all over the world, the land would become a desolation, and it did become a desolation. God made it a desolation because He didn’t want anybody to take it and use it. He wanted it to wait for the Jews to come back, and that’s exactly what happened. As the Jews returned and reclaimed the land, they drained the malaria-infested swamps. In the last century, Israelis planted 250 million trees in Israel. The whole land has become, once again, a land of milk and honey.

Also, it’s prophesied that in the end times there would be a great resurgence of the Israeli military. Although Israel exists as one of the smallest nations on planet earth today, it has always ranked in the top ten of military powers in the world.

Then there’s the reoccupation of the city of Jerusalem. When the Jews won the War of Independence in 1948 and ’49, they did not win back the Old City of Jerusalem. They had been excluded from that city, but in 1967, they reoccupied the city of Jerusalem once more.

Finally, there’s the sign of the refocusing of world politics on Israel. The whole world is obsessed with what is going on in Israel, and that story makes the headlines of our papers day after day.

The Messianic Age

All of these signs that I just mentioned relate to the Jewish people as a whole. What I want to reveal now are the signs that relate to only 15% of the Jewish population — the Orthodox Jews.

Israel is not a religious country. Israel is a very pagan country with probably 80% or more of the people there being atheists or agnostics. They are very secular people. But, 15% of the population is Orthodox Jew, what they often refer to as the Black Hats — the guys you see praying at the Western Wall. These are the Orthodox Jews. The signs among them are overwhelming because they are expecting the Lord to return at any moment. This fact has been largely overlooked by people who talk about the signs of the times.

It all began in 1967 during the Six-Day War, when the Jews at last reoccupied the Old City of Jerusalem on the last day of the war, so June 6, 1967. That date is as important as May 14, 1948. On that day, they reoccupied the city for the first time in 1,897 years.

As the soldiers rushed to the Western Wall, they began to weep and pray. Also arriving at the Western Wall, the chief rabbi of the Israeli army came up to that wall. His name was Rabbi Shlomo Goren. Rabbi Goren, who later became the chief rabbi of Israel, walked up to that wall. He had a Torah scroll under one arm and he had a shofar in his other hand. He blew the shofar and everyone got quiet. Then he raised his right hand and he made this statement, “I proclaim to you the beginning of the Messianic Age.”

Now, why did he say that? Why did he say that it was the beginning of the Messianic Age? Because Rabbi Shlomo Goren knew Bible prophecy. He knew that the prophecies say that when the Jews are back in the land (1948) and when they are back in their capital city (1967), the Messiah will come.

In the second part of this series about the signs of Israel, we’ll explore how far along the Orthodox Jews have gotten in planning the Third Temple.

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Dr. David Reagan

Dr. David Reagan is the Founder and Evangelist Emeritus of Lamb & Lion Ministries. He is a life-long Bible student, teacher, and preacher and he led over 45 pilgrimages to Israel. Dr. Reagan was the host of the radio then television program Christ in Prophecy for nearly 40 years.

7 CommentsLeave a Comment

  • Thank you for this inspiring and exciting article.
    Thank you, Dr Reagan, for being a good and faithful servant of the Word.
    Looking forward to meeting you in Glory,
    Elizabeth

  • I believe the new Temple will be constructed north of the city and near Shiloh.
    I also believe the temple mt will be split by an earthquake leaving the mosque
    At the bottom covered with a river of water ! ..
    This article seems to say the Jews cannot work on or deal with a new temple
    Until they control the Temple Mount. I think our Lord will deal with the Mount.

  • The Words of God are totally being fulfilled. We are grateful that God gave us the Holy Spirit for wisdom to understand and know his sovereignty and his promises. The Red Heifers are definitely another prophecy fulfilled, we believers should all be looking up.

  • Thank you so much, Dr. Reagan, for your clear, concise, very informative article (NEW information for me) on a topic that is indeed seemingly neglected, at least in this level of detail. I eagerly look forward to your additional articles on this subject. As you have consistently done for over 40 years, you have that God-given talent that Billy Graham had for simplifying complex prophetic issues that you have obviously studied in great depth in a manner that everyone can understand and absorb for their spiritual growth. You put together in a nutshell the numerous prophetic Biblical verses on a topic, simplify and summarize all those verses and how those verses apply to current events to better prepare the Body of Christ for the imminent return of our Lord. I am unaware of any other preacher who could summarize the entire book of Revelation in 20 minutes! And how can you make history fascinating instead of boring? Words cannot express my deep gratitude for your hard work over the past 42 years in your ministry and how it has benefited my own spiritual growth. Maybe someone should write a song called “Thank You, David Reagan” like the song “Thank You, Billy Graham”!!!

  • I believe many Jews are awakening to the True Messiah, and the truth of his crucifixion, resurrection, and redemption of sinners as the son of God, the blinders are coming off their eyes. The ones who don’t will be here to endure the Tribulation after the church is raptured to be with the Bridegroom.

  • I worked at a University in Enid, OK while Dave Reagan was also there.
    We had many great discusions about Christ Jesus returning to Earth……and the meaning of some Bible entries. We both had pretty much the same ideahs about the published Bible Testimony of that time…….I looked back to that time as a highlight in my learning all I could about what we discussed and believing what was written in our Bibles. I Quit my job when I found out the differences in my study of our Bible and the University’s. I believed….and took literal parts seriously…….. ..evidently the University did not……! A few of the others working there agreed with my assessment….Many students left the University at the time I was there because they felt disalusioned. So I was encouraged when I saw Lamb & Lion Ministry online!!!!!! YEA! For Dave Reagan & others for starting the new ministry!!!!

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