Miraculous Changes in the past 70 years - Part 3

"These are undoubtedly significant times, but we should not try to predict when Christ will come again. He said that. 'No one knows the day or the hour when He will come again.'

HOWEVER ...

We live in days in which miracles still happen, and God is in the process of demolishing spiritual roadblocks that have resisted the gospel for centuries. I have witnessed the enormous changes that have taken place, so I will now relate my own experiences." 

James Wardroper, Senior Citizen, living in Ontario, a retired teacher, and author of "The Light-Bearer's Saga", a set of eight books recounting history from a Christian perspective from 427 AD to the present, with volumes beginning to appear in September 2020. Here are his thoughts on the events of the last 70 years.

JEWS TURN TO JESUS

"The next blockage to the gospel has been in Judaism, but not the form of Judaism which Jesus practiced, which became impossible after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70. The early church was 100% Jewish until St Peter preached to Cornelius and his household. After the martyrdom of St. Stephen, Saul of Tarsus waged a vicious war against the church until his own conversion. After this, the church was effectively 100% gentile, and the center for the gospel became Antioch in Syria.

"About 200 years later, some Jewish sages met at Tiberias on Galilee and compiled the Talmud. This form of Judaism distanced itself from anything Christian. So that if any Jew became a Christian, his family would usually hold a funeral service.  It is sad to  relate that over the centuries, many professing Christians have turned against the Jews and persecuted them. Jews were mostly excluded from the Holy Land until the 19^th century, when Baron de Rothschild and Sir Simon Montifiori, as well as some influential evangelical Christians, encouraged Jews to settle in their ancient homeland. 

"In 1917 General Allenby took the city of Jerusalem from the Turks. (That is a fantastic story in itself).  It was followed by the Balfour declaration, which allowed Jews to return to their ancient land.  This was immediately countered by Arab resistance, mainly incited by Amin el Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. In WW2 Hitler sought to exterminate the Jews in death camps and the Grand Mufti went to Germany in WW2 to see how he could help Hitler in his "final solution."

"Hitler killed millions, but those who escaped had nowhere else to go to, but their ancient homeland and a flood of Jews tried to enter the Holy Land.  The British then attempted to halt the flow and set up their own concentration camps on Cyprus. Finally, they withdrew from trying to maintain the peace in Palestine, which what was for them had become a hopeless cause, and in 1948 the U.N. decided to recognize the state of Israel. Immediately three Arab armies sought to eliminate the young state, which had no real army. Several terrorist gangs united to form one, and successfully resisted the Arabs until the U.N. forced a Ceasefire. 

"Those who know the Old Testament would be aware that Moses told Israel that if they sinned, they would be scattered among the nations, but that eventually they would be regathered. This has now happened twice to Israel, but to no other nation, or country.

"Up till this time, practicing Jews refused to recognize Jesus as their Messiah, but at about the time as the restoration of Israel, a new phenomenon appeared, namely, that of Messianic Jews do not call themselves Jewish Christians but are Jews who, while retaining their Jewish Heritage, recognize Jesus as their Messiah and live in the light of the New Covenant as prophesied by Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 31.31).

"While in Israel in 1974, I met a certain Messianic Jew who had been one of President David Ben Gurion's bodyguard.  At the time when I met him, there were 3000 Messianic Jews in Israel. The last time I was there was in 1995 when there were 12,000. By this time, there are so many more, both in Israel and around the rest of the world, that we have no idea of the actual number. At the same time, antisemitism is increasing around the world which in turn is causing many more Jews to emigrate to their ancient homeland."