Page 28 - Eschatology - Masters revised

2. Israel if the land where the majority of the prophets and apostles lived, and from which came the
Word of God. It is the revelation center of the world.

3. Israel is the spiritual center of the world because Jesus walked there. From the Mount of Olives, He
ascended and to the Mount of Olives He will return; His feet will touch down there according to
Zechariah 14:4.

4. Israel is the land that belongs to “God’s chosen people.” The details of this people, past, present, and
future are recorded in minute detail in the Bible.

5. Israel and the Middle East is the world’s greatest trouble spot. Zechariah 12:3 says, “Jerusalem will
be a burdensome stone for all people.” Israel and events in the Middle East seem to be in the news
daily!

6. Israel will become the peace center of the world. Psalm 122:6 tells us to “pray for the peace of
Jerusalem. The Bible predicts that Jesus Christ will return and rule and reign over the whole earth and
bring perfect peace to the world from His throne in Jerusalem. Isaiah 2:3 tells us that the Lord shall go
forth from Zion (Jerusalem). Israel is the center of God’s plan for the future.

Israel becomes a nation.

God promised Abraham in Genesis 12 that he would make of his seed a great nation and give them a
land.

We have already seen that God fulfilled the promise to make Abraham’s name great literally. He made
Abraham’s descendants a great nation. He also fulfilled His promise to bless all nations through
Abraham’s descendants literally through the salvation available to all, won and offered by Jesus Christ
through His substitutionary death on the cross. Why should we not expect God to also fulfill His promise
literally regarding the land given to the Nation of Israel?

Joyce Lester reminds us of God’s sovereign work on behalf of Israel in recent history. Looking back at
recent history we can clearly see that God still cares about the nation of Israel. After 2000 years of the
Jewish Diaspora, millenniums of persecution, and Israel’s land being conquered by seven different
nations, the fact that the nation of Israel exists is due to God’s supernatural work.

According to Leviticus 25:23, God owns the land and is therefore justified in giving it to whomever He
desires.

Leviticus 25:23 (NIV84)23 “ ‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and
you are but aliens and my tenants.

God chose to give the land to Abraham and his descendants and confirmed it with an unconditional
covenant.

Genesis 17:7–8 (NIV84)7 I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and
you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of
your descendants after you. 8 The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as
an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

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