Storm Warning: The Sign of Israel

Dr. Reagan: Well, I was having lunch with a fella a few weeks ago, and we were talking about the Bible. And all of a sudden, he leaned across the table, he said, “David, wouldn’t it have been exciting to live in Bible times?” And I said, “Brother, we’re living in Bible times.” We are living at a time where we’re seeing prophecies fulfilled that were made 2,700 years ago. This is an exciting time to live. 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 talking about the signs of the times, trying to convince people that we are truly living on borrowed time, that Jesus could break from the heavens any moment in the Rapture of the Church. In the process of teaching about these signs over the last 40 years, I have put them into six categories: The Signs of Nature, which Nathan spoke on, the signs of society, the spiritual signs, both positive and negative, the world political signs, the signs of technology which David just spoken on, and of course, the signs of Israel, which I always pointed out are the most important, more important than all the rest put together, because that is what end time Bible prophecy focuses on, is 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, that our time 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.

Today what I want to do is I want to take a quick look at a sign that has been largely overlooked. It’s what I call the Jewish preparations for the Messiah. Jewish preparations for the Messiah. Over the years, I have pointed out many, many signs of Israel that point to the fact we’re living in the end times. Signs such as the worldwide regathering of the Jewish people. All these signs are a fulfillment of Bible prophecy, or the reestablishment of the state of Israel on May the 14th, 1948, or the revival of the Hebrew language. I wish I had time to go into detail about that, because it’s an amazing fulfillment of prophecy, because the Hebrew language ceased to be spoken when the Jews were distributed from the land in 70 A. D. and yet it has come back, biblical Hebrew.

And then the reclamation of the land. God said when the Jews, he said, through Moses, when the Jews are distributed all over the world, the land will become a desolation. And it became a desolation. And 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. That land, when they came back, they reclaimed the land. They drained the malaria infested swamps. In the last century they planted 250 million trees in Israel. And 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. And although Israel has one of the smallest nations on planet Earth today, it has always ranked in the top ten of military powers in the world.

And then there was the reoccupation of the city of Jerusalem. When the Jews won the War of Independence in 1948 and ’49, they did not win the old city of Jerusalem. And they were excluded from that city. But in 1967, they reoccupied the city of Jerusalem.

And finally, the refocusing of world politics upon Israel. The whole world is obsessed with what is going on in Israel, and that is the headlines of our papers day after day.

But here’s the point. All of these signs that I just mentioned relate to the Jewish people as a whole. What I want to talk to you about here for a few minutes are the signs that relate to only 15% of the Jewish population, and that is the Orthodox Jews. Israel is not a religious country. Israel is a very pagan country, probably 80% or more of the people there are atheists or agnostics. They are very secular people. But 15% of the population is Orthodox Jew, what they often refer to is the black hats, the guys you see at the Western Wall who are praying there. These are the Orthodox Jews. And the signs among them are overwhelming that they are expecting the Lord to return any moment. And I think this 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 reoccupied the city of Jerusalem, the old city of Jerusalem on the last day of the war, June 6, 1967. That date is as important as May 14th, 1948. On that day, they reoccupied the city for the first time in 1,897 years. And as the soldiers rushed to the Western Wall, and as they began to weep and they began to pray at the Western Wall, the chief rabbi of the Israeli army came up to that wall, his name, 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. He had a shofar in his other hand. He blew the shofar and everyone got quiet. And 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’s 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.

And ever since that day, when they reoccupied the old city of Jerusalem, there have been Jewish groups who have been trying to get ready for the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple. Until finally they all came together, and a particular group began to dominate all of the preparations for the building of a new temple. That group is one that many of you know about, many of you visited their headquarters in the old city of Jerusalem, it is called the Temple Institute. And if you ever go to Jerusalem, make sure you go to this site and see the preparations that have been made, and are continuing to be made for the building of the Third Jewish Temple.

This particular group has widespread activities that include the blueprints for the new temple. All the blueprints have been drawn. This is just a few of them. You can go on the Internet; you can find them and look at them in detail. In addition, they have made all of the instruments that are used for the temple ceremonies, for the sacrifices, all the ceremonies, many, many different instruments, they have them all made. They have prepared the oils, and the incense to be used in the temple based upon the ancient formulas that they’ve discovered. They have been making the clothes for the priests and for the high priests. And they have been making the breastplate for the priest, high priest, and also his crown has been made. The crown says on it holy dedicated to the Lord. All of these things have been prepared.

In addition to this, they have been preparing the major items that are located inside the temple itself. Here, for example, is the golden table of show bread, which you can see there. And then I think the most exciting thing is this one, and that is the menorah. In Solomon’s Temple, there were ten menorahs. In the second temple there was one, one magnificent menorah, which we know was stolen by the Romans. We know that because they celebrated their victory over Israel by building a huge structure in Rome and on the frieze of that structure, they showed them taking the Jewish prisoners into Rome, and they were carrying this menorah. This menorah is six and a half feet tall. It has 95 pounds of gold. It is valued at somewhere around $10 million. It’s on display out in the open with protection all around it. But it’s on display there in the old city of Jerusalem.

In addition to that, they have prepared the altar of incense that goes right before the curtain in the holy place. And they have also designed and manufactured a mobile altar of sacrifice. It’s a mobile altar. And it has been declared kosher by the chief rabbi of Israel until they are able to build the permanent sacrificial altar that cannot be built until they occupy the Temple Mount.

And in addition to all that, they are doing all kinds of genetic research to determine the ancestors of Aaron so that they can determine who can be the priests in the new temple. As they identify these they are then sent to a school that they have developed, and they are taught how to do all the sacrifices of the ancient temple, as well as all of the other duties that the various priests and Levites had. So major, major preparations are in order in Jerusalem today for the arrival of the Messiah.

The one thing that the Temple Institute has not done is to make a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. They’ve refused to do that. They say it is not necessary. And the reason they say that is because they are absolutely convinced that the Ark of the Covenant is in a security vault located underneath the Temple Mount. In fact, they think they know the exact location under the Temple Mount, where it is.

I don’t know if you know this or not, but the First Temple, Solomon’s Temple had the Ark in the Holy of Holies. But the Second Temple, built after the Babylonian exile, never had the Ark of the Covenant in it. And the reason they say that they never had the Ark there was because they were always under foreign control, under the control of the Persians, or under the control of the Romans. And so, they never took the Ark out of its hiding place and put it in the Holy of Holies because they did not think it was proper to do that if the Jews did not control the land. So, they have not made a replica of the Ark of the Covenant. They will not because they’re absolutely convinced they know where it is.

Now, in March of 2019, the founder of the Temple Institute announced that the preparations for the Third Temple are so complete that the Temple services could be activated on the Temple Mount within four hours after access to the Mount is granted. Now that’s pretty overwhelming. Think about that for a moment. They say they are so prepared that within four hours after they have granted access to the Mount, they can have the sacrifices going.

Now, the way they’re going to do that, I’m convinced is this, they are going to go up on the Temple Mount and they’re going to erect the Tabernacle of Moses. This is a model, exact scale model of the Tabernacle of Moses that exists in the wilderness, near the city of Eilat in southern Israel. So, you get an idea of what it looks like. And that was the temple of the Jewish people for 40 years in the wilderness. It was the temple of the Jewish people for 400 years after they arrived in the land of Israel before the building of Solomon’s Temple. I think they’re going to rebuild that in just a matter of a few hours. And then I think they’ll start offering the sacrifices. And then they’ll start building the new temple around it and above it and have it finished by the middle of the Tribulation.

But of course, there’s a problem in doing that. And the problem is, what do you do with the Dome of the Rock? Because the Orthodox Jews are absolutely convinced that this is the location of the first two temples. Now, they cannot do any archeological excavations on the Temple Mount, because even though the Temple Mount is under Jewish sovereignty, the Jews turned it back over to the Muslims about as soon as the Six Day War ended. They thought that this would be a sign of peace, but the Muslims thought it was a sign of weakness on their part really. And so, they can’t do, even though they have the sovereignty, the Muslims have control of the Temple Mount.

For example, if you go up on the Temple Mount, you can’t hold your wife’s hand. You can’t open the Bible and read it. You can’t have a prayer because the Muslims will throw you off the Temple Mount if you do any of those things. So, the Muslims actually operate and control the Temple Mount, even though it’s under Israeli sovereignty. And therefore, the Israelis are not allowed to do any archeological excavations to prove that this was the site of the temples. But the Jews are convinced it is the site.

Now, let me tell you what I think is going to happen to this Dome of the Rock and when I think is going to happen. I think it is going to be during the War of Gog and Magog, which I think is most likely going to happen before the Tribulation begins. And the reason I think it’s going to happen then is because of something that’s said about that war. You find it in Ezekiel 38:19-20, the Lord is speaking, “In my zeal and in my blazing wrath, I declare that on that day there will surely be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The mountains will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse. And every wall will fall to the ground.” I think this earthquake is going to destroy the Dome of the Rock and clear it out and make it possible for the Jews to go back up there and start rebuilding their temple.

Now, the second thing that’s happened, in addition to the Temple preparations that indicate that the Jewish people really believe the Messiah is coming any moment, and which I think is another sign of the time that He truly is coming. And that is that in 2004, they formed the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin had not existed for a long, long period of time. In fact, the last action of the Sanhedrin took place in Tiberius in 358 A.D. So not since 358 A.D. has a Sanhedrin existed. If you want to know what the Sanhedrin is it was simply a council of 70 Jewish sages headed up by the high priest who were the Supreme Court of Israel at the time of Jesus. They were the ones that condemned Jesus to death. But it’s been a long time since the Sanhedrin has been formed, and suddenly it’s formed. I wish I could show you a photograph of the Sanhedrin. I’ve seen some of the members of it, but they’re very photo shy and they’ve never allowed a photograph to be made of the entire group. So, I just have to use this as a symbol. But there is a modern Sanhedrin, and they meet on a regular basis, they discuss all kinds of Jewish issues.

But I think it’s very interesting the very first thing they did when they were formed in 2004, the first thing they did was to appoint a committee of their people, of the members of the Sanhedrin, a committee to do research to determine the exact location of the First and Second Temples. And they are doing that research and they’re coming up with all kinds of evidence as to where those temples existed.

Another thing about this Sanhedrin, I think you will find extremely interesting is this group has announced that they believe with all their hearts that they had to exist before the Messiah would come. One of the reasons they were so insistent on forming in 2004 is because they believe that when the Messiah comes that He must first be interviewed by the Sanhedrin, and they must determine His authenticity. And they will determine it and announce it to the world, and at that point He will begin to reign. But his authenticity must be determined by the Sanhedrin. So, it’s a very interesting thing what’s going on over there.

God began to move on Jewish hearts in the 1890s to return to Israel. At that time there were only 40,000 Jews in all of Israel. By the end of World War II there were 600,000. Today there are 7 million. Half the Jews in the world live in Israel today because there’s approximately 14 million Jews in the world.

Now, why is God motivating these Jewish people to go back home? It’s because God has a plan for them for their salvation. The Bible says a great remnant of the Jewish people will be saved. How is God going to do that? Well, the first step is to regather them to Israel. He began that in the 1890s. They have come from all over the world, from 120 different countries speaking probably that many different languages. They are back in the land, but there’s still half of them in the world yet to come. And you know what? I believe that that half is going to come during the first years of the Tribulation because the Antichrist is going to make a peace treaty with Israel to guarantee Israel’s security. And then He’s going to go forth to conquer the world. He’s going to launch a major war to conquer the world. He’s that war is going to morph into a nuclear war, according to the Trumpet Judgments. And as He is conquering the world and half the world’s population is dying, the one place of safety is going to be Israel. And it’s like the Jews all over the world are going to go back to Israel as fast as they can get there because they know that will be a place of safety for them.

And then we’re told in the middle of the tribulation, when that Temple is rebuilt and finally finished, the Antichrist will go to Jerusalem to dedicate the temple. And then, to the astonishment of the Jewish people, he will declare himself God. At which point they will totally reject him. At which point he will be possessed by Satan, and he will decide that he is going to pick up where Hitler left off, he’s going to try to destroy the Jewish people from the face of the earth. He’s going to try to annihilate every Jew.

So, the second half of the tribulation, he’s going to focus on annihilating the Jewish people. That’s the reason that Jesus referred to the second half of the Tribulation as the Great Tribulation. That doesn’t mean it’s going to be greater than the first half. The first half, one half of the world’s going to die. He referred to it as the Great Tribulation because he was speaking to a Jewish audience. And it’s going to be the Great Tribulation for the Jewish people. They will have to flee Israel. Many will flee into the area today we know as Jordan, and we know that the Antichrist will be kept out of that nation, it says so in Daniel 11, he will not be allowed in. And they will go there maybe to the city of Petra. We don’t know for sure, but they’re going to go there for security.

So, I think that the first thing that God is going to do is regather the Jewish people from all over the world. He’s going to possess Satan. Satan is going to be determined to destroy them. Satan hates the Jewish people with an overwhelming passion. That’s the reason he tried to annihilate them in the Holocaust. He hates them because God called them to be His witnesses to the world. He hates them because it’s through them that God gave the world the Bible. Satan hates the Jews because through them God gave the Messiah. And he hates them because God has promised that one day He will bring them to salvation. And then He also hates them because God has promised that through them God is going to bless all the nations of the world so much that during the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, if one Jew walks by, ten Gentiles will grab his robe and say, “Let us walk with you because we know that God is with you.”

So, there is another Holocaust ahead for the Jewish people. Zechariah says that during the Tribulation, two-thirds of the Jewish people will die, but one-third will live to the end of that time. And at that time, they are going to look upon Him when He arrives on that Mount of Olives. And they are going to look upon Him and weep, and wail, and mourn as one weeps over the loss of an only son. And they’re going to cry out from the depths of their hearts, “Baruch haba b’shem Adonai” blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And I think it’s very interesting that whereas the Christian Church teaches that God has washed His hands of the Jews, and has no purpose left for them, Jesus Himself said, I will not return to this earth until the Jewish people are willing to say “Baruch haba b’shem Adonai” blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Jesus Himself said that.

Today Orthodox Jews all over the world are yearning for the coming of their Messiah. They’re not going to be surprised by His arrival. Not at all. They’re going to be surprised by His identity. The sad thing is that while the Jewish Orthodox Jews are yearning for the Messiah, the Church is yawning about the Messiah. The church is asleep. The church could care less. And why is that? Because the church is so ignorant of Bible prophecy. The Church needs to wake up. It needs to wake up to the glorious blessings that lie ahead of us, because any moment, any moment, Jesus is going to appear in the heavens and the great Rapture of the Church is going to occur. We’re going to go up to be with Him during this terrible period of tribulation.

And there we will receive our rewards. And at the end of that time, we’re going to sit down with Him and we’re going to celebrate the greatest feast that the cosmos has ever known, the marriage feast of the Lamb. And at the end of that feast Jesus is going to stand up and He’s going to say, “Let’s go!” And He’s going to break from the heavens and we’re going to come with Him. Hundreds of millions of glorified saints. We’re going to come back. We will be there hovering in the heavens over the Mount of Olives when He lands on that mount and it splits in half and He speaks a supernatural word. There’s not going to be a Battle of Armageddon. He’s not going to battle anybody. He’s going to speak a supernatural word. And when he does, all of the forces of the Antichrist are going to drop dead in their tracks like a neutron bomb has gone off.

And then He is going to begin to reign in glory and majesty from Mount Zion in Jerusalem. We’ll have peace, righteousness and justice flooding the Earth as the waters cover the sea. And you and I in our glorified bodies will be scattered across this earth to help Jesus in His reign. At the end of that time, He’s going to take us off this earth, put us in that glorious New Jerusalem He’s been building. And from that vantage point, we’re going to see the greatest fireworks display in all of history as He super heats this earth, burns away the pollution of Satan’s last revolt.

And then He’s going to lower us down in new bodies in the New Jerusalem to a new earth to live in His presence in the presence of God Almighty forever and ever. When you know that you don’t yawn. When you know that you get up every morning, you look at the sky and you shout, “Maranatha, Maranatha, Maranatha, come quickly, Lord Jesus.” Amen. Amen.

Closing

Nathan Jones: We pray that Dr. Reagan’s message and this entire series so far about the urgency of the Rapture has been a blessing to you and has helped you understand how vital it is that we Christians get the hope filled message of Jesus Christ’s soon return out to the world. Tune in next episode as our watchmen cover the end times sign related to world politics and more about that mysterious sign of convergence.

Tim Moore: And, concerning sharing that vital message, would you like to join Lamb & Lion Ministries in proclaiming the Gospel and the soon return of Jesus Christ, our blessed hope? Then, please, consider becoming a Prophecy Partner. Here are the details.

Todd Hutchinson: Greetings in the name of Jesus. The staff at Lamb & Lion Ministries is very blessed and encouraged by the faithful support of all our Prophecy Partners who generously donate to this ministry every month. Your donations allow us to proclaim the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ, through our television show “Christ in Prophecy” and through our magazine, website, conferences, and the many ministries we support both domestic and international. If you are not partnering with us and would like to we invite you to do so for a donation of just $25 a month, or a one-time donation of $300 a year. As a Prophecy Partner you will receive six issues of our exciting magazine “The Lamplighter” and six other gifts including either publications, or videos. One of those gifts will be our annual Holy Land calendar. Please partner with us to share the good news of Jesus’ return. Call the number on your screen or go onto our website and become a Prophecy Partner today. I’m Todd Hutchinson with Lamb & Lion Ministries saying, “Look up, be watchful, for our redemption is drawing near.”

End of Program