How can I know if what is happening in Israel is a sign of the end times? - Podcast Episode 158

GotQuestions.org

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:01

Welcome to the Got Questions podcast. On our podcast, as you know, we like to go through popular questions, questions that we're being asked again and again and again.

00:10

We like covering the frequently asked ones and the important ones, and today we're going to do a mix of both.

00:16

And if I could give you one topic that we haven't yet done on the podcast that we're getting a ton of requests for is something about the end times.

00:33

This has been our to -do list, and in no sense are we avoiding it, but I really wanted to one, know which aspect of the end times to cover in the first one, but also who would

00:43

I like to have on. And so joining me today is Pastor Jack Hibbs. He's the pastor of Calvary Chapel in Chino Hills, California.

00:51

He's also an author, a very well -known speaker, and the end times is something he's particularly passionate about, and Israel is something he's particularly passionate about.

01:00

So today we're going to be doing some of our most frequently asked questions about Israel and its relationship to the end times.

01:06

So, Pastor Jack, welcome to the Got Questions podcast. Shea, first of all, I'm honored to be on this.

01:12

I love what you guys are doing. I love your platform. I encourage everybody, they should just spread the word, get people to know about Got Questions.

01:21

I love the fact that you guys are still one of those safe locations where you can send people and they're not going to get goofiness.

01:28

So we appreciate you. We save the goofiness for our office here. We try not to actually put it on the website.

01:35

Thank you for that encouragement. So, Jack, let's start off with kind of a more general question.

01:43

What is Israel's role in the end times? Oh my goodness. Okay, so Israel's role is not only an end times topic, it is an absolute biblical topic from Genesis to Revelation.

01:58

So much so, Shea, that when you look at the context of what we're discussing,

02:05

Bible prophecy, now great scholars are what you and I know as eschatologists, like Dr.

02:12

John Wolvred and others. They have announced to us that the

02:17

Bible itself is somewhere, it depends on who you're talking to, but 27 to 31 % of the

02:24

Bible contains prophetic events. That's over a quarter of your Bible. That means prophecy is important to God.

02:32

Many of the prophecies, in fact, it's quite possibly accurate to read

02:37

Scripture and let Scripture speak to you, that a bulk of those are in relation to Israel.

02:45

And so when you look at the fact that God started with Israel and he's going to end with Israel, in between is this thing called the church age, and we can discuss that later, but Israel, as the

02:58

Bible lays out Israel, is the time piece, it's the key point to literally understanding

03:05

Bible prophecy for the church. The difference between the church and Israel, the tribulation period, the age in which we're living now.

03:16

What about the Old Testament prophecies and all of God's promises to Israel? Did he forfeit or did they forfeit those?

03:22

Or were they really, truly everlasting covenant that God made with Abraham?

03:29

If we botch this up, Shea, regarding the topic of Israel, then we have cut ourselves loose even as Gentiles from the validity of the

03:40

Bible. We won't know what God is going to do next. So yes, Israel's key to understanding the end time

03:47

Bible prophecy scheme. The thing that amazes me the most about those who interpret

03:53

Bible prophecy literally, the book of Revelation is describing literal events that will occur.

04:00

For a long time, people were predicting, but those who interpreted the Bible literally take a premillennial viewpoint, that there has to be an actual nation of Israel for these events to take place.

04:10

Well, since about 70 AD, there was no nation of Israel, yet some premillennials were saying there's going to be, and people were laughing at them.

04:20

Well, then come 1940s, suddenly there is a nation of Israel again. So we just start to see how these events actually could unfold, start to see, you know, the

04:29

Bible actually—Bible prophecy could be fulfilled literally. For nearly 2 ,000 years, you just had to step out in faith that there will someday be a nation of Israel for God to begin to work through prophetically without actually seeing it in reality.

04:44

And then 1940s, we see it become a reality, and now we're like, how soon is it?

04:50

Wow. So well said. You know, you think about what you just said. For example, it's

04:57

Isaiah that says, shall a nation be born twice in one day, a second birth in one day?

05:04

The context is Israel. It says it's Israel. Did that happen?

05:09

May 14th, 1948, in one day. Did the

05:17

Bible predict that in the last days before God deals with Israel, that He would draw

05:22

His people back into their own land, Ezekiel 36 -37, that He would draw them back into their own land in the last days—listen to this—and that He would draw them back from all four corners of the earth, and He would do so bringing them back, and they would come in unbelief.

05:42

Isn't that wild? They would decide to move to Israel, or some would say, we're going back home.

05:48

Oh, did you used to live in Israel? No, but we're going home. Oh, wow. Are you a Jew? Yes. Listen, Shay, you've heard this a thousand times.

05:56

Are you a Jew? Yes. Oh, do you believe in God? No. It's like, what? If you go to Israel today, ask a

06:03

Jew on the street, do you believe in God? So many of them will say no, which is hilarious, because the word

06:09

Jew comes from Judah, Judith, Judah. It means one who praises

06:15

God. If you say you're a Jew and you don't praise God, there's a funny thing going on. Well, the funny thing that's going on is

06:21

God's Word is being fulfilled. So He's been drawing His people back into the land. You've got to stop and ask yourself, is that true?

06:27

It was born a second time as a nation no country ever has in human history, but Israel, in one day,

06:34

May 14th, 1948, and that it would be also indicative that they would be surrounded by a hostile group of enemies that would seek their destruction in the last days.

06:44

What do we see on the news? The best thing, and you already said it, the best thing to do is when you read the

06:49

Bible, read it with a futurist, literal approach. Let it talk to you.

06:55

Don't tell the Bible what to say. Let the Bible speak to you, and you'll land on your feet just fine.

07:02

Absolutely. That segues really well into what I wanted to ask you next.

07:07

And this isn't so much a question that we get, but it's something that we are often responding to.

07:13

Every time there is a explosion of violence in the Middle East, Hamas or the

07:21

Palestinian territories or Lebanon or Syria attacking Israel in some fashion, some people, we like to call it, automatically go into apocalyptic freak -out mode, where this is it.

07:32

This is the one. And yet, in the 20 -year history of God questions, I don't know how many different explosions of violence and warfare there have been in and around Israel.

07:42

How do we, like you say, look up, be expectant, be looking forward to the eschatological fulfillment of Bible prophecy and be excited and be passionate about it and want to see it while also not freaking out each time something happens in Israel that might be the start of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy?

08:05

You know, so perfectly well said. We want to avoid sensationalism.

08:12

There's this bizarre thing. Would you call it apocalyptic freak -out mode?

08:18

It's very sad. I actually think it does more damage to the witness of the church than any good.

08:23

And look, you know, not too long ago, we had all the books about the blood moons, the blood moons, and this is the end.

08:31

Start counting the calendar, the day Christ is coming, the second coming.

08:36

All this craziness does nothing but discredit the witness of the church. So what do we do about, in fact, even as you and I are speaking at this moment,

08:48

I reached out this morning and late last night to friends in Israel because there's violence going on right now in Israel.

08:55

I asked how they're doing. Are you okay? Where did the missiles or the rockets land in your area?

09:01

Listen, nobody gets freaked out over Chicago's, look,

09:06

Israel. That's one thing. You go to Chicago, good chance you're getting shot. But it's

09:12

Israel. That should tell people something. Everybody's Israel sensitive. That's a good thing.

09:18

But we need to interpret everything through, again, through the scriptures. These things are going to escalate.

09:23

Violence against Israel is going to escalate according to the Bible. How do we know? Well, one of the things is that Daniel tells us that whenever the

09:31

Antichrist does come on the scene, he's going to offer peace and prosperity. So that presupposes there's going to be no peace and no prosperity.

09:40

He's going to bring the answers. So we need to just pull back. Oh my gosh, you know, the

09:46

COVID shot was the mark of the beast. No, it wasn't. It was just a stupid virus or a vaccine that didn't work.

09:55

It wasn't the mark of the beast. Okay. The thing is people jump. And I don't know,

10:00

Shea, if it's because they want to see Bible prophecy fulfilled or they just want to be the ones that get out of the gate with the first tweet.

10:07

I don't get it. But we need to calm down, read the Bible. Don't be anxious for anything. And by the way,

10:13

I mean, Jesus said, when you see these things begin to happen, look up, your redemption draws near.

10:18

But he also said, when these things begin to unfold, the end is not yet, for these other things must take place.

10:25

So we need to be balanced by the entire word of God, the fullness of God's counsel.

10:31

And again, we'll do fine if we do that. Amen. Like the primary rapture passage in the

10:38

New Testament for Thessalonians, I love how it concludes with, encourage one another with these words.

10:44

Not freak one another out, not scare each other, but encourage one another with these words.

10:49

And that's an important attitude shift that a lot of us need to be reminded of, who are excited, who are passionate about the end times, love studying it, love teaching on it, but also don't want to get in front of what

11:01

God's word actually says, to allow God's word to shape eschatology, not the news headlines.

11:07

Yeah, I love that. Can I just add this before we move on? I was spiritually born and raised in a church that was just super pre and then after a while I rebelled and I went post.

11:21

And so I studied everything post. And I got to tell you, it was depressing. I had to manipulate scripture.

11:28

I had to replace Israel with the church in scripture. I had to change that.

11:35

And it became so difficult. And then, I mean, God took me to the woodshed. And when I came back to understanding the pre -tribulational rapture view,

11:43

I came away with such a deep assurance and comfort, as you just mentioned. But people need to realize this.

11:49

At the church I pastor and in my personal life, Shay, we believe that the

11:54

Lord could come back today. That drives us, listen, it's going to sound kooky, but didn't

12:01

Jesus say, doesn't the Bible say occupy till he comes? Doesn't it say that we need to get into the fields because they're wide into harvest?

12:08

Even though I believe that he could come back today, our entire staff is just busting the hump to get stuff done, to get the word of God out.

12:19

And we're planning for the next 50 years, literally Shay, with radio programming, television programming, in case he doesn't come back, but we're working like he's coming back today.

12:32

That fact of his imminent return fills up our tank to be ready to meet him now, but it sets us on a path of urgency that is a 50 -year plan.

12:43

And it's not a contradiction. We're occupying till he comes. He could come today. Amen. When I look at the history of Got Questions Ministries and being around now for 21 years and seeing this cycle of questions, and some people have gone through the whole

13:03

Jesus is coming back so soon, predict the date against what the

13:08

Bible says and make some tragic mistakes with their lives and their decision -making because of that, or get so focused on the end times that they forget that we have a calling.

13:18

We have a mission to make disciples now. So it's a difficult balance, as I'm sure we've all discovered and gone one too far in one direction or the other, but it's good to remember to be looking up, to be passionately expecting and desiring the return of Christ, but also until that day comes, the fields are white in harvest.

13:40

We are to be his laborers in the field. So we discussed briefly how to avoid the apocalyptic freakout.

13:46

Now the other side, why is it so important for us to remember that God still has a plan for the nation of Israel?

13:55

Brilliant question. Wonderful answer from God's word. I'll put it to you this way.

14:02

If God does not fulfill his promises that he made to Israel, then you and I, the church, we have no promises to hang on to.

14:11

You got to remember, we have been grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel, the

14:17

Gentile church. God will so fulfill his word, even in the face of Israel's rebellion and stubbornness, did he not say in the

14:26

Old Testament, don't think I picked you Israel because you guys are really good in music and you can write great plays and you guys are going to be the biggest

14:34

Nobel prize winners in the universe. No. He said, I picked you guys because you're really a bunch of hardheaded, stubborn people who are stiff necked.

14:45

And I am going to show the world my grace and mercy through you, Israel. I've picked you.

14:52

And that is to encourage us. God is not going to give up on Israel, even if Israel gives up on God.

14:58

He has said, I'm going to reserve a remnant for my word's sake, for my name's sake.

15:04

I made a promise to Abraham. I made a promise to David. I'm going to fulfill it. And that's why for the what, 75 years, if my math is right,

15:15

Israel has been in their land again in the last days. It's not Palestine. I know people want to say

15:21

Palestine. I get it. It was never Palestine, by the way, in the Old Testament. I think you guys know that, of course,

15:26

Emperor Hadrian renamed Israel Palestine in 135 A .D.

15:33

to shame the Israelis and to call Jerusalem, Yerushalayim, to call it

15:40

Capitolina. Why? Satan and unbelief always tries to erase the promises of God.

15:48

And that's why Israel has been the target of anti -Semitism. Look, Satan hates them because he knows something what most

15:56

Christians don't know. That is, Israel is pivotal to the fulfillment of end time events. Israel must be present for the seven year tribulation period.

16:06

And so we must, again, let scripture interpret scripture.

16:13

And please don't let Calvary Chapel, the Lutheran Church, the

16:18

Baptist Church, the Catholic Church or any cool somebody pull you away from organic, orthodox and original

16:33

Bible scriptures. Look to the apostles, read them, read the

16:39

Bible, you'll be safe. And again, if God doesn't keep his promises with Israel, Shea, you and I, we can't trust him for anything.

16:50

Absolutely. That's Romans 9 through 11 right there. God points to how can we know that nothing can separate us from the love of God because nothing will ever separate

17:00

Israel from God's love. So here's the question that actually came in yesterday via email about Israel.

17:11

It fascinates me because it's a very interesting question. How does the fact that right now the nation of Israel is largely unbelief, atheistic, and hostile to Christianity, how does that impact how we as Christians view the nation of Israel at least right now?

17:30

Yeah, again, number one, we answered a moment ago, God said, I'm going to draw them back into their own land in unbelief.

17:35

So that's happened. And remember what Paul said in Romans to the

17:42

Gentile church? He said, hey, you guys, it's my desire that you guys provoke the

17:49

Jew to jealousy. What does that mean? When we study the Word of God, when we know the

17:55

Word of God as a Gentile has been grafted in, when we share the Lord with Jews, and I highly recommend all of you do that,

18:01

I highly recommend get schooled and understand how to share with a

18:08

Jew that Jesus is the Messiah without ever touching the New Testament. Remember the early church fathers and all the apostles, they didn't have a

18:18

New Testament. They only had the Old Testament. And yet they argued

18:23

Christ is Messiah from the Old Testament. So you say, but Jack, the Jews hostile towards us.

18:29

Of course they are. They're very passionate people. And even when they're wrong, they think they're right. They're stubborn as all get out.

18:37

But I got to tell you, I mean, I just confess, I've talked to a lot of Jews over the last 30 years.

18:42

Some of them I love dearly. Some of them have stayed in my home for vacations from Israel. They don't believe.

18:48

And boy, do we go at it all in love, Old Testament only. And it's thrilling. Here's the thing.

18:54

You're right. Generally speaking, they don't like Christians. Listen, I have found that many times the

19:01

Christians they don't like, I don't like them either because I'm not even sure if the Christian they're talking about is even a

19:08

Christian. So I want to win them with the love of Jesus. I understand something that the

19:16

Bible says that the God of this world, Satan, has blinded the eyes of those who do not believe.

19:22

But I do not see that in Scripture regarding the Jew. Shay, the

19:28

Bible says God has blinded the Jew, which causes me, he's the one that put the veil on the

19:34

Jew, which causes me personally, Jack, to try to find a Jew wherever I can to try to share with them

19:41

Yeshua as Messiah from the Old Testament. If they're going to hate me for that, it just fulfills

19:49

Bible prophecy, which Jesus says if they hated me first, they're going to hate you too.

19:55

I told them the truth. They rejected me. Don't be surprised if you tell them the truth and they reject you. So I'm supposed to find a

20:02

Jew, tell them about their God. I have a ring from Israel, as probably so many people

20:08

I know do, and it says your people, my people, your God, my God from the book of Ruth. And so I'll sit down on an airplane or I'll be somewhere and a

20:16

Jew will say, oh, you're Jewish. And I say, no, no, no, I'm not Jewish, but the God I worship is

20:22

Jewish. And that opens up the whole conversation. It's okay if they hate us.

20:28

They hated Jesus first. Don't be offended by that. Don't step back from that.

20:34

And I think you and I should engage, Shay, like never before, because we do need to rebuke or expose a bad version of Christianity that many of these

20:44

Jews have inherited by sad example. Amen, well said.

20:52

The flip side of that coin, what are the ways that you would say that Christians today in this current dispensation, this current age, in what way should we be supporting the nation of Israel?

21:05

Yeah. I would look for ministries. If you don't know any, get a hold of GotQuestions .org or go to JackHibbs .com.

21:13

We'll steer you in the right direction. There are great ministries that you can get involved in.

21:18

Now hear me out, because I don't want you to get upset. Number one, the number one goal for us is to get the gospel to the

21:26

Jew. But they're not an easy people to get the gospel to. So just like a good doctor will distract you when he gives you the shot, or I love my dentist, by the way.

21:37

I mean, who can say that? My dentist numbs my gums with a topical before he gives me the shot, and I don't feel a thing.

21:47

We must deliver the truth to the Jew, but we must first listen. We must earn that opportunity to do it in love.

21:57

They're not a crusade type of people. They're not going to show up at a Christian outreach. You've got to show them love.

22:05

You've got to befriend them. You've got to do friendship evangelism. That's hard work.

22:11

That's not our American version of flash in the pan, hey, come to the crusade and you'll get saved.

22:16

They want to know if you're real. Look, they're very bright, shrewd, and tough people to win over.

22:23

But the power of God's love always prevails. If they know, in fact, listen, somebody that you and I know,

22:30

Shea, Dennis Prager said about myself in this church that I have honored a pastor.

22:39

He said, I know that that church and that Pastor Jack is a group of people who will hide me in the day of trouble.

22:50

That's a term among Jews. Are those Gentiles you know? Are they people who will hide you?

22:57

It's a reference back to World War II and the Corrie ten Boone era. And when a

23:03

Jew believes that you will risk your life for them, then they're ready to listen to what you have to say about the gospel.

23:11

That's vitally important that you do that. Love them and watch what happens.

23:18

Powerful. That's good. The gospel is the power of salvation to all who believe, first for the

23:27

Jew, then for the Gentile. Amen. We often flip that around. It's a powerful reminder that, no, it doesn't matter that they're largely unbelieving and don't seem open.

23:39

No, the gospel must go out to the Jew. And if we're not doing that, we're failing in a big portion of what

23:47

God is calling us to. Yeah. So thanks for that powerful reminder. So just briefly,

23:53

I mean, briefly, you're going to laugh when I actually ask you this because we could do a whole episode just on this. But what would you say, what are the next things on the prophetic calendar specifically related to Israel that we can be looking towards?

24:07

Yeah, I'm going to answer it the way you put it. You said specifically regarding Israel. So that's what

24:12

I'm going to stay focused on. Israel at the current hour is being increasingly surrounded by a hostile audience.

24:19

According to Ezekiel, we now see the proximity, Shea, of Russia. We thought

24:26

Russia was more Jerusalem, Moscow. Now it's Russia in Lebanon, Russia in Syria.

24:33

So we know that the possibility of Ezekiel 38 is very near possibility.

24:41

We see Iran, Persia in scripture. We see the alignment of those several nations, which is how we know it's not

24:49

Armageddon context. There are several nations named in the

24:54

Ezekiel sequence of nations that will group together with the Prince of Rosh, Meshach, and Tubal.

25:00

He goes by the name of, or a title, sorry, not the name, title of Gog, G -O -G, a military political leader.

25:08

I'm not saying it's Putin, but it's going to be a Putin type. That could happen. We also know that Isaiah 17 warns us that in the last days, something's going to happen in Damascus that will render it,

25:21

Isaiah 17, Damascus will experience an explosion of such a magnitude that it will never again be inhabited.

25:28

That could happen at any time. Could that be actually a preemptor to the

25:34

Ezekiel situation? Israel's government is falling apart at the seams.

25:40

Much like America right now, Israel seems to be going through the same thing. There's a destabilization.

25:47

I could take an hour pointing out possibilities, I'm not a prophet, possibilities of the stage being set by all the parts that could now get

26:01

God's time clock going. So I'm looking to Israel to possibly be invaded.

26:10

I'm looking for Israel to be blamed for something that could cause a coalition of nations to attack them.

26:19

I see Israel struggling internally. So keep your eye on Israel.

26:27

There are various news agencies that you can watch. Can I just encourage all of you, don't watch

26:33

Western news. It is so now polluted. You're not going to get good news about any country or even your own country from your local news.

26:42

You've got to go outside. And I look at all kinds of news. I look at the people's news in China.

26:48

I'm looking at the Iranian Times, Tehran Times, and various Israeli news sources.

26:55

I -24 is one of them. But keep your eye on Israel, you guys, every day.

27:00

Because I think this summer, and I'm basing this, Shay, off of prophecy and off of history of the past.

27:09

This summer could be a really rough time for Israel. But again, we move one more step closer to end time events.

27:18

Absolutely. I mean, I've been to Israel a few times, hoping to return in the fall.

27:25

But this whole, numerous people who are on the trip have been emailing, is the trip still on?

27:30

It's like, as of now, the trip is still on. But that could totally change based on events or things could be totally calm again in preparation for the next biggest explosion of violence that that one might be the one.

27:43

So, like you said, keep your eye on Israel, but also keep your eye on the Scriptures and base your end times views on what

27:51

Scripture says, not necessarily on the news headlines. But the news headlines can be indicators of what

27:57

God is doing and that the prophetic calendar is the clock is ticking a little faster. Yeah, absolutely.

28:03

Well, Pastor Jack, thank you so much for joining me today. I just wanted to give you a brief opportunity. Hopefully our audience is familiar with you, with your ministry, with the books you've written.

28:13

But what are some things you have going on? And feel free to give website addresses, anything. What's something you'd really like our audience to be aware of that you're doing right now?

28:22

Goodness, thank you for that. There's a lot going on, but one thing is monumental. And it's this, on May 28th, which is coming up real quick,

28:31

May 28th is the fact that we are launching a real life network. If you know what

28:37

Hulu is, if you know what Netflix is, if you know what Amazon is, we're doing the exact same thing.

28:43

But we are launching Real Life Network, which is going to host 24 -7 video on demand.

28:48

Sometimes we'll have live broadcasting as well. It is Christian content and or conservative or moral or character building content.

29:00

Some good old American programming, something like Little House on the Prairie, all the or Charles Stanley, Dr.

29:13

Adrian Rogers, to contemporary teachers today. It's going to actually mirror a lot of the integrity that you guys have sustained all these years.

29:22

And that is, it's a place where you can go. It's free to subscribe. It's free to be a broadcaster on it, because God has provided.

29:32

And you're going to be safe. You're not going to be shocked. It's going to be

29:37

Bible -based, scriptural teaching and content that you're going to love.

29:43

So thank you for that question. It's the Real Life Network. And you can find out more by just simply going to jackhibs .com,

29:52

jackhibs .com. Everything is there. And man, thanks for allowing us to have the plug.

29:58

No problem. And we'll include some links both in the description on YouTube, in this video that was live and the show notes for the podcast and at podcast .gotquestions

30:07

.org when this episode goes live. So, Pastor Jack, thank you again for a thrilling conversation. Been wanting to do this for a long time.

30:13

I look forward to hopefully meeting you in person sometime, because I've admired you, your ministry, your teaching for a long time.

30:20

Shea, thank you. Thanks for the honor for having us on. God bless you. This has been the Got Questions podcast on what is

30:26

Israel's role in the end times. Got questions? The Bible has answers, and we'll help you find them.