Some facts about Israel in the end-times

The temple will be rebuilt before or during the tribulation

While it doesn’t state clearly anywhere that the temple will be rebuilt for these end-times, there are end-times prophecies that require a rebuilt temple.

(a) Jesus told the disciples that when they (Israel) saw the abomination (as prophesied by Daniel) stand (or be established) in the holy place, they were to flee for their very lives. The holy place could only refer to the temple in Jerusalem.
Matthew 24:15-16 – ¹⁵When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) ¹⁶Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
The abomination (antichrist) needs the temple established for this event to take place.

(b) In 2 Thessalonians, Paul stated that the man of sin, the son of perdition (= the antichrist) would sit himself in the temple requiring that he be worshipped as God by God’s people.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 – ³Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; ⁴Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Once again, this event requires that the temple be established before this event.

(c) Daniel also prophesied that the antichrist will make a covenant with Israel for their final 7-year period, in the middle of which the antichrist will cause their temple worship according to the Law to cease. He will then reveal himself to be the abomination that Jesus warned the disciples about.
Daniel 9:27 – And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make [it] desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate. (Or that judgment which has been decreed by God shall be poured out upon the desolator (the antichrist), noting that the term for “desolate” is actually a verb.)
This would occur at the mid-point of the tribulation 7-year period. The antichrist would sit himself in the temple to be worshipped half-way through that 7-year period.

Therefore Israel was warned to flee for their lives when they saw this abomination at the midpoint of those 7 years.

All this must assume the existence of the temple before the mid-point of the tribulation, in existence long enough to permit Israel to have established sacrifices by the Law before the midpoint of the tribulation. It is believed that the muslim Dome of the Rock is currently sitting on the very place where the temple used to be. It would have to be removed before construction of the temple could begin. Ezekiel 38 prophesies a war that will draw many countries (including Russia, Turkey, plus many muslim nations from the Middle East and northern Africa) against Israel, a conflict leading to the antichrist signing this covenant with Israel. The armies coming against Israel in Ezekiel 38 will be more or less exterminated (Ezekiel 39:1-7).

It may be assumed that the Dome of the Rock will be destroyed either during this conflict or soon after. Most muslim nations will be largely wiped out in this war and would not be likely to prevent their Dome from being destroyed. While the antichrist is in reality the enemy of Israel, he wants to be seen as their saviour, to be acknowledged as their Christ the Messiah. He’ll fight their enemies, he’ll grant them some relative stability for a few years, and he hopes that this may be sufficient to earn their respect and even their worship. He would like Israel to see that while their God couldn’t save them, he (antichrist) could! But it won’t be enough, for when he sits in the temple to be worshipped as their god, half-way through the tribulation, Israel disappears and remains hidden from the antichrist for 3½ years.

It can also be assumed that the rebuilt temple remains until Christ the Messiah returns. The antichrist allegedly sits in the temple for 3½ years waiting for that worship that never happens. Then with Israel back in Jerusalem, he gathers the greatest ever army and seeks to overcome Jerusalem at Armageddon. He manages to take half the city captive before Christ returns; he probably is planning on forcing them to worship him once he takes the temple. However, even that fails, for Christ returns and destroys his armies and disposes of him before he manages to capture the temple, it seems.

The Church must go first before Israel can come back to being God’s people once more

The Church owes its existence to Israel’s great failure to obey God. Israel was called to be God’s priesthood to the nations.
Exodus 19:5-6 – ⁵Now therefore, if ye (Israel) will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth [is] mine: ⁶And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These [are] the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
God gave them the Law and basically required Israel to evangelise the other nations. But instead of teaching and preaching God to the other nations, they were tempted to worship the gods of the other nations, something that God had specifically told them not to do, many times! Time after time God patiently judged them and restored them, finally sending them into captivity to other nations; only Judah and Benjamin were to return to their lands; the 10 northern tribes of Israel were scattered from their lands for almost 3000 years.

When Jesus came, they could have received Him as their Messiah but they rejected Him instead. So the Gentile Church (the other non-Israel nations!) now became responsible for Israel’s tasks and to receive their promises for a season.
1 Peter 2:5 – Ye (the Church) also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Israel had been effectively sidelined (but not cast away though). Romans 11 says that Israel (the natural olive branches) was pruned off its own olive tree and the Church (the wild olive branches) was grafted in in place of Israel.
Romans 11:17 – And if some of the branches (Israel) be broken off, and thou (the Church), being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree ….
Romans 11:24 – For if thou (the Church) wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural [branches] (Israel), be graffed into their own olive tree?

When the Church age has been completed ….
Romans 11:25 – For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
… Israel’s blindness will come to an end. That word “fulness” is pleroma (= that which has been filled). pleroma derives from a nautical term meaning “a ship inasmuch as it is filled (i.e. manned) with sailors, rowers, and soldiers“, “of those things which a ship is filled, freight and merchandise, sailors, oarsmen, soldiers“. (Online Bible)
That is, the ship has been rendered full; the ship’s manifest has everything ticked off as being on board; it is ready to sail. When the Church is rendered complete with all on board, then it will sail. This is the Rapture or the snatching away of the Church.

Once the Church has set sail, Israel will be brought back onto God’s timeline. The wild olive branches (the Church) will have been pruned off again, making room for the natural olive branches to be grafted back onto their olive tree. Israel being grafted back on will trigger their salvation process. The Deliverer (Christ their Messiah) will come out of Zion (God’s holy city – Psalm 48:1-2) and shall put them through the furnace of affliction for 7 years after which they shall come forth purified as gold and silver in the furnace.
Romans 11:26-27 – ²⁶And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: ²⁷For this [is] my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
This could happen soon if the current war that Israel is fighting leads into the war of Ezekiel 38. (And all current events strongly suggest this to be so.)

Malachi 3:2-6 – ²But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he [is] like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: ³And he shall sit [as] a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. ⁴Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. ⁵And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in [his] wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger [from his right], and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. ⁶For I [am] the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Can people still get saved during the tribulation?

Currently people can get saved via Romans 10:13 (For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.). When saved, they become part of the Church, the body of Christ. This is mainly focused upon the Gentiles (non-Israel) because most of Israel has been blinded as a result of rejecting their Messiah when He came.
Romans 11:7-8 – ⁷What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded ⁸(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

This blindness was imposed as a consequence of rejecting their Messiah when He came.
John 1:11 – He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
Even then, the gospel was first preached to the Jews. (Paul and Barnabas …. said, “It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you [the Jews]” – Acts 13:46). However, those Jews of Antioch rejected the gospel preached to them; accordingly, Paul and Barnabas turned to the Gentiles and preached the gospel to them instead.

And in this way the Church took over the tasks and promises once promised to Israel.
Acts 13:44-47 – ⁴⁴And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. ⁴⁵But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. ⁴⁶Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. ⁴⁷For so hath the Lord commanded us, [saying], I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

The rejection of the gospel by the Jews of Antioch and the consequent preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles is a watershed event. Israel has now been rejected and the Church accepted instead. The Church has now become the source of the preached gospel, with only a remnant of the Jews hearing and believing, saved by grace into the Church, the body of Christ.
Romans 11:5-6 – ⁵Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. ⁶And if by grace, then [is it] no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if [it be] of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
“remnant” represents only a small portion of the whole here.

While it was God who blinded Israel so that they couldn’t see the truth of the gospel, it is satan who continues to blind many of the Gentile world from seeing the light of the gospel. Satan, who is known as “the god of this world”, uses the love of this world to ensnare those who have been tempted to look at the world rather than the gospel.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 – ³But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: ⁴In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
As Jesus said to His disciples, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26) Those who seek the world will lose their souls!

Currently Jews can be saved and be added to the Church, but one day soon the Church will be taken away (snatched away; raptured) from this world, and from then on it will be Israel who will once again have the gospel. Revelation 7:3-8 states that there will be 144,000 of Israel (12,000 from each tribe) sealed for God’s work. These will be “instant” evangelists, those who will preach the gospel now of Israel. The gospel they preach will be the same as the gospel of the Church. Joel 2:32 (And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.) is a statement of that gospel preached by the 144,000 evangelists of Israel.

All who are saved will then become part of Israel, just as currently all who are saved become part of the Gentile Church. And just as most who are saved now are Gentiles, most of the saved in the coming tribulation will be of Israel. Just as most of Israel is currently blinded from hearing the gospel, then it will be most of the Gentiles who will be blinded from hearing the gospel during the tribulation period.

Therefore, if you are a Gentile (non-Israel) in the tribulation, you will probably have missed the boat. You had your opportunity while the Church still existed on earth. But Paul makes it clear that missed opportunities don’t necessarily come again.
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 – ¹We then, [as] workers together [with him], beseech [you] also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. ²(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now [is] the accepted time; behold, now [is] the day of salvation.)
Now is the day of salvation; there may not be a further day left to you; today may be all the opportunity you have remaining. The tribulation gospel will be primarily for Israel!

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