Israel and the Book of Revelation :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles, Sean Gooding

Revelation 4:1-2, Revelation 7:1-8

“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, ‘Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.’ Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.”

I hope that you have enjoyed and maybe learned something through our walk as we learn more and more about God’s relationship with and to Israel from the very first covenant with Abraham until after the church age is over.

The Bible is full of God’s promises to Israel, and we have explored these over the past few weeks. If you are a student of the book of Revelation, sadly, many people are not, and many churches refuse to teach from the book; yet, in this book, there are clearly defined lines that show who God is predominantly working with at the time.

In the Old Testament, we see some Gentile persons like Rahab, Ruth, and Naaman, to mention a few. The focus, however, from the end of Genesis 11 to the end of the Gospels, is the nation and people of Israel. For a brief period in the book of Daniel, God, through a Jewish prophet, tells us about the Gentile kingdoms that He will raise up on the earth. But even then, they are recorded in relation to Israel. The Medes would begin freeing Israel from Babylon, the Persians would fund the rebuilding of the city, the Greeks would provide a language for the New Testament, and the Romans would build roads to transport the Gospel all over Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia Minor. But the revelation of the kingdoms all centered around Israel.

In Revelation 1-3, we have letters from Jesus to seven churches, all of whom were around at the time that John was writing the book of Revelation. These churches basically demonstrate 7 eras of the church age. There are churches from each era in all of the eras, but there is a predominant church type for each era.

At the end of the church era, we then jump into chapter 4, and John, the last of the Apostles who is still alive and a part of the very first church established by Jesus, is called up into Heaven. The phrase ‘come up here,’ which he is instructed to do after he hears a ‘voice like a trumpet speaking’ is the very word that is translated as rapture. It means to be caught up; thus, John is caught up and is in Heaven. After this event, the church is not mentioned again in Revelation. The writer, led by the Holy Spirit, never mentions the local churches ever again in Revelation.

In the next few chapters, we see scenes that are happening in Heaven, and in chapter 7, we are introduced to the nation of Israel and specifically the twelve tribes. The tribes are named; there are 12,000 men chosen and marked from each one. If you keep reading the chapter, it jumps back to Heaven, and there in Heaven is a multitude from all nations.

Revelation 7:9-10, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!'”

In the next few chapters, there is chaos rained on the earth by God, and then we meet two witnesses on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, and the whole world is watching them. Even right now in our time, the world is beginning to focus again on Israel. She is in the news and in the headlines once again, and she will continue to be as we get closer and closer to the transition from the church age and back to God dealing with Israel as He prepares her to receive her Messiah.

In Revelation 13, the Man of Sin defiles the Temple in Jerusalem with an idol called an image. There is a rebellion; the Jews realize that they have been duped, and they recall Antiochus Epiphanes and his defilement of the Temple, and they cry out. In Revelation 19, Jerusalem is surrounded by the armies of the Man of Sin, and Jesus shows up in the clouds to defend Jerusalem, Israel, and the Jews who are still living. This is all about Israel, all about that sacred land that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is about the throne of David, which is the throne that is promised to Jesus as His own on earth one day. Here are a few of the prophecies:

2 Samuel 7: 12-13, “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”

Luke 1: 32-33, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.”

Isaiah 16:5, “A throne will even be established in lovingkindness, and a judge will sit on it in faithfulness in the tent of David; moreover, he will seek justice and be prompt in righteousness.”

These are just a few examples of the promises that God gave to David, that there would be one to sit on his throne forever. Luke clearly tells us that Jesus is the one who will sit on David’s throne. God is not done with Israel.

Pray for the peace of Israel, and one day soon, my brothers and sisters, we will walk in Jerusalem and see Jesus, David, Abraham, Isaac, Elijah, and the multitude of people who have worshipped God as their One and only. We will see true justice offered to the whole world from Jerusalem, and Jesus will be the face of that justice. No, God is not done with the Jews; if anything, we are seeing the beginning of what He is about to do.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

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How Near Is the “Fullness of the Gentiles”? :: By Terry James

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles, Terry James

During the course of my conversations with David Hitt, a close friend of many years, he interjected what I believe to be a most insightful consideration. His thinking involves the circumstances surrounding the Rapture, the restoration of Israel, and the possibility of the Rapture occurring during widespread devastation, perhaps a war—one like we see going on at present involving Israel and its hate-filled enemies.

The “fullness of the Gentiles” presented by Paul in Romans 11 has always been foremost in the minds of those who study from the pre-Trib view of Bible prophecy. What exactly does that phrase mean with regard to the time of the Rapture of the Church?

Here are David Hitt’s thoughts:

Isaiah 6 contains the well-known “Here I am. Send me” passage in which Isaiah volunteers to convey God’s message to His people that they are hardened (deaf, blind, and without understanding).

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed” (Isaiah 6:8-10).

God not only informs His people that they are hardened and that He is the one hardening them, but also that He has hardened them to delay their repenting and being healed.

In Matthew 13, when the disciples ask Jesus why He speaks “to them” in parables, He quotes from Isaiah 6:

“He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive” (Matthew 13:11-14).

In Acts 28, Paul also quotes Isaiah 6, reminding the local leaders of the Jews that they are hardened.

“And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Acts 28:24-27).

Paul discloses for the first time a consequence of Israel’s hardening: the Gospel would be extended to the Gentiles:

“Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it” (Acts 28:28).

However, both of these quotes (Matthew 13 and Acts 28) from Isaiah 6 stop short. They only address God’s hardening of Israel. Returning to Isaiah 6, beginning in verse 11, the prophet then begs God for an answer, and God gives it to him:

“Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate…” (Isaiah 6:11).

God will lift Israel’s partial hardening during or just after a widespread devastation. This may be a great war, even a nuclear war given the extent and degree of damage. However, it may also be a direct act of God. Note that the cities and the houses need not be in “the land” (the Promised Land). They may be in the land or elsewhere. God continues His answer in verse 12:

“And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land” (Isaiah 6:12).

God gives five conditions that exist just before his people spiritually awaken: (condition 1) cities lie waste without inhabitant; (condition 2) houses are without people; (condition 3) the land is a desolate waste; (condition 4) the Lord removes men (better rendered in the ESV as “people”) far away; and (condition 5) the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

In the middle of describing utter devastation (conditions 1-3 and 5), God interjects an enigmatic condition 4: “and the Lord have removed people far away.” The Lord (in all caps) is Yahweh: the covenantal God, and thus the emphasis appears to be on the keeping of a covenant. “People” implies more than one people, i.e., Gentiles. This clause likely refers to the Rapture. Note that condition 5 mentions “forsaken places.” Being listed after condition 4, might God have forsaken them, the Rapture having happened? It’s an interesting thought.

The lack of an explanation for even 4, the Lord’s removal of people far away, makes it a mystery (something hidden).

Now, let’s look at Romans 11, in which Paul answers the question his earlier chapters begged: If Christ is the answer and the law is not, what about the Jews, to whom God had given the law? Has God turned His back on Israel?

“I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal” (Romans 11:1-4).

The answer is an emphatic “No!” God will save an elect remnant of Israel, and He will save them by grace, not the law. To keep the Gentiles from feeling superior to the Jews, Paul goes on to say:

“I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office: If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:11-15).

Then, after describing how the holy firstfruits of a lump of dough renders the whole lump holy, how a holy root can render the entire tree holy, and how branches may be cut off and grafted onto a tree and thereby become holy, Paul reveals a mystery in verse 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” (Romans 11:25).

The mystery Paul reveals is that the partial hardening of Israel’s elect will end when the “fulness of the Gentiles be [has] come in.”

So, let’s assemble what we have learned. Paul says in Romans 11:25 that Israel’s partial hardening will end when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. In Isaiah 6:11-12, God tells the prophet that He will end His hardening of His people proximate a widespread devastation, likely a great war or a direct act of God. From these two statements, one concludes that the fullness of the Gentiles comes in on the precipice of or during a widespread devastation, after which God ends His partial hardening of Israel’s elect.

God has one last thing to say to Isaiah to answer his “How long, O Lord?” question:

“But yet in [the land] shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof” (Isaiah 6:13).

This speaks of Daniel’s Seventieth Week or the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, commonly called the Tribulation. The stump (the believing remnant of Israel) connects the holy root (Jesus) to the branches (believers) of the pruned and grafted tree (the body of Christ). Thus, Israel will be reawakened, after which will be Daniel’s Seventieth Week, which reiterates what we’ve already known: the Rapture precedes Daniel’s Seventieth Week, but perhaps in a time of great tumult, even war. It won’t be the Tribulation, but many believers may think it is.

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The time of “the fullness of the Gentiles” must be very near, thinking on the signals of Christ’s return flashing all at once during this generation. To be sure to go to Jesus when He calls in the Rapture, you must do the following:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).