As someone who worked hard for passage of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, it was disappointing over the ensuing years to see one president after another break their promises to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem. Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama – Democrats and Republicans alike – had all promised during their election campaigns to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US Embassy there. Yet each one reneged on their promises once in office.

And then along came Donald J. Trump. Twenty-two years after I first drafted a bill to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem for Senator Jon Kyl, President Trump was finally the one who kept his campaign promise to give this revered city the respect it is due. It proved that Trump was no ordinary politician. And it was a great personal relief and vindication that all the work and effort put in some two decades earlier had not gone to waste. When granting official recognition to Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, Trump specifically rested his decision on the overwhelming support that bill had already received in Congress back in 1995.

Looking back on that time, there were many in Congress who actually were opposed to the Embassy move to Jerusalem, but did not want that publicly known. They had always supported the annual congressional resolutions to move the Embassy, which passed with near unanimous bipartisan support every year between 1983 and 1994. But when push came to shove and an actual law was tabled, rather than just a non-binding resolution, it was clear that the issue of ‘Jerusalem’ was merely a political football and fund-raising tool for many politicians in Washington.

That is why, at the last minute, they forced an amendment to the bill giving the president the authority to waive its provisions every six months if he could certify to Congress that it was in America’s “national security interests” to do so. This amendment ensured the bill’s passage and yet gutted it at the same time.

The proponents of the presidential waiver authority cited two rationales which had always been used to deny the Jewish people their rightful place in Jerusalem. The first pretext was “even-handedness” – that in the midst of mediating the Oslo talks the US had to remain neutral and not prejudge a major final status issue in the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The second excuse they offered was “implosion” – the fear that the whole Middle East would explode in violence and bloodshed if you touched the sensitive nerve of Jerusalem.

Trump proved the second pretext was totally wrong, as the region in fact did not explode with his Jerusalem decision three years ago. And as for the even-handed argument, it too was just a mask for a deeper, hidden negotiating strategy. For years, the conventional approach among the Washington elite had always been to keep Israel boxed in on Jerusalem and other final status issues in order to limit its options and force concessions in other areas to achieve peace with the Palestinians. The Israelis might get Jerusalem in the end, and deservedly so, but until then they could not have it. This strategy was pursued on both sides of the aisle, despite all the pro-Israel rhetoric heard in the halls of Congress. And it was Donald Trump who broke free of that mold, which in actuality had been hindering peace throughout the region for so long. For it gave the Palestinians a veto power over any progress towards peace, with no pressure to ever change their position.

The Trump approach is ‘peace from the outside in’, bringing more regional Arab states into the circle of peace with Israel and leaving the Palestinians to finally come to terms with Israel’s existence, or stew in their intransigence and have history pass them by.

Trump’s positive moves for peace go well beyond his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and his move of the US Embassy there. It extends beyond his acknowledgement of the Golan as sovereign Israeli territory. He has upheld Israel’s legal rights and legitimate presence in Judea/Samaria. He withdrew the United States from the deeply flawed Iranian nuclear agreement that endangered American allies across the region. Trump and his Administration also have defended Israelis from the constant bullying and defamation they face in the United Nations.

And now President Trump is using all diplomatic fronts to benefit Israel and ensure peace and stability for all concerned. After convincing the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan to normalize relations with Israel, he stands poised to welcome another five to ten more nations into the circle of peace – including the Saudis, according to a former top Israeli intelligence officer. Even Serbia and Kosovo were told to do right by Israel and Jerusalem if they want US help to overcome their differences. And this is all without fighting any wars or paying exorbitant sums for other nations to want peace for themselves.

These are historic moves that are changing the international landscape for the better. It took a non-politician to break us out of the old Washington policy-think that Israel had to be kept hemmed in to achieve peace. And the momentum is there for even greater advances in the days ahead. But first, Trump faces the daunting task of winning re-election.

Whatever the outcome of next week’s elections in the US, we can already say without reservation that the Trump presidency has been a great gift to Israel and the entire Middle East. And I will be forever grateful that he was the one who kept his promise to honor Jerusalem.

David Parsons is an author, attorney, journalist, and ordained minister who serves as Vice President and senior spokesman for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem; www.icej.org/

As Israelis marked their 72nd Independence Day on Wednesday (29 April), many Christians saw this as a time to celebrate the faithfulness of God to His promises. Meantime, other Christians joined with the Palestinians in remembering the day of Israel’s national rebirth as the Nakba (Arabic for “disaster”).

Indeed, much of the Christian world still struggles with the theological significance of Israel’s stunning re-emergence as a nation on May 14, 1948. Some churches have slowly come to terms with the extensive biblical credentials behind the promised ‘restoration of Zion,’ but others still cling to antiquated doctrines about the Jews being cursed to endless wandering, and Israel being totally replaced by the Church as God’s redemptive instrument in the world.

We were given a recent reminder of these lingering antisemitic attitudes within Christian circles when headlines appeared last week reporting that the Danish Bible Society has just published a new translation of the Bible which removes dozens of mentions of “Israel” throughout the Old and New Testaments. In many places, the “Land of Israel” becomes the “land of the Jews.” Elsewhere, the word “Israel” is replaced with “us”, such as in Psalm 121:4: “He who watches over us [Israel in the original] will neither slumber nor sleep.”

In the face of criticism, the Danish Bible Society has offered as its defense that the costly and time-consuming translation was necessary to meet the demands of many Danish Christians who were uncomfortable in reading a version of Scripture which might lead some to confuse Biblical Israel with the modern state of Israel. In other words, they do not want to be confronted by God’s word in their political views, so they change the sacred to protect their secularized beliefs.

Timeless Truth
In all the Bible, the calling and election of the nation and people of Israel for the purpose of world redemption is presented as an enduring truth. Further, the modern-day Jewish return to the land of their fathers testifies to the faithfulness of our covenant-keeping God.  

In Genesis, the Patriarch Abraham was promised not only a “seed” to bless all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3, 22:18), but also the physical land of Israel as an “everlasting possession” for his natural descendants (Genesis 17:8). Thus, both the land and people of Israel were irrevocably chosen for the purpose of world redemption (Romans 11:29).

Although most Christians rightly focus on the promise of a “Seed” to redeem the world (Galatians 3:16), the land promise is equally vouched for in Scripture. For instance, the Psalmist refers to it as a sworn “statute” – using a Hebrew word meaning a decree carved in stone, like the Ten Commandments (Psalm 105:10).

So even though the Lord exiled the Jewish people from their land for predetermined seasons as a corrective measure, they never forfeited their underlying title deed to the Land of Israel. And He has vowed to deliver the entire land to them one day in abiding rest and peace (Exodus 33:14; Jeremiah 30:10; Jeremiah 46:27; Hebrews 4:1, 9).

The Hebrew prophets were servants of God’s sworn covenants with Israel, revealing how the Lord would use the relationship between the land and the people of Israel to carry out His salvation purposes for all nations. When one reads the writings of the Old Testament prophets – with their odd mix of poetry, fury, compassion and despair – the key to understanding their ministry is to realize that every prophetic utterance has to fit within the terms and conditions of the covenants already established by divine oath with Israel’s Patriarchs – Abraham, Moses and David.

Thus, the words of warning flowed from the prophets’ anguish that Israel was in breach of the conditions God placed on their right to reside in the land. Yet their accompanying joy was in realization that God nevertheless was duty bound to return them to the land again one day.

Even so, some Christians contend that the two prophesied Jewish exiles and returns were completed in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and that Old Testament promises of an end-day ingathering and exaltation of Israel back in her land were fulfilled in the birth and ‘triumph’ of the Church. In challenging Christian Zionists, they argue that the New Testament is basically silent regarding the ‘land,’ and thus Christians have scant biblical basis to support the secular State of Israel.

Yet there are numerous clear references to the Land of Israel in the New Testament – as the Danish Bible Society has apparently discovered to their chagrin. This goes beyond just mentions of the “land,” and includes every reference to the covenants or ‘promises made to the fathers’ – meaning the Patriarchs – because they necessarily include the land. It is not implied or inferred, it is intrinsic, since the land is subsumed or embedded into the terms of God’s covenants with Abraham, Moses and David.

In Romans 15:8, the Apostle Paul says that even Jesus came “to confirm the promises made to the fathers” – which inescapably includes the land promise. Then in Hebrews chapter six, New Testament believers are urged to take “strong encouragement” that God will always keep His promises to us, simply by observing His faithfulness to the Abrahamic covenant. Thus, if we see the Almighty bringing the Jews back to their promised land, we can rejoice in God’s faithful character and trust Him to keep His every promise to us as well under the New Covenant.

In addition, New Testament writers and figures, including Jesus, repeatedly invoked the Jewish hope of a future ‘restoration’ of their sovereignty in the land, a widely held concept drawn from numerous promises in Scripture about restoring the “fortunes” (or “captivity”) of Jacob/Israel. This Jewish hope was so prevalent in those days that the words “for the redemption of Zion” or “the freedom of Zion” were even imprinted on many Judean coins in the First Century.

It was these times of favor or ‘restoration’ for Israel that the Apostle Peter alludes to when he boldly declares that the “times of restoration of all things” spoken of “by the mouth of His holy prophets” will indeed come before Messiah returns (Acts 3:21).

Isaiah 66:8 ponders, “shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” The modern-day restoration of Zion indeed has proven painful thus far for many – Jews and Arabs alike – and more has yet to be birthed. But the reappearance of a sovereign Jewish nation in their ancient homeland is truly cause for Christians to rejoice in a God who is ever faithful to His promises.

The modern-day rebirth of the nation of Israel seventy years ago is such an unprecedented act in world history, and is considered an outright ‘miracle’ in the most classic sense of the word. That is, it could only have been achieved by divine intervention.

This is especially true in light of the uniquely dire circumstances under which Israel’s re-emergence among the family of nations took place. The prophet Isaiah alludes to these travails when he asks: “Shall the earth be made to give birth in one day? Or shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion was in labour, she gave birth to her children.” (Isaiah 66:8)

In 1948, the Jewish people were still reeling from the tragedy of the Holocaust. The enormous scope and depravity of the Nazi genocide against the Jews was still being uncovered, and two-thirds of European Jewry had been gassed or gunned down en masse. Most of the surviving remnant were on the brink of starvation, and few wanted to return to their homes. They knew their neighbours had never really accepted them, and likely never would.

Such calamities were nothing new for the Jews. For centuries they had faced pogroms, blood libels, forced conversions, expulsions and other forms of religious persecutions, yet this was the lowest point. The racial anti-Semitism of the Nazis had reduced them to sub-human status as if they were vermin slated for extermination. As a people, the Jews felt they had reached a dead end.

The prophet Ezekiel spoke of such a time when Israel would say as a people: “Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!” Yet God declared that all was not lost. At their lowest moment, He would assuredly “cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.” (Ezekiel 37:11-12)

The great miracle of Israel’s rebirth in May 1948 was that it happened just three years after the Holocaust ended. From the ashes of the Shoah, the Jewish people suddenly arose and re-established sovereignty in their ancient homeland. At their time of greatest weakness, they were empowered in a way that had alluded them for centuries, and it was nothing less than the resurrection power of God at work.

Even more astounding is the fact that Israel faced another very serious threat of annihilation as it was reborn. When its founding leader David Ben-Gurion declared independence for the Jewish state on 14 May 1948, it was immediately attacked by five invading Arab armies. These Arab forces were armed, trained, and in some cases even commanded by officers from some of the world’s major powers. In contrast, the international community placed an arms embargo on the fledgling state of Israel, and only one small nation – Czechoslovakia – dared defy it by supplying weapons to the desperate Jewish fighters. In many instances, frail Holocaust survivors arriving from Europe were thrown straight into battle without even shoes on their feet. Arab leaders had vowed to “drive the Jews into the sea”, but somehow Israel prevailed.

THE FOLLOWING year of 1949, the United Nations voted to admit Israel as a full member state during a time when numerous nations were securing their independence and joining the international community. Many nations were also born out of the widespread suffering of the First and Second World Wars, therefore there was great sympathy for these nations, as well as Israel. Although, Israel stands out for the way it overcame the greatest odds and rewrote history.

The Jews are the only people who have been thoroughly uprooted from their homeland to then return to that same land and re-establish their national sovereignty. You could search far and wide and still not find another people who have managed to do this even once, and yet the Jews have done it twice! What makes this all the more remarkable is that the Bible, which they gifted to the world, told us all this was going to happen before it came to be. The Scriptures declared beforehand that there would be two scatterings and two returns of the Jewish people – first from Babylon and then from all the nations of the earth.

It was this very Bible that kept the Jews together as a people during their long centuries of exile. This same Bible planted in them a prophetic hope of return and national restoration, which became the driving force that brought them back – quite literally – from the grave.

The Apostle Paul relies on these prophetic passages when he speaks of a promised future restoration for Israel in the Book of Romans. He teaches that even Israel’s scattering had a redemptive purpose for the Gospel to go out to all nations and thereby reconcile many to God. Yet when it finally comes time for Israel’s ingathering, Paul says we can expect no less than “life from the dead!” (Romans 11:11-15). That is, the resurrection power of God will still be at work in the earth when the Jewish nation is finally restored in their ancient homeland.

We live in a day when we have witnessed these things coming to pass. Seventy years after Israel’s miraculous rebirth causes us to question: Will we align with those who are trying to put the Jewish people back in their graves? Or will we be among those who are found rejoicing in the incredible way God has brought the nation of Israel back to life?

As we enter the New Year, we are in the midst of a twelve-month period that is rather unique in Israel’s modern history. During this year-long span, we are celebrating a remarkable series of anniversaries. It all began in May 2017 with the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Jerusalem’s reunification, and it ends in May 2018 with the celebration of Israel’s 70th year of independence. Never in my lifetime can I recall a period with so many remembrances of key historic events related to Israel’s rebirth. They also are significant markers for the Church and the nations. This includes:

50 years of a reunited Jerusalem
70 years since the UN plan for a Jewish state
70 years since Israel’s independence
100 years since the Balfour Declaration
100 years since Gen. Edmund Allenby liberated Jerusalem from Ottoman rule
120 years since the First Zionist Congress in Basel convened by Theodor Herzl
150 years since Sir Charles Warren discovered the ancient City of David

Now each of these numbers bears a certain biblical significance.

Fifty years – the Jubilee
The biblical Jubilee encompasses a fifty-year cycle. According to Leviticus 25, every 50th year was to be a year of Jubilee. If an Israelite landing on hard times had to sell his land or even his own self into servitude, then the 50th year represented a year of good news and renewed favour. All his original inheritance would be returned to him and he would regain his freedom. It is indeed a season of God’s favour (Isaiah 60:1ff; Luke 4:18ff), when God restores unique blessings to His people.

In modern times, Jerusalem has gone through a whole sequence of these jubilee cycles over the past 50, 100 and 150 years, indicating that there is a divine pattern of restoration and release operating over the city of God.

Seventy and 120 years – a lifespan of completion
Seventy years represents a significant timespan in the Bible. Moses gives 70 years as the lower limit of a human lifetime (Psalm 91:10). It was the period for which Israel was exiled to Babylon. Thus they spent an entire lifespan in captivity. Then after 70 years, God remembered His promise of restoration and the Jewish people began returning to their homeland under Ezra and Nehemiah.

The prophet Daniel saw that 70 weeks were determined for Israel and Jerusalem to complete their divine purposes (Daniel 9:24ff).

The period of 120 years represents the upper limit for a human lifespan. In the times of Noah (Genesis 6:3), God gave humanity 120 years to live. Moses also died exactly at this age, and no biblical figure has ever reached this age since.

Thus, both 70 years (for the State of Israel) and 120 years (for the Zionist movement) represent a season of completion and accomplishment.

The Jewish year
The Jewish calendar long predates our Gregorian calendar and counts the years since Adam’s creation. According to Jewish tradition, these amazing jubilees have occurred in the Jewish year 5777 which then turned into 5778 at the last Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) last September. Seven is always a number of completeness. God created the world in 7 days. Jesus said that we are to forgive 7 times 70, representing complete and total forgiveness. The number 777 is one of ultimate completion. The first day of the week is also the eighth day. Jesus rose on the first day of the week from the dead and ushered in a new season. The passing from 5777 to 5778 thus indicates a new season has started.

A new Jubilee season
In general, it is wise to be careful not to over-emphasise the symbolism of numbers. The concentration of anniversaries with highly symbolic numbers, however, do bear a message for Israel and the nations.

The period of 50 years speaks of restoration and return of that which belonged to its original owner. We see this Jubilee cycle in operation over Jerusalem, as key events related to the city have lined up in exactly 50-year intervals, each ushering in a new season for its rightful owners. The discovery of the ancient City of David by Sir Charles Warren brought excitement to the Russian Jewish community and led to the very first wave of Aliyah from Russia in the years following. Allenby’s liberation of Jerusalem together with the Balfour Declaration 100 years ago brought a new season to Jerusalem’s inhabitants and laid the foundation for the state of Israel. And of course, the reunification of Jerusalem in 1967 meant the biblical Old City was back in Jewish hands for the first time in almost 2000 years.

It is therefore no surprise that again, at this year’s Jubilee, another landmark of restoration has occurred for Jerusalem. The decision by the United States to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel finally affirms what the Knesset decreed back in July 1980 in the Jerusalem Law – that Jerusalem is the eternal and undivided capital of the state of Israel. This recognition was unduly withheld by the international community until now, leaving Israel as the only nation in the world not given the right to choose its own capital. As the prophet Zechariah foretold, Jerusalem became like “a cup of drunkenness” for the nations of the world.

But this latest move by the US Administration represents a new level of international recognition for Jerusalem. It is a ‘game changer’ in the way nations will deal with Israel in the future. Other nations are expected to follow suit, yet at the same time it also will result in new levels of hostility by others. In any case, this move will significantly strengthen the historical connection of the Jewish people to their national capital. It also underlines that the biblical principle of the Jubilee is still in operation today.

A new season coming for Israel
As we mark during this coming year the 70th anniversary of Israel’s rebirth as a nation, we also can look forward to a new season, a new level of prophetic fulfilment for the nation of Israel. The general idea of 70 and 120 year cycles is that a season has been completed and now something new can be expected. The prophet Isaiah repeatedly declares a new season coming to Israel: “Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” (Isaiah 43:19 [see also Isaiah 42:9; 48:6]).

Over the past 120 years, God has already opened an exciting new chapter for the Jewish people. The headline for this chapter was “Restoration”. A poor, agricultural pioneer state has become the start-up nation that is today a world leader in medical and scientific research and can compete in innovation and efficiency with Silicon Valley or any other hi-tech region of the world. Israel also experienced a number of seemingly hopeless wars and emerged as the unexpected winner. Today it is uncontested in its neighbourhood militarily and has recently become even a strategic partner for Sunni Arab nations against the growing threat of Iran and its proxy terror militias.

Now as we enter this new season, we can expect an even deeper level of restoration. It will continue to strengthen the national and physical restoration of the Jewish State. Yet at the same time, especially after the US recognition of Jerusalem, we can expect a ‘new thing’ that goes beyond the natural and political realm. We do know that one of the greatest outstanding promises God gave to the Jewish people is that of a spiritual restoration for Israel. Almost every Hebrew prophet who foresaw the Jewish physical return to their homeland also foresaw a spiritual return to God on a national scale.

“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land … I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; … I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, …” (Ezekiel 36:24–27; [see also Isaiah 44:3; Zechariah 12:14; Jeremiah 31:31ff]).

According to the Apostle Paul, this also means the release of an unprecedented blessing to the entire world. “For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:15; [see also v. 12]).

Israel’s revival will release a new level of blessing and resurrection life among the nations. We already saw the past 120 years, since the Zionist dream took shape, the greatest Christian revival this world has ever seen. In particular, over the recent decades since Jerusalem’s reunification we have seen dramatic growth in the evangelical churches of the Global South. Today, Church growth experts assess the evangelical movement has well over 600 million believers. What a spiritual revival in Israel will mean for the world is beyond imagination.

Battles and judgement ahead of us
New seasons for the believer, new levels of glory and spiritual depth, are often preceded and accompanied by seasons of battle and even suffering.

The birth of the Zionist movement was triggered by a severe wave of anti-Semitism in Europe, including pogroms in Russia and the Dreyfus Affair in France. The state of Israel was established out of a fierce battle in 1948, and Jerusalem was reunited during the Six-Day War. Both of these wars appeared to be hopeless battles for Israel, as most military experts did not give the small Jewish nation much chance of survival either time.

Yet any new level of divine restoration always results in loss for God’s enemies. Satan will do anything to contest and stop this new season. That there is now opposition to the latest developments on Jerusalem should not surprise us. Both for Israel and the Church, it means we must not just prepare to receive the great ‘new things’ from heaven, but also brace for a new wave of opposition and struggle.

Paul states: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) There will be seasons of victory but they might come at a price. Jacob’s encounter with God was a fierce battle, and he came out victorious yet also limping.

The season we are entering will see further breakthroughs for Israel and deeper levels of authority and God’s glory in the Church. But it will be accompanied by global shakings and battles that are unprecedented.

Therefore as we enter this new year, we should steady ourselves for new challenges ahead but at the same time expect great new things from the Lord. God encourages us to dream His dreams. While the world might shake, God is at the same time building a kingdom that cannot be shaken. The restoration of Israel will gather greater momentum, leading to the promised outpouring of His Spirit. And we can also expect an overcoming Church entering into a new season of holiness, authority and blessing.

Let me suggest the following action points for you to consider:

• Get behind what God is doing in the Church and in Israel. Ask the Lord what His purpose is for your life and find your place in God’s kingdom. This will be the most fulfilling life you could ever live.
• Make sure that your foundations are solid and unshakable. Be part of a church that builds your life and faith, and challenges you to believe for greater things and to walk in holiness before the Lord.
• Spend daily time with Lord, praying and reading His word.
• Carry the armour of God and use it! Our battles will increase and they are “not against flesh and blood but against spiritual principalities…” Be equipped for the days ahead!

As we enter into new and exciting seasons, let us together carry out great exploits for our King!