Millions of Christians look at end-times prophecy like a giant, undiscernible maze.

But, as with so many seemingly complex systems, there is a key that unlocks everything.

The key to unlocking Bible prophecy is this — GOD NEVER LIES!

Through the centuries, theologians came across prophecies they either didn’t like or that seemed impossible. So, they would fudge. It’s as if they were thinking, “God goofed

 up a little here, so I’ll explain it away.” Where His Word makes a plain statement of fact,  they would hedge. “It says one thing, but it must mean something else,” they would explain.

 Bible interpretation loses its integrity when people begin to read into it whatever they want to find.

For instance, God made certain promises to Abraham. But the obvious interpretation of those promises involves things theologians of the Middle Ages either did not like or that

 did not seem possible. So, they “spiritualized” the promises. They didn’t like the fact that the obvious interpretation was a promise to Abraham’s physical descendants through the line of Isaac (and later Jacob). A Christian theologian of the dark ages would interpret

 that to mean, “a promise to Jews.” But, generally speaking, they didn’t like Jews. They wanted Jews relegated to the trash heap of history. It’s the same thing so many around the world still want.

Their other problem was that they just couldn’t see how the promises to Abraham regarding his descendants could come true. With every century that the Jews remained dispersed around the world,  the more implausible the promises seemed. That is, they seemed implausible… until God started to miraculously fulfill those promises.

But by then, most theologians were locked into the old antisemitic, anti-Jew, and anti-Israel thinking. It had become a matter of faith (or maybe anti-faith) that God would not literally fulfill His promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and others. So, when He began to fulfill His Word before everyone’s eyes, they denied it was happening.

Some of them say that modern Israel cannot be the fulfillment of Bible prophecy because, as a nation, they have not repented and turned to Messiah Jesus. God promises that will happen, so how can today’s Israel be the renewed nation promised in prophecy?

Prophecy itself answers the question. Ezekiel 36

 explains that Israel would be brought back together and to the land. Then, at some point after being brought back, they would experience a national repentance.

Notice that they will first return to the land, and then return to God. In Ezekiel 36:24-25,

 God says to the people of Israel,

24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness,

 and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. We don’t know the timing, but the order is clear — return, and then be cleansed.

Ezekiel  Chapter 37

1The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in

 the midst of the valley which was full of bones,

2And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry.

3And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest.

4Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.

5Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:

6And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.

7So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.

8And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.

9Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.

10So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

11Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.

12Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.

13And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

14And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

15The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,

16Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and or all the house of Israel his companions:

17And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand.

18And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these?

19Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah,  and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.

20And the sticks whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes.

21And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land:

22And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:

23Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.

24And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.

25And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children’s children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.

26Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and

 I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.

27My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

28And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

In this chapter, Ezekiel 37, pictures the children of Israel as a bunch of bones in an ancient cemetery —

utterly dry, and with the bones dispersed all over the place. In verse 4, God said to Ezekiel, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” In verses 7-8,

Ezekiel testifies,

 “As I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew, and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.” In the following verses, God gives them the breath of life.

Here again, we see the order. First, they are reassembled. Then, after being reunited in the land,

they receive the breath of life. That’s where we are now. Israel is being reassembled before our eyes.

 As a whole, they don’t yet have the breath of life, but we can know that it’s coming because God said it would. And GOD NEVER LIES!

Stay Informed: While it has not been quick or without its complications, Israel has been wildly successful in eliminating Hamas’ leadership and the brave men and women of the IDF have spent the last 10 months ridding Gaza of the Hamas brigades, block by block. What has changed since October is that Iran, Hezbollah, and even the Houthi rebels in Yemen have joined the fight, while the rest of the World has once again left

“Only one life to live and soon is past

Only what’s done for Christ will last!”

Hoping to make the time I have left count for the glory of God.