Times of the Signs
The world stage is set for the return of Messiah Yeshua, known in the Western world as Jesus Christ. As you will see in our upcoming television series Times of the Signs, never before in history have so many prophetic markers existed simultaneously as appear at this time.
Theodor Herzl, the visionary behind modern Zionism, called for the first modern aliyah in the late19th century.“Aliyah” means “going up,” emigration, return and repatriation to Jerusalem. Recognizing the growth of anti-Semitism in Europe, Herzl resolved to fight for a Jewish homeland. God brought Herzl together with a Christian pastor who was already writing on the subject of a renewed Israel.
William Henry Hechler was born in India to German Anglican missionaries, who believed that the second coming of Jesus would occur after the Jews were restored to the area of the Ottoman Empire called Palestine. Hechler’s faith did not mandate that the Jews had to “convert” before this restoration.Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones in chapters 36 and 37 bore out Hechler’s viewpoint. First the graves open (following WWII), then the bones come together, and God’s breath (the Jewish definition of life) would be added to the restored house. Today, the Messianic Movement releases the breath of the Holy Spirit into the commonwealth of Israel.Rev. William Hechler self-published his broadsheet The Restoration of the Jews to Palestine according to the Prophecy in 1893. Herzl’s own work, Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) was radical and controversial, but a Christian published it. It turned out to be Herzl’s magnum opus and stirred the world in 1896. Did the Herzl-Hechler connection foreshadow the “one new man” that Ephesians 2 prophesied will worship Yeshua— Jew and gentile alike?
Times of the Signs
As we approach the return of the Lord, the signs of the times are discernible, which is why I say we are living in the “times of the signs.”• After 1948, Jews returned from Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco,and almost all European nations.• In the 1980s, Ethiopian Jews were airlifted in aliyah to Israel.• After the fall of the USSR, over 1 million Russians arrived in the Land, fulfilling Jeremiah’s word that they would come from “the land of the north” (Jeremiah 16:14–15).• In 1967, the Jerusalem in Jewish hearts returned to Jewish hands, as prophesied by Yeshua (Luke 21:24).• The Gospel is going around the world due to technological advances (many of them Israeli!) (Matthew 24:14).• The nations are aligning against Jerusalem as Zechariah predicted (chapters 12–14).• The Psalm 83 regional war is rumbling into position led by terrorists Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, and ISIS. The jihadists are on the move to set up a worldwide caliphate…if they can agree on which faction constitutes true Islam.• Backroom anti-Israel, anti-Messiah deals are forging the Gog-Magog alignment of Russia with Iran (Ezekiel 38, 39).• The apostasy of the Church grows daily (2 Timothy 3:1–5).• The Temple undergoes preparation for rebuilding; it will be the site of the “abomination of desolation” according to Daniel 9:27.Truly, we live in the “times of the signs.” Here’s the Good News: We are looking toward the coming of the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Lion of Judah, the Root and Offspring of David, the First and Last…our Redemption draws near!Image courtesy & © 2015 The Crossroads Church