A gullible public has swallowed lies about the origins of modern Israel. This potted history reminds us that the land is more like a gift from God, backed by international treaties
By Charles Gardner
As a Palestinian embassy is unveiled in London, you wonder how we Brits got ourselves into a position where we have recognised a state that does not yet exist. One wag even said that if he came into money, he would buy the building next door and name it the Embassy of Narnia. The perception of Israel having stolen land from the Arabs has been swallowed whole by a gullible public apparently all too eager to take sides against the Jewish people.
Nobody really wanted this barren wasteland until the Jews were given it! And then all hell broke loose
Yet empires have come and gone since the ancient Israelites first took possession of the Holy Land in accordance with the divine plan for Abraham’s seed to settle there. Twice exiled by major powers (though with God’s backing in view of their rebellion against his laws), the Jews have returned in fulfilment of many biblical prophecies. But the Israel of the modern era was initially backed by international treaties, which still stand despite constant efforts among politicians, journalists and others to rewrite history. Somewhere in the Foreign Office archives you will find evidence of this – but take a duster with you to clear the cobwebs!
The much-maligned Balfour Declaration of 1917 was a British Government promise to do all in its power to restore the Jewish people to their rightful homeland, described in the 19th century as a barren wasteland and ruled for four centuries by Muslim Turks. Within weeks of the declaration, in God’s perfect timing, Britain’s General Allenby liberated Jerusalem, opening the way for Balfour’s pledge to be enacted. And at the Italian resort of San Remo in 1920, an international delegation including British Prime Minister David Lloyd George agreed to the plan.
Just two years later Britain was given the Mandate (authority) by the League of Nations (forerunner of the UN) to prepare Palestine (as it was then known) for Jewish statehood with its boundaries stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to well beyond the Jordan River – considerably more land than Israel’s current ten million people enjoy due to various disputes and compromises designed to keep the peace. The truth is that nobody really wanted this barren wasteland until the Jews were given it! And then all hell broke loose as Arab opposition manifested itself from all directions. Cue British betrayal as we appeased these opponents with an eye on trade routes, oil and… well, peace at any cost. Jewish immigration, which was supposedly what it was all about, was cut to a bare minimum, (Photo – The Foreign Office archives will hold evidence of Israel’s legitimacy. Credit: www.gov.uk/government-history)
Somewhere in the Foreign Office archives you will find evidence of this – but take a duster with you to clear the cobwebs!
The Holocaust wiped out six million precious Jewish people. And yet, amazingly and miraculously, the survivors came and settled in the land after all so that the desert blossomed (Isaiah 35) and a nation was re-born. The great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon had no doubts of this outcome because the Bible foretold it through a prophecy some 2,500 years ago. A “valley of dry bones” would be raised from the ashes into a mighty nation.
In a sermon preached at London’s Metropolitan Tabernacle on Thursday evening, 16 June 1864, (almost a century before the Holocaust and Israel’s subsequent rebirth) Spurgeon made it abundantly clear that, in Ezekiel 37, the prophet was speaking about Jewish restoration, both to their land and their Lord. He conceded that some see this vision as a description of the resurrection, or of revival of a decayed Church, and that although it could reasonably be applied to both, it was not the plain meaning of the passage. “He was talking of his own people and, led by the Holy Spirit, he gives us an explanation of the vision – not ‘Thus says the Lord, my dying Church shall be restored,’ but ‘I will bring my people out of their graves, and bring them into the land of Israel’. The meaning of our text, as opened up by the context, is most evidently, if words mean anything, first, that there shall be a political restoration of the Jews to their own land and to their own nationality; and then, secondly, there is in the text, and the context, a most plain declaration that there shall be a spiritual restoration – a conversion in fact of the tribes of Israel.” (Taken from ‘King of the Jews’, Christian Publications International, p153, by Charles Gardner). (Photo, Charles Spurgeon saw how Bible prophecy foretold Israel’s restoration – credit spurgeongems.org)
Britain, Australia and others have dealt shamefully with Israel of late
Britain, Australia and others who have dealt shamefully with Israel of late, particularly through ‘rewarding’ terrorists with a ‘state’ which surely set the scene for the Bondi Beach massacre, will have to pay for their error. For, as Isaiah prophesied, “the nation or kingdom that will not serve you (Israel) will perish; it will be utterly ruined” (Isaiah 60:12). The prophet Joel also refers to judgement of the nations at the time of Israel’s restoration – for scattering his people among the nations and dividing up his land. (Joel 3:2). Notice the emphasis on HIS land! (See also Genesis 15:18, where the boundaries extend from the Nile to the Euphrates, and Genesis 17:8).
It’s about the land – the Lord’s land. Hence the age-old conflict with Satan consistently and ferociously trying to usurp God’s authority. Whose side are you on?
Charles Gardner is a regular contributor to Israel Today at www.israeltoday.co.il and is author of ‘To the Jew First’, ‘King of the Jews’, ‘A Nation Reborn’, ‘Israel the Chosen’ and ‘Peace in Jerusalem’, variously available from Christian Publications International, Amazon and Eden Books (Eden.co.uk).