It seems many Christians are unaware of the degree to which Christians have suffered as a result of the decades of turmoil in the Promised Land. Several years ago, when I was in Jordan, I spoke with a Christian friend there, a Palestinian by birth, whose grandfather was a successful businessman who owned 75 acres near Beersheba (in Israel). My friend’s Christian father, a church-planting pastor, inherited the land at the death of his father. When he and his family fled across the Jordan River in 1947, they hoped they might return to their land in a couple of weeks when hostilities settled. But their return was never allowed. They became refugees in Jordan. My friend’s family still holds the deed to those 75 acres near Beersheba, and that land is now worth millions of dollars. But their deed is worthless.

What happened to my friend’s family happened, to greater and lesser degrees, to 700,000 to 750,000 other Arab Palestinians from 1947-1949. And here is a fact that very few Christians seem to know: 50,000 to 70,000 of those refugees identified as Christians.

Very few among the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees were ever permitted to return. Israel passed laws that transferred abandoned Arab land and property to the new state. How many of those tens of thousands of Christians who lost their homes and land do you suppose believe it was all orchestrated by God because He was favoring Jews over Christians? That is one reason Arab Christians are not dispensationalists.

All of this is to say, we must question if the events of 1947-49 in Palestine were orchestrated by God to fulfill prophecy. Was God returning to unrepentant, Christ-rejecting Jews their ancient homeland through confiscation of land that other people had been living on for generations, and in some cases, land owned by followers of Christ?

I must declare from the outset of this teaching that I’m not attempting to paint any side in the Middle East mess as the greater villains or victims. As Christians, we are all well-informed about Arab atrocities. Our job is not to take a side and thus alienate ourselves from the other side, only adding to all the hatred. Blessed are the peacemakers. Our job is to love everyone, proclaim the gospel to both sides, and make sure we don’t overlook our brothers and sisters on either side. I hope you can say, “Amen.”

There are other problems with the view that the 20th- and 21st-century Jewish immigration to Israel is the final fulfillment of prophecies that promise such a regathering. One is that, from Genesis to Revelation, God reveals Himself as a holy God. In keeping with that, he hinged Israel’s possessing the Promised Land to their obedience, and biblical history tells the story of their exile from the land He gave them because of generations of disobedience. Only a small repentant remnant ever returned, and they were under the rule of the Persian Empire. With the exception of a 77-year period from 140 BC to 63 BC, descendants of Jacob/Israel went 25 centuries without a sovereign homeland—until 1948. What changed that year? We can be sure it wasn’t God, who never changes. Obviously, God permitted everything that happened in 1948 and since then, but did He ordain it all, as some seem to think? As I clearly said in a previous article, the Bible presupposes an End Times nation of Israel and a Jewish temple in Jerusalem.

Another problem is Scripture’s foretelling of a yet-future conquest of Jerusalem when “all the nations” will be “sent by God,” according to Zechariah, to attack and capture Jerusalem (all of which we considered in my previous article). Israel will then be at the epicenter—according to Jesus—of the world’s worst-ever war. Zechariah foretold that half of the city of Jerusalem will be exiled, and Israel will obviously lose its sovereignty to the antichrist who will declare himself from Jerusalem to be God. Here’s the question that raises: If God has gathered the descendants of Jacob/Israel from around the world because of His favor upon them, why will He gather “all the nations” to attack Jerusalem, which ends with Jerusalem’s capture, foreign armies plundering Israeli households, the rape of many women, and a subsequent exile of hundreds of thousands, according to Zechariah 14?

Moses Foretells

All of this being so, it would seem wise for us to look at the prophetic foretellings of the regathering of the scattered descendants of Jacob/Israel to see if the details that are foretold line up with what has actually happened. When we do that, we discover significant details about the promised regathering that have not been fulfilled in the 20th- and 21st-century regathering.

Here’s one of the earliest prophetic foretellings, spoken by Moses:

So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you [see Deut. 28-29], and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live (Deut. 30:1-6, emphasis added).

God, through Moses, promised to restore them after He had previously banished them for their disobedience once they “returned” to the Lord and started obeying Him with all their hearts. Repentance would have to occur before restoration, not the other way around.

This harmonizes with all of Scripture, but our dispensational friends want to persuade us that the 20th- and 21st- century regathering is the fulfillment of regathering prophecy, but claiming that Israel’s repentance is yet to come. That, of course, contradicts what prophet Moses said.

Isaiah’s Amen

Let’s move on to Isaiah 12:

Then it will happen on that day that the Lord
Will again recover the second time with His hand
The remnant of His people, who will remain,
From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath,
And from the islands of the sea.
And He will lift up a standard for the nations
And assemble the banished ones of Israel,
And will gather the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth (Isa. 11:11-12).

God promised to gather a remnant of both Israel (the ten northern tribes) and Judah (Judah, Benjamin and Levi) from seven specific ancient nations in the Middle East and Northern Africa. They are the rough equivalents of modern Iraq, Egypt, Sudan/South Sudan/Ethiopia, Iran and Syria. Between roughly 1948 and the early 1970s, around 850,000–1,000,000 Jews departed or were expelled from Arab countries, as well as Iran and other Muslim-majority nations in the Middle East and North Africa. The overwhelming majority resettled in Israel. In Iraq the Jewish population declined from 142,000 to less than 10 today. In Egypt it declined from 77,000 to less than 20. In Sudan/Ethiopia it declined from tens of thousands to a handful. In Syria, from 35,000 to less than 10. In Iran, from 90,000 to 9,000.

Naturally, many assumed all that emigration was the fulfillment of Isaiah 11:11-12. Isaiah even identified that regathering as a “second” one, an apparent reference to the first regathering of Jews during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. But there is a problem revealed by the context. See if you can spot it as I include the verses that precede what I quoted above:

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse [David’s father],
And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,
The spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The spirit of counsel and strength,
The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And He will delight in the fear of the Lord,
And He will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;
But with righteousness He will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.
Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins,
And faithfulness the belt about His waist

No one debates that everything we’ve just read is about Jesus and His future earthly rule. Isaiah continues:

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,
And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,
And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.
Also the cow and the bear will graze,
Their young will lie down together,
And the lion will eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,
And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea.

Obviously, all of that is yet to occur when Jesus rules the earth.

Then in that day
The nations will resort to the root of Jesse [irrefutably Jesus],
Who will stand as a signal for the peoples;
And His resting place will be glorious [no doubt, in Jerusalem, from which He will reign]

Then it will happen on that day that the Lord
Will again recover the second time with His hand
The remnant of His people, who will remain,
From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath,
And from the islands of the sea.
And He will lift up a standard for the nations
And assemble the banished ones of Israel,
And will gather the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth (Isa. 11:1-12).

I’m sure you noticed that the timing of the regathering of the “banished ones of Israel” and “the dispersed of Judah” occurs during Jesus’ earthly reign (presumably near its beginning). That fact is inescapable. Isaiah describes restoration after repentance, agreeing with prophet Moses, since those “banished” and “dispersed” already will have “looked upon Him whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:1) and believed. Isaiah’s prophecy also gives us some insight regarding the destination countries of the future Zechariah 14 exiles.

As an aside for now, notice also that God promised through Isaiah that He would regather, not just “the dispersed of Judah,” but also “the banished ones of Israel.” The second part of that promise has never been fulfilled. More on that later.

Jeremiah Jumps In

So far, in just in two Old Testament prophecies, given to us through Moses and Isaiah, we’ve uncovered two contradictions to dispensational eschatology. Unlike Moses, dispensationalist eschatology advocates restoration without repentance, and unlike Isaiah, it advocates restoration before Jesus is ruling the earth.

Let’s move on to three consecutive paragraphs in Jeremiah:

“I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. I will also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the Lord.

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch;
And He will reign as king and act wisely
And do justice and righteousness in the land.
In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell securely;
And this is His name by which He will be called,
‘The Lord our righteousness.’

“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when they will no longer say, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil” (Jer. 23:3-8).

We just read three consecutive paragraphs with one consistent theme—the regathering of the scattered descendants of Jacob/Israel. Both Judah and Israel are mentioned. There are several items in those paragraphs that don’t fit the 1948-to-the-present regathering.

In the first paragraph, who are the “shepherds” whom God has raised up to tend the regathered flock in modern Israel? And is it true that, because of those shepherds, since 1948 no Jew in Israel has been afraid or terrified? I think we all know there has been tons of terror.

In the second paragraph, Jeremiah speaks about Jesus literally ruling as king, telling us that “in His days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely.” That timing agrees with Moses and Isaiah. And in the second paragraph we find the same theme of “security” as in the first paragraph. The gathering described in the first paragraph results in the same outcome as does the ruling of Jesus described in the second paragraph. That leads us to think that the gathering follows, not precedes, the ruling of Jesus.

We learn in the third paragraph that the regathering described in the first paragraph is destined to be considered even more spectacular than when God delivered the Israelites from Egypt. Is anyone saying that about the gathering from 1948 (and before) to the present day? I doubt it.

And just like Isaiah, Jeremiah said that “In His [Jesus’] days” not only would Judah be saved, but “Israel will dwell securely.” As I will show shortly, that has not occurred yet.

Ezekiel Expounds

Let’s move on to Ezekiel:

Therefore say, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries among which you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’” When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations from it. And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, and I shall be their God (Ezek. 11:17-20, emphasis added).

Dispensationalists point to the first sentence and say, “Since 1948 it has happened just as God promised so, just like it says, it is God’s will that those whom He has regathered possess the land of Israel.” For some reason they never add, “even from Christians who lived there for generations.”

But what about the next verse? Has anyone noticed that, in 1948, or since 1948, returning Jews have removed all of Israel’s “detestable things and all its abominations”? God said through Ezekiel, “When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations.” That implies the removal will occur upon their arrival, “when they come.”

As I am writing this, it has just been one month since the Tel Aviv’s LGBTQ+ Pride Festival, held annually since 1979. It typically draws 200,000–250,000 participants, mostly locals from across Israel, but also attracts tens of thousands of international participants. Tel Aviv Pride ranks among the world's largest Pride events, and the city markets itself as a top LGBTQ+ tourist destination. I think most Christians consider such things to be abominations to God.

Is there anything else in modern Israel that, by biblical standards, could be considered “detestable” or an “abomination” in God’s eyes? What about every building that represents a false religion that denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?

The next two verses in this passage in Ezekiel speak of the spiritual regeneration of those whom God regathers. Obviously, that hasn’t been fulfilled either. That is why dispensationalists have to insert decades between 11:17 and 18 and claim that regeneration will eventually follow restoration. But reading the passage at face value does not leave that impression. Actually, just the opposite: “When they come there, they will remove all its detestable things.”

What will motivate them to remove everything that is offensive to God upon their return? It will be because they have already believed in the Lord Jesus Christ when they “looked upon Him whom they pierced” (Zech. 12:10) at His return. When anyone believes in Jesus, God puts “a new spirit within them” (17:19). When dispensationalists point to Ezekiel 11:17-20 to prove that “restoration occurs before regeneration,” they have to ignore many scriptures like those we’ve already considered. That’s interpretation by eisegesis (reading one’s own preconceptions into the text) rather than exegesis (drawing out the original meaning of the text based on its context, historical background, grammar, and authorial intent).

God Speaks Again Through Ezekiel

Dispensationalists similarly insert decades between certain verses of Ezekiel 36:24-29 and ignore the certain judgment and exile that other scriptures promise modern Israel:

For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God. Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness; and I will call for the grain and multiply it, and I will not bring a famine on you. (Ezek. 36:24-29).

If that passage was the only relevant passage in the Bible to our subject, I might be a dispensationalist and assume there must be decades between the first and second sentences. But here’s how dispensationalists must read the first two sentences of that passage: “For I will take you from the nations because of My special favor upon you, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land, and once you are settled there will be no invasion by the nations, no unprecedented tribulation, and no exile of hundreds of thousands of Jews as foretold by Jesus. Then, decades after I regather you (at the expense of tens of thousands of Christians), I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.”

Dispensationalists carry the same kind of eisegesis into Ezekiel’s next chapter, telling us that

Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones foretells of Israel’s national restoration that is eventually followed by spiritual awakening. But nowhere is Ezekiel’s vision interpreted that way in Ezekiel or anywhere else in Scripture. On the contrary, the vision itself shows that regeneration will precede restoration:

Therefore prophesy and say to them, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, [1] I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and [2] I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. [1] I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and [2] I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it,’ declares the Lord.” (Ezek. 37:12-14).

Their resurrection (coming out of their graves) is not analogous to God’s bringing them into the land of Israel. Their resurrection occurs so that He might bring them into Israel. God will put His Spirit within then so they “will come to life” and then God will place them on their own land. All of this is obvious to honest readers.

The Clincher

The remaining verses of Ezekiel 37 (verses 15-28) prove beyond any shadow of doubt that the regathering foretold in the entire chapter did not occur in 1948 or any time since then. Let’s read those verses and then I will explain;

The word of the Lord came again to me saying, “And you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, ‘For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions.’ Then join them for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. When the sons of your people speak to you saying, ‘Will you not declare to us what you mean by these?’ say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his companions; and I will put them with it, with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”’ The sticks on which you write will be in your hand before their eyes. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.

My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances and keep My statutes and observe them. They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob My servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons’ sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever. My dwelling place also will be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people. And the nations will know that I am the Lord who sanctifies Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forever”’” (Ezek. 37:15-28).

This passage repeatedly promises the return of not just the descendants of Judah (along with the descendants of Benjamin, who were absorbed into Judah, as well as descendants of Levi), but also of the descendants of the ten northern tribes, known after the 930 BC division as “Israel” (or “Ephraim” as the dominant tribe of the ten). Recall that the northern kingdom was conquered by the Assyrians and deported in 722 BC. The exiles largely assimilated into the peoples where they were exiled, becoming the "Lost Ten Tribes.” The southern kingdom of Judah was conquered and exiled by Babylon in 586 BC, but a remnant returned after the Persian conquest of Babylon.

The fact is, modern Jewish identity and ethnicity largely trace back to the southern kingdom of Judah, which is why they are referred to as Jews (“from Judah”). The vast majority of Jews who immigrated to Israel since 1948—from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, North/South America, Ethiopia, India, and so on—are descendants of communities that historically originated from Judea (the southern kingdom). Generally speaking, the “Lost Ten Tribes” are still lost. They haven’t been regathered to modern Israel at God promised, not only in Ezekiel 37, but also in Isaiah 11 and Jeremiah 23.

God, however, who knows how many hairs are on our heads, has not lost track of all the “Lost Ten Tribes” DNA, and one day, after Jesus returns, He will gather all their descendants.” To the suspected chagrin of dispensationalists, those folks are going to also have a lot of Gentile DNA mixed in with their Jacob/Israel DNA! You never know…you may have DNA from one of the Ten Lost Tribes!

And There is Always Amos…

It is not just the minor prophets who disagree with dispensationalists. Here’s Amos:

“Also I will restore the captivity of My people Israel, and they will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them; they will also plant vineyards and drink their wine, and make gardens and eat their fruit. I will also plant them on their land, and they will not again be rooted out from their land which I have given them,” says the Lord your God (Amos 9:14-15).

There isn’t any way that Amos could have been prophesying about the 20th- and 21st-century regathering of Jews to Israel, because we are certain that half of Jerusalem is going to be exiled, so they will “again be rooted out from their land.”

This is another teaching that is longer than I wanted it to be, but I want to be thorough in order to be convincing. I am aware that there are other Old Testament prophetic passages that may be relevant. I have, however, chosen those that seem most relevant. I’m really only attempting to tackle one big misconception and not answer every question about the End Times, many of which I can’t answer to my own satisfaction. In my next, and hopefully final, teaching on this subject, we will take a close look at Romans 11. That teaching is tentatively titled, “The Olive Tree is Not Israel.”

Finally, if you agree with me or not, I still love you. And if I’m right, I’ll still invite you to my apartment in the New Jerusalem for coffee!