How can we know for sure what we believe is true ?

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How can we know for sure what we believe is
true ? If you feel you need more faith this is
for you!
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Israel - Judah
I am the LORD that is my name and my glory will
I not give to another, Behold, the former things
are come to pass, and new things do I declare
before they spring forth I tell you of them.
(Isa. 428-9)
Text collected J. Burke Pictures D C
Mogg Additional text and formatting J. Henriksen
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There have been many who longed to see our day
but they saw it, and rejoiced
4
These were years where people could die at the
stake for holding our beliefs- let us feel
their faith their sure confidence in the witness
of prophecy
5
The Prophets and the Jewish Return
Shall they return to Jerusalem again? There is
nothing more certain the prophets do everywhere
confirm it and beat upon it.Thomas Brightman,
'A Revelation Of The Apocalypse, 1609
one of the major formulators of the doctrine of
the restoration of the Jews was Thomas Brightman
(1562-1607). In his work called "Apocalypsis
Apocalypseos", Brightman proposed that the
Antichrist is the Pope in Rome and that the
"Calling of the Jews" by God back to their land
would overthrow the Turks, so said Brightman, and
expose the Antichrist.Joseph Shulam, A
Proposed Theological Breakthrough and The Success
of Messianic Judaism in our time
6
The Prophets and the Jewish Return
Where Israel, Judah, Zion and Jerusalem are
named in the Bible the Holy Ghost meant not the
spiritual Israel, or the Church of God collected
of the Gentiles or of the Jews and Gentiles
both... But Israel properly descended out of
Jacob's loynes. The same judgement is to be
made of their returning to their land and ancient
seats, the conquest of their foes... The
glorious church they shall erect in the land
itself of Judah... These and such like are not
allegories, set forth in terrene similitudes or
deliverance through Christ (whereof those were
types and figures), but meant really and
literally the Jews. Sir Henry Finch, The
World's Great Restoration, 1621
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Joseph Medes confidence in events begun in1918
The sixth phial shall be poured out upon that
great river Euphrates, that being dried up, a
passage may be prepared for new enemies of the
Beast to come from the East that is, for the
Israelites to be wonderfully converted to the
pure faith and worship of Christ, and now to have
conferred upon them the kingdom promised so many
ages since. Whom the worshippers of the Beast,
haply, shall esteem for the army of their
imaginary Antichrist to arise from among the
Jews, God so revenging the obstinacy of their
errorJoseph Mede, Key to the Apocalypse,
page , 1640
We see now how the Papal led European Beast will
oppose Christ, who will arise as king of the
Jews, when he comes.
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THE CARTWRIGHTS CALL FOR THE JEWS RETURN
...with and amongst some of the Izraell race
called Jewes, and growing sensible of their heavy
out-cryes and clamours against the intolerable
cruelty of this our English Nation, exercised
against them by that ... inhumane ... massacre
... and their banishment ever since, ...that by
discourse with them, and serious perusal of the
Prophets, both they and we find, that the time of
her call draweth nigh...and that this Nation
of England, with the inhabitants of the
Netherlands, shall be the first and readiest to
transport Izraells sons and daughters in their
ships to the land promised to their forefathers,
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for an everlasting
inheritance. Ebenezer and Joanna Cartwright,
English Puritans, 1649
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Confidence in events begun in 1820-1918
The great river Euphrates, the strength and
fulness of whose streams doth yet rage so high
that there is no passage for the kings of the
east to come over.  Wherefore this must be dried
up... Rev.xvi.12. ...and then it may well
enough denote the Turkish power which, proud as
it is at this day, possessing in peace all those
regions of the east, yet God can quickly make it
wither and be dried up.  John Owen, The
Shaking and Translating Of Heaven And Earth,
sermon preached April 19, 1649
what kingdom soever the Lord Christ will
advance in the world, and exercise amongst his
holy ones, the beginning of it must be with the
Jews.John Owen, Parliamentary Sermon, 13
October 1652
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Great Confidence in events which began after
'Therefore He hath seven vials, which contain the
last plagues... to despatch the Pope and the
Turk and wholly root them out.... The plagues
of these vials are the contents of the 15th and
16th chapters. The first five vials do dissolve
and by degrees ruin the Pope's power in the west.
Then the sixth vial breaks the power of the Turk
in the east -- so making way for the Jews (whom
He means to bring into the fellowship of His
Kingdom in their own land)...Thomas Goodwin,
An Exposition of the Revelation, page, 209 1654
The popes power was lost1793-1870and the
breaking of the Turkish power 1820-1918
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Goodwin was not alone.. Many believed this
'The four first vials in chapter 16 are lesser,
and more insensibly carry on Antichrist's ruin,
as for the four first trumpets did more
insensibly increase his rise the fifth vial
overturneth Rome his seat, as the fifth trumpet
seated him there, and revealed him, the sixth
overturneth Turks, Popes, and the rest of that
kingdom bringeth in the Jews and setteth the
Gospel at its full brightness.James Durham,
Complete Commentary upon the Book of
Revelation, volume 2, page 604, 1657
And they waited for it
12
From Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum
Library of the Polish Brethren notes on the
Olivet Prophecy Verse 25 and there shall be
signs in the sun and moon After the times of
the Gentiles have been fulfilled, then will begin
their judgement, the forerunners of which are
those things predicted in this verse.., through
which a way will be laid down for the liberation
of natural as well as spiritual Israel. Ed
Andrezej Wizowaty Amsterdam 1656-1692
They looked for Jerusalem to be liberated from
Gentile, or non-Jewish, control which occurred in
1967
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Confidence in events begun in 1820-1918
The Jews, who are observed to be in greatest
numbers in the Eastern countries, having had a
promise, Ex 196, to be a kingdom of priests, may
well be called here the kings of the east. Two
things hinder their embracing the Christian
faith   1. The image worship and idolatry of
the papists.   2. The power of the Turks, with
the success they have had against
Christians.To which it contributes a little,
that it is probable, that the sixth vial
answereth the sixth trumpet and that as they
were the people first let loose by Euphrates,
where they were bound, so they are the people to
be destroyed under the notion of drying up the
waters of Euphrates   Matthew Poole, New
Testament Notes, note on Revelation 1614, 1685
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Confidence in events begun in 1820-1918
Dry Bones of IsraelConsidering how these dry
bones of Israel lie scattered most parts of the
world over, and do hardly know themselves of what
nation they are, much less do others know, and it
may be speak divers languages, I rather incline
to think that God will, in some way or another,
first bring the Jews into their own Land, and
give them advantage to return by drying up the
river Euphrates, that is, as I conceive, by
diminishing and abating the great power of the
Turk in and about that part of the world and
that either by intestine commotions or wars with
other nations, or both.Now is the time when
those dry bones will come together and stand upon
their feet, and become an exceeding great army,
and have breath breathed into them, and have a
civil life put into them, but no spiritual life
till after they be in their own Land.William
Torrey, Prophetical Considerations In New
England, 1695
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Confidence in events not yet begun.
Great Wars to Come After their return to their
own Land, way being made for them by the
weakening of the Turkish power, it is very likely
there will be great wars, and much blood shed,
and the Jews will be much diminished and brought
very low, as we may read in Daniel 121. The
prophet Zechariah tells us that many of them will
be cut off and die and their holy city taken. A
compound of nations shall engage in a war, not
with one another, but principally with the Jews,
and many nations shall be gathered together in
battle against them to destroy them. There shall
be a time of trouble as never was since there was
a nation to that same time.William Torrey,
Prophetical Considerations In New England, 1695
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Isaac Newton prefigures the Jewish restoration
and the Balfour Declaration of 1918
'...it may perhaps come forth not from the Jews
themselves, but from some other kingdom friendly
to them, and precede their return from captivity,
and give occasion to itthe return from
captivity and coming of the Messiah and his
kingdom are described in Daniel 7, Revelation 19,
Acts 1, Matthew 24, Joel 3, Ezekiel 36, 37.
Isaiah 60, 62. 63, 65. and 66 and many other
places of scripture.The manner I know not. Let
time be the Interpreter.'Sir Isaac Newton,
Observations On Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St
John, pages 134-135 , 1733
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But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye
have no need that I write unto you. (1Thess.
51)They knew they had to wait..
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Joseph Bellamy THE MILLENIUM
When shall all these things be
accomplished? Not till the holy city has been
trodden under foot forty and two months. Not
until the witnesses have prophesied a thousand
two hundred and threescore days, clothed in
sackcloth. And not till he woman has been in the
wilderness a time, and times and half a time
Joseph Bellamy The Millenium', 1754
The 1260 year eras began to end in 1793 and1809
and finished in 1868-70 .when the pope became a
prisoner in the Vatican.
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THOMAS NEWTON THE MIRACLE OF THE JEWS
'You see the Jews 'led away captive into all
nations, and Jerusalem trodden down of the
Gentiles' and likely to continue so 'until the
times of the Gentiles be fulfilled', as the Jews
are by a constant miracle preserved a distinct
people for the completion of the other prophecies
relating to them.'Bishop Thomas Newton,
'Dissertations On The Prophecies', 1754
The preservation of the Jews is really one of
the most signal and illustrious acts of divine
Providence.Bishop Thomas Newton, quoted in
The Treasury of Religious and Spiritual
Quotations page 280, 1994
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Confidence in events begun in 1820-1918
the Turks are meant, in whose dominions this
river isfor as the sounding of that trumpet
looses the four angels bound in the great river
Euphrates, which founded the Turkish empire, as
we have seen so the pouring out of this sixth
vial affects the same empire, and brings it to
ruin.   And the water thereof was dried up the
Ottoman empire will be extinct, just as the
destruction of the Babylonish monarchy is
expressed by the drying up of its sea, Jer 5136
so the destruction of the Turkish empire is
signified by the drying up of the water of this
river, which is in the heart of it and this is
the passing away of the second woe, Re
1114 John Gill, Commentary On the Bible,
note on Revelation 1612, 1748
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that the way of the kings of the east might be
prepared which some understand of Christians in
general   others think, as before observed,
that the Jews are designed that the Jews will be
converted in the last days seems manifest from Ho
35 Ro 1125,26 and other places and that they
will return to their own land is suggested in
abundance of prophecies, particularly in Eze
3721 Am 914,15 and it must be allowed that the
eastern, as well as the western antichrist, is a
stumbling to them and especially the advantage
which the Turks have gained over the powers that
go under the Christian name, and their possession
of their land is an hinderance to their return to
it so that the destruction of the Turkish empire
will undoubtedly make way for their conversion,
and restoration to their own landJohn Gill,
Commentary On the Bible, note on Revelation
1612, 1748
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As the time drew near to events begun in 1820-1918
Quest. But what is meant by Euphrates here?
  Ans. Probably the Turkish empire, according to
Mr. Mede and Dr. More, the Turks first taking up
their habitation about this great river so that
by Euphrates may be understood the people
inhabiting about Euphrates and by drying up its
waters, the diminishing and lessening of their
empire.   By the kings of the east, the Jews are
said to be understood, who inhabit the eastern
countries, to whom God made a promise, Ex 196
that they should be a kingdom of priests.
William Burkitt, New Testament Notes, note on
Revelation 1612, 1804
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One great body of the Jews will be converted and
restored by the instrumentality of some mighty
maritime nation of faithful worshippers, and
therefore by some maritime nation hostile to the
views and principles of AntiChrist.George
Faber, A Dissertation On The Prophecies, volume
II, page 245 , 1806the maritime power must
not only be sought for generally in the West, but
particularly in the isles of the Gentiles or
Europe and, not only generally in the isles of
the Gentiles or Europe, but particularly in the
believing isles of the Gentiles or Protestant
Europe.George Faber, A Dissertation On The
Prophecies, volume II, page 259 , 1806
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These prophecies, exclusive of many others, need
no comment. They declare, as clearly as language
can, that the Jews shall return to Judea, and be
at last permanently re-established in the land of
their fathers. The uniform experience of the
literal truth of every prediction respecting
their past history may suffice to give assurance
of the certainty of their predicted
restoration.And, amidst many signs that the
times of the Gentiles are drawing towards their
fulfilment, many concurring circumstances seem
also to be preparing the way of the children of
Israel. Scattered as they have been for so many
ages through the world, and maintaining still
their distinctive character, their whole history
forbids the thought that they will ever mingle
among the nations, or cease to be, what they have
ever been, a peculiar people. Alexander Keith,
Prophecies Concerning the Final Restoration of
the Jews and Their Return to the Land of Judea,
1831
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ALEXANDER KEITH PREDICTS A JEWISH RETURN
But to what degree, and in what manner the
present convulsions of the Turkish empire,
combined with the peculiar, and in many
instances, novel condition of the Jews throughout
Europe and America, shall be the means of
facilitating their eventual restoration to their
own land, no mortal can determine. It is enough
for Christians to know, that two thousands of
years, through nearly which period it has been
dormant, can neither render extinct the title, or
prescribe the heaven-charted right of the seed of
Abraham to the final and everlasting possession
of the land of Canaan that God will remember the
land, and gather together unto it his ancient
peopleAlexander Keith, Prophecies Concerning
the Final Restoration of the Jews and Their
Return to the Land of Judea, 1831
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CHRISTIANS PETITION FOR A JEWISH RETURN
Your Memorialists beg leave... to remind your
Lordship that the land of Palestine was bestowed
by the Sovereign of the Universe upon the
descendants of Abraham as a permanent and
inalienable possession nearly 4,000 years ago,
and that neither conquests nor treaties among men
can possibly affect their Title to it. He has
also decreed that they shall again return to
their country and that the Gentiles shall be
employed as the means of their restoration. Peti
tion to Lord Palmerston (British Foreign
Secretary), by 320 British Christians, memorandum
dated March 2, 1841
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JOHN THOMAS PREDICTS A JEWISH RETURN
'The pre-adventural colonization of Palestine
will be on purely political principles and the
Jewish colonists will return in unbelief of the
Messiahship of Jesus, and of the truth as it is
in him. They will emigrate thither as
agriculturists and traders, in the hope of
ultimately establishing their commonwealth, but
more immediately of getting rich in silver and
gold by commerce with India, and in cattle and
goods by their industry at home under the
efficient protection of the British power. John
Thomas, Elpis Israel, pages 441-2, 1849
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JOHN THOMAS PREDICTS A JEWISH RETURN
As I have said elsewhere, the Lion-power will
not interest itself in behalf of the subjects of
God's kingdom, from pure generosity, piety
towards God, or love of Israel but upon the
principles which actuate all the governments of
the world - upon those, namely, of the lust of
dominion, self-preservation, and
self-aggrandizement.   The possession, or
ascendancy of Britain in Egypt, Ethiopia, and
Seba, Saudi Arabia will naturally lead to the
colonization of Palestine by the Jews.   John
Thomas, Elpis Israel, page 445, 1849
29
J C PHILPOT PREDICTS A JEWISH RETURN
There can hardly be a doubt that the sixth
trumpet prophesies the eruption of the Turks from
across the river Euphrates. Dr. Gill, Bishop
Newton, Dr. Cumming, and we believe nearly every
commentator on the Revelation agree on this
point and, indeed, the description is too plain
and clear to admit of doubt.   Thus, the river
Euphrates is the symbol of the Turkish Empire.
Now upon this river the sixth vial is poured,
most evidently pointing out the seat of God's
judgments. This vial was poured out about 1820,
when Ali Pacha lifted up the standard of revolt
against the Sultan, and has been going on ever
since, and will go on till the Turkish empire, at
least in Europe, dies of decay and
exhaustion.J C Philpot, Review of
Apocalyptic Sketches, Signs of the Times, and
The Coming Struggle, published in The Gospel
Standard, 1854
30
J C PHILPOT PREDICTS A JEWISH RETURN
By the Kings of the East the Author of The
Coming Struggle understands the English power in
India, but it seems more agreeable to the tenor
of God's word to refer it to the Jews and their
return to their own land.   The restoration of
the Jews to their own land seems to us as clearly
revealed as their dispersion. To quote the
passages which promise this restoration would
fill pages.   J C Philpot, Review of
Apocalyptic Sketches, Signs of the Times, and
The Coming Struggle, published in The Gospel
Standard, 1854
31
ELLIOTT PREDICTS A JEWISH RETURN
It seems to me manifest that the same Turkish
power is here intended that was described under
the sixth Trumpet as loosed from the
Euphrates. Edward Elliott, Horae
Apocalypticae, volume III, 5th edition, pages
422-3, 1862The reader is doubtless familiar
with the predictive clause as one most generally
explained of the restoration of the Jews to their
land, following on the decay and fall of the
Turkish empire an explanation to which the
recent political changes, and present troubled
aspect of things in Syria and Palestine, must be
allowed to have lent not only a new interest, but
perhaps also an increased probability. Edward
Elliott, Horae Apocalypticae, volume III, 5th
edition, page 455, 1862
32
ELLIOTT PREDICTS A JEWISH RETURN
At the same time some signs are wanting, even as
I revise this a fifth time in 1861, especially
the non-gathering as yet of the Jews to Palestine
and predicted troubles consequentSo that, as
it seems to me, we shall probably not err in
looking for nearly coincident occurrence of the
two grand events following viz.,1st, the
homeward return of the Jews from their
dispersion, in fullness and strength, like as
when the mighty Euphratean stream, on the willows
of whose banks the harps of their earlier
captivity were suspended, was each day forced
backward by the mightier influence of the tide of
the southern ocean. 2nd, the gathering, and the
destruction, probably in Judaea, of some great
anti-Jewish confederacy Edward Elliott, Horae
Apocalypticae, volume IV, 5th edition, pages
127-9, 1862
33
DAVID STEELE PREDICTS A JEWISH RETURN
Vs. 12-16.-"The great river Euphrates" is the
object of the sixth vial. By the very general
consent of expositors the Turkish empire is
intended by this symbol and they seem to be
equally agreed that the sixth vial in now in
process of pouring out. The object of the sixth
trumpet is the same, (ch. ix. 14.)     By the
"kings of the east" may be understood the Jews,
agreeably to the symbolical nature of this book
(Is. xli. 2, 3)David Steele, Notes On the
Apocalypse, pages 241-2, 1870
34
DAVID STEELE PREDICTS A JEWISH RETURN
The dynasty of the Turk is in process of visible
exhaustion, and nothing but what is termed among
antichristian nations "the balance of power,"
prolongs its existence or hinders its extinction.
"Drying up," evaporation, is a gradual process,
and with singular precision describes the waning
light of the once proud Crescent,-the expiring
breath of what has been termed by a bold figure,
"the sick man."   David Steele, Notes On the
Apocalypse, pages 241-2, 1870
35
In the prophecy of Ezekiel we have, in the
vision of the valley of dry bones, and its
interpretation, a very full account of the final
restoration and conversion of Israel (Ezek.
xxxvii. 7-14). According to the representation
of that vision the restoration is to take place
in successive and perfectly distinct stages.
Thus the prophet saw that, before the giving of
life to the dry bones, which symbolized the house
of Israel, before the clothing of them with
flesh, sinews, and skin, there was first of all
a noise and a shaking, and bone came to bone,
each bone to his fellow that is, he saw in the
first place a preliminary organization, the
necessary antecedent of all that
followed.Grattan Guinness, Light For The Last
Days, chapter 7, 1888
36
We knew the times and seasons
If this feature of the vision mean anything, it
would seem that it can mean nothing else than
this, that a tendency to external organization in
the scattered nation was to be looked for,
antecedent and preparatory to their actual
reinstatement in their land, and conversion to
God, by the power of the Spirit of life." This
prediction as to the beginning of the final
restoration is being very literally
fulfilled.The climax of the Jewish
renaissance is, as we know, to consist in their
restoration as a nation to the land of Palestine,
- a climax which has not yet come, but which is
perceptibly nearer than it was even a quarter of
a century ago.Grattan Guinness, Light For The
Last Days, chapter 7, 1888
37
We knew the times and seasons
In chapter vii. it is the sixth trumpet angel
that unlooses the angels bound by the river
Euphrates. Here the sixth angel pours his vial
upon the river Euphrates. Evidently the power
affected by the sixth angel and described by the
river Euphrates in both cases, is the same in
chapter vii. and in the present chapter.
Prophecy has described the rise of the Turkish
power. It also foreshadows the fall of this
mighty scourge of the nations. The cruel and
sensual invader, who has desolated the Holy Land
and plowed with destruction regions in which
flourishing churches were founded by the
apostles, is destined to fall. A vial shall be
poured out upon it and it shall be dried up.   B
W Johnson, Vision Of the Ages, page 312, 1888
38
We knew the times and seasons
I wish to ask the reader to observe the effects
of pouring out the vial. The Euphrates is dried
up. This symbolism does not indicate a sudden
destruction but a gradual decay. Earthquakes, and
falling cities and lands, or mountains swallowed
up, are symbols of sudden destruction, but a
drying up indicates an extinction by slow
degrees.   This is just what is taking place in
the case of Turkey. I do not know when her end
will come, whether soon, or far in the future
but her end will come, and I do know that for
more than a hundred years the foundations of her
power have been slowly drying up.B W Johnson,
Vision Of the Ages, page 313, 1888
39
We knew the times and seasons
In considering the sixth trumpet the river
Euphrates was interpreted to represent that which
bound or held in check for a time, the four
angelsthe Turkish-Ottoman forces in their
invasion of the Eastern or Greek
Christendom.   For nearly thirteen centuries
with the exception of a brief period of about ten
years, the great Ottoman or Turkish Empire held
possession of Jerusalem and the land of
Palestine.   In 1917, a very significant date
in symbolic time prophecy, this Turkish power was
forced to deliver over the government of that
land to Englandan event most remarkable in
connection with the fulfillment of the prediction
of the drying up of the Euphrates.R E
Streeter, The Revelation of Jesus Christ,
chapter 37, c. 1922
40
And predicted what was to occur in 1947-8
This, however, does not complete the fulfillment
of the symbol in even its earthly aspect.   The
complete drying up of the great river Euphrates,
would be accomplished only in the Jews gaining
complete possession of their land under a
government of their own. This would require
that even England, a friendly power to the Jews,
would have to relinquish its governmental
authority in that land. Furthermore, there
would be required the removal of all those
obstacles in the land itself, that is, the
removal of the peoples now living in the land
either their removal or their cessation of
opposition to the ownership and rulership of the
Jews over Palestine.R E Streeter, The
Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter 37, c. 1922
41
The restoration of the Jews is a work of time,
and will require between fifty and sixty years to
accomplish. .. It is described by the prophet as,
a land of unwalled villages. Whose inhabitants
are at rest and dwell safely, all of them
dwelling without walls and having neither bars
nor gates John Thomas Elpis Israel, 1848
The prophet was so clear, but it was not until
1994 when a large security wall was begun about
the mountains of Israel, that Gogs strong
reference to a lack of walls makes sense. The
60 years envisioned have passed Do we sense the
times we live in? Shall we confidently proclaim
that shortly Israel will dwell without that wall?