an_unshakeable_faith.. - Holy Bible Institute

“Their preservation is really one of the most illustrious acts of Divine Providence. They are dispersed amongall nations, yet not confounded with any. ... They can produce their pedigree from the beginning of theworld. ... After wars, massacres and persecutions they still subsist; they are still quite numerous. What but asupernatural power could have preserved them in such a manner as no other nation on earth has beenpreserved?” (Dissertation on the Prophecies, VIII, section 2).Walter Scott wrote:“The once mighty monarchies of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome have risen, flourished,and fallen, leaving no permanent results behind. But the Jews, whose reliable history goes further back thanany of those ancient kingdoms, are with us today. In physiognomy and national characteristics the Jew isunchanged in a history of nigh four thousand years. ... The Jews as a people cannot be destroyed. God istheir keeper and preserver, even while under His governmental judgment as they are today. The Jews, withouta home, without a country, without a government, without a head, are yet a people as distinct from theGentiles in national faith, feeling, and hope, as in the days of David and Solomon” (Walter Scott, At Hand, Or,Things Which Must Shortly Come to Pass, 1910)3. The Return to the LandBible prophecy not only described Israel’s dispersion and trouble, it foretold that Israel would bebrought back into her land (Deuteronomy 30:1-5).Many other prophecies describe Israel’s return.Bible believers knew that Israel was going to be restored because the prophecies required it. In1910, for example, when the Ottoman Empire still ruled the land of Israel and only a few Jewslived there, Walter Scott wrote:“The Restoration of the Hebrew Commonwealth is the first and indispensable necessity for the arrangement ofthe situation to suit the requirements of the prophetic orderly system mapped out in the Word. The wholeprophetic future depends on that primary fact. The Jew, and not the Gentile, is the centre of God’s governmentof the earth; hence all take shape and colour from the settlement of Judah in her land. This will be the greatpolitical event of the centuries, and one which will attract universal attention. ... whenever, and bywhomsoever, the return of Judah is effected, the result will be to change the whole political government of theworld. ... The Restoration of Israel to Palestine is the first and fundamental necessity demanded byprophecy” (Walter Scott, At Hand, Or, Things Which Must Shortly Come to Pass, 1910).What Walter Scott and other Bible believers long envisioned because of their faith in Bibleprophecy, happened in 1948. Israel was not only restored to the Holy Land, but she announcedthe establishment of a modern state.Restoration in two stagesIsrael’s return is described in the amazing prophecy of Ezekiel 37:1-14.Here Israel is described as a valley of dry bones. Verse 11 gives the interpretation: “these bonesare the whole house of Israel.” Dry bones was her condition for the past 2,000 years. She wasscattered to the ends of the earth, and it appeared that she was dead and finished.78