“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.  — Matthew 24:14.

Do Christians Really Believe We Are in the “Last Days”?

I have to wonder if Christians really do believe that we are living in the “last days”?  I say this because churches are still conducting themselves as “business as usual.”  The Rebbe, Anointed-Messiah Yeshua of Nazareth prophesied that during “the last days” that we would preach the same message that he and his disciples were preaching in the land of Israel during the Second-Temple period of the first century, C.E.  He prophesied,

And this GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then the end shall come. (Matthew 24:14)

But is this the message that we hear preached in churches?  No, it is not.  Instead, I have heard Christian pastors/priests, Bible teachers, and evangelists who claim that “the gospel of the kingdom” that the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples taught were “only the Jewish people and only for a short time,” but there is not one passage, one verse, anywhere in the “New Testament” where the Rebbe Yeshua EVER teaches this to his disciples.  NOT ONE SINGLE TIME, EVEN AFTER HIS RESURRECTION!  Obviously, then, this is just a man-made rationalization for why Christians have continued to preach a message that is distinctly different from the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples.

On the other hand, there are Christians pastors/priests and Bible teachers who argue that there is only one “gospel,” and that “the gospel of the kingdom” and “the gospel” that Christianity has traditionally preached is, in fact, the “same gospel.”  And then more recently, in the 20th and 21st centuries, there have been the “Social Gospel” (1920’s); the Word of Faith Movement,” which has been transformed and evolved into “the Health, Wealth & Prosperity Gospel,” and even more recently, the “Gospel of Free Grace,” the “Love of God Only” Gospel, and even the “All Inclusive Gospel.” So it really makes one wonder if Christianity as a whole even knows what the gospel” really is anymore?

We Need to Return

We need to return to the only message that the Rebbe Yeshua identified as “the gospel/good news” and that is “the good news of the kingdom of God.”  This is the message that the God of Israel gave to the Levite and Nazarite prophet, Yochanan (John) the Immerser, and to the traveling Rebbe, the Anointed-Messiah Yeshua, to announce and teach to the whole House of Israel.  For example, in the book of Mark, we read,

Now after that John [Heb. Yochanan] was put in prison, Jesus [Heb. Y’hoshua/Yeshua] came into Galilee, preaching THE GOSPEL [GOOD NEWS] OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and THE KINGDOM OF GOD is at hand: repent ye, and believe THE GOSPEL. (Mark 1: 14-15, NKJV; emphasis added)

Here we can see that the Rebbe Yeshua calls the message that he is proclaiming [trans. “preaching”] as “The Good News [trans. “Gospel”] of the Kingdom of God.”  And even in the message itself, the focus is on “the kingdom of God.”  Modern translators believe that the phrase “the kingdom of God” is just another way to refer to God, so modern translations call the message “the Gospel of God,” and they completely leave the phrase “the kingdom of” complete out of the translation.  But it is critical that the word “Kingdom” remain in the name, because that is the actual focus of the message.

The Gospel Message – NOT about Yeshua?

First of all, I think I need to clarify that “the good news [trans. “gospel”] message” is NOT about Yeshua’s life, ministry, miracles, death and resurrection at all,” but it is about “the kingdom of God.”  But here is an important point: the “good news message” (trans. “gospel”) that the Levite and Nazarite prophet, Yochanan (John) the Immerser; the Rebbe, Anointed-Messiah Yeshua of Nazareth, and his disciples announced and taught throughout the land of Israel during the Second-Temple period of the first century, C.E., was given to them by the Holy God of Israel.  It was not a doctrine or teaching that they, themselves, or other people created.  For example, in the book of Luke, we read,

And when it was day, he [Rebbe Yeshua] departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed [prevented] him, that he should not depart from them.  And he said unto them, “I must preach THE KINGDOM OF GOD to other cities also: for THEREFORE AM I SENT. (Luke 4:42-44, NKJV; emphasis added)

According to the Rebbe Yeshua himself, why was he sent by God?  “To preach the Kingdom of God.”  He did not teach that his main mission was “to die for sins,” as Christians teach, but to announce (trans. “preach”) the “kingdom of God.”  Now I know some Christians are wondering, “Are you saying that Yeshua did not die and was raised again from the dead?”  No, I am not saying that.  What I am saying is that his death and resurrection by God was NOT “the gospel.”

In fact, the “good news message” that Yochanan (John) the Immerser, the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples taught was obviously taught within all three sections of the Hebrew Scriptures: the Torah, the Prophets, and the Writings (Heb. Ketuvim).  It was not something that was “hidden” or had to be “translated” in just the right way, it was obvious.  And the problem with the message that Christians call “the gospel” is that there is not a single verse or passage anywhere in the “New Testament” where the Rebbe Yeshua EVER calls his death and resurrection “the gospel/good news” – not even once!

A Christian Misinterpretation and Misunderstanding

Mainstream Jews believe that the nations of the earth are still under the rule and reign of God, but mainstream Christians believe that this rule and reign was first given to Adam and Chavah (trans. “Eve”) at their creation, thereby making them the “owners” of this world, and then when they sinned in the Garden of Eden, this rule and reign – or ownership of this world – was handed over to Satan.  However, this is again where I side with mainstream Judaism and not with Christianity.

According to the Hebrew Scriptures, Adam and Chavah (“Eve”) was never given OWNERSHIP of the earth.  In Bereshith (Genesis) 1, we read,

And God said, “Let us make Man [Heb. Adam] in Our image, after Our likeness.  They shall RULE (Heb. radah) over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and over the animal, the whole earth, and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.  So God created Man [Heb. ADAM] in His image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; and RULE [Heb. radah] over the fish of the sea, the bird of the sky, and every living thing that moves on the earth.”  [Bereshith (Genesis) 1:26-28, CHUMASH]

The word translated “rule” is the Hebrew word radah (H7287), which means “to rule,” or “to subjugate,” but it does not mean “to own.”  We would say that Adam and Chavah (trans. “Eve”) are given managerial duties (or made “stewards”) over the earth, but they were not made “the owners.”  Consequently, then, the Native American Indians were correct in their beliefs when they argued that we cannot “own” the earth; we can take care of it, but that is all.  Thus, Adam and Chavah (“Eve”) couldn’t give Satan anything that they themselves did not own.  Therefore, Satan could not have gotten ownership from Adam and Chavah (“Eve”) when they sinned, and Satan, therefore, does not own the nations or people of the earth.  He may influence human actions, but he does NOT own the planet or the nations.  For example, in Psalm 24, we read,

The earth is ADONAI’s, with ALL that is in it, the world and those who live there. [Tehillim (Psalms 24:1, CJB; emphasis added]

So how could Satan have gotten ownership of the earth from Adam and Chavah (trans. “Eve”) in the Garden of Eden when HASHEM (or ADONAI) still owns it in Psalms 24?  This is written thousands of years after the time of Adam and Chavah (“Eve”).  Nor does Satan own every human soul since in Yechezk’el (Ezekiel) 18, we read,

Look, ALL LIVES BELONG TO ME – both the parent’s life and the child’s life are equally MINE – so it is the person who sins, himself, who must die. [Yechezk’el (Ezekiel) 18: 4, CJB; emphasis added]

Now if we look at this same verse in the New King James Version, we read,

Behold, ALL SOULS ARE MINE; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is MINE: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. (Ezekiel 18:4, NKJV; emphasis added)

This was written about 500-600 years before the conception and birth of the Rebbe Yeshua, and yet HASHEM/ADONAI says “all souls/lives are His.”  He owns “the soul/the life” of every single human being that has every lived (and continue to live) on this planet.  Therefore, as we can see here, a “soul” is not just some “immaterial part of a person” that lives forever, as Christians use and interpret this word, but it is the “whole person,” a “human life” and all there is associated with that person.  So if HASHEM (ADONAI) owns every human life, then how could Christianity be true when it says that before we were “saved,” we were owned by Satan?  Does Satan influence our lives to be disobedient and rebellious to God?  Yes, but that does not mean he OWNS us.

One Problem with the Christian View

But one main problem with the idea that “the gospel” and “the gospel of the kingdom” are two different messages is that this was a foreign concept to the Rebbe Yeshua.  In Mark 1, we read,

Now after that John [Heb. Yochanan] was put in prison, Jesus [Heb. Y’hoshua/Yeshua] came into Galilee, preaching THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD,” and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and THE KINGDOM OF GOD is at hand: repent ye, and believe THE GOSPEL.” (Mark 1:14-15, NKJV; emphasis added)

Here we can see that the Rebbe Yeshua calls his message both “the gospel of the kingdom of God” and “the gospel” at the very same time.  Therefore, the idea that these are two very different messages is NOT in agreement with the teachings of the Rebbe Yeshua at all. So are the Christian pastors correct who say that there is only one “gospel”?  Yes and No.  They are correct in saying that there is only “one gospel,” but they are incorrect in saying that the “death and resurrection” message they call “the gospel” is the same message as what the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples announced and taught.

Problem with the Christian Definition of “the Gospel”

Most Christians will point to I Corinthians 15 as the source for their definition of “the gospel:”

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you THE GOSPEL which I preached unto you, which also ye [you] have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.  For I delivered unto you FIRST OF ALL that which I also received, how that CHRIST [Heb. Mashiach] DIED FOR OUR SINS according to the Scriptures; and that HE WAS BURIED, and that HE ROSE AGAIN according to the Scriptures: and that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: after that, he was seen of above five hundred brethen at once; of whom the greater part unto this present, but some are falles asleep. (I Corinthians 15:1-6, NKJV; emphasis added)

Now here we can see in this passge, Yeshua’s death, burial, and resurrection being called “the gospel” by Rav Sha’ul Paulus (Paul), a second-generation Bet Hillel Pharisee, but Rav Sha’ul Paulus (Paul) is not giving us a thorough explanation of what comprised, or constituted “the gospel;” instead, he is laying the groundwork for a larger counter-argument that he is making in the rest of the chapter against those who are arguing that there is no such thing as “the resurrection of the dead.”  Also, he said that this was what he “first of all” received; he did not say this was the only thing that he received.  There was obviously more that he received, but he only lays this out because it provides the foundation he needs for his larger counter-argument.  Therefore, to pull this out of its immediate context, and use it to provide a comprehensive explanation of “the gospel,” which is not its purpose in this chapter at all, is a misuse of the text, and it misrepresents the actual “gospel” taught by the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples.

Yeshua’s Death and Resurrection – “Not the Gospel”?

Yeshua’s “death and resurrection,” as I said, is NOT “the gospel,” but “the gospel” is actually announcing that God was beginning the PROCESS of the Redemption Heb. ge’ulah) and the Restoration of the United Kingdom of Israel – not an event, and his “death and resurrection” actually served several different purposes:

  • The death and resurrection opened the way so that the PROCESS of “the gospel” – the redemption and the restoration of Israel – could happen.
  • The death and resurrection was also to initiate the FIRST RENEWED COVENANT – which was God writing His “Ten Commandments” on our hearts and upon our minds, as well as placing His “Dwelling Presence” (Heb. Shekinah) within us, and causing us to “walk in [His] statutes…and [to] keep [His] judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:26-27), in fulfillment of God’s desire expressed in Shemot (Exodus)  25:8, “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among [in, through] them.”
  • The “Dwelling Presence” (Heb. Shekinah) was to deal with the yetzer ra (“evil impulse”/”evil imaginations”) of people’s hearts, or what Christians call “the sin nature.”

What most people do not realize is that just as David entered into covenant with all the tribes of Israel prior to him being crowned king of all Israel, when God returns the Rebbe Yeshua to the earth, he will enter into another renewal covenant – the B’rit Shalom (“covenant of peace”) – before he ascends the Davidic throne in Jerusalem for his rule and reign.  This covenant is spoken about in Ezekiel 34: 25-31;  37: 26-28, and it is about peace, safety, and prosperity, which is very different from the B’rit Chadashah, the “new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36: 26, 27), that deals with the internalization of the Ten Commandments and the forgiveness of sin. But both of these covenants are made with the 12 Tribes of Israel – not with the whole world as Christianity teaches.

So does God exclude the Gentiles from Salvation?

No, Gentiles have been allowed to become a part of Israel, even before there was an Israel.  There were Gentiles (non-Jews) who left Haran with Abram and Sarai and became a part of their camp; there were Gentiles (non-Jews) who left Egypt with the Israelites when they left Egypt (Exodus 12:38).  These same Gentiles (non-Jews) remained with the Israelites throughout the Exodus, and they even were there with them when they entered into the Promised Land.  Then there was Rahab and her family, Ruth, Doeg the Edomite, Uriah the Hittite, and others that we find mentioned within the Hebrew Scriptures who had joined themselves to Israel and then lives their lives with them together.  So this idea that “Israel” refers only to the “Jewish people” is obviously wrong.  There were Gentiles (non-Jews) who were included among them as well.

When did Christianity Actually Begin?

Most of Christianity has not taught the Rebbe Yeshua’s message now for over nineteen centuries!  Ever since Christianity began as a distinctly different and unique religion in the early years of the second century, C.E., when a group of Gentiles (non-Jews) broke away from the original Kingdom Restoration Movement that the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples began within Second-Temple Judaism – who called themselves HaDerek (“The Way”), which was short for HaDerekh ADONAI (“The Way of the LORD”) – to begin their own syncretic religion, which they called “Christianity.”  These Gentile (non-Jewish) believers  broke away from the movement for several different reasons:

  1.  Jerusalem and the Temple had been destroyed by the four legions of the Roman military under Titus in 70 C.E.
  2. With their destruction, as well as the devastation of Israel and the Jewish people, these Gentile (non-Jewish) believers saw this as a sign that God had turned His back on Israel and the Jewish people, and they began to see themselves as the “New Israel,” the “New People of God.”  This belief that the Church has replaced “Israel and the Jewish people” is called “Supersessionism” or “Replacement Theology.”
  3. However, there were many “Christians” who believed that Yochanan (John), the Rebbe Yeshua’s disciple, and the writer of the Gospel of John, I John, II John, III John, and the book of Revelation would live until the Rebbe Yeshua would return – and Yochanan (John) discusses this false belief at the end of his Gospel, but when Yochanan (John) died in Ephesus in 100 C.E., these “Christians” believed that they had misunderstood the “Kingdom of God,” and they began to spiritualize everything.  It is in this pool of misinterpretation and error that the religion of Christianity began.
  4. To further confirm this false belief that “the Church” had replaced “Israel and the Jewish people,” these “Christians” began to teach what they called the “New Testament” (representing Christianity and the Church) had replaced what they called the “Old Testament” (representing Israel and the Jewish people).  And this aspect of “Supersessionism” and “Replacement Theology” is still taught in most parts of Christianity to this day.
  5. Also, Ignatius, the first Christian bishop of Antioch  (98 – 117 C.E.), writes in his letter, “To the Magnesians,” one of the writings quoted within the book, The Apostolic Fathers, 2nd edition, translated by J.B. Lightfoot and J.R. Harmer, and edited and revised by Michael W. Holmes:

For if we CONTINUE to live in accordance with Judaism, we admit that we have not received grace….Therefore, having become his disciples, LET US LEARN in accordance with Christianity…It is utterly absurd to profess Jesus Christ and to practice Judaism.  For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity in which “every tongue” believed and “was brought together” to God.  (“To the Magnesians” 8:1; 10:1, 3, p. 95, 96)

Why would Ignatius write “If we CONTINUE to live in accordance with Judaism,” If Christianity actually began with the life and ministry of Yeshua or with the writings of Rav Sha’ul Paulus (Paul)?  Why would he be writing to second-century, C.E., Gentile (non-Jewish) believers and encouraging them to “LET US LEARN in accordance to Christianity”?  All of the evidence here seems to suggest that “the religion of Christianity” did not actually begin with the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples as I have said, but that its beginnings was much more recent to the time period of Ignatius:  after the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple AND the death of Yochanan (John) in the beginning years of the second century, C.E.  Therefore, to describe the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples as “Early Christianity” is actually historically inaccurate and is completely misleading to what that Kingdom Restoration Movement was really all about, as well as to the complex history that happened at the end of the first century and the beginning of the second century, C.E.

Rebbe Yeshua’s Message – “The Ge’ulah & the Restoration of Israel is Beginning!”

If the Rebbe Yeshua did not begin Christianity, then what did he do?  Yochanan (John) the Immerser and the Rebbe Yeshua were sent by the Holy God of Israel to announce and teach a message to the whole House of Israel – “the gospel (or “good news”) of the Kingdom of God” or what Matthew calls “the gospel (or “good news”) of the kingdom of heaven.”  This message was not about God’s rule and reign in heaven, nor was it about heaven, but the focus of this message was about “the kingdom of God” or “the kingdom of heaven.”  But what does this mean?

Rabbinic Insight – “the Kingdom of God”?

Rabbi Solomon Schechter (1847-1915), the founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, the President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and the architect of the American Conservative Judaism, has written in his book, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology (Woodstock: Jewish Lights, 1993; orig. 1909), he defines “the kingdom of God,”

The kingdom of God,” derived from the Shema, have brought us to a theological doctrine described by some Rabbis as the very “Truth (or essence) of the Torah,” or as another Rabbi called it, “The ‘weighty’ law.”  The typical expressions in the Bible, “I am the Lord your God,” or “I am the Lord,” are also thought by the Rabbis to suggest the idea of the kingship.  It is at once the centre and the circumference of Rabbinic divinity.  God is king and hence claiming authority; the king is God, and therefore the manifestation and assertion of this authority are the subject of Israel’s prayers and solicitations. (65)

So when the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples were announcing and teaching “the kingdom of God,” they were teaching about “the very Truth (or essence) of the Torah.”  It was this same “Truth (or essence) of the Torah” that was the pulse and heartbeat of the Rebbe Yeshua in his life and ministry.

Rabbi Schechter goes on to describe “the kingdom of God” as comprised of two co-existing “aspects”: (1) “The kingdom of God (Invisible)” and (2) “The Visible Kingdom of God.”  He describes the “Invisible Kingdom of God” as being –

...mainly spiritual, expressive of a certain attitude of mind, and possessing a more individual character. (66)

He goes on to describe t a bit later on in the page,

Communion with God by means of prayer through the removal of all intruding elements between man and his Maker, and through the implicit acceptance of God’s unity as well as an unconditional surrender of mind and heart to his holy will, which the love of God expressed in the Shema implies, this is what is understood by the receiving of the kingdom of God. (66-67)

The visible kingdom of God is also comprised of two parts: (1) “the universal kingdom,” includes everything within the physical universe, including everything within the planet earth, such as the nations, the people, the animals, and the natural resources; and (2) “the kingdom of God (national).”  It is about this “national” aspect of “the kingdom of God” that Rabbi Schechter writes,

The idea of the kingdom is accordingly often so closely connected with the redemption of Israel from the exile, the advent of the Messiah, and the restoration of the Temple, as to be inseparable from it. (98)

It was this national aspect of “the kingdom of God” that the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples went about the land of Israel announcing and teaching.  These phrases – “the kingdom of God” and “the kingdom of heaven” – can be traced back to the phrase that King David used in the inauguration of his son, Solomon:

The LORD God of Israel chose me of all my father’s house to be king over Israel forever.  For He chose Judah to be ruler, and of the family of Judah, my father’s house; and of my father’s sons, He preferred to make me king over all Israel; and of all my sons – for many of the sons the LORD gave me – He chose my son Solomon to sit on the throne of THE KINGDOM OF THE LORD over Israel. (I Chronicles 28:4-5, JPS; emphasis added)

The phrase “the kingdom of the LORD” in Hebrew is malkhut Y-H-W-H.  While the Jewish people were in Babylon, they quit using the sacred covenant name of God, and they created evasive synonyms instead.  One of these evasive synonyms was “heaven,” or in Hebrew Shamayim.  So if we substitute the word Shamayim (“heaven”) for the sacred name of God, we get malkhut shamayim (“kingdom of heaven”).  Another evasive name was Shaddai (“Almighty”), and if we substitute the word Shaddai (“Almighty”) for the sacred name of God, we get malkhut Shaddai (“kingdom of the Almighty”), and this phrase malkhut Shaddai (“kingdom of the Almighty”) is used in the Jewish prayer book in the _________________ prayer.  And it is quite possible that it was this same phrase that was translated into Greek as _________________ (“the kingdom of God”).

The Significance of this Davidic Phrase?

So if these two phrases from the “New Testament” can be traced back to this Davidic phrase in I Chronicles 28:5, why is this significant?  It is significant because —

  1.  The context of this original phrase was not spiritual – but political.  The context here is the political inauguration of a literal king over a literal kingdom.
  2. This phrase is used in a speech to the United Kingdom of Israel, all of the tribes of Israel, before they ever split into two kingdoms: the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah.

So by using these phrases – “the kingdom of heaven” and “the kingdom of God” – when he uses them with the word “gospel,” or in reference to “the gospel,” he is alluding back to this speech by David and reminding his audience of a time when they were once a United Kingdom.  He is also at the same time alluding to and reminding them of the many promises by God of His promise to one day bring about “the restoration of Israel.”  So “the gospel/good news of the kingdom” proclaimed by Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples was announcing that God was beginning the PROCESS of Him reaching into the nations of the world and redeeming those who were descendants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah to bring them back together with Him, with one another, and bringing them back to the Land of Israel.  This is why the masses were so excited by the news, and the miracles that God did in and through the Rebbe Yeshua was to validate and affirm the message – “the gospel/’good news’ of the kingdom” – and that God had sent him, just as the plagues validated the message that Mosheh (Moses) brought and him being from God.

However, those in power saw this message as a threat because it focused on a return to a government system that Israel had in place under King David, which was “a literal political monachy,” and not the “religious state” that the religious leaders had been working on developing at that point for the past couple centuries, ever since the limited return of Jews back from Babylon. It was this threat to the political powers at the time that led to the Rebbe Yeshua being arrested and then crucified on Passover by the Romans, like thousands of other Jews who were also crucified by Rome for various “Roman-viewed crimes” and had lived during that same time period.

What do I mean by “the Restoration of Israel”?

When I speak of “the restoration of Israel,” I am not speaking about getting a homeland for the Jewish people, nor am I speaking about the need to rebuild the Temple and getting it operating again, since both of these things were still there during the Second Temple period of the first century, C.E., when the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples were ministering there in the land of Israel.  Instead, what I am referring to as “the restoration of Israel” is the process that God was beginning in gathering the descendants of the two ancient kingdoms – the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah – and bringing them back to Himself, to one another, and then back to the land in fulfillment of biblical prophecy.  This process is still continuing on, even today.

Prophecy from the Torah

For example, we find this prophecy of “the restoration of Israel” in the Written Torah:

It will be that when all these things come upon you – the blessing and the curse that I have presented before you – then you will take it to your heart AMONG ALL THE NATIONS WHERE HASHEM, your God, HAS DISPERSED YOU; and you will return unto HASHEM, your God, and listen to His voice, according to everything that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul.  Then HASHEM, your God, will bring back your captivity and have mercy upon you.  If your dispersed will be at the ends of heaven, from there HASHEM, your God, will gather you in and from there He will take you.  HASHEM, your God, will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, to love HASHEM, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. [Devarim (Deuteronomy) 30: 1-6, CHUMASH; emphasis added]

In this prophecy, we can see that the people of Israel will be scattered “among all the nations” of the world, even to the furthest corner of the earth, and even there HASHEM (another evasive word for God, meaning “the name”) promises that He will seek out the people of Israel and restore them to Himself, to one another, and ultimately to the Promised Land of Israel.

Prophecy from the Prophets

We also find this prophecy of the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel” in the Prophets, like in the writings of Yechezk’el (Ezekiel),

The word of ADONAI came to me: “You, human being, take one stick and write on it, ‘For Y’hudah [Judah] and those joined with him [among] the people of Isra’el.’  Next, take another stick and write on it, ‘For Yosef [Joseph], the stick of Efrayim [Ephraim], and all the house of Isra’el who are joined with him.’  Finally, bring them together into a single stick, so that they become one in your hand.  When your people ask you what all this means, tell them that Adonai ELOHIM [Lord G-D] says this: ‘I will take the stick of Yosef [Joseph], which is in the hand of Efrayim [Ephraim], together with the tribes of Isra’el who are joined with him, and put them together with the stick of Y’hudah [Judah] and make them a single stick, so that they become one in my hand.  Then say to them that Adonai ELOHIM [Lord G-D] says: “I will take the people of Isra’el from among the nations where they have gone and gather them from every side and bring them back to their own land.  I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Isra’el; and one king will be king for all of them.  They will no longer be two nations, and they will never again be divided into two kingdoms. [Yechezk’el [Ezekiel] 37:15-22, CJB]

These are just two of the prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures regarding the Ge’ulah (Redemption) and the Restoration of Israel that the Rebbe Yeshua and his disciples were announcing and teaching throughout the land of Israel in the Jewish synagogues.  In the Greek New Testament, this teaching is translated as “the gospel of the kingdom of heaven” in Matthew, or “the gospel of the kingdom of God” in the rest of the “New Testament.”  In the new English translations, it is “the good news of the kingdom of heaven” in Matthew, and in the rest of the New Testament, it is “the good news of the kingdom of God.”

Next Part –

In the next part of this series, I want to examine the question, “If Yeshua’s gospel was about “the restoration of Israel,” then why did he have to die such a physically painful and violent death on Passover?”  It is a part of our book I am sure you do not want to miss.

Return to the top