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Jehovahs Witnesses
THE WATCHTOWER NOVEMBER 2010
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5/16/13
Modern Israels secular attitude contrasts sharply with the situation in 537 B.C.E. Back then, the nation of Israel was indeed reborn as if in a day after being devastated and depopulated by the Babylonians 70 years earlier. At that time, Isaiah 66:8 was strikingly fulfilled when the Persian conqueror of Babylon, Cyrus the Great, authorized the return of the Jews to their homeland.Ezra 1:2. The Persian King Cyrus recognized Jehovahs hand in the matter in 537 B.C.E., and those who returned to Jerusalem did so for the express purpose of restoring the worship of Jehovah God and rebuilding his temple. The modern State of Israel has never officially declared any such desire or intention.
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That verse helps us understand a controversial comment Paul made. In his letter to the Romans, Paul explained how the unbelieving natural Jews were like branches of a symbolic olive tree that were lopped off so that wild Gentile branches could be grafted in. (Romans 11:17-21) Concluding this illustration, he states: A dulling of sensibilities has happened in part to Israel until the full number of people of the nations has come in, and in this manner all Israel will be saved. (Romans 11:25, 26) Was Paul foretelling an eleventh hour mass conversion of the Jews to Christianity? Clearly, no such conversion has taken place. By the expression all Israel, Paul meant all of spiritual Israel Christians who have been selected by holy spirit. He was saying that the failure of the natural Jews to accept the Messiah would not thwart Gods purpose to have a spiritual olive tree full of productive branches. This is in harmony with Jesus own illustration of himself as a vine whose nonproductive branches will be lopped off. Jesus said: I am the true vine, and my Father is the cultivator. Every branch in me not bearing fruit he takes away, and every one bearing fruit he cleans, that it may bear more fruit.John 15:1, 2. Although the establishment of the modern State of Israel was not foretold in the Bible, the establishment of the nation of spiritual Israel certainly was! If you identify and associate with that spiritual nation today, you will reap eternal blessings. Genesis 22:15-18; Galatians 3:8, 9. What did Pauls illustration of the olive tree mean?
www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/wp20101101/bible-prophecy-modern-state-israel/
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