…not forsaking the assembling of ourselves as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:25
Scripture above makes it clear we are to “see” the approaching of the coming of the Lord. It gives a strong, clear exhortation to fellowship in the Word together. The Rapture of the church is an event which is imminent— needing no signs in anticipation of it. It can occur at any moment! The signs we see are leading into the seven-year Tribulation period.
Perhaps the greatest & most obvious of such signs regards the rebirth of the nation of Israel. The Bible is clear to predict the return of the Jews to their homeland (Jeremiah 30:1-5; Ezekiel 34:11-24 & chapter 37; Zechariah 10:6-10). Often called a “super-sign” of the end times because so many events prophesied of hinge on the existence of the nation of Israel.
Scholar Randall Price comments on the miracle of Israel as a modern state
“The return of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel has been called the ‘Miracle on the Mediterranean.’ Such a return by a people group that had been scattered among the nations is unprecedented in history. Indeed, the Jewish people are the only exiled people to remain a distinct people despite dispersion to more than 70 different countries for more than 20 centuries. The mighty empires of Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece & Rome all ravaged their land, took their people captive and scattered them throughout the earth. Even after this, they suffered persecution, pogrom, and Holocaust in the lands to which they were exiled. Yet, all of these ancient kingdoms have turned to dust and their former glories remain only as museum relics. Many of the nations that opposed the Jews have suffered economic, political or religious decline. But the Jewish people whom they have enslaved and tried to eradicate live free and have again become a strong nation.”
In 2009, for the first time since AD 135, there were more Jews in Israel than in any other place on earth. Israel has once again, only recently, become the largest concentration of Jews in the world. Some perspective—in 1948 only 6% of the Jews in the world were in Israel. Today it is well over 40%.
Even esteemed writer Mark Twain, though an agnostic, could not understand the phenomena of the Jewish people—“The Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian rose, filled the planet with sound & splendor, then faded to dream-stuff, passing away. The Greek & Roman followed, made a vast noise and they too are gone. Other peoples have sprung up, and held their torch high for a time, but it too burned out and they sit in twilight now or are vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibits no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert, aggressive mind. All things are mortal, but the Jew. All other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”
The secret? It is all God, and His grace…always is!
Maranatha!