There will be a great spiritual transformation of Israel before Christ’s final return.

Those before us in Dispensational Theology developed the scriptural conviction that the people of Israel will one day be saved as a nation in their Promised Land. Dispensationalists taught this boldly—as was the case when The Friends of Israel was born in 1938, even before the modern State of Israel existed.

But this clear, biblical teaching has fallen on hard times, and many are conflicted.

Some reason that modern Israel simply cannot be the people that God promises to bring back to the land because the nation is largely unbelieving. They see its current presence in the Middle East as entirely inconsequential.

Such thinking misses the mark entirely. Israel’s return to its land is an event unparalleled in all history. The idea that the nation’s restoration is utterly unrelated to the biblical predictions regarding Israel’s future seems to strain credulity. 

I agree with prophecy scholar Dr. Thomas Ice’s statement: “Modern Israel is prophetically significant and is fulfilling Bible prophecy.”

Yet, Israel today remains largely in unbelief! How can this possibly be the result of God’s work?

A Two-Phased Return

Just like numerous prophetic events, Israel’s return takes place in two distinct phases. Ice explains: 

Readers of God’s Word need to be careful to distinguish which verses are being fulfilled in our day and which references await future fulfillment. In short there will be two end-time regatherings: One before the tribulation and one after the tribulation.

Ezekiel 36 and 37 clearly demonstrate this reality. Both chapters speak of both aspects of Israel’s return and restoration. Utilizing a writing style common in the Hebrew Scriptures, chapter 36 gives us the broad overview, then chapter 37 retells the story, providing additional details for emphasis.

Ezekiel 36:24 promises that God will bring the people of Israel “from among the nations … out of all countries.” The Jewish people’s return from the Babylonian/Medo-Persian captivity that commenced under King Cyrus of Persia in 539 BC (Ezra 1:1–4) does not fully encompass this prophecy. Something far greater will happen as the world approaches the end-times. 

In Ezekiel 36:25–38, we see that the people of Israel will be spiritually transformed once they come back “into [their] own land” (v. 24). The land itself also will be physically transformed and will one day “become like the garden of Eden” (v. 35).

The key is understanding that this transformation takes place with the people in the land. Astute Bible students know that Israel must be back in the land, constituted as an unbelieving nation, to submit to a covenant with the Antichrist (Daniel 9:27). That covenant will mark the beginning of the Tribulation. Even at the midpoint of the Tribulation, Jerusalem will still be “spiritually … called Sodom and Egypt” (Revelation 11:8).

Israel will be regenerated spiritually only after returning to its land.

Ezekiel 37—the well-known dry bones passage—reemphasizes this pattern, showing that Israel will be regenerated spiritually only after returning to its land. It is there that the lifeless bones of the people of Israel will come alive again (vv. 1–21). Then, finally, the whole nation and land will be transformed (vv. 22–28), which will involve the permanent reunification of all 12 tribes (v. 22), a political revival (vv. 24–25), and a spiritual renewal in which the land will house God’s “sanctuary … forevermore” (v. 26).

Zephaniah 2:1–2 teaches explicitly that God will “gather” the “undesirable nation,” which will take place “before the Lᴏʀᴅ’s fierce anger comes upon” them. This is the chastening of the Tribulation, the purpose being to bring Israel to repentance and to receive its king (Zechariah 12:10). Only then can there be a final, spiritual regathering in preparation for His Kingdom (Matthew 24:31).

The Great End-Times Revival

How will such wonders unfold during the days of the Tribulation? The people of Israel must return to their land as an unbelieving nation. God will confront them and draw them to their Messiah through the gospel ministry of the two witnesses (Revelation 11:3) and their 144,000 disciples who will be sealed from “all the tribes of the children of Israel” (7:4). Together, these end-times ministers will help bring the salvation of a countless multitude of Gentiles (vv. 9–17), as well as “all Israel” (Romans 11:26; cf. Zechariah 13:8–9).

God has long been bringing the people of Israel back to their ancient homeland.

God has long been bringing the Jewish people back to their ancient homeland. Many return in unbelief, but God will bring them to faith and spiritual life in the land before their ultimate return to receive all the blessings He has promised them in the coming Kingdom. We must proclaim these biblical realities with certainty and conviction. 

As Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum writes,

When the Bible speaks of a worldwide regathering of the Jewish people, it speaks of two distinct events. … First, there is to be a worldwide regathering in unbelief in preparation for judgment—specifically, the judgment of the tribulation. That is to be followed by a second worldwide regathering in faith in preparation for blessing—specifically, the blessing of the Messianic kingdom. … Once it is recognized that the Bible speaks of two such regatherings, it is easy to see how the present State of Israel fits into prophecy.¹

Believers who firmly grasp Israel’s coming transformation will be reinforced in the hope “that He who has begun a good work in [us] will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). 

May God help us clearly comprehend His revealed plan for Israel in the future and for us who trust Him today.

Endnote
¹  Arnold Fruchtenbaum, The Footsteps of the Messiah: A Study of the Sequence of Prophetic Events, 6th ed. (San Antonio, TX: Ariel Ministries, 2023), 104.

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About the Author

Israel, Judaism and Jews challenge Islam and the Moslem people. “May the cowards never sleep.”

This statement and many like it come straight from Hamas’ Founding Charter, which outlines the organization’s motivations in its own words. If we follow the Marxist narrative of “believe the victim,” allowing Hamas to be the victim, shouldn’t we believe these terrorists when they say their fight is a struggle of the “Moslem people” against the Jews? The Israel-Hamas war is more than geopolitical—Hamas believes it is religious.

Unfortunately, few Christians in the West study the religion of Islam. Such study is crucial to understanding the larger Middle East conflict. Not every Muslim believes like Hamas, but there is a reason why many of the world’s most ruthless terrorist organizations are Islamic—and Hamas is no exception.

The Qur’an in Context

The Qur’an, Islam’s holy book, has a long, oral history. Islamic doctrine admits its founder and greatest prophet, Muhammad, was an illiterate caravan robber. This so-called pinnacle of manhood claimed Jibril, an angelic messenger claiming to be Gabriel, visited him and gave him the true, final word of God (Sahih Bukhari 4953, Qur’an Surah 93), which needed restoring (Qur’an Surah 33:38–40). 

Islam rejects Trinitarian doctrine (Qur’an Surah 4:171) in favor of a new message in the form of a book added to the prior Scriptures (Qur’an Surah 15:9), similar to Mormonism. Unlike Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, Muhammad was not a con-artist prior to his proclaimed revelations. Rather, Muhammad was terrified of his initial visit from Jibril, having been violently “pressed against” (Sahih Bukhari 4953), with possible sexual undertones of molestation.

Fleeing the cave, Muhammad feared he had become demon-possessed and repeatedly tried to throw himself off mountaintops—only to have Jibril forcibly stop him every time (Sahih al-Bukhari 6982). His later proof of Jibril’s angelic authenticity included Jibril’s physically appealing form (Nawawi 40:2) and the fact that Jibril was not Black (Ishaq 243). Islam historically associates the color black with demonic, subhuman attributes, another similarity to historical Mormonism. 

Is it any wonder that the first Arabic critics of Islam, who hailed from Muhammad’s own tribe, identified Jibril as Satan (Sahih al-Bukhari 1125)? With this demonic origin, it is only natural that Islam claims to be the enemy of the Jews and Christians (Qur’an Surah 5:51). The Qur’an states that at Jesus’ return, our Messiah will “break the cross” (an attack on Christianity) and “kill the pigs” (an attack on Judaism, likely in the Temple), eventually “abolish[ing] the Jizya” (a tax demanded of Jews and Christians), implying the death of all Jews and Christians (Sahih Bukhari 2222, Qur’an Surah 8:39).

Hamas’s Genocidal Islamic Instruction

Hamas, a militant Islamic organization, religiously follows these principles today. Its stated desire is to kill Jewish people. Hamas seeks a second Holocaust, which it believes is the universal aim of Islam:

The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him (Hamas’ Founding Charter, Article 7).

Hamas continues to find its primary guidance, inspiration, and motivation in Islam. Its members believe their struggle is religious, and they conduct their warfare as such. Saul Alinsky, the father of the modern Left, wrote in his book Rules for Radicals, “[Do not] forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical… Lucifer.” Lucifer was the role model in crafting the modern Left and Islam. Satan’s footprint is evident in the tactics Hamas and other Islamic terror organizations employ.

Hamas seeks a second Holocaust, which it believes is the universal aim of Islam.

Hamas follows the Islamic teaching that breaking treaties with non-Muslims is acceptable and encouraged (as was the case with the Islamic conquest of the city of Mecca in AD 630). This is clear by its consistent use of suicide bombers and stated rejection of any peace (Hamas’ Founding Charter, Article 13).

Additionally, deception is considered aspirational, with Allah himself being credited in the Qur’an as the “best of those who plot” (Qur’an Surah 3:54). In fact, the Qur’an teaches that Christianity itself came into existence due to one of Allah’s deceptions (Qur’an Surah 4:157). How much more should Allah’s followers emulate their god’s tried and true historical precedent of deception—and being the best at it? Hamas sees no limit to such imitation, and neither does the original deceiver, Satan. 

Finally, the Qur’an posits that a true prophet will wantonly slaughter all enemies, including civilians (Qur’an Surah 8:67), before taking prisoners. Is this not exactly what we see Hamas doing in its use of civilian human shields, its rampant murder and destruction on October 7, and its continued calls to worldwide jihad?

Hamas and Israel’s Spiritual Conflict

Obeying Islam’s commands turns any truly observant Muslim organization into terrorists. Islam’s encouragement to lie and deceive like Allah renders Hamas dangerously corrupt. It will say one thing, do another, and tell its followers a third. What Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran advocate for is a consequence of what they believe and in whom they believe.

The conflict between Hamas and Israel is not merely geopolitical; it is spiritual.

To bring any real, lasting change to Israel and the Middle East, Muslims must cease following Allah. If they continue to believe in this deceiver, no authentic change can come. As the apostle Paul says, Israel may obtain superficial peace, but it will prove only a deception (1 Thessalonians 5:3). The antidote is Christ, not a continued tolerance of Satan.

All must repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15) for any real, lasting change to come. The conflict between Hamas and Israel is not merely geopolitical; it is spiritual. Satan’s followers pit themselves against God’s promises to Abraham (Genesis 12:1–3; 17:7–8). Who will you, your church, and your country stand with: God or the Devil? There are only two choices, and they lie before us, confirmed both in God’s Word and Islam’s testimony.

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About the Author

Earlier this year, the Lord called my mother home to Himself. In her final days, Mom slipped in and out of consciousness. Her shrinking world was a scary and confusing place as she became bedridden and blind and lost feeling in her hands. In the last lucid moment I experienced with her, she began singing “All the Way My Savior Leads Me,” a hymn written by the famous and blind songwriter Fanny Crosby. I listened to Mom sweetly sing the first verse:

All the way my Savior leads me
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my guide?
Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well;
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well.

Mom knew she would see her Savior soon. Her faith was not a wishful thought but was anchored to the promises of the One who created the universe. The second verse of the hymn reads:

All the way my Savior leads me—
Cheers each winding path I tread,
Gives me grace for ev’ry trial,
Feeds me with the living bread.
Though my weary steps may falter
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the rock before me,
Lo! a spring of joy I see;
Gushing from the rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see.

In light of her pain and circumstances, Mom’s thirsty heart was filled by the spring of joy provided by her Savior. 

One of the passages I read to her that same night was Psalm 33:18–20: 

Behold, the eye of the Lᴏʀᴅ is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lᴏʀᴅ; He is our help and our shield.

True peace only comes when our confidence is in the One more powerful than death.

That evening, as I left the healthcare facility, I kept thinking about the source of our joyful expectation in the face of death. I reflected on how true peace only comes when our confidence is in the One more powerful than death. Who is this One in whom we hope? The prophet Jeremiah’s words reveal the character of the One in whom we place our hope:

But the Lᴏʀᴅ [Yahweh] is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble, and the nations will not be able to endure His indignation (Jeremiah 10:10).

Yahweh is the only true God. In this same chapter, Jeremiah described the idols as false and worthless (v. 8). It is foolish to place our hope in something made by human hands. 

“He is the living God,” Jeremiah wrote, contrasting Yahweh with the idols. They could not speak, hear, or move, but He could. He is the one true God, and He is alive. Jeremiah twice declared, “There is none like [Yahweh]” (vv. 6–7).

Jeremiah provided another key characteristic that should give us great confidence in God’s promises. He has ultimate authority and is powerful enough to keep His promises. The gods invented by humans are laughably powerless compared to Yahweh. He is “the everlasting King” (v. 10).

In his prayer to the everlasting God, Moses wrote, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God” (Psalm 90:2). Like Jeremiah, Job confidently expressed God’s Kingship: “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You” (Job 42:2).

Nothing on Earth can stand against the promises of God. He alone is the true and just King. We can trust Him, even when we feel fearful, because our hope is not wishful thinking. Our confidence is in our living, eternal Creator. 

Nothing on Earth can stand against the promises of God.

No matter what you are facing, remember that if you trust in Jesus to take the punishment for your sins, you serve a God whom you can trust completely. Our God is a loving, perfect, and always true Father. He is our eternal, living, just, and merciful King. 

I sat with Mom the moment she passed from this life. That experience makes the third verse of “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” especially meaningful to me: 

All the way my Savior leads me—
Oh, the fullness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day,
This my song through endless ages:
Jesus led me all the way;
This my song through endless ages:
Jesus led me all the way.

What a wonderful thought that the eternal, sovereign King of the universe is good, and His Word is true. I invite you to place your life and confident hope in His promises.

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About the Author

Away with Israel! Anyone watching today’s news has likely heard these words. It’s the chief demand of the antisemitic protests around the world. Sadly, this sentiment has existed in certain Christian theological circles long before Israel’s current war with Hamas.

Perhaps you’ve wondered, How does Replacement Theology (Supersessionism) allow for self-professed Christians to join the many protests against modern Israel’s existence? How do pro-Palestinian protesters find support from some claiming to be Christians, especially since the Bible is clear about God’s plan to restore Israel to the land?

One primary strategy involves creatively reading Israel out of the Bible. We need to know how this is done to avoid being deceived.

God’s Promise of Israel’s Restoration

Ezekiel 36—37 holds an astonishing prophecy about Israel’s restoration. A plain-sense reading of Ezekiel 36:1–15 produces the following: The Lord vowed that Israel’s enemies will bear their shame, and its desolate land will soon “shoot forth … branches and yield … fruit to My people Israel” (v. 8). Speaking directly to the land and not the people, God is clear that He will multiply the Israelites on this land again with finality. The land will no longer devour men, bereave Israel of its children, bear the reproach of Gentiles, or cause stumbling (vv. 13–15).

He promised to bring Israel back, cleanse it, give it a new, obedient heart, multiply the people, and make its land like Eden.

Transitioning from speaking to the land, Ezekiel 36:16–38 records God’s message to the people. A plain-sense reading of these verses renders the following: Israel’s dispersion will be reversed, not because Israel deserves it, but because God is protecting His Name. He swore to give this land to Abraham and his descendants forever (Genesis 17:8; Ezekiel 47:14); therefore, Israel’s dispersion brings charges of dishonesty against God. He promised to bring Israel back, cleanse it, give it a new, obedient heart, multiply the people, and make its land like Eden. The Gentiles will know that God is the one who restored Israel (v. 36).

In chapter 37, Ezekiel received a vision of dry bones, symbolizing Israel’s restoration. The text plainly states that the bones represent Israel (v. 11). Ezekiel prophesied of a regathered Israel with no Spirit (Hebrew, ruach) [vv. 7–8]. Then, he foretold of the Spirit entering the regathered nation (vv. 9–10). Israel will be one kingdom again (vv. 21–22), unlike the days after King Solomon’s reign. This Kingdom will have a Davidic King, an everlasting covenant of peace, a sanctuary, and, again, the Gentiles will know this is God’s doing. The Replacement Theology debate will be put to rest. 

Twisting Prophecy About Israel

How does one twist a text as clear as Ezekiel 36—37? Consider the strategy of American theologian O. Palmer Robertson, who dares to suggest that what Ezekiel saw was only a shadow, which never fully captured the reality of what God had in mind. Robertson wrote in The Israel of God:

This perspective provides insight into the return to the land as described by Ezekiel and the other prophets. … These writers could only employ images with which they and their hearers were familiar. So they spoke of a return to the geographical land of Israel. Indeed there was a return [post-Babylon] to this land though hardly on the scale prophesied by Ezekiel. But in the context of the realities of the new covenant, this land must be understood in terms of the newly recreated cosmos … in Romans. The whole universe (which is “the land” from a new covenant perspective) groans in travail, waiting for the redemption that will come with the resurrection of the bodies of the redeemed (Romans 8:22–23). The return to paradise in the framework of the new covenant does not involve merely a return to the shadowy forms of the old covenant. It means the rejuvenation of the entire earth. By this renewal of the entire creation, the old covenant’s promise of land finds its new covenant realization.

Crafty. Can anyone seriously claim to know better than Ezekiel, a prophet who heard directly from God? Robertson asserts that Ezekiel couldn’t mean what he said. Ezekiel mentions the house of Israel, and Robertson reinterprets it to mean all who are saved. Ezekiel mentions the land of Israel, and Robertson reinterprets it to all of creation, manipulating Romans 8. This epitome of intellectual arrogance begs theologian Erwin Lutzer’s question in Forsaking Israel: How it Happened and Why it Matters, “If God didn’t mean what He said, why didn’t He say what He meant?”

Turning the New Testament Against the Old

Note Robertson’s strategy. He used the New Testament to reinterpret the Old. Are we to believe God can’t simultaneously restore all of creation and Israel to its geographic Promised Land?

What Robertson did is part of the same playbook that other Replacement theologians use to read Israel out of biblical prophecy, sometimes in support of the Palestinians today. In What Should We Think About Israel, Paul Wilkinson astutely observed, “Whenever the thorny issue of Bible prophecy is addressed, words such as redefine, reinterpret, and reconstitute are frequently used … arguing that Christ came to redefine and reinterpret the meaning of Israel, people of God, chosen, and Promised Land.”

Even where the New Testament affirms the Old, Israel has been reconstituted by supersessionists.

Meanwhile, even where the New Testament affirms the Old, Israel has been reconstituted by supersessionists. Moses established that Israel would be drawn to repentance with the Tribulation (Deuteronomy 4:30–31). Jesus foretells that “after the tribulation … all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels … and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:29–31).

Despite this prophecy’s connection to Zechariah 12, Daniel 7, and Deuteronomy 30, Supersessionism considers this a gathering of the church. In this view, the judgment of the nations that follows Israel’s repentance in Matthew 25:31–46 cannot be connected to Joel 3:1–3. They find the Jewish Messiah’s judgment of Gentiles for how Israel has been treated too inconvenient, so they reinterpret the Matthew 25 judgment to be general. 

If we consistently apply a plain-sense, literal, grammatical-historical interpretation to the Bible, we find assurance that God will restore Israel while saving the world. One day, the world will know it is God who keeps Israel (Psalm 121:4).

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About the Author

Throughout its history, the State of Israel has fought two defensive conflicts at once—a battle for survival against its Arab neighbors and a PR battle to expose the world to truth. The current nexus for these two conflicts is Israel’s war against Hamas.

While much of the world had sympathy for the Jewish state in the immediate wake of Hamas’ October 7 pogrom, it quickly changed to hostility against Israel once it began defending itself.

If we listen to news reports and the radically ill-informed on college campuses, we might think that Israel is the aggressor or that there exists a moral equivalency between the sovereign Jewish state and the Palestinian terrorist organization. Such comparisons include Mistakes have been made on both sides or What Hamas did on October 7 is terrible, but Israel targets Palestinian civilians.

These claims of moral equivalency are outrageous because of their disconnection from reality and lack of factual evidence. Israel and Hamas are in entirely different categories.

War Aims

Hamas’s primary aim is not a better economy, more freedom, peace with its neighbor, or even a Palestinian state. Its raison d’être is the destruction of Israel and the genocide of the Jewish people.

In its original 1988 charter, Hamas explicitly declares this goal. Quoting Imam Hassan al-Banna, a founding member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the covenant states, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.”

What does obliteration mean? According to the charter, it means a full-scale genocide of the Jewish people at the hands of Arabs and Muslims.

Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious. It needs all sincere efforts. It is a step that inevitably should be followed by other steps. The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realised.

This aim of vanquishing the enemy and bringing victory to Allah directly motivated the October 7 attack on Israel. On that day, more than 1,200 people, most of them Israeli Jews, were heinously murdered. Hamas’s charter tells us it will do much more with additional time and resources

Israel, on the other hand, does not call for the destruction of Arabs, Muslims, or any other peoples. In fact, its declaration of independence says, though it is a Jewish state, it “will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

While Hamas is intent on the death of its neighbors, Israel’s aim is life and security for all people.

Israel’s stated aims of its war with Hamas are “the destruction of Hamas military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel.” In other words, while Hamas is intent on the death of its neighbors, Israel’s aim is life and security for all people.

Civilians and Tactics

Another case in point is the dramatically divergent views Israel and Hamas have of civilians and how to conduct urban warfare.

On October 7 and in previous attacks, Hamas targeted Israeli civilians. Of the 1,200 people they killed that day, at least 845 were civilians, many of whom were mutilated, burned, or raped.

Hamas terrorists proudly recorded their brutality using GoPro cameras. One CBS reporter who viewed some of the footage released by the Israeli government reported seeing a clip of a terrorist throwing a grenade into a safe room where a father and his two young boys were hiding.

The father was killed. His small sons, “wearing only their underwear, were splattered with blood but survived. In another clip, the boys are in their kitchen, crying out for their mother, as one attacker pulls a Coca-Cola from their refrigerator and takes a leisurely sip. The younger brother says he can’t see out of one eye and asks, ‘Why am I alive?’”

It isn’t only Israeli civilians for whom Hamas has disdain. It admits that using its own civilians as human shields is its modus operandi.

In an October 27, 2023, interview that aired on Russia Today TV, the interviewer asked Mousa Abu Marzouk, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, why Hamas does not build bomb shelters for Palestinian civilians, given that it has “built 500 kilometers of tunnels” beneath Gaza. In a stunning admission, Marzouk responded, “We have built the tunnels because we have no other way of protecting ourselves from being targeted and killed. These tunnels are meant to protect us from the airplanes. We are fighting from inside the tunnels.”

Meanwhile, Israel warns Palestinian civilians about impending raids and bombings in their neighborhoods. It drops leaflets from the air and sends text messages to Palestinians’ phones urging residents to flee the area during conflict. It also provides maps ahead of time showing them where they should go. The Israeli government also assists Palestinians in moving from the area, constructing shelters with food, water, and medical supplies.

“Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history.”

John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, has never seen anything like it. “I’ve never known an army to take such measures to attend to the enemy’s civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings,” he says. “In fact, by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history.”

No Comparison

Beyond a shared border, Israel and Hamas have nothing in common. One loves life, the other loves death. One desires peace, the other desires genocide. One cares for the lives of civilians, the other targets them.

Campus antisemites will keep making their laughable claims of Israel’s alleged genocidal intent. News outlets will continue their agenda-driven vendetta against Israel. But facts still matter—and the fact is, when it comes to Hamas and Israel, there simply is no comparison.

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About the Author

I grew up in a religious group in which people claimed to have the gift of prophecy. They were not prophets, but their bold declarations penetrated quiet times in the services and ended with “thus saith the Lord.” A brief pause followed to allow congregants to take in what had been “revealed.” Their utterances were often vague or general, but any assertion that a person’s words come from God Himself is a weighty claim.

Through Moses, one of God’s most important prophets, God warned that “the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak… that prophet shall die” (Deuteronomy 18:20). Moses then revealed how to know a true prophet of God: “When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lᴏʀᴅ, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lᴏʀᴅ has not spoken” (v. 22). A true prophet’s words must hold 100% accuracy, or “the prophet has spoken it presumptuously” (v. 22).

Speaking God’s Truth

God’s high standard for the prophets through whom He reveals His Word appears repeatedly throughout the Bible. But of all the great prophets, there is one who stands out above them all: Jesus Christ, the perfect prophet.

Biblically, a prophet is someone moved by the Spirit of God to speak the truth that God has revealed to him. It may include teaching, rebuke, judgment, or predictions concerning the future.

Depending on the criteria used, commentators posit that Scripture specifically names between 48 and 88 prophets of God. These prophets and others are grouped in identifiable settings, such as the 70 elders of Israel (Numbers 11:24–25), the 100 rescued by Obadiah (1 Kings 18:4), and the prophets at Ramah (1 Samuel 19:20).

Some of the named ones are well known to us: Moses, “whom the Lᴏʀᴅ knew face to face” (Deuteronomy 34:10); Elijah and Elisha, who performed many great miracles; Isaiah, who prophesied the redemptive work of Messiah; Jeremiah, the “weeping prophet”; Ezekiel, who documented the promised return of the Jews to the land of Israel; Daniel, to whom God revealed a succession of kingdoms that were yet to come on the earth; and King David, “a man after [God’s] own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14), to name a few.

When the anointed One came, He would be more than just another prophet. He would be the Prophet, the Priest, and the King.

All these prophets contributed to the great story of God’s redemption of mankind through the promised Savior, Israel’s Messiah, Jesus. Collectively, their prophecies revealed that when the anointed One came, He would be more than just another prophet. He would be the Prophet, the Priest, and the King.

The Subject and Fulfillment of Prophecy

Following the Exodus from Egypt and with his own ministry coming to an end, Moses prophesied of Jesus, “The Lᴏʀᴅ your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear” (Deuteronomy 18:15). Then, God said, “I … will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in my name, I will require it of him” (vv. 18–19). For more than 1,400 years after, the Old Testament prophets spoke of His coming while the faithful of each generation anticipated His advent.

When Jesus was born, several prophecies converged in an irrefutable demonstration that He was the One they had been awaiting. He was born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14), in the town of Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), at the specific time revealed to Daniel (Daniel 9:25). King Herod tried to kill the Child by putting to death all baby boys up to two years of age, causing great agony among mothers in Bethlehem near Ramah (Matthew 2:18; cf. Jeremiah 31:15). And when He was about to commence His ministry, John the Baptist prepared the way for Him as foretold (Isaiah 40:3; Malachi 3:1).

Jesus was the Prophet foretold by Moses and raised up by God.

From the time He was born, Jesus uniquely fulfilled many specific prophecies. And that was just the start! His teaching, compassion, wisdom, love, example, and life fulfilled so much more that had been prophesied and demonstrated the very heart of God towards mankind. No wonder Peter’s experience of Christ led him to write, “We have the prophetic word confirmed” (2 Peter 1:19); and to John it was revealed that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelation 19:10). Jesus was both the subject and fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

Jesus was the Prophet foretold by Moses and raised up by God, and He repeatedly reminded His listeners that His message came directly from the Father, saying, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me” (John 7:16; cf. 8:28; 17:8). To His disciples, He revealed many things including His impending death and resurrection (Matthew 16:21), Judas’ betrayal (26:21–25), Peter’s denial (v. 34), and even what the owner of a donkey He needed on Palm Sunday would say to them (21:2–3). In His public ministry, the crowds widely recognized Him as a prophet (16:14; 21:11; John 7:40); specifically, the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:19) and the blind man healed near the pool of Siloam (9:17) recognized His role.

The Prophet Unlike Any Other

Jesus was indeed a prophet, but He differed from all who had come before Him in significant ways:

• He is the perfect Prophet. The article “Jesus the Prophet” sums up this point well: “Jesus replaces the prophets not because He is entirely different from the prophets; He replaces them because He is the Prophet par excellence, the fulfillment of all that the prophets anticipated.” 

While many other prophets performed miracles in God’s name, Jesus’ authority was superior to them all.

• He challenged the traditions and interpretations of the religious leaders of the day, repeatedly using two contrasting declarations: “You have heard that it was said. … But I say to you” (Matthew 5). He uniquely cut through formal pronouncements to reveal their underlying truths.

• He spoke as One with authority: over people (Mark 1:17–20), as a teacher (vv. 21–22), over evil spirits (vv. 23–27), over sickness (vv. 40–42), and to forgive sins (2:3–12). While many other prophets performed miracles in God’s name, Jesus’ authority was superior to them all.

• Unlike other prophets, He does not point to another when declaring the way of salvation. It rests upon Him alone (John 14:6)

• His disciples recognized Jesus was the incarnate Word of God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:1, 14). This could be said of no other prophet.

God’s revelation of Himself and His story of redemption involved many prophets and faithful servants over centuries. Some performed mighty miracles, some revealed amazing things still yet to come to pass, some suffered greatly and were despised and hunted by their enemies. But, Jesus, the perfect Prophet, is both the fulfillment of all that has been revealed and God’s last great Prophet.

The writer to the Hebrews phrased it well: “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). We thank God for His indescribable gift: Jesus, our Savior, the perfect Prophet.

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