Special Series: Part Four: What's So Special About THIS Generation Anyway - and who is it? Part 2

Last time we talked about the generation and who is it, but it requires further insight and further study, so in the next several days we will be viewing evidences as to why we are that generation that will see the end of this age.

My thanks to Jack Kinsella of Omega Letter for the information contained in the information below.
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Special Report: Six Reasons Why We Believe These Are the Last Days

From where we sit, the reality that these are the last days is like the reality that this is the 21st century.

Amazing and marvelous, but somehow, at the same time, not as much of a whiz-bang experience as it would have been if we went to sleep in 1976 and woke up to this morning's news.

Global terrors like al-Qaeda, weapons of mass destruction, the seemingly inevitable Indo-Pakistani nuclear war -- these scarcely rate headlines unless they are a hair's breadth from catastrophe.

Global wonders like the internet, global positioning, Moore's Law of Computer Processing (CPU power doubles every 18 months) genetic breakthroughs, new cures for old scourges -- again, they compete for headline space.

In Europe, new moves towards integration continue to accomplish voluntarily what Charlemagne, Napoleon and Hitler failed to accomplish by force. Soon, the European Union will consist of as many as 25 European states.

In the Middle East, Israel appears doomed to existence as a armed camp in the midst of her enemies, despised by the global community, as evidenced by the sheer weight of one-sided resolutions passed against her -- despite the fact she was the victim of five wars of aggression in the last fifty years.

Although Israel is the only Western style democracy in the Middle East, surrounded by a sea of Arab dictatorships, the entire Western world (with the exception of the US) has embraced the Arab cause.

The United States is currently embroiled in a bitter dispute with the United Nations regarding Iraq. At issue is whether or not UN resolutions imposed as a condition of ending the Gulf War should be enforced. The debate is one of complete reverse logic.

On the table is more than just Iraq. The relevancy of the United Nations as a global system of government is at stake. If the UN doesn't enforce its own resolutions -- and then PROTECTS the offender who ignores them, of what value are its resolutions?

The North Koreans recently announced that they never really abandoned their nuclear weapons programs, and Western intelligence analysts believe Pyongyang could have as many as two nuclear bombs right now.

A strike on Iraq could well be the tinder that ignites the Middle East. For Iraq, that imagery could easily become literal.

Saddam has threatened to strike Israel with weapons of mass destruction if the US tries to unseat him. Israel has promised to retaliate with 'overwhelming force.'

Saddam has a chemical and biological arsenal big enough to kill every human being on earth -- if he had the means to deliver it. He doesn't -- but he has the means to deliver it to Israel.

Israel has an estimate 400 nuclear warheads and at least two nuclear-capable submarines patrolling the Mediterranean.

Israel won't wait for a second strike against it with chemical or biological agents before it incinerates the source and eliminates the threat.

We've been explaining all this for more than a year, piecemeal, making broad assumptions that everybody is on the same page.

Beginning with the Sunday edition of the Omega Letter, we will begin a six-part series called "Six Reasons We Believe These Are the Last Days." We'll look at Scripture, verse by verse, as it relates to these global developments, and explain how seemingly unconnected events are now coming together -- as predicted, and thousands of years in advance.

For some of you, it will be a review. For a few others, it will fill in some gaps. But we hope it will renew that excitement of realizing that we are the generation of which the prophets spoke, the one Jesus was addressing when He said, "This generation shall not pass til all these things be fulfilled." Matthew 24:34

Special Report: Reason One - Israel

One of the most clear and undeniable signs of the last days is the restoration of Israel. It is an event unique in the annals of human history. The Jewish culture, unlike other cultures of antiquity, was never absorbed by its many conquerors. Even after being divided, scattered across the centuries and throughout the world, without land or flag, the Jewish nation survived.

Think this through for a second. Broken into small groups, many unaware of the other's existence, the Jews survived, culture, religion, unique dietary laws, customs and traditions intact. Thousands of years. Hundreds of countries.

Despite the best efforts of the rest of the world to bring about their destruction through periodic massacres, forced conversions and pogram after pogram, the Jew survived. After having been scattered for two thousand years, today Israel is home to Jews from every country, speaking 86 languages.

In each adopted language, they heard the story of the Exodus. In each host country, sometimes at risk of death, they kept the Passover. When they all came home to the Promised Land, they found other Jews, telling the story of the Exodus, each in their own language. And it was the same story.

They were the same people.

Israel launched 'Operation Solomon' in 1991. It was the massive, one-day airlift of the remaining 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the midst of the Ethiopian Civil War.

"From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering. In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain." (Zephaniah 3:10-11)

One can search the annals of history in vain for another people like the Jews. No other people of antiquity have survived into modern times under such circumstances. There are no Amalekites, Jebusites or Caananites. They may have descendants, but they are not a people.

Many Jews can trace their ancestry back to the time of Herod's Temple.

The history of the Jews was written in advance, including their return to the land of Promise in the last generation.

"And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you. And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, [even] in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the LORD thy God [is] a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them." (Deuteronomy 4:27-28,30-31)

As Moses predicted, the Jews were scattered and persecuted, but, in the 'latter days' have been restored for the express purpose of accomplishing their national redemption. (Daniel 9:26).

Isaiah predicted; "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea." (Isaiah 11:11)

"For, lo, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the LORD: and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it." Jeremiah 30:3

"For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and [for] my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land." Joel 3:1-2

"In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old:" Amos 9:11

It seems pretty clear that Israel's history was carefully planned according to a particular purpose. Don't miss out on the wonder of it all. Take a second and think it through. Don't miss this.

Foretelling the future of an entire nation is more than a good guess. Every single person in every single generation has to cooperate exactly, from Abraham forward.

If Moses' mother had not put him in a basket, there'd be no Exodus. So Moses' great grandparents could have only married each other.

And what if Habbakkuk's great-great-great-grandfather decided to be a bachelor? Every single individual choice throughout history -- ancient and modern -- had to be the exact right choice for the future to work out according to prophecy.

What if David ben-Gurion had been murdered during WWII or if Abba Eban had decided to remain in the British Army, or if Golda Meir had stayed in Chicago, modern Israel might not exist. Meticulous details. But God said modern Israel WOULD exist -- in the last days.

"Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. . . Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. . .And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. " Ezekiel 37:12,19-20

The existence of Israel is a miracle accomplished by God, specifically as He said it would be accomplished. And specifically when He intended -- in the last days. When the time came, the world convulsed into World War Two, and regurgitated the nation it had been holding captive until the appointed time.

Three years after the Holocaust, Israel raised her flag on May 14, 1948. For the first time since 702 BC, there was a place in the world called Israel and a home for the Jews.

"And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." Ezekiel 37:25,27-28)

There is no story like Israel's. There is no nation like Israel. Of Israel, God said, "I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time:(Hosea 9:10).

Jesus said, "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."

Israel is Reason One in this part of the series, "Six Reasons Why We Believe These Are the Last Days."
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Next time we will take a look at Reason Two: The Revived Roman Empire