WATCH VIDEO #2: New video illustrates how Ezekiel’s prophecies led to Israel’s miraculous resurrection in 1948 after 2,000 years of exile

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL – Many people around the world are unaware that the rebirth of the sovereign Jewish State after more than 2,000 years was not simply an interesting geopolitical development.

It was the fulfillment – or, at least, the beginning of the fulfillment – of ancient Bible prophecies.

Still others know about the prophecies but don’t believe they have anything to do with the story of modern Israel.

I know major Evangelical pastors and ministry leaders who see no connection between the Israel I live in and what the ancient Hebrew prophets foretold.

Still others absolutely believe in the prophecies, but aren’t sure how to explain them to their children or grandchildren, much less to skeptics they know in their workplaces, communities, schools, and neighborhoods.

As we approach the 75th anniversary of the modern State of Israel, then, this is a vitally important story to understand and to share.

That’s why my colleagues and I at ALL ISRAEL NEWS launched THE BIBLE PROPHECY PROJECT in February.

Our first video focused on “The Power of Bible Prophecy,” explaining that 27% of the Bible is made up of prophecies, yet so few pastors, ministry leaders and lay people study them or take them seriously.

I go on to explain why prophecy is one of the greatest apologetic tools the Church has today.

Only God could tell us the future, long before it happens, and have it come to pass just as He said it would.

That’s so cool.

Already, that first video has attracted nearly a quarter of a million views on YouTube in just one month.

This has reinforced our belief that there are many people who are interested in learning more about prophecy but aren’t sure where to turn for a voice they can trust.

Today, we’re releasing the second episode.

It’s called, “Ezekiel 37 Foretold The Resurrection of Israel.”

We hope you’ll watch it – and share it on social media so your family and friends can see it, too.

Here is the script, if you’d like to study it more carefully.

Did you know that long before any of it happened, Bible prophecy foretold both the destruction of Jerusalem and the Holy Temple in 70 A.D. and the miraculous rebirth of the sovereign State of Israel that came to pass on May 14, 1948?

It’s a dramatic, astonishing story and one you need to hear.

Let's begin with the bad news.

In the year 70 A.D., tragedy struck the Jewish people, my people.

The Roman army – led by Titus, a future emperor – besieged and sacked Jerusalem. They destroyed the Temple. They burned most of the city to the ground and carried the Temple treasures back to Rome. It was a grisly end to what became known as the First Jewish Revolt.

Then came 135 A.D. and the Second Jewish Revolt. It was led by Simeon Bar Kokhba, who many Jews hoped was their Messiah.

But that rebellion, too, was crushed by the Romans, who slaughtered more than one million Jews.

Most of the rest of the Jewish people quickly fled the Land of Israel – which the Romans called, “Palestine” – and were dispersed around the world. And there we lived in exile for the next 1,900 years.

As painful as these events were, they were in fulfillment of prophecy.

In Matthew chapter 23, Jesus warned His disciples with great sadness, “Jerusalem. Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. And you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate. For I say to you, from now on you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Then, in chapter 24, we read this: “Jesus came out from the Temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the Temple buildings to him. And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly, I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.”

This was not guesswork. This was prophecy. And it all came to pass, just as Jesus – whom we call “Yeshua” in Hebrew – foretold.

But Yeshua and the Hebrew prophets did not just prophesy judgment and destruction.

Here's the good news. They also spoke of God’s great mercy towards the Jewish people. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other prophets of God told us that one day the Lord would regather the Jewish people from exile, bring us back to the Promised Land, help us rebuild our country, our capital – Jerusalem – and miraculously resurrect the sovereign State of Israel out of the ashes.

Among the most famous and detailed of these dramatic and encouraging prophecies are found in the Book of Ezekiel..

Who was Ezekiel?

He was a Hebrew prophet who lived in exile in Babylon – modern day Iraq – more than 2,500 years ago.

The Lord appointed Ezekiel to be a “watchman on the wall” – that is, to carefully listen to the Lord's voice, carefully watch geopolitical and spiritual events and trends, and faithfully warn the nation of Israel when there was trouble or danger ahead.

But the Lord also gave Ezekiel visions of an exciting future in which the geopolitical State of Israel would be raised from the dead.

Sadly, very few Church Fathers throughout history took these prophecies literally. Sure, they loved God, and His Word, and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But they simply could not conceive of a scenario in which God would literally bring back millions of Jewish people here to the Land of Israel, plant us back in our ancestral homeland, and help us rebuild the ancient ruins, make the deserts bloom, and establish a sovereign state.

But that's what's so beautiful about Bible prophecy. Just because people don't understand what God is saying, or don’t take His word literally, that will not stop God from bringing His Word to pass.

The most famous of these prophecies about the rebirth of Israel are found in Ezekiel Chapter 37, in a passage known as the “Valley of the Dry Bones.”

“The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley. And it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about. And behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley and low. They were very dry. And He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O, Lord, you know.’ Again, He said to me, ‘Prophesy over these bones and say to them, “O, dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord.”’ Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive. And you will know that I am the Lord. So, I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied there was a noise and behold a rattling. And the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked and behold sinews were on them. And flesh grew and skin covered them. But there was no breath in them. And then the Lord said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Come, come from the four winds, O breath and breathe on these slain that they may come to life.’” So, I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life. And they stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. And He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is perished. We are completely cut off.’ Therefore, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel, and then you will know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves. My people, I will put my spirit within you and you will come to life and I will place you on your own land. And then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken and done it, declares the Lord.’”

The vision of Ezekiel 37 is a vivid word picture.

It describes a gradual process in which God takes a people that feel dead and buried and have little or no hope of redemption, much less resurrection, and fashions us into a great nation once again.

From the massacres of Czarist Russia, known as the pogroms; to the death camps of Auschwitz and the Holocaust, and the murder of six million Jews; to the murder and impoverishment of Jews all throughout the Evil Empire of the Soviet Union; the prospects of the Jewish people could not have been more bleak in the 20th century.

Yet when all hope seemed lost, God kept his Word. The prophecies came true. God opened up our graves and brought our people out, many of them just skin and bones. But He brought them out of Europe. He brought us out of exile. And He brought us back here to the land of our forefathers.

Against all odds, David Ben-Gurion declared our independence on May 14, 1948.

Against the onslaught of five Arab armies, we prevailed against those who sought to annihilate us again.

And today, the State of Israel lives.

My family and I are among the millions of Jews who've returned from exile to settle here, to become citizens here, and to stand shoulder to shoulder with our people as God does a miraculous work.

Seventy-five years ago this year, Ezekiel's vision came to pass.

The prophetic rebuilding of Israel is not over. Not every element of these prophecies has yet been fulfilled. There's much more to come. But think of just how extraordinary this really is.

These powerful End Times prophecies have come to pass in our lifetime.

Indeed, the very fact that Israel exists and that the Jews have come up out of our grave and back to the Holy Land after centuries of exile,  is the single greatest proof of the existence of God, the reliability of Scripture, and the power of Bible prophecy.

Think about it.

The Bible is the only book on the planet that told us for more than 2,000 years that all this would happen. And it did.

Was it a guess?

No, it was God.

And that, my friend, is the purpose and power of Bible prophecy.