Palestinian Prophecy
/By Oscar M. Baker
The Present status in Palestine seems to have many guessing. The events do not seem to fit in with the popular notions of prophecy. I would like to present a few things for you to think about in relation to this very interesting subject.
The Jew has been the subject of persecution ever since the servitude in Egypt. The Egyptians tried to destroy the race. Balak sought to have them cursed. The Babylonian captivity and especially the pogrom of Haman almost succeeded. Antiochus had thousands killed. The Inquisition made another attempt. Finally Hitler planned to kill 11,000,000 of them but got only about half done. He managed to do away with about 6,000,000.
But the greatest of all persecutions is yet to come. I will not cite references here for most anybody can turn to such passages in the Bible. In our Bible classes we have studied the prophecy of Daniel and have shown that of the seventy weeks of years determined upon Israel and the Holy City three more are yet to be fulfilled. At the end of Acts is the end of sixty-seven weeks.
What will transpire during the first fourteen years? Here I believe is the solution of the problem bothering so many.
We know that in the last week a treaty will be made with a Jewish Christian church to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. For a world dictator to make such a deal means that these Christian Jews will be powerful, in numbers at least. A great man like that would not bother himself very much about the Jews now.
Present events seem to indicate that at present the Jews will not be able to do much in Jerusalem. Furthermore these Jews are not at all Christian Jews. So here is what will happen, either in the near future or in the more remote future. Refugee Jews, fleeing the persecution in Europe (and maybe in U.S.), will find a haven in Asia Minor among the Turks. The Turks helped the Jews during the great Inquisition, and in the late war gave food and refuge to a half million children.
When the present dispensation of GRACE is ended and the BODY OF CHRIST has been completed and taken into the HEAVENLIES, then will a great number of Jewish Christian churches spring up in Asia Minor, Seven of these are directly addressed in Rev. 2 and 3.
I know the false teaching that these churches are periods of time in this dispensation, but Paul, under the guidance of THE HOLY SPIRIT, made it clear that this present dispensation of the MYSTERY was hidden from ages and generations. It is nowhere to be found in prophecy, either in the Old or New Testaments. THE REVELATION is distinctly Jewish. There are over 285 references to the old testament in it. I also know that this book was left out of the canon of sacred books by the Counsel of Laodicea in 363 A.D. because there had never been a church at Thyatira. Four years later Epiphanius wrote in defense of the book stating that this was prophecy and that a church would be there some time.
THE REVELATION was concerning “things which must shortly come to pass.” John was to write “what things thou sawest, what they are, even what things are about to happen hereafter.” If the present parenthesis had not intervened, the things which were about to happen would mostly have been over by this time. John did not know anymore about this dispensation when he wrote REVELATIONS than Paul did when he wrote to the Corinthian and Thessalonian churches.
******Originally Published: Sept.1948*****
