Do ISRAELIS Believe that Israel is Fulfilling Bible Prophecy? A Rabbi's View | Watchman Newscast

Today on the newscast, countless Bible-believing Christians around the world see Israel as the centerpiece of God's prophetic plan. But what do Israelis think? We sit down with an American-born Israeli rabbi to get his take on Israel's prophetic destiny. That's next. Hey folks, Eric Stackelbeck here. Welcome to the Watchman Newscast. If you watch this channel on a regular basis, you know that I do a good amount of traveling and speaking around the world. And when I do, I often hear something like this from Christian audiences. Eric, we know that Israel is the apple of God's eye and the center of His prophetic plan. But what do Israelis think? Do they see what we see? Well folks, I can tell you that for a growing number of Israelis, the answer is yes. And I sat down with one recently at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando who says that the Bible is clear that God established Israel to be a light unto the nations. That truth motivated Rabbi Tuli Weiss to immigrate to Israel from Ohio and to eventually launch Israel 365, a movement dedicated to bringing Christians and Jews together and educating the world about Israel's prophetic role. You can check out their great work at Israel365.com. So are we living in prophetic times today? What do Israelis think? Here's my conversation with Rabbi Tuli Weiss. In Israel, right, 75 years ago, it was a very secular country and Israel is also shifting and becoming much more religiously observant, much more faithful to the Word of God and to the Torah. So we have this perfect opportunity, this great moment for real reconciliation between Christians and Jews. And it is prophetic. It really is prophetic. Do you see Israel stepping into its prophetic destiny as a light to the nations through blessing Gentiles, blessing Christians? God said to Abraham, through you, all nations on earth will be blessed. Do you see that coming to fruition now? If you look at the Bible, so there's three sections of the Bible. There's the history, you know, the patriarchs and the kings, all the history sections. There's the section about the laws and as faithful and observant Jews, we take the law very seriously. We keep Shabbat on Saturday. We eat kosher food. The laws are very important to the Jewish community, the Jewish people. But then there's many passages about the prophecy, right? And the prophetic sections are a little harder to navigate. Sometimes they're written out of order. Sometimes we don't understand the context of the conversation, right? We don't really understand Isaiah's time period and the kings he's referring to. But there are certain milestones in the prophetic sections of the Hebrew Bible that are loud and clear, right, that are crystal clear. The first milestone is the ingathering of the Jewish people back to Israel, Aliyah. That's really the first step. And the Jews are going to be exiled, it says that in the Bible, but then they're going to come back. And if that doesn't happen, we can't even move on. But that has happened and is happening, right? Now it used to be when Israel started 75 years ago, something like 1% of the Jews were living in Israel. Now it's 50% of the Jews are living in Israel. In only 75 years. Yeah. We're moving rapidly on this prophetic timeline. And so the first step is the ingathering. The second step, the second step is that the land has to support that because before Israel, it was a barren wasteland. Couldn't live there. You literally, there was no food to eat. There was swamps everywhere. Read Mark Twain, the American author who visited and wrote about this in the 19th century, that Israel was essentially at that time, a wasteland. Exactly. Before the Zionist movement. Exactly. And so the second prophetic milestone is that the land will come back alive. The Jewish people, the relationship between the people of Israel and the land of Israel is like a marriage, right? And when they're together and reunited, so both sides are going to start to thrive again. And the land is thriving. So now with prophecy, it's easier to look back at prophecy than to look forward. But those are the two milestones. So what's the next stage of prophecy according to the Jewish interpretation? So following the physical restoration of Israel and the Jewish people is the spiritual restoration of Israel, the Jewish people, and the whole world. And there's a lot of passages that you could look to. To me, Isaiah 2 is really kind of my favorite. It says that in the end of days, all nations will stream towards Jerusalem. The power from Zion shall come forth, the Torah and the Word of God from Jerusalem. So describing in the end of days, Jews, non-Jews, all nations coming to a rebuilt Jerusalem and studying God's Word together. And that, I believe, is what we need to focus our energies on with the same determination, the same resources that we built up Israel over the last 75 years. With God's help, we need to dedicate those same resources and dedication to the spiritual partnership between Christians and Jews. Yes, and the groundwork is being laid. It's already flourishing. As you said, Rabbi, I think of Isaiah, which you mentioned, Zechariah, Ezekiel. They all talk about these days that we're living in, that we're rapidly approaching right now. We were talking before the interview. And by the way, folks, if you hear some background noise, we are at a convention, a convention center in Orlando for the NRB, National Religious Broadcasters Convention. But Rabbi, we were talking before the interview and I said, well, a lot of Christians say we see the prophetic significance of what's unfolding in Israel right now, but do Israelis see it? Clearly you do. You're an Israeli from the U.S. originally, of course, but do you see a growing number? You mentioned earlier that more Israelis are becoming religious. Do you see a growing number of Israelis who say, you know, God's hand is in this, something special is happening, and we truly are living in prophetic times? Yeah. The Jewish people, thanks to our marriage with the land, our reunion with the land, are starting to shed some of our exile mentalities. We were living in exile for 2,000 years, and we developed a lot of, like a thick coat of armor around us to protect us from really the external forces, the anti-Semitism. And we developed certain practices. And as a result, we're now back in the land and are like a fish back in water. And so you have a real, I would say like a renaissance. Thanks again to Rabbi Tuli Weiss for those great and timely insights. Folks, again, if you want to check out more from Rabbi Tuli, just visit Israel365.com, a great site that we strongly recommend. And hey, you may have noticed that we are not on the usual Watchman set today. These are only temporary digs. We're moving into our new home in a few weeks. So bear with us. We're not here for the bells and whistles, I know. You are here for the content, but only for a few weeks we'll be here on this set. We've got some good things coming down the pike that we think you will be excited about. In the meantime, if you like this interview with Rabbi Tuli and you want to see more like it, hey, this was a segment on our weekly TBN Watchman show. You can check it out every Thursday night at 10 p.m. Eastern on TBN, Friday night to 6.30 p.m. Eastern as well. We're on the ground in Israel throughout the Middle East and points beyond, bringing you the inside story of Israel and why it matters to you no matter where you live. We're also digging into Russia, China, the Great Reset, everything happening here where I'm standing in the United States and much more. So be sure to join us every week for our 30-minute show on TBN. If you like the newscast, you'll love our weekly show as well. Hey, thanks so much for joining us here today on the Watchman Newscast. Until next time, God bless you, and remember, never hold your peace. Hey everyone, thanks for checking out the Watchman Newscast. Make sure you hit the subscribe button so you never miss an upload and tap the bell icon so you're notified every time a new video is posted. And don't forget to share your thoughts, insights, and comments below. Thanks for watching. We'll see you back here tomorrow.