3. The Restoration of Israel is only made possible by the Second Advent of Christ.

Under this head we shall seek to prove briefly three things—that Israel as a nation will be restored, that Israel’s restoration occurs at the Return of Christ, that Israel’s restoration will result in great blessing to the whole world.

That Israel as a nation will be actually and literally restored is declared again and again in the Word of God. We quote now but two prophecies from among scores of similar ones:—“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In His days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is His name whereby He shall be called, The Lord our righteousness. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The Lord liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the House of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land”(Jer. 23:5–8). Again; “Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: 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: Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be My people, and I will be their God. And David My Servant shall be King over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes, and do them. 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. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 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” (Ezek. 37:21–28).

That Israel’s restoration synchronized with our Lord’s Return to the earth may be seen from the following Scriptures:—“And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him; and He will save us: This is the Lord; we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation” (Isaiah 25:9 and read on to the end of the following chapter). See further the whole of Isaiah 60 which follows the opening verse—“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon them.” In Acts 3 we learned that Peter declared to Israel that if they would “Repent and be converted” that God would “send Jesus Christ unto them” and that following Christ’s Return there would be the “Times of Restitution,” even the Times of Refreshing which should “come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19–21). In Acts 15:16 we read, “After this, I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down.” And in Rom. 11:25, 26 we are told, “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.”

That Israel’s restoration results in great blessing to the whole world may be seen from the following quotations—“And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men” (Micah 5:7). “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit”(Is. 27:6). While in Romans 11 we are told that the restoration of Israel will bring even greater blessing to the world than did their casting away—“If the fall of them (Israel) be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness! If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead!”(Rom. 11:11, 15).