To initiate a chronology focusing on the last days, a second timeline is illustrated that highlights primarily the events related to Israel, which are predicted to happen just before Jesus returns.  Since the land of Israel and the Jewish people are the main topics of the end, recent Israeli history can be seen to reflect Biblical prophecies made thousands of years ago, which amazingly are coming true in our time.  Thus, by magnifying the first chart (see The Sign Posts of History) and expanding the period preceding the Second Coming, we can begin to outline a chronology of Israel in the last days by filling in the key prophetic events revealed in God’s Word predicted for this period.  This allows us to piece together those events prophesied in the Bible that fit perfectly into a map of where we are heading in these final years.  Some of these events include fulfillments of prophesies that have already occurred from our perspective, and these certainly become clear signals of the nearness of the Lord’s return.  Amazingly, the time period when these prophecies began to be fulfilled extends from the period of the early Twentieth Century to our current day, and these fulfillments will continue to progress until Christ returns and the Kingdom of Heaven is set up for the 1000-year reign of Christ.

One of the most important early events of this period was the rebirth of Israel on May 14, 1948.  As the sections on Israel more fully discuss, this seminal event was the main sign leading to the end of the age.  For the first time in thousands of years the Jews again had a homeland that they controlled and it occurred not as a result of protracted military campaigns, but in a single day just as the prophets predicted (Isaiah 66:7-8).  This event is the most important signal of the last days, as most of the remaining prophecies concerning this period involve the nation of Israel and the Jewish people in their land…[more]