I haven't posted to this thread for a while as there appears to be the assumption that if you believe that God had anything to do with bringing the Jews back into Israel 70 years ago, that you now look uncritically at the modern state of Israel as some kind of perfection, or they were engaged with activities that God approved of and were rewarded by the chance to return to their homeland.
Perhaps these observations might put a different interpretation on that:-
In Ezekiel 4:4, he is told to lie on his left side for 390 days and then his right side for 40 days. Each day Ezekiel lay there was to represent a year of punishment for Israel and Judah.
Adding the 360 and 40 we have a total of 430 years, and if you deduct 70 years "time served" in the Babylonian exile, you get 360 years.
Leviticus 26:18 states that "And if ye shall not for all this hearken unto me then I will punish you 7 times more for your sins"
It is a matter of historical note that only about 5% of the Hebrews returned with Ezra (and even they didn't all follow God) so God would have been perfectly within his right to apply his "sevenfold" judgement from Leviticus on the Jews for their continued disobedience. This would then mean that the remaining judgement would have been 360 x 7, or 2520 years.
Now the Jews use the Lunar calendar and this is the but that requires a cup of coffee and some concentration:-
2520 x 360 (Jewish lunar calendar days) = 907,200 days.
The end of the Babylonian captivity began spring (Nisan) 536 BC
Divide this 907,200 by 365.25 (our solar calendar year) and you get 2483.8 solar years.*
*It is important at this stage to note that there was only one year between Passover in 1 BC and Passover in 1 AD, i.e. no 0 year BC.
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So, if we begin our count from the end of the Babylonian captivity in spring 536 BC and add an exile of 2483.8 calendar years (based on that 7 times judgement for continued disobedience)...
2483.8 - 536.4 (the years BC) we get 1947.4.
Now add one on and you get 1948.4.
The Nation of Israel was formed on May 14th 1948.
Coincidence? Long term Illuminati planning? God's timing? It is for each of us to ponder and decide...
The assumption that "Christian Zionists" are to endorse and celebrate all things Israeli is really a straw man. The point I would add is the observation that if an individual commits a crime, is given a prison term, and after several years is released based on time served doesn't mean the discharged man is a good man. He might be, he might not. It just means that the sanction has been lifted and he is free to go. In the case of the Jews it would appear that in May 1948 they had
served their time according to God and were free to return home.
What they
do with that freedom is up to them and they will be held accountable for it. There might even be
another "7 times" judgement heading their way soon but that is another story...