Hello, John and Doves,Brother Bruce, I think you have hit upon something profound. Today's superpower, the USA, must decrease, just as Israel surely must increase.I think that Eretz Israel, the people, will be fleeing the implosion of the USA.I just hope that there's something left of America besides a "ruinous heap."After all, don't Native Christians have hope, too?~Blessings,Mike_________________________________________________________________http://www.fivedoves.com/letters/sep2013/bruceb95.htm Bruce Baber (5 Sep 2013)
"Prophecy fulfilled... or not quite yet"
Have you considered the return of the Jews to Israel a fulfilled prophecy? However, might the return of the Jews to the Promised Land only be a partial fulfillment of prophecy up to this point?
Ezekiel 34:13
I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land.
Jeremiah 31:10
Hear the word of the Lord, O nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands: He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.
Aliyah from Europe:
There have been several waves. Notably the largest move began in earnest after the events of World War II.
Aliyah from Arab countries:
From 1948 until the early 1970s, around 900,000 Jews from Arab lands left, fled, or were expelled from various Arab nations.
Aliyah from Iran:
Since 1979 over 30,000 Iranian Jews immigrated to Israel following the Islamic Revolution.
Aliyah from Ethiopia:
The first major wave of aliyah from Ethiopia took place in the mid-1970s. The massive airlift known as Operation Moses began to bring Ethiopian Jews to Israel on November 18, 1984, and ended on
January 5, 1985. During those six weeks, some 6,5008,000 Ethiopian Jews were flown from Sudan to Israel. An estimated 2,0004,000 Jews died en route to Sudan or in Sudanese refugee camps.
In 1991 Operation Solomon was launched to bring the Beta Israel Jews of Ethiopia. In one day, May 24, 34 aircraft landed at Addis Ababa and brought 14,325 Jews from Ethiopia to Israel. Since that
time, Ethiopian Jews have continued to immigrate to Israel bringing the number of Ethiopian-Israelis today to over 100,000.
Aliyah from Russia and former Soviet countries:
Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev ended restrictions on Jewish immigration, and the Soviet Union itself collapsed in 1991. Since then, about a million Russians immigrated to Israel including
approximately 300,000 who were not Jewish according to rabbinical law, but were eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.
Aliyah from Latin America:
In the 19992002 Argentine political and economic crisis that caused a run on the banks, wiped out billions of dollars in deposits and decimated Argentina's middle class, most of the
country's estimated 200,000 Jews were directly affected. Some 4,400 chose to start over and move to Israel, where they saw opportunity. More than 10,000 Argentine Jews immigrated
to Israel since 2000, joining the thousands of previous olim already there. The crisis in Argentina also affected its neighbor country Uruguay, from which about half of its 40,000-strong
Jewish community left, mainly to Israel, in the same period.
(Much of the information above is quoted from Wikipedia).
Aliyah from the U.S.?
Looking at the numbers posted online, roughly 50,000 Jews from the U.S. have immigrated to Israel in the last 30 years. Yet the second largest concentration of Jews in the
world remains in New York City with a rough estimate of 1.9 million. The Jewish population of New York City is second only to Tel Aviv. A close second at that.
Might it be said that the greatest aliyah in our lifetime (thus completely fulfilling prophecy) lies still in the future? If so, what might bring something like that about?
YBIC
Bruce Baber