Hearing One · Prophetic Fulfillment 1
Fulfilled: May 14, 1948
The Special Master gestures with a casual backward swipe of his hand. Peter steps forward.
Peter
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. What is this fig tree? Of all the trees mentioned in these nine words, it’s the only one named. As I mentioned, the others didn’t exist yet. They wouldn’t, until the moment the fig tree came back to life.
And that fig tree is Israel. It’s the key that ties everything together.
Peter again turns to the exhibit monitor.
Exhibit One · Luke 21:29
“Look at the fig tree and all the trees.”
Now I could enter dozens of Scripture passages into evidence, but they all converge on one point. In the last days Israel — after having been scattered for two thousand years — was going to be restored by God Himself to their homeland.
Exhibit Two · Ezekiel 38:8
“After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel…”
Exhibit Three · Hosea 9:10 (NKJV)
“I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first fruits on the fig tree in its first season.”
Peter
Israel is the fig tree that all the other trees circle. Its rebirth on May 14, 1948 is the door that key unlocks. Some say they don’t believe it. They say every nation has a birthday. What I am going to prove to you is that it wasn’t just any birthday. It was the precise year, told 2,000 years in advance, confirmed by the forty-seven other trees that budded at the same time.
Special Master Wright
I want the jury to observe. This man is making some pretty dramatic claims. He’s talking about prophets and spirits and fig trees. Again, I remind you — you need to make him prove it. And if he’s not dealing straightly with you, I will dismiss you and make this a bench trial where he will have to prove it to me.
Peter
What His Honor is saying is absolutely correct — except for one thing. I am not here to convince you of anything. I am here to let the Bible, through this prophecy of the Son of God, do the talking directly to us. The fig tree is Israel. There is no mistaking it. Now some disagree. I say not so. The Bible also prophesied that they would return to their land in unbelief. Making them what you can witness now. Just like every other nation of unbelief. Constant wars. But they have a different destiny.
He begins to tick off his arguments on his fingers.
From the promises to Abraham, to the birth of the Messiah, to the end-time events foretold by Jesus and the prophets — God’s covenant with Israel is the central thread of prophetic Scripture. Israel is the stage on which the entire drama of end-time Bible prophecy unfolds. The regathering of the Jewish people, the rebirth of the nation in 1948, and the tension surrounding Jerusalem are not coincidences. They are fulfilments of ancient prophecies. And they lead to the very hours when Jesus Himself will return. Look at this. Written at about the same time as Daniel. 2,500 years ago speaking of the precise end of time.
Exhibit Four · Zechariah 12:2–3, 9–10
“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour on the house of David… the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced.”
Peter
That is when Israel returns to their God. Not before. They will first sign a covenant with an impostor Messiah. Zechariah’s Prophecy is about the Battle of Armageddon. The people of Israel are living in their land. If any of us look at the news today, we can see how central Jerusalem is to the entire world.
But it’s more. Without Israel, the timeline of God’s redemptive plan has no anchor. Prophecy begins with Israel, centers on Israel, and will culminate with Israel — when her true Messiah returns in glory. But May 14th is when that tree was replanted.
Exhibit Five · Archival Footage
Declaration of Israeli Independence · Tel Aviv, May 14, 1948
Exhibit Six · Primary Source
“Accordingly we, members of the People’s Council, representatives of the Jewish community of Eretz-Israel and of the Zionist Movement, are here assembled on the day of the termination of the British Mandate over Eretz-Israel and, by virtue of our natural and historic right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.”
Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel · Tel Aviv, May 14, 1948
Peter
The court will note the date. The court will note the nation. The court will note that the man who predicted this was standing on a hillside twenty centuries earlier — and that what he described as a budding fig tree arrived on schedule, in the right place, in the right form, at the right moment.
Special Master Wright
So do I rightly understand that this concludes your evidence on this fig tree.
Peter
No, Your Honor. I have forty-seven more fulfilled prophecies that will fully confirm it.
The Special Master looks up from his notes.
Special Master Wright
You know I studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem after 1948. Never heard a word of this.
A beat. Peter sets down his notes.
Peter
May I approach, Your Honor.
Special Master Wright
Very well.
The Special Master looks out at the gallery. He does not close his folder.
End of Prophetic Fulfillment 1
Prophetic Fulfillment 2 follows.