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Slide 1: Cromwell and the hand of God Hitler Stalin
Slide 2: Introduction • If God was really at work in the world events surely we would see evidence of it. • But where do we start and where do we look to see God’s hand at work. • Well the Bible is very clear on this point.
Slide 3: The Jews God say about the Jewish people in: Isaiah 43 v10 “You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “And My servant whom I have chosen, That you may know and believe Me, And understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, Nor shall there be after Me. v11 I, even I, am the LORD, And besides Me there is no saviour. v12 I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, And there was no foreign god among you; Therefore you are My witnesses,” Says the LORD, “that I am God. This is a picture of an old Jewish Man.
Slide 4: The Jews So if you want to see God’s hand at work in the world then you need to look closer at events surrounding the Jewish people and when you do some striking things are revealed
Slide 5: Come back with me to 1600’s • The Jews are dispersed (mainly as 2nd class citizens) predominately in East Europe, Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania etc • But unknown to them God is about to perform a miracle in England that would change their lives and ultimately culminate in their descendants return to Israel.
Slide 6: This was his ultimate aim. Jeremiah 31 v10“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.’ Ezekiel 36 v24“‘For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. NIV
Slide 7: Royal ban on the Jews • 350 years before the 1600’s the Jews had been expelled by Edward I and they had never been allowed back into England. • But God needed the Jews to return to England, as we shall see it was part of his plan for their return to Israel. • So he caused a very unlikely thing to happen.
Slide 8: Oliver Cromwell First part of the Jigsaw 1628 Cromwell became a member of Parliament – he belonged group had an agenda of reformation. to a Godly • There was no intention of overthrowing the crown. • Cromwell was a pro Jewish Puritan who believed that the Second coming of Jesus could not happen until the scattering of the Jews ‘to the end of the earth, was complete. • (Kezeh ha-Arez = to the end of the earth, was a name used by Jews for England)
Slide 9: Second part of the jigsaw 1649 Charles I is beheaded and Cromwell and his Puritans effectively take control • But this is not going to send a passive settled Jewish people towards England
Slide 10: Third part of the jigsaw • 1648 Bogdan Chmielnicki leads a Cossack revolt in the Ukraine again the gentry. After defeating the Polish/Ukraine army he turned his attention to the Jews slaughtering over 100,000 of them • The Jews fled towards Germany and Holland. But they never expected to be able to get to England.
Slide 11: The twelve year window • The law stopping the Jews from coming to England turned out never to have existed. It had been an act of royal prerogative. Importantly no new law allowing the Jews in was made – this could have been repealed if a King was ever reinstated. This was important because once the Jews were in, God re-established the Royal line that continues to this day. • • • • All happened in a window of just under 12 years (God held back the British Monarchy like the waters of the red sea)
Slide 12: But why was this important. 1. For the first time since the Roman empire the Jews were allowed to be full citizens with rights and the protection of the state. 2. But most importantly in 1654 the British took New York and eventually America from the Dutch and French. 3. God had given the Jews a clear passage to America, a vital piece of the jigsaw for the future.
Slide 13: Important 2 • The Jews became established in England even producing a Prime Minister in Benjamin Disraeli 1874 -1880. • The Dying British Empire controlled Palestine after WW1 thus offering one of the biggest single keys to the Jews return - the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
Slide 14: A second twelve year window In 1933 Hitler became Chancellor of of Germany. 12 years later in 1946 the Nazi party no longer Existed. • Before the 1st world war Germany had been the most desired country for a Jew. They were immigrating in a way not seen before.
Slide 15: How the Nazis helped the return • Early 1930’s the Nazis actively assisted the emigration of German Jews to Palestine. 60,000 arrived with German assets that funded the building of industry and infrastructure. • Also the war saw the most capable fighters flee to Palestine leaving European Jews undefended.
Slide 16: Holocaust • After the war the destruction of European Jewry for a very short while soften the hearts of the nations and Israel was allowed to form a state. But it was a very close thing.
Slide 17: Roosevelt. “There are serious doubts that Israel would have come into being had Roosevelt lived.” David Niles US Presidential Assistant • Toward the end of the War Roosevelt was cooling to the idea of a national home for the Jews. Without American support it simply would not have happened. • Roosevelt died 12 April 1946. • Harry Truman, affected by the Holocaust, the plight of Palestinian Jews and needing the Jewish vote took the opposite view.
Slide 18: But Stalin . . . 1944 Stalin somewhat oddly adopted a proZionist posture in foreign policy. It seems that he liked the idea of a socialist Zionist state which would decline British influence in the Middle East. • May 1947 Russia shocked the U.N. by voting in favour of a Israeli State. • May 1948 3 days after independence was declared Stalin gave it full recognition and even instructed the Czech government to sell it arms.
Slide 19: But within months . . . • The normally anti-Semitic Stalin seemed to wake up out of a stupor and return to an intensely anti-Semitic phase of his policy. • But it was too late. The State of Israel had been born and was now fighting for existence
Slide 20: David Ben-Gurion proclaiming Israeli Independence from the United Kingdom on May 14, 1948 BUT IT SURVIVED BECAUSE OF THE HUGE FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF AMERICAN JEWS Isaiah 62 v4 You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, Nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah (my delight is in her.) and your land Beulah; For the LORD delights in you, And your land shall be married.
Slide 21: Summary • We can see Gods hand at work through the Jews. • 12 Year halt in Royal rule allowed Jews into Britain and then on to America. • 12 Years of Nazi terror forced and aided the Jews back to their land • For a very brief moment Stalin was favourable to the Jews allowing the Nation to be established • Do you see Gods hand in this? I do.
Slide 22: Conclusion Zechariah 8 v20“Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Peoples shall yet come, Inhabitants of many cities; v21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, “Let us continue to go and pray before the LORD, And seek the LORD of hosts. v22 Yes, many peoples and strong nations Shall come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem, And to pray before the LORD.’ v23“Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’” The Western Wall by night. Old City of Jerusalem.