Article series: INTRODUCTION – WHO IS JEHOVAH? – WHO IS THE REAL ISRAEL – THE SCATTERING – THE GATHERING: ONE-FOLD – ONE ISRAEL: THE MODERN STATE OF ISRAEL NOT CHOSEN – DANIEL 9 AND THE PRE-TRIBULATION DECEPTION – JUDAISM ACE IS NOT A GODLY REPRESENTATION OF OT – THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN STATE OF ISRAEL – THE DIFFERENCE (between Biblical Israel taking of Canaan and modern Israel taking of Palestine) – What side should we take in the Palestinian and Israeli conflict?
One of the arguments Christians use today for why Jews by flesh are still chosen is comparing how they have been scattered throughout the world with what the Bible says. Because they are scattered, the promises of gathering are logically assumed to be about them.
So, who is the real Israel scattered and who is scattering them, according to the Bible? How does it all fit with Armageddon?
To understand the gathering of Israel, we need to first understand who Israel is and then how they were scattered. If we do not understand who was “scattered,” we do not understand who is to be “gathered.”
Throughout history, people have been displaced from their lands by war, conquest, and, at times, natural disasters. Today, we are witnessing the largest movement of people in human history.
“At mid-2023 as a result of persecution, conflict, violence, human rights violations or events seriously disturbing public order” -numbers 110 Million displaced people worldwide. (https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/)
Although the numbers were historically lower, people were still constantly displaced. Babylon deliberately displaced the citizens of the northern Israelite kingdom and encouraged its own people to settle in that area instead. This was used as a tactic to prevent resistance. The more spread out a population is among other people, the less influence and power they have, and the more likely they are to adapt to their surroundings and blend in with the majority. At least, that was how it once worked. In our time, large groups of people have moved and settled close to one another, allowing their cultures to remain intact, as seen in Chinatowns in the USA, Muslim neighborhoods, Jewish communities, and so on.
The point here is that the Jewish people are not alone in being dispersed to new lands. The fact that ethnic Jews were scattered on several occasions does not automatically mean they are still the Israel to “be gathered.” Being scattered alone is not evidence of being chosen for “gathering.”
This is why it is important to understand that not all who are scattered are people God will gather. Only those who are part of His kingdom, His citizens of the New Jerusalem, a city which will be placed upon earth in the future.
In the past, Israel had been a great nation, but because of unfaithfulness, they were, as God had said in advance, to be scattered and driven from the land. Note that their first two scatterings were a judgment from God or a consequence of their unfaithfulness:
“And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste” (Lev 26:33)
“And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you” (Deu 4:27)
“The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth,” (Deu 28:25)
“And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead thee. …And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.” (Deu 28:37 &64)
It was prophesied early on that they would not just be scattered, but would become a part of the nations they went to. Concerning Ephraim, the largest tribe forming the once Northern Israelite kingdom, it is written: “And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.” (Gen.48:19)
Jacob says he shall become a multitude of “goy,” the expression used for any heathen nation elsewhere in the Bible. It is applied to nations other than Israel. It is clear here that the northern kingdom of Israel would later become many nations and would even forget who they once were.
(see Leviticus 26:33; Deuteronomy 4:23–27; 28:25, 37, 64). The first great scattering (also called the first diaspora) began when the Assyrians carried the ten tribes away into captivity (see 2 Kings 15:29; 17:6)
From this, it is fairly easy to understand that a part of Israel would never be gathered into one land, but would remain as these other nations. There would be no room in physical Israel to hold “a multitude of nations.” (Gen.48:19)
This makes it only possible to gather a remnant in the physical country, or the borders would have to extend over most of the Middle East, far beyond the land promised. This is what God said about the Babylonian captivity and the return: “For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness” (Isa 10:22)
“Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be brought forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth unto you, and ye shall see their way and their doings: and ye shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought upon it.” (Eze 14:22)
As it was written, so it happened. After Babylon, only a remnant returned. The rest remained scattered and became a multitude, just like the tribe of Ephraim.
Why did God not include the rest of Israel when He gathered them for a second chance in the land? Because God only gathered the faithful of that time. Those who did not desire to follow the Lord, who had become one with Assyria, Babylon, and wherever else they had been driven, were not gathered and remained in their countries. Most of those scattered the first time do not even know they were once part of ancient Israel, nor do they identify with their past. They do not practice their ancestral religion and live as everyone else does in the countries they ended up in. Most modern Jews do not know who they are genetically. Their DNA is diverse and shows different genetic forefathers, indicating that even though they are of Jewish descent, both males and females in their ancestry break the lineage and are of non-Jewish descent. They are mixed with the people of the nations among whom they have lived. They are not a pure genetic race and never were.
Some Arabs have as much Jewish ancestry as Jews, because both are of mixed race. The government of Israel recently passed a law against genetic testing, most likely because it has been demonstrated that modern Jews are not a clearly defined genetic race. It is a religion first and foremost. Many Jews immigrating to Israel have less than 10% Jewish genes; the rest is mixed with European, Russian, African, and other Middle Eastern genes. Those mixed “goyim” genes are sometimes related to other Jewish mixed genes and are therefore sometimes called fully Jewish when they are not. The connection is seen because if a few families a thousand years ago married, for instance, Spanish or German husbands and wives, many of the Jews hundreds of years later will all have those Spanish and German ancestries in common.
That does not make those genes Jewish ancestry simply because many Jews have them. Those same genes do not trace back to Biblical times or to the Biblical land. Such is the case with many Ashkenazi Jews who appear as genetic cousins on genealogy sites, yet are connected through non-Jewish genes as much as Jewish ones. If a mixed gene pool intermarries, they will share a common mixed pool. So if someone receives 100% Ashkenazi on their test results, it does not mean they are 100% a descendant of Jacob. It simply means they are 100% descendants of the first mixed pool, which was scattered and intermarried across Europe.
Mostly, those returning to modern “Israel” do so because they have kept the traditions of their religion, and not because their racial lineage is pure. It is historically documented that many who emigrated from Eastern Europe and Russia were socialists and atheists who retained Jewish culture.
However, it is not to be doubted that most of the Jews returning to modern “Israel” today were part of the second scattering.
The second scattering occurred when Rome destroyed Jerusalem and Jews were forced out of the land. But are these same people to be gathered back to the land once again? For two thousand years, Jews did not have a state in the former Judean and Israelite lands. Did God gather them again one last time? Are they God’s scattered people by virtue of their descent, and if so, do the “multitude of GOYIM” who are also God’s scattered people have to return to the physical land as well? If we go by the flesh, yes. But God only gathered the faithful in the past. And if we measure by the flesh, when are you supposed to go to Israel? Is 5% genetic Jewish ancestry enough, 10%, 25%, 50%, or 100%? When we cannot even determine the correct amount of genetic makeup required, then who shall go? Because Jewish genes are diverse and diluted, the State of Israel has decided that only those who are Jewish by religion, or who have Jewish practicing parents, and in some instances practicing grandparents, can return. The rest of the Jews, for instance, those who come from a family that converted to Christianity, cannot. This means that the modern state of Israel believes that not all of Jewish ancestry is to return, only those who have rejected Christ. The State of Israel gathers the very ones whom the New Testament says have fallen away.
As we are about to see, the Jews who reject Christ are no longer God’s scattered people. A new group is, and the Jewish nations, shockingly enough, are actually the ones who scattered and displaced them.
The scattering of God’s Israel
Jesus, Yehovah, is the King of God’s people. If someone rejects and disobeys the King, they are not His people but are regarded as rebels. Jesus said to the Jewish leaders of His day: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters” (Matt.12:30).
In this context, they had just called the miracles of Christ to be of Beelzebub, the prince of demons.
Jesus answered them:
“Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand” (v.25).
He spoke of Satan’s kingdom, but the principle applies equally to God’s kingdom. If God’s people are against Him, the “house” will not stand, unless He continues only with those who are with Him. So Jesus said right after this that those who are not with Him scatter. The Jewish leaders who would not accept Christ as their Messiah and Lord caused the scattering of God’s people to take place. They are “the bad guys” scattering God’s true people, not the victims.
It was prophesied in Ezekiel 34:
“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?
And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them. For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment. And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats. (Eze 34:2-5; 11-16)
Christ is the good shepherd prophesied. He also said: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (Joh_10:27)
But before He spoke this, He said about the Jews that rejected Him that they are not His sheep or part of His flock:
“Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you” (Joh 10:24-26)
Did it mean He rejected all Jews? No. It only means He rejected those who would not follow Him. He continued with a remnant, as Paul said: “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin” (Rom 11:1)
He had not rejected Israel of the flesh; He had simply been compelled to continue with a remnant of them and let the others go, just as He once did with the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel. He let the northern kingdom go and did not gather them.
Jesus is also clear that they need to be gathered to Him, and not merely to a land. If Christ is not King of Israel, there is no Israelite kingdom, only the illusion of one. The ancient physical land of Israel was a theocracy, with God on His throne in their midst. Jesus dwelt above the Mercy Seat. Without Him, there is no truly authentic land of Israel. It is a land of man’s creation, of man’s laws and man’s rules. Modern Israel does uphold laws similar to those given by God, but it also has many that are not. The ancient kingdom of Hammurabi was similar; he, too, upheld many of God’s laws and mixed them with his own. Babylon was good at that, drinking from the cups of God’s temple while praising the gods of silver and gold. Taking something from the Bible and adding your own ways is not synonymous with honoring God, as King Saul experienced when the kingdom was taken from him and his descendants and given to David.
The story of Saul and David parallels Israel by the flesh in more ways than those previously mentioned. Like Saul, they were anointed for their position as leaders of God’s people. But Saul combined disrespecting God’s authority with performing “deeds” and “rituals” to satisfy God. “And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed” (1. Sam.15:15)
He called his disobedience a sacrifice and celebration of God, but he only fooled himself.
God could not lead through Saul, yet at the same time, it seemed Saul was faithful and honored God. The prophet Samuel called his behavior idolatry. Although there were no graven images or gods, his rebellion was considered idolatry. “And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king” (1Sa 15:22-23)
Just because God had anointed Saul did not mean He could not reject him and anoint another. Another took “his office.”
When Saul realized he was rejected and that another had possibly been anointed in his place, he began persecuting David and all who followed him. He scattered David and his followers abroad, yet after some years, he met his end on the battlefield. Saul even killed all of God’s priests when he suspected they were loyal to David.
The same thing happened to the Judean state in the time of Jesus. When they realized Christ was God’s anointed, God’s priest and king, they became jealous and hostile. They could not control Jesus, and He called them out for their hypocrisy and trust in rituals for salvation. Christ appointed new “priests” and “leaders” and gave the Holy Spirit, just as He had done when God elected people to leading positions in the past. The past became a prophecy: just as we see Jehovah first choosing 12 brothers and then 70 elders, likewise we see Christ choosing 12 apostles and 70 new elders for the new church. (Exo 24:9; Luk.10:1; Exo.24:4; Matt.19:28).
Over and over again, Christ demonstrates how He repeats doing things similarly to before.
Not only did the Jewish leaders follow in Saul’s footsteps by refusing to obey Jesus, their Lord, while claiming to honor God through appointed rituals, but they also did as Saul did and tried to kill God’s anointed, the Messiah. In the end, they did kill Him, and then they began to persecute Christ’s followers.
Like Saul displaced and scattered David away from the land, so did the Jews do to Christ’s followers.
The Jews who did not receive Christ are therefore those who scattered the true Israel, and not themselves the scattered Israel. This is important to understand because there is a prophecy that God will punish those who scattered His true Israel in the end days.
This means modern Israel is in for a surprise if they think God is coming to defend them, when in fact, He comes to judge them.
When Jesus was taken at Gethsemane, He quoted the Bible: “And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered” (Mar.14:27)
Notice especially that Christ is quoting the Old Testament and the prophet Zechariah (Ch. 13 v.7) regarding the scattering of Israel. By doing so, He shows that the prophecies of the scattering of Israel, the ones who are to be gathered, are about His sheep, His followers. By quoting this verse as He was captured to be executed, He identified Christians as the true Israel mentioned in Zechariah, and identified those doing the scattering who will be judged as the Jews who did not receive Him. If a Christian today claims that Zechariah and the gathering of Israel refer to Christians, he will be rejected by most Christians for what is popularly called “replacement theory.” But this is actually one of the last things Christ does as He is taken captive, to ensure we understand that it is His faithful followers who are the true Israel mentioned in Zechariah, whom God will finally come to defend. Not until the Jews lay hands upon Him does He identify who the Old Testament prophecies are speaking of. This is natural, because until that moment, the Jewish nations were still God’s people. Now they were divided, and the prophecies followed Christ’s followers and not the others, and so Christ made this known.
The Old Testament is now speaking of Christ’s Israel, not the Israel that rejected Him. Likewise, the prophecies and the promises of God fighting for His Israel and gathering them are about Christ’s sheep.
Christ tells us plainly that the scattering of these sheep was carried out by the Jews who rejected Him. They are the ones who “smite the Shepherd,” scattering His followers.
Just as Christ said it happened. The Jewish nation systematically chased their own brethren, by the flesh, out of the land for believing in Christ. “And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him” (Acts 8:1-2)
The Jews who rejected Christ “ran them out of town,” so to speak. Was it Christ who took Jerusalem from His own followers and gave it to those who rejected Him? No, it was the enemies of Christ, those who were not “for Him,” who scattered them and now make an unlawful claim to the land.
But as time shows, and as we will discuss in these articles, it will get even worse. They would drive the scattered into the arms of “the man of sin” and indirectly “cause the truth to be trodden down.” The Jews scattering Christ’s followers had great and far-reaching consequences.
The high priest who ordered Christ’s death accidentally made a prophecy as he gave the death sentence:
“Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation; And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad” (Joh. 11:50-52)
Here we see that those scattered were to be gathered to Christ, not to the land. The condition for the land to continue as the capital of God’s people was their faithfulness, and they were given 70 prophetic weeks to be faithful and to receive Christ (Dan. 9). Yet when they did not, God’s people would be scattered as a result. Had they not rejected Christ, Jerusalem would have remained the center of truth throughout all ages.
As it happened to Saul, so it happened to the Jews who did not accept Christ: “But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.” (1Sa 16:14).
Saul would not give up his throne, palace, or title even though God had rejected him. Likewise, the unfaithful Jews, after chasing Christ’s followers away, sat in Jerusalem and refused to give up their titles or offices.
In the end, Saul became desperate and would rather consult his forefathers than go to the one God had chosen: David. Saul had a woman summon what appeared to be the ghost of Samuel, a dead prophet, to receive a word from him. It ended with Saul’s death. David took the throne, but he became a king over a people who were at first conflicted and confused. Similarly, the Jewish nations, upon rejecting the Spirit telling them the truth about Christ, listened to evil spirits and put their trust in the heritage of their deceased forefathers to be with them and guide them onward.
The true scattered Israel, Christ’s sheep, were not scattered because of their own unfaithfulness, but because of the Jewish leaders’ unfaithfulness. They can be compared to Ezekiel, Daniel, and his friends, who were driven out of Jerusalem even though they were faithful, because of their people’s unfaithfulness. Both the good and the bad among Judah were scattered to Babylon and the surrounding nations because of the unfaithfulness of the leaders in Jerusalem.
And just as Saul perished, those Jews who relied upon their “flesh” and their “descent” to be saved were themselves destroyed and scattered from the land.
When Saul saw he had been defeated fighting God’s enemy, he killed himself on the battlefield.
Many of the Jewish people, who had no problem driving their Christ-following Jewish brethren away from the land, ended as Saul ended. They, too, thought they fought God’s enemy when fighting Rome, and many ended up committing suicide when they realized they had lost. Today, we can still see the Jewish settlements on the top of Mount Masada, where almost a thousand Jews committed suicide once they realized they had been defeated. Thus, they ended exactly as Saul did. First anointed, then rejected, persecuting the new anointed who took their place, and then refusing to give up their land and title, fighting God’s enemies and losing, and then ending their lives rather than converting. From then on, both those who scattered Christ’s followers and the Jews who rejected Christ were scattered abroad. But one party was innocent in the scattering, and the other was the cause of it, and it is important to know the difference.
The faithful who were scattered are prophesied to bring a blessing wherever they were scattered:
“And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the LORD, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men.
And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep: who, if he go through, both treadeth down, and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. Thine hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off” (Mic 5:7-9)
But to the unfaithful scattered, God says:
“And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste” (Lev_26:33).
“I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them” (Jer_9:16)
These are two different destinies for two different Israels. Jews who rejected Christ were harshly treated everywhere they went; “a sword was drawn after them.” They still proclaim in their museums and books that they have been treated unfairly and poorly, and they have. For almost two thousand years, they have had conflicts wherever they ended up. And although Christians were also severely persecuted, they sacrificed willingly to give a blessing of life to others. They became a “dew from the Lord.” Because of them, God blessed the West with prosperity, as long as His people were allowed to live in peace. The land that treated the true Israel of Christ rightly always prospered. In the end, this gave Protestant nations the upper hand over all other countries. When they change how they treat God’s people, they will fall one by one. And so God’s people have been the “dew” in those lands. Accidents on sea and land have been prevented because one of God’s people was among the passengers. Such has it always been since God’s people were scattered. Those around them take part in their blessings.
The Scattering of Truth
Because the Jewish leaders rejected Christ, David their king, and scattered Christ’s sheep, the truth was, as a consequence, scattered from Jerusalem as well.
“Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father” (Joh 4:21)
This was not because God had rejected Jerusalem, but because Jerusalem had rejected Him. According to Daniel 9, the city would have remained forever as God’s capital of truth had the Jewish leadership and the majority of the people been faithful.
Now Paul, from the tribes of Israel by the flesh, a part of the remnant, previously a citizen of Jerusalem, understood that they were scattered from physical Jerusalem: “The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come” (Heb.13: 11-14)
Christ has built the New Jerusalem in heaven, prepared for the earth: “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
It is to this city that Christ will gather His people:
“And he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped” (Rev 21:2 & Rev.14:16)
Jesus is Shiloh: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” (Genesis 49:10)
He is the one who will gather people to Himself. Not the United Nations, not the democratic state of Israel, but Christ. The gathering of those who scattered the real Israel is not a fulfillment of this prophecy. Any “gathering” not accomplished through Christ’s second coming is a fraud, an imitation of the truth, someone imitating Christ. Thus, it can be said that the state of Israel itself is a “false Christ,” or “false Messiah.” That is how serious this is.
Jesus warned: “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Behold, I have told you before” ( Mat 24:24-25).
Carrying the “star of David” on their flag, symbolizing the Messiah, and “gathering” what is claimed to be His people, the State of Israel is actually playing “Christ,” making the state a false Christ. And many have fallen into the deception, even the elect.
The gathering will happen very differently when it is real. It will not happen through an earthly state, but “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matt. 24:27)
When Christ comes to gather His people, they are not just situated in the country of Israel; they are still scattered all over the world (Because the real Israel has not been gathered yet):
“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mat 24:31)
When this gathering is done: “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Rom.11:26)
All of Israel here refers to the dew spread among the nations, a remnant of physical Israel and a remnant of converted Gentiles, representing one fold with one shepherd.
When Jesus speaks of false Christs and not being deceived about the gathering, that it will happen when He comes in the clouds and not before, He also finishes His speech by speaking of another gathering.
“For wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Matt.24:28). Here we see that when Christ comes, there has been a pre-gathering of those who are to be judged: the carcasses and the eagles, the deceived and the deceivers.
The False Gathering
Any physical gathering before Christ’s second coming is a false gathering orchestrated by the master of this world, the dragon. Satan’s key deception throughout time has been to imitate God. Now he is imitating Christ, and as Christ prophesied, Satan does it with signs and lying wonders. One of Christ’s greatest miracles was to gather the remnant back to Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity.
To be a false Christ, to imitate Christ, Satan must gather a people to the land, with signs and wonders as well. He has gathered the unfaithful, rebellious Jews who rejected Christ, in the hope that they will do his bidding as they did in the past, confusing Christianity and manipulating events so that the true Israel is called impostors and the truth is scattered. Jews, too, are deceived about themselves. The sign and wonder of gathering a remnant of Jews in the physical land of Israel has the world amazed, especially the Christian world. It is considered a miracle, and a miracle is assumed to be from God, because it resembles something God has done before and which is prophesied to happen again. This makes it the perfect deception for Satan to pretend to be the God of Israel, performing these miracles.
If God gathered Jews by the flesh to the land, then to them that is evidence that they are the real Israel and the real people of God. So Christians have rejected themselves and look to the Jewish nations as the recipients of God’s promises to Israel.
The Bible prophesies that Satan would try to make such a gathering.
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isa 14:12-15)
“I will sit upon the mount of the congregation”. Here, the Hebrew reads “har mô‛êd,” which does not refer to any ordinary congregation. It speaks of Jerusalem. It does not speak of just any gathering; it speaks of the gathering of Israel during the Lord’s feasts. These gatherings took place three times a year:
“Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, Concerning the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, even these are my feasts (mô‛êd).” (Lev 23:2)
“Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty” (Deu 16:16)
This place became the mountain that God had chosen: Mount Moriah. This is where God sat in His temple, dwelt above His throne, and where Israel and Judah came at the times of gathering and gathered with Him in His dwelling.
Christ no longer dwells in Jerusalem, and so God’s people must look to the tabernacle in heaven and the throne there, to the promised Jerusalem above, and gather in spirit on the feasts, just as Jesus told the Samaritan woman.
But Satan’s dominion is here on earth. He cannot do what Christ will do, which is gather His people to the New Jerusalem in heaven. So he creates an imitation, an unholy gathering here on earth, to mimic the gathering of God, for the eagles and the carcasses. He does it to draw people’s attention away from the truth and from God’s requirements, and to make people trust in a lie.
He wishes to sit, symbolically speaking, on the mount of assembly, to gather an unholy congregation of those who have departed from the truth but still claim God’s name and God’s promises. Presently, Old Jerusalem is a confused city where all those whom Satan has deceived have gathered from the nations in the mistaken belief that they are God’s chosen people, although they have apostatized from the truth. The Orthodox Church departed from Christ’s teaching and culture, relying on the commandments of men. The Catholic Church, which claims to be Christ’s voice on earth and the means of man’s salvation, promotes falsehoods. The Protestants continue to uphold the errors of the Roman church, perpetuating apostate and pagan culture without reforming back to Christ and His kingdom. The Muslims declared Christ to be only a prophet and not Jehovah or the Son of God, and have instituted their man-made culture, following their leaders before God. And the Jews, who rejected their Messiah and their Lord, yet still claim to be His chosen people before the entire earth. The truth is still “run out of town,” and the courts of the Lord are still trampled upon by Gentiles, those who have rejected His authority.
Satan has made his unholy gathering and continues to do so. You can go to physical Jerusalem and have your pick among the unholy gatherings, whichever succeeds in deceiving you. However, his attempts will come to an end. As Revelation 16 prophesies, while Satan is busy with his unholy gathering, having a false people gathered for every main deception he ever conducted to wound Christ’s assembly, Christ “will come as a thief” and defeat them. (Rev.16:15)
The land belongs to Christ’s faithful followers, but He has asked them not to take it from either Muslims, Jews, or apostate Christians, but to wait for His intervention. This war will be fought by Jehovah, not by His people.
“The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem” (Zec 12:1-2)
Remember, it is the next chapter that Christ quotes when He says His followers are Judah and Israel, the ones to be saved against the madness Satan will create. Throughout time, many have come against Jerusalem, besieged it, and taken it: Rome, the Byzantines, various Islamic groups, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, the British, and lastly the modern state of Israel, claiming to be the same Jews to whom this land was promised. None of these kingdoms did or will stand and remain. The New Jerusalem is in heaven, to be placed on earth. The Jerusalem that exists now is not the Jerusalem of the promise, as Paul said: “But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal 4:23-26)
Physical Jerusalem was said to be in bondage when it was under Jewish control, a leadership that rejected Christ, as declared by Paul himself, an Israelite, while the Jews still held the land. The same people taking control again still represent bondage. They have no atonement for their sin without Christ and remain bound to their sins and delusions.
Christ told the Samaritan woman that the mountain in Jerusalem would no longer be used for gathering to Him. We know from the book of Daniel that this was a direct result of the Jewish nation’s rejection of Him.
When Satan has made it a place of gathering for those who listen to him but deceive in God’s name, we know it is not God’s gathering. It is not Christ’s gathering, but the one prophesied as the gathering of the dragon, the false prophet, and the beast: the carcasses and the eagles.
As modern “Israel” has taken control over this area, the two powers that Satan used to kill Jesus and scatter God’s true Israel away from Jerusalem, the Roman pontiff and the Jewish leadership, are again working against the truth. And the “real Israel” is claimed to be impostors and hated by Jews and Christians alike. For where there is a counterfeit, the original is despised.
The book of Revelation portrays what we have examined here. We see a woman, representing God’s people, clothed in the sun with the moon under her feet. The moon represents what has been. The moon has no light of its own; it simply reflects sunlight. Because God’s days begin at night, the moon is seen before the sun. In the same way, the sanctuary system given to Israel was a symbol of Christ and pointed to Him. The woman with the moon under her feet and clothed in the sun reveals that she represents faithful Israel before and after Christ, having the symbol of Christ under her feet while clothed in the truth of whom those symbols pointed.
She brought the world Christ; the Jewish nation was still God’s people until He was rejected. Then we see the woman is scattered but preserved: “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God” (Rev.12:6)
Here Christ reveals that the woman, His people, are now translated into His followers.
We then see Satan going after her: “And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.”
Because Christ’s followers are a continuation of Israel, they are said to have brought forth the child. To leave no room for doubt, Christ again specified:
“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev.12:17). The remnant of Israel (the woman with child) that gave us Christ are the followers of Christ (the remnant of her seed).