Some have challenged the fulfillment of the prophetic Scriptures by stating that the Jewish people have all intermarried with Gentiles in the last 2,000 years. Therefore, in their critical view, there is no pure Jewish race to return to Israel and fulfill Biblical prophecy.

First, I believe it is important to note that our Lord Jesus did not have a "pure" Jewish background. In Jesus' genealogy, recorded by Matthew, verse 5 lists two Gentile women, Rahab and Ruth. Yet, this did not taint the Messianic line required for Jesus to be a true Jew who has the legal and physical right to the line of David through both Joseph and Mary.

In reality, there are probably very few Jews who have not at some point had some Gentile connections in their genealogy. We must remember that this is not an issue for man to settle, but a divine Overseer is taking care of this matter. Today, only a few Jews know their tribal identity because all of the Jewish genealogical records were kept in the temple that was destroyed in 70 A.D. In recent years, Israel has been able to isolate the genetic code of the tribe of Levi (the priestly tribe). This was the result of checking the blood samples of a pool of men whose last name is Cohen (which is the Hebrew word for priest). They were able to determine that all of these men had a unique formation on the "y" chromosome. However, these Jews will not need to know their tribal identity. God knows who they are. Furthermore, look at the 144,000 Jewish witnesses in Revelation 7 and 14. These 144,000 are divinely chosen and sealed. We know there will be 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. In a broader sense, I believe that the same thing is true of all the true Jewish people who will return in the last days. For example, note Ezekiel 36:24, where the Lord declares that He will gather them out of the nations and bring them home to Israel. This is a supernatural work, with a supernatural calling. Several other Scriptures suggest that non-Jews will accompany the Jewish return to Israel. Note that during the Kingdom these non-Jews will inherit the land along with the Jews. (Ezekiel 47:22-23) God knows who qualifies for the Jewish return and who qualifies for the non-Jews who will accompany His people. We must focus upon the reality that our Lord is doing this today and without question, His hand has been, and will continue to be upon the process of the completion of the rebirth of Israel. At the end of this process, every Jew will be back in Israel and every living Jew will be saved! (Ezekiel 36:10-11: Zechariah 12:10-13:9)

By Mike Wingfield- www.ptnews.org