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Continuing our discussion from part three, before leaving behind the Parable of the Fig Tree, there is one more truth bomb I want to share with you. As we have now clearly seen, some Zionist Jews and pro-Israel Christians insist that the fig tree symbolizes modern Israel declaring itself a nation in May of 1948. As we saw earlier, this doctrine forms the very foundation of their understanding regarding what is commonly referred to as Endtime prophecy. But the odd thing about this doctrine is that the fig tree is NOT even the national tree of Israel. It is the olive tree. If you doubt my word, please feel free to conduct some online research of your own. You will quickly become convinced of what I am saying here.

Now let's think about this for a moment. Yes, there were and still are a lot of fig trees and olive trees growing in the land of Israel. Many thousands of them in fact. Furthermore, some olive trees in Israel are many hundreds of years old. I am reminded of the fact that on the very night of His actual betrayal, the Lord was in the Garden of Gethsemane with the Apostles. Please note that online sources inform us that the Garden of Gethsemane was, and is, a small grove consisting of eight ancient olive trees which is located at the foot of the Mount of Olives, just outside of what is today known as the Old City of Jerusalem. I am likewise reminded of how the two witnesses who are mentioned in the Book of Zechariah and in the Book of Revelation are symbolized by two olive trees. Consider the following group of verses:

"Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder."


"And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray."


"And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, And said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it, and his seven lamps thereon, and seven pipes to the seven lamps, which are upon the top thereof: And two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof . . . Then answered I, and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered again, and said unto him, What be these two olive branches which through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves? And he answered me and said, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord. Then said he, These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth."


"And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them."


The Mount of Olives is mentioned in a number of places in the New Testament. For example, it was upon the Mount of Olives where Jesus delivered what has become known as the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and related chapters. It was also from the Mount of Olives that Jesus instructed two of His disciples to go and fetch an ass, upon which He would ride into Jerusalem. The Lord not only rested and prayed on the Mount of Olives, but it was likewise from there where He ascended to Heaven. In fact, it was to that same place where the two Angels told the Apostles that Jesus would someday return. Consider the following group of verses which confirm these various points:

"And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them."


"And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?"


"And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives."


"And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest."


"And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives."


"Jesus went unto the mount of Olives."


"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath days journey."


"Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south."


The fact of the matter is that the olive tree has played a very significant role throughout Biblical history. When the dove returned to Noah, it bore an olive leaf in its mouth. Throughout Israelite history, olive oil was used to light their lamps. The two cherubims which were located within the oracle -- or holy place -- in the temple were made of wood from olive trees. Other parts of the temple were also made from the olive tree. Olive oil -- or "shemen" in the Hebrew language -- was used as the official anointing oil for both priests and kings in the Bible. There were other uses as well.

I also find it interesting that when the Jewish National Fund held a three-week competition in January 2021 for the purpose of selecting a national tree for the state of Israel, the top vote getter was the olive tree. According to one article in the Jerusalem Post, there were a total of seven contestants. These were the Atlantic Pistacia, the cypress tree, the Tabor oak tree, the eucalyptus tree, the fig tree, the olive tree, and the palm tree. The olive tree received just under 33% of the vote with the Tabor oak and the palm tree trailing close behind. The fig tree did not even make it into the top three spots. Now if the fig tree is such an important symbol for the state of Israel, doesn't it seem at least a little odd to you that it did not even qualify as one of the top three vote getters?

Based on these various points, one would think that if the Lord truly meant to drop a hint in the aforementioned verses concerning the land of Israel being declared a nation far into the future in May of 1948, surely He would have chosen to symbolize it with an olive tree, and not with a fig tree. After all, being as He is not constrained by time, He would surely know that beginning in the 21st Century, the olive tree would become the national tree of Israel. Yet, oddly enough, as we have seen, Jesus spoke of a "fig tree, and all the trees," because He was NOT trying to make some kind of futuristic political statement as Zionist Christians insist. It is my hope that with all of the previous information, I have thoroughly buried the modern deception regarding the Parable of the Fig Tree being a symbolic prophecy regarding Israel becoming a nation in May of 1948. It just isn't so.

As I have mentioned before, trying to force Bible prophecy, particularly time-based prophecies, to fit into our personal understanding is very dangerous business. Yet sadly, as we've now seen, that is precisely what the Futurists who dominate modern Christianity have done with a number of the ancient Bible prophecies. As I have now made clear to you, they and the Zionist Jews have either intentionally, or ignorantly, taken so many verses out of context, and created a confusing and interconnecting web of deception and misinterpretations, in order to seemingly support their erroneous ideas, and to support the legitimacy of the state of Israel.

At this point in our discussion, let us now take a moment to quickly review the five key intentional distortions we have discussed in this series which both the Zionist Jews and the pro-Israel Christians have made with regards to God's Word:

1. They have intentionally misinterpreted the return of the Jews to Israel which is mentioned in Jeremiah 30:1-4 and other verses, so that it applies to our current time instead of to some 2,500 years ago where it really belongs.

2. They have intentionally misinterpreted the warning Jesus gave regarding the fig tree in the Gospels so that it seems to validate the creation of the state of Israel in May of 1948.

3. They have intentionally twisted the meaning of the phrase "this generation", as found in the Gospels, so that certain predictions that Jesus made regarding His return appear to apply to our current age when they most certainly do not.

4. They have intentionally changed the First Century audience to whom Jesus and the Apostles spoke or wrote in some verses, so that their words seem to be directed to us today when they most certainly are not.

5. They have intentionally moved the final week -- that is to say, the 70th week, or final seven-year period -- of the Prophet Daniel's "Seventy Weeks" prophecy up to our current time where it most certainly does not belong.

It should be noted, however, that despite God being gracious and merciful to the Jews by allowing them to return to the land of Israel after Seventy Years of Captivity in Babylon, and even allowing them to repair the retaining walls around Jerusalem, as well as rebuild the temple of Solomon itself, yet those foolish people rebelled again when they rejected the Son of God during the First Century. As a result, exactly as Jesus had warned them, they were kicked out of Israel a third time -- that is, the third diaspora -- when the Romans invaded under Vespasian, followed by Vespasian's son, Titus, when Vespasian had to return to Rome in order to take power. Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, and the Jews were enslaved and shipped off to other lands in the Roman Empire. I discuss these historical events regarding the seven-year First Jewish-Roman War of 66 AD to 73 AD in other Bill's Bible Basics articles.

As a point of clarification, the first diaspora -- that is to say, dispersion of the Israelites -- occurred during the Assyrian invasions, as had been warned by the Prophet Isaiah approximately one hundred and fifty years before the time of the Prophet Jeremiah. As I explain in the series "The Fruits of Disobedience", the Israelites were enslaved and exiled to other lands within the Assyrian Empire, while at the same time, foreigners came to occupy Israel. The second diaspora occurred at the time that Jeremiah preached in Israel, and culminated with the Babylonians' third siege of Jerusalem, at which time Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed for the first time. This led to the Seventy Years of Captivity, as we have already discussed.

Tragically, the Jewish political and religious leadership of the First Century knew full well that the Roman invasion was going to happen sooner or later, because their relationship with the government in Rome was already strained as it was. The last thing they needed was for a popular Jewish preacher by the name of Jesus upsetting the delicate balance which they struggled to maintain, by being declared the king of the Jews. While the Jewish religious leaders foolishly thought that murdering Jesus would save them from Roman wrath, it did not. As I mentioned a moment ago, forty years later in 70 AD, Jesus' words were fulfilled, and Jerusalem and the temple were laid desolate. Thus, for the third time in their history, the Jews were enslaved and kicked out of their land, in what we know today as the third diaspora. Consider the following set of verses:

"If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, 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;"


"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."


So as we have seen, God kicked the Jews out of Israel three times due to their sins, and He had their enemies destroy Jerusalem and the temple two times, due to their backsliding, stubbornness and disobedience. Now, almost two thousand years later today, the Orthodox Jews are bent on building a third temple. Sadly, most Jews staunchly continue to reject Jesus Christ. That being the case, in my view, if the construction of a third temple were to ever happen, the outcome is not too difficult to figure out. Will God tolerate it as long as they continue to reject His Son?

Before concluding this series, there is one more important topic we need to discuss. As I said at the very beginning of this series, I am fully aware of the fact that there exist some staunch pro-Israel Christians who will have a difficult time accepting what I have stated here. I imagine that one of the arguments which they will probably put forth is the following: If everything you state in this series is true, and if your particular understanding and interpretation is correct, then why is it that the Jews today now have their own nation, and have in fact been slowly returning to Israel for decades? Doesn't this prove that you are wrong?

My answer is "Not necessarily so". As I point out in other articles, I firmly believe in the fact that God has given to each one of us free will and personal choice. I believe that there is the will of man, and there is the Will of God. I am sure that you will agree with me when I say that there are many things which happen in this world which are clearly NOT the Will of God. For example, the many wars, abortion, child abuse, same-sex "marriage", human trafficking, drug abuse, and many other evil and violent things. Nevertheless, due to a variety of reasons -- including the fact that we have free will and personal choice -- God allows them to happen.

Having said that, while some pro-Israel Christians will say that the creation of the state of Israel in May of 1948 was a supernatural act of God -- and likewise a fulfillment of Bible prophecy -- as I've already amply explained, I am NOT convinced of that view. To the contrary, as I point out in articles such as "Modern Deception: Shall a Nation Be Born at Once?", I believe that the 1948 creation of the state of Israel was nothing more than the result of the political maneuvers of the colonial powers at that time in history.

Let me remind you of the fact that it was only a few years prior to that when Adolf Hitler perpetrated the Holocaust, which left a huge scar of guilt on the European nations. At the same time, Jewish bankers were slowly but surely taking over the major financial houses of Europe, and eventually of the United States and other nations as well. Against this backdrop, a lot of people wanted the Jews out of Europe. So despite serious concerns on the part of some people, carving up the Middle East into various nations, and in the process creating a state for the Jews, was the solution.

To reiterate, creating the state of Israel in 1948 was not an act of God, and it had absolutely nothing to do with any kind of Bible prophecy, as I explain in the aforementioned article. It was an act of man. In fact, not only was it a political act of human institutions, but it is because the political powers of the day carved up the Middle East as they did, that serious problems have continued in that region of the world up to this present day. If you conduct a bit of historical research, you will discover that this same pattern has repeated elsewhere as well.

For example, the very same thing occurred in 1947 when India was also carved up by the British to create the two nations of India and Pakistan, one nation primarily Hindu, and the other primarily Islamic. To this day, they have been at war with each other, particularly over Kashmir. However, today, both nations are nuclear powers, and they have come awfully close to pushing the button on each other. The point is, it is foolish for the major powers of the world to engage in nation building, because their success rate has not been exactly stellar, to say the least.

Ironically, while both the French and the British foolishly took it upon themselves to carve up the Middle East about seventy-five years ago, and to create a state so that Jews would move out of Europe, as I said, not only did the Jews still take over the financial houses of Europe, but now the Muslims are also moving into Europe in droves, and they are creating a lot of major problems for the European nations. The Islamification of Europe is now well under way, and the same destructive process has now begun in the United States of America as well. America must stand strong against this wave of Islamic fanaticism, and return to its Christian roots before it is too late.

I could go into a lot more detail, and discuss the question regarding whether or not the current residents of Israel are really Jews at all, but this series has already grown quite long. So, perhaps I will discuss this topic at some future date in a new article. In the meantime, if you conduct some online research of your own, you may possibly discover some interesting results which may surprise you. All I will say for the time being is that the Jews are masters of confusion and deception; so much more than most people even realize. Hopefully, this current series will help you to understand exactly what I mean.

With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you have found it informative, enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

Dead to the Law: God's Laws Written on Our Hearts
Free From the Fear of Death: Law and Works vs Grace
Free Will and Personal Choice
Greater Israel Doctrine: Exposed!
Humility in Our Understanding of God's Word
Jesus Christ's Return: Have We Been Deceived?
Modern Deception: Shall a Nation Be Born at Once?
Oh Israel, Why Will Ye Die?
Psalm 83 War False Doctrine Exposed!
Sorry . . . Jesus Is Not Coming at Any Moment!
The Fruits of Disobedience
The Holocaust: Did God Make a Mistake?
The International Jew and the Protocols of Zion
The Last Seven Years Chart
The Triumphant Touchdown of Jesus Christ
The Two Sackcloth Witnesses of Revelation 11
Welcome to Greater Israel, USA!

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