-- By your own words there are still remnants of "true Judah" there today. These people have a scriptural, legal and historical claim to the area.
Yes, those truly of God's people there do. But that's by no means is about all of them that call themselves Jews. If you'll do some simple research on info about Jewish migrations to the state of Israel, you'll find distinctions the Jews themselves make about separate groups among them, some being Sephardic Jews and others being Ashkenazi Jews. One group of those do not look upon the other as blood authentic, simply because other nations like Khazar accepted the religion of Judaism long ago, and began calling theirselves Jews. Many Jews in Ethiopia do the same, and they're not even of the same people as the tribe of Judah. Sorry, but the reality today is there are mixed people among the Jews today, and the Jewish people with an ancient heritage from the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi know this. Otherwise the orthodox Jews that want to build another temple would not have taken pains to use DNA research in finding priests from the bloodline of Levi.
So those who legally have the right to the nation of Israel are indeed inhabiting Israel.
Those 'usurpers' you speak of matter not. Why? Because they were going to come along for the ride anyway, if for no other reason that to fulfill end of time prophecy.
Are you trying to make an affirmation with that, or asking a question? You actually hit the nail on the head with that "to fulfill end of time prophecy". There's a negative side to God's Plan of Salvation that is at work for this present world, and the "crept in unawares" are part of it, as we were told in the Book of Jude.
If you'll begin in Genesis and study forward with the nations and peoples that began early on creeping in among Israel, you'll understand this matter, instead of having to rely on a bunch of propaganda from today's pop media and books, and their servants that have crept into many Churches. God's Word has the first and the final say, and that's where I preach this from. The historical part simply confirms God's Word. Problem is, there's a lot of Revisionist history out there today designed to counter what God's Word shows about it.
An example:
1 Chr 2:55
55 And
the families of the scribes which dwelt at Jabez; the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and Suchathites.
These are the Kenites that came of Hemath, the father of the house of Rechab.
(KJV)
Most are taught to think of those scribes that our Lord Jesus rebuked as Jews of God's people Israel. Yet per God's Word right there, He reveals they were not of Israelite birth at all, but of the peoples called Kenites, a people that dwelt among the Canaanite nations per the end of Genesis 15. In Judges 2 & 3, God rebukes the 12 tribes of Israel for not destroying all the peoples of Canaan that He pronounced His sentence upon. As written there, those Canaanites dwelt among the Israelites, and God said He would make them a snare upon Israel.
IKing 9:19-22
19 And all the cities of store that Solomon had, and cities for his chariots, and cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.
20
And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not of the children of Israel,
21 Their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day.
22 But of the children of Israel did Solomon make no bondmen: but they were men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots, and his horsemen.
(KJV)
Whoah! What's those peoples of the nations of Canaan still doing there among Israel??? By the time the Book of Chronicles was written, those had become known as Nethinims, which is term applied to temple servants. It means eventually they worked their up into doing menial duties inside the temple, a place they were not supposed to be allowed per God's commandment.
Ezra 2:58-62
58 All the
Nethinims, and the children of Solomon's servants, were three hundred ninety and two.
59 And these were they which went up from Telmelah, Telharsa, Cherub, Addan, and Immer:
but they could not shew their father's house, and their seed, whether they were of Israel:
60 The children of Delaiah, the children of Tobiah, the children of Nekoda, six hundred fifty and two.
61 And of the children of the priests: the children of Habaiah, the children of Koz, the children of Barzillai; which took a wife of the daughters of Barzillai the Gileadite, and was called after their name:
62
These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood.
(KJV)
How did those peoples of foreign blood even MAKE IT INTO THE PRIESTHOOD to begin with??? After the return of a small remnant of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, these bondservants in Solomon's days that went into the Babylon captivity with the house of Judah, also returned with that small Israelite remnant to Jerusalem to build the second temple and Jerusalem. In Ezra 8, he had to send back to Babylon to get real Levite priests, because the priests that returned were NOT of Israelite origin. Guess who Ezra sent back to Babylon to find Levite priests? He sent the Iddo, the head of the Nethinims (foreigners of leftover Canaanites).
Does this help explain how the priesthood of Israel and the scribe office fell into such corruption in prep for the time of our Lord Jesus' first coming? YES! Our Lord Jesus told you about this in His parable of the tares of the field, if you'd only listen to Him. I don't cover this to try and slight our brother Judah, but as a direct warning to them to be careful who and what they follow. But why would they listen to me, a Christian about this anyway? They obviously haven't listened to God in His Word about it.
I am of the opinion - and in agreement with Rach - that the very fact that Israel stands today as an independent, recognized nation, is a miracle in and of itself. The miraculous victories they have enjoyed - outnumbered, outgunned, out maneuvered on a HUGE scale on several occasions - indicates that God's hand is in the creation and continued existance of this Israel.
That it came to pass, I see as Bible prophecy for the end, and a major pointer to us Christians to mark the times. But do I see it as proof of Christ's Kingdom? No, of course not. The victories they have had come from God's Hand, for His Sake, not theirs. God promised David and Jerusalem He would always leave one tribe at Jerusalem, and He's done that. But don't think for a minute that means He's pleased with their refusing His Son Jesus Christ, like the majority there do. He's not going to be pleased with their building another temple to start up the Old Covenant sacrifices and worship either! That's why He is going to send them a false messiah to bow in false worship to, because they are still rebellious against Him and His Son (John 5:43). Per isaiah 28, God isn't pleased with those of His people there that allow themselves to be deceived by the "crept in unawares" either, as He calls what they're doing make a covenant with death (involves their worship in ignorance to the coming false messiah).
That makes your comments on the 'usurpers' moot. True Jews have returned from around the world. If all do not meet a purity standard, so what?
You can think it is moot, but God's Word and history shows different than what you WANT to believe from the world's propaganda outlets. SOME returning are of the true House of Judah. Lot of others are not. And the SAME "crept in unawares" that had our Lord Jesus crucified are STILL sitting in Moses' seat like Christ said at His first coming.
Concerning the purity standard you mention, that has nothing to do with those who have believed on Christ Jesus. But don't think for a minute it has nothing to do with the beliefs of orthodox Judaism! And that's who we're talking about here, not us Christians. Orthodox Jews still believe in the Old Covenant, even though they follow the religion of the crept in unawares that have crept in among them. They won't realize this until Christ returns. That's when the devout ones among them will cry in shame because they truly intend to obey our Heavenly Father and do His Will. That's when they'll discover how the "crept in unawares" bewitched them.
Those that are the true Jews - God's chosen people - are the ones that make the nation of Israel today what it is.
No, not really. It's the United Nations that have made them what they are today as a state under U.N. protection through the nations coming to their aid, like the U.N. Charter vote nations did in voting to create that state. Or haven't you noticed when radical Islam sends rockets upon the Israeli, Israel eventually has enough and sends its troops over its borders against them, taking territory they eventually are FORCED to give back up because of the U.N. controls? Few years ago, the U.N. forced Israel to move completely out of towns that were agreed to be Palestinian territories by the U.N. Charter.
Just as Daniel and his brethren were protected by the king of Babylon during their captivity, so it is today with the state of Israel being protected by the gloabalist working through the U.N., i.e., the modern Babylon system of today.
