Of late the majority of the world’s population has been of the opinion that the Jews have no right to 1) occupy the city of Jerusalem, 2) to make the city their capital and 3) to exist. This ideology has resulted due to a global rejection of God’s Holy Bible which clearly and repeatedly states that not only Jerusalem, but the entirety of the Holy Land has belonged to Israel, of which the Jews are a part, since the days of Abraham. God promised the ancient patriarch that the land between the Nile and Euphrates Rivers would belong to his descendants as long as an Israelite existed. Today they exist in the hundreds of millions as a previous series proved. However, only those of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi, called “Jews,” today live in the area now called Palestine. Since the current global uproar concerns Jerusalem specifically, let us prove that the city has rightfully belonged to the present day Jews and their biological brethren–the other 10 tribes of Israel–for thousands of years.

The nation of Israel has been directly connection to Jerusalem for some 4000 years, long before a so-called “Palestinian,” a Muslim, or Allah or Mohammad came on the scene. This connection has existed since Abraham established his homeland “between Bethel and Hai,” an area located approximately 10 miles from Jerusalem (Gen. 13). Between 2000 and 1750 B.C. Abraham’s descendants populated much of the land of Canaan, also known as the Holy Land, the Promised Land and more recently, Zion. The city of Jerusalem is also known as Zion.

In the 11th century King David captured Jerusalem and made the city his capital after consolidating the disparate tribes of Israel into one unified entity. At that point Israel became the most powerful and successful nation on the earth. For unknown reasons a Jebusite named Araunah had remained in Jerusalem after the Israelites captured it. This man owned what today is called Mt. Zion (Moriah) whose top was the highest point in the area. David purchased the mountain on behalf of the Israelite nation and built an alter to the Lord on its top. Later, the Israelites would build a Temple where the alter once stood. Over the past 16 centuries the city has at various times been occupied by Muslims, Catholics, Turks and the British, some of them claiming ownership of the city. The Roman Empire claimed the Promised Land for many years as the spoils of war. Nevertheless, the area from the Nile to the Euphrates, as well as the city of Jerusalem, have remained the legal property of Israel to this day by God’s decree which, He said, would endure forever.

During his reign David wanted to build the Lord a Temple on Mt. Zion. But God would not allow him to do so. Instead, He commissioned David’s son Solomon to build Him a Temple. In 785 B.C. the 10 northern tribes of Israel suffered a military defeat, were taken into captivity by the Assyrians and scattered throughout the world. In 585 B.C. the land of Judah, along with her capital, Jerusalem, by then occupied by Jews (tribes of Judah, Benjamin and a few Levites), was destroyed and razed to the ground. Survivors were taken to Babylon as slaves. Seventy years later 42,000 of them were allowed to return to the city in order to rebuild both the walls and the Temple. Over the next 500 years the city was occupied mostly by Jews (Judahites). In 70 A.D. and again in 130 A.D. Jerusalem was destroyed to the point that, as Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 24:1,2, not one stone was left upon another. At that point the Romans scattered the Jews to the winds, selling many of them as slaves.

As the Lord promised would happen, Israelites–specifically the Jews–eventually began to return to the Promised Land. In 1948 they proclaimed national statehood and became a nation once again. Though Israel and Judah had been removed from the land because of sin and scattered throughout the world, the covenant God made with Abraham has never been annulled. Israelite ownership of the land between the Nile and the Euphrates has never ceased. God has promised that, following the return of Jesus Christ, His chosen people will once again occupy that land which will then be known as the Kingdom of God. Until then, whether occupied by Israelites, Gentiles or no one, the Promised Land will belong to the children of Abraham who remain God’s Chosen People. L.J.