End Times - the Jews

There are different opinions today about who the Jews are. The State of Israel has criteria which it uses to determine the eligibility of a person to immigrate to it. Some wisecracks have decided to use DNA tests to prove that most Jews are not descended from Jacob. For the purpose of this discussion I assume that people who say they are Jews, had a bar mitzva or bat mitzva and celebrate Passover are in fact the Jews of the last days. Although the word Jew originally meant someone from the tribe of Judah, all the other 11 tribes are also included in this designation today.

Because the Israelites broke their covenant with JHWH, he raised up the Assyrians and Babylonians to take them into exile. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC. The exiled Israelites could no longer offer sacrifices. They retained their religion by establishing synagogues in the towns they lived. In these the scriptures were read and community events organised.

Pagans who were interested in the one true God could attend meetings in synagogues and even convert to Judaism. Those who preferred not to follow the ceremonial laws of Moses were given the title God-fearers. Cornelius was such a person (Acts 10:1-2) and Paul met many of them in his apostolic journeys (Acts 13:50; 17:4; 17:17; 18:7). In this way the pre-Christian gospel became available to non-Jews of the empires whether Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek or Roman.

Tragically, when the Messiah arrived, a large amount of Jews did not recognise him. However, there were tens of thousands of Messianic Jews (Acts 21:20). Believers in Jesus were called Nozerim (Nazarenes) by the anti-messianic Jews who discouraged them from attending their synagogues. They did so by introducing a benediction which the Pharisee congregations would recite when they met. Believers would in effect invoke a curse on themselves if they were to join in reciting it (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/birkat-ha-minim). Those Jewish believers in Jesus who joined gentile churches had another problem. The churches discouraged them from continuing to observe Jewish feasts.

Over the centuries such a rift emerged between Jews and gentiles that Jews who wanted to convert to Christianity were compelled to deny their Jewishness. The words "Messianic and Christian are in theory interchangeable, but in actuality, miles apart because of the history between so-called Christians and the Jewish people" (https://www.roncantor.com/post/why-i-don-t-call-myself-christian). 

Since the middle of the 20th century things have changed for Jewish believers in Jesus. Many Messianic congregations have been established all over the world. Members of these assemblies believe in Jeshua (his Jewish name) and continue to follow Jewish traditions. Also, since the establishment of Israel in 1948, Israeli congregations have been founded. They sing, preach and teach in Hebrew. John also prophesied that 144000 Israelis would play a key role in the end times. God is keeping a record of the tribe from which each of them would come (Revelation 7:1-8; 14:1). 

The statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream (see End Times: A prequel) is eventually pulverised (Jeremiah 51:24; Revelation 17:4-5; 17:16). The statue represents the empires that ruled and will rule from the time of the Babylonians until it gets replaced by an everlasting Kingdom. The demolition of the statue comes from a stone cut out without hands (Daniel 2:34-35). That Kingdom will have its capital in Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3; 60:14). The cornerstone of that Kingdom is the One which was rejected by the rulers of the Jews (Psalm 118:22; Isaiah 28:16; Matthew 21:42).