When I was a protestant a lot was made of the resurrection of the nation of Israel. It was viewed by many as a supersign that Christ would return soon. I'll refer to Luke 21 for some source material.

7 They questioned Him, saying, “Teacher, when therefore will these things happen? And what will be the [f]sign when these things are about to take place?”

Interpretation: Jesus is going to explain what happens before he returns.

24b "Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."

Interpretation: Jerusalem was occupied by Gentiles and others for almost 1900 years before it returned to Jewish control in 1948 when the Jewish Israel became a nation. So we are now near the end becaue Israel is no longer "trampeled under foot by the gentiles"

Luke 21:29 "Then He told them a parable: “Behold the fig tree and all the trees; 30 as soon as they put forth leaves, you see it and know for yourselves that summer is now near. 31 So you also, when you see these things happening, [s]recognize that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly I say to you, this [t]generation will not pass away until all things take place."

Interpretation: The fig tree represents Israel, and the generation living when it returns will not die out before Christ returns. A generation could be anywhere from 70-120 years, putting the end between 2018-2068.

The overal question is... Is the existence of Israel a sign of the "end times"? How are the verses above understood within catholicism?

No....the modern secular state of Israel cannot be equated with the ancient, religious state of Israel.

that's an awfully large number on the high end for a generation, wouldn't you think? where did that "interpretation" come from?

By the way, Jerusalem did not return to Jewish control until 1967, after the Israeli victory in the Six Day War.

xavier, istm an explanation for those verses was offered in currie's book "rapture:the end times error that leaves the bible behind".... i don't have my copy handy right now or i could check it out for you...in any case, it's a great book to delve into...if you have a mind to do so

AMEN!!!

To understand the Olivet Discourse, you need to look at the way the passages are separated, while others are kept together:

End of the world:
Lk. 17:20 – 37
Mt. 24:37 – 41

Mt. 24:36 – 44
Mk. 13:32 – 37

Destruction of the Temple:
Lk. 21:5 - 33
Mt. 24:1 - 35
Mk. 13:1 - 31

If you take a look at the context for Lk. 21:5, Mt. 24:1 & Mk. 13:1, it is admiring the Temple. Jesus goes on to say that not one stone will be standing upon another.
Lk. 21:34 - 38

Nope.

Thanks, I put the book on my Amazon wish list.

If I follow the consensus here... the return of Jews to Israel is not predicted by Jesus' words as a sign of the end times.

However, the conversion of large number of Jews will be a sign of the end times and is buttressed by official church teaching as well as Biblical texts. We can confidently look forward to this as an indication of the return of Christ.

Let me ask a couple of follow-up questions to put this to rest: The Jews were ousted by the Romans around 70 AD, a prediciton made by Jesus. The catholic church sees a linkage between Jesus words back then (during his ministry), and the events that happened later (70 AD). Over 1800 years later, in what some call a miracle, the Jews are back in the same land. Many protestants, and some catholics, see see connection between Jesus' words, as I relayed earlier, and this event. But most on this forum see no significance to it whatsoever. The ouster of Israel was predicted by Jesus, the return was not. The return has absolutely nothing to do with the end times, period. Is this an offical church teaching, or is there room for multiple interpretations?

Actually the consensus is that the modern secular state of Israel founded by men has no connection to the Biblical state of Israel that was founded by God.....

I agree with you (not that I count for anything).

While the state of Israel is secular, it does allow for many Jews to be united in one place and that, arguably, would make mass conversion easier. That would likely have a ripple effect throughout the world; Jews everywhere would see the mass conversion of the state of Israel and possibly be prompted to conversion as well.

Dismissing the formation of the state of Israel out of hand as not associated with the "end times" might be naive.

This is a new one. Historically, protestants of this sort took generation as 40 years. If one looks at the major attempts among dispensationalists to predict the end times it is always 40 years after some major invent in the history of the Socialist state of Israel.

The Shepherd Rod movement predicted the end 40 years after the Balfur Declaration

The Church of the First-Born predicted it in 1969, 40 years after the formation of the Etzei

The founder of Calvery chapel said the last generation would be that of 1948 (when the state of Israel was founded!)

There were several predictions in 1988 including Hal Lindsey who explicitly linked it to the founding of Israel

Pat Robertson predicted the end forty years after the 6 day war, etc etc

I'm not saying that the end is anytime soon. We're probably a good 100 to 150 years away at the least. So while I believe that Isreal is part of the picture (as I discussed above), I certainly am not making some crazy Protestant claim...especially since I'm Catholic!

I always liked toying with the End of Times since we are supposed to be prepared anyway for our own end of time.
So here goes, the Old Testament had Sodom, we have San Francisco.

the old testament had gomorrah...we have oakland sorry snake