Let's see if that argument has any merit.

The prophet Ezekiel wrote, sometime around the year 536 BC, that the Jews of the 'latter years' would be restored to their original homeland and would be known as the nation of Israel.

One hundred and sixty-six years before, Sargon II of Assyria besieged and divided Israel and Judea, capturing the Kingdom of Israel.

Sargon II followed the practice of removing the nobles from a conquered land and settling them elsewhere. As a consequence, the nation of 'Israel' ceased to exist and its people became known to history as the 'ten lost tribes' of Israel.

Nebuchadnezzar conquered the Kingdom of Judah and settled Judean nobility in Babylon during Ezekiel's lifetime. Ezekiel had no reason to expect Judah to escape the same fate as their Israelite cousins 166 years earlier.

But Ezekiel, under Divine inspiration, not only predicted the restoration of a Jewish State, he confidently predicted it would bear the name of a nation that had not existed for generations!

The prophet Isaiah, who lived at about the time of the destruction of the Northern Kingdom, prophesied:

"Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west; I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;" (Isaiah 43:4-5)

We look back on Israel's restoration as history. The Bible's prophets were looking forward, thousands of years into the future.

Looking back, we can see that Israel's 'seed from the east' began flocking to the Holy Land following the defeat of the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1917.

Israel's relationship with the West prompted the mass emigration of Jews from America. The Holocaust spurred a mass emigration of Jews from Western Europe.

It took the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the fall of the Berlin Wall to make the Soviets to the north 'give up'. Egyptian Jews weren't free to emigrate until after the 1977 Camp David Accords.

And it wasn't until the mid 1990's that places like Ethiopia, and Libya lifted their ban on Jewish emigration.

Yemeni Jews were transferred enmasse, some 56,000 of them, during what Israel called "Operation Flying Carpet." ("to the south, keep not back").

In the past decade, members of what were believed to be one of the 'Lost Tribes' – the tribe of Dan – were recognized as such in Ethiopia.

Genetic testing has also determined that the men of the African Lemba tribe, a black, Bantu-speaking people, share the unique "Y" chromosome of the Cohanin, the Jewish priestly class descended from Aaron.

The Pathans of Afghanistan are believed by some to be descended from one of the Lost Tribes.

And the Chief Rabbi of the Sephardic Jews, Shlomo Amar recently determined that the Bnei Menashe community in India's north-east is descended from the Lost Tribes. They were formally declared to be Jews. Many have since emigrated to Israel, and about 8,000 more are getting ready to do the same.

I met a member of this community who was flying co-pilot on an El Al flight. He claimed that his family had 2500-year-old records that traced their origins back to the tribe of Asher.

"And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be NO MORE TWO NATIONS, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." (Ezekiel 37:22)

It is no Scriptural sleight-of-hand trick, or a manipulation or misinterpretation of the Bible. The restoration of Israel – viewed from our vantage point as personal witnesses to recent history – is an EXACT match to the Bible's description of how, when and where that restoration would take place.

The only difference is that of perspective. To the Bible prophets, it was future, whereas to we who are alive and remain in this generation, it is history past.

"Now learn the parable from the fig tree: when its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near; so, you too, when you see all these things, recognize that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place." (Matthew 24:32-34)