Preach the Gospel … But Not to the Jews!

16 Saturday Jan 2016

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Preach the Gospel … But Not to the Jews!

“After saying this, he was taken up into a cloud while they were watching and they could no longer see him. As they strained to see him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday he will return from heaven in the same way you saw him go!’” (Acts 1:9-11).

“After saying this…” Do you remember those last words spoken by Jesus before he departed this earth and ascended to heaven, with a promise by his angels that he would return to Jerusalem in exactly the same place and manner in which he left?

These are his words: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8).

Messiah Jesus could have said any number of things just before he returned to heaven; but he told his disciples that they should tell people everywhere about him, beginning in Jerusalem, then Judea, then Samaria, then to the ends of the earth. The sequence commissioned by the Lord is deliberate and decisive. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was to be proclaimed first to the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea, then to the mixed race of Jews and Gentiles (Samaritans), and finally to Gentiles all over the world.

A few years later, the Apostle Paul affirmed the dynamic order of spreading the Good News of the Greatest Story ever told, when he wrote:

“For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world, to the educated and uneducated alike. So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News. For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile. This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, ‘It is through faith that a righteous person has life’” (Romans 1:14-17, quoting Habakkuk 2:4, italics for emphasis).

A short time before that, Paul condensed the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a concise but powerful presentation: “I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said” (I Corinthians 15:3-4).

Then in keeping with the most reliable record of proof for any historical event, both then and now, Paul provides documented evidence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ through eye-witness accounts: “He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all … I also saw him” (Verses 5-8).

Can the words of Jesus and Paul be any clearer? Not only was the Good News of God’s marvelous New Covenant plan of salvation in and through Jesus Christ to be preached to the entire world, it first must be shared with the Jews. Why first, foremost, and continually to the Jews?

That question will be answered, but not until we examine an astonishing decree issued by the Roman Catholic Church’s seat of authority, the Vatican, just a few weeks ago on December 10^th, 2015.

Headline—Vatican to Catholics: Stop Missionizing Jews

The document—marking the 50^th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council—states: “Catholics must not try to convert Jews.” Instead, Catholics should, “…bear witness of their faith in a humble and sensitive manner, acknowledging that Jews are bearers of God’s word.”

The Second Vatican Council in October, 1965 called the Nostra Aetate, was a substantial shift in the Catholic Church’s historical view that Jews were collectively guilty for the death of Jesus. That Council sought to normalize relations with Israel in particular and Jews in general, by calling for more open and friendly interaction with not only Judaism, but all religions, including Islam.

The December 10^th edict goes on to say that Judaism and Christianity are “intertwined with each other, Christianity has Jewish roots and Jews believe in the one God.” Therefore, Jews, “…should be treated differently than people of other religions and views,” and, “Catholics must work with Jews to put an end to any anti-Semitic activity.” Furthermore, “a Christian can never be an anti-Semite.”

In context, this last observation clearly equates the efforts to “convert” Jews to Christianity with other anti-Semitic activities including, for example, hatred for and violence toward Jews all over the world … mostly at the hands of Muslims; but also Roman Catholic animosity toward Jews, particularly in European nations.

According to Rabbi Joshua Stanton, Member of the Board of Governors of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, “the document is one of the more significant statements on Jewish-Catholic relations in the half-century since Nostra Aetate. It reiterates the common roots of Christianity and Judaism and affirms the fraternal relationship that should be pursued between the traditions.”

(Picture of the 2nd Vatican Council)

The document also states, “In concrete terms this means that the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed toward Jews.”

This is the first time that the Vatican has published a plain proclamation forbidding Catholic missionary activity among the Jews. The orthodox Jewish anti-missionary organization Yad L’Achim, “expressed satisfaction with the announcement” but also reminded Jews that it bears no authority for Protestants, “who continue to dedicate millions to missionary activity in Israel.”

For evangelical Christians who may not be aware, there are several Jewish “anti-missionary” organizations such as Yad L’Achim and Jews for Judaism that seek to suppress Christian and Jewish Messianic groups such as Jews for Jesus from spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ anywhere in Israel, but also the world over.

For example, on November 27, 2015, the news source HaShavua B’Ashdod published the following article:

“The anti-missionary activist organization Yad L’Achim warns against missionary volunteers who have been clandestinely distributing material in Ashdod mailboxes in the middle of the night, and recently in Jewish orthodox neighborhoods. Yad L’Achim has asked citizens in the area to notify them if any such material is found, and to destroy it at once. Rabbi Binyamin Volkan, director of field activities in Yad L’Achim department for fighting missionary activity, has stated as well that in his opinion the rare fact of material distribution in orthodox neighborhoods is ‘an intentional provocation and an act of revenge against the sectors of the city which are preventing them (the missionary factions) from increasing their influence.’ Yad L’Achim has additionally stated that ‘this cult gives out blankets and food with one hand and material connected to the New Testament with the other, and it members call themselves Jews even though the Supreme Court has ruled that whoever believes in Jesus is a Christian.’”

Ironically, the Christian faith in the first century was also considered a “cult” by the Jews and an offshoot sect of Judaism by the Gentile Romans.

But what about the tens of thousands of Israeli Jews who are (rightfully) classified as Jewish citizens of Israel, yet who are not observant Jews, i.e. those who do not actively support the orthodox or even conservative tenets of Judaism? Should their lack of following and practicing the requirements of observant Judaism disqualify them from being classified by the State of Israel as a Jew? In terms of whether they are Jewish citizens of the State of Israel, how are they any different from Jews in Israel who believe in Jesus as Messiah and Savior of Israel? Neither are observant Jews in the traditional sense of strictly espousing and practicing the Law of Moses.

Getting back to the Roman Catholic decree ordering mainstream Catholics not to engage in “evangelism” to the Jews in the same fashion as trying to convert people from other religions: of course a true believer in Christ would not be anti-Semitic in any way, shape, or form. We recognize our heritage that began with God revealing himself to Abraham and the Jewish nation. We believe in a Jewish Messiah who is the light of the world promised to both Jew and Gentile alike. We believe all of God’s promises to restore the Jews, physically and spiritually, apply to Israel, not the Church; thereby, rejecting Replacement Theology.

But I would propose that withholding the Good News of God’s salvation to his chosen people is the worst form of anti-Semitism. It is denying them the truth of their Scriptures, both Old and New Testament. For the New Testament is nothing more or less than a composite record of the New Covenant prophesied by the Jewish prophet, Jeremiah (See Jeremiah 31). It is account in the four Gospels and the Book of Acts of the birth, life, ministry, death, and resurrection of the long-awaited Messiah foretold by nearly all of the Old Testament prophets. It is the encapsulation of the life-changing and destiny altering truth that Jesus of Nazareth is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (of the entire world) in the New Testament Epistles. It is the final revelation of Messiah Jesus and the glorious hope of his return found in the Book of Revelation.

The True Gospel

But here I’m referring to the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. The actual Gospel that says we are saved by simple faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of the Son of God for our sins. A Gospel that says we are redeemed not by religious duties but by virtue of our relationship with a person. Listen to the Jewish Apostle Peter’s magnificent description of who Jesus is when he and John were challenged by the Jewish High Priest Annas, along with Caiaphas and other religious leaders. They demanded:

“…By what power, or in whose name, have you done this?” (Acts 4:7). Meaning the healing of a man crippled from birth.

“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them. Rulers and elders of our people, are we being questioned today because we’ve done a good deed for a crippled man? Do you want to know how he was healed? Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:8-12, quoting Psalm 118:22).

(Depiction of Peter & John healing the crippled man)

That my friend is the Good News! Jesus Saves!

Not a distorted, watered-down gospel that claims keeping of sacraments and performance of good works as a pre-requisite for salvation and eternal life.

In that regard, I have no problem with the Vatican ordering their clergy and laity not to “convert” Jews. For a Jew to convert to Roman Catholicism is to make them worse off than they were before such a conversion. It’s nothing more than leaving one religion of good works for another religion that claims salvation is procured through keeping of the law.

Listen to the words of a former Jewish religious leader who also considered Jewish Christians as heretics, cultic, rebels, and anti-Semitic in their beliefs. This was a man who was far more militant than today’s Yad L’Achim representatives; a man who imprisoned and physically persecuted Jewish believers in Jesus. That is, until he had a miraculous encounter with the risen Messiah that changed the course of his entire life and eternal destiny.

In keeping with his previous statement that God’s New Plan of Salvation must be first preached to the Jews, the man called Saul, a Pharisee of Pharisees, who became the Apostle Paul through his radical transformation by the very Gospel he sought to destroy, Paul tells us:

“…The longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God” (Romans 10:1-4).

As it was in Paul’s day (the first century) when he began preaching the New Covenant, the New Way of getting right with God, so it still is today in our world. The orthodox Jews are still trying to merit God’s favor by keeping the law, which no one has ever done or ever will do, completely.

And why to the Jew first? Paul also answers that question, while at the same time expressing his great love for his Jewish brethren, the same love that compels me and other true believers in Messiah Jesus to proclaim the truth of the Gospel to the Jews:

“With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshipping him and receiving his wonderful promises. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen” (Romans 9:1-5).

Paul then presents compelling evidence as to who is truly a Jew and who is not. In doing so, he demonstrates that when a Jew believes in Jesus and accepts him as personal Savior, he or she is not converting from Judaism to Christianity. It’s not a matter of conversion from one religion to another … not even close. In fact, nowhere does Paul or any other author of the New Testament consider Christianity to be a religion whatsoever. A religion is man’s attempt to appease God or gain God’s favor by keeping a set of laws or rules or rituals. The Christian faith is simply trusting what Christ did on the cross for complete pardon of our sins and promise of eternal life with God in heaven.

To believe in Jesus Christ—who backed up his claim to be the “resurrection and the life” (John 11:25) by rising from the dead—is to become a real Jew under the providential plan of God for his chosen people from the beginning. Listen again to God’s explanation through Paul:

“Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, ‘Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,’ though Abraham had other children, too. This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children” (Romans 9:6-8, quoting Genesis 21:12).

Paul explains in his letter to the Galatians that the real children of promise are those that acknowledge Jesus as the Jewish Savior; because it was Christ Jesus who became the true Child of Promise … the Anointed Messiah. That is the message of the Good News of the Gospel.

“…And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved … Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (Romans 10:8-13, quoting Joel 2:32).

We Must Not Keep Silent

Do we keep silent so as not to offend Orthodox Jews who have for hundreds of years beginning in the first century done everything possible to prevent the Gospel from being promulgated to “the Jew first.” Do we actually think telling someone that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and that he is the Way, Truth, and Life is tantamount to anti-Semitism? When, in fact, it’s our love and concern for every Jew to experience the life-giving light of the New Covenant promised and prophesied by Jeremiah to God’s people.

Do we make an exception for the Jews because they were the people through whom God revealed himself to the nations? No, it’s because they ARE the chosen people that we are compelled to share the Good News of God’s redemption. A redemption found only in one Person: The Son of God, Son of David, and Son of Man … Jesus of Nazareth.

Paul makes it abundantly clear how it is that his brothers in the flesh can and will be saved. Listen to his words that directly and emphatically contradict the Roman Catholic edict to refrain from “missionizing” the Jews:

“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, ‘How beautiful are the feet of the messengers who bring good news!’ But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, ‘Lord, who has believed our message?’ So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ” (Romans 10:14-17, quoting Nahum 1:15 and Isaiah 53:1).

That is the gospel we love and share with all who will listen, to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. That is the Good News that will change a person’s heart and alter their destiny forever. It is literally a matter of eternal life and death.

I Agree … Don’t Try to Convert Jews to Roman Catholicism!

My first reaction was the same as so many other Christians when I heard of the Vatican’s decree, i.e. what convoluted twisted logic! But the more I thought about it, the more I’m certain that it was a good decision by the Vatican. Actually, there really would be no conversion in the first place, as both Judaism and Catholicism espouse some of the same dogmas.

For example: The Roman Catholic Priesthood is basically a derivative of the priestly order of Judaism, even though the Levitical animal sacrificial system is no longer practiced by the Jews, as there is no longer a Mercy Seat, or a curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. In fact, there is no longer a Temple at all!

(As a side note, the very absence of the Jewish Temple and the Levitical Sacrificial system reduces Judaism to righteous acts by keeping the Law of Moses exclusively as a means of attaining a right relationship with God … something no one has ever done except one man. Please see the three-part Eye of Prophecy series entitled, Where Is The Temple? Published 11-29, 12-6, & 12-13-14.)

The following two paragraphs in quotation marks are excerpts from the third of these articles:

“The intriguing question posed in this article and the past two Eye of Prophecy articles relating to the fate of the Jewish Temples is designed as a challenge to explain what happened to them and why. To stimulate reflection about the repercussions of such a devastating time of Jewish history. To investigate the staggering impact on the entire Jewish faith WHEN Solomon’s Temple, then (hundreds of years later) Herod’s Temple, was destroyed. But also Gentile participation in this history pertaining mostly to religious systems that, to varying degrees, were patterned after and around the Mosaic Laws.

To once again come to terms with the rolling Premise of these articles: No Temple, no sacrificial offerings. No sacrifices, no atonement forgiveness of sins. No forgiveness, no redemption. No redemption, no right standing with God.”

(Depicts destruction of Solomon’s Temple)

In place of the daily, monthly, and annual sacrifices, Jews today rely heavily on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, as a means of forgiveness of sins against God once a year. The Roman Catholics seek forgiveness of sins through periodic confession with their priest, whom they call, “Father” (contrary to the very words of Jesus who said, “Call no man, Father”). Then the penitent parishioner is given such absurd duties in order to be forgiven as to repeat “Hail Mary” five times. The greater the offense, the more Hail Marys’ must be said.

The Apostle Peter, himself, (who the Catholics claim was the first Pope) tells us that every born-again believer in Jesus is a priest.

“And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple. What’s more, you are his holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God” (I Peter 2:5).

Not only priests, but “living stones” that have replaced the Temple that once stood in Jerusalem. Because the Kingdom of Heaven currently on earth is found in the hearts of those who believe in Jesus Christ, the cornerstone of the true church of God (I Peter 2:6).

Nor do we need an earthly priest (priests) as a mediator between God and ourselves. “For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time” (I Timothy 2:5-6).

Jesus Christ did away with the priestly system of atonement, because he is the High Priest for all people, Jew and Gentile alike.

“Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands” (Hebrews 8:1-2).

And, “But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises. If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. But when God found fault with the people, he said: ‘The day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt. They did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned my back on them, says the Lord. But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Hebrews 8:6-10, quoting Jeremiah 31:31-34).

And, “When God speaks of a ‘new’ covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear” (Hebrews 8:13).

The Jewish author of the book of Hebrews knew that the New Covenant had already replaced the Old Covenant; it would just be a matter of time before the Levitical sacrificial system would be “obsolete.” A few years later that is exactly what happened when the Romans ruthlessly sacked Jerusalem and demolished the Temple in 70 AD. The Law of Moses could never save anyone, not because the Law was inadequate. But because no human being could keep that Law.

The following paragraph is italicized for sheer emphasis:

So I humbly and earnestly ask the observant Jew and the practicing Roman Catholic: Why are you trying to hang onto to a system of good works and rabbinical or priestly mediation when, in fact, God’s New Covenant has been available to you since the first century? You don’t need to consult with or seek mediation through Rabbis, who (as much as I respect their devotion to God) offer conflicting advice that often contradicts their own Scriptures. You don’t need absolution through a priest or the repeated shedding of Jesus blood through the sacrament of Mass. In fact, that is an insult to God and to Christ, mocking his once and for all sacrifice for your sins. You don’t need to ask Mary to intercede for you; there is one and only one Mediator, the man Christ Jesus who just happens to also be the Son of God.

Only Jesus, who perfectly, without sin, fulfilled the entire Law of Moses was qualified to make atonement for our sins. It was the death of the just for the unjust, the righteous for the unrighteous, the perfect for the imperfect.

Biblical salvation is truly a free gift from God that, under no circumstances or conditions, can be earned by any number of good deeds or the keeping of regulations and rituals. A born again believer in Messiah Jesus recognizes that good deeds are a grateful response to what Christ did for us—a result of our salvation … not the means of salvation.

True children of God and of Abraham (through Isaac) understand that God has imputed his righteousness to us through the finished work of Jesus on the Cross. His righteousness is our righteousness. We have none of our own.

Summary

Although the Vatican’s reasoning behind their decree is faulty, I nevertheless applaud their decision. Stop trying to convert Jews to a system that distorts the New Covenant of Grace freely offered through the once and for all saving sacrifice of Jesus atoning death on the Cross. There is a far better way through what Jesus accomplished by offering the greatest price ever paid (his very blood and life) to achieve the greatest salvation known to man … a complete pardon of our sins and a total assurance of everlasting life in heaven.

As in Paul’s time, to this very day, “So this is the situation: Most of the people of Israel have not found the favor of God they are looking for so earnestly. A few have—the ones God has chosen—but the hearts of the rest were hardened. As the Scriptures say, ‘God has put them into a deep sleep. To this day he has shut their eyes so they do not see, and closed their ears so they do not hear’” (Romans 11:7-8, quoting Isaiah 29:10).

But God did not utterly reject his people, the Jews; though it must have seemed so when they were dispersed to the four corners of the earth in the Great Diaspora of 70 AD. Because of their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah and Savior, Paul asks and answers the question:

“Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it … For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead! (Romans 11:11-15).

Again for emphasis, I italicize the following paragraph:

That time is almost here. All over the world we see thousands upon thousands of Jews who have claimed Jesus as Messiah and have personally received him as Savior and God. That is a force that cannot be stopped, because God is behind it. His magnificent plan of Israel’s physical return to the Promised Land is unfolding on a daily basis. His equally spectacular purpose for all (the believing remnant) of Israel to be saved is at hand. Just ask any Messianic Jew, and he or she will tell you about the saving love of Jesus Christ. They will say: “Go tell it on the roof tops. Shout it aloud to every Jew and Gentile you know. Proclaim it on the mountain of God in Jerusalem. Messiah Jesus has come as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And he is coming back soon as the Lion from the Tribe of Judah to set all things right in Israel, and the whole world!”

Hallelujah to the Lamb of God!

Things to Ponder

To all Jews, both observant and non-observant, please consider this: Since the God of Israel announced the New Covenant through your prophet, Jeremiah, why have there been no kings in Israel? Why have there been no priests and prophets in Israel less than a generation after Jesus Christ proclaimed during the Passover supper?: “…This cup is the new covenant between God and his people—an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as sacrifice for you” (Luke 22:20).

Could it be that your final, once for all Prophet and High Priest has come to you? That the New Covenant has been given to you? Could it be that the King of kings will soon return to rule and reign from Israel? As a nation, you have been reborn from the floods of dispersion and the fires of Nazi death camps. Now as individual Jews, don’t wait until it’s too late, when you will look on the Messiah and mourn for him whom you pierced (Zechariah 12:10).

Stop working so hard to earn God’s favor. You can’t do it, no one can. Listen to the words of Messiah Jesus: “…This is the only work God wants from you; Believe in the one (Jesus) he has sent” (John 6:29).

Your Messiah beckons you to heed his words to Nicodemus, a Jewish Member of the Sanhedrin who came secretly to Jesus looking for answers, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

He implores you to say, “Yes,” to him as your Redeemer and Messiah.

“Jesus replied, ‘I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’” (John 6:35).

Listen to his invitation: “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (Revelation 3:20).

“Since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe the greater testimony that comes from God. And God has testified about his Son. All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son. And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life” (I John 5:9-13, italics for emphasis).

The Legacy of Temple Mount

02 Saturday Jan 2016

Posted by garybowers in Current Events

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset, Mahmoud Abbas

News Flash from Jerusalem!

Really? You might be thinking. What’s so new about a news flash from Jerusalem, when Jerusalem, itself, is a daily flash point? And you would be right; another media story from this contested city would not be much different than a few thousand gallons of water pouring over Niagara Falls every second. Of course, that’s an exaggeration, but only for dramatic effect. Millions of people have paid good money to watch the spectacular cascade of water over Niagara Falls. Likewise, millions have been mesmerized by the incessant flow of events from the Middle East, from Israel, from Jerusalem, and especially from Temple Mount.

Earlier this week five Knesset Members from two of the more conservative Israeli political parties introduced legislation that calls for freedom of religion throughout Israel (worship and prayer) for all religions, including, of course the Jews. Which is a profound paradox, as you would think that Jewish citizens, of what many people consider and call the Holy Land, have the legal liberty and religious right to worship and pray wherever they choose.

But they don’t.

This bill pertains to every sacred site in Israel, to include the hotly disputed Temple Mount and its current status quo. For those not quite up-to-date, status quo technically means that only Muslims can worship on what is the holiest site in Judaism and ostensibly the third holiest place in Islam. The Jews have restricted access to Temple Mount; but, under no circumstances are they allowed to pray or exhibit any signs, whatsoever, of worship.

Despite the recapture of ALL Jerusalem by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, the Israelis relinquished East Jerusalem, which includes Temple Mount, to Jordanian control. Subsequently, Jordan extended governing authority of East Jerusalem and the West Bank to the Palestinian Authority, but Jordan continues to maintain jurisdiction over Temple Mount. Palestinians are permitted to worship on Temple Mount (Al Aqsa to the Muslims), but not Jews or Christians.

This would be absolutely no different than the United States, for example, conceding jurisdiction of the Statue of Liberty to the British, years after we won our independence from them in the Revolutionary War; then maintained that freedom by defeating England in the War of 1812.

In fact, it was this so-called status quo that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas falsely accused the Jews of violating by reason of Jewish desecration (or intent to desecrate) of a sacred site that Abbas claims, “ Is ours … everything (meaning in all of Israel) is ours. The Jews have no right to desecrate them (holy sites) with their filthy feet and we won’t allow them to.”

It’s crystal clear to anyone who has any objectivity at all and knows what is actually taking place in Israel, that this “filthy feet” reference to the Jews was a disgusting inflammatory caricature of the Jews designed to incite Palestinian violence to protect Al Aqsa from Jewish “desecration,” which is a euphemism for preventing any Jewish presence whatsoever on Temple Mount.

Immediately afterward Palestinians began the “lone wolf” terrorist attacks on Israelis all over Israel, but primarily in Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rightfully and accurately refuted Abbas’ blatant lie with factual visual evidence that the Israelis are not defiling the Temple Mount or any other holy site in Israel. That Israel will continue to honor and maintain the “status quo,” of Temple Mount. He has reminded the entire world that Israel is a democracy which will continue to guarantee the freedom of religion to all citizens of Israel, including the non-citizen Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ironically, however, this democratic religious freedom excludes Jewish worship on Temple Mount.

An Ingenious Piece of Legislation

Which makes the Knesset bill all the more intriguing and controversial; not just for the Arabs but for the Israeli government and particularly for Prime Minister Netanyahu and his staff. This legislative proposal is both legitimate and shrewd, as it seeks to politically or constitutionally affirm the principle of religious freedom in Israel, while dramatically changing the Temple Mount “status quo” that the Israeli government is determined to honor; if, for no other reason than to maintain some semblance of peace with the Palestinians. However, it’s all too evident that it doesn’t much matter what the Israelis do to minimize confrontation with the Palestinians over Temple Mount; the Palestinians always find a way to incite conflict even if it means lying about Israel’s actions and intentions with regard to holy sites in Israel.

At present there is no provision in Israeli law, as such, that actually pledges protection of freedom of worship and freedom of access to holy sites. There is only the aforementioned pragmatic maintenance of the so-called status quo to keep Jews and Christians from any act of worship, especially prayer, on what the Arabs also call Haram al-Sharif—The Noble Sanctuary. Thus, it is the Israeli police that guard Temple Mount and enforce Jordanian restrictions to all non-Muslims to access this holy site whenever they choose and certainly not to worship while on Temple Mount.

If passed, the bill would enhance the existing law of religious freedom in Israel by, “protecting the holy places, (allowing) freedom of worship for all religions with free and fixed access, so that this fundamental right will be defined by law and will result in freedom of worship anywhere and to anyone.” That this exercise of religious freedom is, “…a basic right in a democracy,” as stated in an explanatory note attached to the bill, itself.

Hence, a daunting dilemma if the bill is passed: Can and will the actual exercise of religious freedom based on the inherent democratic liberties for all citizens in Israel supersede the status quo of Jordanian/Palestinian Arabs to restrict such rights just because Israel previously granted jurisdiction of Temple Mount to Jordan? If implemented, the bill would be a stunning reversal of the extremely ill-advised decision by IDF General Moshe Dayan to return Temple Mount to Arab control after defeating several Arab nations in the Six-Day War.

As much as I love Israel and ardently admire the Jewish people, their government, and the IDF, the choice to give East Jerusalem and the Temple Mount back to a people that possessed no territorial or ownership or legacy rights in the first place was the worse decision ever made by Israel.

IDF General Moshe Dayan (left) with Ariel Sharon (former Prime Minister of Israel)

From an American perspective or a Western point of reference, the bill would be akin to an expansion of citizenship privileges, much like the American Bill of Rights. Or similar to a constitutional amendment that seeks to right an inherent wrong, such as American’s 19^th Amendment that legalized a woman’s innate right to vote. It would restore the God-given, intrinsic freedom of religious rights for all Jews (and Christians) living in Israel of which they were wrongfully and illegally deprived. All for the sake of a politically correct agenda that attempted to placate Palestinian Arabs (Muslims) into a peaceful co-existence that has proven to be practically non-existent and virtually implausible in the first place.

Once again I repeat what has been said in several prior Eye of Prophecy articles, something that is abundantly apparent to anyone with any sense of what the real problem is between Jews and Arabs. It is not, repeat not, an issue of Israeli settlements or so-called occupation in portions of East Jerusalem or the West Bank. And certainly not in the Gaza Strip since Israel removed all of its citizens in 2005. It is not a matter of a Palestinian State alongside of the already existing— legal and internationally acknowledged—Jewish State of Israel. Most Palestinians do not even want a state of their own, unless it completely replaces the State of Israel. It is not Palestinian deprivation at the hands of Israelis (the majority of Palestinians know they’re better off politically and economically within Israeli jurisdictions); there is no such thing. It is not a territorial dispute over any particular part of Israel, even including the Temple Mount. All of these factors are not reasons; they are excuses for Arabs to vent their hostilities against Jews in Israel.

Rather, it is: Ancient animosity toward and outright Arab hatred of Jews anywhere, but especially in Israel. It is a rigid refusal to acknowledge that Israel even exists or that the Jews have any right to ANY part of the land at all. Which is why when several Arab nations couldn’t defeat Israel in war, they resorted to terrorism or lies or both. The latest lie is that the Jews intend to take over Temple Mount completely and refuse Arabs access, all the while “desecrating” Muslim holy sites. If, however, Israel completely renounced all rights to East Jerusalem or the Temple Mount, it still wouldn’t be enough to appease the Palestinians. They would continue their aggression and not give up their propaganda, BDS, and terrorist tactics until there wasn’t a single Jew left in Israel. An Israel without Jews is their true agenda.

What Will Israel’s Prime Minister Do or Say if the Bill Passes

How would Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu respond to the Palestinians, to Middle East Arabs, and to the watching world? How could he explain the paradox between his vowed protocols of compliance with current Arab imposed status quo restrictions to Jews and Christians on Temple Mount, and a new Israeli law that grants unrestricted and enforced rights of all peoples to worship freely on Temple Mount and all holy sites within Israel? In that regard, Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly extolled the Israeli ideal of democratic freedoms throughout Israel.

Once again using the United States as an example or any free democratic country in the world for that matter: What if Americans were not allowed to even bow their head in silent prayer beneath Abraham Lincoln’s statue in Washington D.C? Or a Parisian forbidden to visit the Eiffel Tower except on Mondays and Thursdays, because only Germans were allowed access during the rest of the week?

Obviously, passage of the bill would provide an endless supply of political and (perhaps) actual ammunition to both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to affirm what they already claim is Israel’s true intention to change the status quo.

With thousands of others, I am an admirer of Prime Minister Netanyahu; however, to predict what he will say or do if his own government passes this legislation would be speculation at best.

But I would like to think he would do the following:

Reaffirm his passionate love for Israel and his people that he has voiced in the past concerning Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel. This Holy City of the Holy Land will not be divided politically, religiously, or geographically. Constitutionally, there will no East and West Jerusalem.

That he will staunchly support the Israeli Knesset’s decision to grant and enforce religious freedom to all of Israel, including and especially to Temple Mount in Jerusalem. That this decision is predicated on not just religious, but also political freedom that must take lawful precedence over the current exclusionary and discriminatory practice of allowing people of only one religion (Islam) to worship on Temple Mount.

I would hope that Prime Minister Netanyahu would cite the legitimate and internationally recognized prerogative of a nation to claim or reclaim land won in the bloody sacrifices of a rightful, justified war of self-defense and survival (as opposed to unjustified war of aggression against another nation such as Germany’s attack on Poland and other European nations or Japan’s unprovoked assault against China and the United States in World War II). Thus, because of Israel’s victories in the wars initiated by a coalition of several Arab nations (War of Independence 1948; Suez War 1956; Six-Day War 1967; and the Yom Kippur War 1973, Israel has a fundamentally minimal right for her citizens to live in all of Jerusalem and Israel (if they choose) and certainly to worship on Temple Mount.

Picture of Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu

Once again, try to imagine the United States allowing England full administrative control of the eastern half of Washington D.C after victory in the Revolutionary War, or ANY TIME THEREAFTER.

Once Netanyahu reminds the world of national sovereignty and administrative authority extended by virtue of victory in war, particularly over disputed land, he would go back historically even further. He would mention a precedent not available to any democracy or republic on earth, including the United States of America. And certainly not available to Muslim nations, the vast majority of which usurped the land in which they live by aggression and by force. He would defer to the land ownership rights by virtue of national and racial legacy to Israel given by God, himself, to the Jews as a perpetual heritage. Beginning with Abraham, the father of Ishmael, through whom God would also make a great nation, i.e. the Arab nations.

To this day, Moslems still revere Abraham as their ancestral patriarch, but only as Abraham’s heritage applies to Ishmael, not Isaac. Yet the Scriptures are indisputably explicit: Abraham’s son, Isaac, would be the ancestral child of promise, not Ishmael. Thus, the divine deed to Israel belongs to the Jews, not the Arabs. God knows they have enough land as it is in the Middle East.

Abrahamic Covenant

Listen to the Lord’s renewal of the permanent land covenant that he had earlier made with Abraham:

“I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:7-8).

Subsequently, this covenant would be affirmed with Abraham’s son Isaac, not Ishmael as claimed by Islam. (See Genesis 26:1-6). Later the covenant was again sworn to Isaac’s son, Jacob … eventually passed down through the twelve sons (tribes) of Jacob whose name God changed to Israel. Thus, the land of Israel became a Jewish legacy over 2,500 years before Islam became a religion through its prophet, Muhammad.

As periodically stated in Eye of Prophecy articles and by several others, there is not one single reference to Jerusalem in the Koran; whereas there are hundreds of passages in the Bible naming Jerusalem. How can Muslims possibly explain that away? If they insist that Jerusalem (or any part of Israel) belongs to them and Temple Mount (Al Aqsa) has become their third holiest site, then they best use some other argument than the “holy” text of the Koran. Which leaves them with no contemporarily viable or historically reliable defense at all.

The only other possible (indefensible) arguments are:

Religious or Historical Possession/Occupation: This premise is easily refuted by both Biblical and secular historical accounts and archeology. Israel as a nation with Jerusalem as its capital and Temple Mount the very center of Judaism existed long before Muhammad arbitrarily selected the moon-god Allah and himself as the founder of Islam. Likewise with the Bible, both Old and New Testaments pre-date the Koran by hundreds of years.

Contemporary/Recent Generational Right of Control by Virtue of Population: Also, easily rebutted. Arabs did outnumber Jews in what was previously called Palestine (a name given to the land by a Roman Emperor to replace Israel as the rightful name of the nation) for a few hundred years. Even then, Arabs living in Palestine were subjects of the Ottoman Empire. However, by 1967, Jewish population in Israel easily exceeded the Arab populace. As 2016 begins, the Jews far outnumber the Arab Palestinians. Moreover, there was absolutely no (so-called) Palestinian rule of Israel before the United Nations approved Nation-status to Israel in 1947, then declaration of Israel’s Statehood in 1948. And certainly not since Israel’s return as a sovereign country in the international family of nations.

Until 1967, the so-called West Bank (Judea, Samaria) was controlled by Jordan, the Gaza Strip by Egypt, and the Golan Heights by Syria. As noted, Israel, assumed authority over these territories by virtue of her victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Subsequently in 1994 (after the Oslo Peace Accord), the Palestinian Authority was established to govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Gaza eventually taken over by the terrorist group Hamas in 2006. For security and strategic reasons, Israel maintains control of the Golan Heights.

So, please, someone explain to me and especially to those who are confused about ownership and occupation rights within Israel and the “disputed territories” of the West Bank and Gaza Strip: On what historical, cultural, racial, or political platform and on whose national or international authority can Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (or any Palestinian) claim that any part of Israel “belongs to them,” let alone Jerusalem and especially Temple Mount?

Obviously I’m being facetious when asking someone to explain this to me … only because I’d like to think that I’ve done my homework (countless hours of study/research of Scripture and history, and keeping abreast of current events in the Middle East). But I’m quite serious about those, including many Americans, who support the Palestinian cause because they really don’t know (or perhaps don’t care to know) the real history of Israel or the rest of the story of why Arabs have become today’s Palestinians. Whereas, just a generation ago if you were referring to a Palestinian, you were talking about a Jew, i.e. Jewish residents of Palestine (now once again rightfully called Israel).

The Legacy of Jerusalem and Temple Mount

Legacy is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as: “something received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past.”

Getting back to what I think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would say or do if this remarkable “Temple Mount bill” passes as the law of the land.

He would rightfully remind his people (particularly Israelis who prefer not to risk confrontation with Muslims and, therefore, oppose Jews ascending Temple Mount); Christians, especially those who doubt Jewish rights to live and worship anywhere in Israel; the Palestinians and the Arab world; Muslims everywhere, and the whole world—that it was Mount Moriah (Temple Mount) where God tested the love and loyalty of Abraham, by ordering Abraham to sacrifice the child of promise, Isaac. That the Lord rewarded Abraham’s faithfulness by sparing Isaac and graciously providing a ram in his place for the sacrifice.

Accordingly, “Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means: ‘The Lord will provide’). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: ‘On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided’” (Genesis 22:14).

What would be provided? A place where God’s very presence would dwell, and did for hundreds of years. A place where all people could ascend to worship the true and living God, bringing their offerings of praise and sacrifice. A once and for all sacrifice of the Jewish Messiah, himself—for the past, present, and future sins of his chosen people and of all peoples. With this same Messiah returning first to the Mount of Olives, then Temple Mount and Jerusalem to rule and reign forever. To draw all peoples to himself and to his Father, the God of Israel and of the nations.

In short, as a result of Abraham’s obedience, God promised: “And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed me” (Genesis 22:18).

Then the Prime Minister would call to memory King David’s passionate desire to build a beautiful Temple to God, one that would be permanently located in Jerusalem to replicate but also replace the Tabernacle with an even more glorious place of worship. This temple would demonstrate to all of Israel and the surrounding nations that Jerusalem was God’s chosen city, where he would dwell among his people … a city that God loves above all other cities. Jerusalem would be the Holy Capital of the Holy Land of Israel.

After David captured Jerusalem and began building the City of David, the Bible tell us, “And David became more and more powerful, because the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies was with him” (II Samuel 5:10).

Then, “And David realized that the Lord had confirmed him as king over Israel and had blessed his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel” (Verse 12).

The Prime Minister would correctly contend that God’s blessing on and through King David remains to this very day, despite hundreds of years of exile from Israel leading to great persecution of the Jewish people. No less than God’s repeated affirmation of the covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob … the land of Israel as a permanent inheritance for the Jews. For these reasons alone, through God’s divine providential purpose, Israel was miraculously reborn as a sovereign nation. She is here to stay.

But there’s more. King David’s dream came true when his son, King Solomon, built the magnificent Temple on Mount Moriah (Temple Mount) long before any Muslim shrines were built on this holy mountain of God. As was the second Temple assembled by the Jewish exiles who returned from Babylon seventy years later … over 1,000 years before the religion of Islam began.

Model of Solomon’s Temple

He would appeal to the United States and the nations of the free world that the blessings promised by God to the Gentiles can only be realized in and accomplished through a strong, stable, and secure Israel who truly wants peace within and without her national boundaries.

He would stir our enthusiasm over the global significance of Temple Mount not only to Jews, not exclusively for Muslims, but for the whole world from God’s prophetic promise through the prophet Isaiah:

“I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord, who serve him and love his name … I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer. I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices, because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations. For the Sovereign Lord, who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says: I will bring others, too, besides my people Israel” (Isaiah 56: 6-8).

Because of Benjamin Netanyahu’s respect and stated appreciation for the contributions to and support of Israel by (evangelical) Christians, he would bring to mind that Jesus of Nazareth repeated these same words, “My Temple will be a house of prayer…” (Luke 19:46).

He would repeat more words from the prophet Isaiah, scripted in granite on a retaining wall located on First Avenue in New York City, just across from the United Nations General Assembly Building:

“…They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).

In keeping with his plea that the whole earth recognize the past, present, and future right of Jews to possess and pray on Temple Mount, but to also share that privilege with people from many nations, Benjamin would also convey the entire context of this inspiring prophetic passage from Isaiah. A prophecy that is beginning to unfold in our generation:

“In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all—the most important place on earth. It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People from many nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.’ For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem. The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into plowshares…” (Isaiah 2:2-4).

Summary

Will it happen? Is it possible? Can the Knesset representing the incredible diversity of Israelis, Orthodox, Conservative, Reformed, Liberal, Secular, Agnostics, (Muslim) Arab-Israelis—some who support a rebuilt Temple or at least freedom of worship on Temple Mount even without a third Temple, and some who don’t—pass this law amidst such dissent, even from their own people?

If passed, will Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu provide law enforcement support of Jewish access to Temple Mount to pray and worship, perhaps with justifications as proposed in this article? Would he dramatically defend the God-given right of every Jew to every square foot of land in Israel, especially to their most sacred place of Temple Mount? After all, the Prime Minister has unequivocally declared that Jerusalem will not be divided nor any part of this great Jewish city become the capital of a Palestinian State.

And just a few days ago, Benjamin’s reaction to the death of yet another victim of Palestinian “knife terrorism” (dying three weeks after being repeatedly stabbed); this time relating to another Jewish holy site located in Hebron, Israel. Said Prime Minister Netanyahu at the beginning of his cabinet meeting:

“I wish to send my condolences to the family of Genadi Kaufman. Genadi was a gardener at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. He was stabbed in a murderous attack a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, he did not recover … This morning as well, I say to all those who would uproot us from the Tomb of the Patriarchs—except for a few years in the previous century, we have been there for almost 4,000 years and we will stay there forever. You cannot defeat us.”

He is also keenly aware of the potential consequences through adverse reaction of Palestinians should Temple Mount status quo actually be changed … not by Palestinian bogus claims of desecration, but by perfectly legal and legitimate legislation applicable to all of Israel.

But, then, how much more volatile can the situation get? How much more animosity can the Palestinians display than what they’ve shown through murder of Israelis, because the Arabs have been duped by their leaders into thinking that the Jews have already “desecrated” Temple Mount?

The Prime Minister also said in November, 2014—shortly after Rabbi Yehuda Glick was shot four times (he survived and is active again) for the Rabbis’ ardent support of a rebuilt Temple and unimpeded Jewish access to Temple Mount: “It is easy to start a religious fire; it is much more difficult to extinguish it.”

Which as Jewish author Ruchama King Feuerman succinctly commented earlier this year in her article posted in the online Aish.com site: “Whether he is aware of it or not, Netanyahu is in line with mainstream rabbinical Diaspora ideology, which is the way Jews have been functioning since Roman times. A Jew does not ask for too much, a Jew does not grab…”

She then states: “And yet, and yet… Who cannot be pained and outraged to see Jews hounded on their sacred land? Does one need reminding that Judaism’s holiest spot on earth isn’t the Kotel—it’s the Temple Mount! Sometimes I want to cry out: Enough with this humiliating passivity. If we don’t claim this land as ours, it may be lost forever.”

She concludes by saying, “But then the words of our sages return to me, as they must. One isn’t permitted to force the hand of the Messiah. For now, one cannot pray there. Instead I yearn to see our Temple rebuilt, and Jews from the four corners of the earth coming to pray there as a unified people. May we see this speedily in our days.”

My personal response: Well, said Ruchama, extremely well said. However, I strongly believe that Jews should resume praying on Temple Mount now (and forever more).

It’s clear in her article and other writings that she, too, longs for Messiah’s coming. As do I and so many other Jews and Christians. That he will make all things right, straighten all crooked paths, including the path to Temple Mount.

Whether now or when he returns, without the Prince of Peace, Yeshua haMashiach, genuine everlasting peace is impossible anywhere in the world, most certainly in Israel and on Temple Mount.

Things to Ponder

There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever: We are living in the Omega generation, the generation that will see the return of Messiah Jesus. The end time signs are overwhelming in frequency and clarity.

God’s discipline of his special possession, the Jews and Israel, ended after the worst affliction they have ever suffered … the Holocaust. The Lord called them back and they were reborn as a people and as a nation, with their ancient language restored. Gentile domination of Jews and Israel ended in 1967, when Israel reclaimed ultimate authority over all of Israel. All of Israel belongs to them.

So let them walk up the ramp from the Western Wall, touch and kiss the sacred ground, and worship on Temple Mount when they choose.

Listen to the words of the prophet Zechariah, who writes about the last days in which we are living, the days of Israel’s restoration.

“I will strengthen Judah and save Israel; I will restore them because of my compassion. It will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the Lord their God, who will hear their cries. The people of Israel will become like mighty warriors, and their hearts will be made happy as if by wine. Their children, too, will see it and be glad; their hearts will rejoice in the Lord. When I whistle to them, they will come running, for I have redeemed them. From the few who are left, (from the Holocaust) they will grow as numerous as they were before. Though I have scattered them like seeds among the nations, they will still remember me in distant lands. They and their children will survive and return again to Israel” (Zechariah 10:6-9).

The chapter concludes with: “By my power, I will make my people strong, and by my authority they will go wherever they wish. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Zechariah 10:12, italics for emphasis).

Do you agree (with God)? Wherever they wish includes Temple Mount!

The Russians Are Coming!

14 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by garybowers in Current Events

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Gog & Magog, ISIS, Syria

The Russians Are Coming!

If you vaguely recognize the origin of today’s article title, then you probably are not a Baby Boomer; however, you do watch more than just old blockbuster movies. If you immediately recall the title, then you are undoubtedly a Baby Boomer, because the movie was released in 1966, during the Cold War days. You may also remember that the full name of the film was: The Russians are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.

The title was repeated to underscore the fact that the film was primarily a comedy, i.e. the misguided and hilarious panic reaction of small-town America when a Russian submarine captain wants to get a better look at America but accidentally grounds the submarine on a sandbar off the coast of a (fictional) New England Island. The captain sends a nine-man team ashore to find something mechanized to free the submarine; but, the Americans assume that they are being invaded by the big, bad Russians.

This movie was released just four years after the Cuban Missile Crisis. Some of the starring actors were: Alan Arkin, Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Brian Keith, Jonathan Winters, and Theodore Bikel.

In the more serious context of today’s Eye of Prophecy article, the film was ironically directed by a well-known Jewish director, Norman Jewison. Though Jewison’s film portrayed the Russians in a more favorable light, the animosity and distrust between the Soviet Union and the United States then is still all too real between Russia and America today.

The Cold War Is Warming Up Again

Who would have ever imagined the Russian Bear establishing its lair and the American Eagle building its nest in the same country? For those of us old enough to vividly remember the Cold War encounters between the Soviet Union and the United States of America, it is unthinkable that military forces consisting mostly of air force and special operations from both nations are now entrenched in Syria, fighting alongside each other against a common enemy? Alongside, not in the sense of joint military action (that will never happen); rather, conducting airstrikes against rebel groups attempting to overthrow Syrian President Assad and his regime.

Since the US led-coalition entered the Syrian Civil War in 2014, they have flown over 2,500 airstrikes. Russia joined the fray just two months ago (September), and her planes have already launched nearly 1,700 sorties throughout Syria. As a result, dozens more civilians have been killed and another 120,000 displaced from their homes. But then, what’s another hundred thousand refugees when some ten million have been uprooted from their homeland in the past four years!

But who is bombing whom? Who supports what and whom (and why) in this bloody civil war, with over 250,000 killed, including many non-combatants? Trying to answer these questions and make sense of what’s happening is like trying to solve the Rubik cube or assembling a one-thousand piece puzzle with most of the pieces exactly the same shape and color.

The United States Air Force, Special Ops, and other Military Advisors (no boots on the ground) and our main allies, France and England, are there to do battle with ISIS. But they also support the rebel groups (plural) trying to overthrow the repressive Syrian government. Some of these rebel factions clash with each other. Fighting with and for the corrupt and brutal Syrian Government is the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah, supported by Iran, with government forces and Hezbollah also fighting against ISIS.

Enter Iran’s ally Russia, which also backs the Syrian regime of Basher al-Assad, to ostensibly join the battle against ISIS. Which is supposedly one reason that the United States hasn’t vigorously resisted Russia’s intervention … we have the common enemy of ISIS. That, and the political and military embarrassment of the United States that its training and support of select rebel armies has not exactly been a success.

Russian Planes Over Syria

Consequently, the US Coalition and Russia have agreed to coordinate their bombing campaigns so as not to occupy the same air space at the same time, and risk an inadvertent incident between their pilots. All the while, US President Obama and Russian President Putin are barely on speaking terms due principally to the crisis created by Russian involvement in the Ukraine and Crimea. Yet, there is enough mutual respect (fear) of each other that either side, with a couple of minor exceptions, is not going to force the issue of who they support and who they bomb.

Which is why the United States objected merely in an obligatory manner to Russian airstrikes against rebel units supported by the US, soon after Vladmir Putin sent his military to Syria. Which is also why Russia abruptly switched targets to mostly include ISIS; thereby, appeasing President Obama who (mildly) objected to Syrian rebels being targeted. Either way, as long as Russian and American bombs hit ISIS camps, everyone is happy.

Already Russia has paid a hefty price for its publicly pretentious purpose of helping the world get rid of ISIS. The latest evidence is now quite convincing that the Russian commercial plane crash on October 31^st that killed 224 people (mostly Russian) was a direct result of a bomb planted on board by one of the ISIS cells in the Sinai Peninsula. How and to what extent Putin will react or retaliate has yet to be determined.

Return of the Russian Bear

What makes this absurdly complex but dangerously volatile situation in Syria so remarkably end-times in its unfolding is the continuing political and military rise of Russia to global prominence; which has resulted in Russia’s unopposed arrival in Syria. Moreover, Russia’s resurgence as a major player on the world stage is a prelude for the Biblical Gog-Magog prophecy to be fulfilled with the invasion of Israel. I have written about this astonishing prophecy in several Eye of Prophecy articles, with varying points of reference and emphasis.

The following excerpts in italics are taken from one of those articles, Beware of the Bear, posted 3-22-14. The first two paragraphs of that article mention former US President Ronald Reagan and his influential role that led to the eventual dismantling of the Soviet Union. The next paragraph in that article begins with President Reagan’s now famous demand.

Some of you may remember: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” The Russian President complied, resulting in the reunification of East and West Berlin; also, the end of Soviet dominance of East Germany, which had become like a vassal state to Russia. Soon to follow was the break-up of the Soviet Union, in which most of the 14 satellite states that comprised the Russian Sphere declared their independence from the mother land. By the end of 1991, the Soviet Union was no more. The principal nation of Russia converted to (still is) the Russian Federation. Many of these peripheral countries became independent states, such as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldavia, Uzbekistan (and all the other “stan” states), and the Ukraine.

The American eagle flew proudly over the Russian bear, and spread her wings to protect and defend the nations that embraced democracy. The United States regained her status as the world’s only superpower. The Soviet Union seemed to implode from within … suffering from all the ills of economic collapse, political corruption, and social disarray. Virtually overnight, her status as a superpower vanished. Many politicians, social scientists, economists, religious leaders, and even evangelicals believed the once mighty Russian bear was dead.

Students of prophecy shook their heads in disbelief, questioning whether their analysis of the Ezekiel 38 & 39 Gog, Magog attack on Israel could possibly be accurate. Many students of the Bible reexamined the Scriptures to determine if, “the prince who rules over the nations of Meshech and Tubal” (Ezekiel 38:2) and, “Gog” ruler of the land of Magog would, in fact, be the ruler of the nation that comes against Israel, “from the distant north” (Ezekiel 39:1). Had they been wrong all this time? Russia couldn’t even lead itself, let alone a great multi-national army as Ezekiel so graphically portrays in Ezekiel 38:9: “You and all your allies—a vast and awesome army—will roll down on them (Israel) like a storm and cover the land like a cloud.”

The Beware of the Bear article then shifts to Vladimir Putin’s rapid rise to power. The article continues:

We see, now, that the Bear was not dead, but in a state of prolonged hibernation. Due mostly to the leadership of one man, Vladimir Putin, the people from the mother land of “the distant north” once again proudly wave the Russian flag. Recently, Mr. Putin voiced his opinion that the greatest calamity of the 20^th century—indeed of modern history—was the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In no uncertain terms, he was implying that this catastrophe even exceeded the monumental disasters of World War II, including the unthinkable, unimaginable tragedy of the Holocaust. But, then, with autocrats such as Putin, we must consider the source. For many, it is crystal clear what Putin intends to do: Whatever the cost, he means to rebuild the once mighty Russian empire and reestablish its preeminence among the global family of nations.

In a little over twenty years, Russia has emerged economically, politically, and militarily as a force to be reckoned with; in large part due to Vladmir Putin’s ominous, but remarkable rise to prominence and power. After serving for 16 years as a KGB officer, Putin eventually became Russia’s President in 2000, serving in that position until 2008. (Many countries have a president, however, their highest position of leadership is that of prime minister. In Russia, it’s just the reverse … President first, then Prime Minister).

Photo of Vladimir Putin in a Headline by a Pro-Russian Online News Source

Another Stunning Gog/Magog Development

Russia’s incursion into Syria is not about ISIS … that’s only a pretense. Some political and military experts accurately ascertain that Russia’s presence is a show of commitment to and support of the Assad regime. But, had Russia entered the Syrian conflict for that or any other stated objective than their purported contribution to end the growing threat of ISIS, neither the Western allies nor Israel would have condoned Russia’s military bases in Syria—a country which has been the most avowed enemy of the Jews, with the possible exception of Iran.

One Important (Real) Reason for Russia’s Entrance into Syria

This past August, a startling discovery was broadcast, but not necessarily by major news media throughout the world. From the very competent but lesser-known online newsletter of Israel Hayom, which consists of several daily articles from staff and guest journalists, an article was posted on August 31^st, 2015, with headlines that read: Supergiant natural gas field discovered off Egypt’s shores.

Early in the article, we read that: “Italian energy group Eni SpA announced Sunday it had discovered a ‘supergiant’ natural gas field, potentially the largest known gas field in the Mediterranean Sea, off the Egyptian coastline, predicting the find could help meet Egypt’s gas needs for decades to come.”

Just a couple of months earlier, Egypt had signed a two-billion dollar agreement with this Italian company for exploration of energy reserves in the Mediterranean, but also in the Sinai and the Gulf of Suez.

According to estimations, the gas-field named Zohr was found about 120 miles from the Egyptian coast and may hold more than 30 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, which could, “eventually prove bigger than the Leviathan and Tamar fields combined.”

*Note: The estimated potential yield of the Leviathan field is 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Of the Tamar reserve, some 8 trillion cubic feet.

For Israel, who holds the rights to Leviathan and Tamar, the newly discovered Zohr field will produce intense competition in the natural gas industry. However, the Israeli government still has not officially endorsed the “framework” for commencement of drilling in the Leviathan gas field; although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his supporters are optimistically confident that the Leviathan project will be soon approved and underway.

Israel’s National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources Minister Yuval Steinitz said about this incredible Zohr exploration: “The discovery of the huge natural gas field off Egypt’s shores is a painful reminder that while Israel ‘fell asleep at the wheel’ and has taken far too long to approve the natural gas framework (referring to Israel’s gas fields), the world is moving forward in a way that can affect our exports.”

Steinitz also said, “We have to approve the gas framework without delay and advance Israel’s natural gas industry.”

In my opinion, it is absolutely no coincidence that Russia moved into Syria just a few short weeks after the Zohr natural gas discovery was publicized. Which is one of the two real reasons why Russia wants to be and will be a major player in the Middle East—from this time forward to the short and getting shorter time of the Day of the Lord, the catalyst of which is the Rapture, followed by the Seven Year Tribulation.

What better way than to: (1) establish a pre-coalitional (Gog/Magog) base of operation in Syria on Israel’s northern border; (2) create an economic and political partnership with the soon to be rags-to-riches nation of Egypt … on Israel’s southern border.

Major Reason/Motive for Russian Presence in the Middle East

These two stunning developments—discovery of the Egyptian natural gas field and Russia’s inroad in Syria—are two more significant in-place pieces of the Gog/Magog prophetic puzzle. But as end-times relevant as they are, both are a means to an end … a secondary goal of Gog’s ulterior intention and ultimate objective.

Although Russia is a major producer and exporter of oil and natural gas, the leader (Putin) of this aggressive bear of a country wants more … more natural resources, more global clout, more economic power, and more land. But Russia and her current Gog/Magog allies, chief of which is Iran, covet one thing above all else: ISRAEL.

Covet in the sinister sense of destroying the Jews and taking over the land of Israel.

Leviathan Natural Gas Field

In an Eye of Prophecy article entitled Gog, Magog, and Leviathan, published 1-3-15, on the matter of the (yet undeveloped) Israeli natural gas fields and their prophetic implication, I’d like to present some excerpts from that post to further expose the actual reason for Russia’s sudden interest in the Middle East. As follows:

In ancient literature and oral tradition, and as occasionally referenced in Scripture, Leviathan was a large mythical sea creature or even a real-life behemoth that was virtually indestructible by man or nature or anything except God himself. Not unlike the modern-day Loch Ness Monster legend.

The prophet Isaiah refers to this monstrosity by its name, and what will happen to it in the last days, telling us that, “In that day the Lord will take his terrible, swift sword and punish Leviathan … He will kill the dragon of the sea” (Isaiah 27:1). Whether this creature actually existed is not the issue; rather the emphasis is on its symbolical representation (depicted in ancient Aramaic literature as a seven-headed monster) of all that opposes God.

From Ezekiel and other prophets we learn that this opposition will be a Satanic led coalition of nations as presented in the Gog/Magog invasion and subsequently in the ten-nation confederation that gives itself wholly to the Antichrist. The emphasis in the symbolism of Leviathan is that of: ENORMOUS.

The discovery of these gas fields off the coast of Israel is nothing short of amazing. For several reasons, two of which are: (1) Proceeds from the sale and distribution of these natural gas fields could increase Israel’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) substantially. In the eyes of global economic powers including the Arab Cartel, it could level the playing field to the extent that Israel would become self-sufficient in natural gas consumption while cutting into the proceeds of surrounding Arab countries. It could change the financial dynamics of the entire Middle East, by making Israel a major player in the competitive field of energy production.

(2) It provides and confirms the Biblically predicted incentive for Russia and select Russian allies to launch a colossal campaign against Israel as found in Ezekiel’s prophecy. Before discovering and developing these natural gas holdings, Israel offered a variety of exports to maintain a favorable trade surplus, but nothing like what these natural gas fields could accomplish. And, thereby, attract the attention of other nations, both friend and foe.

Let’s read again what exactly it is that appeals to Russia enough to actually strike Israel. Listen to the boast of Prince Gog from the land of Magog to his cronies and against the true and living God: “I will go to those formerly desolate cities that are now filled with people who have returned from exile in many nations. I will capture vast amounts of plunder, for the people are rich with livestock and other possessions now….” (Ezekiel 38:12, italics for emphasis).

First: As most know, the Jews have returned to Israel from exile in great numbers. This has been emphasized in several Eye of Prophecy articles as well as a myriad of other articles by both Biblical and secular scholars and journalists. Indeed, it is a matter of common knowledge to anyone who knows just a little about what’s happening in Israel and the Middle East.

Second, what does Scripture say that Gog/Magog will covet in Israel? Livestock … perhaps literally but more so figuratively representing the prosperity of a nation. But even more so, Russia, Iran, and other nations in this evil, greedy confederation will crave a vast amount of gas and oil and other tangible goods that are by-products of hydrocarbon fuel … vast amounts of plunder, other possessions, including silver and gold purchased with the currency of such wealth.

Until recently, Russia wouldn’t have thought twice about Israel’s possessions. In the past, Russian officials rarely said anything about Israel and certainly didn’t go out of their way to court Israel as an economic or political neighbor. However, they could always be counted on to vote in favor of whatever sanction of the day against Israel had been proposed by countries of the United Nations hostile toward Israel … of which there are many (most). By and large, however, Russia’s animosity toward Israel remained relatively silent and unobtrusive. Until now.

In the article entitled, Gog, Magog, and Leviathan, I go on to explain that, in the past few weeks, (which now would refer to the latter part of 2014) Vladimir Putin had begun to publicly criticize Israel on such things as Jewish settlements in so-called occupied land of the West Bank. President Putin had jumped on the international band-wagon of slandering Israel by trumpeting the cause of the Palestinians voiced by (most countries of) the United Nations concerning Israel’s alleged oppression of the Palestinian Arabs.

Continuing with another excerpt from that article:

Yet the height of irony, if not hypocrisy, is that Russian political and economic officials have been subtlety and secretly (as much as some things can be secretly suppressed) reaching out to Israel with proposals of mutual benefit to both countries, particularly economic benefits. Why is that? The consensus answer from political and economic experts seems to focus on only one factor: Russia’s keen growing interest in the vast gas and oil reserves recently discovered by Israel, especially the offshore findings!

Which leads to a secondary but equally significant motive for Russia to overrun Israel with Muslim countries in tow: First, take Israel. Second, take over your Arab or Persian allies and their oil and gas fields! It’s a classic historical paradigm in which a strong country sometimes will turn on its confederates, after the ally helped the host country defeat its enemies and/or after a treaty was signed. In fact, that’s exactly what will happen between Russia and her allies (read all of Ezekiel 38 & 39); only they will turn on each other BEFORE they accomplish their diabolical objective. They won’t know until it’s too late, but the Gog/Magog campaign will be: Mission Impossible! But not until they utterly terrify Israel with one of the most massive invasions ever attempted. A Leviathan attack!

Summary

Although Egypt is not specifically identified as one of the Gog/Magog nations who will join the Russian and Iranian confederation against Israel, she assuredly will be among the “many others” (Ezekiel 38:6). Meaning other countries (mostly Muslim) that will trail along with Russia in its epic, but disastrously doomed campaign against Israel.

Listen to what the Lord says to Gog through Ezekiel: “Get ready; be prepared! Keep all the armies around you mobilized, and take command of them. A long time from now you will be called into action. In the distant future you will swoop down on the land of Israel, which will be enjoying peace after recovering from war and after its people have returned from many lands to the mountains of Israel. You and all your allies—a vast and awesome army—will roll down on them like a storm and cover the land like a cloud” (Ezekiel 38:7-9).

This prophetic word from God Almighty is both a taunt and a challenge to Gog, ruler of the land of Magog (Russian leader of Russia). Furthermore, the distant future written by Ezekiel some 2,500 years ago is NOW. All these things are falling swiftly into place before our 20^th & 21^st century eyes.

As previously indicated, almost single-handed Vladmir Putin has restored the fortunes of the collapsed Soviet Union, and reestablished the fighting capacity of the Russian Bear. Unwittingly, he has fulfilled God’s prophetic challenge to: get ready. To be prepared. To keep all the armies around you mobilized. That’s exactly what he’s doing in Syria; he’s getting his military prepared and keeping them ready with real war games, not just simulated exercises.

What he doesn’t know is that the Lord is setting him up, his country, and all nations who will align themselves with Gog of Magog for a great fall. For a defeat so devastatingly and divinely miraculous that all the nations of the earth, especially Israel herself, will know that, “I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 38:16). And, “In this way, I will demonstrate my glory to the nations…” (Ezekiel 39:21).

“And from that time on the people of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God” (Verse 22).

Moreover, this awesome defeat of the Gog/Magog alliance will be accomplished exclusively by God, himself … without the need for Israel to defend herself. Israel’s fighting won’t take place until the last few months of the seven-year Tribulation, in the final war to once and for all end all wars … the even greater battles of Armageddon. At that time Messiah Jesus will fight alongside Israel and rescue the Jews from annihilation at the hands of the Antichrist (Nero) and his confederation of nations.

“On that day the Lord will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will be (fight) as mighty as King David! And the royal descendants will be like God, like the angel of the Lord who goes before them! For on that day I will begin to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:8-9).

But first will come the Gog/Magog campaign. God gave this warning to Gog/Magog (Russia) through Ezekiel: “…Gog, I am your enemy. I will turn you around and put hooks in your jaws to lead you out with your whole army…” (Ezekiel 38:3-4).

And, “Son of man, prophesy against Gog. Give him this message from the Sovereign Lord: I am your enemy, O Gog, ruler of the nations of Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you around and drive you toward the mountains of Israel, bringing you from the distant north. I will knock the bow from your left hand and the arrows from your right hand, and I will leave you helpless. You and your army and your allies will all die on the mountains … You will fall in the open fields, for I have spoken, says the Sovereign Lord” (Ezekiel 39:1-5).

Although the Gog/Magog assault against Israel will entail a vast military alliance rolling down on Israel like a perfect storm, it’s evident now that Russia will prepare for this massive invasion through its recent unopposed military infiltration of Syria. The Russian Bear has been drawn to its prey by the lure of riches and power in the Middle East.

Some students of prophecy think the assault will take place just before the Rapture, others at the end of the Rapture, by equating it with the final battle in Megiddo (Armageddon). It would take at least one, probably two articles to document and explain the fact that the Gog/Magog campaign against Israel is NOT the same as the final assault against Israel led by the Antichrist, known as Armageddon. There are numerous differences between these two apocalyptic events, as presented primarily in the books of Ezekiel, Daniel, Zechariah, and Revelation.

As documented in prior articles, I’m convinced the Gog/Magog invasion will take place within a year after the Rapture, some six years before Messiah Jesus returns.

Whenever it will take place, on the authority of Scripture, this warning is issued: Beware Russian and Persian Bears. Do not defy the true and living God, His Messiah, and their special possession, Israel. The trap you set for Israel will become a bear trap.

Please refer to more details of the Gog-Magog invasion in other Eye of Prophecy articles entitled, The Omega Generation (published 2-15-14); Alliances Against Israel (9-20-14); and Russia & Iran Versus Israel (10-4-14).

Things to Ponder

The pieces are rapidly falling into place. The modern-day alignment of Gentile nations identified in Scripture against Israel is one of the twelve end-times signs that are taking place in the 21^st century or have already occurred in the 20^th century. These milepost signs are listed in Eye of Prophecy articles entitled, Look Up, Redemption is Near Part I, posted 7-11-15 and Part II published 7-18-15.

“…And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30).

The time is soon, so very soon when Jews and Gentiles alike who have believed and received the atoning sacrifice of God’s Son, Messiah Jesus, will be among those who shout when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet:

“The world has now become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15).

But ever so sadly, those left behind who have chosen this world and rejected so great a salvation freely given by the grace of God will recoil in terror and dismay at another loud shout from the heavens:

“It has come at last—salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ…” (Revelation 12:10).

Said the Jewish Apostle Peter to the Jewish high priest and other religious leaders who demanded to know by what power or whose authority Peter and John had healed a crippled man:

“Let me clearly state to all of you and to all the people of Israel that he was healed by the powerful name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, the man you crucified but whom God raised from the dead. For Jesus is the one referred to in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘The stone that you builders rejected has now become the cornerstone.’ There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:10-12).

The Rest of the Story … Bibi’s Speech to the United Nations

24 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by garybowers in Current Events

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The Rest of the Story … Bibi’s Speech to the United Nations

Good, bad, or indifferent, my age makes me a Baby Boomer. One characteristic of the Boomer generation and even more so our parent’s generation is that sometimes we wish for the good old days! (Minus the Great Depression and World War II, which was before my time!) Not that they were all that good, but they were certainly different in one respect than today’s world: More often than not we were given or took the initiative to get as many facts, as much evidence as we could to determine if a news headline or a caption was true. It seems that today’s Facebook, Twitter, Hashtag generation wants only rapid-fire headlines to tell them the complete story.

Something like: I don’t have time for, so don’t bother me with all the facts; this is all I need to know.

I realize that this is an over-simplified generalization; nevertheless, it is generally true. Plus, it is not meant to be a criticism of today’s generation (my kids and grandkids are part of this generation!). Rather, it is intended to be a matter-of-fact observation with a touch of warning mixed in. A caution that experientially stems from those in a past global generation who fell for the Big Lie of Hitler and his Third Reich.

An American icon named Paul Harvey apparently recognized this post-modern disconcerting trend to skim over details, to accept at face value what one read or heard without concern for all of the facts. Though he was first and foremost a journalistic artist—with his broadcasting program geared to both drama and humor—he was also an ardent student of history. It hasn’t been all that long since he passed away (February, 2009); thus, many of us remember his famous radio program that aired Monday through Friday for some three decades: The Rest of the Story. For a short time thereafter, Paul Harvey’s son, then former Arkansas Governor and current Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee replaced Paul Harvey.

The gist of his radio show was to take a (headline) story of the past and provide us with little known or forgotten facts of an event or person. But sometimes the completed report would clarify or correct misperceptions and even outright discrepancies of what actually happened. After dramatically filling in some of these blanks, he would end the program with, “And now you know the rest of the story.”

Two weeks ago, the Eye of Prophecy article, Tell a Big Lie Long Enough, included excerpts from and commentary on the speech of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the United Nations. You may want to read that article to realize just how much historical and contemporary distortion of the Israeli, Palestinian conflict was being foisted on the entire world.

A misrepresentation so glaring that there’s no other way to classify it except as a Big Lie.

Since that article and last week’s companion article, several more Israelis have been killed or wounded by Palestinian lone wolf attacks with an unmistakable connection to President Abbas’s incitement of his people.

Moreover, to demonstrate just how much our United States leaders don’t want to be bothered with the actual facts, Secretary of State John Kerry attributed the attacks to ongoing Jewish settlements (implying unlawful construction) in East Jerusalem or the West Bank. On the spur of the moment he simply regurgitated old headline lies repeated by Abbas to the UN … that Israel has been guilty of occupation (settlements) and aggression.

Secretary Kerry made absolutely no reference to the obvious reason confirmed by the known facts, i.e. that the attacks are retaliation to Israel’s alleged decision to change the visitation status (Status Quo) of Temple Mount for both Jews and Arabs. No such thing was planned or has been carried out. But this is exactly what Mahmoud Abbas told the United Nations and what the Palestinians needed or wanted to hear. Which led directly to the current murderous rampage against innocent Israelis. Does our Presidential Staff really believe Mahmoud Abbas’ Big Lie? Do they bother with the facts? Do they care about the truth?

John Kerry tried to backtrack on his assertion about settlements, but not by correcting his misstatement of the facts and cause of the riots. Instead he said, “There is no justification for violence against Israelis.” At least he got that part right.

Then State Department spokesperson John Kirby turned right around and accused Israel of violating the status quo on the Temple Mount—which as we already know is a flat-out lie.

But the good news is that the very next day (10-1-15) after Abbas’s inflammatory speech to the UN, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi as he is fondly known) was permitted to present, The Rest of the Story.

As with Abbas’s speech, time/space doesn’t permit but a few excerpts from and commentary on Netanyahu’s message, but it’s important to realize that the facts contained in this rebuttal are just that, facts. Evidence that can be fully documented through any objective reference source one cares to examine. Which is the first definition or characteristic of truth—that of factual (truthful) accuracy—as presented in last week’s Eye of Prophecy article, The Whole Truth.

With the second vital component of Truth: that of an objective, exclusive (divine) source and standard so clearly contained in the Bible. Backed up with hundreds of fulfilled prophecies and with miracles that only the one true and living God can do.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s Address to the United Nations

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech is essentially in two parts. With the first and longer portion a solemn reminder of Iran’s hostility toward Israel and the United States and the P5 + 1 infamous nuclear deal with this deceitful, militant, rogue nation. For what I think are some insightful Eye of Prophecy articles on this subject, please refer to the following articles in particular: Let’s Make a Deal, posted 12-14-13. Divine Consequences of Iran’s Arrogance, Part I & II, posted 5-23-15 & 5-30-15. A Deal That Will Live in Infamy, published 8-1-15.

With the second part geared toward the Palestinians, including the lies being told by their leaders. But also to challenge the United Nations itself and its inexplicable animosity toward Israel. In fact, the speech commences with some chastisement of the UN.

The Speech Begins:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you greetings from Jerusalem. The city in which the Jewish People’s hopes and prayers for peace for all of humanity have echoed throughout the ages.

“Thirty-one years ago, as Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, I stood at this podium for the first time. I spoke that day against a resolution by Iran to expel Israel from the United Nations. Then as now, the UN was obsessively hostile towards Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East. Then as now, some sought to deny the one and only Jewish state a place among the nations. I ended that first speech by saying: ‘Gentlemen, check your fanaticism at the door.’

“More than three decades later, as the Prime Minister of Israel, I am again privileged to speak from this podium. And, for me, that privilege has always come with a moral responsibility to speak the truth. So after three days of listening to world leaders praise the nuclear deal with Iran, I begin my speech today by saying, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen, check your enthusiasm at the door.’

“You see, this deal doesn’t make peace more likely. By fueling Iran’s aggressions with billions of dollars in sanctions relief, it makes war more likely. Just look at what Iran has done in the last six months alone, since the framework agreement was announced in Lausanne…”

Commentary:

Netanyahu proceeds to identify over ten specific actions conducted by Iran during this time-frame, such as setting up new terror cells in several countries and shipping missiles to Iran’s proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon, which borders northern Israel, as well as drones to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

He then summarizes this part of the message by saying, “In the wake of the nuclear deal, Iran is spending billions of dollars on weapons and satellites. You think Iran is doing that to advance peace? You think hundreds of billions of dollars in sanctions relief and fat contracts will turn this rapacious tiger into a kitten? If so, you should think again … You know they say, actions speak louder than words. But in Iran’s case, the words speak as loud as the actions…”

He then cites a couple of quotes from Iranian leaders including Ayatollah Khamenei.

Although my previous two articles focused on the Palestinian, Israeli conflict, not Iran, the essence of those articles matched Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion, i.e. that actions speak loud, but so do words, especially lies. If actions speak louder, it’s only in hindsight … after the fact. Lies told ahead of time can disarm, mislead, and desensitize us to the facts of what can and usually does happen if we blindly believe what we are told or think is happening without finding out what really has occurred and why it is taking place.

His Speech Concerning Iran Continues:

“I’ve said that if Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country. But this deal … will treat Iran like a normal country even if it remains a dark theocracy that conquers its neighbors, sponsors terrorism worldwide and chants, ‘Death to Israel, Death to America.’

“So here’s a general rule that I’ve learned and you must have learned in your life time—When bad behavior is rewarded, it only gets worse … I have long said that the greatest danger facing our world is the coupling of militant Islam with nuclear weapons.”

Commentary:

I and many others who care about these things continue to be perplexed and perturbed at the precarious view held by most leaders of many Western Nations including the United States.

Which is: The apocalyptic actions and words of Iran are only bluff. That their bark is bigger than their bite. That they wouldn’t dare follow through on their stated intentions. The end result is that we still don’t take them seriously. Or, at the very minimum, we think we can entice them through negotiation and appeasement to act and react like a normal civilized nation. But this is exactly what happened just before it was too late to prevent World War II. What makes the United States and its allies think that Iran doesn’t mean business? By the time Iran is nuclear armed, it will be too late.

A Dramatic Pivotal Point in Netanyahu’s Message:

“Last month, Khamenei once again made his genocidal intentions clear before Iran’s top clerical body, the Assembly of Experts. He spoke about Israel, home to over six million Jews. He pledged, ‘there will be no Israel in 25 years.’ Seventy years after the murder of six million Jews, Iran’s rulers promise to destroy my country. Murder my people. And the response from this body, the response from nearly every one of the governments represented here has been absolutely nothing!

“Utter silence. Deafening silence.”

(At this point Benjamin Netanyahu remained silent for a little over 40 seconds to let what he had said soak in. Some have already dubbed his message, The Silent Speech. Although I have read the entire speech, I haven’t watched all of it; however, I did watch a few minutes of it including this powerful pregnant pause. It was electrifying).

After a few more words, he said: “But throughout our history, the Jewish people have learned the heavy price of silence. And as the Prime Minister of the Jewish State, as someone who knows that history, I refuse to be silent. I’ll say it again: The days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies—those days are over. Not being passive means speaking up about those dangers. We have. We are. We will. Not being passive also means defending ourselves against those dangers. We have. We are. And we will.”

Commentary:

He then goes on to explain the brutal treatment of the Jews by Babylon, Rome, the Inquisitions, the Pogroms, and most of all the Holocaust. Followed by another potent and penetrating observation that echoes loudly hundreds of Old Testament prophecies concerning the end time’s rebirth of Israel as a nation and restoration of the Jews as a people (Which I’ve also written about in many Eye of Prophecy articles and in two books).

Said Netanyahu: “Yet the empires of Babylon and Rome are not represented in this hall of nations. Neither is the Thousand Year Reich. Those seemingly invincible empires are long gone. But Israel lives. The people of Israel live.”

Later in his speech, Netanyahu boldly declares: “So here’s my message to the rulers of Iran: Your plan to destroy Israel will fail. Israel will not permit any force on earth to threaten its future….”

Good for you Benjamin! The true and living God of the Bible said that would happen: Peoples and empires who sought Israel’s destruction would themselves be destroyed. Yet, Israel and her people would return and remain forever. That is happening before our eyes in this generation.

Netanyahu’s words were not boastful. Instead, as a man and Prime Minister who studies Scripture, he is fully aware that the promises to protect and preserve Israel since her rebirth as a nation come directly from Almighty God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those are guarantees that will be kept because Scripture says that God never lies. That he is the Eternal Omnipotent God of truth and certainty. And that his Messiah IS TRUTH.

The Message Switches to the Palestinians

After discussing the strategically all-important alliance between Israel and the United States (with exception of disagreement over the Iran nuclear deal) and Israel’s amazing contributions to the world including innovations and advancements in agriculture, science, computer technology, medicine, and chemistry, the Prime Minister’s speech shifts to the Palestinians.

“Israel remains committed to achieving peace with the Palestinians as well. Israelis know the price of war. I know the price of war. I was nearly killed in battle. I lost many friends. I lost my beloved brother Yoni … I am prepared to immediately, immediately (he repeats for emphasis) resume direct peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, without any preconditions whatsoever. Unfortunately, President Abbas said yesterday that he is not prepared to do this. Well, I hope he changes his mind.”

Netanyahu continues: “… I remain committed to a vision of two states for two peoples, in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state. You know, the peace process began over two decades ago (he was referring to the Oslo Accord of 1993). Yet despite the best efforts of six Israeli prime ministers—Rabin, Peres, Barak, Sharon, Olmert, and myself—the Palestinians have consistently refused to end the conflict and make a final peace with Israel. And, unfortunately, you heard that rejectionism again only yesterday from President Abbas. How can Israel make peace with a Palestinian partner who refuses to even sit at the negotiating table?”

Commentary:

My article of two weeks ago only alluded to, but did not elaborate on Abbas’s implied appeal that the United Nations make a resolution to unilaterally (without any input from Israel whatsoever) approve a Palestinian State. One, I might add, that is militarized; a state that will only result in a civil war between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas as they vie for authority; and/or a state that will eventually become a proxy to Iran. In other words, a Palestinian State that will become a perfectly unwanted replica of Syria.

The Address Continues:

“The Palestinians should not walk away from peace … if we actually sit down and try to resolve this conflict between us, recognize each other, not use a Palestinian state as a stepping stone for another Islamist dictatorship in the Middle East, but something that will live at peace next to the Jewish State, if we actually do that, we can do remarkable things for our peoples.”

Again, Netanyahu directs his remarks to the United Nations Assembly by saying, “The UN won’t help peace … by trying to impose solutions or by encouraging Palestinian rejectionism, and the UN, distinguished delegates, should do one more thing. The UN should finally rid itself of the obsessive bashing of Israel.”

UN Ambassadors before a Security Council Vote on Sanctions

He then uses the same example I used in the Eye of Prophecy article Tell a Big Lie Long Enough (which was written before I read Netanyahu’s address to the UN), i.e. the totally disproportional number of unjustified UN sanctions against Israel compared to the one sanction against Syria.

He continues:

“Talk about injustice. Talk about disproportionality … Well, frankly I am not surprised. To borrow a line from Yogi Berra, the late, great baseball player and part-time philosopher: When it comes to the annual bashing of Israel at the UN it’s, ‘déjà vu all over again.’

“President Abbas, here’s a good place to begin: Stop spreading lies about Israel’s alleged intentions on the Temple Mount. Israel is fully committed to maintaining the status quo there. What President Abbas should be speaking out against are the actions of militant Islamists who are smuggling explosives into the Al-Aqsa mosque and who are trying to prevent Jews and Christians from visiting the holy sites.

“…Far from endangering the holy sites, it is Israel that ensures their safety. Because unlike the powers who have ruled Jerusalem in the past, Israel respects the holy sites and freedom of all—Jews, Muslims, Christians, everyone. And that, ladies and gentlemen, will never change. Because Israel will always stay true to its values … This is the true face of Israel. These are the values of Israel.

*Note: See the Eye of Prophecy article, The Heart and Soul of Israel, posted 1-4-14.

Prime Minister Netanyahu concludes his speech with this straightforward probing challenge:

“So here’s a novel idea for the United Nations: Instead of continuing the shameful routine of bashing Israel, stand with Israel. Stand with Israel as we check the fanaticism at our door. Stand with Israel as we prevent that fanaticism from reaching our door. Ladies and Gentlemen, Stand with Israel because Israel is not just defending itself. More than ever, Israel is defending you.”

More Truth

“Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the Lord and against his anointed one. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they cry, ‘and free ourselves from slavery to God’” (Psalms 2:1-3).

It’s inexplicably bewildering how so many people throughout the ages, including today’s cynical, me-generation, have believed the original Big Lie that comes from Satan, himself. The Lie believed by Adam and Eve.

Which is: Freedom or liberty or the pursuit of bliss (which is mostly personal pleasure and self-indulgence) is possible only when they break the restraints that they perceive God has placed on them. That God’s divine laws and standards deprive them of self-realization or self-fulfillment or so-called deeper knowledge of mystical things, which is nothing more than a desire to become their own god; thereby, creating and maintaining their own criteria for right and wrong, good and evil.

In short, to say: “No thanks, God; I’ll go my own way and do my own thing.” Or, “I’ll create my own religion or belief system and, if I do just enough good or get lucky, maybe you’ll accept me.”

In fact, it’s just the opposite. Listen to the words of Jesus concerning real truth and actual freedom when he speaks of the transforming reality of Biblical salvation, which includes so many wonderful benefits such as forgiveness, redemption, and everlasting life. “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). People the world over know these words. Few know who said them … or what truth Jesus is talking about.

Then a few verses later Messiah explains what it is that actually enslaves the human race. “…I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever (referring to sons and daughters in the family of God). So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free” (Verses 34-36).

It’s not so hard to figure out that global grief and turmoil is caused by oppression, ethnic and national disputes, deprivation, wars, crime, injustice … just to name a few of the world’s ills. There’s a whole dirty laundry load of reasons: Pride, greed, lust, hatred, lying, sexual immorality, sorceries, jealousy, and pursuit of pleasure no matter the cost. On and on we could go. These are the things that take away true mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual freedom.

Christ is telling us that doing anything and everything we please results in slavery, physically and spiritually. That is the truth of it. The only TRUTH that will set us free from the devastating consequences of slavery to sin is the liberating truth of God’s salvation.

King David knew of the coming Messiah as he wrote about God’s Royal Son in the passage cited above from Psalm Chapter 2; although he wasn’t privy to all of the details or sequence of events of Messiah’s arrival, some one thousand years later.

And David knew all about truth, as he writes about it frequently.

For example: “Declare me innocent, O Lord, for I have acted with integrity; I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart. For I am always aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth” (Psalms 26:1-3)

He knew that real truth is God’s Truth.

Like all of us, David had sinned; but he knew the truth of redemption, long before his Redeemer came to the earth to retroactively purchase David’s salvation (proactively for all those who would choose Christ in the future). Thus, he was willing to be put on trial and cross-examined by God. Because he knew that if he trusted in and responded to God’s love and forgiveness, God’s promise of reconciliation and restoration was: The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

The Truth Rejected

Referring to Messiah Yeshua, (Christ Jesus) the Apostle John writes: “He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God” (John 1:10-13).

No, the Jews haven’t rejected God’s specific plan for them to possess the Promised Land of Israel forever (Abrahamic Covenant). Rather, most of them to this day have disbelieved the truth of God’s universal plan that salvation and eternal life would come through the New Covenant. The Covenant of Grace through God’s gift of his Son, Messiah Jesus to the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike.

But God knew this would happen and, just like with Joseph and his brothers, God made something wonderfully good (permanent redemption) come out of this horrible injustice … the crucifixion of Messiah. The just for the unjust.

As a result thousands of Jews in the first century believed and received Jesus as their Messiah, including the most devout of them all—a Pharisee who had staunchly defended the Law of Moses to the extent of imprisoning and killing Jews who had accepted Christ as their personal Savior. Only for Paul to have a life-changing encounter with the risen Messiah on the road to Damascus. Then to, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit which had been given to indwell the hearts of Jew and Gentile believers alike, write most of the New Testament; including numerous quotes from the Old Testament to show that (as is said): The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed, and the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.

That the New Testament contains the Rest of the Story.

Though God withdrew his protection from Israel a second time (the first time when Assyria then Babylon conquered Israel) when the Romans destroyed the second Temple resulting in the Great Diaspora of the Jews until 1948, he would not completely abandon or reject them.

Concerning the destiny of Israel which is unfolding before our very eyes, the Jews have returned and are still returning to their providential place and time in God’s historical, eternal plan. As exemplified by the actions and words of their Prime Minister, they are beginning to once again understand their role in proclaiming the truth and essence of who they are and what they were chosen to do: To bring light and salvation to the whole world. But a salvation that, in large numbers, they have not yet experienced themselves.

Many Jews now understand that God’s promise for them to return and possess the Holy Land of Israel and the Holy City of Jerusalem is being fulfilled in this generation. That is the physical, corporeal truth of who they really are and what must actually happen. But most haven’t yet grasped the truth of the spiritual component of their destiny. That the Jewish Messiah they long for has already arrived, some two thousand years ago. That his birth, life, death, and resurrection from the grave was the culmination of both the law and sacrificial system of atonement, which was only a shadow of what and who was to come. That Yeshua is the prophetically fulfilled real object (person) of redemption, accomplished through his once for all universal sacrifice to bring so great a salvation to the human race.

Which is why their spiritual reconciliation to the Lord lags behind their physical restoration to the Land. But this, too, will change … and soon.

Listen to what the Jewish Apostle Paul says:

“I ask, then, has God rejected his own people, the nation of Israel? Of course not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham and a member of the tribe of Benjamin. No, God has not rejected his own people, whom he chose from the very beginning…” (Romans 11:1-2).

To this day, many Jews including Rabbis concede the controversial point that God withdrew his protection of their people, which led to the greatest tragedy of all … the Holocaust. That part is true. As a result, many other Jews (and all too many Gentiles) believe that God did totally reject Israel. That part is not true.

Paul goes on to say: “Did God’s people stumble and fall beyond recovery? Of course not! They were disobedient, so God made salvation available to the Gentiles. But he wanted his own people to become jealous and claim it for themselves. Now if the Gentiles were enriched because the people of Israel turned down God’s offer of salvation, think how much greater a blessing the world will share when they finally accept it” (Romans 11:11-12).

And still later in the chapter: “…Some of the people of Israel have hard hearts, but this will last only until the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ. And so all Israel will be saved….” (Verse 25-26).

I say with the Apostle Paul:

“…the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God” (Romans 10:1-4).

That time is near, so very near. Today is the day of salvation. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Whether you are a Gentile or Jew, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Things to Ponder

In some way, at some time or another have you thought about such things as: Who am I? Why am I (actually) here? How did I (really) get here? Where am I going? How will I get there? What will prevent me from getting there? Does anyone really care what happens to me? If so, what can they do about it?

Or: What is truth?

God puts those questions in our minds and hearts; because he loves us so much. He cares because he has the answers, some that we will understand in this lifetime, others we won’t truly grasp until we reach the other side. But there are two sides to the other side. One with answers. The other with perpetual doubt, confusion, and terror. Our choice in this lifetime will determine which side we will reach when we die.

He knows the heartaches that life brings our way, whether we cause them or whether they are beyond our control. The Bible says that if we draw near to God, he will draw near to us. First, to save us once and for all when we say, “Yes”, to Jesus. Then with the help of the Holy Spirit, to help us grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ until the day that we see him face to face.

It truly is a matter of eternal life and death. Choose Messiah Jesus (Son of God, Son of David, Son of Man) and live forever in heaven. Choose anything or anyone else and forever be separated from God and the host of heaven in a place too terrible for words.

“And this is what God has testified (sworn as truth): He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life” (I John 5:11-12).

And now we know: The Rest of the Story.

History. His Story.

Please, take a few more minutes and listen to this beautiful song written by Graham Kendrick, performed by Robin Mark

The Whole Truth

17 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by garybowers in Current Events

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Palestinian riots

The Truth … Nothing but The Truth

“Do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?” Nearly everyone recognizes this oath and when it is required … either in a court of law or in a pre-trial deposition. It is a vow that was and still is used by United States Courts (and in some fashion or another by the courts of many nations) for centuries, although the words may have changed and the so help me God unfortunately has been dropped by many jurisdictions.

If you have participated in a trial—as a plaintiff, or defendant, or witness—then you can personally relate to the gravity of such a solemn pledge. At the very least you can picture a courtroom scene in some old movie. The witness takes the stand, raises his/her right hand and places their left hand on a Bible while taking this oath. However, the Bible is seldom used in today’s secular age.

Before anyone can testify by sworn deposition or in court, they must pledge to tell the whole truth the entire time they are testifying. But why swear to it? Isn’t it expected that we would tell the truth in a court of law? Ideally, yes; in reality, no—not everyone will tell the truth even when testifying in court. Which makes it a crime with a potentially severe penalty (including possible prison time) to lie at a trial. Someone’s economic, social, political, cultural future could be at stake … even their very life. In fact, it is the 9th of the Ten Commandments that contain some of the absolute universal truths God gave to the Hebrews and the entire world.

“You must not testify falsely against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16).

Although this commandment focuses primarily on the official setting of a trial, it was obviously a general decree applicable to any and all situations in the course of human affairs; as are all of the Ten Commandments and other Biblical principles pertinent to man’s accountability to God and interaction with each other.

We’ve all lied, some more than others, but lying is wrong no matter how many times we tell a lie or the size of the lie. Normally, the bigger the lie the more serious the repercussions; but a lie is a lie, no matter how you slice the pie. We’ve all experienced adverse, even destructive consequences of lying, whether we lied or were lied to.

Especially if, for example, a leader like Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas—from the hallowed halls of the United Nations—accuses Israel of occupation and aggression, not much different than testifying in a court of law. But he wasn’t misleading Israelis, his avowed enemies, because they know better; he was deceiving both his people and the international community. Surely, he wouldn’t lie in front of such a revered international organization. But that’s exactly what he did, as covered in last week’s article that included excerpts from and commentary on Abbas’s speech to the UN.

In addition to all-encompassing fabrications about Jewish occupation (in the negative connotation of the word) of Israel, Abbas specifically pointed to alleged Israeli violation of Temple Mount regulations (the status quo). It is primarily this lie that has provoked the recent lone wolf attacks by Palestinians on Jews, which has intensified even more this past week. In fact, Hamas has declared that the 3^rd Intifada (uprising) officially began this past Wednesday, October 14^th. Other Palestinian leaders have mimicked President Abbas’ accusations. For the Arabs in Israel, whatever their Palestinian leaders say must be true.

Such as Abbas’ mendacious and belligerent embellishment about Temple Mount when he said: “Al-Aksa is ours and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. They (the Jews) have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet. We won’t allow them to do so and we will do whatever we can to defend Jerusalem.”

Filthy feet? Do you see the senseless hatred in such malicious but childish rhetoric? Defend Jerusalem? From what? From Israelis reacting to and stopping the brutal unprovoked attacks by the Palestinians? Defend a city that doesn’t belong to the Arabs in the first place?

This atrocious rabble-rousing incitement from top Palestinian leaders has filtered down through the social media among Palestinians, e.g. Twitter and Facebook. In an article written just two days ago in USA Today, Shimrit Meir, founding editor of the Arabic news site Al-Monitor was quoted: “If you look at the Facebook pages of attackers, though, they don’t have a goal; they want revenge, they want blood.” The article goes on to say, “Twitter and Facebook are flooded with images of blood dripping off knives under hashtags such as #the knives…intifada and #Palestine…Intifada. Many of those knife-wielding Palestinians, shot by Israeli security forces, are described as killed ‘in cold blood.’”

To demonstrate just how viciously degenerate these lies and the ensuing attacks have become, the Palestinian Bar Association presented a posthumous award to Muhanned Halabi, the 19-year old law student who stabbed two Israeli men to death and seriously injured three others, including the wife of one of the men and their daughter. I wrote about this in last week’s article: Tell a Big Lie Long Enough. According to the Bar Association, “The martyred hero Halabi was an outstanding student at the faculty of law.”

One can only wonder if his law professors taught that murdering Jews was both legal and necessary. Or if Arab law students must take an oath that says, “I swear to tell lies, more lies, and nothing but lies about the Jews.” Of course I’m being sarcastic, but only in response to such a depraved award bestowed upon this murderer.

Photo of a 13-year old Palestinian boy who was wounded by Israeli security forces this past Monday after he and a 15-year old companion stabbed and critically wounded two Israelis in Jerusalem, one of whom was also 13 years old. PA President Abbas told the press that the Palestinian boy pictured above was killed in cold-blood by the Israelis. The boy is not only alive, he’s receiving care in an Israeli hospital! Apparently Abbas doesn’t care if hard evidence (photos) proves him wrong.

Later, in today’s article, we’ll examine Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin’s (truthful) rebuttal in his address to the UN General Assembly on October 1^st, the day after Abbas’ speech. But first, let’s discuss Truth itself, at least enough to grasp the essence and dynamics of such a provocative subject.

“What is truth…?” (John 18:38).

During the utterly unlawful and unjustified trial of Jesus of Nazareth, in which he was falsely accused by “witnesses” who lied, this was the facetious relativistic question that the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate asked when Jesus said: “…Actually I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true” (John 18:37, italics for emphasis).

No less than four times in two short sentences, Jesus refers to truth. “Four?” you question. “I only see three.” Hey, I italicized the first word of Jesus’s reply just to give you a hint!

The word actually or actual (real, the genuine article) is a synonym of truly (truth); it is another way to express or explain that what we’re saying or describing (perhaps testifying) truly happened. In this case, the Lord said that the main purpose he came to this world was to (actually) testify to the truth. With the stunningly significant reality that had Jesus not been given to the human race, we would never know or experience the truth of God’s plan of salvation! Nor really know who God is and what he’s actually like.

I can confidently say that because of the many other (truthful) references to creation and redemption found in Scripture. Such as: “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth… For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself” (Colossians 1:15-16, 20).

In his remarkably profound declaration to Pilate, Jesus was referring to the two basic components that define and describe truth, as applicable to Christ himself and the whole world.

Physical, Earthly Realm

First, truth applies to and actually is the reality of facts … what is said and done by God and by people. Those who testify must tell exactly what they saw and heard. To the best of their ability, nothing should be left out or embellished. Just the facts and nothing but the facts … the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Concerning Jesus, it was all the things he said and did publicly in front of all the people, including the Jewish religious leaders. Though he often spoke in parables, anyone who was sincerely seeking the truth would understand the parables. Those who had made up their minds to disbelieve and reject Jesus would not and could not comprehend, as they had already determined not to listen to what was true. They simply didn’t want to understand or agree.

But he also spoke plainly by directly and meaningfully declaring and defining the truth. With such startling statements as, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Or the equally astounding assertion that he was one with and equal to God the Father, when he told the Jewish religious leaders, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was even born, I AM!” (John 8:58).

The next verse tells us that they immediately picked up stones to throw at Jesus. Why? Because Jesus referred to himself by the holy, awesome name of God … YHWH, or with vowels inserted, Yahweh. The very name that God gave to Moses when Moses asked who was sending him to his people and to Pharaoh.

Which leads us to the second crucial component of (real, objective) truth.

Spiritual, Universal Realm

In addition to truth equating to the factual reality of people, places, things, and events (what is said, what is done, when and where it happens), truth must also originate from a universal, independent, completely objective, and exclusive source. A Higher Court if you will. The only way truth can be exclusive and objective is that it must have a spiritually Divine source or reference point, because we are as much or more spiritual beings than we are physical.

Absent a Supreme, Sovereign source and standard (God), all human ideas, philosophies, religions, thinking, viewpoints, and creeds are invariably subjective … subject to individual or group preference, flawed suppositions, and skewed opinions. These subjective vantage points even include right and wrong, good and evil. We humans can define practically anything the way we choose, to include morality; then challenge those who disagree to prove we’re wrong.

If truth is not eternally exclusive and perpetually objective, then any and all beliefs can be true. Which they obviously are not. If for no other reason that each belief system claims that it possesses the only truth; or, at the very least, the main reservoir of truth.

And for those who throw up their hands in cynical frustration and end up believing that there are several paths which lead to God, immortality, or paradise, I must bluntly respond: that is fatalistic nonsense. Not only is it a cop-out, it’s also a belief system to believe that all beliefs will eventually find God or some kind of Nirvana.

If you say that fire will burn me if I touch it, and I say that it won’t; then one of us must be wrong. Of course you will be right, because you have an objectively true and verifiably consistent and constant reference point to confirm what happens when I put my hand in the fire. Both science and faith acknowledge these universal laws of physics, none of which are contradicted by Scripture. However, this same supernatural being (God) on occasion has set aside the laws of physics when and where he chooses. Which is why Daniel’s three friends survived a blazing furnace seven times hotter than normal, without so much as smelling of smoke! (Daniel 3).

But the God of the Bible never abrogates his spiritual laws. Repeating for emphasis: Never.

He stipulates that if we, for example, commit adultery, or steal, or lie, or put any other man-made gods or god-less systems in place of him, we’re also going to get burned … emotionally, physically, but most of all spiritually. Every wrong thing we do is sin, and Scripture tells us that the penalty of sin is both physical and spiritual death … eternal separation from God. Neither natural science nor religion agrees with this (Divine spiritual) truth, that all are born with a sin nature. Nor do they concur with another Spiritual Law that guarantees redemption from the penalty of sin including everlasting life to those who place their trust in Messiah Jesus. This legal promise doesn’t contradict the law of spiritual death for those who reject God’s Son as Savior. Rather, it simply transfers (exonerate) the person from one legal verdict of guilty (spiritual death) to another legal verdict of innocent by Divine pardon.

So, who’s right? Are there Spiritual Laws established by the One God, the only God in the universe or not?

If you say being a good person, doing good works, and keeping the demands of your religion is the only way to make it to heaven, and I counter with the Biblical claim that only faith in God’s grace (the gift of his son’s death on the cross for our sins) can save me, you, and the entire human race, then one of us must be wrong.

There is, however, one common denominator for all religions; although this commonality is expressed in a maze of divergent dogmas … not including Christianity which isn’t a religion by definition.

The common factor: All religions have a formal structure of self-worth, good works, and ritualistic performance of required duties in order for those who become members (usually through baptism or verbal vow of commitment to that religion) to be accepted by the hierarchy of that system or cult and/or by whatever god(s) they worship. Or in the case of Buddhism, the attainment of Nirvana.

The God of the Bible is God

The God of the Bible is radically different from all other (man-made) gods of all religions or cults. Scripture is crystal clear that trust in the Lord (plus nothing else) is what redeems us. Beginning with Abraham’s explicit trust in God to leave his home and travel to a land promised by God to him and his descendants … the everlasting possession of Israel.

God’s covenant with the Hebrews through Moses was a covenant of law and sacrifices to reveal in great detail the very existence, character, and plan of God for the Jews but also the entire human race. One in which the Jews were to be a source of light and salvation to the Gentiles. But this was a conditional covenant, and God’s chosen people could not, did not keep their end of the agreement. Although the Lord gave his people hundreds of years to try to keep his law, they could not, would not. Then and now, most Jews misunderstood the difference between (the purpose of) the law that told them what sin was and the sacrificial system that led to forgiveness of sin. Gradually, the sacrificial spilling of innocent (animal) blood for their sins became a ritualistic obligation in which they dismissed or overlooked its true significance, a shadow or picture of the great once for all sacrifice of Messiah, as stated in Isaiah Chapter 53 and other passages.

For this reason, God told his people through the prophet Jeremiah (and Isaiah), that he would strike up a new covenant, which was accomplished when Messiah Jesus died on the cross, but then rose from the dead to seal and validate this everlasting covenant!

Sadly, most Jews today still refuse to recognize or accept that covenant, with the remarkable exception of hundreds of thousands of Messianic Jews the world over.

God’s plan of salvation and the eternal destiny of all who place their trust in the sacrificial death of Messiah Jesus as found in the Bible is TRUTH. His son, Jesus Christ testified to that truth. And what is (that) truth? The truth is that Messiah Jesus is the only WAY to God and the only source of LIFE everlasting. He is the very embodiment of eternal universal truth. Furthermore, he validated these claims with one incredible miracle after another, culminating in the greatest achievement of all … resurrection from the dead!

Not only miracles by Messiah Jesus but mighty miracles by God the Father as recorded in the Old Testament. Not only miracles, but the irrefutable historical evidence of fulfilled prophecies … hundreds of them. Time and time again, God challenges other religions, gods, prophets, and religious leaders to predict the future with 100% accuracy or perform the astounding miracles that only the true and living God can do. Down through the ages there has been no response from those so-called gods or prophets. They won’t respond, because they can’t make prophecies come true with 100% accuracy, not even 10%. So, they won’t predict the future, and they can’t perform miracles.

That, my friend, is TRUTH. Objectively and exclusively found in no one else except the God of the Bible, which is the very Word of God. Proven by the mighty miracles of our God, and the amazingly detailed fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, which are also miracles.

Summary

There is truth that applies to the physical world and truth that applies to the spiritual world.

And yet, God’s truth of forgiveness, redemption, and eternal life is offered to all who will believe and receive Jesus Christ as their personal savior … which makes God’s salvation inclusive for all peoples. Scripture is replete with this thematic truth, as summarized in the most quoted and well-known verse in the Bible:

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16.

Exclusive truth with an inclusive invitation of salvation and everlasting life to all who will believe and receive Jesus as Savior. It doesn’t get any better than that!

Unless you prefer deceit, half-truths, or lies?

But I’m thinking that you want what the Lord says we all desperately need: To be made right with God by his righteousness freely given to us.

“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with underserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood…” (Romans 3:23-25).

“Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law” (Verses 27-28)

Just ask Abraham, who was made right with God long before the law was given by God through Moses. “And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith” (Genesis 15:6).

Messiah Jesus sacrificial death on the cross retroactively applies to Abraham, to all peoples, Jew and Gentile alike, before and also after Messiah’s birth, life death, and resurrection.

That is the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth, so help us God.

Things to Ponder

Listen to these amazing words from God recorded by the prophet Isaiah: “Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord, through your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18, NASB).

This is God’s invitation to every man, woman, and child; not to check our brains at the door that leads to God’s plan of salvation. But to use our reason to comprehend that God and God alone can remove the stain and guilt of our sin(s). To instantly turn red into white the moment we agree through sound reasoning that he can and will save us. Then follow what we know in our heart to be true. This isn’t blind faith: it’s faith in what God through his Son has done what we could not do for ourselves.

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved” (Romans 10:10-13).

I consider myself to be pretty much as logical, rationale, and reasonable as the average person who possesses all three of these traits. So, if a man performs multiple miracles including healing of diseases and deformities, feeds thousands with a few fish and loaves of bread, or walks on water (overcoming the laws of nature), I’m going to stand up and take notice. If this same man who claims to be God says both he and God are One; and they love me enough for this Son of Man to die on the cross in my place and promises me a complete pardon if I believe this; and then rises from the dead to prove that he is who is says he is, here’s what I’m going to do.

I’m going to believe him. I’m going to trust him with my destiny.

In fact, I’ve already have … many years ago.

I’ve chosen to believe and receive Messiah Jesus, who is THE TRUTH. Which is exactly what Christ Jesus said that he is. As well as the Way and the Life.

*A Personal Note: I’m guessing by now you’ve realized that we didn’t get to Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the United Nations, as I said we would earlier in the article. Or if you didn’t catch it, then shame on you … because you weren’t paying attention. Just kidding!

And, yes, I could have (which I’ve done before) simply deleted that paragraph or restated it to indicate it would be the subject of next week’s article. But I’m doing it this way to share something I haven’t shared with readers before.

It has to do with why some Eye of Prophecy articles are in two or more parts, i.e. Part I, Part II; or the same topic continued in the next article under a different title.

As would be expected, sometimes I plan ahead for multiple part articles knowing the subject will be too long for just one article. But that occurs only about half the time involving multiple part articles. The other half of the time, I don’t realize how long the article might be until well into or almost done with it! That was the case this week. Consequently, next week’s article will primarily be about Prime Minister Netanyahu’s UN speech on October 1, 2015.

Don’t miss it!

Tell a Big Lie Long Enough….

10 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by garybowers in Current Events

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Mahmoud Abbas, propaganda, UN

If You Tell a Big Lie Long Enough….?

According to an intriguing report from the United States Office of Strategic Services during World War II: “…people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”

This conclusion was based on a thorough study of German propaganda before and during the war, predicated primarily on Adolph Hitler’s venomous book of hatred against the Jews, Mein Kampf. Subsequently, the Big Lie paradigm was adapted as a political stratagem by Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, who spared no expense and contemptuously crossed every line of decency, morality, and truth in order to denigrate and demonize the Jews.

Hitler wrongly accused the Jews of using this Big Lie tactic to undermine Germany; then he developed the same strategy to turn a long-standing Anti-Semitism into mass murder of the Jews through the sadistically perverted plan called the Final Solution. Although leaders of nations telling lies about their enemies has been an age-old practice, not until the Nazis came into power was this Big Lie scheme consolidated into a formal program of deliberate deception, mostly about the Jews; but also to democratic nations regarding Germany’s agenda of annexing land or seeking justice and restoration for their humiliating defeat in World War I.

At the time, most Germans and many Europeans who harbored even slight Anti-Semitic sentiments believed what they heard in speeches and on the radio, watched in movies, and read in the press. Then and especially now with post-War hindsight, most Americans and their World War II allies were and are historically aware of the Big Lie phenomenon perpetrated by the Nazis; accordingly, we consider the source and comprehend the deceptiveness.

But that is not the case regarding the constant Islamic distortion of history in today’s Middle East. Few know that the prophet Muhammad, himself, proclaimed that it was perfectly okay to lie to Christians, Jews, and even other Muslims in order to achieve Islamic subjugation of the infidel. Today, tell them that you mean them no harm, that you pursue only peace. Then one day, when the time seems right, launch an intifada and kill them to achieve both short and long-term goals.

Since the Palestinian Liberation Organization was formed in 1964 to “liberate Palestine” primarily through armed conflict, then later renamed the self-governing Palestinian Authority in 1993 at the Oslo Accords; Muslim Arab countries in particular and non-Arab Islamic nations in general have pursued a two-pronged program of violence and deception to accomplish their professed objective of a two-state solution in Israel. With their real goal to dismantle the State of Israel and eliminate the Jews entirely from that state.

The Muslims failed to destroy Israel through an Arab-Iraqi military coalition campaign in Israel’s War of Independence of 1948-49, the Six-Day War of 1967, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Thus, they resorted to suicide bombings, to mortar and missile attacks primarily from the Gaza Strip, to economic boycotts, divestments, and sanctions (BDS), and recent lone wolf attacks on innocent Israelis (stabbings, shootings, stone throwing, vehicles). All the while utilizing persistent and progressively frequent propaganda that many European nations and all too many Americans are beginning to believe.

Deadly Duo of Deceit and Destruction

In the very recent past, there has been an alarming increase of individual Palestinian attacks against Israelis … on Temple Mount, in the streets, in vehicles, at bus stops, and even in Jewish synagogues—anywhere that a defenseless (soft-target) Jew or Jewish family can be found. Whenever these attacks occur, the Palestinians invoke the terrorist mentality that such actions are justified and necessary in their struggle against oppression, an oppression that doesn’t exist except in the incessant lies that stream from Muslim leaders. This has been going on for the past three decades or so. But in the last few days, the lies are getting bigger and the assaults bolder.

In a Breaking Israel News article by Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, a frequent contributor to that website, we read: “In a shocking act of audacity, the Palestinian Authority has demanded the international community and UN intervene to prevent further Israeli violence, citing ‘the killing of two young men in occupied Jerusalem,’ while failing to mention the young men were killed while stabbing Israelis.”

One of the Palestinians was Muhammad Halabi, a nineteen year old law student from al-Bireh, near Ramallah. On Saturday night (October 3), in the old city of Jerusalem, he stabbed five Israelis, including a two-year old girl, killing two men. He grabbed a pistol from one of the men he had just killed and began shooting randomly at more Jews. During this rampage, he was shot and killed by Israeli security forces.

Palestinian Authority spokesman Ihab Bseiso, as publicized in the news site Wafa Palestinian, claimed that the Israelis were conducting a, “military offensive in multiple Palestinian cities.” Then the PA alleged that the Israeli escalation was an obstacle to ongoing peace efforts and the two-state solution. Also that the current situation in the West Bank and Jerusalem has become volatile exclusively because the Israelis have attempted to divide al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest place, between Muslims and Jews.

*Note: I have watched video footage of the recent confrontation between Israeli Police and Palestinians hurling Molotov cocktails and large rocks on the Temple Mount. It’s irrefutably clear who started the conflict, and it wasn’t the police. What’s apathetically apparent, however, is that most people won’t take the time to check out all the visual and written evidence. Instead, they accept outright what Arab news sources are propagating, or at the very minimum reach a conclusion that there must be some credibility to what Muslims are saying about the Israelis, because they say it so loud and so often.

But it’s not just the biased Palestinian Authority news accounts. Even the BBC in Great Britain distorted this and other Palestinian attacks on Israelis. With regard to the above cited incident, the BBC headlines stated, “Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two.”

Many people, including me on some occasions, only glance at certain headlines without reading much or any of the story. As stated in a United with Israel article published a few days later, “Almost every word in the headline is wrong or distorted. The main focus of the headline is the death of the Palestinian terrorist who was ‘shot dead’ portraying his death as an unrelated event, and branding him as a victim. There is no mention of his heinous actions.”

Said American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg in a cynical response to this incredibly misleading headline: “To be fair, it takes a great deal of creativity to come up with headlines like this one.”

In a follow-up article the BBC changed its headline to read: “Jerusalem, Palestinian kills two Israelis in Old City.” But the BBC issued no apology, and by then the damage through distortion had been done.

Muslims in general, Palestinian Arabs in particular, and entirely too many nations and news sources have become increasingly confident of global impunity to and world-wide acceptance of what they say; to the extent that no matter how big the lie or omission, nations and peoples will now or one day soon believe them.

Moreover, it’s abundantly clear that the growing deadly attacks on Israeli civilians is a result of incitement directly from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas; who is himself becoming progressively and intensely bolder in his proliferation of big lies about Israel and the Jews. As epitomized in his recent speech of September 30^th to the United Nations General Assembly, he is overtly implementing the Muslim strategy of distorting events and facts to the point of literally rewriting history. Middle East history as found in the Palestinian education system and textbooks and journalism and maps is markedly different from the real history of Israel’s existence, especially since 1948.

It’s no coincidence that the recent series of assaults came directly on the heels of Abbas’ speech to the United Nations.

Before we examine some of the astonishingly inaccurate statements Abbas made in his UN speech, we need to understand that many Western journalists who report on these Israeli, Palestinian incidents, are slowly but surely slanting their columns toward empathy with the Palestinians. At the very least, they sanitize the brutal unprovoked assaults against Israelis by omitting or watering down the fact that Palestinians were killed as direct result of their murderous rampages against Jews. Often reporters classify the Palestinian killers as militants, in the same way that they label, for example, ISIS or al-Qaeda killers as militants or terrorists.

Of course, they are terrorists, but what is frequently overlooked or brushed aside is that millions upon millions of Muslims approve what the militants among them do. Most Muslims would not kill Jews and Christians mainly because they don’t want to risk prison or death. However, the militants are simply mainstream Muslims who are acting out what the Koran and their prophet Muhammad commanded them to do … subjugate all infidels (Christians and Jews) through whatever means necessary, including murder.

The actual evidence is overwhelming: The majority of Palestinians in Israel and Muslims elsewhere condone the murder of Israelis. For example, after the recent attacks on Israeli civilians, there were videos of Palestinians rejoicing over the deaths of the Jews. They celebrated with fireworks, by waving Palestinian flags, and by handing out sweets to each other. Much like dancing in the streets when the twin towers fell on 9/11. But when Jews die, there is a deeper (depraved) satisfaction of one less Jew in the world.

In the stabbing attacks described earlier, three of the five Israeli victims were parents and their small child. The husband was killed, the daughter was severely injured, as was the wife/mother. In her hospital bed, the wife of her slain husband, Aaron Benita, gave an account of what happened during and after the attack. With the knife still embedded in her neck, she ran for help from her attacker. She said that nearby Arab bystanders, “had murder in their eyes. They laughed in my face.”

Due to the number of these recent attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a planned trip to Germany this past week.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Adelle Benita in hospital

Another horrific assault involved four Jewish children, ages four months to nine years in the rear seat of their parent’s car. When the father stopped the car at a red light, he and his wife were attacked and murdered while still in the car, right in front of their children.

Palestinian President Abbas’s Speech to the United Nations

You may want to watch or read a print-out of this speech delivered on September 30, 2015. It is replete with lies and innuendoes. Lies that deliberately falsify what actually has taken place in Israel since its’ foundation as a Sovereign State. Lies that are couched in dramatic words and emotional overtones that appeal to those who champion repressed people all over the world. A suppression that purportedly is solely the responsibility of the Israelis. But a fabricated oppression that has no basis in reality, whatsoever.

For sake of time/space in this article, I will cite only a couple of excerpts as representative examples of the Big Lie syndrome. Then, provide some historically factual commentary on what this leader of a nation that doesn’t exist would have us to believe.

The Speech Begins:

“Palestine comes today to the United Nations … at a time when it is still tending to its wounds and still burying its beloved martyrs of children, woman and men who have fallen victim to the latest Israeli aggression, still searching for remnants of life amid the ruins of homes destroyed by Israeli bombs on the Gaza Strip, wiping out entire families … murdered along with their dreams, their hopes, their future and their longing to live an ordinary life and to live in freedom and peace. Palestine comes today to the General Assembly because it believes in peace…”

Commentary:

Give me a break!

Neither the Palestinian Authority which governs the West Bank, nor Hamas in the Gaza Strip, nor the vast majority of Palestinians—even many who are Arab citizens of Israel—acknowledge Israel’s existence. That is why they rarely refer to Israel as Israel; rather it is still Palestine, which has NEVER been a country in the first place. Nor are the Palestinians a people of any such territory. They are Arabs, most of whom still have Jordanian passports. Before Israel was reborn as a nation, if anyone referred to the Palestinians, they were referring to the Jews. Not until the Palestine Liberation Organization came into existence in 1964 did Arabs began calling themselves Palestinians, this to give the counterfeit impression that the land formerly called Palestine belongs to them.

Just exactly who are the martyrs here? When someone murders another exclusively because of the victim’s religion or race, isn’t the victim the martyr? Since when do those who are killed or imprisoned because they murdered a completely innocent person become a martyr? Muslims not only rewrite history, they also redefine words and terms.

Muslims kill Jews just because they are Jews. Israelis swiftly retaliate by capturing or killing the killers not because the perpetrators are Muslims, but because they are murderers. Who, then, is the martyr?

Israeli Aggression? The facts are crystal clear. One only has to do a little research to fully realize that the Palestinians, either individually or collectively through Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist’s cells in Israel, are the ones who time and time again initiate the clashes. They are the aggressors by methods described earlier in this article, such as lobbing mortars into Israel. So, if Israel responds, then are they the aggressor? Muslims not only rewrite history, redefine meanings of words, they also reinvent and reverse logic and reason.

Agreed … the dreams, hopes, and future of Palestinians are gone when they are killed during wars and intifada that they initiate. Their dreams: That Israel will capitulate to their every demand, such as a militarized Palestinian State, a Jewish return to indefensible 1967 borders, Jerusalem as a Palestinian Capital, and return of hundreds of thousands of so-called refugees. Their hopes: That Israel will cease to exist as a nation. Their future: That there will be no more Jews anywhere in the land.

Mahmoud Abbas United Nations Speech

The Speech Continues:

“The Israeli aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip has confirmed once again the urgent and pressing need to end the Israeli occupation and for our people to gain their freedom and independence. This aggression also confirms the Israeli Government’s adherence to the policy of occupation, brute force and war, which in turn obliges the international community to shoulder the responsibilities towards the Palestinian people and towards peace.”

Commentary:

Although there are several other deceptions contained in Abbas’s address to the UN and through the daily rhetoric streaming from Muslim and Palestinian sources, the allegation of Israeli occupation is the Biggest Lie of all. I have written about this in some prior Eye of Prophecy articles, but it bears repeating. Since when are a people guilty of occupying a land that belongs to them in the first place? By default, ownership obtained through purchase of land parcels, through the United Nations Resolution of 1947, and most of all through an ancient title-deed given to them by God, himself, extend Jewish rights to occupy that land. But contemporary connotation suggests that occupation means unlawful trespassing or illegal possession and residency.

It’s one thing for the Palestinian people and their leaders to make these unsubstantiated claims, as it’s all too evident they will do anything to get want they want, even by lying to anyone and everyone who will listen. It’s quite another for entire peoples and nations to actually listen to them and believe much of what they say. But that’s exactly what the international community has done and is doing with frightening frequency. Which is why the United Nations has issued some 45 resolutions against Israel since 2013, and only one or two against Syria, where a quarter million (mostly innocent) people have been killed by warring factions in just the past three years.

Actually, the UN probably doesn’t know who to sanction in Syria these days! Would it be Assad? Or the rebel groups who oppose Assad? Or Iran for supporting Assad? Or the United States for supporting the opposition to Assad? Take your pick. No, it’s so much easier to bash Israel, the only free, democratic nation in the entire Middle East.

But then I seriously doubt that most of non-Muslim countries or even many Arabs and their representatives to the United Nations know much, if anything, about the true history of the Middle East. Those that do know better do everything they can to falsify the facts.

The United Nations in existence today has conveniently forgotten its own history; the irrefutable fact that it passed a resolution in 1947 which legally endorsed a Jewish State in Palestine, to later be called by its ancient heritage name of Israel. Which was a long overdue affirmation of the Palestine Mandate that followed the Balfour Declaration of 1917, i.e. some of what was then called Palestine belonged to the Jews. That part of the territory of Palestine would also be given to the Arabs alongside of the Jews. But the Arabs refused, and the very next day (May 15^th, 1948) five Arab nations launched an all-out assault with a vastly superior military on the vastly outnumbered Jews … ending in a Jewish victory that was against all odds.

Both Biblical and secular history indisputably confirm that the Jews were in the land long before the Arabs. I repeat: A long time before … at least 2,000 years before. Furthermore, the Jews were driven out of Israel by the Romans, who did not take up residency in the land; which didn’t then or now follow the usual pattern of conquering nations inhabiting the land they conquer. Several centuries later, the Muslims drove out many remaining Jews, and some Arabs took up residency in Israel, whose named had been changed to Palestine by a Roman Emperor.

Only for the Arabs to be vanquished by the Ottoman Turks, who, like the Romans, did not actually occupy Palestine. Then the British conquered the Ottoman Turks in World War I and declared Palestine as a territory that could be equally occupied by both Jews and Arabs. At no time after World War I or World War II did the Arabs make any serious attempt to form an Arab State in Palestine, because surrounding Arab countries like Jordan would not allow them to do so. But primarily because the Arabs stubbornly refused to share the land alongside Jews.

Thus, the Arabs within the state of Israel never have had nor will ever have a legitimate right or even argument to ownership of the land. If the conditions of the argument hinge on who was there first, or who now has the greater number of people, or who was legally granted the right of statehood by international authority of the UN, or who has amazingly developed the land—economically, socially, politically, militarily—then Israel wins on all counts. The only portion of land taken by force occurred during the 1967 Six-Day War; in which the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and Jerusalem were captured by the IDF in a miraculous victory over an impressive Arab military coalition. However, Temple Mount was given back to Jordan and the Sinai to Egypt. Then in 2006, Israel forcibly removed all Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip, which prepared the way for Hamas take over. Israel kept the Golan Heights; to give it up would be national suicide for Israel.

Yet, Mahmoud Abbas has the audacity to assert: “Israeli aggression against our people in the Gaza Strip has confirmed once again the urgent and pressing need to end the Israeli occupation…”

The so-called aggression in the Gaza Strip referred to by Abbas was last year’s IDF Operation Protective Edge in which Israel retaliated for the brutal murder of three Jewish teenagers, but primarily to more missiles launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel. Moreover, the Arabs living in the Gaza Strip (and the West Bank) are as free as they can be considering the corruption of and deprivation caused by their leaders. There is no Israeli occupation in Gaza; there aren’t even any Israelis soldiers stationed or civilians living in Gaza.

In the erroneous negative sense of the word, Israeli occupation simply doesn’t exist in Israel. Neither did I see any evidence, whatsoever, of alleged apartheid when I drove a rental car through much of Israel in 2006.

Photo of Israeli Checkpoint Near West Bank

There are strategic checkpoints surrounding the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and at Israel’s borders … no different than what we experience in the United States through our Border Patrol. But not the adverse connotation of occupation already discussed. Yet, people all over the world, even many Americans, are under the impression that the Jews are to some extent, in some fashion “occupying” land that doesn’t belong to them. They have heard about Israeli occupation enough to begin to believe it. It’s a lot easier to conclude that it must be true, if not only Palestinians but leaders of nations the world over say it’s true. It’s a lot easier to believe it than to spend a little time reading up on the real history of the Middle East applicable to Israel. Because the Jews have miraculously returned to their land with a supernatural revival of their ancient language; and quickly developed into a vibrant nation with a powerful military (for the small size of Israel), it’s all too easy to forget about the six million Jews murdered in Nazi death camps just one-two generations ago.

One More Quote from Abbas’s Misleading Speech:

“The Palestinian people, who miraculously recovered from the ashes of Al-Nakba of 1948, which was intended to extinguish their being and to expel them in order to uproot and erase their presence…. when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were torn from their homes and displaced within and outside of their homeland … to refugee camps in one of the most dreadful ethnic cleansing and dispossession in modern history…”

Overall, the fabrication of Israeli occupation is the biggest lie believed by many in today’s world, because it is the foundational false premise on which so much of the world’s misconception of historical Israel is built. However, the above quote from Abbas is undoubtedly the most blatant, belligerent, grossly fraudulent travesty of what actually happened in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence that I have ever heard.

It is shamefully and shockingly duplicitous. Duplicitous (two-faced) because in reality it actually describes and applies to what happened to the Jews during the horrendous years of the Holocaust … certainly not to the Palestinians in 1948.

Commentary. Here’s why:

PA President Abbas’ mention of Al-Nakba is a reference to Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 and the humiliating defeat—called the Day of Catastrophe (Al-Nakba)—of the Arabs, who were still decades away from being called Palestinians (those who reside in Israel).

When Israel became a sovereign state in 1948, she opened her doors to the Arabs to become citizens … to live side by side with the Israelis. Historical records clearly demonstrate that the Arabs rejected this generous offer. When five Arab nations attacked the fledgling state of Israel, there was absolutely no deliberate or even unintentional attempt by the Jews to (in Abbas’ words) “extinguish their being (Arabs) and to expel them in order to uproot and erase their (Arabs) presence…”

Instead, Arab leaders told their people to leave Israel until the Jews were annihilated; that an Arab victory would be swift and sound. The main reason was because the Arab military coalition needed the land space and facilities of Arab villages to conduct their operations against the Jews. Their own people were strategically in the way of these military objectives. As a result hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled Israel to neighboring Muslim countries like Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan. When the Israelis convincingly defeated the Arab confederation, most of the Arabs did not return, which has produced the “refugee camps” cited by Abbas. Those camps remain to this very day, only much larger.

There was no ethnic cleansing, no dispossession as Abbas so deceptively declares. All one has to do is to read the historical accounts of what actually transpired to know that the Palestinian Arabs (they weren’t even called Palestinians until the 1960’s) were in no way, shape, or form, “torn from their homes and displaced within and outside of their homeland” as Abbas so cleverly claims. Any displacement that took place was at the direct orders of the Arab military leaders to their own people and/or the natural desire for (especially the well-to-do) Arabs to get out of harm’s way during this very sudden war initiated by the Arabs.

There was, however, a forced mass exodus of Jews from surrounding nations, such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia because these countries wanted no Jews in their land after Israel became a state. In fact, many of the dramatic grievances against the Palestinians that Abbas alleges in his twisted historical account actually apply to the Jews during the horrible Holocaust atrocities perpetrated against them by the Nazis, followed by the post-World War II dispossession from their homes in nearby countries.

Abbas would have us believe a Big Lie; that his people were victims of a “dreadful ethnic cleansing” at the hands of the Jews and that the Jews now occupy a land that doesn’t belong to them. In fact, it was the Jews who lost six million of their own through ethnic cleansing in Europe.

Muslims everywhere appear irrationally intent on finishing what Hitler began … the genocidal elimination of the Jews from the earth. Which is why the Palestinians have rejected any and all land for peace offers made by Israel over the past several decades that would lead to a Palestinian State within the current boundaries of Israel. What Israel has asked in return is profoundly simple, but much too hard for the Arabs to accept; which is recognition of Israel as a sovereign state with Jerusalem as its undivided Capital. The Arabs want far more than East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights or all of the West Bank. They want all of Israel. No, they want more than that. They want Israel to cease to exist altogether.

That is why there will never be real peace in Israel until Messiah Jesus, the Prince of Peace returns.

That is why the newest and most often used tactic of the Palestinians in particular and Muslims in general is the Big Lie: That Israel is not Israel; it is Palestine. Therefore, the Jews are occupying a land that belongs to the Arabs.

Tell it loud enough and long enough and people will believe it.

It’s bad enough that the Palestinians teach their children these lies. It’s quite another for the PA President to stand before the United Nations General Assembly and revise history through pathetically fraudulent claims of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. What’s worse: People all over the world, including their leaders, believe these lies of Israeli occupation and aggression.

Things to Ponder

Do you see what Israel is up against? But on the authority of the Bible, I can tell you this: No matter how perilous Israel’s position, surrounded by deceitful enemies, what Israel is facing is nothing compared to what the Palestinians and all individuals and nations who harbor the idea that the Jews have no right to Israel or any rights at all. They are up against the true and living God … the God of Israel and his Messiah who happens to be a Jew who died for the sins of the whole world.

Our God is an awesome God. He is a God of love and grace and mercy.

“He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins” (Ephesians 1:7). He loves everyone the same … all peoples of all languages and nations.

He is also a God of truth and justice and destiny.

Said the Jewish Apostle Paul: “God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago” (Ephesians 1:12-13).

For individuals the world over, God’s plan of salvation applies to everyone equally. But God has a second, concurrent plan for the nation and people of Israel. Listen to what The Lord told Moses as a reminder of what He first promised to Abraham:

“I am Yahweh—the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob as El Shaddai—God Almighty—but I did not reveal my name, Yahweh, to them. And I reaffirmed my covenant with them. Under its terms, I promised to give them the land of Canaan, where they were living as foreigners. You can be sure that I have heard the groans of the people of Israel, who are now slaves to the Egyptians. And I am well aware of my covenant with them” (Exodus 6:2-5).

Later, when Israel abandoned the Lord their God, they were disciplined by means of foreign nations conquering and exiling them, culminating in the Great Diaspora by the Romans. But Scripture is replete with prophecies that God would return the Jews to Israel and restore them physically and spiritually, which is taking place before our 20^th and 21^st century eyes.

In 1967 when the Jews reclaimed the Holy City Jerusalem of the Holy Land of Israel, God’s discipline of his people ended. From that time on, nations and individuals who seek to destroy the Jews will pay an extremely heavy price.

“O God, do not be silent! Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, O God. Don’t you hear the uproar of your enemies? Don’t you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up? They devise crafty schemes (lies) against your people; they conspire against your precious ones. ‘Come,’ they say, ‘let us wipe out Israel as a nation. We will destroy the very memory of its existence’” (Psalms 83:1-4).

Rest assured, God will no longer be silent when it comes to Israel. He hears and sees the arrogant taunts and loathsome lies of those who seek to erase Israel from the face of the earth. Soon, very soon, the Holy One of Israel will spring into action!

Amazing Anticipation for Messiah

29 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by garybowers in Current Events

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Aliyah, Gematria, Shemitah

Amazing Anticipation for Messiah Continues

Recently, Natan Sharansky, Chairman for The Jewish Agency met and welcomed nearly thirty families including seventy-five children at Ben Gurion International Airport between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Although the event was exciting, it was not all that unusual; as hundreds of thousands of Jews all over the world have made Israel their home over the last seven decades or so, through what the Jews call, Aliyah … the “going-up” ingathering of their people.

What made this group of immigrants exceptional is that they all had left their homes in North America to take up residence in Israel; the Promised Land given to them by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. To be sure, thousands of Jews have immigrated from Canada and the United States to Israel. Yet, considering that people from all over the world would do just about anything to move to the United States (and Canada), it is quite remarkable that even a handful of people would want to do just the opposite … move from the prosperity and security of America and Canada to the uncertainty and turmoil faced by this tiny democratic Israeli nation surrounded by enemies who seek their destruction.

Said Natan Sharansky to the new arrivals: “Only think for a moment about your fathers, your grandfathers, your great grandfathers, all those generations of your families who were dreaming and praying next year in Jerusalem and you did it.”

*Note: Next Year in Jerusalem is a saying repeated by Jewish families for hundreds of years to this very day, especially during the Passover celebration.

One of the elated immigrants was Max Kresch, age 19, from Detroit; one of several who moved to Israel for the express purpose of serving as a “lone soldier” in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). Previously, he had been granted a visa to attend a yeshiva (Torah seminary) in Israel. This time he came to stay and to serve proudly with one of the greatest militaries in the entire world … in a nation with only slightly over six million Jews. He told CBN News, “…living in Israel made me realize how much I really loved being there.”

The families included David and Lisa Parshan and their two younger children. Said Lisa Parshan, “It was very nice to watch people just like us coming off … all jet lagged but with a smile on their face. It was really a very exciting experience.” The Parshan family had made Aliyah to Israel primarily because their oldest daughter, Shira, had paved the way by moving to Israel two years earlier!

As I have said in one way or another in two books and in past Eye of Prophecy articles, and as other students of prophecy have articulated in similar fashion, “Watching Jews return to Israel in such great numbers is watching Biblical prophecy unfold before our very eyes.” As significant as Aliyah is (I would place it alongside of Israel’s rebirth in 1948 as the two greatest signs of the end times), it is only one of twelve modern-day milestones of our generation that tells us we are so very close to Messiah’s return. If you haven’t already, please read two recently posted Eye of Prophecy articles, entitled, Look Up, Redemption is Near, Part I & II, published 7-11 & 7-18-15.

Referenced earlier in today’s article was The Jewish Agency, which actually came into existence during the 1929 Palestinian Mandate, conceived in 1917 as part of the Balfour Declaration … subsequently recognized by the now defunct League of Nations. But it wasn’t until Israel’s rebirth in 1948 that The Jewish Agency began its remarkable journey which led to what is now the largest nonprofit Jewish organization in the world. This agency has brought over three million Jews to Israel, providing relocation assistance throughout the land.

Their stated mission is to: Inspire Jews throughout the world to connect with their people, heritage, and land, and empower them to build a thriving Jewish future and a strong Israel.

Why the Jews Returned to Israel in the Early Years

Soon after the 1948 rebirth of Israel as (once again) a sovereign nation, most of the Jews who moved to Israel were from European countries and cities ravaged by World War II. Six million Jews had been slaughtered by the Nazi Third Reich. Many of the surviving three million Jews had been stripped of their property, their jobs, their businesses, and their homes. They had hardly anywhere to turn, except Israel. And turn they did.

In even greater numbers they later left Russia, where they were still under persecution by the Communist regime and by people who simply didn’t like (many hated) Jews. To this very day, most European, Russian, or South American Jews making Aliyah to Israel do so to get away from a menacing modern-day rise of anti-Semitism. For example, many Jews from France have recently moved to Israel, in direct response to the alarming increase in France’s Islamic population and Muslim terrorist’s acts.

From wherever they came, the underlying motivation behind their (leave it all behind) bold move to Israel was that of pressure … to escape the horrors of anti-Semitism. To live in and do their part to help restore Israel as their homeland; a place where they could confidently trust what they were telling themselves and their children: Never again. This must never happen again.

Thus, began fulfillment of spectacular prophecies announced by many Old Testament prophets even before the first captivity of the Jews in Babylon, let alone the subsequent complete and seemingly never-ending exile at the hands of the Romans in 70 AD. It was unthinkable that after nearly 2000 years, a people no longer a people, a nation no longer a nation, a language no longer a language could possibly and virtually overnight be restored as a people, reborn as a nation, and revived as a language. It was unprecedented, but it happened, nevertheless! The following passage is one of hundreds that virtually no one, not even the most observant Jews, really believed would ever take place.

“Do not be afraid, for I am with you. I will gather you and your children from east and west. I will say to the north and south, ‘Bring my sons and daughters back to Israel from the distant corners of the earth” (Isaiah 43:5-6).

Then the Lord through Isaiah prophesied to the Gentile nations: “Gather the nations together! Assemble the peoples of the world! Which of their idols has ever foretold such things? Which can predict what will happen tomorrow? Where are the witnesses of such predictions? Who can verify that they spoke the truth?” (Verse 9).

*Note: The formation of the United Nations is a direct result of “gathering the nations together;” of “assembling the peoples of the world.” But as the Lord also said: none of the idols or so-called gods, or psychics, or fortune-tellers, or sorcerers, or pretend prophets of these nations could possibly predict such a phenomenal event as the rebirth of Israel and return of Jewish exiles from all over the earth.

It was absolutely no coincidence that the United Nations was established in October, 1945, just 2 ½ years before Israel’s proclamation of Statehood in May, 1948. Furthermore, it was the United Nations which passed the November, 1947 resolution granting Israel the right to become a member of the family nations of the earth, of which there were fifty-one when the UN was formed. Now there are 193 nations.

More Contemporary Reason for Jews Returning to Israel

Returning briefly to the previously mentioned Parshan family and their oldest daughter whose example her parents followed by moving to Israel.

Here is what Shira Parshan told CBN News: “You know Mashiach is coming. I know that Israel is the place to be and I made Aliyah when I was 17 years old.”

Astonishing! Not only to leave her family and move to Israel at the age of seventeen; but to boldly and unashamed tell reporters that her burning passion to be in Israel was fueled by her desire to be there when Messiah comes. With the all too clear inference that she was expressing the shared enthusiasm of hundreds of thousands of Jews, both Sabras (native-born Israelis) and immigrants: Messiah’s appearance is so very near!

Although there are subsidiary reasons why the substantial return of Jews to Israel continues to amaze me and others who are genuinely interested in contemporary parallels between what is happening in and to Israel and fulfillment of last day’s prophecies, the appearance of Messiah is undoubtedly the most compelling correlation. With no better representation or convincing testimony than that expressed by Shira Parshan.

The Jewish Agency is, by far, the largest organization that facilitates the transition of Jews to Israel, but not the only one. Another agency, Nefesh B’Nefesh is one that works closely with the Israeli government and specifically with the American, Canadian, and British governments to bring Jews to Israel. Since its inception in 2002, this organization has been responsible for bringing some 45,000 Jewish immigrants from these three countries to Israel. In fact, this is the agency that coordinated the Aliyah of the group mentioned in this article.

Said Rabbi Yehoshua Fass, cofounder of Nefesh B’Nefesh to the group and to reporters: “We don’t want the immigration from America to be an Aliyah of necessity, of running away from something, of distress, duress, persecution. You don’t want that. The beauty of North American immigration is that people are choosing to come.”

This statement is a precise, poignant, and powerful explanation of another, even more pressing, motive for Jews (especially those who have left a comfortable lifestyle) to move to Israel: Because they want to. And, as indicated, one of the overwhelming reasons that they want to is because—no matter whether they are religious or secular—they passionately believe that Messiah will soon appear and MAKE ALL THINGS RIGHT!

They know he will arrive (Messianic Jews agree with Christians, it will be Messiah’s return or second appearance) in Jerusalem. They want to be in Israel when that happens!

More Amazing Correlations and Discoveries to Indicate Messiah’s Imminent Arrival

Just two weeks ago, the Eye of Prophecy article entitled, Great Expectations for Messiah was published. In general it was a sequel to the two-part series of Look Up, Redemption is Near. More specifically, it was written to demonstrate that the very same level of high expectations for Messiah’s appearance expressed by Jews in the first century BC is taking place in our generation, particularly in the past decade or so. The Great Expectation article began with:

“What does Aliyah, the blood moon tetrad, the Shemitah, hidden Bible codes, the third Jewish Temple, a red heifer, and Jonathan Pollard’s release from prison have in common, one with the other? If you desire a short easy-to-remember response to that question, then the answer is: Israel’s Redemption Is Very Near. If you prefer a one-word explanation for the common-ground connection between these seemingly diverse subjects and events, we can do that too: MESSIAH!”

I went on to explain each of these events in more detail; however, that article also made it clear that these occurrences individually—remarkable as they are—do not necessarily reflect specific Biblical prophecy as such … with the exception of Aliyah that is clearly predicted in Scripture. Rather, as indicated, the purpose for tying these subjects together was to show that many Jews today collectively correlate signs of Messiah’s coming to events that are happening with increasing frequency.

I also said in that post that many more things would undoubtedly be seen in the very near future as evidence that Messiah’s glorious appearance is right at the door. Accordingly, it was not my intention to write another article on these type of parallels for at least several weeks or months.

Yet, that’s what this article is mostly about. In light of what I’ve read and seen in just the past couple of weeks, I couldn’t resist sharing these stories, most of which come from the Internet site of Breaking Israel News, which is a companion offshoot of Israel 365. Certainly these are not the only websites that focus on current world events, most of which pertain directly to Israel, as seen in the light of Old Testament Biblical prophecy. (Israel 365 and BIN are not Messianic sites). However, these two internet sites place a great deal of emphasis on Israel’s ultimate redemption particularly in the light of how Messiah will bring about that final restoration.

So what else has transpired and what other observations have been made? Let’s take a look at three—no, let’s make that four—notable connections as proposed by some Jewish rabbis or Jewish prophecy enthusiasts. (Italics for emphasis because it’s an expression from Proverbs Chapter 30 used as a summary to last week’s post, Four Locust Kingdoms … which I’m bringing up only in case you haven’t read that article yet!)

Hebrew Gematria Pointing to Messiah in the Pending Jewish Year 5776:

To expand further on one of the seven indicators cited in the Great Expectations for Messiah article, I will quote directly from an August 20^th, 2015 article written by Rivkah Lambert Adler in Breaking Israel News:

“In an interview with Christian filmmaker Richard Shaw, director of the film Torah Codes: End to Darkness, prolific author and Bible Codes expert Rabbi Mattiyahu Glazerson demonstrates how multiple Hebrew phrases hint that the Hebrew year 5776 (2015-2016) will be a significant year for the appearance of the Messiah. Hebrew years are counted from Creation and begin on the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana, which always falls in September or October in the Gregorian calendar. As of sundown on September 13, 2015, the new Hebrew year will be 5776.”

Ms. Adler then explains that it’s necessary to at least partially understand the significance of numbers through the system of gematria; that each letter or word or phrase of the Hebrew language bears a numerical value. She goes on to say:

“In the video with Rabbi Glazerson, he translates eight Hebrew phrases and sentences which all have the numerical value of 776. The English translation of the eight Hebrew phrases that Glazerson mentions are:

“The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob = 776

The kingdom of David will be eternal = 776 (The Messiah will be a descent of King David.)

Come back to Me and I will come back to you = 776

God says, “I will do for Myself. For Myself I will do.” = 776

Come back to Me like naughty children = 776

Your kingdom will be forever = 776

The last kingdom = 776

The final one is the most fascinating. The coming of Messiah = 776.”

Ms. Adler concludes by saying: “When questioned by Shaw, Glazerson explains why the numerical value of all these phrases is 776 and not 5776, which is the full number of the upcoming Hebrew year. ‘Because you see, according to our (Jewish) tradition, Messiah will come in the millennium—in the sixth one. This is why the numbers don’t have the 5 here, because it’s self-understood that when you speak about Messiah, you relate to 5,000, the sixth millennia.’”

Before we continue with three more examples, it’s imperative we realize that these things are not specific Bible prophecies. However, I personally afford a great deal of significance to Hebrew gematria, if for no other reason than it is a vital tool in the decoding of the identity of Antichrist found in Revelation Chapter 13. As those know who have read my book, Out of the Abyss … can the number of the beast be solved, 666, the challenge issued by the author of Revelation for believers to ascertain the identity of the beast can be accomplished through gematria … by figuring out his number, six hundred and sixty-six. Several other passages of Scripture also clearly point to Nero as this man (the Antichrist beast), but Revelation 13:18 does so by the use of gematria.

Quite likely then, the impact of Hebrew gematria can also be related to the true Messiah, Jesus Christ.

The Shemitah Cycle as Related to the United States:

Once again we’ll refer to an article in Breaking Israel News by Rivkah Lambert Adler, posted on August 24^th. Citing other Jewish rabbis and a previous article in BIN, Ms. Adler writes: “Taken together, four recent and upcoming events make a compelling case for imminent and dramatic messianic advancement. The four events are the end of the Shmittah year on September 13, the shaking of the world economies last week, numerical hints that abound in the Bible Codes, and the final Blood Moon of the current tetrad on September 28.”

[For those interested, two other meaningful things will happen in September: (1) Pope Francis address to the United States Congress (a first). (2) The US Congress vote on the Iran deal.]

She goes on to say, “…there is a well-established pattern of connection between the end of a Shmittah cycle and a downturn in the US economy. This has happened at or near the end of the last seven Shmittah cycles.” (Note: Ms. Adler and a handful of others spell this Hebrew word as Shmittah; however, this article will use the more common and accepted spelling of SHEMITAH, when not directly quoting her articles).

Continuing with the thematic purpose of this week’s article which is the extraordinary emphasis being placed by Jewish Rabbis and a good deal of the Jewish population on the imminent appearance of the Messiah, let’s continue with Ms. Adler’s article. She then quotes end-times author Rabbi Pinchas Winston who said:

“Why should the end of a Shmittah cycle affect the economies of the world? Even today, when the keeping of Shmittah is rabbinical in nature, it still transmits a Torah message, and that is that God runs the world and provides everything in Creation with its livelihood. The fact that billions of people do not believe this or think about it does not change the fact … It has occurred over the millennia with uncanny consistency, and one need look back only a few decades to see how true this is, and to know that bracing oneself for financial upheaval this September is a word to the wise and financially prudent.”

What was expected in September AFTER the shemitah has actually begun in this month of August, although there has been a very recent resurgence of the stock market just before today’s article was published.

Ms. Adler defers to whom she terms, End of Days blogger Tomer Devorah, who also used Hebrew gematria to provide a possible, perhaps plausible explanation to the recent Stock Market Crash. Quoting Ms. Adler’s article, she writes:

“…The Dow fell more than 1,000 points. Some say it’s just a normal market correction. End of Days blogger Tomer Devorah has a different way of understanding the numbers. In the system of gematria … the numerical value of the word Mashiach (Messiah) is 358. On Thursday, August 20, the US stock market fell 358 points. The next day, Friday, August 21, the US stock market fell another 530 points. Together, 530 and 358 equals 888.

“This is significant because the number 8 represents God, who is above nature. As Tomer Devorah writes, ‘The number 8 is also connected to the revelation of Mashiach (Messiah).’ She (Tomer) explains that the number 7 is associated with completeness in nature—the seven days of Creation, the seven days of the week, the seven colors of the rainbow, etc. The number 8 is above nature. The Messianic era is also represented by the number 8 because, during that time, our souls will transcend nature and will experience a higher level of understanding God.”

Once again a disclaimer for clarification: Although there is some accuracy in what they say, I am not categorically endorsing Ms. Adler’s or Ms. Devorah’s summary conclusion as to the correlation of these numbers to such things as, our souls transcending nature. Biblical numbers are extremely significant as is, to a lesser degree, Hebrew gematria; but both must be examined as an integral part of the entirety of Biblical prophecy. As reflected in the Eye of Prophecy articles, I prefer to rely heavily on Scripture itself, including what the Bible says will happen just before, during, and after Messiah’s appearance.

Purported Correlation between Syria’s Demise and the End-Times Messiah & Antichrist:

Actually this connection goes all the way back to a 2^nd century Jewish Rabbi, Shimon Bar Yochai whose writings are part of the Midrash. While hiding in a cave, Rabbi Bar Yochai allegedly heard from an angel who told him: “And it is a sign for you, when you see that an Eastern Nero has fallen, that in Damascus has fallen the Bnei Mizrach kingdom, then will sprout the salvation of Israel, and Mashiach ben David comes and will ascend to Jerusalem.”

It was the aforementioned blogger, Tomer Devorah who thinks that this end-times Nero of the East is or could be Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad; that his shaky hold of the Syrian government could collapse any day now.

Most likely, Rabbi Bar Yochai made the connection that the destruction of Damascus is one of the end-times prophecies that will dovetail with Messiah’s arrival. This one is directly from Isaiah. “This message came to me concerning Damascus: Look, the city of Damascus will disappear! It will become a heap of ruins” (Isaiah 17:1).

There are three applications that can be made to any given prophecy. (1) The prophecy has already been fulfilled in Biblical times; (2) the prophecy will come to pass during the last days; (3) the prophecy was fulfilled then and will be fulfilled again during the end-times. Regarding Isaiah’s prediction, I believe it was fulfilled when Assyria conquered Damascus in 732 BC; because a few verses later Isaiah also said: “The fortified towns of Israel will also be destroyed, and the royal power of Damascus will end. All that remains of Syria will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory, declares the Lord of Heaven’s Armies” (Verse 3).

Just ten years later, Assyria conquered the ten northern tribes know as Israel … Syria will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory.

The glory of Israel began to be restored in 1948 and is in high gear in the 21^st century. It’s a much better fit to conclude that the destruction of Damascus predicted by Isaiah occurred when the northern kingdom of Israel was also destroyed within a span of ten years.

The word “disappear” used in the New Living Translation is translated, “removed from being a city,” in the NASB. These and other translations essentially mean that Damascus would no longer function as a viable city, let alone the capital of Syria.

However, it’s certainly possible that Syria and Damascus will once again be vanquished. As will many nations and cities during the Great Tribulation. If so, we don’t know if the ruin of Damascus will occur before the Rapture or after the Rapture. Moreover, it would only be one of dozens of other end-times prophecies that will take place during the soon-to-come Day of the Lord.

What does grab my attention is this second century Rabbi’s reference to the Eastern Nero which can also read, Nero of the East. Why would he even mention Nero or equate the proposed end-times Syrian ruler with this malevolent Roman Emperor? Those of you who have read my book, Out of the Abyss and/or several Eye of Prophecy articles on the Antichrist, know that a ton of Biblical and historical evidence leads to (what I think is overwhelming evidence) the conclusion that the Antichrist is none other than the return of the Roman Emperor Nero. Furthermore, that Nero’s revival was a widely held belief by secular Romans, by early Christians, and I’m sure by many Jews during the first four centuries or so. It was even given a name: Nero Redivivus Legend.

(Read all about this in the Eye of Prophecy article entitled, The Legendary Return of Nero, published 4-4-15. It was a sequel summary to the series of articles named, “A Beast by Any Other Name … Part I, II, III, published 3-14, 3-21, & 3-28-15).

Thus, it’s evident that Rabbi Bar Yochai combined the Old Testament prophecy of the fall of Damascus with the end-times appearance of Messiah, then connected both of those events to the Syrian monarch who would be a representation or counterpart of the wicked ruler Nero.

Little did he know that there would be no counterparts of or to Nero? Rather, it will be Nero himself who will appear from the Abyss and boast that he is the risen Messiah and the only God to be worshipped.

Interesting! No? Yes?

Israeli Mystical Rabbi Warns of Imminent Attack on Israel:

This fourth and final example of the extraordinary emphasis and enthusiasm over current events as precursor evidence of Messiah’s soon appearance is ominous, to say the least.

Recently, Rabbi Amram Vaknin, who allegedly receives periodic revelations from heaven—sometimes from the prophet Elijah—announced that: “The Muslims are going to contaminate the water, the fruits and vegetables. They are going to damage the electricity. And there are going to be people dying in the streets, thousands of people all over Israel.”

He specified further than this attack was being planned by current Arab Knesset Member, Hanin Zoabi (who is a known adversary of Israel even though she is member of the Knesset) as a spy for ISIS and Hamas. According to Rabbi Vaknin, God will permit this atrocious attack unless Israel does teshuva … which means to repent. Gil Nachman, a student of Rabbi Vaknin, said that this repentance must be for individual inner sins and dishonoring of parents, of not always telling the truth (lying), and about not being your real self (hypocrisy).

Comment: I’m certainly not endorsing or agreeing with this Rabbi’s predictions for several reasons … too many to list and elaborate on in this article. Nor is there time/space to challenge what Israelis individually and Israel nationally should repent of. Except to say that under the New Covenant, the fundamental repentance (change of mind) necessary is to allow God to change one’s heart (Jew and Gentile alike) through the awesome redemption purchased for us by Messiah Jesus. Essentially, it is to repent of unbelief in the final atoning sacrifice that Jesus made on the Cross. Simply put, it’s saying, “Yes,” to God by believing and receiving God’s gracious gift of his Son.

Repentance from what is an incredibly important question. Whether Messiah’s appearance (return) is predicated on Israel’s teshuva is a monumentally significant issue and dilemma to the Jewish people, especially the Orthodox among them. The answer is found in the difference between the Old Covenant through Moses and the New Covenant through Messiah Jesus. It’s also found in the prophecies of Old Testament prophets, the words of Jesus while on the Mount of Olives, the book of Revelation, and the Apostle Paul writings on the Rapture and the Antichrist.

The primary purpose for including this questionable yet startling and gloomy prediction is in keeping with the main theme of this article. Which is the amazing frequency of rabbinical predictions of and correlation with what is happening in the Middle East, especially Israel, to the passionate and persistent anticipation for Messiah. It is nothing short of incredible. Though many of these associations may not be accurate, the sheer number of them create a modern-day sensation that is unrivaled since the time of Christ … his first coming to the earth.

Things to Ponder

The whole world is watching, wondering, and wavering whether the apocalyptic beginning of the end has begun. Who is Messiah? When and where will he arrive? What exactly will he do? Except for the exact time of Messiah’s glorious appearance, many passages in the Bible have answered these questions.

Listen to the word of the Lord through the Prophet Micah:

“Yes, says the Lord, I will do mighty miracles for you, like those I did when I rescued you from slavery in Egypt. All the nations of the world will stand amazed at what the Lord will do for you. They will be embarrassed at their feeble power. They will cover their mouths in silent awe … they will fear him greatly, trembling in terror at his presence. Where is there another God like you, who pardons the guilt of the remnant, overlooking the sins of his special people? You will not stay angry with your people forever, because you delight in showing unfailing love. Once again you will have compassion on us. You will trample our sins under your feet and throw them into the depths of the ocean! You will show us your faithfulness and unfailing love as you promised to our ancestors Abraham and Jacob long ago” (Micah 7:15-20).

Based on Scripture and unfolding events in today’s world, I can say with utmost confidence: God’s discipline of Israel through Gentile nations ended in 1967. His compassion for his special possession Israel has returned in active form. He will forgive their sins and pardon the guilt of the remnant. That remnant began in 1948 at the magnificent rebirth of Israel as a nation, of the Jews as a people. It will be refined even more … down to those who will gladly recognize and receive Messiah Yeshua as their God and Savior.

Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised!

Great Expectations for Messiah

08 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by garybowers in Current Events

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Bible Codes, Jonathan Pollard, King Messiah, Second Coming, Talmud

Great Expectations for Messiah … Then and Now

What does Aliyah, the blood moon tetrad, the Shemitah, hidden Bible codes, the third Jewish Temple, a red heifer, and Jonathan Pollard’s release from prison have in common, one with the other? If you desire a short easy-to-remember response to that question, then the answer is: Israel’s Redemption Is Very Near. If you prefer a one-word explanation for the common-ground connection between these seemingly diverse subjects and events, we can do that too:

MESSIAH!

Jews all over the world, especially observant Jews in Israel, are becoming exponentially excited over Israel’s redemption. They see this restoration as both physical—rescue from and protection against their enemies—and spiritual … individual and national return to God through renewal of the sacrificial system lost to them when the second Temple was destroyed. No matter what form this revival takes and no matter whether a Jew is religious or secular, there is one prevailing and passionate premise: Messiah will make all these things happen upon his glorious appearance.

For most Jews this will be the first arrival of Messiah. For born-again believers, Gentiles and Messianic Jews alike, this will be the majestic return of Messiah (Jesus Christ).

Two Eye of Prophecy articles entitled Look Up, Redemption is Near (Part I & II) were recently published on 7-11-15 and 7-18-15, respectively. In these articles, we looked discerningly at twelve unmistakable signs of the 20^th & 21^st centuries showing that Biblical end-times prophecy has been and is being fulfilled in one generation alone. In the second article, these signs were itemized for quick reference. They are as follows:

Rebirth of Israel as a Sovereign Nation, 1948
Recapture of Jerusalem in the June, 1967 Six-Day War
Jerusalem, a Heavy Burden to the Nations
The 3^rd Rebuilt Temple
Israel’s Phenomenal Agricultural Accomplishments
Modern-Day Alignment of Gog/Magog Nations against Israel
National and Ethnic Wars in the 20^th & 21^st Centuries
Amazing Increase of Natural Disasters
Moral & Spiritual Decline & Intense Persecution of Christians
False Messiahs & Prophets
Unequaled Increase in Quantity and Speed of Transportation and Information
Unprecedented Spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the World

In this 107^th article, which is also the 3^rd post in the 3^rd year since this project began in late July, 2013, it’s fitting to quote the subtitle of the Eye of Prophecy website which is: “For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus” (Revelation 19:10). The very center of Biblical prophecy, Jesus Christ, is what this ministry is all about. I trust that the articles have been true to and accomplished that objective. Thus, considering that the numbers seven and three are directly related to and reflective of God’s divinity and sovereignty, it’s also fitting that this week’s article focuses on this Messianic fervor that is sweeping over Israel.

Although most of the topics listed in the first paragraph of this article are not specific Biblical prophecies as such, they are, when combined together, amazing evidence that the time of Messiah is near, so very near. Why can we say that? Because the last time that Israel and even surrounding Gentile nations were so zealous about the arrival of Messiah, that’s exactly what happened! Jesus Christ appeared on the scene of history fulfilling dozens of Biblical prophecies that he was, in fact, the Messiah … with an abundance of documentation, the greatest proof of which was his resurrection from the grave!

Messianic Expectations at the Time of Jesus Christ

Scholars differ in opinion as to the extent of Messianic anticipation found in the first and second centuries before and after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. But when you include Biblical historical accounts with Jewish writings, it’s hard to escape the (clear) evidence that many Jews in Israel were eagerly looking for Messiah to arrive any day. This was especially evident during the rise of the Roman Empire and certainly when Rome added Israel to its conquered territories. The more the Romans exercised control over Israel, the greater was Israel’s longing for Messiah’s coming. The vast majority of Jews believed that only the Messiah could free them from Roman subjugation and restore Israel to the glory days of King David. There were numerous examples of this increasing hope for Messiah’s imminent appearance, none more so that an entire segment of Jewish society known as the Zealots.

Evidence from Jewish Rabbinical Writings: In a well-documented and written on-line article posted in 1996 by Glenn Miller, entitled, Messianic Expectations in 1^st Century Judaism, he reaches the following conclusion: “So, it is very easy to document a wide range of Messianic expectations and, judging from the explosion of messianic materials in the period 200 BCE-200 CE and the wide acceptance of popular messianic leaders, it is very easy to conclude that messianic expectations were widespread.”

The messianic materials referred to by Glenn Miller were primarily the Jewish Talmud which consists of two component parts: The Mishnah and the Gemara. The Talmud was a first and second century written compilation of thousands of rabbinical oral teachings and opinions that the Jews felt were necessary to successfully defend and maintain Judaism after the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the second Temple. Miller also included findings from the Jewish Midrash, Targums, Dead Sea Scrolls (the Essenes), Jewish Pseudepigrapha and Apocrypha books such as I Enoch and 2 Esdras.

Biblical Evidence: The following examples include but are not limited to the strong evidence that some Gentiles and many Jews believed the Messiah would appear in their (1^st century BC or AD) lifetime:

The Magi: “Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem asking, “Where is the new-born king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:1-2).

We then read that Herod was “deeply disturbed” about this news and asked the religious leaders where the Messiah was to be born. They replied by quoting Micah 5:2 … the ruler (Messiah) would be born in Bethlehem. In the context of this article, there are two distinct things going on here. First, most scholars (including me) believe these wise men had hailed from either Babylon or Persia or both. That they had read the prophecies of Daniel who was well-known to their ancestors. How else would they have known the approximate time and signs of Messiah’s arrival? The star was a supernatural means God used to guide them to Jerusalem, just a few miles from Bethlehem. What they didn’t know was exactly where the Messiah would be born. It took the Jewish religious leaders to search the Scriptures to locate the prophesied birthplace of Messiah.

Ironically or conveniently the Jewish religious leaders would later (during Christ’s ministry and when they had him crucified) decline to check carefully where Jesus was born. Instead they regarded him as simply a man from Nazareth who was impersonating the Messiah. But it stands to reason that these Magi were not the only Gentiles who realized that Messiah’s time was at hand. Undoubtedly, there were others who didn’t make the trip to Israel to find the King Messiah and worship him.

The Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, and Priests: Although the pious leaders of Israel refused to believe the incredible miracles that Jesus performed, his amazing teaching with great authority, and his claims that he was not only Messiah but the Son of God, it’s very interesting that they didn’t refute the fact that they and many of their compatriots fully expected Messiah to appear on the scene during their time on this earth.
John the Baptist: John knew full well his purpose in life—to prepare the way for God’s Anointed One. He and his followers were altogether aware and eagerly embraced the evidence that Messiah would and then did arrive on the scene. In fact, John recognized Jesus as their Messiah when he said, “…Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
Simeon’s Expectation of and Encounter with Messiah: “At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God saying, ‘Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!’” (Luke 2:25-32, italics for emphasis).

For me this is one of the most precious and astounding accounts in the Gospels to demonstrate how God fulfills prophecy, in this case the preparation of both Jews and Gentiles for the magnificent and appointed time of his Son’s arrival on earth. Note the italicized portion of this passage: Simeon had been waiting (with obvious implication … a long time) enthusiastically for Messiah to come and rescue Israel. There is an obvious implication that Simeon was only one of many Jews who had this same expectancy, at some level or another. But Simeon’s passionate anticipation was intense and God rewarded him by letting him hold Messiah in his arms before Simeon passed from this earth.

Immediately after this scene with Simeon, Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, an old woman named Anna was also rewarded for her faithfulness in believing that the time of Messiah had arrived. After seeing Jesus and also realizing who he was, she praised God and, “…talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38, italics for emphasis).

Regarding Simeon, also note that he totally understood Messiah’s real purpose for coming (the first time), when he said, “I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people.”

Not only for Israel, but Jesus would be a light to the Gentile nations. Sadly, those who denied Jesus, a rejection that led to his crucifixion, couldn’t and wouldn’t see who Messiah ought to be. They had not carefully studied their own prophets, especially Isaiah, who spoke of Messiah as the suffering servant of God, one who would be, “…pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins” (Isaiah 53:5).

Yes, Messiah would rescue Israel, but it would be a spiritual liberation. Said the angel to Joseph: “… do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21).

God knows all too well what is best for us: Unless the human heart is radically changed, there can be no peace with God and between peoples.

Both Biblical and secular history is crystal clear: A vast cross-section of Jews and a few Gentiles in the first centuries BC and AD fully expected, some with ardent anticipation, the advent of Messiah. This was not a coincidence and certainly not by accident. And so: Jesus was born in Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, lived, taught, performed great miracles mostly in Galilee, and ultimately died for the sins of the whole world on a cross near Jerusalem. But then he rose from the dead, ascended back to heaven from the Mount of Olives. And from that very spot he will return in great power and glory, this time as the King of kings and Lord of lords. (See Acts 1:9-11 & Revelation 17:14).

Now let’s look at some very contemporary things taking place in Israel that once again validates the soon return of Messiah. The twelve prophetic signs previously alluded to are more than sufficient to demonstrate that the Rapture is very close at hand. However, when we see how the incredible expectancy for Messiah has captivated attention of Jews all over today’s world, we can compare that phenomenon to the same first century passionate eagerness for Messiah’s arrival to save Israel. But the question then: Save them from what?

For those of us, Jew and Gentile, who have been redeemed by Jesus’s atoning sacrifice on the Cross, it will be the glorious reappearance of our Lord. For the greater number of Jews in Israel and world-wide, they believe of course, that it will be Messiah’s first advent. But during the time of Jacob’s trouble (the Great Tribulation) they, too, will fully realize that Messiah and Jesus are one and the same.

For now, suffice to say that Jews (particularly rabbis) are seeing Messianic connections between seemingly unrelated events. With the exception of Aliyah, the following list of correlations made by mostly Jewish Rabbis is not a fulfillment of specific Biblical prophecies as such. However, I firmly believe that when Jews, especially Rabbis, begin making these associations in such large numbers and to such a level of intensity; this is God’s sovereignty in action … by planting the seed of Messianic passion within the hearts and minds of his people just as he did before Christ came the first time.

Seven Messianic Correlations Being Made by the Jews (there are more)

Aliyah:

Literally this Hebrew word means going up (to Israel) or the ingathering return of Jews all over the world to Israel. The following Bible verse is one of many that predict this phenomenal event hundreds of years before the Jews were conquered and expelled from the Promised Land by the Romans in 70 AD, labeled the Great Diaspora by Jews and Gentiles alike: “For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land” (Ezekiel 36:24).

This is the first of the twelve milestones (listed earlier in today’s article) discussed in Look Up, Redemption is Near, Part I & II, under the heading: The Rebirth of Israel…: that Messiah’s appearance is very near.

God through Ezekiel goes on to say: “…I will bring them home to their own land from the places where they have been scattered. I will unify them into one nation on the mountains of Israel. One king will rule them all; no longer will they be divided into two nations or into two kingdoms … I will cleanse them. Then they will truly be my people, and I will be their God. My servant David will be their king, and they will have only one shepherd … They will live in the land I gave my servant Jacob, the land where their ancestors lived…” (Ezekiel 37:21-25).

Thus they completely comprehend that, when Israel was reborn as a nation in 1948 and especially when Jerusalem was recaptured in 1967, the Biblical prophecy of Jewish exiles returning, as recorded in the book of Ezekiel (and other Old Testament prophets), is being fulfilled in this generation. Both observant and secular Jews realize resolutely that they are living in a historical time of Israel’s restoration and redemption. That the heart and soul of this ingathering return to Israel will be Messiah (my servant David … only one shepherd) uniting and leading them.

Now let’s examine some more recent incidents that have made headlines in certain Jewish circles. Whether any of these happenings have any specific connection to Messiah’s actual appearance is not the point. The real consequence is that the Jews are viewing them as evidentiary signs that Messiah’s arrival is drawing ever so near. I’m sure there will undoubtedly be more events in the near future that will bear Messianic significance to the Jews.

Specifically, we’ll look at comments or views from different Jewish Rabbis on these recent signs to show the totality of what’s happening in Israel and the world over, all of which can be boiled down to one common contemporary belief and premise that is sweeping over the Jewish community: Messiah will soon appear.

Blood Moon Tetrad:

The final of the four-part Blood Moon Tetrad (cycle) that began last year will occur in a few weeks … September 28^th, 2015. I devoted one entire Eye of Prophecy article to this subject, entitled Blood Moons, published 4-19-14. I would encourage you to read that article, to better put this subject in a Biblical perspective.

But for purpose of today’s article, let’s listen to a quote from a rabbinic scholar, Rabbi Mendel Kessin, in a recent message delivered on the subject of Blood Moons that have occurred on important Jewish festival dates (Passover and Sukkot … Feast of Tabernacles). Said Rabbi Kessin: “Every time a blood moon happens (on a Jewish holiday tetrad), there is a messianic advancement … we have now entered the countdown to the messiah, which is unbelievable. Based on the (verse from the Book of Joel), based on what’s happening, something awesome seems to be in the works. Fascinating!”

Although the main topic of Rabbi Kessin’s message was the blood moon phenomenon, he also referenced the Shemitah and Iran’s menace to Israel as other events that will usher in the Messianic age.

Shemitah, the Sabbatical Year:

“For six years you may plant your fields and prune your vineyards and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year the land must have a Sabbath year of complete rest. It is the Lord’s Sabbath. Do not plant your fields or prune your vineyards during that year” (Leviticus 25:3-4).

Although there were other reasons that the Lord eventually disciplined Israel that ultimately led to their 70-year Babylonian captivity, violation of the seventh year of leaving the land fallow (Shemitah) was the reason cited by God for the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple. I believe the reason for God specifically naming this violation is that Israel (at the time) fully understood that they had failed to keep this important law, one that assured God’s blessing on their land. Israel disputed the other obvious wrong things they had done, which are time and time again listed by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, and other Jewish prophets. Of course God was right and his people were wrong, but the one thing they couldn’t take issue with is failure to keep the seventh Sabbatical year (Shemitah).

But now, in our time, Israel is once again keeping the Shemitah. Nearly all Israeli farmers have allowed their farmland to remain uncultivated this past Shemitah which began in the Jewish calendar year 5775 (last year) and ends in the next few weeks on September 13^th. (The Jewish calendar year begins on Rosh Hashanah, which is the 1^st of Tishrei … this year on September 14^th, 2015.)

In the Babylonian Talmud (referenced earlier in this article), there is clear understanding that Messiah will come in the year following the Shemitah. Here is a quote from the Talmud: “As it is written, in that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen. Our Rabbis taught: in the seven-year cycle at the end of which the son of David will come—in the first year, this verse will be fulfilled.”

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, a highly respected rabbi among Orthodox Jews recently encouraged Jews from all over the world to return to Israel (Aliyah) as soon as possible, saying: “or there won’t be enough room on the airplanes.” He made this startling statement specifically in the context of the soon to end Shemitah, as well as all of the other signs that seem to be aligning with Messiah’s arrival.

Hidden Bible Codes:

Beginning two-three decades ago, books were published and articles written on the astounding discovery of current (20^th and 21^st century) events unfolding based on hidden texts found mostly in the first five books of the Torah (Old Testament). Although the stir created by these hidden codes has dissipated in the past few years, once again a Jewish Rabbi has purportedly found a hidden code in the book of Daniel that, through the use of Gematria (numerical values assigned to the Hebrew alphabet, i.e. counting in Hebrew) shows that the time of Messiah is upon us.

Time and space doesn’t permit in this article, so suffice to say that Rabbi Mattityahu Glazerson ascertained a numerical (gematria) connection between events in the book of Daniel, the Messiah as the Son of David, and the current Shemitah, followed by the next Jewish year. The calculations resulted in Rabbi Glazerson suggesting that, “the time of the end” phrase in Daniel will coincide with the conclusion of the Shemitah in the Jewish year 5775 on September 13^th. But mostly importantly with the beginning of the next Hebrew year of 5776. That Messiah should come sometime during this coming Hebrew year beginning September 14^th, 2015.

*Note: Personally, I’m not sure what to think about these hidden codes of Scripture, except to say that there is more than enough evidence in the actual text of the Bible to narrow down the “season” of the Lord’s return. I have written about this generational time-frame of the Lord’s return in several Eye of Prophecy articles, with the most representative of these being, The Omega Generation, posted on 2-15-14.

Jesus, himself, said that no one can know (predict) the day or hour of his coming. But we can and should carefully examine the seasonal signs; meaning the approximate time-range and window of opportunity when the Rapture will occur, followed in seven-years by the glorious return of Messiah Jesus to Planet Earth.

The Third Jewish Temple:

Many Jews don’t necessarily consider the Third Temple as a prophetic phenomenon; rather, they view it as a matter-of-fact individual and national necessity, both literally and symbolically, as a precursor to Israel’s redemption. They even disagree whether rebuilding of the Temple will be launched by Messiah or by orders and initiation of observant Jews.

Recently, much as been written (including several Eye of Prophecy articles) about the incredible emphasis on and enthusiasm over the Third Jewish Temple. Nearly all, if not all, of the Temple furniture and utensils have been finished, including the menorah and sacrificial altar itself. Descendants from the tribe of Levi have been identified (that can actually be done through DNA evidence!), selected, and trained as future priests.

The intensity of observant Jews over the possibilities of their rebuilt temple has reached unprecedented and unparalleled proportions in the past few years. Even secular Jews are beginning to accept the reality of a rebuilt Temple.

The Red Heifer:

According to Jewish members of The Temple Institute, the only missing piece for resuming the Levitical sacrificial system lost when the 2^nd Temple was destroyed, aside from the Temple building itself, is the breeding of the required red heifer for one of the all-important sacrifices. (See Numbers Chapter 19). Says Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute, “Our immediate goal is to produce the first kosher red heifer in 2,000 years.”

This breeding program began just a few weeks ago and could take three years or so to produce the perfect (red) heifer. It’s yet another example of what is taking place in Israel that is part of the end-times scenario. Biblically, however, it’s obvious that a red heifer does not actually have to exist before the Day of the Lord begins (with the Rapture).

Jonathan Pollard’s Release from Prison:

For those who may not know, Jonathan Pollard was convicted in 1985 of being an Israeli spy for disclosing US military secrets to Israel. He was sentenced to life imprisonment subject to a 30 year review for pardon. He was recently pardoned and will be released on November 20^th, 2015, exactly 30 years later. It’s a well-known fact that several former CIA and FBI chiefs believed his life sentence was excessive, far exceeding Pollard’s treason in comparison to similar acts of espionage by other spies. The implication was that the sentence was so harsh because he was a Jew.

But in context of this Eye of Prophecy article, the most remarkable feature of Pollard’s recent pardon is that Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who died in June, 2010, developed a close and supportive relationship with Pollard that lasted for some 20 years. After the rabbi’s death, Jonathan Pollard’s wife, Esther made public some intriguing messages from Rabbi Eliyahu, published by The Yeshiva World News on June 11, 2010. Among these writings, the late Rabbi predicted that Jonathan Pollard’s eventual release from prison (even though he didn’t know for sure that Pollard would ever be released) would be directly connected to the final redemption of Israel, of the Jewish people … brought about by the Messiah. Listen to these remarkable words from Rabbi Eliyahu speaking about Jonathan Pollard:

“You are a cosmic key to the redemption of the Jewish people. Your release is synonymous with the release of the Shechinah (the Divine presence) from galut (exile). Your release is tied up with the Moshiach Ben David’s (Messiah, son of David) return to the Land. Your release is bound to the redemption of the land and people of Israel.”

As already indicated in citing this and the previous listed events or signs that many rabbis have considered imminent precursors to Messiah’s arrival; none of them individually may be, in fact, directly associated with Messiah. But taken as a whole, the pattern demonstrated indisputably reflects the same kind of Messianic fervor that preceded the arrival of Jesus Christ, which resulted in a partition of time itself … from BC to AD.

Moreover, did you catch one amazingly crucial word in Rabbi Eliyahu’s statement? I don’t know if Mordecai Eliyahu was a Messianic Jew or not. Most likely he was not, as very few modern-day rabbis are; or if they do believe that Jesus is the Messiah, they’re not making it public.

Please read his statement again and see if you can find the one word that might suggest he had possibly considered that Jesus of Nazareth was/is the Messiah. Did you find it? Did you even look?!

If not, this is the word: RETURN.

That’s right. He said, “…with the Moshiach (Messiah) Ben David’s return to the Land.” With what could very well mean just what the rabbi meant to say: That Messiah had already appeared to Israel … in the Land. Messiah (Yeshua) is now ready to return, and usher in Israel’s redemption—symbolically represented by Pollard’s release from prison.

The main point: Virtually every recent significant event that involves Israel is being compared and connected directly to the end time arrival of Messiah! Just like what happened the first time that Christ came to this earth, born in Bethlehem of a virgin—the Son of God, the Son of David, and the Son of Man. The first time as the Lamb of God who died for the sins of the world. And soon, very soon, to return as the Lion from the Tribe of Judah to rescue Israel from total annihilation, to prevent the world from self-destruction, and to complete Israel’s redemption so that all of Israel (the remnant left from the Great Tribulation) will be saved, physically and spiritually.

Things to Ponder

When Messiah returns in power and great glory, all Israel will know that he is Jesus of Nazareth. They will rejoice like never before; they will fight ferociously alongside him while he leads them to a resounding victory over their enemies. But first they will mourn greatly, because they will fully realize that it was they who nailed Jesus to the Cross; no different than their ancestors and no different from all of us whose separation from God compelled Christ to redeem us by paying the penalty for our transgressions.

“…They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died. The sorrow and mourning in Jerusalem on that day will be like the great mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo” (Zechariah 12:10-11).

Soon, I will turn 69 years of age (September 28^th … day of the blood moon). Thanks to our Lord and Savior, my destiny in heaven is assured. My prayer and hope is that I will arrive there along with millions of believers taken in the magnificent Rapture. But if my translation to heaven is by way of death, then so be it. I will humbly say what Messiah Jesus said to God, his father, a short time before giving up his life for me (for you):

“…Yet I want your will to be done, not mine” (Matthew 26:39).

A Deal That Will Live In Infamy

01 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by garybowers in Current Events

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Gog & Magog, Iran, Israel, Nuclear deal

A Deal That Will Live in Infamy

I suppose there are other titles that could be used for the subject of this week’s Eye of Prophecy article. But since it follows on the heels of last week’s post entitled, Day of Infamy that dealt with the Jewish 9^th day of Av—a date on which two titanic tragedies and other ominous events struck Israel—it’s appropriate to describe the recent nuclear arrangement with Iran in the same fashion.

This deal with a nation that is an avowed enemy of Israel and the United States is eerily comparable to and just as menacing as the day that England’s Neville Chamberlain signed a pact with Hitler. An agreement that not only didn’t guarantee peace in their time, but actually intensified the winds of war that led to World War II.

Deal? A very loose term at best. Agreement? I suppose so if they mean that the P5+1 nations agreed to everything Iran demanded. It just may be the most one-sided bargain of all time. No level playing field. No equal benefits for both sides. Picture a teeter-totter that won’t move up and down, with Iran grounded securely below and the P5+1 nations dangling in the air above … hung out to dry. Or a merry-go-round with Iran standing and smirking nearby as they watch the United States on the carousel going round and round at a maddening and dizzying pace. What makes it even more mocking is that the United States begged Iran to meet them on the playground in the first place.

The imagery of a playground is suitable because the leaders of the United States and of other powerful nations on earth are playing with the lives and destiny of millions of Jews and Arabs and Persians in the Middle East.

Oh, there was give and take. The United States and other P5 nations did all the giving and Iran did all the taking. In doing so, our Presidential Staff apathetically ignored the warnings of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his stirring address to the United States Congress on March 3^rd, 2015. Much was written about the speech that President Obama and Secretary of state John Kerry refused to attend, including the Eye of Prophecy article entitled, A Modern Day Esther, posted this past March 7^th.

Here is a brief piece from that article:

Prime Minister Netanyahu proposed a much better deal with concluding remarks such as, “Ladies and gentlemen, history has placed us at a fateful crossroads. We must now choose between two paths. One path leads to a bad deal that will at best curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions for a while, but it will inexorably lead to a nuclear-armed Iran whose unbridled aggression will inevitably lead to war. The second path, however difficult, could lead to a much better deal that would prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, a nuclearized Middle East and the horrific consequences of both to all of humanity.”

Now that this infamous deal is done, it’s all too clear which path was taken.

This deal has been in the making for nearly two years. Many of us hoped (wishful thinking) that the P5 +1 nations, which include the United States, would see through Iran’s deceitful agenda. That we would come to our collective senses, and fully realize that you cannot deal with a rogue nation—an enemy which before, during, and after the negotiations continued their tirade that calls for the humiliation and destruction of both Israel and the United States.

Before we examine some of the threatening repercussions of this atrocious Joint Comprehensive Agreement, the most flagrant of which is an undeniable endangerment to the nation of Israel, I’d like to go back nearly 20 months to another Eye of Prophecy article entitled, Let’s Make a Deal, published 12-14-13, written about this deal in the early stages of negotiations. That column was as relevant today as when it was posted, and exposed the deplorable fallacy and imminent danger of what we can now label, A Deal with the Devil. That could also be the title of this article.

Sometimes I will quote from prior Eye of Prophecy articles, but normally only a sentence or two or perhaps a few paragraphs. In this case, I believe it will be beneficial if we review a good portion of the Let’s Make A Deal post to fully grasp the ugly reality regarding the why, what, and wherefore of this terrible deal. We’ll then try to put these things into perspective pertaining to end-times prophecies and Biblical principles that provide warnings to nations that turn on Israel. In particular, we’ll take another (brief) look at the Gog/Magog invasion of Israel, of which Russia and Iran are the two main aggressors.

Excerpts from Let’s Make A Deal, published December 14, 2013. (Note: All paragraphs from this prior article will be placed in italics. Any excerpts that were in italics from that article will be placed in bold print).

About three weeks ago, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei announced to the Iranian people: “Israel is doomed to failure and annihilation.” That, “Zionist leaders cannot be called human.” A short while before that, Khamenei said, “The Zionist regime is a rabid dog.” There were other words of hatred directed against Israel. But the irony of this menacing message is that it was delivered disrespectfully just a short time before the G5+1 (United States, Great Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany) completed negotiations with Iran in a November 24th interim deal called a “Joint Plan of Action”—to ease economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for a “slow-down” of Iran’s nuclear enrichment of uranium.

Would you make a deal with someone whose main purpose in life was to destroy you and members of your family or your best friend? How do you negotiate with those who would lie to you, cheat you, and ultimately kill you to accomplish their warped objectives? Where do you start? What do you say? How sure can you be? Why are you even there in the first place? But none of these questions seemed to bother the G5+1, with perhaps the exception of France.

“Suppose, we can reason with them?” Really? Concerning Iran, if they had done just one positive thing in the last 34 years to suggest the slightest hint of cooperation or concession, then there might be a slim chance (say .01%) of reaching some sort of (mutual) agreement. It’s been 34 years since the attack on the US Embassy in Tehran and kidnapping of dozens of US Embassy representatives by the newly formed Islamic government of Iran. If we’re even a fraction wrong about Iran’s true intentions, then there’s a 99.9% chance they will follow through on their threats.

Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to this menacing pact was to label it an, “historic mistake.” He should know. For the same 34 years, Israel has lived under the constant threat of Iranian terror exported to Syria and Lebanon, especially through Hezbollah. Because Israel understands her enemies far better than the United States under the current administration, Netanyahu also said, “The most dangerous regime in the world must not be allowed to have the most dangerous weapon in the world … we will not allow Iran to receive a military nuclear capability.” And, “As to the (Iranian) actual threat, we will act against it in time if need be.” These quotes are part of a speech given during Prime Minister Netanyahu’s recent visit to Rome.

Note: Later in today’s article we’ll look at one of the unbelievable clauses in this nuclear agreement that very well could pit the United States and other nations directly against Israel, should Israel take action on its own against Iran.

Continuing with the prior article:

Regardless of your view on the right or wisdom of Israel to act independently of the US, or the G5+1, or the entire world, I would again ask: Would you sit down at the table with an enemy who has sworn to do anything and everything they can to terminate your existence on this earth? And keep in mind that Iran has not only threatened to wipe Israel from the global map, it has also avowed to destroy the “Great Satan.” That’s right. Iran refers to America as the Great Satan; Israel is only the “little Satan.” We should be so honored?!

In that context, how America and the other G5 superpowers would seemingly ignore (except for a few innocuous words to chastise Khamenei’s condemnation of Israel) Iran’s in your face tirade at the outset of these “historic” talks is simply inconceivable. And that’s not all. Listen to what Secretary of State, John Kerry, recently said during his 8th trip to Israel (9th trip by the time this article is published; reminiscent of Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger’s “shuttle diplomacy in 1973 … so much so that Kerry answered the media’s serious inquiry about the number of trips to the Middle East, with the quip, “It’s a commute, folks”): Kerry boasted, “We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. Not now, not ever.” Really? What about the red line that he and President Obama emphatically said would be enforced in Syria? For all intents and purposes, it has become a yellow line of an overtly cautious, but potentially lethal compromise; indeed, a line of retreat—if not surrender. Oh, not the kind of surrender found in actual war; rather, the kind of up-front pacification that sweet-talks the enemy with, “We’ll play fair if you will.”

Fortunately, many members of the Senate and House of Representatives including some democrats have seen through the White House’s tactics, and have reminded Secretary Kerry and President Obama that the sole purpose of sanctions against Iran was to pressure them into absolute abandonment of their nuclear ambitions; not to entice this evil regime into diplomatic dialogue with a misguided hope that we could persuade Iran to listen to world opinion. We can only hope that the Senate and Congress exhibit the courage and tenacity to reinforce the sanctions. Why is this fortitude so vitally necessary? Because the evidence is all too clear: A nation like Iran doesn’t know the meaning of fair play. No more so than did Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. And how did we deal with Hussein? Well, we all know how that story ended.

Did the United States negotiate with Hitler and his Third Reich, or with the Emperor of Japan, or with Mussolini? A thousand times, No! We fought to the bitter end … one that had no other possible option but unconditional surrender of our enemies. What makes us think that Iran is any different, when their blatant ambition to destroy Israel and America is no different that Hitler’s malignant plan of conquering Europe (and eventually the U.S.) and of eliminating all Jews from the face of the earth?

Just a pause here in today’s article to remember Israel’s daring and successful aerial attack against and destruction of Iraq’s nuclear reactor plant near Baghdad on June 7, 1981; that all experts agree thwarted the inevitable manufacture of nuclear weapons by Iraq. Ironically, other than Israel, the nation that benefited the most from this preemptive strike was none other than Iran. Why? Because on September 22, 1980 (just nine months earlier) Iraq invaded Iran which launched a horribly destructive war that lasted until 1988. Had Iraq developed nuclear armaments, they probably would have been used against Iran. And, of course, not even a whispered, “thank you Israel,” from Iran. Actually, I may be wrong about the thank you. As Iran could be saying, “Thank you Israel, now we get to destroy you.”

Back to the Let’s Make a Deal Article

*Note: At this juncture in the Let’s Make A Deal article, attention is shifted to another potential deal in the making at the time that article was written … negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority for a Palestinian State within Israel. But even before the Palestinian Authority would agree to sit down at the bargaining table, Israel had to agree to release dozens of Palestinian prisoners, including murderers and terrorists; which Israel began to do, in three stages. As Israel expected, the Palestinians refused to begin negotiations. Thus, Israel halted the phased release of these prisoners, but only after dozens had been freed.

Let’s Make a Deal continues:

I’m sorry; as much as I love my country and want to respect and support a President (just because he is our President, but whose actions and programs seem to undermine the very nation he leads), I must issue a challenge: Would the United States agree to liberate hundreds of the worst criminals from their jails just to get “peace talks” underway? I think not. But then, the United States didn’t need to make such an unfathomable concession. Instead, we asked Israel to do something this country wouldn’t think of doing: comply with the PLO’s incomprehensible and reprehensible demand to release their terrorist sons and daughters back to them.

Admitting that Israel has a right to exist as a sovereign nation is the bedrock foundation before any compromises whatsoever are considered. Incredibly, Israel is willing to make who knows what concessions just to be recognized as a people and as a nation. Can you imagine any President, including the current administration, needing to seek recognition as a nation before the United States would enter into negotiations or sign a treaty or pact?

President Ronald Reagan comes to mind: He couldn’t have cared less whether Mikhail Gorbachev’s Russia didn’t like America or if the Soviet Union had refused to (symbolically or literally) accept the very existence of this great nation. But the Israelis have been compelled to guard their security and very survival with an opening statement that would be unthinkable for any other nation on earth: We’ll give you some of what you demand, but first you must consent to the existence of Israel.

To Be or Not To Be? (That is the question)

Unless the Palestinians make some sort of declaration that (at least in principle) acknowledges the geographic, national, political, cultural, and racial existence of the Jews, then all of the other points of negotiation are essentially meaningless. Such issues as: return of Arab refugees, control of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria), control of the border crossings especially between Jordan and the West Bank, return of the Golan Heights to Syria, and the actual geographical boundaries of a Palestinian State.

When in July, 2000 at the Camp David Summit arranged by President Clinton, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat rejected an astonishing offer by then Prime Minister, Ehud Barak … to assume control of up to 92% of the West Bank, all of the Gaza Strip, and all of East Jerusalem except for the Western Wall—that said it all. The Palestinian Arabs are not interested in “sharing” the land. They never have and probably never will. They want it ALL. They want Jews out. Why a whole bunch of people world-wide, including some Christians, fail to grasp this is beyond me.

So Israel mulls over a practically hopeless situation: how to work reasonably with those who demonstrate virtually nothing but irrational hatred and hostile behavior toward you? The Jews rightfully ask: How can you make a deal with someone who doesn’t even recognize that you exist? When they look at you, you are, for all practical purposes, invisible. You are a nonentity. You don’t have a birthright (right of birth) and you aren’t even qualified to belong on the map. You don’t belong here or anywhere, because your rebirth (1948) was entirely illegitimate.

Summary

Never before in history has the entire world been so focused on one little nation inhabited by a mere six million Jews. And yet that’s exactly what the Bible predicted. In addition to several million Arabs in Israel, surrounding Arab countries number in the hundreds of millions, with land space that dwarfs Israel; enough land to accommodate millions more Arabs. But oddly and unfortunately many of these nations fight among themselves (Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon).

Even more nonsensically, they blame the Jews for their misfortunes. However, they do have one basic mindset: They detest Israel. I suppose if they ever agree on how best to govern themselves (Sunni or Shi’ite Muslim law), then they might (God forbid) agree on how to best destroy Israel. Or perhaps they think and hope that Iran will do that for them. Personally, I don’t dislike the Arabs or the Persians. I sometimes pray for their salvation, as I often do for the Jews. I will do my best to pray equally for both peoples. But the aforementioned observations are a matter of historical record and current events.

Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings, Queens, Heads of State the world over are under the influence of the “intoxicating” effect that Israel has exerted on the entire world. (Read Zechariah 12:2-3). Nations are stoned from an overpowering elixir to find a solution to the problems in and surrounding this tiny country. To their detriment, many of these nations point the finger of blame at Israel; but seem to do so in a senseless, illogical drunken stupor caused by consumption of too many “spirits” from Arab, Muslim, Russian, South American, and European winepresses. And, I’m beginning to be concerned about America’s sudden taste for this wine that can only lead to the pouring out of God’s wrath through His winepress (Revelation 14:19).

In addition to God blessing his “special possession”, Israel (Psalms 28:9), it is a wonderful thing that God has extended his salvation to all Gentiles. But first and foremost, God’s Messiah was sent to save his own people, the Jews. The Savior to the Jews first and then to the Gentiles (Romans 1:16) is, in fact, a Jewish Messiah … born a Jew in Bethlehem, lived as a Jew in Nazareth and Galilee, died and raised from the dead as a Jew in Jerusalem, will return to the City of David on the Mount of Olives as King of the Jews, and shortly thereafter will fight for all of Israel as “The Lion from the Tribe of Judah.” He Is: “King of all kings and Lord of all lords.”

There is, however, a dreadful risk for every person on earth who rejects Messiah Jesus as personal Savior and every nation that refuses to accept the very existence of and purpose for Israel, as clearly set forth in Scripture.

Personal Rejection of Messiah: “And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment” (John 3:36). National Rejection of Israel: “The day is near when I, the LORD, will judge all godless nations! As you have done to Israel, so it will be done to you. All your evil deeds will fall back on your own heads. Just as you swallowed up my people on my holy mountain, so you and the surrounding nations will swallow the punishment I pour out on you. Yes, all you nations will drink and stagger and disappear from history” (Obadiah 1:15-16).

It’s really easier than one might think (even for a Palestinian). Just repeat after me: “The State of Israel.”

Back to Today’s Article (Placing the Iranian Deal into Perspective of Biblical Prophecy)

Undoubtedly, many reading this article have read or heard the component parts of this infamous deal with Iran. Thus, I’ll simply summarize the main points. Beginning with four primary problems identified by Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, as condensed in an article written by Max Gelber, posted 7-16-15 on the United with Israel website, who extracted some of his material from a Washington Post column published the same day.

First, the agreement allows Iran to maintain virtually its entire nuclear plant/facility infrastructure.
Second, the limitations imposed on Iran’s nuclear projects are merely temporary, with the most binding restrictions lasting only ten years.
Third, other nations in the Middle East fully comprehend that this agreement still paves the way to a nuclear-armed Iran, and will accordingly join the race to buy or manufacture nuclear weapons of their own. (Saudi Arabia and Turkey come to mind).
Fourth, to the tune of some $150 billion dollars, Iran’s assets will be unfrozen and the money released to Iran’s banks. Economic sanctions will be phased out. With no secret whatsoever, that these funds will be used to resume (to a much larger extent) Iran’s subsidization of its terrorist affiliates like Hezbollah and Hamas. As well as acceleration of subversive activities in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

Ambassador Ron Dermer was quoted, “…any one of these problems would be sufficient to make this a bad deal. But all four make this deal a disaster of historic proportions.”

Photo of Heavy Water Reactor at Iran’s Arak Facility (Just a few days ago, two weeks after the deal was finalized, Iran announced plans to build four new nuclear plants!)

Next is a summary of other negatives for Israel and the P5 +1 nations and positives for Iran, referenced by Max Gelber in his article.

First and foremost, the deal does not halt Iran’s nuclear programs, as it allows Iran to (more slowly, but nevertheless continually) enrich uranium far beyond its civilian needs. Which means the only other use for all this surplus uranium or plutonium is unmistakably military.
The agreement doesn’t come close to sufficiently curtail Iran’s nuclear research and development capabilities, certainly not enough to delay the time needed to manufacture a nuclear bomb to the point where preemptive action could be taken.
The agreement severely cripples embargoes and sanctions previously imposed by the United Nations Security Council to restrict Iran’s development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Monitoring of Iran’s compliance is virtually a sham. The 24-day warning of an impending inspection would allow Iran more than enough time to hide, cheat, and lie about what they’re actually doing. All of which they’ve done repeatedly in the past.

As summarized by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, “The bottom line of this very bad deal is exactly what Iran’s President Rouhani said today, ‘the international community is removing the sanctions and Iran is keeping its nuclear program.’”

I’ll throw in my two cents worth and put it this way: “The Iranians are laughing all the way to the bank, while their centrifuges continue to spin and their leaders continue to grin.” (You can quote me on that one!)

But the most unthinkable feature of this disastrous deal is a tiny clause in the agreement that nations signatory to the pact will defend Iran against any subterfuge that might interrupt or shut down Iran’s nuclear facilities. Ostensibly this was designed to enable Iran to continue with its purported program of commercial nuclear developments for peaceful civilian purposes only. Right? No, it’s as wrong as anything can be.

What the stipulation actually does is to obligate the United States and other involved countries to intervene no matter if a nation (Israel, who else?) attempts to sabotage Iran’s nuclear substructure—whether through a military strike or cyber-attack—for the much more truthful reason of preventing this reprobate nation from developing nuclear weapons.

It’s simply inconceivable and mind-boggling that the United States would agree in any way, shape, or form to actually come to the aid of an enemy who continually chants, “Death to Israel. Death to America.” It is pure lunacy. And immoral madness at that.

Immoral, because it’s no different than, for example, the United States making a deal with Hitler during World War II in which Germany would agree to stop the production of self-propelled rockets (for say, 3 years) but they could continue to carry on the war as they saw fit. Moreover, we would actually defend Germany’s war making facilities for all other hardware, just not rockets. Knowing full well that it’s the same machinery that manufactures all of the armaments. Moreover, this absurd deal took place after it was clear that Germany was losing the war. (Just like it is unquestionably evident that the heavy economic sanctions against Iran were taking their toll).

Nearly 3,000 of These V-2 Rockets Produced by the Third Reich

No matter how extreme or far-fetched you think this analogy might be, ask yourself just how radical this deal with Iran is. You only need look at the totally one-sided concessions made by the P5 + 1 to see that Iran comes out smelling like a rose (a rose-tipped nuclear warhead).

It give a whole new meaning to: We’ve got you … just where you want us.

Putting These Things into Perspective

At first glance and at face value, this ill-conceived, misguided, and grossly imbalanced “deal” indeed places Israel in grave peril. From public reaction, especially in the United States, it’s evident that the majority of people realize that Israel gets the short end of the stick. They comprehend the all too obvious fact that Iran cannot be trusted, AT ALL. And they rightfully challenge the authority of the US government to make a deal that puts Israel directly in the scope of Iran’s nuclear trigger point.

In fact, a very recent poll disclosed that over 50% of Americans believe that Congress should annul the deal with Iran, which would subsequently require a 2/3 majority of Congress to override what would be a certain veto by President Obama. If Congress listens to us, they should overturn this dastardly deal.

Although Arab Gulf States like Egypt don’t really care what happens to Israel, they, too, fear a nuclear-armed Iran. Thus, US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to the Middle East (once again) to promote the agreement and attempt to alleviate the apprehension of these Arab countries. But Kerry’s itinerary does not include Israel. In response to this (yet another) snub, Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “He (Kerry) really has no reason to come here.” That the Iran deal, “has nothing to do with us, and has no influence on us. We’re not at the table (meaning the negotiating table). We’re one of the main courses on the menu itself.”

Though (justifiably) sarcastic, Netanyahu’s response says it all.

Yet, here is where a better grasp of Biblical prophecy helps us put contemporary developments like this into a much clearer context. To that end, I’m going to refer again to the Gog/Magog invasion of Israel as predicted through God’s prophet, Ezekiel. Several prior Eye of Prophecy articles have been written, partially or completely on this astounding attack on Israel in which a coalition spearheaded by Russia (to include Iran) is soundly crushed by God, himself … via direct divine intervention.

Please refer to such articles as, The Omega Generation, published 2-15-14; Beware of the Bear, published 3-22-14; Alliances against Israel, published 9-20-14. But for purposes of today’s topic, most specifically to, Russia & Iran Versus Israel, published 10-4-14.

When correlated to other prophecies in Scripture, all of the evidence found in Ezekiel Chapters 38 & 39 leads to the viable conclusion that this invasion will take place soon after the Rapture, during the first part of the Great Tribulation. Furthermore, it will entail a vast “horde” (armies) that swoops down on Israel from the north. The undeniable conclusion is that this is a massive but conventional assault against Israel that does not include nuclear weapons. For one thing, Israel is completely victorious in this military campaign against her, but not through Israel’s effort. Nor is there any indication that Israel suffers even minimal casualties. In fact, it is God who will employ “weapons of mass destruction” against Gog/Magog … meaning supernaturally orchestrated natural disasters inflicted on the invading troops.

The applicable inference and significance of what is happening in this Gog/Magog invasion is that there will be no nuclear war between Iran and Israel before this Biblically prophetic attack occurs against Israel. There couldn’t possibly be, because just one nuclear warhead detonated over the tiny State of Israel would cause devastating damage of staggering proportions. I’m not saying that Israel won’t launch a preemptive strike against Iran prior to the Great Tribulation, but an all-out war between Iran and Israel won’t take place until the Gog/Magog invasion. If it did, there wouldn’t be any need for Russia, Iran, and their allies to invade Israel; as Israel would have already been brought to her knees, if not virtually eliminated from the face of the earth.

And, I can say with absolute Biblical certainty, THAT AIN’T GOING TO HAPPEN!

Things to Ponder

Israel is here to stay; now and forever more. We can take that to the bank, deposit it, and watch the interest (blessings to the rest of the world) grow with leaps and bounds.

For Americans, the real concern of this deal that will live in infamy is or should be the very idea that the United States would seemingly take on God, himself. To ignore, dismiss, deny, and even reject God’s ultimate warning concerning international treatment of Israel. God will take to task those individuals and nations who blatantly snub, endanger, hold in contempt, or harm Israel in any way.

The verse has often been quoted, but The Lord’s warning to those who seek to disparage Israel bears repeating: “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3).

The time of reckoning is drawing very near. Unfolding events are fitting into Biblical end-times prophecy on a dizzying daily basis. And what does God say about such things:

“At the time of those events, says, the Lord, when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem (which is happening before our very eyes today), I will gather the armies of the world into the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge them for harming my people, my special possession, and for dividing up my land” (Joel 3:1-2).

“It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Hebrews 10:31, NASB).

One Nation Under (the wrath of) God

04 Saturday Jul 2015

Posted by garybowers in Current Events

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Chief Justice John Roberts, Same-sex marriage, Supreme Court

One Nation Under (the wrath of) God

Have we slipped over the edge and fallen into the Abyss? Did we cross a line that should never be crossed? Is enough … enough? Did we tip the scales? Have we passed the point of no return? Have we gone too far? These are idiomatic expressions in the form of questions that demand a response to the dismal decision rendered by the United States Supreme Court to approve same-sex marriage. When, in fact, the very concept and institution of marriage bears a built-in natural and supernatural definition that needs no prefix or any other modifier or reason to define or otherwise explain it.

Marriage is between a man and a woman … period. Same-sex matrimony is not marriage … period. There is no such thing as same-sex marriage. In reality there’s also no such thing as “traditional” marriage. Is the institution of marriage a (long-standing) tradition? Of course it is: the most enduring custom of the human race. So much so, that we should never need to refer to it as traditional marriage. We do so only in rebuttal to those who claim that there is an alternative to conventional (conservative, orthodox, straight) marriage.

God created man, then he created woman from man to be with the man. When Adam saw Eve he said, “At last! … This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’ This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one” (Genesis 2:23-24).

No other explanation is needed. It’s totally understood and accepted that the uniting of a man and woman constitutes marriage itself … a union between man and woman. Any other relationship, other than between a man and a woman, is not a marital union. Rather it is an unnatural, abnormal, and ungodly (a deliberate distortion of and deplorable deviation from God’s original creation); therefore, a perversion of God’s prototype and purpose for the human race.

To pervert (verb) is defined by Webster’s dictionary: “…to overturn, corrupt … to cause to turn aside or away from what is good or true or morally right … to divert to a wrong end or purpose. Misuse: to twist the meaning or sense of…”

There are some timeless precepts that simply cannot be changed or discarded. There are polar opposites that do not mix … light and darkness, right and wrong. Yet Scripture tells us that one day good would be called evil, and evil would be seen as good. Well folks, that day has come. If we can redefine marriage, we can reconfigure the intrinsic meaning of any clear self-defining concept that doesn’t fit with our belief system or lifestyle. We can change the meaning of terrorism, greed, adultery, lust (and love), truth, polygamy, bigamy, incest. We can even redefine God, by making him in our image … whatever we want him to be. Actually, we’ve already done that; which is why we think that we can reconstruct marriage.

“What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever” (Isaiah 5:20-21).

We think that by reinterpreting or changing or nullifying laws we can place a legal stamp of approval on our own concept of morality (what is true and right) and alternate lifestyle choices. We deceive ourselves into thinking that the highest court in our land has the ultimate right to tell God that he is outdated, that his Word and Laws are no longer relevant. We appeal to the highest court of our country to endorse all those, including our leaders (President, legislators, judges, officials) who, “…plot together against the Lord and against his anointed one” (Psalms 2:2). We say with them, “Let us break their chains … and free ourselves from slavery to God” (Verse 3).

We refuse to accept God’s truth that acknowledging, seeking, and following him is the path to true liberty … freedom from sin that is the cause of all of society’s woes.

Response of Two Supreme Court Justices to a Stunning but Ominous Decision

In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court decided that the very form and substance of God’s ordained institution of marriage is no longer valid, no longer appropriate or relevant to our post-modern society of relativistic morals and truth. (What’s true and morally right is determined by the individual; moreover, what’s true for one may not be true for another … there is no longer any such thing as absolute truth).

But something startling happened after this historical decision. Two of the dissenting judges made some astonishing post-decision comments, the essence of which I don’t ever recall reading or hearing a Supreme Court Justice(s) make after a vote.

Said dissenting Justice Antonin Scalia: “To allow the policy question of same-sex marriage to be considered and resolved by a select, patrician, highly unrepresentative panel of nine is to violate a principle even more fundamental than no taxation without representation … no social transformation without representation.” In other words, we have a Justice who adamantly believed that this issue should never have been decided by the Supreme Court.

Listen to an even more penetrating observation from Chief Justice John Roberts immediately following the Higher Court’s landmark decision on June 26^th, 2015. In my opinion he answers the questions posed at the beginning of this article, i.e. have we gone too far?

Said Justice Roberts: “The court invalidates the marriage laws of more than half the states and orders the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia…” Then he dramatically dropped a bombshell in the form of a rhetorical question: “Just who do we think we are?” Once again: This shocking indictment came from the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Exactly! Who do they think they are? But at least the Chief Justice was bold and honest enough to acknowledge (challenge) that even the Supreme Court didn’t possess the legal or moral right to decide such an issue. But it’s a question that is pertinent far beyond the Supreme Court of the United States. We all must ask the same question. Who do we think we are? What right do we have to change not just a family and societal institution that has existed from the beginning of the human race, but a moral, spiritual, and physical precept and standard that was created by God, himself? One man, one woman … united in God-given pleasure to express and share the love they have for one another; and, in doing so, to continue the human race.

Ah, but isn’t the whole rationale for same-sex marriage based on love? Why can’t two people of the same-sex be given the same rights of marriage as heterosexual couples are afforded, as long as they love each other? This question will be addressed later in this article; insightful I trust, but only in summary fashion, as it is a subject that would require two or more articles.

It’s fundamentally clear that Justice Roberts and Justice Scalia firmly believe that the US Supreme Court didn’t have the right to vote on, much less overrule the inherent legal and moral premise of marriage itself. Once again: marriage is one of those rare concepts that defines itself. Much like truth is defined in the Bible as God’s truth; which is truth itself. Any man-made deviation from or distortion of that truth is a deceitful lie. There are physical laws and spiritual laws established by the Lord. Marriage is a fixed model that is a law unto itself; it was so from the beginning. Nor more or less than the law of gravity, it doesn’t need to be, nor should it ever be altered.

Webster’s Dictionary defines institution as: “something that serves to instruct (serves as an example or model of).” Also, “a significant practice, relationship, or organization in a society or culture.” It even cities marriage as an example of an institution!

Not that we need Webster’s definition of institution to prove that God established marriage exclusively between a man and a woman. It was absolutely a foregone conclusion that intimate relationships involving sex and (obviously) procreation was to be between a man and woman in and through the institution of marriage.

Legal Ramifications

Justices Roberts and Scalia stated and implied that any such decision or legal interpretation (which should never be needed in the first place) of what constitutes marriage or who may be legally married should be a matter of state rights. There must be representation of the people in such decisions. In that context, it’s all too clear in the last forty years or so that the Supreme Court has (in my opinion and the opinion of many others) far exceeded the intended authority prescribed for them when our Constitution was put into place and the three branches of government were established, Executive, Legislative, Judicial.

I realize that even the Supreme Court struggles with the kind of cases that it reviews or doesn’t review, or just how it’s supposed to function as a judicial check and balance between the President and Congress. However, if the very members of this highest court of appeals—particularly the Chief Justice—tell the citizens of this country that the Supreme Court has overstepped its bounds, it doesn’t take an expert in jurisprudence to confirm what some of us have thought for many years … that they, in fact, have gone too far. Consequently, they have created an imbalance of power that, for all practical purposes, gives the Supreme Court final (God-like) authority over both legal and moral issues in this country.

Actually, I believe this imbalance began with the monumental Roe vs Wade decision of 1973. That’s another article for another day, except to say that murder of a human being is forbidden by God as first written in Scripture. This country and every country on earth has made this a legal law, violation of which requires punishment. But not the Supreme Court, not when it comes to the licensed killing of babies. What’s the difference? Sorry, but no argument on earth can convince me and many others that an unborn child in its mother’s womb is not a human being. I’d like to see a Supreme Court Justice argue that point with God. Furthermore, my belief is based on Scripture, which makes it much more than just an opinion (see Psalm 139).

Back to the gay marriage decision. It was a 5-4 vote. Think about it: Based on ONE (more) vote, the very institution of marriage has been altered for a country of over 300 million people! The moral compass and very destiny of this nation could hinge on this one vote. I’m sorry, but there is something wrong, so very wrong with this kind of justice. That’s not just my opinion; that’s the opinion of Chief Justice John Roberts, himself … as well as three other members of the Court. I’m certainly not suggesting that we abolish the Supreme Court. But it does need some major renovation to return it to the original model established by our Constitution.

For example, couldn’t the Supreme Court establish the following criteria when the case clearly involves a significant moral question or law: Just like a twelve person jury must be unanimous in their verdict of guilty, so, too, should the Supreme Court’s ruling on certain issues be unanimous … all nine must agree.

Moral Repercussions

I fully realize and understand that homosexuality has been around for a very long time. But so have all the other transgressions against God’s laws and standards, i.e. adultery, stealing, murder, lying. We all do wrong things and all too frequently. Obviously, even Christians sin. For that reason, we don’t or shouldn’t judge the sinner, only the sin. God can separate the two and so should we as believers. God is Love, but God is also holy. He hates the sin, but loves the sinner. He loves the sinner (all of us) so much that he gave us a whole laundry list of offenses that he knows will bring us nothing but harm and destruction. But he has done so much more than that. Because of his great love, he provided a magnificent remedy for sin and the penalty of sin, which is Christ’s death on the Cross. God’s instructions for right living is for our own good, but most people just don’t see that. Actually, they don’t want to see it.

Concerning the subject at hand, here is what God says about it:

“Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools … So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshipped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved” (Romans 1:21-27).

Later in this passage, the Apostle Paul includes examples of other gross conduct of those who refused to acknowledge God, with a cutting accusation: “They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too” (Romans 1:32).

As for me, I can’t see the Supreme Court’s revision of the institution of marriage—exclusively between a man and woman—as anything but an “encouragement” to exchange the truth about God for a lie.

In Paul’s letter to the Romans, we see that homosexuality was every bit as much of a problem then as it is now. But the Roman Empire didn’t approve or enact same-sex marriage laws. Even the pleasure-seeking Romans would have considered such a legalization as having crossed the line of society’s moral boundaries.

Scripture is clear that God has authorized city, state, and national leaders to enforce laws of the land and impose punishment on those who break the law. Otherwise there would be anarchy and chaos. Society deals with these offenses on a human and temporary basis … in this lifetime. Other sins against God and people that may not technically violate a statutory law will still be dealt with by God now and/or in eternity; and is a matter between the individual and God. As long as governmental leaders (executives, legislators, and judges) realize and accept this Biblical standard, God will continue to relate to society on mostly an individual basis.

But here’s the thing: When people permit and even promote defiance of God’s laws on a sweeping, broad-based, and national basis, then God will deal with the entire nation. This is a fundamental principle of Scripture seen time and time again with Israel and Gentile nations. Often, we read that God’s short-term and then long-term judgments will fall more harshly on a people when the leaders flaunt sin and evil by making it even more socially acceptable, through executive laws or judicial decisions that clearly conflict with the spiritual, moral, and physical standards established by Almighty God.

Recently, I decided to watch a video of a so-called gay-pride parade that was endorsed by a leading business in this country. It was sent as an email attachment by a Christian organization who was warning believers that this prominent retail business had sponsored the parade, along with many other aspects of the gay agenda. I think the parade was held in New York City, but I don’t recall for sure. I managed to get through about 45 seconds of the video (parade), at which time I had to turn it off. I don’t consider myself prudish in any way, shape, or form. But what I was watching was flat-out disgusting. About the only thing being paraded were nearly naked men gyrating on several floats, with a clear inference that it wasn’t love that motivated their gay agenda; it was arrogant pride and lust. Moreover, there were children watching this parade.

That’s the graphic nature of what Paul is saying in the book of Romans. God’s tells it like it is. He gets to the core of the matter. Paul was alluding to Sodom and Gomorrah stuff. The depravity of what was taking place in these cities is explicitly depicted in the scene where men from all over Sodom attempted to rape the two angels who were sent to rescue Lot and his family prior to utter destruction of these wicked people. It’s obvious that city officials completely condoned this depraved behavior, as there were no restraints of any kind to prevent such a thing from happening. They didn’t love or respect the guests in Lot’s house, they lusted after them.

Having said that, I say again: God’s judgment belongs to God alone. Ultimately God will deal with each person on earth based on whether they accepted Jesus Christ as God’s perfect sacrifice for their sin(s). That if we believe and receive Christ as personal Savior, we will be saved from God’s wrath and from an eternity in hell.

But if the leaders of an entire nation sanction (parades) a lifestyle that is unquestionably an aberration of God’s institutional law of marriage and an abomination in God’s eyes (Leviticus 18:22); and does so in the form of a final decision by our nation’s Supreme Court, then God will deal with this on a national basis. Legally, the Supreme Court is the highest court of appeals. Morally, however, there is a much higher court: the throne of the Most High God.

More Implications of the Supreme Court’s Decision

Let’s examine again Chief Justice John Robert’s scathing response that the Supreme Court had the audacity to “order the transformation of a social institution that has formed the basis of human society for millennia…” In that statement, he accurately reflected God’s priority design for God-ordained institutions of the human race. In the following order of rank and importance: Family; then communities that make up society; then nations to provide boundaries and sovereign unity for its people. And finally governments, both local and national (and in the unique paradigm of America, states within a nation) to serve and protect its citizens at various levels. But it all starts with the family. And the family begins with a union of one man and one woman in holy matrimony!

The implication of Justice Roberts and Justice Scalia’s statements are profound. Both of them strongly suggest that the Supreme Court has too much power; that this kind of power was not intended by our founding fathers. Chief Justice Roberts carried it one step further. The Supreme Court had absolutely no right to “invalidate” the universal institution of marriage that has been in place the world over from time immemorial.

The Supreme Court’s decision has potentially staggering repercussions. If they can decide that marriage should also include same-sex couples, then what’s to prevent them from endorsing incestuous marriages? Or polygamy? Or bigamy? As long as, for example, a sister and brother (or even first cousins) love each other, why can’t they get married? If a man loves five women and they all love him, why shouldn’t they be able to get a marriage license. They are absolutely, beyond any doubt, the same thing as gay marriage. None of them fit the God ordained purpose and parameters of marriage. All of them claim the same rights based on love; that is, their version and definition of love.

Truth and Love

“Pilate said, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus responded, ‘You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.’ ‘What is truth?’ Pilate asked…” (John 18:37-38).

We see two things happening in this crucifixion passage: (1) Jesus explaining his mission on coming to this earth … to testify of the truth. Earlier in his ministry he had said that he, himself, was The Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). He also said the truth would set us free, meaning himself. God’s truth for mankind is that his Son is the only Way to God, his son is Truth itself, and his Son is Life (salvation that comes from God’s great love for the human race which leads to eternal life, John 3:16). (2) Pilate diverted and deflected Messiah’s declaration and explanation of truth by facetiously asking, “What is truth?” With his clear inference that truth is relative to anything and everything; what is true for one isn’t true for another.

Many people (particularly unbelievers and especially those who practice or promote homosexual behavior and/or assert equal rights to a marriage license) claim that love trumps everything else, including truth. Of course it would, because there is no longer any such thing as absolute truth, i.e. given to us by God, himself as found in Scripture, the very Word of God. They refuse to consider real truth; accordingly, they really don’t understand what love is.

First comes truth, then comes love. Scripture tells us in no uncertain terms that it is the Truth that sets us free, not love. Without universal divine truth as found in Scripture, we simply cannot and do not understand what love is. We confuse it and substitute it with passion or at the very most, a deep brotherly type affection that is good among people, but apparently not enough to overcome the racial, political, cultural, and religious differences among people, including men and woman.

In fact, marriage is the least likely relationship in which the basic motivation and subsequent words of, “I love you,” or “I promise to love, cherish….” will stand the test of time. The 50% plus divorce rate should tell us that much. We are much more likely to say and mean those same words to a brother, sister, child, parent, or friend forty years from now than a spouse.

Institutions are characterized by and predicated on relationships.

The fundamental components of any relationship are love, honor, and respect; but here we must defer to Scripture’s definition of love and how that love determines the boundaries of relationships, particularly marriage.

In the English language the word love is used for just about anything and everything that we cherish, adore, admire, esteem, or really like. For example a woman can say, “I love my husband.” Or, “I love my brother.” Or, I love Sandra, my friend.” Or, “I love chocolate ice cream.” We pretty much understand the difference in the degree of love she has for each of these. Obviously, she doesn’t love chocolate ice cream in the same way she loves her husband, or even her brother. At least we hope that she doesn’t! It’s also clearly understood that the woman’s love for her brother or female friend should not—by God’s laws and the common sense moral laws of the human race—be expressed sexually, to any extent, in any manner, for any reason … and certainly not marriage. That is exactly what the Word of God is telling us.

The original text of the New Testament is from the Greek language. There are three basic Greek words for love that more accurately and definitively convey the different levels of love … how and when they are expressed in the dynamics of human relationships.

Agape: This word is used to define and express unconditional love of the highest order. This is the Divine standard and example for ultimate display of love, through the heart and spirit of one person to another or for God, himself. It is the love that God has for every man, woman, and child. He demonstrated this great love by giving his only Son as a sacrificial redemption for our sins and the penalty of those sins. This grace-filled love is greater than any sin ever committed. All three kinds of love are expressed in action, but none more so than this one.
Phileo: To like, to treat with affection, to appreciate, to befriend, i.e. kindness, fondness. It is what we call brotherly love, for one’s brother or sister or friend.
Eros: Physical passion … sex. Speaks for itself. According to God and his Word, the only setting (institution if you will) where all three types of love can and should be expressed is through marriage; which by divine, but also innate, definition is between a man and a woman. Whether Agape or Phileo, a man can love another man, a daughter her father, a mother her son, a woman another woman. But this love is never to be conveyed through physical intimacy, i.e. sex. Even the God-given pleasure of sex between and man and a woman is to be through marriage. And only between a man and woman.

Thus, to deny marriage rights to same-sex couples is NOT discrimination. Because there is no such right to begin with. Instead, it’s just the opposite. Whether from a spiritual, moral, and/or physical vantage point, same-sex intimacy and marriage are flat-out wrong. It’s non-spiritual, immoral, and unnatural. Furthermore, deep in our conscience, soul, and heart, we know that.

Things to Ponder

Like never before, the United States of America has defied God himself, by effectively saying that the Word of God is a lie. That has become the real battleground in this country … the absolute, timeless truth of God against the relativism of truth and morality in our post-modern culture.

“…For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel” (Isaiah 5:24, NASB).

Will this be One Nation under God? Or will our country be One Nation under the Wrath of God?

The choice belongs to us.

And we believers should be reminded of our past, of what Christ has done for us:

“Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other. But—‘When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit … Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life’” (Titus 3:3-7).

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The Whole Truth

Tell a Big Lie Long Enough….

Amazing Anticipation for Messiah

Great Expectations for Messiah

A Deal That Will Live In Infamy

One Nation Under (the wrath of) God