ISRAEL: GOD'S TIME PIECE

ISRAEL: GOD’S TIME PIECE

                Back in the 1890s many Biblical scholars had begun to give up on Israel’s prophetic return to their land. There had been a revival of second coming talk and there were signs, but no Israel and so many dropped the idea of a literal fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Some continued on with Augustine’s allegorical method, while others simply stopped preaching Bible prophecy. Still others, like the Adventists worked out an eschatology that didn’t include Israel at all.

                I remember being in evangelism in the 1960s when people came to talk with the evangelist asking “What about Israel? They are back in their land and yet you have said nothing about Israel.” I heard the answer myself as the evangelist said that Israel had no relevance to Bible prophecy, that God had rejected Israel and that we (Adventists in particular) were now the true Israel.

                Well, there is a basic truth to that in the fact that when we (Any of us) receive Israel’s King and Messiah as our own then we become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise. We are grafted into the Olive Tree as wild branches and we receive our sustenance from the same root. (Romans 11) But that is not what Adventists were saying, for they have an eschatology of end times that to this day still does not include the State of Israel.

                In spite of the fact that Israel was born in a day… that the once dry deserts bloomed like a rose…and that Israel today is at the center of all end time controversies and has become a cup of trembling to all nations and that people from every nation wherein they have been scattered are streaming back into Israel… many denominations stubbornly ignore Israel as a part of end time eschatology, some of them even taking up the Palestinian cause and hoping that Israel will go away. (Read Ezekiel 37:21-28. Joel 2 and 3, Amos 9:11-15, Zech. 12-14, Romans 11 for starters)

                To me, this blindness toward Israel represents a stubborn rebellion against God’s clear word of prophecy and bible prophecy is better represented today by those who went back to their prophetic drawing boards and they began to treat end time events as literal. Bible prophecy is being fulfilled literally today just as it was fulfilled literally by Jesus when He came the first time and people are without excuse when they rebel against the clear word of God and its literal fulfillment in our day.

                Israel is extremely relevant to end time prophecy and I, for one, have stopped putting my faith in men and their patched together doctrines and I simply go to the Word of God without bias as much as is humanly possible and I believe what the Word says about all of these things.

                What I see is this:

1.        Israel is at the center of God’s plans in these last days.

2.       Israel is at the center of Satan’s plans for these last days.

                We are therefore watching a great   convergence of two diametrically opposed forces meeting in Israel, one to build the global kingdom of the antichrist and one to prepare a people to receive their true King Yeshua when He returns.

                This is where it requires great wisdom on our part for we, as God’s Gentile Christians and Messianic Jews alike, must sort out that which belongs to Satan and that which belongs to God in Israel. The entire world is being pulled into this final battle between Christ and Satan and we need to pray for wisdom and discernment. God has a true Israel and we must not forget that.

                When Bonnie and I attended our beloved Messianic congregation in Vancouver for about 5 years, I had a prophetic vision of the significance of the Messianic movement. They have two primary purposes in these last days:

1.       They are chosen by God to remind the church of its Jewish roots. As such Romans 11 and Ephesians 2:14-22 give us a clear vision of God’s plan. Ephesians 2 tells us that God’s plan is to make both groups (Jews and Gentiles) into one new man in Christ. And Romans 11 tells us that we did not replace the Jews, but were grafted in to the Jewish family tree through Jesus Christ. It also states that God’s promises to the Jews are irrevocable and that God will yet fulfill His promises to them after the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And as it says in Zechariah twelve, they (The Jews) will look upon Him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as a long lost brother, even as Joseph’s brothers finally recognized him and they were reconciled to each other once again.

2.       Any eschatology that doesn’t include this Jewish factor into its end time scenarios is grossly distorted, for as we can clearly see, Israel has become a cup of trembling and in spite of the fact that it would take about 25 Israels to make up the state of California, they are at the center of all controversy in the world today.

                Not only that, but we now see them becoming and fulfilling all that is said of them in terms of building a literal third temple and even though I have warned people of the coming deceptions, I nevertheless believe exactly what the Bible says about God’s eternal plans for Israel. I don’t look at what man says about Israel, either for or against, but I look to God’s Word and the Bible is full of promises for Israel’s return to their land and God’s ultimate plans for them when their Messiah, Yeshua, lands on the Mt. of Olives and rides into Jerusalem to make it the “City of the Great King for a literal 1000 year millennial reign.

                I love my blessed Messianic friends and family and yet I tremble with fear, for unless they have a solid grip on Biblical prophecy, they will be in danger of accepting all that goes on in Israel as being from God. It is vastly important that we understand that Israel is center stage for the final battle between Christ and Satan. Satan is now using his many globalist cohorts including the godless Zionist factor to build a kingdom for the antichrist. They are seeking to replace Yeshua and to choose Lucifer as their Messiah and this is a part of the great delusion in these last days that Jesus says will deceive if possible even the very elect.

                We here in America, think that God put Donald Trump into office for us, when in fact; He probably did so more for Israel than for us. It is time for Israel’s final prophecies (both good and bad) to be fulfilled. It is time for the covenant with many of Daniel 9:27 to be signed. It is time for the great tribulation to unfold and to do its final separation of sheep from goats, wheat from tares, and wise from foolish virgins.

                At no time in history has it been more important to study Bible Prophecy and to understand that Israel is God’s time table of last day events. Everything that we see going on in Israel in a literal and physical and political fashion, is going on spiritually in the church and in the world today. Even as the Pope and the Vatican are gathering all of the religions together to worship the Beast of Revelation 13, so also many denominations are going to Rome with hat in hand, to sign up with the Pope. This, I believe to be a part of the great falling away from the faith as listed in 2 Thess. 2:3, 4. And this falling away is making it possible for the antichrist to rise to power.

                Today’s religious leaders have to be completely blind, or insane, or in absolute rebellion against God to join with the Pope, given the blasphemous things he has said concerning Jesus Christ, His return, His cross and our personal relationship with Jesus through His Holy Spirit and His Word. The pope has openly denied all of those things and now he is making Jesus equal with all other gods and melding them all together into one religion that will give its homage to the antichrist. Can it be any clearer than that?

                Now the 70 nations of the world are adopting Noahide laws that will eventually declare the worship of Jesus to be idolatry and punishable by death… even beheading. What a twist of events this is, for the Pope will be deeply involved (As the false prophet) but we are beginning to understand what it means that he represents the woman who rides the beast and not the beast himself.

                What this means is that this pope led coalition of religions will ride on the global government, even helping to form and build it, but as Revelation 17:16-18 says, at some point the antichrist kingdom will tire of their “Christian” counterpart) and they will destroy the woman who rides the east. Rome and the Vatican will be utterly destroyed and burned with fire, even as the antichrist rises and claims to be God.

                This is the event that both Daniel and Jesus talked about called the Abomination of Desolation and from that point on, God’s faithful Jews will flee the city and those in Samaria and Judea as well.

                On this point it is interesting that Donald Trump just issued a proclamation stating that the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza will no longer be called “Occupied territories. These disputed areas are now declared to be a part of Israel and under Israeli control. People of all stripes are welcome to live in Israel in peace, but from now on Jerusalem and all other parts of Israel will be declared to be Israel and not occupied territories.

                This is huge prophetic news my friends, for now the West Bank and the Golan heights will receive their original names of Judea and Samaria, just as Jesus described them in Mt. 24 and this move to consolidate Israel is undoubtedly a part of the coming plan being pushed by Jared Kushner and Trump to form a single state solution and to sign a covenant with the many as stated in Daniel 9:27 and we will soon see this as a signal of the coming 7 year tribulation or Time of Jacob’s Trouble.

                Just how long it will take for this agreement to be signed we do not know, but it will undoubtedly include a go ahead to build the third temple as a “House of prayer for all nations.”

                And this is where the delusions take place, for this is exactly what the Bible promises for the temple in Israel in Isaiah 56:6-8. The globalists are seeking to fulfill Bible prophecy. This is the great deception. It is Israel’s great Messianic hope, but unfortunately the antichrist will come first and deceive many and then after that the real Jesus Christ will come and destroy the antichrist and his kingdom with the brightness of His coming. 2 Thess. 2:8.

                Some of my Messianic friends may have thought that I was turning sour against the Messianic movement as I have been warning against that which is evil in Israel, but such is not the case. I just happen to know that most groups in Christianity as well as in the Messianic movement are not studying Bible prophecy as they should and as such they are vulnerable to the great delusions that Satan will try to pull off as he masquerades as Yeshua in Israel. As a watchman it is my appointed duty to warn of danger and not to give fluffy, puffy marshmallow messages that make people comfortable in their seats.

                All of us need to come to grips with the harsh realities that now face us, for in a short time, everything that has been our source of security will suddenly disappear and we will be left only with our understanding of God’s Word and our relationship with Him through His Holy Spirit. Many things that we have been taught will become irrelevant and proved wrong and when that happens, we will need an anchor of the soul both steadfast and sure and one that enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (Heb. 6:19, 20)

                These issues are why I am emphasizing our need to rightly divide the word of truth, which is to properly understand the roles of the Old and New Covenants. We can’t go on patching together Bible texts to fit our beliefs, but rather we must take every word that proceeds from the mouth of God and believe the Word in its entirety. Only then will we see how completely the Old and New Testaments support each other, but how each has a well- defined role to play. The Old Covenant is as a tutor to lead us to Christ and once it has done that we die to this present kingdom and we are born again into Christ’s kingdom to live by His Spirit. The New Covenant, as Jeremiah 31:31 says is not like the Old Covenant that was forged at Sinai and we must not confuse them, or we will grieve the Holy Spirit who has been sent into our hearts to make us like Jesus.

                That’s it for now. My apologies to those who don’t understand where I am coming from.  We have important issues to face in these last days and I am only seeking to bring the issues into sharp relief so that we can make our own decisions about whom and what we will believe and follow in the coming months and years. Shabbat Shalom