BELIEVING THE BIBLE

BELIEVING THE BIBLE

                I grew up believing in replacement theology… that is essentially the idea that God rejected the Jews when they rejected Jesus and that the church replaced the Jews as God’s chosen people. Now all of the promises and prophecies that once pertained to the Jews belong to the church so that the Jews have no relevance in the world today.

                But in my personal Bible study I saw many end- time Bible prophecies being fulfilled in Israel. First of all; never in history has a nation been destroyed, conquered and scattered among the nations of the world, (for 2000 years) ever come back into their original land, restoring their language, their culture, their religion and also having their barren desert land bloom and become one of the world’s great producers of food as well as becoming the seventh most powerful nation even though being among the smallest of territories and surrounded in a ratio of millions to one by enemies that want them driven into the sea. This is nothing short of miraculous and in fact many miracles occurred to bring this about.

                Then I happened onto Romans 11 and the Lord opened my eyes. There in Romans 11 Paul tells us that the church did not replace Israel, but we were grafted into the seed line of faith and that by accepting Israel’s Messiah, we become Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise. Not only that but Paul goes on to say that God is able to graft the errant Jews back in again and when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then God will remove the partial blindness that He has  imposed upon them and He will fulfill His promises to them because His gifts and calling are irrevocable. This was a radical departure from what I had believed.

                As I studied these things and became convinced that the Bible was telling us something other than what I had believed, Bonnie and I visited a local Messianic Congregation in Washington State to learn more. We fell in love with the people and ended up staying for 5 or 6 years… and the only reason we left was because God spoke to me in the garden one day and told me that I was to move to Tennessee, to be a father and grandfather to my children and grandchildren and then God gave Bonnie the same message in a dream that very night and so like Abraham and Sarah, we packed up everything and moved to Tennessee with no further information than what God had given us.

                I have continued to follow and to study the end time prophecies concerning Israel, so that today, not only do I consider Israel to be relative to end time prophecy, but they are at the epicenter of end time prophecy and so much so that unless one understands the issues going on in Israel, one cannot properly understand end time events and issues.

                But now, the more I learn, the more I want to shout out a warning to my Messianic friends and to all Israel loving Evangelicals as well. Not only is Israel the epicenter of earth’s final conflagration, but Israel is the epicenter of the great battle between Christ and Satan over the souls of men. Israel is at the physical center of a global spiritual battle that includes both territory and human souls … and this battle finds its roots all the way back in Eden.

                Satan won ownership of this planet fair and square. (But only if you consider lying as fair) He gained the allegiance of Eden’s first couple through subterfuge and since God had given this planet to mankind, the entire kingdom now belonged to their new god… to Satan. God had given it… Satan took it… by deceit… by lies… but he nevertheless became the god of this world..

                This brings us to the understanding that in order to buy humanity back as well as the planet they lived on, the ransom could be paid by no one less than God Himself, the Creator of it all. And not only that; but it must be bought back by God as a man. It was man that sold it out to Satan… it was only  a man that would buy it back. But not just any man. It had to be a man that was bigger than the entire creation… someone whose value and authority outweighed all of creation and all of man and all of the citizens of the rebellion.

                There was only One who could open the seals on earth’s future and bring the rebellion to an end and restored the earth to its original purpose and that is the Creator Himself… but He had to be a man… a true man… brought into the world through the womb of a woman… nursed at the breast of a woman… raised and trained by a man and woman. But He must also be truly God, or He would not be big enough or have near the authority and power to buy it all back. (See Rev. 5:1-13)

                So, we know that God loved the whole world. (John 3:16,)  but where did He come in order to save His creation? He came right back to the heart of it all… to the territory of Eden itself… to the place where heaven had once touched earth… to the very spot where Man had been created… where God had breathed His Spirit into him. He came to Israel… to the mountain of God… to the city of God… to the seed line of faith… to the seed of Abraham through whom the promise had been given…to the very mountain where Abraham had been willing to sacrifice his own son.

                God stopped Abraham’s sacrifice that day with the promise that He would provide a Lamb. Therefore it takes on awesome meaning when John the Baptist says, “Behold the Lamb of god which takes away the sin of the world. That one sentence is probably the thing that made John the greatest prophet of all time. Jesus, the Lamb of God had to give His life on the very spot where it all happened. He had to reverse the curse and buy this world back with His own life‘s blood… the only blood that could conquer sin and Satan.

                Now here we are some 2000 years later and we are entering into the final culmination and apocalyptic finality of this great battle between Christ and Satan. Jesus paid the price for our ransom and He has given us 2000 years to spread the good news and for people to come to Him, but now we are about to see the final conflagration and where is it going to take place? The final battles will be over Jerusalem… over the heart of Eden… there on the plains of Megiddo… in the Holy Land…in the place where countless battles have taken place throughout history… where the enemies of Israel have tried to defeater her time and again. See Zech. 14:1-5, Rev. 16:13-16

                So why do I want to shout out a warning to my Messianic friends and to all who love and pray for the peace of Jerusalem today? It is because in our love for Israel we tend to gloss over the fact that not only is Israel at the center of God’s activity in these final days…it is also the center of Satan’s activity. Satan knows that if he can destroy Israel, he can thwart God’s covenant promises and plans… and what he has not been able to do with wars, he has been doing by planting the very seed of Satan right in the heart of God’s chosen people.

                Today Israel is being run, not by Torah loving and obedient people, but Talmudic Cabbalists, who have brought the very religion of Babylon right into the heart of God’s chosen people. They have literally hijacked the nation of Israel with their Cabbalistic religion from hell. And now they are seeking to impose it upon the world in the form of Noahide laws… and for this they are enlisting the help of the Pope and the New World Order.

                These false leaders of the people have colluded with the Pope of Rome and with the kings and presidents of the earth to bring about a global government and the centerpiece of it will be their third temple which will not be built in honor of the one true God of Israel, but in honor of all religions and all gods. In fact these false Jews, whom the Bible describes as liars from the synagogue of Satan (Rev. 3:9) are becoming part and parcel of the rebellious global kingdom of the Beast and through collusion with the nations and the religions of the world, they are now seeking to impose Noahide laws upon the entire world… and these Noahide laws in turn define the worship of Jesus as God in human flesh as Idolatry and punishable by death…even beheading. (Who would have thought?)

                Therefore it is highly important for those of us who love Israel and who pray for the peace of Jerusalem to understand the issues so that we will not be deceived just as Yeshua warned. (Mt. 24:4, Mark 13:5, Luke 21:8)

                Those who teach replacement theology, tend to confer all end time issues upon themselves and to make themselves the center of earth’s final conflict and believe me, the whole world will be involved, but let’s face it. Those people who have to flee when they see the Abomination of Desolation take place in the temple in Jerusalem are the faithful people in Judea (Mt. 24:15-22) (the West Bank) and chances are, a good many of them will be Messianic Jews. But many of them will not be Messianic yet, but the Bible says that they will be and they will look upon Him whom they have pierced and will mourn their mistake and return to Him; even as Joseph’s brothers were reconciled to Joseph. (Zech. 12:9, 10)

                At a point in time I was confronted with Scripture and I had to believe the Bible over my own traditions. Romans 11 is abundantly clear… and once you accept Romans 11 then your eyes are opened and you begin to see hundreds of texts that clearly describe earth’s end time events as it is centered in Israel and indeed Israel is in the news every day even now and Trump and friends are in the process of putting together a covenant with the many that might be the fulfillment of Daniel 9:27.

                The third temple is being built for the supposed Messiah, but since they have at this point rejected the true Messiah, a false Messiah is going to come to the temple instead. Everything will seem hunky dory until he steps into the holy place and declares himself to be God. That declaration known as the Abomination of Desolation will send the true Jews fleeing, but he will be embraced by the false Jews, the Talmudic Cabbalists, and they will join the antichrist and the false prophet in enforcing the mark of the beast upon the whole world.

                So for all Messianic Jews and Israel loving Evangelicals, it is indeed important to understand the issues. It is important to understand that the battle between Christ and Satan over the souls of man is centered there in Eden where it all started. Read Zechariah 14:1-5 It begins with the final battle of Armageddon as a war in which all of the nations on earth are gathered against Jerusalem and it ends with Jesus returning with His saints to defeat Satan and his armies and then to set foot on the Mt. of Olives to ride into Jerusalem to take up His millennial reign for 1000 years.

                During this time period Jesus will rule the nations with a rod of iron. He will cleanse and restore the Earth and establish His kingdom here repertory to heaven and earth being once again united in the new eternal creation.

                We know that all of creation is waiting eagerly for this time when it will be set free from the bondage that sin has imposed upon it. Romans 8:19-23. These issues are epic in their proportions and as big as the entire universe, but the physical center of it all is back in Eden where it all started and once Eden is restored, the tree of life and the river of life and the mountain of God and the City of God will be one and God will be all in all.

                The New Jerusalem will come down from God out of heaven at the end of Christ’s millennial reign and we should take the hint that even in eternity Jerusalem will be at the center of it all for its foundations are made up of the 12 Jewish apostles and the gates are made up of the 12 tribes of Israel and the Lamb (Yeshua) will be its light.

                Friends, we need to study our Bibles like never before and with something like 30,000 denominations and millions of interpretations, we need the help of the Holy Spirit not only to get the issues right but to make our hearts right… and if our hearts are right, then we as sheep will hear the Shepherd’s voice and we will follow Him through all of this.

                We don’t have to fully understand every nuance of every issue for in the end it is as simple as believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and being faithful to Him and to His Word.

                “My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me and I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:27-30.

                As a watchman I believe that God has called me to help sort out the issues in these last days that could cause us to fall for Satan’s deceptions. I share this role with hundreds of other watchmen and I am probably the least of them… but I want to do my part in my little corner of the world. Likewise each of us must do our little part in our little corner of the world so that when Jesus comes He cans say “Well done, my good and faithful servant….”

                If all of these issues were obvious then we would not be deceived… but Satan doesn’t play fair. He not only plays the part of the devil but he seeks to imitate Christ as well. Therefore we need to understand that some things that look good on the surface may actually have the breath of the dragon in them. But God has given us His Word as a road guide through these last days if we will study and pray and seek the mind of Christ. We have got to believe the Bible!