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CHRISTIAN
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CHRISTIAN
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ISRAEL POLARISES THE NATIONS
1 May 2002
People have been asking me to write on what is happening in Israel now. I am not going to respond to the immediate controversies happening now, because they will have changed by next month and I don't have time to write regular reports on it. For this I recommend you go to www.jpost.com or subscribe to one of the internet lists I previously advertised.
Everything I see now happening re: Global controversy around Israel is just progress towards the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. In other words, the conflict is sovereignly orchestrated by God - with Ariel Sharon, Osama Bin Laden and Arafat just pawns in the process of fulfilling biblical prophecy. This does not however absolve these people of moral responsibility for their actions. Without going into detail, the actions of the enemies of Israel has been consistently violent, malicious and evil, wheras Israel has been consistently restrained in its response. For Israel not to have responded with force would have meant national suicide. Nevertheless the world media is portraying things the other way around. The devil is extremely busy in the region trying to stop the fulfillment of God's purposes, but God is sovereignly using the devils activities to fulfill his purposes - just as he did with Jesus on the cross (1 Cor 2:8).
This, however should not leave us as fatalists - our prayers and actions do have an influence on the region. Matthew 24:20 shows that while biblical prophecy is unchangeable, our prayers may influence the degree to which people will suffer or be blessed in the process of this fulfillment. Israel is currently in the most politically vulnerable position that it has been probably since the war of independence in 1948 - and is more in need of our prayers and support than at any time in most of our lives. Nevertheless, we can trust God to bring good and fulfill his purposes out of these numerous tragic crises.
PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF LAST 6 MONTHSThe following events over the last 6 months are interesting from a prophetic perspective:
• The UN Congress on Racism in Durban was hjacked by Islamic radicals who incited hatred against Israel until Jewish delgates were forced to leave for their own safety. Somewhat ironic in view of the purpose of the gathering. What was alarming was that people from hundreds of nations - who came with their own rational and legitimate agendas - allowed their agendas to be swept aside in favour of the irrational 'hatred of Israel' agenda of the Moslem extremists. A march organised on the issue of racism included people from all over the world, but became dominated by anti-Israel sentiment. Reading biblical prophecy of all nations vs Israel - it is alarming how easily this happened. The congress was a foretaste of things to come on a global scale (Zechariah 14:2-4).
• Osama Bin Laden said in a media interview about a year ago that his hatred for America was motivated by their support of Israel. Israel is the largest recipient of American financial aid - which pays most of its military budget - thus detering Arab states from making over war on Israel. Thus the whole Afghan war and September 11 attack should not be seen as a 'war on terror', but a fringe conflict in which God dealt with an enemy of Israel. Had America not been provoked to war, the threat of an army of terrorists with weapons of mass destruction being trained by Bin Laden would have grown - with negative consequences for Israel.
• Before the 11 September attack, the USA, Israel's best friend was making unreasonable demands for Israel to compromise its security with the Arabs in exchange for promises of peace. After the attack, president Bush came up with the 'Bush doctrine' that 'those who shelter terrorists are terrorists.' - which he later hypocritically said did not apply to the Israeli situation. A member of the Israeli foreign ministry said that the attack had achieved more to help people understand Israels enemies than Israel could have done with two hundred ambassadors with unlimited access to world leaders.
• The collapse of the 'peace process' with Arafat and the Palestinian Authority due to his continuing incitement and organisation of violence against Israel in spite of generous offers of about 97% of what he had been previously asking for. Effectively, this allows the re-settlement of Jews to continue uninterupted in Judea-Samaria (West Bank) and Gaza. We must remember that all the towns in what is today recognised as Israel-proper such as Tel Aviv were once just ' Jewish settlements'. These 'settlements' progressively fulfill God's promise to give the land of Canaan to the descendants of Abraham. Only a few decades ago, Galilee and Negev desert were Arab majority areas - but with settlement they became a Jewish majority areas. The same will happen progressively to the West Bank and Gaza. Interestingly, most of the promises for Abraham to get the land of Israel were given while he was walking on land now claimed by Arafat. The Arabs have always violently opposed the return of the Jews to the land of Israel and the current violence is just a continuation of this.
• The increasing hostility of the United Nations, European Union, Non-Alignmed Movement and Arab Union against Israel - much of it revolving around the sovereignty of Jerusalem. The issue of 'Israel' is gradually polarising the world - with more and more people being forced to take sides. There are thousands of other ethnic disputes over land, but none are getting similar interest or attention. These are preparing these nations for the final conflict against Israel and Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2-4).
WHAT CAN WE EXPECT IN THE FUTUREI expect their will be ups and downs in the process, but I don't expect a long-term peaceful resolution. Rather I expect increasing tumult until the climax of history when all nations are gathered against Jerusalem and our Lord returns with the armies of heaven to settle the matter once and for all.
Before we reach that stage, a lot of other things have got to happen:
- The resettlement of the Jews in all of Israel (only half fulfilled thus far) (Gen 15:18);
- The expansion of Israel to the Euphrates river in the north (Gen 15:18);
- Israel will become a great and powerful nation (which it is not at present) (Gen 18:18);
- The evangelisation of all nations on earth (Matt 28; Gen 18:18);
- The conversion of the Jews to Christianity (Romans 11:26).I don't think any of the above are going to happen peacefully. The devil will do his best to frustrate the process - because after history is finished, then he looses his power. If some of the above list sounds far fetched, then consider: i. The promise of world evangelism was given at the same time to the same person as the promises to give the land to Abraham; If God isn't going to keep his promises to Abraham regards the land of Israel - then we must also question whether he will keep his promise to bless all nations with the gospel. ii. About 90% of the Bible's promises about Israel have already been literally fulfilled. The above is just the remaining 10%. A hundred years ago, the idea of re-creating the state of Israel was considered impossible by most.
WHAT CAN WE DO:
• Pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6).
• Pray for the fulfillment of biblical prophecy - i.e. pray the numerous scriptures not fulfilled yet.
• Work, donate and pray toward world evangelism (Matt 28).
• Motivate our nation to bless rather than curse Israel (Gen 12:3)God bless
Philip Rosenthal
ISRAEL-JEWISH is an email conference on Israel - South Africa relations, Christian Zionism, evangelisation of the Jewish people etc. To receive, email israel-jewish-subscribe@egroups.com; To read old archived messages, go to www.egroups.com/messages/israel-jewish
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