December 2002

As I consider the year that we are about to finish, my mind goes to the place of Christ’s birth.  In my mind, I see the streets vacant and a tank rolling down the streets.  The town where Christ was born has an imposed curfew; and if Mary and Joseph would seek a place to stay, they would not even be able to go to the inn. Various governments try to make a peace treaty between the Palestinians and Israel, but the Palestinians will only be satisfied if Israel no longer exists.  The last treaty required so many concessions form Israel that peace with the Palestinians required giving up the birthright of their forefathers.  When did God’s people ever rely on compromise to have peace in their land?  Do they not know?

When a man’s ways are pleasing to the LORD, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him. (Pr.16:7)

Many of the Jews are atheists; is there any wonder why God has left them to their god: fate?  All the Jews I have talked to claim the Bible to be equivalent to Greek mythology- something that has an element of truth but recognized largely as fallacy.  Israel’s problem is not with the Palestinians; it is with God.  There will never be any peace in Israel until Israel makes peace with God.  Israel has forgotten that their forefathers made a Covenant with the eternal God, and it will stand until the earth has passed away.  That covenant has both blessings and curses:

‘But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands,  and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant,  then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life. You will plant seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.  I will set my face against you so that you will be defeated by your enemies; those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee even when no one is pursuing you.  "‘If after all this you will not listen to me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over. (Le.26:14-18)

Israel will suffer the curse 7 times over because their political system has forgotten this covenant.  However, this is not all.  Before Israel took over Canaan, most of the people worshipped Baal.  It was not only worshipped prior to Israel, but Israel itself fell in and out of idolatry with Baal the god of fertility and his counterpart Asherah.  The worship of these two so called gods included several rituals, many of which included sexual immorality.  Israel does not realize that Baal is a territorial spirit over the land of Israel.  For Jesus said:

But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons."  Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.  If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?  And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.  But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.     (Mt.12:24-28)

Beelzebub is still the territorial spirit over Israel today.  Yet, the Bible teaches us that God despises the practice of sexual immorality.  In fact the Bible records:

We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did— and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. (1Co.10:8)

God killed 23,000 Israelis in one day because of sexual immorality, and today immorality is quite common in Israel.  So not only have they denied their God, but as a society, they have rejected God’s purpose for the family.  People are dying, and yet they do not realize their lungs are being blown apart because of their actions and not because of the Palestinians.  Where then does Israel look for help?  To their ally the USA?  In their prophet Isaiah’s day, the king looked to Egypt for help:

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD. (Isa.31:1)

As long as Israel accepts the help of the USA, God will not help them. 

It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man.  It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.  (Ps.116:8-9):

We could go on and on about what Israel is doing wrong, however the bottom line is that they have broken their covenant with God.  Therefore, Israel is at odds with the Palestinians, but the Palestinians are only the symptom.  Israel, itself, is the cause; for as a nation they have turn from God.

 

Prophecy tells us that Israel will not stay in rebellion to God.  For their prophet Daniel writes that Israel as a nation will return to God.  This becomes clear when read:

He said to me, "It will take 2,300 evenings and mornings; then the sanctuary will be reconsecrated."… The vision of the evenings and mornings that has been given you is true, but seal up the vision, for it concerns the distant future." (Dan.8:14&26) 

The Bible teaches us that the temple will be rebuilt in the distant future.  Not only does it get rebuilt but the covenant will be reestablished for seven years:

He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing [of the temple] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him." (Da 9:27)

When the sacrifice is abolished, the abomination will be set up on a wing of the temple:

"From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days.  Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.. (Dan.12:11-12)

The abomination that causes desolation will be set up for a little over three and one half years, but those who wait till 1335 days will be blessed.  So the settting up of the abomination in the temple means that there will be roughly 3 ½  years till the end.  For this reason Jesus warns:

So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel— let the reader understand—  then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (Mt.24:14-15)

In the apostle Paul’s day, two false prophets said that the first resurrection had already come and that those Christians who believed them, “missed the boat”:

Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,  who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. (2Ti.2:17-18)

Paul responded to this false teaching by writing 2 Thessalonians, stating that the antichrist must reign from God’s temple before the resurrection will take place:

Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers,  not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come.  Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.  He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. (2Th.2:1-4)

The abomination that causes desolation is the same person that the church refers to as the anti-christ.  He must set himself up in God’s temple, which would require that all Moslem architecture be removed from the Holy Mount.  In the same way that the Moslems removed a Buddhist temple from the side of a mountain in Turkey.  Therefore, Israel will one day return to God, rebuild the temple, and start the sacrifices again.

 

            One must consider what the Bible teaches concerning the end times in regard to the city of Jerusalem.  It teaches us that Jerusalem must be free from the Gentile presence:

"Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled." (Lk.21:24)

Revelation records:

I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, "Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, and count the worshipers there.  But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. (Re.11:1-3)

When the time of the Gentiles has been fulfilled, Israel will once again return to God:

"I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not become conceited:  Israel has  experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles has come in.  And so all Israel shall be saved,  as it is written:  'The deliverer will come from Zion;  He will turn godlessness away from Jacob.  And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." (Rom.11:25-27)

After the full number of Gentiles come in, there will be a time when a great movement of Jews will accept Christ as their Messiah.  For we read:

"If Israel's transgression means riches for the world,  and their loss means riches for the Gentiles,  how much more will their fullness bring?" (Rom.11:12)

If we Gentiles became rich when Israel rejected Christ, how can we become richer except when Israel accepts Christ as king?

"I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles,  I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.  For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world,  what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Rom.11:13-15).

Many people insist that when the nation of Israel returns to God, they will be an identity all their own- the nation of Israel.  However in reading about the mystery of God,  we read:

"In reading this, then,  you will  be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,  which was not made known to men  in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit  to God's holy apostles and prophets.  This  mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel,  members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." (Eph.3:4-6)

The mystery of Christ is that Gentiles and Jews are heirs together,  members of one body,  sharers in the promise of Christ (Messiah).  Jesus said:

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. (Jn.10:16)

Just as there is only one flock comprised of both Jews and Gentiles, there is also only one olive tree:

"If they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again,  After all,  if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature,  and contrary to that nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree,  how much more readily will these, the natural branches,  be grafted into their own olive tree." (Rom.11:23-24)

We do not join Israel, but rather we join Christ.  If Israel is going to be saved, it will be through Christ:

"Now to him who is able to establish you  by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ,  according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for ages long past,  but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God,  so that all nations might believe and obey him." (Rom.15:25-26)

The mystery is that all the nations might believe and obey Him,  not just the Jews but Gentiles as well:

"I have become it's servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in it's fullness-  the mystery that has been hidden for ages and generations,  but now is disclosed to the saints.  To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery,  which is Christ in you,  the hope of glory." (Col.1:25‑ 27)

To suggest that Israel will become a separate identity apart from the Gentiles and Christ is unscriptural.,  There is no other way to the Father but by Christ.  The mystery of God is fulfilled when all things are placed under Christ:

"And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure,  which he purposed in Christ,  to be put in effect when the times have reached their fulfillment-  to bring all things  in heaven and on earth under one head,  even Christ." (Eph.1:9-10)

When will the times reach their fulfillment?  The Bible gives us the exact time,  when we read:

"But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished,  just as he announced to his servants the prophets." (Rev.10:7)

The time of fulfillment is at the sounding of the last of the seven trumpets; at which time, Christ will come back for his church- one body comprised of both Jews and Gentiles

 

            In conclusion, Mr. Sharon must come to terms that his role as head of the Jewish government in order to bring peace to the land.  Peace will never come by compromise but only by returning to their God and recognizing the covenant their ancestors made with Him.  Return to God and see that you will find peace with those who live around you.  When Israel first came out of the land of Egypt celebrating the Passover, God told them that that was to be the first month of their year:

The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, "This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year.  Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. (Ex.12:1-3)

In the name of the Lord, I call upon him to return their calendar to God’s model and find peace.  If only he does this one thing, the land will have peace for 90 days in Israel, if on the 91^st day (after reestablishing their calendar back to the Biblical model) exactly 230 people die, then let Israel know the way to peace is the way to God.