Jerusalem - Prize of War:
Ironically the City has experienced little of that for which it was named. Peace has been more of a prayer and a hope than a reality. What Jesus predicted about the interim condition of Jerusalem -- from its Roman
destruction until its return to the Israelites at the time of His Second Coming -- became literally fulfilled.
Listen to His prophecy,

"And they [Israel] shall fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles
UNTIL the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."     (Luke 21:24)

In Jerusalem's early history, it was caught between the conquest ambitions of the great empires of
antiquity. Israel sits in the middle of a land bridge that connects three continents. Anyone who wants to build an empire that embraces Asia, Africa and Europe, has to conquer the key span in the middle of that bridge -- Israel. And since its capital is Jerusalem, it came in for one siege after another. The Assyrians, Hittites, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans --
all in turn sounded their war trumpets at the gates of Jerusalem. God miraculously delivered Jerusalem many times. However, their greatest danger was never from without, but from within. Because of Israel's frequent departure from faith in their God, He brought upon Jerusalem a destruction about which His Prophets had long warned them. This happened twice in their history, exactly fulfilling the prophetic warnings they had been given. (see Israel God's Timepiece)

In the long period since Jerusalem's second destruction by the Romans, the battle for Jerusalem has
become the flashpoint of a 4000 year-old conflict. The age-old family feud between two half brothers whose father was Abraham -- Ishmael and Isaac has exploded upon our current scene and drug the world into it. The Arabs are the descendents of Ishmael. They have always believed that the Israelites cheated them out of their inheritance. About AD 622, this deep 4000 year-old resentment became part of a new religion that was
started by one of Ishmael's sons, Mohammed. The religion of Islam is intensely woven around the Arab culture and passions. So wherever Islam has been embraced, Ishmael's
passionate hatred toward the Jew has been embraced with
it. (see the Sword of Allah)

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