 TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...
Iranian Proxies Are Starting To Join The War, And That Is Really Bad News - by Michael Snyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/iranian-proxies-are-starting-to-join-the-war-and-that-is-really-bad-news/
It is beginning to happen. We have been told that a worst case scenario for the war in the Middle East would be for Iranian proxies to join the war followed by Iran itself. That sort of escalation could lead to an apocalyptic conflict that spirals completely out of control, and so great efforts have been made to try to keep the rest of the “Axis of Resistance” on the sidelines. Unfortunately, those efforts appear to have failed, and that is really bad news. On Tuesday, it was being reported that the IDF and Hamas were engaged in “fierce battles” deep inside Gaza… Israel today said it has killed ‘dozens’ of Hamas terrorists during ‘fierce’ fighting ‘deep’ inside Gaza with video showing soldiers scouring the streets for the gunmen amid raging battles. Israeli troops attacked Hamas positions within the terrorists’ vast tunnel network in a bid to free hostages trapped there – a key objective for Israel as it expands ground operations inside Gaza to wipe out Hamas following its gun rampage three weeks ago that killed over 1,400 people. In the fifth day of major ground operations inside northern Gaza, the army said it had engaged in ‘fierce battles’ with Hamas terrorists, with footage showing columns of tanks and soldiers advancing further into the besieged enclave. IDF forces have reached “the outskirts of Gaza City” and are steadily surrounding it on all sides. But Israel is not in a rush. The Israelis are going to take things one step at a time, because they want to minimize civilian casualties as well as their own losses… The gradual progress of the present campaign is intended to avoid pitched fighting in built-up areas, while troops are wary of approaching the vast network of secret subterranean tunnels in which Hamas hides. The go-slow tactics may succeed in limiting Israeli military losses and potentially civilian deaths, yet risk prolonging a war. I think that a methodical approach makes a lot of sense. Hamas has spent many years preparing their tunnels, and so it is wise to use caution. As fighting rages in Gaza, Iran is warning that their proxies “won’t stay silent”… Iran today boasted its powerful proxies ‘won’t stay silent’ and hinted the fighting between Israel and Hamas could engulf the Middle East after the Tehran-backed Huthi rebels fired drones into the Jewish state from Yemen. The Huthis, who seized Yemen’s capital Sanaa in 2014 and control large swathes of the country, said they fired a series of drones towards the Red Sea city of Eilat this morning in retaliation to Israel’s war against Hamas. Personally, I don’t think that the Houthis represent too much of a threat. First of all, they have their own war to worry about. Secondly, any rockets that they can fire toward Israel shouldn’t be too much of a threat. Thirdly, they simply aren’t capable of transporting large numbers of troops to areas where they could engage Israel. But even though they will not be a major player in this war, the Houthis have apparently decided to officially join it anyway… Yemen’s Houthi rebels have entered the war with Israel after it launched drones and missiles at the south of the country earlier today. The Houthis are part of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance” and have rallied behind Hamas since the October 7 attacks. They have been at war with Yemen’s internationally recognised government since 2014 and control the capital city of Sana’a. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group launched a “large number” of missiles and drones toward Israel and that it would continue to attack “to help the Palestinians to victory”. Meanwhile, Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria continue to attack U.S. troops. In fact, it is being reported that U.S. forces have now come under fire for the 25th time since October 7th… U.S. forces deployed to the Middle East have been targeted for the 25th time since the Hamas attack on Israel October 7, amid fears of a widening conflict. The attack came as two armed drones targeted the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq, which U.S. and international forces use in western Iraq to go after remnants of ISIS. The American people might not realize it yet, but we are already at war in the Middle East. Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria are constantly targeting our troops, and they aren’t going to stop. Of course when it comes to Iranian proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon is the big dog, and everyone is watching to see what they will do… Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, has found itself in an awkward position since its ally Hamas launched a deadly, surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Now, after years of spoiling for a fight with Israel, Hezbollah is torn between maintaining its credibility as a defender of the Palestinians, and its hesitation to get involved in a full-scale war. I’ll tell you the number one reason why Hezbollah is hesitating. They don’t want to get nuked. If Hezbollah started firing thousands of missiles at Israel and attempted to launch a full-blown invasion from the north, there is a very good chance that the Israelis would use nuclear weapons. But at some point the pressure to join the conflict will likely become just too great, and that will especially be true once it becomes clear that Hamas is on the verge of being wiped out… A Lebanese official who speaks with Hezbollah said the militants have said their red line for intervention is the destruction of Hamas, and that they will enter the war if the group is on its last legs. But Israel’s stated goal is the destruction of Hamas. Hezbollah is not going to just sit there and watch the IDF achieve total victory over Hamas. That just isn’t going to happen. Of course Hezbollah has already been engaging the IDF on a regular basis along Israel’s northern border. In fact, Hezbollah is claiming that they just destroyed an Israeli tank… Hezbollah has announced an Attack today on Israeli Forces along the Border with Southern Lebanon, which is claimed to have resulted in the Targeting and Destruction of a Merkava Mark lll or lV Main Battle Tank. We are so close to a major regional war. The worse that things get for Hamas, the more enraged the Iranians and their proxies will become. By the time this thing is over, I believe that the entire world will be completely and utterly shocked by what happens. The Road to Another Holocaust Is Being Paved With Wokeness And Apathy – By Olivier Melnick - https://harbingersdaily.com/the-road-to-another-holocaust-is-being-paved-with-wokeness-and-apathy/ At the end of World War II, the world was in shock as it had discovered the horrors of the Holocaust that had come from one of the most educated countries on the planet. Depending on how one looks at it, the Holocaust took place ONLY eighty years ago or ALREADY eighty years ago. Within the scope of human history, it wasn’t a long time, but when we look at man’s lifespan, it helps us understand that almost all those who have gone through the horrors of the “Shoah” (catastrophe) and survived it are now gone, simply because of old age. Only a handful of firsthand survivors remain around us today, most of them in their nineties. Very soon, nobody will be able to hold someone’s hand and turn their arm to discover the infamous tattoo of doom–the death number of the camps. The voices of the Shoah are fading away, while the voices of historical revisionism are shouting that the Holocaust was either grossly exaggerated or never happened. Its memory is in the hands of family members of Holocaust victims. That is why I continue to tell the story of how my mother was hidden in the South of France after her father was taken by the Gestapo and sent to be murdered in Auschwitz. Some people realized early on that the horrendous, organized genocide of the Jewish people had to be documented. One of these people was General Dwight Eisenhower. He understood the importance of documenting and remembering the Holocaust the minute that he walked inside the camp at Orhdruf. As he visited this sub-camp of Buchenwald with Generals Bradley and Patton, he realized the magnitude of what he was witnessing. He immediately wrote a letter to the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General George Marshall, in which he said: …The things I saw beggar description. While I was touring the camp, I encountered three men who had been inmates and by one ruse or another, had made their escape. I interviewed them through an interpreter. The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick….I made the visit deliberately in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to “propaganda.” As the story goes, General Patton had to excuse himself to go into a private corner and throw up at some point during the visit. Despite the commendable efforts made by Eisenhower and others, the Holocaust increasingly runs the risk of being relegated into some obscure corner of history, even worse…Some will soon believe that it simply never happened. This is also why part of the process was for the US military to force as many Germans as possible to witness the horrors that had taken place around them. Perpetrators and bystanders alike were faced with the results of evil in their midst. General Eisenhower would be furious and probably disgusted by today’s younger generation. Their lack of interest and lack of knowledge of the Jewish catastrophe is helping those who wish to make it disappear from history. Some schools barely touch the subject for fear of hurting the feelings of other people groups. In the meantime, the Shoah is slowly being erased one person at a time, one memory at a time, one testimony at a time. Fast forward to October 7, 2023, when the world became a witness to the horrors of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. We now know that their attack was straight out of the Nazi playbook. Actually, it was more like a merging of Nazis and Isis on steroids. Most people have been unable to watch any of the gruesome footage gathered by the IDF. How are human beings able to perform such torture on people including very young children and the elderly? Moreover, how can anyone in their right mind even question that what Hamas did was inhuman and clearly belonged to the category of “crimes against humanity?” Queen Rania of Jordan has been questioning the beheading of Israeli children by Hamas in an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN. Colleges and universities in the USA and other parts of the world have rallied against Israel and in favor of Hamas, putting many Jewish people at risk for their lives…in 2023. This is 1933 all over again! We have turned an important corner in modern antisemitism. The beast has been globally unleashed, and it is on a brutal rampage for Jewish lives. To counter the irrational pushback from the media and other organizations or governments, Israeli authorities had an “Eisenhower moment.” They decided to show a group of journalists a 43-minute compilation of the horrors committed by Hamas on October 7, so that they would not forget. It is so sad that such an event would even have to be held, but the world must know. As difficult as these images are to look at, we must not turn our heads away, lest we become the new bystanders of the 21st century. If this is the new normal for Jewish people worldwide, then, we must adjust to it as well, and as believers, we must not be silent. Thousands of Hamas sympathizers have gathered all over the globe to rally against Israel in the biggest display of double standard we have ever witnessed. The Jewish people need to know that there are Christians who are ready to commit to their rescue and safety. Where is the Church when pro-Hamas people are chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free!” or “Gas the Jews!” The world is being split in two as we see pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian factions take sides. To be sure, not all Palestinians side with Hamas. Many of them just want to live in peace, but the lines are being blurred by biased reporting and double standards. Add to that the fact that younger generations easily buy the lies about Israel because they have no clue about history. They are gullible victims of the propaganda spewers. Consider this:
Israel needs you, the Jewish people need you, and now is not the time to sit on the fence! Ian Kershaw said “The Road to Auschwitz was built by hate but paved with indifference,” to which I add, “The Road to another Holocaust is being rebuilt by hate but now paved with wokeness and apathy.” 2023 End of the Year Support Donation Drawing Like most ministries, a large amount of our support comes from people giving during the last couple of months of the year. This year has been challenging for all of, but I believe that Prophecy Update and other like minded ministries are needed now more than ever! Please consider entering our drawing, not only might you win this brand new iMac, but more importantly, you will be helping to support Prophecy Update - thank you so very much!!! A Chance to Win a Brand New 24-inch iMac with Retina 5K display -- most importantly, you will be helping to Support Prophecy Update! With the following configuration: · 3.8GHz 8-core 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz · 8GB 2666MHz DDR4 memory · Radeon Pro 5500 XT with 8GB of GDDR6 memory · 1TB SSD storage · Gigabit Ethernet · Magic Mouse 2 · Magic Keyboard - US English This system is valued at $2,499, and you might win, for a little as $25!!! It's already that time of the of the year when we have to start budgeting and planning for the coming new year! We pray that the proceeds from this Donation Drawing will greatly offset our End of the Year needs so that we can end the year in the black! Donation Drawing Fund We have set up a special fund for this donation-drawing on our donations page. For each donation of just $25, your name will be entered into our drawing for the iMac one-time. For each additional $25 increment, you will receive additional entries into the drawing. If you donate $100 dollars for example, your name will be entered four times into the drawing, you can enter as many times as you like! The offer starts today and the drawing will be held and announced on 12/31/23. This would make an excellent Christmas gift for a student, for your family, or for those who work from home. For a little as $25, you might win this awesome iMac, but most importantly, you will be helping to support this ministry! (CLICK HERE TO ENTER DRAWING) You can also mail in your entry to: PROPHECY UPDATE PO BOX 40516 BAKERSFIELD, CA 93384 (Please mark entry "End of the Year Drawing") Prophecy Update Videos Must Watch Videos! Videos You Can Trust
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Your Support is Important to this Ministry - We Could Not Do This Without Your Support! Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift! II Corinthians 9:15 Worthy of Your Support? It has been said, one of the most reliable ways to determine if a ministry is worthy of your financial support is to examine its fruits. If Prophecy Update is keeping you informed and if that information inspires you and causes you to draw closer to the Lord, if Prophecy Update equips you with valuable information and knowledge to share with and encourage other believers and open the eyes of non-believers and if Prophecy Update keeps you connected to current events relating to Bible Prophecy then you are partaking of the fruit produced through this ministry. None of this would be possible without the Lords blessings and your support. I believe where the Lord guides, the Lord provides and most of the time He provides through the willing and generous hearts of believers just like you and me. I genuinely believe that Prophecy Update and many other like-minded ministries, are needed now more than ever! The world is getting darker daily, almost hourly, but never has the light of the Word of God shone so brightly. Never in our history has there been such a thirst for Truth and a need for a Savior! The Prophecy Update website, newsletter, and Video Channels are all dedicated to providing the truth, encouraging and informing believers, and prayerfully opening the eyes and hearts of non-believers with the Gospel, but none of it would be possible without your prayers and support. DONATE HERE Your can also mail your support to: Prophecy Update PO Box 40516 Bakersfield, CA 93384 The Truth About Palestine - By Jack Kinsella - https://www.raptureforums.com/jack-kinsella/palestine/ The land claimed by Israel is smaller than the state of Rhode Island. In comparison to the Arab Middle East, Israel is like a single piece of sod on a football field. Carrying the analogy further, imagine that one team has to defend that single piece of sod from an opposing team that outnumbers them 650 to 1. The other team, claiming unfair advantage, is demanding the single piece of sod be divided and half of it be awarded to them. The referees agree, and penalize the defending team for refusing to concede half of its 1/6th of one percent of the field to the opposition [that outnumbers them 650 to one]. The crowd loudly boos the defenders. That is roughly analogous to the rules of engagement under which the Middle East conflict is being played out. The Arab side makes two concurrent claims; 1) Israel has no historical right to the land; and 2) Israel, by its existence, has dispossessed the indigenous Palestinian people, leaving them with nowhere to go. Except for a few decades of Christian control during the Crusades era, the land claimed by Israel was under Islamic control for 1300 years. This is one of the principle arguments advanced in favor of the Palestinian claim that Israel has no historical right to the Land of Promise. That argument is bolstered by the existence of an Arab mosque atop what the Jews claim as Temple Mount, a mosque that has graced Mount Moriah for some 1,350 years. According to modern Islam, the mosque atop Mount Moriah is the third-holiest site in Islam. Recently Islamic tradition says the al Aqsa Mosque marks the place where Mohammed ascended into heaven aboard a winged horse. For that reason, it now ranks third in line behind Mecca and Medina as Islam’s holiest cities. In ancient times, Israel sat atop the most strategic crossroads of the known world. One couldn’t get from Babylon to Egypt by chariot without passing through it. Israel and Jerusalem have been fought over and conquered by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Arabs, Turks, and finally, the British in 1917. In each of its conquests, Jerusalem was strategic because of its strategic value as Israel’s God-given capital. From Nebuchadnezzar to Titus, each successive conqueror acknowledged Jerusalem as the capital of the Jews. When the region was conquered by Islam, taking Jerusalem was a strategic, rather than religious necessity. Whoever controlled the Jewish holy city controlled the remaining indigenous Jews. The reconquest of Jerusalem became a holy religious duty only after the Crusaders claimed the city for Christianity. Since the city was holy to Judaism and holy to Christianity, it became holy to Islam, as well. But ‘holy’ doesn’t mean the same thing to Islam as it does to Christians and Jews. To Christians or Jews, ‘holy’ means worthy of reverence, whereas to Islam, ‘holy’ means worthy of possession. Under Islamic possession, Jerusalem was just another dusty city of the province of Southern Syria. In the four hundred years Jerusalem was under Ottoman rule until 1917, the city was never even a regional or provincial capital. After the Ottoman Empire fell to the Allies in the First World War, British foreign secretary Lord Balfour put into writing Britain’s support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” When the League of Nations made Palestine a British mandate after the war, Lord Balfour’s declaration was assumed as part of the deal and the allied powers of the Great War all agreed. By 1935, there were more than 300,000 Jews in Palestine. Tel Aviv, founded in 1909, had 100,000 people. In 1947 Britain, which had been handed the Palestine problem by the now-defunct League of Nations passed it on, with relief, to the newly born United Nations. The UN agreed to partition Palestine into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a neutral UN zone containing Jerusalem, a city sacred to three religions. The Jews were thrilled, the Arabs adamantly opposed. In late 1947 the plan was ratified by the UN, and the State of Israel proclaimed on May 14, 1948. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled the country. The the British pulled out completely, and most of the Arab world- Egypt, Transjordan (now Jordan), Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon, as well as Palestinians- immediately attacked in an attempt to destroy Israel. By the time of armistice in 1949 Israel held three quarters of Palestine- twice as much land as the UN had proposed- Jordan had taken the land on the West Bank of the Jordan River, and Egypt had taken the Gaza Strip. It is at this point in the story of the Middle East that history ends and the modern myth of the Middle East is born. Assessment The modern myth is that at the end of the Israeli War of Independence, the indigenous ‘Palestinian’ people were dispossessed by Israel and left with nothing. The historical fact is that, until the mid 1930’s, the term ‘Palestinian’ was a label applied to the Jews. Until 1950, the name of the Jerusalem Post was THE PALESTINE POST; the journal of the Zionist Organization of America was NEW PALESTINE; Bank Leumi was the ANGLO-PALESTINE BANK; the Israel Electric Company was the PALESTINE ELECTRIC COMPANY; there was the PALESTINE FOUNDATION FUND and the PALESTINE PHILHARMONIC. All these were Jewish organizations. In America, Zionist youngsters sang “PALESTINE, MY PALESTINE”, “PALESTINE SCOUT SONG” and “PALESTINE SPRING SONG” In general, the terms ‘Palestine’ and ‘Palestinian’ referred to the region of Palestine as it was prior to 1948. Thus “Palestinian Jew” and “Palestinian Arab” are straightforward expressions. “Palestine Post” and “Palestine Philharmonic” refer to these bodies as they existed in a place then known as Palestine. The adoption of a Palestinian identity by the Arabs of Palestine is a recent phenomenon. Until the establishment of the State of Israel, and for another decade or so, the term ‘Palestinian’ applied exclusively to the Jews. The claims of the Arab ‘Palestinians’ to be a separate people is an utter fiction. There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Arab Palestinians. Arab Palestinians are indistinguishable from Jordanians (recent British inventions all), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. Syria was created by the British and subsequently given to France as the French Mandate. The Syrians declared independence after the British left in 1946, two years before Israel did the same thing. Jordan was created by the British in 1921. The same British government that created the modern Arab world in 1920 at the San Remo Conference in Italy — by decree — also created a Jewish homeland the same way at the same conference. And the Jewish Palestine of the Balfour Declaration as confirmed at San Remo encompassed a much bigger chunk of ground than Israel claims today. Until the Jews renewed their claim to the land of Palestine, nobody else wanted it. The Jews petitioned for statehood on the principle that Palestine was “a land without a people” and that the Jews were “a people without a land.” Arab revisionist historians say that claim was ‘a myth.’ History and mathematics tell a different story — if anybody were interested in the facts, that is. In 1948, there were about 735,000 Muslim and Christian Arabs in Palestine. There were about 716,000 Jews. Since the same land now supports a population of more than 12 million combined Arabs and Jews, the argument that the Arabs were ‘crowded out’ by the Jews makes no sense. The ‘Palestinian refugees’ languishing in ‘refugee camps’ in Jordan, Lebanon and elsewhere, were not interned by Israel. They were interned by their own governments after those governments lost the war with Israel. Those Jordanian citizens that lived in Jordan’s West Bank and the citizens of Egypt’s Gaza Strip (who, on May 30, 1967 were still Egyptians), became instant ‘Palestinians’ on June 7, 1967. From the moment of its declaration of statehood, the Jews of Israel have lived under the constant threat of annihilation by the surrounding Arab states. As Golda Meir observed during the Yom Kippur War, “the Arabs can fight, and lose, and come back to fight another day. Israel can only lose once.” What makes this significant is that NONE of this is a secret. Knowing this, the entire world prefers the fictional account advanced by the Islamic world; that the Palestinians pre-existed the Jews, that the Jews stole ‘Palestinian land’ dispossessed its inhabitants and locked them away in refugee camps. Remember the football field and the single square of sod analogy. To the world, dividing that single square of sod defended by a team outnumbered 650 to one that holds the rest of the football field is an example of ‘leveling the playing field’. It is nothing short of madness. But it is a madness that seems to have infected the world at large. The Islamic version of the Arab-Israeli conflict is a monstrous lie being advanced in favor of a claim to land that nobody wanted until the Jews did. In the midst of a global war on terror, the world is prepared to countenance an openly terrorist government ruling over a ‘people’ that do not exist, (a people whose only goal is the ANNIHILATION of another people whose history is THE most documented record of ancient times) based on the argument that the Jewish claim to Jerusalem is historically invalid. That lie is so delusional that it boggles the mind. Yet it is the basic reason for a global war on terror that now threatens to spill over into an all-out war of civilizations. Israel, by its very existence, is a stench in the nostrils of the secular world. It is a constant reminder of the existence and reality of God, and therefore, man’s accountability before Him. Paul explains it this way: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind…” (Romans 1:28) The secular world’s war against the Jews is unreasoning, blind anti-semitism so ingrained in its psyche it is blissfully unaware it even exists. Any critically-thinking person can see the truth, yet the UN consistently finds the ‘anti-truth’ when it involves Israel. It is almost supernatural in its scope and breadth. In fact, scratch ‘almost’ from that last sentence. It IS supernatural. There Has Never Been A More Urgent Need For Pastors To Proclaim Israel’s Right To The Land – By Jonathan Brentner – https://harbingersdaily.com/there-has-never-been-a-more-urgent-need-for-pastors-to-proclaim-israels-right-to-the-land/ There’s never been a more urgent need for pastors to proclaim Israel’s right to the Land. The war in the Middle East has exposed the cancer of anti-Semitism and we must not keep silent. The massive influx of people from Muslim nations explains the anti-Semitic demonstrations in major cities across Europe and the U.S., but why the intense hatred such as at Cornel University in New York where Jewish students were forced to hide from danger? As I explain in Prophetic Observations of the Massacre in Israel, Satan is the culprit behind the anger directed at Israel and by proxy at the Jews living in other nations. Replacement Theology also contributes to what’s happening on college campuses, particularly in America. Proponents of this doctrine assert that that after the people of ancient Israel rejected their Messiah, God turned His back on them and as a result, replaced the nation with the church. They claim that the church is now God’s kingdom on earth having inherited such promises that He made to Israel, albeit in a spiritual sense. How does this teaching lead to anti-Semitism? During the long history of the church, Replacement Theology has been a breeding ground for it. Today, we see that churches in denominations long immersed in this teaching support the Palestinians cause in spite of its desire to destroy the nation of Israel and celebration of terrorism. The silence of many other churches concerning Israel’s right to the Land leaves a vacuum that the devil fills with murderous hatred. The Origin Of Replacement Theology Before the time of Augustine in the early fifth century, the majority of church leaders believed in the literal fulfillment of the entire book of Revelation. Even though writers such as Justin Martyr believed that God was finished with the Jewish people, He asserted that Jesus would reign for a thousand years in Jerusalem and denounced others who did not agree with him on this matter. Because of his skill as a theologian and writer, Augustine changed everything. Motivated by anti-Semitism along and his fondness for the teachings of Plato who taught that all matter was evil, he altered the literal meaning of prophecies concerning Israel so that they conformed to his amillennialism, the belief there is no literal fulfillment of Revelation 20:1-10 nor the restoration of a kingdom to Israel. His teaching that the church was God’s kingdom on earth appealed to a great many on his day because earlier, under the Emperor Constantine, Christianity had become the official religion of Rome. The church now possessed political power, which made its leaders all the more susceptible to the idea that they now ruled the kingdom once promised to God’s people. The temptation, fueled by Replacement Theology, proved irresistible. The Reformers In the centuries leading up to the Reformation, Augustine’s spiritualizing of the texts of Bible prophecy became the basis for diluting other passages in God’s Word. Soon, the purity of the Gospel and in particular, the doctrine of justification by faith fell victim to symbolical interpretations rather than those based on the meaning of words. As a result, the Roman Catholic Church made works the basis of one’s salvation and kept its people closely tied to it through sacraments. It’s bishops and priests dominated the people ruling as kings over them rather than as shepherds caring for the needs of God’s people. The Reformers rejected Augustine’s allegorical approach to Scripture that had led to doctrinal error concerning the Gospel. Their principles of sola scriptura and “Scripture interprets Scripture” brought the church back to what the New Testament taught regarding justification and the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). Unfortunately, the anti-Semitism of Luther and Calvin kept them from applying their principles of Bible interpretation to future things, especially passages related to the restoration of a kingdom for Israel. They condemned the spiritualization of biblical texts, but just couldn’t get to the place of accepting what the words of Scripture revealed about Jesus’ future thousand-year reign. After The Reformation The generation following the Reformation, however, began to apply the Reformers’ principles of interpretation to prophecies relating to the Millennium and the restoration of Israel. Dr. William Watson documents this change in an article called “The Rise of Philo-Semitism and Premillennialism During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.” Dr. Watson lists forty-five writers and Bible scholars who, from 1585 to 1800, expressed beliefs related to Jesus’ future thousand-year reign over the nations of the earth. He provided quotes from the majority of these biblical scholars who paved the way for the revival of Premillennialism (the belief in a literal thousand-year reign of Jesus based in Jerusalem). As a result, many began teaching that God would restore a kingdom to Israel. The most well-known of these biblical scholars was Isaac Newton. In 1706, based upon his study of Daniel and Revelation, Newton stated Israel would once again become a nation. How Did Premillennialism Change The Church’s View Of The Jewish People? In his book, Dispensationalism Before Darby, Dr. William Watson has a most remarkable quote: It was not until the Reformation and the publication of the Geneva Bible (1557) and subsequently, the King James Bible (1611) in England that Christians began to read those Jewish Scriptures for themselves. In doing so, they began to believe once again the promises God had made to the Jews. Dr. William Watson, who has done an incredible amount of research digging through the writings of Bible scholars in the centuries before and following the Reformation, lists twenty-one authors on page 45 of his book who from 1584 to 1675 either stated that God’s covenant with the Jews was eternal, encouraged fellow Christians to love the Jews, or believed that Jerusalem would be prominent in the future because of a restored Israel. The resurgence of Bible teachers adopting Premillennialism, coupled with believers reading the Word of God for themselves, not only changed beliefs regarding the restoration of Israel, but also replaced the church’s longstanding anti-Semitism with one of love for the Jewish people. By the early twentieth century, Premillennialism had become the predominant belief in Bible-believing churches across the world and remained so for much of the century. In the early 1900’s, Bible scholars such a C. I. Scofield and Lewis S. Chafer predicted that Israel would become a nation again, just as Isaac Newton had done 200 years earlier, and in 1948, it happened. Israel became a nation in one day, just as the prophet Isaiah said would happen (66:8) Of course, those in mainline denominations ridiculed their predictions and still held firmly to Replacement Theology even after they witnessed God’s amazing fulfillment of prophecy. The Resurgence Of Replacement Theology Since the start of the twenty-first century, Replacement Theology has made a comeback even in churches that once espoused Premillennialism. Although this is not the total explanation for what we see on U.S. college campuses, it contributes to the acceptance of the hatred that’s jeopardizing the safety of Jewish students. I see two trends contributing to this. First, many believers don’t read and study the Bible for themselves. They depend solely on what they hear from their pastors on Sunday mornings. Many blindly accept Replacement Theology because they haven’t studied Scripture for themselves. As a result, they accept today’s poplar lie that Israel has no inherent right to the Land. Second, there has been an influx of amillennial teachers into seminaries that train our pastors. When I attended Talbot Theological Seminary during the 1970’s, my professors held firmly to beliefs in Jesus’ thousand-year reign and the pre-Tribulation Rapture. Since then, it has welcomed instructors who claim to be premillennial, but don’t believe in a literal Tribulation, Millennium, or the restoration of Israel. I know this to be true. The resurgence of Replacement Theology has come about from believers not studying or reading the Bible for themselves along with pastors that either teach Replacement Theology or remain silent regarding the end times. In some cases this results in anti-Semitism, but it mostly results in indifference that sees the war in Israel as just another conflict with no bearing on their lives, which could not be further from the truth. To Sum Up Replacement Theology flourished from the time of Augustine until many decades after the Reformation because of anti-Semitism and the efforts of the Roman Catholic Church to keep Christians from reading the Bible in their own language. Andy Stanley, one of today’s most popular preachers, encourages the church to “unhitch” itself from the Old Testament. Such advice not only opens the door to Wokeism, but promotes Reformation Theology as many believers no longer read the Hebrew Scriptures where God makes solemn promises to Israel and expresses His love for Jerusalem in the Psalms. Because Replacement Theology, along with its unbiblical offshoots, preterism and dominion theology, have become dominant in the church, there’s much sympathy and even blind support for the Palestinian cause even in churches and seminaries that claim to be Bible-believing. These things ought not to be! The war in the Middle East necessitates that:
Maranatha! Daily Jot: Stupidocrisy: Where in the world? - Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com Where in the world would a nation and a people be constantly persecuted and pursued to extinction in such brutal fashion as to have babies ripped from the womb of dying mothers, children mutilated and killed as the last sight of their dying parents, beheaded, burned alive, raped, dismembered alive before blood thirsty, laughing enemies? Yes, where in the world? And where in the world would nations view this evil brutality and think it justified? Where in the world would such behavior be celebrated and memorialized? Where in the world would such barbarians be financially supported and rewarded by international bodies in the name of humanitarianism? Where in the world? How is it that leaders of racial equality rally their constituents to march in favor of such brutality? How is it that those who dress up like clowns, wanting to be identified with sexual depravity, to be allowed the right to sexually molest, confuse and groom innocent children into their behavior gather together to protest with the very people who have openly said they have no right to practice their sexual immorality? How is it that those who post signs in their yards that say “Hate doesn’t live here” support such hate against a nation and a people? How is it that those deploring fascism and racism align with those who not only practice fascism and racism, but do so with such unrepentant vigor and enthusiasm? What kind of international organization dedicated to peace condemns not only a nation, but a people for exercising their right to self-defense? What kind of country calls for the extermination of a nation and a people? What kind of political party would tolerate members who speak in favor of those who demand genocide of an entire nation—all of its men, women and children? What kind of nation espouses equality and liberty for all funds these nations and factions that state as their mission to eliminate a nation and a people from the very face of the earth? What kind of leaders speak self-determination for these barbarians knowing full well their intentions to destroy a people and a nation? It is from nothing less than those who have ignorance and evil in their hearts. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” Christ said in Mark 7:21-22, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.” Isaiah 59:7-8 says, “Their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed innocent blood; Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; Wasting and destruction are in their paths.” Is this not what we are witnessing today in the protests, proclamations, actions, and intentions of many nations in the world against Israel and the Jewish people? It includes leaders in our own nation of liberty and justice for all. There is neither repentance nor reprieve. Yes, where in the world? It’s worse than, say it with me…Stupidocrisy. Daily Devotion: Move in the Right Direction - by Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. —Acts 20:24 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/move-in-the-right-direction/ - Listen Corrie ten Boom said, “The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration but its donation.” It’s important to think about what kind of donation our lives are making. In Acts 20, the apostle Paul identified what the measure of a person ought to be and the qualities we should see in the life of a leader. In a way, every Christian is a leader. We may be leading our children. Or, we may be examples to younger believers. But we need to take to heart what Paul says. This was an emotional moment for the apostle. He was giving his final words to the leaders of the church of Ephesus. Paul had spent time ministering to them, helping them, praying for them, and caring for them. But he was going away. In effect Paul was saying, “This is what I want you to remember. These are things that should describe your walk with God.” He told them, “But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God” (verse 24 NLT). The New King James Version puts it this way: “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Paul compared himself to a runner in a race. Using the same analogy in 1 Corinthians, he said, “Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win!” (9:24 NLT). We can get off track in the race of life. That’s why it’s important to focus on our own race and not on the race others are running. It’s also important for us to understand that our times are in God’s hands. Our lives are a gift to us from God. God decides when they begin. And God decides when they end. Paul wasn’t saying that life wasn’t important, because he wrote to the believers in Philippi, “For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better” (Philippians 1:21 NLT). Paul was simply saying that he knew his life was a gift from God. In his book Nearing Home, Billy Graham wrote, “I often wonder if God, in His sovereignty, allows the eyesight of the aged to cast a dim view of the here and now so that we may focus our spiritual eyes on the ever after.”[1] As we see the frailty of life, especially when we’ve lost a loved one, eternity becomes more tangible and important to us. The length of our lives is determined by God, not by us. So, we want to make sure that we’re moving in the right direction now. The evening of our life is determined by the morning of it. The end is determined by the beginning. [1] Billy Graham, Nearing Home: Life, Faith, and Finishing Well (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011), 15. PROPHECY UPDATE NEWS HEADLINES Yesterday's Prophecies - Today's Headlines HEADLINES IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TRACKING BIBLE PROPHECY 11/1/23 http://trackingbibleprophecy.org/birthpangs.php
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