Prophecy Update Newsletter
IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER...
An Examination of the 'Day of the Lord'
- by Mark A. Becker - https://www.raptureready.com/2020/08/11/an-examination-of-the-day-of-the-lord-by-mark-a-becker/ [Note: This author is a pre-Tribulation rapture believer, and this article reflects that view.] "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (1 Peter 3:10). Introduction This one verse of Peter's encompasses the entire "day of the Lord," and it does us well to study it in light of its prophetic implications for a better understanding of future prophecy. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night;" This is the front bookend to the "day of the Lord, and it begins with the rapture of the church. The word "thief" is conveyed to us a few times in the Word of God concerning the Lord's coming, and it always refers to the rapture of the church. The significance can't be overstated. When something is repeated in Scripture, you can be certain it is of great significance. Let's take a look at these passages. "But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do" (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11). Note the "they/them" and the "we/us" in this passage of Scripture. "[T]he day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." But we will! (Emphasis mine). "... [L]et us watch and be sober," looking for the Lord's return for His church, "[f]or God hath not appointed us to wrath [as He has the Christ-rejecting world], but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." (Emphasis mine) What about the passages in Revelation before, during, and after the Tribulation? "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame" (Revelation 16:15). This seemingly out of place statement is right in the middle of the passage of Scripture describing the last battle as Christ is preparing to come back to destroy Antichrist, the False Prophet, and the armies of the world. Why is it there, and who is it for? As with everything concerning the Word of God, Scripture has to be interpreted with Scripture. One isn't allowed to make their own decisions on the "who, what, where, how, and why" without consulting the rest of the Bible. A well-known tool for studying Scripture is known as the "law of first mention." That is, we should always go back to the first mention of a particular word or phrase to get a better understanding of what those future word or phrase usages are trying to convey. In this particular case, the first time "thief" is used in regard to the Lord's coming is Matthew 24:42-44, right after Jesus taught the rapture of the "one taken, and the other left." (Please see my article: "Is the Rapture of the Church in the Olivet Discourse?" https://www.raptureready.com/2020/07/19/is-the-rapture-of-the-church-in-the-olivet-discourse-by-mark-becker/ or https://www.faithwriters.com/article-details.php?id=205125 for more on this teaching). Here is the passage: "Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh" (Matthew 24:42-44). (Emphasis mine) It is obvious that this verse, seemingly popping up out of nowhere, in addition to the "law of first mention," signals to us that the target audience must be the church. Remember, for two thousand years, Christians have been reading this book, seeking its promised blessings (Revelation 1:3), and the Lord wants to remind them that He is coming back for them soon. It's as if, right in the middle of John's writing about the sixth vial, Jesus shouts, "Stop the presses! I have a message for my church!" "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." "Lest he walk naked, and they see his shame," refers to those self-proclaimed false converts that are left behind after the rapture of the church and have to go through the Tribulation. They still have a chance to truly come to Christ during the most horrific time the world will ever see, but those chances are very slim indeed. "Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee" (Revelation 3:3). This verse pretty much sums up the rapture revelation in association with Jesus coming as a "thief." "And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work" (Revelation 22:12). This verse as well is to the church, as believers that survive the Tribulation will have no other reward (as far as Scripture reveals) other than to enter the wonderful Millennial Kingdom of Christ, which in and of itself will be quite rewarding! A Helpful Note on the "Day of Christ" There is a distinction between the "day of the Lord" and the "day of Christ" or the "day of Jesus Christ." "Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: Even as it is meet for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace. For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ" (Philippians 1:4-10). Paul is praying for the Christians at Philippi, and note how he urges the faithful to "be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ," and that "He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." What day is this "day of Christ" and the "day of Jesus Christ"? It can be none other than the rapture of the church. "That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain" (Philippians 2:15-16). Paul eagerly looked forward to "rejoice in the day of Christ," when we would all meet together in the clouds to be forever with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:17). "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;" (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3). The church at Thessalonica had been deceived in believing that the "day of Christ" was "at hand" and that they had essentially missed it. This was not the case, obviously, as Paul goes on to say that "that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first." While there certainly is a "falling away" happening within the church in regard to pure doctrine and the infiltration of demonic teachings (1 Timothy 4:1), this, unfortunately, has always been a problem within the church. Paul's epistles often battled blatant false doctrines infecting the church on numerous occasions. But this is not the primary meaning behind the phrase, as rendered, in this verse. Dr. Andy Woods has written a powerful book called, The Falling Away: Spiritual Departure or Physical Rapture? explaining that the Greek word translated "falling away" is "apostasia" and means "departure" or "departing," translated as such in seven previous English translations, including the Wycliffe, the Coverdale, the Tyndale, and the Geneva Bibles. This is most definitely the proper translation, and I highly recommend Dr. Wood's book for further information regarding this subject. The 1599 Geneva Bible translates 2 Thessalonians 2:3, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a departing first, and that man of sin be disclosed, even the son of perdition." This departing is the rapture of the church. "For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day" (2 Timothy 1:12). "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing" (1 Timothy 4:8). "That day" is clearly the day of Christ: a day we are all waiting for with great eagerness and joyful expectation. The longing to be with our Lord Who gave His life for us is beyond human language to communicate. The "day of Christ" - the rapture - that comes as "a thief in the night" is the event that initiates the "day of the Lord." "[I]n the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." This is the back of the bookend; it completes "the day of the Lord" climaxing with the dissolving of the universal elements (2 Peter 3:11) for purification and cleansing from all the sin in our world, and the corruption of the cosmos for that sin (Romans 8:22), setting up the recreating of the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1). Conclusion "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up" (1 Peter 3:10). Now that we have seen how this wonderful verse is prophetic bookends of the entire "day of the Lord," you can now share this with your family and friends. When they ask what the "day of the Lord" is, share with them this verse and explain what it means. Explain to them that the "day of the Lord" begins with the rapture of the church followed by a gap of time, the seven-year Tribulation, Christ's Second Coming, His glorious Millennial Kingdom, the Great White Throne Judgment, and concluding with the passing away of the heavens and the earth. Then joyfully exclaim that what follows is our Lord's re-creation of the earth and heavens. This ushers in the never-ending Eternal Kingdom where we will abide in the New Jerusalem that will be filled with love, joy, peace, and everlasting fellowship with our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, for all eternity! What a glorious "day" that will be! Love, grace, mercy, and shalom in Messiah Yeshua, and Maranatha! Email: [email protected] China: Military Experts Urge Beijing to Prepare for War with U.S. - by Lawrence A. Franklin - https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16336/china-military-war Chinese military journalists are publicly urging the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to prepare immediately for an attack by U.S. forces in the South China Sea. One expert at Zhejiang University's National Institute for South China Sea Studies, Shi Xiaoqin, claims that the U.S. is deliberately trying to provoke China. They also suggest the regime reinforce Chinese installations on reefs claimed by China. If this analysis gains traction by Chinese political and military leaders, U.S. military commanders in the South China Sea should plan for the possibility that China might initiate hostilities in keeping with its doctrine of preemptive retaliation, a seeming attempt falsely to claim "self-defense." One writer suggests that the PLA should immediately move fighter aircraft to Chinese air bases in the Spratly Islands at Fiery Cross, Subi Reef, and Mischief Reef. He also boldly claims that the augmented presence of U.S. naval and air assets in the South China Sea is no longer just a show of force by America. Chen Hu, a Chinese military journalist, also asserts that the U.S. is now intent on provoking a conflict and is preparing for battle. Chen claims that the return of B1 bombers to Guam and continued deployment of two U.S. aircraft carrier groups in the South China Sea, despite the conclusion of military exercises, is supposedly a sign of Washington's aggressive intent. Chen suggests that recent U.S. "Freedom of Navigation" maneuvers and the high number of U.S. surveillance collection missions along the Chinese coast is additional proof of American attack planning. Former PLA officer Wang Yunfei and naval equipment expert suggests that flights by American RC-135, E-8c, and RC-12X surveillance aircraft equate to "pre-battle strategic technical surveillance." As the joke goes from the children's playground: "It all started when he hit me back." Wang further warns that U.S. President Donald J. Trump is likely to initiate a military conflict in the South China Sea region before the November 3 U.S. presidential election, speculating that "stirring up external frictions, especially military conflicts with China, will help the incumbent president for his re-election campaign." The leaders of China's Communist Party (CCP) also see that nothing was done by anyone, including the U.S., to stop China's grab of Hong Kong this year -- 37 years early. This paralysis of the West must have looked to the CCP like a green light to keep on grabbing. Wang even lays out his analysis on particular avenues of approach by which U.S. bombers might attack their Chinese targets. Wang, now a Chinese naval specialist, writes that the U.S. will probably ship-launch Tomahawk Cruise against Chinese bases in the South China Sea. He further specifies that the PLA should deploy China's own aircraft carriers in the south central region of the sea, as the best strategy to counter any U.S. assault. He adds that China must also deploy fighter jets and air defense missiles on various Chinese reefs. Wang singled out the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea's Paracel Island Chain as the most likely initial piece of real estate that the U.S. might seek to seize. The Scarborough (Huangyan) Shoal/Reef is claimed by both China and the Republic of the Philippines. Perhaps one reason why China might expect that Scarborough Shoal is a likely target is that the U.S. wants to re-cement military agreements with the Philippines that would allow American military assets access to Clark Air Force Base, Subic Bay Naval Base and other newer facilities. U.S. support for Manila's claim to the Scarborough Shoal against China's might be sufficient to convince the mercurial president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, to patch up relations with the U.S. Chinese writer Zheng Hao, who assesses that it is possible that U.S.-Chinese tensions in the South China Sea could escalate into a "hot war," cites U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's July 13 statement that the South China Sea is "not China's maritime empire" as indicative of the Trump Administration's hostile intent. Zheng appears to be especially concerned about the July 7 U.S.-Japan naval exercise, which included an operation by the U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan and two warships of the Japanese Maritime Defense Forces. Zheng laments that the 2018 draft of the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea has not yet been signed by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China. One hope to avoid or at least postpone an imminent clash in the South China Sea is for China and the U.S. to activate the crisis prevention apparatus established in November 2014. This diplomatic device includes a Memorandum of Understanding on notification of military activities and rules of behavior designed to keep air and naval encounters peaceful. So far, there is no public acknowledgement that either China or the U.S. is employing the crisis prevention mechanism. One recent sign of efforts by both sides to avoid a military incident was the Pentagon's August 7 announcement that U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and his Chinese counterpart, Minister of Defense Wei Fenghe, held a 90-minute teleconference last week. China, however, has been the party with the hostile intent, not only with Hong Kong, but also with an attack on northern India, an extensive military base build-up in the South China Sea, an attempted appropriation of the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands and a "fishing fleet" of 250 vessels showing up near the Galapagos Islands, off Ecuador. Another recent move from Beijing was to conduct live-fire targeting drills in the South China Sea from July 25 through August 2. The announcement of this exercise was promulgated by the PLA and not, as is usual, by the Chinese government's maritime administration. If China continues its aggressive posture toward the U.S.-allied free states of Asia, especially Taiwan, a direct confrontation between the Chinese and U.S. militaries in the South China may indeed be necessary. Will The Apophis Asteroid Fulfill The Wormwood Prophecy Of Revelation? - Michael Snyder - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4223 We live at a time when giant space rocks are whizzing past our planet with alarming regularity. Sometimes we know in advance that they are coming, and sometimes we don't. In fact, on July 28th an asteroid the size of a car zipped past our planet "at a range that rivals the orbits of some high-flying satellites", but we had only spotted it for the very first time on July 26th. If we couldn't see that one until it was nearly upon us, could it be possible that there are much larger potential threats hurtling toward our planet that we currently know nothing about? In 1998, a big Hollywood movie entitled "Deep Impact" imagined what would happen if a very large asteroid hit the Atlantic Ocean. It is hard to believe that it has been more than 20 years since it first came out, because I can still remember it very vividly. In one of the most memorable scenes in the film, a massive tsunami that is hundreds of feet tall slams into the east coast of the United States causing immense death and destruction. But that is just a movie. Could something similar actually happen in real life? On Tuesday, a British news source reminded us that scientists have discovered that such a scenario is actually a very real possibility... A computer simulation of an asteroid impact tsunami developed by scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz (USCS), showed waves as high as 400 feet sweeping onto the Atlantic Coast of the US. Steven Ward, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at UCSC, and Erik Asphaug, an associate professor of Earth sciences, reported their findings in the Geophysical Journal International. Of course an asteroid could potentially hit anywhere on the planet, but in their research Ward and Asphaug specifically focused on the Atlantic Ocean, and what their computer simulation came up with was extremely disconcerting... For the simulation, the researchers chose an impact site consistent with the orientation of the Earth at the time of the predicted encounter - in the Atlantic Ocean about 360 miles from the US coast. Dr Ward explained that the 60,000-megaton blast of the impact could vaporise the asteroid and blow a cavity in the ocean 11 miles across and all the way down to the seafloor, which is about three miles deep at that point. Such an impact would send a series of giant waves in all directions, including toward the east coast of the United States. Today, almost 40 percent of the U.S. population lives in a county that directly borders a shoreline, and the population density right along the east coast is particularly dense. Florida would probably be the first state to get hit by the waves, and it would be particularly vulnerable because most of the state is just barely above sea level... South Florida has two big problems. The first is its remarkably flat topography. Half the area that surrounds Miami is less than five feet above sea level. Its highest natural elevation, a limestone ridge that runs from Palm Beach to just south of the city, averages a scant 12 feet. With just three feet of sea-level rise, more than a third of southern Florida will vanish; at six feet, more than half will be gone; if the seas rise 12 feet, South Florida will be little more than an isolated archipelago surrounded by abandoned buildings and crumbling overpasses. And the waters won't just come in from the east - because the region is so flat, rising seas will come in nearly as fast from the west too, through the Everglades. In other words, there would be absolutely nothing to keep the tsunami waves from racing across the entire state. Much of the rest of the east coast would be extremely vulnerable as well. For example, New York City is less than 50 feet above sea level... Despite having some of the tallest buildings in the world and being well-known for its towers and skyscrapers, New York City has a very low elevation of just 33 feet (10 m) above sea level. New York's elevation is so low due to its location right on the coast of the United States. Boston, New Haven, Jersey City, Newark, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Virginia Beach, Wilmington, Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Savannah and countless other east coast cities are all also less than 50 feet above sea level. So we are talking about the potential for death and destruction on a scale that is unimaginable. Washington D.C. would fare a little bit better, because some parts of the D.C. area are up to 410 feet above sea level... Washington D.C. is relatively flat and located at 410 feet above sea level at its highest point and at sea level at its lowest point. So I would rather be in D.C. than New York or Boston when a giant tsunami hits, but without a doubt the devastation would be immense in our capital city as well. We should hope that such an event can be put off for as long as possible, but we have been warned that our planet is apparently "in the midst of an epic asteroid surge"... NASA's been running these simulations for years, and with good reason: Earth, as it happens, is in the midst of an epic asteroid surge compared to the relative peace and quiet the planet experienced many millions of years ago. When unexpected space rocks do appear on our scopes, sometimes we only get hours' notice of their existence before they streak past. While the chances of a catastrophic impact are exceedingly slim, we're nonetheless unprepared for surprise asteroid strikes, which is why NASA is continually working on plans to help improve our NEO detection and mitigation capabilities. And as I noted at the beginning of this article, we are still discovering more asteroids all the time. The one that was discovered on July 26th was not a threat, but it did come alarmingly close to us... A car-sized asteroid discovered over the weekend made a close flyby of Earth (July 28), passing our planet at a range that rivals the orbits of some high-flying satellites. The asteroid 2020 OY4, which was first detected on Sunday (July 26), made its closest approach today at 1:31 a.m. EDT (0531 GMT) when it zipped by Earth at a speed of about 27,700 mph (44,600 km/h), according to the European Space Agency. The asteroid is just under 10 feet (3 meters) wide and posed no impact risk to Earth, but did approach the flight paths of geosynchronous satellites. Despite all of our advanced technology, we remain extremely vulnerable, and scientists assure us that it is just a matter of time before our luck runs out and a gigantic space rock hits our planet. What does the Bible have to say about all this? Check out this special interview with Bible Prophecy expert Tom Horn on the approach of Aphophis in 2029: The Wormwood Prophecy Israel and Palestine: Understanding the Difference! - Olivier Melnick - https://www.newantisemitism.com/antisemitism/israel-and-palestine-understanding-the-difference Most people today have the wrong understanding of the terms Israel and Palestine, and this leads to much confusion, not to mention allegiance to the wrong groups of people, based on a false narrative. The first thing to understand is that Biblically speaking, Israel can mean the Jewish people or the Land of Israel. When referring to the geographical boundaries of a piece of land given by God to Abraham and his descendants, it is called by many names including "Israel," "Land of Promise," "Canaan," "the United Kingdom" and "the Divided Kingdom." Specifically, when referring to the Northern Kingdom, the name Israel is used. For instance, in 2 Samuel 2:9Open in Logos Bible Software (if available), we read "He made him king over Gilead, over the Ashurites, over Jezreel, over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, even over all Israel." Additionally, in Hosea 5:3Open in Logos Bible Software (if available), we also read "I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; For now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot, Israel has defiled itself." The same Abrahamic Covenant from which we draw the definition of a Jew, also tells us that God has promised a land to the Jewish people with some very detailed boundaries. In Genesis 12:7Open in Logos Bible Software (if available), God is brief and to the point: "The Lord appeared to Abram and said, "To your descendants I will give this land." He repeats that promise in Genesis 13:15Open in Logos Bible Software (if available) and gives the details in Genesis 15:18-21Open in Logos Bible Software (if available):"On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I have given this land, From the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates: the Kenite and the Kenizzite and the Kadmonite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Rephaim and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Girgashite and the Jebusite." Based on the fact that the Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional AND eternal, that promise is still intact today. Following the biblical boundaries of Genesis 15, it is clear that Israel's biblical makeup has yet to be fulfilled. The current borders based on 1948, 1967 or any other "agreements" come nowhere near God's promised real estate boundaries found in the Bible. Based on these biblical facts, I disagree with the term "Occupied Territories" and prefer to call them the "Disputed Territories." Israel today is about the size of New Jersey and when its full borders will be fulfilled in the Messianic kingdom, it will be as large as twice the state of Texas. Biblically speaking, Israel is also the name given to Jacob after he wrestled with the Angel of the Lord at Bethel; and, incidentally, this passage in Genesis 35:9-12Open in Logos Bible Software (if available), is another place where God re-confirms His promise of a Jewish people and their own land: "Then God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-aram, and He blessed him. God said to him, "Your name is Jacob; You shall no longer be called Jacob, But Israel shall be your name." Thus He called him Israel. God also said to him, "I am God Almighty; Be fruitful and multiply; A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, And kings shall come forth from you. "The land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, And I will give the land to your descendants after you." (The same promise is also reflected in Genesis 32:28Open in Logos Bible Software (if available), 1 Kings 18:31Open in Logos Bible Software (if available) and 2 Kings 17:34Open in Logos Bible Software (if available).) Since its modern rebirth as a State, Israel as a piece of land has become a bone of contention for the whole world. The modern Palestinian people, in particular, claim historical ownership of that land reaching back prior to the Jewish people. The current issue lies with the idea that the Palestinian people ARE an ethnic group, something that is no longer disputed by the vast majority of the world, but is it true? Is it based on facts or fiction? Further investigation is needed to establish the meaning of the word "Palestine" and to assess the validity of such a claim. To better understand the true meaning of Palestine, we must go back in history quite a bit earlier than the mid-1960s. While the exact origin of the name Palestine is still debated, there are aspects of the word's meaning that we can know for sure. It possibly once described a people group known as the Philistines, but that people group was in no way connected to the current era Palestinians - not ethnically, not linguistically, not historically and not culturally. In A.D. 132, a Jewish revolt took place against the Romans. It was known as the Bar Kochba revolt (Bar Kochba was a false messiah in Israel at the time ). In a nutshell, things didn't end well for the Jewish people; and in addition to a bloodbath of gigantic proportions, Israel was renamed Palaestina by the Romans. The rebranding of the Land with the name of their enemies, the Philistines, was an effort to undermine Jewish history and humiliate the Jewish people further. Additionally, at the time, Jerusalem was also renamed Aelia Capitolina by emperor Hadrian. The name Palestine stuck and continued to be used after that time. It is nowhere found in the Bible except for the maps section at the end of each Bible; but, of course, these are not inspired. When the British were in control from 1922 to 1948, the area was governed under what was known as the British Palestine Mandate. In the original text of the Mandate itself, dated 1922, we can read:"Whereas recognition has thereby been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country." I must clarify that I do not have an issue calling Israel "Palestine" as long as it is a description of the landmass of Israel prior to 1948. Up to that time in history, the term "Palestine" simply described a piece of land in the Middle East. Even after Israel became a State in 1948 and the name Eretz Yisrael started being used, the word "Palestine" was not an issue for anybody; it was more or less an outdated name for the land of Eretz Yisrael. It is after that time, and under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, that the definition for Palestine went from geographical to political, in an attempt to describe a displaced people group named "the Palestinians", in need of their "ancestral" homeland. Before the 1960s, historical documents were replete with descriptions of Israel as Palestine, such as the British Palestine Mandate already mentioned. Israeli stamps, coins and newspaper said "Palestine" and nobody cared. If we take a look at article 4 of that Mandate, we also find two words in the same passage that any modern-day Palestinian would be hard pressed to associate in a positive light: Palestinian and Zionist. Yet, in the context of the original Mandate, it was to the current leaders of the Zionist movement that the administration and government of Palestine were entrusted, as we can read: "An appropriate Jewish agency shall be recognized as a public body for the purpose of advising and cooperating with the Administration of Palestine in such economic, social and other matters as may affect the establishment of the Jewish national home and the interests of the Jewish population in Palestine, and, subject always to the control of the Administration to assist and take part in the development of the country. The Zionist organization, so long as its organization and constitution are in the opinion of the Mandatory appropriate, shall be recognized as such agency. It shall take steps in consultation with His Britannic Majesty's Government to secure the cooperation of all Jews who are willing to assist in the establishment of the Jewish national home." So, until the early 1960s, Palestine was always synonymous with Israel, the Jewish State. Arabs in neighboring countries never called themselves Palestinians, but rather Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, Egyptians, etc. Most Arabs in the early 1900s would have argued that Palestinian Arabs were simply Syrians as Mitchell Bard documents in his well-researched book Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict. He writes: "Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, the following resolution was adopted: We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds." While God uses different names for the Land of Israel such as "The Land of Canaan" (Genesis 17:8), "The Promised Land" (Genesis 50:24) or even "The Land" (Exodus 6:8 nowhere in the Bible is Israel ever called Palestine even once. As a matter of fact, even the Qur'an (Sura Maida 5:21-22) mentions the "Holy Land" in the context of Moses and the spies preparing to enter the Land of Canaan; but never does it call it Palestine. Jerusalem isn't even mentioned by name in the Qur'an. Until the mid-1960s, the name Palestine was always synonymous with Israel in one way or another. It described the same piece of real estate that became the Jewish State in 1948. As we just saw, Palestine, as a legitimate country for a displaced people known as the Palestinians, was introduced and heavily promoted by the late Yasser Arafat, who started and headed the Palestinian Liberation Organization until his death in 2004. Somehow, a revived anti-Jewish agenda was growing fast globally. This was partially as a response to what was seen as a Zionist existential threat to the Arabs, where Jewish settlers and pioneers were perceived as land grabbers willing to stop at nothing - including the killing of many Arabs - to colonize Palestine. This is a false claim since many Jewish settlers bought malaria-infested swamps at a price up to ten times the price of fertile land in America. Jews were accused of stealing land from local Arabs, but only 45,000 acres were acquired without a sale - through governmental agreement - out of 463,000 acres acquired. The rest was purchased and much of it at a very high price. Today, nobody questions the etymology of the word "Palestine" and that is a shame. What is really sad, is that the Arab refugees who were forced by their own countries to remain in Israel post 1948, ended up having children who then had children. These innocent subsequent generations have been labelled Palestinians for political gain. They are real people who deserve a real home and a decent life. Backtracking to pre-198 "Palestine" would connect them all with one or another of the neighboring Arab countries, but that doesn't serve the world's current agenda of Israeli occupation, colonization and ethnic cleansing, does it? Daily Jot: Comrade Kamala - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com Democratic Presidential hopeful Joe Biden took an extreme left turn by picking Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) as his vice presidential running mate. Stating the obvious and underscoring a double meaning with his words, the immediate past president said, "By choosing Senator Kamala Harris as America's next vice president [Biden] has underscored his own judgment and character. Reality shows us that these attributes are not optional in a president." And the media, exemplified by Politico, is all hyped up that, Harris would be "the first woman, the first Asian American, and the first Black vice president if elected." Not much is being said about qualifications except that she is of Indian and Jamaican descent. Her father, Donald Harris, engineered a student-led protest at Stanford in January 1974 demanding a formal commitment to establishing a field of study in "radical political economics," according to The Stanford Daily Archives. The demands came after the university refused to permanently hire a visiting Marxian economist-that economics professor was Donald Harris. A November 3, 1976 editorial in The Stanford Daily concluded, "Harris was described as too charismatic, a pied piper leading students astray from neo-classical economics." Eventually, Stanford kept Harris on as a professor and, according to the Mercury News, he developed a program teaching alternative economic analysis, including Marxism. On a June 19 interview with the Intelligencer, Kamala Harris dodged questions about defunding the police, claiming she didn't really know what Minneapolis was doing. She admitted that police are necessary to do investigations on child sexual assault cases, homicide and rape cases. But then she said, "We need to reimagine how we achieve public safety, we need to critically examine whether our distribution of resources reflects our priorities, based on what we know is the smart way to achieve public safety and healthy communities." She suggested taking money from the police departments and redistributing it to public schools, treating mental health, and affordable housing. While campaigning for president in November 2019, The Hill reported Harris as saying, "I'm not trying to upend and blow up systems. I'm not trying to start a revolution. I am not a socialist," but she added that "capitalism assumes that everyone is starting out on the same base and then people will compete and the best will rise. The majority of people aren't starting out on the same base, and we've got to lift people up and in particular working people." In early 2019, Harris became one of the first senators to support the radically socialist Green New Deal proposed by Democratic Socialist congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). Harris also supported socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) bill that would outlaw private health insurance. She has also said she would use Executive Orders to bypass Congress to achieve gun control. Maybe Harris tells you that she is not a socialist, but her pedigree and her actions say different. Her definition of capitalism is taken from the Marxist playbook. She supports an extremist legislation that essentially requires ripping apart the free market system, while saying she is not trying to upend or blow up systems or start a revolution. As Attorney General for California, Harris urged the Supreme Court to force Hobby Lobby to pay for abortifacients for employees. Her argument was that if you are owners of a corporation, religious beliefs must be put aside. As a senator, she has a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood. As is said in Ephesians 5:6, "Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." The consequences of this coming election are immense. Daily Devotion: "Why Me, God?" - by Greg Laurie - www.harvest.org For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. -Ephesians 6:12 https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/why-me-god/ Listen Have you ever been walking with the Lord and doing all the things you think a Christian ought to do, when suddenly you were barraged with spiritual attacks? You struggled with doubt. You battled temptations. You experienced all kinds of other problems and wondered what horrible sin you committed to bring that upon yourself. What did you do to deserve such a fate? Why did God let that happen to you? Here's something to consider: those things may not happen to you because you're doing something wrong but because you're doing something right. Remember Job? The problem was that he had never read the Book of Job. If so, he would have been able to cruise right through the whole thing. But Job didn't know how the story ended. All he knew is that one day he had his beautiful family, all kinds of land, servants, and success all around him. And the next day he lost everything in rapid succession. He lost his children. He lost his possessions. And he lost his health. Maybe he even wished that he'd lost his wife, because in the aftermath she told him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!" (Job 2:9 NKJV). Everything fell apart. Did this happen because Job was a wicked man? No, it was the very opposite. Job was a godly man, but the Lord allowed the Devil to bring a series of attacks against him. In time, the story turned out beautifully, and God doubled everything that Job had. You might be going through a spiritual attack or getting hit with temptation again and again because you're a threat to the Devil. Like it or not, the moment we became Christians, we entered into a spiritual battle. So, we have to learn how to fight using the weaponry that God gave us. 
FROM THE HEART
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