I am teaching a five week course at church on the Old Testament. The course is designed to help our people understand the Old Testament. Because the OT is the least read among Christians, they misunderstand those of us who teach prophecy. The Bible is one book more than it is 66 books. Recently author Bill Koenig said, “We are living in the most significant and important time in Bible-prophecy history – with the least amount of interest in the Church.” I think that the interest in the church is lacking for two important reasons: One, Christians have an inadequate view of the OT and two, many in the church think that prophecy is unimportant.
The most important prophetic event of the 20th century was the reestablishment of the nation Israel. It is the key to understanding what God is doing on the earth at this moment. Israel is at the heart of the OT and the promises regarding her future are the center of prophecy. Why is this so? Because God determined to save the world thru Israel. For two thousand years we in the church have been doing our job outlined for us in Matt.28:18-20 and Acts 1:8. Israel’s Messiah Jesus has sent us out to fulfill the Abrahamic Covenant when God promised to use the descendants of Abraham to bless the Gentile world. The One person who would come from Abraham and David was tasked with fulfilling the sacrificial law so that we could have our sins forgiven (Romans 8:1-4). Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves and has blessed the Gentile nations with salvation. Jesus said that salvation is from the Jews (John 4:22). He did it by applying the New Covenant to Gentiles outlined for us in Jer.31 and several other places. It is those same passages that promise that God will use the New Covenant for the nation Israel!
“Koenig told the founder of Olive Tree Ministries over the weekend that still only a small percentage of church-goers understand the biblical significance behind the events that the Trump administration has ushered in, such as recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and possibly approaching the peace deal as described in Daniel 9:27. The fact that Jerusalem is God’s time-clock, the nations that we know to watch, the leaders that we know to watch; We are so blessed that we fully understand it,” said Koenig, “The Bible is playing out right before our eyes. The Jewish prophets of the [Bible] spoke of these days. And we are honored and privileged and blessed to be living in this day.”
There was an interesting give and take between a pastor and a reporter over the Trump decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem. Recently, Cardoza-Moore (who represents the World Council of Independent Christian Churches at the UN and is president of the Evangelical organization Proclaiming Justice to the Nations) spoke with a French paper about an interview with a pastor of a mega-church in Houston. The journalist said that the pastor condemned President Donald Trump’s decision on Jerusalem. “[The pastor] stated, ‘for Christians to take an ancient book and apply their own interpretation is a stretch.’ I said to the reporter, ‘Excuse me, sir, did that ancient book to which that pastor was referring happen to be the Bible?’ And the reporter laughed. I said, ‘that pastor needs to get his Bible off the shelf, dust it off and start reading from the beginning again.’”
The pastor is tasked with teaching the Bible, but many mega churches have made the decision that the Bible is an impediment to reaching people for their churches. What an apostate church and pastor! Oh yeah, that was also prophesied, we would have an apostate church in the end times.
Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority made a speech this weekend that was defiant of Trump and the Saudi’s. The Times of Israel reported, Bitter Abbas to Trump: We reject your peace ‘deal of the century’! “We told Trump we will not accept his project, the ‘deal of the century,’ which has become the ‘slap of the century,’” said Abbas, expressing Palestinian anger over the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. “But we will slap back.” Abbas also said he “completely rejects” any attempt to change Ramallah’s policy of paying salaries to Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails and to the families of terrorists who died killing Israelis.”
You don’t need any more of a reason to cut off funds to the Palestinians than this. They pay their people to go kill Jews and then pay their families until death as a reward. Why should Americans pay for people to kill Jews? “The US Congress recently passed legislation that would see a vast portion of US financial aid to the Palestinians frozen until the payments to terrorist’s families cease.” In December, a number of reports said that when Abbas had visited Saudi Arabia in September, the Saudis informed him of the outlines of a peace plan being drawn up by the Trump administration.
“Among the elements of the Saudi proposal outlined in the reports was the establishment of the capital of a future Palestinian state in Abu Dis, a suburb of Jerusalem in the West Bank, east of Israel’s security barrier.” Abbas has totally rejected this and demands that all of Jerusalem is his and is Muslim! This is the battle today and Abbas made the blunder of admitting what he really believes. He said, “Jerusalem is Mecca. Jerusalem is Mecca,” Abbas declared, comparing Jerusalem to Islam’s holiest site. This is stunning but it is Biblical prophecy!
When God said that Jerusalem would become a burdensome stone for all of the nations, He was speaking about today. This is where we find the nations! Consider this headline about Turkey: Erdogan to meet pope for talks said to focus on Jerusalem (Times of Israel Jan.16th) “The Turkish leader and head of the Roman Catholic Church both strongly opposed the move announced by US President Donald Trump at the end of last year.” The Bible is clear that the moves regarding Jerusalem by God Himself will lead to war. I think many wars will take place before the Great War Armageddon! This move by Israel and the USA is leading to war and possibly the building of the next temple.
Tensions between the US and Turkey are at an all-time high! As Erdogan seeks to be the leader of the Muslim world and protect Jerusalem from Jews, God has upped the pressure on them. The USA has planned a 30,000 strong force in Syria as the US backs the Kurdish fighters. The US is calling it a border force to defend territory held by US backed Kurdish led fighters in Northern Syria. According to Reuters, Erdogan said “we will strangle US backed force in Syria before it is born.” Both Russia and Syria also expressed dismay at the decision. The Kurdish people live in Syria, Iraq, and Iran and they want independence so they can start a new nation called Kurdistan. Turkey has been fighting the Kurds for many years because they live in southern Turkey and oppose Erdogan. Some say that there are 40 million Kurds. Saddam Hussien used chemical weapons on the Kurds, one of the many ways he attacked the Kurds. The Kurds consider themselves as descendant from the Medes from Iran.
“The US is supplying N. Syrian Kurds with man-portable air defense weapons MANPADs to counter Turkish war threats. Tensions around northern Syria hit a new high on Tuesday, Jan. 16, when Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan threatened his army would invade the Kurdish region of Afrin – and then Kurdish-held Manbij – both of which abut on the Turkish border.” Unfortunately, this battle between the Kurds and Turkey has been going on for 100 years.
An interesting event happened last weekend: Hawaii was scared to death by a false report of an incoming ballistic missile. Then it happened again in Japan on Tuesday. For this to happen in Hawaii does not make sense because there are five fail safe tests before a false report could be sent. Saying it was one guy who pushed the wrong button is asking us to believe something that would be very hard to pull off. My first thought was that this false test was testing to see how we would react. In Japan they faced a similar false report that a missile was launched by North Korea at Japan. Then the government said, oops mistake. Is this a coincidence? People who write on this type of thing call them false flags. As I listened to interviews with people from Hawaii and how they reacted, there was a lot of fear. On TV the warning said, “Emergency Alert Ballistic Missile Threat Inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.” One dad said he grabbed his son, the sirens went off on the military bases but not for the civilians. He immediately got in his truck to drive away from Pearl Harbor and get behind the mountain. His son was crying and he told his son to be his little helper. The radio newscaster said, this is Trumps fault. The dad said, what is the guy talking about, how about cry out to God for protection he said. The next day the headline in the Hawaii newspaper was, “False Alarm Adds to Real Alarm about Trump’s Nuclear Risk.” (Sunday Review Editorial) Listening to the alarm recorded by some people was surreal. We live in very interesting times, people have a lot of fear. Jesus told us to fear not because He was with us.
There is a plan—God is working out His plan for the end times. I believe that the Lord wants Christians to long for His coming and pray for the people who will be left behind. The rapture of the church is going to happen so Gods plan for the earth can be accomplished! The Epicenter, Jerusalem is rumbling and God is asking us to prepare. Prepare your heart and meditate on Psalm 123:1-2, “To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the LORD our God, Until He is gracious to us.”
