Don’t Mess with Israel
Booklet, 43 pages
Copyright © 2005 James L. Melton
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Introduction
About a week before beginning this booklet on Israel, I was told of a certain Christian man who had stated that my writings are “controversial.” I tried to picture any of my own church members making this statement about me or any other preacher, and I could not bring the picture to mind because my members have been exposed to controversy regularly since our ministry began in 1996. A preacher who isn’t controversial isn’t fulfilling his call to preach. It is our duty, as stewards of God’s word, to take God’s side against the world, the flesh, and the Devil. When speaking to the Ephesian elders, Paul said, “Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.” (Acts 20:26-27) Paul was a God-called preacher who believed in taking God’s side and making known the will of God concerning any issue.
When Paul preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, it was often controversial because he preached it to unbelievers and he preached it on their turf (Acts 13-28). Today, when an American preacher preaches the gospel, he is usually safely sheltered by the walls of his own church building, and over ninety percent of his listeners are already professing Christians, and the few listeners who might not be Christians already know most of what he will say. That is, the average preacher in America lives and preachers in a comfort zone where nothing he says is controversial. When he preaches, he generally “preaches to the choir,” as they say. This is so true that on the rare occasions when the preacher might make a controversial statement, he feels the need to “soften the blow” by either prepping the people for the statement or by apologizing after the statement is made. The truly God-called preacher does neither, or at least not as a habit. He preaches the word of God in faith, without fear or favor, believing that the Holy Spirit will honor the solid and uncompromised declaration of God’s eternal truth.
I do not spend twenty to thirty hours per week in prayer and study so that I can apologize for my preaching—or for my writing. As a Bible-believing Christian, I assume that my writings will be offensive to some people, just as the preaching of Paul, Peter, Jesus, John the Baptist, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elijah, and Amos were offensive to people. Telling me that I am controversial is like telling me to “keep up the good work” for I know that I am in good company. “Doesn’t he know that this might offend someone?” Yes, friend, I knew that when I wrote my first gospel tract some twenty years ago. The Bible is the most offensive Book in the universe. That’s why the average Christian only reads parts of it, if any at all.
The man who makes it his goal to declare the mind of God on any given subject will be a controversial man to someone, and he owes no one an apology because he is following his Biblical convictions and preaching the word of God in this dark and deceived world. Every preacher must make a choice. He will either offend his fellow man by taking God’s side, or he will offend God by siding with his fellow man. In January, 1996, this preacher and author was ordained to take God’s side, so he knows very well that he is controversial. I am controversial because God and the Bible are controversial. If you doubt this, just ask the Supreme Court.
The subject matter of this booklet is very near to the heart of God, and I fully expect the continued blessings of God upon this ministry as we follow the Holy Spirit’s lead in making this material available. It is nothing short of tragic that so few Christians realize the significant role that the tiny nation of Israel plays in the world today. Israel’s role is so significant that America’s continued prosperity and survival as a world power hinges upon her relationship to this little country. If you doubt that last statement, then you are not a Bible believer, and it will be proven conclusively in the forthcoming pages.
Friend, can you handle the truth? Can you really open your heart and mind to the words of God and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal new things to you? Can you really pray with David and say, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law”? (Psa. 119:18) Our prayer is that God will enable you to do just that.
As with most items that we publish, I’ve tried to keep this work as brief as possible due to (1) our limited financial resources and (2) our desire to keep costs low in hopes of wider circulation. For those seeking additional studies, the footnotes should provide some helpful sources.
May the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be your guiding light.
The God of the Bible
In I Corinthians 8:5-6, the apostle Paul brings out a major, yet little known, truth about God. He says, “For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,) But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” He said that many are called gods, but only one is the true God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, a person or a society may worship a being whom they only think is God. The God of the Bible is a holy God, and He is under no obligation to accept the worship or the service of those who misrepresent Him, regardless of their intentions. Joshua tells the Israelites in Joshua 24:19 that “Ye cannot serve the LORD: for he is an holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins.” These people were clinging to their sins while attempting to worship God, and Joshua rebuked them for it. To such people, Jesus will one day say, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Mat. 7:23)
The largest “generation gap” in the world is the gap that exists between the Creator and His human creation. This, of course, is due to the fact that mankind stepped into sin and became a fallen creation in Genesis chapter three. The human record since that time has been one of steady descent down the stairway to Hell. Contrary to Darwin’s theory of evolution, the human race isn’t evolving upward; man is descending downward into Hell, straying further from God and a God consciousness every step of the way (Psa. 39:5, Isa. 53:6, Psa. 10:4). Consequently, there is an enormous gap between who God is and who most people think He is. This gap exists because of a number of factors, but unbalanced preaching and teaching and a lack of consistent Bible reading would have to top the list.
It is true to say that “God is love,” but to say this and then ignore all of God’s other attributes is to misrepresent Him. After all, the same Bible chapter that says “God is love” (I John 4) also speaks of false prophets, the spirit of antichrist, and the spirit of error. Many would claim that it is a contradiction to sound such negative warnings and then speak of a God Who is love, yet the Bible does so from Genesis to Revelation. Most people today who speak of God being a God of love are doing so without a fair knowledge of His other attributes. Love, to most people, is the best definition of God, yet, love is not the best definition in the Bible. The words “God” and “love” occur together in 72 Bible verses, but the word “holy” occurs with “God” in 106 verses. Yet people seldom use the word when speaking of God. There’s no particular need to define God with merely one word, but the word “holy” would make a far better candidate than “love.” After all, the first mention in the Bible of God loving man doesn’t occur until after 159 chapters (Deu. 7:7). God’s attribute of holiness is revealed after only 52 chapters (Exo. 3:5). This point is significant because of what the word “holy” means. It signifies something or someone being whole, complete, or perfect. God is a whole Being Who lacks nothing, so the word holy better defines Him than love. Men prefer love because men are not whole, or holy. Men are fallen sinners, so holiness is too high for them. Just as a child would want his father to lower the basketball goal in the driveway from 10 feet to 8 feet, men want a God of love rather than a God of holiness. After all, who was it that labeled John 3:16 as the “golden verse of the Bible,” God or man?
Dear reader, until you are ready to “raise the rim” back to its proper standard and see God as He desires to be seen, you will not understand this booklet or its importance. God is much more than love. Being whole and complete in every way, He is a holy God. Being the “judge of all the earth” (Gen. 18:25), He is a God of justice. Being a God of justice, it is sometimes needful for Him to execute His wrath (Exo. 15:7, John 3:36, Rev. 16:19, 19:15). This doesn’t mean that God has ceased to be a God of love; it simply means that His holiness demands that a perfect measure of His active attributes be issued to men on earth. That is, the Judge of all the earth can be trusted to do right (Gen. 18:25).
Before God chose the Jewish people as his holy nation, He gave humanity a few glimpses of His character. We learn in the first chapter of Genesis that God is omnipotent, an all-powerful Being Who can merely speak and create a universe filled with time, space, and matter. In the same chapter, and in the second chapter, we are given the details of how God chose not to dwell alone but instead to fill the earth with millions of life forms, the highest of which was man. God then enjoyed fellowship with man, and He demonstrated His desire to provide the needs of man. He demonstrated His fairness in giving man a freewill to choose life or death. When man chose death, God instituted a merciful plan of redemption based on blood sacrifice (Gen. 3:21). Eventually, the human race corrupted the whole earth with sin to such a level that God chose to send forth His wrath and destroy what He had created. After drowning all but eight souls, God told men to replenish the earth once again (Gen. 9:1). Rather than obey this command, the sinful race chose to migrate to one region on the earth and set up a corrupt political and religious system (Gen. 11:1-9). This provoked God to wrath again, and the nations were confounded and divided. All of this happened—eleven chapters covering a period of some 2,000 years—without a single mention of “God is love.” Yes, God has always been a God of love, but for some reason He didn’t get into any hurry in telling us about it. In those first eleven chapters, God told us about many of His attributes, not just one or two of them (I’ve only listed a few). Frankly, to speak of God as a God of love only is to speak of a pervert god who is unworthy of anyone’s reverence.
For illustration, let’s say that you meet up with a young man from a poor third world country who has never seen a computer. Upon hearing you use the word, he then asks, “What is a computer?” In layman’s terms, you respond with, “A computer is a monitor, a processor, a hard drive, a keyboard, and a mouse, all put together into a neat system that allows you to type letters, send e-mails, conduct research, manage money, and many other things.” Rather than memorize your complete definition, the man begins to concentrate on one particular thing that you said: “A computer is . . . a mouse.” He will never understand and appreciate the usefulness of computers until this thought is placed back into its proper context and he comes to realize that there is more than one kind of mouse. Likewise, God cannot be understood by people who think only that “God is love.” He’s a certain kind of love, far above that of the average person, and He’s a lot more than just love.
Who is God? He’s the Supreme Creator and Commander of the universe Who is whole in power, in wisdom, in knowledge, in truth, in fairness, in justice, in compassion, in love, and in wrath. This, of course isn’t a complete definition of God, but it should add some balance to our comprehension of Him. If we must use a one word definition, then the word is holy. He’s a holy Being Who cannot be understood or served without His subjects acknowledging this highest and all-inclusive attribute. The cheribum and seraphim know this, even if men do not (Isa. 6:3, Rev. 4:8). In fact, even the devils know it (Luke 4:34).
God and Nations
After the universal flood of Genesis 6-8, men began to multiply upon the earth and God allowed them to form nations so long as these nations remained divided (Gen. 10:5, 32, Deu. 32:8). However, after forming nations, men decided to form a sort of “united nations” in Genesis chapter 11. This was contrary to the will of God, so He intervened with judgment. We read in Genesis 11:8-9, “So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”
From this we learn a valuable lesson: God is the Judge of Nations. Jeremiah 10:7 even states that God is the “King of nations.” He allows men to build communities, cities, and nations, but He maintains a watchful eye over them at all times. Proverbs 15:3 says, “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” The words “every place” would have to include the White House, the Pentagon, the Senate Chamber, the Supreme Court, the House of Representatives, and the United Nations headquarters in New York. The King of nations, the Judge of all the earth, is on His throne rendering perfect justice with every passing day. Some of His judgments are harsh in nature (II Sam. 21:1, I Kgs. 17:1), while others are just plain devastating (Jer. 52:1 – Lam. 5:22). Being the omnipotent God that He is, the Lord doesn’t have to exert Himself to bring a measure of judgment on a nation. In Jeremiah chapter 18, He speaks of nation building and nation destroying as being no harder than planting or pulling up a plant: “At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” (Jer. 18:7-10)
Men are real proud of themselves and their great nations and kingdoms, but God really isn’t impressed. This is made more than clear in Isaiah 40:15: “Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.” If that’s not bad enough, God delivers the death blow two verses later: “All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.” (Isa. 40:17) God isn’t very patriotic, is He?
Yes, God is pleased to bless those nations that live righteously (Psa. 33:12), but the record of history is that nations do not live righteously. They grow more and more proud and wicked until God demotes them and promotes another. This is confirmed with the words of Psalm 75:6-7: “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.” The up/down cycle of Gentile nations has been continuing for thousands of years, but it is about to end with judgment. No one who reads the Bible has to wonder about the future of the United Nations for Zephaniah 3:8-9 paints the picture for all to see: “Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.” The glory days of the Gentile empires are fading into the past because the “times of the Gentiles” are drawing to a close (Luke 21:24), and the nations of this world are headed for judgment (Joel 3:2, Mat. 25:32).
God’s Country
However, there is one nation that is unlike all the rest. After the original “UN” movement was judged at Babel (Iraq!) in Genesis 11, God called a man named Abram out of that same region and made an unconditional covenant with him. Abram (later named Abraham) left Ur of the Chaldees for a better land that God would give him. The original promise, which is just as sound today as it was 4,000 years ago, is found in Genesis 12:1-3: “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
There are several things that we could mention about this covenant, but five items will suffice for this study:
(1) It’s an unconditional covenant after Abraham leaves
his father’s house. God doesn’t say He’ll bless
Abraham if Abraham does such and such. There’s no
if in the passage or anywhere in the chapter.
(2) Abraham is given some land.
(3) Abraham’s people will become a great nation
in the promised land.
(4) A divine blessing is given to Abraham, to those whom
he blesses, and to those who bless him.
(5) A curse is given to those who curse Abraham.
There is nothing anywhere in the Bible that disannuls the above covenant. One cannot relegate it to the “law of Moses” because it was given hundreds of years before Moses, and there is nothing in the New Testament that says this covenant was disannulled at Calvary. The law of Moses was fulfilled by Jesus at Calvary (Mat. 5:17, John 19:30, Col. 2:14), but God’s unconditional covenant with Abraham still stands, just as God’s unconditional covenant with Noah still stands (Gen. 9:11-17). When you see a rainbow, remember God’s covenant with Noah. When you see a Jew or a Jewish flag, remember Genesis 12:1-3 (unless, of course, you prefer a curse over a blessing).
As sinful humans who make covenant-breaking a way of life, it is hard for us to comprehend someone keeping a promise for thousands of years, but that is precisely what God has done with Israel, and that’s what He continues to do. A blessing is a blessing, and God does not reverse His blessings. Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac in Genesis 25:5-6. Then in Genesis 27:27-29 Isaac passed God’s blessing on to his son Jacob (Israel). When he learned that Jacob had gotten this blessing through deceit, he stated that he could not reverse the blessing, but that Jacob would indeed be blessed. Genesis 27:33 says, “And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? yea, and he shall be blessed.” God had already determined in Genesis 25:23 that Jacob, not Esau, would receive the blessing; so, although Jacob did not get the blessing honestly, it was still God’s will for him to have it, and God would not go back on His word and reverse the blessing.
A similar thing happened in Genesis 9. In Genesis 9:1, God blessed the three sons of Noah, including Ham. Then Ham sins in Genesis 9:24-25, yet God does not curse him. Instead, God curses his son Canaan. As strange and unfair as this might seem, we must believe the word of God and trust God’s judgment. God does not reverse an unconditional blessing or covenant.
Numbers 22 offers yet another example. Balaam was hired to curse God’s people, the children of Israel, yet he is told by God Himself, “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.” (Num. 22:12) In spite of all the sins that Israel had committed since leaving Egypt, God still counted the descendants of Abraham a blessed people whom He could not curse. That is, the original blessing of Genesis 12:1-3 was still binding. Like it or not, the Jews are God’s chosen people, they are blessed of God, and anyone who “messes” with them is cursed. (By the way, Balaam ended up dead in Numbers 31:8)
Just as the United States Government views some nations of the world as “most favored nations,” God too has a favored nation, the nation of Israel. Other nations who desire to be favored by God must “bless” Israel (as the United States did before the 1990’s). Nations who oppose or curse Israel become God’s enemies.
Isaiah 62:1-2 says, “For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.” God says that He will not rest until Jerusalem shines forth in righteousness. That is obviously not happening today, and it will not happen until she (Jerusalem) receives her King, the Lord Jesus Christ (Mat. 5:35, Psa. 24). God isn’t resting—He isn’t being content and satisfied—until Israel receives the fullness of His blessing. Those who hinder this blessing by opposing Israel can expect nothing but curses from God.
Any sincere Christian should have no trouble seeing that America has been turning from God for many years. The four walls that have allowed America to enjoy the blessings of God for over two centuries have been rapidly crumbling, especially over the past two decades. Briefly, those four walls are (1) our acknowledgement of One true moral God whose character is manifest in the Ten Commandments, (2) the Bill of Rights, (3) the fact that the churches of America have historically flamed with righteousness and carried the gospel of Christ to multiplied millions of souls throughout the world, and (4) our long standing friendship with the Jewish people, including our foreign policy with Israel since 1948. The first three walls have been crumbling for decades, and the fourth wall began weakening in the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s.
As we’ve already seen in Genesis 12, God promised to bless those who bless the Jews and to curse those who curse them. Prior to 1948, when Israel became a nation for the first time in over two millenniums, the Jews had enjoyed many years of freedom from persecution within our borders. The Touro Synagogue still stands today in Newport, Rhode Island, as a monument to the history of freedom and rest that the children of Abraham have enjoyed in this land. As they’ve enjoyed freedom, rest, and often prosperity, we’ve enjoyed the blessings of God.
If the reader insists that this notion is far-fetched (God’s blessings on America being connected with Israel), he is left with an unanswerable question: Why hasn’t God already damned America? Why didn’t God let the Russians nuke us during the “Cold War”? For that matter, terrorists have been around for decades, so why hasn’t God allowed them to attack long before now with far greater loss of life than that of 9/11? America banned prayer from schools way back in 1962, and then she banned the Ten Commandments from schools in 1980. Sodomy has become an accepted “lifestyle” in our land, and some states are permitting Sodomite marriages. Since the 1973 Supreme Court ruling on legalized abortion, America has butchered over forty million babies, yet for some strange reason God allows us to continue as a nation. Why? We’re just a drop in a bucket and less than nothing, according to God’s word, yet He allows us to continue, even in all our sins. Why?
Genesis 12 continues by pointing out which piece of land God had in mind for the Jews: “So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.” (Gen. 12:4-7)
The land of Canaan, according to God, was to become the land of the Jews, the land of Israel. This, of course, is the area that people call Palestine today. As the above text reveals, God promised this land unto Abraham and his seed. Genesis 17:7-8 emphasize that this is an everlasting covenant: “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”
The Arabs lay claim to this land because they too are descendants of Abraham, through Ishmael, but God was careful to cover this issue as well. In Genesis 17:18-21, Isaac, not Ishmael, was chosen of God to receive the blessing: “And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee! And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time in the next year.” Abraham honors these words of God a few chapters later when he gives all his possessions to Isaac, not Ishmael: “And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac. But unto the sons of the concubines, which Abraham had, Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from Isaac his son, while he yet lived, eastward, unto the east country.” (Gen. 25:5-6).
God wanted Abraham to exercise some faith by sojourning in the promised land, the land of Canaan, fully believing that God would make good on His promise and give him the land. Then Abraham sojourned too far southward, a famine came, and he traveled on down to Egypt. Immediately, he encountered problems (Gen. 12:6-20). That turns out to be the pattern throughout the Bible: when the Jew is in the land, he is in fellowship with God; when he’s out of the land, he is out of fellowship. This truth is echoed again with Isaac in Genesis 26:2-3: “And the LORD appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of: Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham thy father.”
Two chapters later God brings Jacob’s name into the covenant: “And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan . . . And give thee the blessing of Abraham, to thee, and to thy seed with thee; that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou art a stranger, which God gave unto Abraham . . . And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” (Gen. 28:1, 13-15) Jacob, of course, is the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. In fact, God changes Jacob’s name to Israel in Genesis 32:28. In Genesis 35:9-12, God reminds Israel of this, and He reminds him of the land grant for his people: “And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.”
To the Bible-believer, one thing is very clear: God gave the land to the Jews, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If He had stopped with Abraham, the Arabs could claim the land through Ishmael. If He had stopped with Isaac, the A-millennial and Post-millennial “Christians” could claim the land as a spiritual blessing through Christ (Gal. 3-4). God knew this very well, so He out-smarted everyone by naming Jacob/Israel as the rightful heir to the land of promise. That one would upset the world for the next 3,800 years.
Of course, 3,800 years is less than four days in God’s sight (II Pet. 3:8), so the promise is still fresh on the mind of God. It never left His mind (Exo. 2:23-25; 3:8, 17; 15:14-18; 23:31-33; 32:13; Jer. 32:37-41; Joel 3:2; Amos 9:14-15, etc.), and it’s more on His mind today than ever. Hopefully, it’s also on your mind (Jer. 51:50; you’ll get a lot more out of this if you check the references and mark them!).
The land grant itself extends west to the “river of Egypt” and east to the Euphrates (Gen. 15:18-21). Hammath is the boundary in the north (Ezk. 48:1), while Kadesh serves as the southern boundary (Ezk. 48:28). So, while the UN, the news media, the “Palestinian Authority”, the Pope, and the U.S. President are losing sleep over Israel’s “occupied territories,” God is preparing to have the last laugh by letting Israel occupy the entire territory! In plainer words, the “Gaza strip” and the “West Bank” will seem like nothing when Israel finally possesses all of the occupied territories plus parts of Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia! The “wild” men from Ishmael (Gen. 16:12) have proven unworthy to inhabit this land, so God will “spue” them out (Lev. 18:28, Psa. 78:55) and give the land to its rightful heirs.
God’s Sweetheart
To better understand how serious this matter is in the mind of God, let’s look at how God chooses to illustrate his relationship with Israel. As already noted, Israel is spoken of as God’s son. A good father will always provide and protect his son, a very close relationship. I personally have three sons and two daughters, and, though I am a rather peaceful man, I’m certain I could and would ruin anyone’s day who chose to harm one of them (You toucha’ my kid, I breaka’ you face, etc.). Well, Israel has an even more protective Father, and He’s rather large. In fact, the earth is His footstool (Isa. 66:1). What do you suppose He could do to someone who “messed with” His son?
In the Bible God also likens Israel to His wife (You toucha’ my wife . . .), a relationship which is even closer than that of a child. A marriage is one flesh, a love relationship based on a covenant. A good husband will love, protect and provide for his wife. God knows this better than anyone, so He wouldn’t have made the comparison if it didn’t best illustrate his love and care for Israel. Ezekiel 16:1-14 records how this romance and marriage began: “Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD.” That’s some pretty intimate language, is it not? God was the Knight in shining armor who came to rescue the damsel in distress. Israel was in bondage to Pharoah and the Egyptians, yet God moved in with “a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm” (Psa. 136:12), gave the Egyptians a “fairly good whippin” (to quote a black preacher I know), and then He drowned Pharoah and his army in the Red Sea while riding off with his new bride. You gotta’ admit, that’s a pretty memorable way to start a marriage! My, what a honeymoon! I bet that if your marriage began like that you’d never forget it. In fact, you’d probably tell the story every chance you got (Num. 21:14, Jsh. 2:10, 24:6, Psa. 78:1-72; 106:7-11, Isa. 51:9-10, Acts 7:36, Heb. 11:29, etc.). Around 1490 B.C., Israel became God’s sweetheart, and she still is today.
As a good husband is willing to sacrifice for his sweetheart, God is willing to sacrifice for Israel. Note the wording of Isaiah 43:1-4: “But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the LORD thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.” Did you get that? America, England, China, Africa, Russia, Italy, Syria, and all the rest are expendable. If you doubt it, just try finding their names on the gates of New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:12). Israel is God’s wife. Yes, they’ve had their “ups and downs,” due to her unfaithfulness, but He hasn’t forgotten His vow, and He’ll ruin anyone’s day who messes with her. If my language seems exaggerated, please consider Zechariah 2:8: “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.” Go ahead, make God’s day.
Although Israel is presently living out of fellowship with God, His plan is to gather her back to her land (Amos 9:13-15, which He has been doing for over 100 years), judge her for her sins in the Great Tribulation (Jer. 30:7, Mat. 24:9-51, Rev. 6-16), grant her a new birth as a nation (Isa. 66:7-8, Rom. 11:25-28), renew their marriage vows (Isa. 54:1-8), and then enjoy a 1,000 year “honeymoon” (Isa. 11:1-12, Mat. 19:28, Rev. 20:1-7).
Again, this is not exaggerating matters in the least, which is clear from the following passages: “Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi (meaning her man or her husband); and shalt call me no more Baali. For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.” (Hos 2:14-20) A similar passage that conveys the same truth is Isaiah 54:1-8: “Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left (There goes the Palestinian State!); and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles (There goes Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia!), and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband (Did you get that? Please get that!); the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; (only two days--II Peter 3:8) but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; (Great Tribulation) but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.”
Such passages are often erroneously spiritualized by the commentators and applied to the church, to Israel’s past, or to both. A good example is Matthew Henry’s comments on Isaiah 54:1-5:
If we apply this to the state of the Jews after their return out of captivity, it is a prophecy of the increase of their nation after they were settled in their own land. Jerusalem had been in the condition of a wife written childless, or a desolate solitary widow; but now it is promised that the city should be replenished and the country peopled again . . . But we must apply it to the church of God in general.
Why must we apply it to the church of God in general? Matthew Henry was a devoted man who loved the Lord dearly, but, like most commentators and preachers of his day, he didn’t believe the Old Testament literally. He insisted on spiritualizing God’s promises to Israel and applying them to the church. This is partly understandable since the Jews had not yet returned to the homeland, and it didn’t appear that they would return, but the Scriptures were very clear in stating that they would. As for these passages having reference to the Jews returning from the Babylonian captivity, one only has to read Isaiah 11:11 where God speaks of a second restoration: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.”
So, the a-millennial and post-millennial writers were in error. Clarence Larkin exercised more faith when he wrote. Though the Zionist movement had begun during Larkin’s life, he went home to be with the Lord nineteen years before Israel became a state. Yet, in 1918, thirty years before Israel would become a sovereign state, when there were less than 100,000 Jews living in the homeland, Larkin wrote the following words:
When the Children of Israel return to their own land it will be to possess and occupy all that was promised to Abraham. “The Royal Grant” given by the Almighty to Abraham, extended from the “River of Egypt” unto the “Great River,” the River Euphrates (Gen. 15:18); and according to Ezekiel (Ezek. 48:1-29), from Hammath, north-east of Damascus, to Kadesh on the south. The Temple will be rebuilt. The Glory of the Lord will return. Sacrifices will again be offered. The Government shall be reestablished, and the nations of the earth will be blessed through Israel. Zech. 8:20-23.
Larkin believed that Jehovah and his Jewish sweetheart would “get back together,” and he had the boldness to tell others about it at a time when most preachers were still stuck in the mud with Matthew Henry and Adam Clarke. Consequently, to this day, Larkin’s books remain some of the best Bible study materials available (“I will bless them that bless thee . . .”, etc.)
Just as on “the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee” (John 2:1), there will be a marriage between Jehovah and Israel on the “third day” after the first coming of Christ (II Pet. 3:8). Hosea, the prophet who speaks of Israel’s reunion with God after a period of separation, speaks this very truth in Hosea 6:1-2: “Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” The first day was from the time of Christ till about 1,000 A.D., then the second day runs up until our present time, ending with the second coming of Christ. The third day (as in resurrection) will be the Millennial kingdom of Christ and His saints with Israel being the head of all nations. According to the Bible, God’s sweetheart returns home (1890 to the present), the “old flame” is rekindled, and a happy marriage begins. Woe be to the poor sucker who gets in the way (Zch. 2:8).
The Poor Suckers
The following chronology is not a complete listing by any means (that would take a book in itself), but we’ve tried to make it thorough enough to prove that “messin’ with Israel” just isn’t too smart. Genesis 12:1-3 has been burning in the mind of God for some 4,000 years, and He stands well prepared to confirm His word and make an example out of anyone (man or nation) who is foolish enough to try Him. Some of the following dates are approximate, not exact. Let’s watch the fight, shall we?
1920 B.C. Egyptians are smitten with plagues after taking Abraham’s wife (Gen. 12:10-20).
1913 B.C. Gentiles are defeated in battle by Abraham and his men after they had taken his nephew Lot into captivity (Gen. 14:1-16).
1732 B.C. As a means of protecting Jacob (Israel), God brings terror upon local cities as he makes his way back to Bethel, the place of God’s blessing (Gen. 35:5). This, of course, foreshadows God terrorizing Gentile cities and nations today who attempt to stand in the way of Israel peacefully settling in the land as the Second Coming of her King approaches.
1491 B.C. Amalek (from Esau) becomes a perpetual type of the flesh and an enemy of God when he gets the “wise” idea of attacking Israel (Exo. 17:8-16). Some 400 years later, God remembers this and commands king Saul to “go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” (I Sam. 15:3).
1491-1487 B.C. Pharaoh and the Egyptians are dealt swift judgments from God for forcing the children of Abraham into servitude (Exo. 4-14). After numerous plagues (foreshadowing the coming “last plagues” of Revelation 16), all the firstborn of Egypt end up dead; then Pharaoh and his army are drowned in the Red Sea.
1452 B.C. Balaam, a heathen soothsayer who loved “the wages of unrighteousness” (II Pet. 2:15) thought he could curse Israel and still profit, in spite of the fact that God warned him not to try it (Num. 22-25). He ended up dead after having counseled the king of Moab to defile the Israelites with heathen fornication, integration, and idolatry (Num. 31:8, 16; Rev. 2:14).
1451 B.C. Under the leadership of Joshua (the Old Testament word for Jesus), the Israelites crossed the Jordan and began claiming the promise land for God (Jsh. 1-11). Rahab, who helped Israel, was spared and blessed of God (Jsh. 6:25). Achan, who troubled Israel, was stoned to death (Jsh. 7:25). The Gibeonites, who deceived Israel, ended up being servants (Jsh. 9:27).
1406 B.C. Eglon, king of Moab, died with a dagger in his gut after having kept Israel in bondage for eighteen years (Jgs. 3:12-25).
1296 B.C. Sisera, a Canaanite army captain who was dumb enough to oppose Israel in battle, had his head nailed to the floor with a tent peg—by a Jewish woman—in her home (Jgs. 4:18-21). Her name was Jael, which means “wild or mountain goat”! Bad, move, Sisera! Bad move!
1249 B.C. Thousands of Midianites, who had ruled over and afflicted the Israelites for seven years, were defeated in battle by a mere 300 Jews (Jgs. 7:7-25).
1120 B.C. Samson, a Jewish man of faith (Heb. 11:32), was raised up of God to be a first-class terrorist to the Philistine enemies of Israel. Using the “foxfire” tactic, he burned up the crops of the Philistines (Jgs. 15:3-5). Then he killed 1,000 men with the jawbone of an ass (Jgs. 15:15). But his greatest victory was his suicide mission where God enabled him to kill over 3,000 Dagon-worshippers by pushing down the supporting pillars of their pagan party house. The last thing they did before dying and going to Hell was mock a Jew (Jgs. 16:23-30).
1063 B.C. Goliath, an uncircumcised giant of the Philistines, defied the armies of Israel, and then he was brought to the ground by the slung stone of a Jewish young man named David (I Sam. 17).
1056 B.C. The Amalekites came up with the bright idea of invading Israel, burning Ziklag, and taking Jewish women captive, including two wives of David. Bad move! Within a week, most of them were dead and in Hell, and David recovered all (I Sam. 30:1-20).
901 B.C. Ben-hadad the king of Syria decided to join the poor suckers club. He threatened to invade Israel and take whatever and whomever he desired. God had other plans, so big Ben lost over 100,000 soldiers in one day (I Kgs. 20:1-30). In less than twenty years, Ben-hadad himself was smothered to death (II Kgs. 8:15).
710 B.C. Sennacherib king of Assyria defied the armies of Israel and the God of Israel. That night an angel of the LORD killed 185,000 of his men. Shortly thereafter, while worshipping his pagan god, king Sennacherib was murdered by his own sons (II Kgs. 19).
606-586 B.C. Babylon besieged Jerusalem, burned it with fire, destroyed the temple and carried the Jews into seventy years of captivity. The Babylonians were then overtaken by the Medes in 538 B.C. (Dan. 5:30-31).
510 B.C. Haman, an Agagite, plotted to destroy the Jews in the kingdom of Ahasuerus. He especially hated Mordecai the Jew, and he had plans to hang him on a fifty cubit gallows. Although “God” and “Lord” are mentioned nowhere in the book, the whole plan backfired, ending with Haman, his ten sons, and five hundred followers dead (Esther 9:1-14).
168 B.C. Antiochus IV Epiphanes (the mad) lay siege to Jerusalem, destroyed the walls, defiled the altar, prohibited Jewish worship, and carried away 10,000 captives. Antiochus died four years later at only fifty-one years of age.
39 B.C – 325 A.D. Rome, the “dreadful and terrible” beast of Daniel 7, decided to lord over the promise land and God’s covenant people. During these centuries, Rome lay siege to Jerusalem three times (39 B.C., 69 A.D., and 135 A.D.). Over 1,000,000 Jews were killed when Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., and an estimated 97,000 were taken into slavery and captivity. Then Hadrian established Jerusalem as a pagan city in 135 A.D. by erecting a temple for Jupiter at Mt. Moriah (where God’s temple belongs) and a temple for Venus at Golgotha. The Jewish worship was abolished, and the Jews were banned from the city for the next two hundred years. In 315 A.D. Constantine declared Roman Catholicism the state religion of the Roman Empire and passed numerous laws against the Jews. Within another 150 years, the Roman Empire would fall to the Huns, Visigoths, and Vandals. It is true that many factors contributed to the fall of Rome’s imperial power, but to pretend that her treatment of the Jews was not a factor is to deny the accuracy of Genesis 12:1-3. It may very well be that Rome could have continued as an imperial power had she blessed the Jews rather than cursed them.
500 – 1400 A.D. Known as the Dark Ages (improperly termed the Middle Ages in government schools), this is the period when the Roman Catholic Church ruled Europe and inflicted much persecution against Christians and Jews. The Jews were labeled Christ killers and often forced into servitude, other hardships, or just plain murdered. Payday came on October 31, 1517, when a German by the name of Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis to the door of the Castle Church at Whittenberg. This began the Protestant Reformation, a movement from which Rome would never fully recover.
613 Roman Catholic Spain jumped in on the act of Jewish persecution by forcing all Jews to either submit to pagan “baptism” (sprinkling) or leave the country. In less than 100 years, Muslims would take the country and rule it for over 700 years.
1391 – 1497 Spain persecuted Jews again with murder, slavery, and forced “baptism.” Then, in 1588, God sank the Spanish Armada (just as He promised in Psalm 48:7--Tarshish is believed to be Spain). This allowed England to produce the King James Bible only twenty-three years later while stopping the spread of Catholic idolatry throughout the growing British Empire. Catholic idolatry, as you likely know, is forbidden in the second commandment, written by a Jew.
1543 – 1564 The reformation fires had been burning brightly since Martin Luther’s famous 95 Thesis was nailed to the church door at Whittenberg. Then, in 1543, Luther blundered by publishing a work titled Concerning the Jews and Their Lies. Among other things, this work advocated Jewish persecution, including the destruction of their homes and synagogues and the forbidding of their worship. Only two years after the publication of his anti-Jewish work, Rome began her Council of Trent. It continued with about twenty-five sessions through December 4, 1563. This twenty year counter-reformation effort would cause millions of blind Catholics to remain in the Roman church, thus drastically decreasing the number of people who would join Luther’s movement.
1791 – 1917 Persecution arose in Russia as many Jewish men were required to serve up to twenty-five years in the military, Jewish children were deprived of a proper education, and frequent massacres occurred in an effort to thin out the Jewish population. Payday came in 1917 when Russia fell from the hands of the Czars into the hands of Communism.
1917 Jerusalem, the “city of the great king” (Mat. 5:35) had been under the control of the Turks for about seven centuries: not a good thing in the mind of God. With the Zionist movement gaining momentum and the Jewish population increasing in the area, it was now needful to secure the city for the Jews. With aircraft now being a part of warfare, God was about to have some real fun with the Turks who had never seen an airplane. More importantly, He would fulfill Isaiah 31:5: “As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.”
The date was December 9, 1917, and the man for the job was a British General named Allenby, who just happened to be a Bible-believing Christian. The name “Allenby” means “prophet from God” in the language of the Turks! Knowing that they were being invaded by a “prophet from God” in the sky, the Turks became terrified and gave up the city without Allenby firing a single shot.
1933 – 1945 After killing 6,000,000 children of Abraham and boasting that his Third Reich would last 1,000 years, Hitler’s kingdom fell after only twelve years. Twelve is the number for Israel, the nation that will really rule for 1,000 years—with a Jewish King! A little over three years after Hitler’s defeat and suicide, the Jews would have a totally independent nation for the first time since 606 B.C. Later, Germany was divided by the Berlin Wall, an appropriate answer to the ghetto walls that Hitler had previously built for the Jews. The decree for the wall was passed by the East German Volkskammer on the twelfth of August, 1961.
1948 After Israel won her independence in May, 1948, she was “welcomed” to the region by her Arab neighbors with attacks from all sides, just as they had promised before the May 14th deadline. The United Nations knew this would happen and did nothing to stop it. In fact, as Mid-East Analyst and Commentator Emmanuel Winston points out, the UN had hoped that the Arab nations would annihilate the newly formed State of Israel:
All problems with the Jews would be quickly settled by the 7 invading Arab armies. There would, of course, be no opportunity for rescue—except for a possible token late arrival of some troops from England, France, or America. They would find a handful of Jews left whom they would rescue with great fanfare and self congratulations. The Arab-Muslims would have “danced in the blood” of the Jews and reclaimed their trampled manhood—just as they claimed they would do before the 1947 UN vote enabling the State of Israel to be born.
But God had other plans. Winston continues:
When the 7 Arab-Muslim armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia attacked as promised on May 15, 1948, the untrained Jewish remnants from the graveyards of Europe fought back with junk equipment and miraculously beat the combined, vaunted Arab-Muslim armies who were stopped and chased across the deserts. However, the Armistice Lines left the Egyptians in occupation of the Gaza Strip and Jordan occupying Judea and Samaria (which they now called the ‘West Bank’) as well as a large part of Jerusalem.
John Westwood, in his work The History of the Middle East Wars, sums up the result of Israel’s first modern war:
The net result of the war of 1948, started by the Arabs to stifle Israel at birth, was a quite unexpected enlargement and strengthening of the new Jewish state. The war had not only witnessed the creation of the Israel Defense Force, but the IDF’s increasing battleworthiness had ensured that the frontiers of Israel, temporary though they might be, had advanced well beyond the limits envisaged in the UN partition plan whose implementation had first provoked the Arab assault.
Had the UN known that Israel was to win this war, it would have never given her a starting chance as a nation. So, in reality, God handed a defeat to both the Arab nations and the UN. The Arabs explained away their shameful defeat by claiming that American forces helped the Jews, but it was GOD who helped the Jews, the God of Genesis 12:1-3.
1967 The “don’t mess with Israel” saga continued through the Sinai Campaign of 1956 and then hit another high point in 1967. Knowing that the Arab nations were planning to attack, the Israelis launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt on June 5, 1967, capturing the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. Jordan then attacked Israel and lost control of the “West Bank” and the eastern sector of Jerusalem. Syria, who had already increased border clashes with Israel and had organized its troops, was also attacked, thus losing the Golan Heights and Old Jerusalem to the rightful owners. The Six Day War (II Pet. 3:8!) ended on June 10, 1967, with Israel possessing more land than she had possessed in over 2,000 years. Her land mass more than tripled, increasing from 8,000 square miles to 26,000 square miles. Had the UN, the USA and the USSR stayed out of the affair, she would have possessed a lot more. (For some reason the “peace keepers” only show an interest in ceasefires when Israel is winning.) This Israeli victory created the great “occupied territories” that the American media would scream about for the next four decades.
1973 The Yom Kippur War began on October 6, 1973, when Egypt and Syria jointly attacked Israel on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. When the war ended two weeks later, Israel had taken possession of an additional 165 square miles of land from Syria, and she had surrounded the Egyptian Third Army at the Suez Canal. The “peace keepers” came crying again insisting that Israel give back the land gained during the conflict. America, being too yellow to do much of anything outside of Kissinger’s “bilateral agreements” was slapped by the Arabs with the 1973 oil embargo.
1981 After concluding that Iraq was nearing the completion of a 70-megawatt nuclear reactor for the purpose of making weapons for destroying Israel, Prime Minister Menachem Begin ordered an Israeli raid to destroy the reactor. The Israeli fighter jets flew in undetected, bombed the reactor, and were on their way home before the Iraqis knew what had happened. Much to everyone’s surprise, no lives were lost in the raid.
1991 During the Gulf War, Iraq, under the dictatorship of Sadaam Hussein, fired 39 Scud missiles onto Israeli soil (called holy land in Zechariah 2:12), although Israel had no involvement in the war. Twelve years later (there’s that number again) Hussein’s sons were killed and his restored “Babylonian kingdom” fell as he was captured while hiding in a hole in the ground. Perhaps Hussein’s life verse could be Isaiah 47:1: “Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne . . .”
1991 On October 30, 1991, President Bush (Sr.) signed the Oslo Accord at the Madrid Peace Conference. The agreement called for Israel to turn over some of their God-given land in order to appease a bunch of wild-minded terrorists (Gen. 16:12). The President was very happy to reach this agreement, but he wasn’t happy with what followed the next day. On Halloween (trick-or-treat, Mr. President!) a very rare storm formed and headed in the wrong direction for our Eastern Seaboard. (Guess who owns a vacation home on the Eastern Seaboard!) The storm was so rare that a book was written and a movie was made about it, both titled The Perfect Storm. Thirty-foot waves hit Kennebunkport, Maine, and played a real nice “trick” on the President by wrecking his home. The following day, the New York Times had two interesting pictures on the front page. One was a picture of Israeli and “Palestinian” leaders debating at the “Peace Conference.” The other was a picture of the storm damage up in the Northeast.
1992 On August 23, 1992, Halloween came early as Mr. Bush put on his peace costume again and preached about “land for peace.” The same day Hurricane Andrew blew into Florida, destroying over 180,000 homes and causing over $30,000,000,000 in damages. It was the worst natural disaster to ever hit America—and GOD was behind the whole thing: “O my God, make them like a wheel; as the stubble before the wind. As the fire burneth a wood, and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire; So persecute them with thy tempest, and make them afraid with thy storm. Fill their faces with shame; that they may seek thy name, O LORD.” (Psa. 83:13-16) “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.” (Nah. 1:3)
1994 On August 16, 1994, after a year in office, President Clinton attended a meeting in Geneva with the President of Syria and discussed—guess what—“land for peace.” (They never learn, do they?) The next day Southern California was hit with a 6.9 earthquake.
1998 The Monica Lewinski story broke on January 21, 1998. This “just happened to be” the same week that Clinton was holding meetings with Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in hopes that Israel would give up “land for peace.” In addition to saying, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinski,” Clinton also said, “. . . I hope that Mr. Netanyahu will turn his words to deeds and comply with the agreements.” Clinton became only the second U.S. President to be impeached by Congress.
2001 In his third debate with Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential campaign, George W. Bush stated that “Israel is our friend and we’ll stand by Israel . . .” Eight months after being elected it seemed that he would stand behind those words. On August 23, 2001, our President went on television with some pretty tough talk for Arafat and his terrorist followers:
The Israelies will not negotiate under terrorist threat, simple as that . . . if the Palestinians are interested in a dialog, then I strongly urge Mr. Arafat to put 100% effort into . . . stopping the terrorist activity. And I believe he can do a better job of doing that.
But the tough talk was short-lived. Saudi Crown Prince Abdula saw the President make that speech, and he just “came unglued” (went ballistic, hit the ceiling, lost it, etc.). Abdula called Prince Bandar, who also saw the speech from his Rocky Mountain retreat. Bandar then told Condi Rice that the sixty-year alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United States was at an end, and that Saudi Arabia would look out for themselves only from now on in the region (there went the oil!). The news upset Bush so badly that he “did a 180” and sent a personal letter to appease Prince Abdula. In the letter were these words: (Don’t miss it! You are about to read one of the chief reasons for the events of 9/11):
I firmly believe that the Palestinian people have a right to self-determination and to live peacefully and securely in THEIR OWN STATE in their own HOMELAND. (emphasis added)
That was around August 25. Less than three weeks before 9/11 our President bowed down to a declared enemy of Israel and said that they have a right to a PALESTINIAN STATE in the land that God gave to the Jews.
Abdula proudly showed off the letter for a few days to Arab leaders, even to Arafat, thus making the most powerful nation on earth look like a little whipped puppy. Then the White House reiterated its mid-east plans for peace on September 7, that being a Palestinian state for Israel’s enemies. On September 8 and 9 President Bush stated that he was even willing to meet with Arafat at the United Nations, and he agreed to meet with Bandar the following Thursday to further discuss the matter. Bandar said that he was “the happiest man in the world” on September 10, yet he was exhausted from all the travel and diplomacy, so he phoned his office and told his staff that he was taking off the following day, Tuesday, September 11, 2001.
2005 Not learning his lesson from the tragedy of September 11, President Bush continued his promotion of a Palestinian state. Then in May, 2005, he pledged $50,000,000 of the American tax payers’ money to help evacuate Jews from the Gaza strip so the suffering “Palestinian refugees” could have a homeland. Over 8,500 Jews were driven from their homes during August, 2005. Writing on the evacuation, Terry Watkins of Dial-the-Truth Ministries states the following:
As my wife and I watched the pleading Jews dragged from their homes and land, I said, “God is not pleased with this. Somebody’s gonna pay big time for this. God might start destroying some homes and running some people out of their land.
After the Gaza evacuation ended in late August, America suffered the worst natural disaster in her history. Hurricane Katrina began to form on August 23, and within a week she had flooded 75% of New Orleans, leaving parts of the city under 20 feet of water. Over 1,300 people were killed, and some 300,000 people evacuated the city. Some estimate that the restoration of New Orleans will cost the tax payers upwards of $200,000,000,000, and this doesn’t include other damages done along the Louisana and Mississippi coastlines. The state of Mississippi began losing up to $500,000 per day in lost gambling revenues alone due to destroyed casinos.
Did America learn her lesson? No, she didn’t. In less than two months after Katrina visited the gulf states, President Bush met with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and reneweed his vow for a Palestinian state. Bush told reporters that he had assured Abbas that
the US would use its influence to help realize a shared vision of the two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.
Peace and security? Not if the Bible is true, and not if the record of history means anything.
The “Palestinian Problem”
One of Satan’s biggest deceptions of the last days is that “Palestine” is the homeland of the “Palestinian refugees.” The word “Israel” occurs 2,565 times in the Bible, and in 238 of those occurrences one can see the word “land” in the same verse. “Palestine,” on the other hand, occurs only once in the Bible, yet this has become a common name for the holy land given to the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So, the first dose of deception came in the form of a smooth name change that semantically robbed the Jews of their God-given homeland.
The second dose came in the form of another smooth word, a word chosen to tug on one’s heart strings while historical facts would fall by the wayside: If only the poor and downtrodden “refugees” had a place to call home.
These “refugees” are supposedly Arabs who fled for safety during Israel’s war for independence in 1948. The word “refugee” itself indicates someone who is in danger and must flee for a place of safety. This was not the case with the Arabs living in the holy land in 1948. These people willingly left the land after being told to do so by their Arab military commanders. The Arab League misled them into believing that they would soon return to the land and claim their share of Jewish property after Israel suffered defeat. When Israel began winning the war, instead of losing, the Arabs panicked and fled in large numbers, even though the Jewish leaders encouraged them to remain in the land and carry on their normal lives.
Estimates on how many Arabs fled the land in 1948-49 range from 50,000 to over 600,000. The trouble is that over 2,000,000 desire to “return” to the land today! Basically, any Arab who claims to have ancestors who once lived in Israel’s land is considered a “Palestinian refugee” and is “entitled” to live there himself.
For some reason the media can’t seem to get around to asking why the wealthy Arab nations won’t give up enough of their own land to accommodate their poor brethren. After all, the oil-rich Arabs possess over 600 acres of land to every 1 acre possessed by Israel! If anyone should be showing some compassion for the “Palestinian refugees,” it is their own people, not the Jews.
The sad truth of the matter is that the Arab nations do not want to solve the “Palestinian problem” near as much as they want to shove Israel into the sea. To the Jew-hating Arabs, the refugees are nothing more than political pawns that they can exploit to further their agenda against Israel. And this is nothing new. Nearly five decades ago the Arab leaders made this perfectly clear at their Conference of Arab Refugees at Homs in Syria. At this conference on July 11th and 12th, 1957, the Arab leaders reached the following resolution regarding the “Palestinian problem”:
Any discussion aimed at a solution of the Palestinian problem which will not be based on ensuring the refugees the right to annihilate Israel will be regarded as desecration of the Arab people and an act of treason.
There goes the “peace” plan. The Arab position hasn’t changed a bit in the past fifty years, and it isn’t going to change. Sure, there have been “talks” and “treaties” and “agreements,” but there have also been non-stop Arab terrorist attacks against Israel. The Israelis continuously have to attack sites in the “refugee” camps in hopes of weeding out known terrorists, yet the press would have us believe that these camps shelter no one but innocent civilians. The Arabs have given Israel no reason to believe that they would become peaceful and behave themselves if they were granted statehood. More importantly, the record of history indicates that they will not behave themselves, and the Bible record agrees. A Palestinian state would be a terrorist state with the annihilation of Israel as its chief aim. To grant these “wild” men statehood next door to Israel would be on par with moving Charles Manson into your spare bedroom. “And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.” (Gen. 16:12)
To expect the tiny nation of Israel to give up land so that 2,000,000 of her enemies can live next door is insane to say the least, especially considering the fact that these enemies are set on Israel’s destruction! The “Palestinian problem” was created by the Arabs, not the Jews, so it is the Arabs who should bear the burden and solve the problem, and America will have to agree with that if she expects to receive the continued blessings of God. If she doesn’t, she’ll end up in history’s junkyard with all the other nations.
The Final Solution
The man who believes and reads the Bible has a wonderful advantage over the masses who believe and read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Life, Newsweek, and all the rest. The press tells us what they think is happening in the world and what they want to happen in the world. The Bible tells us what is going to happen in the world.
After this present earthly scene has passed and eternity has begun, there is only one nation mentioned by name in the Scriptures: “And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.” (Rev. 21:10-12) Where are the Arab nations? They’re gone. Where is the “Palestinian state?” It’s gone. Where are Iraq, Russia, Great Britain, the United States of America, the UN and the Vatican? They’re all gone! We presently live in the “times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24), but these times will soon be over, and God’s “Jewish clock” will begin ticking once again. When it does, God will not be interested in anyone’s agenda other than His own, and He will certainly remember to punish those who ignored and opposed his word in this present world. Before you vote in the next election, you might want to inquire of the candidate’s policy on Israel. When you pray, you might want to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psa. 122:6). When you decide to support new missionaries, you might want to take on a missionary or two to the nation of Israel and to Jews elsewhere. When you send out cards and gifts to people, you might want to remember a Jewish friend or relative. The Jewish people, individually and nationally, are God’s covenant people, and it’s always wise to bless them. “It’s a good investment,” as they say out in the world, but more than that, it’s the right thing to do.
As a child of God, the Christian is to have the mind of God. He is to see as God sees and think as God thinks. As we’ve already studied from Scripture, God’s mind is on Israel. He is personally dedicated to watching over this tiny nation and preserving her. Regardless of how many people and nations oppose Israel, she remains the apple of God’s eye. He is passionately in love with her and He desires to be loved by her. Our duty as Christians is to feel God’s heartbeat for Israel and seek her reconciliation to Him. We should let our Jewish friends know how we feel about them. They should know that we love them as a people and we support and pray for Israel as a nation when so many others are against her. We should seek to win Jews to Christ while we can. The Jewish people have been through the iron furnace of this world, and it’s about to get seven times hotter (Dan. 3:19). May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob keep our hearts in tune with His heart that we might experience a deeper love and compassion for Israel.
So, in summary, Hitler’s “Final Solution” for the Jews wasn’t final, nor will the solutions of the UN, the USA, the Pope, or the “Palestinian Authority” be final. God has the Final Solution. As Bob Jones Sr. used to say, “Nothing is settled until it is settled right, and nothing is settled right until it is settled with God.” Until then, may we let Jerusalem come into our minds, and may we pray for her peace until that glorious day when “they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.” (Mic. 4:4)
Behold Your King!
(The material contained in this section is also available in printed tract form. Order The Messiah. Suggested Donation: 10 cents each)
The reason for God’s restoration of Israel in the twentieth century involves more than just the promises stating that he would do so. There are also many promises concerning Israel’s Messiah. God restored Israel as a nation because He knows her King is coming, and that King is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. The Scriptures presented in the pages ahead will solidly confirm this.
If you, dear reader, happen to be Jewish, may I ask you to seriously consider Jesus Christ? Friend, I challenge you to carefully study the following Scriptures and answer one simple question: IF JESUS CHRIST IS NOT THE MESSIAH, THEN WHO IS HE? How could any one man fulfill so much of God’s prophetic word if he isn’t the prophesied Messiah?
Please think about that as you read the following . . .
Messiah in Old Testament: Gen. 3:15: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Gal. 4:4: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law
Messiah in Old Testament: II Sam. 7:12: . . . I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Acts 13:22-23: . . . David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart . . . Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus
Messiah in Old Testament: Deuteronomy 18:15: The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Acts 3:20-22: And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you . . . For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
Messiah in Old Testament: Zechariah 9:9: . . . O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Matthew 21:5: Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.
Messiah in Old Testament: Isaiah 35:5-6: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Matthew 11:4-5: Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Messiah in Old Testament: Isaiah 53:9: And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: I Peter 2:22: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
Messiah in Old Testament: Psalm 41:9: Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: John 13:18-21: . . . that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me . . . one of you shall betray me.
Messiah in Old Testament: Zechariah 11:12: And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Matthew 26:15: And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.
Messiah in Old Testament: Micah 5:1: . . . they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Matthew 27:30: And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head.
Messiah in Old Testament: Psalm 22:1: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?...
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Matthew 27:46: And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Messiah in Old Testament: Psalm 22:18: They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Matthew 27:35: And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet . . .
Messiah in Old Testament: Psalm 69:21: They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Matthew 27:34: They gave him vinegar to drink mingled with gall: and when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink.
Messiah in Old Testament: Isaiah 53:7: He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Mathew 27:12: And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing.
Messiah in Old Testament: Psalm 34:20:He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken
Jesus Christ in New Testament: John 19:33-36: But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: . . . that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
Messiah in Old Testament: Psalm 16:10: For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Jesus Christ in New Testament: Acts 2:31: He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.
Messiah in the Old Testament: Psalm 110:1: . . . The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Jesus Christ in the New Testament: Hebrews 10:11-13: And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.
These are only some of the many prophecies that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled during His earthly ministry. Jesus clearly is the Messiah!
Before the time of Christ, in the days of Moses, Samuel, David and all the other kings and prophets, why did the Jewish people offer slain animals as sacrifices to God? Perhaps your answer is, “Because God commanded it.” Yes, He certainly did, but why? What is the logic in forgiving sin on the basis of a dead animal? Was this to continue forever, animals being slain for the sins of men? What was the purpose? How can a dead animal cleanse anyone from sin? It makes no sense at all!
However, when you consider Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross, it all makes perfect sense. Remember Genesis 3:21, when God made coats of skin to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve? They had already made themselves aprons of fig leaves, but God wanted an animal to shed its blood and die a sacrificial death for Adam and Eve’s covering. It is THE BLOOD that makes atonement for the soul (Lev. 17:11), so God required blood.
In the next chapter, Genesis chapter four, God rejects Cain’s offering of fruit and vegetables, but he accepts Abel’s lamb. Why? LAMBS HAVE BLOOD!!!
Remember Exodus chapter twelve, the night of the Passover? God said the Jews in Egypt must have THE BLOOD of a LAMB on their door posts and on the upper mantle of their houses in order to be protected.
Friend, all of the Jewish sacrifices pointed to the one FINAL sacrifice of God’s Son on Calvary! Your Messiah came and gave Himself as a payment for your sins! In doing so, He FULFILLED all the law and the prophets. Jesus Christ said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” (Mat. 5:17)
Jesus, your Messiah, was God manifest in the flesh, and He gave himself for you. Notice how the prophet Zechariah told you this: “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” Notice how God says “I” and “me” are the same as “him” and his “only son.” Read it again, please. God said that HE (God) would be PIERCED. Do you remember Isaiah 7:14? It says that the virgin born son would be “Immanuel,” which means “GOD WITH US.” Friend, when your people rejected Jesus Christ they rejected GOD WITH US!
The Jewish prophet, John the Baptist, correctly titled Jesus Christ “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). What is a lamb? A sacrifice, right? Consider I Peter 1:18-20: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,”
God came and provided Himself a Lamb. Remember what Abraham told Isaac in Genesis chapter 22? He said, “. . . My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. .” GOD IS THE LAMB! JESUS CHRIST, EMMANUEL, IS GOD WITH US, AND HE PROVIDED HIMSELF AS THE LAMB TO TAKE AWAY ALL SIN, INCLUDING YOURS!! If you believe Moses and the prophets, then you must also believe what they wrote in the aforementioned Scriptures about Jesus Christ.
My Jewish friend, there’s only one thing left to do: RECEIVE JESUS CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOUR. You need not only a Messiah, but also a SAVIOUR, because you are a lost sinner. Romans 3:23 says, “ For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Men have been in sin since the very beginning, which is why God has accepted blood sacrifices from the beginning. Romans 5:12 says, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” But notice Romans 5:8-9: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” If you continue to reject your true Messiah and Saviour, then you must reap the wrath of God. God has no other Messiah for you. Only through the Lord Jesus Christ can you be saved. He fulfilled your law and ended your sacrifices, being the final sacrifice himself. Yes, God has some special plans for Israel as a nation, but His plan for you personally is Jesus Christ. Receive him today as your Saviour! Romans 10:9-13 says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Why not pray this simple prayer right now (and really mean it):
Dear Lord,
For the first time in my life I really see the truth. I can see now that the Messiah was to be a perfect sacrifice for my sins. I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He made the perfect blood atonement for my sins with His own blood. Please forgive my ignorance and my rejection of your Son. Come into my heart, O God, and wash all my sins away in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, for I trust Jesus only for the salvation of my soul. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray. Amen.
Friend, if you’ve just asked God to save your soul through the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are now SAVED! You have been BORN AGAIN (John 3:3) by the Spirit of God. You have done exactly what God told you to do, and God has done exactly what He promised to do. Now you can look forward to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, THE MESSIAH WHO SAVED YOU!
Now you must confess Jesus Christ before men. Do not be ashamed of the one who died for you. Contact us so we can assist you in finding a good Bible believing church. You need to be baptized (as a public showing of your faith in Christ), and you need to be an active member of a strong fundamental church. Please contact us soon.
If you are still confused and would like more reading material, send for a free copy of our booklet Understanding God’s Salvation Plan.
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