I was on a trip to my country of origin, the United Kingdom, and was set upon several times concerning events in and around the nation of Israel. I’m not speaking of a recent visit, but one several years ago. Those angry with me had no idea what my personal views were about the state in question and its alleged “war crimes”, but just the fact that I was visiting from the United States made me, in their eyes, party to the crime against humanity.

TAXI DRIVER PREACHER

The first angry person I encountered was a taxi driver. I was tired and jet lagged, and just wanted to get to my destination, but he wanted to harass me about my perceived complicity in whatever he thought was going on as a result of support for Israel. More recently, my wife has been similarly attacked via social media by family members in the United Kingdom, for the same reason. You all know what the current matter is concerning Hamas and the Palestinians.

YOUR HISTORY, MY HISTORY

I could go deep into the history of the current conflict. I could write about how Rome destroyed the ancient nation of Israel in the first century, scattered survivors around the known world where they were persecuted and hated for 2000 years (you can still go to see the Arch of Titus, built in AD 81 to commemorate Titus’ “victory”). We as descendants of Europeans and Asians, if you want to speak of complicity, are all “guilty” of that persecution.

I could write about how Hitler killed six million Jews in gas chambers in an attempt to completely eradicate what he saw as “vermin” from the face of the earth-the Jew. And I could write about how since the new state has been reborn in the mid to late 1900s; since the fortunes of Jerusalem have been restored; and since the exiles have been returning to their ancient homeland, surrounding nations, and people groups who were never a nation, such as the Palestinians, have continued to harass, murder, and hate the Jew. Certainly the Palestinians have suffered also… partly by refusing offers (they would only settle for all of “Palestine”) and by being blocked by surrounding nations-their own Muslim brothers. But I won’t go into that now.

CHRISTIAN ZIONISM?

Am I a Chrisitan Zionist? I don’t really know. I’m sure this term is intended as a pejorative, but I’ll take it as a compliment, so yes, I am one of those. Israelis as a nation of humans are no more innocent than any of us, but they are no more guilty either.

At this point I want to give a thumbs up for Joe Biden. I disagree with him on almost everything, and wish for his corrupt reign to end as soon as possible, but he’s done one thing right by standing with Israel-so far.

THE CONSEQUENCE OF THE HATRED OF JEWS

Instead my focus is the consequence of hatred for the Jew. Of course, those now being led by the propaganda and instigation of Western media will insist that they don’t hate the Jew-they “love everyone”. Let’s have a ceasefire and then turn our backs while Hamas rapes Jewish women and beheads babies and old people.

Yes, God was in on the destruction of the state of Israel in 70 AD by the Romans, and in their following persecution around the world, by giving them up to the consequences of their own actions. They had rejected him continuously, culminating in their rejection of His only Son, Jesus Christ. They had rebelled against Him and killed his prophets, and jailed and killed the apostles of Christ. However, the God of promises and faithfulness isn’t finished with the nation of Israel. I can go into the Scriptural evidence for that fact some other time: there’s plenty of it.

God has allowed those who have hated the Jew to have their way-to an extent. But Scripture also makes plain that there is coming a day when He will allow it no longer. They have been and are being afflicted, hated, persecuted, maligned, misrepresented, and opposed, but the day is approaching in when that will be tolerated no longer.

The persecutors themselves-that is, we Westerners, nations surrounding Israel, and others-are not innocent. It is we who will meet the justice of God next. It is we who will pay for our treatment of the Jew for the past two thousand years, and they who will be delivered. Guilty they may be to an extent, but so are we. They will be pardoned: we as nations will not be. Only as individuals who have accepted the grace of God by repenting of our own sin, and by accepting His son, will we find mercy. Our nations, soon to turn on tiny Israel in an attempt to fulfill Hitler’s wish, will be on the receiving end of the Almighty’s fierce wrath:

A WARNING FROM JOEL

“In those days and at that time,
    when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will gather all nations
    and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
There I will put them on trial
    for what they did to my inheritance, my people Israel,
because they scattered my people among the nations
    and divided up my land (Joel 3:1-2).

A WARNING FROM ZECHARIAH

 A prophecy: The word of the Lord concerning Israel. The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares: “I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves (Zechariah 12:1-3).

A WARNING FROM EZEKIEL

“I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay on them. From that day forward the people of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God. And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my face from them. “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will now restore the fortunes of Jacob and will have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name (Ezekiel 39:21-25).

A WARNING FROM REVELATION

Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon (Revelation 16.16).

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

king of kings and lord of lords (Revelation 19:11-16).

• APOLOGETICS