Every time I’m tempted to tell myself I’m getting too hyped up about the possibility of end-times events I hear or read rantings of demonic hatred against the nation of Israel from political commentators and even professing Christians…
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It’s incredible to see what people, including some Christians and people who claim to be on the right of the political spectrum are saying about the modern state of Israel. Some are now in all honesty believing that this tiny nation controls the entire world to the hurt of everyone else. Even Trump is under their spell, they say. This is the kind of rabid nonsense Hitler and his cronies were spouting in the 1930s, leading up to their slaughter of six million Jews in an attempt to eradicate the entire race. Read “Mein Kampf” and you will notice stark correlations in his thinking to the pronouncements of some in our own time. It’s a recurring theme throughout history: the Jews are said to be guilty of everything that’s wrong in the world. When you hear people professing to be children of God yet obsessively echoing the lie that it’s all Israel’s fault, alarm bells should sound in your mind.
NOT PERFECT. It’s true that Israel isn’t the most Godly nation on the planet, but which one is? When you have people who want to pardon murderers, give children sex-changes and deny babies the chance to be born also decrying a unique and minority ethnic group for doing its best to not be extinguished, you know you’re witnessing gross hypocrisy. This tiny nation is a spec when compared to the endless lands controlled by Arab and other Muslim nations throughout the world (see the map above).
Scriptural references to end times make plain that while Jews would be fallen and failed in end times-just as we are-God is going to keep His promises to them anyway, because that’s the kind of God He is-determined to uphold His integrity. We should all be grateful for that. Here’s what He says about end-times events through Ezekiel:
āTherefore say to the Israelites, āThis is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone” (Ezekiel 36:22).
ONE JUDGE ONLY. God isn’t pleased with everything the Israelites do, since they are a Westernised nation and allow the same kind of sins and abominations as we do in the West. However, those who decide they are to be the moral policemen of the world and so come against tiny Israel in the not-too-distant future, will find themselves face-to-face with an angry, omnipotent God who sets a trap for them:
“I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it….”Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west…” (Zechariah 14:2-4)
“On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:9).
Whose side would you rather be on: God’s winning side, or the world’s losing side? This may not be a salvation issue, but I for one would not want to face the Lord knowing that I had joined the crowd calling for the destruction of His nation.
REPLACEMENT? It’s believed commonly that the Church replaced Israel and now God has no interest in the nation. This is a fallacy, a lie and a huge mistake. I’ve discussed that in previous posts. Paul himself said, many years after the resurrection and the ascension,
“I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew” (Romans 11:1-2).
Apostles continued to speak of Israel and Gentiles in separate terms. Yes, salvation is by faith in Jesus, but no, God has not cancelled His promises to the nation or nullified His prophecies of future events. He didn’t have one understanding of history in Old Testament times and then totally change His mind, because God has always known the end from the beginning. God doesn’t make mistakes, doesn’t get taken by surprise, and doesn’t deny His own words.
BLASE. The fact that many denominations and Christians have no interest in end-times events or tell us that we aren’t supposed to think about such things, is a reflection of what those Scriptures foretell, which is that the whole world will be unprepared when they suddenly transpire. Paul gave no hint that it’s somehow wrong to peer into the future to try to see Christ coming:
“Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that dayāand not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).
John’s attitude was the same:
“…we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).
However, much of the Church is no longer looking into the Bible for answers, is claiming that the Bible is old hat, and some are now making up their own “word of God”. ” I think the Lord is saying….”, they begin, and choose to bypass the real word of God.
OPINIONS. When considering end-times events the evangelical church seems to have four main and very diverse opinions and interpretations of what Scripture or God has to say on the matter. One common interpretation of Jesus’ “Olivet Discourse” attempts to tell us that Christ’s lengthy discussion of future events, along with numerous lengthy Old-Testament prophecies of the Day of the Lord refer entirely to things that happened in the first century: it’s all already been fulfilled, they say. I suppose they assume that the only event left to occur is Jesus suddenly showing up with no notice whatsoever, in a few thousand or million years. He’ll say, “Boo! Here I am! Remember me?“
Another view being embraced especially among Charismatics and “high” church or orthodox preaching is that it’s our job to straighten the world out and turn it to Jesus before he will agree to come back. Good luck with that.
A third common view is that it’s none of our business anyway. We aren’t supposed to know when Jesus will return; it’s got nothing to do with us, and we should just ignore it and get on with being nice to people.
Fourth is the conviction that Jesus is coming any day now to rapture away the Church. This is “the next event on God’s prophetic clock” The same people, in contradiction of their own claim, then proceed to tell us that there are signs everywhere that the Day of the Lord is just around the corner, and see “signs” in just about everything that happens in the natural and the political world.
I think the latter has hardened a large portion of the Church to end-times things. Because the predictions of the self-appointed prophecy “experts” – as wild and as fanciful as they often have been – didn’t happen when they were supposed to. Others, I’m tempted to think, have such weak faith that they really think he’s never coming back, but they want to play “Christians” anyway.
Several warnings of Scripture are that the events preceding the return of Christ will come as a shock to the entire world. Even the Church, which should be heralding the return of Jesus Christ, has its head in the sand.
Fuel for Faith, Food for Thought 