THE MIDDLE EAST IS BACK ON THE BRINK OF ALL OUT WAR
The Middle East is Back on the Brink of All Out War - OUT of ZION Ministries - www.out-of-zion.com
Israel is Under Attack
In 1990 Israel withdrew from the 20 km security zone in South Lebanon that they had maintained as a buffer zone against Hizb'Allah rocket attacks. Israel then withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August 2005 in a " land for peace " deal. The Palestinians got the land, but all Israel got was more Kassam rocket attacks in the last eight months than during the last 10 years. Then out of the blue, in the morning of Wednesday July 12th, Hizb'Allah declared war on Israel on as they infiltrated across the northern border with Lebanon, killing 8 soldiers and taking 2 prisoner. Israel and Hizb'Allah have been involved in a tit for tat campaign ever since. More than 1000 rockets have struck Israeli towns and cities, killing 14 civilians and injuring hundreds more, and causing serious damage to building and infrastructure. It is now Tuesday morning. I am writing this article as Hizb'Allah rockets are once again striking our home town of Haifa, and many of the other northern towns. Eight residents of Haifa have so far been killed in this barrage of rocket fire.
Once again the Middle East is on the brink of all out war and all eyes are again focused on Israel and her neighbours. Apart from President Bush and PM Tony Blair, most of the world's politicians and most of the secular media are calling for Israel to show restraint. One has to ask " What is wrong with the world ? Why do the political leaders expect Israel to show restraint or negotiate with people who openly admit that the very purpose of their existence is the destruction of Israel ? Which other responsible government would not use all the resources at its disposal to protect their citizens ? Why are the majority of the world so quick to take the side of the Muslim Arab world and oppose Israel every time ? Why does the secular media do their best to show Israel in bad light ?"
And what is wrong with the Church ? We are hearing from many of our friends that their church didn't even pray for Israel last Sunday even though this extremely serious escalation began last week. If your church is not interested or involved, at least in prayer, then we need to help your leaders understand the importance of Israel to the Church.. We are not discussing a theological or a doctrinal issue - this is war. Israel is under attack and while the world is telling Israel to show restraint, most of the church is standing by praising the God of Israel while His nation and His people are under attack. Sadly very little has changed since the days of the Nazi Holocaust, when the nations and the church stood by while six million Jews were anihilated in the Nazi gas chambers.
Arming the Body of Messiah
The purpose of this article is to arm you with the facts to help you stand up for Israel at this strategic time. We need the Church to be like Esther - to rise up in defense of Israel, the future location of the Kingdom of God on the Earth. If the enemy manages to destroy Israel then the Kingdom of God will not come. Of course that won't happen because God is infinitely greater, but according to 2 Peter 3:12 the day of the Lord's return can be hastened or delayed. Each of us must play our part in facilitating the former - hastening the day of the Lord's return. Therefore it is imperative that we have as much understanding as possible concerning Israel's place in the plans and purposes of God.
The Heart of the Conflict
The heart of the problem in the Middle East has two parallel aspects - the spiritual aspect and the natural aspect. In the spiritual realm the heart if the conflict is in the heart of Jerusalem - the Temple Mount. We can see that very clearly in the following verses. Firstly YHVH tells us that He has chosen the Temple Mount for Himself as a house of sacrifice
2 Chronicles 7:12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.
verse 16 "For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever;
Then we read in Isaiah that Satan also wants to lay claim to the very same place ............
Isaiah 14:12-14 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation (NKJ)
The real heart of the problem is very clearly and very simply over whether God or Satan will have possession of the Temple Mount. That's the simple and quick part of the problem. The natural aspect is more complicated. It is a family feud over the land that was once called Canaan and is now known as Israel. This is just a small part of the land that God promised to Abraham and his descendants .........
Gen 15:18-21 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates--"the Kenites, the Kenezzites, and the Kadmonites, "the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, "the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." (NKJ)
Both the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael lay claim to the land. But is it simple to find out who the promise was to. In Genesis 21:21 we read In Isaac your seed shall be called. And again in Psalm 105:6 - 11 we can see it ........ 6 O seed of Abraham His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones! 7 He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. 8 He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, 9 The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, 10 And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, 11 Saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance," (NKJ)
Deuteronomy 30:1-5 Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you, "and you return to the LORD your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, "that the LORD your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you. "If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. "Then the LORD your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. (NKJ)
For Bible believing Christians there is no room for interpretation or discussion. Without doubt, God has given the land to the Jewish people as an eternal covenant, and every Christian is obliged to submit to the Lord's will in the matter. We must warn other Christians not to accept any of the reasons that the anti-Semitic Replacement Theology people put forward to deny these facts. This tiny nation of Israel has been supernaturally resurrected and protected for 59 years as it is the foundation of the Kingdom of God. He is the God of Israel and there is nowhere else His Kingdom can be established.
The Devil knows this is true. That Is why Israel has always been under attack. Acts 3:21 says that the Lord is being restrained in Heaven until all of the prophecies (concerning Israel ) are fulfilled. That is why Israel is under attack today. No Israel would mean no second coming of the Messiah. The devil knows it, but it seems millions of Christians do not know it. The well being of Israel is, or should be, the most important issue for every Christian who is looking forward to the return of her Lord and King. Did your church pray for Israel this Sunday? If not I am challenging you to ask your leadership why not. The Kingdom of God and the people of Israel need you right now, as never before, to stand with us, and to pray for us, and to be an Esther Church. Isaiah 62:6 & 7 says to give the Lord no rest until He makes Jerusalem a praise in all of the Earth and we say give your leaders no rest until they get serious about standing with Israel.
The Secular World
As usual the majority of world leaders and secular media are being extremely critical of Israel's attempt to free the kidnapped soldiers and stop the attack of rockets from Gaza and from Lebanon. This has been the pattern since just after the victory in the Six Day War of 1967. Prior to that date Israel was a hero in the eyes of the world for the incredible way the Jewish people strived to establish the country in the face of constant aggression from all of the surrounding Arab countries. With Israel regaining East Jerusalem and the West Bank, we saw the rise of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and its leader Yassar Arafat. The media began to parrot Arafat's claims of a Palestinian people and their rights to a Palestinians State. After 39 years of hearing about the Palestinian people and the illegally occupied territories, most of the world and much of the Church believes it. The whole Palestinian issue is a fable. Here are some of the real facts .........
* God promised all of the disputed land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
* Jewish people have lived in the disputed land for more than 3400 years
* There is no mention of a country called Palestine in the Bible - it never existed
* The Romans plundered Israel in 70 AD, called Jerusalem Aerolinus Capitalinus, and later changing the name from Israel to Palestine
* As the land changed hands many times over the last 1900 yrs, there was a constant Jewish presence
* Mark Twain visited the Holy Land in the 1860's and reported finding 3 times as many Jews as Arabs living in Jerusalem
* The British Partition of 1917 gave all of the land west of the River Jordan as a Jewish homeland
* In 1948 the Jews extended a hand of friendship to the resident Arabs - 350,000 accepted and became Israeli Arabs 650,000 declined and left the country at the request of the Arab League
* There are now 1 million Israeli Arabs who enjoy a good life under Israeli government, whereas the so called Palestinians live in abject poverty under the Palestinian Authority
* Arab lands are 650 times larger in size than Israel and they have all of the oil.
* Israel sits in the midst of 260 million sworn Islamic enemies
* Hamas, Hizb'Allah, and the president of Iran have all publicly called for the total destruction and removal of the state of Israel.
* The majority of Muslims would agree with this desire to see the removal of Israel.
Obviously the above facts are disregarded by the many voices who blame Israel for all of the problems in the Middle East and are now calling for Israel to show restraint as Hizb'Allah attempts to carry out its desire to destroy Israel. It makes no sense to oppose Israel's right to defend itself and to root out and kill those who are responsible for initiating this act of war and those who are firing the missiles into Israel. Calls to stop fighting and start negotiating are irrelevant. You cannot negotiate with an enemy whose only goal is to annihilate you.
The time has come for the politicians and the media to wake up to the truth. The Jewish people are the legal occupiers of the land. Stop talking about the Quartet's Road Map. It will never happen because it is not the Lord's map for peace. No matter how hard the western leaders try, the radical Muslims will never accept Israel in the Middle East. Their religious book the Koran does not allow them to. As long as they are Muslim, they will never change their attitude to Israel.
* Any attempt to circumvent God's plans for the territory that Israel occupies can only bring the wrath of God upon the nations that are involved in the division of His land.
* Israel does not want to take any more land than is rightfully theirs
* The Arab nations do not need to demand the West Bank or Gaza as they have more than enough land to resettle the Palestinians who don't want to enjoy the blessings of living in God's land under a benevolent Israeli government
* Instead of using their money to fund the war against Israel, the land and oil rich Arab nations could build a wonderful country for those who do not want to remain in Israeli territory. They could build another Dubai out there in the millions of miles of uninhabited desert. It could be glorious and all the citizens of Israel, Egypt and Lebanon could all enjoy life on the wonderful Mediter-ranean coastline.
The Only Solution
The nations must be realistic when it comes to dealing with the Middle East. The only way to stop this and any future violence, is to work alongside Israel to cripple every terror group, both in the Middle East and elsewhere. Over the last 40 years, the Western nations have been guilty of appeasement and compromise which has allowed the terror groups to grow very strong. The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem also notes that some of the blame for this tragic state of affairs lies at the door of the United Nations and the wider world community, in that they failed to insist on the complete disarm-ament of Hizb'Allah, and its removal from southern Lebanon, as called for in UN Security Council resolutions. Hizb'Allah, Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and all of the terror organisations must be reigned in if there is to be even a temporary peace in the Middle East. And the Church must repent of its Replacement Theology influenced propensity to oppose Israel's right to live in peace in the land that the God they claim to worship, promised to Abraham.
Interesting Timing
Finally I find it very interesting that this massive escalation in the conflict began on the morning of the Hebrew date of Tammuz 17th. This is the date that marks the 21 day period leading up to 9th of Av, the day when all of Israel's disastrous events have occurred, including the destruction of both Temples. We must assume that the Lord is always in control of everything and that what is happening right now in the Middle East is in His will and in His timing. We really need to have revelation of what is happening in the spirit realm, so that we can pray accordingly. We may well be much closer to the Great Tribulation and return of the Lord than most of us think.
__________________________________________________________________
Israel is Under Attack
In 1990 Israel withdrew from the 20 km security zone in South Lebanon that they had maintained as a buffer zone against Hizb'Allah rocket attacks. Israel then withdrew from the Gaza Strip in August 2005 in a " land for peace " deal. The Palestinians got the land, but all Israel got was more Kassam rocket attacks in the last eight months than during the last 10 years. Then out of the blue, in the morning of Wednesday July 12th, Hizb'Allah declared war on Israel on as they infiltrated across the northern border with Lebanon, killing 8 soldiers and taking 2 prisoner. Israel and Hizb'Allah have been involved in a tit for tat campaign ever since. More than 1000 rockets have struck Israeli towns and cities, killing 14 civilians and injuring hundreds more, and causing serious damage to building and infrastructure. It is now Tuesday morning. I am writing this article as Hizb'Allah rockets are once again striking our home town of Haifa, and many of the other northern towns. Eight residents of Haifa have so far been killed in this barrage of rocket fire.
Once again the Middle East is on the brink of all out war and all eyes are again focused on Israel and her neighbours. Apart from President Bush and PM Tony Blair, most of the world's politicians and most of the secular media are calling for Israel to show restraint. One has to ask " What is wrong with the world ? Why do the political leaders expect Israel to show restraint or negotiate with people who openly admit that the very purpose of their existence is the destruction of Israel ? Which other responsible government would not use all the resources at its disposal to protect their citizens ? Why are the majority of the world so quick to take the side of the Muslim Arab world and oppose Israel every time ? Why does the secular media do their best to show Israel in bad light ?"
And what is wrong with the Church ? We are hearing from many of our friends that their church didn't even pray for Israel last Sunday even though this extremely serious escalation began last week. If your church is not interested or involved, at least in prayer, then we need to help your leaders understand the importance of Israel to the Church.. We are not discussing a theological or a doctrinal issue - this is war. Israel is under attack and while the world is telling Israel to show restraint, most of the church is standing by praising the God of Israel while His nation and His people are under attack. Sadly very little has changed since the days of the Nazi Holocaust, when the nations and the church stood by while six million Jews were anihilated in the Nazi gas chambers.
Arming the Body of Messiah
The purpose of this article is to arm you with the facts to help you stand up for Israel at this strategic time. We need the Church to be like Esther - to rise up in defense of Israel, the future location of the Kingdom of God on the Earth. If the enemy manages to destroy Israel then the Kingdom of God will not come. Of course that won't happen because God is infinitely greater, but according to 2 Peter 3:12 the day of the Lord's return can be hastened or delayed. Each of us must play our part in facilitating the former - hastening the day of the Lord's return. Therefore it is imperative that we have as much understanding as possible concerning Israel's place in the plans and purposes of God.
The Heart of the Conflict
The heart of the problem in the Middle East has two parallel aspects - the spiritual aspect and the natural aspect. In the spiritual realm the heart if the conflict is in the heart of Jerusalem - the Temple Mount. We can see that very clearly in the following verses. Firstly YHVH tells us that He has chosen the Temple Mount for Himself as a house of sacrifice
2 Chronicles 7:12 Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: "I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice.
verse 16 "For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever;
Then we read in Isaiah that Satan also wants to lay claim to the very same place ............
Isaiah 14:12-14 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation (NKJ)
The real heart of the problem is very clearly and very simply over whether God or Satan will have possession of the Temple Mount. That's the simple and quick part of the problem. The natural aspect is more complicated. It is a family feud over the land that was once called Canaan and is now known as Israel. This is just a small part of the land that God promised to Abraham and his descendants .........
Gen 15:18-21 On the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates--"the Kenites, the Kenezzites, and the Kadmonites, "the Hittites, the Perizzites, and the Rephaim, "the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites." (NKJ)
Both the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael lay claim to the land. But is it simple to find out who the promise was to. In Genesis 21:21 we read In Isaac your seed shall be called. And again in Psalm 105:6 - 11 we can see it ........ 6 O seed of Abraham His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones! 7 He is the LORD our God; his judgments are in all the earth. 8 He remembers His covenant forever, the word which He commanded, for a thousand generations, 9 The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac, 10 And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, 11 Saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan as the allotment of your inheritance," (NKJ)
Deuteronomy 30:1-5 Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you, "and you return to the LORD your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, "that the LORD your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you. "If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. "Then the LORD your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. (NKJ)
For Bible believing Christians there is no room for interpretation or discussion. Without doubt, God has given the land to the Jewish people as an eternal covenant, and every Christian is obliged to submit to the Lord's will in the matter. We must warn other Christians not to accept any of the reasons that the anti-Semitic Replacement Theology people put forward to deny these facts. This tiny nation of Israel has been supernaturally resurrected and protected for 59 years as it is the foundation of the Kingdom of God. He is the God of Israel and there is nowhere else His Kingdom can be established.
The Devil knows this is true. That Is why Israel has always been under attack. Acts 3:21 says that the Lord is being restrained in Heaven until all of the prophecies (concerning Israel ) are fulfilled. That is why Israel is under attack today. No Israel would mean no second coming of the Messiah. The devil knows it, but it seems millions of Christians do not know it. The well being of Israel is, or should be, the most important issue for every Christian who is looking forward to the return of her Lord and King. Did your church pray for Israel this Sunday? If not I am challenging you to ask your leadership why not. The Kingdom of God and the people of Israel need you right now, as never before, to stand with us, and to pray for us, and to be an Esther Church. Isaiah 62:6 & 7 says to give the Lord no rest until He makes Jerusalem a praise in all of the Earth and we say give your leaders no rest until they get serious about standing with Israel.
The Secular World
As usual the majority of world leaders and secular media are being extremely critical of Israel's attempt to free the kidnapped soldiers and stop the attack of rockets from Gaza and from Lebanon. This has been the pattern since just after the victory in the Six Day War of 1967. Prior to that date Israel was a hero in the eyes of the world for the incredible way the Jewish people strived to establish the country in the face of constant aggression from all of the surrounding Arab countries. With Israel regaining East Jerusalem and the West Bank, we saw the rise of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and its leader Yassar Arafat. The media began to parrot Arafat's claims of a Palestinian people and their rights to a Palestinians State. After 39 years of hearing about the Palestinian people and the illegally occupied territories, most of the world and much of the Church believes it. The whole Palestinian issue is a fable. Here are some of the real facts .........
* God promised all of the disputed land to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
* Jewish people have lived in the disputed land for more than 3400 years
* There is no mention of a country called Palestine in the Bible - it never existed
* The Romans plundered Israel in 70 AD, called Jerusalem Aerolinus Capitalinus, and later changing the name from Israel to Palestine
* As the land changed hands many times over the last 1900 yrs, there was a constant Jewish presence
* Mark Twain visited the Holy Land in the 1860's and reported finding 3 times as many Jews as Arabs living in Jerusalem
* The British Partition of 1917 gave all of the land west of the River Jordan as a Jewish homeland
* In 1948 the Jews extended a hand of friendship to the resident Arabs - 350,000 accepted and became Israeli Arabs 650,000 declined and left the country at the request of the Arab League
* There are now 1 million Israeli Arabs who enjoy a good life under Israeli government, whereas the so called Palestinians live in abject poverty under the Palestinian Authority
* Arab lands are 650 times larger in size than Israel and they have all of the oil.
* Israel sits in the midst of 260 million sworn Islamic enemies
* Hamas, Hizb'Allah, and the president of Iran have all publicly called for the total destruction and removal of the state of Israel.
* The majority of Muslims would agree with this desire to see the removal of Israel.
Obviously the above facts are disregarded by the many voices who blame Israel for all of the problems in the Middle East and are now calling for Israel to show restraint as Hizb'Allah attempts to carry out its desire to destroy Israel. It makes no sense to oppose Israel's right to defend itself and to root out and kill those who are responsible for initiating this act of war and those who are firing the missiles into Israel. Calls to stop fighting and start negotiating are irrelevant. You cannot negotiate with an enemy whose only goal is to annihilate you.
The time has come for the politicians and the media to wake up to the truth. The Jewish people are the legal occupiers of the land. Stop talking about the Quartet's Road Map. It will never happen because it is not the Lord's map for peace. No matter how hard the western leaders try, the radical Muslims will never accept Israel in the Middle East. Their religious book the Koran does not allow them to. As long as they are Muslim, they will never change their attitude to Israel.
* Any attempt to circumvent God's plans for the territory that Israel occupies can only bring the wrath of God upon the nations that are involved in the division of His land.
* Israel does not want to take any more land than is rightfully theirs
* The Arab nations do not need to demand the West Bank or Gaza as they have more than enough land to resettle the Palestinians who don't want to enjoy the blessings of living in God's land under a benevolent Israeli government
* Instead of using their money to fund the war against Israel, the land and oil rich Arab nations could build a wonderful country for those who do not want to remain in Israeli territory. They could build another Dubai out there in the millions of miles of uninhabited desert. It could be glorious and all the citizens of Israel, Egypt and Lebanon could all enjoy life on the wonderful Mediter-ranean coastline.
The Only Solution
The nations must be realistic when it comes to dealing with the Middle East. The only way to stop this and any future violence, is to work alongside Israel to cripple every terror group, both in the Middle East and elsewhere. Over the last 40 years, the Western nations have been guilty of appeasement and compromise which has allowed the terror groups to grow very strong. The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem also notes that some of the blame for this tragic state of affairs lies at the door of the United Nations and the wider world community, in that they failed to insist on the complete disarm-ament of Hizb'Allah, and its removal from southern Lebanon, as called for in UN Security Council resolutions. Hizb'Allah, Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and all of the terror organisations must be reigned in if there is to be even a temporary peace in the Middle East. And the Church must repent of its Replacement Theology influenced propensity to oppose Israel's right to live in peace in the land that the God they claim to worship, promised to Abraham.
Interesting Timing
Finally I find it very interesting that this massive escalation in the conflict began on the morning of the Hebrew date of Tammuz 17th. This is the date that marks the 21 day period leading up to 9th of Av, the day when all of Israel's disastrous events have occurred, including the destruction of both Temples. We must assume that the Lord is always in control of everything and that what is happening right now in the Middle East is in His will and in His timing. We really need to have revelation of what is happening in the spirit realm, so that we can pray accordingly. We may well be much closer to the Great Tribulation and return of the Lord than most of us think.
__________________________________________________________________
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