Jerusalem Watchman

Dear J.

Nearly two months have passed since you wrote me. Although I hope I answered some of your questions in my follow-up to the article that so unnerved you, I kept your email in my in-tray because I wanted to answer you personally. Quite a number of concerned brothers have written, but time limits my ability to reply individually. Hopefully as this topic is touched on more in my blog in the coming weeks, some of the questions will be answered, some of the “fog” will become more clear.

I want to respond to your sentences one at a time, so I will insert them here. First of all though, let me thank you for caring enough to write, and for not just writing me off!
 
>>>Having been an avid supporter of yours for years, I’m at a loss right now concerning the reporting trend on your site and your blog.

Thank you for your support; I have never taken it for granted and have always enjoyed your comments and emails. I think you will find, as you look back over the time we have corresponded, and if you recall what I have written before, that I always stayed clear of the controversial eschatologies that have and do cause so much division. I knew the day would come when I would have to pin my colors to the mast, but I did not relish the prospect. It’s just that it was inevitable - because in dealing with Israel that is where everything is headed - to the End of Days. I knew where you stood, of course, but did not wish to tackle you on these things. It was preferable to me for as long as possible to walk the same road and share those things we did and do agree on.

>>>Brother, do you not understand that what we see taking place around us is leading directly toward what you seem to be suggesting the evangelical Christian wants to happen, as opposed to being what God the Father has ordained is going to happen, which we have no power over whatsoever?

No, dear J, I do not read in the Word that what you believe is what God has ordained. I read that He has ordained something vastly different, that we are to prepare for and, under His leading, enter into, an alliance with Israel and a future with Israel that is glorious for us all. Sadly, what I see and hear, is that many Christians DO want that other version of events to unfold. Too many times over the years have I heard the gleeful anticipation from the mouths of my brothers and sisters - the same way they talk about the prophesied destruction of Damascus. Instead of sorrow over the impending massive loss of human lives and souls, there is a sense of “that’s what they deserve and we’re just glad we’ll be able to see it happen.” So too with a future holocaust for Israel: maybe not glee, but a certain disconnected sense of “well, it will serve them right because they keep rejecting Jesus.” You can pick this up in a number of comments on the blog. Where is the cry of the heart; the compassion, the admission that it was “WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS” that Christ died for us? If nothing else, the almost complete absence of a pain and sorrow over the suffering those in your camp believe still awaits Israel would convince me that you have embraced a deception.
 
I must also address your statement that these are things “which we have no power over whatsoever.” Abraham may have felt that he had no power whatsoever to stop God from destroying Sodom, he nevertheless did all he could to try and stop Him. And when God wanted to wipe out the adulterous and stiff-necked Israelites in the wilderness, Moses, knowing that he was a mere man who could do nothing to stop God, nonetheless interceded and was willing for God to blot HIM out of His book instead of his people. There IS what to do, J. The question is, am I willing to do it?

>>>Matthew 23:37-39: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed [is] he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

Their house was indeed left to them desolate, and in that place of desolation, as if to make sure that we cannot miss the sign, is the abomination of the Islamic presence, which has set itself up on God’s holy hill and declared that Allah is God - and that he has no son.  And yes, Jerusalem is not going to see Him again until its people are ready to welcome Him back. In order to be ready, Jerusalem has to be restored to Jewish rule, and the Jews have to have their hearts of stone removed and replaced with hearts of flesh. He will not come back until BOTH these things have taken place.
So far we have only seen part of step 1. There is more, much more, to come.

>>>While I have no question whatsoever that you love the Jewish people, as do I, can’t you see why Israel is going to have to be broken almost to the point of destruction in order for them to FINALLY accept that Jesus Christ was and IS their Messiah and cry out to Him?
 
No J, I cannot. Do you know that many of the Jews who witnessed the Holocaust LOST their faith in God? And do you know this awesome truth: that millions went to their deaths singing, as reported by eyewitnesses in Auschwitz-Birkenau, “I believe with perfect faith in the coming of Messiah?” Also, do you not know that “it is the goodness of God that brings us to repentance” - not His judgment?

>>>Stan, look at Jesus’ words! How He wanted to gather Israel under His wings, but they rejected Him. They didn’t recognize the time of their visitation, brother, but they will! Not only will they do so, this is how the Father has ordained it is going to occur.

Yes He wanted to gather them under His wings but they were not willing. But no! Your way is not how the Father has ordained it, this is how Dispensationalism and Pre-Trib Rapturism TEACHES it is going to occur. The Bible tells me, repeatedly, that the Father has ordained something very different.

>>>Yes, the Antichrist will bring a false promise of peace to the Middle East, but he is going to betray Israel and, ultimately, try to commit a genocide of the Jewish people.
 
Some or all of what you say in this sentence MAY happen, some may have already happened or be in the process of happening. Still, an honest student of Scripture must admit that this is a SCENARIO painted from a number of passages and is NOT what the Bible SPELLS OUT will happen. For example, Daniel 9 MAY be speaking about the Antichrist and MAY be talking about a peace treaty he signs with Israel but it does not SAY that. What you say you believe is DEDUCED from this and other passages when they are laid alongside one another.

>>> God will intervene, however, Stan, as He always has to preserve His people and the nation of Israel! He has a place prepared for those who are meant to escape to do so. Remember, brother, that we serve a just and righteous God. No one who dies in the Tribulation Period to come will die outside His will no more than a sparrow falls without Him seeing it!

Glory to God, He intends to intervene most dramatically in the destiny of His people. Just how He does so though, does not at all have to be in line with Hal Lindsey’s version. In fact, Ezekiel tells me that it is when God moves to deliver Israel from the armies gathered around her to destroy her, and He is hallowed in this way “in the sight of many nations” that THEN Israel shall know “that I am the LORD their God Who sent them into captivity among the nations but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer.”  It is at THAT time that He will stop hiding His face from them for He will have poured out His Spirit on the house of Israel. (Ezekiel 39;27-29). As for the place He has prepared for their escape; isn’t it Israel? Isn’t it possible, probable even, that Israel will be like Goshen, and that those within her borders will be protected? The Bible does say that, when the day of the LORD comes upon the nations, “on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance” (Joel 2:31-32; Obadiah 15-17; Zephaniah 3:14-17). So too Zechariah, when he foretells God’s outpouring of judgment on all those who come against Jerusalem, says (in Zech 14:11-15) that “Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.”

>>>Brother, your voice has been so strong and influential on behalf of Israel, but it’s time for you to get back into the Word if you think the evangelical Christian plans on having a party in heaven while the Jewish people are being slaughtered, you’re wrong.

The Wedding Feast will not be a “Gentile Church” event in heaven; it will be an “Israel-of-God” event on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (Isaiah 25:6). What Pre-Trib teaches is that this event takes place in the skies somewhere while “the time of Jacob’s trouble” is happening down on earth. This is not something I have imagined - I see it written in numerous books and on numerous prophecy charts. Where and when do you believe the Marriage Supper will take place?

>>>As we see in Revelation 19, the Church will return alongside Christ at Armageddon in what will be the most powerful army ever assembled. This we know, based on Christ’s words, won’t happen, however, until the Jewish people cry out to JESUS for help in their darkest hour when all hope seems lost!

What we see in Revelation 19 is that, after the destruction of Babylon, and just before the beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire, and also BEFORE the marriage supper of the Lamb, the Rider on the White Horse is followed by His army, whose troops are dressed in the righteous acts of the saints and who are themselves speaking ABOUT the Bride. So this army is coming with the Lord down towards the earth. And IN Jerusalem stand the Jews, who have already been filled with the Spirit of God and had their hearts circumcised and are therefore ready to say those words of welcome. And WITH them - both physically and spiritually in other parts of the world, are the ingrafted Gentiles who have grabbed hold of the Jews and stood with them against their enemies.

A fundamentally wrong expectation, I believe, is that Christians are looking for a day when the Jews will say, “OK, we will accept Jesus and become one of you.” The Bible says that in the day when God is determined to do good to Jerusalem and the house of Judah, it is GENTILES who will grab hold of the Jews and ask to go with THEM because they have heard that God is with THEM. (Zech 8:15-23)
 
>>>You seem to be missing the love story that is buried within all this! Never once has the nation of Israel embraced its Messiah and yet He is waiting for their call for Him! When the Antichrist has run his course and the armies of earth gather and surround Jerusalem to deliver the death blow to Israel, look what happens, Stan!

I’m sorry J, but it seems you are missing the heart of the Father in all of this. Don’t you know how much anguish He has gone through as, for 2000 years, He has seen His people pay the seemingly unending price of rejecting Him? And can’t you find it somewhere in your heart to want to see an end to HIS suffering? Surely, instead of accepting “the inevitable” we should be pleading with Him to reveal Himself NOW - and to thus put an end to His own yearning to be reunited with them, and an end to their suffering?

>>>Zechariah 14:2-4: For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which [is] before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, [and there shall be] a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

Zechariah 14:1 and 2 is history. Zech 14:3 is prophecy. Remember, the verses and chapters were inserted by man and were not contained in the original text. 2000 years could easily separate the word “…city.” from the word “Then…” And I believe it does.
>>>When all these horrible things to come do take place as prophesied, Jesus and the armies of heaven will return and Christ will literally blow the Mount of Olives in half when His foot touches down! Contrary to what the Jewish people currently believe because this isn’t the appointed time that they will see the truth about Christ, all the enemies of Israel and our God, having plotted against little bitty Israel for so long will be slain by our Lord! VICTORY for Israel - and one unbelievable demonstration of God’s power that the armies of the ENTIRE WORLD couldn’t destroy that little nation!
 
The Bible does NOT say that the people of Israel will RECOGNIZE Jesus as Messiah only when He comes through the clouds. It does NOT say they will ACCEPT Him when they SEE Him physically. What it DOES say is that God will pour our His Spirit of grace and supplication upon them - the nationwide baptism in the Holy Spirit of which Pentecost was just a foreshadowing. This will strip away the veil and enable them to LOOK upon Him and mourn for Him. They will see Him - not see Him coming, but have the blinders removed to see Him as we already can. This is before He descends at the sound of the last trumpet. It happens before then, before they see Him physically, cry out “Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the LORD” and are then caught up with the rest of us who are alive to meet Him in the air, they have to already have had their change of heart. If He were to come before they had repented, they would not welcome Him but would flee, crying to the mountains to cover them.

>>>Remember the story of Gideon, Stan? God lowered his chances of victory by numerically lowering the odds he could win to the point there was no way whatsoever that anyone could doubt it was anything other than God’s hand that won the battle! So it must be with little Israel, but I want you to reflect on what is written on our Savior’s thigh upon His return at Armageddon. Two words: Faithful and True!

I fully agree that Israel will have to see God’s salvation for themselves in order to KNOW that He is the Lord. Ezekiel makes this abundantly clear. It still does not support your scenario though. What is it you see in those two words on Messiah’s thigh? I see that He is faithful and true to His Word and His promise to redeem all mankind and return for His own. This is not a message for physical Israel alone.
 
>>>Stan, I truly admire you as a brother in Christ, but you’re missing a lot of things in the prophetic scenario you can rejoice in as someone who loves Israel!

By now it will be apparent that I think it is you who are missing much, and who would have very real reasons to rejoice and become INVOLVED with what God is doing in and with Israel if you would only be prepared to let go of your eschatology - even if just for awhile - because until you do I am afraid you will be missing out.

>>>When it’s all said and done, will the children of Israel look at evangelical Christians as people who didn’t deeply love them and want what was best for them? Absolutely not! In the end, they’re going to look at us as the only ones who DID love them unconditionally in this world! We have always pointed them toward the One who could end their suffering, but they refuse to accept Him! Have we forsaken or given up on the Jewish people? No. Like Christ, we have remained faithful and true to them because we know that someday we’re all going to be on the same page!

Right now I’m afraid to say the children of Israel look at evangelical Christians as people who see them handily helping to fulfill “our” prophecies, even at the expense of “two-thirds” of THEM, in order so that “our” Messiah can come. No, history shows shamefully that we have not so much pointed the Jews to Jesus as we have strewn boulders in their path to make it hard for them to get to Him, misrepresenting Him, profaning His name.
 
>>>When I think about Armageddon, I can’t help but see how exuberant the surviving remnant of Israel is going to be when they realize that the persecution they have known for so long is over as they witness Christ lay waste to their enemies! No more Palestinians! No more suicide bombers! No more UN resolutions condemning them! No more anti-Semitisim! No more enemies surrounding them! No more Dome of the Rock!

Armageddon does NOT talk about a single Jewish casualty. That expectation, too, is based on INTERPRETATION and DEDUCTION. But when the LORD moves to deliver Israel from the hands of those all around her bent on destroying her, scattering their corpses on the Mountains of Israel (what the world calls the Israeli-occupied West Bank) the people of Israel will exult in their deliverance and in their reunion with their God Who will have won the battle for them.

The remnant of Israel as spoken of in the Bible is not those who survive another two-thirds holocaust AFTER their return to the land of Israel; it is those who survived the two-thirds holocaust of the Romans and were scattered abroad (Ezekiel 6:8), and it is those whose descendants survived the subsequent 2000 years of persecution-laden dispersion culminating in the two-thirds Nazi Holocaust, to make it back to their ancient land in these days. (Isaiah 11:11; Jeremiah 23:3; Jeremiah 31:7,8; Micah 2:12).

>>>There is only one nation on the face of this earth I’d lift the sword in defense of other than the United States and that’s Israel. My love for the Jewish people is real, I pray for their safety always, and I can’t wait to see Jesus deliver them from the hands of their enemies!
 
Amen to that!