Israel Watch: Prophecy
Fulfilled - Jim Fletcher - http://www.raptureready.com/rap15.html
Most humans on planet earth know the Pope visited Israel this past week. Some call it the Holy Land, some call it "Palestine," some call it Israel. It sort of depends on one's worldview.
There was a telling interview given by Bishop Munib Younan, after the Pope's visit. Younan is the president of the Lutheran World Federation, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church Bishop of Palestine and Jordan in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land.
Got it?
The Palestinians were as keen on the Pope's visit as anyone else, given the opportunities for propaganda.
Born in Jerusalem in 1950, Younan often says politically correct things, but still embraces and advances the Palestinian narrative: it's all Israel's fault. So it was that one of his comments is more fodder for marginalizing Israel:
"The Mass gave the Palestinian people - both Christians and Muslims - a feeling of hope. To see the Palestinian President, the Prime Minister, the Ministers, Heads of Churches - all of these people attending, with locals, with people from Galilee, with people from all over the world, over 10,000 people in Manger Square - raised the morale of the Palestinian people. While the Palestinians are under occupation we need a leader to show that the world is listening and hearing us and I believe Pope Francis showed this to our people."
Now, all this reminds me of a quote from Caroline Glick, in a February 13, 2009 Jerusalem Post column:
"The existential threats Israel faces today from Iran and its proxies are exacerbated by the fact that the West's position on Israel is swiftly converging with the Arab world's position on Israel."
I cannot escape the gigantic, overwhelmingly critical truth that biblical eschatology points to a world infested with anti-Semitism. At a moment designated by God, the international community will come against Israel in a final attempt to exterminate the Jews. The most specific prophecies specifically say that Jewish Jerusalem will be the match that lights a global confederation coordinated to wipe Israel out.
These above quotes speak to that and they obviously were spoken in our time. At the same time the Pope visited Israel, Jordan's King Abdullah gave a speech in which he trumpeted the growing cooperation between Christians and Muslims.
This type of cooperation-called "interfaith dialogue"-is spreading in the American church. Recently, Ed Stetzer of LifeWay once again whitewashed Rick Warren's involvement in this area. Texas pastor Bob Roberts Jr. continues to chortle about his linking arms with imams and mullahs, even hosting them in his church.
Then, just this week, I heard for the first time (after several attempts) from Sami Awad, director of The Holy Land Trust. Awad of course spearheads efforts to pry support for Israel away from evangelicals.
Awad was responding to my request for a comment about the recent incident in which the IDF allegedly bulldozed 1,500 mature fruit trees belonging to the Daoud Nassar family, near Bethlehem. There are disputed reports about this incident.
Awad said to me in response:
"I believe that in situations of conflict and war there are in most cases grey areas as to what happened? and who started first? and why people do the things they do. In the Palestinian and Israeli context we have many shades of the gray; from out political and theological perspectives and biases we many times fall into traps where we may not justify or excuse an act of violence but bring an understanding of it as being a response to something that happened. Every once in a while you get a story like the Nasser family and the uprooting of hundreds of their trees and the only history behind that is desire by some of the nearby settlers to take over their land and there is no security or political precedent for the act and the fact that the Nasser family pants trees in their legally recognized land is a threat for the future expansion of the settlements. I hope that people look at this situation not in the political context of the conflict but just as a case that cannot be accepted and justified and therefore something has to be said and done especially to those who are committed to Israel and its rights to exist."
Personally, I see a veiled threat in the last sentence. This follows the pattern now established by others in the American Christian community, from those like David Gushee and Brian McLaren. They have marginalized those of us who support Israel-knowing perfectly well what they are doing-and in the wider picture, Israel is being maligned daily around the world.
Scripture tells us it will be this way.
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