HOW CHRISTIANS MUST UNDERSTAND THE ISRAEL AND HAMAS SITUATION
One would have to be deaf and blind not to realise all the news on the terror situation in Israel. It is not my desire to recount the things that have happened, but it is my concern and desire to see all this from the Christian point of view. I am going to use rather random pointers here to spell out the biblical perspective on this.
[1]. “WHAT DOES IT MATTER AS IT DOES NOT CONCERN US?” This is just very poor reasoning and understanding of the bible. Apart from a non-Christian flow-on effect to the world, this powder keg will affect everyone. Everything in our current age points to the end and I will explain that.
In spite of what some churches are not saying, we are in the very last days of the Church age with the Rapture looming on the horizon. It is so sad that a lot who attend churches either have dismissed the Rapture or know nothing about it. Many have not even bothered to investigate it. It is a very lamentable judgment on our churches when the whole of the bible is 25% prophecy, much of it related to the last times, and it is not even touched on.
The Rapture is when the Lord returns for His Church to take the believers away from this scene to prepare His Church, His Bride for the marriage of the Lamb described in Revelation chapter 19. It will end the Church age and on the earth while the Church is absent, the awful Tribulation happens for 7 years. You can read that from Revelation chapters 6 to 19. As Noah was taken up before the flood judgement hit the earth and then returned after the wrath was over, so too will the Church be raptured and then return to earth with Christ at the Second Coming.
The bible does give us indicators for the end of the Church age (the last days of the Church) in a well known chapter – {{2Timothy 3:1-5 “Realise this, that IN THE LAST DAYS DIFFICULT TIMES WILL COME, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (and) holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these.” 2Timothy 3:13 “EVIL MEN AND IMPOSTORS will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”}}
Some people dismiss the Rapture saying, “They have been saying for age Jesus will come and it might not be for hundreds of years.” The answer to that is that all future prophecy centres on Israel. Israel is God’s time clock and the alarm is about to go off. This is one reason people don’t understand prophetic events (eschatology = last things) because they discount Israel's position. I want to share again a most important verse about those who are eagerly waiting for the Rapture that the AV calls “the glorious hope” and the NASB and others call “the blessed hope”. {{2Timothy 4:8 “In the future there is laid up for me THE CROWN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, BUT ALSO TO ALL WHO HAVE LOVED HIS APPEARING.”}}
[2]. “WHAT DO THE CURRENT EVENTS IN ISRAEL SHOW RIGHT NOW?” Firstly, yet again, they show the ugly face of Islam. Islam is a violent religion for it was founded that way with all the wars and the raiding of innocent trading caravans to increase wealth, and it has continued that way, conquering by the power of the sword, not by any faith. The butchery of the Islamic followers is from the pit of hell itself. Be it Isis, Islamic Jihad, Hamas, the Islamic Brotherhood or Hezbollah, they are all the same, demonic murderers.
The second and most important thing is, where is this event leading? To understand that we must look at prophecy. The very next event prophetically is the removal of the Church. Look at these verses – {{2Thessalonians 2:3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for IT [the Day of the LORD] will not come unless THE APOSTASY COMES FIRST, and THE MAN OF LAWLESSNESS IS REVEALED, the son of destruction 2Thess 2:4 who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 2Thess 2:5 Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things? 2Thess 2:6 You know what restrains him now, so that in his time he may be revealed, 2Thess 2:7 for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only HE WHO NOW RESTRAINS WILL DO SO UNTIL HE IS TAKEN OUT OF THE WAY, 2Thess 2:8 AND THEN THAT LAWLESS ONE WILL BE REVEALED whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming,”}}
These are critical verses for our understanding. What Paul is saying is that the Day of the Lord (that is the “it” in verse 3) can not happen unless the “apostasy” has happened. It is very unfortunate that the AV translated the Greek word as apostasy when it should have been “removal” or “departure”. 11 out of 13 times where this Greek word is used in the New Testament it meant locating from one place to another. I have listed all this in my series on the Rapture on Sermon Central.
The removal (actually the correct word is “departure”) of the Church is what is going to issue in the man of lawlessness, the Antichrist, but he can not be revealed until the Church is taken out of the way. Additionally, the man of sin’s appearance is being restrained as taught verse 7 and 8. The restrainer, or rather, the Restrainer is the Holy Spirit. No one, not even the Church is able to restrain the advancement of evil except the Holy Spirit, and hold back the full satanic tide. The Holy Spirit is taken out of the way with the Church. THEN this evil man, the son of perdition, the lawless one, the beast from the sea of Revelation 13, the Antichrist, the world ruler will be revealed to the world which will run after the beast and worship him and Satan. This is in the Tribulation. In all likelihood, that man is alive today but his time comes after the Church is raptured.
[3]. “WHAT ABOUT THE 70TH WEEK OF DANIEL AND THE COVENANT WITH ISRAEL?” This is such a big subject and I do not have time to cover all of it, but we are in the prophecy of Daniel. These are the important verses but here is just one verse – {{Daniel 9:27 “and HE WILL MAKE A FIRM COVENANT with the many for one week, BUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering, and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”}}
In prophecy a week is 7 days but means 7 years. This satanic man, the Antichrist, will make a covenant with Israel for 7 years and it will be a treaty of peace. That means that Israel is still going to be harassed by enemies from here on, by Islamic terrorists and it won’t go away. We are not going to see a peaceful resolution. Then the Rapture happens and this world mastermind takes it on board. This Antichrist will solve that problem where there is no peace, and Israel will trust him, but he betrays them in “the middle of the week”, that is after three and a half years and sets up the great image in the restored temple and his fellow evil companion, the False Prophet, will cause everyone to receive the mark of the beast. This is the very same event Jesus told His disciples would come – {{Matthew 24:15 “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand),”}}
The bible’s description of the mark of the beast connected with the False Prophet is this one – {{Revelation 13:14-18 “He deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. There was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast might even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed, and he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand, or on their forehead, and he provides that no one should be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man, and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.”}}
In a sense the mark of the beast will be like the way some nations handled the vaccine mandate for Covid. Not allowed to work or buy or sell. Covid was a small glimpse of what is coming. Israel won’t be able to solve its enemy problems by the time of the Rapture but along comes this satanic man and will make the covenant. That will probably mark the start of the 7 years of the great Tribulation that is coming on the earth that features judgement after judgement from God against sin. The times will be horrific.
Note the following. The Church will not be here to see all that, the Lord removing us before all that judgement comes. His Church/Bride will be in heaven. Israel may squash Hamas for a time but like the head of Medusa, another snake of Islam takes its place under a different name. We are seeing the time of the end of the Church age with the events in Israel. The Rapture is very close. Are you ready for it? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour?
I hope this does not sound too political but I believe this would not have happened under Trump. I have reasons for saying this (the make up of the current American ruling class and the attitude to Israel from a former President and a most influential woman). Nevertheless God knows what is happening and where things are going. We are to look up and not get involved. We may express our views as I am doing but don’t get involved. You know this is a tricky verse at times especially for Christians in politics – {{Philippians 3:20-21 “Our citizenship is in heaven from which also we eagerly wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”}} Some Christians get so addicted to current happenings and events.
[4]. DURING THE TRIBULATION ISRAEL WILL SUFFER TERRIBLY ONCE THE ANTICHRIST TURNS ON THEM after the first three and a half years, but many Jews get saved though they have to flee into the wilderness as Jesus exhorted them in Matthew 24 and as Revelation 12 details. At the end of the 7 years the Lord returns with His Bride in the Second Coming and when His feet touches earth again it will be on the Mt of Olives. Do you remember this in the ascension of the Lord from the Mt of Olives – {{Acts 1:9-11 “After He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight, and as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them, and they also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, WILL COME IN JUST THE SAME WAY as you have watched Him go into heaven.”}}
We also have the confirmation of Zechariah – {{Zechariah 14:4 “And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west by a very large valley, so that half of the mountain will move toward the north and the other half toward the south.}}
When the Lord returns and sets up the Millennial Kingdom then peace will cover the earth because the Lord will dispose of all that is unrighteous and all the enemies of Israel will perish.
[5]. ISRAEL IS IN FOR MUCH SUFFERING IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE TRIBULATION. Towards the end of the 7 years, Satan causes special powerful demons to come out of the mouths of the wicked trinity to gather all nations for war at Armageddon – {{Revelation 16:12-16 “The sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river, the Euphrates, and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for THE KINGS FROM THE EAST. I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs, for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to THE KINGS OF THE WHOLE WORLD, TO GATHER THEM TOGETHER FOR THE WAR OF THE GREAT DAY OF GOD, the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his garments, lest he walk about naked and men see his shame.”) (coming to His own – Matthew) They gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.”}} (Armageddon)
The armies of the whole world are brought together to exterminate Israel, so powerful will these demons be. This will be the great battle of Armageddon when the entire nations send their troops. By this time, because of all the judgements on the earth because of the wrath of God, the world’s population is greatly reduced. They gather with a satanic purpose and hatred, just like Hamas and Hezbollah do all the time. It will be awful for Israel, especially Jerusalem. Let us see how the prophet Zechariah describes these events.
{{Zechariah 12:2-5 “Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. “And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. AND ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH WILL BE GATHERED AGAINST IT. “In that day,” declares the LORD, “I will strike every horse with bewilderment, and his rider with madness. But I will watch over the house of Judah, while I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. “Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘A strong support for us are the inhabitants of Jerusalem through the LORD of hosts, their God.’}}
Zechariah 14:1-3 “Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. FOR I WILL GATHER ALL THE NATIONS AGAINST JERUSALEM TO BATTLE, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.”}} Armageddon delivers Israel!
This is very serious. We must not be complacent about the great wrath of God in the protection of Israel, the descendants of Abraham – {{Genesis 12:2-3 “and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great, and so you shall be a blessing. I WILL BLESS THOSE WHO BLESS YOU AND THE ONE WHO CURSES YOU I WILL CURSE. In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed,”}}
The nations are going to receive what they themselves have done to Israel. At Armageddon will be all the world’s armies just before the Second Coming, but Russia and Iran and Libya will be there as part of the Gog Magog alliance. A fearful judgement is reserved for Iran. Also the Kings of the east will be there probably headed up by China. Can’t you see how everything is in place right now, the stage set for all this unfold? All it needs is the trigger for the start, and that trigger is the Rapture.
[6]. “WHAT POSITION DOES EACH CHRISTIAN NEED TO TAKE HERE?” Firstly here is a verse you need to practise – {{Psalm 122:6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May they prosper who love you.}}
May I add a small quote from a writer on another excellent site called “RaptureReady” regarding the Christian position in all this current sadness – [[“My main concern for the body of Christ in this and other like situations is that we do not allow our flesh and emotions to get the best of us as we see the images and hear the stories coming out of our beloved Israel and our empathizing, undying love for God’s chosen people.
We must allow God’s Holy Spirit to override any feelings we may have of desiring revenge, retribution, or vengeance on Israel’s enemies. This is ultimately a spiritual battle, and we must allow God’s Spirit to lead and guide our hearts, minds, and emotions.”]]
There is so much more I could have written but not at this sad time. Pray for the innocent lives lost – their families and loved one. May the Lord help us understand our salvation is at hand and the coming of that glorious hope is right on the doorstep. The Rapture is coming!
If you want to look further into these things here is the Series of mine on these matters on SermonCentral -
ESCHATOLOGY, RAPTURE, BIBLE PROPHECY AND CURRENT AFFAIRS
God bless you all
ronaldf@aapt.net.au
