Israel Alone In a Sea of Arab/Egyptian Upheaval

The civil unrest in Egypt has reached the critical point. Egyptian forces have killed over a hundred protesters and rioters, and the violence has spread to the Sinai Bedouin, who have attacked at the Rafa border with Gaza. 
Israel is now faced with hostile intents on all of her borders, including the Mediterranean Sea (Turkey backed by Iran). This includes Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, as well as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. 
Psalm 83 is looming, as all the countries mentioned in that Scripture are now in a position to attack Israel. Read Isaiah 17...this is a situation which, should Israel strike and defeat her enemies, she would be in a position to finally enjoy peace and prosperity (the recently discovered oil reserves). Add to that the many nations elsewhere who are backing the Arab initiative to create a state within Israel's territory and you have the further makings of an Ezekiel 38 and 39 scenario down the line.


Paraguay's government said on Friday it had decided to recognize a Palestinian state based on borders before the 1967 war, following similar moves by other South American countries in recent months.

Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Uruguay and Guiana have recently recognized a Palestinian state along the pre-war borders. Chile and Peru have also given recognition to a Palestinian state, but without specifying borders.
Other Arab and European countries are joined to this list of over 130 who  support the Arab's who call themselves Palestinians:  Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Spain, France, Portugal, Norway and Ireland are among the many on the list. 

This is not a time to be worrying about your financial future, but about your Spiritual future. God has drawn a line in the sand... who's side will you be on? Will you believe in Yeshua-Jesus and find forgiveness through His shed blood for your transgressions against a righteous holy God? Now is the day of salvation...it is freely given...you choose.

 
Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

"I Will Set Egyptians against Egyptians..." Isaiah 19

These are the days when the Bible is its own best commentary. Imagine Isaiah the prophet standing on the streets of Cairo today speaking in front of a mainstream news camera declaring:

The burden against Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, And will come into Egypt; The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst. “I will set Egyptians against Egyptians; Everyone will fight against his brother, And everyone against his neighbor, City against city, kingdom against kingdom. The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst; I will destroy their counsel, And they will consult the idols and the charmers, The mediums and the sorcerers. And the Egyptians I will give Into the hand of a cruel master, And a fierce king will rule over them,” Says the Lord, the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 19:1-4, nkjv)

 

Egypt Uprising: Muslim Brotherhood Reaction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g0l3xi-IvM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tkgSBKyoMA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ecE5aPiAy8&feature=related

Like a swift moving cloud, Isaiah predicts the rapid deterioration of events in Egypt. Civil unrest causes Egyptians to fight against each other. This fighting spreads from household to household and grows into a kingdom war. Probably quoting Isaiah 19:2, Christ warned kingdoms would rise against each other in Matthew 24:7. Unlike nation coming against nation, which alludes to world wars, “kingdom against kingdom” refers to regional conflicts. Christ taught these prophecies would come upon the world like birth pains. Like a woman about to deliver her newborn, these events are foretold to come with increased frequency and intensity each building upon the other.

Rumors of regional kingdom wars presently abound in the Middle East. Egypt and Saudi Arabia reportedly conducted joint military exercises in 2010 preparing for a possible confrontation with Iran. Iran represents the Persian kingdom and Egypt and Saudi Arabia the Arab kingdom. Additionally, the apocalyptically minded president Ahmadinejad of Iran has threatened on several occasions to wipe Israel, representing the Jewish kingdom, off of the map.

Psalm 83 predicts the Arab kingdom will someday rise against the Jewish kingdom to banish the name of Israel forever. Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia along with eight other Arab populations join the Arab kingdom in this pending prophetic war.

Isaiah’s prognosis for Egypt worsens as you read the rest of his chapter nineteen. Isaiah 19:5-12 tells us unprecedented religious and economic strife plagues the nation according to the purposes of the Lord. Apparently, this disastrous condition befalls Egypt because of its future involvement in Psalm 83 since we read in Isaiah 19:16-18 that Israel will take over five cities in Egypt and cause Hebrew to be the spoken language inside their city limits. One of these cities will be called “the City of Destruction,” implying the I.D.F. destroys this city.

In that day Egypt will be like women, and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He waves over it. And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt; everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts which He has determined against it. In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction. (Isaiah 19:16-18, nkjv)

Will the civil strife developing in Egypt cause the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, who supposedly has cancer and turns 83 on May 4, 2011? Many expected his son Gamal Mubarak to be his replacement; however, Gamal and his family have reportedly fled to the U.K. for safety. If the Mubarak government is overthrown will the Muslim Brotherhood fill his office with one of its own fulfilling Isaiah 19:4? The Muslim Brotherhood, presently banned in Egypt, hates Israel and supports Jihad against the Jewish State. Hamas, also participating against Israel in Psalm 83, is their political arm inside of the Gaza. Hamas, like the Muslim Brotherhood, calls for the destruction of Israel.

Will the present protests inside Egypt metastasize into the fulfillment of Isaiah 19? If so will the coming cruel leader be the one who leads Egypt into the Psalm 83:6-8 confederacy? All of this is unknown but entirely possible. One thing is for certain; the Middle East appears to be on the verge of going apocalyptic.

January 2011 has seen the governments of Lebanon, Tunisia, and Egypt become severely challenged. The government of Jordan is expected to be next. Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan are involved in Psalm 83 and Tunisia appears to take part in the Ezekiel 38 & 39 prophecy. It appears high time Christians familiarize themselves with the prophecies of Isaiah 19, Isaiah 17, Jeremiah 49, Psalm 83, and Ezekiel 38 & 39. These are a few of the world changing prophecies stage setting on the prophetic horizon.

 

By Bill Salus

Prophecy News Stand

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

How Did It All Come About??

How did it all come about?

Probably everyone in the developed world - and a good many in other lands - are well aware that there is an ongoing conflict in the Middle East involving the Arabs and the Jews. For decades, news organizations have been blanketing the globe with reports from our part of the world. Most the coverage has been, and is, prejudiced against Israel. With it, journalists have successfully generated a universal wave of support for the "Palestinian cause," a cause that cannot be realized except at terrible expense to the Jewish state. The question is: How many of the millions who believe they support the creation of a state called Palestine in the Land of Israel really know the history behind this story? How many are simply being swept along ignorantly on a popular tide of opinion that has little foundation in fact? To confront this question, veteran Christian Zionist Jan Willem van der Hoeven presents the following overview. While far from exhaustive, it nonetheless provides a succinct and sound historical basis, which anyone wanting a real peace built on truth and justice should include in their considerations. ----------- Jews lived down the centuries, since more than 3000 years ago, all over the land of Israel, especially in Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Hebron. Since the Muslim invasion of the holy land in the 7th century, Arabs also lived all over the land. During the last 2000 years the Land of Israel was also known as 'Palestine' - the name given to the Roman Province of Judea by the emperor Hadrian. However, no part of this land was ever part of a Palestinian state; no such entity catered to the Arabs who lived here with the Jews from AD 635 on. The last century opened with the land still occupied - as it had been for the previous 400 years - by the Ottoman Turks as part of their empire. This occupation ended after the Turks' defeat at the hands of British General Edmund Allenby. Thereafter the British took control, in 1923 occupying and governing the land under a mandate given them by the League of Nations. Earlier, in 1917, British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur Balfour had issued the famous Balfour Declaration, which sanctioned the right of the Jewish people to reconstitute their ancient national home in this land. The declaration stipulated that the Jews would have the legal right to establish their homeland in what was once their country and, by divine decree, their inheritance. On learning of the improved conditions in the land, many Arabs from Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon etc. began to immigrate. They were thus not part of the Arab population that had earlier occupied the land, but were "new immigrants" from other Arab states. This Arab influx was well documented by Joan Peters in her book "From Time Immemorial" (Re-Published by JKAP Publications in 2001). The same period saw a parallel wave of Jewish immigration out of European and Arab lands. This the British first permitted, but then restricted out of fear of offending the Arabs. The British White Paper (1939) sought to limit this Jewish influx in a cruel and unrighteous way. Even as Hitler's death camps were accelerating their murderous work, Europe's Jews were forcibly held back, or re-deported; put in concentration camps in Cyprus or sent back to Europe from where they had come. Finally the United Nations, seeking a fair solution, proposed and in 1947 voted in favor of the famed Partition Plan. It stipulated that one half of Palestine - an indefensible strip of land plus the inhospitable Negev Desert - would be allotted to the Jews. The other part would be allotted to the Arabs living in Palestine - specifically in that part of Palestine that included the ancient biblical, Jewish land of Samaria and Judea. The Arab nations rejected the UN offer. The Jews accepted and, in May 1948, proclaimed the rebirth of their national home on the part allotted to them. Five Arab states attacked, calling on the Arabs inside Israel to flee so that they could finish off the newborn state in its indefensible borders. Thereafter they, the Arab refugees, were to return and take possession of all Palestine. This has always been the goal of the Muslim Arab leaders, and the poor Palestinian Arabs have repeatedly allowed themselves to be used as pawns in the hands of their Arab brothers and masters, to their own detriment and disaster. Miraculously, as we now know, little Israel overcame this Arab onslaught despite being massively outgunned. The resulting ceasefire established the armistice lines, which became the de facto borders from 1949 until June 1967. In an act deemed illegal by the entire international community except for Britain and Pakistan, Jordan moved swiftly to annex Samaria and Judea, including the eastern part of Jerusalem with its Old City. Jordan renamed these areas the "West Bank," a name the rest of the world subsequently embraced. It must be noted that Jordan never sought to solve "the Palestinian problem" by handing that territory over to Ahmed Shukairy, the leader then of the Palestinian Arabs, predecessor of Yasser Arafat. On the contrary, those Palestinian Arabs who were actively struggling for independence were arrested by the Jordanians, who beat and otherwise tortured them in an attempt to terminate their efforts. Nor must we forget that, when the Palestine Liberation Organization was formed and instituted under Shukairy in 1964 - three years before the Six Day War - the so-called West Bank was in Arab, that is to say Jordanian, hands! The Palestine they sought to liberate - and this was the PLO's declared main goal and purpose - was not the "West Bank" but all of Israel!! The P.L.O. was not named the H.P.L.O. - half of Palestine needs to be liberated, no. All of Palestine! During the 19 years of the Hashemite kingdom's illegal occupation, the world's nations never pressed Jordan to solve the Palestinian Arab problem. King Hussein was never pushed to make room for the Palestinian Arabs to have a state of their own in the West Bank. Only after Israel liberated these parts of the Jews' ancient homeland in a war of self-defense did the world come to the rescue of the "poor Palestinians". When Israel was threatened and then attacked in the 1967 war - with battles poised to erupt on the northern front with Syria and with Egypt in the south - the Israelis sent as envoy to Amman a top United Nations official to plead with King Hussein not to join in the hostilities. The Jordanian refused and launched his attack in Jerusalem. Thus did Israel, in that Six Day War of self-defense, take hold of all the territory that Jordan had illegally occupied from 1948. It was, after all, the Jews' historic and biblical land, the cradle of their nationhood. Hence it was that many Israelis saw this as an act of liberation! The mountains of Judea and Samaria, where the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had walked; the Old City, where Israel's two temples had stood; where the prophets had made their proclamations and sounded their warnings; where Jesus had His bar mitzvah; where the Jewish Apostles taught and performed miracles - Jerusalem was back in the hands of the people God had called His people; the people to whom He had given THIS land as an everlasting possession! Never, then, did the Palestinian Arabs ever own a country or territory that was taken from them by force of war and then occupied by a foreign power. Never. For there has never been a Palestinian Arab state! The historical FACT is that the Muslim Arab world, in collusion with the Palestinian Arab leadership, has concocted the fable about Israel occupying "Palestinian" land. It is an easily refutable lie. But it has been so frequently and persistently repeated that it is today believed by the whole world, even by many duped Israelis. But then, people say, you cannot turn back the clock. In other words, we are now forced to live with this deception which, rather than resolving the conflict, is prolonging it. The Arabs, having produced this Palestinian problem in order "to solve the Jewish problem" in their Muslim midst - by obtaining Israel's withdrawal, first from Judea and Samaria, and then its ejection from the rest of "their land" - do not believe that Israel has any historic or legal right to this territory, not even to the Jews' most holy piece of it: the Temple Mount. It is for this very reason that even PLO leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) refused to make peace with a democratic Jewish State of Israel. Because a democratic Jewish state has no right to exist in a "purified" Muslim Middle East! Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Director International Christian Zionist Center

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

Confusion Among Israel's Enemies...

How many times in the Tanach (Old Testament) did God stand up for His people and send confusion among her enemies, causing them to defeat themselves? Too many to list here. All it took was for some, who believed in Him, to call out His name, and He listened and was moved on their behalf. Israel is not a God-fearing nation--yet. There are scoffers, nay-sayers, pagans, and just plain unbelievers, but there those who have come to believe in Yeshua HaMashiach, and God hears their prayers along with ours on behalf of His Nation--His Land. For the most part, Israel has a military presence that is unparalleled...but God wants them to know it will be He, who overthrows their enemies. And this is becoming more and more evident as each day dawns. The headlines tell all!! From Tunisia to Yemen, Lebanon, and now in the West Bank, God is at work, bringing down those governments who are against Israel, without Israeli military involvement. Take this latest development from the Al-Jazeera's TV Network:

"After assuming the role of prosecutor and judge, Al- Jazeera, the Arab world’s most influential TV network, has ruled that the leaders of the Palestinian Authority have betrayed their people and must therefore step down from the stage. The “defendants” have been found guilty of ceding control over most of east Jerusalem to Israel, relinquishing the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees and conducting security coordination with Israeli security authorities." 


The analysis is that Abbas' government cannot survive this indictment, and the people agree, which could possibly lead to a Hamas takeover and a necessary Israeli response. I can see Psalm 83 taking place in the very near future, in which case, Israel WILL respond with military might and fulfill ancient prophecies. However this turns out, we need to be in constant prayer for Israel and for ourselves!


Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

God At Work On Behalf of Israel...

God is definitely working behind the scenes in the Middle East concerning Israel and her sworn enemies.
Here are some of the latest news stories... you can see the Lord's hand in every situation... I pray Israel will open her eyes to see this as well and trust in Him once again!
Iran: Iran has been experiencing significant technical problems with equipment in its uranium enrichment drive and temporarily shut down some of its centrifuge machines, Western diplomats said on Tuesday.
One senior diplomat said Iran acted after suffering power fluctuations but that it was unclear to what extent the Stuxnet computer virus may have been to blame. Iran is using an old centrifuge model which has been dogged by breakdowns for years. Security experts have said the release of Stuxnet could have been a state-backed attack, possibly from Israel or another foe of Iran, to sabotage the Islamic Republic’s nuclear programme.
Lebanon:

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told Al-Arabiya television on Wednesday that his country is suspending its efforts to mediate the government crisis in Lebanon – a situation he called “dangerous.” Beirut-based media reported that Hizbullah operatives – including Iranians and Syrians -- were seen practicing for a potential coup in the Lebanese capital. The reports intensified anxiety among residents of the city who have been hearing of the possibility of a Hizbullah coup d’état for months. The Beirut Daily Star is reporting that a “window of hope” opened on Wednesday as Turkish and Qatari mediators claimed progress in getting rival factions to reach some form of agreement. The paper suggests that even if the present negotiations succeed, it will be months before a new Lebanese government takes shape. The Hizbullah-instigated collapse of the government is already causing severe hikes in the cost of gasoline and food.

Tunisia: Reports from Tunisia say that more than 30 members of toppled dictator Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali’s family have been arrested since he was removed from power. State-run television has been showing scenes of the arrests and of valuables seized from those detained. Ben Ali himself has reportedly fled Tunisia for Saudi Arabia. His extended family is under investigation for financial irregularities in the aftermath of the overthrow.
Jordan: More unrest is expected to hit Israel's closest eastern neighbor on Friday when Jordan's local Muslim Brotherhood chapter leads a second protest against the government.

The Islamic Action Front – the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood and the chief opposition party to the government – is leading a movement to censure the monarchy over rising prices for foodstuffs and fu

Arab countries:

Arab Leaders Fear Local Uprisings
Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa warned Wednesday in a speech at the start of the body's economic summit in Sharm el-Sheikh that Arab leaders should learn a lesson from the uprising in Tunisia.

“It is on everyone's mind that the Arab self is broken by poverty, unemployment and a general slide in indicators,” calling the events in Tunisia an example of the “big social shocks” that await Arab societies.

“This is in addition to political problems that have not been resolved,” he said, according to the Associated Press.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak also noted that rising food prices and unemployment could threaten the status quo in Arab nations.

In an opening address to the gathering, Mubarak said, “We are not isolated from the world with its problems, challenges and crises. Employment and creating employment opportunities will remain one of the most important challenges we face... We have priorities to achieve food security and combat climate change impacts,” he added.

Analysts said Arab rulers are growing increasingly concerned over their vulnerability to popular uprisings by disgruntled citizenry, despite security from military backing.

God's judgment on these nations is still at hand, but He is patiently moving behind the scenes, giving more people time to turn to Him...

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua,

E.Jerusalem Arabs Prefer Israel Over Palestinian State

According to recent poll of over 1,000 Arab residents, only a quarter said they would probably move to "Palestine"; 54% said they would stay in Israel. In the case of a final peace agreement that established a Palestinian state, more Arab residents of east Jerusalem would prefer to be Israeli than Palestinian, according to a study released Wednesday by Pechter Middle East Polls.

Ever wonder why there is so much dissension over Jerusalem? If the Arabs get even just East Jerusalem as their capital, it will spell the end of Israel and Jews. God has said Jerusalem is His! No if, ans, or buts about it. No compromise.

Isaiah 62:1, 6-7 says:
For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.
I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence,And give Him no rest, till He establish, and till e make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. It is to Jerusalem that the Lord, Yeshua, will return and set up His Kingdom for a millenium.

Joel 3:16-21 says:

 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter hHis voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. 

So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

 But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

The 70 Weeks of Daniel

Sunday, January 9, 2011
By Jack Kelley
GraceThruFaith.com

Many believe that Daniel 9:24-27 is the most important passage of prophecy in all of Scripture. Almost every mistake I’ve run across in studying the various interpretations of End Times Prophecy can be traced back to a misunderstanding of this passage. Let’s begin the year with an updated and expanded study of this important prophecy.

Before plowing into it we’ll back up a little and review the context. Daniel was an old man, probably in his eighties. He’d been in Babylon for nearly 70 years and knew from reading the recently completed scroll of Jeremiah’s writings (specifically the part we know as Jeremiah 25:8-11) that the 70-year captivity God had ordained for Israel was just about over (Daniel 9:2).

The reason for the captivity had been Israel’s insistence upon worshiping the false gods of their pagan neighbors. Its duration of 70 years came from the fact that for 490 years they had failed to let their farmland lie fallow one year out of every seven as God had commanded in Leviticus 25:1-7. The Lord had been patient all that time but finally had sent them to Babylon to give the land the 70 years of rest that were due it. (2 Chron. 36:21)

The beginning of Daniel 9 documents Daniel’s prayer, reminding the Lord that the 70 year time of punishment was nearly over and asking for mercy on behalf of his people. Before he could finish his prayer, the angel Gabriel appeared to him and spoke the words that we know as Daniel 9:24-27. Let’s read the whole thing to get the overview and then take it apart verse by verse.

Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and your Holy City to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most Holy. Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until The Anointed One the Ruler comes there will be seven weeks and sixty two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench but in times of trouble. After the sixty two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off and have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue till the end and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the Temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him (Daniel 9:24-27).

No prophecy in all of Scripture is more critical to our understanding of the end times than these four verses. A few basic clarifications are in order first, then we’ll interpret the passage verse by verse. The Hebrew word translated weeks (or sevens) refers to a period of 7 years, like the English word decade refers to a period of 10 years. It literally means “a week of years.” So 70 weeks is 70 X 7 years or 490 years. This period is divided into three parts, 7 weeks or 49 years, 62 weeks or 434 years, and 1 week or 7 years. Let’s begin.

Seventy weeks are determined upon your people and your Holy City to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most Holy (place) (Daniel 9:24).

Sitting upon His heavenly throne, God decreed that six things would be accomplished for Daniel’s people (Israel) and Daniel’s Holy City (Jerusalem) during a specified period of 490 years. (I’ve inserted the word “place” after Holy at the end of the verse to clarify the fact that it refers to the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.)

We should be aware that in Hebrew these things read a little differently. Literally, God had determined to;
1. restrict or restrain the transgression (also translated rebellion)
2. seal up their sins (as if putting them away in a sealed container)
3. make atonement (restitution) for their iniquity
4. bring them into a state of everlasting righteousness
5. seal up (same word as #2) vision and prophecy
6. anoint (consecrate) the most Holy place (sanctuary)

In plain language, God would put an end to their rebellion against Him, put away their sins and pay the penalties they had accrued, bring the people into a state of perpetual righteousness, fulfill the remaining prophecies, and anoint the Temple. This was to be accomplished through their Messiah (Jesus) because no one else could do it. Had they accepted Him as their savior their rebellion against God would have ended. Their sins would have all been forgiven, and the full penalty paid for them. They would have entered into a state of eternal righteousness, all their prophecies would have been fulfilled and the rebuilt temple would have been consecrated. It should be noted here that although it appears to have been accepted by Him, God never dwelt in the 2nd Temple, nor was the ark of the covenant and its mercy seat ever present therein.

Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until The Anointed One the Ruler comes there will be seven weeks and sixty two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench but in times of trouble (Daniel 9:25).

Here is a clear prophecy of the timing of the First Coming. When this message was given to Daniel by the angel Gabriel, Jerusalem had lain in ruin for nearly 70 years and the Jews were captive in Babylon. Counting forward for 62 + 7 periods of 7 years each (a total of 483 years) from a future decree giving the Jews permission to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, they should expect the Messiah.

To avoid confusion, it’s important to distinguish the decree that freed the Jews from their captivity from the one that gave them permission to rebuild Jerusalem.

When he conquered Babylon in 535BC Cyrus the Persian immediately freed the Jews. It had been prophesied 150 years earlier in Isaiah 44:24-45:6 and was fulfilled in Ezra 1:1-4. But according to Nehemiah 2:1 the decree to rebuild Jerusalem was given in the first month of the 20th year of his reign by King Artaxerxes of Persia (March of 445 BC on our calendar, about 90 years later). Exactly 483 years after that decree the Lord Jesus rode in to Jerusalem on a donkey to shouts of “Hosanna”! It was the only day in His life that He permitted His followers to proclaim Him as Israel’s King, fulfilling Daniel’s prophecy to the day! The Hebrew in Daniel 9:25 calls Him Messiah the Prince, denoting the fact that He was coming as the Anointed Son of the King and was not yet crowned King Himself.

In Luke 19:41-45, Jesus reminded the people of the specific nature of this prophecy. As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said,

“If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

He held them accountable for knowing Daniel 9:24-27.

A few days later He extended that accountability to those who would be alive in Israel during the End Times.

“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel – let the reader understand – then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (Matt 24:15-16)

They will also be required to understand Daniel 9.

After the sixty two weeks the Anointed One will be cut off and have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue till the end and desolations have been decreed (Daniel 9:26).

First came 7 sevens (49 years) and then 62 sevens (434 years) for a total of 69 sevens or 483 years. The Hebrew word for Anointed One is Mashaich (Messiah in English). At the end of this 2nd period their Messiah would be cut off, which means to be executed or literally destroyed in the making of a covenant, having received none of the honor, glory and blessing the Scriptures promised Him.

Make no mistake about it. Jesus had to die so these 6 promises could come true. No one else in Heaven or on Earth could accomplish this. We can only imagine how different things would have been if they had accepted Him as their Messiah and let Him die for their sins so He could bring them into everlasting righteousness with His resurrection. But of course God knew they wouldn’t, so He had to do things the hard way.

Do you realize what that means? It wasn’t killing the Messiah that put the Jews at odds with God. After all He came to die for them. No. It’s that in killing Him, they refused to let His death pay for their sins so He could save them. This had the effect of making His death meaningless to them. That’s what severed the relationship.

Because of that, we now get the first hint that all would not go well. Following the crucifixion the people of a ruler yet to come would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple, the same Temple that God decreed would be consecrated. The Israelites would be scattered abroad and peace would elude the world.

We all know that Jesus was crucified and 38 years later the Romans put the torch to the city and the Temple destroying both. Surviving Jews were forced to flee for their lives and in the ensuing 2000 years I don’t believe a single generation has escaped involvement in a war of some kind.

After the crucifixion something strange happened: The Heavenly clock stopped. 69 of the 70 weeks had passed and all that was prophesied to happen during those 483 years had come to pass but there was still one week (7 years) left. There are hints in the Old Testament that the clock had stopped several times before in Israel’s history when for one reason or another they were either under subjugation or out of the land. And in the New Testament we’re also given hints that while God is dealing with the Church, time ceases to exist for Israel (Acts 15:13-18). But the clearest indication of the stopped clock is that the events foretold in Daniel 9:27 simply haven’t happened yet.

He will confirm a covenant with many for one week. In the middle of the week he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on a wing of the Temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation until the end that is decreed is poured out on him(9:27).

It’s vital to our understanding of the End Times that we realize two things here. First, the Age of Grace didn’t follow the Age of Law, it merely interrupted the Age of Law seven years short of its promised duration. These seven years have to be completed for God to accomplish the six things the angel listed in verse 24 for Israel.

And second, the Age of Grace was not the next step in the progression of God’s overall plan, but was a deviation from it. Once the rapture comes, nothing like the Age of Grace will ever happen again (Ephes. 2:6-7). Even when Israel accepts the New Covenant, as Jeremiah 31:31-34 promises, they won’t enjoy the same benefits the Church has enjoyed. The relationship the Church has with the Lord will never be repeated with any other group. Ever.

But before we try to understand the 70th week let’s review a rule of grammar that will help make our interpretation correct. The rule is this: Pronouns refer us back to the closest previous noun. “He”, being a personal pronoun, refers to the closest previous personal noun, in this case the “ruler who will come.” So a ruler who will come from the territory of the old Roman Empire will confirm a 7 year covenant with Israel that permits them to build a Temple and re-instate their Old Covenant worship system. 3 1/2 years later he will violate the covenant by setting up an abomination that causes the Temple to become desolate, putting an end to their worship. This abomination brings the wrath of God down upon him and he will be destroyed.

The most obvious way in which we know these things haven’t happened is that the Jewish Old Covenant worship system requires a Temple and there hasn’t been one since 70 AD when the Romans destroyed it.

Some say this prophecy was fulfilled during the Roman destruction but most believe it’s yet future, partly because of the term Abomination that causes Desolation. It’s a specific insult to God that has happened only once previously. Antiochus Epiphanes, a powerful Syrian king, had attacked Jerusalem and entered the Temple area in 168BC. There he had sacrificed a pig on the Temple altar and erected a statue of the Greek god Zeus with his own face on it. He then required everyone to worship it on pain of death. This rendered the Temple unfit for worshiping God and so incensed the Jews that they revolted and defeated the Syrians. This is all recorded in Jewish history (1st Maccabees) where it’s called the Abomination of Desolation. The subsequent cleansing of the Temple is celebrated to this day in the Feast of Hanukkah.

Paul warned us that in the latter days a world leader will become so powerful that he will exalt himself above everything that is called god or is worshiped and will stand in the Temple proclaiming himself to be God (2 Thes 2:4). In Rev 13:14-15 we’re told that he’ll have a statue of himself erected and require everyone to worship it on pain of death. In Matt 24:15-21 Jesus said that the Abomination that causes Desolation spoken of by Daniel will kick off the Great Tribulation, a period of time 3 1/2 years long that coincides with the last half of Daniel’s 70th week. The similarities between this coming event and the one from history being so obvious, most scholars are persuaded that one points to the other since nothing in the intervening years fits so completely.

Soon and Very Soon

A new leader will soon emerge on the scene, a man with great personal charisma. Following a devastating war in the Middle East he’ll present a plan to restore peace, by which he will quickly captivate and control the world. Since all true believers will have recently disappeared from Earth in the rapture of the Church, he’ll have no trouble persuading most remaining inhabitants that he is the promised Messiah, the Prince of Peace. He will astound and amaze them all with feats of diplomacy and conquest, even performing the supernatural.

When he claims to be God, all hell will break loose on Earth and 3 1/2 years of the most terrible times mankind has ever known will threaten their very existence. But before they’re all destroyed the real Prince of Peace will return and overthrow this impostor. He will set up His kingdom on earth, a kingdom that will never be destroyed or left to another.

Having given His life to finish transgression, put an end to sin, atone for wickedness and bring in everlasting righteousness, and having fulfilled all Biblical vision and prophecy, He will anoint the most Holy Place and receive all the honor, glory and blessing the Scriptures promise Him. Israel will finally have her Kingdom back and will live in peace with God in her midst forever. You can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah.

Iranian Nuclear Threat Delayed???

From Joel Rosenberg's Blog

In the first video blog we produced for new Joshua Fund website in December, I offered a “Year End Assessment of the Iranian Nuclear Threat.”  Based on  discussions with numerous U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials and analysts, I concluded that the prospect of war between Iran and Israel in the first six months of 2011 had diminished and that there was a growing sense that the West’s covert war to slow Iran’s bid for nuclear weapons was working. The threat of Iran getting the Bomb is certainly still there, but for the moment the good guys seem to have the upper hand.

That was December. January now brings official confirmation of that assessment.

“Meir Dagan, who retired from his post as Mossad chief on Thursday after eight years, does not believe Iran will have nuclear capability before 2015,” reports the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. “In a summary given to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Dagan said Iran was a long way from being able to produce nuclear weapons, following a series of failures that had set its program back by several years….Dagan concluded his term saying Iran was still far from being capable of producing nuclear weapons and that a series of malfunctions had put off its nuclear goal for several years. Therefore, he said, Iran will not get hold of the bomb before 2015 approximately.”

“The Israeli intelligence community’s assessments of Iran’s nuclear capability have changed during Dagan’s tenure,” the story noted. “In 2003, Israeli intelligence officials thought Iran would have its first bomb by 2007. In 2007, they thought it would be 2009, and a year later they put it at 2011. Now the date has moved to 2015. These adjustments were not the result of mistaken evaluations, but due to the difficulties Iran has encountered in advancing its program, largely because of the Mossad’s efforts.” The article also stated that “Dagan’s term centered around two main issues: the Iranian nuclear program; and the assassinations of Hezbollah and Hamas leaders and Iranian scientists, most if not all of which have been attributed to the Mossad.”

Dagan’s testimony is the strongest evidence so far that the covert war underway inside Iran — the Stuxnet computer virus, assassinations, defections, sabotage, and other measures – has had a dramatic impact on slowing down Iran’s effort to build nuclear weapons. The question is this: Is Dagan’s assessment accurate? Does Israel and the world really have until 2015, or do the mullahs have a separate, secret track they are operating on that could cause Iran to acquire the Bomb sooner? Time will tell.

In the meantime:

• let’s thank the Lord that He appears to have given the people of the epicenter more time (Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak recently said 2010 was one of the quietest and most secure years in modern Israeli history)
• let’s thank the Lord for the hard work of U.S., Israeli and other intelligence agencies in slowing Iran down
• let’s continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, according to Psalm 122:6
• let’s continue to care for the poor and needy in the epicenter
• let’s continue to “get ready, be prepared” for war whenever it comes (for prophetically we know several major wars, at least, are coming to the Middle East) — for The Joshua Fund, this means expanding our warehouse capacity, expanding the number of food distribution centers we serve, purchasing more trucks and vans, training more Israelis in humanitarian relief distribution, stockpiling more supplies, etc.
• let’s continue to pray for the persecuted Church in the Middle East, especially as a new surge of extremist violence has led to the murder of many believers, and left many more believers wounded in recent weeks and months, and let’s do everything we can to educate and mobilize Christians around the world to pray for believers in the epicenter
• let’s also continue to do everything we can to strengthen our brothers and sisters in Israel and the rest of the epicenter, to teach the Word of God, to encourage pastors and ministry leaders, and to give everyone in the region the opportunity to hear the good news of the love and salvation only offered through our Lord Jesus Christ, and to make disciples of all nations
• may the Lord bless you as you “learn, pray, give and go”!

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• Come to Israel with The Joshua Fund in May 2011, walk where Jesus walked, pray for the peace of Jerusalem, visit our warehouse, participate in a humanitarian relief project, worship with fellow believers, study the Word of God, and be a blessing to the nation of Israel at this critical time!
• Sign up for Joel’s free email updates, “Flash Traffic”
• Join the “Epicenter Team” on Facebook
• Purchase a copy of The Twelfth Imam, the New York Times best-selling thriller about a CIA operative sent into Iran to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons program
• Donor update: Details on some of the latest projects The Joshua Fund is working on
• Prayer updates from Israel and the epicenter
• Visit The Joshua Fund’s new website — www.joshuafund.net – and make a contribution to help us educate Christians about God’s love for Israel and help us bless the poor and needy in the epicenter in the name of Jesus.

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

Israel 2011: An 'Impossible' Peace

 

Israel 2011: An 'Impossible' Peace by Jack Kinsella-Omega letter

After days of violence between Israelis and Palestinians and accelerated rocket attacks on southern Israel from Hamas-led Gaza strip, Israel’s foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman declared on Sunday that “peace was impossible” suggesting Israel should seek a less lofty goal and cut their losses.

The latest eruption between the two sides followed the continuing violence along the Israel-Gaza border. Lieberman told a conference of Israeli diplomats that instead of a full peace deal, Israel should seek a long-term, interim agreement on security and economic matters.

"It's not only that it is impossible" to reach an overall agreement, he said. "It is simply forbidden."

Lieberman said the West Bank Palestinian Authority — with whom Israel has pledged to negotiate — is "not legitimate" because it has postponed elections.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas remains in office though his term expired almost a year ago, and there is no date for a new election.

Palestinians have consistently rejected that approach.

Lieberman has a reputation for expressing hard-line views that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can’t, allowing him to float alternative plans while officially sticking to the premise of a final, negotiated peace settlement between the two sides.

Consequently statement from Netanyahu's office said Lieberman's comments reflect "his personal positions," not those of the government.  

Peace talks were making progress until Obama switched sides and demanded that Israel cease all construction in Jerusalem.

Obama was eager to make his mark early and earn the Peace Prize awarded him for being black two weeks into his presidency.Being clueless from Chicago, he didn’t know that his demands immediately are transformed into the Palestinian default position.

So when he later tried to walk that back, the Palestinians wouldn’t let him.   Now the Palestinians say that they will not negotiate as long as Israel builds homes for Jews on any land they claim for their proposed state.

That’s what makes further negotiations “impossible” since it requires an Israeli capitulation over the issue in dispute before they will negotiate the issue in dispute.  

Like agreeing on the final price first – as a condition of haggling over the price.   It impossible.

Because the PA is unelected, the only legally-elected representative of the Palestinian people with whom Israel could credibly negotiate would be Hamas. 

Hamas exists by charter for the express purpose of annihilating Israel.   Hamas is a terrorist organization with whom negotiation is forbidden.

So peace is impossible. Israel has no credible negotiating partner. For that reason, French Foreign Minister Bernard Koucher had already discussed a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood regardless of the outcome of negotiations with Israel. 

That information came to light as part of the overall Wikileaks document dump.  According to a ‘secret’ (so to speak) cable written by US Ambassador to France to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:

"The French agree with us on the need to help [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas return to the negotiating table by offering assistance programs, guarantees, and the support of Arab leaders. However Kouchner also mentioned to SE [George] Mitchell the controversial idea of offering to recognize a Palestinian state now, with undefined borders, or offering to recognize a Palestinian state within a defined timeline, regardless of the outcome of negotiation.”

The Wikileaks cable says that Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay have already decided on formally recognizing a fully independent Palestinian state within the 1967 (Green Line) borders.

The Wikileaks plan somehow managed to trigger some deep, almost forgotten practice within the US Congress. Some in the Congress actually read the Wikileaks documents.  Having read them, they sneaked by a bill of their own, passing a resolution opposing unilateral steps aimed at a declaration of Palestinian statehood earlier this month.

(We should have leaked the TARP and Obamacare bills -- maybe they would have read them, too!) 

Introduced by Rep Howard Berman,[D-Ca) and then- chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Berman moved to pass the resolution "supporting a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and condemning unilateral measures to declare or recognize a Palestinian state."

Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat slammed the action saying that;

"through the passage of this resolution, the US Congress is contradicting the policy of the American government to create a Palestinian state by hindering the ability of the Palestinians to navigate around the Israeli government's obstructionist policies."

In other words, Congress is obstructing the Palestinian ability to ignore its negotiating partners. And they don't like it one bit.  So they're taking it to the UN.

Last week, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas announced his intention to ask the UN Security Council to pass a resolution defining Jewish construction in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem as illegal. 

STOP THERE!

Now go back up and read the sentence above one more time, slowly.  Sound out every word until you have a complete grasp of the thought being conveyed.

Mahmoud Abbas co-founded the PLO with Yasser Arafat, the father of modern terrorism. 

His 'Palestinian Authority' exists based on an agreement that if Israel will agree to its existence, then the Palestinians will stop committing acts of terror.

At no point along the way was terrorism legalized or any of the innocent dead revived. The death, mayhem and destruction wrought at the hands of Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO was never paid for in any legal sense, neither was there any blanket pardon granted in any legal sense.

Mahmoud Abbas' term of office expired two years ago.  So did the Palestinian Authority's, well,  authority.  The PA won't hold new elections because Hamas would win. 

And because Hamas would win, nobody is pressuring Abbas and Company to hold elections.

So, with no legal standing of its own, the PA is asking for a resolution declaring a Jewish presence in parts of Judea, Samaria or Jerusalem illegal? 

Leaving aside the lack of standing on the part of Abbas, where is the standing of the UN? Israel is a member-state of the United Nations?

Chapter 1, Article 2, Paragraph 7 of the United Nations Charter reads as follows:  

"Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state or shall require the Members to submit such matters to settlement under the present Charter; but this principle shall not prejudice the application of enforcement measures under Chapter Vll."

The central question is whether this is a domestic Israeli issue? Or an international issue involving Israel and an second member state or country?  The question doesn't seem that difficult.

Totally apart from any religious tradition, history says that Jesus Christ was born a Jew, in Bethlehem, now claimed as part of the Palestinian Authority.  

He was raised a Jew in Nazareth, now claimed as part of the PA.  His ministry was to Jews living in Samaria, Judea and Jerusalem, now claimed as part of the PA.

Jesus lived during the Roman occupation of Judea, a period known to history through the writings of Flavius Josephus as the "Wars of the Jews" because that's who lived in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.  

The Romans conquered Judea from the Greeks.  The Jews were there.  The Greeks conquered it from the Persians. The Jews were there. The Persians conquered it from Babylon, who conquered it from the Jews of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. 

Before that, Sargon the Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel.  Prior to the division of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, it was all called "Israel."  And Jerusalem was founded by Israel's King David.

The UN's jurisdiction on behalf of the Arab states is itself illegitimate.  The UN recognized Israel in 1948.  The Arab states declared war on Israel five times, each time leaving Israel in possession of more territory.  Under the internationally recognized right of conquest, the territory captured is then part of Israel.

The "right of conquest" is still the functioning basis for the existence of the United States, not to mention ALL of the modern states of the Middle East.  All were part of the Ottoman Empire until conquered by the Allies in WWI.  

Jordan's borders were drawn by England in 1922, not the Jordanians.  The Jordanians attempted to draw their own borders in 1967.  They hoped to extend them to the Meditterranean Sea.  Instead, they were redrawn back to the Jordan River. 

But the UN didn't do it.  Jordan did.  The West Bank wasn't lost by Jordan, it was recovered by Israel.  Under the right of conquest, everything the UN has done concerning Israel and the "Palestinians" is illegal under its own charter.  

The United Nations came into existence as a consequence of World War Two.  One reason was to prevent the re-occurrence of forced deportations, ethnic cleansings and other forms of genocide practiced by the Axis powers, especially in Nazi Germany.

The United Nations defines "ethnic cleansing" this way:

"a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas."  

As part of his request that the UN Security Council criminalize the presence of Jews in parts of Jerusalem, Samaria and Judea, Abbas added the following so there could be no mistake.

“If there is an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, we won’t agree to the presence of one Israeli in it. When a Palestinian state is established, it would have no Israeli presence.”

'A nation without the presence of a single Israeli in it' -- by design.  The Nazis had a word for that; "Judenrein" -- but the United Nations defines it as "ethnic cleansing".  

Caroline Glick summarized the impossible position Israel finds itself in as the books close on the year 2010.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signaled this month that the Obama administration is wholly on board Fatah’s political warfare bandwagon. In her speech at the Brookings Institute on December 10, she said the Obama administration supports Fatah’s plan to build facts on the ground that will make it more difficult for Israel to maintain its control over Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem.

After calling Jewish presence in the areas “illegitimate,” Clinton pledged the US “will deepen our support of the Palestinians’ state-building efforts.”

Among other things, she pledged to continue training and deploying a Palestinian army in Judea and Samaria and pressuring Israel to withdraw the IDF from the areas.

As she put it, “As the Palestinian security forces continue to become more professional and capable, we look to Israel to facilitate their efforts. And we hope to see a significant curtailment of incursions by Israeli troops into Palestinian areas.”

These then are the contours of the Palestinians’ war plans for 2011. Hamas will launch an illegal missile war to provoke an IDF campaign in Gaza. Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, Turkey, the UN and a vast array of NGOs and leftist governments from Norway to Brazil will support its illegal war.

Fatah will escalate its political war. Its campaign will be supported by the US, the EU, the UN and a vast array of NGOs and leftist governments.

The purpose of these two campaigns – which complement one another and which will likely culminate at the UN in September – is to weaken Israel militarily and politically with the shared purpose of destroying it in the fullness of time.

That last statement is what caught my eye.  The Gentile plan to take Jerusalem from the Jews and Glick's use of the phrase,"in the fullness of time."

Jesus predicted the Roman sack of Jerusalem, the Diaspora and the ultimate return of the Jews to their own land in the last days.   He outlined the entire history in a single sentence:

“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” (Luke 21:24)

Jerusalem is in Israeli hands, but it is still trodden down of the Gentiles.  For now.  But all the signs point to this dispensation as rapidly winding to a close.

"That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him:" (Ephesians 1:10)

As we begin the year 2010, there is little remaining reason to doubt that we are witnessing the waning hours of the Dispensation of the fulness of times. Maybe this year. Maybe next.  But soon.

And after that, the Gathering!  

By Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor 

Baruch atem b'Shem, Yeshua

RED SEA BLESSINGS

A blessed New Year to all!

I trust that the first day of our new year found everyone bright-eyed and alert. Also, I pray that all are looking forward with great anticipation as to what the Lord has in store for us in 2011.

As I look back on 2010, there were many times in my own life when God was faithful beyond anything I could ever imagine. Just as God parted the waters of the Red Sea providing a way for Moses to lead the children of Israel safely away from the pursuing Egyptian army, He will provide times of “Red Sea moments” for us today.

In many ways, God’s faithfulness toward me during 2010 could be called “Red Sea moments”…when He was there to intervene…when He stepped in to provide a way when it seemed to me there was no way…when He simply wrapped His loving arms around me to hold me close…all because He is faithful to care for His own. He was always there for me…at just the right time…with everything I needed.

I pray that you had those “Red Sea moments” as well.

As we look to 2011…no matter what it holds for us…we must live each day for His honor and glory. If we trust Him in all things, I know there will be “Red Sea moments” for us again this year.

Will this be the year when Messiah Jesus will return as KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS? When that happens, it will without a doubt be the greatest day in human history. Now…that will be a “Red Sea moment”, making all others pale in comparison. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Watch, pray, and keep looking up!

Don