Prophecy
Answering Bill O’Reilly’s Question about Israel
Have you ever watched a television broadcast–maybe a newscast or even a game show–where a question was posed, and when no one seemed to know the correct answer, you leapt to your feet and shouted it out toward the screen?
The other night Shirley and I were watching the O’Reilly Factor which is the number one cable news program in America. Bill O’Reilly strikes some people as arrogant, and interrupts guests when they dodge his questions in the “No Spin Zone,” but he’s the clearest thinking television journalist in America and that’s why his program is number one.
For fourteen years running.
This week he asked a guest a question about Israel. Bill didn’t know the answer and neither did his guest. The question was: “Why is the tiny nation of Israel hated by so many people and nations?
Do you know why?
To be honest, I was surprised by Mr. O’Reilly’s question and his honesty about it. He asked his guest point blank at least two or three times why anti-Semitism was so prevalent in the world. He noted that Israel was a very small nation–and there are many small nations in the world.
So why the hatred toward puny Israel?
He mentioned that Israel was not a country for thousands of years, and then was reborn in 1948 after World War II. O’Reilly seemed sincerely confused as to why Hitler would kill millions of Jews (of all people), and why, at this present time, anti-Jewish protests were taking place in Europe and other parts of the world.
After all, he opined, we don’t hear of the terrorists vowing to wipe Lichtenstein, or Monaco, or the Gambia off the map.
Why tiny, peaceful and democratic Israel?
Bill O’Reilly also lamented the biased reporting on the present Middle East war. Most of the mainstream media is anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian–despite the fact that Hamas started this war, they lie about everything (including their casualties and using children as human shields), and used much of their United Nations aid to build terrorist tunnels to kidnap and kill Jews instead of providing schools and hospitals for the people.
Bill O’Reilly, the most watched journalist on television, had no idea why the nation of Israel has always been and currently is being hated, slandered, and singled out among the two hundred nations of the world.
So I stood up and shouted out at the television the answer:
“It’s all about God’s plan of salvation.”
Apparently Mr. O’Reilly’s education failed to teach two very important worldview truths without which the history of earth makes little sense.
First, the reason for evil in the world is because a Devil exists, there are demons that tempt and deceive human beings, and all hatred, animosity, violence and non-defensive wars can be traced to the influences of the kingdom of darkness.
The main purpose of this dark kingdom is to kill, ruin, and destroy human beings so that they cannot be reconciled to God (John 10:10).
The second worldview truth is the most important one. There is a loving God who is actively involved in trying to reconcile all people into a right relationship with Him. His plan of salvation has been progressively unveiled through Abraham, the Jewish nation, the coming of the Messiah, Jesus (a Jew), and now through his people, the Church.
Israel is His chosen Old Testament people. He gave them his laws, a land on the Mediterranean Sea, and brought the Savior of the world through them.
Followers of Jesus, both Gentiles and Jews, are now the New Testament “Israel” of God (Galatians 6:16). They have been given a “Great Commission” to take God’s message of salvation to every person on earth (Matthew 28:18-20).
So Israel, both old and new, is at the center of God’s salvation plans. The destruction of the Jews and persecution of Christians is at the heart of the satanic strategy to stop it.
Gary Randall points a few important facts about Israel and its Messiah, Jesus.
1. In Genesis 12:2-3 God says to Abraham, “I will make you a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great, And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse those who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
2. Paul wrote in Romans 15: 27 “…For if the Gentiles have been partakers of their ( Jews) spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.” The Jewish people gave birth to the Christian faith and have given us the sacred Scripture, the Prophets, the Patriarchs, Mary Joseph and the baby who was God in the flesh, the 12 disciples and the Apostles. It is inconceivable to claim to be Christian and anti-Israel.
3. Some of the religious left attempt to separate Jesus of Nazareth from the Jews of the world. Jesus never denied His Jewishness. He was born Jew and circumcised a Jew on the 8th day according to the Jewish tradition.
4. Psalms 122:6 “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love you.”
5. Jesus went to the house of Cornelius ( Acts 10) and healed his servant. Luke 7:5 tells you why. “For he loves our nation, and has built us a synagogue.”
6. Acts 10:4 further illuminates this principle in relation to Cornelius-“Your prayers and your alms have come up for a memorial before God.” To whom were his “prayers and alms ” directed? The Jews.
7. All other nations were created by an act of men, Israel was created by an act of God. Genesis 12:1-3, 13: 14-18, 15: 1-, 17:4-8, 22: 15-18, 26: 1-5. Psalms 89: 28-37.
Isaiah 40:10 is a promise to Israel and to all who serve God;” Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”
Verses 11 and 12 promise the Lord’s faithfulness saying those who “strive” against you shall “perish” and those who “war against you” shall be as nothing—nonexistent.”
Let’s add to these promises that in the last days of history there will be a great turning of the currently secular nation of Israel back to the God of their fathers (Romans 11:26).
They will accept their true Messiah–Yeshua (Jesus).
So, to sum up, the world’s hatred for and attention on the tiny nation of Israel is due to the special calling of Israel by God and their place in world history. It’s not because they’re worse than anyone else, or wealthier than everybody (though the blessing of God has brought great prosperity to many Jewish families).
It’s all about salvation.
The tiny nation of Israel is front and center in the news, hated by the terrorists, and protested all over the world because they are a sign of God’s coming salvation. The Devil wants to stop it–using his demons to stir up people to try and destroy the Jews (and also the Church).
That’s not so difficult to understand, especially when you understand the biblical worldview.
The evil plan will fail because God is directing history.
And Bill–that’s truly no spin.
Do You Want Electronic Life or Eternal Life?
I have a new cell phone–an Android Galaxy Note 3 which is an amazing machine. I’m about to upgrade my laptop to a Hewlett Packard Spectre that can do one thousand times what my original computer did for one third of the price.
I’m going to send this blog all over the world via the Internet which didn’t exist when I was in high school. It only takes a few keystrokes and VOILA! My writings circle the globe in less than ten seconds.
These new contraptions are incredible tools, but as Bill O’Reilly has pointed out recently, they can be extremely addicting, distracting, and destructive to our spiritual health.
We may want to ask ourselves the question: Do I want electronic life or eternal life? (Or both.)
Even the secular media is getting the idea that people are getting addicted to the machines, especially impacting kids and parents. Here’s an April 22, 2014 article by Kate Raddatz of CBS Minneapolis:
“It’s not just our kids getting too much screen time these days. Parents are also guilty of spending too much time on their electronic devices.”
“Researchers at the Boston Medical Center observed 55 different groups of parents and young children eating at fast food restaurants. The study found the majority pulled out their mobile devices right away, and, in turn, their kids tended to act up more.”
“’It’s just normal childhood behavior,’ said parenting coach Toni Schutta. ‘If I can’t get your attention in a positive way, I’m going seek it in a negative way.’”
“Suzanne Ferguson, of Minneapolis, said she and her husband used to be smartphone addicts, checking their emails around their kids.”
“‘We were the couple that would go out to eat at dinner and both be on our own phones before we had kids,’ she said. ‘We’re very much attached to our phones.’”
“Schutta says parents spend, on average, 11 hours a day using electronic devices. All that time takes away from face to face communication which helps kids learn behavior.”
“’Kids in preschool and kindergarten are no longer as able to read social cues from other human beings,’ Schutta said. ‘That’s in part because of their own media use and it’s in part because of their parents’ media use, they’re just not getting that training.’”
“Too much time on technology can also leave an emotional impact on your child, if you’re missing life moments for email.”
“’We get such a limited amount of time with our kids in the day, we need meaningful conversations,’ Schutta said.” Ferguson said once her daughter starting talking, it was the kick she needed to kick her phone habit.”
“’Dinner is a good time to have family time, so trying to keep the phone as much as possible away,’ she said.”
Of course, the machine craze goes way beyond family life. Driving while texting is probably the biggest new problem on the freeways, and electronic addiction to endless video games (let alone pornography) are driving down our productivity.
Interestingly, the Bible said this explosion of knowledge (via the machines) would come one day.
Daniel 12:4 sounds like 2014: “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” Doesn’t that remind you of our fast-paced society and the reams of information we must now process each day?
Yes, we are living in a day of abundant travel (running to and fro) and increased knowledge (the Information Age). But have we stopped to ponder what it might do to ourselves, our families, and our souls? What is the godly response to the dawn of an age aggressively molded by information and technology?
First of all, let’s look at the positive. The Bible says that “knowledge is power” (Proverbs 24:5). Thus the use of fiber optics, high speed airplanes, the Internet. etc. can all be used to empower the Christ’s Good News to spread throughout the earth. This is certainly God intention: To use this age to increase the knowledge of His Son in all the nations of the world.
And it is happening. I can e-mail or SKYPE missionary friends all over the world and plan evangelistic initiatives in a matter of minutes. That used to take two weeks of postal delivery–or three-to twelve months to deliver by boat–or it wasn’t possible at all.
Technology has changed all that.
What about travel? In the 1990s alone, Our King’s Kids missionaries flew over six million miles and preached Jesus to hundreds of thousands of people. Why? Technology.
When you look at the great missions advance of the past fifty years (hundreds of millions of people coming to Christ on every continent of the world), there is no question in anyone’s mind that technological advances have played a great part in the harvest.
And the best and greatest still lies ahead. I chronicle that in my book The Fourth Wave.
But there is a negative side also. Much of today’s media is in the hands of ungodly people or institutions that are discipling the planet with it, and only a small perecentage is being consciously used to advance God’s kingdom.
A recent article almost glowingly looks at the most unifying part of that techno advance–The Internet–with these sobering words:
“We’re at the beginning of a new way of working, shopping, playing and communicating. We’re calling this phenomenon e-life, and it’s just in time. Because the day is approaching when no one will describe the digital, Net-based, computer-connected gestalt with such a transitory term. We’ll just call it life.”
E-life. Interesting term. Of course they mean electronic life, but there’s another phrase that comes to my mind: eternal life. In the article’s paradigm, electronic life is the very future itself–life. Are we preparing the world to accept the Information Age as the true heaven–a worldly substitute for relationship with God (which Jesus said was eternal life)?
I fear so, and I don’t want a part of it. This planet, wired to the hilt without God, is already hell. Can you imagine what the evil use of technology could create on earth in the coming decades?
Technology is only a tool, but used improperly it can easily become a master (think atomic bombs). Or an idol. Or a substitute for God. I believe that one of Satan’s quiet strategies is to lull us into believing that technology can be a meaningful God replacement.
Ponder this E-life substitute for friendship with the Living God:
1. Movies can be a substitute for God’s omnipotence. Instead of marveling at God’s REAL voice speaking from heaven during Moses’ time, you go into a movie theater and see actors whose heads are fifteen feet high, whose voices boom in Dolby stereo, and appear to have the power to do anything (the story line allows).
2. Television and radio can be a substitute for God’s omnipresence. They’re everywhere–always babbling away. They’re on in many homes 18-24 hours a day. Every airport you travel trough has TV monitors at each gate and in most restaurants. When you need comfort, companionship, or stimulation, or just to pass the time–where do you turn? The TV knob. It even makes a great babysitter for the kids.
3. The Internet can be a substitute for God’s omniscience. It’s the place to go for all knowledge. Right now there are over 2 billion world-wide users. There are hundred of thousands of pornographic sites and they get more hits than Netflix–corrupting the human heart at the click of a button. 160 million Americans use e-mail. On our favorite machines–the cell phone–you can chat, buy food, pay bills, watch movies, or whatever you like, and spend hours a day looking at an impersonal screen. Hours of prayer have given way to hours of texting and surfing.
A wired, fast-as-a-bullet world has captured our hearts, time, attention, family life, and pocket books (ever count up the money you spent on technology in the past few years?). In some ways, it is becoming our god (what you give your time and supreme attention to).
While using technology for the noble purposes of advancing God’s Kingdom, how can we keep ourselves unstained by the god-substituting lust of the e-world? Which do you enjoy more: The wonders of e-life, or the hope of eternal life? Or can you have both?
Here are my encouragements during this Daniel 12:4 time period:
- Use all machines to learn, grow, and love those God has put in your life.
- Spend more time in prayer, Bible-reading, book reading, and worship than you do fingering keyboards and touchscreens.
- Keep the machines out of sight when you’re with family and friends–especially during meals.
- Never use the machines for evil. Stay away from all the bad stuff.
- Use your electronic life to advance God’s kingdom and fulfill the Great Commission.
- Shut off the machines more and listen to God. Take walks. Meditate in the silence. Long for His voice more than the chatter of a multitude of human voices.
And more than anything, never enjoy your e-life more than you long for eternal life.
You can have both–but one is a grain of sand and the other is an unending ocean of relational delights.
The Heavens are Speaking
Earth, Mars and the Sun all aligned last week–a rare combination of the planets that only happens once every two years.
However, this starry alignment also occurred exactly one week before all people on earth will see the first of four dark “blood moons” (over a one year period) which some Christian leaders believe may represent major spiritual events or even the Second Coming of Christ.
It was too cloudy to see the moon from my house last night.
The Bible states: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD comes,” [Joel 2:31].
I don’t know what that means in 2014, but I don’t want to be speculatively silly, dangerously cynical, or woefully apathetic.
The heavens might be speaking to us.
The New York Daily News was so impressed about the “blood moons” that it did a story on Pastor John Hagee who has authored a book on the subject:
“Bestselling author and televangelist Pastor John Hagee claims the four blood moons that will soon appear in the skies over America are evidence of a future world-shaking event. The blood moons are part of a tetrad, a set of complete and consecutive lunar eclipses that will begin on April 15 and continue in roughly six-month intervals until October 2015.”
“According to NASA, seeing four complete lunar eclipses in a row is very rare. The skies were tetrad-free from 1600 to 1900. But in the 21st century, there will be many. What’s even stranger is that Americans have a front row seat. ‘The most unique thing about the 2014-2015 tetrad is that all of them are visible for all or parts of the USA,’ NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak told CNN.”
“Hagee, founder of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, thinks this is no coincidence. For him, it’s a sign of the end times. The 73-year-old preacher has been preparing for the tetrad for years. He released a book about the blood moons last October. “
“Hagee says that each of the blood moons happens on a religiously significant day.The April 15 event happens during Passover. On Oct. 8, the blood moon will occur during the Feast of Tabernacles. Another blood moon will occur during Passover on April 4, 2015. The last will happen on Sept. 28, 2015, another Feast of Tabernacles.”
End-times events has never been my forte. I’m committed to fulfilling the Great Commission so that Jesus will return to a worshipping world. My Fourth Wave book chronicles the incredible spiritual harvest now taking place in the 21st century.
But I’ve also been nudged by the Holy Spirit over the last two years to say from every podium, “The world is about to change.”
I sense it in my spirit though I don’t know the ramifications.
Does this new tetrad of blood moons coming in 2014-15 (tetrad = a set of fours) signal a major act in God’s providential plans for planet earth?
Read the following article by David Kubal, a friend of mine and president of Intercessors for America. Then draw your own conclusions.
Just make sure they include “watch and pray” (Matthew 26:41).
The Heavens Are Speaking
By David Kubal
While I have never ventured into prophetic waters…I offer a prophetic word for our day, believing we are about to see a great move of God.
How do I know? Let us read God’s Word.
“I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth…The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord” (Joel 2:30-31).
This prophecy, spoken by Joel centuries ago, had the same authority then as it did when Peter quoted it on the Day of Pentecost, and as it does today. Very rarely are there such obvious signs—or signals, as the Hebrew is often translated—pointing to a move of God. But Scripture is clear; at times the “heavens” tell us something is about to occur.
When Joel spoke of the sun turning dark, he no doubt referred to a solar eclipse. And if you have witnessed a lunar eclipse, you will remember that the moon turns red. So, the question is this: can we see, throughout history, certain times—remarkable historic sequences that only God could orchestrate—where this pattern of solar/lunar eclipses has occurred?
There have been many solar and lunar eclipses over the past 2,000 years, but there are only eight instances when lunar eclipses occurred exactly on Jewish holy days. All eight coincided with significant events for God’s people. The dates are noteworthy, as they occurred exactly on Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles.
Passover recalls God’s mercy of “passing over” homes with lamb’s blood applied to door-post for protection of the firstborn on the night before the Israelites left Egypt. The Feast of Tabernacles celebrates God’s provision for His people in the wilderness as they stayed in temporary tabernacles (or tents).
Let us trace what has happened in the past. When lunar eclipses occurred on Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, significant events coincided with those eclipses each time.
1. Tetrad of 1967-1968. In 1967, tensions built between Israel and its neighbors with threats to drive the Jews “into the sea.” Israel was surrounded by almost 500,000 troops, including heavy artillery. Yet in six days, Israel claimed the victory, with only 779 casualties compared to 21,000 enemy casualties. Miraculous circumstances included bringing the Old City under Israeli control.
2. Tetrad of 1949-1950. With the conclusion of WWII, Israel was reborn in 1948. It was well into 1949 that the Israeli government moved into its offices and signed peace agreements with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, establishing Israel’s borders. After centuries, the Jews existed again as a restored nation.
3. Tetrad of 1493-1494. During the reign of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain, concerns arose over the rising influence of the Jews in that country. Consequently, an inquisition process examined the scope of the issue. In 1492, Jews were ordered to leave Spain through the Edict of Expulsion. Given an August 1 deadline, they were not permitted to take their wealth with them.
Accounts record that over 200,000 Jews were expelled. Many suffered duress and abuse. As we recall the passage, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you” (Genesis 12:3), it is interesting to note that the prosperity Spain enjoyed before this time has not been seen since, even to the point where they have recently struggled with national bankruptcy.
The year 1492 is a very important year in Jewish history, just as it is in American history. In the first few days of August 1492, Spanish harbors were filled with Jews being evacuated. As Christopher Columbus left port on August 3, his ships passed the Jews’ boats as he set sail and would soon “discover” a land destined to become a safe haven for Jews for centuries to follow.
As if marking the pain of Jewish rejection with the later birth of a nation that would be used of God like none other (for many Gospel purposes in addition to being a great ally of Israel), a series of the lunar tetrads began on Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles in the following two years.
4. Tetrad of 860-861. This tetrad marked the halting of millions of Christians’ deaths at the hands of Arabs in Northern Africa and Spain with the Battle of Lalakaon.
5. Tetrad of 842-843. The Vatican’s treasuries were looted in an Islamic jihad attack just three years after this tetrad.
6. Tetrad of 795-796. This tetrad marked a significant shift in power as Charlemagne was able to create a buffer zone in modern day Spain and France that resulted in the halting of the Islamic invasion of the Moors.
7. Tetrad of 163-165. In 162 AD, before the first lunar eclipse, the Tiber River flooded its banks in the spring, wreaking havoc to the city of Rome and killing most animals resulting in severe famine. Two years later a plague broke out killing one-third of the Roman Empire. This was also a time of great persecution in the Roman Empire under the reign of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
8. Tetrad of 32-33. Historical records are not totally conclusive, but it is very possible that Jesus was crucified between a series of two lunar eclipses occurring on Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles with a solar eclipse (“… there was darkness …” see Matt 27:45) on Passover in 33 AD.
These are the only instances when lunar eclipses occurred in the last 2,000 years, with significant happenings each time: the restoration of Israel as a nation, the birth of the most Christian nation the world has ever known, devastation, destruction of the second (Herod’s) Temple, and possibly the crucifixion of our Savior.
As you can see, God “shows us wonders in heaven,” and we know that God “does nothing without first telling His servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7) There are many modern prophets worldwide that are recognizing the significance of these events.
The next occurrence is this month. Passover 2014, April 14, will mark the first in a series of four lunar eclipses over the next two years occurring on Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles. The last eight times, something of major significance occurred. This phenomenon will not occur again for nearly 500 years.
To add even more interest (or warning), lunar eclipses on April 14, 2014 (Passover) and October 9 (Feast of Tabernacles) will take place on the EXACT DATES as did the 70 AD lunar eclipses on Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles, when the Roman Army destroyed the second temple, ending more than 1,000 years of Jewish rule of Israel. (These occurrences were not tetrads—a series of four—but instead a series of two lunar eclipses with remarkable timing, almost acting as exclamation points to this prophetic message for today.)
What will the message be, and how should we prepare?
First, we should have hope. After Joel pronounced his prophetic word, he concluded the section by saying, “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved…there will be deliverance….” (Joel 2:32) We need not fear the future, but let us trust in the Lord.
Second, if there were ever a time to pray, it is now! Those not aligned with the Word of God are especially vulnerable during the days ahead. Disobedient nations will expose themselves to times of great pain and anguish. We must pray 2 Chr 7:14 like never before. The Church must realize its own tenuous state and humbly seek the Lord with repentance.
What can we expect? As most of you know, God has been doing an amazing work around the globe in the form of transforming revivals. In these mighty moves of God, His divine presence comes into a community or region and changes everything. The Church sees exponential rates of salvation, righteousness is brought back to government, godly cultural norms are established or renewed, and in many cases even the land is rejuvenated.
As the pace of these transformations seems to be accelerating around the globe, it is my prayer that we would see more revivals. We have only seen a handful in the U.S. We must pray that God would find the condition of the Church in the U.S. worthy to host His transforming presence.