Israel is the key to all end-time prophecy.

Keep your eye on Jerusalem  

Jim Fletcher is a member of the executive committee of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI). He is the co-author of The Last War (2001) and can be reached at jim1fletcher@yahoo.com
  


May 12

An Inconvenient Truce

By Jim Fletcher 

Hamas is like a horror movie villain that can’t be vanquished. They keep coming back with their murderous agenda, and evidently the international community thinks Israel should take it and like it.

Ever since the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon ordered a pullout of Gaza in 2005, the Hamas terrorist group has been the entrenched Strongman of the region. The result is more misery for the Palestinian people themselves, and more killings of Jews.

Periodically, Hamas proposes a “truce” with Israel. This always occurs when the Israelis finally have enough and move in to cause Hamas some pain. In the world of Islamist terrorism, a “truce” is really a way of saying, “Give me a minute to wipe my bloody nose and stuff some rolled quarters in my fist, then we’ll decide when to start fighting again.”

The profile of this terrorist group, that operates inside Israel (in contrast to, say, Hizbollah, which technically operates outside the state borders), is strikingly similar to the enemy attitudes outlined in Psalm 83, Ezekiel 36, and elsewhere in the Bible. That is, they are single-minded. Their focus is on the destruction of Israel. If they were focused on educating their people and developing technology or agriculture, one could admire their single-mindedness.

Jimmy Carter is only the latest Westerner to give Hamas legitimacy, but his groveling manner toward the terrorists is evidence of a widespread capitulation in the West. We no longer see evil for what it is.

Just this week, a FOX News anchor interviewed Dwight Eisenhower’s granddaughter, who has decided to support Barack Obama for president. When asked what her grandfather would say about that, she replied, “He’d say ‘Go for it!’”

I’ll go out on a limb here and call nonsense on that. I have difficulty believing the supreme allied commander in Europe during World War II would be enthusiastic about someone as weak in foreign policy as Obama. But it’s as if people are blind and don’t know they’re blind.

The Israelis are, sadly, no exception.

Under pressure from the Americans, Ehud Olmert’s tottering government continues to fight this enemy that was formed 20 years ago, during the “First Intifada.” Unwilling to strike a knock-out blow, Israel allows Hamas to strengthen itself in the area of public opinion. The longer the terrorists “hang in there” against Israel, the more emboldened the terrorists become.

On April 19, a coordinated attack on two crossing points in the Gaza Strip narrowly missed killing more Jews. After a mortar attack and under cover of ground fog, two Armored Personnel Carriers (stolen from Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah terrorists!) manned by Hamas operatives tried to enter Israel. IDF troops fired on them and killed them, but the sheer brazenness is breathtaking. Why?

Hamas named the operation “Explosion Warning” to — get this — protest deteriorating conditions in the Gaza Strip! The very conditions directly brought about by the corrosive, evil core of Hamas itself. The hatred, jealousy, and raw hubris spawned by Hamas (and its ideological counterparts like Islamic Jihad) ensures that violence will continue.

Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas “spokesman,” promised that more attacks would be forthcoming if Israel did not lift the blockade on Palestinian movement. A blockade that exists solely, of course, to prevent more Jews from being murdered.

Insane.

During this attack on crossings, more than a dozen mortar hits landed in the besieged Israeli town of Sderot. A day later, terrorists fired on Israeli farmers gathering potatoes at Kibbutz Nir Oz. What is the aim of these terrorists, whether they are attacking soldiers or potato farmers?

Just this: the same goal that drove their spiritual ancestors down through the ages, particularly intensifying in the last 100 years.

Is it any surprise that Egypt, that old Jewish antagonist, is working with Hamas to bring about a truce? Is it any surprise that Egypt was the birthplace of the Muslim Brotherhood, the forerunner of Al Qaida.

Days after the Gaza Strip attacks, Egypt’s Cairo intelligence chief met in Gaza with Hamas. They concluded a deal and then announced that the ball was in Israel’s court.

Hamas spokesman Mahmoud al-Zahar also said that the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held since 2006, would be delayed until the “lull” was in full swing, whatever that means.

All this reveals the depth of Arab cynicism and media manipulation.

Some readers lately have given me feedback (which is always appreciated, no matter the tone) by saying that my writing has been too pessimistic lately. This week’s column could elicit the same claims.

I’m not doing a good enough job conveying what I really think: we are in a difficult period of time that is casting its beam of light on coming glory.

This is tremendously exciting! It causes news of rising fuel and food prices to pale in comparison. If we are passing through difficulties, it is because God has been kind and merciful to allow us to live in this age. I will not live and die in the 19th century, before the rise of the modern Jewish state. I live in the times the prophets spoke of.

We are living in surreal, exciting times. As we see leaders making bad decisions, and see the enemy sharpening its resolve, we know, from Scripture, that God knows exactly what is going on. I find faith-building information in the news on a daily basis, as I look simultaneously at my Bible.

Malcom Hedding, director of the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem, says that God invites us to hold up His claims and see if they are as He says they will be.

Ultimately, I am sad for the naïve, blinded Hamas terrorists who are cannon fodder for their evil leaders. But they show us where we are. Hamas and other terrorists around the world want us to enter into a “truce” with them, so that they can re-gather their strength and come back at us stronger than ever.

But I know who I am and I know whom I have believed.

You might live in a crowded city. You might be reading this at the kitchen table down on the farm. Wherever you are, dear friend, bow your head and pray, then look up, for your redemption is near.

What could be more positive than that?

May 5

“Gored”

By Jim Fletcher

The piece on Jimmy Carter prompted more feedback than I’ve ever had. Evidently, there are many discerning Christians out there who understand what we’re up against (what the scholars have termed “Zeitgeist,” the Spirit of the Age).

Carter’s hostility — his viciousness — directed at Israel is, I believe, shared by other U.S. politicians. We know that Bill Clinton, like a great white shark, is guided by his appetite. His appetite for power.

But there are others who are willing to kill Israel while at the same time expressing undying support for her. Don’t believe it.

While he was vice president, Gore addressed a Jewish audience in Washington, and invoked the famous Dry Bones prophecy of Ezekiel. Later, when running for president, he invoked the same passage during a speech in Tennessee to describe how the Lord breathed life into Al Gore’s old bones to enable him to continue a hard campaign. Recently, the former vp said that he fears global pollution more than nuclear terrorism.

Gore is like a lot of politicians: pragmatic. If something works, it’s good. If flip-flopping, depending on which audience you’re in front of — if it works, then you’ve succeeded. That’s why Al Gore can use Scripture for his own purposes. He was part of an administration purported to be one of the best friends Israel has ever had. The same administration that massaged and nurtured the evil Oslo process, which has brought Israel to a place of terror today.

Clinton and Gore coddled that arch-terrorist, Yasser Arafat, calling evil good. Their secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, actually chased the killer once, when he left a meeting in a huff (a calculated huff, by the way). She begged him to come back to the negotiating table.

What has America come to?

Just this: closer to the end of the age.

Am I an alarmist? Many would say so. But I’m simply pointing out that we now find ourselves in that place described by the prophets, and by Paul. It is clear to anyone who has read the Bible.

Our leaders today are making colossal mistakes. They are doing exactly the opposite of what they should be doing. Our military is not allowed to fire on a psycho killer of Americans like Al-Sadr in Iraq. Can you imagine President Roosevelt ordering his commanders to pick their spots against the Nazis? No, it was total war. Unconditional surrender won the day for the United States then.

We apparently have no such courageous political leadership today. That includes our churches.

When Carter, Clinton, and Gore — all famously Southern Baptist until Carter left the denomination in a huff a few years back — can pressure Israel without impunity, well, something is very wrong.

All three are very smart men. Gore in particular is calculating and discerning, simply because he isn’t driven by lust or, in Carter’s case, an infantile need for approval and attention.

So it is that they will be without excuse when the God of the Jews looks at their records when dealing with Israel. All three are abysmal in the extreme on this score.

We assume too much if we think that the denomination of these three men did its job in telling the truth about Israel. It has plenty of company.

A politician like Gore, raised in Southern evangelicalism, is shrewd when it comes time to campaign. He knows that most Bible-believing Christians would never know about his book, Earth in the Balance, much less read it. The thing is an offering of incense to the New Age. It is steeped in pantheistic world view. The globalist mindset set forth in the book is precisely the kind of clue that tells us how he deals with geopolitical realties: It Takes a New World Order!

This kind of skill enables someone like Gore to be all things to all people. He can shout and sing hymns in a Southern church, then jet-set with his friends in the entertainment community and worship Pan the Goat god, or whatever it is they do.

And for our purposes here, this ability enables him to empathize with Jews and Christians, then host Palestinian terror-masters in the White House, or Blair House (the vice president’s residence in Washington).

Bill Clinton is famous for his chameleon-like personality. And Carter used the same skill in running for president as an outside/insider/evangelical/born-again/friend of Southern rock bands when he ran for president in 1976. He taught Sunday school and participated in Bible studies, and discussed at length his spiritual heritage as a son of the South.

Then he went in and twisted Israeli arms at Camp David to appease the serial killers who control Arab states.

Hillary Clinton, an old-time Leftist, always had time for receiving Palestinian delegations. Now she says she’d obliterate Iran, which funds and feeds Palestinian psychotic behavior.

Barack Obama has “honey talked” American Jews concerned about Israel’s security, then told Palestinian sympathizers in private that political realities don’t allow him to be more open about his Arab sympathies.

Where are the strong political leaders America once knew? I would argue that their bodies are “a-mouldin’ in their graves.”

Is George Bush tired? Is someone pulling his strings? Is he pulling our strings?

And what of the politicians in our denominations? One thinks of Jim Winkler in the United Methodist Church. Frank Griswold, the former presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. Rowan Williams, the leader of the Anglican Church in the UK.

These men and their underlings are well-known enablers of the Palestinians. Educate yourself and read about them sometime.

I am thrilled beyond words that there are still many strongly pro Israel Christians in America. God bless all of you.

At the same time, we are where we are. Israel is being trashed constantly, from all angles. Al Gore is a classic example of an ostensibly staunch friend of Israel who in reality has contempt for her. I’m simply pointing this out so that you will pay attention and try to make a difference in the upcoming election.

Barack Obama is a thorough-going phoney who doesn’t have the spine to stand up to terrorists, including those in the United Nations. Hillary Clinton will sell herself as anything to anyone — a cackling joke-teller in rural Pennsylvania; a cold policy wonk in Washington; a hardcore United Methodist in church; an arrogant temporary occupant of the White House; the list goes on.

John McCain? I don’t know. He has a core that most of us don’t have. In Hanoi, he was offered early release and refused, citing others who had been held prisoner longer than him. This cost him five years of his life.

As to his views on Israel, I suspect they are a mixed bag. I think he would continue the American stance that we will do what is good for us ( as we think of “good” these days). If that means standing with Israel from time to time, we’ll do it. If it means appeasing the Arabs, we’ll do that, too.

McCain professes to be a Christian. Hillary Clinton professes to be a Christian. Barack Obama professes to be a Christian.

So do Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore.

Jim Fletcher is a member of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI). He can be reached at jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

 






April 28

The Candidates and Israel

By Jim Fletcher

Writing for RaptureReady is a blessing for several reasons. One is that I get feedback from Bible-believing Christians! It is as I suspected: there are still many discerning, Bible-believing Christians left out there.

I’d like to ask upfront this week for feedback on this question: How many Bible-believing Christians do you know?

A simple question, but an important one as we steam faster into the future.

I ask this because our world is so fascinating and fun and frightening — all at the same time. (Fun because, for example, I can take my exuberant, three-year-old niece for ice cream.)

In her recent Pennsylvania primary win, Hillary Clinton was preferred over Barack Obama by 61 percent of those who attend church at least once a week.

Have we come to this? We live in a time when a thoroughgoing Leftist is now mainstream? When evangelical Christians openly claim that Hillary Clinton is preferable to Obama? We’re being softened up like a lazy, unfocused heavyweight champion.

The reason I think this is relevant to Israel is that Israelis and Americans are debating just who would be the “best” president with regard to the Jewish state.

Hate to be a downer, people, but my answer to that question is: none of them. Not even John McCain.

Although I think McCain “gets” the war on terror, his campaign rhetoric vis a vis Israel is like that of every other president since Lyndon Johnson, that is, pretty empty.

All candidates pledge their undying loyalty to Israel, during a campaign. Or at least when no one can hurt them anymore, as when Bill Clinton famously said at the end of his term that if necessary (notice that parsing), he’d get in a ditch and fight and die for Israel.

Of course he wouldn’t. Just like Hillary Clinton wouldn’t “obliterate” Iran. Just like George W. Bush wouldn’t move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. Et cetera.

Even her thirst for power hasn’t tempered Hillary Clinton’s ingrained liberalism. She was shaped by the ‘60s, her youth group mentor Don Jones, and liberal professors. She is who she is.

But, most of us are saying that we don’t have a good choice this election, aren’t we? All the more reason to get into the Bible, so that we can see how to best live our lives. As Betty Davis once said, fasten your seatbelts.

One of my uncles, a Southern Baptist deacon for decades, twice voted for Bill Clinton. I struggled to understand this and, after a couple conversations, gave up trying to understand. He cited the economy as the chief reason he voted for the Man from (No) Hope.

What about Clinton’s Leftist views on social issues? What about the chronic lying? The immorality?

Didn’t matter.

Exit polls after Hillary Clinton’s Pennsylvania win also indicated that 68 percent of those who voted believe Obama is honest. Look, I’ll get hammered for this, but I just don’t believe that he is. I think he is like almost all politicians running for president: power hungry, arrogant, and disingenuous. I cite the campaign evidence, such as his daily spin on the Jeremiah Wright sermons.

All this matters to Israel, because the Miracle on the Mediterranean still thinks she can count on her allies. Such as they are. As Americans’ knowledge and love of the Bible slowly sinks, Israel gets squeezed a little more. From a human standpoint, realistically, Israel can rely on herself. That’s it. I believe that America has gotten to the point where its support for Israel is pragmatic at best. If it’s good for us, okay. If not, well, we understand Arab concerns. We oppose the “occupation.” We advocate for a Palestinian state.

What to do, then? What Bible-believing Christians have always been able to do — pray like mad, cling to the good, and be wise as serpents.

Despite some of my commentaries, I am not pessimistic. God proves Himself every second of every day, through Bible prophecy alone.

But as we move toward the conclusion that God has for us, we need to understand where we are. Over a decade ago, Chuck Colson wrote a column entitled “Quoting the Bible Isn’t Enough,” in which he urged us to understand that merely invoking the Bible in our rotting culture today will too often yield results that disappoint us. Is he arguing that the Bible has lost its power? On the contrary. Colson understood that the culture is openly hostile to Scripture. That was not true in 1944. It was not true in 1887. You get the idea.

Even FoxNews today pushes stories about sex scandals, UFOs, and mediums. So, as Israel increasingly has no choice but to acknowledge her God, we also must ask for discernment to navigate through this period of history.

I once dialogued with a mainline pastor who finally set out for me his views on the Bible in a paper he wrote; quoting a portion:

“The functional purpose of the Bible is to endorse and enrich the intuitive awareness of God in the human spirit. This is fundamental and it dictates the final principle of how the Bible is to be used. Even if there are proved 1,000 or more mistakes in the linguistic, cultural, historical or scientific areas of the Bible, it would make no difference. If the Bible performs its intended functions, it is in its highest sense, “The Word of God” to persons. Just because there are spots on the sun we don’t refuse its light. The re-study of the principles of Bible interpretation is now necessary because every new generation must do this to make the principles its own dynamic belief.”

Whew. The entire paragraph is diabolical, clumsy, and fundamentally flawed. The last sentence, though, is the real doozy. It is the old liberal mantra that the Bible can mean whatever you want it to mean, in any era. The only absolute is that there are no absolutes, as someone once noted.

Many of you have written to me that there is a hardening of positions in the Church regarding Israel. This is directly due to our lack of confidence in the Bible, incredibly a reality because we rely on the biases of men who hate God with a passion. And I’m talking about scholars in the Church. We err if we think men will save Israel.

Whoever winds up in the White House will insist that the United States is thoroughly committed to Israel’s security, all the while undermining Israel’s security by implementing the incredible failure known as the Peace Process.

My old hero, the late Princeton scholar Robert Dick Wilson, well understood the attacks on the Bible. Wilson would have been pro-Israel, among other things. In a 1924 paper entitled “The Prophecies of Daniel,” Wilson dealt with the critics who claim that the book is not predictive prophecy at all, but a simple history book. He understood that the erosion of discernment in American culture was well underway. How wonderful, then, that the Lord raised up this man, who ended his paper with this:

“They [Bible critics] make a golden image of their own reason and imagination and command that all men should bow down and do homage, in pain of being cast into the fiery furnace of their own professional contempt and be branded as bigots and ignoramuses. But the church of Christ will never bow down to this image, and God will deliver it from all evil and in the fiery furnace of the world’s criticism there will always be one like the Son of God to save it from all its foes. In the case of Daniel, Daniel is with us and Christ is with us.”

That, my friends, is why we ultimately shouldn’t worry about mediocre politicians. As the world spins out of control, indeed the Son of God is with us in the furnace, as Wilson so eloquently put it.

We are not relying on an election to save us.

Jim Fletcher is a member of the executive committee of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI); he can be reached at jim1fletcher@yahoo.com




April 21

“Cartered”

By Jim Fletcher

Remember the 1984 comedy, “Ghostbusters”? A group of paranormal researchers locate and capture spiritual entities in New York City by using (obviously bogus) equipment they’ve developed. At one point, Bill Murray’s character is assaulted by a spirit, and when his friends find him, he’s on the floor, writhing. Looking up, he says, “He slimed me.” Some sort of ectoplasmic goo clings to Murray’s uniform and hair.

One is reminded of that scene when learning of Jimmy Carter’s latest trek into the dens of terrorism, to socialize with his friends. The former president’s (wow, it hurts to acknowledge he actually “led” the U.S.) attempts at what passes for diplomacy in the Carter household have harmed the U.S. for years. Dictators and tribal thugs and even foreign diplomats no doubt enjoy seeing our country portrayed as weak and immoral by the weak and immoral 39th president.

Carter, for reasons known totally only to him (and his Creator), has displayed real antipathy to Israel and the Jewish people for decades. Famously, formerly Southern Baptist, Carter gets a lot of ink for still teaching Sunday school at his church in Plains, Georgia. Those poor, poor people — and I mean that sincerely.

Sometime when you have the time, check out Yehuda Avner’s fascinating essays on the interaction between Carter and former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, during the Camp David negotiations. Carter’s inherent nastiness really comes through and he condescendingly listens to the Israeli premier explain his country’s positions vis a vis the Palestinians.

I’ve coined a new term, “Cartered,” to describe the effects of the meddler’s weird ideas on the public. If you’ve been influenced by Carter’s personal dislike of Israel, then you’ve been Cartered. Just as when you’ve been lied to by someone, you’ve really been “Clintoned.”

At first glance, it seems odd that Carter would have developed his replacement theology world view in the SBC. But then when you think about, as we see heresy and apostasy mushrooming in the Church, perhaps it isn’t so odd after all.

It’s interesting that Carter is helping fulfill Bible prophecy at the same time he would (probably) dismiss most of it. At least the parts dealing with Israel and the Jews. In other words, he’d dismiss most of Bible prophecy.

This is a multi-faceted problem that is growing stronger in our world today. Even among erstwhile friends of Israel in the Christian community, how often do you hear pastors lift OT passages and apply them to the church? The answers is, a lot.

The “Dry Bones” passage in Ezekiel is constantly misappropriated, and used as a context for spiritual rebirth in the Church. It has nothing to do with that.

Evangelicals who profess intense love for Israel often use their television programs to claim the OT promises to the Jews for modern American evangelicals who thirst to prosper financially, materially. How sad.

The great comforting words of Isaiah, meant for his people, from their God, are daily lifted by American evangelists and preachers to be used to inspire Christians with visions of power, relationship-healing and, one assumes, visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.

All this spiritual plagarism hurts Israel a bit more, every day. When we don’t maintain the distinction between God’s promises to the Jews, and His promises to the Church, we err. And I’m not advocating any kind of dual-covenant theology, either. I’m simply saying that assuming the historical spiritual markers of the Jews for ourselves, we cause the Jewish history and culture to fade from gentile memories.

A teenager recently told me that young people today don’t know anything about the Bible. I find this frightening in the extreme. Sadly, our young people, if they sit in church at all, listen to pastors spiritualize the historical, prophetical portions of the Bible, without any context at all. And none of it makes sense to them. No wonder.

Carter met with the Hamas terrorist group. He laid a wreath at the tomb of Yasser Arafat, a living gargoyle if there ever was one.

Why does Carter teach Sunday school at all? Why does he read and quote the Bible if he considers these murderers his friends, or, at least, negotiating partners? For their hatred of the Bible — and the faith Carter professes to follow — makes the whole scene very incongruous. What can he be thinking? Is he thinking?

Why would you pal around with those who literally walk on your sacred books?

I once visited with a mainline pastor who considered Bible-believing Christians to be the mythical Neanderthals his world view insists existed. He couldn’t understand how anyone could believe Bible prophecy literally. He thought it was okay and even brainy to believe that humans started as microscopic bits of whatever.

For him, the biblical text was elastic and could mean whatever you want it to mean. And yet every Sunday he preached from this Book. I wondered why and wish now that I had asked him that. He was literally leading his congregation on the wrong path.

But back to the problem at hand. Israel is being squeezed today exactly as the prophets predicted. As many good Bible teachers have pointed out, the skepticism of the modern world is itself a strong indication that prophecy is true and being fulfilled in our time.

I constantly talk to Bible-believing Christians all over the country — and this warms my heart! — and I know they are salt and light wherever they are. It falls on all of us to read, study, and believe the Bible, so that we can help our fellow man find his way out of the darkness.

We want to believe and know and stand tall in the faith. We don’t want to be seduced by the doctrines of demons; we don’t want that slime anywhere near us.

Jim Fletcher is a member of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI) and can be reached at jim1fletcher@yahoo.com





April 14

Les Feldick for President

By Jim Fletcher

 I suppose several will write about the Tulsa Prophecy Conference, just concluded, and sponsored by Thy Kingdom Come Ministries.

It was great. That’s my summary.

I’ve spent 15 years in the Christian book publishing industry, and that arena — the one possible proof of Darwin’s theory, since the competition and blood-letting is vicious and horrifying to watch — is at once grotesque and sweet.

What I mean is that the sweetness is evident in the teachings of people like Les Feldick (www.lesfeldick.org). Les taught at the Tulsa conference. These people are technically in the Christian book industry. They usually self-publish their books, and have some distribution channels.

They just don’t have access to the main ones, and that’s where religious publisher Henry Jekyll becomes Mr. Hyde.

The world, as never before, needs teachers like Les Feldick, who was so good in Tulsa. Instead, they are treated to Joel Osteen. Emergent voices. Tony Campolo. Phillip Yancey. The list goes painfully on.

Christian publishers spend a huge amount of time designing book covers, brainstorming about innovative interior design and other gimmicks. They put metal covers on Bibles. They put colored metal covers on Bibles. They produce Bibles that look like magazines sold in Wal-Mart.

But there is precious little Bible teaching. For that, you have to be a detective. Worse, there is bad Bible teaching.

Christian publishing has spent the past few years subtly telling everyone that the King James version is akin to a brittle Egyptian papyrus manuscript from the first century. Hopelessly old and impractical.

Look, the Bible isn’t hard to understand, not really. Sure, there are difficult passages here and there. But it’s all there. The history of the world, the meaning and purpose of life. God. And one can certainly understand the KJV. Our problem today is, it takes more effort to open and read the Bible than it does to watch a mind-numbing TV show.

How sad then that we are saddled with biased, humanistic philosophy masquerading as Bible teaching. This is a subject I could turn to again and again.

When “Emergent voices” trash Bible prophecy and dispensationalists, do you understand how biased they are? Do you really understand how mean they are? Center-left Christians speak softly and are often entertaining. They have publicity photos that are heavy on easy smiles and caring eyes.

Don’t be fooled. There are plenty of voices in the Christian community today that loathe true Bible teaching. In the tall grass, they bare their teeth and stare intently, hatefully at the Les Feldicks of the world. The ones who hold up the Bible and proclaim its goodness and lasting value.

These wolves in sheep’s clothing gave given themselves over to the diabolical for myriad reasons: financial gain; a thirst for secular approval; backlash against skewed, conservative Christianity forced on them in childhood. The list goes on.

What boggles the mind, though, is that they are so effective. We are living in the days of itching ears, my friend. You know it and I know it.

That’s why the jammed ballroom in Tulsa wasn’t a thousand jammed ballrooms. What on earth are people thinking? Are they thinking? Why do a thousand people gather for a Bible prophecy conference and hundreds of thousands drive by on the freeways?

Is there good teaching in the Christian community? Of course. Here and there. Guys like Les Feldick know there’s power in the blood. They understand who the Star is.

By contrast, toothy, telegenic frauds are warmed by the glow of lights, cameras, action. They bask in the adulation of congregants who don’t know if there are 66 books in the Bible, or 666. People who want nothing more from church every Sunday than to by golly feel good about themselves.

This is where we are.

That’s why it is vital that Bible-believing Christians get creative. You won’t find solid books in Christian bookstores, by and large. So you should go grass-roots. By word-of-mouth buy and circulate good books and teaching tapes and CDs. Shift your spending priorities from goofy trinkets and smarmy plaques and Max Lucado’s latest book, and consider making a donation to Les Feldick’s ministry, or Thy Kingdom Come (which sponsored the Tulsa conference), or RaptureReady.

Which brings me to the subject of competition. In the Darwinian world of Christian publishing, where the smaller and less beautiful are torn to shreds by meat-eating large publishers, we do have a choice. The chain bookstores, which by and large do not support writers like David Reagan and Phillip Goodman (The Assyrian Connection)…they thirst for your dollars. They really do. They need you to come in and buy a candle and cheesy picture so they can pay the light bill.

Instead, you might consider doing a little heavy lifting by researching the ministries and teaching materials that are worthy of your hard-earned cash. The Ariel Center for Policy Research, in Israel, has wonderful publications that teach us about the terrorism threat, and Israel’s right to the land.

David Reagan’s Lamb and Lion Ministries is one of the best teaching outlets anywhere. Dave is solid and very discerning about the times. You might consider supporting them with a financial gift. Pick one or five ministries/organizations you can support and support them.

Zola Levitt Ministries has dealt with the untimely passing of Zola to rebound with a wonderful team, Sandra Levitt and Dr. Jeffrey Seif. Check them out. I had dinner in Branson, Missouri with Zola a few months before he passed away and I cherish the moment. Here was a man who gave himself, literally, to the teaching of God’s word.

There are other people who can teach us, people you might not be aware of or think of right away.

HonestReporting and CAMERA are two media watchdog groups that deserve more support from evangelical Christians. Check out their websites and consider supporting them.

One of my dear friends is Benzion Netanyahu, patriarch of that great Israeli family. A world-renowned scholar, Benzion’s book, Don Isaac Abravanel: Statesman and Philosopher, is exquisite. It’s about a Jewish philosopher who lived a few hundred years ago and explored the great questions of life, especially reading the Prophets. Check out Amazon and get a copy for yourself and 10 for your friends. Bible prophecy students should not be without this book.

Another friend, Caroline Glick, has just released her first book, Shackled Warrior, about Israel’s precarious position in the Middle East. Caroline is deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post; Gefen Books is her publisher.

In essence, I am asking you for something: pass on this reading list to everyone you think might be interested. Do this by phone calls and emails and letters. Let’s make Caroline’s book a bestseller, first because it’s important. Her analysis of the war on terror is a must-have, literally.

Let’s build a grassroots community of informed Christians who will bypass the regular outlets — bookstores — and give a platform to those who truly deserve it. This is a theme I will return to again.

The American mind is turning to pudding. This from the consumption of books that purport to teach you how to live a really swell life every day until you pass away peacefully in your sleep at age 100.

This is not reality. It is a false reality.

The real world, the one we live in and must deal with realistically, is speeding toward its conclusion. We owe it to our fellow man to spread the word.



April 7

Why Does Antisemitism Exist?

By Jim Fletcher

I heard the most fascinating exchange the other day between conservative commentator Sean Hannity and a rabbi.

Hannity was discussing the racist rant from Barak Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright. Wright and some others in the black community have long uttered anti-Semitic venom. Hannity asked the rabbi where anti-Semitism comes from.

“Why does it exist?’ he queried. The question is so simple.

Unfortunately, the rabbi gave a rambling answer that really wasn’t an answer. Actually, that’s not totally fair. He answered. But he did not explain why anti-Semitism exists. I suspect Sean Hannity is discovering the answer, though, because he made the interesting observation that he has been studying the Old Testament for the first time in his life.

How fascinating this exchange was! The rabbi struggled to answer, yet Hannity was leading the conversation in a specific direction. He in fact was demonstrating discernment.

Hannity is smart enough to realize that the secular, psychological reasons given for the existence of anti-Semitism really miss the mark. One cannot explain this kind of hatred apart from the supernatural. And supernatural is what we find in the Bible.

This little radio exchange is another indication that we can’t explain reality apart from the Bible. Anti-semitism doesn’t make sense apart from biblical history, and the accounts of Jew-hating despots from the beginning.

We can say that people don’t like Jews because of cultural differences, or the weird theories that the Jews control the media and finance. We can say they are disliked because of alleged treatment of Palestinians (and the world, the international community, loves every leftist underdog ideology it can find).

Some even contend that the Jews are disliked because their presence — especially as the State of Israel — reminds the world of indifference to Jewish plight during the Holocaust. This is an especially good one, since it depends on a scenario in which the victim is to blame.

No, the curious and hideous reality of anti-semitism cannot be explained apart from the Bible.

For if Bible prophecy and the great covenant promises are true, we know that personal evil hates the idea that God can keep His promises. Unfortunately, even today’s churches ridicule the idea of the Devil, a malevolent being at permanent enmity with God.

It seems reasonable to think that most people, even if they don’t say it out loud, understand that we can’t explain murder, rape, mental cruelty, and all sorts of other injustice by invoking evolutionary processes or secular psychology.

There must be a Cause. We know from Bible history that Pharaoh hated the Jews, first enslaving them and finally plotting genocide. The Assyrians practiced their ghoulish barbarism in Judea. Haman the Persian had the same designs. Antiochus hated so much that he wanted to even blot out the Jewish religion. The Romans determined to crush the resistance of the only people in their empire that wouldn’t bow to Cesaer.

And, of course, if one thinks the Nazis can be explained apart from satanic influence, please try to sell us ocean front property in the Sahara.

Jew-hatred is so ingrained, it will take Divine intervention to finally eradicate anti-semitism.

A fascinating article appeared last week in the Jerusalem Post.

 Calling Britain “the epicenter for anti-Semitic trends in Europe,” Israeli professor Robert Wistrich listed several reasons for this terrible reality, including a fascinating observation that as the U.K. has left its biblical roots, it has become more hostile to Jews and Israel. According to the Post article:

 “The historian noted that the straying of the British from their Christian roots has also created a changed reality in the Anglo-Israeli relationship with no Bible-based reasons or raison d'etre for a Jewish presence in the Holy Land.”

 Wistrich has nailed it. The farther one moves away from believing the Bible, the farther one is from discernment and truth. Perhaps the greatest underreported social change of the last few hundred years — since the Enlightenment — is the relentless attack on the validity of the Bible. It is both diabolical and deadly effective. Wistrich is one of the few who has presented the root of the problem. Again, the Post:

"The loss of Christian identity in what was the most Bible-believing culture in its day is one of the deeper layers of what has happened here," he said.

“He noted some of the biblical remarks of prominent British leaders such as Lord Balfour and Lloyd George would be viewed as anathema today.

"You cannot speak or act that way today, or you would be considered the 'biggest threat to civilization' as American evangelicals are."

 Having spent years in Christian book publisher, I am still astonished at the one weakness of many Christians: a dislike of Jews.

 There is a dividing line that has already been set down; some aren’t aware of it, yet. The dividing line is one’s stance on the Jews and Israel.

 There are many ministries and Christian leaders today who do wonderful things. They perform wonderful work. But if you are unfortunate enough to broach the subject with them, or discover it accidentally, you will feel a chill blow through the room.

 “Well, Jews are so consumed with money.”

 “Israel is a very secular state! They don’t seem to have any regard for God!”

 “The Palestinian Christians have a very hard time living in Israel.”

 Some of this is subtle. Some of it is a sledgehammer. But the demonization of the Jews is a sickness that will bring ruin to the entire world. It is not a sickness I intend to carry.

 I am aware of elementary facts about the Bible: It was recorded by Jews. It is about Jews. It reveals the Jewish Messiah. The events took place in Jewish culture. And, finally, it is the Jews who are going to be rescued by their God.

 All this seems lost on the Church today. It explains why Britain is sinking under the waves of history.

 It is almost beyond belief that in 1864, the great British preacher Charles Spurgeon delivered a sermon in which he predicted that the Bible’s predictions concerning the Jews — specifically the Dry Bones of Ezekiel 37 — would be fulfilled precisely. Thank God for men like Spurgeon! Would that his words had remained with the British people.

 For Spurgeon was living proof that if one reads the Bible, he will then look at his surroundings and be able to discern life itself. How many stupid Christians have over the centuries contemptuously spat that God was finished with the Jews! He clearly wasn’t and isn’t and will never be finished with them.

So if you wonder about America’s role in Bible prophecy, check her spiritual barometer by paying attention to how she treats the Jews. Methinks Sean Hannity is slowly, chillingly, discovering the answer to his question to the rabbi.

 Well, Wistrich is right. The fact is both scary and exhilarating. We are going into the future. We are going into glory.




Mar 30

Dateline Jerusalem - Jim Fletcher

O, Jerusalem

Someone wrote last week on the message board that they wondered what difference there is between now, and in the 1970s, regarding prophetic signs. This is a good point. The inference was that there were just as many signs of the end of the age 35 years ago as there are now. If I’m reading too much into the original question, my apologies to the writer.

 One of the key differences, I think, is the intensifying pressure on Jerusalem. Decades ago, when Hal Lindsey’s bestseller, The Late, Great Planet Earth, was released, the modern concept of Bible prophecy was fairly new. There had been many decades in which liberal scholarship in the Academy had percolated unchecked. (Although by the time the “myth” of the Bible was unleashed on the public, there was fortunately a wave of major happenings that confirmed Scripture for many. Think the Six Day War.)

 In the ‘70s, the capture of Jerusalem brought in a wave of euphoria among both Jews and Christians who support Israel. International terrorism was somewhat of a pariah — at least compared to today — as Arafat, Habash, and others murdered innocents. The idea of a Palestinian state was abhorrent to many. Israel had leaders at the time who would not publicly or privately consider the idea of a divided Jerusalem. Begin and even Rabin were effective leaders. The Israelis under Begin began to settle the great biblical homeland en masse (coordinated by none other than Ariel Sharon).

 Jerusalem was new again.

 But as the most effective weapon of the terrorists — perseverance — proved, international resolve inevitably weakened. The Arabs do one thing very well: whine without ceasing.

 As Arab dictators continued to let refugees cook in the stew of squalid camps, whispers began that there should be “justice” for the Palestinians. The election of Jimmy Carter in the U.S. brought in a host of disasters, not the least of which was his embrace of the Arab world.

 Over time, we came to the point where negotiations were opened between Israel and the Palestinians. And in the past 15 years, we have progressed to the point that Jerusalem is now “on the table.” That courtesy of former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Now, the division of Jerusalem is openly discussed, even encouraged.

 All this brings Zechariah into focus. The latter chapters of that prophetic book spotlight Jerusalem as (one could say inexplicably) a major focus of the world powers in the last days.

 If you have been paying attention for the last 20 years, you know that pressure on Jewish Jerusalem has intensified in perhaps five-year increments. Until the last few years. Now the tightening pressure is felt every month, every week, every day.

 For murder, incitement, and squandered opportunities, the Palestinians need to be rewarded with a state and a capital in east Jerusalem, so say the experts. We see principled Israeli leaders like Bibi Netanyahu sound the alarm. There is a race on to lay claim to the holy city.

 All this is truly remarkable.

 Another key sign of the times is the falling away of heretofore friends of Israel, among the nations.

 Turkey has always been a key player among the modern nations of the Middle East. A strategic ally of the U.S., home to bases and diplomats, Turkey has made slow progress into the family of nations.

 However, during Vice President Cheney’s recent visit, vicious Islamist protests were held. In the city of Sakarya, the group Islamist Anatolia Youth Organization (AGD) demonstrated, chanting “Death to Israel!” and like phrases directed at the U.S. Those nations’ flags were burned and a barbaric call to holy war was sent forth.

 Chillingly, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was director of the AGD before becoming prime minister of Istanbul! This is a clear signal that many of the so-called moderates in the region are anything but.

 By the way, the report above was provided by MEMRI (the Middle East Media Research Institute — a group you should consider supporting).

 We can easily see that what today is friendship and peace can turn into something else altogether tomorrow. The diabolical alliance of the last days that seeks to strangle Israel could come into focus very quickly.

 Evil is flexing its muscles, but so is good. This is the exciting paradox we can all witness in these uncertain days. It is obvious that Islamist forces believe Allah has brought them to the brink of victory over the hated Jews.

But just today I spoke to an Israeli friend by phone and realized once again that this is no ordinary people. My friend is well-placed, educated, sober, with a wry sense of humor. Just listening to him talk gives me confidence that whenever the end does come, it will be quite different from the deranged fantasies of the Arabs.

My friend chooses to live in Israel, although he could live anywhere and prosper. He lives within sight of the Old City. He is not overtly religious, even appearing secular. But I suspect something else under the surface. He knows why he’s there. He knows how Israel has survived. He knows.

Islamist Nureddin Sirin said at the Sakarya rally, “The day is nearing, when the Zionist cancer virus, this tumor, will be eliminated.”

The day is nearing, indeed.

Jim Fletcher is a member of the executive committee of the National Christian Leadership Conference for Israel (NCLCI). He can be reached at jim1fletcher@yahoo.com


Mar 24

Dateline Jerusalem - Jim Fletcher

"With Allies Like These, Who Needs Enemies?”

Angela Merkel said this week that Germany will always defend Israel.

No, they won’t.

The German chancellor since 2006, Merkel is actually quite an improvement over some past German premiers. She seems genuinely sincere, giving an historic speech in the Israeli Knesset. Merkel, whose father was a pastor in East Germany, conveyed her deep sadness over the Holocaust, even using the Hebrew word Shoah, to describe the ghastly murders of six million European Jews.

But Merkel is wrong for two specific reasons.

First, the prophet Jeremiah recorded that one day, all of Israel’s friends will abandon her. This will happen in the last days, which I’m convinced we are experiencing now.

Secondly, Merkel also subscribes to the wacky theory that cementing Israel’s security means endorsing the “peace process,” that opiate of the diplomatic masses. Sadly, France’s new president Nicolas Sarkozy also endorses the Oslo Delusion. How different our world might be if these leaders, along with President Bush, would stand up to the global blackmail thrust on us all by the Palestinians.

Israel’s Arab population is deranged, driven mad by evil practiced by Yasser Arafat, his Fatah lackeys, and the wider Arab world, so dominated by dictators. The Palestinians feel a sense of entitlement and, but for some minority segment of their population, feel that violence is okay. Violence directed at other people, of course.

The international community will realize at some point that there is no diplomatic solution, and when they see that UN forces and shuttle diplomacy don’t work, they will conclude first that it’s unsolvable. Then when things get worse, they will conclude that it’s all Israel’s fault.

All this is another indication that my current obsession — If the Bible were true, what would we expect to see in the real world? — is confirmed. People can pay lip service to the security of the Jewish state, but because God’s word says otherwise, we know the latest pathetic peace process is an illusion. Amazingly, even if humans try to fool themselves, the Bible always confirms “real” reality. The international community wants us all to believe that there is a peace process that’s working, or can work, in the Middle East. The Bible tells us something else, and is confirmed by reality.

In a poll recently, the Palestinians indicated that they favor Hamas strongman Ismael Haniyeh over the wax figure rolled out by Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas, aka, Abu Mazen, aka Holocaust Denier. This is telling, if for no other reason than it shows the Palestinians favor the overt violence employed by Hamas.

As Middle East analyst Barry Rubin noted in the Jerusalem Post, there is no good solution to the crisis in Gaza. Rubin astutely advocates for a buffer zone to be created in Gaza by the IDF, to keep Palestinian rocket launchers far enough away from Israeli cities like Sderot and Ashkelon. One only has to fly into Ben Gurion airport to get a chilling, bird’s-eye view of just how small Israel really is. Everyone knows — even if it isn’t talked about — that if rockets can hit Ashkelon, they will eventually hit Tel Aviv, and then west Jerusalem.

The two peoples live in such close proximity to each other that it’s difficult to imagine a more difficult problem. In Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), Jewish communities are within rock-throwing distance of Palestinian villages. The so-called boundary, marked now by the security fence, has Jewish and Arab communities on both sides of the border. In a region full of crazy ideas, the idea that these two can live together is the craziest of all.

The Arab-Israeli conflict has occupied the most brilliant minds in the world. No one can solve it. Israel has tried heavy handed approaches, subtle approaches, diplomacy, cajoling, empty threats, real threats. Nothing works. Do we need more evidence that the Bible is true and God is alive? He declares over and over that He alone will save the Jews.

The current situation is perilous, because weapons of mass destruction are now being sought and used by Israel’s enemies. This is a relatively new reality, that makes the apocalyptic scenarios in the Bible more and more plausible.

In Jeremiah 30:16, God tells the Jews, “Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity.”

Every one of them. How delicious.

God then tells His people that he will restore health to them, that their long and painful exile will come to its conclusion. Because the Lord has rebuilt Zion, we know that this is the season.

Angela Merkel has good intentions. She’d also better make plans to duck when the shooting starts.