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In the first part of this fascinating look into the resurgence of Israel’s military in Bible prophecy, we looked at how God miraculously defended Israel during Israel’s War of Independence. Now we will explore God’s tremendous victories during the Six-Day War and the Yom Kippur War.

The Six-Day War (June 1967)

Following years of tit-for-tat skirmishes, in the early 1960s, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser sought to align the Arab world under his leadership. His declared goal was to eradicate the Jewish state of Israel.

In 1965, Nasser asserted, “We shall not enter Palestine with its soil covered in sand; we shall enter it with its soil saturated in blood.” A few months later, Nasser declared that he had two aims. “The immediate aim: perfection of Arab military might. The national aim: the eradication of Israel.”

In May 1967, Nasser amassed Egyptian troops on Israel’s southern border. He then ordered UN troops positioned in the buffer zone between Israel and Egypt to leave. When the UN readily complied, Nasser announced:

“As of today, there no longer exists an international emergency force to protect Israel. We shall exercise patience no more. We shall not complain any more to the UN about Israel. The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence.”

The Syrian Defense Minister, Hafez Assad, affirmed Syria’s enthusiasm “to enter into a battle of annihilation.”

On May 22, Egypt blockaded the Straits of Tiran to all Israel shipping — an overt act of war under international law. King Hussein of Jordan then signed a defense pact with Egypt on May 30, and President Abdur Rahman Aref of Iraq joined the bellicose rhetoric by declaring, “Our goal is clear — to wipe Israel off the map.”

A combined Arab army of 465,000 troops, 2,800 tanks, and 800 aircraft was poised to annihilate Israel.

The Israeli leaders decided it would be suicidal to wait for the attack, and so, on June 6th, the entire Israeli Air Force (except a mere 12 planes assigned to defend Israel’s air space) launched a devastating attack on the Egyptian air force. By the end of the morning, they had virtually destroyed the Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian air forces. Unchallenged air superiority led to another miraculous Israeli victory after just six days of fighting.

Even as the Arab armies were being decimated, Jordan’s King Hussein felt compelled to join the fighting. In response, Israel drove the Jordanian army across the Jordan River and recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem and the sacred Temple Mount.

Israeli paratroopers rushed to the Western Wall — where no Jew had been allowed access for 18 years. Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the chief rabbi of the IDF (and later the chief rabbi of Israel) rushed to the wall, blew the shofar, and announced: “We have taken the City of God. We are entering the Messianic era for the Jewish people.” He understood from prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures that when the Jews are back in the land and back in their capital city, the Messiah will come.

The Yom Kippur War (October 1973)

Excessive Israeli confidence in their invincibility led to a dire situation just six years later. On October 6 (Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism), Egypt and Syria launched an all-out surprise attack against Israel.

Crossing the Suez Canal, the Egyptians quickly overran the Israeli outposts and drove deep into the Sinai. Simultaneously, Syria attacked the Golan Heights. Anwar Sadat, the President of Egypt, had fulfilled his promise to avenge the Arab humiliation suffered in 1967.

Just a few hours before the attack began, IDF Chief of Staff David Elazar recommended a preemptive air strike and immediate mobilization of the reserves. But Prime Minister Golda Meir overruled a first strike. She had been warned by Henry Kissinger that the United States would not support Israel if it struck first again.

Once again, as in all its previous wars, Israel faced overwhelming odds. On the Golan Heights, 180 Israeli tanks faced an onslaught of 1,400 Syrian tanks. Along the Suez Canal, fewer than 500 Israeli defenders with only 3 tanks were attacked by 600,000 Egyptian soldiers, backed by 2,000 tanks and 550 aircraft. Nine non-combatant Arab states provided aid and financial support to the Egyptian-Syrian war effort, while the Soviet Union provided military equipment and intelligence.

At great cost, Israel prevailed once again. Buoyed by massive military aid from America and brilliant military commanders, Israel turned back the initial Arab advances and recaptured the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula. For example, under General Ariel Sharon, Israel won the greatest tank battle in history.

By October 15, the Egyptian tank force had been destroyed, and Sharon had crossed the Suez Canal. He quickly surrounded the Egyptian Third Army, immobilized it, and started marching toward Cairo.

Meanwhile, in the north, the Israeli forces had cleared the Golan Heights, recaptured Mount Hermon, and began driving toward Damascus.

By October 15th, Israeli forces were 25 miles from Damascus and 63 miles from Cairo when the Soviets demanded the UN to call for a cease-fire. Once again, Israel had prevailed when there seemed to be no hope.

Other Major Conflicts

Since 1967, Israel has contended with Palestinian and Islamic terrorism. Palestinian terrorists demonstrated their hatred at the 1972 Olympics in Berlin when 11 Israelis were brutally murdered. Palestinian hijacking, kidnapping, and bombing have continued to this day.

In 1976, while America was preparing to celebrate its Bicentennial, four terrorists hijacked an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris and diverted it to Benghazi, Libya, and then Entebbe, Uganda. Israel attempted to free 106 hostages and crew through negotiation but eventually was forced to resort to a daring rescue mission. Under the command of Lt. Col. Jonathan (Yoni) Netanyahu (brother of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), a commando force flew to Uganda on a C-130 Hercules aircraft. They landed at Entebbe airport, surprised the Ugandan guards, and quickly established control. During the raid, all seven hijackers were killed. Sadly, four hostages were killed — three from crossfire and one at the order of an enraged Idi Amin (an elderly woman had been taken to a local hospital prior to the raid).

Five Israeli commandos were wounded, and tragically, Yoni Netanyahu was killed. But Israel had demonstrated its resolve and military prowess once again.

That resolve has been tested repeatedly. Intifadas (“uprising” in Arabic) incited by Yassar Arafat have been followed by attacks from Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Large and small skirmishes have pitted Israel against a nebulous and unscrupulous foe. But time and time again, although bloodied and grief-stricken, Israel has prevailed.

Conclusion

These and other Israeli conflicts of the past 75 years prove, beyond a doubt, that God has His hand on Israel, protecting the Jewish people from assault after assault and enabling them to achieve miraculous victories — all in fulfillment of Bible prophecies about Israel in the end times.

Nor can there be any doubt that God’s supernatural protection will continue.

Right now, Israel is embroiled in yet another fight for its existence against radicalized Palestinian terrorists in Gaza. It could well prove to be the worst of all the wars Israel has experienced, especially if it blossoms into a regional conflagration. But Scripture tells us that Israel will overcome all these challenges to its existence — because God promised that once He replanted them on their land, “they will not again be uprooted from their land” (Amos 9:15).

If this war turns out to be a fulfillment of the prophesied war of Psalm 83, then Israel will once again be overwhelmingly victorious, defeating all the Arab nations with whom it shares a common border. This will pave the way for the subsequent war of Gog and Magog, described in Ezekiel 38 and 39, when Russia, accompanied by certain Muslim nations, will come down against Israel and suffer supernatural destruction at the hands of the Lord.

Israel has some very difficult days ahead, but God has made some wonderful promises to them that they can rely on. In Psalm 121:4, He says, “Behold, He who keeps Israel will not slumber and will not sleep.” In Isaiah, He promised Israel, “No weapon that is formed against you will succeed” (54:17).

America needs to pay attention to these promises of God. Only by standing with and blessing Israel can we hope to be blessed.

In the end, we know that all the nations of the world will come against Israel. But God will preserve them — so that a great remnant can come to salvation. Let’s pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the eternal salvation of the Jewish people!

https://christinprophecy.org/

(Mark 8:36-37)

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Folks, the pre-trib rapture is real. It is also imminent. The coming seven-year Tribulation is real, and it, too, is imminent. Not long after the RAPTURE event occurs, a covenant between the man who will be the Antichrist and the nation of Israel will be made. At that point, earth’s final seven years will commence. This fact, as well, is reality. Additionally, Heaven as an actual place is real. It is the destination where the Remnant Church, both living and the resurrected dead in Christ in New immortal bodies, will go when Jesus comes to rescue His body/bride in an event so instantaneously quick and sudden that it cannot be quantified or measured – an event that will happen any day, any moment now. You need to understand this reality.

Another thing you need to realize is that Hell, too, is just as real a place as Heaven. Hell is as real a place as the room in which you are sitting.

On a video today, I heard a man state that his legacy, that is, the body of work he has amassed and will leave behind upon his death – that all his accomplishments (and his body of work is indeed impressive and prodigious) will mean that once he dies, he will have cheated death by the sheer quantity and quality of his life’s work that he will leave behind. If I could have talked to that man face to face, I would have told him that what he was assuming was a bald-faced lie. No one cheats death, except for those believers still living whom Jesus will snatch out of this world at the rapture.

Could I have spoken to this man, I would have asked him this: “And what about eternity, sir? What then?” Just because he, or you for that matter, may not believe in eternity does not make its existence any less real. That attitude is the height of arrogant folly and prideful foolishness. The Bible tells us that “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1-3).

Contrary to this man’s foolish arrogance, when he dies, he will not have cheated death regardless of how much of a body of work or the amount of wealth he will have amassed or left behind, and he most certainly will not cheat eternity. Neither will you. His and your immortal soul will end up in one place or the other: Heaven or Hell, depending on what he and you do with the gospel of salvation.

Once again, I beg you – in the exceedingly short time we have left before the rapture happens, examine very carefully what you believe and in whom you have placed your trust. If your faith and trust lie in anything temporal – if your trust rests in ANYTHING or ANYONE, including your own efforts and self-righteousness – then according to God’s Word, you are lost and on your way to an eternal Hell, a real and dreadful place from which your immortal soul will never escape. These are not my opinions or words; they are God’s.

Until you repent Biblically, that is, until you change your mind from unbelief to belief and trust in Jesus Christ alone for the remission of your sins according to the scriptures, then you are not prepared for eternity. What must you do to be saved? The Bible says: ACKNOWLEDGE that you are a sinner helplessly and hopelessly lost. You have been born under the curse of sin, separated from God by your sin-infected nature. You need a perfect, sinless Savior to pay the penalty incurred by sin – a penalty that is demanded by the justice of a holy and utterly righteous God.

Sin’s penalty is the infinite penalty of spiritual death, which is eternal separation from God. It is a penalty that is incurred by all fallen, sinful humanity because we are all born under the curse of sin. It is a penalty that neither you nor any other sin-cursed, sin-infected human can ever pay (Romans 3:23; Romans 10:9-10; Romans 6:23).

ACKNOWLEDGE that you can never say, do, be, or become righteous enough on your own merits or by your own efforts to save yourself from the wages or penalty for sin that must be paid. Neither can you, by any effort on your own, keep yourself saved. This is because the very best we can offer is, in the sight of God, like filthy rags next to His glorious holiness and righteousness (Isaiah 64:6).

ACCEPT that only Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, being both fully God and fully man, has already come to earth – God incarnate, God in the flesh. He alone is qualified, able, and willing to save you, to give you eternal life, and keep you eternally saved, sealed by the Holy Spirit of God (John 6:27; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; 2 Corinthians 5:5; Ephesians 1:13-14; Ephesians 4:30).

BELIEVE – place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and in Him ALONE. Accept His freely offered gift of salvation for the forgiveness of ALL your sins: past, present, and future. ACCEPT that Jesus has already, once and for all time, paid in full the eternal penalty for the sins of the world and that He alone freely offers complete forgiveness and a full pardon to whosoever is willing to believe in Him.

BELIEVE – that means place your faith and trust in His deity, in His sinless life, in His substitutionary death in our place, in His burial in a borrowed tomb, in His FINISHED work on the cross that paid our sin debt. Believe in His bodily resurrection from the tomb on the third day, according to the scriptures (John 3:14-18; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

This is the gospel according to the scriptures. This is the only gospel that can eternally save your immortal soul. It is what must be believed and accepted for one to be eternally saved and eternally sealed in Christ. If you reject this gospel, if you add anything to it, including your own self-righteous efforts, or if you take anything from it, then doing that changes the gospel of grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. Once changed, it then becomes a different gospel, a false gospel that God, through the Apostle Paul, says is a false “accursed” gospel that can save no one (Galatians 1:8-9).

With all my heart, I implore you — perhaps for the last time before Jesus appears in the air to deliver His Remnant Church in the rapture — believe THE gospel according to the scriptures that I have given to you yet one more time. Do it now. You cannot halt or delay the rapture by one millisecond. You cannot cheat death, and you will not cheat eternity.

Resurgence of Israel’s Military in Bible Prophecy, Pt. 2 :: By David R. Reagan

You Can’t Cheat Eternity :: By Alice Johnson Childs