America, the Dutiful
When thinking about the prophetic implications of the present hour so late in this Church Age (Age of Grace), Israel is the prominent marker of where the world stands on God’s prophetic timeline.
God’s chosen people, the nation Israel, have contributed massively to achievements in many areas of human existence—just as the Lord promised Abraham, Israel’s progenitor. So, it shouldn’t surprise us that Israel is at the center of much turmoil and controversy at this time. This is precisely how Bible prophecy—through prophets such as Zechariah, for example—says Israel will be positioned the closer the world comes to Christ’s return.
Despite God’s promises to Abraham—many of which have been fulfilled—the people of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob have failed in many ways to fulfill God’s expectations. Primarily, they have failed because of rejecting their Messiah when He presented Himself to them.
Israel, therefore, is perhaps the best example of the violation of Christ’s admonition: “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48b).
God expects those whom He blesses to obey His directive and to trust His Word as given in Scripture through the prophets. There are inevitably severe consequences when His blueprint for conducting life on earth is not followed.
We know all about Israel and its place in God’s directive—His call to duty in the mission He gave Abraham’s progeny. That nation and people are everywhere we look in God’s Word and are prominent everywhere we look on the geopolitical horizon. And who could in truth deny that Israel has had nothing but trouble from this satanically saturated world?
To me, God’s appointment to our nation, the United States of America, is almost as profound in God’s blueprint as it is in that of Israel. The proof is in the dominance America has been given since its founding. And, at this moment, it is the most glaringly dominant and powerfully influential nation on the planet. The double proof of this is that America stands beside God’s chosen nation and people while most of the world’s nations demonstrate an inexplicable hatred for Israel and the Jewish people. This, to me, is absolute proof of the importance God assigned America.
I wrote in the beginning of one of my books the following:
America burst forth from history’s slow-motion movement with brilliant inventiveness that would mystify if viewed from any perspective other than that of Bible prophecy. The stunning achievements within the mix of that quantum leap continue to engender awe. Human genius almost certainly had to have been infused with supernatural influence in accomplishing the exponential progress man has achieved within 100 years. We have moved, within that time, from traveling at speeds horses can run to streaking at the speed of light through communications technologies.…
The United States of America has been the nation at the very heart of the explosion of human technological progress. America has no peer in this regard, even to this present hour. Just as God’s hand of providence guided the founding fathers in bringing the country to birth in 1776, so His omnipresence inspired the American genius and industry resident in the nation to achieve things essential to the opening of the book of end-times prophecy.…
Again, the United States of America is inarguably the matrix out of which the geometrical progression of knowledge, thus spectacular increase in ability to travel to and from anywhere on earth, has grown.…
America’s influence within its brief duration of nationhood has brought mankind relief from drudgery, physical comforts, and luxuries that no other era has provided. Although vast areas of the world still wallow in squalor, the technologies–produced for the most part by this nation–are available to bring those victims out of their tragic conditions. It is the greed of tyrants–for the most part, the dictators who keep the very poor of the world under their despotic thumbs of oppression.
The United States has been at the forefront of reaching out to other lands and their peoples–almost to a fault, one might correctly surmise. Much of the largesse that has poured from the American treasuries into these dictatorships has been scarfed up by the despots and put into their own bank accounts around the world.
Many examples can be cited.…
The explosion of knowledge brought the technology that can make man’s life on earth a blessed existence. That same bursting forth of travel and knowledge has produced the ability to deliver destructive power from the air, the like of which no other generation could even fathom. Make no mistake: America is at the very heart of the end-of-days book being opened. And open it is! (The American Apocalypse, Harvest House, 2009)
So, I titled this commentary “America the Dutiful.”
We’ve been commissioned by God to a call to duty. America has been the most materially blessed of all nations of history, second only to Israel in spiritual blessings. While this nation has used its material blessings to help the poorest of the world and has reached out as no other nation with the gospel of Christ, we’ve also infected the world with much of the wickedness our technological wizardry has produced. It might be said that the peoples of earth have become intoxicated on the wine of the fornication and depravity flowing from America’s dark subsurface.
It’s always disconcerting to consider that we can’t find mention of such a blessed nation as ours even once by name in God’s Word.
Perhaps, frighteningly, it might be there in Revelation chapter 18, but this always comes down to supposition.
It is incumbent upon Christians in our beloved America to remain “dutiful” in carrying out the commission it seems our founding fathers were blessed to receive those 250 years ago.
“For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48b).
—Terry
What Does the Bible Reveal About Israel’s Future?
The current wars in the Middle East raise many concerns for Israel as well as for us. Before the recent ceasefire with Iran, I read repeated warnings that the closing of the Strait of Hormuz would cause dire shortages of food and fuel. The terms of the recent agreement allow Iran to impose a two-million-dollar fee on each ship passing through the strait. I believe this will also add inflationary pressure to the world’s economy, though perhaps not as severe as stopping all the ships seeking to go through it.
Although many are optimistic about the winding down of hostilities, I’m not convinced that the ceasefire ends the perils for Israel or for other nations.
For us as New Testament saints, our only secure hope rests upon the Lord’s promise to deliver us, via the Rapture, from God’s wrath that will sweep over the earth during the Day of the Lord (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11). We know He’s coming to take us home, but we don’t know how soon.
God’s Word paints a different picture for the future of Israel than for us. In order to better understand how the conflicts of today fit with what’s ahead for the Jewish state, we will start at the end, with its future glory.
A Glorious Millennial Kingdom
The ultimate outcome of all that we see happening today in the Middle East will be the Lord’s restoration of a prosperous and secure kingdom to Israel. Psalms 46 to 48 foretell its future glories with the Lord ruling over the nations from atop Mount Zion. We read about the wonders of this time in Psalm 48:1-2:
“Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised
in the city of our God!
His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation,
is the joy of all the earth,
Mount Zion, in the far north,
the city of the great King.”
Many church leaders and Christian writers ridicule the disciples for asking the Lord about the restoration of a kingdom to Israel (Acts 1:6), but not Jesus. He didn’t deny the premise of their question, only its timing, which He said the Father “had fixed by his own authority.” Until that day, the Lord instructed them to focus on being His “witnesses” to the world (Acts 1:7-8).
A Repentant Jewish Remnant
From the prophet Zechariah, we learn about a remnant of the Jewish people who will survive the horrors of the Tribulation and turn to their Messiah in saving faith at the end of this time (Zechariah 12:10-13:9). At the end of this seven-year period, they will repent and recognize Jesus as both their Messiah and Savior. They will be the ones who will experience the arrival of the glorious realm promised to Israel throughout Scripture.
This seven-year time of judgment upon the earth is the seventieth week of Daniel 9:24-27. The prophet Jeremiah referred to it as “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:7). Jesus referred to the last half of this week as a time of “great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be” (Matthew 24:21).
The terrors and suffering of this time will result in repentance and saving faith for the Jewish remnant.
The Covenant of Death
To understand how Israel will end up in such a perilous predicament, we must go back a bit further in time to what happens at the midpoint of this seven-year period, when the terrors for Israel will greatly intensify. That’s when the one we identify as antichrist defiles the temple and breaks his covenant with the nation (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-8).
The Lord described this future agreement as a “covenant of death” (Isaiah 28:14-18). At some point after the Rapture, antichrist will make a deal with Israel and “the many,” which I believe indicates the inclusion of other nations in its terms.
We are not able to connect all the dots between the ongoing hostilities and this future “covenant of death.” However, I believe it’s likely the ongoing violence that began on October 7, 2023, will play a key role in Israel’s leaders agreeing to what antichrist offers as long as they lead to relief from the violence. And if he allows the building of the third temple, that will be an added incentive to agree to his terms.
The Gog/Magog Invasion
There’s another significant war that will impact Israel’s future, the Gog/Magog invasion described in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. Although differing ideas exist as to its exact timing, I believe it will happen between the Rapture and antichrist’s deal with Israel.
Ezekiel identifies the key participants in this conflict as Russia, Turkey, and Iran via the ancient references to their people. Today, these nations are more closely aligned than at any previous time in history.
The terms of the current ceasefire allow Iran’s Israel-hating regime to retain power. Though we had hoped for a different outcome, this fits with what we read in Ezekiel concerning this future invasion of which Iran will be able to play a significant role.
Because there are an estimated one million believers in Iran, President Trump’s statement about returning the nation to the “stone age” troubled me. On the other hand, I’m also not comfortable with the ceasefire terms. Regardless of the outcome in the coming weeks and months, it’s God’s sovereignty that continues to reassure me. I know He’s orchestrating how the current events in the Middle East will somehow contribute to the final outcome, that of a glorious kingdom for Israel.
In the meantime, we pray for the Jewish people who have already suffered so much. I believe that even now, the Lord is preparing the hearts of many who will later look in faith upon the One whom “they have pierced” (Zechariah 12:10).
-Jonathan