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My thoughts on the Hamas attack on Israel in October of 2023. I blame the UN and all the nations of the world that demanded Israel must agree to a two-state solution. That will never work. Israel is fundamentally and spiritually at odds with its Islamic neighbors. The Muslims are led by radicals who believe they will not usher in their Islamic golden age until Israel is wiped off the map (see Psalm 83).

Being a Jew and being told you must have radical Islamic jihadists as your neighbor is like being told you and your young family should live beside Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, Charles Manson, and John Wayne Gacy. These jihadists are specifically groomed by Satan to carry out persecution, war, terror, and slander against God’s ancient and chosen people.

The international pressure on the Israelis led to this attack. The Israelis always knew it would never work because they know (much better than the UN) how much the Islamists hate them (and yes, with a dark, supernatural hatred). These Arabs have been their enemies for not hundreds of years but probably thousands of years. And the way you treat a Jew is the way God will treat you (Gen. 12:3, 27:29; Num. 24:9).

By the way, if you read the Old Testament, there is no question God gave the Holy Land to Israel. It is and was their promised ancestral homeland, and it always will be, according to the promises of the Eternal God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel [see 2 Kings 17:34]. The oracles of God were given to the Jews (Romans 3:2, 9:4-5), not Arabs, Asians, Africans, or Americans. If the Arabs would recognize the Jews’ legitimacy and their right to their ancestral homeland, there would be no problem. But Psalm 120:7 describes the situation. “I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.”

We as Americans should not only support Israel because they are the only democracy in the Middle East, but because they are the people of the Bible, and thus people of the promise. If we turn against Israel, we will become a hell hole like most of the rest of the depraved Islamic world and the misery of communistic nations.

Despite the overwhelming circumstances Israel faces today, we, as Christians who believe in Bible prophecy, know that Israel will win and win big! When the Lord Jesus Christ arrives with his church at the 2nd Advent (see Rev. 19), Israel will finally embrace their long-awaited Messiah and Deliverer. “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Romans 11:26-27).

This “covenant” Christ will make will be with Israel and Judah (see Hebrews Chapter 8) – “the new covenant.” Apostle Paul recounts the Prophet Jeremiah’s prophecy:

“For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 8:8-12).

This covenant will be cut with Israel and Judah on the very first day of the Millennium. The earth will be regenerated, and the twelve Apostles will rule the restored tribes of Israel (see Matt. 19:28 KJV). The Millennial Temple will be built according to the Prophet Ezekiel’s vision of specifications (see Ezek. 40-48). For 1,000 years, Satan will be bound, and the saints of the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, will be his kings and priests! (see Rev. 20.)

“…Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:9-10). Amen.

The Spirit of Prophecy

This being the “Season of the Reason,” it’s good for us this week I think to talk about Jesus. He’s “Israeli” and as a Jew was born in Bethlehem, so this is a profitable discussion for us just days before what I hope is a joyous Christmas for you.

This week, Pete Garcia posted this intense thought on X:

“I had a pastor tell me once, ‘I don’t focus on the book of prophecy, I just focus on Jesus.’ The book of Revelation 19:10: ‘…For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.’”

(I’m a big Pete Garcia fan, a veteran who is known in the prophecy community. He knows his stuff. His comment struck a chord with me.)

We all know that too many pulpits in America today refuse to talk about Bible prophecy. This is dismaying and, to be honest, infuriating. These alleged shepherds are depriving their congregations of great hope and the Blessed Hope by ignoring 35 percent of the Bible.

I wrote a piece on my Patreon page this week about Bethlehem. In it, I cited a few examples of CHRISTIAN LEADERS that in the last century have worked hard to cast doubt on the historicity of Jesus’s birth in that little Judean town. Some say it’s outright myth, some say the prophet Micah cited the “wrong” Bethlehem (they claim, wholly without evidence, that the town of Jesus’s birth was the Bethlehem of the Galilee). To add a finer point to it, these skeptics deny the Virgin Birth!

In 1961, Rev. James Pike, Episcopal bishop of California, said that the Virgin Birth is a “primitive myth.”

In 1964, a Baptist editor said that while a majority believed in the Virgin Birth, a “substantial minority” do not. This minority did not need to believe in the Virgin Birth in order to accept the deity of Christ, because it isn’t dealt with by Paul, or in the Gospels of Mark and John (This is called the “Argument from Silence”).

A new United Church of Christ curriculum of that era taught youth that it isn’t important to believe in the Virgin Birth.

The question is, why would they do this?

Because they are of their father, the devil. That’s the answer. We often try to find other, kinder and softer reasons, but this is the reason. Most people have no idea how absolutely corrupt the seminaries in this country have been for 150 years. Really. They turn out pastors that deny the faith—which, very ironically for them, fulfills NT prophecies that teach of the coming apostasy in the last days. You can’t get more compromised than denying the Virgin Birth and the accuracy of the prophets.

Remember, it is God Himself—the Lord of History—that has given us very specific, detailed prophecy, so that we can be sure of our faith. As Pete wrote, we should be highlighting the fact that Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy. Denying prophecy is denying the Redeemer, the Messiah sent to pay the penalty for the sins of mankind. We each have only to accept, as Paul wrote in Romans 10, that God sent Jesus in the flesh and raised Him to life after three days in the grave.

When a pastor refuses to preach the whole Bible, he is engaging in dangerous and sinister work.

There are plenty of terrible examples of churches in the U.S. holding bizarre services, especially at Christmas, when they have “captive” audiences that normally don’t attend church. Featuring the “Grinch Stole Christmas,” complete with professional dancers, is not preaching the Gospel.

Jesus is indeed the spirit of prophecy. Scripture tells us so. If pastors (your pastor!) isn’t teaching this, and growing the congregation in a healthy understanding of eschatology, you’ll have to do it yourself in your own network.

This is the perfect time of the year to teach your children, grandchildren, neighbor, or anyone else the beautiful story of Jesus born in Bethlehem, and the marvelous, stupendous, astonishing prophecy given in Micah 5:2, that the Messiah would be born in a tiny hamlet way out in the sticks. It happened 700 years later! In fact, David and Jesus would both be born in Bethlehem, 1,000 years apart. Two kings, one eternal.

I pray that each of you will experience pure joy and contentment and peace this Christmas season.

And most of all, remember the Reason for the Season!

Blessings to you all.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

Jimfletcher761@gmail.com

The Hamas Attack… And Beyond :: By Jacob R. Blandford

23 Dec 2024