Thank you, Mr. President, for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital.

I’m homesick for Jerusalem. It is my spiritual home, and I have not been able to go there for the past four years because of my wife’s illness.

Between 1979 and 2014, I visited Jerusalem 45 times — either leading pilgrimage groups, directing video crews or speaking at special events.

I will never forget my first visit in the summer of 1979. My first morning in Jerusalem, I was so excited to be there that I got up at 4am and took a taxi to the top of the Mount of Olives. I sat down on the mount looking east over the Kidron Valley toward the Old City, the Temple Mount and the Eastern Gate. I took the glorious sight into my soul as I watched the first rays of sunlight come up behind me and illuminate the old walled city, reflecting off the gold dome of the Muslim shrine called The Dome of the Rock.

I listened to the sounds of an ancient city awakening. It seemed like there were roosters crowing everywhere, accented at times by the braying of donkeys. Horse drawn carts began passing in the streets.

The scenes, the smells and the sounds of those moments are etched into my memory.

But the most significant thing I experienced was spiritual. I sensed in my spirit that I was sitting at the center of the earth and the focal point of all history — where God became flesh and where He taught, healed, died and rose from the dead.

In fact, it occurred to me that I was sitting at the very site where Christ ascended into Heaven, and I was reminded of His promise to return to that very place on the Mount of Olives.

As I contemplated these things, I was suddenly struck with how fortunate I was to be living in the season of the Lord’s return — a time when I could witness end time prophecies being fulfilled before my very eyes. I’m referring to things like the regathering of the Jewish people from the four corners of the earth, the re-establishment of their nation and the re-occupation of their ancient capital.

Jesus Himself told His disciples that in the end times when the Jewish people returned to their homeland and re-occupied their capital, He would be at the very gate of Heaven ready to return (Luke 21:24-28).

“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, His holy mountain. Beautiful in elevation, the joy of the whole earth… the city of the great King.” (Psalm 48:1-2)

Recognizing Israel’s Capital

“It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.” (Zechariah 12:3)

• Presidential candidate Bill Clinton promised to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to that city.
• Presidential candidate George W. Bush promised to do the same.
• Presidential candidate Barack Obama refrained from making any promise of recognition.
• Presidential candidate Donald Trump renewed the promise.

The promises of Clinton and Bush proved to be insincere, meaningless hot air. Obama’s unwillingness to take a stand signaled that he would become the most anti-Israel president in American history. President Trump has kept his promise, and he is to be commended for doing so.

He made his proclamation on December 6, 2017. In it he stated, “This [recognition] is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It’s something that has to be done.”

The Jewish Tie to Jerusalem

Jerusalem became the capital city of the Jewish people 3,000 years ago when David conquered the city from the Jebusites (2 Samuel 5:6-7). During the 1,878 years that the Jewish people were evicted from the land (70 AD to 1948), Jerusalem never served as the capital of any Arab or Muslim nation.

It should also be kept in mind that when God gave the land of Canaan to the Jewish people, He gave them an eternal title to it (Psalm 105:8-11). He warned them that if they were not faithful to Him, they would be evicted from the land (Deuteronomy 28:64-67). But He made it clear in His Word that if they were ejected, they would retain their title to the land, and one day they would be regathered to it (Ezekiel 11:14-17).

During the period of their dispersion from the land, it became a barren wasteland, with malaria-infested swamps along the Mediterranean coast and in the Upper Galilee. It was a land that no one coveted except the Jewish people.

Each year, at the end of their Passover meals, Jews worldwide would pray, “Next year in Jerusalem.” And when they built their synagogues anywhere in the world, they made sure that they faced in the direction of Jerusalem.

The Return of the Jews to Their Homeland

The land of Palestine, as it was renamed by the Romans, remained sparsely populated. It was owned mainly by absentee landlords, and it was under the domain of the Ottoman Empire whose capital was Constantinople (modern day Istanbul). The people living in Palestine considered themselves to be Syrians.

When the Jewish people began to return to their homeland in the 1890s, they bought the land that God had already given them in perpetuity, and they paid inflated prices for it. The Arabs laughed all the way to the bank over the foolish Jews who were willing to purchase such worthless land.

The Arabs were unaware of a prophecy contained in Ezekiel 36:35 where God promised that when the day came for the Jews to return to their land, it would become “like the Garden of Eden.”

And that is exactly what has happened since 1948 when the Jewish state was re-established. Today, the land of Israel is the bread basket of the whole Middle East, and the Arabs now want it back.

Resources

To finish this article and learn whether there’s any validity to the Arab’s claim to the land of Israel, download the Lamplighter magazine.

When our Supreme Court made its insane and unbiblical decision on June 26, 2015, to legalize the abomination of same-sex marriage, it opened a Pandora’s box.

For one thing, the decision clearly signaled that no state could any longer enforce laws against polygamy. After all, if a man can legally marry a man, how can it be argued that he cannot marry several women? When the Court thumbed its nose at God’s Word and tossed out God’s definition of marriage, it opened up unlimited possibilities for a great variety of fake “marriages.”

If same-sex marriage is legal, then why not an incestuous marriage between a brother and sister? Or an oedipal marriage between a son and mother? And what about those involved in bestiality? Are they to be prevented from marrying their pet? And is this really any more bizarre than marrying a person of the same sex?

 The Latest Marriage Perversion

Or, consider the current fad of marrying yourself. Yes, that’s what I said — believe it or not, there are people who are now marrying themselves! It’s called sologomy. There are even several websites devoted to it, one of which is www. imarriedme.com. At this site you can order a wedding kit for a solo marriage. It includes invitations, a wedding band and the complete outline for a wedding ceremony, including the vows. The kit costs $50 if you want a sterling silver ring, and $230 if you desire a 14-karat gold ring.

A 37 year old woman in Brooklyn, New York named Erika Anderson conducted her self-marriage ceremony in the spring of 2016. She told CBS News that “she grew frustrated with being asked why she hadn’t settled down with anyone and decided to take matters into her own hands.” So, she put on a wedding gown and walked herself down the aisle among family and friends and recited a vow to commit herself to herself. Later, Erika said, “For so many years, people had been telling me I was a great catch, so I caught myself.”

It’s what could be called the ultimate act of narcissism.

 Other Perversions

And to illustrate where all this insanity is going, consider the man in the South American country of Colombia who recently married two of his best buddies. It’s called polyamory.

People suffering from a mental disorder called ObjectumSexuality fall in love with inanimate objects and desire to marry them. Thus, a woman in San Francisco who fell in love with the Eiffel Tower decided to marry it and changed her name to Erika La Tour Eiffel. Likewise, a German woman fell in love with the Berlin Wall, and on her sixth visit to the wall in 1979 she married “him” in front of a handful of guests. When the wall was torn down in 1989, she was horrified.

A Japanese man recently married Nene Anegasaki, a digital character in the Nintendo video game called “Love Plus.” He actually had a real ceremony on the island of Guam, where apparently it is legal to marry not only inanimate objects but also imaginary ones. He even ended the ceremony by calling up her image on a computer tablet and giving her a kiss.

France is now allowing posthumous marriages to partners who die before a planned wedding ceremony. A woman in India was married to a cobra in 2006, with over 2,000 people attending the elaborate ceremony. And in 2010 a man in Australia was married to his five year old golden retriever named Honey.

Here in the States, the Associated Press recently noted that “more states are allowing three parents of one child.” An example would be when a lesbian couple has a child with the help of a man who impregnates one of them — in which case all three become parents.

 The Deinstitutionalization of Marriage

Meanwhile, marriage is on the decline. Whereas throughout history, it was considered to be a very special, sacred institution, it is now viewed by many in our nation as nothing more than a convenience for lowering taxes. A Pew Research Center study in 2011 revealed that whereas in 1960 72 percent of adults in America 18 years of age or older were married, today just 51 percent are wed.

The immorality of cohabitation has become our national norm. Before 1970, living together outside of marriage was uncommon, but by the late 1990s at least 50 to 60 percent of couples were living together before marriage. More than two- thirds of married couples in the US now say that they lived together before getting married.

As of 2012, 41 percent of all births in the US were to unmarried women. In three states (Mississippi – 55%, Louisiana – 53%, and New Mexico – 52%) births outside marriage were in the majority. The lowest percentage of births outside marriage was in Utah, at 19 percent. During the period 2006 – 2010, 58 percent of births outside of marriage were to cohabitating parents.

The paganization of our society is destroying one of the cornerstones of civilization — the institution of marriage. In Romans chapter 1, the Apostle Paul stated that when a society rebels against God and refuses to repent, God will deliver the society over to a depraved mind (verse 28). That is where we are today.