General Articles

He Remains Faithful! :: By Asher Mandel

Published on: by RR10

In this article, I hope to highlight this main point: God’s faithfulness to Israel illustrates the hope we have to see His faithfulness to His church.

Baby Boomers will recall the cute little kid from the Little Rascals. He was the one who always observed the gang’s shenanigans from afar, shook his head slowly and solemnly pronounced, “They’ll Never Learn!” I remember him especially because we just celebrated the 2,499th anniversary of the holiday of “Purim.” Purim commemorates the victory that God won over the ancient Persian (Iranian) people who plotted the death of the Jewish people living in their land 2,500 years ago.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. May 14th will mark 77 years since God re-established His people back in their land. Israel has been attacked time and time again, but somehow, by the grace of God, they remain victorious no matter the odds! One reason for this is because God has already promised us that He will never uproot them again!

“I will bring my people Israel back from exile. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God” (Amos 9:14-15).

In Israel’s 6 victories in wars over the bloodthirsty Muslims surrounding the modern state of Israel, God has always kept His word to fulfill His promises to His ancient people, even though they still reject His Son, their own Messiah! An important point that anti-Zionists fail to grasp is that God promised to gather them back into the land in unbelief. We see this in Ezekiel 36:24-27 where God says this:

“I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”

Notice that the cleansing and spiritual restoration of the Jewish people comes after they have been brought back to their ancient homeland.

In 1948, 5 Islamic nations attacked Israel from 3 different directions on the day after the fledgling state declared independence. Wikipedia says this about that war:

“In May, Egyptian generals told their government that the invasion would be “a parade without any risks” and Tel Aviv would be taken ‘in two weeks.’ Egypt, Iraq, and Syria all possessed air forces, Egypt and Syria had tanks, and all had some modern artillery. Initially, the Haganah (Israeli forces) had no heavy machine guns, artillery, armoured vehicles, anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons, or military aircraft or tanks. The four Arab armies that invaded on May 15 were far stronger than the Haganah formations they initially encountered.”

Vastly outnumbered and with just 3 planes, the Jewish state held off hundreds of enemy planes and tanks and claimed the victory with the help of their ancient God!

In 1956, Egyptian Prime Minister Nasser blockaded the Straits of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba. According to International Law, this was an act of war. Israel attacked the Egyptian forces and gained temporary possession of the entire Sinai Peninsula, as well as taking thousands of prisoners.

In 1967, Syria began shelling Israeli towns in northern Israel, and Egypt massed its forces in the Sinai Peninsula, dismissing the UN peacekeeping forces. Jordan allied with Egypt and ignored Israeli peace overtures. Israel was about to be attacked by three nations from three directions, so they launched a pre-emptive attack. And in just 6 days, they had regained the West Bank and Jerusalem from Jordan and were at the outskirts of Cairo! Even the secular Jews of Israel could see the hand of God in the phenomenal success of the IDF!

In 1973, Egypt and Syria surprised Israel with an attack on Judaism’s most holy holiday, Yom Kippur. This war lasted about a month and ended with the encirclement of Egypt’s 3rd army and Israeli forces deep in Syrian territory!

I will skip over the first and second wars in Lebanon, but I think you see the pattern. The Jewish people are in the land to stay because God is faithful! The current war started by the slaughter of 1,200 innocents by Hamas is no exception. It has resulted in enemy deaths 25 times the number of Jewish deaths! Hamas is nearly destroyed, as is Hezbollah in the north!

Fast-forward to 2025. The modern-day Persians (Iranians) are within weeks of building an arsenal of at least 6 nuclear bombs with which they plan to exterminate the Jews. Haven’t they read the Book of Esther? Their ancestors tried to do the same thing and were defeated by the hand of Israel’s God. Haven’t they studied the history of Israel since 1948? The lessons of history seem forever lost on the enemies of God!

Possibly within the next month (or week?) Yahweh will once again use Israel to bring about a terrible judgment upon the enemies of His people. Bible students and Middle-Eastern historians will be shaking their heads and exclaiming once again, “They’ll never learn!”

Here is what we have learned from the pages of history:

God is faithful to His promises even when His people are living in sin and unbelief! But why should this surprise us? The Lord has already told us this in 2 Tim. 2:13.

“If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.”

In the history of modern-day Israel, we can see this truth demonstrated over and over again. As a Jewish believer in Yeshua, the Messiah, it thrills me on two counts. The first is the obvious reality that God still has future plans for His Jewish people. They have not been “replaced” by the Gentile church. In the passage quoted from Ezekiel above, we can certainly see that verse 24 has already been literally fulfilled. Logically, it follows that verses 25-27 will be literally fulfilled as well!

The second reason for my excitement is this: Just as God has kept His promises to sinful Israel, His “first-born son” (Ex. 4:22), He will also keep His promises to His adopted son (the Church) who also still struggles with sin! If God would cancel His promises to Israel on the basis of their unfaithfulness, we ourselves would have no guarantee of avoiding the cancellation of His promises on the basis of our unfaithfulness! But God is not a promise-breaker! Praise the Lord!!

So brothers and sisters, if you are struggling with sin and heavy-laden, be greatly encouraged! The history of modern-day Israel shows us clearly that God keeps His promises even to the unfaithful. It has to be so because He cannot deny His integrity and faithfulness. Lift up your heads and give Him thanks! And someday soon, possibly this Spring, when you hear of the destruction of Iran’s evil purposes, rejoice that the God of Israel holds you in His hand and His heart as well!

(is53@att.net)

We Are Killing the Local Church :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10

Isaiah 4:1

“And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, ‘We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.'”

I had a conversation with my brother just a few days ago, and we chatted about the lack of dating even in the Lord’s churches. The conversation was sparked from a chat about AI and his belief that soon, many men will simply turn to AI for their needs from a woman. There is a trend happening right now where men are simply not approaching women to date them. Over and over, there are stories of women in clubs, even on dating apps, and there is simply no interest.

One of the things we discussed is how there are organized ‘mixers’ for single men and women to meet, and there will be 20+ ladies showing up, and just a few men, 4 or 5, will turn up. And even then, there is little to no interaction. He mentioned that even in his local church, where there are many single young women and men, there is so little interaction it is scary.

The family is the foundation of a society and, as such, the foundation of the local church. Over the past 5+ decades, we have told young women that a career is more important than family; it is not enough to be a wife and mother; one must have a degree, a career, and make something of one’s self before settling down.

The same people did not remind women that the chance of getting pregnant past 35 years old is very slim, and thus, the chance to be a mother is slim. They get to that 30+ mark, the normal needs to be a wife and mother begin to scream, and they want a man, but it is often too late. Right now, 21% of women between 30-49 are single, and 29% between 50-64 are single. The overall sex ratio for unmarried adults in the U.S. is about 90 men per 100 women; the 30-to-34 age group had the highest ratio at nearly 121 men to 100 women in the U.S. A study from 2023 shows that 57% of singles are not looking to date at all. In 2021, a study showed that 52% of American women were single or separated. This is astonishing.

How does this impact our churches? Well, we know that when a home is spiritually led by the dad, over 90% of them follow the Lord and stay in church. This drops significantly with women-led homes. I do not care how often you knock on doors or do revivals and crusades; no manner of outreach has a 90% success rate. The only one that works like this is the family. So, when our young people put off marriage for school and education or for simply fun and a life with no commitments, churches die, and they die very quickly. The lifeblood of a local church is the family.

We are told here in Isaiah that there will come a time when women will ask one man to marry them; 7 of them will provide their own resources and simply need to be married. God put in us the need to be married. No matter what color, creed, culture, or background, there is a need to marry, to procreate, and the sex drive is there in all people.

Sadly, even in our churches, we have an epidemic of sexless marriages. In contrast, even in our churches, we have an epidemic of pre-marital sex with those who are dating. But men, many of them, are not seeking out women. They are too afraid of losing everything they worked for: their homes, money, and wealth. They are too afraid of having to care for another man’s children, as many single women come with kids nowadays. They would be paying the bills but have no say and no authority. This happens; I see it a lot.

Here in North America, we lied to young women, and the churches drank the Kool-Aid and told our young people to do everything but start a family. Every study and every metric tells us that married women with children are the happiest in North America. But the evil system of the Devil, who knew that 90% of kids born into Christian homes would follow Jesus, sold us a bill of goods, and we paid for it with our churches dying, our young people miserable, single, selfish, and living in sin.

AI will never replace real women. Pornography will never replace real women. Careers will never replace the joy of being a loving wife and mother. Single men make less than married men in general. And when a dad leads the home, not only do churches live, thrive, and grow, but society is better: less crime, fewer prisoners, less teenage pregnancy, fewer school dropouts, and fewer suicides. It is so hard to speak the truth; one sounds like an alien trying to communicate with earthlings. But the truth has not changed: men need women, women need men, children need both parents, and men need to work hard to provide for their families and lead their families to serve the Lord.

The fastest way to grow and sustain a church is for young men and women in that church to marry and to be fruitful and multiply. This is sustained growth; this is not to diminish the need for evangelism and outreach, far from it. Rather, a youthful church has both the able bodies and the able energy to go out and reach the lost. Kids are the lifeblood of a church. We need to find a way to get our young men and women marrying young once again and then having lots of babies.

The time will come when the single women will wish they had a man. I see a lot of them lamenting online. We have money and education, we are beautiful, and yet no men seem to want us. What did we miss? We forgot that there are no such things as independent men or women. God said it is not good for us to be alone. We need marriage, and we need to be sexually active in our marriages. Our children need to see mom and dad touching, kissing, wooing, and loving. Look at how God views marriage:

Proverbs 18:22– “He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favor from the Lord.”

Proverbs 19:14 – “Houses and wealth are inherited from parents, but a prudent wife is from the Lord.”

Hebrews 13:4 – “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

There are more verses. It looks to me as if God wants us to marry, have kids, and produce more and more people for the Kingdom. But to do that, we have to stop running our churches under the lies of society and follow Biblical rules. What a novel idea!

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church

70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario