Resurrection!

One of the privileges of my life has been to visit the Garden Tomb, just outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls. Catholics believe Jesus’s tomb is inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I believe it is what is known as “Gordon’s Calvary,” after the site was discovered in the 19^th century by a British officer.

Tranquility is the word of the day in this park-like setting. The lush foliage also leads a visitor to the “Place of the Skull,” Golgotha, nearby.

The limestone tomb, cut out of solid rock, contains a low bench, where the body would have been placed. The Gospel accounts fit this location, as one has to stoop to enter the door. There is also a low, rock boundary across the front, which could easily hold a stone to seal it.

Visitors are able to take communion nearby, and I’ve been struck during my visits to see all nationalities and ethnicities gather to worship the Risen Lord. Truly, His sacrifice is available to all.

There are many reasons to love the Bible, to love the Jewish people, to love Israel. Chief among them is the Good News of Jesus Christ, the One True God, the Creator God. He willingly obeyed His Father and died a gruesome death in order for us to be saved.

I have also stood on the Temple Mount, the place where the curtain was torn from top to bottom upon Jesus’s death on the Cross. That signaled that man now had access to God directly, and no longer had to sacrifice animals. The best thing from that view is gazing across the Kidron Valley, knowing that one day soon, He will appear again on Earth, returning to the same spot he ascended to heaven 2,000 years ago.

If you have received His gift of eternal life, there is no better feeling this weekend. Make sure you share your good news with someone that needs it.

The older I get, the more I anticipate seeing Jesus. We are living in dangerous times; you know that. Israel is once again faced with a hostile U.S. administration. We are close to a Beast system, one in which “free” citizens are faced with a forced vaccine if one wants to fly anywhere. All sorts of things are happening that aren’t good.

But as Spurgeon said, Christian, you have a God in whom you may greatly glory. Let the times roll on. They cannot affect our God.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

www.thegodthatanswers.com

Pollard

It’s difficult to read. A new interview with Jonathan Pollard (convicted of spying against the U.S. for Israel) in Israel Hayom is gut-wrenching.

For the record, I think it’s despicable that the U.S. kept Pollard in prison for decades. And it began under Ronald Reagan’s watch. I am rethinking some of our “heroes” of the past. I wonder if Israel had any real friends in Washington until Trump. Even Harry Truman, the man that recognized the new state of Israel in 1948, had married an anti-Semite. Bess Truman’s prohibition of Jews in her home was repulsive.

Anyway, Pollard was released from prison, finally, a few years ago. He and his long-suffering wife, Esther, now live in Jerusalem.

Look, I love my country, first. I am a patriotic American. But I also have a spiritual allegiance to Israel. I am disgusted by how the Americans treated Pollard.

When he knew he was caught, he tried to take refuge at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. He was not allowed entrance and finally told a guard, “Just shoot me.” Pollard understood the dark world of espionage and he knew what likely awaited him in prison.

A succession of U.S. presidents refused to pardon him. Let them be marked by that for eternity.

He was finally released in 2015, but had to remain in the U.S. for a time. I also remember back during the negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians in 1998, Benjamin Netanyahu was promised by Bill Clinton that Pollard would be on a return flight with him home to Israel.

Clinton lied again.

Pollard and his wife never had children, never had the life together they should have. All because he fed Israeli intelligence critical intelligence about the Arabs, targeting Israel. He did not sell-out America, but various career officials kept him in prison.

He has a very telling comment in the interview that sheds light on where Israel will end up prophetically:

“Pollard says that when people wax poetic about Israel’s ‘great friends, the Americans,’ he tells them that friendships don’t last forever.”

Do you see? Eventually the biblical promises that Israel will end up alone, save for her Savior, are all true.

Read that interview. It is chilling. It will change what you thought you knew about the American-Israel relationship.

I’m glad Pollard is free now. I hope his last years are peaceful and prosperous. His wife is undergoing cancer treatments.

Pray for Jonathan and Esther Pollard.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

www.thegodthatanswers.com