Savages

More murder has occurred against Jews in their ancestral homeland this week.

Still waiting for a proper solution to the problem.

Near the Dolev community—not Afghanistan or Iraq—Palestinian animals planted a sophisticated IED near where a family was hiking. Once the family got near, the terrorists detonated the device, killing the teenage daughter and maiming her father and brother.

According to the Times of Israel:

“The two villages are located near Ein Bubin, a natural spring where an explosive device detonated Friday as three members of the Shnerb family from the central Israeli town of Lod were visiting.

“The teenage daughter, Rina, 17, was pronounced dead at the scene. Her father, Eitan, a rabbi in Lod, and her brother Dvir, 19, were taken by military helicopter to a Jerusalem hospital in serious condition.

“The army said an improvised explosive device was used in the attack. Police sappers determined that the bomb had been planted earlier at the spring and was triggered remotely when the family approached it.”

Still have sympathy for the Palestinians? The entire culture has been raised on hate for generations. I call once again for the population to be moved elsewhere in the Middle East, either the Sinai or eastern Saudi Arabia.

Anywhere but Israel.

Lest you think I don’t care about the Palestinians, I am also mourning the loss of two teenage Palestinian lives sacrificed to their god of terrorism. As is the case with terrorist organizations, two teenagers were dispatched (why don’t Hamas leaders carry out these attacks?) with knives to Jerusalem’s Old City.

I’ve been to the area many times, at the gate to the Temple Mount. Here last week, two 14-year-old boys stabbed a policeman. One boy was shot and killed while the other was mortally wounded. They had names:

Naseem Mukafah Abu Rumi and Hamoudeh Khader al-Sheikh.

The boys were members of the Jerusalem branch of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).

How horrific, repulsive and unthinkable.

There will be no end to this carnage until terrorist groups in the region are dismantled and destroyed completely. Not likely to happen.

Remember the Canaanites? God told the Israelites to utterly destroy them, but they didn’t. The dark spirit of that civilization continues to this moment (although, unlike the delusional and murderous Abu Mazen, I don’t believe the Palestinians are descended from the Canaanites).

Most people recoil at the thought of population transfer. Even many of my Israeli friends would recoil at the thought.

But guess what? I’d rather see that happen than hear about another Jew being murdered in her rightful homeland. I also look forward to the day when Palestinian eighth graders are not sent to their certain deaths by the demons that control them.

Down with the Palestinian leadership, at all levels. Let other Arab countries manage the Palestinians for a couple hundred years, in hopes they will turn from savagery and learn to live like civilized people.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

 

Sampson Needs Some Strength

Word comes that another Christian celebrity “leader” is teetering on the edge of apostasy.

Marty Sampson, worship leader for Hillsong, recently posted on Instagram that he is losing his faith. He just issued another statement clarifying, saying that his faith now is on “incredibly shaky ground.”

First and last for this week’s Israel Watch: pray fervently for Marty Sampson!

His Instagram post said that he is “struggling with many parts of the belief system that seem so incoherent with common human morality.

“If most of humankind had a choice, would we not rid the world of the scourge of cancer? Or sickness and disease? Why doesn’t God do such a thing? Of course there is an answer to this question, but the majority of a typical Christian’s life is not spent considering these things. Questions such as these remain in the too hard basket.”

He’s asking questions everyone asks. All this recalls, for me at least, Mark 4:

“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings, and they yielded no crop. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it sprouted, grew up, and produced a crop—one bearing thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, and another a hundredfold. Then Jesus said, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’”

I note all this for you this week because as usual, the very good apologetic of Bible prophecy is being ignored for the most part.

Sampson has posted quotes from believers and skeptics/agnostics. Among the believers/apologists, he’s mentioned folks like William Lane Craig. He is fairly famous in his field.

My issue with Craig is that he compromises on the origins accounts of Genesis, and he is not a Bible prophecy guy. He will make intellectual arguments and while I’m sure some come to faith through his work, I wouldn’t trust my eternal state to it.

Sampson also quotes the diabolical Bart Ehrman, a professor at North Carolina, whose own journey from faith to unbelief is well documented. He is particularly popular with Millennials.

“I have and continue to analyze the arguments of prominent Christian apologists and biblical scholars, and am open minded enough to consider the arguments of atheist debaters and debaters from other religions. If the truth is true, it will remain so regardless of my understanding of it. If I search it out, surely it will become even more clearly seen as the truth that it is. Examining a diamond more closer reveals the quality of the diamond. As I am still breathing, I am still learning.”

Yes, he is still breathing. Pray with all you have that someone will reach out to him with the remarkable story of Israel’s national resurrection. Pray that the Lord will be merciful to him and put the astonishing record of predictive prophecy in his path.

I am passionate about this approach to apologetics, especially among young people. However, let’s not minimize its effectiveness with people of any age or background. I have had these conversations with Muslims in Jerusalem, Buddhists in Chicago, and New Agers in Southern California.

Israel is a spiritual lighthouse out there in a sea of evil. The devil wants our faith shipwrecked. We have a sure word to bring to those doubting the claims of Christ. Christ Himself is the very embodiment, literally of Truth. He is the spirit of prophecy.

Do you have someone in your life like Marty Sampson? A granddaughter? A nephew? Son? Daughter?

There are so many! I implore you to get out there among them and use your Bible to point out the truth of Christ’s claims. The story of Israel is, I believe, bullet-proof when it comes to this issue.

Souls are at stake.

As my friends like Todd and Terry know—as we discuss often—Jesus is coming very soon.

I want Marty Sampson to go with us.

Jim1fletcher@yahoo.com