The Passover Massacre: Bible Prophecy Sign?

It was aimed against families. There were absolutely no military targets in the Seaside Hotel dining room. Neither were there expected to be. The dining room had been booked for Passover, as it is every year, for families; fathers, mothers, children. They were the targets -- not collateral damage. alt

It was aimed at the God of Israel. The Passover seder is a feast day that literally revolves around a feast. The Passover meal caps the remembrance of God's miraculous delivery of the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt. The ten plagues, the Passover Lamb, the Angel of Death passing over the homes of the Hebrews are all solemnly remembered.

It was aimed at children. As the families gathered, Abdelbaset Odeih walked in and blew himself up. Everyone around him was instantly vaporized. Forty-eight people suffered serious wounds. Said one survivor, "The face of the little girl was so nice, it was as if she was surprised - big, big open eyes - but surely dead."

"Everyone agrees, here a certain line was crossed. And things won't be the same as they were before," Emmanuel Mahshon, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official, said. "It is possible that we will have to change drastically the rules of the game."

Arafat has evidently decided to go for broke and conduct an all out war against Israel. The Arab summit split over Arafat's address via satellite. Lebanon refused to allow him to speak live. Half the Arab League boycotted the meeting. The split is between those Arab states ready for war and those who oppose it.

The Israelis believe Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah cancelled their scheduled appearances at the Arab summit at the last minute after learning of the war plans. The two Arab leaders reportedly were warned of possible assassination plots against them if they attended.

Israeli intelligence also believes Iran, Iraq and Syria are backing Arafat and pressuring him to scuttle all attempts at a ceasefire. Arafat has pledges of direct military support from these countries in the event of war.

At the summit, Syrian President Bashar Assad called for the immediate severing of all Arab ties with Israel.

Syria's puppet in Lebanon, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, said the cause of a wider regional conflict is really US peace efforts. He complained of “foreign pressure” being applied to halt the violent uprising before it achieves its goals of forcing Israel out of territories captured in 1967.

And, if further evidence is required to prove we are living in a time in which events of Biblical proportions grow increasingly routine, the Reverend Jesse Jackson has offered to settle the 4,000 year-old conflict and save General Zinni from embarrassing failure. As soon as he finishes his lawsuit to settle a 200 year-old slavery dispute. But I digress.

The US war against international terror will last for decades, according to General Franks. That sets the stage for decades of continued international tension, shifting alliances and disinformation campaigns from all sides. The last six months are merely the first six months of a New Reality.

Iraq seems intent on self-immolation. If not as a consequence of past terror, then maybe as a consequence of war with Israel. Pressuring Arafat to start a general Middle East war all but guarantees the fulfillment Jeremiah 51:26 "And they shall not take of thee [historical Babylon - modern Iraq] a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD."

Syria is also playing with fire, literally, according to Scripture. Damascus, historically speaking, is the longest continously-inhabited city in the world. But Isaiah 17:1 says, "The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap." This prophecy remains unfulfilled.

The Passover Massacre 'changed the rules of the game' for Israel, and that means the rules have changed across the board. Syria, Iraq and Lebanon believe they can do serious damage to Israel before the UN steps in and halts the conflict in place. They are gambling that the Arabs will hold the territorial advantage and can reverse the tables on Israel.

The stakes are high; higher than in any previous Arab-Israeli war. Syria and Iraq have massive chemical and biological arsenals. Both have missiles tipped with unconventional warheads containing both biological and chemical agents pointed at Israel.

The Israelis have officially admitted, for the first time, to having a nuclear weapons arsenal. In total, foreign intelligence estimates agree it contains at least four hundred warheads.

The Israelis have developed special weapons, nicknamed mini-nukes and micro-nukes, specifically designed for conflict in the confined areas of the Middle East. It is an iron-clad certainty that Israel will use them if the Arabs attack using unconventional weapons.

It is anticipated that Israel will mount a massive response to the Passover massacre. Whether that response will trigger a full-scale Middle East war remains to be scene.

But it is clear that the Bible has some unfinished business with Damascus and Baghdad/Babylon. It will happen, exactly as the Bible said. Maybe not not. But for the first time, both scenarios are a distinct strategic possibility.

That these are the last days grows more apparent with each passing day. This weekend, Christians celebrate the Resurrection.

During the Easter season, we commemorate the price paid by Jesus Christ on the Cross and His resurrection on the third day.

Jesus went to the Cross to procure a pardon for sin available to any who seek it. Sin is a debt that must be paid to be canceled. Jesus paid that debt at the Cross. John wrote this eyewitness account at the Cross. "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost." [John 19:30] "It is finished." John chose the Greek word "tetelestai" [it is finished], the word that was stamped upon a paid contract, meaning 'paid in full'. Jesus paid for our sins in full. He purchased our unconditional Pardon for our sins.

That Pardon, marked 'tetelestai' over your name is waiting for you in Heaven. All you need do is claim it. Simply bow your head, and pray a simple prayer.

Something like, "Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and that the penalty for my sin is Hell. I believe You died and were buried and rose again to pay for my sin. Please forgive me. Come into my heart and save me and take me to heaven when I die."

Words aren't as important and meaning. If you but ask in faith, you are forgiven, clean, and clothed in His righteousness.

If you haven't received your free gift of pardon, now is the time. The Bible is true. The evidence of that is all around us.

God says, "For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.' Ezekiel 18:32

"One thing that IS in the Bible is this: any one who does anything to harm a Jew will be paid back.."

You're entitled to your beliefs, but here's the way I would word it: "Anyone who harms God's people (His Church) will regret it.". (The New Testament people of God [the regenerate] include both Jews and Gentiles).

Jerry Falwell sent out this message on March 28, 2002: “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you” (Psalm 121:6).

Not that we shouldn't pray for Isreal, we should, but Falwell has *a specific reason* for why he wants people to pray for Isreal *specifically*. He subscribes to one of the flavors of a newly concocted (1830) biblical interpretation by John Nelson Darby (The Plymouth Brethren sect) known as "dispensationalism".

In other words, he doesn't believe (with the historic Christian church) that what Jerusalem was for the Isrealites (Old testament), --- THE CHURCH is to the believer (New Testament).

This was posted last year by another FReeper, and in case you missed it, and are interested, here it is again:

"While the pre-tribulational, pre-millennial dispensationalist scheme has certaily caught in American Christianity, vis. Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye's popularizing (Late Great Planet Earth; Left Behind serial offerings), and within the 20th century promoted on a more scholarly basis by Lewis Chafer and Dallas Seminary and others, who in turn took it from C.I. Scofield and his Scofield Study Bible, it is a novel view of eschatology. A novel view that is having less and less support among even some dispensationalists...

It is not based upon historic Reformational theology in any sense, and is completely at odds with covenantal Reformed theology. Point of fact, it was *never* taught, believed, or even hinted at, by anyone in the historic Christian faith.

John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren (circa A.D. 1830s) literally invented it, though others in the Plymouth Brethren sect certainly contributed to its formulation (e.g., A.N. Groves; B.W. Newton; W.H. Dorman; E. Cronin; and J.G. Bullett). Some dispensationalists chafe at this, but the fact is dispensationalism is a direct product of the Plymouth Brethren movement in England in the early 19th century. It isn't found in the New Testament; it isn't found in the Church fathers; it isn't found in the universal creeds of the historic Church; it isn't found in Augustine; it isn't found in any of the great Reformation creeds and statements of faith; it isn't found in Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, Spurgeon, Dabney, Machen, well, I hope the reader gets the point.

I am not saying it was a minority view, or a hated view, or even considered a heretical view--it simply didn't exist until J.N Darby concocted it in the 1830s.

It didn't exist in any form in the United States until circa 1864; Darby graced the United States with his presence.

Darby so impressed Dr. James Brooks of the 16th and Walnut Avenue Presbyterian Church in St. Louis that Dr. Brooks is considered the "father of American dispensationalism."

One of Dr. Brooks' students was named C.I. Scofield. So, essentially, the historical beginnings may be rightly traced, literally, from JN Darby, to James Brooks, to C.I. Scofield, to Lewis Chafer and subsequently being churned out at Dallas Seminary, founded by Dr. Chafer.

What made it "take off," so to speak? During this circa of history, the American denominations were being heavily corrupted by liberalism, in the wake of Chuck Darwin's philosophical piece, Origins of Species (Darwin wasn't a scientist, but a failed divinity student--his Origins is one of the books that everyone talks about but never reads...it is not a work of science, but is simply the [largely borrowed...] musings of Darwin), and the cultural impact it had.

By 1923, liberalism and historic Christian teaching came to a real confrontation at Princeton Seminary (at one time one of the great defenders of the historic Christian faith). The General Assembly in 1923 resulted in J. Gresham Machen and other scholars from Princeton breaking from the school and forming Westminster Theological Seminary, September 25, 1929. A truly great educational institution.

The Reformed scholars of the school defended historic Christian teaching against the anti-christian liberalism that was taking over much of the American church. The works they published defended the fundamentals of the faith, such as the inspiration of Scripture, the Virgin birth of Christ, the bodily Resurrection, the divinity of Christ and the substitutionary atonement of Christ. Those that held to historic Christian teaching were then labeled "fundamentalists"...

******(it should be carefully noted that these "fundamentalists" should not be equated with or confused with the current dispensationalist fundamentalists, as they are strikingly different, whereas the so-called present-day fundamentalist is typified as being anti-intellectual, anti-historic, anti-creedal, which the great men that fought the liberals in the early 20th century were certainly not any of the above).******

The liberalism of the day made such headway into the mainline denominations that they essentially ceased being Christian when an honest analysis is made of their doctrinal and creedal content; in our day, none of the mainline denominations may be rightly called Christian from a historic, New Testament perspective.

In this horrific state of affairs, came the Scofield Study Bible and the energetic preaching of C.I. Scofield. In response to the major denominations in the U.S. being corrupted by liberalism, the independent church movement began, and with noble purposes to be sure.

Essentially all of the leaders of the early independent church movement were dispensationalists, and the defacto Bible that was used was the Scofield Study Bible.

Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer founded Dallas Seminary in 1924, and while the mainline demonominations were jettisoning the Christian faith, this dispensationalist school was upholding historic doctrines such as the inspiration of Scripture, the deity of Christ, His miracles, the bodily Resurrection, et. al.

The person in the pew didn't want to hear that the Bible was "wrong," and that Jesus--if He ever existed--was just a nice man, deluded, but just a nice man, that miracles are "impossible," and that they were not only not in the image of God, they were simply a quirk, a biological oddity, a product of time and chance--in short, animals, of no more worth or real significance than a dog, or cow, or rat, or slug. In that worldview, Mother Teresa and Adolf Hitler are ultimately the same, as ethics and morals are nothing but the subjective illusion of evolved animals, with the same reward--if anything, Hitler acted more "rationally consistent" with the modern worldview, as he fully believed in evolution and the survival of the fittest. But that is another story, with the present state of American government and public education as monuments to the nihilistic, relativistic worldview they are based upon (that includes both parties, folks--the Republican party is different in degree, not kind, from the Democratic party).

Dallas Seminary filled the void that was left by the abandoning of the Christian faith by the mainline denominations (and as a side note, the cults took advantage of this as their rise took place during the same time period)--Dallas Seminary produced scores of graduates, and these men planted churches all over the United States, Bible-believing churches, and those sickened by the liberalism of the mainline churches flocked to the new dispensational fundamental churches. These churches did preach the Gospel and defend the faith, to their credit.

And here we are today...most conservative churches today are dispensationalist in orientation, and most church goers think it is *the* historic, Bible-believing view of eschatology and hermeneutics, _____which it simply is not_____.

Anyway, that is the historic background to dispensationalism and the Hal Lindsey brand "mark of the best" and the "Left Behind" series. "The Beast" of Revelation was most likely Caesar Nero. "Apocalypse Then" essentially.

Is there going to be another physical Temple rebuilt in Jerusalem? The New Testament clearly states that believers in Christ are the Temple of God; the final view of the physical (carnal) Temple of the Old Covenant nation of the Jews was foretold by Christ to be destroyed; it was, circa A.D. 70.

The kingdom was to be taken from the Jews and given to others; it was, and now the covenant people of God are those that have their faith in Jesus Christ, whether ethnically Jewish or Gentile. National Israel rejected her covenant with God, rejected her Messiah, and ultimately rejected God Himself. There is no special significance to the modern secular state of "Israel," which is [a] utterly contemptous of Christ; [b] is overwhelming atheistic in belief; [c] ethnically, they are German, Polish, English, Romanian, Russian, Turkish, Kazaharian, etc....but biological, lineal descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Biologically doubtful, theological irrelevant as regards New Testament belief.

"The mark of the beast is a counterfeit for the seal of God's name on the saints (7:2-8; 14:1; Ezek, 9). The beast owns those who are marked, and they are his slaves. Speculations about a visible mark miss the main point of the spiritual distinction between the two groups" (New Geneva Study Bible study notes for Rev. 13:16 Thomas Nelson, 1995), p. 2023.

Recommended Sites: HERE and HERE

Also Recommended: Understanding Dispensationalism, by Vern S. Poythress (Zondervan Publishing House).

Origional post HERE: #82 posted on 11/17/01 5:15 PM Pacific by EthanNorth

OPEN/CLOSED

It was on the eight day

Rabbi Yitzchok (Isaac) said: "Why is the á "Beth" open on one side, and closed on the other side"?

He offers the following answer: "When Man comes along in order to unite with the Torah, the open side of the á "Beth" indicates that the Torah is ready to receive him and to participate with him, meaning to co-operate with him".

However, when man closes his eyes and diverts from the Torah, walking away into another path, the Torah then conceals herself from the other side, resembling the right side of the á "Beth".

The following is expressed in Proverbs, thus: THE TORAH SAYS TO MAN: IF YOU WILL FORSAKE ME FOR ONE DAY, I WILL, IN TURN, MOVE AWAY FROM YOU THE DISTANCE OF TWO DAYS. MAN WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FIND HIS ENTRANCE TO THE TORAH UNTIL HE REPENTS AND BECOMES UNITED WITH THE TORAH, FACE TO FACE, AND THUS NOT ALLOW HIMSELF TO BE MOVED FROM THE TORAH ANY MORE.

THEREFORE, THE TORAH CALLS OUT TO MAN: TO YOU, MAN, I AM CALLING: "UNTO YOU, O MAN, I CALL; AND MY VOICE IS TO THE SONS OF MAN. SHE CRIETH IN THE CHIEF PLACE OF CONCOURSE, IN THE OPENING OF THE GATES, IN THE CITY SHE UTTERETH HER WORDS …"

211) Rabbi Yehuda said: The á "Beth" has the Image of two roofs and one line which unites them. We learn from this that one of the roofs points to heaven above, which is "Z.A"; whereas the other points toward the earth, which is "Malchut" (Kingdom). The Creator, who is "Yesod" (Foundation) is united with them and is receiving them.

Rabbi Elozor said: The first three upper lights are holy, that is, they are the three pillars which constitute one unity and make up the whole Torah. It is they who open the doors to all treasures, meaning that they bestow bounty to the "Emoonoh" ("Malchut").

The three pillars" house everything, which explains why they are called "House". It is because they are the three pillars of the "Beth", which refer to the three pillars relating to "Z.A". Thus, the three pillars are a house.

This is why the Torah begins with the letter á "Beth"; for the á "Beth" is actually the Torah and she is the healing balm of the world. Therefore, laboring in the Torah is tantamount to being occupied with the Holy Name.

212) We have learned that the whole Torah is actually an Upper Holy Name. Hence, inasmuch as the Torah is a Holy Name, she begins with the letter "Beth", which is the principle of the Holy Name; that is to say: The á "Beth" consists of the three letters called å "Vov".

The three "Vovin" of the initial letters of the three words "Vayiso", "Vayovey" and "Vayeit", which symbolize the three "Vovs" of pillars of "Z.A", constitute the three ties that bestow upon the "Emoonoh" ("Malchut").

213) Behold, all those who labor in the Torah are uniting with the Maker, and are crowned with the crowns of the Torah. They are beloved above and below.

GOD, stretches out His right hand to them, which is the light of "Chessed", (Mercy).

http://kabbalah-web.org/engkab/zohar/207.htm

http://kabbalah-web.org/engkab/zohar/index_zohar.htm

BEIT: The Mashiach will close the open side--The integration of free will and Omniscience.

http://www.inner.org/HEBLETER/bet.htm

Isaiah 22:22
The key of the house of David I will lay on his shoulder; So he shall open, and no one shall shut; And he shall shut, and no one shall open.
Rev. 3:7

The three pillars which constitute one unity and make up the whole Torah. It is they who open the doors to all treasures, meaning that they bestow bounty to the "Emoonoh" ("Malchut").
The three pillars" house everything, which explains why they are called "House". It is because they are the three pillars of the "Beth", which refer to the three pillars relating to "Z.A". Thus, the three pillars are a house.

The Beit (Beth) is the first letter of the Torah, and since Hebrew is read right to left everything else proceeds from the house!

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