Posted on 08/13/2005 1:43:17 AM PDT by American in Israel
Blessings to my fellow Freepers.
I have been a long time poster here on Freeper, but normally I always stay in the Foreign Affairs section. So much news, so little time. But this time, while I am still posting about my experience in Israel, my subject is eschatology, or the study of final prophetic events of the end of this age.
For thousands of years prophecy's in the Bible have sat on the pages like little kitchen clocks, wound up tight and frozen in place. No ticking, no action, just a paper weight. For many generations they have been knick-naks of curiosity for us to ponder over and set back in place when frankly, they do nothing. They are fun to talk about, but cannot hold interest long because they just do not apply to our lives much.
Much of the Bible is doctrine, and teaches us how to live in a right place with our Creator. Much of the bible is History which teaches us a different thing, not doctrine but what life is like. But part of that history is prophecy, not of the past, but of the future. God is timeless and omnipresent. So God when he tells us prophecy, does not tell us what He wants, He simply tells us what happened then.
This is a very significant time in Biblical History. This as in today, this Saturday, this week. This is a day that was written about in those little kitchen clock prophecies that you and I have played with, but frankly ignored more often than not. When is the last time you read from the Prophets in the Bible?
Imagine my shock last year when I discovered that many of the little kitchen decorations sitting on the shelf for a couple of thousand years have suddenly sprung to life and have been ticking in the empty kitchen of my Old Testament Bible study?
It is not that one is ticking, but many suddenly are!
For example Isaiah 14:29-32 and Zephniah 2. Long dormant, from the day of their birth, their little dials are moving now, and the ominous sound ticking is reverberating in that empty room. Today is an important day, a day of the next ratcheting click is upon us once again.
This Saturday is the evening of the Sabbath before the 9th of Av on the Hebrew calendar. This is an important day in History, a day of disaster that affects the world. It is the day of the destruction of both temples, a day of the beginning of the Spanish Inquistion, a day of the beginning of the World Wars in Europe. It is the day of the beginning of the expulsion of the Jews from their land by the United States of America. It is a day of infamy, of disaster and of historical shifts of the mega sort.
This day of the year is a traditional fast of mourning for the Jewish people, and may just become a day of mourning for the United States. People often say to me they do not see the United States in prophecy for some strange reason. There is a reason for that. One, they are looking in the wrong places, and two, because where it is listed it is not for good, but for bad.
In Isaiah 14, a puzzle is placed, a keyhole to the prophecy that you must find the exact key to fit. Once that lock is unlocked, the clock begins to count down to the destruction of the Palestinians. Not a normal destruction, but a complete wipeout from the Hand of God. This puzzle, or key hole is simply put like this:
Isaiah 14:28 This is the burden which came in the year that King Ahaz died.
Isaiah:29 "Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, Because the rod that struck you is broken; For out of the serpent's roots will come forth a viper, And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.
Let me translate this into a key.
King Ahaz died over 200 years after King David conquered the Philistines in the area of Gaza and annexed their land into his kingdom. Nobody had seen a living Philistine for generations when this prophecy came, and to this day we know virtually nothing about their fishing villages in this area as they were effectively wiped from the earth. There is very little remains of them even for archeologists. We do know that they were a Greek colony of people and that they were worshipers of Baal. We do not know what became of them.
This is very significant, as the Prophecy could not have meant the Philistines of Ancient times as when this prophecy was given, there were none. It has to be a prophecy of a modern race of people claiming to be Philistia.
Like the Palestinians, who pronounce it Falistia, as in Arabic they do not have a P sound. They may not be able to pronounce it, but they claim to be it. Funny huh?
Now we have defined the location of the lock, let us define the key.
The area of Palestine was always a backwater nomans land since the Islamic Horde wiped out the remnants of Israel's culture 1400 years ago. Nobody set up a kingdom there, it was always just a place, not a state. The Arabs, Christians and Jews that lived there were subject to various Kings and rulers, that changed like the tide, but none chose to live there or set up a kingdom there. Who would? It was an economically depressed land that barely supported the people that sustenance farmed its hot and unforgiving landscape. It was always ruled from afar, as a very poorly producing tax land by distant rulers.
That changed in the early days of the Nazi Empire. A local clan leader united the Arabs under the Nazi flag and became known as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. He set up a kingdom on the coattails of Hitler pronouncing unity in the goal of extermination of the Jews.
He was a harsh task master to the Arabs, living with a Nazi king is always so I suspect. But he whipped the Arabs into some semblance of unity. A unity that was not shattered when his rule was broken by the British in their victory over Hitler at the end of the war and the formation of the State of Israel.
29 "Do not rejoice, all you of Philistia, Because the rod that struck you is broken..
And the timer, for the first time in over 2500 years ticked.
That Rod, was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and who he struck was that people, the Arab immigrants to the historical land of Israel. They were to be united again under the nephew of the Grand Mufti within one generation. His name was Yassar Arafat.
The word for Rod in Hebrew is Shevet, it is also used for Tribe. The rulers of the "Falistia" were a tribe from the Egyptian conquest. So both meanings of the word are in play, it is a pun, son. Who says God has no sense of humor?
For out of the serpent's roots will come forth a viper,
And the timer ticked again…
The Hebrew word for serpent is nahash, it simply means snake. But the word for viper is the word sefaph, it means a poisonous snake.
Yassar Arafat proved to indeed be a poisonous snake. It was he who invented modern terrorism as a State sponsored ideal. It was he who founded the death squad in Arab controlled lands here that execute any political opposition in public torture sessions. It was he who changed the living standard from then thousand a month (80% of the wages of his Jewish neighbors) to an average barely a thousand dollars a month. And it was he who crushed the people under an iron boot of multiple terrorist police forces battling for supremacy under his unforgiving rule.
Life became much harder under the hand of this ruler. And the next generation of Palestinians grew up in Arafat's schools, being trained from birth to be bomb fuses for Jihad, and being trained that the land they never owned, and the cities they never built was actually theirs and worth dying for. But, he, like all dictators eventually do, died.
And its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent.
And the clock ticked the third time.
This time there is no successor from the root of the Rod or Tribe, the offspring of Arafat is the present government forming under the careful hand of President Bush from the ruins of the terrorist regime of Arafat. It is forming in a democratic way, the violently abused "Falistia" fresh from the mind numbing Jihad factories called schools. America my friends, pays for the books in those schools. The victims of those brainwashing factories are voting in Hamas and Fatah, the two most notorious terrorist groups in the Middle-East. Fatah who founded terrorism, and Hamas, who spread it through the West.
While we gave them democracy, we placed them under terrorist leaders, for it was America who insisted that Arafat be given rule and reign over the Arabs of Palestine when he was defeated in his bid for a kingdom in Lebanon. A bid that lead to the slaughter of over 100,000 Arab Lebanese.
The Hebrew words translated as fiery flying serpent here is literally flying viper with a side picture of demonic power. And demonic it is, for Hamas has instituted a Taliban like rule in Gaza that puts Afghanistan to shame. Instead of a trail and public execution, the roaming Hamas thugs make Islamic Fatwas on the spot and slaughter any passerby's that are deemed not Islamic enough.
Such was the fate a couple of months ago of a young betrothed couple walking together on a public beach downtown Gaza City. They had the grooms young sister as a escort, as a young couple are not allowed to be unescorted by a family member according to the social rules of Islam. This was on a public beach in the main city mind you, not some private place. Hamas ruled on the spot that the young sister was not enough escort and informed the couple of the fact by four of them emptying their AK47's into the bride to be. They then beat her remains to a pulp with bats and iron pipes and then continued on to hospitalize the groom and his little sister.
Truly, the Palestinians live with a dragon as a ruler now.
This key clearly unlocks the timer on this prophecy, and the next step is the complete destruction of the Palestinian Arabs.
First a promise to the Christian Arabs, a people who are rarely spirit filled and rather bitter towards the Jews due to being raised and steeped in this bitter regime of Islamic rulers. But a people most oppressed of any in this dark area of the world. For the Islamic's hate the Christians most of all as the Jews are all dead or gone.
Isaiah 14:30 The firstborn of the poor will feed, And the needy will lie down in safety;
But then the next part chills the blood:
I will kill your roots with famine, And it will slay your remnant.
The first born will be saved, but the families will be destroyed. Even among the poor there will be few survivors, but among the Muslims?
31 Wail, O gate! Cry, O city! All you of Philistia are dissolved; For smoke will come from the north, And no one will be alone in his appointed times."
This phrase speaks in Hebrew of appointments in the smoke, and there will be no loners without appointments in it. That appointment is destruction and the smoke? Well remember that God appeared as a column of fire by night and a cloud or SMOKE by day.
God Himself may be coming to destroy them.
But the most chilling statement in the whole prophecy for Americans, the pushers of this "Roadmap to Peace" that demands that Israel surrender the land given to them by God, is the last line:
Isaiah 14:32 What will they answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD has founded Zion, And the poor of His people shall take refuge in it.
When this all goes south as it clearly will with the destruction of the Palestinians, What will be said to the Nation that pushed this plan on Israel and its innumerable Condis' and Powels and Generals and diplomats serving the hard line?
That the land of Israel is founded by God, for His people, not the political solutions of a Nation that has no right force the land to be given to others.
This my friends is a rebuke to America that we will ignore to our peril.
I have found this search capacity to be a great help in finding exactly where in the Bible are the wonderful Scriptures that roll around in my head.
Click here to go to the site...
If you find it helpful, you might want to share it with friends.
Thanks, I tend to use the http://www.blueletterbible.org/ I have never heard of the one you listed. Blessings from Jerusalem
Blessing to Jerusalem from here in the South.
THANKS.
I hate BIBLE GATEWAY's search functions since they revised the site.
American in Israel said **Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. Lamentations...**
You said **lol. isn't that from Ecclesiastes?**
Hey, he's obviously well educated, but nobody down here is perfect. :)
You got that right. Blessings on ya.
To Quix and All: Maybe a bit off topic, but received this in email and found it to be moving and edifying.
This is from a pastor in Kitwe Zambia.
The Importance of Relationships
Stephen Mwakibinga
August 5, 2005
Many things that we call relationships are nothing more than convenience. We have hirelings, employees, running mates, partners but few become real relationships. Relationships are the bonds which grow as we walk together, talk together, and also dwell together.
What holds people together in ministry? There are at least three things.
1. It takes agreement
Amos asks, "Can two walk together unless they are in agreement?" (Amos 3:3). It takes agreement, it takes a common vision. They must agree to walk together. What do they agree on? They must agree on the destination, they must agree on the issues that bring them together.
2. It takes peace
It is not just a common vision, and agreement. David shows us this. "The men of Benjamin and Judah came to David at the stronghold. And David went out to meet them and answered them and said to them, "If you have come peaceably to me to help me." " (1 Chr. 12:16).
It takes peace. Shalom is blessing given by God when two dwell in unity. (Psalm 133:1-3).
3. It takes honour
The third element is honour. To walk together and stay together, there needs to be an honouring of one another. Abishai was honoured more than all the others, and as a result he became the leader of the Three, and the head of the army (1 Chr. 11:21).
Every relationship will be tried and tested.
David had many people around his life. He had counselors, advisors, captains and chiefs. His family came with him to Adullam, his mighty men followed him through to Ziklag. But in Psalm 38:11 he laments, "My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from my plague, and my relatives stand afar off". There are times when we are down, when things have turned against us and are not going our way. Do we have "fair weather" friends? People who only abide when it goes well with us - then they are not real friends.
Does your plague, do your wounds drive them away? True friends stand by you through thick and thin, and if you are wounded, they will bring the balm of healing to you. How troublesome it is when all flee us in our time of trouble.
"Many good things are found in bad places"
You can find many treasures behind enemy lines. When David was thirsty and hungry he had some very faithful friends. They heard him cry for water, they broke through enemy lines and pursued water for David (1 Chr. 11:17). They risked their lives for him. These are true friends, who will risk something for you, who will endure pain on your behalf. There is no reward for them, except to see you happy.
"All good things will be tested by fire"
Every good thing that you find, every good relationship will be tested by circumstances and fire. Jesus is a wise master builder, and He tells us we are going to see testing (1 Cor. 3:11). Not every relationship is going to stand the test of time. Some will be burned away, and you will need to let them go.
God builds in three ways.
Rick Godwin has made this statement, "God will build revelationally, God will build relationally, and God will build generationally".
It takes a revelation to bring people together,especially if they meet when you are down, or "plagued". It took a revelation to call Nathaniel to Jesus. Jonathan had a revelation that David would be the next king and he would not. Even two people courting will be "struck" by one another and fall in love. They will have their eyes opened, and see the beauty and cherish each other.
God will build relationally. The only things that are going to last are built on love, not convenience; on commitment not on want or need. Love expresses itself through relationships. These cannot last except with love
(1 Cor. 13).
God will build generationally. Anything that has lasting value is carried forward through generations. Sonship is central to the way things will carry on. God is called the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God builds in three kinds of relationships
There are three kinds of relationship that last.
1. Covenant
Covenant is central to the way God relates to His people. He is a covenant keeping God. These are expressed in marriage, in friendship, and in business.
2. Sonship
Sonship positions you to receive inheritance, as long as you remain submitted to the will of your father. Sons are not like hirelings, they will not run away when hard times come.
3. Kingdom
God sends kingdom relationships. The issue of being sent is central to kingdom relationships. Apostles are sent ones, prophets are sent ones. God is going to send you divinely appointed men and women. He may also send you strategically into other people's lives. Be watching for kingdom connections!
Conclusion
Relationships are key to survival in ministry. But not everyone who calls themselves "friend" will stay when the going gets tough. It takes three things to come together, and to stay together: Agreement, peace, and respect.
Every relationship will be tested by fire. Trial, sickness, and stress will test people's faithfulness.
God builds revelationally, relationally and generationally. He builds into three kinds of relationships: Covenant, sonship, and kingdom relationships.
###
Stephen Mwakibinga is the senior pastor at All Nations Harvest Ministries in Kitwe, Zambia. He oversees 8 churches. This article was transcribed from his recent message at the leadership conference run by Storm Harvest in Kitwe.
Next one is the Book of Revelations...
I am not sure who had the ping list, I am interested in what you have to say, please ping me.
Hi Quix good to see you around you have been missed. I pray you are doing well, Rest in the Lord.
You are forgetting the Crusades of the 11th century, and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was most definitely a Kingdom, and it included Gaza, where the remains of Crusader churches can still be found.
When the Crusaders arrived in the Holy Land, they found a sizable Jewish population, and wiped them out. The Islamic conquests had not eliminated the Jewish presence, and it returned after the Latin Kingdom was brought down by Saladin.
The Crusaders, in their time, believed that most of these Prophecies applied to them, and could of course point out several striking passages. But they could not foresee the end.
"2, 4, 6, 8, we support the Jewish state. 3, 5, 7, 9, terrorists out of Palestine (sic)!"
I did not forget the Crusades, they did not claim to be the Palestia, nor did they set up a government that evolved through three generations.
I just felt that the prophecy did not pertain to them. They may have felt that they ruled as the Knights Templars from the Temple Mount but history does not include them as a Government, but as a temporary occupying army. Israel remained a backwater during their occupation, just as it did under Salidin. At least that is the way it reads from what I have read.
Thanks for your input.
Al Omari Great Mosque Located in downtown Gaza at the end of Omar Mukhtar Street, al-Umari mosque with its beautiful minaret used to be a Norman church built by the Crusaders in the 12th century. It is said to occupy the site of the first ancient temple of Marnas.
Still, that's history.
But I do think that they were very historically significant, and they were 100 years with Jerusalem as the capital of the Latin Kingdom (as you say, they never used the word Palestine, nor even seem to have known it.) Their contribution was tremedous, can still be seen, and they also brought a lot of Eastern culture back to the West, (including according to tradition, a secret learning acquired by the Knights Templar.)
So I do think that they have to be included in accounts of the line up to the history of Palestine. As to where they fit in with Scripture, I am not sure.
Templar flag.
Interior of the mosque in Gaza.
Used to be the vaults of a Church. They knew how to build in those days!
Gaza, as part of Palestine, has a long history at the cross roads of the faith.
Excellent. Sent to my email list.
And, I think, fitting in terms of considering our relationship with Israel.
THANKS THANKS.
Davey, I don't think you've had much of a choice [tee hee] being on my
END TIMES DREAMS VISIONS ping list for a long time.
But I'll check.
Thanks.
Bump
Let me throw this scenario your way to think about. Do you think it may be possible that Bush knows that once the palestinians have thier complete foothold on Gaza, with the Jews GONE, that it could be more easily targeted without fear of collateral damages now that they know that terrorism pays and works and thier intifada kicks it up a notch or two?
We can all agree that Bush and his advisors are NOT idiots. They have been very good at maintaining pleasant surprise for the skeptical. Whether it's Bush supporting Sharons plan, or, Sharon being pressured by the white house to start this plan, this move certainly had to have been well discussed and thought over.
To me, as it seems to you, we can't see why this has to and is happening to the Jewish people of Israel. Like it or not the bible clearly proclaims the Jewish people as "His own". It is also written that in the later days that the Israelites that were scattered among the nations, would be returned to the land that was promised to thier forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In case you weren't paying attention, Jews have been leaving whereever in the world they had been living, and returning to Israel in droves. The bible also says that Israel would NEVER be divided.
As a Christian, such as Bush professes with no reservations about it, he HAS to know this. Absolutely has to. If he did not, then certainly an advisor somewhere would've clued him in.
From the Bushes standpoint then, knowing this, the question is why?
Obviously, Iran is a growing threat. Probably more of a threat than what we would feel if we got to have access to the same privy information the President gets EVERYDAY.
Bush has proven himself to deal with threats and use pre-emption. He also knows he has to help keep the republicans in control of the house and senate next year.
There is NO WAY, at this particular point that he can come to the American people, or congress to authorize another premptive action against Iran, on the heels of Iraq, not to mention that are troops are spread thin enough as is. He would be laughed out of the U.N.
The only way would be to allow the Israelis to do it, then back them up. The world will definately NOT be able to hide from the fact that the Jews are the victims, and NOT the palestinians as they claim they are. The world could not deny that Israel has taken the painful step of the pullout yet it did not bring peace, only more violence.
All this would give all the justification Israel needs. At this point it may SEEM that I'm mixing 2 seperate issues. One being a threat from Iran, secondly, the Israelis internal palestinian threat. Please follow along while I connect the two.
The whole of the muslim world has a well known and unhidden agenda, the complete elimination of the Jews. Just this last week there have been articles everywhere, including FR, that the newly elected leader of Iran has pledged his support to the palestinians during and after the pullout. Freshly crowned King Abdullah has also said basically the same thing.
Iran has been threatening to restart its uranium enrichment program. Enriched uranium has but one purpose. WEAPONS. And again, they continue to proudly say that they wish the destruction of Israel. They already have the missiles capable of delivering. History has proven that the first time Iran built a nuclear plant, they flattened it. They're ready to do it again. They, as does Bush, have a problem with the premption part again.
We know Iran has been, and is, a sponser of terrorists. We also know that Iran has been sending in insurgents to kill our troops in Iraq.
Is it not conceivable that once the pullout is completed, and the terrorists kick it up that notch or two, with help coming in from Iran, that we step in to back up Israel and take care of Iran once and for all?
It wouldn't hurt my feelings none, it IS a growing menace that needs to be dealt with before it's too late and they hit first. They're not called "Mad Mullahs" for nothing.
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