Israel is the key to all end-time prophecy.

Keep your eye on Jerusalem  

Jan 5

The Keys to Haifa

I once had an interesting conversation with a former chief of staff for David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister. We were discussing the establishment of the state, and I showed my lack of discernment when I asked:

“Why didn’t Ben Gurion fight harder to gain control of Jerusalem during the War of Independence?” I was curious why the Jews agreed to a state without Jerusalem as its capitol at the time in 1948.

“I asked him the very same question once,” my friend replied. “The prime minister had tears in his eyes when he answered, ‘Because I had to have the keys to Haifa.’”

Ah, fascinating! Ben Gurion’s answer is a reminder that sometimes we must wait on the wisdom of someone smarter than us. In our case today, we must wait on God’s timing in all matters, particularly the area of fulfilled prophecy.

You see, Ben Gurion’s point was that it was better to establish the state first, then grapple with the issue of Jerusalem at a later date. What he meant by “having the keys to Haifa” was that the first goal was to have a port capable of receiving shiploads of Jewish refugees, traumatized by Hitler’s psychotic dreams, but capable of forming the basis of the new Jewish state.

Do you see? If, say I had had the reigns in 1948, I would have thought it best to gain the maximum: get a state and Jerusalem. But God had other plans. He provided that seaport in Haifa for the receiving of millions of Jews for the new state of Israel. Then, as He often does, He let years pass before the final fulfillment: Jerusalem was captured by the Israel Defense Forces in June, 1967. It has remained in Jewish hands ever since.

Those of us who love Israel become anxious over circumstances, timing, personalities. We fidget and fret that “things aren’t good over there,” or “Israel is in trouble.”

On the contrary, Israel is right where she needs to be, covered by her great God. As the writer, Claude Duvernoy, termed Him, “The Lord of History” controls what goes on. I like that, The Lord of History.

All of us have to learn patience and to wait on the Lord. Too often we wonder if the latest hiccup in the Middle East is signaling the Gog-Magog War. Or if the nations are preparing to invade Jerusalem. Or we wonder why God doesn’t “save” Israel.

He will! But His timing is so much better than ours; the example of Ben Gurion is so revealing. It was better to wait for the right moment and sure enough, the Holy City was taken from its Arab jailors and today any of us can walk around it and marvel at the history, feeling safe and soaking up the warm embrace of fulfilled prophecy.

Now, we are anxious about the threats from Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon. We want Bibi Netanyahu to win the elections and “save” Israel. We want the terrorists to be vanquished yesterday. We want the world to acknowledge the God of the Bible.

In time.

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Dec 29

Grieving over Gaza

When Ariel Sharon led an operation inside the Gaza Strip in 1971, that should have finished the matter of Palestinian terrorism. The Israel Defense Forces, including elite commando units, rooted-out PLO/Fatah and calm prevailed there for some time. Of course, any time in the last decades when Israel was not vigilant militarily in Gaza, chaos reigns.

Besides the military/terror threat to Israel emanating from that cesspool, there has been a steady campaign to take away Israel’s legitimacy from the area. Up until the time of the painful withdrawal of thousands of Jewish citizens in Gaza communities in 2005, it was being said that the Jews had no historical claim to the area, anyway.

Wrong. Of course.

The place is promised to the tribe of Judah eternally by our Creator. Look at a map in the back of your Bible; there you’ll see the inheritance. Samson was from Gaza. The region is part of the Land of Israel.

Needless to say, this is a laughingstock in our culture today, this idea. “Greater Israel” is an idea that has been discredited by scholars, politicians, media figures, even Christian leaders! The History Channel, newsmagazines (propaganda rags), and even Christian publications constantly attempt to marginalize Israel, in order to shrink her geographically.

Rockets are fired from Gaza every day into Israel. The world is silent. Now, Israel is forced to contemplate another venture into Gaza, into the teeth of millions of angry Muslims. Hamas now has a 16,000-man virtual army, with sophisticated equipment and 50 miles of tunnels for the carrying of ammunition and weaponry.

It is supremely ironic that Sharon himself carried out the withdrawal from Gaza over three years ago. No one knows the terrain of the country better than “The Bulldozer.” Sharon fought in all Israel’s wars and was staunchly committed to her security. Then, for reasons known only to him, it was decided that no Jew would live in Gaza; the hothouses and homes and farms would be abandoned, left to a sick enemy.

Sharon now lies in the twilight of a coma that has finally taken his 80-year-old body. He knows nothing of the chaos fostered by Hamas.

Yet Sharon, reviled by so many Jewish and Christian Zionists, rescued his people time and again before beginning his fateful premiership. His political heirs, Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni, have bungled Israel’s deterrent ability and now her enemies sit in the night, licking their lips in anticipation of finally defeating the “Zionist Entity.”

You know the situation must be dire when lame-ducks like Olmert and Livni mull a military operation.

But here I would caution my pro Israel friends not to judge too harshly. Even if Bibi Netanyahu wins the February elections (and indications are that he will), even the only strong leader Israel has will be tested like few can comprehend.

None of us know or understand even a little the intense international pressure brought to bear on Israeli leaders, whenever her satanic enemies threaten to wipe her out.

Notice, though, this irony that cannot be mere historical coincidence.

A decade ago, when Netanyahu was prime minister, his “equal” in the White House was none other than that good Southern Baptist boy, Bill Clinton. The latter schemed against Netanyahu for three years, harming Israel’s security and bolstering the terrorists like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah. Squeezing Israel is always a favorite pastime for diplomats and the morally bankrupt leaders we’ve suffered under.

We had a strong Israeli leader paired with a weak American president.

When George Bush took office, he dealt with Sharon and Olmert, who led the disastrous expulsion from Gaza and war in Lebanon in 2006. (Of course, my premise here is predicated on the idea that Bush was a “strong” leader.)

A strong American president versus incompetence in Jerusalem.

Now that Bibi stands on the edge of the prime minister’s chair again…we have Barack Obama entering the Oval Office.

The pendulum swings again: a strong Israeli leader opposite a president who is either naïve or dangerous.

Is this coincidence, that we humans can’t get two leaders together who can finally put an end to the seemingly eternal war between the Palestinians and the Jews?

It is no coincidence. Time and again in the Bible, which is all true, God tells us that He alone will save His people. Man cannot save himself. He can only destroy himself. God will protect Israel and He doesn’t need the right combination of principled leaders in high places.

How marvelous to see yet again the intervening Hand of the Creator of the Universe. What doesn’t make sense to the world — an inability to solve the Arab-Israeli crisis — makes perfect sense to the person who understands reality, which is found in the Bible. It is as I always say: “If the Bible were true, what would you expect to see in the real world today?”

You would expect not peace or the dominionism of a Rick Warren, who believes man can usher in a glorious earth for the Messiah. You would expect chaos and strife and utter failure in the diplomatic community.

This is exactly what we see, as we grieve in a way over the mess of Gaza, but look forward to the glorious conclusion brought by the Prince of Peace, who will come with His own brand of dominionism.

Gaza will have peace, not when it is emptied of Jews, but when they return for good.

jim@prophecymatters.com

jim1fletcher@yahoo.com

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Dec 22

Before I Sleep

It’s very interesting how inspiration comes to us.

I visited friends last night, who live on a mountain here in northwest Arkansas. They got some ice and the trees were encased in the stuff. It looked like a Currier & Ives scene. As I got out of the car, I turned and looked into the deep woods that surround my friends’ home. I immediately thought of the Robert Frost poem, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” (which he wrote in the summer of 1922!).

Whose woods these are I think I know,

His house is in the village though.

He will not see me stopping here, To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer, To stop without a farmhouse near,

Between the woods and frozen lake, The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake, To ask if there is some mistake. The only other sound's the sweep, Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.

 

Then this morning, it just so happened that my Bible reading was the marvelous Mark 13, in which Jesus tells his disciples what will happen in the end.

Now, bear with me, because I hope to make a point.

The disciples were soon-to-be wanted men. Their lives would be in danger because of their faith. They no doubt had anxieties. Peter would deny the Lord he loved, and his misery we can only guess at. These men knew that God was going to bring this world to its finale, and they longed for it!

I’ve often wondered how each man felt during his ministry travels: dangerous areas to be in; betrayal; cold; hunger.

But they pressed on. As the rider in the poem said, they had miles to go before they slept (rested in the Lord’s presence).

Now notice too that Jesus told his followers that the Temple would be destroyed completely, but that He would take its place as the path to God. He told them specifically that the Temple would be utterly thrown down, not even a stone left on another.

This morning, a friend emailed me about her thrilling trip to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, just two months ago. She and her friends prayed, facing the Mount of Olives, which is where Jesus gave the aforementioned “Olivet Discourse.”

I’ve been there as well, and the thing that strikes me is that if you ignore the buildings there now — the Dome of the Rock, Al-Aksa Mosque, and various smaller structures — you will notice that the place the Temple once stood is flat as a table-top. Just as Jesus predicted, the Romans in A.D. 70 pulled down the Temple. They did such a complete job that no one today knows precisely where it stood.

This is amazing, friends. A striking fulfilled prophecy today right in the heart of Jerusalem! This is God shining a high beam right into our faces, shining a light into the darkness so many find themselves in. He is saying, in effect, “Look, I’m showing you that I keep my promises, and even though you are weary and wonder if I’m coming again, I Am!”

Hundreds and hundreds of fulfilled prophecies should give us comfort in these dark times, these dark and snowy woods that seem to want to draw us in, lure us to alleviate our own suffering by just curling up under a snow-covered tree and giving up. That’s what the poet was telling us.

He had things yet left to do, though, to finish before being called home.

So do you.

It appears the enemy is working overtime to discourage believers. The attacks appear to be increasing in ferocity and length. He is trying to get your focus off a number of things, especially the fact that God is our great salvation in every area.

The enemy comes to us and says, Look, you’re tired. Just lay down here and get out of the game. You can’t handle your problems; you’re cold and tired. Just curl up under this tree and sleep.

Frankly, there are people out there who are suicidal over the economic problems we find ourselves in. As we’ve discussed the last few times, you can see plainly in the Bible and in today’s news that God cares for His people. Remember the Gospel account of Jesus praying the garden the night of His arrest? He told the Father that His soul was overwhelmed to the point of death. Indeed, He was facing the ultimate stress.

But He overcame it! His pain was a little while, then He went into glory.

The Lord shows us every day in myriad ways that He loves us. Just the other day at church, I looked over at my precious four-year-old niece, sitting on my son’s lap. She smiled at me so sweetly. I thought of my late father, who would have loved her so much, and the fact that our Creator is going to reunite us one day soon.

It is moments like this that remind me Who is in charge. It is not the enemy.

I have strayed from my normal topic, specifically Israel watch, because the season is stressful for so many. But, if nothing else, we can see in the intensifying pressure on Israel every day that this is simply a fulfillment of prophecy. We are in the season of victory, not defeat.

There are reports that the incoming U.S. president will ramp-up efforts to pressure Israel and secure a deal in the Middle East. He is more predisposed than most to be hostile to Israel, his AIPAC speech notwithstanding. There is nothing biblical about him.

I also read an interesting op-ed piece in our statewide newspaper that makes an interesting case: because American democracy and free market ideas are now being spread further over the globe, our uniqueness as a superpower is waning. Interesting! Now perhaps we see why the U.S. does not figure, at least overtly, in the end times.

My friends, our entire world is about to burst in prophetic fulfillment. Can you not see that God is working His plan, and will take care of even you? He knows where you are, knows your name, knows your thoughts, fears, anxieties, joys and sorrows.

In your anxiety, take a moment to thank God for who He is, and for what He is about to do.

We have just a little way to go before we rest.

Praise the Lord at this Christmas season!

jim@prophecymatters.com

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Dec 15

He Knows You 

If you’ll be kind enough to indulge me, I want to continue this week with the theme from last week. The subject I’d originally chosen can wait awhile. The feedback I got convinces me more than ever that we need to encourage each other.

Like you, I continue to hear stories that are beyond sad. I’m not going to dwell on stories like this, but you know how it is. Economic gloominess, outrageously exemplified by our incoming “leader,” Barack Obama (“the economy is going to get worse.” Merry Christmas!) has gripped folks like that horrible movie I saw last year, “The Mist.”

However — for the Christian, there is always a however — we will once again this week explore God’s provisions for His people. I have always felt there is a direct correlation between Bible prophecy, and the lives of individuals around the world.

I almost feel like this is the jump-off point. That my whole life has built to this moment, in which predictive prophecy is coming so sharply into focus that it doubles as a personal faith-builder.

If I can’t rely on my portfolio, or the government, or other human inventions…who can I turn to? I will turn to the God who has supernaturally proven Himself to me through His provision for the Jews.

Go with me now to a place you’ve heard about all your life.

In Bethlehem today, and in the surrounding Judean countryside, the air is clean. Dianna and I were there last year, on our own little pilgrimage to Manger Square and the Church of the Nativity. Driving over and around the hills that become progressively more bare as one heads south, toward the desert, we noticed just how much the whole place still looks like it did on that special night 2,000 years ago. Shepherds still tend flocks, Arab men travel on donkeys, and sheep and cattle graze on the hills.

Unlike liberal Christians and atheists like Richard Dawkins (what does he do for Christmas?), I believe Jesus was actually born in this place, that he grew up, began ministry, then fulfilled the prophecies by dying and being resurrected in Jerusalem. There was an actual, historical figure.

Bethlehem today, controlled by the Palestinian Authority, is still small and compact. Palestinian merchants virtually beg tourists to shop. Manger Square — a large plaza area — was not overly crowded.

Stooping to enter the small door in the Church of the Nativity, Dianna and I emerged into a huge room, sandwiched between rafters and floor mosaics that date from Byzantine times. There were quite a few scenes reminiscent of, say, a Catholic church: candles, icons, elaborate alcoves of rich artifacts.

Descending into a cramped space underneath the floor, we were surprised to find ourselves at the traditional place of Jesus’ birth. We quickly had our picture taken while an annoyed fellow tourist waited her turn.

At least for me, I think it’s important to know that these places actually exist. They are tangible.

Upon returning to the King David Hotel later that evening, we made plans to visit the Garden Tomb and Calvary the next day, which we did. That put an exclamation point on our visits to these holy sites.

My point? The Bible is not a collection of myths. It is a vibrant, full-color description of real people and places. It describes the place where Jesus was born, died, and rose again. The complete story, that gives breath to our faith.

It is this whole story that we all need now, more than ever. The comments that I hear from readers confirm this in a big way. Just this morning, I heard that a friend died of cancer; she was only diagnosed just before Thanksgiving! This is, sadly, a terrible time for many people.

But folks, this is where the rubber meets the road. We have heard about our faith, and heard about the last days all our lives. We have hoped for it, but let’s be honest: it still seemed far away, didn’t it?

If you can do nothing else positive this season, run your finger over the Holy Land maps in the back of your Bible. You might not get there in this life, but you can know that they are there. Jesus was born there, walked there, died there, and rose to life there. He is alive now. He promised that He would hold us close (Matthew 11:28). He promised us that He had already overcome this sorry world (John 16:33).

You can depend on that. Whatever your problems, I urge you to simply tell Jesus about them. It really is as simple as our old Sunday school faith, the faith of a child. We are all children, whether we pretend to be tough or not. We are children of the Most High God, and His tenderness is available to you this Christmas season.

My prayer is that you will be blessed and comforted.

jim@prophecymatters.com

 

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Dec 8

On a Clear Day

Remember the old song? “On a clear day, you can see forever.”

I thought of that this week as I read some of the postings on RR’s “prayer request” forum. Folks, there is a mind-boggling amount of pain out there. With the economy slowing like a rusty old wagon — at the holidays no less! — it seems to me that more people are struggling than ever before. Some of the situations people find themselves in are…I don’t have words to describe it. It seems worry and fear have gripped even Christians. I am not above having some good old-fashioned anxiety myself.

Before I get into my subject this week, which has a direct bearing on all this, let me say that more than ever, let’s hold each other and lift each other up. Some of us will never meet this side of heaven, but we are spiritual kin. If you have any extra prayer, use it for others. Reach out in spirit and claim God’s promises, and do it for someone else.

A friend of mine is about to go under in his business. He is the salt of the earth and can’t seem to catch a break. Like you, I know lots of people suffering physically and financially and emotionally. In our part of the country, a network news anchor was brutally murdered recently and her parents are learning more horrifying details of the attack. Needless to say, I could go on. I don’t want to, and I know you don’t want me to. You get the point.

But now let me say this. I can’t give all of you money, much as I wish I could. I can’t heal your family. I can’t do many things. However, it is my prayer that in some way, you or someone you know can hold onto this:

God is real, He cares for us as individuals, and nothing can shake Him. We wonder, from our feeble perspectives, how God can allow such pain. We are focusing on the wrong thing, and our wrong focus comes straight from the pit.

You might never get to the Holy Land. But I’ve been there and I’ll tell you that the truth of God’s word is everywhere. There is a garden tomb that is empty, and it is just outside the Old City walls. There is a barren hill with a rock face in the shape of a skull nearby. I’ve read about this in the Gospels.

Israeli soldiers patrol the land, just as Ezekiel’s book promised.

Jews are everywhere, millions of them! Just as Isaiah said it would be.

New Jewish homes dot the hillsides, many thousands of them, just as Amos and Jeremiah said they would in the last days.

You can’t turn a corner in any city without seeing a sign proclaiming the soon coming of the Messiah, or have a chance conversation with a cab driver, solder, politician, businessman, or single mother in which something biblical is not mentioned.

United Nations vehicles and diplomats and worldwide media choke the streets of Jerusalem, and Zechariah said very long ago that the Holy City would be an obsession for the world in the last days.

Drive around and look at the lush foliage and flowers and fruits and vegetables in the land. This is what the prophets said the barren land would return to in the last days.

What do you make of all this, if it is not the work of an all-powerful, loving God?

Can you fathom the fact that if God took care of an entire people for 2,000 years — because He promised He would — that He will fulfill His promises to you? Jesus said in the book of Matthew that if you are tired, come to Him.

Friends, this is not some esoteric, pie-in-the-sky…thing. It is practical and real for you today. If God did all those things with regard to Israel, that I mentioned above, are you worried that He forgot what He said He’d do for you if you are beaten down and exhausted?

If you think God has forgotten you, you are quite mistaken.

I know you have chronic pain. I know you can’t pay your bills. I know your husband is leaving you. But please, get this: Israel is alive. She shouldn’t be, humanly speaking. Two thousand years as a desert backwater should have been her permanent fate. But God said no, in His own time He would return the child He loves to the place He loves.

Israel is back.

Your world might be cloudy and dark. Frankly, I’ve been through times when everything seemed dark, and you feel so cold and alone. But predictive prophecy, and Israel in particular, clears everything up.

Do yourself a favor. Take your Bible and read Isaiah. Read Amos 9:15. Read Ezekiel 37. Then think carefully about where Israel is today. She is back, back where she belongs. All because of a totally strong Father who is our ultimate protection.

I wish I could help all of you, but in reality I have all the strength of a lima bean. God, though, is a force that no one can reckon with.

Remember this and I have a feeling that the skies will clear for you and you will be able to see — really see — that if you are God’s child, only glory awaits you. We are all going forward together, so let us strengthen each other in the night.

Our God is very, very great.

My prayer for you this holiday season is that peace will come to your mind and heart.

God knows your name. He knows where you are. He loves you infinitely. He will sustain you.

Israel is proof of that.

jim@prophecymatters.com

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Dec 1

The State of State

Washington insiders are puzzled over Barack Obama’s reported offer of the nation’s top diplomatic post to…Hillary Clinton. The former rivals for the Democratic nomination for president are an odd match, since both thirsted so for the Oval Office. As secretary of state, Clinton would add to her resume, and secure a powerful slot in the Cabinet.

In arguably the country’s most dangerous moment in decades, our foreign policy will be formulated by a couple of old-school Chicago liberals. And Clinton’s alleged transformation from Leftist to pragmatist/moderate is, I suspect, not who she really is. For Bible prophecy students, this matters a great deal.

One can scarcely remember a secretary of state who deviated from the “James Baker School of Diplomacy,” that is, an anti-Israel stance. Among the recent chiefs at State: publicity hound Madeleine Albright, who once famously chased and begged Yasser Arafat to return to the negotiating table; Condi Rice, the Bush family friend and Soviet expert who supplemented her lack of knowledge of the Middle East with nasty, behind-the-scenes arm-twisting of Israeli prime ministers; and the end table, Warren Christopher.

Although the view would be quaintly naïve (or dangerous) to secular minds, the lack of biblical discernment among the various secretaries of state has only made the situation in the Middle East worse. It’s a given that no one of any consequence in Washington holds to a biblical view that the Holy Land belongs to the Jews. On the contrary, even alleged evangelicals like Rice constantly prop-up the mega-failure of land-for-peace. It boggles the mind that right up to this moment, the Oslo Delusion/Road Map continues to be peddled by otherwise smart people.

By pressuring Israel and attempting to appease the Arabs (which in reality cannot be done), successive American administrations have actually pushed peace farther back. Even the great Ronald Reagan agreed to back-door talks with the murderous PLO, and handed Hezbollah a victory in 1983 by pulling U.S. Marines out of Beirut after the bombing and murder of 242 of our troops.

For many decades, there has been a cadre of anti-Israel/anti-Jewish powerbrokers in Washington. Former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger was instrumental in keeping Jonathan Pollard in prison. James Baker allegedly made quite a crude remark about the Jewish vote during the term of Bush 41. In college, I once heard Baker give an address and marveled that the conservative audience was unaware of Baker’s anti-semitic leanings.

Hillary Clinton will be no different, despite her veneer of moderation. Some people will do anything to be president, and the former first lady cleverly appeared to move to the center, or even to the right at times, in her bid to become president.

Why do American politicians so routinely get it wrong when it comes to Israel? Because they do not have a biblical world view. Praying at the National Cathedral doesn’t bring it. Pandering to evangelical leaders doesn’t bring it.

Obama’s membership in the United Church of Christ guarantees that he doesn’t get it. The UCC is one of the nation’s most liberal denominations. And his secretary of state doesn’t get it, either.

Raised in Park Ridge, Illinois, Hillary Clinton was an active United Methodist. Mentored by a young youth minister, Don Jones, Hillary turned from her Goldwater leanings to become a member of the New Left, just in time to protest the Vietnam War.

Jones introduced Hillary and her classmates to the social gospel and the ideals of the Left. Sadly, they were also exposed to the theology of people like Paul Tillich, the German scholar who, shall we say, didn’t believe the Bible is the word of God. Tillich was a forerunner of such radical scholars as Marcus Borg. For them, the Bible was in some sense myth shrouded in the mystery of legend.

As a result, Hillary grew up enamored of the revolutionary views of anti-American forces. I doubt she has personal empathy for the Palestinians, but as it became popular to embrace the land-for-peace concept (so enthusiastically supported by her husband), the future senator from New York always supported a two-state solution. Can we expect her to suddenly truly support Israel once she becomes secretary of state?

The State Department for decades has been a hotbed of anti-Israel thought and action. The Arabists who are career diplomats at State set the tone, not necessarily whoever occupies the top spot. Even if a secretary of state suddenly reversed course and saw the Arab-Israeli conflict for what it is, he or she would quickly realize that this ghastly federal bureaucracy would undermine the Secretary at every turn.

So, there is no reason to believe Clinton would serve either her own country or Israel well. If her youthful experiences in liberation theology weren’t bad enough, she has been exposed to the United Methodist Church’s anti-Israel stances ever since. When Richard Wilke was bishop of Arkansas during the Clinton’s time in the governor’s mansion, the good bishop imparted his own world view to the first lady, no doubt. Wilke’s Disciple Bible Study is so riddled with liberal scholarship, it in reality bears little resemblance to a Bible study. Instead, it is an ode to radical liberal scholarship of the Bible. Jonah was a legend. The end of the world is nowhere in sight. Genesis isn’t real history. On and sickeningly on.

Hillary Clinton’s life experiences guarantee that she will not be Israel’s best friend from the State Department. But at least she’ll be in familiar company.

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Nov 24

Delusional

Last week’s announcement that archaeologists uncovered evidence that Jerusalem’s Al-Aksa Mosque was once a Byzantine church brought back an interesting memory. An old collection of photographs taken from investigations in the 1930s seems to indicate that a Byzantine mosaic was uncovered. If so, that would seriously damage the Muslim story that the Al-Aksa was always Islamic. It is also a very important peek into the Arab mindset.

A decade ago, I happened to visit the Temple Mount (known as Haram al-Sharif by the Arabs — the “Noble Sanctuary”). I was there with about 20 fellow Christians. Unknown to me at the outset, we were also going to be given a very rare tour of the area underneath the Mount, the area known as “Solomon’s Stables.” This is an underground mosque that has been created for thousands of worshippers; it is also a key reason much of the Temple Mount compound walls almost buckled in the last decade.

To give you some idea of the area, if you stand in front of the Al-Aksa, just to the left is what I can only describe as a “cellar” doorway, like those old-fashioned cellars found on your grandparents’ farm. We were instructed to take our shoes off, and then descended down a sloping pathway covered by Oriental carpets.

The meandering passageways were like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. Presently we stopped at the end of one such passageway. Before us was an area sealed with a fence. Inside the fence were clear ruins: pillars and slabs. Our Palestinian guide told us about the Islamic version of the story — Muhammad came here on his “Night Journey” to Jerusalem, astride a winged horse. A friend with me pointed to the pillars and indicated he’d talk to me once we got back outside. It was clear that much of the rubble was Roman and Byzantine architecture.

Our Palestinian guide pointed to a doorway in a wall behind the fence. “This is the doorway that the Prophet [Muhammad] entered when he came to Jerusalem.” Folks in our party nodded, but the comment didn’t really register. It did when we got outside and my friend explained things to me.

“Did you notice his comment about Muhammad entering that door? If that’s so, how could this have been a mosque? That would mean that it was a mosque before Muhammad implemented the religion of Islam itself.”

Do you see? The point is — the reality is — this was a Byzantine church before it was taken over and conquered for Islam. Think about it: the Palestinians, the Muslim Arabs, are so intolerant that they distort history and invent history. The poor guide who chattered on for us underneath the Temple Mount either didn’t realize the distortion, or didn’t care.

The Palestinians officially claim that there was never a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount! This is good-faith negotiation? This is tolerance? And the international community lets them get away with it.

The recent discovery of the site’s Byzantine roots says volumes about the Arab-Israeli conflict. True history is this:

•David bought the site from a Jebusite. His son Solomon built the first Temple. A succession of regional empires (Assyrians, Babylonians, etc.) conquered the Hebrews and the Babylonians destroyed the First Temple. Herod rebuilt it. The Romans destroyed that one. As the Roman Empire eventually embraced Christianity, the Byzantines built churches in the Holy Land; this is the origin of the Al-Aksa Mosque. Then the Muslims conquered the area and built the Dome of the Rock, while also converting the church into a mosque.

This is essentially the same situation today. But our State Department, White House, and various liberal Christian denominations believe we can negotiate in good faith with the Arabs.

Mind-boggling.

If someone denies your very identity, what makes you think they’ll be reasonable with anything else? The Arab-Israeli conflict has reached a rotten mess because A) the Arabs are supremely arrogant and B) the Western nations in particular have coddled them.

In the past 10 years, the Palestinians have hollowed-out a large area under the Temple Mount, and then dumped truckloads of dirt (with Jewish artifacts) into the Kidron Valley. But this very affront to Jewish culture also holds a key to God’s sovereignty.

We as Christian supporters of Israel decry this illegal excavation, which shows such contempt for Jewish culture. Yet it could serve a future, holy purpose.

Between the Al-Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock is a terrace of steps that lead downward, into the underground mosque. This new area created by the Palestinians is just behind the famous Golden (or Eastern) Gate, which Scripture tells us will receive the Messiah when He comes to Jerusalem.

Outside the walls, below the Gate, is a Muslim cemetery. They built the cemetery there, expressly to “prevent” the Jewish and Christian Messiah from entering, theorizing that He wouldn’t cross over a Muslim cemetery!

In point of fact, the Muslims have unintentionally prepared the way for Him. I can just see Him on that day, entering the (now) sealed Gate, then ascending the steps built for Muslim worshippers, before entering the Temple Mount. Glory!

Once again, whenever we feel that evil is “winning,” we have only to remember that it is the Creator who bends everything in the universe to His will, for His own purposes.

Maranatha!

jim@prophecymatters.com

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