THE HOLY LAND CONNECTION - PART II

CURRENT EVENTS

The Church and Israel

Mark 14:38, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Matthew 24:24, “For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible.” Luke 11:34, "The eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye is clear, your whole body also is full of light; but when it is bad, your body also is full of darkness.” Isaiah 5:20, “How horrible it will be for those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness into light and light into darkness, who turn what is bitter into something sweet and what is sweet into something bitter.” Romans 11:25-26, “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles [Hebr. "melo ha goyim"] has come in. And so all Israel will be saved.”

The times we live in are becoming increasingly deceiving due to the amount of information we take into our minds that is not the pure word of God. No matter how strong a Christian might be in the true faith, the possibility of being deceived is still a reality. Cases in point that distinguish the true Bride of Christ and Israel from movements leading to the Apostate Church and Babylon are Replacement Theology (belief that the “Church” has replaced Israel in God’s redemptive plan), Ecumenism (movement of promoting unity among Christian churches or denominations and promoting worldwide unity among religions through greater cooperation and improved understanding for the sake of “peace”), and Dual Covenant Theology (maintains that God’s covenant with the Jews is different than the one he gave the Gentiles and makes it unnecessary for them to receive Jesus as their Messiah to be saved. It makes this claim even though Jesus came to Israel, fulfilled Jewish Messianic prophecies, and presented Himself as Israel’s King and Redeemer.) These are examples of false theologies and movements that bare the “Christian” name and are gaining support and deceiving many leaders and members in the church today into believing that Israel has been wrongfully “occupying” the land since 1967 and preventing the “Palestinian” (who are really refugees of the 6-Day War not being allowed back into their original homelands of Jordan, Syria, Egypt, etc.) people from having a state of their own. Furthermore, actual councils like the National Council of Churches USA and World Council of Churches have been established whose position stands in protest of Israel’s rightful place in their God-given land as well as God’s sovereign purpose for them during this time in history. Go to http://www.ncccusa.org/members/index.html and http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches.html to see the denomination members of these councils. You will be surprised. These organizations as well as church leaders with like-minds are working to achieve world peace and unity through human effort and reasoning rather than humbly receiving the only true and everlasting peace that is Jesus’ peace. We must discern our Lord’s words when he said: Matthew 10:34 "Don't think that I came to bring peace to earth. I didn't come to bring peace but conflict & John 14:27 "I'm leaving you peace. I'm giving you my peace. I don't give you the kind of peace that the world gives. So don't be troubled or cowardly.” Instead of trusting the sovereign plan and promises of God to Israel and the Bride of Christ, many more false doctrines are arising and chipping away at people’s ability to discern truth, be truly reverent before God, and know the will of God for our lives and the nations in these last days. It is a sobering reality that every nation will come against Israel and a great falling away from the faith will occur because people have not believed in Jesus Christ alone for salvation nor learned what the scripture speaks of regarding God’s plan for the people and nation of Israel, the Bride of Christ, and the Nations.