Zecharia 3:7 – If you’ll walk in My ways…

This photo and illustration posted by Yvonne Coombs is a fitting sequel to the Visitation vision Leisa Ebere reported yesterday of Jesus upon the Houses of Parliament:

BibleGateway.com presents the New King James version of Zecharia 3 as follows:

Vision of the High Priest 

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan[a] standing at his right hand to oppose him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?”

Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and was standing before the Angel.

Then He answered and spoke to those who stood before Him, saying, “Take away the filthy garments from him.” And to him He said, “See, I have removed your iniquity from you, and I will clothe you with rich robes.”

And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.”

So they put a clean turban on his head, and they put the clothes on him. And the Angel of the Lord stood by.

The Coming Branch

Then the Angel of the Lord admonished Joshua, saying, 7 Thus says the Lord of hosts:

‘If you will walk in My ways,
And if you will keep My command,
Then you shall also judge My house,
And likewise have charge of My courts;
I will give you places to walk
Among these who stand here.

‘Hear, O Joshua, the high priest,
You and your companions who sit before you,
For they are a[b] wondrous sign;
For behold, I am bringing forth My Servant the BRANCH.
For behold, the stone
That I have laid before Joshua:
Upon the stone are seven eyes.
Behold, I will engrave its inscription,’
Says the Lord of hosts,
‘And I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.
10 In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts,
‘Everyone will invite his neighbor
Under his vine and under his fig tree.’ ”

22 biblically-related news headlines in one week!

Within days of New Year’s Day seven years ago I introduced this blog’s first readers to the Watcher in The White House, accredited Christian journalist William Koenig, in Points to Ponder: 2011-12 and Biblical Historical/Financial Cycles. It was the first of occasional sorties into the nature of Time and the Bible, now collated in this hub – Time: a Primer.

In last Friday’s Eye View from the White House Bill opens his weekly report with…

“22 significant new events that happened this week – This has been an amazing week of prophetic significance with continued final-day alignment activities” and briefly reports upon activities and then enumerates the events as follows:

“The following are news articles that are prophetically significant. Below the news is insight and information regarding Secretary Pompeo’s trip and more news.

  1. Turkey and the Kurds turn to Russia to solve problems sparked by U.S. exit from Syria – Washington Post
  2. Putin and Erdogan agree to hold talks soon, but exact date is not determined – Kremlin – Tass
  3. Erdogan calls for joint Turkish-Russian-Iranian control of US pullout from Syria in face of Moscow’s veto – Debka
  4. Bolton says U.S. Withdrawal from Syria is conditional: National security adviser says pullout depends on assurances Turkey will protect America’s Kurdish allies – Wall Street Journal
  5. Turkey’s Erdogan refuses Bolton meeting, slams Syria withdrawal shift – Axios
  6. Bolton warns Syria not to use chemical weapons – Wall Street Journal
  7. Trump prepared to ‘unleash fury’ on Syria, Pompeo says – Jerusalem Post
  8. Pompeo promises ‘every last Iranian boot’ will be expelled from Syria – Times of Israel
  9. Pompeo hopes to establish coalition consisting of GCC states, Egypt and Jordan Al Arabiya
  10. Iran’s supreme leader calls US officials ‘idiots,’ but hints sanctions hurting – Times of Israel
  11. Iran’s Zarif on Pompeo: U.S. brings chaos where it interferes – Reuters
  12. US to convene global summit on Iran February 13-14 – Times of Israel
  13. US Navy Update: 11 carrier strike groups and 9 amphibious ready groups; five groups deployed and 15 in US ports – Strafor Intelligence
  14. Pentagon pushes forward on Syria pullout: USS Kearsarge to back up troops at the vulnerable moment they are leaving Syria – Wall Street Journal
  15. USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) back in the Persian Gulf to continue ISIS fight; a show of force to nearby Iran – CBS News
  16. Amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD-2) is in the North Arabian Sea – USNI
  17. Netanyahu wants US recognition of Israel sovereignty over Golan Heights – Middle East Monitor
  18. In Arab world, belief prevails that Trump will recognize Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights – Ynet
  19. Jordanian FM to Pompeo: Israel must eventually withdraw from Golan – Times of Israel
  20. After U.S. prod, ex-envoy to China says Haifa Port deal must be reversed – Jerusalem Post
  21. Israel-China experts downplay impact of Haifa Port decision – Jerusalem Post
  22. Egypt’s El Sisi Builds Middle East’s Largest Church – CBN.”

Bill doesn’t refer to specific bible prophecies because most of his readership, like mine, is familiar with Old and New Testament prophecies. [Those covering current events in the Middle-East are Daniel 7-8 (the vision of four beasts, the goat and ram), Zecharia 12 (Jerusalem and its enemies) and Ezekiel 36-19 (Gog & Magog) in the main.]

Next, he outlines the points Secretary Pompeo made in his speech in Cairo, which was a sensible turnaround of the seriously flawed one addressed to the whole Muslim world by Obama in 2009. [My critiques of Obama’s Cairo Speech followed by Europe and Two Daniels (ie. the EU) were some of my early emails on end-times.]

Subsequently, Debka reports Sunni Arab leaders are very uneasy about America pulling out of their region in the face of Iranian aggression, but they have to learn to look after themselves – in my opinion they will draw more closely alongside Israel, an alignment that started months ago.  Also, it’s a necessary part of shaking off the shackles of the Obama pro-Iranian legacy.

For in-depth consideration of Trump’s new policy see Carolyn Glick:

John Kilpatrick: 21 powerful prophetic words for 2018

‘This is a Year of Divine Interruptions’ and ‘Final Word’, respectively the opening and closing of twenty-one words delivered Friday 19th January deal with the global scene specifically. We heard these words after I’d finished drafting the previous post on my insights gained a fortnight ago on Zecharia 2.

Revd John Kilpatrick brings what the Lord told him after waking him on 23rd December 2017 and four minutes into this message he refers to the issues over Jerusalem and Israel that I’ve blogged about.

Zecharia 2:8-9 as root of Europe’s migrant crisis and of UK’s ‘Brexit’

For thus said the Lord of Hosts, after [His] glory had sent me [His messenger] to the nations who plundered you – for he who touches you touches the apple or pupil of His eye: (9) “Behold I will swing my hand over them and they shall become plunder for those who served them. Then you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me. Sing and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion: for behold I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you”, says the Lord. (Zecharia 2:8-9 Amplified Bible Classic Edition)

I humbly submit that the above verses about defending Jerusalem may be relevant to the unending influx of millions of Muslim refugees into Europe, as well as to Britain’s leaving the European Union – even to the EU’s grossly hypocritical failure to apply an international law!

Could this be the real reason behind our getting out of the EU?

Credit: Free_israel_photos_jerusalem_old_city_all

AN INSIGHT UPON SCRIPTURE

When using the above verses to open the first part of this Zecharia 2 Update (on EU Supports Palestine Against Israel) I was going to refer to the original Hebrew. However, the website wouldn’t open and so I opened my NKJV Study Bible but got nudged for some reason to grab the classic edition of the Amplified Bible from my bookshelf.  During the course of drawing attention to European hostility towards Israel, I noticed this Bible’s verse 9 hints at a very subtle nuance: one that may explain the consequences upon Europe of the EU’s policy!

Chapter 2 covers the third vision prophet Zecharia received, which is of the measuring and rebuilding of Jerusalem and of the Temple. Although set in the decline of the Babylonian Empire it foreshadows the eschatalogical New Jerusalem. YET I WAS STRUCK THAT IT MAY APPLY TODAY TOO!

Historically, verse 9 describes the Lord’s retribution upon the Babylonians, yet it could also promise that happening any time in the future. BUT AHA! – it’s already been happening!!  That is, the consequences of EU hostility are already ongoing, or have been so for at least the past couple of years in the massive migration of refugees into Europe!

My quick reading of that short text led me to colour it to distinguish between what I thought is the writer’s narrative (v.8) and the Lord’s words (v.9), but later I learned that translation of v.8 is difficult. The New Bible Commentary’s opinion is ‘The speaker is the Messiah, who is sent to the Jews, to whom pertains the glory (cf Rom 9:4) to be their Protector…(repetition of) ‘sent me’ emphasises the importance of the commission…to protect His own from all hostile powers that menace this precious possession. Others, however, think that the pronoun refers to the enemies of Israel and means that they endanger their own safety by hostility towards the elect (emphases mine).

In fact, both option could now be in play: ie. not only to protect His own from all hostile powers menacing His people but also to act specifically against them!

Historically, the colonial empires of Britain, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and Holland had taken control of lands across Africa, Asia and the Middle-East and used their populations as a source of labour, servants and military personnel.

Verse 9 clearly implies that such servants of European colonial empires will come and ‘plunder’ those empires, either there or back on home territory, as a Divine directive. Why? Because they’ve ‘touched the apple of His eye’ – His Jewish people and His holy city – Jerusalem!

That is, nations which permit their citizens to insult and denigrate the Jewish people and their state – and making others boycott Israeli goods and services! – would eventually find that the Lord’s declared intention gets applied in their own lands, which is what we’ve been seeing before our very eyes.  And this is despite many European nations subscribing to the Laws of Holocaust Denial.

EU PREFERS DESCENDANTS OF PHILISTINES TO THOSE OF ISRAELITES

As mentioned in the previous Update, not only the Palestinian leadership but also that of the European Union refuse to recognise and stand resolutely against the Word of God.

On his December visit to Europe Israel’s PM Netanyahu encouraged its leaders to be open to Donald Trump’s recognising the reality of Jerusalem being Israel’s capital, but Europe’s foreign policy chief rejected his plea outright. That’s hardly surprising in view of the EU’s parliament building in Strasbourg being specifically built like the Tower of Babel, as described in UK/EU in/out #2 cont’d – Significant Spiritual Signs.

Here’s this week’s events that contribute towards a scriptural judgement; headlines and extract as on Koenig World Watch Daily homepage:

Abbas urges EU to swiftly recognize Palestine, says it will encourage peace

‘Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday urged the member states of the European Union to “swiftly” recognize the state of Palestine, arguing such a move would preserve the Palestinians’ hope for peace.

“We truly consider the European Union as a true partner and friend, and therefore we call its member states to swiftly recognize the state of Palestine and we confirm that there is no contradiction between recognition and the resumption of negotiations,” Abbas said in an address in Brussels. 

‘Abbas, who gave his remarks alongside EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, called on the EU to play a larger role in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. “The EU should play a political role in this Middle East peace process in order to reach a just solution on the basis of internationally recognized terms and decisions,” Abbas said.’

EU promises to back Abbas’ demand for Jerusalem

Council of Europe to vote on condemning Trump’s Jerusalem recognition

Why is the EU warmly welcoming this rabid racist and Holocaust denier?  He should have been arrested as soon as he set foot in Europe!

Maybe the Lord regards Abbas as a modern-day Haman, as intimated in the opening minutes of the prophetic words for 2018 and beyond delivered by John Kilpatrick. (We’d not heard them prior to my completing this post – so this sentence has only been added at the last minute before publication.)

Caroline Glick, the internationally respected editor and journalist with first-hand experience of coordinating negotiations with the PLO, writes of Mahmoud Abbas’ personal history in Time for Trump to cut the cord on the Palestinians:

‘Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that Abbas’ remarks (in Cairo at PLO conference on 19th January) harken back to “things that led him to be accused years ago of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.” Abbas’ PhD. thesis, which he wrote for a Soviet university controlled by the KGB in the 1960s denied the Holocaust.

‘Over the past 25 years, the Western and Israeli leaders that have hailed Abbas as a moderate dismissed the significance of his doctorate – which he later published in Jordan as a best-selling book – saying it was a relic of the PLO’s former rejection of Israel’s right to exist…

‘Contrary to Rivlin’s view of Abbas racist assault on Jews as a throwback to an earlier time, antisemitic diatribes have been a consistent feature of Abbas’ public statements, whether he is speaking to Arab or Western audiences.

‘In a speech before the European Parliament in 2016, for instance, Abbas recycled the medieval blood libel that Jews poison the wells of Christians. That blood libel incited the death of thousands of Jews through the ages.

‘Speaking to European lawmakers, Abbas said, “Certain rabbis in Israel have said very clearly to their government that our water should be poisoned in order to have Palestinians killed.”

As for his Holocaust denial being a thing of the past, Abbas posted his doctoral thesis on his official website. His lies are taught as fact in Holocaust education in the Palestinian school system – which he controls.’ 

For more well-informed commentary on PLO claims and strategy  read:
BREXIT – OUR ‘GET-OUT-OF-JAIL’ CARD!

Clearly, Britain’s departure from the EU will help us avoid what the Lord will bring upon Europe – although we are not an entirely innocent party!  Doubtless, the verses we’ve considered is a very small portion of all scriptures behind the Lord’s warning to Britain to “Come out!” that David Noakes received in November 2015, part of which reads:

“Rather than rely on Me and my faithfulness to you, you chose, for worldly purposes, to join yourself to an institution which has denied my Name and refused to acknowledge Me in its councils. My fierce anger is upon that institution on account of its rebellion, its defiant rejection of me and its hardness of heart towards my ancient people Israel.

“I warn you now that the European institution will not repent, even though I bring disaster and destruction upon it. I urge you, O Britain still beloved by Me for the sake of your godly forefathers, come out of her, so that you may not be caught up in that same destruction, for I am even now arising in judgment to bring to nothing what she has sought to achieve. If you will separate yourself from her declared rejection of God, I will have mercy upon you and restore my hand of protection; and I will use you once again to bring light to many lost in the darkness which is now steadily increasing.

Thus, the Lord’s deep desire is for the UK to avoid the judgement He’s already bringing upon the EU (latest at Davos 2018 re France and Ireland on Brexit deal).

To enable a fuller understanding of the immense importance of this End-times matter (v11 ‘in That Day’ cf Obadiah 1:15) to ALL nations TODAY, I recommend carefully and prayerfully reading the whole of chapter two of Zecharia, as appended below (emphases added):  Continue reading

Pray for Pope Francis to take a stand upon the Bible

Thursday 18th to 25th January is designated as Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which was started 110 years ago within the Roman Catholic Church and has since become an international ecumenical act of observance.

In Liphook, Anglican, Methodist and Catholic churches each sent a representative to the next church in that sequence to say the morning prayers during yesterday’s services. In our Church Centre, after leading the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray, Catholic Richard T opened his prayers for unity by praying for the Pope and all church leaders.

I added personally that Pope Francis have a direct revelation of the Lord’s heart for and of holy writ concerning Jerusalem because his recent actions have left a great deal to be desired. It certainly appears he’s either ignorant of the scriptures, or has an entirely different agenda, notwithstanding apparently benign intentions.

Were Pope Francis a Bible-believing Christian he’d need to abide by that church’s own teachings on scripture’s authority. His predecessor Leo XII’s famous encyclical of 1893  ‘Providentissimus Deus‘ on ‘the importance for Catholics to study the Holy Scriptures solemnly affirms that the entire Bible is God’s Word, holy and true’. Fifty years later Pope Pius XII in his encyclical ‘Divino Afflante Spiritu’ notes how Leo’s program for scriptural studies bore great fruit so that “confidence in the authority and historical value of the Bible..among Catholics is completely restored”!  [The Holy Family Bible, 1956]

Thus, Pope Francis has no excuse for failing to stand upon even the very few scriptures covered in this blog on the centrality of Jerusalem in Divine Providence, or for lending support to teaching and doctrines opposed to God’s Holy Word!

POPE FRANCIS’ REACTIONS

Friday 19th January’s Koenig’s Eye View From The White House lists events under the sub-head ‘Pope Francis siding with Muslims over Jerusalem, supports an Arab State in Judea and Samaria, meeting with Muslim leaders‘:

December 6, 2017: Pope supports UN Resolutions on Jerusalem

“Everyone should be committed to respecting the city’s status quo, in accordance with the pertinent UN resolutions …I pray to the Lord that its identity to be preserved and strengthened for the benefit of the Holy Land, the Middle East and the whole world and that wisdom and prudence prevail to prevent new elements of tension from being added to a global context already convulsed by so many cruel conflicts.”

December 25, 2017: Pope supports two-states and asks for peace in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. supports UN borders

“We see Jesus in the children of the Middle East who continue to suffer because of growing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. On this festive day, let us ask the Lord for peace for Jerusalem and for all the Holy Land. Let us pray that the will to resume dialogue may prevail between the parties and that a negotiated solution can finally be reached, one that would allow the peaceful coexistence of two States within mutually agreed and internationally recognized borders.”

January 19, 2018: Pope renews call to maintain Jerusalem status quo

Referring to “the unique nature of Jerusalem” in a letter to Egypt’s top Muslim cleric, Ahmed al-Tayeb, Francis said that “only a special status, guaranteed by the international community, can preserve its identity, (and) unique vocation as a place of peace.”  Only that “would allow a future of reconciliation and hope for the entire region,” he said. “The Holy See will not cease from urgently calling for dialogue to resume between Israelis and Palestinians for a negotiated solution aimed at the peaceful coexistence of two states,” the letter continued.

As that cleric should be treated with the utmost suspicion, the pontiff’s dealings with him could be regarded as the height of stupidity or duplicity!

Koenig is of the opinion that, in his continued support for an Arab State in Judea, Samaria and E Jerusalem, the Pope needs to read the Bible’s prophecies, especially Zechariah chapter 12.  Also that, having met with Jordanian leader King Abdullah II, Francis will – along with Turkey’s president Erdogan on February 5 – call on President Trump to reverse his Jerusalem declarations.  Not forgetting that last month Erdogan cited the Pope’s statements in support of his outrage against Trump and Israel!!

DUPED PONTIFF & MENDACIOUS IMAM?

Not taking a stand upon the Word of God leaves Rome’s Pontiff the fall-guy to ‘the most influential Muslim in the world’ (2013 survey).  The Kingdom’s expectation of high levels of personal honesty expected of disciples and knowledge of ‘The Father of Lies’ makes Christians blithely ignorant of religiously sanctioned lying in order to protect or promote Islam.

As I stated in Catholic and Orthodox Churches Choose Fealty to 7th Century Muslim Edict,  deception and dissimulation are sanctioned in the Qur’an under the doctrine of  taqiyya. According to a former Islamic studies professor at the American University of Beirut, Sami Mukaram, “Taqiyya is very prevalent in Islamic politics, especially in the modern era”.

“There’s nothing like knowing Arabic—that is, being privy to the Muslim world’s internal conversations on a daily basis — to disabuse oneself of the supposed differences between so-called “moderate” and “radical” Muslims.”  (Raymond Ibrahim, author of The Al Qaeda Reader.)

Pope Francis gave a noble speech upon meeting Ahmed Al-Tayeb last April (read his 12 Key Points) – and has since met him a third time – but author Raymond, of Coptic Christian parents, thoroughly demolishes the facade in documenting the cleric’s history of adherence to all the extreme demands and nuances of Islam in ‘The Real Bomb is in Islam’s Books‘ and Dr Ahmed al-Tayeb: Meet “the World’s Most Influential Muslim”, published 2017 and 2016 respectively.

So, let’s pray for the scales to fall from the pontiff’s eyes and for him to hear our Father in Heaven on this whole issue. Also, for Ahmed al-Tayeb to have a ‘Damascus road’ experience of his supposed prophet Jesus being The Son of God…AMEN!

Further Reading:

Bible Update: Zech 12:2-3 – PA leader’s 25-year strategy broken over Jerusalem

The oracle of the word of the LORD affirming Israel. Thus says the LORD, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him:
“Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness (‘threshold of shivering’) to all surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem.
‘And it shall happen in that day that will I make Jerusalem a very heavy (burdensome) stone for all peoples: all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered (together) against it”. (Zechariah 12:1-3 NKJV with KJV per Hebrew)

Having long bitten the hand that feeds it, the Palestinian Authority’s President Abbas has now received a long overdue “slap in the face’. The Holocaust denier’s reaction was to threaten war! So he’ll break upon the ‘burdensome stone’ that is the ‘apple’ of the Holy One of Israel’s ‘eye’!

Trump-Abbas Credit: Reuters

Within the past week he’s thrown the biggest tantrum over Trump’s moving America’s embassy to Jerusalem and introducing a way to overcome the PA’s continual intransigence over the ‘peace’ process. BUT the proposal is not that of Donald Trump alone (nor Israel’s) but comes in tandem with the Arab nations of Saudia Arabia, Egypt and United Arab Emirates!

Courtesy Koenig’s WWD headlines/extracts (with emphases mine), the sequence of recent events reads:

  • Abbas Cancels Peace Negotiations Due to Saudi-leaked Jerusalem Plan‘(PA) President Mahmoud Abbas decided to deliver Sunday’s speech – in which he ruled out a peace process as long as Donald Trump is US president – after parts of Trump’s Middle East peace plan were leaked to him by the Saudis, Channel 2 reported on Tuesday night. Even before Sunday’s speech, Ben Caspit of The Jerusalem Post’s Hebrew sister paper Maariv reported last week that Abbas was angered by the preliminary reports of Trump’s plan that the Saudis had given him. The report said those leaks were the real reason Abbas did not intend to return to the negotiating table, and not Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.’
  • Abbas: “Jerusalem is the Gate of Peace or War – Trump Must Choose” – ‘(PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday continued to rail against US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, cautioning that actions taken in the city could spark a future war, while also advocating a “peaceful” path. “Jerusalem is the gate of peace and war — Trump must choose,” said Abbas, who was at a conference in the Al Azhar University in Cairo on “global support for Jerusalem.” While warning of war, the 82-year-old Palestinian leader also reiterated several times that the only way forward for Palestinians to oppose both American and Israeli policies involved peaceful means.“A popular and peaceful resistance is the path that will succeed and that we will continue on,” Abbas said.
  • Trump Cuts UNRWA Funding Amid Abbas Assault ‘The Trump administration informed the UN Relief and Works Agency on Tuesday that it was cutting tens of millions of dollars in aid to the organization, amid an escalating diplomatic crisis between Washington and Ramallah, a US official told The Jerusalem Post. President Donald Trump heeded the advice of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster – in addition to that of the Israeli government – and agreed to transfer $60 million to the UN body for now, as opposed to cutting all funding outright. But the remaining pledge of $65m. has been withheld “for future consideration,” according to a letter sent to the agency. While the policy decision came out of the State Department, which faced a UN dues payment this week, the question of how to proceed became an interagency debate among Trump’s top foreign policy staff and involved the president himself. Only one of those figures – Nikki Haley, Trump’s ambassador to the UN – advocated for a full and immediate aid cut.’
  • (At UN) Haley Takes PA to Task After ‘Hateful’ Comments by AbbasIn her first official reaction to (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas’s fiery speech this week, US Envoy to UN Nikki Haley said Washington is “not going to pay to be abused.”  Speaking during a wide-ranging interview…Haley took the PA to task. “Don’t think that you can sit there and say hateful things about us and turn around and write you a check. It’s wrong in every turn,” she said.

    Abbas effectively threw in the towel over the weekend, offering a scathing speech targeting the US administration generally and President Donald Trump personally by dismissing their peace effort and calling for his “house to be destroyed.”  “Damn your money!” Abbas declared. Israeli politicians and Jewish American groups decried the speech as a racist diatribe that revealed Abbas’s true colors. The speech included conspiracy theories and fundamental questioning of the existence and justification for a Jewish state. Abbas also reiterated his position that the US could no longer be seen as a fair broker in future peace talks.

    “We’re not going to reward bad behavior,” Haley said. “Here you’ve got the Palestinians who are basically saying they’re going to cut the US out of the peace process. They’re saying they no longer want to have anything to do with us. They go and take us to the United Nations and try, basically, are very hostile in what they say and what they do. We’re not going to pay to be abused. It doesn’t make sense.”

As ever, pre-MSM news outlet DebkaFile provides good insights in Abbas’ Ultimatum to Trump: Choose Between Palestinian Jerusalem or War. This in-depth analysis opens – and note opinion about EU funding.:

‘Palestinian Mahmoud Abbas kicked back hard after grasping he was confronted with an orderly, Arab-backed US peace plan that left his strategy in ruins. Abbas now sees he is cornered by his nemesis: Trump’s move to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, was not just a one-off whim, but a component of the “deal of the century,” which the US president and his advisers had crafted for months together with Egyptian President Abdel-Fatteh El-Sisi, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed bin Salman and the UAE ruler Sheikh Muhammed Bin Ziyad.
‘The Palestinian leader’s first predicament was how to explain to the Palestinian and Arab public what happened to his master strategy of the past 25 years, for using world opinion to force a pro-Palestinian peace solution down Israel’s throat. Not too long ago, Abbas boasted he was about to pull it off. Now it is crashing before his eyes. It is not enough for him to yell that the “deal of the century” is the “slap of the century.”
‘Here and there, he may find international pro-Palestinian stalwarts, but the doors are slamming shut as funds for UN bodies and NGOs dry up. Even the Europeans, who dislike Trump and sympathize with the Palestinians, are beginning to think twice about sticking to a blunt line against the US and Israel. They are reluctant to buck the two allies’ partners, the oil-rich Saudi and Emirate rulers, a luxury they can ill-afford in these times of profound economic decline.’

The known details of the plan are noteworthy: ‘Much of the criticism of the US-Arab peace plan is prompted by a misapprehension. The plan is based strongly on a two-state solution that offers the Palestinians their own state and negates bi-national Israeli-Palestinian statehood. But the contours are different from any former peace proposal. Gone for good are the pre-1967 war lines which were Abbas’ sine qua non. According to the fragments leaked about the new proposal, which is still on the work bench, this Palestinian state would rise on territory currently governed by the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria…

‘This plan for Palestinian statehood bears little resemblance to the goal of the 50-year old Palestinian struggle. The Palestinian national movement has consistently aspired to a state that would swallow Israel and extinguish the Zionist visionFor Abbas this prospect is anathema. He is so beside himself that on Sunday, he cursed the house of US President Donald Trump before the PLO central committee. But, then on Monday, Jan 16, Trump whipped out his ultimate weapon and slashed aid to the UN Works and Relief Agency for Palestinian refugees, from $165m to $60m..’ (read in full here).

FASCINATING! As Bill Koenig says, “The Bible is playing out right before our eyes.”

Recommended reading:
  1. Melanie Philips’ deep knowledge of this man’s character and history is very revealing.  Her article on his speech, Abbas Tears Of the Mask, concludes,‘In short, Britain and the EU continue to support, validate and this connive at an agenda aimed at the extermination of Israel promoted by hallucinatory lies and libels about the Jewish people along with gross Holocaust denial.

    ‘Abbas’s speech should be sent to every member of the British parliament, and the Prime Minister, Theresa May, should be asked how Britain can continue to give any money at all to such open anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers. She should be asked how the British government can continue to support giving such people a state of their own. She should be asked why the British government has ignored this horrifying reality, and the constant mortal danger it poses for the Israelis, for so long.

    ‘But then, many British people will be unaware of the appalling nature of Abbas’s speech since the BBC chose to bowdlerise it, as BBC Watch observes.

    ‘Abbas clearly felt he had nothing to lose by making this speech. America has made clear it will no longer give the time of day to such an unconscionable agenda. Only Britain and the EU continue to keep it alive, to their undying shame.’

    2. Cont’d in Zecharia 2:8-9 as root of Europe’s migrant crisis and of UK’s ‘Brexit’.

Bible Update: Zecharia 2:8 and 8:8 – EU supports Palestine against Israel

For thus said the Lord of Hosts, after [His] glory had sent me [His messenger] to the nations who plundered you – for he who touches you touches the apple or pupil of His eye: “Behold I will swing my hand over them and they shall become plunder for those who served them. Then you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me. Sing and rejoice, O Daughter of Zion: for behold I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord. (Zech 2:7-9 Amplified Bible)

Chapter 8 of the Book of Zecharia is sub-headed ‘Jerusalem, Holy City of the Future’ in the NKJV and verse 8 (NB: that number once again!!) reads:

“I will bring them back, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. They shall be my people and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.”

The Palestinian leadership and that of the European Union refuse to recognise and stand upon the Word of God, being defiantly and resolutely against it. But for blogging on a God-incidental validation of a personal debate I would have reported more fully on this issue sooner.  So as an aside I wrote about the EU’s official reaction to developments, viz:

‘On his recent (early December) visit to Europe PM Netanyahu encouraged its leaders to be open to Donald Trump’s recognising the reality of Jerusalem being Israel’s capital. But Europe’s foreign policy chief rejected his plea outright.  Did you know this person’s office and authority are established through the EU’s (more properly Western Assembly’s) ‘Recommendation 666’?  – my email April 2009 Not Many People Know: 2 refers (also see this useful summary dated 2006).’

In The Apocalypse, or ‘Revelation of Jesus Christ’, ‘666’ is the Number of the Beast out of the earth that serves the demonic dragon (ie. satan), and which some refer to as ‘The Antichrist’ (Rev 13:11-18).

This week Koenig’s World Watch Daily displays two headline reports on 10 January:

Norway, EU Call Meeting in Bid to ‘Speed Up’ Efforts for 2-State Solution

EU Foreign Policy head Federica Mogherini in Cuba, Jan 2018. (AFP/Adalberto Roque)

‘Norway and the European Union said Wednesday they would convene an “extraordinary session” of donor countries to the Palestinians, saying efforts to reach a peace deal needed to be hurried up.

‘The meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee, to be held on January 31 in Brussels, is also meant to discuss the need to “enable the Palestinian Authority to execute full control over Gaza” based on the Fatah-Hamas reconciliation deal signed in Cairo on October 12, 2017.

“There is an urgent need to bring all parties together to discuss measures to speed up efforts that can underpin a negotiated two-state solution,” the EU said in a statement.

Netanyahu Hails US Envoy for Telling Truth about Palestinians Rejecting Peace

Ambassador David Friedman said Hamas’ glorification of attacks and PA’s paying terrorists a monthly stipend is to blame for stagnated peace process

The previous day’s KWWD home page has:

Erekat: No Peace Talks Until US Revokes Jerusalem Recognition

‘Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Tuesday said the Palestinians would reject all United States-sponsored peace talks until Washington rescinded its December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

“The continued American talk about deals to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or calling for negotiations or talks is unacceptable to the Palestinian leadership, as long as Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is not revoked,” Erekat told the official Voice of Palestine radio station, according to the official PA news site Wafa.

‘When US President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he “removed Jerusalem from any negotiations,” said Erekat.’

Previous reports are also directly relevant to our headline scripture:

CONCLUSION

Europe’s response to President Trump’s announcement on Jerusalem has been far more extreme, violent and outspoken than the response of the Arab world. Thus writes ‘ne plus ultra’ journalist Caroline Glick, whom I highly regard and recommend for well-informed, perspicious insights, as in Europe’s War Against The Jewish State.

Let’s not forget the prophetic word delivered by David Noakes on the Lord’s urging us to ‘Come Out!’ of the EU before He brings its breakdown, of which we observe unremitting progress towards its fulfillment!

So let’s watch what The Almighty does to those who array themselves against Him…AND “Genesis 12:3 applies too!

[Update 13 Jan – see also Caroline’s latest: The Palestinians Race To The Bottom]

Prophetic Scripture Update #6 & Mid-East update #4: JER-USA-LEM

The oracle of the word of the LORD affirming Israel. Thus says the LORD, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him:
“Behold I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness (‘threshold of shivering’) to all surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem.
‘And it shall happen in that day that will I make Jerusalem a very heavy (burdensome) stone for all peoples: all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered (together) against it”. (Zechariah 12:3 NKJV with KJV per Hebrew)

Today, President Trump is expected to make an announcement on the United States’ official recognition of Jerusalem as capital of the State of Israel, as well as the decision to relocate the US embassy there. [Update Thurs: Two minutes after posting and closing down for the day I turned on 6 o’clock BBC News to see him ‘Live’ in the White House. Amended post’s title spelling, adjusted opening of Zech 12 to match Hebrew see here.]

Here are some of the headlines over the past week relating to developments in fulfilling Biblical prophecy in Israel and the Middle-East:

First, we must refer to the concurrent ‘coincidental’ events that William Koenig noted as a result of his observations over the past 20 years and concluding there’s a direct correlation in connection with the ‘peace process’ on dividing up the land.

Also see Cranmer’s article/discussion The whole world should recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – simply because it is!

Network ‘gremlins’ block comment on Boris, BBC & Balfour post

Being away from 10 o’clock on duties at Acorn after having published the previous post on Boris, BBC and Balfour Declaration I was unaware of a most informative comment submitted by Dave Chapman about half-an-hour later. It’s presented a fascinating but annoying bit of bother: something or someone somewhere read it and decided to block its appearance! That is, you cannot yet read his remarks at the foot of that post because WordPress is malfunctioning?

Could that be just sheer coincidence?  Let’s not get paranoid, but it reminds me of when my blogging about Iran’s rehearsals to attack Israel was affected (as here).

However, I was able to update that post with these appended notes which I’d started but had to amend, and added screenshot to confirm I’m not imagining this malfunction:

‘Also, please note Comments below from Dave Chapman, to which I’m about to reply in some detail…WHOA THERE! – MOST PECULIAR: although I saw them in an email alert to my phone timed at 10:35 (read approx 14:30 half-mile away and am now back home on PC), his message does not appear either at the foot of this post as usual, or in my admin screen’s listing of comments – yet it is flagged atop home page’s Recent Comments sidebar (as shown below)!

‘MOREOVER that email alert hasn’t downloaded to my PC (stop press: just in at 15:30 but no change on WordPress). So is someone, somewhere censoring and blocking his truthful material ??  WEIRD!’

Now past 17:00hrs we’ll solve the problem by copying the email alerting me to Dave Chapman’s comments:

So I emailed Dave direct with this reply (links added):

‘Thanks for taking time to go into details as I’d hoped on Monday to have been able to update readers on Trump by using material in Saturday’s ‘Koenig’s Eye View at White House’. In the light of his research since early 1990’s, I’m well aware of the correlation between talks to divide the land that biblically is to be Israel’s and the severe weather in USA. It’s so empirically observable that it’s almost scientifically demonstrable fact!

‘Here’s Bill Koenig’s latest on that scenario:

Trump’s Middle East peace plan is revealing. Has “Eye to Eye” made a difference?

‘The Times of Israel said Sunday that the Trump administration would shortly unveil a formal proposal for Middle East peace that aims to enable a “comprehensive regional arrangement,” but that it will not be imposed on the sides, and that it will not feature a rigid timetable. An administration official told The Times of Israel, however, that there were no imminent plans to present a proposal.

‘I prayed that President Trump would read my Sept. 6 letter and review “Eye to Eye”  [Bill’s book] and/or at least talked to staff about the book…to let the president know of the consequences of dividing God’s land. Additionally, I have also been told that people have written the White House about Israel’s covenant land…

‘President Trump has been expected to provide a comprehensive regional plan since his meetings with Arab leaders in Riyadh in May and at the UN in September. If he didn’t come forth with at least some plan, this would not bode well for him and Jared Kushner, after they showed such enthusiasm towards a comprehensive Middle East plan and deal. Moreover, President Trump doesn’t want to stop his tough talk or negate his credibility and/or reputation amongst Sunni Arab leaders which could further complicate his Iran and North Korea actions and decisions.

‘However, the fact a regional arrangement will not be “imposed” or that there would not be a “rigid timetable” is big news. In other words, they’re backing off the pressure, which is key. Plus, no imminent plans to present a proposal is also very favorable.’ (Emphasis RB’s)

[17:20 – am publishing and original comment still unavailable. Mystery solved – Dave’s got shunted into a spam folder. This has never happened to his many contributions so I wouldn’t expect to have to delve into a folder that doesn’t flag new entries.]

Zecharia affirms the OT understanding that Gentiles were to be enlightened by the Jews – not be incorporated within the Messianic community

My namesake discloses profound points well worth mulling over. Thank you Richard…

Richard Barker's LITTLE BOOK of Providence

Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’’  (Zech8:23NASB)

This minor prophet has quite a lot to say about the “Day” (or age) to follow this which I may comment on in subsequent posts. The above verse reaffirms the fact that Old Testament prophets, John the Baptist and even Jesus Himself in the Olivet discourse spoke of the age to be heralded by Christ’s coming in glory occurring within a generation of His birth, not preceded by the age we know as the gospel/Church age in which Gentiles are summoned to play an equal part with Jews within the sanctified community  we know of as “Church” (ekklesia – literally the called-out ones). No surprise then that the twelve disciples had little clue…

View original post 488 more words

The effects upon USA of Obama’s UNSC Resolution 2334

The following opinions of some well-informed journalists are presented to draw attention to the profound nature of past and current events relating to and connecting the USA with Israel.:

williamkoenig-web[1]John McTernanBlog subscribers of long-standing may recall my posts on the ongoing work of William Koenig and John McTernan in monitoring the catastrophic effects upon the USA of meddling in and mishandling Israel. Co-authors of Israel: Blessing or Curse (2001), Bill runs Koenig’s World Watch Daily and John blogs at John McTernan’s Insights.

Their subsequent bestsellers (click images for link to site) are described as follows:

Eye to Eye

What do these major record-setting events have in common? 

  • The ten costliest insurance events in U.S. history
  • The twelve costliest hurricanes in U.S. history
  • Three of the four largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history
  • The two largest terrorism events in U.S. history

eye-to-eye-bookAll of these major catastrophes and many others began or occurred on the very same day or within 24-hours of U.S. presidents Bush, Clinton and Bush applying pressure on Israel to trade her land for promises of “peace and security,” sponsored major “land for peace” meetings, made major public statements pertaining to Israel’s covenant land and /or called for a Palestinian State. The greater the pressure placed on Israel to comply the greater the corresponding catastrophe and/or event.

Are each one of these major record-setting events just a coincidence or awe-inspiring signs that God is actively involved in the affairs of Israel?

In this book, William Koenig provides undeniable facts and conclusive evidence showing that indeed the leaders of the United States and the world are on a collision course with God over Israel’s covenant land.

“And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem” (Zechariah 12:9)

As America Has Done to Israel

This book shows what was happening spiritually behind incredible events in American and world history such as:

  • The largest Nazis meeting outside of Germany took place in America the location was soon struck by one of the greatest disasters in US history.
  • President Franklin Roosevelt died at the very time he was blocking the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
  • God raised up the United States as a world power at the very time America took in millions of Russian Jews.
  • The founder of the modern Zionist movement was not Theodor Herzl, but William Blackstone, an American evangelist.
  • As America became a great power, God directly used the nation to help fulfill His prophetic word with the rebirth of Israel. Without America’s power, modern Israel would not have been reborn.

as-america-has-done-to-israel8John reveals the direct correlation between America interfering with God’s prophetic plan for Israel and incredible disasters hitting America. Starting in 1991 and continuing until today, as America touches the land of Israel and Jerusalem incredible disasters hit the US including:

The Perfect Storm, Hurricane Andrew, the Northridge Earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the attack on 9/11,  the Stock Market crash of 2008, the Joplin Tornado outbreak.

You will be amazed to see the correlation between the greatest earthquake in modern history and events in Israel!  (For more from this see this post.)

Revealed: Obama’s Legacy

William Koenig: ‘Today, very few people fully understand the extensive consequences of President Obama’s two terms in office. Life as we know it in America will never be the same’ . The details are presented in Bill’s latest book Revealed, Obama’s Legacy, written from his perspective as an accredited Christian journalist at the White House.

His weekly report Koenig’s Eye-View From The White House for subscribers published on Friday covers the following topics in detail and with links to sources. Section 2 timeline shows the connections between recent and imminent events:

1. Inside the White House

  • What Is Coming To Jerusalem And Israel In 2017?
  • On Donald Trump’s First Full-Day In Office, He Will Be 70 Years, 7 Months, And 7 Days Old
  • America’s 45th U.S. President; Isaiah 44:28 And Isaiah 45 Perspective
  • Jubilee Year And The Capture Of Jerusalem (1917 And 1967)
  • Five Potential Major Developments In US-Israel Relations In 2017
  • Many Orthodox Jews Believe This Year 5777 Point To The Messiah’s Coming
  • Biblical Origins Of The 70-Nation Anti-Israel Paris Conference
  • Torah Reading For 17 Tevet 5777 (January 15, 2017)
  • Rubio, Cardin Introduce Senate Resolution Condemning Anti-Israel Efforts At United Nations
  • Recapping Tenure, Kerry Owns Iran Deal, Distances Himself From Syria And Israel

2. Timeline 2016-2017: Israel’s Land And Earthquakes

Nov. 13: John Kerry meets with John Key the Prime Minister of New Zealand in Wellington, New Zealand to discuss the UNSC resolution (Kerry denied a role in UNSC 2334 pre-planning) on Israel and other matters. – New Zealand

Nov. 14: A massive 7.8 earthquake happened a few hours after John Kerry left the country just after midnight in Christchurch, New Zealand – Reuters

Dec. 5: Prime Minister John Key of New Zealand resigns in shock announcement – ABC News

Dec. 23: New Zealand led UN Security Council Resolution 2334 passed on vote of 14-0 and 1 [U.S.] abstention

Dec.21 to Dec. 28: 700 tremors in California and Nevada

Dec. 28: John Kerry gives a one-hour and 17 minute message on Israel’s land. Blaming Israel settlement construction as the greatest impediment to a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.

Dec. 28: Three early morning earthquakes on the California-Nevada border of 5.8, 5.6 and 5.7 magnitude and a 4.1 quake in San Bernardino County within 30 minutes of Kerry finishing his State Department speech – KTLA

Dec. 31 to Jan. 2: There were over 250 tremors near two major fault lines in Southern California – Los Angeles Times

Jan. 15, 2017: 70 nations are to attend an Israel-Palestinian peace conference in Paris, France – Reuters

Jan. 15, 2017: Russia to host Palestinian reconciliation talks in Moscow between Fatah and Hamas – Russia’s TASS

Jan. 20, 2017: President-elect Trump to be inaugurated.

To this list we can now add, as in previous post: ‘Jan 9: State of Emergency Declared, worst flooding in California since 1997, possibly since 1986’.

OBAMA AND ISRAEL, STRIKE AND COUNTER-STRIKE

Carolyn GlickLastly, for those wanting an insightful analysis of the Israel-Palestine situation, as ever I can strongly recommend ‘ne-plus ultra’ journalist Caroline Glick’s above-titled article, first published in the Jerusalem Post. Caroline grew up in Obama’s local Chicago neighbourhood and after making aliyah served as Coordinator of Negotiations with the PLO and then asst. foreign policy advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu in his first term of office as Israel’s PM. For more about her professional background click Glick.

This perspicacious author and senior contributing editor of the JP opens her ‘Obama and Israel, Strike and Counterstrike’ as follows:

‘UN Security Council Resolution 2334 was the first prong of outgoing US President Barack Obama’s lame duck campaign against Israel. Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on Wednesday was the second.

‘On January 15, stage 3 will commence in Paris. At France’s lame duck President Francois Hollande’s international conference, the foreign ministers of some fifty states are expected to adopt as their own the anti-Israel principles Kerry set forth in his speech.

‘The next day it will be Obama’s turn. Obama can be expected to use the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to present the Palestinian war to annihilate Israel as a natural progression from the American civil rights movement that King led fifty years ago.

‘Finally, sometime between January 17 and 19, Obama intends for the Security Council to reconvene and follow the gang at the Paris conference by adopting Kerry’s positions as a new Security Council resolution. That follow-on resolution may also recognize “Palestine” and grant it full membership in the UN….’continue reading.

You may also like to read her Obama’s War Against America.

Further Reading on UNSC 2334

Fulfilled prophecy #4 cont’d – Paris pays price, but NOT due to…cont’d

In considering spiritual rather than politico-military reasons for the targeting of France – and now Mali too – I claimed in the previous post that prime verses of scripture as well as contemporaneous prophetical insights reveal the real reason for the massacre of 130 in Paris. The reason is likely to be not the French government’s military responses to ISIL in Syria, but its ongoing hostility towards Israel.

And this is not to forget or belittle the continuing attacks in Israel itself, as well as in Nigeria plus the Beirut bombing and the Russian airliner brought down over the Sinai. According to the List of Terror Attacks kept on Religion of Peace website the total number by Muslims since New York’s day of infamy stands at 27,308: so deaths are very much higher!

Nathan 2That first part of my argument used only one scripture because it was the focal emphasis of words from the Lord brought by Neville Johnson. We also revisited prophetic words Nathan Morris brought for New Year 2012 and noticed their accuracy regarding this year’s atrocities. Before demonstrating other scriptures’ relevance and application to what France has done to Israel, let me reconsider first what Nathan stressed and the relevance to yesterday’s news:

“The Lord told me that in the coming days such will be the unfolding of global events that fear will strike the hearts of men…an ever-increasing unrest and a spirit of confusion shall be released upon the world that the hearts of many shall be gripped with fear; the fear of uncertainty and the sense of hopelessness…” (listen from 2:30:00 of this video).

Consider this with yesterday’s headline ‘Paris attacks made me ‘doubt’ presence of God, admits Archbishop of Canterbury’, as in yesterday’s BBC Songs of Praise. (See also The Independent and Daily Mail.)  Justin Welby candidly admits the massacre caused him to doubt where God is and why it happened and that it made a “chink in his armour”.

BUT the Press fails to quote him in fullwhat’s new? In telling presenter Aled Jones of his seeking and engaging the Lord over the issue, Justin was asked, “What answers did He give you?” – he replied:

“He said, “In the middle of it”! And also an answer from the Psalms, Psalm 56 – ‘He stores up our tears in a bottle’. None of our sufferings are lost!”

See also Justin Welby’s official site for his Statement on Paris Attacks, as well as a blog published after this one was posted and in which His Grace explains Why Arguing with God is not the same as not believing in him. Interesting to read because it’s easy to infer from the references to two psalms how much the BBC edited out of the interview. What else would we expect in view of its severely jaundiced and inaccurate coverage of Israel, as monitored by BBC Watch?

What Does the Bible Say?

Here’s a selection of well-known scripture pertinent to France’s situation. Bear in mind that all events in Old (and New) Testaments act as examples ‘for our admonition (upon whom the end of ages have come’ – 1 Cor 10:11).:

1a) The Lord’s promise to Abraham and to his descendants of that everlasting promise:

“I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you; and in you all families of the earth shall be blessed.”  (Genesis 12:2-3 NKJV)

1b) The Angel of the Lord’s prophecy to Hagar about his son Ishmael:

“He shall be a wild man; his hand shall  be against every man, and every man’s hand against him. And he shall dwell in the land of his brethren.” (Genesis 16:12 NKJV)

2) In a vision to prophet Obadiah the Lord makes his first definitive declaration about ‘The Day of the Lord’ on the divisive hatred the sons of Esau have for those of brother Jacob. It thus applies as a major End-time prophecy to all nations’ treatment of the Jewish nation:

“For the day of the LORD upon all nations is near; As you have done (to Israel), it shall be done to you; your reprisal shall return upon your own head.” (Obadiah 1:15 NKJV)

3) The scenario of how this End-time prophecy is being fufilled today:

“And it shall happen in that day that I shall  make Jerusalem a  very heavy stone for all peoples; all who heave it away will surely be cut to pieces though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.” (Zecharia 12:3 NKJV)

4) The ‘spiritual law of action and reaction’ is outlined in the earliest Christian letter by the hand of Apostle Paul:

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8 NIV)

[NKJV scripture from New King James Version  copyright 1982 Thomas Nelson Inc used by permission. NIV scripture from New International Version copyright 1984 International Bible Society.]

Hence, France’s fundamental problem is its leaders’ rebellion against the Word of the Lord as presented below.

Paris – The Morning After

As recounted earlier, on Saturday 14th November I read online headlines on the massacre in Paris, one of which I realised connected directly into its true cause.

williamkoenig-web[1]In Koenig’s World Watch Daily I noticed ‘France’s War Against Israel – Caroline Glick’. Editor William Koenig gives this ex-peace negotiator, now Senior Contributing Editor of the Jerusalem Post, the accolade of ‘ne plus ultra’ (none better, perfect example) for her excellence and accuracy of journalism.

Caroline’s article of 20th October (ie. 3 weeks before the attacks) caught my attention and connected right into the weekend’s massacres. She gets right to the core of issues and so I now quote her at length. You may be as appalled by this as I am,  so I’d urge you to read her full article by clicking on this sub-head title.:

France’s War Against Jews

Carolyn GlickCaroline delivers a stinging indictment and condemnation of officially-sanctioned hostility by a leading European nation towards the nation of Israel. She opens as follows, (emphases mine):

‘France’s plan to use its position at the UN Security Council to bring about the deployment of international monitors to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has been condemned by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his ministers as biased, unhelpful and detached from reality.

‘Certainly it is all those things. But France’s decision to use its diplomatic position to advance a plan which, if implemented, would end Israeli sovereignty over Judaism’s holiest site is first and foremost a French act of aggression against the Jewish state.

‘Contrary to what the French government would have us believe, France’s Temple Mount gambit is not an effort to quell the violence. French protestations of concern over the loss of life in the current tempest of Palestinian terror ring hollow.

‘France doesn’t really oppose Palestinian terrorism. To the contrary, it facilitates it.’

Caroline continues by documenting French bankrolling of and conniving with those whose ultimate goal is the eradication of their neighbour:

‘Every year, the French government pays millions of euros, dollars and shekels to Palestinian NGOs whose stated goal is to destroy Israel. Through its NGO agents, France finances the radicalization of Palestinian society (which) makes Palestinian terror inevitable. Much of the current rhetoric used by the Palestinians to reject Israel’s legitimacy and justify violence against Jews is found in strategic documents that France paid Palestinian NGOs to write…’

Over 2010-2013 a consortium of Palestinian Non-Governmental Organisations called NGO Development Center received $6.5 million from France, which ‘paid for the NDC to put together a strategic plan to advance its members’ goals. That French-initiated and financed document includes a list of activities not aimed at promoting peace, enhancing the daily lives of Palestinians, or expanding economic growth.’

‘Rather, the French financed strategic planning document provides a list of activities that the NGO’s will undertake to delegitimize and criminalize Israel and ensure that Palestinians hate the Jewish state and view it as the cause of all their suffering.’

Caroline ‘s expose of France continues in depth. For the second example she refers to an NDC document of 2008 that, ‘required all member groups to ban all “normalization activities with the occupier, [both] at the political-security [and] the cultural [and] developmental levels.”

The document went on to call for Israel to be destroyed. No action on the part of any Palestinian entity can be carried out it said, “if it undermines the inalienable Palestinian rights of establishing statehood and the return of refugees to their original homes,” that, is, the immigration of millions of foreign-born Arabs to the ruins of Israel.’

Thirdly, she covers the immense French funding of the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee which ‘uses racist language to demonize Jews and Israel by among other things assaulting the so-called “Judaization of Jerusalem” and attacking Palestinians who work with Israeli companies….In 2011, PARC sabotaged a trade delegation in France comprised of Israeli and Gazan farmers…Rather than welcome Israel’s actions on behalf of Gaza farmers, PARC organized a boycott of the delegation – causing direct harm to Gazan farmers.

‘…By paying these groups to carry out these sorts of activities, the French government has made clear that far from seeking to advance the cause of peace, its actual goal is to block all prospects of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. These sorts of actions are the norm, rather than the exception in France’s treatment of Israel.

‘And France makes no bones about its hostility towards the Jewish State.’

In the next page Caroline examines how the past year’s support of the PA complements France’s own domestic anti-Jewish policy. Then she presents historical details enabling her to castigate president Holland for his outrageous, grossly discourteous and insulting treatment of PM Netanyahu during his visit to honour the victims of the attacks in Paris last January. Caroline finishes this litany as follows:

‘In the evening after the march, Hollande refused to appear with Netanyahu at the memorial ceremony for the victims of the Hyper Cacher massacre. In a tangible snub, Hollande left the synagogue where it was being held before Netanyahu arrived.

‘In the nine months since the attacks, rather than go after the Islamic communities of France that infect their members with Nazi-like Jew hatred marinated in Koranic dispensations for murder, French authorities have forced French Jewry to live under lock and key. Jewish communal institutions are required to shoulder astronomical security costs as their buildings have come to look more like military garrisons than elementary schools and synagogues.

‘As a French professor writing under the pen name Alain El-Mouchain explained this month in Mosaic Magazine, the French government’s “refusal to identify either the culprits [of anti-Semitic violence] or their [Jewish] victims by their proper names…has perversely combined with the swift posting of police and military guards at Jewish institutions to make Jews feel that at best they have become ‘protected citizens’ in their own country, reinforcing the idea that they are no longer at home in France but are rather a new kind of dhimmi [a minority group that lives at the pleasure of the ruling Muslims].“ 

Caroline concludes,

‘Through its actions, France has shown that it isn’t even vaguely interested in promoting freedom and peace. The policy of the French government, revealed yet again by its bid to end Israeli control of the Temple Mount, is to delegitimize Israel and curry the favor of jihadists at the expense of the Jews of Israel and of France alike.’

France is also at the forefront of the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israeli businesses thereby adversely affecting Palestinian workers.

France continues to pay the price for its leaders’ decisions and actions.

Therefore, it’s no wonder France holds the record for Jews currently emigrating to Israel. Yet this is in accord with the revelatory word Dr Maurice Sklar received, as follows.:

Prophetic Word at Feast of Tabernacles 2015

Note the following points (emphases added) from what the above messianic Jew says the Lord gave at the start of this year’s Feast of Tabernacles, as copied in this re-post:

1. The Times of the Gentiles are coming to an end. The end of Adam’s dominion time-lease upon earth is nearly over. The time of Jacobs’ Trouble: the Tribulation period is about to begin. BUT HE (JACOB) SHALL BE SAVED OUT OF IT. It is in this time that I will sovereignly cause all the Jews to return to their home, Eretz Israel. I will shake them out like a tablecloth that a lady would take outdoors and shake all the crumbs out of it by flapping it into the wind. But not one crumb will perish. All shall be returned…. Many of my people are hidden in the nations that have descended from the 10 lost tribes. They are not “lost” to Me. I KNOW THEM ALL. They shall return, along with all the descendants of Judah and Levi. No man knows who or where they are, but I DO. The time has come when the rest of the family will come home to the land I promised them.

2. Satan knows that his time is short. War is coming to the Middle East. It will bring every nation into it before it is all over. Israel is my mousetrap, and Jerusalem is the cheese. Israel is also my anvil on which I will judge the nations. Prepare your hearts, for peace will be taken from the earth. For 70 years I gave the Western nations peace and prosperity after World War 2. That was because of what the United States did along with the Allied forces by defeating Nazi Germany and rescuing My people Israel from extermination, and then paving the way for Israel to be reborn as a nation in 1948.

In my humble opinion that prophetic word and its associated one on the Day of the Lord are worthy of reflection and, as with the words in this two-part blog, should be weighed with scripture and the Lord.

Conclusion

If you followed up my reference to Francois X’s remarks in the previous post you would have gained a closer view on the situation by a brother in Christ familiar with the Bible as prophecy.

“The situation in France is more dire than people think” and he mentions the 800 no-go areas that are outside the police force’s ability to enforce the law of the land. [See latest in Daniel Pipes’ personal investigations Muslim no-go zones in Europe?]

Even so, the people’s elected representatives have no excuse whatsoever for very biased and bigoted policies against Israel.

As the above few scriptures attest, we are now witnessing France reaping what it has sown. Its support for anti-Israel terrorism and the downfall of that nation and surrender of its holiest site in Jerusalem has resulted in not only no divine protection against the demonic but also a barbaric targeting by the most extreme Muslim movement, one that copies the military adventures of their faith’s founder and subsequent early leaders.

After planning to get United Nations action against Israel in Jerusalem, president Hollande has petitioned for other nations to join the action against ISIS/ISIL.  As Dr John McTernan and others have posited for some years and the wise leader of Jordan now foresees, it looks like we’re now heading into World War Three!

Once again history repeats itself as other peoples decide enough is enough of Muslim-based aggression – as outlined in this post on the myths about the Crusades: An insight into global satanic strategy – part 2.

More > Koenig/Glick – Europe’s pushing Palestinian state & illegal trade war on Israel.

Further Reading:

  1. Caroline Glick: Radical Islam – The Invisible Enemy.
  2. Dr John McTernan Insights: As France Has Done to Israel.
  3. Dr Clifford Hill’s clear exposition on Islam: Shock and Horror.
  4. Dr Clifford’ Hill’s follow-on: The Paris Fallout: Sorting Out the Mess
  5. Jordan’s King Abdullah: “We are Facing a Third World War”.
  6. Daniel Revisited: A Tipping Point for the Second Signpost.
  7. Gospel in the End Times: Paris Is Just The Beginning (incl French contribution).
  8. M-East Forum: What France Can Learn From Israel In Confronting Islamist Terror.
  9. Video: Islam’s Signature of Trampling and Crushing Made Obvious (Re Dan 2:40).
  10. Intl Business Times: ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State, Daesh: what’s the difference? NB. the Arabic insult of the last confirms interpretation of 4th part of idolatrous image in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision AND of 4th beast of Daniel’s famous vision as a future religio-political Islamic empire, NOT a Roman empire revived as European Union! (Daniel 2:40 ‘pulverising/smashing’ and Daniel 7:23 shall ‘devour/thresh’.)

Prophetic points on the SCOTUS marriage decision

The most violent storm-complex since the June 2012 derecho blasted Washington DC area in July’s opening minutes (click image for details).

The most violent storm-complex since the June 2012 derecho blasted Washington DC area in July’s opening minutes. (Credit Washington Post, click image for details.)

In view of the suppression of free speech, Friday’s decision on equal marriage by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) has ramifications beyond America.

I’m so pleased not to be alone in understanding the possibility of a spiritual ‘crossover’ effect from here across the Atlantic, as asked in Does a spiritual yet political trend link UK and USA?  In the prophetic word Cindy Jacobs brought for the UK whilst passing through Heathrow in May, the Lord is exhorting us,

If you will stand up now and be the voice to the nations this awakening that you have prayed for is on its way; it is coming, it is coming like a mighty rushing wind…this is the season where I am giving you a loud voice, Body of Christ, and if you will speak now I will amplify that voice and it is going to begin to tip the nation. If you miss your window you will not have the effect…” (read in full here).

Therefore, it’s now time for followers of Jesus Christ to stand up, speak and dissent for the sake of not-yet believers and our society – even if civil disobedience is necessary, as in the anti-Vietnam war and anti-racial segregation demonstrations of yesteryear.

Consider some points from what little reading I’ve done on this and I thank a couple of readers for informing me. Be warned – these tend to highlight the culpability of churches in failing to follow Jesus properly:

The Church Disappears

Tony Puccio of Tucson blogs about a most accurate observation on 1st July,

“I was shown a vision 07/01/2015 where I saw a church situated in what I will call a jungle of vegetation.  There was vegetation all around but the church building stood out and was recognized as a church. Then I began to see a vine creep its way toward the church building. It was very small and most probably gone unnoticed had I not seen it and my attention drawn to it in the vision. The vine was left unchecked and eventually it covered the church building, although you could still make out the shape of the church it no longer stood out as it once did. Finally, the vine grew so dense and thick that the church disappeared altogether and you could not see the church any longer.

“The creeping vine is worldliness and it was allowed to creep into the church unchecked and most likely unnoticed.  It was allowed to grow until it totally engulfed the church.  The church went from a building that stood out for all to see to one that blended in with its surroundings to finally disappearing from view altogether.

“The vine got its nourishment from the outside and not from the inside.”

I read this earlier upon logging into WordPress and a short while later an email brought directly related information, as follows:

A Surprising Prophetic Word

William Smith in Bournemouth area sent a link to this Prophetic Insight from Charisma, which I quote in part but deserves reading in full. Jeremiah Johnson sought Father on the SCOTUS decision and believes the Lord said to him (emphases added):

“In the natural, the Supreme Court justices have just legalized homosexual marriage in America, but little do they know that they also just authorized an awakening of the Spirit in My bride. For know that now is the time to turn inward, it is a time of repentance and fasting for My people. Has their laziness and blindness on the issue of sexual immorality in their midst not given the homosexual agenda its true power? America has now legalized homosexual immorality because the American church legalized heterosexual immorality first.”

Then came a vision of intercessors in which he heard their prayers and was asked:

“Do you know what’s wrong with these prayers Jeremiah? They are all focused on the call for America to repent when I have called My bride to repent! You must tell the intercessors to shift their focus from America to My bride. Their self-righteous hearts and blindness to their own sin is a stench in my nostrils. The issues coming forth in the United States is not an American problem, it’s an American Church problem.”

Therefore, Jeremiah writes,

“America is in a crisis, but the American church is in a greater crisis. We are and will continue to reap what we have sown and that is seeds of silence and tolerance on the key issues of our day that have come before the Father as sin…While I do believe that these individuals are choosing to blatantly sin and will be judged by God Himself for their behavior (Romans 14:12), we have an obligation as believers in Jesus Christ to look within our own lives and in our own spiritual communities and ask the Spirit of truth to search us inwardly before we begin calling others to accountability (see Psalm 51:6).”

Four Key Things to Consider

In case you haven’t read the re-blog of Joel Rosenberg’s remarks on the implications of SCOTUS’ decision let me briefly cover his four main points. Joel asks if Christians may be hyperventilating over the issue. No! “Unfortunately, this is a very big deal and it puts America on a perilous path”.

He draws attention to key things on the Court’s ruling for believers at this critical time:

  1. The Supreme Court is over-reaching its Constitutional authority, and is thus  undermining its own legitimacy and pouring gasoline on a highly-politicized issue that will deeply divide Americans for years to come.
  2. It forces 320 million Americans to embrace overnight a radical re-engineering of the entire social compact of marriage that even some of the nation’s most liberal political leaders strongly opposed just a few years ago.
  3. It opens the door for a frontal and massive assault on religious liberty… Christians all over the country who hold to the Biblical definition of marriage are beginning to be taken to court and fined — some are even in danger of losing their businesses and their homes…The 1st Amendment to the Constitution plainly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But the Court’s ruling seems to put the un-enumerated “civil right” of a same-sex marriage above the enumerated right of religious freedom…gay political activists are not content with mere legalization of same-sex marriage. They want to force the rest of the country to embrace and support them. Thus, they and their supporters in Washington will likely move aggressively to criminalize the Biblical definition of marriage and to severely penalize those who teach and follow it.
  4. Most troubling, the Court has acted in direct and brazen defiance of the Word of God — painful as it is for me to say it, this will likely accelerate us towards judgment if America does not soon change course.

The Supreme Court v. The Supreme Being

In his inimitable style Rick Joyner is on target in his Prophetic Bulletin #94’s brief on the ‘legal contest’ implicit in this decision and uses ‘three questions’ from US Army Manual for dealing with a crisis, viz.:

  1. What is happening?
  2. What is not happening? (spiritually)
  3. What can we do about it?

In tackling the first question Rick majors upon the foundation of the Union and ‘creeping tyranny’. He opens,

“As the four dissenting justices pointed out, the Supreme Court does not have the constitutional authority to make this decision. First, even though SCOTUS has taken this authority upon itself, it is a usurped authority and nowhere does the Constitution give it this authority. The authority to determine the constitutionality of laws was given to Congress, not the courts. We are now suffering under the very tyranny that the founders warned about if the courts ever presumed this authority. Regardless of our position on same-sex marriage, every American should be deeply troubled by the actions of SCOTUS that this case is just the most recent and dramatic.”

From his fine argument I wish to quote only two points made from a global perspective rather than the nationally introspective. This isn’t to imply US laws or policy should be based on what other nations think, but does need to know how they are perceived because it affects international relations. (“It’s been a major wedge driven between the US, Russia and China, as well as Africa and South America. To much of the world, the US and Western Europe now look like Sodom and Gomorrah”.)

On this he writes:

“Paul the Apostle wrote to Titus that even false prophets can sometimes tell the truth (see Titus 1:12-13). Pravda, the Moscow daily newspaper, has been predicting for years that the United States would break up into several pieces just like the Soviet Union. Their reasoning was not based merely on sour grapes, but on the historically proven consequences of the kind of direction in which our government has been going. To date, we have most alarmingly followed the pattern predicted. We really are close to breaking apart.

“Islamists consider America “the great Satan” because of our moral and spiritual debauchery that has made us “a homosexual nation”—so perverted that the only remedy is to wipe us off the face of the earth. Their belief about the U.S. has now been affirmed by this Supreme Court decision. This decision will likely make their recruiting to this cause much easier. This is not the only issue fuelling these groups, but it is a major one.”

Like Joel Rosenberg, Rick concludes his brief with a solid action plan.

Prophetic Warning of a Divided Nation

Grand Canyon Wpaper113In The River and The Schism Chuck Pierce refers to having visited the Grand Canyon, which reminded him of a vision received in August 2007 of a coming division within his nation.  Another one came in May 2011 about a deteriorating relationship with one of its closest allies – Israel.

We have good Biblical grounds for understanding that, as America treats Israel and Jerusalem, so too will its well-being be guarded – or not. As mentioned before, its initials are in the centre of the capital of Israel; ie. JER-USA-LEM.  Therefore, its leaders can either protect the ‘apple of God’s eye’ by holding it together – or else divide it – with all the inherent consequences of Zechariah chapter 2.

Read more about this in Modern prophecy on USA & Israel approaches fulfilment.

Exactly as prophesied: nations set on collision course with God

After yesterday’s vote in Parliament recognising Palestine, as in The Independent, it’s time to recall the Lord’s opinion about the heart of that land. Then we’ll consider a news round-up indicative of our whereabouts on His prophetic timetable.

First, here’s what the prophet Zecharia was told about the future ‘Day of the Lord’ – ie. a specific period in which the Lord deals with humanity’s rejection of and rebellion against Him, and its focal locality in and around Jerusalem:

Thus says the LORD, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him:

“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. In that day”, says the LORD, “I  shall strike…

“It shall be in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.”  (Zecharia 12:1-3, 12, NKJV courtesy Blue Letter Bible)

Let me quote examples of relevant current events so we can check this out.

williamkoenig-web[1]First, the header to Bill Koenig’s World Watch Daily this morning:

The nations of the world are on a collision course with the God of Israel.

Bill’s website provides the following subheads with brief covering comments, followed by some on the conflict with ISIS:

John McTernanKoenig’s fellow watcher and past co-author, John McTernan, reports on these Biblical issues and unequivocally states his opinion in yesterday’s posting. Under the header The Battle for Jerusalem Has Begun, he quotes Zechariah 14:2 “For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle…” and comments:

“The world is now gearing up to force a Palestinian state upon Israel with Jerusalem as its capital. November 16, 2016, is the target date set for this.

“Based on this, there is NO doubt, in my mind, that awesome wars are upon us, and God is about to unleash incredible judgments upon the earth. Look how this threat to Israel is taking place at the exact time Ebola is loose amongst the nations! (Emphasis RB)

“The judgments will match the pressure and attack on Israel. This is not off in the future it is here NOW.  The time to judge the nations is about to begin.”

John covers the latest material under As the Nations Have Done to Israel and refers to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call to scrap settlements, plus his claim that the ‘occupation’ of territories led to the recent Gaza war!

He also blogs As the EU Has Done to Israel stating,

“The European Union is aggressive against Israel as Jew hating seems to be in most of the Europeans’ DNA. They are now following the path of the Nazis in the 1930s while this time it is the Hard Left united with the Muslims.

“Europe right now is on the verge of an economic meltdown at the very time the EU is trying to economically destroy Israel.” (Emphasis RB)

To back-up his claims John cites:

Readers keeping abreast of these matters will recall I often quote Elliott Abrams’ take on the Middle-East. He’d supervised US policy there under the Bush administration and served as the president’s deputy advisor on the region.

Elliott’s latest blog, A word from Mr Erekat, ably demonstrates that the top Palestinian negotiator with Israel, Saeb Ereket, cannot get his facts straight – not the first time his integrity has been called into question.

The Independent’s report upon yesterday’s parliamentary vote is well-balanced and covers some important points, but the completely clueless naivety of UK politicians is mind-boggling. It is utter folly!

Sweden

There again, as Michel Gurfinkiel taunts in an article on Sweden’s vote, maybe it’s, “far-fetched to expect most political leaders to be thoroughly knowledgeable of the issues… of international affairs; or to expect them to be particularly rational and ethical”.

Michel is founder and president of a French think-tank, the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Institute, and his paper came to my attention through the same source as yesterday’s post on Phyllis Chesler’s interview with Ibn Waaraq – Middle-East Forum.

He makes valid points about the nature of this ‘state’ that all parliamentarians should have born in mind (emphases added):

  1. To be recognized, a state needs a clearly defined population, a clearly defined territory, and an effective government that can maintain law and order. None of the above is true of “Palestine,” whatever the current meaning of that word.
  2. The Palestinian Authority (PA) — an autonomous authority established in 1994 according to a Declaration of Principles between the state of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (the Oslo Accords), and the closest thing to a “state of Palestine” – does not effectively rule the West Bank and Gaza, the two distinct territories that pass as “Palestinian territory.” As an effective government, the PA should be able to maintain law and order there. Everybody knows this is not the case in Gaza, which has been controlled by Hamas and Islamic Jihad since 2007. Yet this is hardly the case in the West Bank, either.
  3. One must ask how the two-state solution can work if one of the considered states – the Palestinian state-to-be — is openly opposed to it. Hamas and Islamic Jihad clearly say they will never recognize Israel. The nominal PA government and Fatah say they will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state – implying their strategy is to turn Israel into a bi-national state.
  4. Abbas’ PA has never directed education towards a pro-peace attitude. The PA was explicitly requested to do so by the Oslo Accords and the subsequent road map to peace in 2003.

His short paper also looks at the pivotal effects of an increasing Muslim population in Sweden and he concludes,

“Doubtlessly, similar situations will arise in more EU countries, including major countries like France, bringing about further confusion and further political and geopolitical nonsense.”

The United States

Carolyn GlickThe once world-leading nation has sown its own undoing through the anti-Israel stance of its president Barack Obama. With her adroit analysis Caroline Glick surgically dissects Netanyahu’s statements and policies. After extracting and revealing Obama’s game-plan with Iran as inimical to Israel’s best interests, she looks at Secretary-of-State John Kerry’s continuing treachery.

Machiavellian Kerry, as ever dangerously incompetent, ignores and seeks to scuttle the new Middle-Eastern alliance of Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other anti-jihadist Sunni states established to protect themselves. Deaf to what Netanyahu repeatedly stressed at the UN General Assembly (as here), according to ‘ne-plus ultra’ analyst Caroline,

“…by bringing Qatar, Hamas’s principal Sunni state-sponsor, into the mix. Kerry is reportedly trying to organize a regional peace conference that would coerce Israel into accepting the so-called Saudi Peace Initiative from 2002. That initiative would require Israel to surrender to all the PLO’s territorial demands and accept millions of foreign, hostile Arabs into its shrunken, indefensible territory.

“In light of Obama’s absolute commitment to the anti-Israel, PLO-centric policy model for dealing with the Palestinian rejection of Israel, for the next two years there will be no change in US policy on the issue.”

Readers who are particularly interested in the finer nuances of the Israel-Palestinian issues will find her article is well worth reading.

It will be interesting to see how USA’s plans for the ‘peace process’ will unravel – even so far as the US falling away and being excluded as its authority and power vanishes – for I believe the Lord will bless and encourage the new regional alliance as a means not only of protection from ISIS, but also of peacefully resolving the Palestinian situation.

These events get even more interesting in the light of scripture and the urgency of the words given to Neville Johnson about changes for this new Jewish year over 2014 to 2015 (see point 7 here).

Indubitably, we’re living in Biblical days as they accelerate to fulfil holy prophecy.

Another morsel on the cloud of witnesses

First, my apologies for having added a paragraph to my observations instead of drafting a new post. It is now deleted and follows below.

Upon re-reading the last post over lunch I believe there’s more to be considered about the role of the cloud of witnesses. (I’d stress I’ve not been watching Paul Keith Davis’  videos.)

Again, here’s what the God-breathed Word states at the juncture of Hebrews chapter 11 with 12, Apostle Paul’s summation on the Hebrew fathers of faith.

39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,  40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

The key is in the closing verse of chapter 11, emboldened above. It states there’s a direct connection between our attaining perfection in faith, and pre-Christian believers in the Holy One of Israel coming into the perfection of their faith.  That is, our destinies are directly linked with those who are already in heaven!

Huh? I need to recalibrate my brain to get a grip of that.

Verse 40 means God has promised Christians a far better deal than He’s promised the fathers of the Judaic faith because of our faith in Jesus. Yet, His goal for them is the same as it is for us, as herein; ‘that they should not be made perfect apart from us’. Thus, together with them we will be receiving the same promise – not one party (Old Covenant) without the other (New Covenant)!

This notion is more obvious in the original Greek of verse 40, ‘tou theo hEmOn  ktreitton ti problepsamenou  hina  mE chOris hEmOn teleiOthOsin’, as seen in it’s word-for-word direct translation below. The present continuous tense of ‘looking’ and ‘be being’, rather than using past tense, distinctly conveys an ongoing process, one that’s in play today, viz:

of God concerning us better something of-looking-forward-to that not apart from us they-may-be-being matured (Greek Interlinear Bible)

Clearly, therefore, God’s intention has always been to bring about at the end of the Age a highly prized unity in Christ Jesus for both Jew and Christian, or as some say; the original Israel and spiritual Israel. Or perhaps, the Bride of Christ and those invited to the Wedding; Jews who’ll look on Jesus whom their forebears pierced (Zecharia 12:10).

Furthermore, with the passage of time, this cloud now includes multitudes of Christians.

As Almighty God – and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who came in the body of a Jewish man – therefore sees hardly any distinction between Jew and Christian, then how dare some church leaders denigrate, even loathe, our Jewish brethren and their national state of Israel?

With this in mind, in the knowledge that several prestigious American churches declared their stance against Israel last year (Elliot Abrams’ CFR article), I’d draw your attention to the Jerusalem Declaration by representatives of mainline Protestant churches. For an introduction to the Protestant Consultation on Israel and the Middle East click here.

11-year cycle proves itself again!

William Koenig has HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD!

Readers may have noted my Paws 4 thought on cycles (29 Aug) outlined the 11 year cycle of major conflicts in the Middle East. [For a brief introductory outline see my post Points to ponder: 2011-2012 and then Koenig’s intriguing ‘Timeline 2011 to 2019‘ – regret no longer available since updating of his website.]

BillKoenig_hdrA week ago I received the following News Alert from Bill in which he anticipated another ‘historical day’ in connection with Israel, militant Islam and the USA. But before reading it consider these momentous events.:

The world now knows another September 11th (Tuesday) became notorious for conflict: the American embassy in Egypt and consulate in Libya came under siege from raging Islamist mobs and, as they fled to safety, US Ambassador Stevens and three consular staff were murdered in cold blood in Benghazi (Debka exclusive report).

Also on Tuesday, President Obama decided not to meet PM Netanyahu on his forth-coming visit to the States, thereby increasing strained diplomatic relations and causing a flurry of news reports (here’s just one, a Debka special).

Now, take careful note of the prophetic news alert (web version here)..:                            [Koenig’s Eye-View Friday 14th has day-by-day account of the week.]

William Koenig - Main Banner
September 5, 2012
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A New World Order Speech – Major Terror Attacks – Is Something Coming?  asks Bill Koenig

9-11-1990 plus 11 years = 9-11-2001 plus 11 years = 9-11-2012

=========

On Sept. 11, 1990, President George H.W. Bush, in an address before a Joint Session of the U.S. Congress on the Persian Gulf crisis and the federal budget deficit, spoke of a “new world order.”

President G.H.W. Bush: Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective — a new world order — can emerge: a new era — freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace. An era in which the nations of the world, East and West, North and South, can prosper and live in harmony.

=========

On Sept. 11, 2001, the 11th anniversary of President Bush’s new-world-order speech to Congress, America experienced the first-ever massive terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

President G.W. Bush: Good evening. Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts. The victims were in airplanes, or in their offices; secretaries, businessmen and women, military and federal workers; moms and dads, friends and neighbors. Thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.

=========

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, will be the 11th anniversary of the World Trade Center/Pentagon terror attacks.

The new-world-order vision President George H.W. Bush spoke of hasn’t happened; as a matter of fact, the world is much more dangerous, especially the Middle East — Israel’s neighborhood — thanks to political decisions of the United States.

Instead of a new-world free from the threat of terror, the United States experienced a massive Islamic terrorist attack on 9-11-2001, followed by two extremely costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and President G.W. Bush’s nation building and active promotion of democracy in the Middle East. It also enabled Barack Obama to defeat John McCain in the 2008 U.S. Presidential election.

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been actively involved in the Arab Spring debacle, which is becoming a hard-line Islamic takeover in country after country in the Middle East. This has led to an unprecedented persecution of Christians and the purging from countries throughout the Middle East, while Israel is facing its most dangerous threats in history. Moreover, under Obama’s watch, Iran has aggressively accelerated its nuclear development program.

Unbeknown to these U.S. Presidents, their active roles in the Middle East have led to the rapid acceleration of final-day events and the final battle for Jerusalem (Zechariah 12-14).

Will Sept. 11, 2012, be another historical day? (my emphasis, RB)

Click here for President George H.W. Bush’s new-world-order speech to Congress and President George W. Bush’s speech to America.

Well fancy that – US Democrats fall out over Jerusalem!

A couple of intriguing items are currently running on World Watch Daily and which I’m copying below in view of rumours of undue influence from the Muslim Brotherhood’s US affiliates, eg. as on the occasion reported in this post.

Dem. Party Heads Ram Through Pro-Israel and ‘God’ Language, Steam Roll Opposition — (video shows the chaos)!!

“Democratic party heads rammed through the revised platform, which includes
updated pro-Israel language and the mention of God, which required a 2/3’s voice
vote, against the clear wishes of those voting at the convention in Charlotte.”

The night the Democrats lost control of the Israel message

“Proposed changes regarding Jerusalem and the mention of God are met with boos by
convention delegates” – read analysis here.

The video clip is well worth watching – it’s quite amusing – especially when we recall the Living God’s promise to prophet Zecharia (see Zech 12):

And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.

About the status of Jerusalem

If anyone isn’t sure why potential contender for the Oval Office Mitt Romney caused a stir by his remarks about Jerusalem made during his recent visit there, let’s consider the situation in more detail. Please refer to the brief previous post and watch its very short video-clip from Times of Israel. A short US news transcript on this may be read here.

First, let’s never forget the prophetic Word of God:

“I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling…On that day when all nations of the earth are gathered against her. I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to remove it will injure themselves…” (Zecharia 12:2-3, also referred to in earlier post here.)

Jerusalem is renowned for its place in religious history and since Israel liberated it from Jordan in the 1967 war it has changed from semi-dereliction to a thriving city.  Inter-nationally, however, it is regarded as a disputed territory with Israelis and Palestinians vying for eventual oversight through the supposed ‘peace process’.  It’s complicated, so let’s check what others more qualified than me say about Romney’s speech:

Experts’ Commentaries

1. Drew Zahn, a Christian columnist, explains:

The controversy over the nation’s capital exists because many Jews, as well as many of Israel’s supporters around the world, have long understood that Jerusalem is more than just the capital of the country, but the heart and soul of the Jewish people’s understanding of returning to the land of their forefathers.

And even though the presidential residence, government offices, supreme court and Knesset are located in Jerusalem – designated as the capital city by Jewish law – the United Nations doesn’t recognize Jerusalem’s place, and most nations’ embassies, therefore, are located in Israel’s northern city of Tel Aviv. In fact, not a single nation on earth diplomatically recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Even the U.S., long considered one of Israel’s most faithful allies, has fudged its position on the capital controversy as incoherently as Carney answered the press corps. For example, in 1995 Congress adopted the Jerusalem Embassy Act, a resolution supporting recognition of a united Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and declaring “the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999.” But the act has yet to be carried out, as President Clinton’s administration believed the act was an unconstitutional invasion of presidential authority. No president has yet to act on the 1995 resolution.(Read full article Suddenly, All Eyes Are On Jerusalem.)

2. Deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post and senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC, Carolyn Glick has served on the Israeli team during peace negotiations and is highly regarded for her incisive analysis. Thus, on this matter she provides the following insight before proceeding to deal with Palestinian complaints:

…The law granted the president a right to postpone the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on national security grounds. But the law’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was unconditional (my emphasis).

In noting Romney’s very mild criticism of Palestinian society, Carolyn refers to their nonsensical attitude on several issues and cites how they bite the hand that feeds them:

The EU is the largest financial backer of the PA. Its policies towards Israel are in complete alignment with what the purportedly moderate Palestinians claim they want in a peace deal with Israel, including the partition of Jerusalem [….]  And yet…for simply upgrading EU trade ties with Israel, Palestinian for Dignity announced its members “will organize to protest the latest manifestation of EU complicity and to challenge its presence and operations in Palestine”.

For how the Republican contender’s policy statements compare with those of Barack Obama’s Administration, especially as applied to the re-election campaign, read her full article Israel – Obama’s ‘Wedge’ Issue.

Carolyn’s opinion on Romney’s speech is ever so brief and may been read here just before the speech’s video on her blog.

3. Founder of The Middle-East Forum who warned of the likelihood of the  911 attack, Daniel Pipes referred to Romney’s rousing political speech as follows:

(He) delivered a ‘stem-winder’ of a speech to the Jerusalem Foundation yesterday, packing emotional support with frank policy statements. The contrast with Obama could hardly be more dramatic. Indeed, one could go through the speech and note the many refutations of Obama….

Also, in contrast to the nonsensical Obama administration stance on Jerusalem being Israel’s capital — sneaking into change captions that mistakenly identified it as that and going through verbal gymnastics to avoid calling it that — Romney came out and plainly called Jerusalem “the capital of Israel”.

For Daniel’s concise summation of the speech see his article in National Review Online, The Corner.

4. Mike Evans, close personal friend of PM Netanyahu for many years, tells about the Israeli’s 35 year-long friendship with the Republican Romney in A Tale of Two Kings.

The two politicians are exceptional among today’s officials. It would be challenging to find two men of such prominence with a similar history. It would also be difficult to envision a world leader who would be more in tune with Israel’s welfare. Romney has already signified that he would be hesitant to make noteworthy determinations about the Jewish state without first conferring with Mr. Netanyahu. This would be an utter about-face from the lackadaisical policies displayed by current US President Barack Obama.

Has your mainstream news fully reported on this? See Not on the 10 o’clock News.

More on Turkey

COPY of pre-blog email (as in ‘About’).:

Thank you Chris for asking about the missing scripture reference below (see previous).  My apologies, it’s oft-quoted verse 3 of Zecharia chapter 12, taken from NIV. 

By the way, having spent most of his life in the Holy City, Derek Prince wrote in one of his letters that the media used to make scant mention of Israel.  However, since about 1990, he noted an increasing international prominence given to Jerusalem.

In case, like ‘G’, you have personal connections with Turkey then you may like to read Joel Richard’s recent item on Turkey’s military build-up and imperial sabre-rattling at http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=318757, 7/5/.11

This ties in well with Chuck Missler’s 3-part ‘Treacherous Trio’ historical overview of the Ezekiel 38 alliance:

– on Turkey at http://www.khouse.org/articles/2009/857/ 
– on Persia at http://www.khouse.org/articles/2009/864/
– on Russia at http://www.khouse.org/articles/2009/869/ .

Although published a couple of years ago, these briefings provide useful insights.

Incidentally, Chuck admitted earlier this year to having given prime attention to the Gog-Magog prophecies whereas Psalm 83 is more relevant to the current situation.  In fact, nine years ago at an Ellel seminar on the history of Israel, I heard David Noakes stress that its verses 2-5 accurately locate Israel’s enemies and describe their true intentions. Perhaps it’s worth checking out Psalm 83?

BREAKING NEWS: PEACE EFFORTS FAILED > “The intensive U.S. efforts to create an agreed outline for renewed negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians have failed, Israeli and Palestinian sources have told Haaretz. The sources said the Palestinian leadership is more determined than ever to pursue the recognition of an independent Palestinian state at the United Nations in September.  An Israeli source who was close to talks held by the U.S. administration with both Israeli and Palestinian officials told Haaretz the Americans was unable to find a formula that both parties could accept and take to the negotiating table…”

Let’s continue to keep alert

Update on intercession request

COPY of pre-blog email (as in ‘About’).:

“I haven’t heard about that! Why haven’t my church friends told me?” Nina’s hairdresser indignantly retorted this morning.
“Because it won’t be covered in the news and, if it is, it’ll be badly biased – and few believers know, or are interested!” Nina replied.

Friends who’ve joined this intercession well know that we’re a minority.  I offer this update and attached extract of Rabbi C’s message, plus some inspiration:

Yesterday, there were clashes throughout the West Bank
and IDF placed upon standby after having been trained for various scenarios. Earlier in the week security forces were beefed up to close the border to refugees from Syria (other neighbouring countries were closed too). 

On Thurs I found a website devoted to the Intifada. It reported on demonstrations at the Israeli embassy in Egypt and for a mass protest to march from Tahrir Square, Cairo and be joined by several hundred thousand protesters to advance upon Israel tomorrow.
Reading a few of that site’s items showed their very poor standard of historical and journalistic accuracy – and confirmed the original intention of incitement to violence. (That was why their first Facebook page was shut down.) 

However, today I see that website’s two home pages have been replaced by masses of articles from supporters, including one about First Scottish Minister Alex Salmond’s strongly condemnatory anti-Israel stance!!  (Its author ridiculously refers to David Cameron as pro-Zionist!!  Not so, according to Spectator blogger Melanie Phillips whose open letter to him about his meeting with PM Netanyahu minces no words!)

Prior to prayer yesterday, I was listening to Paul Keith Davis speaking at Dudley about the Bridal company and Sons of the Kingdom (many thanks to Richard in Bath). Suddenly, he gave reference for this as being in Matthew 13 as well as Zecharia 12.8 regarding Jerusalem in ‘That Day’.  Now Paul had already confirmed things I’d had from the Lord, but during intercession I turned to that OT chapter – WOW what insights came for today, and how it could fit into what this rabbi teaches  – thank you Lord! 

Zecharia 12
could well distinguish between what’s happening now and what’s coming through the ‘Two State’ supposed solution – verse 2 is about the surrounding peoples, as in this 3rd intifada – verse 3 is about the whole world, as in UNO, EU, USA !  And there’s lots more throughout chapters 12 and 13 that may apply to revival in Israel and for ALL inhabitants of Jerusalem, including the ultra orthodox Jews (who outdo muslim hatred for Christians!) and Arabs.

May the Lord lead our prayers

Richard

PS > > SHOULD YOU WANT MORE details see today’s entry at
http://johnmcternansinsights.blogspot.com/