Archive for March, 2009

The two-state solution is 87 years old

Mar 29th

Posted by Shelley Neese in Sharpe

two-state_solution_king_queen_254395By Victor Sharpe

In 1920, Great Britain was given the responsibility by the League of Nations to oversee the Mandate over the geographical territory known as Palestine with the express intention of reconstituting within its territory a Jewish National Home.
The territory in question stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the eastern boundary of Mandatory Palestine, which was a border that would separate it from what was to become the future state of Iraq.
The League of Nations created a number of articles, which were in line with the original intent of the Balfour Declaration of November 29th, 1917. At the last minute, however, a new article was introduced by the British Colonial Office: article number 25.
At first the sudden addition of this article was not a cause for alarm but gradually it became apparent that its inclusion directly enabled Great Britain in 1921 to tear away all the territory of geographical Palestine, east of the River Jordan, and give it to the Arab Hashemite family; the territory to become Trans-Jordan and led by the emir Abdullah.
Britain presented this gift to Abdullah, the son of the Sherif of Mecca, as a consolation prize for its awarding of the Hedjaz territory and Arabia, which included Mecca, to the rival Saud family: That vast territory is now Saudi Arabia.
British officials also claimed that the gift of Mandatory Palestine east of the Jordan River was in gratitude to the Hashemites for their contribution in helping defeat the Turks. However, even T.S. Lawrence later described in derisory terms the Hashemite role as ”a side show of a side show.” 
This was the first partition of Palestine and created a brand new entity 87 years ago covering some 35,000 square miles or nearly four-fifths of the geographical territory of Palestine. Immediately Jewish residence in the territory was forbidden and it became in effect judenrein – the German term for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from a territory.  
This betrayal by none other than Winston Churchill, the Colonial Secretary at the time, was a devastating blow to the Jewish and Zionist leadership, which now saw the promised Jewish homeland reduced to the remaining narrow territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan – an area barely 50 miles at its widest.
Shortly after, in 1923, the British and French colonial powers also divided up the northern part of the Palestine Mandate. Britain stripped away the Golan Heights (ancient biblical Bashan) and gave it to French occupied Syria.
The Balfour Declaration issued by Lord Balfour, British Foreign Secretary, never envisaged that the Jordan River would be the eastern boundary of the reconstituted Jewish homeland. Indeed, the Zionist leadership had put forward in February 1919 its first submission that the eastern boundary would run well east of the Hedjaz railway. The incorporation of the railway would be an economically essential requirement for the Jewish community living east of the River Jordan as well as providing it with vital security.   
The squabbling by the French and British colonial powers over the final frontiers of the Palestine Mandate had earlier led the London Times to urge Paris to accept sensible and rational frontiers in both the north and east of Jewish Palestine. As early as September 19th, 1919 it had thundered in an editorial:
“The Jordan will not do as the eastern frontier of Palestine … Palestine must have a good military frontier east of Jordan … Our duty as Mandatory is to make Jewish Palestine not a struggling state but one that is capable of vigorous and independent life … ” 
But Jewish aspirations inevitably were dashed as a new British Foreign Secretary, Lord Curzon, took the place of Lord Balfour. This new British official within weeks of succeeding Balfour made it clear that Britain was intent upon separating Transjordan from Palestine: the first two-state solution.
The succeeding history of the remaining one fifth of the original territory promised to the Jewish people by Lord Balfour and the British government was one of continuing British betrayal as each successive Mandatory administration displayed pro-Arab and anti-Jewish policies.
During its administration up until 1947, Britain severely restricted Jewish immigration and purchases of land while turning a blind eye to massive illegal Arab immigration into the territory from neighboring Arab states.
Britain’s sorry record of appeasement of the Arabs, at the expense of Jewish destiny in the remaining territory, culminated in the infamous 1939 White Paper, which limited Jewish immigration to just 75,000 souls for the next five years. This onerous and draconian policy, coming as it did on the eve of the outbreak of World War 2, was a death blow to millions of Jews attempting to flee extermination by Nazi Germany.
Britain’s mismanagement of the Mandate finally led to the United Nation’s Partition Plan of 1947. The Jewish Agency reluctantly accepted this additional dismemberment of what was left in Mandatory Palestine of the promised Jewish National Home.
They did this in order to provide a refuge for the surviving Jewish remnants of the Holocaust and for the growing numbers of Jewish refugees being driven out of their homes throughout the Arab world. In contrast, the Arab regimes rejected the Partition Plan. Then, as now, they worked against the existence of an independent Jewish state.
Israel was officially re-born as a sovereign nation in 1948 and its 600,000 Jews fought to survive the massive Arab onslaught, which was intended to wipe out the Jewish state.
In 1948, Trans-Jordan, renamed the Kingdom of Jordan since 1946, had joined the other Arab nations in invading the Jewish state, illegally annexing the Biblical and ancestral Jewish heartland of Judea and Samaria and renaming it the West Bank. Only Britain and Pakistan recognized the annexation.
The war ended in tortuous armistice lines resulting in an Israeli border a mere nine miles wide at the most densely populated area, which stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordanian occupied West Bank. Israel’s late Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, described these dangerously vulnerable armistice lines as the Auschwitz borders.
Nineteen years later the Arab states declared again their imminent intention to destroy Israel. In the June 1967 Six Day War Israel liberated Judea and Samaria from Jordan in a defensive war. Israel offered to give away the newly liberated West Bank to the Hashemite regime in Jordan and the Gaza Strip to its erstwhile Egyptian occupiers in return for a full and lasting peace. But the Arab League, meeting in Khartoum in August, 1967, delivered the infamous three No’s: No peace with Israel, no negotiations with Israel, no recognition of Israel.
It is within the narrow territory remaining for the Jewish state, if one includes Judea and Samaria, that the world now demands the establishment of yet another Arab state. Hamas controlled Gaza would be included in this future state to be called Palestine; a state which has never existed before by that name in all of recorded history – certainly not as an independent Arab state.
Gaza has already been given to the Arabs and they have turned it into a terror base from which they have launched a lethal missile blitz against Israel numbering to date over 10,000 rockets.
Israeli leaders should never have accepted even one missile fired from Gaza at its citizens in southern Israel. To let thousands fall with relative impunity for so many years led the world to believe that it was acceptable. After all, if Israel wasn’t interested in safeguarding its own civilians, why then should the world be. It was accepted as business as usual.
The Gaza War thus came as a surprise to the world community and, just as the Second Lebanon War, it was launched by Israeli leaders too late and ended too soon, leaving both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon free to wreak future havoc upon the Jewish state.
The disputed West Bank, which is the ancient biblical heartland of Israel, is now the territory U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, is pressuring Israel to give away to the Arabs who call themselves Palestinians. This is the present day so-called two – state solution and will dismember what is left of Israel and drive some 250,000 Jewish residents from their homes and farms. Why? Because just as in Jordan, Jews will not be permitted to live within Arab territory, while Arabs can remain free to live within Israel.
It is instructive to remember that upon the granting of the Palestine Mandate to Great Britain, an eminent British celebrity and supporter of Zionism, Josiah Wedgwood, addressed a Jewish crowd of thousands at the Royal Albert Hall in London in which he urged the audience to stand up for Jewish rights in its homeland.
According to the late Shmuel Katz in his groundbreaking biography of the great Zionist leader, Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky, titled The Lone Wolf, Wedgwood said:
“… This lesson I want the new Jewish nation to learn and to get by heart: Stand up for your rights. Let us have more of the spirit in the Jewish movement of my good and gallant friend Jabotinsky.”
Sadly, Israeli governments have become notoriously fearful of rejecting outright the deadly trap inherent in the so called two-state solution. Their muted responses have merely encouraged world leaders to repeatedly breathe new life into the discredited plan. The searing tragedy is that the two-state solution may presage for the Jewish people another Final Solution.
Perhaps the Secretary of State prefers to remain oblivious to the stark fact that the Arabs, whom she embraces and who today call themselves Palestinians, are as committed as their parents and grandparents before them to destroy the Jewish state; whatever size or shape its borders. The fact is that this is not a dispute over borders; this is a religious war and the Arabs, so long as the overwhelming majority remain Muslim, will never accept the existence of a non-Muslim state in territory previously conquered in the name of Allah -whatever the size or shape of its borders.  
Only just recently, Muhammad Dahlan, speaking on behalf of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority, declared  on PA TV that the PA will not recognize Israel – one of the primary demands made upon the Palestinian Arabs in the Oslo Peace Accords. Indeed, Dahlan admitted that the only reason they meet with Israelis at all is in order to continue receiving the immense flow of international funds.
Is Ms. Clinton aware of this Arab charade? Or does she dismiss it and care not for the absence of a sincere and honest Palestinian Arab peace partner and the inevitable plight of the quarter of a million plus Jewish residents who will become displaced refugees by enacting the next two-state solution. Perhaps she cares little for the resulting takeover of Judea and Samaria by Hamas and the inevitable missile blitz that will be launched by the Palestinian Arabs upon the rest of Israel.
Incidentally, what irony when the homes of Peace Now members living in Tel Aviv become daily targets of missiles launched from the very areas they campaign for their fellow Jews to be expelled from.
One wonders if Secretary Clinton knows that eighty seven years ago an original two-state solution was enacted in infamy.  If she does, it is unlikely that she cares – anymore than the rest of the Obama Administration or State Department cares.
And what of those Jewish Americans who serve the Secretary and sadly will be in the forefront of destroying Jewish patrimony in the Land of Israel. Will they have a conscience or feel shame for the calamity they create? I think not.
Victor Sharpe is a freelance writer and author of Politicide: The attempted murder of the Jewish State. 
Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/the_two_state_solution_is_87_y.html at October 29, 2009 – 11:25:28 AM EDT
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The Copper Scroll and the Ark of the Covenant

Mar 27th

Posted by Shelley Neese in Neese

ark_of_covanentBy  Shelley  Neese

The Ark of the Covenant has not been seen since the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.  2600 years, however, has not been long enough to kill the curiosity or exhaust the imagination of the many who ponder the Ark’s fate.  The burning question is how something so holy and central to Jewish worship could disappear without explanation.  The Babylonian’s detailed list of stolen Temple items makes no mention of the Ark; the Bible offers no resolution on whether the Ark was stolen, lost, or destroyed.  The Copper Scroll is the first archeological discovery that sheds light on the issue and could even lead to the Ark’s recovery. 

 

The Copper Scroll is an anomaly in the Dead Sea Scroll Collection.  Found in 1952, like the other scrolls, the Copper Scroll was found in a cave near the ruins of Qumran and was thus attributed to the Essenes.  As its nickname implies it is a scroll written on thin copper sheets.  Unlike the rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Copper Scroll has no literary or religious content; it is an inventory of sixty-four obscure locations where gold, silver, and other treasures are said to be hidden. 

Most scholars would deny any direct connection between the Copper Scroll and the Ark.  Admittedly, the Ark is not directly mentioned in the Scroll.  However, there is a common scholarly assumption that the contents that are listed in the Scroll came from the Jewish Temple.  The Copper Scroll describes a hoard of precious metals and coins estimated to be worth around two billion dollars today.  The only place in ancient Israel that would have had access to so much wealth was the Temple treasury.  Jews in the land and in the Diaspora had brought substantial wealth to the Jewish temple through regular free-will offerings.

In addition to temple tithes, the Scroll refers to other movable temple items like ‘dedicated vessels,’ ‘consecrated’ items, and priestly garments.  Temple vessels are referred to in at least three sections of the Scroll and priestly ephods are named once.  According to Copper Scroll expert B. Pixner, the fourth section of the Scroll references the Breastplate of the High Priest.  In the twenty-sixth section of the Scroll, the scribe uses the same Hebrew word for “pitcher” that is almost exclusively used for the Qalal, the urn which held the ashes of the Red Heifer.  Albert Wolters, a  professor of Religion and Theology in Ontario who focuses on the Dead Sea Scrolls, makes an argument that the proper translation for the last hiding place of the Copper Scroll reads “the Cavern of the Shekinah.”  Shekinah when used in the Bible designates the Divine Presence as it inhabits the Tabernacle (Exod. 40:35) and the Temple in Jerusalem.

There seems to also be a more cryptic reference in the Scroll to the Ark.  According to the translation of John Allegro, the first person allowed to study the Copper Scroll, the text opens with: “In the desolations of the Valley of Achor, under the hill that must be climbed, hidden under the east side, forty stones deep, is a silver chest, and with it, the vestments of the High Priest, all the gold and silver with the Great Tabernacle [Mishkhan] and all its Treasures.”  Mishkan is the Hebrew word used for the Wilderness Tabernacle, the Tabernacle that the Israelis carried during the forty years of wandering and the contents of which were later transferred to the Ark. 

The prevailing opinion in Copper Scroll studies is that, like the rest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Copper Scroll dates between 150 BCE and 70 CE.  Logic would follow that the Scroll is referring to second Temple treasures secreted away before the Roman invasion.  If this theory stands, then the Copper Scroll likely has no connection to the Ark since the Ark was absent from the Second Temple. 
A less popular—but no less interesting—theory is that the Copper Scroll treasure is from the First Temple and was removed by Temple guardians before the Babylonian invasion.  The scroll would likely have been hid in a cave during the Babylonian exile.  The idea that the Copper Scroll could be a precursor to the Dead Sea Scrolls has some credibility given its unique Biblical language.  The Scroll’s script and word construction has eluded many paleographers (experts in ancient script) because it is unlike any of the other Dead Sea Scrolls or texts from the suspected period of production.  Some passages have paleographic dates around 70 CE, but other passages date back 700 years earlier. 
Vendyl Jones—an explorer who has devoted thirty years to studying the Copper Scroll—and Jim Barfield—a retired fire marshal who believes he has cracked the code on the Copper Scroll (see my Copper Scroll articles from the last two issues)—believe the Second book of Maccabees and two other extra-Biblical texts give the background to the Copper Scroll.

II Maccabees tells the story of the prophet Jeremiah receiving a divine warning about the Babylonian invasion to come.  Jeremiah took the sacred Temple treasures—including the Wilderness Tabernacle, the Ark and its contents, and the Qalal—and hid them in a hollow cave near Mount Nebo (Deut. 34:1).  After Jeremiah sealed the entrance his followers complained they could not find the site.   Jeremiah replied “the place shall be unknown until God gathers His people together again and shows His mercy.”
In 1922 an eighteenth century writing called Emeq HaMelekh written by Rav Hertz, an authority on oral Torah, was found in Amsterdam.  In Emeq HaMelekh, Hertz goes into detail describing the mission directed by the prophet Jeremiah to hide the Ark and other sacred things.   Hertz wrote that seven years before the destruction of Solomon’s Temple, five holy men “concealed the vessels of the Temple and the wealth of the treasures that were in Jerusalem.”  Once the guardians hid the objects they inscribed the inventory and secret locations on a Luach Nehoshet (copper plate).  Emeq HaMelekh warns that the Temple items will “not be discovered until the day of the coming of Moschiach, son of David.”

As his source, Hertz cited in his introduction a Tosefta Mishnayot (Rabbinic writing) which was unknown to modern Talmudists until twenty years ago.  In 1990 proof of the Tosephta Mishnayot surfaced in an 8th century genizah (document deposit) recovered from Cairo, Egypt.  Though the genizah document predated Emeq HaMelekh by a thousand years, it gave the same story as Rav Hertz about the Temple rescue operation, named the same five holy men, and referenced the copper plate. 
Could the Copper Scroll now sitting in a museum in Jordan be the Luach Nehoshet?  The possibility is tantalizing.  Excluding Jones and Barfield, however, few Copper Scroll experts have given the connection any merit—mostly because archeologist frown upon using ancient literary texts to aid in finding artifacts. 

Even still, outside of a Hollywood movie studio, never before has there been a treasure map that held this kind of promise and suspense.  The Copper Scroll may be our closest witness to the Ark’s fate.  Watch Raiders of the Lost Ark one too many times and you can not put down the sneaking suspicion that if the Ark is ever meant to be found it will be the Luach Nehoshet—not Prof. Indiana Jones—that leads us to it. 

Shelley Neese is managing editor for the The Jerusalem Connection Report.

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God, America, and Morality

Mar 2nd

Posted by Shelley Neese in Booker

compact smallAMERICA IN PROPHECY PART 3
By Dr. Richard Booker

Moral collapse proceeds economic collapse. The great empires of history collapsed because of moral failures as much as they did from military defeats. America is the only nation in the history of nations that was birthed out of religious persecution and with a Judeo-Christian world-view and vision. It is this Judeo-Christian heritage that has made America great. I use the term Judeo-Christian because without the Judeo there would be no Christian. The Pilgrims and Puritans came to America because of religious persecution by the State Church of England. They were godly people who saw themselves establishing a colony in the new world that would be a shining light of God’s redemption to the nations.

William Bradford, who was appointed governor of the new colony wrote, “Thus out of small beginnings, greater things have grown by His hand who made all things out of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light enkindled here has shown to many, yes, in a sense our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all the praise.”

Cotton Mather wrote that William Bradford, was a person of study as well as action. He had mastered Latin and Greek but the Hebrew he most of all studied. Because he said, “he would see with his own eyes the ancient oracles of God in their native beauty.” He was also well skilled in history, in antiquity, in philosophy and theology. But the crown of all was his holy, prayerful, watchful and fruitful walk with God.”

There were 102 passengers aboard the Mayflower who survived the 65 days at sea. They arrived at Plymouth, Mass. on Dec. 26, 1620. Of this number, more than half died in the first winter due to sickness and inadequate provisions. Less than 50 pilgrims were left, and of that number, some were too old to have children. When you do the math, only a small handful of godly women gave birth to America. Miraculously, thirty years later, in 1650, thirty of the original colonists were still alive and they had 160 descendants living at that time.

The Mayflower Compact

Before they landed, the pilgrims wrote the Mayflower Compact which was their covenant they would live by as a colony. It was modeled on the covenant of their separatist congregation in England. It reads in part:

         “In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign Lord, King James, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”

Whether one likes or not, the record is clear that the Pilgrims intended to establish America as a Christian democratic republic. They did not want a national Christian Church of America. They understood the wisdom of separating organizationally the government of the people from the religion of the people. They advocated freedom of religion not freedom from religion. They certainly did not have in mind separating God from the government. They wanted to separate church and state but not God and state. Unfortunately, America has lost its vision.

Our founding fathers stated that the American democracy was designed for a moral people and would not survive unless there was a moral consensus of the citizens. Born as a self-governing people under the moral laws of God, America now despises the laws of God that made us great. While America has been a great light to the nations, our light has gone out because we have abandoned our Judeo-Christian heritage.|

Everyday America flaunts its immorality in the face of God as if we dare Him to judge us. Many believe the Almighty has accepted our dare. What do you think?

Dr. Richard Booker is a bestselling author and speaker and the Founder of Sounds of the Trumpet and the Institute for Hebraic-Christian Studies. He is a contributing editor for the Jerusalem Connection. To invite him to speak to your congregation or conference and to learn more about his work, see his web site at: www.rbooker.com.  This is the first of six articles on America in Bible prophecy. The articles are excerpts from Dr. Booker’s new book, “The End of all Things is at Hand—are You Ready?” To get the full text, order this book directly from Dr. Booker’s web site at www.rbooker.com.

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A Conflict that can’t be Ended?

Mar 1st

Posted by Shelley Neese in Hutchens

george-mitchellBy Jim Hutchens

Former Senator George Mitchell’s statement as he accepted President Obama’s appointment as Middle East Envoy to the Israelis and Palestinians is worth careful consideration. He declared, “I have formed the conviction that there is no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended.”  Bold words, especially when considering the conflict is between Israel and the Palestinians.

For Bible believers these words are of special interest because they have a note of finality a note of completion and victory, even a note of established peace. However, we know peace and victory will come only when the Prince of Peace comes when Messiah rules and reigns on planet earth, as King of Kings and LORD of Lords. (until then, please review The Jerusalem Connection Peace Plan in this issue.)

Furthermore, we know something else from the Bible that is a clear and certain truth. When Messiah comes “on the clouds of the sky with, power and great glory,” (Matthew 24:30); when “every eye will see Him,” (Revelation 1:7); when “On that day His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, (Zechariah 14:4) thus sayeth the LORD, the coming of the Messiah is at least seven years from now!

Whoa, hold it right there you say. Even Jesus said, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”(Matthew 24:36). I am not pointing to a day or an hour. However, I am pointing to the only Biblical time line God has ever given as an indicator of the season of Messiah’s coming. (By the way, the New Testament never speaks of Messiah’s “return,” which Christians look for. Rather, it always speaks of His “coming,” which both Christians and Jews look for).

The time line I’m speaking of is given to us by the prophet Daniel. He tells us of a series of seven year time periods in Daniel 9:25-27, all of which have passed except the last seven year period. There is a momentous, yet identifiable, event that begins that last period of seven years. Daniel speaks of “the ruler who will come,” (verse 26), “He will confirm a covenant with many for one [seven-year period].” Notice, the ruler does not make or originate the covenant, he confirms it. The Hebrew word means to make strong, to strengthen and make firm or make solid.

In other words, a time is coming when a recognized world ruler will confirm and strengthen a covenant or agreement, evidently between Israel and others with whom a strong covenant is needed. This will be a recognized world wide as a clearly identifiable event. This event will begin the count down to Messiah’s coming seven years later.

However, there is an even more dramatic and identifiable event that takes place three and a half years after the covenant is confirmed. Daniel speaks of this when he says, “but in the middle of that ‘seven’ he [the world ruler], will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And one who causes desolation will place abominations on a wing of the temple, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.” 

This future act is the epitome of arrogant blasphemy. Jesus speaks of it in Matthew 24:15. The Apostle Paul clearly identifies “the abomination of desolation” when he refers to the “man of lawlessness” … He opposes and exalts himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped and even sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.” (II Thessalonians 2:3-4). The extent of the rule of this “man of lawlessness” or “anti-Christ” (I John 2:18-25), or “Beast” (Revelation 13) is forty-two months or three and a half years (Revelation 13:5). At the end of this time period Messiah “will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.” (II Thessalonians 2:8).

There is then, a day coming when a world ruler will confirm a covenant for seven years involving Israel. In the middle of the seven year period or after three and a half years, he will establish himself in the temple proclaiming himself to be God. Following that blasphemous event Jesus said “there will be great tribulation, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again.” (Matthew 24:20).
After which Messiah will come in power and great glory, seven years after the ruler confirms the covenant with Israel.

One additional important factor must be noted. For the seven-year prophecy of Daniel to be fulfilled there must exist a temple in which the Man of Lawlessness proclaims himself to be God. Today Israel has no temple and has not had one since it was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 70. To allow for the fulfillment of the prophecy, three and a half years after the covenant has been confirmed, a temple must be built.

Now, let’s go back to Senator Mitchell’s declaration, “…there is no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended.” Suppose that through Senator Mitchell’s efforts combined with the Quartet the United States, the United Nations, Russia and the European Union, a peace agreement (covenant) is made between Israel and the Arabs/Palestinians. Suppose that agreement is “confirmed” by a world leader maybe the President of the United States, or the Secretary General of the United Nations, or the Middle East Envoy from the Quartet (currently Tony Blair). Suppose that “covenant” authorizes Israel to build a temple (this would have to take place in the first  three and a half year period). I suggest, if these events occur any time soon we will have seen the seven-year count down begin. Until then we have at least seven years until Messiah comes!

Finally, Jesus said, “When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.… Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:28, 36). “Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus!”

Jim Hutchens is President of The Jerusalem Connection, International and editor of The Jerusalem Connection Report.

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