End-time events of huge import. How slow we are to believe all that the prophets have spoken! A huge swathe of Western Christians is tragically failing to recognise the time of God’s coming among his chosen.
We are surely witnessing end-time events of huge import. As I write, there is a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, but back in June, it seemed that the world was hurtling down the runway towards possible Armageddon, with Russia hinting at nuclear support for Iran.
The 12-day Israel-Iran war in June prompted many Christians to wonder if this could be foreshadowing the time prophesied by Ezekiel. Famously, he wrote of an alliance of Israel’s enemies descending from the north, including ‘Gog and Magog’, bent on launching a devastating attack on Israel. It would be the Lord himself who stopped them in their tracks on the plain of Megiddo. However, though this scenario may well be not far off, such an attack cannot be immediately imminent as Israel is not living in peace and safety (see Ezekiel 38:8).
Jeremiah, in a message about Elam, the area of modern Iran where the nuclear sites are reportedly based, says the Lord Almighty “will break the bow of Elam” (their missile launch pads, perhaps?) and send her inhabitants into worldwide exile. The Lord will even set his throne in Elam and restore their fortunes, possibly with the help of the brave army of Christians waiting in the wings there (see Jeremiah 49:34-39).
Operation Rising Lion, the name given to the IDF’s (Israel Defence Force) action against Iran to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme, relates to a Scripture from Numbers (23:24) but, far more significantly, points to the redeemer of Israel, the lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5), who will ultimately triumph over his enemies. The times of the Gentiles are drawing to a close. The focus is now firmly on God’s great purpose for his ancient people.
As for the Gentile Christian world, I believe Yeshua is now gently rebuking us with the same challenge he made to the disciples on the road to Emmaus: “How slow you are to believe all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25). Whereas the Emmaus believers had failed to understand what the Scriptures taught about the coming Messiah, today’s Christians are largely ignorant of the present and future plans God has for Israel, and of the crucial role they are playing in these last days.
Whereas destruction and exile came upon the Jews because they did not recognise the time of God’s coming among them (Luke 19:44), a huge swathe of Western Christians are tragically failing to recognise the time of God’s coming among his chosen. As Jesus said, Jerusalem would be trampled down by the Gentiles…until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. In a sense, that happened in 1967 when the city was re-united for the first time in nearly 2,000 years. But Islam still has a foothold in the city, where Jews wishing to worship on the Temple Mount are greatly discouraged (even by their own) from doing so, for fear of provoking violence. The prophets have clearly spoken about these times. It’s in the Bible. We can, and must, check it out as the Berean Jews did when the Apostle Paul preached the good news of Messiah (Acts 17:10-15).
Although we Christians like to think of ourselves as God’s special possession, it is only by grace that we have become so, being grafted into the olive tree that is Israel, the “apple of his [God’s] eye” (Zechariah 2:8, Deuteronomy 32:10). As the sun sets on the Church age, we must keep on preaching the Gospel as never before – “to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16). The focus of the world’s, and the Church’s, attention should now be on Israel and the soon return to Jerusalem of the Lord Jesus as our Jewish brothers embrace their Messiah with increasing momentum.
True, it was the latter whose partial blindness opened the eyes of the Gentiles. But now the natural branches are taking root again, and it’s Gentile Christians who are too often blighted with blindness.
But Jesus can still open the eyes of the blind (Isaiah 35:5)…
Four members of a Christian Arab family, seen here celebrating Christmas, were killed when an Iranian missile destroyed their home on 14 June. The mother, Manar Khatib, was killed alongside two of her daughters – 20-year-old Shada, and 13-year-old Hala – and her sister-in-law, also called Manar. They are survived by the father, Raja Khatib, a lawyer, who told Sky News: “I’ve lost my family, but for what? A missile from Iran?” (Photo, credit X.com)
The family lives in Tamra, a predominantly Muslim Arab town near Haifa with a very small Christian population. The Iranians fired at multiple civilian targets, but the majority were intercepted by Israel’s air defences.
Charles is a regular contributor to Israel Today at www.israeltoday.co.il and is author of ‘To the Jew First’, ‘King of the Jews’, ‘A Nation Reborn’, ‘Israel the Chosen’ and ‘Peace in Jerusalem’, variously available from Christian Publications International, Amazon and Eden Books (Eden.co.uk).