The ‘dark resurrection’ that has followed Israel’s re-birth explains so much of her history.
Gardners World, by Charles Gardner
It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Middle East conflict is more than meets the eye. For spiritual warfare on a grand scale is surely building up to Armageddon, the last great battle before Jesus returns. As Rabbi Jonathan Cahn outlines in his expository masterpiece, ‘The Dragon’s Prophecy’ (Frontline), Satan is raging against his old enemy, the God of Israel, by turning up the heat on the nation specially chosen to represent him on earth.
Focusing on Revelation 12, backed up by many other Scriptures, Cahn shows how the dragon’s determination to strangle the re-born nation of Israel at birth has set in motion the troubles we are witnessing today, though it is also obviously a picture of Messiah’s initial coming. The woman cited in Revelation 12 symbolises the nation that gave birth to our Messiah. Having failed to prevent his first coming, Satan is relentlessly pursuing the demise of the woman – in other words, the annihilation of Israel – which has been the goal of the dragon even before and certainly since the day the Apostle John wrote down his revelation.
“Spiritual warfare on a grand scale is surely building up to Armageddon, the last great battle before Jesus returns… All the many attempts to destroy the Jewish race have ultimately failed and now, in a satanic inversion of the truth, it is Israel that is accused of genocide.”
Yet the dragon’s many attempts at genocide have ultimately failed and now, in a satanic inversion of the truth (which of course is his nature), it is Israel that is accused of genocide. The thrust of Cahn’s theory is that the end-time resurrection of Israel has been counteracted by a ‘dark resurrection’ inspired by the dragon, the same entity that delayed the message to Daniel of a future prophecy also applying to our day and age.
Just as Israel was re-born in 1948, surrounding Arab states immediately sought her destruction.
And when Jerusalem was reunited in 1967 for the first time in nearly 2,000 years during the Six Day War, up popped the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) to seize the Palestinian identity. Hitherto the land’s Jewish inhabitants had been known as Palestinians, evidenced by, among other proofs, the Jewish names of the Palestinian football team and ‘The Palestine Post’, the Jewish newspaper, which became today’s ‘Jerusalem Post’. Golda Meir, the great Prime Minister, remarked, “I grew up as a Palestinian”.
The identity grab was effectively a resurrection of the Philistines who, though extinct for 2,500 years, had re-invented themselves through the Iranian-sponsored terrorist organisations committed to wipe out the Jewish state. These resurrected ‘Philistines’ would launch endless violent raids on their Jewish neighbours, just as their ancient namesakes had done, and from the very same strip of land – Gaza.
The coastal enclave was known as Philistia when they constantly harassed the ancient Israelites before suffering a hammer blow with the defeat of Goliath by the shepherd boy, later King, David. When, in 70 AD, the Romans sent the Jews into a long exile, they renamed the territory Philistia as a final insult to their victims.
All of this makes the threatened recognition of a Palestinian state by leading nations including the UK particularly absurd. Now it seems the dragon has unleashed his fury as never before in response to Israel’s restoration. And the monumentally sick massacre of 7 October, 2023 – the worse attack on Jews since the Holocaust – was the result. If you don’t think this was a rehearsal for Armageddon, when many nations attack Israel, then consider the fact that all the main participants in that unholy alliance recorded in Ezekiel 38 and 39 – including Libya, Iran, Turkey and Sudan – supplied Hamas with weapons and ammunition to do their dirty work.
And there is another factor. Global antisemitism has even reached the academic colleges of America, from which their future leaders will no doubt emerge. And the Word of God has it, through Ezekiel, that many nations (perhaps including America) will come against Israel in the end. There’s a whole lot more amazing insight in this extraordinary book which ought to be essential reading for every Christian wishing to understand the torrid times in which we are living. I quote: “Nailed to the Cross over Messiah’s head were the words ‘King of the Jews’. For the Cross is, as well, the epitome of the dragon’s war against the Jewish people. And so too the Jewish people have been crucified, and so too they have risen.”
And he adds: “In the last 2,000 years, when one nation or power has come against the Jewish people, there was always another refuge, nation or hope on the horizon. But in the end, when all nations come against them, there will be no such refuge or hope. And so it will be then that he will come. Messiah will return. The flock of Israel will return to their Shepherd and will be saved by his hand…” Cahn concludes with a stirring call for ‘dragon-slayers’ fighting in the heavenly realm; these are the prayer warriors who fully realise that we are not battling against flesh and blood alone.
We can be consoled by the promise that, “In the end, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes.”
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).