WORLDWIDE ANTI-SEMITISM IS A MAJOR END-TIMES SIGN

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I was surprised when I saw how many young people were involved in recent anti-semitism, and pro-Palestine demonstrations across Australia. However, after a little research, I discovered Antisemitism is not a new phenomenon in Australia. In fact, it has a long history. Israel was established by God and of course, the God of this world, Satan has been intent on destroying it. Just look at its history, in particular the Holocaust.

Emergence of prominent anti-Jewish voices

There have been Jews in Australia from the time of British settlement. As research has shown, they arrived as convicts in chains, yet with the absence of institutional antisemitism in the colonies, they were able to thrive. In fact, a Jew was elected to the Legislative Assembly in Western Australia in 1848, a full decade before the first Jew was elected to Britain’s parliament.

Australia, however, was not immune from what the historian Robert Wistrich has described as “the longest hatred”. Open antisemitism started to become prevalent in the 1880s with the emergence of Australian nationalism and the campaign for federation. It was further fuelled by fears of an influx of Jews fleeing the pogroms in Russia.

Anti-Zionist agenda influenced by Soviet propaganda

After the war, The Bulletin, in particular, continued its anti-Jewish immigration campaign with cartoons depicting Jewish stereotypes. The sentiments around immigration were summed up by Henry (“Jo”) Gullett, a Liberal member of federal parliament, who said: “We are not compelled to accept the unwanted of the world at the dictate of the United Nations or anyone else. Neither should Australia be a dumping ground for people whom Europe itself, in 2,000 years, has not been able to absorb.”

In response to the anti-Jewish hysteria, Arthur Calwell, the newly appointed minister of immigration, introduced administrative policies that ensured the Jewish community remained a tiny minority (0.5%) of the population. These restrictions included a 25% limit on Jewish passengers on ships bound for Australia, which was later extended to planes.

A cartoon from The Bulletin.

This cartoon, from The Bulletin in December 1946, shows Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell playing on the Jew’s harp and, as with the Pied Piper, bringing in the Jews as ‘imports’, while pushing out white Australians as the ‘exports’. 

Locally organised antisemitism also emerged in the 1950s and 60s. A young journalist, Eric Butler, promoted the Douglas Social Credit movement, which blamed the banking system for the Great Depression and, by implication, the Jews.

After the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, some on the far left in Australia began promoting an anti-Israel agenda, particularly on university campuses. In 1969, the Sovetskaya Rossiya newspaper compared Zionism with fascism, implying Jews were Nazis. It also published an article saying “Zionism is the ideology that justifies war, killing, and oppression”. The official Soviet newspaper, Pravda, referred to “the Israeli barbarians” and “a reactionary Zionist doctrine”.

The impact of this anti-Zionist rhetoric often morphed into antisemitism on Australian campuses. The Australian Union of Students, for example, had come under Trotskyist and Maoist influences in the early 1970s and proposed anti-Israel resolutions. Members of the Jewish Students movement who campaigned against these resolutions were physically attacked.

This first picture shows the Jews in the UK demonstration against the anti-semitism of the UK Labour Party.

After the Hamas attacks on October 7, this anti-Israel narrative developed by the Soviets decades ago has again become part of the antisemitic discourse we’ve seen both in Australia and around the world. It coalesces with the theme that Zionism is the new Nazism. These issues have again been magnified on university campuses.

Research into current antisemitism has demonstrated it takes three principal forms. It begins with religious anti-Judaism, then mutates into racial antisemitism, and, most recently, political antisemitism associated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which ostensible criticisms of Israel can morph into an irrational hatred of Jews.

Those with antisemitic beliefs continue to propagate traditional anti-Jewish stereotypes, such as the “international Jewish conspiracy” and “Jewish-Nazi analogy”, linked to Holocaust denial. Conspiracy theories emerged again during the COVID pandemic, with some right-wing groups claiming it was a Jewish plot.

We know that this hatred of the Jews will only escalate and apart from Jesus returning to rescue the nation at the battle of Armageddon the Jews would be exterminated.

The Battle of Armageddon is described in more detail in Revelation 19:11-21, where it portrays a dramatic confrontation between the forces of good, led by Jesus Christ (the rider on a white horse), and the forces of evil, led by the Antichrist, and the false prophet. The Antichrist gathers “kings” in a place called Armageddon. These kings, loyal to the antichrist, will gather their armies to wage war against the people of God. Jesus soundly defeats them. This battle results in the defeat of the enemies of God and the ultimate triumph of righteousness.

We also know that Jesus will rule all nations from Jerusalem. Israel the nation God established will be the ruling nation for the last 1000 years of this cursed Cosmos. People will still be born and die during Jesus’ Millennial reign, but they will live longer, so we know the curse is not entirely lifted from our Cosmos. For more on Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom go to my latest website http://www.millennialkingdom.net.

THE TRUTH ABOUT ‘GENOCIDE’ AND ISRAEL

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Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Gilad Erdan, says: “A ceasefire achieves one thing and one thing only — the survival of Hamas. A ceasefire is a death sentence for many more Israelis and Gazans.”

Hamas is unapologetic in its desire to slaughter Jews and destroy the Jewish state. In April of last year, a Hamas leader named Hamad Al-Regeb preached a sermon in which “he prayed for ‘annihilation’ and ‘paralysis’ of the Jews whom he described as filthy animals: ‘[Allah] transformed them into filthy, ugly animals like apes and pigs because of the injustice and evil they had brought about’.”

Why such hatred? Clearly, Satan is its ultimate inspiration. The irrational hatred of a people who compose one-fifth of one percent of the world’s total population cannot but have a spiritual basis. The story of the Bible is, in part, the story of the adversary’s attempts to destroy the Jewish people spiritually, morally, and physically. The Jewish people are the channels of God’s self-revelation in His written Word and in the person of the world’s Savior, Jesus of Nazareth. Of course, the Hateful One wants them dead.

Hence, Erdan says, Hamas must be ended as any kind of viable military or political organization — without qualification. Israel is not trying to kill the families of Gaza. For a time, at least, the Israel Defense Force posted warnings on the internet, dropped leaflets, and even made phone calls into Gaza urging everyone not involved with Hamas to leave for the Strip’s southern region to avoid bombings and ground attacks.

No one can question that the needs of the people in Gaza are profound, and Christians need to be deeply concerned for them. As relief ministries seek to provide essential medical and food aid to the Palestinian Arabs, followers of Jesus should support them.

Yet with all this said, the single greatest irony of the conflict to date is the charge that Israel has a “genocidal” policy toward Gaza’s Arab population while genocide is exactly what radical Islamists have in mind for Israel.

Consider Iran, the greater Middle East’s leader in anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. As reported by scholar Kian Tajbakhsh in The Atlantic, “hours after Hamas’s horrific attack on Israeli civilians on October 7, all of Iran’s parliamentarians rose from their seats to chant ‘Death to Israel!’” Tajbakhsh notes, “Iran’s fingerprints were all over the October 7 operation. Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, are only the biggest in a network of 19 armed groups that Iran has established along Israel’s borders.” These and other groups receive financial support nearing $1 billion annually from Iran, whose military provides them with weapons and training.

On a political level, many Arab leaders see Israel’s representative democracy as a threat to their power. Newsweek columnist Lee Habib, himself Lebanese, writes that “Israel, like America itself, is a threat to dictators, kings, mullahs, and clerics who despise freedom of conscience and the sanctity of the individual.” This has led Arab nations to rally against “a manufactured common enemy” — Israel.

Again, consider the disturbing but undeniable paradox: Those who try to deny that six million Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis and their abettors are the same people who want to fulfill Hitler’s demonic scheme all while claiming that the Jews themselves want to commit genocide against Gazan Arabs. “There can hardly be a charge more false and more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide,” said Israeli attorney Tal Becker in his opening defense of his country at the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands. “Israel is in a war of defense against Hamas, not against the Palestinian people,” he added.

Israel is in crisis, at home and abroad. America has a moral duty and political obligation to safeguard its security. And, at a time when America’s college campuses contain cesspools of anti-Semitism, that safety must be ensured on our own shores. In a 1790 letter to the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, President George Washington wrote to Jews anxious about how they would fare in the then-new republic, “May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the goodwill of the other inhabitants, while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.”

Taken from commentary in the Washington Stand by Rob Schwarzwalder, Ph.D. He is a Senior Lecturer at Regent University’s Honors College. The Truth About ‘Genocide’ and Israel.

PROPHESIED ROLE OF MUSLIMS IN THE END TIMES

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We have to understand that on October 7th, 2023 something unbelievable happened in Israel. Something that’s really beyond imagination. Hamas fighters — but not only them, because it was Islamic Jihad, random Gazans came into Israel [too] — penetrated into the kibbutzim, to the villages around Gaza, and basically butchered 1,200 Israelis [including] kids in their beds. They raped women, they beheaded babies. They slaughtered parents in front of their kids and took 240 of them into Gaza.

When we hear politicians or protestors calling for a two-state solution, we need to remember that Israel tried that. In fact, many Israelis gave up their own land in 2005 to make it work. What was the outcome: Since 2001, Palestinian militants have launched tens of thousands of rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip and now the Hamas invasion with unspeakable terror.  A poll conducted in September 2014 found that 80% of Palestinians support firing rockets against Israel

Within the Muslim Middle East, everything is very simple. … If you’re weak, we will come and kill you. This is how it goes. … Hamas succeeded in doing something that all the Arab armies hadn’t succeeded in doing in 75 years. Hamas invaded Israel in one day. And if the Palestinians get a state at the end of it, it means it was worth it.

If Israel is forced into a two-state solution, what will happen next? “Radical Islam, because of it, will raise its head all over the world. We can already see it. It began in Europe. You can already see they’re telling the Christians in Europe, ‘We want to apply Sharia rules here in your countries, you are our slaves.’ This is how they treat Christians in Europe today. This is what they want to see in America. This is what they want to see in the entire Western civilization and they will never give up.

This is spiritual warfare and Biblical end times prophecy tells us that it will only get more intense.

Satan is about to be cast out of heaven and he knows his time is short. Note what it says about Earth: “But woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short.” Revelation 12:12

“Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” Revelation 12:7-9

End times Biblical prophecy tells us that the next war will be between the Muslims, Turkey (Sunni) will seek to establish a revived Ottoman Empire and will defeat Iran (Shia) which is currently trying to establish its dominance in the Middle East through its proxies Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and Houthis in Yemen, as well as its proxies in Iraq and Syria. We are then told that Turkey’s efforts are short-lived and it is broken up into four probably by the United Nations forces. It is out of one of these four that the “Little Horn”, the Antichrist arises (Daniel 8:9). He will be of Muslim descent and be seen by them as their long-awaited Mahdi. Just look at the percentage of Muslims in each country that expect the Mahdi to return in their lifetime.

CURSE ISRAEL AND GOD WILL CURSE YOU

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Jonathan Cahn opens up two stunning prophetic signs of judgment,  from the Turkish Parliament to Buenos Aires, Argentina, from the Abrahamic Covenant to the order of creation, from Israel to Pope Francis, the hand of God in real time and space!

There are consequences for cursing Israel. The Abrahamic Covenant declares that God will curse those who curse Israel.

“I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3

In the Turkish parliament, a member called down judgment on Israel and was struck dead. See it in this video.

Hasan Bitmez, 53, a member of parliament from the Islamist Saadet Partisi, or Felicity Party, died at the Ankara City Hospital.

Bitmez collapsed at the lectern of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on Tuesday after calling down a curse on Israel for what they were doing to Hamas.

THE HORRORS INFLICTED ON THE JEWISH PEOPLE

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January 27, 2024, was International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day, people around the world remember the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust during WWII. The horrors inflicted by evil men and women on human beings made in God’s image are absolutely sickening. And as we soberly remember those victims, many of us will naturally think of the ongoing horrors inflicted on the Jewish people in Israel today by the vile actions of Hamas—yes, evil continues. Sadly, the attack by Hamas and Israel’s response has only resulted in antisemitism rearing its ugly head across Western nations and elsewhere.

There is only one place we can go for the truth about what is unfolding here. It is to God’s Word. Ever since God established Israel as His nation over 3000 years ago to be a witness to the world it has been under attack. The real battle is spiritual with Satan and his demons using people to destroy God’s nation, the Jewish people. They did so almost 2000 years ago but God miraculously rebirthed the nation in 1948.

About the horror unfolding we always need to go to God’s Word for answers. Learn from Habbakuk.

“O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted. (Habakkuk 1:2–4)

Let me remind you of God’s answer to Habakkuk. He revealed to his prophet that, yes, God would judge his people (who were sinning greatly against him) by a horrifying invasion from the Babylonians but that God would also judge the Babylonians when their time came—they did not get away with any of their sin! They too were eventually judged. And Habakkuk ends with a message of great hope:

Habakkuk was probably written about 640–615 B.C., just before the fall of Assyria and the rise of Babylon (Chaldea). God used Assyria to punish Israel (722 B.C.); then he would use Babylon to punish Assyria and Judah. This prophecy would be fulfilled several decades after Habakkuk, in 586 B.C. The “theme question” of Habakkuk is, how can God use a wicked nation such as Babylon for his divine purpose? God judges all nations, said Habakkuk and even Babylon would eventually be judged (Babylon fell to Persia in 539). Though God’s ways are sometimes mysterious, the central message is simple: “The righteous shall live by his faith” (Habbakuk 2:4) while awaiting salvation. These words are quoted three times in the New Testament.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Gentiles). For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17

“Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” Galatians:3:11

And finally, we need endurance but each one of God’s children was given the Holy Spirit when we repented and accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour (John 14:26, John 15:26, John 16:7-11). He is our counsellor, teacher, and comforter. He will enable us to persevere knowing that Jesus is coming back. The many prophecies about Jesus’ second coming are beginning to play out in our day so we know what is coming and can prepare accordingly to do the will of God so that we may receive our reward in Jesus’ coming Millennial Kingdom.

“For you need endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “yet a little while and the coming one (Jesus) will come and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” Hebrews 10:36-38

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:1-5

INFORMATION ON JESUS’ MILLENNIAL KINGDOM

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I have found Reggie Kelly who hosts the website http://www.mysteryofisrael.org a tremendous resource for information on Jesus’ coming Millennial Kingdom on this Earth particularly to provide answers to questions such as “What Kind of Bodies will Israel have in the Millennium?:

  1. How is it possible that all of Israel will be saved and yet people will be going into the millennial reign of Christ on this Earth without being transformed and having new bodies?
  2. Will all Israel that’s a part of the church be transformed into heavenly bodies?
  3. How will people be going into the millennium without heavenly bodies?

First, we need to know what the text says? Second, what is the evidence for how the biblical writers expected to be understood? Were they correct in how they understood their own prophecies? Or was there a deeper, allegorical meaning that eluded their limited understanding? Was their interpretation of what Yahweh spoke merely a reflection of a “primitive, nationalistic, time-bound” understanding that would someday be replaced by a different interpretation that could not have been understood or recognized by the prophets or their contemporaries? That’s the hermeneutical question in debate.

After establishing the plain person’s reading of plain language, we can then begin to look for light as to how certain antinomies (difficulties/paradoxes) can be reconciled without violence to the original author’s intention.

The very meaning of the millennium is at stake here. Why should God make such a point of ending the age around the “controversy of Zion”, a conflict that is destined to draw all nations into an insoluble, inescapable dilemma over the Land and people of Israel that sets off the final world conflict? (Isaiah 34:8; Zechariah 12:2-3).

It will be a kind of valley of decision designed to test hearts, primarily over the issue of the nature of saving grace and the ‘kind’ of righteousness (not one’s own but the Lord’s alone) that can stand in the judgment. In other words, why should God be so determined to save an elect remnant of ethnic Jews (“natural branches”) unless it is to set forth the wayward nation that was given an irrevocable divine election as the statement and demonstration of His free and sovereign prerogative to change and qualify them for a final and secure inheritance of the Land by predestined grace.

He has set them at the center of the nations, that He might show in them for a thousand years of public demonstration, the power of His ability to choose whom He will, and quicken whom He will (Mt 11:27; Jn 5:21; Ro 9:18) at the “set time” of His choosing (Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 30:18; Gal 1:15-16), and thus finally and forever preserve, not only them but each and every one of their children after them in abiding holiness, never again to depart (Isa 59:20-21; Jer 32:40, et al.).

Why? What’s God out to prove? What’s His point?

The design/purpose is to press upon the consciousness of the nations God’s faithfulness to His immutable covenant word that most of the world doesn’t even know exists, as multitudes are even now being preconditioned to despise and dismiss His word by the events that are swiftly hurling us to the time of final reckoning.

That covenant (called synonymously “new” and “everlasting”) is not fully complete or satisfied (in all its original terms) until there is not a living Jew on the post-tribulation earth that is not born again and preserved in the “everlasting salvation” of the “everlasting righteousness” of Christ throughout the entirety of the millennial interim as an all holy nation, “never again” to depart (Isa 45:17, 25; 59:20-21; 60:21; Jer 31:34; 32:37-41, Dan 9:24, with so many more that could be listed ).

This uniformity of a completely saved and eternally preserved Jewish population at peace in their own, covenanted Land is the goal of the covenant, since only then will the long-blinded Jewish nation have their spiritual eyes opened. A coming day when the blind shall see, and those who always before resisted the Spirit opposer shall learn doctrine is promised all throughout Moses and the prophets (compare Deut 29:4 with Deut 4:25-31; 30:1-6; Isa 29:18, 24; Acts 7:51).

Only when, not a mere remnant, but “all” the people are righteous (Isa 60:21; Jer 31:34), with eternal righteousness not their own (Isa 45:24; 54:17; Jer 23:5-6; Dan 9:24), can they fulfill the covenant conditions and thus keep the Land forever in abiding peace and security.

This will be possible because the tendency to backslide and come back under the curses of the covenant will be forever cured by the everlasting righteousness of the everlasting covenant. No more will the righteous remnant suffer the sins and exile of the larger apostate nation, since all will be preserved in new covenant righteousness forever, “world without end” (Isa 45:17).

It is one thing for God to bring the Jews into the Land, but a radical transformation is required for them to be assured of permanent security in the Land. This is the very thing the everlasting/new covenant guarantees. From this, it is clear to see why the prophets understood that nothing short of a climactic, apocalyptic day of the Lord could ever bring about such a radical and permanent change in the whole of the nation.

More specifically, not all the nation but only the remnant who escaped death arrive at that ultimately transformative day (Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 66:8; Eze 39:22; Zech 3:9; 12:10; 13:8-9; Mt 23:39; Acts 3:21; Ro 11:26; Rev 1:7) .

This is why, not only a remnant, but the entirety of the nation must “all” know Him (Jer 31:34; Eze 39:22, 28-29) for them to be able to keep the Land forever, as promised in the plain language of the covenant. As I like to say, “For the Jews to inherit the Land forever, they must have a righteousness that is forever”.

This righteousness, which is the Lord’s own righteousness (Isa 45:24-25; 54:7; Jer 23:5-6), must extend, not only to a remnant but the whole of the nation and all the children born to them in future generations, lest the tendency to backslide send them back under the curses of the broken covenant.

This “everlasting righteousness”, which is none of their own, but the Lord’s alone, is that righteousness that was perfected in the Son and imputed to the believer whose faith is counted for righteousness. This righteousness, once imputed, is invariably made manifest by the gift and fruits of the enlivening Holy Spirit.

Of course, all of this applies now to every true-born believer of this age and the assurance of eternal inheritance in the age to come (both the millennium and the new heavens and earth), but God intended an earthly demonstration of His ability to accomplish this divine, self-assigned “mission impossible” here, on this earth with the Jewish people, at the scene of the crime, so to speak, in the presence of a helplessly bound enemy (Satan).

This grace needed to be exhibited and put on display by weak, natural jars of clay, supernaturally upheld in holiness by the gift of the Holy Spirit and nothing of human power.

Manifestly, God has set this interim period as the demonstration of His ability, not only “to graft them in again” but to keep them in, forever!. This requires an interim that is a glorious advance on the present age, yet short of the final, ultimate perfection that follows the millennium.

This newly and suddenly saved remnant of penitent survivors (like Paul’s sudden arrest on the Damascus road) will enter the millennium in their natural bodies and be assisted back to their Land by surviving Gentiles. Compare Isa 14:2; 40:22; 60:9; 66:20; Zech 8:23). Manifestly, these survivors from among the nations did not take the mark, but were also not yet born again (not yet “in Christ”) at the time of the last trump, when Jesus was revealed from heaven (Isa 26:12-13 with Mt 24:29-31; 1Cor 15:52).

Many scriptures speak of this sudden salvation of the surviving remnant of penitent Jewish survivors at the Lord’s post-trib return (Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 59:17-21; 66:8; Jer 30:6-7; Eze 39:22, 28-29; Zech 3:9; 12:10; Mt 23:39; Acts 3:21; Ro 11:26; with Rev 1:7) with the result that now, an all saved Jewish population will never again backslide and fall back under covenant judgment, but “all”, from the least to the greatest will know the Lord (Isa 59:21; Jer 31:34; 32:40; Eze 37:25; 39:22). This is the O.T. context behind Paul’s statement, “and so all Israel shall be saved”.

This sudden national salvation of a surviving remnant is everywhere shown to take place on the post-tribulation day of the Lord. Its purpose is the open and public vindication of “My covenant with them (natural branches) when I shall (future) take away their (the irrevocably elect and no less beloved enemy’s) sin …”

Several scriptures show very definitely that the time Paul has in view is the post-trib day of the Lord, which the N.T. obviously equates with Christ’s return. When Jesus arrives in glory, the dead in Christ, together with all those alive in Christ at the time, will be changed in an instant, immediately translated into glorified immortality.

At the same time (“in one day”; Ps 102:13; 110:3; Isa 66:8; Zech 3:9; Eze 39:22; Mt 23:39; Ro 11:26; Rev 1:7); a surviving remnant of Jews, having just been brought to the end of their power (Deut 32:36; Dan 12:7), “look upon their pierced Messiah”, and immediately go apart to weep in deepest contrition, as when Joseph revealed himself to his estranged brethren (compare Gen. 45 with Mic 5:3-4; Zech 12:10; Mat 23:39; Rev 1:7). After the great purgation of tribulation judgment, the newly saved Jewish remnant (Eze 20:33-40; Amos 9:9-10) goes into the millennium in natural, albeit Spirit filled bodies (Eze 39:22, 28-29).

Now, with it established that the scripture is very clear that a surviving remnant will make up the newly born nation, entering the post-tribulation kingdom in natural bodies, returning by every natural means of transport back to the Land to build and plant, to raise families, and witness to the nations, the question is naturally raised, “what will be the relationship of those who enter the millennial kingdom in their natural bodies and those who have been translated at the rapture?”

When taken together, the cumulative evidence of scripture creates what can be called a “necessary inference”. I believe the puzzle is only solved, with due respect to all that the scripture says, by recognizing what I like to call, a “dimensional divide”.

The mystery of the rapture is not a mystery as to its time. That is no mystery (compare Hos 13:14; Isa 25:7-8; 27:12-13; Mt 24:29-31 with 1 Cor 15:5-54 ). The mystery has to do with a ‘dimensional divide’ between those who will be putting on resurrected bodies with capacities that are like the angels and like the Lord in His post-resurrection appearances for the purpose of spiritual rule, (as for example, ruling over 5 or 10 cities), but in a realm of existence, not any less on earth, but not immediately visible to saved and unsaved mortals in the millennium (compare Mt 19:28; 22:30; Lk 19:17:18; 1Cor 13:12).

There is so much more that can help clarify and harmonize, but the greatest problem (other than failure to fully depend on the Spirit for the mercy of illumination) is the lack of O.T. literacy on the popular level, and on the scholarly level, the tendency to embrace of a set of apriori presuppositions that seeks to harmonize the testaments by a radical method of reinterpretation and spiritualization. It’s a great, historic deficiency in the church due to centuries of neglect of the OT and artificial, unsatisfactory solutions that fail to convincingly harmonize the Testaments.

The second point implicit in the questions is the relationship of the body to national Israel:

To be clear, Israel can only be saved as it becomes the body of Christ by the transforming, regenerating revelation of Christ. If they are alive to God, they are “in Christ”, and thus part of His body sharing in the unity of the Spirit, equally with all saints, whether Jew or Gentile.

“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” 1 Corinthians 6:17

In the natural order, there is a necessary and crucial distinction between Israel and the church, just as between male and female. But there is no distinction at all in the unity of the one new man, that is all who know the Lord, whether in times past, in this age, or in the millennial age to come.

This unity of the Spirit in the God-Man is not a new truth, but an old truth that has come to full light in the revelation of the mystery. (Remember this: something that is newly revealed, or has come to much greater light, does not mean that it did not exist before, just as the revelation of Jesus has brought much clearer light on the triune nature of the Godhead. Yet no one would say that such a new revelation created something that did not exist before).

In distinguishable contrast from the one new man of the Spirit, natural Israel and the supernatural preservation of Jewish identity throughout the generations, belongs to a corporate election that does not guarantee the salvation of any individual in the set-apart nation. Instead, precisely because of the covenant mandate, belonging to the Jewish race commends the covenant breaker to a “double” discipline, as foretold in scripture and witnessed throughout history.

So when Israel comes to faith on that day, they will be no less the living body of Christ, albeit with a unique and special calling, role, and stewardship to be lived out openly in the presence of the nations throughout the millennium.

Thus, the millennium exists primarily for this open covenant vindication and demonstration of every word and aspect of His everlasting covenant, to be lived out in literal detail before the nations and also the onlooking principalities and powers. This will show for a thousand years of open, fully visible demonstration that God was indeed able, not only to bring the people He first brought out of Egypt back into the Land, but now, because of an “everlasting righteousness” (namely, the righteousness of the Son), eternally secure to one and all, they will abide, preserved in holiness and peace in the Land, within the originally specified borders of the promise.

We are led then to infer, most necessarily based on 1 Cor 15:50-52, that all who come to faith during the millennium, with any who die in the Lord during the millennium, will be raised with their new body at the end of the millennium when the great transition to the new heavens and earth follows the final rebellion.

If that explanation does not fully satisfy every question, it is also to be considered that there is a mystery about time in the realm of the Spirit as it intersects with natural historical time. In any event, lingering questions must not be permitted to impose on the clarity of what the text plainly ‘SAYS’.

May the kind Shepherd, “come alongside”, and cause our hearts to burn within us, as He opens to us the Scriptures.

Reggie

WHO WERE THE PHILISTINES AFTER WHOM THE ROMANS NAMED PALESTINE?

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The Philistines are first mentioned in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10. They descended from Noah’s son Ham, through his son Mizraim. The Hamitic people spread widely, settling across the Mediterranean region, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), Egypt, Libya, and Sudan. Yet, many of these people groups are enigmatic. For example, these are the people groups (note the plural -im ending in this list of names) who came from Mizraim (translated Egypt in the ESV):

Egypt (Mizraim) fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim. (Genesis 10:13–14)

The next mention of the Philistines is in the time of Abraham. He was living in southern Canaan, in the environs of Beersheba. Water was (and is) scarce in that region, so control over the water sources was important. Unsurprisingly, there were struggles between Abraham’s house (which probably numbered about 1,000 people at the time; and the Philistines who lived to the west: So they made a covenant at Beersheba. Then Abimelech and Phicol the commander of his army rose up and returned to the land of the Philistines. (Genesis 21:32) And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines. (Genesis 21:34)

Abimelech is a name, but it is also a title. The Hebrew word ab (אב) means father and melech (מלך) means ‘king’, so the name Abimelech translates to ‘my father is king’. We are not yet told where this leader of the Philistines lives, but Abraham lived in Beersheba and at least visited a town to the west called Gerar. Abraham’s son Isaac also had dealings with the Philistines. In this case, however, we are given additional geographical details:

“Now there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Gerar to Abimelech king of the Philistines.” (Genesis 26:1)

Since the name Abimelech can also be used as a title, this is not necessarily the same person that Abraham knew. But note that Abimelech is living in Gerar. This was a city situated northwest of Beersheba, on a different tributary within the same river system.

This explains much of the struggles the people were having about the control of water and why a treaty was needed. Abraham’s large contingent of people was in direct competition with the Philistines in the neighboring Gerar Valley.

In Genesis 26, we have the famous account of Rebecca being stolen by Abimelech (just like Sarah had been [Genesis 20]), the account of the Philistines stopping up Isaac’s wells due to jealousy of his large household and large flocks, and the account of how Isaac re-dug the wells.

We do not hear of the Philistines again until the Exodus, where the Israelites are told to not take the short route out of Egypt “by way of the Philistines” (Exodus 13:17). Later, the “sea of the Philistines” (i.e., the Mediterranean) was used as a boundary for the Promised Land (Exodus 23:31). Strangely, in Exodus 23, 24, and 33, when listing the nations that are to be displaced, no mention of Philistines is made.

A confusing array of tribes and nations

The term ‘Canaanites’ is used inclusively to describe the many tribes and groups that were living in the land of Canaan. The term ‘Philistines’ also describes a panoply of people groups living in Canaan. It is not always easy to separate the two terms and it is not always clear to which of the main groups one of the subgroups (e.g., the Pelethites discussed below) belong.

First, there were many non-Canaanite nations in the area, many of whom were Semitic:

  • To the northeast lived the Aramaeans, named for Aram, a son of Shem. Their home base was the city of Damascus.
  • When Abraham first moved into Israel, he was accompanied by his nephew, Lot. Lot’s sons were Moab and Ammon. The Moabites and Ammonites lived to the east of the Jordan River.
  • Abraham himself had several sons. His first, Ishmael, gave rise to the Ishmaelites, a collection of 12 main tribes (Genesis 17:20) that also lived on the east side of the Jordan River.
  • Abraham’s second son, Isaac, had two sons of his own, Jacob and Esau. Edom was another name for Esau. Like the others, the Edomites lived east of the Jordan.
  • Abraham had more sons later in life. One of those was Midian. When Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, in one verse the Bible says they sold him to both Midianite and Ishmaelite traders (Genesis 37:28). Ishmael was the older brother of Midian. The two were living in the same region and their names were beginning to be comingled even at this early date.
  • There were additional tribes that claimed Ham as their main patriarch (e.g., Sabtah and Sabteca), but these Arabian tribes do not factor into the story much.
  • Next were the many Canaanite nations and tribes. Only two of Canaan’s sons are named (Sidon and Heth). The other tribes are ‘Canaanite’, but we cannot know how they connect.
  • Hamath was a city to the northeast of Israel on the bank of the Euphrates River. The Hamathite territory was included in the ‘land’ promised to Abraham and which was later controlled by the Israelites under David and Solomon.
  • To the northwest were the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon. These are not named among the nations that were to be displaced, but Sidon was a son of Canaan.
  • The Hittites were another Canaanite tribe. Their center of operations was in northern Israel. Bathsheba’s husband Uriah was a Hittite. It is unclear if the ancient Hittite empire that was centered in Anatolia was named after these people.
  • The term ‘Amorite’ occurs frequently in ancient histories. They ranged widely. The Bible says they came from Canaan. In Scripture, we see them living on both sides of the Jordan. Og, king of Bashan, and Sihon, king of Heshbon, were Amorite leaders who lived on the east side of the Jordan and were defeated in battle (Numbers 21:21–35). The Amorites also figure heavily in the initial invasion of Canaan because the Israelite route went from Jericho up into the Amorite territory on the west side of the Jordan (e.g., Joshua 10:5).
  • The Jebusites lived in and around the future city of Jerusalem. They are also associated with Amorites.

There were other people in the area for whom we have little information. Some were of great stature, specifically the Rephaim (Deuteronomy 3:11) and the Anakim. The Rephaim were driven out of the area on the east side of the Jordan by the Ammonites before the Israelites entered Canaan (Deuteronomy 2:20–21). The Valley of Rephaim that led down from Jerusalem to the coastal plain (Joshua 18:16) may have been named for them. The Avvim and the Geshurites were additional enigmatic tribes, but they lived between Mt Hermon and the Sea of Galilee. The mother of two of David’s children (Absalom and Tamar) was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai the king of Geshur. (2 Samuel 3:3, 13:1)

Finally, we have the Philistines. In the book of Joshua, we learn that the Israelites were unable to conquer Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, the five-city “pentapolis” of the Philistines (Joshua 13:2–3). That region was controlled by the Philistines throughout the time of the Judges (e.g., the first period of Israelite rule after the Exodus; see Judges 3:3). For example, Shamgar famously killed 300 Philistines with an ox goad (Judges 3:31), and Samson had many dealings with them (Judges 14–16). There are many mentions of them throughout the books of 1 and 2 Samuel (e.g., Goliath was called a Gittite, that is, he was a Philistine from the city of Gath). They are also mentioned frequently in the prophets (e.g., Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Obadiah, and Zephaniah). For example:

“Are you not like the Cushites to me, O people of Israel?” declares the Lord. “Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt, and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir?”. Amos 9:7

Note here that Amos, who lived in the 8th century BC says the Philistines came from Capthor (Crete). Jeremiah, who was writing about 100 years after Amos, confirms where they came from:

“… because of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper that remains. For the Lord is destroying the Philistines, the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor.”. Jeremiah 47:4

Answering the riddle of the Philistines

The solution to these many puzzles is that there seems to be two different people groups called ‘Philistines’ in the Bible. The latter Philistines were indeed from Crete, but these may not have been the same Philistines that Abraham knew. In fact, the Bible records a population displacement in this very area:

As for the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, destroyed them and settled in their place. (Deuteronomy 2:23)

The book of Deuteronomy was written right before the Israelites invaded Canaan (~1406 BC). Thus, these new people (1) came to the area from Crete sometime between the time of Isaac and the time of Moses, a span of about 300 years. But the Bible refers to a group called the Avvim who lived in the area where the Philistines are also said to have lived.

Yet, the earlier record from Genesis does not claim they were from Capthor (although their relatives, the Capthorim, were). About 1,500 years later, the Bible claims they were. Thus, we have some confusion as to who these earlier Philistines were. If they came from Capthor, when? And, if they had come prior to the time of Abraham, why would that still be important more than a millennium and a half later?

It is strange that the Philistines are not mentioned in the ‘land’ promised to Abraham. Neither are they mentioned by the spies who searched out the land 40 years prior to the invasion of Canaan: But who were these later Philistines of David’s time? In the historical record, the enigmatic Sea Peoples attempted to invade Egypt during the reign of Ramses 111 ( 19th Dynasty, approximately 1186-1155 BC). This would have been during the period of the Judges, almost 300 years after the Exodus, and Israel had long been established as a nation. Their failed invasion was famously depicted on the walls of Ramses 111’s mortuary temple (Medinet Habu), but the diagram includes animals and women in the scene. Thus, the Sea People were not attacking; they were migrating. About the same time, we witness the end of the HIttite, Mycenaean, and Mitanni empires in the Mediterranean region. The reasons for all the upheaval are unknown, and we cannot seperate cause and effect (e.g., were the Sea People marauders, or were they seeking to escape some other group of attackers?). The Egyptian records claim that Rameses forcibly settled the survivors in southwest Cannaan, right where the ‘Philistine‘ cities were in Abraham’s day.

After Canaan had been successfully invaded by the Israelites, the Bible describes many of the people who had yet to be conquered. These include Philistines, Geshurites, the Avvim, and others:

“Now Joshua was old and advanced in years, and the Lord said to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess. This is the land that yet remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all those of the Geshurites (from the Shihor, which is east of Egypt, northward to the boundary of Ekron, it is counted as Canaanite; there are five rulers of the Philistines, those of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron), and those of the Avvim, in the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians, to Aphek, to the boundary of the Amorites, and the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal-gad below Mount Hermon to Lebo-hamath, all the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon to Misrephoth-maim, even all the Sidonians. I myself will drive them out from before the people of Israel.” (Joshua 13:1–6)

By the time of David, there were multiple foreign people groups in the land, and it is a bit confusing who was there first and who may have come later. Some of these groups are closely associated with the Philistines, e.g., the Geshurites:

This is the land that yet remains: all the regions of the Philistines, and all those of the Geshurites. (Joshua 13:3)

The Bible claims the Philistines were in Canaan from the time of Abraham to the time of the final Old Testament prophets. This places them in the land before the significant influx of pottery and DNA that is associated with the island of Crete. This does not mean the Bible is wrong about the early Philistines, however. There are several possible solutions, each of which is faithful to biblical history:

  • The earlier people were called Philistines by their contemporaries; the later people could have been given that name because they lived in Philistine territory.
  • The earlier people could have been given the name ‘Philistines’ retroactively because they lived in the area later dominated by the real Philistines.
  • The earlier and later Philistines were cousins or otherwise related by language or blood, so the new arrivals simply moved into a similar culture. In other words, they were both original ‘Philistines’, but can be distinguished by episodes of migration.

VIOLENCE AND WAR IS IN THE DNA OF HUMAN BEINGS

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Violence and war seem to be in the DNA of human beings as far back as Cain and Abel. Practically from the beginning, the soil of Earth is tainted with the blood of both guilt and innocence.

Just 1600-plus years after Creation the violence on Earth grew so bad that God poured out His wrath upon the Earth with the global flood of Noah’s day. Billions of dead things buried all over the world (picture – fossil graveyard), including fossil fuels formed from dead vegetation are testimony enough of God’s judgement. Slow gradual change over billions of years did not produce fossils and fossil fuels.

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them.” Genesis 6:11-13

After the flood, it did not take long before God created the nations by confusing languages and ultimately, there was a people who made lawlessness and violence a sport: The Philistines. The most famous Philistine, of course, was Goliath the giant, who foolishly confronted the shepherd of Israel, David. When Rome desecrated and decimated Jerusalem 1,900 years ago, its final insult against Israel was to impose the name of Palestina, recalling Israel’s arch-enemy, the Philistines.

The commonly held view is that Hadrian officially renamed Judea Syria Palaestina after his Roman armies suppressed the Bar-Kokhba Revolt (the Second Jewish Revolt) in 135 C.E.; it was viewed as a move intended to sever the connection of the Jews to their historical homeland. However, Jewish writers such as Philo, in particular, and Josephus, who flourished while Judea was still formally in existence, used the name Palestine for the Land of Israel in their Greek works. The name Palestine, surprisingly, may have originated as a Greek pun on the translations of “Israel” and the “Land of the Philistines.” Regardless, Hadrian made it worse when he renamed Jerusalem—the already 1,000-year-old Jewish capital—Aelia Capitolina and turned it into a pagan city. Also, it must be remembered there were no Arabs in the land.

On October 7, the spirit of the Philistines rose through the Iranian proxy of Hamas, which means “violence” in the Hebrew Scriptures. No one can deny the massacre of October 7, especially since the murderers themselves recorded the atrocities. Yes, Hamas is so committed to its barbarism that its members took video of their invasion of a sovereign territory. They filmed its rage, which they took out on not only against the military, but innocent civilians. They bludgeoned, burned, beheaded babies. They raped women before murdering them.

God’s Word, the Bible reveals that we are fast approaching the time when God will pour out His wrath again upon an unrepentant world with the Trumpet (Revelation 8) and Bowl (Revelation 16) judgements.

“Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them. The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea,… Revelation 8:6-8

“Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image... Revelation 16:1-2

What will people do when God pours out His wrath upon the Earth? At the final Bowl judgement (Seveth) they cursed God because the plague was so severe.

“And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail because the plague was so severe.” Revelation 16:21

HAMAS’S INVASION OF ISRAEL IS AN IMPORTANT END TIMES EVENT

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Since October 7, the war between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas has steadily caused ruin and demise — even beyond the Middle East.

The trauma Hamas inflicted upon the Israeli people during the initial attack including the “massacred” neighborhoods, the burning of houses and people, and loved ones ripped away by “a murderous regime.” means Israel has no option but to proceed with the war until Hamas is eliminated no matter how long it takes and the cost, economic and political. Sadly, we are already seeing any goodwill Israel had in the International Community being eroded. It is hard to comprehend the size of marches for the Palestinians and the vehement antisemitism being expressed in most Western Countries. It is not only Muslims marching but many young Westerners.

What about the media? In Australia, journalists signed a group letter in 2021 demanding that journalists be allowed to be activists for Palestinians against their Israeli oppressors – and it has flowered since the October 7 massacre by Hamas terrorists.

Despite what horror Hamas inflicted on women and children, within days, even hours, there were petitions circulating and group letters, signed by journalists, that branded Israel a colonialist apartheid state and excused the October 7 horrors by providing “context” or simply ignoring them. All subsequent petitions, group letters, and statements from every conceivable and inconceivable group, such as Queers for Palestine, have followed the formula of these initial letters and petitions.

The latest one, signed by 300 journalists and approved by the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, the journalists union, is in many ways just a rehash of all the letters and petitions that preceded it. It is confirmation of the fact the contagion is real: a significant number of journalists see themselves as warriors for a cause, the cause of the oppressed Palestinian people, occupied for 75 years by a racist white supremacist state that is perpetrating genocide in Gaza. What this means, in effect, is a call for reporting that is not open and fact-based at all but based on the simplistic and distorted view of Israelis and their Jewish fellow travellers as ruthless and heartless oppressors of the powerless and victimised Palestinian people.

When you consider the amount of land Israel occupies compared to the Muslim countries that surround it you realize that what the Bible tells us, that it is not about the land, it is a spiritual war that is raging, and as prophesied, the only way it will end is when Jesus returns to defeat all the nations against Israel at the battle of Armageddon.

“Behold, a day is coming for the Lord… I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle… Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one-half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward.” Zechariah 14:1-4

“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness, he judges and makes war… And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh He has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.” Revelation 19:11,14-16

“Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice he called to all the birds that fly directly overhead, come, gather for the great supper of God, to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.” And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.” Revelation 19:18-21

TRUTH ABOUT ISRAEL AND RECENT EVENTS

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CONTENT OF VIDEO – Vlad Savchuk interviews Joel Richardson on recent events: Hamas invading Israel and how this fits with end times prophecies – Antichrist & Israel War.

1. Intro 1:04 – Why do Christians stand in opposition to supporting Israel?

2, 5:35 – It is never justifiable to inflict genocide

3. 16:22 – Jewish identity is not just all about the bloodline

4. 21:00 – What is the synagogue of satan?

5. 27:09 – What would you say to people who claim all of Jesus’ prophecies have already come to pass?

6. 37:12 – Has the futurist end-time view been embraced by the early church fathers?

7. 39:46 – Different views between preterists and futurists

8. 46:44 – Could you give examples of how some prophecies have matched history

9. 51:38 – Does the temple have to be built in order for Christ to come?

10. 59:10 – Biblical understanding and Jewish text concerning the battle that will bring the day of the Lord

11. 1:05:14 – Why is the antichrist most likely not a European leader?

Many great questions. You will need to watch the video to get the answers.