National Prayer Network

 By Rev. Ted Pike
5 July 11

As the next “Free Gaza” flotilla attempts to sail for Gaza, a recent Ha’aretz article describes Israel’s high-alert response:

"The term ‘flotilla’ is understood in Israel as a declaration of war. This is the case with respect to the latest Gaza-bound flotilla just as it was with the one that set off from Turkey in May 2010…At best, the flotilla’s contribution to lifting the blockade is symbolic, in that it reminds the world that Israel’s closure policy is still partially in effect and that the population of Gaza remains under occupation. But the Israeli government imputes far greater significance to symbols than it does to wise policy. The government seems to be as frightened of the Gaza flotilla as one would think it would be of an attack by an armed naval fleet.

It appears that even though a year has passed since the first flotilla fiasco, Israel is showing that it has learned just one lesson: the military lesson. As though better military preparation or training for specific scenarios are what will save Israel’s honor. The country is not willing to give up a display of power, thereby no doubt contributing to inflating the flotilla’s importance.” (Let the Flotilla Go, Haaretz, 6June11)

Israel claims such offensive potential is necessary because the ships may carry weapons for Hamas, and any end to the embargo of Gaza would certainly lead to such military aid. There is a much deeper and more sinister reason Israel wants to isolate Gaza in poverty. (A UN study shows Gaza’s unemployment rate is among the worst in the world, with 45.2% of Gazans of working age unemployed.) With at least $8 billion in international aid waiting for Israel’s embargo to lift, the Jewish state absolutely does not want a prosperous, energetic and vengeful Palestinian territory to emerge. With the West Bank, Gaza could quickly materialize as a de facto state within a state, regardless of its official status.

Consolidation of Palestinian power on both sides of Israel could powerfully threaten the Jewish state’s dream of inhabiting the entirety of the “Promised Land.” Yet the dream of Jewish safety in the Middle East, an image central to Zionism for the last century, has proven an illusion. Last year Prime Minister Netanyahu proclaimed Israel the most dangerous place a Jew can live.

What dream then remains unchanged for Israel?

It is the dream that a Jewish state can do what God has forbidden for millennia: occupy Palestine in a state of rebellion and apostasy to His law (See List of Conditional Salvation/Occupation Verses). Modern Israel was founded on rejection of weighty Scriptural and historical testimony that wicked Jews can’t found a nation in the Holy Land. The pioneers of the rogue state of Israel, Jewish Bolsheviks, secularists and Christ-hating Talmudist are excluded from the covenant blessing given to righteous Abraham (See, The True Meaning of God's Covenant with Abraham). Israel’s dream, like the dream of every sinner, is that an exception can be made: The sinner will not surely die. God’s judgment can be forever delayed. Israel can add sin to sin and injustice to injustice yet never face national judgment and exile.

Israel Multiplies Sin

God commanded the Hebrews to not oppress “the stranger in the land” (Ex. 23:9). A recent article by IMEMC News describes how Israel continues to expel Palestinians from their homes—only now, new laws force evicted Palestinians to pay demolition costs!

A committee of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) passed a first draft of a law that will require that Palestinians whose homes are destroyed by Israeli forces pay the Israeli government for the demolition costs... Since 1967, Israeli forces have demolished 24,813 Palestinian homes. Ninety percent of these homes were destroyed for “administrative” reasons—because they either lacked a permit or were in an area designated for expansion by the Israeli military. No permits have been issued by Israeli authorities for Palestinian construction in the Occupied Territories since 1967. The remaining 10% of the demolitions have been “punitive” demolitions of the homes of Palestinians accused of attacking Israel or of their families’ homes.

In the first 5 months of 2011, Israeli forces demolished more Palestinian homes than in the entire year of 2010, rendering homeless 706 Palestinians, including 341 minors. This is according to the most recent numbers released by Israeli Civil Administration. If the law passes the full Knesset, any Palestinian whose home is destroyed by the Israeli military will have to pay thousands of dollars to cover the cost of the demolition. Already, many Palestinian homeowners, mainly in Jerusalem have been forced to pay for the forced demolition of their homes.

Israelis and Zionists believe that the Jewish people are above God’s law. Yet Scripture prophesies that this defiant dream will turn someday into a nightmare: the worst Jewish suffering in the history of the world.

Despite world protest that we see today, the centuries of investment by Jewish activists in control of government, finance and media will endure, especially in the west. Israel will someday dominate a global government and summon the arrival of her messiah. For a short time, says the Bible, this united Jewish government will run the financial and political systems of the world (See, 'Babylon the Great' is Israel). She will seem to have fulfilled her dream of prospering in sin and say, “I sit a queen and shall not see sorrow.” (Rev. 18:7)

Yet Scripture proclaims that in “one hour,” her power will collapse. The anti-Christ she has ridden will throw her down and gore her with the “horns” of world armies. The proud queen will be desolated and her children exiled once again, fulfilling God’s timeless law. Jews will be hounded into near extinction among the nations.

As one dream ends, another will be realized. The Arab world will tread Jerusalem underfoot (Luke 21:24). As anti-Christ finally fulfills the Arab dream and allows them to possess the Holy Land, they will “eat, drink and give in marriage” (Luke 17:27), rejoicing that the hated Jews are now vanquished. Israel had her time to rule the nations. This will be “the time of the Gentiles” as a bitterly vengeful world tries to solve the “Jewish problem” by killing every last Jew in the ultimate holocaust. Yet Christ at His second coming intervenes, raining fire and brimstone on the massive armed camp of defiant Gentiles and Arabs who battle Him in the valley of Armageddon. Again, since God’s Holy Land can’t endure wicked inhabitants, God will destroy and the land will “vomit out” the Arab oppressors, just as happened to the ancient Canaanites.

As Zionist and Arab dreams are devastated, another final dream, a divine one, will spring to vivid life. A beleaguered humbled minority of Jewish survivors, including their Khazar proselytes (Ezekiel 47:22) will be transformed through repentance at Christ's appearing. Their obedience will restore the remnant's right to national occupation of Palestine. With pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon them and Satan and his demonic minions cast into the bottomless pit, such national obedience becomes possible. The remnant will be as infused with desire to glorify their Messiah as were their forefathers inflamed to denigrate Him. Jesus will be their passion and praise for 1,000 years.

The Zionist and Arab dreams are destined to turn into nightmares. Yet this final, divine dream has been held by righteous men and prophets since the beginning of God’s saga with Israel. It is inspired by Christ and will be gloriously fulfilled. Under the benevolent rule of Christ, a battered, blood-soaked planet will not return to the habitual cycles of hate and war. Instead, the “knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as waters cover the sea!” (Is. 11:9) Jesus Christ literally proves to be the salvation of the world. He brings with Him not only joy in human hearts but peace to the whole earth—a peace beyond man’s wildest dreams.

Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog organization. 

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