Israel is the one nation, and Jerusalem is the one city on the planet God personally reserves unto himself. He doesn’t equivocate; it is His nation and city, and anyone or anything that tries to wrest it from Him will suffer eternal consequences.

We ascertain this when reading verses such as follows:

“…for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me” (Lev. 25:23). “…then I will uproot you from My land which I have given you…” (2 Chron. 7:20) “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it (Zech. 12:2-3).

The God of Creation, who in reality owns every atom of existence, clearly tells the inhabitants of Planet Earth that these are His geographical places He reserves for himself. The Lord, in warning those who would harm Jerusalem, refers to that city this way: “For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye” (Zech. 2:8).

Jesus, the Messiah, said about this city, while weeping, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, [thou] that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under [her] wings, and ye would not!” (Matt. 23:37).

These and many other Scriptures make it undeniably clear that God loves Israel and Jerusalem. He considers them His personal earthly real estate. He loved them in the past, and has great prophetic plans for them. Therefore, He loves Israel and Jerusalem today.

This being the documentable case, I’ve always had a question within the milieu of eschatological consideration in which I’ve engaged for a number of decades.

The question: Why the following reference to this divinely designated real estate?

“And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (Rev.11:8).

The reference here is to the two witnesses who will preach to the earth dwellers of the tribulation era. The question that has always ruminated in my mind is why God calls this beloved city and nation, “spiritually,” “Sodom and Egypt”?

The people of Israel, before its dispersions and after its modern regathering in the land, have been wicked and done things contrary to God’s will. But, so has every other city and nation that has ever existed on Planet Earth.

The condemnation in this Revelation context, seems, to my mind, reference to prophecy yet future. Jerusalem is destined to become as wicked as the ancient city of Sodom and the idol-worshipping ancient Egypt, in God’s holy view. This shouldn’t surprise, considering how the devil is working overtime in every city and nation of the world today. Satan wanted to usurp the throne of God, e.g., Isa. 14:13-14. It stands to reason –and to scriptural analysis–that the wicked one would want to usurp Christ’s future earthly throne as well. And, for a fact, not even the unbelieving heathens of the world can deny that Jerusalem and the nation Israel are at the center of global conflict today. It is the most feared potential point for triggering nuclear conflagration on this old troubled sphere.

Lucifer, the fallen one, is certainly working his devilish plan to bring all to Armageddon. This includes his all out-efforts against the apple of God’s eye –the city of Zion –Jerusalem. He will indeed succeed in making Jerusalem, spiritually, like Sodom. Proof that Satan’s plan is far along in its progress toward that goal is in today’s news, as follows:

On the anniversary of the destruction of the two Jewish Holy Temples in Jerusalem, Tisha B’Av, an Israeli Arab lawmaker insisted in a radio interview that neither ever existed. Joint Arab List (Ra’am Tal) Knesset member Masoud Ganaim made the statement during an interview Sunday (July 26) on Galei Tzahal Army Radio. Ganaim was asked – as was Jewish lawmaker Yinon Magal from the Bayit Yehudi party — about violent riots that were being perpetrated by Muslim Arabs in the Al Aqsa mosque on the site of the Temple Mount. The rioting Arabs hurled rocks, cement blocks, firebombs and other explosives at Israel Police and even Waqf Islamic Authority security personnel from inside the mosque.

When asked about the violence, Ganaim said that the rock-throwing was not the problem: the real issue, he said, was the “incitement” caused by Jews wanting to pray at the site, considered the holiest in the Jewish faith. Ganaim also said during the conversation that no Jewish Temples ever existed on the Temple Mount – and that he knows this for a fact because he is a history teacher. “The State of Israel knows that Jews and Israel have no legitimacy to the site except for their legitimacy as an occupier – a legitimacy won by force,” he said.  (The Jewish Press » » ‘Jewish Holy Temples Never Existed’ Says Israeli Arab MK , Rapture Ready News 7/27/15)

Regardless of all lies by Israel’s enemies to the contrary, things are prophetically setting up for the moment when the man of sin, Satan’s false messiah, Antichrist, sits in a temple atop Mount Moriah, precisely above the spot where the Ark of the Covenant once sat (2 Thes. 2:3-4). He might even sit upon the same Ark, if it is found, or a counterfeit one, declaring himself to be God, and demanding worship (Rev. 13). Israel’s prideful enemies pervert at every turn the order God has established for the Jews and for Israel. Antichrist will be the ultimately evolved pridefulness against God’s Holy Will. Here’s what God says about mankind’s pride –especially that which perverts His creation order:

“The fear of the LORD [is] to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate” (Prov. 8:13).

Can there be serious doubt that this rebellious generation stands poised upon the precipice of the end of days?