We have looked many times at how, in our view of end-times matters, there is no more significant indicator of where this generation stands on God’s prophetic timeline than the nation Israel. We often point out that God’s chosen nation being front and center in today’s news is why we believe the stage is now set for all final prophecies to begin the process of fulfillment.
Israel’s very existence is a miracle of first order. The Jewish people have been hunted and hated and had genocide perpetrated against them by history’s most horrific tyrants. Yet they were reborn as a nation in 1948, following perhaps the most maliciously ambitious of all genocides–the Holocaust inflicted by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime.
Yet there they are, just where God’s prophetic Word said they would be at the time when Christ’s Second Advent nears. They reside between enemies that practically encircle them. They are in but a tiny portion of the land God says belongs to them–and they are there so located and so land-limited because they have failed to possess the great expanse God promised them. They have always, as a people, refused to occupy their rightful place in the world as God directs them to do.
They are the focal nation of planet earth because the Creator of all things has deemed it to be so. Although they have disobeyed, and are still in the process of disobeying Him, they are nonetheless the only guaranteed invulnerable nation and people on earth. They cannot be destroyed because their God says the following to the nation’s progenitor, Abraham:
And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojourning, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God. (Genesis 17:7–8)
If you believe God, and believe the word He used in this promise–the word “forever”—you must agree that Israel is invulnerable to being destroyed. God cannot lie. Israel is a nation forever!
God’s Word, however, also foretold Israel’s predicament at the very end of the age–before Christ’s next catastrophic intervention, the very time in which you and I find ourselves at this moment.
The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. 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. (Zechariah 12:1–3)
So, with Iran blood-vowed to totally purge the Jewish state from the earth, and even with Russia and all of Israel’s Arab-Islamic nation neighbors looking toward Jerusalem with malicious intent, and with 90 percent of the UN openly against the nation, Israel would, if it were possible, be on the brink of being removed as her enemies wish.
We watch as our own nation, under this administration, pushes our once-most-reliable Mideast ally down its priority list, in the matter of assisting in their defense.
There are here and there weak efforts just to keep up appearances, as they say, but America no longer is a staunch friend of Israel.
But, the Lord anticipated all this, of course. He put in the minds of His people creative juices that no other people have been given, in my view. The Lord, I’m convinced, gave Israeli scientists and weapons-development researchers insights and intuition to produce just the weapons and other military assets needed for such a time as this–when the American protective umbrella no longer is reliable.
The following brief excerpts reinforce my thoughts:
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday released documents confirming The Wall Street Journal report last week saying that the Mossad’s seizure of a trove of Iranian nuclear documents in 2018 uncovered the fact that Iran had stolen classified International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) documents and used them to cover up its nuclear activities.
“Iran stole classified documents from the UN’s Atomic Agency IAEA and used that information to systematically evade nuclear probes,” Bennett wrote. “How do we know? Because we got our hands on Iran’s deception plan.
It’s right here.” [He then produced the web address of the documents]…
Bennett also published photos of an explosion chamber at the Parchin research base, where Iran has been suspected of carrying out nuclear detonation tests. A New York Times report on Friday said that an unexplained “accident” at Parchin on Thursday was actually a drone strike similar to past strikes attributed to Israel. (“WATCH: ‘We Need a Cover Story:’ Bennett Shows Evidence of Iranian Lies,” The Yeshiva World, June 2, 2022)
And another proof of Israel’s God-gifted genius to Israeli scientists/technologists:
A laser-based air defense system that Israel hopes to deploy starting next year to neutralize enemy rockets and drones will cost just $2 per interception, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Wednesday.
Israel currently depends on defensive systems that launch interceptor missiles costing between tens of thousands and millions of dollars to track incoming projectiles.
Bennett says laser missile shield to cost just $2 per interception
The Iron Beam system, set to enter service by early 2023, is a “game-changer” PM says; adds that laser-based air defense system, at $2 per interception, will strike at potential enemies—Lebanon, Palestinians, and Iran—while also “bankrupting” them. (“Bennett says laser missile shield to cost just $2 per interception,” Reuters, June 1, 2022)
Israel is scheduled to come under much greater threat than now, according to Zechariah’s prophecy and many prophecies in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other portions of Scripture. There will come a time when there is no defense at all for them, in human, earthly terms. At that time, the mighty angel Michael will stand up for God’s people, Israel, according to Daniel.
Meanwhile, Israel is a formidable force with possibly the third- or fourth-most-lethal nuclear arsenal on earth. Antichrist will talk them out of that defense in their making the “covenant with death and hell.” Then God’s heavenly force will have to intervene, else God’s promise to Abraham will not come to pass. And, that will never be!
God will deliver Israel. There is absolutely no doubt. He will deliver you and me, too. He has promised—and His promise is forever.
Here is how to be assured of God’s delivery of your soul so you will live forever with Him in the glory of eternity.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
Terry James Prophecy Line 
Terry, why do you suppose the Jews let their land go, bit by bit, when they clearly knew that it was given to them by God Himself ? Negligence ? Arrogance that they could get it back whenever they chose to ? Just didn’t care ? I would not have given up an inch of it if God gave it to me ! I’d love to hear your thoughts, please.
Warmly, Carol Cole Atlanta
Sent from my iPad
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From God’s perspective, the future is just as fixed as the past. He knows how everything will turn out.
But what about free will? I suppose that’s something people have wondered about for a long time. I think it is a case where God already knows the decision a person will make regarding whether they accept him or not, but does in no way “pre-program” that choice.
As far as Israel is concerned, I believe that they didn’t get to keep the land God gave them because it was based on their decisions to disobey him throughout history. When, at the end of the Tribulation, they finally decide to do things God’s way and accept Jesus as the Messiah, then they will finally get that land and become the greatest nation on Earth.
Dear Ed
We exist in the mind of God. Even God exists in His mind. History is his-story within which His children write their stories. They cannot exit out of His story, but can within the boundaries of God’s story adapt things. This is freedom of choice, but not freedom of will.
Strictly there is no such thing as freewill as peoples choices are bound by their nature. Their will may change by God’s intervention. For example, if you love chocolate, but hate Marmite, you will always choose chocolate over Marmite. Your will determines this, but you technically retain a choice, albeit one determined by your will.
Kind regards
Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson
Please excuse the nom-de-plume, this is as much for fun as a riddle for people to solve if they wish.
Loretta, I am sorry to learn of your loss, but I am glad to hear that you know God’s comfort and peace as all who know Him can enjoy. It is but a short separation, although very real while we remain on Earth. I often consider the state of the world , the worsening of behaviour, which continues to accelerate , the acceptance of upside- down thinking, the deplorable things which occur. “I should be nearly out of my mind by now” I sometimes think, yet I am not. It is a strange peace but very real as we await the outworking of events as the age comes to a close events of the end of the age. Praise God for His peace and the confidence we can have in Him.
Dear Harvey
I think you you are addressing your comment to the wrong person!
Kind regards
Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson
Please excuse the nom-de-plume, this is as much for fun as a riddle for people to solve if they wish.
No,Alph. I know whom I was addressing and did so by name. Sorry if you thought you owned the space. You seem to be somehow entertaining some philosophy of your own. You must speak more plainly if you wish to be understood clearly. God foreknew those whom He called and therefore He predestined us. Is that what you are saying?
Dear Harvey
You called me Loretta in a reply to my website address alphaandomega21. I am not Loretta Dismang whom I suppose you must have been addressing. Go check out your comment again. It an easy mistake to make, I have done it once myself.
Your comment to Loretta should have been using her reply box, not mine.
As regards my comment to Ed Wood, I am not entertaining some philosophy of my own, I am merely making plain what is now blindingly obvious to me which I might have understood a while back but didn’t.
But yes, is essence those God foreknew those whom He called and therefore He predestined us. Those God foreknew were twinkles in His mind’s eye right at the beginning of time, the seeds of the story His story, or history that He would write.
He is the author and He has it in His mind to finish His story as He pleases which is to bring those whom He foreknew to glory.
Kind regards
Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson
Please excuse the nom-de-plume, I use this on my website. This is as much for fun as a riddle for people to solve if they wish.
I look at it in this way:
God has the master plan and we freely get to decide which role we get to play in it. Otherwise, free will would only be an illusion. If that were so, we would really have no choice on whether to accept God or not because a choice predetermined is not really a choice at all.
Reckon that’s as far as my philosophical skills can take me!
Thanks for your reply. The scriptures make it plain that people are dead in sin. It is not possible for a dead person to make themselves alive. They have no choice in the matter.
It is God’s work to choose to make alive those as He pleases. Once they are alive they must do what they can to use that life/light to help themselves grow spiritually. This is obvious and the nature of life itself. We could not enjoy life or indeed God if we did not interact and take responsibility as He wants us to do.
But the end of the story is determined as it is God’s story and He may end it as He pleases. Then of course He will no doubt have another story to write. That is the prerogative of an author.
Sorry, I disagree, Alpha.
What you suggest is that God arbitrarily decides who will be saved or not and that a person has no real choice.
That also would make the cross unnecessary since it is the acceptance of that atoning gift that saves a person.
If God already pre-saved” people, what would be the point?
Dear Ed
History is God’s story it is His story. Whether you wish to agree or disagree is irrelevant. He is the author of His story, everyone else writes a story within His story. Whether that story is good or bad is up to God to judge, hence the last judgement when books, all the story books of people’s lives, are opened.
The scriptures make clear that God will have mercy on whom He has mercy and harden whom He will harden. He is the potter and He makes pots for different purposes. Some He makes into vases for flowers for example, and some He makes into potties for human waste as it were. And some He makes sensible and some He makes potty or mad!
It really is quite simple. Do check out Romans 9 in the New Testament.
Regarding pre-saved and what is the point, well what is the point of anything? ‘Vanity, vanity all is vanity’ is well written. Just make sure you write a good story with your life. God would like you to tell it to Him sometime.
Kind regards
You do have an interesting look on things, Alpha, and I guess it was all preprogrammed for me not to agree with you. What’s nice about this site is that we can all have our opinions, predetermined or not and have a civil discussion like this. We don’t get “canceled,” as is the case so often today.
Makes me wonder why God bothered making the universe at all in the first place if it is all pointless anyway, never mind creating us who are capable of comprehending it even to the small degree we have so far.
Could have saved himself a lot of trouble and, particularly, his Son the agony of the cross if he hadn’t.
Thanks for your reply. Why did God make the universe in the first place? Well, He was bored and had nothing better to do!
Alternatively the answer is 42, ultimate answer to everything according to Douglas Adam’s book ‘The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’. I did a post and here’s a link if you are interested. Be warned, it follows after Douglas Adams style of thinking so may not suit you. On the other hand…
https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/42-the-ultimate-answer-to-life-the-universe-and-everything/
There are strong hints of Calvinist doctrine in this response thread. Calvinists also teach that if Jesus died and didn’t save everyone on the planet, His plan for salvation was not perfect. To make His death a perfect plan, they teach that He therefore died for those that were predestined to salvation- not the whole world. But the Bible says that His desire is that ALL should come to the knowledge of Him. There are definitely scriptures taken way out of context in Calvinist teaching, including that if a person doesn’t agree with their doctrine, that the person is unsaved because they don’t accept what they are teaching. I am only now just learning about Calvinist doctrine so I can identify it for what it is.
I don’t know why people get hung up on Calvinist doctrine either for or against. If we follow Jesus Christ is about what He said, not Calvin.
Jesus said “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him,” and “This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless the Father has granted it to him.”
It is then written because of what Jesus said in the last quote ‘From that time on many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him’
If you won’t accept what Jesus said perhaps you are no longer following Him.
As I have said in the thread, it is God the heavenly Father’s story and you will have to like it or lump it as we might say in the UK.
Anyway, who knows how it will all turn out in the end. If all the world’s a stage as Shakespeare said perhaps it’s all about how you perform on the world stage, did you act properly or not. Even in a play the bad guys have to act well after all, otherwise the play will be a flop.
The God’s decision is final, He is the arbiter, the judge, He planned out His story a long, long time ago. That is what authors do. Quite how the story flows in between is another matter…
Alpha, We agree on one thing. If we do not follow Jesus , we are not following Him. As for Calvinism, or any other ‘isms’, they are best left alone if we are not firmly anchored in the Word and they can cause one to go astray. You are clearly being led astray by the philosophy in which you are indulging. God’s plan is perfect. Jesus died for all, so that ” whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life”. That offer is open to all but not everyone will choose it. God is just and perfect in His ways. He does not get bored. We are not merely figments of His imagination. Creation is real. We really do exist although we are in danger of perishing. That is why God gave His only begotten son to die (Yes , really) in our place. It was His perfect love that caused Him to devise His perfect plan. Everything is not ‘vanity’ . You are misquoting scripture . Those who are perishing do so because “they do not have a love of the truth”. You are indulging in mischief making , but it is yourself you are fooling.
Dear Harvey
Thank you for your reply. You have clearly misunderstood what I am saying and neither have you truly understood who God is and His nature. The translations of the bible have missed out important words entirely which if you go onto Biblehub for example you will see that is the case, even in the first verse of Genesis.
God thinks there for He is, I am that I am He said to Moses. We exist because we think. If we stop thinking we are either asleep or we no longer exist.
Of course Jesus died in our place, that is part of God’s story. It is His story, history, within which the children of God write their stories as it were. They will be judged on their stories, this is why Revelation says books will be opened, the stories of peoples lives. How they responded to what Jesus said, the Word of Life will matter.
As regards vanity, have you not read Ecclesiastes?? What does it say dear chap? At the beginning it says Vanity, vanity all is vanity! And at the end it says
And by these, my son, be further warned: There is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body. When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.…
Do get a grip of your brain which God gave you and start thinking properly and make sure you know scripture before you start lecturing me.
Kind regards.
Just so there is no mistake, this reply is for Ed Wood. His comment: “Makes me wonder why God bothered making the universe at all in the first place if it is all pointless anyway, never mind creating us who are capable of comprehending it even to the small degree we have so far. Could have saved himself a lot of trouble and, particularly, his Son the agony of the cross if he hadn’t.” I think this every single day!! Just so you know you are not alone in thinking this, Ed. 🙂
Terry, I have enjoyed all you have written. Thank you for the well rounded way in which you have drawn us steadily towards the conclusion and thanks for the opportunity to add our thoughts. One more comes to mind.
Malachi 4:4-6. I have not heard anyone comment on that. It is good news for Israel and perhaps the rest of the world since Elija is to come before the Day of the Lord.
An encouragement to me. I wanted you to know that Rex passed away last year in April. He loved to read your comments. I am still in Siloam Springs. To say I am missing him is an understatement but I know he is with the Lord and that is a comfort and peace. Write on as I continue to read.
Thanks, Loretta, for your kind words. I’m thankful you are encouraged. I am sorry for your temporary loss of Rex. But we can be Joyful in the absolute Assurance that the loss is very temporary.
He is in the most Glorious Place imaginable, and will be awaiting us at the Rapture, or when we join him after this brief time on earth.
Blessings.
Amen and Amen.
Carol, Actions speak louder than words. Israel is largely in a state of unbelief.
Double-minded at best. At the worst, in total denial. Fortunately for them God means what He says and through the Time of Jacobs Trouble He will bring the remnant back to Himself, and so all His promises will be fulfilled.
Truth! God’s promises to Israel are Yes and Amen! (2 Cor 1:20)
I appreciate the point and conclusion of what you are saying , Terry. God said it. We must believe it, otherwise we can end up in all kinds of strife. We so readily try to finish the story according to the workings of our own minds, without have a full understanding of what God will do. It would be so much easier if we could truly trust Him,but our emotions lead us astray and sometimes we think we have a better picture.