JERUSALEM
UNITED- AN ACCIDENT OF HISTORY OR THE PLAN OF
GOD?
A Time Of
Destiny
The
40th anniversary of the
reunification of Jerusalem should be an
occasion of great celebration and rejoicing
for all who love the plans and purposes of
God.
Three times the children of Israel have been
exiled from their land. 430 years in Egypt;
70 years in Babylon and 1900 years among the
nations.
Abraham
foretold the first exile and the exact time
of the exile was specified as 430 years
(Genesis 15). Precisely on time Israel came
out of Egypt by the direct intervention of
God to fulfill the word He had given to
Abraham. (Ex. 12)
Had
the children of Israel not left Egypt on the
exact year then Abraham would have been a
false prophet. Abraham had accurately heard
from God - and God, who never lies, against
all odds fulfilled His word.
The
second exile to the land of Babylon
was a fulfillment of the prophecies of Moses
and Jeremiah. Jeremiah specified the duration
of the exile as 70 years (Jeremiah 29:10) and
exactly as predicted God intervened again and
returned Israel to its land. Again their
return was against all odds, including an
attempt to annihilate and exterminate them in
the days of Haman.
Is
the return of Jerusalem to Israel
after nearly 2000 years (like the first two
returns) a fulfillment of God’s plan; or
is it (as some believe) a random twist of
history? A study of the prophetic scriptures
shows that the return of Jerusalem to Jewish
control in 1967 is no accident of history but
a definite fulfillment of God’s plan.
Furthermore the precise date of 1967 is given
clearly (as we shall see) by both Daniel and
Jesus.
Daniel &
Jesus
Daniel
describes a vision of the conquest of the
Middle East (including Jerusalem) by a King
from Greece (Chapter 8:5 & Daniel 8:21).
In the middle of the vision he asks the angel
that brought him the message “For how
long is the vision concerning the continual
burnt offering, the transgression that makes
desolate, and the giving over of the
sanctuary and host to BE TRAMPLED UNDER
FOOT?” (I.e. ‘How long
will Jerusalem be trampled underfoot?) The
answer was given: “Unto evening and
morning two thousand three hundred: and the
sanctuary shall be cleansed.”
(Literal translation) (Daniel 8:13-14)
Daniel was told
that Jerusalem (the place of the sanctuary)
was to be under gentile domination for a
2,300 period. Most scholars agree this is a
period of 2,300 years. It is commonly
known that Alexander the Great of Greece
conquered the Middle East in 334 BC. The
prophecy indicates that Jerusalem will be trampled
underfoot by the Gentiles for 2,300
hundred years from Alexander’s conquest
of the Middle East. This takes us, amazingly,
to exactly 1967!! (-334BC +2300 =1967AD
exactly; since there is no year 0 we add 1.)
There can be no
doubt, therefore, that Jesus understood that
Jerusalem would come back under Jewish
sovereignty 2,300 years after
Alexander’s conquest i.e. 1967.
When
Jesus predicted the destruction of Jerusalem
and the third exile of the Jewish people he
quoted from the question that Daniel asked
the angel “How long is the vision of
the sanctuary and host to be TRAMPLED
UNDERFOOT?” (Daniel 8:14) and he
states simply that ‘Jerusalem will be
TRAMPLED UNDERFOOT by the gentiles until the
times of the gentiles are fulfilled.”
(Luke 21:24) (The ‘times of the
Gentiles’ means ‘the period of
Gentile control of Jerusalem’.)
But
how long is this period going to last? Jesus
tells us that to answer this we should
remember the answer the angel gave Daniel. When
Daniel asked “How long?” he was
essentially told: “The time of Gentile
domination of Jerusalem will end 2,300 years
after the King of Greece puts Israel under
his rule.” Jesus (interpreting Daniel)
indicates that the impending diaspora of the
Jewish people from Jerusalem should be
understood as having duration of 2,300 years
from the conquest of Alexander and therefore
comes to an end in the year we call 1967.
In the light of
this tremendous prophecy of Daniel and its
interpretation by Jesus there can be no doubt
that June 1967 and the present day
restoration of Jerusalem to Jewish control is
the fulfillment of the divine plan and not a
mere accident of history!
A
40 Year Delay
From the Exodus to
the Promised Land there was a 40-year interim
period in the wilderness. During this time
they were emancipated from Egypt but without
sufficient vision to enter the Promised Land.
They tasted a sample of the grapes of the
Promised Land but never possessed the
vineyard.
The last 40 years
- the charismatic era- (from 1967 until 2007)
has been a similar era for the church. There
has been a partial but limited experience of
the kingdom the power and the glory of God.
A new era
(foreseen by Jesus) begins this year
coinciding with the 40th
anniversary of the reunification of
Jerusalem. This era may well parallel the
days of Joshua. After a 40-year era we
may move past the limitations of the
charismatic era into a time of fuller
possession of our heritage as believers.
Recovering
The Call
The benign
invasion of earth by heaven to roll back the
curse and extend God’s mercy to every
corner of this broken world is the greatest
thing happening on the earth today.
A generation of
believers searching for purpose and meaning
have the opportunity to respond to God’s
call on their lives. They shall discover,
what followers of Jesus of all generations
have discovered, - the pearl of great price.
This pearl is the kingdom of God. It is
more valuable than any earthly treasure or
exalted office. It is the awesome inspiring
plan of God for all who respond. Those who
find this pearl shall be given a purpose for
living that no university or corporation can
give. They will become part of the
revolution of love initiated in heaven to
bring God’s mercy through Jesus and His
atoning sacrifice to the ends of the earth.
In the early
church healings, miracles, visitation by holy
angels, supernatural transportation, raisings
from the dead were normal. Today the body of
Christ is hearing afresh the call to inherit
its possessions.
·
To function in a share of the anointing of
Jesus
·
to be in the world as He was in the world,
·
to pray to the Father as He did and
·
do the works that He did,
is
the heritage of believers.
Tradition and
unbelief have robbed us of much of this
heritage. Just as the children of
Israel were restrained and detained in the
wilderness it seems that the church has been
restrained from much of our inheritance.
We believe that
Jesus foresaw this new day (2007, 40
years after 1967) as a time when the
restraint will be removed and a new
generation of believers will move beyond the
limitations of past generations to fully
possess our inheritance as sons and daughters
of God.
This
generation can forget the failures and
unbelieving traditions of the past (as the
Joshua generation did) and lay hold of that
which God is setting before us NOW – the
opportunity to advance His Kingdom and extend
His mercy further. “I do not count
myself to have taken possession, but forgetting
the things behind and reaching forward to the
things before I press on towards the
goal.”
The recovery of the Body of Christ to its
glorious destiny is intimately intertwined
with the restoration of Israel. And so
the restoration of Jerusalem to Jewish
control is significant not only to
Israel but to the Body of Christ.
Israel’s return and the revival of
the church are part of the same restoration
movement. One does not exist apart from the
other. Each is an indispensable part of the
advance of God’s Kingdom from
heaven to earth. The branches cannot boast
over the roots, and the root does not
flourish independently from its branches. “
Do not boast over the branches. If you do
boast, remember it is not you that support
the root, but the root that supports
you.” (Rom.11:18)
WHAT
OTHERS SAY
The
High Calling
If God has called
you to really like Jesus in all your spirit,
He will draw you into a life of crucifixion
and humility. He will demand such obedience
of you that he will not allow you follow
other Christians and in many ways He will
seem to let other people do things he will
not let you do. Others .. may push themselves
pull wires and work schemes to carry to their
plans but you cannot do it and if you attempt
it you will meet such failure and rebuke from
the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.
Others can brag of
themselves, on their work on their success .
. but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to
do any such thing.
.. Others
may be honored and put forward but the Lord
will keep you hidden in obscurity because
He wants to produce some choice fragrant
fruit for His coming glory - fruit which
can only be produced in the shade.
.. When you become so possessed with the
living God that, in the secret pace of your
heart, you are pleased and delighted over
this peculiar private protective guardianship
and management of the Holy Spirit over you r
live, you will have found your vestibule of
heaven.
-
Gordon Lindsay
“Christ
For the Nations”
Vision
of The Kingdom
“
Much of current Christianity is bereft of the
Holy Spirit’s “signs and
wonders” Jesus promised and in their
place has substituted an alluring - but
soulish - imitation. The greatest problem in
the North American Church is its creation of
this “denominationalized” gospel,
which has been re-designed to accommodate
dozens of public opinions. In many cases,
truth that does not fit local preference is
carefully disqualified: I Corinthians 11 is
valid, 12 is not, 13 is valid, 14 is not. 15
is valid … and so the emasculation of
the Word continues. The result is a
“church” gospel with which
denominational hierarchies are comfortable --
the “Kingdom” gospel has been
subtly replaced.
Thankfully, this
is not true in other parts of the world--and
explains why their gospel is “turning
the world upside-down.” Acts 17:6. In
the past century, primarily as a result of
full-gospel preaching, more than 100,000,000
believers in Latin America have come to
Christ. In China the statistics are more
amazing. Africa is ablaze”.- Charles
Carrin
www.charlescarrinminisries.com
Aligning
With God
Pastor Sunday Adelaja pastor of the largest
charismatic church in Europe in Kiev,
Ukraine takes a week off each month to seek
the Lord.
For the first two days, he
keeps
on repeating: "Lord you are God and I am
not.”
The next two days, he keeps on repeating,
'Lord show me what You are doing on the earth
today'
The last three days, he keeps on repeating
'Lord show me my part in what You are doing
on the earth today' .”
Church
Trends
“Unless religious leaders take younger
adults more seriously the future of American
religion is in doubt ”says Princeton
sociologist Robert Wuthnow
The proportion of young adults identifying
with mainline churches is about half the size
it was a generation ago Evangelical
Protestants barely hold their own. Too many
youth groups are holding tanks with pizza.
There’s no life transformation taking
pace,” Stetzer says. “People are
looking for a faith that can change them and
to be part of a changing world.’ -Source
USA Today August 7th
2007
Comment: Young believers are dissatisfied
with mere nominal faith. They want to
experience the power of God. They are not
content to be passive church members but want
to be involved with advancing the purposes of
God.
Churches which ignore the power of the
Spirit and fail to mobilize and equip its
members for service cannot expect to survive.
Christianity without first hand encounter and
discipleship is dead.
Dear
Friends
Hope
all is well with you since we last wrote.
As
we write we are at home for a few weeks
in Florida – a great place to be
in the summer, regrouping and preparing for
our next travels. We had a busy
ministry visit to Ireland and Northern
Ireland in April, May and early June where we
took about 70 meetings.
A
great miracle has happened in Ireland this
year. The extreme elements of the Northern
Ireland ‘Catholic’ population and
the extreme elements of the
‘Protestant’ population came
together to form a Unity government. Together
they formally and gladly buried the hatchet
of sectarian hostility and hatred. Behind the
scenes God was at work responding to decades
of prayers and reconciliation efforts by
Christians who are determined to walk in
love.
The
two opposite camps came together when the
hitherto intransigent leader of the
Protestant unionist faction, Rev. Ian Paisley
(noted for his extreme anti-Catholicism) made
peace with his Catholic enemies. Now in his
eighties he became sick with cancer and on
his sickbed was visited by the Holy Spirit
who convicted him of losing many
opportunities for peace. After this he began
to reach out to his former enemies - the
catholic and nationalist community around him
and to the government of the Republic (south)
of Ireland (which previously he regard as an
enemy government. A 400-year destructive
cycle of hostility between Catholics and
Protestant, English and Irish has come to a
decisive end this year.
Christianity itself has been released from
being caught in the bitterness and struggle
between rival political ideologies. There is
a new opportunity to proclaim and discover
the love, liberation and blessings of the
kingdom of God in the land.
In
July we were in Israel (without a group) with
our friends Mike & Candy Mann. It was a
wonderful experience. While there we attended
the Foursquare pastors’ conference and
also had great times of fellowship and
sharing with some the Messianic pastors and
their congregations.
The
Foursquare conference, which was led by Jack
Hayford, was highly prophetic. The 3000
in attendance heard messages of their shared
destiny with the people of Israel and their
responsibility to bring light comfort and
good news to every nation and every people.
Later
this month we return to Ireland from where we
will travel for ministry in England, France,
Switzerland and Czech Republic before we
travel to Israel to speak at the Feast of
Tabernacles Conference and lead our group of
enthusiastic pilgrims around the land. We
will be back in Stuart in mid October and are
planning ministry in some churches in the
U.S. in November and December.
Our
ministry stands on the prayers of our
intercessors and we need prayer for the Lord
to use our meetings greatly and to empower us
with the strength to do our work with joy.
With
deepest thanks to all of you who help us with
your prayers and support - we need you –
you share in all we do!
One in His great love and service,
