Category: Standing With Israel

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week addressed the United Nations General Assembly. This man, who stole his re-election and violently suppresses his political opponents, sought to teach the world about democracy.

Ahmadinejad, who persecutes religious minorities and tortures civic activists, presumed to lecture the world about human rights. He denies the Holocaust and has threatened to wipe Israel off the map, but he dares to accuse Israel of genocide.

In Psalm 119, the writer expresses his devotion and love for God by seeking to obey the Word. He says, “With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments!” (Ps. 119:10). When we were children we might have rebelled against our parents’ instructions, not realizing the purpose for their rules. But once we became adults and parents ourselves, we learned that boundaries are necessary to keep children safe from harm.

The Hebrew translation of the word “law” is “Torah.” But the word “law” doesn’t capture the true essence of Torah, which actually means “instruction as from a father to a son.”

A Muslim prayer rally on Capitol Hill Friday drew between 3,000 and 5,000 participants, a figure well below the 50,000 organizers hoped to attract.

Among those gathered were several dozen protestors. Some stood at the rear of the crowd holding Bibles and praying. Others yelled “repent” from across the street, where they gathered with banners and crosses, the Washington Post reported.

As we continue to think of our Jewish brethren during these High Holy Days, we only have to wonder how they have missed seeing the Messiah clearly presented in their prophets, the psalms and even the Pentateuch. The only explanation is what Paul speaks clearly about in Romans. The Jewish people have a veil over their eyes that has been placed there by God. Should we pray for this veil to be dropped if this is God’s will? The answer to this is a resounding yes.

We have the hope and promise of God that this veil will be dropped, and the day will come when the Jewish people will recognize Jesus as their Messiah. Until that day we can be diligent in prayer for the Jewish people. Today many Jewish people are accepting Jesus as their Messiah. Our recent trip to Israel revealed much more openness on the part of secular Jews to discuss faith with others. I believe this is a direct result of the prayers of many Christians for Israel and the Jewish people.

Many students of Bible prophecy do not know what to make of fundamental Islam or how it figures into the end-times scenario. Perhaps what will be shocking to many is the most traditional Protestant Bible scholars of old believed that an Islamic and not an exclusively European paradigm will categorize the end times.

Such a view was held by John Wesley, Hilaire Belloc, Gregory Palamus of Thessalonica, Josiah Litch, Cyril of Jerusalem, Sophronius, Maximus the Confessor, John of Damascus, Eulogius, Paul Alvarus, the Martyrs of Cordova, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards and Sir Robert Anderson, who all believed that Islamic nations will be the major players in the end times.

Over the years I have accompanied thousands of people to the Holy Land. I am always thrilled to see people on these tours with their Bibles open, eagerly reading Old and New Testament passages that identify the very places they are seeing for themselves. I’ll never forget an elderly gentleman in one group who kept peppering me with questions about biblical prophecy such as: “When Jesus returns, exactly where will He appear?” and “What else must happen before the Second Coming?”

His questions reflect an understanding about Israel that is so important for us as Christians to have. It is that everything God does on this planet, He does according to His dealings with Israel.

We are on the brink of a spiritual breakthrough in the nation of Israel. Today, the number of Israeli Messianic Jewish believers is estimated at 12,000, with about 140 different congregations and home fellowships. God is birthing a new end-time movement of Jewish lovers in Yeshua that is becoming a prophetic voice to Israel as well as to other nations. This is truly a time to rejoice.

Nevertheless, many Jewish believers in Israel regularly experience not only rejection by the traditional Jewish religious establishment but also growing antagonism and hostility from extremist ultra-orthodox elements. What is happening to the Messianic Jews is to be expected considering we are in the end times. Similar persecution is being experienced by believers all over the world.

How do you define “revival”? To some, revival means longer, louder, emotionally packed services complete with signs and wonders. To others, revival is a semiannual, Sunday through Wednesday, camp-meeting style service that includes a guest speaker. Still others see it as an evangelistic campaign in which salvations and rededications are the only thing that matter.

While the intellectuals and religious pundits sort it out, I wonder what revival means to God.

To me, the answer is simple: Revival is God’s people wholeheartedly returning to Him. Revival occurs when God’s chosen ones can no longer be distracted from their commitment to Him, don’t need to be entertained to remain interested in Him and find deep satisfaction in a world that is centered on Jesus alone. Camp meetings and evangelical campaigns have their place, but unless the focus becomes all about Jesus and not about us, we have not seen revival.

A New Jersey mosque is spearheading a national prayer rally in Washington, D.C., that organizers expect to attract tens of thousands of Muslims to pray for the soul of America.

Describing the event as the first-ever of its kind, leaders of Dar-ul-Islam in Elizabeth, N.J., expect 50,000 Muslims from around the world to gather for the Sept. 25 rally being held on Capitol Hill.

Hassen Abdellah, president of Dar-ul-Islam, said the event, which begins at 1 p.m., will not include political speeches but will focus only on prayer.

“There are a lot of people who are Muslims who feel that the image of Islam has been portrayed very derogatorily, Abdellah said. “We believe that it’s very important that the other side of Islam, the real reason people become Muslim, is portrayed as opposed to what people believe in the politics of Islam.”

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the Quarter’s Mideast envoy Tony Blair were recently in danger of assassination by the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas foiled the plot being planned by Jaljalat (Thunder), a group led by Mahmoud Taleb, a former militia commander for Hamas. Taleb, who has been wanted by Hamas’s security forces for more than two years, described their hands as being stained with Muslim blood, “making it their duty to kill the two.”

Jaljalat consists of former Hamas militiamen who left because they believed Hamas was becoming accommodating to the infidel West. Meanwhile, Carter asserted in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post that most Palestinian leaders he has spoken to recently are “seriously considering” accepting a one-state solution between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.