Global Tensions in Light of Biblical Prophecy – Program 3

By: Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, Dr. Elwood McQuaid, Dr. Renald Showers; ©1999

Will there ever be peace in the Middle East? Why aren’t current peace agreements working? How likely are Israel’s Arab neighbors to agree to any peaceful coexistence?

Contents

Are We Closer to Peace in the Middle East or Closer to War?

Introduction

World leaders continue to try and form a lasting peace in the Middle East. But after all the hours of negotiations and all the agreements, are we closer to peace or closer to war? Editor-in-Chief of U.S. News & World Report Mortimer B. Zuckerman wrote at the conclusion of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, “Arafat Harbors Terrorists and Seeks Israel’s Destruction. Why trust him?” What does the Bible predict will come about in the Middle East in the days to come? Today you’ll hear from international journalist Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, presently living and reporting from Jerusalem, Israel; Dr. Renald Showers, Professor of Biblical Prophecy, who has authored numerous books and articles about prophetic events; and Dr. Elwood McQuaid, Director of Friends of Israel and an expert on the issues dividing Israel, Islam, and the Western World. Join us for this edition of The John Ankerberg Show.

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Ankerberg: Welcome. We’re here and we’re talking about “Global Events in Light of Biblical Prophecy.” Obviously, you know that we’ve got global tensions and events taking place in different parts of the world that have our national leaders worried. Does the Bible say anything about what’s going on? And tonight, we want to talk about, in light of the peace treaties–Jimmy, we’re going to come to you on this one–in light of the peace treaties, are we closer to peace today in the Middle East or are we on the brink of total global war? Now, that may sound strange to some people because they think everything’s kind of cruising down the road and we’re doing real well in the Middle East.

There are three secular columnists that wrote in different national publications right after the peace agreements were signed and I was amazed to see what some of them said. Let me give you just one quote. Jeff Jacoby, a Globe columnist, wrote: “For the fifth time in five years a peace agreement has been signed,” and he said, “that brings us closer to war.” Do you agree or disagree? Are we closer to war or are we closer to peace in the Middle East?

DeYoung: Current events back up everything he said. I hold here the peace agreement between Israel and Jordan and the other peace agreements that are not really working. They’re not being normalized as they’re supposed to be. And in fact, after the Palestinian Oslo Accord was signed, in the last five years that it has been in force there have been more Jewish people killed by terrorists than there were in the 45 years previous to the signing of that particular agreement.

So the peace agreements are not working. They are not guaranteeing peace in any way, shape, or form. Terrorism is running rampant in the Middle East and, by the way, America was touched with terrorism in their embassies there in Africa, so we had a taste of it. But that is only going to increase. When you look at the terrorists associated with Israel. Hezbollah, just in the southern portion of Lebanon, which are attacking the northern part of Israel. In the infrastructure of Israel itself you have Islamic Jihad and you have Hamas. And their stated goals–it’s not a question of do we really have to find out what their philosophy is–their stated goal is, “We want to rid the world of the Jewish people and we’ll do that if we have to in bits and pieces.” Yasser Arafat who makes one statement to us and another statement to his people is basically calling for Islamic Jihad, he is calling for war. You know, the Palestinian Covenant, over 30 clauses in that covenant which calls for the demise of the Jewish people, the destruction of the state of Israel.

They say they’ve changed it. They play back and forth word games. The President of the United States has Arafat several years ago into the White House to announce they’ve changed the covenant. And still, later on, at the Wye plantation, for example, that was one of the sticking points: you’ve got to change the covenant. Well, if you change the covenant, it doesn’t matter because the Palestinian educational system is infiltrated with every bit of the philosophy in the covenant and they’re teaching the children–I’m talking about children starting at six years of age through high school. They’re teaching them the philosophy that was contained within the Palestinian Covenant. “These people don’t belong here. We belong here.”

Yasser Arafat said several years ago, “Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to take this thing in stages. Whatever they will give us at the negotiating table, we’ll take that and we’ll use that then to launch our attack on the Jewish people.” I say to you that we are on the verge of war. Now, the Bible says all of that. I’m telling you what current events are in reality, but God’s Word prophesied over 2,500 years ago that’s the situation we’d be in the end times when all these nations, when all these people want to go against Israel and wipe them off the face of the earth. Take that little piece of property. When you think about less than one-tenth of one percent of the population of the world, less than five million Jewish people, are surrounded in their one little nation by 23 nations of over 350 million people. Why is it that they can’t coexist in a peaceful atmosphere? It’s because God’s Word says their hearts and their minds are going to be deceitful and gartered with joyful hearts they’re going to go forth to rid the world of the Jewish people. That’s where we are right now.

Ankerberg: I’d like to show you some very shocking video in this program that we secured from Palestinian television. Mortimer B. Zuckerman called my attention to this. He’s the editor-in-chief of U.S. News & World Report. In his report which was October 26, 1998, he wrote an editorial that, of all things, said that “Arafat harbors terrorists and seeks Israel’s destruction. Why trust him?”

He said, “When the world is not paying attention, Arafat constantly talks of Jihad.”

What’s Jihad? That’s “holy war.”

“His exhortations to the struggle against Israel can only inspire hatred among his people. How else are Palestinians and Israelis,” Zuckerman says, “to interpret the official Palestinian Authority television programs that are akin to Sesame Street which feature a summer camp that trains children in the use of automatic weapons as they chant the glories of dying as suicidal warriors.”

That got my attention. Is Palestinian television showing its children how to become suicide bombers? We would like to show you some excerpts and just kind of give you the flavor of what’s going on in the Middle East while the peace talks have actually been underway. I’d like you to listen:

[*** Program excerpt]

Narrator: They call it the Children’s Club, a program broadcast in prime time by Palestinian Authority TV. The images are familiar, the messages are not. What does this young girl want to be when she grows up?

Young girl: “O my sister, sing constantly/ About my life as a suicide warrior/ And we shall march as warriors of Jihad.”

Narrator: Five years after the Palestinians committed themselves to peace with Israel, this is what’s on TV.

Child 1: “On your life I foresee my death/ But I march quickly towards my death/ Ask from us blood/ We will drench you.”

Child 2: “I will come at the time of drought/ With my best efforts I will bring/ A machine gun, violence, anger, anger, anger, anger.”

Narrator: With the media tightly controlled, television programming reflects policies set within the upper echelons of the Palestinian Authority.

Crowd: “With our Souls and blood we will redeem you, Palestine.”

Narrator: In this program, a suicide bomber becomes a role model.

Child: “When I wander into entrance of Jerusalem/ I’ll turn into a suicide warrior/ In battle dress, in battle dress, in battle dress.”

Narrator: When school is out, summer camps are in, and the PLO covenant comes alive in the daily schedule. These excerpts were also screened on official Palestinian TV.

Child: “On your life, I foresee my death and I rush towards it/ The youth will be victorious/ We are ready with our guns./ My children’s children, my land/ In the suicide squad/ Fear not the armed car or tank/ As long as the mine explodes/ Shouting ‘Allah is great.’

Arafat: “We know but one word—Jihad, Jihad, Jihad, Jihad.”

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Ankerberg: Alright, when you look at this, you say, “How in the world could this be?” It would be akin to having Sesame Street show our American children how to throw hand grenades and get a submachine gun to kill people.

Elwood, if we’re going to be teaching kids in the Middle East this kind of a message, even as they sign the peace agreements, what’s going on?

McQuaid: “‘Peace, peace,’ but there is no peace….” Yasser Arafat, as Jimmy mentioned, the staged plan to dismantle Israel piece by piece after for many years saying, No recognition, no negotiations, no peace, ever. Now he came away from the Wye Plantation of making certain promises about the Palestinian charter, about not being violent, about not making bellicose statements against Israel. Only days later, a few days ago in Ramala, he was speaking to an Arab crowd and here’s what he said. He said, “We will establish a Palestinian State”–which he promised not to do–“regardless of what Israel thinks. We are willing to take our rifles and go to the streets. We will once again call on the generals of the stones”–those are the children that during the Intifada were throwing the stones. He said, “We will bring our rifles. There will be blood in the streets.”

Now, since then he has had to retract that because Israel got word of what he was doing. But this is the spirit that says, “Look, there will never be peace in the Middle East as long as radical Islamic elements say unequivocally, Israel must die.”

Ankerberg: Alright, we’re going to take a break and we’re going to come back and show you some other shocking video that actually shows that when the peace agreements were being signed, Yasser Arafat was addressing Arab audiences and you’re going to hear what he was saying to them at the same time that the peace agreements were going on. In essence, he was calling Arabs to “holy war,” to Jihad. I hope you’ll stay with us. We’ll be right back and show that to you.

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Ankerberg: Alright, we’re back and we’re talking about, Do you think that we’re really going to have peace in the Middle East because of the results of the peace agreements that have been signed? Or are we actually headed toward global war? And what we’re showing you are some shocking excerpts from what is being played on Palestinian Television even as we talk.

We’re going to show you some clips next of President Yasser Arafat talking to Arab audiences while these peace agreements have been going on and what you’re going to see is that he is calling the Palestinians to Jihad, to holy war. I’d like you to listen:

[*** Excerpt]

Rabin: We’ve decided to go ahead with an interim agreement with the Palestinians. And I’ll say it blankly, I had butterflies in my stomach. I won’t deny it. But I reached a conclusion that there is no Palestinian partner except the PLO and then only on specific conditions, only on specific conditions.”

[Text of letter signed by Arafat]:

PLO Commitment 1: “The PLO recognizes the right of Israel to exist in peace and security.”

PLO Commitment 2: “The PLO renounces the use of terrorism and commits itself to a peaceful resolution of the conflict.”

PLO Commitment 3: “The PLO undertakes to submit to the Palestinian National Council for formal approval the necessary changes in regard to the Palestinian Covenant.”

[Text of letter signed by Rabin]:

Rabin: “Mr. Chairman, in light of the PLO commitments included in your letter, the government of Israel has decided to recognize the PLO.”

Narrator: In these commitments by PLO head Yasser Arafat were made more than four years ago. This was the basis for reconciliation and optimism in the Middle East. And yet the PLO Covenant has still to be amended as acknowledged by Arafat in a note for the record in January 1997:

The Palestinian side reaffirms its commitment to…complete the process of revising the Palestinian National Charter.

The opening ceremony of the school year in Gaza begins with these girls, with…rifles, dancing in the presence of the Minister of Education and Yasser Arafat. It takes two to make peace, but what education are these girls receiving? Dancing in battle dress at a school ceremony, what can they be thinking?

Article 20 of the PLO Covenant:

Young Child: “I finished practicing on the submarine gun of Return/ And I trained my friends from among the children and the youths/ And we swore to take vengeful blood from our enemies for our killed and wounded / And we will board a bustling boat which will take us to Jaffa.”

(A woman sings): “In exile, in hospitals, in the dungeons of rage, Intifada, revolution, revolution erupted at each nerve.”

Reporter to child at summer camp: “What benefit do you receive from the camps?”

Child: I receive education and values, and later I get the benefit of the training we receive, like in the army and in the future we will be able to defend the homeland in which we live.

Reporter: What do you get out of the camp?

Second child: The same as him. I am defending the homeland and undergo training like army drills. Nothing is lacking here (compared to) the army. It is the same, food, drills, etc.”

Narrator: In our efforts to achieve peace it is no less important to pay close attention to what is happening in the schools, summer camps, and on Palestinian television than in the political negotiations. It is just as bad to see children playing with guns and live ammunition as it is to see adults bombing the market place or mall in Jerusalem.

Narrator: The fundamental question the Israeli leadership must put to its partners in the peace process is, “Where are you leading your people, what are you teaching your children?”

Arafat: “We know but one word: struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle, combat, combat, combat, combat, Jihad, Jihad, Jihad, Jihad.”

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Ankerberg: Rennie, we’re for the most part Americans that are Evangelical Christians that are examining world events in light of biblical prophecy. We are not political in a sense that we’re trying to say “this is good; this is bad.” We’re simply saying, “This is what is going on at the present time.” How do you see these events that we have talked about in light of biblical prophecy? Is this supposed to come about this direction? What’s going to happen?

Showers: John, the Old Testament prophetic Scriptures make it very clear, and even New Testament passages as well, that Israel will be the major trouble spot of the world in the future seven-year Tribulation. And one of the major sources of trouble that God foretells will be for that nation are Islamic nations of the world. Daniel 11 indicates that both Syria and Egypt will attack Israel in the future Tribulation Period. Both of those nations are Islamic nations today. And then we’re going to see later on from Ezekiel chapter 38 that there would be a whole group of other Islamic nations that are going to come with joint military force against Israel in the future. And the leaders at least of the PLO, many of them are Islamic people. That’s the religion of many of the Palestinians that are there and so the more they gain territory in that land of Israel, or as they would call it, “Palestine,” the more they can be like a fifth columnist movement as these other Islamic nations from outside will come against Israel. And so it could be a very deadly combination for the people of Israel there.

Having said that, I want to make it very clear as a Bible-believing Christian, in these statements we’re making, we are not against Arab people as such or even against all Islamic people as such. We’re talking here primarily about leaders, radical militant Islamic leaders of some nations and of the PLO that because of their religious faith ultimately want to see Israel annihilated from the face of the earth. We do not want to give the impression that we have hatred for all Arab people or even for all people who hold to the Islamic faith around the world. Many Arab people today are Christians. They are believers in Jesus Christ the same as we are. Other Arab people are very much peace loving. They want peace and there are many of them there who deep down inside would want peace with Israel but they’re scared to death that some of the radical leaders will come down upon them hard and abuse them and maybe even assassinate them if they make that known.

Ankerberg: Jimmy, in light of this, you actually live in Israel right now. Do you think from all you’ve seen and all that you’ve heard and you know what’s going on, do you think that the Palestinian Authority really wants peace and coexistence with Israel?

DeYoung: I believe that we’re at a spot in history when there is no way there is going to be peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. They want war. As we’ve seen indicated in these film clips, Yasser Arafat says one thing to President Bill Clinton, to the United States of America, to the European Economic Community leaders, he says another thing to his people. He’s telling these people, we are going to go to war with these people and have this land. That’s where we are in history today.

Ankerberg: Next week we’re going to take this a step further and we’re going to talk about, “What are the ties that Russia has to biblical prophecy? First of all, what does the Bible say is going to happen in terms of the old Soviet Union, if you want, and what are the ties that the Soviet Union has to the Islamic states and its relationship with Israel? Are we headed, even in our lifetime, in the direction that the Bible says is where history is ultimately headed? I hope that you’ll join me.

DeYoung: John, that’s as easy as ABC. Admit that you’re a sinner. I had to one day when I was eleven years old. I admitted that I needed Christ. Then I believed in His death, burial and resurrection and the statement that He made, “I will save you if you will call upon me.” And that’s the third thing I had to do: Call upon Jesus Christ to come into my heart and life. You can do it. It’s as simple as A – admitting that you need Christ; B – believing that He can save you; and C – calling upon Him to do that. And once you know Him, we need to tell the rest of the world before it’s eternally too late for them.

Read Part 4