Jerusalem in the Crossfire/Program 3

By: Dr. Jimmy DeYoung; ©2007

What land was promised to Israel by God in the Abrahamic Covenant? What nations now occupy that land?

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Introduction

Dr. John Ankerberg: Today on the John Ankerberg Show, Why is Jerusalem in the crossfire of world events? Over half of all Europeans think that Israel now presents the biggest threat to world peace. The President of Iran, who has the world’s fourth largest military force, is developing nuclear weapons, and has publicly called for the elimination of the Jewish people and promises to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. In Lebanon, Hezbollahs’ stated goal is to attack Israel until it forces it from its territory and ultimately eliminates it as a nation. Among the Palestinians, the terrorist group Hamas is now officially part of the government and shares the goal of Hezbollah and Iran to retake Jerusalem and eliminate the Jews. What is going to happen to this ancient city that rests on the most controversial piece of land on the planet? My guest today, is news correspondent Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, who has lived in Jerusalem since 1993 and interviewed every Israeli prime minister, as well as Jordan’s King Abdullah, and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Join us today and learn why Jerusalem is in the crossfire of world events.

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Ankerberg: Welcome to our program. It is an honor to talk with Dr. Jimmy DeYoung who has lived in Israel since 1991; has talked and interviewed personally every Prime Minister since that time in Israel. He has talked and interviewed King Abdullah of Jordan. He has interviewed the late Yasser Arafat. He knows personally the leaders in the Middle East. And because he has lived there and knows the leaders in politics as well as the religious leaders there, he is absolutely fascinating to listen to.

Well, what we are asking him to do is to unscramble some of the events that are taking place in our world and compare those with biblical prophecy, what the prophets said. And what is absolutely startling is to realize the number of events that the Bible talks about that are happening while we are doing this program. And, Jimmy, let’s give a rehash of some of the things that we have already talked about and then we want to get into this thing, the fight over Judea and Samaria right now.

DeYoung: I wrote a book, John, entitled Sound the Trumpet. And the whole premise of the book was that there are four major trends that lead up to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Basically these come to their culmination, to fulfillment, after the rapture of the church, the next main event when God takes the body of Christ, the Christians, to be in heaven with Him.

The first one would be alyah, that’s a Hebrew word meaning immigration. And the Jews have been immigrating back into the land. You said on a previous broadcast that 100 years ago we would not believe that the Jews would be in the land. They are there; 5 ½ million of them. We celebrate pretty soon their 60^th anniversary of being established as a Jewish state among the nations of the world.

The second trend is an alignment of the nations, and we have talked about that. When you look at Daniel 11 which mentions Syria and Egypt; Ezekiel 38, which is mentioning Russia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Libya; it is talking about these nations that are going to come against the Jewish state of Israel, an alignment of these nations.

When we think about anticipation for peace, and we talked about in the past Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, who is going to be a key player, Russia will be a key. I’m not sure that Vladimir Putin will be around, but I know Russia will be a key player. But Vladimir Putin has been traveling throughout the Middle East calling for an international peace conference, saying he can bring the players to the table and guarantee peace and security in the Middle East.

Chancellor Merkel from Germany, doing the same thing. Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain, calling for peace in the Middle East. George W. Bush saying that it is so key for him, in the last years of his administration, to bring peace. Ban Ki-Moon, who is the new Secretary General of the United Nations said, “The Palestinian Israeli conflict, if I can bring a resolution to it, this is my number one priority, I can bring peace to the Middle East.” Anticipation for peace. It’s a trend and it is found in all the prophetic books.

Arrangements for the temple and those arrangements are in the process right now of being totally, completely filled, ready to put that temple on the Temple Mount, even the selection of the High Priest. So these are trends, if we continue to look at them, we can know where God is in His time before He gives the command to His Son to come back to the earth.

Ankerberg: Alright, let’s talk about the fight over Judea and Samaria. And people are trying to redefine terms in terms of the property there.

DeYoung: God talks much about the land that He promised the Jewish people. The Abrahamic Covenant, Genesis 12, along with the land covenant, Deuteronomy 30, says that God will give the Jewish people a piece of real estate in the Middle East forever.

The word olam is used there, that’s the Hebrew word olam, which means forever, just exactly like it’s translated. That’s the same name of God, El Olam, talking about His eternality. But you take that word olam out and you fit it into the promise that God made to the Jewish people to give them this piece of real estate, a piece of real estate that is much larger, 10 times larger, than what they have today. Half of Egypt, all of Israel, all of Lebanon, all of Syria, all of Jordan, ¾ of Iraq, ¾ of Saudi Arabia, all of Kuwait: that’s the land that God has promised to give these Jewish people.

Now, the Jews believe this. And over the last 100 years, out of 108 nations of the world, Jews, and basically at the beginning it was religious Jews, have been coming back into the land. More secular Jews now are immigrating to the land as well. That’s quite interesting; out of North America more Jews coming from the United States and Canada than any time in the history of the world.

This last summer three 747’s, packed to the gills, came in and landed, and those Jews from North America got off, kissed the tarmac there at Ben Gurion Airport and said, “We are home, praise the Lord we are home.” And the Prime Minister was there to say thank you for coming home and you are the strength of Israel. Well, we see that unfolding.

Inside the land itself, the piece of real estate that they now have, they now possess, there is an area after 1967 which would have to be described as the disputed territories. Now, that is a true terminology, because there is a dispute going on: does the land belong to the Palestinians or does it belong to the Israelis? What happened in 1967, from the north Syria was attacking the Jewish state; from the east you had Jordan attacking; and from the south, Egypt. And so the Israeli Defense Force had to move them back.

So they moved the Syrians back and they took the Golan Heights as a buffer zone between the Syrian military and the body politic of Israel. They moved Jordan across to the east side of the Jordan River and they took the area of Judea and Samaria for a buffer zone. And then, of course, they moved the Egyptians back through the Sinai all the way back to Cairo. And ultimately they gave back the Sinai to the Egyptians. But they still had that buffer known as the Gaza Strip.

Well, when that happened the then minister of housing, Ariel Sharon, said what we have to do is make certain we have a first line of defense out there in those territories, in these buffer zones, so he sent Jewish families. And most of them were Orthodox Jews who were motivated by their religious belief, believing that God had given them this piece of real estate. It says in Ezekiel 34, in 18 places God says through Ezekiel to the Jews, “I will find you where you have been scattered. I will bring you into the land. I will set you up on the land that I promised to give you. I will feed you like a good shepherd feeds his flock. I will do this.”

Now, if God says it one time I believe it, He says it 18 times you better pay attention to what He is saying. In fact, in chapter 36 of the book of Ezekiel 35 times refers to the land. The Prophet Ezekiel is actually speaking to the land, he says, “I will multiply men upon you and I will give them prosperity in the land.” And he says in verse 22,… an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi, Rabbi Meyer Kahana, the one that was assassinated by the Egyptian up in New York City having a relationship with 9/11, he told me one day, he said, “Jimmy, what God is doing for us Jews is because of what He has promised, not because of the Jews.” And he quoted Ezekiel 36:22 where he says, “Hey, Ezekiel, tell Israel and Judah I do not this for their sake, but for my Holy Name’s sake.”

When God can make no other promise He made it by His Holy Name that He would take care of these Jewish people. And they have been coming into the land. They speak Hebrew today. And that is a fulfillment of prophecy from Jeremiah 31:23 and Zephaniah 3:9, “When I bring you into the land I will give you a pure language.” So they have come into the land and they are living in the area of Judea and Samaria.

But wait a minute. Along comes the European Union, this Gentile world power; the United States, another Gentile world power; the United Nations; and says the problem between the Israelis and the Palestinians is because those Jewish settlers are in that area. Now, they refer to it as the West Bank. That is a bad terminology; I never use that. It is Judea and Samaria, the biblical names for these pieces of real estate. And he said, the Prime Minister of Israel was told, you have got to move those Jewish settlers out of there.

Well, Ariel Sharon started the disengagement. He did that in the Gaza Strip back in 2005, the summer of 2005, removing those Jewish settlers, some 9000 of them, out of 25 different settlements. Hamas rushed in; that set them for the opportunity to become the leaders of the Palestinian authority when the election took place the January after that summer.

But now Ehud Olmert, the present Prime Minister, has suggested we are going to disengage the Jews, withdraw them from Judea and Samaria. Now, if you do that you are talking about the old city of Jerusalem. That is a part of Judea and Samaria. You are talking about the Temple Mount, the most sacred piece of real estate in all of Judaism. They are going to have to give up that if they remove some 500,000 Jewish settlers.

I have talked to these Jewish settlers; I have been in their homes; I have been in the settlements; I know what their thinking is. They are not going to stand by and allow the Israeli government, pressured by the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, to come in and give this land away that God has given them. I asked them, I asked, “What will you do?” And they said, “If we have to, we will take up arms against our own people.”

But there has been a suggestion that they form a second Jewish state. Quite interestingly, in that same area of Scripture in Ezekiel 34, 36 and 37, it says there will be two Jewish states in the end times. And all preparation is made for that second Jewish state called Judah. I could go much more in depth on that, but the whole stage is set, suffice to say. What we have seen in the past taking place and what is to be fulfilled in the very near future, it’s setting the stage for Bible prophecy.

Ankerberg: Yeah. I also find it interesting that Israel, trying to be the good neighbor and giving up property, thought they would benefit from it. But the whole Arab world sees that as a weakness. So when they pulled out of Lebanon, what happened? Hezbollah came in there, formed these underground tunnels and these bunkers, and then they were given these new weapons to destroy tanks which they used very effectively in last summer’s war.

And now they gave up the Gaza territory and the fact is what happened, Hamas moves in there.

DeYoung: Hamas comes into the vacuum.

Ankerberg: And they are getting those same anti-tank weapons and rockets, and they are so fortified; and they are expecting right now…they are still lobbing rockets over into Jerusalem. So they are going to have to do something about that. And the fact is, they think they may have to do something in the next 6 months to a year. And Hamas has already prepared. They went from just a terrorist group to a terrorist army entrenched in the Gaza territory.

We are going to talk about more of them when we come right back. And we also want to talk about this thing, what is the rapture? And what is this thing, the Second Coming; and how does it play into the events that we are seeing right now? So stick with us we will be right back.

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Ankerberg: Alright we are back. And we are talking to Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, who has lived in Israel since 1991, knows all of the key players politically, as well as the religious leaders in Israel.

And, Jimmy, we have talked about the fact that we may be facing another war between the Palestinians and Israel in the next 6-12 months of time; this is by reports coming out of there right now. And when they gave up the Gaza area, the fact is, the Hamas came in there and went from a terrorist group to a terrorist army entrenched in that area. So now you have got real problems there. You have got real problems with Hezbollah up above. The scene is set here for the major event that the Bible says is going to happen, and this is going to trip a whole bunch of other things that are going to take place. It’s called the rapture. And a lot of people don’t understand what that word means and where it comes from and what is going to happen as a result of that, so let’s go into that.

DeYoung: Well, let me tell you that the word rapture is not used in the Bible in any place. Don’t be concerned about that, though. The word trinity which is talking about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, is not used in the Bible; nor is the word Bible used in the Bible. But the event itself is described when Paul wrote to the people of Thessaloniki. He wrote about what was going to happen.

Now, these were young Christians, and he was telling them of the next event that would occur in God’s calendar of activities before all of these prophecies that we have been talking about would be fulfilled. He talks about, in 1Thessalonians 4:13-18, that the trump of God will sound, Jesus Christ will shout, the Archangel will shout, and then those who have died in Christ, in other words, Christians who may have passed away before the rapture, they will be brought up out of the graves, their bodies will be joined together with their spirit and soul, and they will be taken up to the heavenlies.

And we that are alive and remain until that time,… and it is interesting to note, Paul said “we that are alive and remain.” Paul thought in his day it was going to happen; now that was almost 2000 years ago. How much more significant is that statement today than it was in Paul’s day. We will be caught up, we will be going into the heavenlies with Him.

Jesus Christ referred to this in the upper room in that Passover Seder the night before He was crucified. He had a bunch of very anxious disciples seated before him at that Passover meal. And he made this statement, “Let not your heart be troubled. If ye believe in God believe also in Me. In my father’s house are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go I shall come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also.” In that statement He was referring to the rapture of the church. You see, He would come and gather us up to be with Him.

The second coming, which is different than the rapture of the church, it’s followed after seven years of tribulation and then the second coming takes place. That rapture is when we are caught up to be with Him. That second coming is when we join Him on white horses, as the Bible says – I believe that is literal – and we will come back to the earth. And seven years separate these two events. The rapture is the next event; the seven year tribulation; and than the second coming of Jesus Christ back to the earth.

We have got to keep those two distinct from each other or you are going to get messed up as you take the Bible and open up and start studying the prophetic passages of God’s Word.

Ankerberg: Alright, what are the events that are triggered as a result of the rapture taking place?

DeYoung: Everything that we have been talking about on the last programs.

Ankerberg: Start us off.

DeYoung: Well, the alignment of the nations. Those nations are going to come against Israel, as talked about in Daniel 11, Ezekiel 38 and Psalm 83. All of the nations that are in the news in the Middle East today, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, all of these nations are going to come against the Jewish state. Well, that will be then stopped by Jesus Christ Himself, Ezekiel 39, He destroys the Islamic world.

A one world government is going to start to come together quickly. But it will be preceded by a one world religion which will be headquartered in the city of Rome. That is going to be an outgrowth of a revived Roman Empire, that I happen to believe the European Union is at least the infrastructure for. With all that we see going on in the European Union it fits all the description for the Revived Roman Empire.

That will come to power, that will bring the Antichrist to the scene. He will then be involved in establishing a pseudo peace in the Middle East. That will all come together. And so that is when these nations are going to attack. They are going to come in, the Bible says in Ezekiel 38:8 and 11, “When they have laid down their weapons, when they are living peacefully and safely in the land, that is when these nations will come in.”

And so the Antichrist comes in. He then, early on in that seven year tribulation period according to the book of Daniel 11:44-45, says go put your temple up on the Temple Mount – it says that “the holy mountain between the seas,” The holy mountain is the name for the Temple Mount. Well, that temple will be standing during that period of time. And it will be there when the Antichrist decides to get rid of this false church that he has established, headquartered in the city of Rome. He has the revived Roman Empire, i.e., the European Union, destroy it.

And that’s a very interesting thought, because chapter 17:17 of the book of Revelation it says that God will use world leaders to accomplish His will. That is exactly what happens. He moves into Jerusalem, he goes into the temple. He desecrates the temple, 2 Thessalonians 2:4; that’s the abomination of desolation that is talked about in Daniel 9:27. He then goes to Iraq, he goes into Babylon. Biblical Babylon is modern day Iraq. It is located right there on the shores of the Euphrates River, about 58 miles southwest of the city of Baghdad. That is why all that is going on over there. He establishes a one world economic political governmental system.

And the very last thing to happen before His second coming is that He destroys this Babylonian city, which has never been destroyed throughout the history of the world. For 4500 years it has been there and operating. It is destroyed finally. Jesus Christ steps back on the Mount of Olives. That is the second coming. Then the Millennial Kingdom will unfold. He will build His temple. He will rule and reign from His Temple for a thousand year period of time.

That is a scenario, and that is a scenario we need to get a handle on. We need to see that picture in our mind so that we can understand how things are going to unfold. I have got those three main events of the future: the rapture; the revelation of Christ (the second coming); after that 1000 years, the great white throne judgment, when he sentences those into the lake of fire who have rejected Him. I have got those three things embedded in my mind, and I can take all of Scripture and put them on that map through eschatology. It helps me to understand better. It will help anyone if they will just take these thoughts and study them together and with the Word of God and understand them.

Ankerberg: Some people say, why is this motivation to live holy, this particular view in terms of the rapture? They say it takes us away from the responsibility of living for Christ. I think it is just the opposite.

DeYoung: Absolutely.

Ankerberg: The Apostle John said this; you were talking about Daniel and what he saw when he looked at this prophecy.

DeYoung: Daniel 9:2 tells about Daniel having his quiet time, reading in the book of Jeremiah. He was actually reading Jeremiah 25:11 and 29:10, where it talks about Jerusalem will be desolate for a 70 year period of time. Well, Daniel was at the end of that 70 years. He was 85 years old. He came into that Babylonian captivity at 17; that is 70 years. He knew by reading God’s word where he was in God’s time.

You know what he did next? He fell on his face in prayer before the Lord, confessed his sins, confessed the sins of his people, asked God to give him wisdom about how to live out. In chapter 10, I believe the heavenly visitor in chapter 10 of Daniel is Jesus Christ; and He comes back and he says, “Daniel, since you set your heart to understand”, that’s why you study prophecy, “and chastened your heart before me, I have been on my way.”

You come to the study of the Word of God to understand what is happening. And once you realize what is actually going on in our world today, the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, it causes you to chasten your heart, get right with God, live pure, be productive until He does come back.

Paul said to Titus, young Titus, said Paul, “Lay aside ungodliness and worldly lust. Live soberly Godly and righteously.” I can almost imagine Titus saying, “Well, Paul, how do I do that? How do I lay aside that which is wrong? How do I do that?” Paul said, “Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our wonderful Savior.”

I can remember when I was a boy, my momma used to go to the grocery store. I was the oldest of four, and she told me to take care of the children while she was gone. Oh, we might mess around and have fun, but she told me when she was coming back, and my mother was precise on the time that she would return. She said, “I’ll be back at 1:30.” Man, at 1:25 I was shaping things up, getting everything ready, because I knew at 1:30 she was driving in that driveway; and I had better have everything in order, or I knew it was going to be a bad time for me. I think that applies. When we understand that Christ is coming we get things right.

Ankerberg: I want to thank you, Jimmy, for being with us and for sharing all of these things. You know, the Lord put the Gospel of how to get saved, He put the cookies on the lower shelf. They are easy to understand, the things that God says to get saved.

Other topics in the Bible, the cookies aren’t on the bottom shelf. You have got to be pretty smart to go through all of the information that you have gone through. But I think that perceptive people, as they look at world events, even non-Christians know that the Bible says something about the Middle East. When you study these things in light of God’s Word, it is going to drive you to Christ, it’s going to drive you to the expectation that what the Bible is saying is actually coming true while we live. I hope you will examine it.

And again, Jimmy, I thank you for being with us and for sharing this information.

DeYoung: You’re welcome.

 

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