Revelation Unfolding/Program 4

By: Dr. Jimmy DeYoung; ©2009

One of the major controversies in Israel today is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The Palestinians continue to negotiate toward a two-state solution, allowing Palestinians to have their own nation within the current borders of Israel. Even Pope Benedict has advised Israel to agree to a Palestinian state. Many world leaders continue to pressure Israel toward this two-state solution as well, a solution U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls “inescapable.”

Contents

Introduction

Today, world leaders are creating new laws and policies to try and solve the global economic crisis; the growing threat of nuclear weapons from Iran, Afghanistan, and North Korea; the Palestinian and Israeli conflict over implementing a two state solution; and the resurgence of Russia’s military. Do these four problems have a connection with what the biblical prophets predicted will happen in the future? Recently, President Obama met with world leaders to try and fix the global economic crisis. The European Union called for the establishment of a “global governance [that] would subject all financial market activities around the world to regulation and be backed by… inescapable sanctions against violators.” Could today’s events be leading toward the global control and governance the Bible predicts will take place in the last days? And could </nowiki>Iran’s threats to wipe Israel from the face of the earth, the world’s efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Russia’s military resurgence all be pointing toward the final world events the Bible predicts will occur before Christ returns? My guest for this series is journalist Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, who has lived and reported from Jerusalem since 1993. You will also hear part of our interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concerning the threats Israel is currently facing. Join us for this special edition of the John Ankerberg Show.

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Ankerberg: Welcome to our program. My guest is Dr. Jimmy DeYoung and we’re talking about the world events that are taking place in light of biblical prophecy. We’ve already talked about how this world economic crisis is affecting the different nations and what are some of the answers that are being proposed, including a world bank, a new world currency, as well as a new governmental structure, another authoritative structure that would reach into all the countries of the world. Now we are turning our attention to another one of the things that the world is facing, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the peace talks that are going on in the Middle East. Now folks, it’s a privilege to have Jimmy here, because he’s lived in Israel since 1993 and this man has interviewed and talked with every Israeli prime minister since that time. And again today, we sat down in Israel with the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. And I want to start this conversation, Jimmy with what Benjamin Netanyahu had to say about Iran’s support of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, and where they’re actually affecting half of Palestinian society. Folks, you won’t hear this anyplace else. Listen.

Netanyahu: The promise of additional Israeli withdrawals today means that the IDF walks out and Hamas walks in. And if Hamas walks in, Iran walks in. Essentially this is what has happened. Not by design, I don’t think this was the purpose neither the Barak government when it unilaterally and hastily left Lebanon in 2000 nor of Sharon’s government when it left Gaza unilaterally. But, the result has been the same, a tremendous increase in the power of Iran’s proxies, of Hezbollah and Hamas.

So we have Hezbollah now with a tremendous base, and you can see that the international guarantees that were supposed to stop the flow of arms did nothing of the kind. So, we not only had 4,000 rockets fired on the Galilee from that base, but we now have 40,000 rockets which are aimed at every part of Israel. And at the same time, the same thing has happened in the south. We’ve had, by the way, a tremendous increase in the power of Hamas. It actually wasn’t only politically strengthened, but very shortly afterward, it militarily just took over the Gaza Strip and kicked out the Palestinian Authority and it’s developed a base. They’ve rocketed 4,000 rockets, that’s the number since the unilateral disengagement, 4000. We withdrew, they came in, and the rest is recent history.

By the way, if we walk out here, there’ll be an Iranian base here. Here, right here, across this street, on the other side of the street. That’s what will happen. Now, we can stick to political correctness and pretend that that’s not going to be the case, but it is going to be the case. And the reason that is the case is because of the endemic weakness in the Palestinian society and the absence of sufficiently strong structure in society. Not only leadership. We always think it’s leadership; it’s not only leadership. It’s that society itself is not strong enough to resist the onslaught of Hamas and the militant Islamist.

Ankerberg: You know, again I have to say, Jimmy, when I heard him say this, I was absolutely stunned, speechless. You don’t know what to say. He mentioned that there’s a huge threat coming from first of all, Iran, and then its tentacles go into Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas among the Palestinians. This is all tied to the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 38. Explain.

DeYoung: Chapter 38 of Ezekiel in verse 5, it’s talking about Persia. Again, let me just remind you that Persia was the geographical location where Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan are today. So that’s the biblical terminology. When we talk about Hezbollah, Hezbollah arrived in the Middle East from Iran in 1982, sent there by the Ayatollah Khomeini, for the purpose of ultimately going to destroy the nation of Israel.

Let me remind everybody, Hezbollah would not be a part of the Lebanese society. It was mentioned that Hezbollah has become a state unto itself; and indeed they don’t take orders from the Lebanese government, but out of Tehran they get their orders to do what they’re going to do. Back in the summer of 2006, you might remember, they attacked Israel from the north. At the same time, that was the northern attack area, in the south Hamas was preparing to do the exact same thing. Iran had their tentacles not only into Hezbollah, but now they got involved with working to train the Hamas terrorists. They took over a thousand of them to Tehran for the purpose of training them how to fight and destroy the Jewish state of Israel. So, you have an attack from the north, the threat in the north there, at the northern border. You have Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and they are putting the squeeze now on Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu, before he was elected as prime minister, which we were talking about earlier, made a statement that he would never allow the city of Jerusalem to be divided. And he said the reason for that is, not only is it our eternal undivided capital for the Jewish people, but if we allow the city of Jerusalem to be divided, give a portion of it to the Palestinians, we would have Iranian technicians, Iranian military leaders sitting right in the middle of our capital city ready to direct Hezbollah in the north, Hamas in the south. And we would be so vulnerable. They wouldn’t need their missiles carrying those nuclear warheads to come in and destroy us, they could destroy us from within.

So, this is part of the biblical scenario laid out in Ezekiel 38. Now I want everybody to realize, we have to set the Palestinians aside, because Ezekiel 39 talks about when this attack on the Jewish state of Israel does take place by this coalition of nations, they’re going to be wiped out. Five out of every six Islamic fighter involved in that coalition of nations to destroy Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth and their nations as well. But that’s not going to do away with the Palestinian threat. It will continue throughout that seven year tribulation period and only be dealt with when Jesus Christ comes back.

Ankerberg: We’re going to take a break. When we come back, we want the folks to hear what Benjamin Netanyahu told us about the future of the peace talks; what Israel is facing, from their point of view, what needs to be accomplished before they can have a peace agreement. Folks, you’ll hear this no place else. So, stick with us. We’ll be right back.

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Ankerberg: Alright. We’re back. I’m talking with Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, and we are looking at the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And we’re going to let you in on a part of the conversation we had with Benjamin Netanyahu and what he told us about this peace process and his hopes for peace; and what Israel’s intentions are; and how they view their neighbors. Listen to this.

Netanyahu: We don’t seek a war with anyone. We seek peace with all our neighbors, and that includes Syria, Iran, and so on; everyone, certainly with our Palestinian neighbors. And, this is what we would like to do. When we speak about the security problems, we speak about the fact that we’re being attacked, we are being threatened, we are being not only told that we’ll be wiped off the face of the earth, but also that Iranian-backed proxies are establishing themselves at our doorsteps and rocketing our people. The reason we don’t have peace, in my opinion, is not today a territorial issue, but an existential issue. I think in many ways Middle Eastern politics have been overtaken. Nationalist sentiment has been overtaken by militant Islam, and militant Islam rejects any territorial or political solution. It wants the dissolution of the State of Israel. And this is the problem; this is the source of the problem; this is why it’s becoming so dangerous. Because how can you negotiate with somebody who wants your destruction? What will you negotiate, the terms of your disappearance? This is the kind of thing that we’re facing.

Ankerberg: We recognized the reality of the conflict between the Palestinians and the Israelis in our interview with Mr. Adnan Husseini the official spokesman for the PLO in Jerusalem.

DeYoung: You mentioned the history of the Palestinian people, the Palestinian nation. Could you just give me a brief summary of how that unfolds?

Adnan Husseini: Well, Palestinians are living here since a long time, really. We are not guests in the country. We have a continuation of existence here since the beginning of the history. So we are the people of this country, you know. We are not, we don’t try to say that it just belong for us. Many people, maybe they have some rights, you know, but also we have rights. So when our rights were ignored, you know, then this is, this is very difficult, you know. Nobody can accept this.

DeYoung: At what time in history was it that you believe that the Jewish people came in and stole the state, or took away your rights to the nation that was here?

Husseini: Well, really, in 1948 it was the beginning the State of Israel, you know, with the promises that this is the beginning of this state, and we are saying, the stage is here, you know. They fabricate some story here and there really. But this is not the fact, really.

Ankerberg: Alright, Jimmy, talk about that.

DeYoung: Adnan Husseini is a cousin, by the way, of Yasser Arafat, the late Yasser Arafat, who was the leader of the PLO. He comes from the same ilk. He is saying that this state of Palestine, belonging to the Palestinian people, needs to be restored. Remember in the conversation we had with Mr. Husseini, I asked him to tell me the history of the state of Palestine, underneath the Palestinian people. He said, “Well, I’ll do that in a moment,” and he would change the subject. And about three times I tried to return to that subject and he would never bring it to the front and let us know about the history.

There has never been a Palestinian state in the Middle East. We have listened, the world has listened to a lie so long we’re starting to believe it. But that’s a part of the whole thing. They want to establish a Palestinian state. And remember there are two factions in the Palestinian people. You have Fatah, which is led by a man, Mahmoud Abbas, he is the president, presently, now, of the Palestinian authority. And then we have Hamas, which is located in the Gaza Strip, howbeit, they are moving quickly with their tentacles all throughout the West Bank area, the areas of Judea and Samaria, to try to take over the entire Palestinian Authority. When the elections take place, and we don’t know exactly when that is going to happen, they want to come out on top, as they did several years ago, and then they became a real factor.

Now, they cannot unite. They’ve been in unification talks for a long time. Should they ever unite, it’s going to be very dangerous there. At this point in time, Israel’s kind of watching this unfold. But their desire is not to simply have Jerusalem or a portion of it as their capital city for a Palestinian state, and in the areas of the West Bank, they want Tel-Aviv; they want Haifa; they want Tiberius; they want Metulla in the North. They want all of Israel. They say that there should never have been a Jewish state there and this is their land and they want it back. Well, Mr. Husseini, when we were talking to him, we both, after the interview was over, we came to the conclusion, how will they ever come to a peaceful coexistence in the Middle East? There’s two sides and these, basically, two brothers, are not going to come together, as they could not 4000 years ago.

Ankerberg: So, we left Adnan Husseini, and we went back to the Knesset. And there we met with another man. Tell us who he was. Explain to our audience.

DeYoung: Reuven Rivlin is the Speaker of the Knesset, like the Speaker of the House, the number three in our government here in the United States, a powerful political leader in Israel. And as we sit there, I asked him about the city of Jerusalem. You see, the sticking point in this Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiation is the city of Jerusalem. They want it divided once again. The Israelis say we’re not going to divide it. I think Reuven Rivlin spoke to the issue very distinctly.

Ankerberg: Alright, folks, I want you to listen. Here’s another clip that you’re not going to hear anyplace else.

DeYoung: This ongoing peace process has a discussion going on right now about the division of the city of Jerusalem, or giving of a portion of Jerusalem to the Palestinian people for the capital of their state. Should or will the city of Jerusalem ever be divided again?

Reuven Rivlin: Jerusalem is a symbol, is a microcosm of the whole problem between Jews and Arabs. With two sovereignties the conflict would not be ended ever. They have to understand. Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel. Jerusalem is the city that only Jews were praying 2000 years to return back to Jerusalem. Jerusalem in the Bible is mentioned more than 1000 times. Jerusalem in the Qur’an is not mentioned even. They have to understand, separating Jerusalem brings the idea of war to the idea of every one of the people who would live here. And it is either way: or we can live together or we can’t live together. If we can live together than we will have peace. We can live together only under one sovereignty, and the one sovereignty is the sovereignty of Israel. And if somebody will even think about splitting Jerusalem, dividing Jerusalem, it means that he is going to announce that war would be here forever.

Ankerberg: Jimmy, I think if people understand what Reuven Rivlin was saying, this is the problem in a nutshell. Explain.

DeYoung: It certainly is. And in fact, this is the sticky point, as the relationship between these two nations are trying to be negotiated at the table. They cannot come to a peaceful coexistence because Israel is not willing to give up a portion of the city of Jerusalem. Let’s think about it just a moment. You’re talking about a portion of the capital city for the Jewish nation of Israel. You allow, as Netanyahu said, the Palestinians to come in there, take charge of that piece of real estate, they’ll bring the Iranian leadership in there, their military leaders will be controlling what’s going on.

Then you’ll have Ramallah, just up the road what 10-15 minute drive from the center of downtown Jerusalem, and you’re going to see what’s happening in the Gaza Strip. In Sderot, where I was visiting recently, and you could see the remains of all these rockets that were being fired, by Hamas, into Israel proper in Sderot. Well, that’s a couple of miles away. This is right next door, almost across the street. This is what makes this so key for the Palestinians, who don’t simply want a portion of what they know today as Israel, for their state called Palestine, they want the entire thing.

And the Word of God says that this conflict is going to continue. You see, the next thing to happen is the rapture, when Christians are caught out of this world into the heavenlies to be with Jesus. Seven years will then unfold: the Iranian situation with Russia, all of that in Ezekiel 38, Daniel 11, Psalm 83 will take place. But then there’s about six and a half more years that will unfold, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will continue only to be culminated when Jesus Christ comes back.

Ankerberg: Next week, folks, we’re going to continue looking at what Ezekiel 38 is talking about, what the prophets said is going to happen in the end times. Are we seeing the nations of the world, according to that outline, come together? And next week, we’re going to pick this up. We’re not only going to talk about Iran, and Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, we’re going to also turn our attention to Syria, and they’re in the news lately, Sudan is big-time in the news lately, and so is Russia, which are also three other nations that are mentioned in Ezekiel 38. Folks, again, you won’t hear this information anywhere else, so I hope that you’ll join us.

Read Part 5