Armageddon and an Independent Palestinian State Rewrite

Armageddon and an Independent Palestinian State Rewrite

There is much talk in the news lately about the present Administration’s treatment of Israel, America’s long standing and most dependable ally in the Middle East. Basically what the U. N. resolution 2334 declares is condemnation of Israeli construction settlements in East Jerusalem. The present United States Administration could have stopped the resolution from happening but they did not. The information is now coming forth that says the U.S. did not just abstain from the vote, but helped bring the condemnation to a vote. This resolution is a reaffirmation of many U.N. resolutions condemning Israel for not completely letting go of land they won back in 1967, that they believe is rightfully theirs, and most importantly the Bible says is theirs.   

What the U.N. has been saying since 1967 in its resolution 242 after the six day war, and in its many resolutions is that Israel is occupying the West Bank and the Golan Heights i.e. Palestinian/Arab land and they need to give it back. Biblically the West Bank and Golan Heights as it is called today is part of the land that Almighty God covenanted with Abraham to give his descendants through Isaac. Even more important is the fact that one of the reasons Jesus Christ is coming back at Armageddon is to destroy the people trying to steal the land of Israel away from Him and Israel. Although the Golan Heights are included in that Covenant, I want to focus on the area of the West Bank because that is the area the whole world is trying to make an independent Palestinian state.

A crucial element of this debate for the Bible believing Christian is that the West Bank as it is known today is referred to in Scripture as “Judea” and “Samaria” or “the mountains of Israel”. In 1999, the magazine “Christians for Israel” published an article documenting this entitled, “The Mountains of Israel”, by Karel van Oordt and Pee Koelewijn. There is also a book entitled, “The Mountains of Israel” by Norma Archbold that refers to this.

According to Jewish Scripture, from the time when Lot and Abraham separated until after God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham lived on the plain of Mamre, which is present day Hebron in the West Bank. The events of Genesis 15 of the cutting of the covenant and the giving of the land occurred at that very spot. In these scriptures we see the elements of the ancient Middle Eastern covenant. In Genesis 15:9, the animals are chosen, in verse 10 they are divided and land against one another and in verses 17 and 18 the participants pass through the divided animals. The purpose for this according to Unger’s Bible Dictionary was to confirm the covenant, “…by slaughtering and cutting the victim into halves, between which the parties passed, to intimate that if either of them broke the covenant it would fare with him as with the slain and divided beast.” The element not mentioned in the Genesis passage but most definitely also took place at this time of the oath is found in Ezekiel 47:14 (NIV) where God, “…swore with an uplifted hand”, to give the land to Israel. We get that impression from Jeremiah 34:14, which says the LORD will punish those, “…which have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof.” The picture we see when all these elements are included is when the LORD was passing through those pieces, He was swearing with an uplifted hand He was going to give Israel the land.

According to Isaiah 62:4, God is married to Israel and the land. The New American Standard Version says, “It will no longer be said to you “”Forsaken”” Nor to your land will it any longer be said, “”Desolate””; But you will be called, “”My delight is in her,”” and your land, “”Married.”” It is no wonder then that the first three verses of Ezekiel 36, which deals with the mountains of Israel, i.e. the West Bank, are laced with a very stern warning from God in the spirit of a jealous husband. Ezekiel 36:5 says the LORD is speaking, “…in the fire of my jealousy…against the rest of the nations…who appropriated my land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and scorn of soul.” The LORD God in Jeremiah 12:14 (NIV) calls those nations “wicked neighbors” who would “seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel.”

All these world leaders want to take the West Bank, the “mountains of Israel”, and give it to the Palestinian people. This is the land that Almighty God swore with an uplifted hand to give to the Jewish people. The world is demanding and applauding this attempt of a Palestinian state. All the while, unbeknownst to them, a jealous husband watches while his bride is being defiled, and the emotion of rage is building in Him. It is a clear truth in Scripture that one of the reasons Armageddon will occur is the LORD responding to the world’s attempt to steal Israel’s land from Him. Confirmation of this is Joel 3:2. “I will gather all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.”

This information has caused me to look at Armageddon in a totally different light. There has never been anything approaching the amount of blood letting that will occur during this battle. In Revelation 14:20 it says, “And the winepress was trodden without the city, and the  blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs.” Harper’s Bible Dictionary says a Biblical furlong is 1/10 of a mile, hence 160 miles. The New American Standard Version gives 200 miles as the distance. Saints, that is a lot of blood. It is a river of blood 5 or 6 feet deep and anywhere between 160 and 200 miles long. Though these figures sound incredible, a passage in Zechariah 14:12 encourages me to believe it to be literal. “And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem, their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.” The Hebrew word for “consume” is ‘naqaq’ and it means “to melt, to flow, to consume away, to dissolve”. There will be hundreds of millions of soldiers gathered for battle against Jerusalem. The multitude will be so great it appears to stretch from Megiddo almost 60 miles to the north, down to Jerusalem. How much blood would there be if the flesh and blood of all those soldiers melted off their bones?

A verse giving a look at the emotion behind this judgment is Isaiah 63:3, where the wine press is again mentioned. “I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.” What is so striking about this passage is the anger and zeal with which the LORD performs His work. He stomps the grapes or people with anger and zeal so fierce, the juice or blood completely stains his garment. He is angry because of His jealously. Zephaniah 3:8 quotes the LORD saying, “…for my determination is to gather the nations that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.” And He is jealous because the heathen are stealing His land. “Surely in the fire of my jealousy have I spoken against the heathen, which have appropriated my land into their possession…Ezekiel 36:5.

Saints, these scriptures should encourage Bible believing Christians to shun the idea of an independent Palestinian state. We have all seen the image of an enraged jealous husband in print or video. Because the governments of the world continue to take Israel’s land from God, whether it be the West Bank or the Golan Heights, they are going to see an enraged, jealous God.

“For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore He will not spare in the day of vengeance.” Proverbs 6:34

            
            Right now, in this dispensation of grace, God has graciously and mercifully proclaimed that he has paid for all our sin, Christian and non-Christian, believer and non-believer, and has forgiven our offences against Him by the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. It is time for all to accept what God has graciously and mercifully offered to us in the new birth, the born again experience. The only way to receive forgiveness from God and entrance into his kingdom and enter heaven is to be born again, to make Jesus your Lord and Savior. Soon one of the next implementations of the plan of redemption will occur, the second coming of Christ at Armageddon. Where Jesus, the Prince of Peace and the Lamb of God will become the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and the slaughter of all who oppose Him will be carried out.

            
          Will the United States be included in the opposition toward God? I don’t know. I do believe that President-elect Donald Trump is a recent convert to Christianity and he is a strong supporter of Israel. He has surrounded himself with many knowledgeable people, most importantly many born again believers and believers need to pray for their President that he will be open to receive wisdom from God on how he is to govern in a godly manner.

 Don Costello, Monday, January 2, 2017