A King & His Kingdom The Blessing of Shem

Will the Current Peace Talks between Israel and the Arabs Succeed?

The 20 year anniversary of the signing of the Oslo peace accords, between Yitzhak Rabin and Yassar Arafat passed last year with little fanfare. There have been Nobel peace prizes, billions of dollars, countless hours of shuttle diplomacy and conferences, that have been put into — and continue to be put into — the "peace process", but in reality the whole fiasco has been a complete disaster. John Kerry, the United States Secretary of State, seems to have made the "peace process" the main goal of his office, making many visits to the region and pushing the sides toward reaching an agreement.

We are now in 2014 and the "peace process" continues. John Kerry has succeeded in getting the parties to the negotiating table. On January 9, hardline Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, turned around and seemingly supported John Kerry's plan in an interview with the UK Telegraph. This is an apparent success for John Kerry, however, exactly what Lieberman thinks is a little shrouded as the Telegraph also reported regarding Lieberman, that, "He remains unrepentant about Israel’s right to expand settlements in the West Bank..."

Prospects of the John Kerry plan succeeding are doubtful just from a purely practical point of view. There are some fundamental facts, that place the whole idea of pushing for a peace settlement in the current climate, as very foolish from Israel's point of view, as well as a practical impossibility. Here are three:

1. The regimes surrounding Israel are very unstable and may be history in a short period of time. A peace treaty signed with the Palestinian Arabs is of little value without the support of all the surrounding countries, where many so called Palestinian refugees reside. These people have been denied citizenship by their host countries in order to preserve the refugee problem and put pressure on Israel. The problem of the refugees and their supposed "right of return" to the land of Israel, is one of the major roadblocks for an agreement. This could only be solved with all parties being involved, which would for example include the Syrian government.

2. The proposed area for a Palestinian State is currently divided between two warring Palestinian Arab factions, the Islamic Hamas which rule the Gaza strip and the PLO which have civil jurisdiction in the West Bank autonomous areas. The two territories are not contiguous and the West Bank area is landlocked without an airport or seaport. Even all the territory together is hardly a viable state. Currently the main problem however, is that the current negotiations do not include half the Palestinian Arab side, making it impossible to have an agreement. In reality Kerry has only succeeded in getting some of the parties to negotiate.

3. By many estimates the Jewish population in the West Bank area of the proposed Arab state is past the point of no return. Population estimates vary depending on which areas are included. CBS reported in 2013 that there were 341,400 Jews living in the West Bank. This does not include over 200,000 living in East Jerusalem which Israel annexed right after the six day war. Even if Israel retained all the major settlements it hopes to in a peace treaty, this would still leave approximately 85,000 largely ideological Jews, who would have to be forcibly removed from their homes and resettled in the rest of the country. It is openly acknowledged that this could lead to civil war in Israel and is logistically impossible. (8500 settlers were forcibly removed from the Gaza strip in 2005 and they still have not all found proper housing and jobs in Israel.) There is also the immoral aspect, of forcibly transferring a population based on race alone — simply because they are Jewish.

From these three facts alone, it is evident that the current round of talks, on a purely practical basis, cannot go anywhere. In the meantime Israel continues to build in the areas it considers hers, announcing this week construction tenders for 1800 new housing units in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Recent polls show that Israelis in general reject further concessions to the Palestinian Arabs as reported on Israel National News this week.

A potentially explosive report broke in Israel this week reported on mainstream Galei Tzahal, which is the IDF Radio station, reporting from government sources that John Kerry is behind European Boycott threats and that "Kerry is making sure the threats stay in check, but as soon as the peace talks fail he intends to open the floodgates and spur on full-blown international boycotts on Israel."

The prospects of peace in Israel has been watched carefully by students of Bible Prophecy for many years. This is because it is a fundamental requirement of the prophecy of Ezekiel 38. The Oslo peace process was at first greeted as a possible means to this end. However, as the real intention of this process has come to light, it is now clear that it does not meet the requirements of Bible Prophecy.

Writing in the publication "Milestones to the Kingdom, A Review of 1989 World Events in the Light of Bible Prophecy", Graham Pearce considered the then current American efforts to implement a peace treaty, which in many ways don't differ much from what we see today, although they probably had a greater chance for success. In 1989 the Jewish settlement population, excluding East Jerusalem was only 72,800. This is about a fifth of what it is today! Graham Pearce considered, "What the Bible Indicates" - and this certainly hasn't changed today. This is what he wrote:

"At the time of the northern invasion Israel is a people "that dwell in the midst of the land". Ezek. 38:12... the midst or central part of the land is just where the West Bank is. Whatever, other part Israel may give up it could hardly be the West Bank, which she now occupies."

Some of the requirements that must be fulfilled according to Ezekiel chapter 38, in regards to the Jews and the land of Israel are as follows:

1. There will be Jews who have returned from exile living on the "mountains of Israel" (verse 8) in the "midst of the land" (verse 12). That there is no doubt that this refers to the area known today as the West Bank; this is reinforced by Joel chapter three where the prophet says: "For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem..."

2. These Jews will be living in prosperity, having acquired cattle and goods (Ezekiel 38:12)

3. They will be dwelling in peace. Verse 8 says, "...they shall dwell safely all of them". Verse 11 pictures the returned Jews on the mountains of Israel as, "them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates". In verse 14, God says to Gog, "In that day when My people Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?" These passages are fairly emphatic that a significant situation of peace and rest exists, at the prophesied time of Gog's great invasion.

Will the current round of peace negotiations lead to the peace spoken of by the prophet Ezekiel? The answer is that while they may play some kind of a role, the main goal of these negotiations is to establish a Palestinian Arab state in midst of the land of Israel, upon the mountains of Israel; whether this can be accommodated while still fulfilling the requirements of Ezekiel seems extremely unlikely.

How then will the peace spoken of by Ezekiel come about? Time will tell the answer to this question as events unfold and all the pieces of the final great scene in this drama come into place. It should be clearly understood however, that while we look for these events to come to pass, there is nothing to suggest that this situation of peace will not transpire after the return of Jesus Christ. The current transforming of the Middle East is leading to this situation described by Ezekiel and we can be certain that we are on the very verge of these events becoming a reality. Please return next week, as we God willing, will continue to consider the Bible in the News. 

sites.google.com/site/thebibleprophecychannel/home

https://sites.google.com/site/thebibleprophecychannel/home

Person of the Year The False Prophet

Interview with Syrian refugee from Aleppo; Radical Islamist persecution of Kurdish Christians

Interview with Syrian refugee from Aleppo; Radical Islamist persecution of Kurdish Christians

Interview with Christadelphian Syrian refugee asylum seeker from Aleppo now in Turkey; Radical Islamist Moslem persecution of Kurdish Christians http://www.carelinks.net . Account of Kurdish family who have seen relatives killed, are without water, electricity and food along with other Kurds .

Adam Kadmon The Man of the One

A Climax of Revelation (Daniel 12)

The Michael who had earlier joined forces with the angel Gabriel (10:20,21) to ensure a prompt response to Daniel’s pleading, appears in a dramatic scene in the Last Days going into action (behind the scenes, as formerly) on behalf of Israel. The Scriptures which associate him as specially concerned with the Ministry of Israelitish Affairs are few but impressive (Ex. 23:20f; Josh. 5:14; Zech. 3:1 with Jude 9; Rev. 12:7). The reasons for equating this Michael with the Lord Jesus are quite inadequate, and (in 10:21) would involve a strange concept of personal pre-existence. That Michael means Who-is-like-God proves little, for paripassu Gabriel means God’s-Strong-One and, coupled with Psalm 80:17 would equally refer to the Messiah.

This prophecy speaks of a time when the powers of heaven are shaken, so that it- needs the strong action of this archangel of God to save His people in their final crisis (1 Th. 4:16?). This, it may be fairly safely surmised, will be when the final “overturning” of the nation takes place. It will be “a time of trouble such as never was.” “Alas, for that day is great, so that there is none like it—it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer. 30:7). Daniel has the same explicit detail: “a time of trouble such as never was since there was a Gentile (goi—in the Land, adds LXX) even to that same time.” This is surely Zechariah 13:9; “I will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call upon my name, and I will hear them.”—”Thy people shall be delivered, every one that is found written in the book” (v.1; cp. Rev. 5:4 and Eur.1.12). So also Joel 2:2,3 and the sad ominous words of Jesus in Matthew 24:21.

The idea of a heavenly roll of honour, the Lamb’s Book of Life, is constantly before the mind of the observant reader of Holy Scripture: Ex. 32:32; Ps. 56:8; 69:28; Is. 4:3; Ez. 13:9; Lk. 10:20; Phil. 4:3; Rev. 3:5; 13:8).

The living and the dead are alike to be called to account—but not all: “Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth”; literally: “many from those who sleep...”, thus indicating even more pointedly that many that “understand not are like the beasts that perish”.

A judicial process for living and dead is implied (v. ld, 2), and—remarkably— here is the only Old Testament occurrence of “everlasting life. “ The only alternative for those found unfit for the Messianic kingdom is “shame” (great shame—the Hebrew has an intensive plural) and “contempt” (s.w. Is. 66:24).

But what a contrast with those who are glorified! “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.” There is a palpable allusion here to the surpassing brightness of the sun, as the equivalent saying of Jesus makes evident: “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father” (Mt. 13:43). But Daniel’s “shine” and “brightness” involve a repetition of a remarkable double-meaning Hebrew word which also means “warn”, thus hinting at an impressive parallelism with what follows: “they that turn many to righteousness . . .”

“As the stars” perhaps echoes the great Promise to Abraham (Gen. 22:17) of an earthly seed “as the sand of the seashore,” and a spiritual seed “as the stars of heaven.” The context here mentions only the latter. Compare also the force of 1 Cor. 15:41,42.

This discrimination between the blessed and the rejected is repeated here again and again. In response to the almost agonized enquiry: “O my lord, what shall be the end of these things?” there comes first of all an assurance: “Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end,” a declaration difficult to reconcile with the view that the visions seen by Daniel present a conspectus of continuously unfolding history from Daniel’s time right through to the day of resurrection.

But the “sheep and goats” separation is insisted on in almost blunt terms:

“Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried, but the wicked shall do wickedly, and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand” (v.10).
This antithesis between wise understanding and doing wickedly is rather startling, for modern thinking hardly at all treats lack of understanding as akin to wickedness. Consider the Lord’s parable of the two builders (Mt. 7:24ff).

By contrast, “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” The tendencies to isolate these words, and treat them as a vivid anticipation of the ease and rapidity of modern travel borders on the grotesque. Rather, let the Biblical idiom behind the word “run” be recognized, and a very different idea emerges:

“I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran” (Jer. 23:21).

“Write the vision upon tables, that he may run that readeth it” (Hab. 2:2).

And many others: Ez. 1:18,20; 2 Th. 3:1RV; 1 Kgs. 18:46; Ps. 147:15; 2 Chr. 16:9; Zech. 4:10; Rev 5:6; Gal. 2:2; Is. 55:5; Jude 11; Phil. 2:16.

Or, there could be here an allusion to the people of Israel gathering the manna of God (Num. 11:8 Heb.).

Yet another possibility is that, by the smallest emendation imaginable (the frequent confusion between Hebrew ‘R’ and ‘D’), the words may read: “Many shall turn aside, and evils shall be increased.”

The picture of angels by the waters of the river (which river?) is extremely puzzling. Is the reader intended to visualise an angel on either bank and also a third upon or over (LXX epano) the waters? If so, Daniel was being reminded of how his people left Egyptian captivity behind and entered into their inheritance across the river Jordan, for at that time the Glory of the Lord, represented by the Ark of the Covenant borne by priests stood in the midst whilst the people crossed over. Now is declared the solemn divine oath that “the end of the scattering of the holy people” is at hand. There remains only the fulfilment of a final time-period of “a time, times and a half”. Then, “all these things shall be finished.”

No amount of juggling with 1260 years can produce a convincing fit into Jewish history. It is a failure, which has driven the last nail in the coffin of the year-for-a-day theory. Much more surely the student should look for a final period of literally 3½ years (as in 7:25; Rev. 11:2; 12:14; 13:5).

It has often been pointed out that all computations about the Last Day are doomed to failure, for two insuperable reasons:

1. The Lord Jesus himself declared: “Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only” (Mk. 13:32).
2. Jesus had all the time-periods of Daniel as much at his finger-tips as any modern student of prophecy, and—it may be safely assumed—a much greater insight and expertise; nevertheless he too was in ignorance regarding this: “neither the Son”.

It is passing strange that over the years there has been so little inclination to equate this “time, times, and an half” with the “times of the Gentiles” (Lk. 21:24) during which Jerusalem is to be “trodden down of the Gentiles.” Those who talk blithely about this period having been finally fulfilled in the Six Days’ War of 1967 have a rude shock awaiting them, (after all, is not the temple site still “trodden down by Gentiles”?).

On this issue, the final decisive detail is one, which has gone badly neglected: this keyword “times” (Hebrew: mo’ed) is one normally restricted to Jewish religious feasts. Thus, “time, times, and a half” must be 3½ literal years, to be measured off, from start to finish, by the feasts of Israel. Is not this to be expected since the prophecy is about “the scattering of the holy people”?

It so transpires that the two outstanding Jewish holy days are exactly six months apart, so that the period under consideration may be expected to begin at the Feast of Tabernacles and end at Passover, or to begin at Passover and end at Tabernacles.

In “Passover”, HAW, ch.14, attention has been drawn to the evidence that the Second Coming may be looked for at Passover. In which case, the first of the two alternatives just mentioned seems to be indicated.

Then what is the special association intended to be suggested by the 1290 and the 1335 days?

The first of these runs on another month past the end of the 3½ years, either to suggest a “Little Passover” for those not already included in this deliverance period (see Num. 9:11); or alternatively, to allow for the inclusion of an intercalary month because the years of 360 days and 365¼ days get out of step in the course of 3½ years. In that case, the extra 45 days called for in the 1335 days would run on to the Feast of Pentecost, the time of the outpouring of the Spirit on God’s people in Jerusalem.

Daniel had been reduced to perplexity and even wretchedness more than once by the revelations made to him, but none so much as this: “O my lord, what shall be the end of these (times)?” But further detail was not vouchsafed to him. Instead:

“Go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” Neither you nor any other will really grasp these things until fulfilment knocks at the door.

“Thou, Daniel, shall rest and shall stand in thy lot (in the Promised Land) at the end of the days.” Not for nothing was his name Daniel: God is my Judge. He was one of those whose glorious destiny was made known long before the Day of Judgment (Rev. 20:4; Mt. 19:28).

“Blessed is he that waiteth...” A quite surprising number of Bible passages (by all means see concordance on this) use this pregnant word about “waiting on or for the Lord” (e.g. Is. 25:9; Hab. 2:3).