February 2003

There has been a silly debate going on in the States about what Jesus would drive if he were “alive” today. A few years ago, the big craze was the “What Would Jesus Do?” bracelets and other baubles. That so many would drag the Creator of the universe into such trivial and inane debates speaks to the complete lack of respect accorded Him. If Jesus were walking the earth today, He would be just as poor as He was the first time, would drive nothing at all, and would certainly not leave Israel. Furthermore, if one wishes to know what He would do, well, read the Bible. Jesus didn’t participate in silly social debates. He loved His brethren, ministered to the sick and lame, preached, told everyone the simple, bald, unadulterated truth about both Himself and them. His priority was His kingdom, and that was His message until He was rejected. Then He began to speak of the mystery aspect of that same kingdom. The temptation today is to make Jesus just one of the boys. He is God in the flesh.

We treat God with great familiarity, and Jesus more so than the Father or the Holy Spirit. He’s considered the world’s foremost “good man.” We speak as if we, as a nation, accept Jesus as our God. Yet, we are indifferent to His purposes or will. This phenomenon is most graphically portrayed in our mindless search for a solution to the Middle East problems by partitioning the land that God gave to Israel. Yes, we are harping on that (and more) again. It is by far the most important political issue facing the world today. Let us examine the roles of Israel, the Church, and the Gentile nations in light of God’s priorities and not man’s.

Israel is the center of God’s world. In the Bible, when directions are given, they are always in reference to Jerusalem. When the Word of God became flesh and came to the earth, He did not go to Scotland or Byelorussia, or Peru. Why, He did not even come to the United States! No, when God came to earth, He went immediately , and only, to that apple of His eye, Israel. That tiny nation is still His highest earthly priority, or will be after this Age, and all would do well to consider their political decisions in that light.

These promise to be interesting days, weeks and months in Israel. In a lopsided victory, Ariel Sharon was given the opportunity to continue the fight against terrorism and construct some sort of peace with the Palestinians. He has vowed never to divide Jerusalem, and has aggressively pursued Palestinian terrorists in the days leading up to the election. Whether or not the level of aggressive defense subsides or intensifies after the election is a burning question these days. It will depend upon how Sharon sees his mandate. The expectation is high that he will seek to exile Yasser Arafat, though perhaps he will not do so unless there are significantly increased suicide bombings in which Israeli civilians are killed. The day after the election, Arafat requested a meeting with Sharon, but was denied on the basis of Arafat’s “irrelevancy.”

The reelection of Sharon poses another interesting question as well: Will his hawkish stance break the will of the Palestinians, or will it raise their ire to such a point that all-out war will ensue? Right now, it could go either way. While everyone in Israel wants peace, they have made a clear statement that they do not want it “at any price.” The Palestinians, who made no bones about their preference for Amram Mitzna of the Labor Party, must now reassess the overall situation.

It seems doubtful that Arafat will be expelled before any military action on the part of the United States against Iraq has been completed, but the prognosis for the next several months does not appear too rosy for Arafat and his henchmen. It is presumed that Sharon would make concessions for peace once his arch-enemy has been disposed of. But Sharon can ill afford to bring the wrath of the Arabs down on Israel at a time when war is about to break out in that region of the world. Of course, this is precisely what he would be risking if he exiled Arafat before the hostilities commence in Iraq.

One wonders what effect the new Gulf War will have on the Middle East peace process. Essentially, the potential effects seem twofold: 1. If it is a bloody affair, and there is fighting in the streets of Baghdad, it might serve as a real spur toward meaningful negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians; or, 2. If the U.S. uses nuclear “bunker-buster” bombs, as is currently being speculated in the States (and not being denied by the Bush administration), then there might arise such an outcry among the Islamic peoples as to preclude the possibility of peace. Ultimately, it is possible that the war between the U.S. and Iraq might broaden and deepen to the point where it spills onto other shores, notably Israel’s shores. The wrath of the Arabs might be piqued by any gross missteps on the part of the U.S., and it is not inconceivable that serious ramifications might present themselves, not only to the United States, but also to Europe and other parts of the world. The Bush administration is playing a dangerous game in the Middle East. It is impossible to know whether Saddam Hussein might unleash his weapons of mass destruction, causing the U.S. to feel justified in freeing the atomic dogs of battlefield weapons. And if that should happen, well, let us pray that it does not.

Lest we be thought of as Chicken Little, let us also say that we do in fact believe that the new war imposed by the U.S. will be swift and decisive, and that it will lead to increased negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. This, because that would fit the overall scheme of unfulfilled prophecy better than any other scenario. But every notion of prognostication is tenuous today, and will remain so until this current crisis has played itself out. The staff of Christian Chronicles seeks neither to promote nor prevent war. We are interested, however, in presenting a theologically correct perspective on the things that are happening in the Middle East, especially as those events relate to Israel and the prophecies concerning her.

It cannot be declared by anyone interested in prophetic themes that the unfolding of the Middle East drama is not of foremost importance on the world stage today. All of prophecy focuses on Israel or the Church, though the Gentile nations are involved in major ways. Everything that happens in the Middle East is significant in the context of progress along prophetic lines, though some things are more important than others. We do not seek to sensationalize anything, but we understand that we must be responsible in reporting and commenting on those things that concern the quest for peace in the Middle East. The treaty being sought today is affected by geo-political events. The ratification of that treaty will occur after the rapture of the Church.

In the map to the right, one receives a graphic understanding of the tiny strip of land that the United Nations proposed granting to the nascent Jewish state in 1947. Some would say that the Jews are “lucky” to have a homeland at all. God certainly would not say that. He promised, millennia past, that Israel would occupy land that stretches from the Mediterranean Sea, eastward to the Euphrates River, in what is now Iraq; northward to Lebanon, and south to a small stream that flows into the Mediterranean Sea from the Sinai Peninsula (Gen 15:18). West to east, Israel was afforded less than a tenth of the land that is hers in the charter issued by the U.N. in 1948. Two very strategic choke points in the proposed partition could easily divide the fledgling nation into three separate parcels of land. The light-gray areas are the lands that the UN proposed giving to Israel, while the dark-gray areas were to go to the Palestinians. It is ironic that the Mediterranean Sea, in this black and white reproduction of a color map, should appear almost the same shade of gray as the nation of Israel, since that is where the Palestinians want Israel to relocate.

God called Israel the apple of His eye in Zechariah 2:8. Specifically, in that context, the Lord is telling Israel that, after the Gentile nations plunder her, He will plunder them, and make them servants of Israel. Only by twisting and stretching and manipulating the Scriptures is it possible to come up with any sort of scenario in which it becomes permissible for a Gentile nation to alter the boundaries given in the Bible. A simple, normal interpretive method will lead invariably and inexorably to the conclusion that all the land that God gave to Israel is Israel’s, and all nations who seek to diminish it or partition it will be punished severely. Joel 3:1-2 are very clear that God intends to judge harshly those nations that partition the land that God gave to Israel. This judgment is said to take place after a long period of chastisement, when God has brought the Jews back into the land from an epochal dispersion (Ezek 36-37).

It is very much politically incorrect to say that God is not concerned about the sons of Ishmael and where they make their homeland. Nevertheless, that is the truth. He is not concerned about any of the Gentile nations, except insofar as their treatment of His chosen people is affected by them. This is a truth that the world wants to ignore. It prefers its own reasoning and wisdom — its own pride — but the great mystery is how it can ignore the Scriptures when they are so excruciatingly explicit about both the borders of Israel’s land and the judgments that are going to befall those who partition it.

As a part of the Abrahamic Covenant, God has included the Gentile nations under its terms, to the extent that He will bless those who bless Abraham, and curse those who curse him. Who shall we assume to be the Adjudicator of this blessing or cursing? The United Nations? The United States? The Palestinians? The Arab states? The European Union? Russia? Israel? Perhaps a better question would be: “What really constitutes ‘friendship’ with Israel?” All of the “moderate” Gentile world seeks Middle East peace, ostensibly so that Israel can live in the land peacefully. That certainly seems friendly, doesn’t it?

There is one Judge who will determine the state of those nations who have relationships with Israel. And that Judge will not be hampered by any reasoning from the mouths of men. The basis for His judgment shall be the Word of God. He will not deviate from it, rationalize it, twist it or toss it aside. Those nations who consider themselves friends of Israel would do very well indeed to reconsider the plans they are laying for the partitioning of the Holy Land.

The nations of the West all tend to view themselves as essentially Christian. Certainly, the United States’ politicians declare it to be so, although they have removed every trace of God from schools and public events, even to the point that children are not allowed to pray in school. A Christian nation, or group of nations, would surely want to consider what Christ Himself might think about its national and/or geo-political policies. One nation under God, as the U.S. calls herself, surely would not dream of taking the apple of God’s eye and slicing it up into a hundred pieces, apportioning it out against His declared will. Would it? Let us not be too headstrong in our power.

That’s all there are. Three. We break ourselves down into nationalities, races, political affiliations, fraternity and sorority groups, alumni of various schools, trend-followers of one stripe or another (beatniks, hippies, yuppies, generation X-ers, ad nauseum), but there are only three distinctly different kinds of people on the earth: Jews, Gentiles and Christians. The Bible recognizes no racial or national divides.

When, after the Fall of Man, the earth began to be populated, there was only one kind of human being. All were Gentiles. The Church had not yet been created, and Abram remained in the loins of his father, so to speak, for countless generations, until long, long after the Flood. Men divided themselves nationally, even then, but God recognized no distinctions. The only difference between men in God’s eyes was that some offered blood sacrifices for their sins, and some did not. The first eleven chapters of Genesis are a brief history of the whole race. Then God called Abram and separated him unto Himself, and all of the Bible, from the twelfth chapter of Genesis through the twelfth chapter of Matthew, was written to, for and about the Jews. From the twelfth chapter of Matthew forward, the Bible was written to the Church, but it concerned the entire human race once again.

Today, when a Jew is saved, he ceases being a Jew in God’s eyes. He becomes a Christian. He is no longer part of national Israel, but becomes a “new creation” (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15), a member of the body of Christ. Same thing for Gentiles. When a Gentile is saved, he is no longer a Gentile, but has become a Christian. There is no such thing as “Jews for Jesus,” or “Messianic Jews.” The national Jewish distinction is discarded temporarily in favor of the new creation, with its citizenship in heaven (Phil 3:20).

Abraham had eight children, the first of which was Ishmael, and the second, Isaac. The other six children were borne by Keturah, the wife he took after Sarah died. God had told Abraham that the chosen seed would be the descendants of Isaac (Gen 21:12). Although Abraham’s other descendants are traced in the Scriptures, it was through Isaac, and his son Jacob (Rom 9:13) that the nation of Israel would be formed. The twelve tribes of Israel were fathered by Jacob’s twelve sons. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, and each of his sons was the progenitor of one of the twelve tribes.

If Adam was the springhead from which flowed the whole of what we might call “River Humanity,” Abraham was but a very tiny tributary that branched off the main river. His descendants would eventually increase into a great stream themselves, becoming a great nation. Indeed, Abraham’s descendants would grow into many streams, forming many nations, but only one nation was chosen by God to be the channel through which the Messiah would eventually come to earth. That channel, according to the Scriptures, is Israel. It is very important for Christians to have some understanding of the history of Abraham and his descendants if we are to have a proper comprehension of who Christ is, and who we are because He is who He is. Abraham fathered the Arabs too.

The devil tried in many ways to frustrate the purposes of God. He has known since his own fall that God would send a Messiah to the earth, and it has been his desperate purpose to thwart that event. He tempted Adam and Eve to sin, so that the Word of God could not be made flesh (see Jn 1:14). Then, when Cain was born, and Abel, he had Cain murder Abel because the line through whom the Christ would come would have been through Abel. The same thing occurred when Pharaoh ordered the killing of all the male children of Israel in Egypt, and when Herod ordered the killing of the male children after Christ was born. The devil consistently attempted to prevent the first Advent of the Messiah, and he is now attempting to prevent the Second Advent by seeking the destruction of Israel. If there is no nation of Israel, there will be no place to which the Messiah can return. But let us not digress.

God separated Abram from the rest of the human race, sanctifying him, setting him apart to Himself to become the human channel through which the Messiah should come to the earth. From Abraham’s seed (Isaac) was born the one who would become the father of all of the Jews. After Jacob’s twelve sons were born, the devil tempted them out of the land by means of a famine that drove them into Egypt in search of food. It was the devil’s purpose to hold the Jews in slavery in Egypt forever, thus preventing the arrival of Jesus. But God preserved the Jews, and eventually raised up Moses to lead them out of Egypt and to the land that He had promised to Abraham.

Again, the devil attempted to so corrupt the Jews that the Messiah could not come. There was the golden calf that they worshipped in the wilderness. And when Moses came down from the mountain, he was so irate over their idolatry that he took those stone tablets and smashed them. Yet, God was not going to lose this war with Satan. He gave Moses a new set of tablets. While Moses was on Mount Sinai, God showed him the pattern for the tabernacle. This He did by showing him the tabernacle in heaven, which was the pattern by which Moses would order the construction of the earthly tabernacle (Heb 8:5). Thus, the Jews, having constructed the tabernacle, had a means by which they could make atonement for their sins.

In the tabernacle was a chamber called the Holy of Holies. This is where God actually dwelt with the Jews, manifesting Himself in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. So sacred was this chamber that only one person, the High Priest, could enter it, and he could only do so once each year, on the Day of Atonement. He would carry the sacrificial blood into that chamber and pour it over a structure called the mercy seat. The mercy seat was actually the lid of the ark of the covenant, a specially constructed box that contained the golden pot that held the manna, Aaron’s rod that bloomed, and the tablets of the Law. The High Priest would pour the blood over the mercy seat, covering the tables of the Law, pushing the sins of the Jews ahead in time one year, to the next Day of Atonement, when the process would be repeated. If the High Priest went into the Holy of Holies without the blood, or on any other day of the year, or if he went in that place without the required ritual washings, he would be struck dead. If anyone else went into that room, he would be struck dead. So strict was the injunction that the High Priest was required to sew bells on the hem of his robe, and tie a rope around his ankle. If he went into the Holy of Holies and was struck dead, no one could go in there to retrieve his body, lest they also be struck dead. So, if the bells ceased ringing, they would know that he had been killed, and they would drag his body out by the rope tied to his ankle.

Today, God deals with all men individually; but under the Law, He dealt with Israel nationally. As long as the High Priest made the requisite offering, all the Jews were saved. Their sins were all pushed ahead in time one year. The only way a Gentile could be saved during the Dispensation of the Law was by becoming a Jewish proselyte, so that his sins could be pushed ahead with the sins of the natural sons of Jacob. A Gentile had to become a Jew in order to be saved in the period from Moses to Christ.

All down through the centuries of that dispensation, the Gentile nations, spurred on by Satan, attacked Israel and tried to eliminate her. The devil was still trying to prevent the arrival of the Word of God in the flesh of a man. Surely, the devil thought he had succeeded when Nebuchadnezzar carried Israel away into captivity in Babylon, but he had not reckoned with the wisdom of God. Rather, the devil had committed the same error that Balaam did, thinking that God must curse a disobedient people. But God’s promises to Abraham were not abrogated by any future treatment of Israel by God either providentially or through human agency. Nor was Israel’s sin able to cancel the promise. When God allowed Gentiles to carry the Jews away captive, it was always with the promise of a future restoration. The extent of the land holdings promised to Abraham and his descendants was never diminished.

From Moses’ day forward, the Jews have had their prophets, messengers from God who brought admonitions and instructions to the Jews, as well as predictive prophecies. While some of those prophets spoke of Gentile nations, the references were always to the relationship the Gentile nations had with the Jews. When the prophets addressed Gentile kings and peoples directly, it was always to discuss their treatment of the nation of Israel and its consequences. God made no promises through the prophets to Gentiles concerning blessing apart from either the general blessing that was to come to all peoples through the Abrahamic Covenant at the cross, or because of their blessing of Israel in their international relationships.

Daniel had visions in which he saw a succession of world empires march across the stage of time. From his day forward, there would be four great Gentile empires, the last of which would have an early form and a later form. The first of these empires, the Babylonian, carried the Jews out of the land and held them captive in Babylon. The second, the Medo-Persian, would authorize the return of the Jews, and the third, Greece, would tax the Jews, but would not remove them from the land. The fourth world empire, however, Rome, would eventually (70 A.D.) disperse the Jews throughout all of the civilized world, where they would remain for some two thousand years. During this long period of two millennia, God preserved the Jews so that He could fulfill the promise He had made to Abraham. In 1948, Israel was again made a nation. Clearly, God miraculously preserved Abraham’s seed..

The reason that God chastened the Jews so heavily under the Romans was their rejection of the Messiah. While that rejection served God’s purposes in having that Messiah crucified in order to pay the penalty for the sins of every man, woman or child who ever had lived or would live, it did not relieve the Jews of the responsibility of their actions. Their chastening was just, even as God was just in finding a way to pay for the sins of man without charging them to individual men. He imposed the penalty for their sins upon Himself, in Christ. Even in this chastening, however, there remained the promise of a restoration to the land (Ezek 36-37).

At the time of the rejection of the Messiah, a new Age came into being. A new dispensation, the Church Age. The Christian Church is not composed of the same sort of creature as either Gentile or Jew, but is a new creation. It is not an organization, but an organism, a living thing, the Body of Christ, of which He is the Head. When the Jews rejected their Messiah, the clock stopped on God’s dealings with the Jews naitonally. No longer were Jews saved simply because the High Priest made the requisite sacrifice. In order for a Jew to be saved in the Church Age, he must do just like the Gentiles, accepting the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross as sufficient to pay the penalty for his sins. And when a Jew today hears, understands and accepts the Gospel, he ceases to be a Jew, but becomes a Christian. He becomes a new creature altogether, heavenly, not earthly; in the world but not of the world.

No Old Testament saint was indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Not Moses, Abraham, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Mary, or any other human being. The Holy Spirit would come upon the Jewish prophets long enough to inspire their writings, and then would leave them. They had no “new nature” as Christians do today. The could not walk in the Spirit as we are instructed to do, but lived their entire lives “in the flesh.” For the past two thousand years, every Jew who died unsaved shares the same eternal fate that unsaved Gentiles face. Christians are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, heavenly ambassadors, sent to earth to fulfill a specific function, to minister the word of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:19-21). We are in the world, but we are not of the world. The Jews and Gentiles are of the world. Though Israel has been set apart to God, and will yet receive the fulfillment of God’s promises, they are an earthly people. The Body of Christ on the earth is eternally alive now. When a Christian “dies,” he merely leaves time for eternity. He goes immediately and consciously into the very presence of God. Our High Priest, Jesus, has torn the veil that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the tabernacle, so that we have access all the time into the very presence of God, where we may have fellowship with Him. As though each of us has the right of the High Priest to enter into the presence of God, and much more, for we go daily.

The Church Age is a mystery that was unrevealed in the pages of the Old Testament. While this organism is eternal, our earthly presence is temporary. At the end of the Age, Christ will appear in the clouds, sound a trumpet, shout, and the entire Body of Christ, living and dead, will receive “glorified” bodies. We will leave the earth together, to return with Christ at the end of a seven-year period, when He establishes His kingdom on the earth. That kingdom will last for one thousand years. The event of the calling away of the body of Christ is commonly called the rapture of the Church. When the church is removed from the earth, there will again only be two kinds of people on the earth, Gentiles and Jews, as was true from the call of Abram to the creation of the Church.

The rapture has always had the quality of imminence. It could always have happened at any time during the Age. While very specific things were prophesied to take place immediately following the rapture, it has always been possible for God to have stuck His finger in the pot and stirred it, so to speak, bringing about the circumstances that would allow that prophecy to be fulfilled. But that is not how other prophecies have been fulfilled. Rather, the prophets have predicted that, when the geo-political stage was set in accordance with their prophecies, the things prophesied to occur would then occur. God has never had to stir the pot, but the natural evolution of world events have brought about the objective circumstances that made the fulfillment of prophecy possible. Today, we find the world stage set for the fulfillment of those things which are to take place immediately following the rapture.

The first event after the rapture of the Church is the ratification of a comprehensive Middle East peace treaty, brokered by a great Gentile leader, guaranteeing the “security” of Israel. The nation that brokers that treaty is prophesied to be the nation from which that sinister character known as Antichrist is to arise. Indeed, it is the head of the nation that brokers the treaty who will play the role of Antichrist on the earth (Dan 9: 24-27 and context). Thus, as we see the nations of the earth frantically searching for a formula for peace in the Middle East, we are heartened to think that the rapture may be very near indeed.

The recreation of the nation of Israel in 1948 was the beginning of the fulfillment of end-time prophecies. The Camp David Accords were a huge first step toward Middle East peace. After a period of idleness during the Reagan and Bush years, we saw the Clinton presidency resurrect the peace process and move it dramatically forward. George W. Bush, America’s current President, repeatedly stated in his campaign that he would not place nearly as much emphasis on the peace process as his predecessors, but events overtook him which propelled him to the forefront of the world stage as it seeks to solve the riddle of Middle East peace. Once again, we have an American President serving as the chief broker of an arrangement that will lead to peace, guaranteeing the security of Israel.

And herein lies the rub. All the world agrees that Israel cannot have all of the land that God promised to Abraham. The Arab states and the Palestinians will not stand for that. Fifty-five years ago, the United Nations recognized that reality, and drew up the proposed map shown on the front cover of this paper. Rather than the broad expanse of land that God promised Abraham, the Gentile nations have allotted Israel on a tiny fraction of that land. In 1948, the United Nations called their final instrument the partitioning of Palestine. This is the very word that Joel used in describing the reason for God’s severe judgment against the Gentile nations in that dark period known in theology as the great tribulation. It occurs over the course of the seven years, immediately following the ratification of the peace treaty the world is now seeking; the peace treaty that the United States is diligently brokering.

It is incumbent upon the nations of the world, especially now, to recognize that their actions, though seemingly rational and fair, are not in accordance with the will of God. Those nations that consider themselves Christian need to look at this whole process from the perspective of the Word of God. The world must recognize what it is doing, and what the ramifications of those actions might be. Indeed, this dividing up of the land, including Jerusalem itself, is the very act that the Scriptures promise will bring about the most severe chastening that the world has ever seen, or ever will see.

The expressed purpose of the Palestinians and the other Arab peoples has been to push Israel into the Mediterranean Sea. While those peoples are agreeing to engage in peace negotiations, it must be recognized that they are the sons of Ishmael and of Esau, and of the other six sons of Abraham, and the filial struggles that began with Cain and Abel are continuing even today. Governments may make peace, but the hearts of the Jews and the Ishmaelites still carry the animus of generations and millennia, and this partitioning that is being negotiated today will not result in peace, but in the greatest slaughter the world has ever witnessed.

Many Gentile nations consider themselves the friends of Israel. Indeed, Israel would not have the sliver of land that she possesses today were it not for the intervention by Britain and the United States. We do have the appearance of friends, at least according to human reasoning. According to worldly wisdom. It is the fruit of incredible arrogance, and will have the most dire of results, not only for Israel, but also for the Arabs, and for the entire world. One need only read chapters 6-19 of the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to come to some understanding of the grievous peril that this partitioning of the Holy Land will generate.

While Israel is in the land (or a very small part of it) today, the nations who placed her there are not the friends that they profess to be. A real friend of Israel would never compromise the Word of God for the sake of any people, let alone those who openly profess themselves to be the enemies of Israel. Accordingly to worldly wisdom, the United States and other Western powers are the best friends Israel has ever had. What they will learn if they persist in the quest for peace along the avenues they have been traveling is that they are not only the enemies of Israel, but have unwittingly become the enemies of God. That is what Adam and Eve learned on account of their own rationalization, and it is what the Gentile nations will learn on account of theirs. It would be far better for them to extend Israel’s dispersion in the world than to restore her to a land that has been divided and divided again in order to appease those who would stick a knife into the apple of God’s eye. There are only three kinds of people in the world, and when the Church is raptured, there will again be only two: Israel, and the enemies of God. This is not a time to take these things lightly, or to scoff at the clear statements of the Scriptures for the sake of diplomacy or reason. There was one kind of people, then two, then three, and soon now there will be only two again. May the bride be found straightening her skirts when her Groom appears!

Editor’s Note: We are happy to present this article by Jim McCutchan, Pastor of Old Tyme Baptist Church, Houston, TX.

Of the many lessons that Jesus gave to His disciples there are three that deal with the fig tree. These three lessons illustrate the entire course of Jewish history in its relation to the Jewish Messiah. The first of these three fig tree lessons is that of the Barren Fig Tree, which was spoken of by Jesus about six months prior to His crucifixion and death; the second lesson was the Cursing of the Fig Tree, which was spoken during the last week of His public ministry; the third lesson was that of the Restored Fig Tree, given in His Olivet discourse in the Passion Week. Notice the chronological sequence of the three lessons: barren, then cursed, then restored. The first is recorded in Luke 13:6-9:

“He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.”

During the three years of His public ministry to Israel, Jesus came three years and sought for spiritual fruit and found only leaves (outward religion) on the fig tree (Israel). This was true regarding the ministry of Jesus that the leaders gave little or no response to His teaching. The dresser pleaded for postponement of judgment upon the fig tree (Israel). Not only were the leaders given the opportunity to witness the trial and the crucifixion, they were assured of the resurrection of Jesus. Also, they were given the message of repentance by the newly founded Church which was born on the day of Pentecost. Yet God's probation of thirty-eight years bore no fruit so that eventually the fig tree (Israel) was cut down by the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple in 70 A.D.

"And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it."

This lesson symbolizes effectively the awaiting doom upon the Jewish nation in their world-wide dispersion during which they have remained in unbelief. As a nation they have been unable to give forth the saving message of a Living Redeemer and therefore they have remained a barren, fruitless nation. "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in" (Romans 11:25).

The third lesson is that of the budding or restored fig tree. Jesus taught in this lesson that one day Israel would return to the Promised Land and form a sovereign state once again. This is taught in Matt. 24:32-34:

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”

As early as 1871, a few Jews had managed to return to the Land, and about 25,000 Jews had settled there by 1881. The idea of the Jews repossessing their ancient Land was not stated in any formal way until it was adopted in the first Zionist congress, called in 1897 by Theodore Herzl. The progress was painfully slow. By 1914 the number of Jews in the Land had reached only 80,000. The British Foreign Secretary, Arthur J. Balfour, issued the Balfour Declaration on Nov. 2, 1917. This declaration indicated approval of Israel's goal in the words, "His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for Jewish people, etc." Pressure from the Arab world, which would have no part in establishing a home for Israel, and the desire of Britain to maintain friendship with the Arab nations prevented any fulfillment of this promise. Little progress had been made when World War II broke out in 1939. By that time, however, 400,000 Jews had managed to find their way into the country in spite of severe restrictions on Jewish immigration and laws that did not allow Jews to possess real estate.

World War II, which recorded the terrible destruction of millions of Jews under Nazi tyranny, created a favorable attitude and world-wide sympathy for the Jewish people. Certainly there should be some place where the wandering Jew could have his own home. Although an Arab League was formed in 1945 to oppose Jewish expansion, the United Nations created a home for Jews in Palestine in Nov., 1947. The UN directive stated that Palestine should be divided into a Jewish state and an Arab state, and 5,000 square miles were assigned to the infant state of Israel. On May 14, 1948, Israel, for the first time since 70 A.D., became an independent state. The settlement, however, was quite unacceptable to the Arab world. Israel was attacked on all sides by Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. Israel's defense was heroic, and a truce was arranged on Jan. 7, 1949. Israel had extended its area from 5,000 sq. miles to 8,000 sq. miles. The tender young fig tree (Israel) began to put forth its leaves. The Arabs were at war again with the Jews in 1956, and in 1967 came the Six-Day War. It was in the Six-Day War that Israel captured the old city of Jerusalem and the site of the soon-to-be-rebuilt Jewish temple. In 1973 came the Yom Kippur War, the Arab oil embargo, which caused an energy crisis in the U.S. Indeed, Israel is a young nation putting forth leaves, in that it has steadily grown in its short existence. Jesus said in Matt. 24:33; "So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled." This present generation, which has seen Israel become a political state in May, 1948, will also see the Rapture of the Church and Christ's Second Coming to Israel! Amen

It is a strange notion, making peace for the sake of winning a war, but that is just what is happening in the world today. Even those who are engaging in this bizarre practice do not realize exactly what it is that they are doing. Nevertheless, the great campaign for MiddleEast peace, while culminating in a treaty, will spawn the greatest war that the world has ever known. The time of great tribulation that Jesus spoke of (Mt 24:21) will be inaugurated by the ratification of a comprehensive Middle East peace treaty. It is when the nations of the world, along with professing Christendom, that great harlot of Revelation 17, come together along with Israel to say “Peace and safety!” (1 Th 5:3), that sudden destruction will come upon both the political and religious structures of the entire world. Jack D. Hook, in an article entitled “Blessed are the Dead,” writes:

Many people will be saved during this great war, and most will be killed for their faith in a manner reminiscent of the Roman persecutions of the first centuries of the Church Age. Untold millions more will curse God for the death and destruction unfolding around and among them. No nation or people will be spared the ravages of the judgments that will befall Earth during those dark days. That portion of professing Christendom that does not participate in the rapture of the Church will suffer terribly for seeking their own glory rather than the glory of God. The Gentiles will suffer for their persecution of God’s people, the Jews, and their partitioning of the land that He gave them. The Jews will be brought to their collective knees until the repent. But as a stark testimony to the depth of their rebellion, they will not repent nationally until right at the very end of that grim period, when they see Christ and His armies returning to rescue them and set up the rule of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

The Scriptures are clear about this. The next great world war will not be started by aggression, but by peace: Middle East peace. As the world makes “peace,” it keeps its hand on its sword. The first rider among the four horsemen of the Apocalypse rides a white horse and carries a bow. It is not said that he carries any arrows, but the fact that he has his bow implies that he is fully prepared to make war. This peace process that we are seeing negotiated today will not be concluded by war, but by the threat of military intervention at the hands of the nation from which the beast arises. The security of Israel will not be wrought by changing the militant hearts of the enemies of Israel, but by the strong hand of her “protector.” We may consider the saber-rattling that is heard in the Middle East today to be the harbingers of “peace.” For the result of the ongoing negotiations will be a very disgruntled peace, a peace that is looking for a context for war. Israel’s enemies will not become her friends simply because a small group of men sing a paper declaring it to be so. Her enemies hope to accomplish through “peace” what they have been unable to do through war.

The fate of the world is hanging in the balance. There is already what has been called a New World Order, but it is not new. Oh, the key players have changed, as they are wont to do from time to time, and the mask that the world wears is more subtly deceptive than it has ever been, but it is the same old world with new clothes.

When God put those coats of skins on Adam and Eve, He did not change their essential nature. They had done that themselves when they disobeyed. The coats of skin covered their nakedness, but their sinful natures lurked beneath the skin. That same sin that Adam and Eve committed in the Garden of Eden remained in them, and has been passed down to us through all the generations of mankind. It is in me still today, and you, though we are saved and reborn. We have the indwelling Spirit of God, which the world does not have, and the sin nature that is in us is to be reckoned to be dead, but the world knows no such distinctions. We await the redemption of the body, when our flesh will no longer be sinful, and that is our blessed hope.

In the eyes of the world, the situation in the Middle East is a matter of pragmatic reality. Reason reigns supreme, and all the world has its focus on the Middle East. This article is being written on the afternoon before President George W. Bush presents his State of the Union address. We might have waited until after the speech, but that is hardly necessary. In the end, the U.S. is determined to have its way, both in Iraq and among the parties to the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians. Eventually, there will be a peace agreement that will not quite satisfy either Israel or the Palestinians, but which will be ratified by all nonetheless.

One wonders if perhaps the second Gulf War will destroy the influence of the U.S. in the Middle East, and if perhaps another world power will arise to assume the role of broker of Middle East peace. It does not seem likely, meaning that it will be the United States who serves as the primary arbiter between the warring factions.

The course that the U.S. is pursuing now in negotiations with both sides amounts to serious compromise of the territory that God gave to Israel, and if the present course is followed, then the tribulation period cannot but come after the treaty terms are negotiated.

Let it be noted by all that the nation that brokers the Middle East peace treaty is the nation from which shall arise that dark character called Antichrist (Dan 9:27). Every Gentile nation on earth would do very well indeed to step back from the precipice they are leaning ever closer to today. A Mideast peace agreement that is based upon the principles being espoused and more or less accepted by all sides today is a recipe for disaster such as the world has never seen.

The Antichrist does not come on the scene as some terrible warmonger, but as one who appears to be an honest broker of peace. He has the might of arms behind him, so that he has the power to enforce peace where needed, but his political thrust in the world appears to be toward world unity and peace.

This move toward “peace” in the Middle East is not about benevolence toward mankind, but it is about a stable world economy. There is nothing altruistic about it, but it represents the best that man can accomplish through reason, without regard for the Word of God or any understanding at all of the prophetic Scriptures.

The world does indeed hang in the balance. The prophet Joel declared nearly three thousand years ago which course mankind would follow, and while we can and should give warning in this medium, we can hardly expect to stem the tide of either history or prophecy. The world is on a collision course with a destiny it will not like, and it appears at this point as if the United States shall lead the charge.

As Christians, we must have mixed feelings about all this, for a treaty sooner rather than later would mean an earlier rapture. At the same time, it is hardly appropriate for us to seek happily the sort of damage and destruction that shall befall the apple of God’s eye (Israel) in the dark days that follow the peace treaty that is sure to come.

The New World Order demands that a single leader stand up and take charge. When Bush, Sr., announced the New World Order at the beginning of the first Gulf War, it was clear who that leader was destined to be. Now, despite any warnings, it is clear that the Gentile powers shall hang themselves in the balance of God’s justice and His wrath.