Joel C. Rosenberg: With President’s historic yet controversial decision on Jerusalem, Evangelical leaders call Christians around the world to pray for the peace of Jerusalem as never before.

New post on Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog

With President’s historic yet controversial decision on Jerusalem, Evangelical leaders call Christians around the world to pray for the peace of Jerusalem as never before. [Here’s the statement we just released from the Alliance For The Peace of Jerusalem.] by joelcrosenberg Time and again, Jerusalem lies at the Epicenter of the momentous events that are shaking our world and shaping our future. This week is no exception. As a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen -- and a Jewish Evangelical -- and most recently as a new resident of Jerusalem where my wife and kids and I now live, these issues are not just theological or theoretical for me. They're personal. Lynn and I love Jerusalem -- we love both Israelis and Palestinians. We love them dearly and equally, as we believe God does. We don't want to see any more divisions or violence or terror or injustice of any kind. There has been too much suffering, too much bloodshed. We long to see peace between the two sides. We pray and work for the day when both peoples can truly live side by side, and amongst each other, in safety and security and freedom and prosperity -- free and willing and eager even to seek the Prince of Peace and make Him known to the rest of the world.  On Monday at the National Press Club, I helped launch a new organization called the "Alliance For The Peace of Jerusalem." The timing, I believe, was from the Lord. Now more than ever, the Church needs to be faithful to the Psalmist's command to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Psalm 122:6) . Now more than ever, the Church needs to "seek peace and pursue it" (Psalm 34:14). Now more than ever, we need to be faithful ambassadors of God's love and compassion to both Jews and Arabs trapped in a cycle of seemingly never-ending tension -- and ambassadors of grace towards Christian brothers and sisters who have different (and deeply held) views of how best to achieve peace. Here is the full statement the Alliance's executive leadership released today -- I hope you'll take a moment to read it in full, share your comments with me on my "Epicenter Facebook Page," and share this with your family and friends at this critical hour. God bless you. Evangelicals Conflicted Over President Trump’s Decision on Jerusalem and How Best to Make Peace. New survey shows nuances in Evangelical thinking toward Israel; Leaders say praying for the peace of Jerusalem more urgent than ever.  WASHINGTON, Dec. 7, 2017 – Even Evangelical Christians who love and support Israel have diverse views on how best to proceed with peace, including a range of reactions to President Donald Trump’s announcement recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. According to a new survey, “Evangelical Attitudes Toward Israel and the Peace Process,” the overwhelming majority of Evangelicals do support Israel. Eighty percent of evangelicals agree that God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants was for all time; 76 percent say Christians should support the Jewish people’s right to live in the sovereign state of Israel; and 69 percent say Israel has a historic right to the land. Additionally, 66 percent say Israel’s existence, security and prosperity are things they support. Yet the data also show evangelicals are conflicted on the best way to move forward with establishing peace. Forty-one percent of survey respondents argue the Jewish people have a biblical right to the land but also have a responsibility to share, although another 31 percent are not sure. In regard to the one-state versus two-state solution, there is a high level of uncertainty, as 23 percent stated the Palestinians should be allowed to create their own sovereign state while 31 percent disagree and 46 percent of respondents are unsure. This level of uncertainty is even higher among the millennial generation, of which 4 in 10 (41 percent) have no strong views about Israel. The LifeWay Research study, released this week, is co-sponsored by Chosen People Ministries and New York Times bestselling author Joel C. Rosenberg. “While the survey didn’t ask questions specifically related to the capital or embassy location, the responses clearly show that while there may be support, there are also many questions about the details of how and when this could or should work,” said Dr. Darrell Bock, New Testament professor at Dallas Theological Seminary. In response to changing views of Israel among younger Evangelicals, a group of faith leaders, scholars, authors and pastors formed the Alliance for the Peace of Jerusalem, an organization dedicated to better public understanding of the complexities of the Middle East including its historical and biblical roots as well as calling Christians to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. “The president’s decision and the domestic and international controversy it has aroused underscores the importance of calling the church to pray faithfully and consistently for the peace of Jerusalem—now more than ever,” said Rosenberg, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen. “It is clear from the survey that Evangelicals want peace. The question of how to get there has confounded presidents, kings and prime ministers, so it’s not surprising that the church isn’t clear how best to apply biblical principles concerning Jerusalem to a conflict that’s thousands of years old. There are very different views in the Christian world on how best to make peace, which is why we must show grace to one another in these very important and timely discussions. This is exactly why the Alliance exists.” The Alliance will strive to educate the church about Israel’s role in the biblical narrative—past, present and future—while also affirming God’s concern for Palestinians and all peoples of the Middle East. “I applaud the support of the Evangelical community for Israel, and we are ready to make the case to the next generation of Evangelicals about God’s continued purposes for the nation of Israel—which includes Jerusalem,” said Dr. Mitch Glaser, president of Chosen People Ministries. “Yet, the survey also indicates that Christians, especially the younger generation, deeply care about the Palestinians and how they will achieve freedom and opportunity. Our Alliance will encourage everyone -- Evangelicals especially, to fervently pray for God’s peace to rest upon all people in the region.” The “Evangelical Attitudes Toward Israel and the Peace Process” study was conducted Sept. 20-28, 2017. The survey asked 2,002 Americans with evangelical beliefs about a wide range of issues involving Israel and the Palestinians. Results were unveiled Dec. 4 during a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington. For the full survey results, visit http://lifewayresearch.com/2017/12/04/support-of-israel-among-younger-evangelicals/. For video of the press conference, visit https://chosenpeople.com/site/evangelical-attitudes-toward-israel-press-conference/.

Historic: 1000 Jews Ascend Temple Mount! Jews Marching in Old City:Jerusalem is Ours! Still Crying After 2000 Years? - United with Israel

Jews will Win Temple Mount Battle; Preparing for Third Temple Right Now! Transform Mourning into Celebration; Making Dream of Peace a Reality!

‘Unprecedented’: Over 1000 Jews Ascend Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av Morning WATCH: ‘Jerusalem is Ours,’ Say Hundreds of Jews Marching Around Old City WATCH: Secret to Redemption Revealed. It will Change Your Life!

The Jewish People will Win the Temple Mount Battle  WATCH: How Can a Synagogue be Turned Into a Place of Bloodshed?  The Destruction of Jerusalem and Good Parenting – Is There a Connection?  WATCH: Make the Dream for Peace in Jerusalem a Reality  Temple Institute: We Are Preparing to Rebuild the Holy Temple  WATCH: Why Jews Break a Glass at Every Wedding  A History of the Holy Temple and Its Centrality to Judaism  WATCH: The Children of Israel Are Ready…  Unity is Our Hope on Tisha B’Av – The Day of Mourning for the Temple  WATCH: How to Transform Mourning Into Celebration!  Still Crying After 2000 Years?  WATCH: Preparing for the Third Temple Right Now!

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"Israel: God's Prophetic Calendar" - James W. Goll

"Israel: God's Prophetic Calendar"

James W. Goll, Franklin, TN

The Elijah List

Although Israel as we know her today is only a little more than sixty five years old, the Jewish nation is actually one of the oldest on earth. These people and their land reach back to the time of Abraham's prophetic pilgrimage and the covenant promise of God to him and his descendants (see Genesis 17:4-8). But after what many considered to be a silence of two thousand years, this land has been reborn. Israel is once again the showpiece being displayed before the eyes of the world. All the more as I have declared that in these very days, the Middle East would be a boiling cauldron (click here to read the article).

Brief Historic Overview

Let's take a peek at the past to be able to have a proper view of the future. How could a remnant of scattered and persecuted Jewish people, who went through their darkest hour in Hitler's Holocaust, come forth all at once as a sovereign nation within their age-old boundaries? Not without divine intervention, for sure, although many Israelis today believe they did it all on their own. Let's sketch this history briefly.

On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution requiring the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Israel was then reborn the following May 14th, 1948. (Photo of Israeli Declaration of Independence via Wikipedia)

Just a day later, on May 15, 1948, while this creation had barely come forth, five Arab nations assaulted the newborn Jewish babe. Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq (forty million Arabs, 1.5 million of them armed) attacked Israel in what became known as the Israeli War of Independence. The war continued for eight months with heavy casualties on all sides. The miracle is that Israel, which had just been reborn, could not be destroyed (see Isaiah 54:17).

I Stand with Israel

In 1967 the Six-Day War should also have ended in disaster for Israel, but God's mercy again prevailed. The Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Golan Heights were occupied by the Israelis in only six days. This conflict also saw the notable capture by the Jews of the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem and the remaining Western (Wailing) Wall of the Temple. All holy Jewish and Christian sites were controlled by the Israelis at that point.

And consider the outcome of the surprise 1973 Yom Kippur assault. The Arabs, backed by one of the world's two nuclear superpowers, the former Soviet Union, attacked on two fronts; but Israel, coming close to major defeat, again came out the victor. Taken by surprise on their highest holy day, the Israelis were pushed back as the Arabs made territorial gains. Yet by what I believe was divine intervention, Israel regained all her land. Once again the hand of God, working in part through the agency of human beings, protected the outnumbered and despised Jewish nation.

What is the lesson to learn here? God has done it before, He will do it again!

Prophetic Foretellings

The history of God's divine protection of Israel since it was reborn as a nation in 1948 is a brilliant study in its own right. So let's take a quick look at some significant Old Testament prophecies regarding Israel's dispersion and regathering.

Jeremiah's Declaration

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, glimpsed through the lens of time that Israel's faithful, covenant-keeping God would offer His stretched-out wings as a place of divine protection to His people during their ingathering to the Promised Land:

Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare in the coastlands afar off, and say, "He who scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock." Jeremiah 31:10

We find three truths contained in this one verse from Jeremiah. First, it was God Himself who scattered Israel from her own homeland. Second, the same God who scattered Israel will regather her to her own land. And third, God will not merely regather Israel but keep her and put a divine hedge of protection about her as she is regathered. (Photo via pixabay)

Hosea's Pronouncement

Hosea 1:10 reads:

It will come about that, in the place where it is said to them, "You are not My people," it will be said to them, "You are the sons of the living God."

This piercing prophetic statement was given concerning the condition of the house of Israel at a time when she was in a state of rebellion and sin ("You are not My people"). But God's critical word of judgment did not end there.

This one verse speaks of physical restoration and relocation and also of the spiritual rebirth or revival that will take place among God's covenant people when they are returned to their covenant-given land. A miracle of major proportions is being declared here. What a reflection of the awesome faithfulness of our Father!

Two Regatherings Predicted

With the needed foundation in place of God's grace and His faithfulness, let's trace a few more steps back in history and glance at the topic of the Diaspora (the dispersion) of the Jewish people in history.

The First Regathering

It is my understanding that Scripture speaks prophetically beforehand that the Jews would suffer two major dispersions, or scatterings, from their own land, followed by two regatherings.

The first was in the years when the prophets Daniel and Ezekiel were exiled in the land of Babylon, that period in which the Jews of the Judean kingdom were displaced from their country after the destruction of the Temple, Jerusalem and commonwealth by Nebuchadnezzar (see Daniel 1:1-6). It was around 605-B.C. when Daniel and his associates were carried away. Their restoration to the land began in 538-B.C. (see 2-Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4), and the Temple remained unrestored until 515-B.C. (see Ezra 6:15), about seventy years after its destruction in 587-B.C.

Daniel, a prophet of the one true God, was in captivity with the children of Israel in Babylon – a foreign land with a foreign culture and gods and ways. It was perhaps in their sixty-third year of captivity, while meditating on the Word of God (see Daniel 9:2), that Daniel received a revelation based on the prophetic promises of Jeremiah:

"This whole land shall be a desolation and a horror, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then it will be when seventy years are completed I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation," declares the Lord.Jeremiah 25:11-12 (Photo via Wikipedia)

"Thus says the Lord, 'When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.'" Jeremiah 29:10

Not only did Daniel believe the word and declare it as revealed to Jeremiah – that at the end of seventy years of Babylonian captivity, the children of Israel would be released from their enslavement and return to their own land – but Daniel sought the Lord for any reasons or blockades that could stand in the way of the prophetic promise being fulfilled (see Daniel 9:3-19). Daniel then responded by confessing the sin of his people as his own. The verse that summarizes his confession is Daniel 9:19:

"O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Thine own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Thy city and Thy people are called by Thy name."

The fact that the word of the Lord happened precisely as had been declared through the lips of Jeremiah, and knelt upon by the prophet Daniel, gives us an example of prophetic intercession at its best. At the end of seventy years the Israelites were released into the beginning fulfillment of the prophecy of their first return to their covenant land.

The Second Regathering

That was not the only dispersion and regathering prophesied by God's watchmen. Isaiah 11:11-12 states that the Lord would set His hand a second time to recover a remnant of His people:

It will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations, and will assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

Let's make it simple. The Scriptures explain that there would be a regional dispersion followed by a regional regathering. Then there would come a second worldwide dispersion followed by a second worldwide regathering. When did the second dispersion occur? It began around 70 A.D. under the Roman ruler Titus, when the Jewish people once again fled their homeland and ran for their lives. For many hundreds of years they scattered – but for approximately nineteen hundred years they were banished from their homeland to the four corners of the earth.

Closing Appeal

A warrior angel came and stood at the end of my bed one year ago. All it said was, "Attention! Be on the Alert!" Are you alert right now as a watchman on the walls? (Photo of Charles Finney via Wikimedia)

From my vantage point, that is exactly what I is see is needed in the Middle East today. We need the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation concerning His prophetic calendar for Israel, so that His heart for Jerusalem and the people of the Middle East will beat in our own heart.

Join me as together we help give birth to God's purposes through the power of prophetic intercession. Join me on the walls, watchmen, and let's lift a cry for Israel for such a time as this!

On the Alert!

This article is an updated excerpt of Chapter 8 – Israel God's Prophetic Calendar, from the book The Prophetic Intercessor.

Dr. James W. Goll
Founder of Encounters Network • Prayer Storm • God Encounters Training e-School

Email: info@encountersnetwork.com
Website: encountersnetwork.com

Dr. James W. Goll is the president of Encounters Network, director of Prayer Storm, and coordinates Encounters Alliance, a coalition of leaders. He is director of God Encounters Training – an e-school of the heart, and is a member of the Harvest International Ministries apostolic team. He has shared Jesus in more than 50 nations worldwide, teaching and imparting the power of intercession, prophetic ministry, and life in the Spirit. James is the prolific author of numerous books and has also produced multiple study guides and hundreds of audio and video messages. James was married to Michal Ann for 32 years before her graduation to Heaven in the fall of 2008. James has four adult children who all love Jesus, and continues to make his home in Franklin, Tennessee.

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