Standing in support of Israel, Jews, and believers in all the nations, in the name of Jesus (Yeshua). Sharing biblical truth, encouragement, news and prophecy.
The 5 Greatest Biblical Discoveries in the Land of Israel
ISRAEL VIDEO NETWORK
It seems to be a highly guarded secret, but it is actually fact: Jews have been living in the land of Israel, continuously, for over 3000 years.
How could one deny the incredible archeological finds from the days of King David, the first and second temples, Samuel, and even Abraham?
Vistors and conquerors of the Land of Israel throughout the millennia have often referred to the Jews living there in their writings and chronologies. Yet Palestinian political and relitious leaders, historians, professors and school textbooks all claim that the Jewish People has no connection whatsoever to the Land of Israel (or Palestine as they call it).
Columnist, political commentator, author, pullitzer prize winner, and physician, Charles Krauthammer puts it all in a nutshell as he writes: “Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. You dig the soil and you find pottery from Davidic times, coins from Bar Kokhba, and 2,000-year-old scrolls written in a script remarkably like the one that today advertises ice cream at the corner candy store.”
A high school football team stopped from praying before games is taking their battle off the field and into the courtroom.
"We were really excited to play in the championship game," Jacon Enns, Cambridge Christian School football team kicker, said. "But then we showed up and they wouldn't let us pray. It's been our tradition ever since I've been on the team, and our tradition was ruined. It made me wonder, 'Is it wrong to pray?'"
Enns is referring to what happened when the Florida High School Athletic Association told them if they prayed over the loudspeaker, it would be viewed as the "unlawful government endorsement of religion."
The school doesn't agree and filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday for the incident with the FHSAA at their championship game.
CCS is suing the FHSAA for violating the school's constitutional rights. The school calls the FHSAA's actions a violation of free speech and religious freedom.
"This is a clear case of governmental interference in a private school's right to exercise its religious freedom," Jeremy Dys, senior counsel for First Liberty Institute, said. "Pre-game prayer is not only a long-standing tradition for Cambridge Christian; it is fundamental to its reason for being."
"By banning us from praying over the loudspeaker, the FHSAA told our students that prayer is something bad and should be forbidden," Tim Euler, head of Cambridge Christian, said. "We want our students to know that prayer is good and a fundamental constitutional right that should be defended."
Cambridge Christian's attorneys are prepared to defend that constitutional right and hope to make prayer legal on the football field again.
A former rising star in a Hungarian party known for anti-Semitic views will move to Israel and become an Israeli citizen. Csanad Szegedi told the newspaper Ma'ariv that he will make aliyah with his wife and two children.
In a 2013 interview with CBN News, the 34-year old Szegedi, who was once widely viewed as an anti-Semite, shared how he discovered that he was Jewish.
When rumors of his Jewish ancestry started swirling on the Internet, Szegedi went to talk to his 94-year-old grandmother, who he never knew was Jewish.
"She opened up and she talked about her life and how she was sent to Auschwitz and how our family was annihilated," he recalled. "I was shocked -- first of all because I realized the Holocaust really happened."
At first, Szegedi tried to hide his Jewishness and act like nothing had happened. But he realized he couldn't stay in his party, Jobbik.
"It started such a crisis in my consciousness," he told CBN News. "I realized I can't take part in any organization that has anything to do with anti-Semitism. And after my Jewish origins were disclosed, they really didn't want to see me in the party anymore."
He contacted a local rabbi, who first thought it was a joke. Szegedi started taking classes at the synagogue, learning Hebrew and the meaning of kosher and Shabbat.
Szegedi said his life completely changed.
"It's changed everything. It's like being re-born, and the changes in my life are still happening," he said. "I had this set value system that I had to change completely. I had had this value system until I was 30 and I had to admit that it was all wrong and to find the will to change."
In the interview with Ma'ariv, Szegedi said, "Israel is an amazing country, and I believe that every Jew who lives in the Diaspora seriously considers making aliyah to Israel, at least once in his life. After the nightmares that my relatives underwent in the Holocaust, my family and I very much want to be part of the positive dream that Israel constitutes for us."
Pastor Jim and Lori discuss the topics covered in the book Future War, written by special guest Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis.
Quotes
The more players you have making these tough international decisions, the more unlikely you are to make good decisions that have any staying power. That’s the New World Order, a chaotic environment. – Lt Col Robert Maginnis
I don’t understand why the church is doing nothing. Christians are being exterminated, people. They really are. – Pastor Jim
We are in the Revelation days, we are at the end of the end. – Mama Lori
I think the reason many of the churches have pulled back and no longer will even preach the Bible, because they’re afraid. They are absolutely afraid that they’re going to be cut off, destroyed. – Pastor Jim
Scriptures
Romans 13:11-14 MEV Furthermore, knowing the time, now is the moment to awake from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Therefore let us take off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly, as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in immorality and wickedness, not in strife and envy.But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.
(Denver, Colorado) -- Shimon Peres, "the last of Israel's founding fathers," died tonight. He was 93. Please be praying for his family and friends as they grieve his loss and try to adjust to a world without this beloved yet controversial giant.
Peres began his political career in his mid-twenties as a trusted aide to David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of the reborn Jewish State in 1948. From there he served in every senior government role there was -- Prime Minister, Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, Finance Minister, and eventually the nation's President.
Last summer I listened to the audio book of Peres' absolutely wonderful and moving biography, Ben Gurion: A Political Life, which I commend to you. Peres had a front row seat to history -- indeed, to ancient Biblical prophecies coming to pass -- but he was not simply an observer of that history, he was an active and at times transformative participant. He helped launch Israel's fledgling air force in the late 40s. He started Israel's nuclear program. He also won the Nobel Prize for his peace-making efforts, even though his moves towards the Palestinians were deeply divisive inside Israel.
I will always cherish the time I met and briefly interviewed Peres in the fall of 2005 for the non-fiction book, Epicenter: Why The Current Rumblings In The Middle East Will Change Your Future, I was working on at the time. In light of his passing, I thought I'd post a few excerpts and hope it gives you a little insight into this intriguing figure of Jewish history.
The Bear Hug
Are Israel and her neighbors moving closer to war or to peace?
Nowhere was this conundrum more vividly on display for me than at the “Peace: Dream or Vision?” conference I attended in Israel in the fall of 2005, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the beloved Israeli prime minister who signed the historic peace treaty with Jordan’s King Hussein in 1994.
Outside the conference center at the Strategic Dialogue Center of Netanya Academic College were all the reminders of the “wars and rumors of wars” that Jesus said would plague the world until his return—a phalanx of heavily armed security guards, metal detectors, bomb-sniffing dogs, and so forth. To get in I had to not only show my passport to the security staff but give it to them to hold on to until I left, and my camera, camera bag, tape recorder, and briefcase were all searched carefully—as was I—before I was allowed to proceed.
But inside were all the reminders of Israelis “living securely” in “the land that is restored from the sword,” which Ezekiel predicted. One moment I was watching former Mossad chief Danny Yatom chatting like old buds with Dr. Abdel Salam Majali, the former Jordanian prime minister, and Osama El-Baz, the chief political advisor to Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. The next moment I was watching Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, give a bear hug to former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres. Once they were all enemies. Now they were all friends. Once they were plotting each other’s demise. Now they were talking about their shared vision for a “new Middle East.”
Such warm relationships between Arab and Israeli leaders may seem insignificant, but they most certainly are not. They actually represent enormous progress toward resolving the conflict. Let me give you a little anecdote to provide some context.
In April of 1988, ABC’s Ted Koppel took Nightline to Israel for a week of broadcasts on the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising known as the intifada and the increasingly desperate need for peace and reconciliation between the two sides. Having recently returned to the States after nearly six months in Israel, where I had studied at Tel Aviv University and witnessed the outbreak of the intifada, I watched Koppel’s show with great interest every night in my dorm room at Syracuse University.
On April 25, Koppel held the first-ever town hall meeting between Israelis and Palestinians, broadcast live from the historic Jerusalem Theater. It was bound to be riveting television, for never before had Israeli and Palestinian leaders sat on the same stage together, much less engaged in anything close to a dialogue. But when the show began, I was surprised to see a three-foot-high stone wall running down the middle of the stage. The Israelis sat on one side, the Palestinians on the other. It was a sad symbol of the divide between the two peoples.
Years later, I was interviewed by Koppel on Nightline. After the taping was finished, I had the opportunity to ask Koppel about that wall. “It came up at almost the last minute,” he explained, remembering the moment vividly. “We were just a few hours from going on live from Jerusalem—at 6:30 in the morning, Israel time, mind you, so that the show would be on at 11:30 p.m. back in the U.S.—and suddenly the Palestinians said they refused to appear onstage with the Israelis without sitting in a booth, so they didn’t appear to actually be talking to the Israelis. We said absolutely not. So they asked that we put razor wire down the center of the stage, and again we said no. Finally, they asked that we build a wall—just a small wall, they said—to represent how divided Arabs and Jews are. They threatened not to appear at all if we didn’t do it, so we did it. It was an amazing night.”6
It certainly was. And one of the Palestinians who appeared onstage that night was Saeb Erekat. Then he had refused to shake hands with the Israelis. He had barely made eye contact with them. And he had demanded a wall. Now, at the peace conference in Netanya, he was giving bear hugs. How much the world had changed.7
“A New Age” in the Middle East?
Shimon Peres is a living legend in Israel and is one of the country’s founding fathers. I have long disagreed with his Socialist economic views and a foreign policy too dovish, in my opinion. But I have always respected this man who served his country not once but three times as prime minister and in numerous other ministerial positions and who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
I had never met the former prime minister before that conference in Netanya, but having worked for Benjamin Netanyahu—who defeated Peres in 1996—I was very much looking forward to it.
Now in his eighties, Peres is quieter and slower and more grandfatherly than he once was, but he is still a dreamer. He told the assembled dignitaries that he believes the Middle East is entering “a new age” and that he has never been more optimistic that a final peace agreement with the Palestinians can be reached in the not-too-distant future.
“The Lord is in charge of the beginning and the end, but we are responsible for the middle,” he said, insisting that there is no contradiction between fighting terror and negotiating for peace. “When a cat is chasing a mouse, there’s no sense for the mouse to ask for a cease-fire. He must deal with the cat and insure his own safety.”
After Peres’s keynote address, I had a few minutes to interview the former prime minister. “Is it your sense that Israel is more secure today—before we get to the point of the Iran nuclear bomb—than it has been in its history so far?” I asked.
Peres agreed with that assessment. “I would say that Israel’s security was globalized,” he explained in his distinctive, gravelly voice, suggesting that with the U.S. as a strong ally, the fall of Saddam, and peace treaties in place with Egypt and Jordan, the threat Israel faces today is “the problem of terror, rather than a classical attack” by a conventional Arab army or air force.8
Had the passing of Arafat—the Nobel Peace Prize winner who never actually made peace—helped or hurt the prospects for a final deal with the Palestinians? I wondered.
“With him, [the peace process] wouldn’t have started,” Peres insisted. “With him, it wouldn’t be finished.”.....
When I was 19, I moved to Israel to join the army. I came with intense Zionism and a deep sense of responsibility to protect my people.
Since I am Jewish, it only made sense, and when I landed on Israeli soil I had only one thing in mind—drafting into the Israeli Defense Forces. After arriving and getting settled, the army finally called me up. The months of basic training felt like nothing compared to the fire inside of me.
During training we learned many things: Zionism, Israeli politics, Judaism, and Hebrew—and we also learned about the Holocaust. This had a particular influence on my unit as most of them were great-grandchildren of survivors. Our commanders emphasized to us:"Never Again!" or, in Hebrew: LeOlam Lo!
Shortly after basic training we became "official" soldiers in the IDF, and to do so we had swear into the army. During this special ceremony we swore to "Never Again!" allow such horrors to befall our people. We understood that our training allowed us to make sure that the Jewish people would remain forever safe in our homeland.It was a powerful moment for us as we stood with our guns and swore that "Never Again!" would an enemy annihilate the nation of Israel.
Reminiscing about it now makes that day since I completed my service and was released—nearly two years ago—seem like a very distant memory for me. But all of my training and service came back to me recently when we pulled up to the courtyard at Dachau in Germany.
A long pathway dotted with sturdy, tall trees welcomed us. The silence of the place was eerie as we started walking down the gravel road. Each step drawing closer to the gates ahead, the tour guide didn't say a word and the only sound was that of our footsteps against the stony ground. It was hot and the sun seemed relentless, as the heat of summer should have faded by then, but instead it felt like a cruel punishment on such a long day.
Arbeit macht frei,"work for freedom" sprung into my head as the gate became visible. I didn't know German, but I knew what the sign said. They made us study it in basic training. Work for freedom. What a distortion. Freedom meaning death. Work to death ... work to freedom.
It was the first time I had ever entered the snare of a Nazi death camp. The tour guide stopped us just before entering the gate; she explained that Dachau was the first concentration camp ever built by the Nazis, and it was to be used as an example camp. It was known to be especially brutal.
For me, the tour was personally moving. Being Jewish myself, I was painfully affected by the thought that thousands—if not millions—of my people were tortured, neglected and murdered inside these very walls. Our guide explained to us the cruelties my people endured. The reality of everyday life was unbearable to comprehend. Here, my people died, simply because they, like me, were Jews. The tour led us around the entire campus—from the fields where prisoners endured harsh labor, to the barricades, to the processing offices, and then to the showers.
Later in our tour, the guide brought us to a long narrow corridor. She explained to us that these chambers were used for torture by the SS guards. She turned her attention towards the non-Jewish victims of the Nazis and explained how several Christian pastors were also victims and died at the hands of Nazi torture. Amongst the millions of prisoners, three barracks towards the back of the camp were reserved only for Christians: those that stood strong in their faith and refused to align themselves with the monstrous beliefs of the Nazis.
The hall was long and cold. The only noise heard was the sound of our breathing. Looking down the hall you could see small rays of sun blasting through the tiny windows on the doors, proving that perhaps there still can be light in the darkest of places. We walked down the hall together, trying to comprehend what had taken place in these cells.
We were in the torture chambers.
The hall was cold and rooms held their own demons. The chamber seemed to go on forever—so many rooms, so many horrible acts committed here. The hall just kept going and going to what felt like the length an entire football field. I stopped and peeked through each door to the rooms inside. Each room was entirely empty, cold, and the paint was peeling off the walls. The windows had large black shades that had been pulled back to let the sun in, but when prisoners were in these rooms I am sure it was entirely black.
Each room brought with it a new spirit of evil and each room seemed to get darker and darker, letting in little to no light. I felt like I couldn't go on any longer imagining what had happened in these torture closets. I wanted to scream, run out, and find the sun light I had complained about earlier. I felt the darkness consuming me. Jews, Christians, politicians, scientists, professors, fathers, brothers, humans were all kept here under the worse conditions that are still incomprehensible to us.
The last door on the right side of the corridor had light shining through the small window. It was guiding me to the end. As I reached the end I looked into the window where the light was coming from. There in the middle of the room, on a small table, arms spread out and legs bound, was a small crucifix of Jesus Christ. On his head was etched the words "King of the Jews."
The sight took my breath away. I grew up as a Messianic Jew, believing in Jesus—or, as I grew up calling him, Yeshua—as my Messiah. I stood there for a very long time contemplating the meaning of this moment. The Nazis attempted to eliminate the King of the Jews from the face of the earth by eliminating his people, his family—his flesh and blood—and attempting to silence those who stood tall in faith of Him. I take it as a great responsibility, being a Jew and one who believes in Messiah Yeshua, to never forget all those that died in these chambers. Both my spiritual brothers and sisters as well as my physical brothers and sisters.
As we left the chambers I took off my backpack and pulled out my Israeli flag and my unit patch that I earned serving in the IDF. It was only just a couple of short years ago that I swore into the ranks of the army. I swore that nothing like what I just saw would ever happen again. During the ceremony I chose to swear in on both the Old Testament and the New Testament, combining the heritage of my fathers with the faith of my redemption. That day, I stood with an Israeli flag in hand and swore once again: "Never Again!" I affirmed that "Never Again!" would my people be led to the slaughter.
Messianic Jews also have the duty of never allowing the name of the Messiah Yeshua to be defamed in such a horrible way. As the Jews were being led to the gas chambers or to the mass graves, the Messiah was not merely mourning their suffering, rather He was suffering with them. The fact that some of His followers allowed, or even encouraged this to happen, has left a dark black stain on the name of Jesus in the eyes of the wider Jewish people. As a Messianic Jewish believer, I'm also strongly connected to my duty to assure that the stain is taken from the name of Jesus and that it become known that He was suffering with the Jewish people, not causing it.
Messiah came for all of humanity. He came to save us, redeem us and give us the message of the kingdom of God. We do not always hear stories of Jews and Christians being slaughtered next to each other during the Holocaust. We sometimes forget about the faithful Christians who raised their voices in protest against the murder of the Jews, and against the evils of Hitler and his minions. But they were there. We were all together, and Christ was also with us, suffering right alongside us.
Today, the Christian voice for Israel is stronger than ever. Evangelicals are some of the loudest voices for pro-Israel advocacy. The Christian voices lost in the Holocaust are resurrecting in our day. As Jews and Christians, let us join our voices together and ensure that something as atrocious as the Holocaust will never again happen. May we, as the people of God, followers of Jesus our Messiah, take this stance together and raise this cry in unison: never again.
S. Michael works as a writer for First Fruits of Zion (ffoz.org) a Messianic Jewish ministry based in Israel, Canada and the United States. She works within the Messianic Jewish communities both in Israel and in America. She is currently a student in Israel with hopes to continue in ministry work.
3 Reasons Why you should read Life in the Spirit. 1) Get to know the Holy Spirit. 2) Learn to enter God's presence 3) Hear God's voice clearly! Go deeper!
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