true king, true prophet, true inheritance, true resurrection, true Ascension, true presence of God, true Shekinah Glory and more, For example the bowls of wrath in Revelation, which seem to be within the time frame of the beast, are clearly catastrophic. From the churches point of view the reign of the beast is catastrophic. Over the last couple of years I have been looking a little at Isaiah, Daniel, and Revelation and have discovered how little I know. It’s humbling. Reply It is interesting to observe that despite clashing on a number of issues ranging from culture wars to specific theological tenets, the Christian Right have achieved an exceptional degree of interfaith unity with Jewish Americans, through a mutually unwavering commitment to securing Jewish possession of the covenanted land.

An issue for me is whether Israel the nation features in Revelation or not. Are the possible references to Israel all symbols for the church. I do think at the moment some refer to the church. Ie. 144.000. I confess I find it difficult to see Israel as a nation there though. I remember Israel is yet to be converted. I’d expect some reference to this. As a teenager I was interested in timelines. I inherited some books from a grandfather who was a Brethren. I find the whole thing futile now in my mid 60s. For someone who was raised, trained and steeped in USA dispensationalism but came away from it, with some wrestling, to a reformed position see Baptist Dr Sam Storms book, Kingdom Come. In it he sets out the main eschatological positions and draws out a conclusion from scripture, a conclusion you may disagree with (amillenialism), but as he does he dispells dispensationalism. God is getting ready to defend Israel in such a supernatural way it’s going to take the breath out of the lungs of the dictators on planet Earth but we are living on the cusp of the greatest most supernatural series of events the world has ever seen ready or not.” Soon an “Evangelical statement in support of Israel” was issued by the ethics and religion liberty commission – an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, a denomination which has 45,000 churches in the US.But it is short-sighted to think of the publication of the Yinon Plan as the impetus for Israeli expansionism. Israel’s ambition for power through territorial expansion predates any outline of such an aspiration in the Yinon Plan. In fact, ever since the international community became receptive to the idea of “Israeli sovereignty,” the political and human rights implications of striving for the integrity of the Jewish homeland were ominous. There is a sense in which Christ is the land. At least we are seated with him presently in heavenly places. There we receive the spiritual blessings of the land. However there is a physical land to come- a new heavens and new earth. Romans 15:16 He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Christian Zionism takes the land promises of God in Genesis 12, 15, and 17 and applies them to the modern state of Israel. To Christian Zionists, this promise of land inheritance is permanent and unconditional. Therefore, despite Israel’s own declared intention of being a secular state (and despite Israelis’ low religious participation), modern Israel still benefits from a 4,000-year-old promise. For Zionists, the Abrahamic covenant is still active regardless of whether Israelis believe in God or not. In the Christian Zionist view—and this is key—the covenant of Christ does not replace or supplant the Jewish covenants. After the battle, Jesus will reign on earth while Satan spends a thousand years in bondage (Revelation 20:2). The Purpose of the Battle Obviously not. That war took place just 40 years later. Jesus is expressly talking about events leading up to the close of the age, after a period subdivided in Matt 24:4-8 into (i) Jews looking for other Messiahs, (ii) the hearing of wars and rumours of wars, presumably when the Jews are not in the land (NB “the end is not yet”), (iii) a period of international war(s) – (iii) being but the beginning of the birth pangs. He then goes on to describe the last days. The Lord’s return will fulfill a prophecy the angels gave when He first ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives: “‘This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.’ Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet” (Acts 1:11-12).My point in saying so was not to illustrate that Israel is the same as China in some way (they have far more differences than similarities), but to highlight that Israel is not uniquely singled out for doing these things. On the subject of Israel being singled out, I would contest that there is a lot more criticism of China than there is of Israel, despite many of the crimes being committed by the two nations being readily comparable (in type if not scale). The crucial difference is that while we accept that China is aloof and thoroughly dismissive of any international leverage on how it behaves internally, we see Israel (a broadly progressive, liberal democracy*) as somehow much more ‘like us’ than China, so we more readily expect it to engage and listen, and that empathy drives the news cycle that gives it prominence. It’s not as simple as Israel being ‘singled out’ on the count of antisemitism. Reply Criminally” what? I am supposed to have condemned “a lot of of faithful godly Biblical Christians -when in fact I never mentioned one. A resident of ancient Judea was called a Judean; so when the 2nd draft of the KJV Bible was introduced in the 1800’s a NEW WORD was ADDED to replace IEWE and that was the word “Jew” (an abbreviation for a “Judean”— a person living in ancient Judea — but Yahusha (aka: Jesus Christ) is NOT from Judea and NEVER WAS and therefore Yahusha (JESUS) IS NOT a “Jew” or a Judean!