Antioch Agent

Below is an excerpt from the latest May 2008 Berean Call newsletter written by Dave Hunt that I found interesting pertaining to the people of God, Israel. I believe many of us have talked about God’s dealings with the children of Israel in our conversations with our friends as we shared the gospel. It constantly gets brought up when we explain about Jesus coming out of the line of Judah and the connected prophecies related to the Jewish Messiah. It is indeed one of the great proofs of the uniqueness of the God of the bible.

* BTW, heard today that brother Dave Hunt has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is currently undergoing treatment for it. Do pray for the man who has been a faithful servant of the Lord and been bold to stand up against many false teaching that are prevalent both from within the church and without. He is already very advanced in age, (80+ i believe) but still very sharp for his age as you can see just below.*

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QUESTION: If you had time to give only one argument against atheism and evolution, what would it be?

RESPONSE: There are numerous scientific proofs refuting these pretentions. DNA contains written instructions for life, encoded in a language, which could come only from an infinite intelligence, and which had to be in place before the first cell came into being. Yet in spite of such facts, Francis Collins, who headed the Human Genome Project for ten years and should therefore be the ultimate expert on DNA, remains an evolutionist even after becoming a Christian. Scientific proofs, no matter how conclusive, seem insufficient.

Instead, I would use what God himself offers as the proof of His existence and the infallibility of His Word. What is that? His prophetic declarations concerning future events: “I am the LORD:…new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them….I am God…and there is none like me, declaring…from ancient times the things that are not yet done…” (Isaiah 42:8,9; 46:9,10, etc.).

There are hundreds of prophecies about Israel–even more than for the Messiah. God offers these as the major proof of His existence. For example, Joel 3:2 declares that in the last days God will “gather all nations” to Jerusalem to punish them for
1) their hatred and persecution of His people Israel; and 2) for dividing His land. Israel was conquered many times by various nations but never divided until the United Nations did it. UN Resolution 181 is called “the partition of the land.” It divided Israel, giving 87 percent to the Arabs (for oil) and 13 percent to the Jews, although the League of Nations’ 1922 Declaration of Principles had said that all of “Palestine” belonged to the Jews.

Resolution 181 also designated Jerusalem as an international territory never to be under the sovereignty of the Jews, fulfilling Christ’s declaration that it would “be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Lk 21:24). In Judgment Day, we thoroughly document the fact that the UN, EU, American presidents, and the Vatican are all joined in the attempt to force Israel to submit to international rule over Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 23:7-8 declares that the big news in the last days will no longer be Israel’s deliverance from Egypt under Moses but the Lord’s gathering back into their land His people Israel from “the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them….”

Zechariah 14:2 declares that in the last days all the nations surrounding Israel will be allied against her. In fact, throughout history the surrounding nations have never been united together in anything but have fought one another. In our day, however, the impossible has happened: just as God foretold, all are united against Israel by Islam.

These prophecies are too clear to be denied–and there are hundreds more. The evolution-creation argument will never be settled scientifically. Although it is helpful to give the numerous scientific reasons for rejecting evolution, we need to use the irrefutable proof God has given us. Many Bible prophecies are so simple, so clear, and their fulfillment so undeniable, that we need to rely primarily upon this superweapon our Lord has provided–not only in combating false science but in winning the lost through the gospel. Remember that Paul continually declared that the gospel was “according to the scriptures” (Rom 1:1-5; 1 Cor 15:3, etc.).

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With the ever increasing popularity of amillenialism and a reconstructionist view that tells us that the church today is the true Israel and that the Jews are now out of God’s plan, you will find that such employment of using prophecy in defense of the faith would not gain much acceptance amongst today’s evangelicals. To me, a denial of the fact that Israel is still a part of God’s program is problematic to say the least. There are prophecies specifically for the Jewish nation that do not pertain to the church at all. We only need to look at prophecy being fulfilled in our day as we see Israel being the center of world affairs. The unresolvable conflict over the Jerusalem still continues today as we see the Middle East crisis continually in crisis just as had been prophecied of old:

Zechariah 12:2-3 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah [and] against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.”

I take this to be one of the only reasonable reasons why the conflict will never be resolved by the UN or any other intermediary party. It’s simply because God has declared Jerusalem to be a ‘cup of trembling’ and ‘burdensome stone’ for ‘all people’. Opposed to what some are saying, God has not forgotten His people whom He graciously called out for Himself. A much discussed portion on the word of God on this matter is found in Romans 11. I know of some who will disagree on my interpretation of it, but i believe the bible speaks for itself.

Rom 11:20-26 “… because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear: … And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again … For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Is it not startling to see that especially these days, the apostle Paul’s warning has gone unheeded as we see many who are highminded and wise in their own eyes saying that Israel is no longer in the picture? Exactly the scenario we have in the passage above. Now, the passage also clearly tells us that God is able to graft them in again in the future. That we came into the good of God’s grand design of salvation because of their rejection is not a cause for us to assume that it’s now all about us and nothing any longer about them. No, not one promise of the Lord will fail to His people, both to Israel and His blood bought church.

The day is yet future when God will judge and destroy all ‘nations’ that come against Jerusalem. And the Jews will also then realize that they had mistakenly rejected their Messiah and mourn.

Zechariah 12:9-10 “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. (10) And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look on me whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for an only son , and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.”

So, we should continue to pray for the Jews that they would turn to believe the only gospel by which man can be saved. The gospel will never change and any Jew cannot be saved apart from the same way you and I are saved. However, it is a sad reality that ‘blindness in part’ has come upon them and their minds are veiled to the saving reality of their Messiah who did actually present Himself to them 2000 years ago. Him they rejected and sent to the cross and are now blind to the fact.

I think Dave has made a strong point there, Israel is an amazing piece of fulfilled prophecy that proves that God is indeed God. Just about everything has been done to annihilate them from the face of the earth, but He has miraculously preserved them (in their dispersion). He is the one who knows the end from the beginning and we need only trust and see that in the end “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” (Matthew 24:35) There are no failed promises with God. With the Lord, a promise made is a promise kept.