Tag: Blessing-Cursing

Introducing Markell’s Decline of Interest in Israel


John R. Houk, Editor

Intro © February 21, 2019

I am huge with support for Israel and the Jewish people. You might wonder why (though my Grandmother once told me I had a Jewish ancestry – I was an uncaring teen at the time and discussion is a bit sketchy in my memory). The reason is God’s Word hasn’t changed and God Almighty has designated the descendants of Abraham, Isaac (not Ismael) and Jacob as the Chosen People for the Land of Promise. That Land is known today as Israel. In Jesus Redemption is to the Jew first then the Gentile. I’m a believer in the mystery of prophetic double fulfillment. In simple terms that means an event prophesied in the Bible may appear to have taken place but a fuller event is still to come (the more secularist a Christian the less likely to believe in double fulfillment prophecy or Dual Prophecy): Modern Israel coming into existence and a unified Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty are signs (many view Jesus speaking fig tree as symbolism of Israel – Matthew 24:32-33) of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

 

Yup, that makes me an authentic Christian Zionist. Bless Israel and you’ll be blessed. As a nation, this is one reason of the importance of America (and Americans for that matter) to be a blessing to Israel.

 

With my thoughts in mind, Jan Markell’s article below about Christian Pastors failing to talk and/or teach the importance of Israel is indeed a “Disturbing Trend”.

 

JRH 2/21/19

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A Disturbing Trend: Does Anybody Care?

 

By Jan Markell

Email sent 2/21/2019 8:09 AM

Sent via Olive Tree Views

 

Interest in Israel is waning. Does anybody care?

 

In recent weeks, several publications have put out alarming stories that evangelical support for Israel is sinking — and especially among young people. The periodicals state that a new survey reveals that there is confusion about, or indifference to, the world’s only Jewish state.

 

It is really a two-pronged phenomenon. There is a decline in the interest in end-times (eschatology) and a decline in interest and support for God’s Covenant land and people by those who identify as a part of the today’s church.

 

The Christian Post states, “Seventy-seven percent of evangelicals, ages 65 and older, say they support the existence, security and prosperity of Israel, according to a Life Way Research survey. But only 58 percent of evangelicals ages 18 to 34 say the same.”

 

The various articles indicate that young people are focused on social justice now. There is a perception that the Palestinians are “downtrodden, persecuted, and mistreated,” and therefore, sympathy is towards them. Israel is the “occupier.”

 

Adding to the survey were Joel Rosenberg and Chosen People Ministries. Rosenberg stated, “Unless the church gives younger believers a healthy, balanced, solidly biblical understanding of God’s love and plan for Israel, overall evangelical support for the Jewish state could very well plummet over the next decade as Millennials represent an ever-larger percentage of the overall church body.”

 

So who or what is to blame? May I suggest some of the following?

 

Pastors rarely teach or preach on the topic and thus it is not deemed as relevant. How can young people understand an issue if it is ignored?

 

  • Dispensationalism is in decline. This theology emphasizes the important and distinct roles of both Israel and the Church.

 

  • Replacing Dispensationalism are the troubling theologies known as Kingdom Now or Dominionism, Amillennialism, Replacement Theology, Christian Palestinianism, Preterism, and more. None of these will give Israel her proper biblical or end-time role. The emphasis will be on the church.

 

  • Many popular teachers and leaders mislead on issues relating to Israel and eschatology. Some of these include Dr. John Piper, Lynne Hybels, Hank Hanegraaff, Russell Moore, Rick Warren, Rick Wiles, Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Shane Claiborne, Brian MacLaren, and most postmodern and Emergent teachers. Men like Andy Stanley tell people to “unhitch from the Old Testament.” How’s that for de-emphasizing Israel’s role?? Most of the Word of Faith/prosperity teachers and almost all of the New Apostolic Reformation promote Kingdom Now/Dominionism which does not teach Israel’s rightful role in the future. Again, these theologies place more emphasis on the church.

 

  • The destructive “Boycott, Divest, Sanction” (BDS) movement has infected all of the Mainline Protestants. They want to strangle Israel’s economy and thus “crush the occupation.” The entire World Council of Churches has signed onto BDS.

 

Lynne Hybels at Christ at the Checkpoint

 

Events like “Christ at the Checkpoint” have painted Israel as the Mideast villain and bully rather than the one free society in that region. Prominent evangelicals and social justice promoters such as Lynne Hybels speak at this event.  So do Tony Campolo, Gary Burge, Jim Wallis, Hank Hanegraaff, Shane Claiborne, and others who attract younger followers.

 

  • Periodicals for young people such as Relevant Magazine have turned into anti-Israel propaganda.

 

Relevant Mag cover

 

  • Youth events such as the Catalyst Conference and the Justice Conference regularly feature anti-Israel speakers, Palestinians, and speakers with off-base eschatology. Marxist Cornell West is a regular at the Justice Conference. These are targeting evangelical youth. Lynne Hybels has made the youth conference circuit, even bashing Israel’s wall of protection that has reduced Palestinian terrorism over 90%.

 

  • Social justice is no longer just an issue for the religious Left. If you visit the website of the National Association of Evangelicals, you will find 65 articles about social justice! Type that into their search engine.

 

  • Anti-Israel films like “Little Town of Bethlehem” was shown at 360 venues in 2010 including dozens of college campuses. Again, it beat the mantra of the Israeli “occupation” and focused on the Israeli soldiers who enforce it.

 

Christianity Today says that at best, young evangelicals are “indifferent about Israel.” With such a non-stop barrage of anti-Israel propaganda, how can young minds sort through fiction to find the facts?

 

The Israeli newspaper Ha-aretz is running an article that states that young evangelicals don’t have the automatic support for Israel that their parents had. This is a generation that is suspicious of anything that is presented without explanation. They don’t want to be political pawns. They don’t adopt automatic views and positions. In order to connect them to Israel, we need to make a case for why they should support it. Future U.S. policy towards Israel is at stake! 

 

All of this is happening as new and young members of the U.S. Congress, including one radical Muslim from Minnesota — Rep. Ilhan Omar — are taking a strong anti-Israel stand. Their anti-Semitism is not even subtle. How many younger people will Rep. Omar, Rep. Tlaib, and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez influence in the wrong direction?

 

While people, both young and old, can be disloyal and change sides, “He that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.” (Psalm 121) God’s love and protection will never waiver for His covenant land and people.

 

How odd of God,

To choose the Jews;

But not as odd, as those who choose,

The Jewish God, but spurn the Jews.

 

Awaiting His return,

Jan Markell
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Introducing Markell’s Decline of Interest in Israel

John R. Houk, Editor

Intro © February 21, 2019

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A Disturbing Trend: Does Anybody Care?

 

You may pass on these items or have people sign up on  our website. You can access our radio programming from the last year at Complete Archives.  Programming goes back to 2010 at One Place. Also see the website for other options to catch the program, “Understanding the Times.”

 

About Jan Markell [Via this link: https://www.oneplace.com/ministries/understanding-the-times/]

 

Jan Markell founded Olive Tree Ministries in the 1980s to teach believers how to be watchmen on the wall and understand the times from a biblical perspective. She is the author of 8 books with the major Christian publishing houses. She has also produced a dozen DVDs, some of them aired on Sky Angel.  Her popular radio program is hearing on over 800 radio stations across North America. She hosts the largest Bible prophecy conference in America.

 

Olive Tree Ministries, Inc.
Box 1452
Maple Grove, MN  55311-6452
763-559-4444 or 763-210-8291

 

SWALLOWED UP: IRAN FACING DIVINE RETRIBUTION?


Though secular science dominated people will say there is a scientific reason & solution for Tehran slowly being swallowed by a sinkhole, the divine retribution thoughts in this WND article fits for me.

 

Iran constantly calls for Israel’s destruction which is a curse.

 

Genesis 12: 1-3; Numbers 24: 5, 9 NKJV

 

12 Now the Lord had said to Abram:

 

“Get out of your country,
From your family
And from your father’s house,
To a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation;
I will bless you
And make your name great;
And you shall be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

 

Numbers 24

 

5 “How lovely are your tents, O Jacob!
Your dwellings, O Israel!

9 ‘He bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?’

“Blessed is he who blesses you,
And cursed is he who curses you.”

 

JRH 12/9/18

So readers, I’ve been using a seven year old laptop to fulfill the old blogging habit. My lovely wife sprang for a Christmas upgrade. I’m a relatively small-time blogger but with a consistently growing readership despite some token censorship from the liberal-oriented blog and social platforms. Still looking to defray the Christmas costs.  

Whatever my readers can chip in will be appreciated: https://www.paypal.me/johnrhouk

Please Support NCCR

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SWALLOWED UP: IRAN FACING DIVINE RETRIBUTION?

13 million people watch parts of Tehran sinking 10 inches per year

 

December 9, 2018

WND

 

A sinkhole in Iran (courtesy Building and Housing Research Center in Tehran)

 

Iran’s capital of Tehran, a city of 13 million people, is sinking – fast.

 

That’s the assessment of geo-scientists Mahdi Motagh and Mahmud Haghshenas Haghighi of the German Research Centre in Potsdam who used satellite data images to monitor subsidence across the region between 20013 and 1017 that show the land sinking radically due to depletion of groundwater aquifers, shows a recent report in Nature.com.

 

But, given the radical Shiite regime’s regular threats against Israel, some rabbis see the possibility of divine retribution – reminding them of the biblical challenge to Moses in Numbers 16 by Korah, who was swallowed up by the earth along with his followers.

 

The collapse is spreading now to encompass the city’s airport by up to 10 inches a year.

 

But an impending catastrophe is much more widespread across the entire western Tehran Plain including the urban area, satellite cities and the southwest Varamin Plain, an agricultural area that supports it.

 

“These are amongst some of the highest current rates of subsidence in the world,” says Roberto Tomás, an engineer at the University of Alicante in Spain.

 

Huge fissures – several miles in length and up to 12-feet wide and deep – have opened up in the land to the southeast of Tehran, some of which are threatening to topple power-transmission lines and buckle railways.

 

“When walking around these areas, we see uneven street surfaces, shifted curbs, cracks in the walls and even tilted buildings, some of which have had to be demolished,” reports Motagh.

 

The growth of underground cracks sometimes produces sudden sinkholes.

 

“One farmer I met was locked up for hours when the ground gave way beneath him and he fell into a six-meter-deep crack,” says Ali Beitollahi, head of engineering seismology at the Building and Housing Research Center in Tehran.

 

Such farmland is becoming unviable, because the cracks drain irrigation water from the surface and leave crops parched.

 

The cracks and fissures threaten an area that hosts more than 100 miles of railway, 2,000 miles of roads, 21 bridges, 30 miles of oil pipeline, nearly 200 miles of gas pipeline, 60 miles of high-voltage electricity lines and more than 250,000 buildings.

 

To make matters worse, Iran is one of the most seismically active countries in the world, being crossed by several major faults that cover at least 90 percent of the country. As a result, earthquakes in Iran occur often and are destructive.

 

“We don’t always know why things happen but when we look back, we can frequently see that some events we thought were insignificant were actually small sparks that set off a large explosion,” Rabbi Pichas Winston told Breaking Israel News about the report. “What is true is that anti-Semitism is always followed by economic depression and frequently by disaster.”

 

Winston believes Tehran’s dilemma is clearly part of divine intervention but added a strong disclaimer.

 

“Everything that happens in the world is divine intervention,” he said. “But we absolutely cannot ascribe a specific meaning to it. One day it could be Tehran sinking and the next it could be a city in California. The judgments are for God to make.”

 

Winston reminds the public that Iran’s water shortage has been well-documented. He notes in June, Prime Minister Netanyahu offered Israeli water technology to Iran.

 

“But they wouldn’t take anything from ‘the Zionists,’” he said. “This anti-Semitism clearly made their current problem worse.”

 

At the time, Netanyahu said: “The Iranian people are victims of a cruel and tyrannical regime that denies them vital water. Israel stands with the people of Iran.”

 

Rabbi Ben Artzi told Breaking Israel News that God operates in the world via nature.

 

“God is hidden in the world but operates through the natural forces that He created,” he said. “Through fire, earthquakes, winds, volcanoes – through every natural force. This is how God operates for countries, but for the individual, he works through his body.”

 

This is particularly true of Iran, the rabbi said.

 

“Every time Iran rises up against Israel, it will get hit by Hashem (God, literally ‘the name’) – hit hard,” Artzi said.

 

Rabbi Yosef Berger, the rabbi of King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, said he has mixed feelings about the crisis in Iran.

 

“It makes me happy to hear that Iran is having this problem,” he said. “Not that I, God forbid, wish the people of Iran harm. There are enough reasons for them to disappear into the ground but the way this is coming into the world, as a gradual process, gives the people a chance to do tshuva (repentance) in order to avert disaster.”

 

He sees a parallel between the news and the biblical story of Korah and his followers who were swallowed up in the desert for challenging Moses and Aaron.

 

“Since the Holocaust, there has not been any nation that has declared their intention to destroy the Jewish people like Iran has,” he said. “Anyone who speaks out this way, wanting to wipe out another nation, Hashem will cause the earth to swallow them up. Everything they think that makes them great as a nation will simply disappear.”

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