Saturday, January 6, 2018


HOW GOD IS WORKING THROUGH PRESIDENT TRUMP’S DECLARATION THAT JERUSALEM IS ISRAEL’S CAPITAL

When United States President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Dec. 6, 2017, the announcement pleased many Jews around the world and was an injection of confidence and hope for the people of Israel, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But elsewhere—throughout the Middle East, Europe, Asia and elsewhere, it was panned as a terrible blow to peace.

Mr. Trump’s support was a simple statement of fact. It did not change the status quo nearly as much as the 2016 United Nations Security Council resolution that declared Israeli communities in the West Bank illegal and invalid. Yet that decision was universally accepted, while this was treated as though it would spark a violent intifada and destroy prospects for advancing the peace process.

Ultimately, this victory for Israel and Mr. Trump will come with a heavy price. Since the decision was made, it has been hijacked and manipulated to harm Israel, to undermine America, and to create more hostility, tension and violence in Jerusalem.

But the fallout from Mr. Trump’s decision will not be entirely negative. This announcement, and the reaction from the international community, has significantly accelerated the fulfillment of three key end-time Bible prophecies. This decision paves the way for the coming of the Messiah!

One: A Vanishing Superpower

One of the most significant effects of President Trump’s decision is that it will be used to undermine and marginalize America’s role as the chief broker for peace in Israel. This should not happen. The fact that America’s president showed himself capable of telling the truth ought to inspire confidence in Washington.

But this is not the way the Palestinians, the Muslim world and the liberal West see it. They saw Trump’s announcement as a sign that the U.S. is not objective and therefore cannot be trusted to lead peace negotiations. Most people agree with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who said that Mr. Trump had “crossed all the red lines with the Jerusalem decision” and had disqualified America as a peace broker in the Middle East.

A few days after Mr. Trump’s decision, representatives from 57 Muslim nations met in Istanbul to discuss how the Muslim world should respond. The gathering produced the Istanbul Declaration on Freedom for al Quds (the Arabic word for Jerusalem). Among other conclusions, this dossier stated that America could no longer be recognized as an “unbiased” voice in peace talks.

The Arab nations were supported by leaders of the United Nations and Europe, and even the pope, all of whom forcefully condemned President Trump’s decision and said that it undermined peace in Israel and Jerusalem. The way this situation has been manipulated to attack the U.S. is significant.

By the time these events unfold, I BELIEVE America WILL be marginalized as a world player. In the long run this will be good for America. Mr. Trump’s policy of “America First” will eventually cause American influence in the world to decrease.

American history has shown that America always has tried to stay out of Europe’s problems. After World War 2 that all changed. We became a superpower and the world’s policeman.

This is coming to an end. America is so in debt that it will not be able to maintain its position of power on the world stage. We will be separated by events in the Middle East by the Atlantic Ocean. Our financial demise will prevent us from projecting power into the Middle East.

This may seem impossible, but in time this will come to pass. “America First” is the first step in this process. What will happen?

Two: The German/European Union Savior

President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem lit a fire in European capitals. Following the announcement, many European leaders and journalists openly called for Europe to get much more involved in the peace process.

“The European Union will engage even more with the parties and with our regional and international partners,” European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said Dec. 7, 2017. She also said the announcement “could diminish the potential role” of the U.S. The EU is “now determined to play an even more convinced and active role in trying to relaunch the peace process” (emphasis added throughout).

Other European foreign ministers concurred. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said: “We’ve been waiting already for several months for the American initiative, and if one is not forthcoming then the European Union will have to take the initiative.”

The Germans seemed especially enthused about the opportunity to get more involved in Israel. A few days after the announcement, Der Spiegel ran an editorial titled “Time for Europe to Take the Lead on Peace.” The article said Mr. Trump’s decision “disqualifies the United States as a mediator.” Thus “it is now up to us—the Europeans, the Germans—to come up with new ideas and new formats” for securing peace between Israel and the Palestinians (Dec. 8, 2017).

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel made similar remarks. According to von Mittelstaedt, “No other conflict should be as important to Europe as the one between the Israelis and the Palestinians.” She also said that Germany and Europe needed to develop a peace strategy in “cooperation with moderate Arab countries” in the region.

President Trump’s decision, and Europe’s promise to get more involved in Israel’s peace process, brings Biblical prophecy into dramatic focus. Prophecy has not been fulfilled completely, but it is getting easier to see that it soon will be!

Expect Germany and Europe to take much greater interest in Israel and Jerusalem, and for Israel to rely increasingly on Germany and Europe for support.

Three: Devastating Self-reliance

America recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital reinforced the popular narrative that the Palestinians are helpless victims and that Israel is a tyrannical apartheid state. That is not the truth. But even in the West, the accepted narrative is the one espoused by Turkey’s radical president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Following Mr. Trump’s announcement, he stated: “Palestine is an innocent victim,” and “Israel … is a terrorist state—yes, terrorist!” (Dec. 10, 2017).

Sa’adollah Zaeri is an Iranian journalist with connections to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He admitted that President Trump’s decision has advantages for Iran and the Palestinians. “This situation … makes Iran’s work in forming a resistance front with a focus on defending Palestine easier,” he wrote for the Tasnim News Agency.

Speaking from Gaza following President Trump’s decision, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called for a third intifada and stated that the Palestinians should not stop fighting until Jerusalem and the West Bank have been liberated. Remarks like these, and those from Turkey’s president, explicitly promote violence. Yet who in the West will condemn Erdoğan or Hamas or Palestinian leaders for inciting violence against Israel?

The truth is, many believe such remarks are a justifiable response to Mr. Trump’s decision. After the announcement there was a massive outpouring of compassion for the Palestinian cause. In the end, the Palestinian cause will likely come through this stronger, healthier, with greater global sympathy and support.

Sadly, Israel’s response to the hostility and persecution it faces will result in much greater pain and suffering. The prophecy in Hosea says that Israel, instead of trusting in God, as many of its ancestors did (such as David, Jeremiah and Hezekiah), trusts in its own judgment. Instead of relying on God, Israel rushes into the arms of Germany and Europe, even though much of the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian discourse originates in Germany and Europe.

Trusting in Germany/European Union will prove to be a painful mistake. Watch carefully as America becomes marginalized and begins to loose influence in the Middle East.

If you have been reading this blog I’ve posted many articles on America’s financial problems and the rise of Russia, China, and the EU as trading and financial partners. Eventually this will marginalize American power. I believe this will be very painful for us, but it is God’s way of showing mercy to America.

America is a sheep nation. As far as we have fallen, God remembers all the good America has done in spreading the gospel to the nations. He is going to try us as gold and we will be ashamed for falling so far from His ways—but this will be a good thing. Chastisement is never pleasant.

Summary

The issue of Mr. Trump’s decision and its repercussions is such a paradox. On one hand, there are many, many tragic repercussions. It is inciting greater hatred of Israel, and uniting much of the world against the Jewish state. It is also causing America, Israel’s primary ally since World War 2, to be sidelined from the peace process. Finally, it is driving Israel into the arms of the nation responsible for the Holocaust, a nation with a long-standing history of anti-Semitism.

On the other hand, this decision accelerates the fulfillment of some key end-time Bible prophecies. Prophecies in Daniel, Isaiah and Matthew 24 clearly warn that events in Jerusalem are the catalyst that initiates the return of Jesus Christ.




 

 

 

 
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)