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Stan Goodenough is an experienced journalist who has written about politics in South Africa and the Middle East for such organizations as The Daily Dispatch of East London, South Africa, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Post, and the Virtual HolyLand website. He has been a South African gentile resident in Israel for 12 years. Stan is editor of and .
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By Stan Goodenough
February 7, 2007
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[The End Times -- What I DON'T believe (November 30, 2006) provoked an extraordinary number of responses. Most the comments disappeared when we were hacked, but I do have copies of some, which I will respond to separately in point form.]
While recently interviewing former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, American talk show host Bill Maher put this question to him:
"Does it not make you a bit uncomfortable that the Christian Right here in America, which backs Israel fervently, really does so because they think Jesus is going to return...to whence He came. And what He's going to do when He gets there basically is convert all the Jews or kill them?"
To Netanyahu's credit, he would not be drawn into criticizing Israel's supporters. However, like many Jews, he knows that this is the eschatology (End Times theology) of a substantial number of those friends.
It holds that, after God has restored all, or most of, the Jews to their land, they will go through further terrible suffering, worse than anything the nation has experienced, including the Holocaust. Millions of Jews will be consumed in the inferno, and the minority who survive will become Christians.
Just before this final genocide, the Church will be "raptured" into heaven for a reunion with Jesus. Seven years later (some say 3 ½), the Christians will return to earth with Jesus, who will establish His Kingdom and reign for a thousand years.
While I understand how scriptures and scenarios can be strung together to paint such a picture, in my reading and study of the Bible I see something very different ahead.
Earlier I wrote about how I was challenged by an orthodox Israeli who, upon learning that I am an Evangelical Christian, said matter-of-factly:
"Oh yes, I know what you believe; that more massive death lies ahead for us, that two thirds of the Jews who have come home will be destroyed by armies that hate Israel, and that those who survive will become Christians and join you."
"I believe nothing of the kind," I told my new friend.
"I do not believe for a moment that God has brought you back to see you mass-murdered in your own land.
"To the contrary, He says repeatedly through the prophets that when He returns you from exile -- for the third and final time, which this is -- it will be to do you good. Your very return is a sign that your time of trouble as a nation is ending. He calls the Diaspora "captivity." Your restoration to Eretz Yisrael spells the end of that captivity ergo: your freedom!
"During the tribulation of the past 2000-plus years, Israel has surely received from the Lord's hands 'double for all her sins.' But now, God has a wonderful future in store for you. He has brought you back home to bless you. And in your blessing, all of the nations of the world will be blessed."
I spoke intensely, holding his gaze with my own. His eyes widened, but I wasn't quite done.
"My family and I have made Israel our home because we believe that your people are poised to enter an astonishing new chapter in their history. We want to go with you as you head into it, because we see that God is with you.
"What's more; it may take some time, but I believe God is working to prepare the hearts of millions of Christians to come alongside you, to stand with Israel to the end.
"Whatever awaits you, awaits us too. We believe it is something very, very good."
I have to admit that I was struggling to communicate this in my not very good Hebrew, so what I recount here is more what I was trying to say than what actually came out. Furthermore, time did not permit me to continue just then, but if it had, and had my thoughts been clear and my command of Israel's resurrected tongue somewhat better, this is what I would have wanted to say to him.
It is what I want to say to all the Jewish people:
"We know you have been through some very difficult times in the just-recent past. We have experienced a few of them with you: visiting the Galilee last summer as the Katyusha rockets rained down; teaching our children to don their gas masks and enter their sealed room against Saddam's threatened SCUDs; counseling them after their school caretaker and a fellow student were blown up in buses near our home; frequenting restaurants that were subsequently bombed to the north and the south of us...
"Of course, you have hardly known an easy day since your homeland was reborn in 1948. And clearly there are more hard times ahead.
"But soon, very soon, you are going to witness the awesome intervention of your God. We already see how His mighty arm has been at work; protecting Israel against overwhelming enemies, and holding back the building worldwide wall of hate.
"And He is going to do more, far more. For once He has restored you to your land as a nation, He has promised to restore you, as a nation, to Himself!
"Until that day, as the clamor increases for you to give away your land and, eventually, to vacate the Middle East; as the mass media that portrays Israel as a nation of occupiers, expansionist land-thieves, human rights abusers, warmongers and war criminals, further fuels the detestation of your nation and ultimately drags the gentiles into direct confrontation with you; as you stand increasingly alone against this God-hating -- and therefore Israel-hating -- world, I believe it is very much in the will and purpose of God that all true Christians stand with you. For those who hate your God hate our God too.
"We will stand with you against our homelands, challenging the antisemitic policies of our governments, and be prepared to renounce our citizenship if they actively come against you.
"We will denounce the unjust anti-Israel resolutions of the United Nations, its International Court of Justice and newly-spawned Alliance of Nations; the European Union and the International Criminal Court. We will speak out and condemn the actions of the Islamic states, the Arabs and jihadists. We will condemn every voice that rises up against you in judgment.
"We will decry their injustice and gainsay their efforts, and as far as we are able we will shout from the rooftops for Christians everywhere to hear: that the international community's land-for-peace process (Madrid, Oslo, Geneva, Road Map, Two State Solution -- take your pick) is a devilish conspiracy aimed at foiling (as if it could) the very redemption purposes of God.
"And when you are too tired or feel too hopeless or too resigned to battle on and, (as many of you now do,) you start to echo the world's lies: that this land is not yours; that whether or not it is yours you have to give it up for the sake of the 'Palestinians' or for the sake of Middle East peace or for the sake of world peace -- we will embrace you to strengthen you and remind you that: 'No! This is not true!'
"The key to peace does not lie in you giving up your land. It does not lie in 'taking risks for peace' or making concessions to the Arabs. Israel is not the party that holds the key to peace, although we know you have been ready to give away what is most precious to your people if only it would bring you that peace.
"The key to peace lies with the Arabs. It lies in them giving up their claims to a country that has never been theirs, renouncing the threats and violence and terrorism they have employed for close to a century to drive the Jews out of this land in order to steal it for themselves. And it lies in them welcoming Israel as a legitimate, Jewish, state in their midst.
"We know they will never do this, and that in the end the entire, aggravated international community will conclude that Israel is the crux of the matter, the heart of the issue, the core of the problem: Israel has to go.
"That day is almost upon us. For some world leaders, it is already here.
"Nonetheless, when all the nations finally come against you, they will come against us too. For the time ahead will see us increasingly positioning ourselves 'on the walls of Jerusalem' alongside you and, where necessary, between them and you.
"We will stand with you to the end. We will encourage you to 'stand and see the salvation of your God.' We will see eye-to-eye with you, the Lord restoring Zion.
"Do not be afraid, dear Jewish people. There is no more holocaust. You will not face defeat while your enemies cry 'Allahu akhbar.' It will not be hundreds of thousands of Jewish bodies littering the coastal plain and the hills of Samaria and Judea. That fate God has reserved for your foes.
"No indeed. What is coming your way will cause us to cry out to you:
"Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you." (Isaiah 35:4)
"Israel, behold your God!
"Until then, this is our 'End Time' commitment to you:
"Where you go, there we will go; where you stay, there we will stay; your people will be our people, and your God will be our God. And if, God forbid, some of you have to die, then some of us will be willing to die too. But there are no more holocausts awaiting you. There will be no more genocide.
"God is bringing you home to do you good."
This, then, is a large part of what I believe concerning the End Times. (My thoughts on other issues will follow.)
The clearest sign that they are upon us is what we see: that the Jews are being brought home by God because their time of national trouble is drawing to a close. They are being brought home to meet with Him, to be reunited as a nation with Him. He is bringing them here to do them good; to rejoice over them "with all His heart and with all His soul."
His command to us Gentile believers is that we, too, should do them good; speaking comfort to them; showing them tenderness; loving them; reminding them of His love and faithfulness towards them; and encouraging them with this truth: a wonderful and glorious future lies ahead.
Their long night of suffering is passing away. Their Light is dawning, rising, and will soon be shining over them and their Land.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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