Hungry For God

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Intifada, Part III

Intifada, Part III (excerpts from ch 8 of "From Iraq to Armageddon," by Intrator)

What's It All About?

"The terrorist attacks of fundamentalist Islam are aimed at three targets primarily: the United States, Israel, and Christian missionaries. The United States is considered the most Christian nation on earth. Israel is the homeland of the Jews. Missionaries help spread the gospel in non-Christian areas. What is the common denominator?

The link between the three is the Second Coming. Yeshua will return soon to set up His kingdom on earth. The place where He will do this is Jerusalem.

Terrorist attacks are not normal; they are inhuman. An evil spiritual force propels them. Terrorist attacks are certainly demonically inspired. But what is the devil's goal in these attacks? What is the purpose of satan in focusing these attacks on Israel and the Christian world?

It is to try to stop the second coming of Yeshua. That's what the devil is afraid of. Why? Because at Yeshua's return, the devil will be thrown into the abyss. It is his end and he knows it.
Revelation 20:1-3
I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;

And he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished...

This is what scares satan. The primary concern of the devil is not that people will become believers in Yeshua and go to heaven. Let them go. He still rules on the earth. He is interested in protecting his turf on this planet. He wants to stop the return of Yeshua, which spells his defeat. All evil in the world is focused on one thing: stopping the Second Coming.

And the place on earth that Yeshua will return to is Israel. If there is no Israel, there is no Second Coming. Yeshua's return to Israel does not mean a return to an empty desert, but to a restored nation of Israel, a Jewish homeland after the two-thousand year punishment of exile.

He is not coming to an Islamic nation of "Palestine." He is coming back as King of the Jews to His people. From there He will reign. That's why above the cross it was written, "King of the Jews." Even while being crucified, Yeshua promised that He would return as King of the Jews. That sign above His head was a prophecy of His second coming. It was an eternal statement of His identity and authority.

Israel is the Holy Land not because it is the place where Jesus walked two millenia ago. It is the Holy Land because it is where He will walk in the Millenium when He returns. It is not a coincidence that bin Laden's primary reason for attacking America, as he has announced several times on video, is that the United States dares to support Israel's occupation of "Islamic Holy Land." The purpose of terrorism against America is to scare Americans away from standing with Israel.

If Israel is Islamic Holy Land, then Yeshua cannot come back, and the devil will not be destroyed. The devil is fighting to save his own skin. The connection between Yeshua and Jerusalem is what will destroy him. That is the purpose behind Islamic terror, just as it was the purpose behind the Nazi holocaust. If Israel is a secular atheist country that hates God, or a country controlled by a rabbinic Judaism that hates Yeshua, then the Second Coming is likewise thwarted."

Stay tuned for the "The Three Enemies."

Friday, May 19, 2006

Intifada Part II

What Arafat Sees (From Iraq to Armageddon by Intrator)
Part II of excerpts from Chapter 8. See previous post for Part I

"How could it have been that Arafat turned down Barak's peace offer? Why did he declare an Intifada war against Israel, which would wreak such damage on his own people? Why did he reject Israel's offer of a cease-fire when Sharon was first elected? Why did he refuse to take a stand against terrorism after the World Trade Center disaster? Why has he used international donations to foster the culture of suicide terrorism instead of seeking to improve his people's socio-economic condition?

Do Arafat and the leaders of the Islamic terrorist groups, like Hamas, Jihad, and Hizbollah see something we don't see?

Arafat believes that millions of Muslims worldwide will stand with him in a Jihad to "liberate" the "holy land" of "Palestine." He believes that through propaganda and media, he can persuade the European community and most of the "third-world" nations either to support him, or at least to raise no objection. He believes that American society and the international Christian community, while sympathizing with Israel, will be neutralized through cowardice, indecision, or passivity. He believes that the pluralistic, democratic society in Israel will be divided against itself and unable to stand.

In short, he sees more in his favor than against him. He believes he can win this Jihad against Israel. To a certain degree, he is correct.

Zechariah 14:2 I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; the city shall be
taken, the houses rifled, and the women raped...

Yes, according to the Bible, the combined Islamic Jihad and the United Nations attack against Israel will win. Let's look at the balance of power. Israel is stronger than the Palestinians. However, the Islamic nations together with the Palestinians are stronger than Israel. The United States together with Israel are stronger than the Islamic nations with the Palestinians. However, the coalition of the United Nations and the Islamic nations are stronger than Israel and the United States. That's part of what Arafat sees. That's why he sees himself as the victor.

While Arafat sees the victory of that great apocolyptic Jihad and international coalition against Israel, there is another part he does not see.

Zechariah 14:3-4a, 12
Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle.
And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives.
And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peole who fought against Jerusalem; their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths.

The victory of the combined forces against Israel will be short lived. The Apocalypse is interrupted. The battle of Armageddon is not won by the international coalition, but by the intervention of the coming of the Messiah. The forces that attack Israel will be horribly destroyed, and then true peace will begin. Yeshua as King of the Jews will return to Jerusalem to set up His kingdom.

That's the part the Muslim leaders don't see. For that matter, neither do most of the Christians and Jews."

Stay tuned for "What's It All About?" next post.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Intifada, Part I

The next several posts are going to be excerpts from Chapter 8 (Intifada) of Keith Intrator's "From Iraq to Armageddon." I found it most compelling, and I would encourage you to read this book even if just for a different opinion on the "end times" matter. This chapter put together for me some things that are currently going on in our world, and was quite an eye opener.
From Keith Intrator's "From Iraq to Armageddon."


INTIFADA

"By the summer of 2000, the Camp David talks with Clinton, Barak, and Arafat were in full swing. Ehud Barak, the most decorated soldier in modern Israeli history, had set himself to negotiate a peace settlement with Arafat by putting all the issues on the table. He had just completed a unilateral withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon. While there were objections from the right that the withdrawal would be interpreted by the Arabs as weakness, and therfore encourage more terrorism, it received widespread approval in Israeli public opinion.

Barak, riding this wave of success and popularity, offered to give back or remove Israeli presence from the disputed territories, allow for a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, and even relinquish control over the Temple Mount area! The right wing went into a panic. The mainstream was confused. Even the left wing was amazed at how far Barak was pushing. It seemed crazy. But...who knows? Israel was so tired of the wars and the struggles. Perhaps if we just made concessions on all the issues, we could get to peace.

One thing that Barak demanded was an "end of conflict" clause. In other words, that the Arab world would agree to this treaty and commit to no further demands being made on Israel. Here Arafat balked. The talks started to stall.

Sharon's Visit
The right wing felt the need to move. A year earlier the Lukud party, under the leadership of then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, suffered a severe defeat at the hands of the Labor party under Barak. The new chairman of the Likud party, Ariel Sharon, decided to protest by making an official "visit" to the Temple Mount. The visit, of course, would be a statement of Jewish rights to the Temple Mount area.

He invited Knesset members from all parties to join him. Actually very few showed up. While on the Temple Mount, although accompanied by heavy security, Sharon was pelted by rocks. Violent demonstrations erupted all over the Palestinian territories. The response was much greater than anyone (on the Israeli side) expected. Barak, frustrated by Arafat's intransigence, publicly backed Sharon's right to visit the Temple Mount, although not agreeing to the particular timing of the event.

The situation, instead of quieting down over the next few weeks, grew worse. The Camp David talks collapsed with both sides walking out in anger. At that point, Arafat proclaimed the opening of a new "Intifada," a civil uprising or terrorist war against Israel.

The Israeli public was stunned. Despite the rhetoric against the concessions that Barak was offering, it was likely that a plebiscite vote would have affirmed the treaty. The Israeli public so desperately wanted peace that it was ready for anything, even what seemed to be humiliating and dangerous concessions. But Arafat refused. He not only refused; he opened a war in return.

Within a few weeks, Barak's goverenment was toppled. Sharon became the new prime minister. Even more disconcerting than the change in government was the shaking of the Israeli worldview. The very conception that it would be possible ever to negotiate and arrive at a peaceful agreement was deeply undermined.

And the Intifada continued and continued. Almost all the Palestinians working in Israeli businesses were fired. Laborers from China, Romania, the Philippines, and Nigeria were brought in to cover the jobs. Tourism to Israel dropped to virtually zero. That caused a chain effect in other related businesses, such as hotels and restaurants. Foreign investment also dropped dramatically. Unemployment in Israel skyrocketed. With the high costs of prolonging a war that seemed to go on and on, there was no budget left for schools, hospitals, and welfare.

The police were so stretched in security issues that crime protection went down. The despair of the people began to express itself in symptoms of higher sexual abuse, violence in families, gambling, and substance abuse.

And on the Palestinain side, the disaster was almost total. Widespread malnutrition, poverty, and unemployment ruined the day to day life of the average Palestinian. The Palestinian authority was plagued with horrible financial corruption, so that donations from Europe and the Arab nations never reached the people. Militant fanatic Islam spread more and more. A subculture idolizing terror grew up that gripped large parts of the Palestinian youth and even children. Arafat at one point even called for a "million suicide terrorists" to volunteer to "liberate" Jerusalem.

When Sharon was elected as prime minister, he wanted to alter his image as hard right wing. He offered to open negotiations by declaring a unilateral cease-fire on Israel's part. Arafat continued the Intifada. After the World Trade Center disaster, another attempt was made to negotiate a cease-fire, to no avail."



Stay tuned for, "What Arafat Sees" next post.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Feminism, Christianity, Sexy Cartoons, and THONGS!

I was just listening to a program by Rebecca Jones, author of "Is God a Feminist?" She is a christian woman who has apparently done her research! I would have taken notes of names of people and books mentioned it I hadn't been driving.

Of the many things she said that frightened me, the thing most atrocious was the "postmodern" thinking that has taken over many religious leaders, who are teaching that because we cannot know the thoughts or perspectives of those who wrote the Word of God, we must just read it and interpret it from our our worldly experiences. We must add to or take away from whatever the writing is in order for our "inner energy" to experience the words in the way they were meant. No need for blood and guts of the cross - too depressing and strange!
It is also being taught that Eve was the liberator of the human race because she took a leap of faith outside of the confines of her patriarchal abusive Father God and tasted the apple. Where would we all be today had it not been for Eve?

She also gave names of some well-known pagan witches who are professors at theological schools and are teaching that the cross was the most severe form of child abuse because God the Father allowed, or actually forced, His son to be tortured and cruelly killed. They are also teaching that the patriarchal God of Christianity symbolizes the rape of the world! The rape of women! I was wondering if their thought is that the Father raped Mary instead of an immaculate conception...? That was what she sort of alluded to, but she didn't actually say it. Don't know about that or why this is the thought, but I'll have to check it out.

At first I was shocked, but then I remembered our weekend. This Saturday I babysat for our neighbor's little boy. I turned on some cartoons just for some noise - he cried when his mom left, and I thought maybe that would distract him for a while. What I saw was horrible!!! Saturday morning cartoons featured little girls with cleavage and hooker-short shorts...wearing makeup and flirting with boys in a way that makes me blush!!! I wish I knew what cartoon we were watching...I have never seen anything like the way sex is being pushed on kids like that. I was flabbergasted. Then, we went to "town," and I was looking for some shorts when I ran across THONGS in the little girls section!!! THONGS!!! The underwear, not the shoes... for little girls starting at age 4!!!!

Where have I been? Are people really this desensitized? Do little girls really wear those and watch those cartoons? No wonder we have pregnant 11 yr olds! What are parents thinking?

I'm sorry Luke...I think we're homeschooling Mayah!!!

Friday, May 05, 2006

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3702242.stm

I am trying to find out more about Darfur. Strangely enough..ER has been really really rough for me to watch for the past 2 weeks. Yes, it's a TV show, but it's as if I can feel the demonic strongholds there seeping through the television. I can feel it. Something so dark. It has been keeping me up at night, and I spend my time thinking about my own freedom and my faith. How fortunate am I to live in a place that offers safety from rebels weilding guns and raping women with bayonettes? I have been asking myself if I were called on by God to go there, could I? Would I? Would I be able to have faith in my God in the midst of such...horror. What words can describe what is going on?

I have heard about areas in which tribal leaders have made blood covenants with satan. It effects the land as well as the people...I wonder if that has happened there. Shiver.

Even with the media displaying EVERY crime and atrocity on our TVs, how can one become desensitized to evil of this magnitude?

I found this story that attempts to explain what exactly has happened, but it's still a little bit confusing to me...

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Did You Know?

For those of you who didn't know, don't believe, or are struggling with the thought of God:

You were created by the Most High God for the purpose of His good pleasure. You are fearfully and wonderfully made to be a friend and a lover of the Most High God, to experience the superior pleasures that come from sitting in His presence.

Jesus was in on the planning of You. He twirled in delight with God, His Father, at the thought of You. His desire, now that you are here in the physical, is that you would know Him, know who He really is - fully God, fully Man. That you would be intrigued by His Word, the scriptures, and hunger for a deeper understanding of who you are as part of His plan. You were made for love. You were made for God.

As a human, you have within your being, the very essence of God. He breathed His life into you in order to create you. You are a spiritual and physical phenomenon. Ask the One True God, Lord of Lords, Yahweh. Ask Him about these things. Ask Him for greater revelation, ask Him to open your spiritual eyes and ears that your spirit might be awakened to Him instead of sluggish and cynical. There is more to this life.

He does not demand perfection, only the humility required to admit we are not perfect, and He asks for our faith - that we would believe in Him and in His Son who has already redeemed us if we would but trust Him. Struggle through these things! Grapple with the idea of a Jewish Savior, Jesus of Nazareth, His death on the cross to take upon Himself the darkness of all that is wrong in the world so that we didn't have to. He did not want us to. "He is our out." Ask the Father about it. He has given us His word that if we seek we will find, and if we knock, the door will be opened.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

"From Iraq to Armageddon" quote

"Before people are deceived they are first diverted. The issue is not the timing of the Rapture, nor the identity of the antichrist, nor the mark of the beast. It is not the ashes of the red heifer, nor a foundation stone for the third temple, nor a plot to blow up the Dome of the Rock. One of the best ways to keep from being deceived is to concetrate on the central figure - Yeshua; on our primary task - evangelism; and on the main event - the Second Coming."

Keith Intrater

I was at first not interested, but skeptical of this book. It's actually really really good, and it gives a very biblical explanation of several events leading up to the Second Coming and events occurring now...

"Keith Intrater is a Jewish believer in Jesus who came to faith in his MEssiah during a dramatic confrontation with the power of God in the mountains of Central America. He graduated from Harvard University Cum Laude....immigrated to Israel in 1992 with his wife and 4 children under Tikkun International..."