The Battle for Jerusalem by John Hagee

Author:John Hagee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2010-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

Israel, the Key to End Times

It is not possible to understand Bible prophecy without understanding Israel’s past, present, and future. Israel will be the epicenter of the earth’s shuddering travails in the last days, and all pivotal events will center on the Holy Land and the people of Abraham.

Israel was founded by a sovereign act of God. God said to Abraham,

Get out of your country,

From your family

And from your father’s house,

To a land that I will show you. (Gen. 12:1)

Upon Abraham’s arrival in the promised land, God repeated this promise: “To your descendants I will give this land” (v. 7).

There are presently two controversies concerning Israel. The first states that God’s promise to Abraham was not a promise of literal land, but a promise of heaven. Those who embrace this position teach that Israel has lost favor with God through disobedience and the church is now Israel. The second controversy holds that the promise to Abraham and his descendants is literal, but conditional, based upon Israel’s obedience to God.

This common confusion is instantly corrected by clear and obvious teaching found in the Word of God. In Genesis 22:17, God told Abraham, “Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore.”

God mentioned two separate and distinct elements: stars and sand. The “stars of the heaven” represent the church. Stars, as light, rule the darkness, which is the commission of the church. Jesus told His followers, “You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14). Jesus is the “Bright and Morning Star” (Rev. 22:16). And Daniel 12:3 tells us,

Those who are wise shall shine

Like the brightness of the firmament,

And those who turn many to righteousness

Like the stars forever and ever.

Stars are heavenly, not earthly. They represent the church, Abraham’s spiritual seed.

The “sand of the seashore,” on the other hand, is earthly and represents an earthly kingdom with a literal Jerusalem as its capital city. Both stars and sand exist at the same time, and neither ever replaces the other. Just so, the nation of Israel and the church exist at the same time and do not replace each other.

The Bible clearly teaches that God’s promise to Abraham was literal and unconditional. Let’s examine the Scripture to verify beyond any doubt that God intended Abraham and the Jewish people to possess a literal land.

In Genesis 13, God told Abraham,

Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever . . . Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you. (vv. 14–15, 17)

Genesis 15:18 records, “On the same day the LORD made a covenant with [Abraham], saying: ‘To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates.’” Then God listed the heathen tribes living in that area at that time.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.