What is going on now, if you understand it, is a fulfilment of what is recorded in the Hebrew Prophets and in the New Covenant for the time which the Bible calls ‘the end of days’, the unique time of trouble that will precede the coming of the Messiah. And it is on its way, which is also means that the Messiah is on His way.
Tony Pearce
But there’s one issue which we do have. That is the identity of the Messiah. And it’s a big issue that’s at the heart of the problem.
You see, the Jewish view of the coming of the Messiah is that he is a ‘great man’ who teaches the Jews to live according to the Torah. Then, the world is so impressed by this that they turn to the true God and act with loving-kindness and mercy, and truth. They stop fighting and whoring around, and lying, and doing drugs and violence and all that stuff, and start to live in peace with one another. The nations then ‘beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and don’t study war anymore‘.
4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. Isaiah 2.4
It’s a nice idea but, if you look at the world as it is, it’s not going to happen. In fact, when the world looks at Israel today, it’s not being attracted to it but turned off. You have images of suffering people in Gaza which are leading to an outburst of Jew hatred, and some of it is reminiscent of the days leading up to the Holocaust in Germany.
If you’re a friend of Israel watching the news, the whole thing has become a form of torment.
Now, we can understand why Israel has to go after Hamas and try and take them out because they are part of an alliance of rejectionist troops led by Iran which want to destroy Israel. And they don’t only want to destroy Israel, they want to plunge the whole area into a terrible war which will end up with an Islamist tyranny which would be bad news not just for Israel but also for all Arabs.
What is going on now, if you understand it, is a fulfilment of what is recorded in the Hebrew Prophets and in the New Covenant for the time which the Bible calls ‘the end of days’, the unique time of trouble that will precede the coming of the Messiah. And it is on its way, which is also means that the Messiah is on His way.
And as we came to the end of 2023 we could see a lot of signs that the Messiah was coming. Whether He’s coming in 2024-25, I will not be dogmatic about it, but He’s coming. And you’re seeing things happening which are pushing the world in that direction because we too believe in the coming of the Messiah.
However, there’s one little word which we want to insert into what the Jewish prayer. It says there ‘I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah’ that additional word is ‘again’. And that word makes all the difference because He has been here once before.
It makes a huge difference and the only One who is going to save Israel and the world is the Messiah who has already been here, whose name is Yeshua / Jesus.
He came once to bring ‘Yeshua’ which means ‘salvation’ to the world by paying the price for the sin of the world, dying and rising again from the dead as a sacrifice for our sins in fulfilment of prophecies like Isaiah 53 about ‘the suffering servant’, One upon whom the Lord would lay the iniquity of us all, who would suffer in our place, who would take the price of the sin of the world.
That has already happened. That’s what happened the first time.
When He comes the second time, He is going to come in fulfilment of prophecies like Isaiah 2, as a reigning King Messiah with all the power of God at His disposal, to put right the mess which humans have made of the world. He is going to judge the world in righteousness according to how we’ve responded to the message of the Gospel, the message the first coming of Jesus.
He is also going to destroy the rule of the wicked rulers of this earth as we read in Psalm 2 and He’ll save Israel at the last battle and bring in the rule of the Messiah. We’ve already sung to us a song about he shall reign over all the Earth and that is taken basically from Isaiah 2.1 to 2.4.
And we read about the Messiah coming this time causing the nations to beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks and stopping all the horrible pain of war which we’ve invented in this time which Isaiah the prophet knew nothing about but which will also be destroyed and converted into means to build up and to create, and give good to the human race in the coming time which we call the Millennial Kingdom when Jesus the Messiah is going to reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years. That is what the Bible says is going to happen.
Before that time, it does say there’s going to be a time of Great Tribulation, the time of Jacob’s trouble described in Jeremiah chapter 30, including the war of Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38 and 39. And all this is going to centre on Israel and affect the whole earth.
It may be that such time has already begun. One of the things which, when we look at what’s happening in Gaza, we are prone to question is: Are we on the verge of something much bigger coming which could tip over into one of these great conflicts of the last days?
The Hebrew prophets tell us that God will pour out his Holy Spirit on His people in the last days and reveal the truth that Jesus is the Messiah.
And today, we can see ministries like One for Israel and others making inroads into Israeli society both secular and religious with the message of the Good News.
We can also see all kinds of errors being taught in His Name by those who oppose Him and by many of those who claim to be His followers in the church
One such error is the myth of the ‘Palestinian Jesus’. Jesus as a Palestinian. Have you heard this one? I have got a video from Palestinian Media Watch speaking of different Arabs, Palestinians, speaking about Jesus as a Palestinian.
This is an official Palestinian Authority TV claiming that ‘Jesus is a Palestinian par excellence‘ PA Mufti Muhammad Hussein. An Israeli Arab member of the Knesset Sami Shahada said, ‘The entire world knows that Jesus is a Palestinian’.
A Palestinian government spokesman Ibrahim Melhem says,
“The holiday of the birth of the Palestinian prophet Jesus the son of Mary.” Jibril Rajoub Deputy Secretary of the Fata Central Committee has said: “The Greatest Palestinian in History Since Jesus is Yasser Arafat”.
So, there you are. By the way, Rajoub could possibly take over from Mahmoud Abbas as leader of the Palestinian Authority.
Itamar Marcus who who writes the Palestinian Media Watch which is an Israeli organization monitoring Palestinian information says the Palestinian Authority is desperate for history that connects them to the land of Israel to help them claim a right to nationhood and deny Israel’s right to exist.
So it lies repeatedly that Jesus the Jew living in the land of Judea and says He was a Palestinian basically contradicting the Christian Bible in the hope that its own people and its supporters worldwide will believe them.
I think, from your expressions, that you don’t believe them because Jesus, of course, was a Jew. The very first verse of the New Testament in Matthew’s Gospel in Hebrew reads:
| זֶה סֵפֶר תּוֹלְדֹת הַמָּשִׁיחַ יֵשׁוּעַ בֶּן־דָּוִד בֶּן־אַבְרָהָם׃ | א |
[zeh sēper tôlǝdōt hammāšîaḥ yēšûaʿ ben-dāwid ben-ʾabrāhām ʾ] It couldn’t really get much more Jewish than that. In English, I guess you know what it says:
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham: Matthew 1:1
And it points to the fact that Jesus is the son of David, the son of Abraham. It uses two Hebrew words say סֵפֶר תּוֹלְדֹת [sēper tôlǝdōt] (safer and toldot) which connect it to the Old Testament, to Genesis, and which remind you that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Bible message and it prophecies.
Then it provides His ancestors, all of whom are Jews and go back to Abraham. It tells you that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in the Jewish Kingdom of Judea. He preached throughout the regions of Galilee and Judea. He was circumcised on the 8th day and presented as pidyon haben the Redemption of the firstborn in the Temple where he was recognized as a
baby by the elderly priest Simeon and by Anna the prophetess as the Messiah who brings Revelation to the Gentiles and as the Glory of His people Israel.
25 And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was just and devout, waiting for the Consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. 26 And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. 27 So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law, 28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:
29 “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation
31 Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
32 A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,
And the glory of Your people Israel.”33 And Joseph and His mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of Him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against 35 (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” 36 Now there was one, Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity; 37 and this woman was a widow of about eighty-four years, who did not depart from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day. 38 And coming in that instant she gave thanks to the Lord, and spoke of Him to all those who looked for redemption in Jerusalem. Luke 2:25-38
Luke chapter 4 tells us that Jesus also regularly attended the synagogue in Nazareth, that He was growing up prayed and taught as a Jew in the Temple in Jerusalem, attending Jewish festivals such as Passover חַג הַפֶּסַח Pesach חג הסכות Sukkot, etc.
You’ll find that Palestine is never mentioned in the New Testament and that’s because in Jesus’ time, Palestine never existed. There’s one mention of the land in Matthew Chapter 2 when the family in Egypt, after fleeing from Herod’s massacre of the firstborn, they’re told by the angel to return to the land of Israel.
19 Now when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, 20 saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the young Child’s life are dead.” 21 Then he arose, took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel.
22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea instead of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And being warned by God in a dream, he turned aside into the region of Galilee. 23 And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” Matthew 2:19-23
The Romans renamed the place ‘Palestina’ after the second Jewish Revolt in 135AD in order to de-Judaize it as they did with Jerusalem calling it Aelia Capitolina and the world today wants to break the Jewish connection and call it ‘Palestine’ and delete Israel from the map.
It’s interesting that this is causing some Jewish people to recognize that they need to reclaim reclaim Jesus as a Jew in order to fight the propaganda war against Israel. This is good news.
The Jerusalem Post writes,
“This understanding the denial of Jesus Jewishness is therefore crucial for understanding global anti-Israel misinformation and anti-Semitism. As a victim of anti-Semitism Jesus would have been confused and perhaps insulted to be portrayed as a Palestinian, an identity given by the very Empire the Romans whose soldiers were subjected him to anti-semitic abuse before crucifying Him saying hail King of the Jews as they tormented Him revealed in John chapter 19. When history is politically inconvenient, sometimes truth hardly matters. The antihistorical myth that Jesus was a Palestinian is often rooted in nationalist propaganda designed to erase Jewish history and memory a centuries-old system of anti-Jewish oppression. For the sake of preserving intellectual honesty and historical in integrity one must not only restore Jesus Jewish identity and dispel once and for all the claim that Jesus was a Palestinian.”
Christianity news – The Jerusalem Post
In other words Jews and Israelis need to re-discover the Jewishness of Jesus to fight for the truth in the propaganda war in the Middle East.
I also came across this very interesting letter from a man called Jonathan Feldstein who is an Orthodox Jew who was commenting on the situation in Gaza and his plan for saving the people of Gaza. I’ll read what he says,
With the war against Hamas raging, scores of Israeli soldiers having been killed in combat along with many more injured, and still some 130 hostages who were kidnapped from Israel on Oct. 7 being held in captivity, it might be intuitive that this Christmas I would not be praying for anything other than the swift and full eradication of Hamas, the safe return of all our soldiers—including my son and son-in-law—and release of all the hostages.
Orthodox Jew: Gazans Need a Little Jesus This Christmas – Charisma Magazine Online
Then again, since I’m an Orthodox Jew, one might think it odd that I would be praying for anything specifically on Christmas. But I am. I am praying for Gazans to get a little Jesus.
As talks of another cease fire loom, with the U.N. and other international bodies pressing for a cessation of all combat (even without the return of all the hostages), I am looking to the day after the war ends—whenever that may be.
Israel has a different vision for what the day after will look like. The U.S., Western powers, along with the Arab world, still call for a two-state solution, as if stuttering a worn-out policy that has no meaning and no practical means of implementation. Recently, Vice President Kamila Harris echoed apparent U.S. policy that the two-state illusion be with Gaza and other areas under the authority of a Palestinian state, to be under (a perhaps revamped) PLO-led Palestinian Authority.
Others have discussed an international (Arab-led) coalition to rebuild and provide long-term stability for Gazans, without Hamas or any terror organization controlling the territory and its population again. Most echo that they will only do so under the guise of the long-touted—and yet still impractical—two-state solution.
Israel is not being so foolish because it knows that the PLO is nothing more than a kinder and gentler terror group that also does not accept Israel’s right to exist, that incites terror and pays pensions to terrorists as if they were national heroes. Even if it were a practical solution once upon a time, it is not practical now, and just the idea is a gift to terrorists that if they keep slaughtering Jews, they will get a state.
Eventually, Gaza will need to be rebuilt. No matter what, there are some 2 million Gazans who need a place to live. The destruction of Gaza has been commensurate with how deeply Hamas embedded itself among the population and within civilian infrastructure such as schools, mosques, hospitals, U.N. facilities and residential areas. There’s lots of work to be done. Perhaps this time, unlike 2007 when Hamas took control and began its reign of terror over the population, Gazans will want to get it right. If rebuilt properly, purging the terrorists, and supervised responsibly, Gaza can become a thriving entity like Singapore.
Maybe, just maybe, there can be peace.
Rebuilding needs to start from under the ground up, first with anything left of the underground city that’s a maze of terrorist tunnels being destroyed along with the evil Islamic ideology that birthed Hamas originally and was nurtured from Iran all these decades.
But who can do the long-term full-time recovery that’s needed? It’s not clear that any of the Arab states individually—or as a consortium—can or are even willing to do so. Certainly not Islamists, whether from Iran or Turkey or anywhere else. None of these would be objective players, each looking out for their own interests, also turning a blind eye to smuggling of weapons that threaten Israel. The last thing Israel and Gaza need is a rebuilding of the extremist Islamic ideology at the foundation of rebuilding the territory and resumption of arms smuggling. If there’s ever a hope for a lasting peace, there needs to be an overhaul of more than the physical infrastructure. There needs to be a change of heart.
I was asked in an interview recently if I thought Jesus should come back, suggesting that He would bring peace. I replied that I didn’t know if Jesus coming back would bring peace, but that Gazans sure could use a lot more Jesus.
I responded that if it were up to me, Billy Graham would come back and hold months of crusades throughout Gaza. There are also many former Muslims who have become Christians, many speak Arabic and know the culture, whom I would bring along as well. I’d be sure that from Day 1, Gazans are fed a diet of Christian faith to counteract the buffet of hate that they have ingested. I told my interviewer that the only chance I saw for real peace is that Gazans become real Christians. In doing so, they will not just abandon Allah in favor of the God of Israel, but they will also come to love Israel: the land, the people and the state, as a realization of God’s promise to His people.
I would send along Franklin Graham, Samaritan’s Purse and other ministries that can bring thousands of volunteers of all backgrounds and skills, charged with education, medical and spiritual well-being and physical reconstruction. Ministries like these can bring masses of the most faithful and committed volunteers. They will be the most objective, with the greatest ability to succeed in rebuilding Gaza by both genuinely loving and caring about Israel and its safety, but also about the well-being of Palestinian Arabs. They will not allow the restoration of a massive terrorist infrastructure under their noses as the U.N., Red Cross and other “humanitarian” groups have allowed over the decades. These are not contradictory.
The best and safest way to change the situation and bring peace is for the masses of Gazans, and Palestinian Arabs in general, to convert to Christianity. Any Christian who understands the biblical covenant between God and the Jewish people – that it’s eternal and unbreakable—will transform his or her heart. That’s how true peace can be achieved.
This is not a task for the Jewish people. Our covenant is unique. We are meant to be a light unto the nations. Nobody wants to live in peace more than the Jewish and Israeli people. But to really bring lasting peace, we need an army of Christians to restore Gaza.
It may sound crazy, an Orthodox Israeli Jew proposing a plan to establish peace in Israel not based on a mistaken formula of two states, but by calling for our neighbors living in spiritual darkness to become spiritual allies by becoming Christian. However, the reality is that anger among Gazans toward Hamas is growing to such a degree that if presented a viable alternative, one based in morality that can bring prosperity, the ground is fertile for such an opportunity.
Let’s pray that Gazans’ dissatisfaction with Hamas increases and that they all get a little Jesus this Christmas.
That’s a rabbi saying that not me. It’s kind of interesting, isn’t it? It’s a nice idea, but would it happen? I’m afraid it’s not going to happen. Not in the immediate future. But he’s right the only way in which they’re going to have peace is if the Arabs become believers in Yeshua.
It’s interesting though that an Orthodox Jew sees Jesus as the hope for changing Gaza. He says that is not a task for the Jewish people. Actually, the New Testament says it is. In Romans 9, Paul says to them that to them, to the Jewish people
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. Romans 9:1-5
But he goes on to say in chapter 10,
Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Romans 10:1-4
And in chapter 11:25 of Romans Paul writes,
25 For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
“The Deliverer will come out of Zion,
And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;
27 For this is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.” Romans 11:25-27
So, God does have a purpose for Israel in all of this. And that purpose is bound up with the Messiah. As I’ve already said, the big issue is whether you’re looking for the Messiah yet to come or the Messiah who has come and is coming again.
It is interesting to see that, if you go to Revelation chapter 7, you find that there are 144,000 of the tribes of Israel who are supernaturally saved at the beginning of the Great Tribulation period and go out with the Gospel message to bring a great multitude to faith in Yeshua the Messiah.
After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, 3 saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” 4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:
5 of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand were sealed;
6 of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand were sealed;
7 of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed;
8 of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying:
“Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,
Thanksgiving and honour and power and might,
Be to our God forever and ever.
Amen.”13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. 16 They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7
Are we moving towards that? I think we are. And it’s interesting that you have these Jewish people who are beginning to get the message, that all of this has got something to do with Jesus and that in all these things which are happening, Israel needs to reclaim Jesus as the Jew, but even more, Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.