Sunday, October 31, 2010

An Open Halloween Letter from an EX- Pagan

Hi. My name is Avalon De Witt and I'm a recovering occultist. A former slave to Satan. Below are just some of the thoughts that have been pouring through my mind today.

Can I do pagan things if I just don't think of them as pagan?
What if I dance naked around the fire for Jesus instead of for Hecate?
What if I get a new deck of Tarot cards, assign each of them a Bible story, and use them to get closer to God?
Why don't I redeem orgies and abortion for Christ while I'm at it?


For that matter, why don't I just open back up for business as a psychic and dedicate it to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob?


Isn't it okay to do house cleansings with a rattle? Well, how about if I ditch the rattle and just wear the mask? Would it be better if I put a smile on the mask? And how about, while I'm wearing the mask I go reveling with my friends, but only for candy? How about if I just make a Talisman and put a cute, innocent, funny-face on it?


Of course I would never do such things!

It doesn't matter if you change your intentions. If you read the Bible you'll see, as I have, that the one thing that always ticked God off the most was when His people adopted the customs of the pagans. It was an abomination to Him.

He is the same yesterday, today and always. And it still angers Him today when we adopt pagan customs, even if we try to do them "with different intentions," and "redeem them for Christ."

As I sit and watch many of my Christian brothers and sisters posting on Facebook about their Halloween festivities, my heart breaks. I'm frightened for them, for our nation, and for God's people.

You see, I spent 26 years in the occult. I started out with Wicca as an adolescent, and throughout the years moved on to every corner of alternative spirituality that I could find - Shamanism, New Age thought, Rosicrucianism, Eastern Mysticism - you name it.

At age 24 I became a professional psychic. I spent fifteen years serving Satan this way. I made a lot of money, got my own radio show and developed a world-wide following. I thought I was on top of the world.



Slowly, my world started falling apart. Before it was over, my husband and I were in divorce proceedings, I was being evicted from my home, and my daughter was writhing on the floor, growling, hissing and clawing at the carpet on a daily basis.


I sought answers. I tried all my techniques. I reached out to others and, eventually, I started praying. I told God that if He didn't give me some answers soon, I was going to kill myself so I could stand before Him and get them myself.


Then one morning I was hiking behind my house, and I noticed something moving next to my shoe. I took a couple steps past it and turned around. It was a rattler, coiled, and ready to strike. I looked around and realized I was alone on that mountain. If I got bitten, I could definitely die.


Suddenly, as I stood frozen in front of that snake, it was like the sky opened up, and I saw the King of the Universe sitting on His throne. And for the first time in my life I feared Him. He was so perfect.


I thought, "I could never measure up to that perfection. No matter how perfect I made myself, I could never come close to that."


His purity was like a clean fire. It would burn me up in an instant. That's when I started thinking, "Maybe those Christians have a good idea with that redemption thing."


So, you know what I did after that? I went home and did the only thing I knew to do. I looked up "snake" in my power animal dictionaries. In dictionary after dictionary, the message rang loud and clear: "Give yourself over to transformation, let the old die so that the new may be reborn, let go, new life, new spiritual path..." It would have been almost spooky if it hadn't been so precious. He met me right where I was, and he spoke to me in MY language. I wouldn't have listened to anything else.


I knew those terms, "reborn," and "new life." I knew those were from the Bible. I wondered if perhaps the Christians could help me, so I went to church and started investigating Christianity. It took several months of reading and studying, seeking answers to my questions and facing my fears.

Finally, as I sat on my bed one night, reading "The Case for Faith" by Lee Strobel, it finally hit me! That twisted, tortured figure on the cross was there out of compassion for ME! Jesus died for ME! God cared about me so much that He came to this planet in human form and did this for ME. He saw me, He knew me, He understood my pain and my suffering. He felt it, and He wanted to carry it for me. My whole life culminated in this one moment, and I could see that it had all happened for a reason, that God had been pursuing me through it all. I mattered.


I curled up in a little ball and just sobbed. I was ready to give it all up to Him and let Him take care of me.

That Sunday, Sept 9th, 2007, I got saved. I admitted I was wrong, that I had disobeyed God. I renounced all my occult practices and was set free.


The following Saturday I burned all my occult books and paraphernalia, and eleven decks of Tarot cards, per Acts 19:19-20.


Sunday, Sept 16, 2007, I was baptized.


A few weeks later, my sister got saved and left prostitution and the porn industry. My marriage was restored and renewed, and though it took a lot longer, even my daughter has slowly been finding freedom through Christ.


Just about a month ago, a former occult colleague and dear friend of mine, whom I had witnessed to, called me to tell me she had gotten saved, too.


I sit here watching some of my loved ones turn away from the occult, and yet I see many others still entrapped - people dying in sweat lodges, for example. And then I see the very people who threw me the lifeline now turning toward what nearly destroyed me and my loved ones.


I don't understand. Is Halloween that important? What is so valuable about costumes and Jack-o-Lanterns and candy that it can't be renounced for this God who loves us so much?


I've read articles in which people say things like, "I'm not going to let Satan take away my fun." What is Satan's "fun" compared to the joy of the Lord? He can have Halloween for all I care! There's no fun for me in celebrating Satan's schemes.


My nine-year-old daughter, who was raised from birth in occultism, doesn't miss it at all. She said to her dad and me last week, "I can't wait 'til Halloween so we can NOT celebrate it!"


Halloween is pagan, it's based on witchcraft, and it's part of our old life. All things have been made new for us. We don't even feel we need an alternative. We're not missing anything. In fact, we plan on spending our evening in prayer for those who are still in slavery to Satan. We are eternally grateful to our Lord for the sacrifice He made, and giving up Halloween is the least we can do.

We are free now! Why bother putting our chains back on for one night, in the name of fun, or tradition, or anything else?





Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Is Your Church New Age, Emergent, or Christian?


What an astounding question! Just a few short years ago, few would have dreamed that by 2010 Evangelicals would be asking this of themselves. These are truly the “perilous times” the Apostle Paul spoke of when men would have “a form of godliness” but would be void of the power of God (II Timothy 3:1-5).


This comparison of New Age and Emergent beliefs against the backdrop of biblical Christianity will not only expose the many likenesses shared by New Age and Emergent philosophies but it will also help equip viewers with discernment in understanding and recognizing real, authentic Christianity.
For the DVD in its entirety CLICK HERE

Monday, October 25, 2010

WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, THE VATICAN’S LATEST, PAINFUL PRONOUNCEMENT ON ISRAEL IS WRONG: Paul’s letter to Rome affirms that Jews are the chosen people

by joel rosenberg

A new headline in the Jerusalem Post reads: “Vatican synod calls for end to Israel’s ‘occupation’: At conference on Christians in the Middle East, US Melkite archbishop says: ‘There is no longer a chosen people.’” With all due respect, the Vatican is wrong on this issue. The entire Bible — from Genesis to Revelation — makes crystal clear again and again the Lord’s love for the Jewish people, His decision to choose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their descendants for His very own, and His eternal promise to give the Holy Land to the Jewish people.


As such, it is the duty of all true followers of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to bless Israel and reaffirm her fundamental legitimacy and right to the Land. Yes, we should bless and love the Palestinians, as well, because our Lord Jesus said as a Jew living in Israel, “Love your neighbor,” and, “Love your enemies.” But we should never accept the false teaching that God has rejected the Jewish people or rescinded His promises to the nation of Israel. That simply is not Biblical.

In Genesis chapter 12:1-3, the Lord makes it clear He has chosen Abram to “make a great nation” and the Lord says to him, “I will bless you and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” In Genesis 13:14-18, the Lord specifically takes Abraham to the land we now call Israel and said, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are (the Jordan Valley), northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.”

Doesn’t “forever” mean forever?

This promise is reaffirmed to Isaac, and later to Jacob, whose name the Lord changes to “Israel.” For example, in Deuteronomy 7:6-8, the Lord says to the children of Israel, “The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The Lord didn not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers.”


In Genesis 48:3-4, Jacob tells his son Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and He said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and numerous, and I will make you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your descendants after you an everlasting possession.”

Doesn’t everlasting mean everlasting?

Interestingly, the Apostle Paul prophetically anticipated that the Christians in Rome would one day think that God would reject the Jewish people and His promises to them because many Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah. So Paul wrote this in his letter to the Romans, chapter 11, verse 1 and 2: “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.”


The New Testament again and again affirms the Lord’s love for the Jewish people and for the nation of Israel. Indeed, in the Book of Revelation, we specifically see the nation of Israel regathered and playing a key role in the End Times. God defends Israel. God fights for Israel against her enemies. God blesses Israel and the Jewish people. And then the Lord Jesus Christ Himself comes with His saints to reign from Jerusalem. To deny such truths is to deeply and fundamentally misunderstand the Word of God.


May I encourage you, brothers and sisters, to share this message with others. Be kind towards the Catholic leaders. Let us show them the mistakes they are making, but do so in love. Let us also teach followers of Jesus Christ around the world the Lord’s deep love and compassion for the Jewish people, and His desire that they — and all people — come to faith in Messiah Jesus.

At the same time, please prayerfully consider becoming involved in The Joshua Fund to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus in real and practical ways. And please prayerfully consider coming to Israel and the Epicenter Conference in Israel next May. Thank you, and God bless you

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Lukewarm NO MORE!!! Its Time To Stop Sitting on Your Blessed Assurance

Mark Cahill preaching on the Church of Laodicea from the book of Revelation. Very convicting and challenging.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Is Religious Synchretism Leading to a One World Religion


Spiritual deception is quickly setting the stage for a one-world religion and a one-world leader. Jesus Himself warned us that "many will come in My name saying 'I am the Christ' and will deceive many." The spiritual deception that Jesus warned about is here and many are being taken spiritual prisoners. Jesus tells us in Mathew 7:13-23 this spiritual deception will be sign that we are in the last days. Jesus tells us that false teachers will look like Christians, and talk like Christians but they will be wolves in sheep's clothing.


Brannon will take us to an abundance of Scripture so we can clearly understand why so many people, including self-professed Christians, are not seeing the spiritual deception that is all around us. How can we recognize spiritual deception so we can protect ourselves as well as friends and family? How will the last days deception be disguised? How do we recognize a false teacher, prophet, or anti-Christ? Are Christians to expose false teachers publically or not? What is Biblical truth? What are six characteristics of a false teacher?

What does spiritual nationalism look like? When Christians put the state, public policy, the economy, and politics and ecumenicalism above obedience to the Bible and the exclusivity of Jesus Christ you get patriotic ecumenicalism. Brannon draws on history to reveal that what has happen before what can happen in America. The "German Christians" betrayed the Gospel of Jesus Christ for unity, materialism, national pride, and the return of stability and promise of the good life. The "Germany Christians" mocked Dietrich Bonheoffer and Martin Niemoller for starting the "Confessing Church" to oppose paganism and ecumenicalism. The "Germany Christians" became so immersed in spiritual deception that they merged their religious denominations under the Reich Bishop that was hand-picked by Hitler.

Many self-described Christians will knowingly, or unknowingly, compromise the Gospel of Jesus Christ in favor of ecumenicalism and pagan spirituality if it will help save America, their freedoms, and their comfortable life-style. Our decision is whether we will chose to follow the last days deception or Biblical truth even in the face of ridicule by self-professed Christians.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Is The Bible Unique Among Holy Books?

by Mike Gendron



Are you prepared to give a persuasive answer to a skeptic who asks you that question?

Just 10 years ago, it was only the non-Christians who were asking if the Bible was truly unique, but now we've got many professing Christians within the Emergent Church Movement who are asking, "Why should anyone believe the Bible?" The reason is because they deny the authority of God's Word. They say that truth is subjective, it is relative, and anyone's truth is just as valid as another person's truth. How would you respond to these misguided comments? We are hearing them more and more as this movement is invading the Church of Jesus Christ.


The Bible is what God says, religion is what man says God says. I am really tired of people listening to what man says God says. We need to direct people back to the source for truth — the Word of God. So, when a person looks out on all the religious books that there are, we ask, "What religious book is the best authority for truth?"


The world is picking up many different religious books. I want to share with you what I believe are ten ways that the Bible stands alone, that the Bible is unique when it comes to all the religious books of the world.


1. Divine Origin
The first way that the Bible is unique is in its divine origin. The authors claim that their words were inspired by God. We see that in 2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is God-breathed..." Keep in mind that it is the Word of God that is inspired, not the writers. And so, when you read the Bible, you are reading one voice. It is the voice of God. In fact, the authors even claimed that they spoke for God. The phrase, "thus says the Lord" occurs almost 500 times throughout Scripture. With these claims we would expect then that the Bible would meet or exceed the highest standards for accuracy.


2. Unique in Unity and Harmony
God commissioned 40 different authors from all walks of life, over a period of 1500 years on three continents to write the 66 books of the Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, the writers are united in truth to reveal a complex drama about God's redemption of man from eternity past to eternity future. Think just how incredible this is! Here you have these 40 men separated by 1500 years all agreeing in unity and harmony on what the word of God is.


3. Popularity and Influence
The Bible is the most circulated book in history. It has been read and studied and quoted by more people than any other book. No other book has impacted society and culture so impressively or has changed lives so dramatically.

4. Reliability of Transmission
A shepherd made the greatest discovery of manuscripts in history in 1948 near the Dead Sea. Complete manuscripts such as Isaiah, the Psalms and Deuteronomy were copied over 2,000 years ago and found in these caves near the Dead Sea. These ancient manuscripts are essentially the same as our modern copies. This proves that they were transmitted over the years with extraordinary precision.


5. Indestructibility
The Bible has withstood intense scrutiny by thousands of skeptics and survived continuous attacks by emperors, kings and dictators. They all failed in their attempts to silence the message. God's Word will stand forever! We know that heaven and earth will pass away, but God's Word will stand forever.


6. Message of Salvation
Did you know that the Bible is also unique in its message of salvation? The Bible proclaims salvation is offered as a free gift of God's grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. All other religious books declare that man must merit salvation through works, religious rituals, and/or law keeping. No other religion offers the Savior. Christianity stands alone.


7. Historical and Geographical Accuracy
Archeologists continue to unearth evidence of ancient people, places and cultures that are all described in the Bible. The descriptions have always proven to be completely reliable and accurate.


8. Painfully Honest
The Bible is unique in that it is painfully honest in the accounts of its heroes. The Bible shows that Jacob, one of the fathers of God's chosen people, was a deceiver. It shows Moses, the Lawgiver, as a murderer. It shows David, Israel's most loved king and spiritual leader, as an adulterer. It shows Paul, who wrote over half the New Testament, as the worst of sinners. And, it shows Peter as a betrayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is another indication that the Bible is inspired. You look at any other books written by authors and all they do is boast in their accomplishments and they hide their shameful and sinful activities.


9. Scientific Accuracy
Scientific references about the physical universe recorded in the Bible thousands of years ago were not discovered until modern times using modern technology. The God who created the universe and set in motion the laws that govern our world is the same God who inspired the writers of the Bible to record these fascinating mysteries. The Christian faith is not a blind faith. It is based on verifiable evidence.


10. Bible Prophecy
The last and maybe the most compelling reason for the Bible being unique is its Bible prophecy. It is prophetic in the sense that over 30% of the Bible actually contains scriptures predicting future events. The Bible contains over 1,800 prophecies that foretell specific details about the Messiah, about Israel, about individual nations and certain cities. As prophecy is being fulfilled, it is clear evidence that the Bible was inspired by a sovereign God who controls all things.


The author of the Bible is indeed the God of Wonders who knows the end from the beginning, and we should pay close attention to what He has revealed in His truly unique Word.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Two Must See Video Clips - from "Journey From Hate"

Two Arabs’ Journeys from Hate to Love tells the story of two Arabs, Bridgette Gabrielle, a Lebanese-Christian, and Walid Shoebat, a former terrorist, who now both support Israel.


Brigitte Gabriels Testimony
Walid Shoebats Testimony
 

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

My Prayer For You Is To Seek The Lord While He May Still Be Found

Truth about the REAL Islam.

For more information on Islam, I would recommend the following books:


If you believe Islam is a peaceful religion, then read Robert Spencer's "The Truth about Muhammad."

If you believe Islam is not a threat to Western Civilization, then read Bruce Bawer's "While Europe Slept."

If you're a woman, then read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's "Infidel."

If you're an African-American, then read Peter Hammond's "Slavery, Terrorism & Islam."

If you're a concerned Jew, then read Mark Gabriel's "Islam and the Jews: The Unfinished Battle."

If you're a Christian, then read Walid Shoebat's "God's War on Terror."

If you're a Muslim, then read all of the above.

If you want to remain ignorant, then go back to the boob tube.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

In Satan's Footsteps



http://www.insatansfootsteps.com/

http://www.shoebat.com/resources.php

An extraordinary study on how to understand evil

and how it is interconnected
 
About The Book


In Satan’s Footsteps is a most well researched book on the subject of Evil and Satan. The books primary objective is to prove that Satan exists and shows the standard behaviors of cults and evil doers. It exposes the traits and similarities of how evil through the ages is related and how evil can be wrapped with good to deceive many good people.
The book is not politically correct and will offend many especially those that are caught up in the cults they believe to be a true faith or ideology

Ted Shoebat is the 16 year old son of former PLO terrorist Walid Shoebat. Ted was was persecuted for his faith and conservative views by his teachers and fellow students. He witnessed anti Semitism, anti Israel propaganda, holocaust denial, anti Christian and anti Americanism in the public schools he attended. He even was sent to Special Ed and "diagnosed" with Asbergers Syndrome because teachers could not deal with his well thought out retorts to the lies he identified that he was being taught.



Ted decided to write this book so that he could expose the evil and the attacks on American Judeo Christian values, as well as to supply a filter to the youth and unsuspecting adults to the common traits of how Satan works and the commonality of how all evil is interconnected through time.


This is Ted’s first book and we are sure it will be the first of many.


As Ted says. "My Father may be hated by Islamists but I will be hated by Islamists, Neo Nazis, Communists Mormans, Evolutionists, and many liberals. Dad you think you are a marked man, that will be nothing compared to me"

Friday, October 1, 2010

Sixteen Facts That EVERYONE Should Know About Israel

Replacement Theology  is straight from the pit of hell and is all about anti-Semitism!!

And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.   -- Genesis 12:3

“And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.”               ---Romans 11:17

Two peoples claim the same land in the Middle East. Whose land is it? Who is right: Israel or the Palestinians? Does it belong to both peoples? Who has the right to decide to whom the Land belongs? Israel? The Arab League? The United States? The United Nations Security Council? The United Nations General Assembly? How should it be decided? By the Koran? By the various competing claims of history? By voting? By war? When the Word of God speaks authoritatively on any subject, that is the final word. God has much to say about the Land and people of Israel in His supernatural revelation, the Bible, which is the very Word of God.


Fact #1. The Jewish people are the Chosen People: After Adam and Eve sinned, humanity deteriorated so badly that God destroyed the early world of men with the Great Flood. Noah and his family knew the Lord, and were spared, but after they came out of the Ark and started repopulating, their descendants abandoned God, became idolatrous, perverse and evil. Then God created a special nation to be a light to the other nations. The Creator of the universe specifically chose the nation of Israel to be that unique people who would witness to His reality. “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the people who are on the face of the Earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6).

“You are My witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and My servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God formed, and there will be none after Me. I, even I am the Lord; and there is no Saviour beside Me” (Isaiah 43:10-11). If the Chosen People were faithful to our calling, God promised to bless us above all the other nations, so that the nations of the world would know that the God of Israel is the true God who alone can save us, by reconciling us to Himself, thereby restoring us to peace, joy, blessing and life. But if we were disobedient to our calling, the Lord promised to severely punish us so that the nations of the world would learn a lesson from us, and know that it is a terrible thing to disobey the God of Israel. Either way, through our obedience or disobedience, the Chosen People would witness to the other nations of the world that the God of Israel is to be reckoned with.

Fact #2. The Land of Israel belongs to God: “The Earth is the Lord’s and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it” (Psalm 24:1). Since the entire world belongs to God, He has the right to apportion it as He chooses, and He specifically gave the nations their lands based on the Jewish people’s right to the Land of Israel! “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the allotment of His inheritance” (Deuteronomy 32:8-9).

Fact #3. The Chosen People needed a Chosen Land, and so the God of Israel strategically chose the Land of Israel for the People of Israel: “This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the centre of the nations, with lands around her ” (Ezekiel 5:5). The Land that God chose for us is located in the centre of the nations, connecting the continents of Europe, Africa and Asia. Because of this strategic location, the Jewish people had ample exposure to all the nations of the world.

Fact #4. The Land of Israel was given by God to the descendants of Abraham as an everlasting possession: “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this Land’” (Genesis 12:7). God further said to Abraham: “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. And I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession” (Genesis 17:7-8).

Fact #5. Even though Abraham had many sons, the Land of Israel wasn’t given to Ishmael, or to any of the other sons of Abraham, but only to Isaac: “Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before You!’ But God said ‘No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him’” (Genesis 17:18-19). God rejected Abraham’s request that Ishmael be the heir of the covenant, and appointed Isaac instead. Years later the Lord God appeared to Isaac and said, “to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. And I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and will give your descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the Earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 26:3-4). Knowing that Isaac was the heir of the covenant, which included the Land of Israel, Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. He gave gifts to his other sons, but he sent them away to the lands of the east, not wanting the heir of the everlasting covenant to have rivalry over the Land of Israel from his siblings (Genesis 25:5-6).

Fact #6. Even though Isaac had two sons, the Land wasn’t given to Esau, but to Jacob: One night Jacob had a dream while fleeing from his brother Esau. In his dream the Lord said to him, “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the Land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.” (Genesis 28:13). God later appeared to Jacob and said to him, “the Land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and I will give the Land to your descendants after you” (Genesis 35:11-12). This promise deeds the Land of Israel to the descendants of Jacob – the Jewish people of today.

Fact #7. There is no doubt about Israel’s God-given borders because they are described for us in detail in the HolyScriptures: “The Lord said to Abram after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever… Arise, walk about the land through its length and breadth; for I will give it to you’” (Genesis 13:14-17). “The Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, ‘To your descendants I have given this Land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates’” (Genesis 15:18-21). “I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates” (Exodus 23:31). Therefore we must conclude that the entire Land of Israel, including Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”), Gaza, the Golan Heights, and all of Jerusalem, was given by the God of Israel to the people of Israel in perpetuity. We, and we alone, have been given the title to the Land of Israel as a permanent inheritance by the Lord. No human government or coalition of governments has the right or authority to cede portions of the Land of Israel to anyone else.

Fact #8. In addition to the everlasting covenant (which includes the Land), God swore an oath to give the Jewish people this Land: Keep in mind that it’s absolutely impossible for God to break an oath (see Hebrews 6:16-18). In the Holy Scriptures, this oath is reiterated more than forty times. Here is just one example: “He has remembered His covenant forever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations, the covenant which He made with Abraham, and His oath to Isaac. Then He confirmed it to Jacob for a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance’” (Psalm 105:8- 11). There is no other passage in which there are so many words used to describe God’s unyielding commitment to Israel: covenant, word, oath, confirm, commandment, a thousand generations, statute, everlasting covenant. A person has to have a terrible bias not to understand that God is assuring the Jewish people the perpetual right to the Land of Israel in the strongest possible language.

Fact #9. Israel’s sin and resulting exile from the Land of Israel never annulled God’s covenant with His Chosen People, nor did it permanently abrogate our right to the Land of Israel: “Yet in spite of this (Israel’s disobedience), when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God. But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors” – which includes the Land of Israel (Leviticus 26:44-45). Our exile from Israel was meant to be temporary! In Deuteronomy 30:1-5, Moses specifically predicted that we would experience a time of obedience and blessing within the Land, followed by a period of disobedience and exile from the Land, followed by spiritual restoration to God and physical restoration to the Land: “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the people where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the Earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. And the Lord your God will bring you into the Land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it.” It’s no coincidence that after two thousand years of exile, the Chosen People are being restored to the Land that our fathers possessed, and simultaneously, we are being spiritually restored to God through the Messiah, as is evidenced by the growth of the Messianic Jewish movement in Israel and around the world.

The Son of God Himself predicted that because the majority of Israel did not believe He was the Messiah, Jerusalem would be destroyed, and we would be exiled among the nations, but eventually, we would return to Israel (Luke 21:23-24). This prophecy began in 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed, and then again in 135 AD, when the Second Jewish Revolt against the Roman Empire was crushed. We were scattered to the nations, and lost political control of Jerusalem. However, over the past 2,000 years, there were always some Jewish people who remained in the Land of Israel. Starting in the 1880’s, this prophesied regathering of Jewish people to Israel picked up speed, and now there is a reborn nation of Israel, withJerusalem as its capital, with 5.3 million Jewish people regathered from more than 70 countries, just as Israel’s Messiah predicted.

Fact #10. In His prophetic Word, God promised to regather us to “our ownLand”: “I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own Land… And you will live in the Land that I gave to your forefathers” (Ezekiel 36:24, 28). Again Ezekiel predicts: “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own Land’” (Ezekiel 37:21). Jeremiah adds: “‘Behold days are coming’ declares the Lord, when it will no longer be said, “As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” but, “As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.” For I will restore them to their own Land which I gave to their fathers’” (Jeremiah 16:14-15). Ultimately this regathering to our own Land will be greater than the Exodus out of Egypt!

Fact #11. In His prophetic Word, God calls this restored Land “Israel” – not “Palestine”: “I will open up your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the Land of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:12). The name “Palestine” comes from the Philistines, the ancient enemies of the Jewish people. “Palestine” was the derogatory name given to the Land of Israel by the Romans after they conquered us. But throughout the Word of God, this Land is always called Israel – never Palestine.

Fact #12. God, speaking to us through the prophet Ezekiel, informs us that this Land is specifically reserved for the Jewish people: “You O mountains of Israel, you will put forth your branches and bear your fruit for My people Israel; for they will soon come. For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you will be cultivated and sown. I will multiply men on you, all the house of Israel, all of it; and the cities will be inhabited and the waste places will be rebuilt” (Ezekiel 36:8-10). 2,500 years ago Ezekiel told us that in the Last Days the Jewish people would be restored to our Land. The Land would begin to prosper and the Jewish population would greatly increase. In the past century these prophetic words have been coming to pass. The Land of Israel, which lay barren for centuries, has seen increasingnumbers of the sons of Israel returning to our ancient homeland, repopulating the cities and cultivating the Land.

Fact #13. 2,500 years ago the Lord also told us that the Jewish return to the Land would provoke a reaction from Israel’s neighbours: “Because the enemy has spoken against you “‘Aha’ and ‘The everlasting heights have become our possession’… Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who appropriated My Land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and scorn of soul, to drive it out as a prey” (Ezekiel 36:2-5). Even though the nations surrounding Israel would claim possession of the Land of Israel for themselves, and try to drive out its rightful Jewish inhabitants, God repudiates the claims of these nations. Even though the majority of the Jewish people were exiled from our Land (there always was a remnant of Jewish people who remained within Israel), that doesn’t give anyone else the right to claim the Land of Israel for themselves. If a landlord has some bad tenants that he evicts from his property, he does not expect anyone else to enter his vacant property and claim it for their own. Due to our sins, the Landlord of Israel evicted most of us from the Land, but that didn’t give the Romans, the Byzantines, the Crusaders, the Ottomans or the Arabs the right to claim God’s holy Land for themselves.

Fact #14. God will severely judge any nation who divides up any part of this special Land: “In those days and at that time when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of My people and My inheritance Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up My Land” (Joel 3:1-2). When Messiah Yeshua returns, the fortunes of the Jewish people will be fully restored, and the nations will be summoned to Jerusalem, where they will be judged for scattering the Jewish people and dividing up our Land.

Fact #15. Eventually this conflict over the Land of Israel will entangle the entire world: God, speaking through the prophet Zechariah in 12:1-3, in the Sixth Century BC, predicted: “Behold I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around” (the nations will react to the regathering of the Jewish people with senseless behaviour and irrational hatred); “and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah. And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples” (Israel’s Islamic neighbours want to destroy the hated “Zionist Entity” because the Islamic worldview teaches that the entire world will ultimately come under the control of Islam. A Jewish state in the midst of the Moslem Middle East is by its very existence an insult to Allah and Islam, and must be destroyed. Islam can have no true and lasting peace with Israel – only a temporary cease-fire. Hostilities will once again be renewed when Islamic strength is renewed. At its core, this is a religious conflict – not a political or economic one); “all who lift it will beseverely injured.” (The nations of the world will be drawn into this conflict and try to remove the Jewish presence from Jerusalem. However, be warned – every nation that tries to remove the Jewish people from our Land and capital city will be severely injured). “And all the nations of the Earth will be gathered against it.” (The world’s united nations will wage a final world war in the Middle East, directed against Israel). It’s amazing to see this 2,500-year-old prophetic scenario shaping up before our very eyes! Zechariah’s prophecy continues and informs us that the army of the united nations will be defeated; God will destroy all those nations that fight against Israel; Israel will be miraculously saved and recognize Yeshua as the Messiah!

Fact #16. This will be a time of great difficulty for the Jewish people, but we will be miraculously delivered out of it: “Alas! for that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved from it” (Jeremiah 30:7). The fires of anti-Semitism will reach their hottest point in the near future, but with God’s help, we will come through our fiery trials to a time of unparalleled salvation. Israel’s salvation and blessing will then overflow to the other nations of the world.

Sadly, many Christians won’t accept these facts because they accept “Replacement Theology,” the erroneous teaching that God is finished with the Jewish people, and has replaced Israel with the Church. Speaking to us through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord specifically warns against having a theology that denies Israel’s future destiny: “Have you not observed what this people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which the Lord chose, He has rejected them?’ Thus they despise My people, no longer are they as a nation in their sight. Thus says the Lord, ‘If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of Heaven and Earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from His descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them’” (Jeremiah 33:24-26). All of God’s promises to the Jewish people will literally be fulfilled! Christians must repudiate “Replacement Theology.” No one who claims to follow the Messiah ought to teach or believe that the Jewish people have been lost, destroyed, replaced, superseded, permanently set aside or continually exiled from our Land.

Don’t ignore the admonition given by Rabbi Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, specifically directed to Gentile Christians, which I paraphrase here: “do not be arrogant toward the natural branches, the Jewish people. God chose them to be the root of the Tree of Salvation. They support you – you don’t support or replace them! Only some of them were broken off from the Tree of Salvation – not all of them. Moreover, it is God’s plan to graft the entire Jewish nation back into the Tree of Salvation, so don’t be arrogant or conceited toward the Jewish people. Be respectful to them, lest God punish you! ” (Romans 11:17-24).

Someone observed that knowing that God will not break His covenant with the Jewish people, even in spite of our sins, should be reassuring to every Christian. If God broke His covenant with the Jewish people (which includes the Land of Israel) due to our sins, what about twenty centuries of Christian history? It’s true that there has been a faithful remnant within the Church, just as there has always been a faithful remnant of true Believers within Israel, but there has also been an endless succession of anti-Semitism, heresy, apostasy, greed, immorality, division, and ceaseless struggles for power and prominence within the visible Church. Professing Christians have subjected fellow Christians to torture and death in the name of Christ. If God can annul His covenant with Israel, then He can just as easily annul His covenant with the Church! But the faithful God will never break any of His covenants with Israel or the Church.

If you are a Christian you need to stand by Israel, and support Israel as much as possible. God’s ancient promise in Genesis 12:3 is still very much in effect: “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.” And God, speaking to Israel, promises, “Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonoured; those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish. You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them, those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent ” (Isaiah 41:11-12).

Christian churches should regularly pray “for the peace of Jerusalem,” asking God to send King Messiah back to Jerusalem, so He can rule on the throne of David, bringing peace to Israel and the other nations. There will never be peace in the Middle East, or on Earth, until Messiah Yeshua is ruling from Jerusalem over a restored Israel populated by Messianic Jews. We need to pray for our Arab brothers, that they too might come into relationship with the God of Israel through Messiah Yeshua.

Rather than persecuting us for the death of Yeshua, and engaging in any form of anti-Semitism, true Christians must reach out to the Jewish people with love and mercy, and help us find God and the Messiah. Because of the way that God has used Israel to bring salvation to the other nations, every true Christian is under a special obligation to help the Chosen People, who have stumbled, come into a right relationship with God, which includes Messiah Yeshua. Rabbi Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, declared: “Salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous” (Romans 11:11). True Christians should have compassion on us, love us and make us jealous of their relationship with the God of Israel. Your peace and joy, your love and mercy, and your knowledge of God and Messiah should challenge us to re-evaluate our rejection of Yeshua.

Finally, Christians need to support those who are reaching out to the Jewish people with the Good News about Messiah Yeshua, supporting those that not only bless Israel, but also bring us the Good News