6 June 2010: It's has been quite amazing for the past week to just sit back and witness the events off the coast of Israel, events which have caused many to suddenly forget about the much written about impending war between Israel and the "inner ring" of Arab Islamic enemies surrounding her.
It seems the whole world has now shifted its collective focus onto a resurgent Islamist Turkey, mind you a nation which is still a full member in good standing of the US/European NATO military alliance, and the potential for a military confrontation between Israel and Turkey. This theme has gone so far as to cause many gentiles to fawn over a group of Rabbis who think these events off Israel's coastline are a foreshadowing of Ezekiel's prophesied battle of Gog/Magog.
I, for one, am not buying into this newspaper exegesis. The prophetic Word of God reveals the truth of the matter, key verses coming from the prophet Daniel as imparted to him by the angel Gabriel, re-iterated in detail by the Lord Jesus Christ, spoken off by the Holy Spirit-filled Apostle Paul and end-capped by God the father Himself to Christ and to John on Patmos in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. These prophetic words, discussed at length on this blog, are what is true and what ultimately must take place.
It seems to me that Israel's blockade and quarantine of Gaza is militarily and diplomatically untenable in the long-term with an anticipated intervention in these blockade-running events by both Turkey's armed forces and the Islamic Republic of Iran's IRGC regular forces. A simple and quite possibly very necessary solution would be for Israel to send in the IDF to eliminate Hamas and the terrorist infrastructure and re-impose Israeli sovereignty over the whole of the Gaza Strip. Any foreign intervention thereafter in Gaza would be considered as an act of war under international law. Such an Israeli action could also very well precipitate the final act of the Psalm 83 war, wherein the Arab League determines to invoke its "final solution" upon Israel, as it originally attempted during 1947/48.
It is to this errant Jewish eschatological view that I address, for the sake of our awareness, the remainder of this blog entry with some studied observations.
The Third Temple MUST be erected on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Between now and then, the whole of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount will remain under full Israeli sovereignty until the mid-point of Daniel's 70th Week when the "abomination that makes desolate is set up" by the False Prophet specifically for the worship of "the Lawless One", the Antichrist, who will have suffered a mortal head wound (assassination attempt?) and yet will live, re-animated by the Satanic demon Apollyon/Abaddon.
From that the specific point of the setting up the abomination and the end of the daily sacrifice forward to 42 months, all of Jerusalem and the outer-court of the Temple will be over-taken by the Antichrist and trod underfoot by Gentiles. This is to say that the Antichrist, the one whom many of the Jews will accept as their long-awaited Mashiach, a man who must be of the line of David for the Jews to accept him, and hence his Jewish title "Mashiach ben David;" is the man who comes in his own name as prophesied by our Lord Jesus Christ. This false messiah will have under his sovereign control at this point the both the city of Jerusalem and the Temple on the Mount, while the outer court will be under the control of the gentiles, "the people of the prince" - the Romans - the population from which Antichrist will arise in the near future. (Daniel 12:11 & Matthew 24:15-32)
Clearly, the prophetic Word of God says nothing about the division of Jerusalem or of the Temple Mount until that point at the middle of Daniel's 70th Week. The modern State of Israel shall not lose, relinquish or cede control of Jerusalem or any portion of Temple Mount between right now and that point in the middle of Daniel's 70th Week. These places are freely taken from Israel by the "people of the prince," the Beast, and the False Prophet. Coming events will make these things increasingly clear as prophecy is fulfilled regarding Psalm 83, Isaiah 17, Zechariah 9, Joshua 13, among others, while we are en route to Daniel's 70th Week.
Given recent events, there are some who propose that President Obama might be the Antichrist. I believe that Obama cannot be the Antichrist. He is not, from our Biblical perspective, a descendant of the "people of the prince," nor can he be accepted by the Jews (as prophesied by Jesus Christ) simply because he is not of the lineage of King David, via King Solomon's progeny from the Jewish eschatological perspective. In fact, Obama does not even qualify to be the immediate predecessor false and pseudo-messiah the Jews are awaiting, the one known as Mashiach ben Yosef. The Jews believe this Mashiach ben Yosef will lead Israel militarily and ultimately is prophesied to die in the Battle of Gog/Magog (Ezekiel 38/39), which itself is a major event immediately preceeding the Messianic Redemption of Israel. Make note here that this Mashiach ben Yosef will be a man who is a descendent of the 10 northen tribes of Israel, the tribes of Joseph, and not of the Tribe of Judah, and therefore not of the lineage of Kings David and Solomon.
The Jews believe that following Mashiach ben Joseph's death during the Ezekiel 38/39 Gog/Magog battle Mashiach ben David (the Antichrist) will rise up and will lead the rebuilding of the Third Temple. Rebuilding of this Temple is one of the key items that Jews await, it is rebuilding of the Temple which serves to point to this man as being the Jews long-awaited Mashiach and their final redemption. We know differently, yet this is what the majority of Judaism believes and fully expects will take place in the near future.
Image courtesy of JC Watchman
