Every time there is a conflict in or around Israel, many see it as a
sign of the quickly approaching end times. The problem with this is that
we may eventually tire of the conflict in Israel, so much so that we
will not recognize when true, prophetically significant events occur.
Conflict in Israel is not necessarily a sign of the end times.
Conflict in Israel has been a reality whenever Israel has existed as a
nation. Whether it was the Egyptians, Amalekites, Midianites, Moabites,
Ammonites, Amorites, Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, or
Romans, the nation of Israel has always been persecuted by its
neighbors. Why is this? According to the Bible, it is because God has a
special plan for the nation of Israel, and Satan wants to defeat that
plan. Satanically influenced hatred of Israel—and especially Israel’s
God—is the reason Israel’s neighbors have always wanted to see Israel
destroyed. Whether it is Sennacherib, king of Assyria; Haman, official
of Persia; Hitler, leader of Nazi Germany; or Rouhani, President of
Iran, attempts to completely destroy Israel will always fail. The
persecutors of Israel will come and go, but the persecution will remain
until the second coming of Christ. As a result, conflict in Israel is
not a reliable indicator of the soon arrival of the end times.
However, the Bible does say there will be terrible conflict in Israel
during the end times. That is why the time period is known as the
Tribulation, the Great Tribulation, and the “time of Jacob’s trouble”
(Jeremiah 30:7). Here is what the Bible says about Israel in the end
times:
There will be a mass return of Jews to the land of Israel (Deuteronomy 30:3; Isaiah 43:6; Ezekiel 34:11-13; 36:24; 37:1-14).
The Antichrist will make a 7-year covenant of "peace" with Israel (Isaiah 28:18; Daniel 9:27).
The temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4; Revelation 11:1).
The Antichrist will break his covenant with Israel, and worldwide
persecution of Israel will result (Daniel 9:27; 12:1, 11; Zechariah
11:16; Matthew 24:15, 21; Revelation 12:13). Israel will be invaded
(Ezekiel chapters 38-39).
Israel will finally recognize Jesus as their Messiah (Zechariah 12:10).
Israel will be regenerated, restored, and regathered (Jeremiah 33:8;
Ezekiel 11:17; Romans 11:26).
There is much turmoil in Israel today. Israel is persecuted, surrounded
by enemies—Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Hamas, Islamic
Jihad, Hezbollah, etc. But this hatred and persecution of Israel is only
a hint of what will happen in the end times (Matthew 24:15-21). The
latest round of persecution began when Israel was reconstituted as a
nation in 1948. Many Bible prophecy scholars believed the six-day
Arab-Israeli war in 1967 was the "beginning of the end." Could what is
taking place in Israel today indicate that the end is near? Yes. Does it
necessarily mean the end is near? No. Jesus Himself said it best,
"Watch out that no one deceives you. . . . You will hear of wars and
rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must
happen, but the end is still to come" (Matthew 24:4-6).
Recommended Resources:
Understanding End Times Prophecy by Paul Benware and Logos Bible Software.
Gluttony seems to be a sin that Christians like to ignore. We are often
quick to label smoking and drinking as sins, but for some reason
gluttony is accepted or at least tolerated. Many of the arguments used
against smoking and drinking, such as health and addiction, apply
equally to overeating. Many believers would not even consider having a
glass of wine or smoking a cigarette but have no qualms about gorging
themselves at the dinner table. This should not be!
Proverbs 23:20-21 warns us, “Do not join those who drink too much wine
or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and
drowsiness clothes them in rags.” Proverbs 28:7 declares, “He who keeps
the law is a discerning son, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his
father.” Proverbs 23:2 proclaims, “Put a knife to your throat if you are
given to gluttony.”
Physical appetites are an analogy of our ability to control ourselves.
If we are unable to control our eating habits, we are probably also
unable to control other habits, such as those of the mind (lust,
covetousness, anger) and unable to keep our mouths from gossip or
strife. We are not to let our appetites control us, but we are to have
control over our appetites. (See Deuteronomy 21:20, Proverbs 23:2, 2
Peter 1:5-7, 2 Timothy 3:1-9, and 2 Corinthians 10:5.) The ability to
say “no” to anything in excess—self-control—is one of the fruits of the
Spirit common to all believers (Galatians 5:22).
God has blessed us by filling the earth with foods that are delicious,
nutritious, and pleasurable. We should honor God's creation by enjoying
these foods and by eating them in appropriate quantities. God calls us
to control our appetites, rather than allowing them to control us.
Recommended Resources:
Fatal Distractions: Conquering Destructive Temptations by Arthur, Lawson, & Lawson and Logos Bible Software.
The dictionary defines a martyr as “a person who is killed because of
his religious or other beliefs.” Interestingly enough, the English word martyr is really a word transliterated from the original Greek martur,
which simply means “witness.” The reason why this word became
synonymous with dying for one’s religious beliefs is that the early
Christian witnesses were often persecuted and/or killed for their
witness.
As evidence of this, consider the story of the first Christian martyr,
Stephen, recorded in Acts 6:8–7:53. After being anointed as one of the
first deacons in the church, Stephen immediately began doing mighty
works among the people. As is usually the case when the Holy Spirit is
mightily at work and the gospel is going forth, the forces of darkness
arise to hinder the work of the kingdom. In this case, several men came
to dispute what Stephen was saying, but Stephen, filled with the Holy
Spirit, was able to refute their criticisms. Rather than accept what
Stephen was teaching, these men brought false charges against him to the
Jewish leaders (Acts 6:11-14). Most of Acts 7 consists of Stephen’s
speech to the Jewish leaders in which he essentially summarized the
history of Israel up to their rejection of their Messiah.
At the end of the speech, Stephen utters these words, which seal his
fate: “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you
always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of
the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who
announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now
betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels
and did not keep it” (Acts 7:51-53).
Now, there was nothing untrue in Stephen’s words. The Jewish leaders
were indeed responsible for turning Jesus over to the Romans for
execution. Despite Jesus’ miracles and authoritative teaching, the
hardness of the Jewish leaders’ hearts kept them from seeing the truth
about Jesus. The Jewish leaders, upon hearing Stephen’s words, were
enraged and immediately arranged for Stephen’s execution by stoning (v.
58). Stephen was, therefore, the first Christian martyr recorded in
Scripture.
The Bible places a premium on faithful believers who pay the ultimate
price for their witness. Stephen was granted a glorious vision of heaven
before he died, and in this vision, he saw Jesus standing at the right
hand of the Father (Acts 7:56) as though waiting for Stephen in an
attitude of honor for Stephen’s faithful service. As further evidence
that martyrs are considered precious in God’s sight, the apostle John
saw in his vision of the millennium those martyred for their faith
reigning with Christ for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4). The apostle
Peter, who wrote the most about martyrdom and suffering for one’s
faith, said, “If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are
blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you... However, if
you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you
bear that name” (1 Peter 4:14, 16). There is also the word of our Lord
who pronounced a blessing upon those who are persecuted for His name:
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say
all kinds of evil against you because of me” (Matthew 5:11).
Clearly, the biblical evidence points to the fact that those who are
persecuted and suffer for their witness to Christ (up to and including
death) are pleasing in God’s sight. Given that, two additional questions
arise. First, what if I’m not asked to make the ultimate sacrifice for
the cause of Christ? God doesn’t call everyone to make the ultimate
sacrifice, but the Bible calls all Christians to be prepared to give a
defense of the hope within us (1 Peter 3:15). The key to this passage
lies in preparedness. Consider this analogy: those enlisting in the
armed services should do so with the understanding that they may be
called into battle and may be called upon to die in the service of their
country. This is (or should be) the mindset of everyone who joins the
military. Clearly, not all enlisted men and women die in the service of
their country, and not all are even called into battle. Despite this,
they are trained daily to be prepared for battle. The same goes for the
Christian. We are in a state of “warfare” (Ephesians 6:12-20), and our
Lord may call upon any of us to witness and even be martyred for our
faith. Thus, we must be prepared!
The second question that can be asked is, given martyrdom’s “special”
status in God’s eyes, should we actually seek martyrdom? Biblically, we
can’t make a case for seeking to be martyrs for the cause of Christ.
Martyrdom is a great privilege if it is inevitable, but it is not to be
sought. Jesus said, “When they persecute you in one town, flee to the
next” (Matthew 10:23). Furthermore, reading through the book of Acts, we
see that the early church continually fled from intense persecution
(Acts 8:1; 9:25, 30; 14:6; 17:10, 14). In each of these biblical
examples, we see the early Christians fleeing persecution and taking all
necessary precautions for survival. When Jesus says, “Whoever finds his
life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it”
(Matthew 10:39), He is not calling for people to make an attempt to
lose their lives. Rather, He is calling us to be willing to lose
our lives for His sake. Those who actively seek the path of martyrdom
are not seeking it for the glory of God, but for their own glory. As the
old saying goes, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.
God’s purpose in martyrdom is the glorification of His name and the
building up of His church.
Recommended Resources:
Foxe's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe and Logos Bible Software.
All the various forms of modern idolatry have one thing at their core:
self. We no longer bow down to idols and images. Instead we worship at
the altar of the god of self. This brand of modern idolatry takes
various forms.
First, we worship at the altar of materialism which feeds our need to
build our egos through the acquisition of more “stuff.” Our homes are
filled with all manner of possessions. We build bigger and bigger houses
with more closets and storage space in order to house all the things we
buy, much of which we haven’t even paid for yet. Most of our stuff has
“planned obsolescence” built into it, making it useless in no time, and
so we consign it to the garage or other storage space. Then we rush out
to buy the newest item, garment or gadget and the whole process starts
over. This insatiable desire for more, better, and newer stuff is
nothing more than covetousness. The tenth commandment tells us not to
fall victim to coveting: "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You
shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant,
his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor" (Exodus
20:17). God doesn’t just want to rain on our buying sprees. He knows we
will never be happy indulging our materialistic desires because it is
Satan’s trap to keep our focus on ourselves and not on Him.
Second, we worship at the altar of our own pride and ego. This often
takes the form of obsession with careers and jobs. Millions of men—and
increasingly more women—spend 60-80 hours a week working. Even on the
weekends and during vacations, our laptops are humming and our minds are
whirling with thoughts of how to make our businesses more successful,
how to get that promotion, how to get the next raise, how to close the
next deal. In the meantime, our children are starving for attention and
love. We fool ourselves into thinking we are doing it for them, to give
them a better life. But the truth is we are doing it for ourselves, to
increase our self-esteem by appearing more successful in the eyes of the
world. This is folly. All our labors and accomplishments will be of no
use to us after we die, nor will the admiration of the world, because
these things have no eternal value. As King Solomon put it, “For a man
may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave
all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is
meaningless and a great misfortune. What does a man get for all the toil
and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? All his days
his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This
too is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 2:21-23).
Third, we idolize mankind—and by extension ourselves—through naturalism
and the power of science. This gives us the illusion that we are lords
of our world and builds our self-esteem to godlike proportions. We
reject God’s Word and His description of how He created the heavens and
the earth, and we accept the nonsense of evolution and naturalism. We
embrace the goddess of environmentalism and fool ourselves into thinking
we can preserve the earth indefinitely when God has declared the earth
has a limited lifespan and will last only until the end of the age. At
that time, He will destroy all that He has made and create a new heaven
and new earth. “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The
heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by
fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since
everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you
to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the
day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the
destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the
heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new
heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Peter 3:10-13). As
this passage so clearly states, our focus should not be on worshipping
the environment, but on living holy lives as we wait eagerly for the
return of our Lord and Savior, who alone deserves worship.
Finally, and perhaps most destructively, we worship at the altar of
self-aggrandizement or the fulfillment of the self to the exclusion of
all others and their needs and desires. This manifests itself in
self-indulgence through alcohol, drugs, and food. Those in affluent
countries have unlimited access to alcohol, drugs (prescription drug use
is at an all-time high, even among children), and food. Obesity rates
in the U.S. have skyrocketed, and childhood diabetes brought on by
overeating is epidemic. The self-control we so desperately need is
spurned in our insatiable desire to eat, drink, and medicate more and
more. We resist any effort to get us to curb our appetites, and we are
determined to make ourselves the god of our lives. This has its origin
in the Garden of Eden where Satan tempted Eve to eat of the tree with
the words “you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5). This has been man’s
desire ever since—to be god and, as we have seen, the worship of self is
the basis of all modern idolatry.
All idolatry of self has at its core the three lusts found in 1 John
2:16: “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the
world.” If we are to escape modern idolatry, we have to admit that it
is rampant and reject it in all its forms. It is not of God, but of
Satan, and in it we will never find fulfillment. This is the great lie
and the same one Satan has been telling since he first lied to Adam and
Eve. Sadly, we are still falling for it. Even more sadly, many churches
are propagating it in the preaching of the health, wealth, and
prosperity gospel built on the idol of self-esteem. But we will never
find happiness focusing on ourselves. Our hearts and minds must be
centered on God and on others. This is why when asked what is the
greatest commandment, Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew
22:37). When we love the Lord and others with everything that is in us,
there will be no room in our hearts for idolatry.
Recommended Resources:
No Gods But God: Confronting Our Moder
Genesis 1:1–2 states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the
surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the
waters.” The gap theory is the view that God created a fully functional
earth with all animals, including the dinosaurs and other creatures we
know only from the fossil record. Then, the theory goes, something
happened to destroy the earth completely—most likely the fall of Satan
to earth—so that the planet became without form and void. At this point,
God started all over again, recreating the earth in its paradise form
as further described in Genesis. The gap theory, which is distinct from theistic evolution and the day-age theory, is also called old-earth creationism, gap creationism, and the ruin-reconstruction theory.
In young-earth
creationism, Genesis 1:1 is seen as a summary of the complete chapter 1
in the Hebrew storytelling form. God created the heavens and the earth.
Then verse 2 begins a detailed breakdown of the step-by-step process
that verse 1 summarizes. However, the statement that “the earth was
formless and empty, [and] darkness was over the surface of the deep”
(Genesis 1:2) can be puzzling. The idea that God created a useless and
shapeless earth is an uncomfortable position for some conservative
theologians, and this leads them to the gap theory, or an old-earth
perspective.
According to conservative proponents of the gap theory, Genesis 1:1
describes the original creation of God—perfect in every way. Then,
between verses 1 and 2, Satan rebelled in heaven and was cast out.
Satan’s sin “ruined” the original creation; that is, his rebellion
brought about its destruction and eventual death, and the earth was
reduced to its “formless and empty” state, ready for the
“re-construction.” The length of time involved—the size of the “gap”—is
not specified but could have lasted millions of years.
Of course, Satan must have fallen before Adam did; otherwise, there
would have been no temptation in the garden. Young-earth creationists
say that Satan fell sometime after Genesis 1:31. Gap creationists say
that Satan fell between Genesis 1:1 and 2.
One difficulty of the gap theory is that it requires that creation suffer death and destruction before
Adam’s fall. Romans 5:12 says, “Sin entered the world through one man,
and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because
all sinned.” The gap theory counters by positing two worlds.
Satan’s sin brought death to the original creation, whatever that was
like; and Adam’s sin brought death to the re-creation, the realm of
mankind. Through Adam’s sin, evil entered our world and the realm of man
was cursed. But rebellion already existed outside the realm of mankind
(in the spiritual realm), since Satan and his angels had already fallen
(Isaiah 14:12–14; Ezekiel 28:12–18). Sin could not enter the realm of
man until man chose it. And Satan, via the serpent, successfully tempted
man to make that choice.
Objections to the gap theory include the idea that, if something
important had occurred between Genesis 1:1 and 2, God would have told us
so, rather than leave us to speculate in ignorance. Also, Genesis 1:31
says God declared His creation to be “very good”—a statement difficult
to square with the theory that evil already existed because of Satan’s
fall in the “gap.”
It is possible to hold to a literal, six-day creation week and still
hold to the gap theory—the gap theory does not require evolution to be
true, since the gap falls before the events of Day One in Genesis 1:3.
And that’s why some conservative scholars do believe the gap theory,
although its acceptance has waned since the days of proponents C. I.
Scofield and J. Vernon McGee.
However, many of those who hold to the gap theory do so in order to
reconcile old-earth, evolutionary theories with the book of Genesis. But
it seems to be a strained reconciliation. The plain reading of Genesis 1
does not at all intimate a length of time between the first two verses.
Genesis 1:1 tells us that God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:2 informs us that, when He first created the earth, it was
formless, empty, and dark; it was unfinished and uninhabited. The rest
of Genesis 1 relates how God completed the formless, empty, and dark
earth by filling it with life, beauty, and goodness.
Recommended Resources:
The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel and Logos Bible Software.
