(OPINION) WND – I have always been a strong supporter of Israel. This is not because I always agree with its secular leadership, which is often as corrupt as America’s on seminal biblical issues like child-killing and sodomy, but because the Bible makes clear that Israel is an intact nation-state at the time of Christ’s return.
Jesus said in the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) that we would know the season of His return by the revival of the fig tree – the primary biblical symbol of the House of Judah per Jeremiah 24 and many other passages. It is the House of Judah (defined by the practice of Judaism) that occupies that relatively small portion of the Holy Land God promised to Abraham, which is today called Israel.
Eventually, the House of Israel (defined in the Age of the Gentiles by the practice of Christianity) will be restored there as well on an equal basis, according to a little-recognized but pervasive theme of Old Testament prophecy about the last days.
Between now and then, the Antichrist will emerge (2 Thessalonians 2), establish a short-lived kingdom-of-evil based in Israel (Revelation 11) and trigger the outpouring of God’s wrath by setting up the “Abomination that Causes Desolation” in the “Holy Place” (Matthew 24:15). Most scholars identify the “Holy Place” as the long-anticipated Third Temple of Jerusalem.
In my four trips to Israel, including a church tour I led in 2017, I have twice toured the Temple Institute, which is dedicated to ensuring the temple is built and has (to precise biblical standards) 1) prepared all of the implements that will be used there, 2) built the altar, and 3) trained Levite priests identified by genetic testing.
I think the consensus of Christian prophecy watchers today is that we’re very close to that final phase, especially as we watch the secular-controlled Israeli government lead the world in forced “vaccinations,” in direct and shocking contravention of the post-Holocaust Nuremberg Code and against the vehement objection of our spiritual first-cousins, Orthodox Jews.
It would seem that the scene is set, and we are awaiting only the building of the temple before “the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness – the son of destruction – is revealed … [who] will seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12). READ MORE
