by WF White
Israel and Iran. It is August 2012 and the war drums are beating yet again. As born again Christians, what should our position be?
Once again there is a lot of talk about Israel and a possible pre-emptive attack on Iran. There was similar talk going on several years ago, when Pastor John Hagee was calling for a pre-emptive attack on Iran, back in 2007. Let us stop and think about this for a few seconds at least. When planes are dispatched into the air, and bombs are dropped, then there is a great chance that many innocent civilians will be maimed for life, or even worse, simply killed. Do you remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan? What would Jesus, the Messiah and Son of God, do in such a situation as this? Would Jesus support Israel if they eventually considered the option to attack Iran, and followed through with it? I say no. Suppose it was reversed and Iran decided to attack Israel in similar fashion, would Jesus the Messiah support the attack? I say no. Listen to what Jesus had to say about his kingdom which is spiritual in nature:
Jesus answered, MY KINGDOM is NOT of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. (John 18:36)
You see that Jesus the Messiah, was very concerned for souls, (and we should be too) and he knew that any soul (Jewish or Gentile) who died without Jesus Christ would die in their sins, and spend an eternity in a very real place called Hell. Jesus was never partial in his dealings with people, and he certainly did not exalt his own Jewish people to a higher place than any other group of people. He wanted them to know and believe in him, and the message was “repent and believe the Gospel” (Mark 1:15). When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus, the Jewish ruler, he told him that it was necessary for him to be born again of the Spirit in order to enter the Kingdom of God. (John 3:1-8) It is sad, but the majority of Jewish people refused to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and are still outside his kingdom, and the scriptures are also very clear about that.
He came unto his own, and HIS OWN RECEIVED HIM NOT. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:11-12)
His own (Jewish people) did not receive his testimony, and therefore they rejected him. This is not something to be taken lightly, because the scripture tells us that those who RECEIVED Jesus, were the ones who became the sons (children) of God. That group includes any person, from any part of the world, and that also includes the people in Iran, as well as the people in Israel, and everywhere else. God loved all of those people enough, that he sent his Son to die for their sins (John 3:16-21, Romans 5:6-9, Isaiah 53:1-12) but they do have a choice as to whether they will RECEIVE Jesus for themselves. True salvation comes when a person realizes the desperate and lost condition of their own soul, and they call upon the Lord for salvation. (Romans 10:10-13)
Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come. Then said the Jews, Will he kill himself? because he saith, Whither I go, ye cannot come. And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for IF YE BELIEVE NOT that I AM HE, YE SHALL DIE IN YOUR SINS. (John 8:21-24)
When Jesus the Messiah spoke to his own Jewish people, he did not hold anything back, and here he tells them that that he was going to a place to which they could not come. He was talking about going back to Heaven (he was about to be killed), and he told them that if they did not believe in him (as Messiah) they would NOT be there. They would simply die in their sins and continue on into eternal darkness. At one of the CUFI (Christians United For Israel) events a few years ago U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, a religious Jewish man, compared Pastor John Hagee to Moses, and the leader of a great multitude. Senator Joseph Lieberman also referred to John Hagee as a true man of God. The only problem here is that Senator Joseph Lieberman does not belong to the group of people who have received the testimony of Jesus Christ. (John 1:11-12) Senator Joe still rejects Jesus as being the Messiah, and he has written a book co-authored by David Klinghoffer, another Jewish man who does not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. In fact Senator Joe mentioned Moses in his address to the people gathered at that CUFI convention, but if he truly believed Moses, then he would have received Jesus Christ! Listen to what Jesus told the Jewish people when he walked the earth:
Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuseth you, EVEN MOSES, in WHOM YE TRUST. For had ye believed MOSES, ye would have BELIEVED ME: for HE WROTE OF ME. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? (John 5:45-47)
I want you to notice something here. Senator Joe Lieberman and David Klinghoffer both reject Jesus as the Messiah, and they certainly have the freedom to make that choice, but according to the scriptures they are out of the will of the true and living God. I am still amazed that people such as Senator Lieberman are permitted to address Christians, who supposedly know that Jesus is the only way of salvation (John 14:6, Acts 4:10-12), and yet be whipped up into a frenzy, waving Jewish and American flags, when Pastor John Hagee and others call for a pre-emptive attack on Iran. I call that deception, and I call that seduction. Not only that, but the Bible tells us that those people who do not believe that Christ (Messiah) has come in the flesh, are of an anti-christ spirit! (1 John 2:18,22, 4:3, 2 John 1:7) So now we have people such as Senator Joe Lieberman, who clearly does not believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah) come in the flesh, speaking to “Christians” and applauding the efforts of people like John Hagee, in calling for a pre-emptive attack on Iran! My bible declares the following:
BE YE NOT UNEQUALLY YOKED together with UNBELIEVERS: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that BELIEVETH with an INFIDEL? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (2 Corinthians 6:14-16)
There are countless millions who are sitting in Christian churches who have been brainwashed (seduced and deceived) into believing that the Jewish people are somehow still in covenant with the true and living God, without Jesus Christ, as if there were two different plans of salvation. But that is not what the real Jesus Christ taught at all. Jesus knew that the prophets of old spoke and testified about his coming, and he was gracious enough to tell them that:
And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not. SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES; for in them YE THINK ye have ETERNAL LIFE: and they are they which TESTIFY OF ME. And YE WILL NOT COME TO ME, that ye might have LIFE. (John 5:37-40)
The scriptures in the Old Covenant (Testament) testify and speak about Jesus Christ. The Old Covenant spoke about the promises, and the New Covenant speaks about the FULFILLMENT in Jesus Christ.
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these LAST DAYS spoken unto us BY HIS SON, whom he hath appointed HEIR OF ALL THINGS, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; (Hebrews 1:1-3)
Did you catch that? God has been speaking to us by HIS SON for nearly two thousand years now. All people need to take heed to what the Son is proclaiming. If you reject the voice of the Son of God, then you reject salvation and heaven itself. There is not a postponement of God’s plan of salvation for the Jewish people. The wall of separation between Jew and Gentile has been knocked down at the cross of Christ. (Ephesians 2:11-22) The time of their visitation came almost two thousand years ago, and God is still calling them, and the rest of the world to repentance and faith in him. John the Baptist called the religious Jewish people of his time serpents (snakes), and he was not at all impressed with their claims to be “children of Abraham.”
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And THINK NOT to say within yourselves, WE HAVE ABRAHAM TO OUR FATHER: for I say unto you, that GOD IS ABLE of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. (Matthew 3:7-10)
The bottom line in this whole thing is that the true and living God, is not going to back an attack on a country simply because it is His “Chosen People” Israel doing the attacking, or simply because “Pastor America” declares that it is God’s will to attack! I do not know what is going to happen over there in the Middle East, but I somehow get the feeling that things might get out of hand if there is an attack. I even wonder if it was the providence of God, that there was a National Emergency Test held in our own country recently. The only thing that I do know for sure, is that when a person dies without Jesus Christ, they die without the hope, mercy, and grace that God so freely offered to them. (1 Corinthians 2:12)
He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that BELIEVETH NOT not God hath made him a LIAR; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:10-12)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is CONDEMNED ALREADY, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16-18)
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the WRATH OF GOD abideth on him. (John 3:36)
I saw a video news report some months ago about a family that purchased a home that was infested with snakes. It turns out that they signed off on a house that they knew had snakes on the outside, but they were unaware to the larger extent of the problem. It turns out that the snakes were living inside the walls of the whole house, and they could hear them crawling inside the walls. I listened to the heartbreaking account from the man who purchased the home with his wife, as he told the reporter that the water from the faucets tasted exactly like the smell of the snakes. Their own lawyers told them that they had little recourse because they had signed off on the snakes outside the home when they bought it. The modern day church, and it’s compromising “leaders” signed off on the snakes many decades ago, being totally unaware to the larger extent of the problem. The snakes (apostates and unbelievers) have slowly infested the whole “house of God” so to speak, to the extent that even the “water” flowing from the pulpits has the very same taste and smell, as the snakes that have infested it! Jesus the Messiah said this:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the CHILDREN OF THEM which KILLED THE PROPHETS. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. YE SERPENTS, (SNAKES)YE GENERATION OF VIPERS (SNAKES), how can ye escape THE DAMNATION OF HELL? (Matthew 23:29-33)
PEACEMAKERS 