A dear Jewish friend asked me this question. He asked me to answer the question as a theologian. This is my brief response to a complex issue.

Before we can understand why these people celebrate death, we must first realize that all “gods” are not the same. I know this is not politically correct, but we must have the moral clarity to see things for what they are and the moral courage to “speak the truth in love.” We do not all worship the same deity. While the world uses the word “God” in the generic sense, to Jews and Christians, there is only One True God – the God of the Bible.

The God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Israel, has clearly revealed Himself by His name. He has done this, not only to reveal His nature and character, but also to distinguish Himself from other spirit beings that the world also calls “god.” The reality is that the God of the Bible (HASHEM) is different from the “god” of Islam.

The Koran confirms this with these words, “Say: Unbelievers (Jews and Christians), I do not worship what you worship, nor do you worship what I worship. I shall never worship what you worship, nor will you ever worship what I worship. You have your own religion, and I have mine” (Surah 109:1-6).

While the God of the Bible celebrates life (L’ Chayim), the god of Islam is a spirit being that celebrates death. In the Bible, this spirit being is called the Prince of Persia, modern Iran (Daniel 10:13). It was the Moon God in ancient Babylon, modern Iraq, which is why the crescent moon is the symbol of Islam atop every mosque.

This being, now called A-ah, symbolized by the crescent moon, celebrates death because of its hatred of the God of the Bible. Since this being cannot kill the One True God, it manifests its hatred of God primarily towards Jews and Christians as well as professing cultural Muslims who are less observant and do not share the same hatred nor fully understand the nature of their religion.

We are constantly told that most Muslims are peaceful. That may be true, but let’s look at the numbers. There are about one billion Muslims in the world. Surveys indicate that a large number of Muslims believe in forcing Islamic sharia law on Christians and Jews and killing the infidel if they do not convert. While the number is really much larger, let’s say that only twenty per cent of Muslims are radicalized Islamists. This means that only 200 million people want to kill those (you and me) who don’t agree with them. Does this make you feel safer?

When Jews and Christians devote themselves to the God of the Bible, they take on His nature and character which is love and life. When Muslim Fundamentalists devote themselves to the spirit god of Islam, they take on its nature of hate and death. Furthermore, they believe their Mahdi (Messiah) can only be revealed when the world is in great turmoil. So they create the turmoil to prepare the way for the Mahdi and a world-wide Islamic kingdom called the Caliphate. This is the goal of ISIS. They are the “Koran Keeping” Muslims and true spiritual descendants of Mohammed following in his footsteps.

Since this conflict is spiritual in nature, it is impossible to understand the depths of this evil and hatred with our natural, reasoning mind. The politicians, news media and secularists will never understand this. Islamists hatred comes from the spirit being they worship. The more they are devoted to this spirit, the more its hate penetrates their soul to the point that they kill themselves and everyone else in the name of their god.

This celebration of death is an act of worship to A-ah, which is why these people give glory to A-ah (A-ah Akbar) when they kill people. This is not just my opinion. It is the proven reality stated in the Koran and acted out by their deeds. While they constantly deny this, they prove it with their very acts of violence. They deny they are violent by acting violent. Because of the violent spiritual nature of this enemy, you cannot compromise with it, make “nice with it,” or make political concessions to it. The only language it understands is force and strength.

I wish I could say these folk who celebrate death in the name of their god do not represent Islam. Unfortunately this is not true. One only has to read the Koran to discover the source of their hatred. As one example of many, “I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers (Jews and Christians), smite them above their necks (cut off their heads) and smite all their fingertips off them. It was not you who slew them; it was A-ah” (Surah 8: 12,17).

Mohammed set the example early on in the year 627 of our era when he and his followers brutally beheaded nine hundred Jews from Medina because they refused to acknowledge him. At that time, Medina was primarily a Jewish city. Mohammed fled to Medina from Mecca and was accepted as a “refugee” fleeing persecution. When he got strong enough, he took over the city and killed everyone who disagreed with him. This is what Europe and America can expect today from Mohammed’s spiritual descendants.

In the Hadith, Mohammed says, “The last hour will not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: ‘Muslim, or the servant of A-ah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him’” (Hadith Sahih Muslim Book 041, Number 6985). This hatred of the infidels is also seen in the jihad cry, “Today we fight the Saturday people, tomorrow the Sunday people.”

Of course this hatred of Jews, and later Christians, is not new. It is not caused by a few pioneering “settlers” in Israel. It has been around since the Almighty first called Abraham and separated his natural seed through Isaac and Jacob to be His covenant people. The prophet Ezekiel calls it an ancient hatred (Ezekiel 35:5).

But there is hope. The One True God will soon destroy the source of this hatred, at which time He will be acknowledged by the nations (Zechariah 2:8). There will be shalom on the earth and in the hearts of people everywhere. Nations will beat their swords into ploughshares and study war no more.

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a covenant-keeping God. He will redeem the world as promised by the prophets of old. Until then, Jews and Christians must stop fighting each other over their differences that only the Almighty can reconcile. We must awaken to this threat and learn, pray and act (do something). We must stand together against our common enemy or we may find ourselves standing alone.

While the New Testament records the birth of Jesus, it does not record the specific date of His birth. Unlike modern times, people in Bible times, and for the first three centuries, did not celebrate birthdays because that was a pagan custom. So how did we decide on the birth date of Jesus?

When Antiochus desecrated the Temple by offering a swine on the holy altar of God in 167BC, he chose December 25 as the date because this was the birthday of Zeus. Zeus was the high god of Greece and considered the incarnation of the sun. Together with his goddess-mother, Rhea (the Queen of Heaven), they represented the Greek version of the mother/child cult of Babylon.

December 25th was the winter solstice, when days began to lengthen. In view of this, the ancient world of pagan sun-worshippers celebrated December 25 as the birthday of the sun. For example, to the Romans, Zeus was known as Jupiter. He was the Roman high god of the sun. The Romans celebrated December 25th (the birthday of Zeus/Jupiter) as Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, “the Day of the Nativity of the Unconquered Sun.”

In the fourth century of our era, after Constantine “Christianized” Rome, he chose December 25 as the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus so that the pagan Romans would accept the new Christian religion of Rome. Constantine, himself a sun-worshipper, may have believed Jesus to be an incarnation of Jupiter, the sun god. Because of the obvious pagan origins, many segments of Christianity condemned the observance of December 25 due to its connection to sun worship. In fact, our Pilgrim Fathers did not celebrate Christmas knowing that is was a pagan holiday that Rome had Christianized.

So when was Jesus born? It is possible that Jesus was conceived during Hanukkah. According to Luke 1:5, Zecharias was a priest of the division of Abijah. Luke 1:8 says that Gabriel appeared to Zecharias when he was serving as a priest in the temple. Based on Rabbinic writings and 1 Chronicles 24:10, the division of Abijah served as priests during the second half of the fourth month on the Jewish religious calendar. This was late June when Elizabeth conceived John the Baptist. This would mean that John the Baptist was born the next year around Passover.

According to Luke 1:24-26, Mary conceived Jesus in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. This means that Jesus was conceived during the latter part of the Jewish month of Kislev, or late December on the Gentile calendar. Jesus was born nine months later, most likely at the Feast of Trumpets, Yom Teruah.

By-the-way, John the Baptist was not a Baptist, Mary was not a Catholic and Jesus was not a Christian. THEY WERE ALL JEWS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

This year, the eight days of Hanukkah are celebrated the evening of December 6 through December 14.  While Hanukkah has always been considered a Jewish holiday, Christians should also celebrate Hanukkah to commemorate the great victory of the Jews over Antiochus Epiphanes in 164 as recorded in First Maccabaeus. Without that victory the Jews would have perished and Jesus would not have been born. This is definitely a holiday Jews and Christians can and should celebrate together.

Three years earlier (167), Antiochus desecrated the holy altar of God at the Temple in Jerusalem by offering a pig as a sacrifice to Zeus. This was on December 25, the birthday of Zeus, who was the Greek high god and thought to be the incarnation of the sun. This was also the supposed birthday of many ancient pagan gods which is why Rome decreed it to be the birthday of Jesus. For this reason, our Pilgrim Fathers did not celebrate Christmas.

Antiochus forbade the Jewish people to practice their religion. They could not practice circumcision, observe the Sabbath, celebrate the feasts, keep the dietary laws, study the Torah, or in any way, worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Those who disobeyed were either tortured or killed or both. Their bodies were mutilated, and while still alive and breathing, they were crucified. The wives and sons whom they had circumcised were strangled. They were then crucified with the dead bodies of their children made to hang around their parent’s necks.

Although greatly outnumbered, and fighting the superpower of their time, God gave the Maccabaeus a great victory. They liberated Jerusalem, tore down the pagan altar, cleansed the Temple and reestablished their religious practices. Traditional writings tell us that when the Jews rededicated the altar to God they only had enough oil to burn the menorah for one day. But after the menorah was kindled, it miraculously burned for eight days, thus, the eight days of Hanukkah.

Hanukkah is called the Feast of Dedication and the Feast of Lights. Jesus celebrated this feast (John 10:22), which certainly makes it “kosher” for Christians. In fact, Jesus was probably conceived by the Holy Spirit at Hanukkah and born during the Feast of Tabernacles.

The central focus in celebrating Hanukkah is lighting the eight-branched menorah called a hanukkiah. The hanukkiah has a ninth candle called a Shamash. This word means servant. The servant candle is used to light the other eight. May we all be filled with the light of God’s love and be His living hanukkiah servants to a very dark world. And may we have the faith and courage to fight against the darkness that would distinguish our light.

General Edmund Allenby

Now let’s fast forward from the time of the Maccabaeus to 1917. Turkey has ruled over Jerusalem for 400 years from 1517. But just as in the time of Antiochus, God had a plan to overthrow Turkey and liberate Jerusalem so that one day the Jews would be able to return to their ancient capital. The man he chose was General Edmund Allenby.

General Allenby was a God fearing Christian general in the British army. He led the liberation of Jerusalem from the Turks that would bring an end to four hundred years of Muslim control of Jerusalem. The Turks surrendered to Allenby on December 9 and he entered in triumphant on December 11. Before entering Jerusalem, Allenby dismounted from his horse and walked in because he said that only the Messiah should ride in triumphant in the final liberation and redemption of Jerusalem.

Now get this! As a Christian boy in England, his mother taught young Edmund to end his bedtime prayers with these words, “And, O Lord, we would not forget your ancient people, Israel. Hasten the day when Israel shall again be your people and shall be restored to your favor and to their land.” Allenby said, “I never knew God would give me the privilege of answering my own childhood prayer.”

Was it just a coincidence that Allenby was the man who liberated Jerusalem or was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob orchestrating these events?

Was it just a coincidence that Allenby, the Christian General Maccabean of WWI, liberated Jerusalem DURING THE FEAST OF HANUKKAH or was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob orchestrating these events?

HAPPY HANUKKAH!

Now We Know Why

A day that will live in infamy – November 13, 2015 is France’s equivalent to America’s 9/11. In a series of attacks, ISIS terrorists murdered over one hundred innocent civilians and wounded over two hundred. It was a well-planned attack in several different venues including a soccer stadium, a restaurant, and Bataclan, a theater and concert hall. Bataclan was the primary target. But why Bataclan?

For forty years, Bataclan was owned by two Jews – Pascal and Joel Laloux. How about that? They sold the theater to new owners on September 2015. The Jewish owners of Bataclan often held pro-Israel events at the theater including fundraising for the Israeli army. Now we know why it was targeted.

As far back as 2008, radical Islamists threatened to attack the theater. This was years before the current military action against ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

A video (www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk) has recently surfaced showing about ten young masked pro-Palestinian Paris radicals warning the owners to stop their pro-Israel events or they would be attacked.

In the video, the group of men is speaking to the doorman at the theater. They demand to speak to the owners and inform him that they are youth from several districts in the suburbs of Paris and that they support the Palestinian people. They tell the doorman that they are unhappy with the Bataclan’s owners for allowing the venue to be used every year for fundraising for the Israeli army, which they accuse of being racist.

The spokesman continues, “Many people in the neighborhoods are unhappy of this provocation. To raise funds for the Magav, a branch of the Israeli army which committed crimes in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank, these people who eliminate Palestinian women. It is clearly shameful and an outrage to many people who are angered by the injustice in Palestine.”

Their message to the owners is that they will be held responsible for their actions as will the organization having the fundraising event, which it calls “Islamophobic, insulting all the time Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.”

They further threaten the owners with these words, “You will pay for your actions. That’s very serious what you are doing. And this is a message for all those who are preoccupied by the implications of the provocations. You must know that things are moving in our neighborhoods. Today, it’s nice but firm. But you must know that, with all the people we have behind us, we won’t be able to contain them for a long time. We came here to pass along a small message. Be warned. The next time, we won’t be coming here to talk.”

In 2011, another group called the Army of Islam threatened the theater because its owners were Jews.

Of course we can expect more of these terrorist incidents in Europe, Britain and America. We are in a battle of civilizations – the West that has a Judeo-Christian worldview, or Islam which opposes everything Judeo-Christian.

Tragically, the West, including America, has turned away from its Judeo-Christian values. We are in a post-Judeo-Christian secular world. Perhaps Islam is God’s judgment on us for forsaking Him. While it certainly matters who leads our nations, unless we return to the God who made us great, a spiritual and moral awakening, the policies of our future national leaders will not save us from further decline and heartache.

Haj Amin al-Husseini meeting with Hitler in 1941

Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu has caused a huge controversy when he said that the Palestinian leader Haj Amin al-Husseini gave Hitler the idea of the Holocaust. He further said that Hitler initially wanted to exile the Jews from Germany not exterminate them. Historians and political leaders have chastised him for his statement as being inaccurate. Bibi’s father was a renowned historian who had similar views.

It is true that Hitler preferred to expel the Jews from Germany. Four months prior to Kristallnacht on November 9-10, 1938, President Roosevelt organized a conference in Evian, France to discuss the issue of Jewish immigration. Thirty-two countries sent delegates. Not one was willing to liberalize their immigration policies to accept Jewish refugees. Nazi leaders realized that since the nations would not accept the Jews, neither would they interfere with his recourse which was their extermination.

Of course Bibi was simply trying to show that Haj Amin al-Husseini was a Nazis collaborator who wanted to export the Nazi murder of Jews to the Middle East. Since most people don’t know this history and have never heard of Haj Amin al-Husseini, let’s put Bibi’s statement in the context of it time. The following is just a summary.

Who was Haj Amin al-Husseini and why should we care? Haj Amin al-Husseini (1893-1974) was born in Jerusalem to one of the leading Arab families in pre-Israel Palestine. Britain was given the oversight of Palestine and responsible for order and peace between the Arabs and Jews. (Lots of luck on that one.)

In their best efforts, Britain appointed Herbert Samuel (a British Jew) as the first high commissioner of Palestine. Samuel made a tragic mistake. In 1921, in an attempt to find someone of influence he thought he could control, Samuel appointed the young al-Husseini as the leader of the Palestinian Arabs and gave him an official title of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. This is spite of the fact that in 1920, the British sentenced al Husseini to ten years in prison for stirring up terrorism and riots against the Jews. Husseini fled to Transjordan to avoid the sentence. Samuel pardoned him and brought him back to Palestine.

In his newly created position, and with the support of Samuel, Haj Amin al-Husseini became the most powerful leader in pre-Israel Palestine. He had control over everyday life in Palestine. He convinced Samuel that he would help the British keep order and peace but he had no intention of doing this.

Al-Husseini was a violent, fanatical, nationalistic extremist who used his new position of power to begin a reign of terror and intimidation against anyone who opposed his rule and policy. He was not willing to negotiate or compromise in any way for the sake of peace. He wanted a “Jew free” Palestine and would use any form of terror to accomplish his goal. Sound familiar?

Many moderate Arabs fled Palestine out of fear of Husseini. He raised the stakes of the Arab-Jewish conflict and took control away from the more moderate Arabs who desired to live in peace with the Jews. He would simply murder them. Sound familiar?

He hated the British and he hated the Jews. When it suited his interest, he would keep order and peace. At other times he would stir up violent terrorism against the Jews. For example, he instigated the massacre of Jews in Hebron in 1929 by saying that the Jews were threatening the al-Aqsa Mosque. Sound familiar? The current “President” of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, is following this same pattern.

Ironically, Al-Husseini was actually encouraged towards violence by certain British officers who wanted to abolish the Balfour Declaration and British support of a Jews state. He was told that terrorism and violence was the only way to get the British to change their policies and favor the Arabs.

Al-Husseini saw Hitler’s “final solution to the Jewish problem” as the answer to his own desire to eliminate the presence of Jews in Palestine. He imported Nazi influence into Palestine and used Nazi funds to finance his terrorist activities. He openly supported Hitler and Mussolini and lead a revolt against the British in 1936-1939.

Al-Husseini could have used his power and influence for good but he used it for hate. He is primarily responsible for the current culture of hate, terrorism and murder of Jews in Israel. This is why we should care.

When the British finally realized al-Husseini was causing them more harm than good, he fled to Iraq where he cooperated with the Nazis in a failed coup attempt against the British. He then fled to Germany in 1941 where he met Hitler and other Nazi leaders. He encouraged them to greater zeal in killing the Jews, asked Hitler’s help and blessing to extend the Nazi program of Jewish genocide to Palestine, recruited 20,000 Muslim volunteers for the SS who participated in the killing of Jews in Croatia and Hungry, broadcast anti-British and anti-Jewish hate propaganda from Germany and did everything he could to assist the Nazis in defeating the British and killing the Jews.

Known as the Arab Fuhrer,” al-Husseini used his broadcast from Berlin to exhort the Arabs in the Middle East to murder the Jews in a holy war that pleased A-l-la-h. Sound familiar? He is the God-father of Arab terrorism in Israel today.

When the war ended in 1945, the French arrested al-Husseini as a war criminal but he managed to escape. He fled to Egypt in 1946 where he continued to incite terrorism and rioting in pre-Israel Palestine and the new Jewish state of Israel. He helped export Nazi ideology, policies and practices to the leaders of Arab countries which dressed them in Arab culture. He died in Beirut in 1974.

Could this be the “booty of Ezekiel 38-39?

Many of you know that we just returned from leading our 26th Israel/Feast of Tabernacles teaching Tour. Our group always tours the Golan Heights and stops at biblical sites, visit local Israeli organizations and meet the people of the Golan.

We love the Golan. It is land God promised to the half tribe of Manasseh. The Golan is bordered by Lebanon to the north, Syria to the east and Jordan to the south. It is absolutely necessary for Israeli security. You can see all this from strategic border stops on the tour. Look it up on the internet.

It is the location of three streams that form the headwaters of the Sea of Galilee, Israel’s main source of fresh water. A dear friend, really more like a sister to us, born in Texas, has been a long-time resident of the Golan. We enjoyed Passover in her home several years back.

A few days after our return home, it was reported that huge amounts of oil has been discovered on the Golan. The report says that there is enough oil to make Israel “oil independent” for years to come.

The company with drilling rights on the Golan is Afek Oil  and Gas which is an Israeli subsidiary of a U. S. company, Genie Industries. The chief geologist, Dr. Yuval Bartov reported the finding, “We are talking about a strata which is 350 meters thick and what is important is the thickness and the porosity. On average in the world strata are 20-30 meters thick, so this is ten times as large as that, so we are talking about significant quantities. The important thing is to know the oil is in the rock and that’s what we now know.”

The company has drilled in three different locations in the southern Golan Heights. The main drilling site is near the town of Katzrin which is the capital of the Golan. Katzrin is a nice place to visit. Our ministry has supported a children’s center in Katzrin.

While this is certainly encouraging news, there are numerous challenges that could delay for many years actual production of the oil. The main challenge is the location northeast of the Sea of Galilee. The area of possible drilling is near the Hula Valley which is the resting place sanctuary of millions of birds making their yearly migration from Africa to Europe. It is also near the nature reserve of Gamla where in AD 67; Jewish zealots held off the Romans and jumped off the cliffs rather than being taking by the Romans.

Another challenge is that the international community considers the Golan, which Israel liberated in 1967, to be occupied Syrian territory. As such they do not recognize Israeli sovereignty of the Golan.

Another challenge relating to its location is that it borders Syria which is collapsing and has lost control of its own country. This means that terrorist groups such as Hamas, ISIS, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are all fighting just across the Golan border. Any oil fields would be easy targets almost impossible to protect.

In addition to its navy base in Tartus, Syria, Russia has now entered Syria with planes, tanks and “boots on the ground.” I am certain that Vladimir Putin does not care about nature reserves, migrating birds, environmental concerns, Jewish and Roman wars, Israel’s security needs for the Golan, etc. He cares about expanding Russia’s power, control and wealth.

With American in retreat, there is no nation that can stop him. Putin will soon be in control of Syria and since the international community considers the Golan to be Syrian territory, well, you can figure it out.

But in Putin’s arrogance, the Almighty is allowing this situation as “hooks in Putin’s jaw” drawing him into a divine trap that will destroy Putin, the Russian military and all the forces allied with him including Islam and their god. It won’t be America coming to Israel’s rescue; it will be the God of Israel. God has put Putin and the American presidential retreat in place “for such a time as this.” Keep this in mind and please don’t be overly anxious or alarmed about world events.

Bible students know this as Ezekiel’s prophecy in Ezekiel 38-39. American political and news media leaders don’t have a clue and hate the Bible, the God of the Bible, and those who love the Bible.

But listen to these words to the Russian leader, “After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were brought out of the nations, now all of them dwell safely. You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and
many people with you.”

“Thus says the LORD God: ‘On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan: You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people… to take plunder and to take booty…’” (Ezekiel 38:8-12). Could that Golan oil be what Ezekiel has in mind?

Ezekiel 39 describes how God will so completely destroy the Russian army and its coalition – Iran, Turkey and others Ezekiel mentions. No doubt the anti-God, anti-Israel media will do its best to put their spin on the news. But the One True God will write the headlines, “Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 38:23).

“I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My have which I have laid on them. So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day forward” (39:21-22).

If you truly love the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with all your heart, and have a personal relationship with Him, here is some good news, “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You. For the Kingdom is the LORD’s, and He rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:27-28).