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Christian Network

After suffering a massive stroke Ariel Sharon is fighting for his life during the first week of 2006. Meanwhile with seeming uncertainty the State of Israel looks towards the future. Apart from a miracle it seems certain that, at best, Sharon’s political career is over. For a time it seemed like he might actually have the credentials to achieve some kind of durable progress in the "peace process". As a hard-liner turned pragmatist Sharon was possibly the one man who had the gravitas to actually accomplish something. After all, only Nixon could go to China. Perhaps the Prime Minister was the only one who could do the equivalent in Arab-Israeli relations.

At least that is the conventional wisdom.

But if we take a literal approach to Bible prophecy we might come to the conclusion that the conflict between the sons of Abraham will not come to an end until the Jew we believe in returns to inaugurate His earthly kingdom. Unless you buy into "Replacement Theology", which is a bit difficult to do if you take the whole book of Romans seriously, it would appear that God is not done with the Jewish people or with a state whose very existence could be called a miracle. If this is true it might not a be such a good idea for "progressive" evangelicals to blithely join liberal Christendom’s love affair with "Palestinian Chic". What if Jerusalem really is the "heavy stone" of Zechariah 12:3? What if the entire world really does turn on Israel and God Himself fights for her?

It has become almost a cliché in recent years to say that evangelical Christians are Israel’s best friends but the cliché contains much truth and Israel, from a human perspective, needs all the help she can get. Anti-Semitism is on the rise today, particularly in Europe. According to the Maoz Israel Ministries a map of the Middle East was recently presented at the U.N.’s annual "International day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People". Israel was not on it. Witness the global political entity of the 21^st Century accepting a gift in which the Jews are represented (or, more accurately, not represented) as having apparently been driven into the sea and think about Zechariah again.

Today there is a little talked about revival going on in the Holy Land. Thousands of Israeli Jews have come to know their Messiah during the past 15 years. It has never been easy to be a messianic believer in Israel. The Ultra-Orthodox minority in the country has made, and continues to make, life miserable for "completed Jews". For instance last year a structure owned by a messianic congregation in the small town of Arad was burned down under highly suspicious circumstances. Since the Orthodox make a regular habit of publicly harassing the Jewish believers of Arad it is not too difficult to believe it was arson.

However the burgeoning messianic movement in Israel is becoming both increasingly difficult to ignore and increasingly difficult to squelch. Evangelism in Israel is finally beginning to bear real fruit. For the first time it seems vaguely possible to imagine that the people who by and large rejected "Y’shua" the first time he came are not going to do so the second. What exactly does the phrase "all Israel shall be saved" in Romans 11 mean?

I have a confession to make. I have some Jewish blood in my heritage. So I suppose I am biased. But plenty of Gentile believers have also read the apocalyptic prophecies of scripture and come away with the impression that the Lord of Israel is still the Lord of Israel. When He begins to spiritually harvest His ancient land it may just have some eschatological significance as far as the timetable of events leading up to the Second Advent.

Returning to politics, it is difficult to envision a just and permanent peace with a people whose stated aim is the destruction of the Jewish state. Sometimes it seems as if the Arab world wants to try to finish what Hitler started. Look up the recent words of the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran if you think, or hope, differently. I believe the rough translation said something about Israel being "wiped off the map" (which might be a bit difficult to accomplish with a country that has a few hundred nuclear warheads in its arsenal and nothing to lose). The truth is that perhaps not even Sharon could make peace in the region happen.

But maybe he was never meant to.