Written by Don West
I’d like to talk to you about a subject that has become the passion of my life over the last seventeen years. The subject’s origins began a little over 4000 years ago, and yet it is considered to be part of one of the most important geopolitical issues confronting the world today. That issue, and the subject of my interest, is the nation of Israel.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said this: “The single most important global issue facing the world today is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” If one thinks that only leadership in the Western world judges this to be so, I would like to also quote the (former) MOST WANTED man in the world and a real crowd pleaser in the Islamic world, Osama bin Laden, an individual all of us are already too familiar with. As the founder and leader of Al-Qaeda, he asserted shortly after September 11, 2001: “I swear to god (allah), there will be no peace in America until there is peace in Palestine.”
Now when jihadists like Osama bin Laden of Al-Qaeda (Afghanistan), Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah (Lebanon), Khaled Mashaal of Hamas (Gaza Strip and Syria), Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority (West Bank), and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Iran) speak of Palestine, the anticipated future state of the “Palestinian” people, these individuals and their followers (who comprise, unfortunately, much of the Islamic world of approximately 1.5 billion people) mean to include geographically all of the present modern-day state of Israel. And Israel, well, to these people and groups, Israel is like a fishbone lodged in the throat; blocking the air passage; causing convulsions of choking; and unless expelled, extracted, or expurgated, causing death. And indeed, tens of thousands of Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians, Palestinians, and other assorted jihadists have died attempting to do just that in the roughly calculated eight wars with Israel over the last sixty-three years; and thousands of Israelis have died keeping the Arabs from their repeatedly stated and unapologetic goal of the elimination, eradication, and annihilation of the State of Israel.
Trips to Israel in 1994 and 2003, which for me engendered a previously unprecedented reading of the Bible, culminated in my growing recognition and understanding that the people, land, and capital of Israel were intended to be, and have been, used to reveal the MOST PROFOUND TRUTH that exists in the universe today: THE TRIUNE GOD OF ISRAEL, who is, by the way, the GOD of all other peoples and things as well.
In subsequent articles I will submit for your analysis portions of these Biblical writings that make these claims, and attempt to relate aspects and events of human history that I believe validate, confirm, and ratify the veracity and accuracy of the scriptures which range in date from the earliest writings of 3,400 years ago (Genesis) to the most recent which are a mere 1,900 years old (New Testament). Ancient writings with much, I submit, current application. But a question must then be asked: Am I engaged in contextual distortion? Or is all this mere coincidence? Further still, is there indeed a correlation between these ancient biblical declarations and current global events? You, reader, get to decide.
In concluding this initial undertaking, let’s note just some of what the Bible’s scribes say is the relationship between GOD and this nation called Israel; and frankly, it looks to me like something special is going on here. God is declared to be:
1. THE GOD OF ISRAEL Ezekiel 8:4
2. THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL Joshua 24:2
3. THE LORD GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND ISRAEL 2 Chronicles 30:6
4. THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL Isaiah 1:4
5. THE MIGHTY ONE OF ISRAEL Isaiah 1:24
6. THE STRENGTH OF ISRAEL 1Samuel 15:29
7. THE CREATOR OF ISRAEL Isaiah 43:15
8. THE HOPE OF ISRAEL Jeremiah 14:8
9. THE REDEEMER OF ISRAEL Isaiah 49:7
and
10. THE KING OF ISRAEL Isaiah 44:6
*All scriptures are quoted from the New King James Version and most of these phrases are used more than once, and some repeatedly.
Additionally, it has been reported in a New York Times article dated April 3, 2011, that the United Nations appears to be on the verge (September, 2011) of recognizing the Palestinians as a nation and demanding that Israel, among other things, return East Jerusalem, the location of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic holy sites, to the Palestinians. Since the reunification of Jerusalem by Israel during the Six Day War in June, 1967, Israel refers to this city as “the eternal and undivided capital of the nation of Israel, never to be divided again.” God calls Jerusalem “Mine” (Ezekiel 16:1-8); and Israel “Mine” (Isaiah 43:1), as well.
I hope to have you with me in later editions as we begin an examination and study of this very small, but extremely important country: Israel.
(adapted from The Boone County Spotlight; used with permission)
Don West is a new columnist and speaker for Prophecy Matters. His passion for Israel and prophecy is instantly contagious. He is a professor at North Arkansas College in Harrison Arkansas. Dr. West holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Arkansas.
