5. Comments preceding the events (Rev.6-19)

5.1 Important questions.

1. partially a chain of events, with, among others, seals, trumpets, and bowls of wrath.
2. partially detailed supplemental descriptions of isolated events. Some of these lie imbedded in the text, and others are collected together after the chain of events.

Concerning these, most Bible scholars are in relative agreement; it is further agreed that we live at the end of this age.

• How long of a time is indicated by the chain of events including the seven seals, trumpets, and bowls of wrath, 7 years, or 100-200 years?
• When do they begin, indicating that the first seal is broken?
• Does the rapture of the Bride occur before, during or after the tribulation?
• When will Jesus visible return back to earth as king in the Millennium?
• Where are we currently in this chain of events?

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5.2 The reason for the confusion?

As I see it, the main reasons for the confusion are:

• That in their interpretations, many authors have not taken into consideration ALL Bible passages which address the same issue. As we have often stated, everything which the prophets, Jesus, and the Apostles have said on a particular question must be considered in the interpretation we maintain is correct. The foundational principle of the Bible is, "The sum of your word is truth." (Ps. 119:160)
• That while he lived on earth, not even Jesus knew all the details of God's secret battle plan against the devil. Not until Jesus had broken the scroll's seventh seal in heaven could he open the book of the future and read its complete contents. It will be at that time that he can also communicate to us through the Holy Spirit that which we need to know in every circumstance.

Consequently, I and others are in good company when we say, "We reserve the right to a number of errors in our interpretation of the book of Revelation," despite our best efforts to fulfill the foundational principle given above.

However, if we promise more than the Bible, we hurt both ourselves and others.

5.3 Various principles of interpretation

Other reasons for the confusion are:

1. The Bible scholars who believe that the end times will be as short as just 7 years see the events as transpiring suddenly. If this was the case, everyone would presumably take notice due to the enormous intensity of so many events in a short time. On the other hand, Jesus warned us about living with so little discernment that "that day" overtakes us by surprise.
2. The world will in fact be born anew. It will not happen without birth pains, whose intensity will increase with time until the child is born. Therefore, I believe more, that most events instead are trends, whose scope increases with time.
3. The events do not mechanically follow one another, like the hours on a clock, which many believe.
4. Instead, they are dynamically carried out, affected completely or partially by those they affect. For example, God delayed his judgment of Nineveh for over 160 years, when the people in that city listened to the prophet Jonah and repented.
5. In our own time, the Church above all can either hasten or delay the events of the end times. Everything depends upon how effectively we learn to cooperate with God in his plan of salvation. (II Pet. 3:3-15, especially the last verse.)
6. We saw that the letters to the churches had several applications. I believe that the same thing applies to at least certain of the supplemental descriptions, for example, concerning the Whore, Babylon, and the Beast. These are timeless manifestations which impact all mankind. Along this line, humanity had already met several kingdoms of the beast before the time of Christ. One, the Roman Empire, currently existed, and the last will not come until the time of the Antichrist. They will not disappear from the earth before the final version is impacted by the judgment of God's wrath.

In a similar way, Christians throughout the ages have received guidance from the biblical prophecies, even if their ultimate fulfillment doesn't occur until the end times.

5.4 What did Jesus teach about the end times?

We need to clarify the following before we consider the questions in detail:

• Jesus himself said that only God knew the point in time of his second coming. (Matt. 24:36)
• On the other hand, Jesus and the Apostles gave a lot of information on the signs of the times which would indicate his coming. (Note, for example, about Israel, the fig tree, in section 5.9.5)
• Further, Jesus gave us the following three crucial exhortations: (Luk.21)

"Many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and 'The end is near!' But do not believe them." False prophets will therefore arise in Jesus' name and perform mighty signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. (Matt. 24:11, 24-25. For someone to proclaim that they are the incarnation of Jesus is much more common in undeveloped countries than in our industrialized nations.)

In our midst, on the other hand, the following three deceptions are more common:

• First, we let ourselves be led astray to experience "another Jesus", or "another spirit." Behind every such "other Jesus, and other spirit" lies something from the Devil, although disguised as an angel of light. The result is that our demonically inspired self-preoccupation is fed some more, but under the facade of a pseudo-spirituality. This is the same error into which the self-centered church in Corinth was lured. (II Cor. 11:4) In contrast, a genuine outward focus for the needs of others follows every true experience of the Jesus of the Bible.
• Secondly, many no longer want to listen to the truth, but choose for themselves preachers who "tickle their ears." (II Tim. 4:3)
• Thirdly, we allow ourselves to be led astray by the assertion that the end is near. This has unfortunately been, and still is, altogether too common in our revival movements, with the statement, "Jesus is coming soon, are you ready?" In my youth, I myself believed this blindly. But now I see that behind that which sounded so pious can hide a self-centered longing to escape from God's calling on us in the end times. Therefore, we would be wise to also read Jesus' next exhortation to us concerning what must first take place.

when you hear of wars and revolutions, for end will not be once."

First, there will be:

• wars between various nations, and primarily between different people groups; that is ethnic conflicts
• earthquakes which shake large parts of the world
• famines and epidemics which affect one region after another
• signs which appear both in the heavens, the moon, the stars, and the sun.

Do not become panicked like people around you who fear so much that they long to be dead. But before all this takes place, you will be persecuted.

even when you are persecuted. By this you will win eternal life. God will not forsake you. Rather, his will is that not a hair of your head will perish." (More on suffering in general can be found in section 8, and information on the persecution of the Antichrist during the end times is in section 11.)

5.5 What did the Apostles teach concerning the rapture?

5.5.1 Summary of the Apostles' and Jesus' teaching on the rapture of the Bride:

1. The actual rapture does not happen until the sound of the last trumpet (I Cor. 15:52; Rev. 14:1-5; Rev. 15:2-4), immediately before the seven angels in Rev. 16 begin the pour out the bowls of wrath.
2. Then, those who are dead in Christ will rise first, and receive their heavenly bodies. And then, even those Christians who are still alive and are ready will be transformed, so that they are taken up together with those who are resurrected to meet Jesus in the skies. (I Cor. 15:50-58, I Thess. 4:14-18 These Bible passages are often cited in our day together with the statement, "Jesus is coming soon, are you ready." If severe sufferings now come our way before this happens, we run the risk of becoming as easily confused as the Thessalonian church did in the days of the Apostles.)
3. Those just mentioned believed in fact that the rapture had already occurred, and that they were suffering severely because they had been the foolish virgins who were left behind in the judgments of wrath. (See Jesus' parable of the foolish virgins in Matt. 25:1-13. More on this in section 12 of the Maxi text.)
4. Paul, therefore, was forced to write in his next letter, "Don't become quickly shaken in mind or deceived in any way." The following two things must precede the rapture: (II Thess. 2)
• The Antichrist must appear first. He will succeed in deceiving many who have refused to believe the truth by his remarkable signs and wonders. Also, he will eventually demand divine worship and will persecute any who refuse to bow.
• Then, a great apostasy and rebellion against God will take place.

The prophetic perspective of the disciples did not correctly distinguish between specific events to come at the end of the 5th age, such as the destruction of the temple and of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and events involving the Antichrist, which definitely belong to the end of our own age, which is the 6th age. Therefore, they clearly believed that the rapture would happen during their own lifetime. Conceivably, this might have been part of God's strategy, in order to give the Jews considerably increased opportunity to repent and to receive Jesus as their Messiah. Jesus himself wept over Jerusalem's impenitence, and the Apostles labored intensively for many years to try to convert the Jews before they (principally Paul) turned completely to the Gentiles. Not until after the judgment which brought the destruction of Jerusalem upon the unrepentant Jews in 70 AD did God complete the prophetic picture through the revelation given to John during the years 80-95 AD.

Not until then, after John's revelation, was there a better foundation for understanding the timing of events in the end times.

5.6. When will the rapture occur?

Regarding this question, I myself have shifted my views several times, depending upon which interpretation I have listened to.

Summarizing, I currently know the following:

• There has always been, perhaps necessarily, a measure of healthy uncertainty regarding when the rapture will happen. The reason for this is so that we do not become apathetic or fall asleep.
• We are guaranteed to not have to remain on earth during the final phase, when unrepentant sinners are smitten by the wrath of God's judgment during the bowls of wrath. "For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ….Therefore continue to encourage one another and build one another up." (I Thess. 5:9-11)
• But we have never been promised to escape sufferings and persecution for our faith. On the contrary, Jesus says that all in this age who belong to God and who desire to live a godly life will suffer persecutions, as long as the world is still under the Devil's power. (See also section 8)

• Since we never know when we might die, we should live as people who can meet death at any time.
• At the same time, we must with other Christians work diligently for God's kingdom to come on earth. (The goals I have established, and desire to see a discussion about are listed in section 2. But I fear that the debate will instead center on whether the rapture will occur before or during the tribulation. If this is the case, it will show which Christians are so self-centered that they are more interested in saving their own skin than in trying to save others from the tribulation and eternal destruction.)
• If I then get to live, and the rapture of the Bride happens earlier than I stated under point 5.5, it will be a very pleasant surprise.
• It would be worse, however, to be unprepared and to get caught in that which happened to the church in China when the Communist persecution began. The message of those Christians to the West is therefore, "Your missionaries promised us that the rapture would happen before the tribulation. They were mistaken, and now we have been forced to go through our tribulation completely unprepared."

Let us therefore learn from history, so that we do not repeat their mistake on a worldwide scale.

5.7 Fear not! The promise of supernatural protection.

Because of increasing evil, it is natural that people are filled with more and more fear. Therefore, we all need the hope for the future which the Bible's prophecies give us. They show that Jesus Christ always has the final authority, not the Devil or evil even if it seems that way at times. When Jesus instructed the disciples about the events of the end times, he said, "When these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21:28) Already in the first chapter of the book of Revelation, Jesus meets us with the words, "Fear not." It is he who both begins and ends every sequence of events.

In Rev. 7, between the 6th and 7th seals, a very important pause occurs (described in point 6.4) The pause in the unfolding of the judgments lasts until all of God's servants on earth have had time to receive God's seal on their foreheads. The seal implies a promise of supernatural protection and comfort during the difficult times which are to follow. God's seal is the direct opposite of the mark of the Beast in Rev. 13:16, for a person either belongs to God or to the Devil. The Jews were protected in Egypt during the plagues of that period when they obeyed the voice of God.

In like manner, God promises here to protect his servants on earth until they complete their assignments.

1. a forerunner group of saved Jews who have confessed Jesus as their Messiah, and (Rev. 7:1-8)
2. Christians from every people group who, despite sufferings, have faithfully fulfilled their missions. (Rev. 14:1-5) The number in each group is stated to be 144,000, which symbolizes the complete number in the group. (The forerunner group of saved Jews was also symbolized by the harvest time's offering of "first fruits" at the service in the temple, Lev. 23:10-14, since Israel as a nation doesn't come to faith in Jesus as their Savour until the end of the tribulation. See section 13.3,and illustration 5.10.)

5.8 Conditions for protection

In order for God to be able to assuredly protect us, we must have had time to grow up from spiritual children into victorious Christians who have learned to stand against all the cunning onslaughts of the Devil.

As far as I have understood things, this is characterized by the following analogies:

• That as members in the body of Christ we have learned to hear the voice of the head, and to obey his guidance in various situations. Read more on this in the text to illustration 5.5.
• That we "live a hidden life in the inner court of the temple," characterized of daily forgiveness and cleansing, along with worship with revelation and praise. Read also the text to illustration 5.6.
• That despite suffering, we "flee from spiritual harlots", and willingly "give birth to new spiritual life" in the form of new spiritual children. Finally, refer to the text to illustrations 6.1 and 6.2.

The Chinese Christians' supernatural joy has proven to be the very thing which has attracted others to become Christians, despite the risk for persecutions

5.9 God's word to Israel and the Arab world.

5.9.1 Abraham's 8 sons

Today, 90% of the world's unreached peoples live within the so-called10/40 window, which stretches from the Atlantic in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, and from Turkey in the north to the Sahara in the south. Among these unreached people groups are 1 billion Muslims, consisting of hundreds of different ethnic groups.
300 million of these are Arabs, distributed among 21 countries within North Africa and the Middle East. Almost in the middle of this region lies the land of Israel, whose population in 1999 consisted of 4.9 million Jews, and 3.8 million non-Jews, primarily Palestinians and Arabs. But in this we also count smaller people groups such as Armenians, etc. (Population values reflect only an approximate population breakdown.) For us who stand right in the middle of the argument over which people group - Jews or Palestinians, have the right to the land, it can be useful to look at a short historical review, especially since the picture given in our mass media is not always entirely objective.

Most who read the Bible know that Abraham had no children for many years:

1. According the customs of the time, his wife Sarah encouraged him to obtain a son (Ishmael) through their servant girl, Hagar.
2. Not until 13 years later, when Abraham was already over 100 years old and Sarah was over 90, did Sarah receive the son of promise, Isaac, through a miracle of God. Isaac became the forefather of the Jews.
3. But significantly fewer Bible readers have observed that after Sarah's death, Abraham had another 6 sons with his new wife Ketura. (Gen. 25:1-4)

The Arab peoples are consequently descended from both Ishmael and from Abraham's 6 sons by Ketura.

Probably many of these promises of God must be fulfilled before the rapture of the Bride can occur.

During the time when Abraham and Sarah became older and older, and thereby from a human perspective, all the more incapable of having children, Abraham nonetheless trusted so firmly in God's faithfulness that in the Bible he became known as the father of faith. (Rom. 4:11-12) Among the promises which God gave to Abraham, we emphasize here the following:

5.9.2.1 God's promises concerning the Land.

• The total land area which God promised to Abraham's offspring, that is, to his 8 sons (=Jews and Arabs), would stretch from the Nile in the southwest, along Jordan's eastern border up to the Euphrates in the north. (Gen. 15:18-21) Today however, as already stated above, Arabs are spread over an even greater area, from Morocco in the west to Iran in the east.
• Even during Abraham's lifetime, Ishmael's 12 sons thus settled in the south (Gen. 25:19), while Ketura's sons were sent away by Abraham to the east, away from Isaac. (Gen. 25:6)
• Within this total area, Isaac's descendants (the Jews) would receive approximately Israel's present-day area, which is less than 10% of the whole. God showed this portion to Moses from the heights of Mt. Nebo (Deut. 34:1-4), and gave the details of it to his successor, Joshua. (Joshua chapter 14 to 21:43-45). This so-called "Land of Canaan" would be given to Isaac's descendants as an eternal possession. (Gen. 12:7; 13:14-17; 17:8) The promise was later repeated to Jacob (Gen. 35:12), and summarized much later in Ps. 105:8-11, for example.

Within their portion of the area, the Jews should also be willing to make room for foreigners, (such as the Samaritans in Jesus' time, and the Palestinians today) and to treat them well, as in "love your neighbor as yourself."

5.9.2.2 The Arabs' calling/blessings

• According to God's long-range plan for the Middle East, Egypt, Assyria (=Lebanon, Syria, Iraq), and Israel will eventually participate in a covenant of peace, which during the Millennium will become a great blessing to all the peoples of the earth. The Lord will say in that day, "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my heritage." (Is. 19:23-25)
• But even before Israel becomes willing to conform to God's plan for them, the Arabic people groups in the Middle East will come to faith in "Jesus as Messiah, and the way to God." We thus read in Is. 42:11-12 the following: "Join in the chorus, you desert cities of Kedar and Sela! (Today called Amman and Riyadh.) Let the western coastlands exalt the Lord, and sing of his great power."
• Similarly, Egypt will turn to the Lord when they have gone through war and devastation. Almost the whole chapter of Isaiah 19 deals with Egypt. From this we briefly quote, "And the Lord will smite Egypt, smiting and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will heed their supplications and heal them." (vs. 22)

The Jewish people, under the leadership of Moses, entered into the so-called Old Covenant with God at Mt. Sinai. The agreement allowed that if God would be continue to be their God, then:

1. The Jewish people would be God's showpiece people:
• When they obeyed God, they would enjoy flourishing success and would live in freedom in their own land.
• Disobedience and idol worship would on the other hand bring crop failure, war, loss of freedom, and in the worst-case scenario, devastation of their cities, and exile.
2. They would bear the revelation of God in the form of:
• the Law;
• the Prophets and Apostles;
• the Bible, principally in order that
• the Savior of the whole world, and Jew's Messiah would not only be born, but that he would also have the chance to become believed in as a result of the prophetic background, and because of the many signs and wonders which he performed.
3. Thereafter, the Jews themselves would become "the motor for world evangelization" so that all the peoples on earth would be blessed through faith in Jesus as the Savior of the world. (Is. 49:5-6; Acts 13:47) As a nation, they unfortunately do not fulfill this role until shortly before the Millennium.
4. The seed of Abraham would in this way eventually become as numerous as the stars of the heavens, and the dust of the earth. In their number are counted not only his natural offspring according to the flesh (that is, the Jews and Arabs), but also his spiritual offspring from every other people group on earth (that is, all of us so-called Gentile-Christians who have become imitators of the faith of Abraham. (Gen. 13:16; 15:5; Rom. 4)

The prophets and Jesus had warned that Jerusalem would be destroyed and the Jews would be scattered among all nations, if the Jews persisted in disobedience by rejecting God's offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. (See, for example, Deut. 28:15-68, especially vs. 64; Matt. 24:1-2)

The Jews' mistake was a consequence of them:

• only considering the prophecies about a victorious Messiah king, since they so desperately longed for help in being delivered from the Roman Empire. (For ex., Zech. 14:9ff)
• completely disregarded the prophecies about God's suffering servant Messiah. (For ex., Isaiah 53)

This gives an example of how badly it can go when we have incorrect or shortsighted frames of reference. Nevertheless, we seem to make the same mistakes with regards to the prophecies about the Jews and Arabs, and about the rapture of the Bride.

Just before his death, Jesus sat on the Mt. of Olives and wept over the impenitence of Jerusalem, in that they had resisted all of his efforts to gather them to himself. (Matt. 23:37-39) For more than 30 years after that time, the Apostles also labored diligently to, if possible, convince the Jews of their calling. From Jesus' words and the prophecies, they knew what the consequences would otherwise be:

• First, as already mentioned the Jews were driven out of their land and scattered within the entire Roman Empire, in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. This exile lasted for over 1800 years.
• Further, this was accompanied by an ongoing spiritual blindness of the Jews, since the majority of them had dismissed God's calling. This blindness will not lift until the Jews become willing to admit their mistake and ask God for forgiveness. (Rom. 11:25-27)
• Regarding the timing of when the blindness can be considered to have lifted for Israel as a nation, we have the following two interpretation models:
1. The Jewish nation will come to belief in Jesus as their Messiah shortly after the gospel of Jesus Christ as Savior has reached all the people groups on earth.
2. For the Jews as a nation, the conversion occurs only in connection with the final phase of "Jacob's trouble" and the Battle of Armageddon. Then Jesus returns and saves them from complete annihilation. And then God establishes a new covenant with them, in which they all learn to know him personally. (See illustrations 5.10 and 5.11, and Rom. 11:25-27; Jer. 31:31-36)
• According to the latter model, before the end, the Jewish nation risks sinking to their lowest point of spiritual blindness when they accept the Devil's representative, the Antichrist, as their savior and messiah. (See illustration 5.7)

  (The reason that I believe more in the second model has several reasons. For example, Jesus warned the Jewish nation against false messiah-figures in John 5:43 with the words, "I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive." Further, throughout history, the Jews have put their faith in so many false messiahs that the probability is not negligible that they will do it again.)
  Note: My advice is as follows: Indeed, work whole-heartedly for the salvation of the Jews according to model 1, but don't become discouraged if the reality for the Jews as a nation turns out according to model 2. In this illustrated series, I have chosen to describe this more complicated interpretation model, since it is also supported by several Bible passages.

• For isolated individuals, the blindness is lifting even now, as soon as they confess Jesus as their Messiah. In this case they become part of the so-called "first-fruits of the harvest," the forerunner group of saved, Messiah-believing Jews who must exist in order for Jesus to return, and for the resurrection from the dead to be able to happen at all. (Acts 3:19-21) Since 1967, more Jews have in fact come to faith in Jesus as their Messiah than occurred until then, since the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. In Israel alone there were between 5,000 and 10,000 Messianic Jews in 1999 and perhaps several hundred thousand worldwide.

In this, the Jewish nation, which was of course the first to hear the gospel, risks being the last of all peoples to open up to Jesus as the Son of God and their Messiah.

• The prophet Isaiah had previously warned about this punishment with the words, "Who is as blind as my servant". In the same chapter he exhorts the Arab cities, "Kedar and Sela, to rejoice and shout, and give God the glory." (Is. 42:10-20)

In spite of everything, God does not forget his covenant which he established with Israel. (Deut. 4:31) God's faithfulness is so great that he also promises to re-gather Israel to their own land, and to restore them as a nation when the end of our age draws near (the age which the Bible calls the "age of the Gentiles.") There is not room, however, to give here a summary of all that 16 prophets have said in about 50 prophecies on this topic. When Jesus describes the re-gathering of Israel as a nation, he likens it to a fig tree which, when it begins to bud, is a sign that summer is near. By looking at what has already happened with Israel, and what remains to happen, we learn a fair amount concerning how close to the second coming of Jesus we are. (Matt. 24:31-32; Luke 21:29-30)

The following are several "fig tree buds:"

• The establishment of the state of Israel, which occurred in 1948, was predicted for example in Ezek. 37:21,22.
• Our 6th age, also called the age of the Gentiles, came into its final phase in 1967 when Jerusalem was retaken. (Luke 21:24) The definite end will come with the Battle of Armageddon (see section 13.3).
• The Jews' ongoing return to Israel,even by plane, is depicted so graphically in Isaiah 60:8ff, and Jer. 16:19ff.
• The 2 or 3 nuclear wars in the end times which even affect Israel. (Ezek. 38, 39, and see also the text in section 10.3)
• The seven year peace treaty with Israel's neighbors in the time between wars. (Dan. 9:27)
• Israel enters into a treaty with the Antichrist which fails to hold. It is likened to a treaty with hell itself. (See section 10.3, John 5:43, Is. 28:15-18, Zech. 11:12-17)
• Temple worship is perhaps restored; ( see illustration 5.7) (Ezek. 40)
• The antichrist begins to demand divine worship in the temple (II Thess. 2:3-4)
• In the worst case scenario, Israel as a nation first realizes their great error when they encounter the final phase of "Jacob's trouble" and the Battle of Armageddon. (See section 13:2,3)

5.9.6 Israel the threshing sledge, and Jerusalem a heavy stone.

So far, Israel has suffered through and won 4 wars with their Arabic neighbors; namely in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973. Of these wars, the first 3 had been declared "Jihad," meaning a holy war, which according the Muslims, cannot be lost. The Bible describes Israel's enormously effective success, especially during the 1967 war, in this way, "Behold, I will make of you a threshing sledge, a new, sharp, and having teeth," "a flaming torch among sheaves;" (Is. 41:15; Zech. 12:6-9)

All of these defeats have presumably diminished the Muslims' confidence in their own spiritual leaders, since isolated individuals have become all the more interested in Christian TV programs via satellite.

After the end of the war, the extremely hard-line Muslim countries are expected to take on a more modern national leadership, which will open up these countries for a short time for the last revival.

Not until the Millennium, therefore, will Israel come back into its original calling to be a light and an example for all others peoples. However, in order to then be able to carry out their role in the right spirit, even their proud human (=fleshly) nature must be replaced by humility of heart and brokenness (Ezek. 11:19-20, and especially Ezek. 36:19-31)

This newness of heart occurs during the final phase of the difficult time known as "Jacob's trouble," when the nation of Israel acknowledges their sin and wholeheartedly converts to the Lord. (See illustration 5.10)

5.10 Even we Christians need to be changed

An altogether too large percentage of Christendom is unfortunately divided into two camps. On the one hand, we have those who defend Israel irregardless of what they do, and on the other hand are those who likewise defend the Palestinians:

• Those who defend Israel no matter what are often nice Bible-believing Christians who quote Balaam's words to back up their position: "Blessed be every one who blesses you, and cursed be every one who curses you." (Num. 24:9) To bless is perfectly right when Israel does what is right according to the Word of God. Israel is of course called to be God's example as a people. We should never curse, on the other hand, under the new covenant. (Rom. 12:14) Nevertheless, there are Christians who travel around in Israel and curse the Palestinian land areas. Instead, we should follow Jesus' exhortation to "love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us," as well as to bless those who curse us. (Luke 6:28)
• However, if Israel does what is evil, we send out the wrong signals when we don't dare to criticize the wrong when necessary. For example, Peter rebuked the Jews on the day of Pentecost by proclaiming: "Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified." (Acts 2:36)

For ordinary people who don't believe in God, the words and promises of the Bible have little or no value.

5.11 Our forgotten Palestinian Christians

It is especially important that we begin to make contact with the fewer and fewer Palestinian Christians who are still in Israel. In 1948, there were 31,000 nominal Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem. The taxes which the Jordanian and Muslim population subjected them to reduced their population to 12,000 in 1967. Today, it is down around 10,000. Those who remain are often too old to have the strange to emigrate. At funerals, they are even forced to request help from Muslims to carry the casket.

Few people know the pain which our forgotten Palestinian Christian brothers feel when they see Christian tourists who are more interested in looking at "dead stones," than in meeting true "living stones."

5.12 EG/EU and NATO and the Muslim Mediterranean countries

After all the destruction and suffering witnessed by the first and second world wars, Europe formed the so-called Coal and Steel Union.

The goal was to prevent a third world war by increasing trade and cooperation between countries.

Most of the Muslims in these countries are peace-loving. But an aggressive minority exists in some of the countries, and they do not refrain from using terrorist activities in their efforts at converting their countries to a strict fundamentalist Muslim state such as Iran. If this happened, it would be the end of all human rights, such as freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
However, EU will probably not accept these countries until their governments have been able to fully control the terrorists, and can prove that they have respect for human rights. Shortcomings in these are some of the reasons that Turkey, which belongs to NATO, has so far been excluded from EU.

In the USA, as well as in Sweden and Norway, there are however many Christians who have distanced themselves from EU. They also don't hesitate to point it out as the great beast of the Antichrist's rule.

After many years of experience as the former Swedish representative in both EG's and EU's work groups for nuclear power safety, I would like to give here a personal testimony. Before my first work meeting in Brussels, I prayed to God for advice as to whether I should participate or step down from my assignment. I was reminded then of how both Joseph in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon received God's wisdom and blessing to become a great help to their countries, even though these were completely heathen empires. But neither of them compromised with anything that was wrong in God's eyes.

Paul exhorted the Christians in the heathen Roman Empire of his time to pray for all in authority, "so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and dignified in every way." (I Tim. 2:2) Not until a state demands that we "worship the emperor" or some other man must we refuse to obey. Every world empire so far has made such a demand, and the Antichrist's coming kingdom will do so also. (See section 7 in the midi-text on the history and future of world empires.)

Therefore, there are others besides me who believe that for now God needs people within the present and future EU who dare to stand up for truth and true Christian values. This will alleviate some of birth pains for the world.

This could then result in a new short period of freedom to preach the gospel in these countries. Therefore, let us not only pray, but also labor for the salvation of the entire Arab world and Israel.

5.13 How and when could there be lasting peace for Israel?

God's purpose and calling for the Jews/Israel as a nation has always been:

1. that by their manner of life, they would be God's "showcase" people, and a light for other peoples.
2. that they would carry God's message of salvation out to all peoples.

God never revokes his calling and election, and neither does he adjust the level of his expectations according to our opinions, such as politicians usually do. Let us now briefly summarize some of God's moral requirements, which are thousands of years old:

1. In this day, when Israel has regained its land, --- the immigrants who live with them and have had children among them shall be counted as native-born Israelites ---. You and they shall together share the land…In whatever tribe the immigrant resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance. (Ezek. 47:21-23)
2. God who is great and mighty --- is not partial, and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner --- Love the foreigner therefore, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. (Deut. 10:17-19)
3. You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Exod. 22:21; Lev. 19:33)
4. Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due to the foreigner. (Deut.27:19)

As far as the situation has looked during most of 2002, anyone would have to confess that Israel upholds neither God's spiritual calling nor his moral demands.

• therefore that a temporary division of the land is becoming more likely than a loving integration of the Palestinians into Israel.
• that perhaps even some sort of "Berlin wall" is needed to stop the Palestinian suicide bombers, which provoke revenge maneuvers by the Israeli military.

But as long as the Israeli nation continues to deny Jesus as the Son of God, and thereby as their Savior, they risk being fundamentally deceived by the Antichrist.
In the worst case, their conversion will then be a large-scale replay of the "death-row repentance" which their ancestor Jacob was forced to go through before he was ready for a genuine reconciliation meeting with his half-brother, Esau.
This struggle of Jacob's began with a long and difficult wrestling match with the Lord's angel, during which Jacob hip was put out of joint, crippling him for the rest of his life. Jacob was also finally forced to confess the truth about his life, that up till then he had been a great deceiver. When Jacob then finally meets his brother, he humbles himself before Esau and bows down before him.

Not until the Jews/Israel have repented of and confessed their mistake, and crowned Jesus as their Messiah, and have also become reconciled with the Arabs, will they have become qualified for their original calling. Afterwards, they can take on their role as a light for all peoples, primarily during the Millennium.

Conclusion

1. first, pray for a great revival among the Jews and Palestinians, and the Arabs in general, so that multitudes come to faith in Jesus as God's Son and as their Savior.
2. second, pray that their conversion is followed by a genuine reconciliation between the people groups, such as that which Bishop Desmond Tutu led in South Africa. (See note)
3. finally, in prayer, bless the Jewish people for their key role in the work of salvation, and pray that they will become willing to enter into it.