IDF To Control Gaza after War

I praise Netanyahu for his courage and wisdom for this decision. This is the correct action and will insure Israel’s survival. Israel is acting alone on this decision, so they will need the prayers of Christians everywhere. Israel must not let the Palestinians control the Gaza strip—ever again. It is Israel’s land—what God has given them.

Netanyahu says IDF will control Gaza after war, rejects notion of international force

PM speaks to mayors of Gaza border towns on plans to rebuild after Hamas atrocities; meeting comes after premier criticized for failing to meet local leaders since Oct. 7 massacres

By TOI STAFF and JACOB MAGID

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday the IDF will remain in control of the Gaza Strip after the current war ends, and will not rely on international forces to oversee security along the border.

Netanyahu made the comments in a meeting with the mayors of Gaza border towns at IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv. The local leaders oversee many of the communities that were assaulted and had their residents murdered and kidnapped in Hamas’s October 7 massacres of southern communities. Others have faced daily barrages of rockets from Gaza over the past month, and many communities have been evacuated as Israel presses ahead in its military campaign, leaving tens of thousands internally displaced.

“IDF forces will remain in control of the Strip, we will not give it to international forces,” Netanyahu said, according to a readout from his spokesperson, not saying whether it would do so for the short or long term.

Netanyahu and his government have been vague on what they envision for Gaza after the war. Only hours earlier the premier told Fox News that Israel does not want to re-occupy or govern the Strip. Earlier this week, Netanyahu told ABC News that Israel will have “overall security responsibility” over the Gaza Strip “for an indefinite period” after the war against Hamas ends.

US officials have raised the possibility in recent weeks that an international force, possibly with troops from neighboring Arab allies, could manage security in the Strip for an interim period until it can be returned to a functioning Palestinian government, which Washington hopes will be the Palestinian Authority.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called on Israel not to reoccupy the Strip once its war with Hamas ends.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reiterated on Friday that the PA is ready to retake control of Gaza, but said that would only happen if the move is part of a comprehensive political solution that includes a Palestinian state established along the 1967 borders. The PA leader made the same pledge on Sunday during a meeting in Ramallah with Blinken.

He also repeated his allegations that Israel is carrying out “genocide” in Gaza as it battles Hamas there, and called for an international peace conference to provide “international guarantees” and a timetable to end Israeli control of the Palestinian territories.

The group meeting between Netanyahu and local leaders was his first since the October 7 attacks by Hamas terrorists, which saw some 1,400 people killed, most of them civilians, and over 240 abducted to Gaza.

The prime minister had come under fire for waiting over a month to meet the local leaders, criticism that intensified this week as he met settlement mayors before sitting down with the municipal heads of the area devastated by Hamas.

The mayors told Netanyahu they want a different security reality after the war is over and urged him not to agree to a ceasefire until all Gaza terrorists are eliminated, the statement from the premier’s spokesperson said. They also called for a robust government support program to support their communities as the fighting continues.

Netanyahu said in a statement: “There is a great determination by [the residents] and the government to restore things to an even better state than before. To rehabilitate, to build, to grow. And first of all to bring back security, to ensure there is no Hamas and that Hamas does not return, but also to ensure there is strong life [in the communities] afterward.”

Sderot mayor Alon Davidi told Army Radio ahead of the meeting on Friday: “The State of Israel is the one that brought our great enemy upon us… The leadership brought us to this place.”

Among the local leaders in the south are a number of figures influential in Netanyahu’s Likud party, where the prime minister has faced growing criticism for the government’s failures that led to the October 7 attacks as well as those that have followed — in the slow pace of financial and other aid to affected communities.

Netanyahu is the only senior Israeli official who has refused to make a full-throated admission of responsibility for the horrors of the Hamas attacks, and is likely to face growing calls to depart office once the war ends or abates.

God is Gathering His People into their own Land, Ezekiel 37:21

It appears that God is using the Hamas war and the increasing antisemitism to fulfill His promise to them, that He will “gather them [His people] from every side and bring them into their own land.” Read the following article from the All Israel News Staff.

Significant increase in Jews desiring to immigrate to Israel since Oct. 7 Hamas attack

French and North American Jews show the highest levels of interest

 | Published: November 8, 2023 

Israel’s Aliyah [gathering] and Integration Ministry reported on Tuesday that there is a notable increase of people interested in immigrating to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, with the largest numbers of requests from France and North America.

Of those considering the possibility of moving to Israel, the ministry reported a 149% increase in interest from Jewish French citizens and an 81% increase from North American Jews.

Ofir Sofer, the minister of Aliyah and Integration, said the Jewish state is ready to face what he called a “state of emergency” due to a 500% rise in global antisemitism, especially against Jewish youths on university campuses.

France has seen an unprecedented uptick in antisemitic attacks in the past month since the war began last month. The number of incidents has risen above peak numbers that were recorded in 2002.

Sofer says his ministry staff is prepared for a large wave of immigrants and a unified desire to support the State of Israel in the coming year.

“We are in a state of emergency,” Sofer said in the ministry’s statement. “The reports I have been receiving are very concerning. Our goal now is to strengthen the ties between us and support the communities that stand with Israel.”

“Precisely now, we are seeing a surge in the number of people interested in aliyah. The waves of unity and Jewish solidarity are bolstering the aliyah movement and strengthening the State of Israel.”

He also said new immigrants would receive strong support when they arrive in Israel.

“The State of Israel awaits everyone,” he added, inviting Jews around the world to move to the Jewish state.

While the numbers of those interested in making aliyah have risen since the war began, the first half of 2023 saw a decrease in immigration. 

In July, The Jewish Agency for Israel reported a significant drop in aliyah from Western countries from January to July in 2023, while interest from Russian Jews began to rise.

The war in Ukraine is said to be a significant factor in the rise and fall of immigration numbers and has significantly impacted a sharp rise in Russian immigration.  

The numbers of immigrants from Western European countries in the first half of 2023 dropped by 44% compared to the same time in 2022.

Some countries, such as France and Britain, revealed an even larger decrease in immigrants during 2023, prior to Oct. 7.

Only 383 French immigrants made aliyah so far in 2023, a 59% decrease from the previous year, and 171 British immigrants became Israeli citizens, a 40% drop from 2022.

At least 22,851 immigrants arrived in Israel in 2023, a 32% increase compared to the same period in the previous year. 

However, according to the Jewish Agency, only about 700 immigrants arrived in October since the war began, compared to last year during the same period, when 5,773 new immigrants made aliyah, 4,553 of them from Russia.

Jews and Christians: Hated by All Nations, Matthew 24:9

It looks like this Hamas attack, and the resulting war in Israel, has provoked the haters to action. We are seeing now how many of these evil haters—haters of Jews and true Christians—there are. Many of them. And this revelation is a sign that the coming Tribulation and the proceeding Rapture of the Church is very close. Please read the following article.

Global Explosion Of Hate – Another Sign Of The End Times

 BY MICHAEL SNYDER/ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG NOVEMBER 03, 2023

What we are witnessing is truly frightening.  In my entire lifetime, I have never seen as much hate as I have over the past few weeks.  It is almost as if a very large chunk of the global population has suddenly gone mad.  But of course all of this hate did not come out of a vacuum.  

It has been simmering for many years, and now the war in the Middle East has brought it to the surface.  

Humans were created to love and to be loved, and so if you find yourself consumed with hatred you are part of the problem.  Of course we knew that this global explosion of hate would be coming.  The Bible warns us repeatedly about what the condition of humanity will be like in the end times.  One example of this can be found in Matthew chapter 24…

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.

10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

When Jesus spoke these words, He was speaking to Jewish believers.

And right now we are seeing a tremendous outpouring of hatred toward Jews and Bible-believing Christians all over the planet.

October 7th was not a one time thing.

Ultimately, radical Muslims will never be satisfied until they have annihilated every single person that is not willing to submit to Islam.

Even though their focus is on wiping out Jewish people living in the land of Israel right now, it will definitely not end there.

So the things that Hamas official Ghazi Hamad recently said on LBC TV should chill all of us to the core…

Ghazi Hamad of the Hamas political bureau said in an October 24, 2023 show on LBC TV (Lebanon) that Hamas is prepared to repeat the October 7 “Al-Aqsa Flood” Operation time and again until Israel is annihilated. He added that Palestinians are willing to pay the price and that they are “proud to sacrifice martyrs.” Hamad said that Palestinians are the victims of the occupation, therefore no one should blame them for the events of October 7 or anything else, adding: “Everything we do is justified.”

This is a man that has been totally consumed by hatred.

And there are millions upon millions of others just like him all over the world.

Since October 7th, we have seen an explosion of anti-Jewish acts that is truly unprecedented…

In Los Angeles, a man screaming “kill Jews” attempts to break into a family’s home. In London, girls in a playground are told they are “stinking Jews” and should stay off the slide. In China, posts likening Jews to parasites, vampires or snakes proliferate on social media, attracting thousands of “likes”.

These are examples of incidents of antisemitism, which have surged globally since the attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on Oct. 7 and subsequent war on the Islamist group launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Thanks to very foolish immigration policies, major cities all over the western world are now absolutely teeming with radical Muslims.

We have been warned for a long time that this would cause massive problems, and now Jewish communities everywhere are living in fear.


In France, large numbers of homes and businesses that are owned by Jewish people are being marked with paint…

France already documented 819 ‘latent’ antisemitic attacks since the war between Hamas and Israel began on October 7, according to Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin.

In Jewish homes on the outskirts of Paris, multiple blue Stars of David have been painted on homes and stone fences.

Swastikas have also been sprayed next to Jewish institutions, and students have been publicly harassed outside of Jewish schools.

Sadly, this isn’t just happening in France.

Similar things are taking place in Germany…

Recent weeks have seen Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, vow to take a “zero tolerance” approach to antisemitism, citing the responsibility towards Israel given Germany’s role as the perpetrator of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered.

Other national leaders have echoed those concerns.

In recent days Scholz has doubled down on the pledge, after assailants hurled two molotov cocktails at a synagogue in central Berlin and the Star of David was found daubed on the facades of several buildings where Jews live in Berlin.

There is no rational way to explain the intensity of this hatred.

And that is because it is spiritually inspired.

Many Christians have commented about the dark spiritual connection to everything going on and how it has a supernatural undertone to it all.

Unfortunately, what we have witnessed so far is just the beginning.

As the war in the Middle East really ramps up, I believe that we will see some truly dramatic terror attacks all over the world.

On Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned members of Congress that the threat of terrorism inside the United States has reached “a whole other level”…

Terrorist threats against the U.S. reached “a whole other level” after the Hamas attack on Israel, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told Congress on Tuesday, saying the big players in terrorism have all renewed calls to attack America and its interests.

He said the level of threats has heightened since President Biden took office, though U.S. law enforcement is “better prepared to deal with them.”

“The reality is that the terrorism threat has been elevated throughout 2023, but the ongoing war in the Middle East has raised the threat of attack on Americans to a whole other level,” Mr. Wray said.

From this point forward, things are going to start getting really crazy.

However, God warned us about all of these things in advance, He has a plan, and He is in control.

So even though darkness is rapidly growing all over the world, we should never give in to fear for greater is He who is in you than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:4

The Gospel According To Jesus

The following is a very short summary, and my comments, of the book The Gospel According to Jesus, by John MacArthur, written in 1988.

I remember that the book made quite a stir. But MacArthur was absolutely correct in what he said. And it got a lot of people thinking—about how the gospel should be presented and about salvation.

For a long time, preachers and evangelists have had a wrong view of the gospel and how to present it. Some very well-known theologians (like Lewis Sperry Chafer and Charles C. Ryrie) were saying that we should not expect new converts to begin a life of obedience to Christ right away; that they at first should receive Him as Savior and then later, when they are more mature, receive Him as Lord. They were saying that to expect converts to be disciples of Christ right away was asking too much.

And there was also a theology (according to 1 Cor. 2:15-3:3, by Chafer) that there is two classes of Christians: carnal and Spiritual. But MacArthur strongly disagrees with that. He says that carnal always refers to a non-believer. I believe this is right (but I didn’t always believe this). I know that there are levels of maturity for a believer, but he can never be carnal—living in sin; that is what carnal means. A Christian is to be Spirit-filled and be obedient to Christ; and when he is not he can and will eventually (with the help of the Holy Spirit) repent and start over.

Now let me get right to it. When a person comes to Christ a miracle takes place. He is born again. He becomes a new person. At the moment of conversion, he receives Christ for all that He is: God, Sovereign, Savior, and Lord.  

Let me back up. At first, when a person is saved he sees that he is a sinner; and so, he comes under conviction of sin; and then he repents of that sin. And then at the same time He experiences Christ calling him to a life of faith and obedience. So, he receives Christ as his Savior from sin and as his Lord (because He is Lord). Hence, when someone is saved, he is giving up his old life of sin and is born again into a new life of obedience to Christ. This is the gospel according to Jesus.

Pondering Heaven: Dreams Fulfilled

After seeing the movie Field of Dreams last night (for the one-hundredth time), I gave great thought to the question that was asked by Shoeless Joe Jackson and by Costner’s father, “Is this heaven?” Then I also watched the short slip at the end, the making of the movie, and I was surprised to hear the producer say that the lines regarding heaven could really be the theme of the movie—that the ball players who had gotten kicked out of baseball were given a second chance to come back to earth and play baseball—and that was their heaven.

I immediately pulled from my book shelf the book Heaven, by Randy Alcorn, to ponder the subject. I found that one of his chapters was entitled, “Will Our Dreams Be Fulfilled and Missed Opportunities Regained?” It seems that Alcorn thinks that heaven will be a chance for every Christian to extend or perfect what we do now; that in the New Earth we will have the chance to finish what we started now and to perfect—and even sort of grow in it. That thought excites me. Everything I always wanted to do but didn’t get a chance to do, I will get a chance to do in heaven, or on the New Earth. For instance, I think I am gifted as a teach, but haven’t had a chance to do it. In heaven I will have that chance. And I will be good at it. And the books I have written (not very well), in the New Earth those books will be wonderfully revised and many people will read them. And I will teach from those books.

Now I’m motivated to study this subject of heaven—to keep those kinds of books on my reading list, and to study it in the Bible.

The lefts love of Hamas

In light of all the brutality it is unthinkable that anyone can love Hamas and what they did to Israel, and even the children.  

 

Why Do Leftists Love Hamas So Much?

The romance with barbarism.

October 23, 2023 by John Nantz

As reports of Hamas war crimes, inhuman atrocity, and medieval Muhammadist brutality continue to stream into our consciousness, a steady parade of terror apologists bugle their inveterate support for all things barbaric.

We’ve heard unimaginably callous statements from The Squad, Ivy League students, and the “social justice” organization BLM regarding the manifold cruelties perpetrated on Israeli citizens. Hamas swine have carried out their diabolical tasks with a relish not witnessed since the genocidal mania displayed by Hitler, Mengele, and Himmler.

Then, as now, the usual suspects have appeared to offer their heartfelt support for the forces of tyranny and homicide. The New York Times famously lent the considerable weight of its  commentary to the budding dictator and would-be second coming of Alexander the Great — Adolph Hitler. You’d have thought the Times learned a lesson with Adolph, but the Grey Lady’s sages swooned for the Iron Curtain and one of history’s most accomplished butchers, Joseph Stalin.

And, as the leading publication of record, the Times bore the banner of hate, racism, and bigotry for a media complex now completely devoted to the mechanism of statist propaganda. Hate for anyone guilty of naughty thinking; racism as a tool of political and social subjugation; and bigotry against any democratizing influence that threatens the hegemony of elitism.

Liberalism is legion — finding a host and corporeal form in the Democrat party, our institutions of “higher learning,” and in the legacy media. And, as Christ said speaking of another demonic spirit, “This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 9:29)

There really are only two worldviews. One view acknowledges the fundamentally fallen, depraved nature of man. The other views mankind as containing a spark of Divinity. Basically good, but prone to do evil as the result of outside forces shaping human nature. This is the fundamental presupposition of Utopianism which has spawned every totalitarian regime since the Tower of Babel.

Think about every “people’s movement” throughout history. The promise of heaven on earth, built brick by brick into a towering ziggurat of hubris, is always the same. If only we could construct a government with benevolent and supremely intellectual autocrats, we could bask in the light and comity of a blossoming humanity fostered by an enlightened citizenry educated, or as Hillary would put it, “deprogrammed” out of every vice. This is the simpering stupidity of liberalism. Sixty million murdered soviet citizens speak most eloquently to that point.

At the very center of the utopian model is the exercise of centralized power over a subjugated populace. The flavors vary, but it’s all the same slurry of empty calories and sugar. Democrats lust for bigger government because it represents movement toward the ultimate objective, their complete and total control, effectuated by their radiant intellect, and performing the necessary modulations of social control to optimize, support, and perpetuate the metabolic functions of the state.

Just as in the Matrix, liberalism’s Kingdom Come is an exalted state that utilizes individuals as batteries—a disposable and renewable resource in the service of its own biological function.

Hamas, and terrorist organizations like it, represent the exercise of sheer power, both physical and psychological. The anarchy it creates excites the totalitarian spirit and inflames the insatiable lust of statists who witness the transformation of the geopolitical space in real time. They are titillated by the destruction of democratic processes and institutions, and are pressed beyond measure by their exuberance—excusing the inexcusable in a frenetic attempt to publicly reconcile barbarism with their utopian vision.

The terrorism of Hamas is an opportunity to see statists for what they really are. Whether in academe, politics, or pop culture, they can’t help but cheer the slaughter and mayhem, because secretly, they’d blithely sacrifice whole continents to their benevolent, all consuming governmental god.

Make no mistake, they’d feed naughty thinkers wholesale into the furnace if they could only eradicate the people’s tool of power—the gun.

It’s no coincidence that Israel is the Middle East’s only democracy. An oasis in a sea of totalitarian Muhammadists. Israel is the repository of the Biblical principles that make the civil society possible, the fundamental social precondition for democratic republics. Israel is the political embodiment of the Biblical truth that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

America shares the same theological and philosophical traditions as Israel. Our founding fathers understood that man is fallen, bent toward evil, and never to be implicitly trusted with temporal authority. This understanding is the reason for the meticulous construction of checks and balances in our Constitution. It’s the reason we have enjoyed liberty and the ability to pursue happiness for over two centuries.

Liberalism maintains a view of humanity that is antithetical to what the Bible teaches. And, not coincidentally has produced social systems and political structures that have dehumanized and transformed the individual into a resource for the state to use and dispose of according to the capricious inclination of dictators and despots.

What they don’t want you to understand is that organizations like Hamas are, in their view, agents of change, catalysts in the struggle of the proletariat in a Marxist materialistic dialectic. Statism, Utopianism, and Marxism are all kissing cousins, and that’s why you often find them making common cause across the geopolitical spectrum. China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, and other countries that make up the modern axis of evil share a commonality as ancient as Babylon—they hate the idea of the individual, created in the image of God, imbued with inalienable rights that supersede the interests of the state.

Why do liberals seem to love terrorism so much? Because the significance of the individual is less than nothing in comparison to their political ambition. Of course, they may not admit to themselves the staggering scale of their own inhumanity. But, that’s the whole problem isn’t it? “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

The Contents of The Tribulation

I’m excited about this new book. If you have been a little confused about future things and about the coming Tribulation, I think this book will help you straighten things out. Here is the book’s contents. Please let me know if you have any questions about the book.

INTRODUCTION    vii 

LEADING UP TO THE TRIBULATION   11

PART ONE: INTRODUCING THE TRIBULATION  

1. The Source and Purpose of the Tribulation   25

2. The Nature of the Tribulation   41

3.Personalities in the Tribulation   59

PART TWO: THE TRIBULATION                                             

     4. The Seals   107

     5. The Trumpets   131

     6. Mid Tribulation Events   153

     7. The Bowls    175

PART THREE: LAST THINGS  

     8. Armageddon, The Fall of Babylon, The Return of Christ, and The Judgment of The Nations   197

Tracing The Hatred Of The Palestinians Against Israel

As the entire world knows, there is extreme hatred between the Arabs (those who descended from Ishmael) and the Israelis (those who descended from Isaac). And it seems that it is more on the side of the Arabs. Why is that and where does it come from? We will trace it to its source.

From Genesis 16:1-15, we have the account of when Sarah was unable to bare children and what she did.

16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; 2 so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. 3 So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. 4 He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.

When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. 5 Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”

6 “Your servant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

7 The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress Sarai,” she answered.

9 Then the angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel added, “I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.”

11 The angel of the Lord also said to her:

“You are now with child

and you will have a son.

You shall name him Ishmael,

for the Lord has heard of your misery.

12 He will be a wild donkey of a man;

his hand will be against everyone

and everyone’s hand against him,

and he will live in hostility

toward all his brothers.”

13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” 14 That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

15 So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

From what we know of those times, when this problem of infertility occurred, it was acceptable to use a slave girl to bring a child into the world. However, we have to question the faith of Abraham, because, as we see in the previous chapter, God told him that His covenant with him would come through his own offspring (Gen. 15:5). Verse five tells us that Abraham believed the Lord, but apparently his belief was not perfect.

Anyway, as it happened, when the salve girl, Hagar became pregnant, she began to despise Sarah, and then Sarah turned on Abraham. So what happened? What caused this anger and hatred in the family? Well, we can only speculate, but apparently, Hagar felt used and hated the situation she was put in; and Sarah also was probably bitter at Hagar and also angry at Abraham.

Then years later, when Isaac was born, and then at his weaning celebration day (when he was about 3 years old) there was an incident that really caused friction. Sarah saw Ishmael laughing at (or possibly mocking) little Isaac, and she became enraged and demanded that Abraham get rid of Hagar and her son. For Sarah was jealous for her son Isaac—saying that Ishmael will never share in the inheritance with her son Isaac (Gen. 21:9-10).

And so, we see that there was real friction and hatred in that early family. And it wasn’t so much with Ishmael and Isaac; it was more between Hagar and Sarah. But over the years, that same hatred has been passed down. And we see that same contention and hatred today.

This hatred is explained to us in Galatians 4:28-31. The entire family problem is a picture of good and evil, or of the flesh and the Spirit. The slave girl Hagar and Ishmael represents the flesh and Isaac (the promised one) represents the Spirit and freedom in Christ.

Now this is a very hard situation, because we must not think that all Arabs are evil and sinful. No. God loves them the same as anyone. For God so loved the whole world and gave His Son for each of us—if we would only believe in Him. All have an equal chance to be saved and to come into His kingdom.

Some Arabs have believed in Christ and have found freedom. But most have not. And the leaders of some of those countries, such as Hamas, are very evil, like Isis. And they are stirring up hatred against Israel and also against Christians. And Satan in now using them to do his evil work.

And so, we see illustrated for us the two kingdoms: the kingdom of Satan in the Palestinians, and the kingdom of God in Israel. (But this is just an illustration or a picture of the kingdoms; we know that there are saved and unsaved people in both Arab countries as well as in Israel.)

So what should we do in our present situation? Well, as far as the Palestinians go, they need to go! The land was given to Israel alone. Hamas and all the Palestinians as a whole represent evil. They need to go! But if any individuals or families can demonstrate that they want peace, they should be allowed to come and live in Israel (under Israeli law). I hope and pray that this will be possible.

We as believers should pray for all people—Arabs and Israelites, Jews and Gentiles, to be saved and to come into His kingdom of peace and freedom.

Those Who Trust In Him Have No Worries In Drought

We had quite a year of drought, but the Christian has no worries or fears. God will continue to bring His blessing to him.

Jer 17:7-8

7 “But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in him.

8 He will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.”

The Unresponsive Heart – Matthew 13:4, 19

I sometimes wonder how some people can be so insensitive to sin, without a bit of guilt or remorse. I’m thinking about those who do sin for a living and think nothing of it. They seem to thrive in it, and the gospel has no effect on them.

I’ve been reading The Gospel According to Jesus, by John MacArthur. He has some very good incites on the parable of the soils from Matthew 13:3-9.

And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 “And others fell upon the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 “But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 “And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 “And others fell on the good soil, and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 “He who has ears, let him hear.”

First we need to explain that the seed represents the Word of God and the gospel; the sower is one who presents the gospel to the unbeliever; the soil is the human heart—or the people; and the birds that ate the seed is Satan.

The purpose of sowing the seed is to build the kingdom of God—to save souls for His kingdom. In the parable, Jesus describes four kinds of soils (or four kinds of people) that the seed falls on. The first three described (vs. 4-7) is soil that is not prepared correctly for the seed of the gospel to germinate. These people will not be saved. Only the fourth kind of soil—good, fertile soil—will respond to the gospel and be saved.   

In this blog we will focus on the first soil mentioned (v. 4). The sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some of the seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up.

This first soil is soil that is hard-packed. It is soil that is on a path that has been packed down by people constantly walking on it. The seed that lands on this path, as you can imagine, has no chance of taking root. The hard-packed soil represents people with a hard heart. Like the hard-packed soil, their heart is hard. It has been hardened by repeated sin and abuse. The Old Testament called these people “stiff-necked.” Their repeated sins and rebellion against God has made them what they are: unresponsive to the gospel (and the Word of God), unconcerned, indifferent, even hostile to the gospel. These are definitely unsaved people; because a believer will commit sins and even be rebellious, but he will not stay that way. The Holy Spirit will cause him to repent and he will be delivered.

Hence, this parable is directed to unsaved people. They need a heart change. The soil of their heart needs conditioning. The hard-hearted person has no chance of being saved unless his heart is softened. How?

By prayer and by the Word of God and by love from a kind friend.

It is a sad thing to see this person; they have no understanding of the gospel and no sorrow over their sin, because the devil has plucked all the seeds of the gospel away. They seem to be so oblivious to sin, to living a sinful life. These are the ones who march for Pride month; these are the ones who fight for abortion rights; these are the ones who sell themselves to pornography and also the ones who love viewing it; these are the ones who have no understanding of the truth and the Word of God and will call Christians and conservatives extremists. They fight for global government and for the climate change movement. Most of them will not repent and be saved. Much prayer is needed for the few who will be saved.