Ironic, isn’t it?

The only place in the Middle East that is safe for Jews is the only place in the Middle East that is safe for Christians.

Yes. VERY ironic.

This isn’t to say that it’s heaven. Many religious Jews are skeptical of, even hostile to, a Christian presence in Israel. There is even a law trying to work its way through the Knesset outlawing Christian materials being sent through the mail.

Yes, I know that the law is supposed to be against missionary materials, but everything about Christianity is essentially ‘missionary’. How can you tell the difference between what is intended as missionary and what isn’t?

But, I digress.

The point is that, for all her faults, Israel has become the only safe place in the Middle East for anyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah.

I think that’s quite a tribute to a people who suffered terribly at the hands of Catholics (and others) in Medieval Europe.

Israel and the Plight of Mideast Christians
Just as Jews were once expelled from Arab lands, Christians are now being forced from countries they have long inhabited.

By Michael Oren

The church in Bethlehem had survived more than 1,000 years, through wars and conquests, but its future now seemed in jeopardy. Spray-painted all over its ancient stone walls were the Arabic letters for Hamas. The year was 1994 and the city was about to pass from Israeli to Palestinian control. I was meeting with the church’s clergy as an Israeli government adviser on inter-religious affairs. They were despondent but too frightened to file a complaint. The same Hamas thugs who had desecrated their sanctuary were liable to take their lives.

The trauma of those priests is now commonplace among Middle Eastern Christians. Their share of the region’s population has plunged from 20% a century ago to less than 5% today and falling. In Egypt, 200,000 Coptic Christians fled their homes last year after beatings and massacres by Muslim extremist mobs. Since 2003, 70 Iraqi churches have been burned and nearly a thousand Christians killed in Baghdad alone, causing more than half of this million-member community to flee. Conversion to Christianity is a capital offense in Iran, where last month Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death. Saudi Arabia outlaws private Christian prayer.

As 800,000 Jews were once expelled from Arab countries, so are Christians being forced from lands they’ve inhabited for centuries.

The only place in the Middle East where Christians aren’t endangered but flourishing is Israel. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, its Christian communities (including Russian and Greek Orthodox, Catholics, Armenians and Protestants) have expanded more than 1,000%.

Christians are prominent in all aspects of Israeli life, serving in the Knesset, the Foreign Ministry and on the Supreme Court. They are exempt from military service, but thousands have volunteered and been sworn in on special New Testaments printed in Hebrew. Israeli Arab Christians are on average more affluent than Israeli Jews and better-educated, even scoring higher on their SATs.

This does not mean that Israeli Christians do not occasionally encounter intolerance. But in contrast to elsewhere in the Middle East where hatred of Christians is ignored or encouraged, Israel remains committed to its Declaration of Independence pledge to “ensure the complete equality of all its citizens irrespective of religion.” It guarantees free access to all Christian holy places, which are under the exclusive aegis of Christian clergy. When Muslims tried to erect a mosque near the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, the Israeli government interceded to preserve the sanctity of the shrine.

Read the rest of the article here.

What I want to describe here on Israel Outlook, is a book written by the subject of the email, Richard Maybury. The name of the book is The Thousand Year War in the Mideast – How It Affects You Today.

I have lived in the Middle East for a decade and a half, analyzing everything I could find about the place, and I can truthfully say that the book is unusually accurate – while being subtly flawed.

Let me get into the flaws of the book, first. Actually, it’s pretty much one flaw that propagates itself throughout. And, it’s not really a flaw. It’s a misrepresentation of a tiny, tiny minority.

He claims that all religion is based on two fundamental laws:

Do all you have agreed to do.

Do not encroach on other persons or their property.

To put it more succinctly, the two fundamental laws can be summarized in four words:

Integrity and Property Rights

If you say that I’m ignoring ‘encroachment on persons’, I can tell you that I’m not. Under his paradigm, you own yourself, so anything encroaching on you is an issue of property right. If you touch me, you are touching my property. Don’t touch me.

He characterizes Christianity and Judaism this way, and that is an incorrect characterization for true Christians, and for that matter, true Jews. Let me take Judaism first because it feeds into Christianity.

Rabbi Hillel, one of the greatest authors of modern Judaism is famous for “The Golden Rule”. As it is recounted to us, one day, a non-Jewish man went to Rabbi Hillel and challenged the Rabbi to explain the Torah, while the man stood on one foot. Rabbi Hillel answered:

That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.

That, is classic Judaism.

When Jesus began to preach, Hillel had been dead for something close to twenty years. One day, a rabbi went up to Jesus, and like the non-Jew, challenged Jesus to tell him how to earn eternal life:

If you love what and who God loves… and you have some errors in your beliefs… God gives you slack. If you truly love God and truly love your neighbor, you could probably get away with heresy. While, on the other hand, you could be correct in everything and be considered trash in God’s eyes – if you don’t have love.

Love is both the beginning and end of our walk as Christians, and some of the unloving attitudes shown by most non-dispensationalists is appalling. This is not to say that all dispensationalists are a loving bunch of people. It’s just that most non-dispensationalists tend to be cold towards Israel, and frankly cold towards everyone else.

And, I’m not sure why that is.

So, put me down as someone who generally prefers dispensationalists over other kinds of Christians.

But seriously, a pre-tribulation rapture? Really?

I’m just having a hard time seeing how ANYONE who reads their bible could see that. It just doesn’t make sense.

But, like I said before. Your love for Israel – and your love for others – will do more for you in God’s eyes than any amount of ‘correct theology’. God accepts you as His, and I do too.

Just pleasepleasepleasePLEASE prepare for what’s coming. You are no use to anyone if you’ve been killed or neutralized in some other way.

You must prepare now.

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Okay, folks. As promised, I’ll get back to a more Global Security and Foreign Policy approach to this website. I apologize to those of you who have been turned off by this week’s discussion, but I really felt the need to discuss these issues.

There is too much apathy out there, and 2012 will be a pivotal year – and maybe even the last chance that any of us will have to prepare for what is coming.

I truly, truly hope that I’m wrong.

I had my Bible, and a family and church that were prone to vigorous debate over EVERYTHING. If you didn’t have chapter and verse for a thought or idea, you were shouted down. It meant that I really learned my Bible and was given enough of it to see how it hung together as a whole – the incredible tapestry of this gift of His word.

Now, a religious ‘hot house’ environment like this has its own perils, and there’s quite a bit that I’ve had to reevaluate over the past few years, in addition to a massive attitude problem. (When Paul speaks of having been a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, I can truly say the same about myself, in spades.)

Worse, many of my beliefs and attitudes were an affront to God, and it is only because of His infinite graciousness and patience that He didn’t deal harshly with me for it. And, since God has been patient with me over so much, I feel strongly about being patient with others.

Even more, the doctrinal errors in my own past convince me that I should be slow to point out the doctrinal errors in others – especially if they are not foundational. In fact, my own errors of the past make me cognizant of my own fallibility.

But, there are moments in time where the consequences of saying nothing are so dire, you feel that you must do something to help get people that you care about out of harm’s way. So, what I am about to say, I say because I must – howbeit with extreme reluctance.

Elements of dispensationalism are wrong, and those errors will eventually lead to the death of millions of people and even great apostasy. (And, in fact, it already has.)

Am I saying that it’s heresy? No. Really, I don’t. In fact, there’s a lot about dispensationalism that I agree with. And, I am TREMENDOUSLY upset with many of the positions taken by people who criticize dispensationalism.

(Can you see that maybe I’m in a spot of trouble here?)

But seriously. You are not a heretic in my view, if you are a dispensationalist. In fact, this discussion would be somewhat irrelevant if it were not for the fact that we stand on the doorstep of events that will shake the world and cause the end of civilization as we know it.

What is Wrong With Dispensationalism?

The idea that history can be broken down into a series of ‘dispensations’, instead of… oh, laws or sections of the Bible… is immaterial. I fully expect to stand before the Lord when this life is over and be pleasantly shocked at what God was up to all this time. I’m even hoping that my understanding of Hell is wrong and that friends and family won’t suffer the terrible fate that they seem determined to find.

But, let me get back to my main point.

What’s wrong with dispensationalism?

For one thing, it diminishes the centrality of Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus died not just for those who came after, but He also died for all those who came before. Dispensationalism, the classic kind, essentially says that Christ died only for those who live during the Christian era. Those who lived before have their own ‘dispensation’ and must follow that.

That just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

Now, I know what many of you are about to say. Yes, I do see that you agree that Christ died for all both past and present, and that He loves all equally.

So, why then do you believe that ANYONE would be required to fulfill the demonstrably impossible law of Moses?

Why would God replace something perfect with something impossible?

Why would God bring the sacrifices back, if Christ was sufficient?

Yes, yes, I know that there are sacrifices during the millenium, or at least offerings, and I don’t begin to understand all that. But, we’re talking about where we stand today, about salvation and about a perfect sacrifice in the form of our Lord Jesus.

Maybe I should put it to you this way: Why doesn’t God love all His people equally? Why would God replace the yoke of Christ with an impossible yoke of the law?

We have all of Paul’s writings that argue against this. Arguing for a return of the Mosaic law is senseless.

And, then there’s a second rapture?

That’s right, if you are a pre-tribber, you get a secret rapture that the Bible mentions NOWHERE and then a VISIBLE rapture when the Lord returns in glory.

Remember, here’s the verse on the Rapture:

1 Thessalonians 4:14-18

 ¹⁴For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

 ¹⁵For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

 ¹⁶For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

 ¹⁷Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

 ¹⁸Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

THAT is the resurrection AFTER the Tribulation. Where’s the verse that talks about the previous resurrection?

Don’t bother searching your Bible because it doesn’t exist. The Bible speaks of only two resurrections – the one at the end of the Great Tribulation and the one at the end of the Millenium.

Then there’s the point about persecution.

When you have the church raptured before the tribulation, you still have people left behind – people who will be ‘saved’ AFTER the rapture. You have to believe that because there is persecution of God’s people during the tribulation. At least some of those will be Jews.

If you believe that, you are saying that God loves the people who get saved before the tribulation more than those who get saved during the tribulation.

I mean, that’s why the pre-trib rapture, right? God loves us enough to take us out of the way of harm, right?

So, why do God’s people still suffer during The Great Tribulation?

No, no, please don’t tell me that they had rejected Christ, and now must suffer for that – even though they are eventually saved. Before we were saved, we ALL were in a state of rejection of Christ. That’s hair-splitting.

And before you advocate a position where God WANTED to rescue everyone, but just wasn’t able… please remember that it is God who determines when the Great Tribulation begins.

2 Thessalonians 2:7

⁷For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

Ask yourself this: did Christ love us as much before we were saved, as after? Since before the Creation of the Universe, even?

Of course!

God loved us as much BEFORE we were saved as AFTER. And, He expressed that love by giving His only Son!

Coupling this idea with a pre-trib rapture should mean that no believers should experience The Great Tribulation, but that’s not what the Bible says.

In fact, a good dispensationalist should actually question how Christ-followers could suffer persecution of any kind?

Was there somehow something wrong with the millions of Christians who died under great tribulation over the past two millenia?

Was their tribulation any less than the tribulation that is to come?

Are the people who die in the Great Tribulation going to die in any worse way than those who lost their lives in say… Foxes Book of Martyrs?

Of course not. The difference between The Great Tribulation that’s coming and the lesser versions that have come in the past is intensity. And, someone called ‘the man of sin’. And, well… massive cataclysm…

And Then, There’s That Apostacy Thing I Mentioned

All that I’m saying is that when the Great Tribulation comes, and the Rapture doesn’t happen… how do you think some will react when someone comes along, passing himself off as the Messiah?

Yeah. Quite a few dispensationalists will be tempted to go over to ‘the dark side’.

Of course, God promised that His people, dispensationalists and non-dispensationalists alike, would not be fooled – in the end. Only those who are not truly God’s people will fail, and fall in with the Anti-Christ.

But, There IS a Way of Escape!

And, it doesn’t come through believing in what isn’t there.

God saves us from tribulation by warning us that it’s coming and giving us a way to escape it – a place of safety. God uses people like me, and others, to give you warning so that you have time to prepare – so that you DON’T have to suffer unnecessarily.

Yes, some of us will need to make choices about whether we will survive, or not. Pastors cannot abandon their flocks. Missionaries cannot stop their mission work. Those of us with jobs to do may have to choose to fall where we stand.

But, the rest of you have the luxury of escape, if you are willing to see it.

When the Babylonians came, God gave His people in Judah a way to escape and a prophet, Jeremiah, to tell them of it. Most chose not to listen and suffered for that choice. (By the way, I am NOT a prophet.)

You have a way of escape from what’s coming, if you choose to prepare now. And by all means, continue being a dispensationalist, just please prepare for what’s coming. Wake up and do the hard work that it will take to make you, your family, your community and your church safe for the times ahead.

I’m concerned, and I want y’all to make it through okay.

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Articles on dispensationalism:

Comparison of Dispensationalism with Covenant Theology

Does the Bible Teach a Pre-Tribulational Rapture?

It was coined by a rather intemperate fellow by the name of James Lloyd. And, he makes a cogent case for using the name, so I’ve decided to adopt it myself. It’s pithy, accurate and more than a bit snarky – which is why I like it.

(My apologies to my Jewish audience. But, I gotta do this.)

Now, I stumbled across Lloyd’s website because I was doing a bit of research into where the whole idea of the Pretribulation Rapture Theory arose. Sometimes, knowing where something comes from tells you a bit about what’s wrong with it.

Our tale starts with an occultic bible study group in the early 1800s that practiced levitation, in Glasgow, Scotland. A 15 year old girl apparently had trouble levitating, so decided to go one better by doing the whole trance/vision/prophecy thing.

Let me quote from HisFaith.org:

The doctrine can be traced back to 1830, the very year that two strange events happened in Scotland. First, a 15 year old girl in a TRANCE uttered what is believed to be the original idea of the pre-tribulation rapture of the Church. Nearly simultaneously, a nearby Scottish pastor named Edward Irving began teaching this brand new idea that the Church would be raptured prior to Tribulation. (Note: Some scholars believe Irving had been working on this “doctrine” at least three years earlier.)

No matter its origin, it is WIDELY DOCUMENTED that before the year 1830 NO Christian leader had ever even heard of the doctrine of a pre-tribulation rapture. Clearly, prior to 1830 the Church taught that Jesus would return at the END of the tribulation period, AFTER going through Tribulation, as the Bible obviously teaches.

By the way, this 15 year old girl I speak of is named Margaret McDonald. She was a Scottish teen-ager and met with an OCCULTIC group that studied the Bible. Among other occultic practices, they practiced levitation.

As I stated, about the same time, a Scottish pastor named Edward Irving began teaching the concept of a pre-trib rapture in his “charismatic” church. Many believe that he may have got the idea from Miss McDonald. Others say that she got the idea from him. It is a moot point, because this new pre-trib rapture doctrine was soon brought to America by another pastor named John Nelson Darby. Most scholars are in agreement that he probably “stole” (and even further expanded on) the idea that he heard from Irving.

Here’s a link to the page.

I did some digging, and it’s true. There is no record of anyone, anywhere mentioning anything remotely like the Pretribulation Rapture Theory before 1830.

It was picked up by a fellow by the name of John Darby, who handed it off to C.I. Scofield – who went on to create the Scofield Reference Bible. And, when you have a bible where you are told exactly how to think about a passage, as you read it… well, it’s going to have impact. In fact, people are going to tend to accept it as literal fact. (After all, it’s now in the bible, right?)

And yes, bending the bible to your own interpretation is just WRONG.

There’s another problem with the Rapture Cult.

Anyone who even so much as mentions that it might be okay to disagree with the theory of the Pretribulation Rapture, gets unceremoniously booted from whatever pulpit he’s speaking from.

A friend of mine, who will remain nameless for more reasons than you can know, was once summarily ejected from a bible conference for entertaining the thought that a disagreement on WHEN the rapture would occur… well, that it just wasn’t grounds for a break in fellowship. Organizers of the conference immediately met in an emergency session and booted him out – asking him to never return.

That’s cult thinking, plain and simple.

Let me go on to add one other point.

Everyone in the Rapture Cult says that the next ‘big thing’ is the rapture. Nothing, they say, will happen before then.

That is completely mystifying. How can you believe that everything will go along swimmingly until ‘boom’ we all disappear in a flash of pixie dust. And, only THEN do bad things happen?

Hello?

Does anybody read history, anymore?

Something like 25 million Christians were murdered by the Catholics in Europe alone. The Muslims wiped out the Christians in North Africa. Before all of that, we were crucified by the Romans.

Is there ANY time in history where Christians weren’t terribly persecuted?

And, you don’t think that it’s going to happen again?

Dontcha think that we’re due for a spot of trouble?

Especially since we seem to have corrupted ourselves so thoroughly?

And, don’t get me started on what you have to do to the bible to actually make the Pre-trib theory actually WORK. (More on THAT tomorrow)

Let me end with this one idea – from a bit of scripture at the END of the bible:

Revelation 22

18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

How can you make the above verses work, if the rapture happens BEFORE the tribulation?

I certainly can see how they work, if the rapture happens during or after the tribulation.

Think about that for a moment.

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Here are a few sources that I stumbled over in the few hours that I had to research the history of the Pretribulation Rapture Theory:

The Origin and Danger of the Pre-Trib “Rapture” Theory

The Origins of The Pre-Trib Rapture?

Is the Pretribulation Rapture Biblical?

Dangers of the American Rapture Doctrine – Americanized Pre-trib is partly responsible for American apathy

Pre-Trib Fib, Part 1

Pre-Trib Fib, Part 2

Pre-Trib Fib, Part 3

And then, there’s the aforementioned wild man, James Lloyd:

Strong Delusion