Sound The Midnight Cry

“The Amazing Kreskin”

Those of us that have been around a few years will remember well the comedy of the Johnny Carson doing his version of the “Amazing Kreskin.” He would hold a sealed envelope to his head, concentrate and predict items or an event tied to whatever was sealed in the packet. He would then open and read what was written on the inside which usually was humorously tied to whatever he had predicted. Of course, he knew already what it contained unlike the feats performed by the real Kreskin.

For more than five decades, George Joseph Kresge, Jr. [Kreskin] has been showcasing uncanny accuracy in reading peoples’ minds. He claims no paranormal powers but simply the ability to read and interpret subliminal clues from people. Many of his predictions have come true with amazing accuracy. His current one hit the media with fanfare as he has locked his written prediction for the 2008 presidential race in steel box and delivered it to Joey Reynolds of WOR radio to be opened after the elections later next year.

I’ve said all of this in an effort to point to the coming events of 2008. What will it entail for the world? The signs certainly have a foreboding forecast with a state of wariness among nations. We see…

• Russia moving back to a place of being a world super-power.
• Iran flexing its position in the Middle East with its alliance with Russia that is now shipping nuclear fuel and the most sophisticated air-defense system that it has to protect Iran’s nuclear facilities being constructed.
• Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia coming together to insist on Israel giving up land especially Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.
• Para-military groups are amassing arms in preparation to bring war against Israel.
• Israel faced with dealing with Iran's nuclear threat without help from other nations
• The E.U., the U.S., Russia and China are pressing Israel to surrender its land for a hope of peace with its neighbors, each of which has expressed their desire to die a martyr’s death until Israel is “wiped off the face of the earth.”
• The U.S. dollar continues to face incredible pressure as the debt of the nation grows as does our dependence for foreign governments to buy our debt so that we can continue living the “American Dream.”
• A credit crunch is being felt worldwide as bad debts; mortgage failures and corporate greed are being exposed.
• Every day the world awakens to another “upheaval” and wonders will it ever end?

Fortunately, we don’t need the “Amazing Kreskin” to help us with future events. Second Peter 1:19 tells us that we have a “more sure word of prophecy, whereunto you would do well to heed.” John 16:13 tells us, “…when He, the Spirit of truth, has come…He will tell you things to come.” The Book of Revelation tells us eight times, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.”

All of this tells the follower of Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit given on the day of Pentecost has come to tell us things to come that we can know are sure and all we need to do is listen to what He is saying.

As we approach the beginning of 2008 and all that it will hold, we need not fear or be filled with apprehension. The sure “Word” that we have says that when all these things begin to happen, look up…for our Redemption is drawing near.

Jesus is coming soon!

“Peace on Earth?”

The Gospel of Luke records for us the proclamation of peace with the birth of Christ. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” The origin of that declaration came to the shepherds on the hillsides of Bethlehem. Today, that town is part of a territorial dispute by those that call themselves ‘Palestinians’.

With all the attention that has been given to try and solve the Middle East crises, why has peace become so allusive? The answer becomes clear when you understand the “right of return”.

When Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza strip from Jordan and Egypt in 1967, the Jordanians and Egyptians who lived in those territories became persons without a country overnight. Those who fled to their homelands were interned in refugee camps. Those who remained lived under Israeli occupation. They weren't Jordanians or Egyptians anymore; neither were they Israelis. In a sense, they had no other choice but to declare themselves 'Palestinians'. And Israel has no choice but to get them out of their territory, either by deporting them [won’t happen as the world governments would scream], or by giving up the territory to them. This is why the effort is so focused on creating a Palestinian State and why the Palestinians really don’t want their own nation.

The Palestinians demand for a “Right of Return” would require Israel to absorb the Palestinian population present and all those wishing to return. Israel could not absorb them without extending them the right to vote. Palestinian voters would soon outnumber Jewish voters and Jews would become the minority in an Arab state. And that is the only alternative to the two-state solution.

The day after the Annapolis Peace Summit, PM Olmert of Israel gave an interview to Ha'aretz that solves the mystery: “If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (with Palestinians) ... then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished.”

If the Palestinians had their own state, Israel would be relieved of both the responsibility and the blame when the Palestinians fail and fixing the problem would fall to the UN or the Arab League. A Palestinian state would be responsible for the activities of its citizens. Statehood would replace Palestinian victimhood, the Palestinians would not have Israel to blame, and Hamas and Hezbollah would lose their number one recruiting slogan.

There is a story told in the Middle East about a scorpion who asked a turtle to carry him across a stream. “I can't do that,” the turtle said. “You'll sting me and I'll die.”

“No, I won't,” the scorpion said. “Then we'd both die.” The turtle thought about this, and finally agreed. Halfway across the stream, the scorpion stung the turtle.

“Why did you do that?” asked the astonished turtle. “Now we'll both die.”

“What did you expect?” the scorpion replied. “It's the Middle East.”

And so the conflict continues until the anti-christ is revealed and makes a temporary peace treaty with Israel. The present struggle is only building the foundation for that momentous treaty that will be shortly lived. Until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, there will be no “peace on earth, goodwill towards men”. After all, it is the Middle East!

“What Have We Done?”

Those words were my first thought when I saw the news reports this past week stating that President Bush referring to a report that Iran was no longer seeking to develop nuclear weapons. This is accordance with this year's National Intelligence Estimate report that blatantly contradicts its own headline.

This announcement came on the heels of the Annapolis Peace Summit where the U.S. wooed Israel there by promising to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Jewish state against Iran’s fevered efforts to obtain, deploy and possibly use nuclear weapons.

With this guarantee in his pocket, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert agreed to work towards the creation of a Palestinian state by the end of the Bush presidency. With it he gave the U.S. the right to judge whether or not Jerusalem is complying with its commitments under the Road Map.

Then, with this Israeli commitment in its pocket, and before the news crews had barely departed the U.S. Naval Academy, Washington suddenly lifted its threat to use force against Iran, issuing a report whose heading announced that the genocidal mullahs had in fact halted their nuclear weapons program in 2003 and therefore no longer posed a serious threat to Israel or anyone else. This despite the fact that Iran announced on the first day of the Annapolis meeting that their new Ashoura missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers and is capable of reaching Israel, US Army bases in the Middle East and eastern European cities. [I wonder why the U.S. felt so threatened during the Cuban missile crises but Israel should not fear an enemy that wants them “pushed into the sea.”]

Israelis, knowing their country is hated by every other nation on earth, have for decades been clinging to their American “ally” even as the U.S. has pushed and levered Israel into taking increasingly dangerous risks for “peace.”

Those risks have themselves placed not only Israel in danger, but the U.S. in a precarious position against God. God has promised to bless those that bless Israel and curse those that do her harm [Genesis 12:3]. Consider the following events that have happened in the past 45 days as the U.S. has pushed its peace agenda on Israel:

• Southern California fires – homes of Hollywood stars that we idolize have had two significant fires within a 35 day period.
• Oregon (one of our most liberal states) has suffered from significant floods
• California bill SB777 is due to go in effect 1/1/08 that would further the homosexual agenda and do more to break down the teaching of traditional family values. The bill actually changes the definition of gender.
• A teenager shoots 9 people at a mall in Omaha
• This past Sunday at least 2 are dead at a Missionary Training School in Colorado and 2 more in a church in Colorado Springs.
• This week, an ice storm “of biblical proportions” across the Midwest [Tulsa newspaper]

Amos 3:6 says, “When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?” It seems that God is trying to get the attention of the U.S. and Israel. The problem is not with God speaking but with our hearing.

Suddenly, in the waning days of 2007, in fulfillment of bible prophecy, the truth is sinking in—Israel stands alone. And now she must turn to her only salvation—the HaShem [God] and His Messiah—Jesus Christ!

"A Different Peace Summit"

Two weeks ago I wrote concerning the Middle East Peace Summit that was recently held in Annapolis, MD. It now appears that a follow-up summit is going to be held in of all places –Russia! [More on that later]

On the same day that the world gathered in Annapolis to decide how to take away the land given by God to the Jews, another organization was launched in Jerusalem. The New Jewish Congress was inaugurated with the express intent of defeating any action to divide the land of Israel, especially the Holy City of Jerusalem.

Dr. Gadi Eshel, read aloud the Congress charter, entitled: "The Eternal People in an Eternal Covenant in the Land of Israel." An excerpt of the charter reads: "G-d commanded the land of Israel to the People of Israel as a heritage - to settle it, to walk through it, to love even its dust, to know it, to observe the Torah in it, to long for it throughout 2,000 years of Exile. And when the time of the Return to Zion came, we were to ingather our dispersed exiles into it, take the barely-alive remnants of Israel and revive them upon it, raise pioneers in it, settle it with brides and grooms, children, families and communities, build upon it towns and factories, preserve it, rejoice in its rebuilding, build in it a national home that would be a light unto the nations - and to establish G-d's Holy Sanctuary in its heart, Jerusalem, Zion, on Mt. Moriah.”

Attorney Elyakim HaEtzni said, "Forty nations were invited to Annapolis - but one people who was not represented was the Jewish People! Yes, Israel was there, but not the Jewish People…Who will defend the Jewish Nation?!"

There is a spiritual awakening happening in Israel that for years has been increasingly more and more secular. It now appears that a movement is stirring that is calling the Jews of the homeland to come back to God and recognize their calling.

At that same time as the peace summit, The Temple Institute announced that the Tzitz, the Golden Crown of the Jewish High Priest, has been fashioned by the craftsmen of the Temple Institute, and is ready to be worn by the High Priest in the Holy Temple. Exodus 28:36-37 says, "And make a plate of pure gold, and engrave upon it, like the engravings of a signet: Holiness to the Lord…And it will go upon Aaron's forehead..." A short video about this announcement can be viewed below.

As God awakens the people of Israel to its heritage, it is a reminder to those that call themselves “Christian.” Our “roots” are in Israel as the Bible tells us that we are “grafted into the vine” (Roman 11:17). All the more reason to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem”. Psalms 122:6

As we celebrate the Christmas season, let us pray that a mighty spiritual awakening take place in Israel and that many come to know Yeshua—Jesus Christ. Then a “peace summit” of different kind will take place—the inner peace that only Christ can bring to the heart and soul of mankind.