The cries for a just solution to Middle East conflicts

by Michael G. Mickey

(9-28-06)

The opening paragraph of a People's Daily Online article is demonstrative of why those of us watching for the soon-coming return of Jesus Christ should be sober and alert concerning what is going on around us. I know I've commented on this extensively lately but I want to ensure that readers of the site are fully absorbing the desperate cries rising from the international community concerning resolution of the ongoing Middle East conflict between Israel and her enemies. The People's Daily Online article begins:

Many participants at the 61st session of the UN General Assembly called for a just and comprehensive peaceful solution to the conflicts in the Middle East as they addressed the general debate on Tuesday.

As the article unfolds we see that Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahhren, in an example of the above, described the situation in the Middle East as "the single greatest challenge to international peace and security." (See 1st Thessalonians 5:3 as to the significance of those words.)

Ahhren, echoing sentiments that have been expressed by many, as documented repeatedly on this site, believes that "frustration at the long agony of the Palestinian people creates and sharpens wider divisions across the world."

If only the international community could effectively negotiate a peace covenant that would give the Palestinians some more of Israel's lands, or so the logic goes, many of the ever-widening divisions developing around our world would just magically disappear. That would surely suppress global tensions as it is, after all, the radical Islamic world's hatred of Israel that threatens international peace and security above all else, right? Not if we believe the words of 1st Thessalonians 5:3!

1st Thessalonians 5:3: For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

While Ahhren and many like him believe "a comprehensive settlement to the inter-related problems on the region is more urgently required than at any time in the past 60 years", what is unknowingly being wished for by them is the onset of the Tribulation Period itself! But try telling that to anyone who isn't a born-again Christian! A great deal of the time what you'll get in response is a look that seems to say, "Huh?"

To be sure, brothers and sisters in Christ, getting the lost around us and, sadly, many of those sitting beside us in church throughout the week to grasp the magnitude of what is presently unfolding around us and the significance it has to the soon-coming return of Jesus Christ our Lord can not, by any means, be understated.

It is high time that those of us who are sober and alert concerning the times we're living in to take the mission of sounding the alert that Jesus Christ is coming soon seriously! Why? Because the international community is taking resolution of the Middle East conflict seriously, of course, to the extent that leaders from around the world are absolutely relentless in their efforts to get Israel to comply with the demands of her enemies and surrender more of her God-given covenant lands to her sworn enemies, placing the entire world in jeopardy of God's judgment!

This is akin to calling the Almighty out to a fist fight as it wasn't man that gave Israel its right to exist on the lands it presently resides upon but God Himself! Even so, nothing outside the realm of what God has told us would come to pass presently is. This we have been told to expect to come to pass in the prophetic Word of God, not only at its present level but far worse, as we see in Zechariah 14:2:

For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

To break this down further, the international community is absolutely bent on resolving the Middle East conflict through what it often refers to as a "just solution to Middle East conflicts." No pun intended but that's just what the devil wants!

Satan, the god of this world as we see in 2nd Corinthians 4:4, is desperately trying to avoid the judgment that awaits him for his rebellion against the Most High. Thus, his interest in anything taking place that further weakens the nation of Israel! The weaker he can keep the nation of Israel, the longer he remains free from the lake of fire that he and all his fallen comrades, in spite of their best efforts, will someday be cast into!

Continuing with Zechariah 14, we see what is going to happen once Satan comes the closest to achieving his desire of destroying the nation of Israel he ever will. In Zechariah 14:3, we see why the godless international community, as a whole, is going to come to regret its willingness to appease the wicked enemies of Israel:

Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which [is] before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, [and there shall be] a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.

Won't it be a wonderful day, Christians, when we see, with our own eyes no less, our Savior split the Mount of Olives in half? Yes, we are all going to see it! This is made clear to us in Jude 1:14-15:

And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard [speeches] which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

None of that is going to happen!

In our world today, there are many, as we see in Jude 1:18, who walk after their own goals instead of God's who say, "That's just silly! None of that is going to happen!" As time will reveal, however, what is described in this commentary most certainly will!

As surely as we have been told that a day would come when mankind would be crying "Peace and safety!", eventually giving rise to the prophesied son of perdition, the prince (or leader) of Roman descent we commonly refer to as the Antichrist and, by virtue of same, the onset of the seven-year Tribulation Period leading to the physical return of Jesus Christ with ten thousands of His saints to the earth, the day is definitely going to come when precisely what has been described here is going to take place! Let no one tell you otherwise!

The following lies ahead in the prophetic future, potentially in the not-too-distant future:

• The Rapture of the Church will come on a day like any other, perhaps today, tomorrow, a month from now, a year from now or in the somewhat distant future. (Matthew 24:42: Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.)
• The Antichrist, gaining the admiration of those left behind to the point of worship, will appear on the world stage to give the world what it so desperately wants - a so-called "just settlement" of the present Middle East conflict in the form of a seven-year covenant of peace which he will confirm "with many" in fulfillment of Daniel 9:26-27.
• Sudden destruction will come upon the world in the form of the seven-year Tribulation Period which will run concurrently with the peace covenant of Antichrist, hardly the outcome envisioned by all those who presently believe the answer to all the world's woes is to endanger the safety and survival of the apple of God's eye, Israel, through the appeasement of its enemies.
• The horrors of the Tribulation Period will unfold, as detailed in my Post-Rapture Survival Guide, written for and, indeed, to those who will be left behind after the Rapture of the Church takes place.
• Jesus Christ will return to earth with His saints at the battle of Armageddon as described scripturally above.

The cries for a just solution to Middle East conflicts were echoed by many participants at the 61st session of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday. It's what the world desperately wants and, sooner or later, is going to get - one of the very best reasons I can think of for a Christian to keep their eyes on the skies!

Jesus Christ is Lord and He is coming soon!