To the believer who cannot discern that the state of Israel....or 1948....has anything to do with the coming of Jesus Christ in power and great glory....they must really be squirming as they read the news. Hal Lindsey is probably taking pills to keep his heart rate down....and he wrote on this a half century ago....such is the enormity of what is going on in the Middle East right now.
I was playing the reporter again today....and asked a friend what his pastor has had to say about the war in Israel. "Not much".....was his answer. That is what I have heard every time I have asked that question. It's just not mentioned from the average evangelical pulpit. And then my friend said in defense of that...."The Bible says that there will be 'wars and rumors of wars.' There's nothing that we can do"....which is also what I hear every time.
War is coming....I don't know how many times I've said that? On another plane it could be business or finances....it could be a relationship....it could even be sports....when there comes a time when an end result is already determined and irrevocable. That is why there are so many divorces....as everything taken into consideration....the offenses....the history....and that neither of the parties are trusting God over their hurts and their feelings....that the marriage is going to be dissolved. There are people that are so far in debt that there is no avoiding a personal crash. They will have to start over. Likewise....there can be a fake peace....a ploy more than anything else....but there is no stopping this coming war. A point has been reached where some of these nations cannot go back.
So both sides of this equation in the question that I asked my friend say that war is coming.....but one side states it as a very impersonal....even abstract theological fact....and the other side states it as pain ready to be inflicted on all parties involved! Therein is a serious difference! It is easy to state what one cannot imagine in advance...and thus it is easy to avoid....but to the other side....where loved ones and millions of others will be involved....and life as we know it....where food and warmth and security were taken for granted....will be no more....it becomes a cause of great and existential concern....and if one sees it as Daniel saw it in his visions....making him physically ill....it is a cause for preparation along with immediate and continuous prayer.
There are Christians who can matter-of-factly state that they believe in hell....but have never really considered what that could be....thus they show scant concern over the salvation of even their own loved ones. They could talk of the blood shed on Calvary....and never really even have imagined the blessed Son of God hanging there....and they can with correct doctrine describe their own salvation....but never have seen how utterly hopeless they once were....what price was paid....and how by every truthful testimony they should never have been shown mercy....but they were!
