War in Winter

Psalm 83 makes it clear there’s going to be a confederate together against the existence of Israel.

"You go back to Psalm 83 and look at those nations—there’s not two of those nations that ever worked together; they hated each other," says Jordan. “You get a wrong idea some time and you think all these guys in the Middle East are friends with each other.

"You listen, the Iranians and the Iraqis hate each other. Iranians are Persians; Iraqis are Arabs. They don’t like each other. Historically they fight. The Lebanese and the Egyptians are not bosom buddies. The Turks hate them all. You put them in a room together, lock the door and they’ll be killing each other before the day’s out.

“Iran, historically, has been called Persia until the turn of the last century. Iran is a playoff on the word Arian. It’s designed to be an Arian nation.

“People talk about racial prejudice and pride. America is a place where there’s less of that than any other place on the planet. Most of what you hear is political talk because we’re like a mixed stew. We’re not really a melting pot; we’re more of a pot roast stew. You got carrots, potatoes, onions, bell peppers, pork rind, fatback, beef, okra. It’s all mixed together.

“You go to the nations of the earth and they’re not homogenized like that. They’re very distinct and there’s a tremendous national pride in the nationalities because they’re much less the mixture that we are in our country.

"These nations in the Middle East; they don’t love each other. How is it then that you can get them to work together against Israel? What confederates them together? It’s Islam. The thing that holds them together in their hatred of Israel is their religion. They all share the same religion, part of which—a fundamental tenant of which--is that the nation Israel has to be exterminated. It’s a fundamental principle.

“Zechariah 12 saw all of that. Listen, Islam didn’t exist until 700 years after the time of Christ. It wasn’t in this passage. This passage is looking into the last days, future from where we are. The preeminent military might in the Middle East is Israel. They are a cup of trembling to all of their neighbors.

“Every time their neighbors have tried to defeat them on the battlefield, even in the Yom Kippur War where they attacked them unexpectedly with military intelligence that came from the U.S., they were defeated in just a few days.

“When they attacked them, having hundreds and hundreds of tanks and the Israelis with just single-digit tanks, Israel still defeated them. They have a prowess and military might and expertise and skill that causes their opponents to fear. That hasn’t been the way it’s been for thousands of years but it is today and it will be.

“You see stage-setting events today that tell you how this passage could be fulfilled tomorrow. Zechariah 12:3 says: ‘And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in
pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.’

“How in the world can you get all the nations of the earth to gather against Israel? You got to have an organization that contains all of the nations of the earth. What would you call that? We’ve got one—the United Nations. Isn’t that fascinating?

“Zephaniah 3:8 says, ‘Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.’

“You know, it’s easier to wipe them out if you got them all in one place. He says, ‘I’m going to gather them all together.’ He’ll use the wrath of men to accomplish His purposes. So they get this United Nations together and Jerusalem is a burdensome stone; it’s an albatross hanging around their neck.

“Since the foundation of the United Nations in 1947, there have been over 1,000 U.N. resolutions that have been passed. A good one-third of them have pertained to the nation Israel, which was also established in that time period--between 1967 with the Six-Day War and 1989.

"According to the almanac, 865 resolutions were passed by the Security Counsel in the General Assembly of the U.N.; 526 of them were about Israel. The Jerusalem problem; It’s a burdensome stone.

“By the way, one day the world is going to have its eye on Jerusalem and they’re going to know that the next world war is about to break out right there.

“Revelation 2, talking about a city in Turkey, identifies it in that future day as the place where Satan’s seat is. Revelation 13 says Satan’s seat is the seat (the power base) of the Antichrist.

"When you look at that part of the world over there, folks, listen, that’s where the future destruction is going to take place. And you talk about a war! We’re in the wintertime of world events right now. Every winter season has had, in the cycles of American and British history, a war.

“War’s during the wintertime are always BIG. Decisively concluded and projecting out a new arrangement of things in the future. The last winter war in American history was WWII. World War II is not like WWI. World War I was a war that didn’t decide anything. In fact, it set up the stage where there had to be a World War II. But at the end of WWII, there was no question who won or what the future was going to be and who was going to run it.

“The previous winter war in American history was the Civil War, sometime called the ‘war between the states’; sometime called the ‘war of northern aggression,’ depending on your perspective based on the Mason-Dixon Line.

"But there’s also no question that that war was decisively won and changed the whole course of America because, up to that point, it was the United STATES. After that it was the UNITED States and the establishment of federalism and the Union, where the federal government’s power and absolute control over the state governments was settled on the battlefield.

“The winter war previous to that was the American Revolution. You get the point?
We’re in a winter; every winter’s had a war. We haven’t had a war yet. You’ve got Afghanistan and Iraq. There are always 10 or 15 wars going on at any time but none of these wars are going to be the war of the winter. They matriculated over into the winter.

“If you want to watch for where a war would come from you’re reading a passage (in Zechariah) that talks about what the stage is going to look like when the Last Days War comes from. Now I’m not predicting a war (I guess I am); I’m not predicting it’s going to take place in Jerusalem, but you know one good place it could take place is Turkey; that part of the world.

“My point to you is forget about Europe and all this prophecy stuff about Europe. Those stages have been set today as they’ve not been set in 2,000 years.

*****

“Two hundred and fifty years ago, the King of Sweden was not sure he believed the Bible was the Word of God. So he reached out to Count von Zinzendorf. He was the Moravian movement. And he called him and said, ‘I want you to present the evidence that the Bible’s the Word of God and I’ve laid aside 10 hours for you to come and convince me of the reliability and trustworthiness of the Bible.’ Von Zinzendorf sent him a note back that said, ‘I don’t need 10 hours; I only need 10 minutes. Because I only need time to say two words: the Jews.’ The Jews. We could say one word today: Israel.

“If you look in Jeremiah 33:25 and down at that next verse, the Lord’s telling Jerry there, ‘Don’t worry about these people that say I’m going to get rid of Israel; I’m going to destroy them.’

“In your Bible, the God of the Bible, the God who created the heaven and the earth identifies Himself 203 times as the God of Israel. Repeatedly He calls himself ‘the God of Jacob.’ Almost 3,000 times the name Israel occurs in the Scripture. Israel is a major theme in the Bible. You could never understand the Bible without understanding the nation Israel: God’s plan, purpose and reason. Why He would identify Himself as the God of Israel.

“To try to do away with Israel is really not a political issue; it’s a spiritual issue. It’s, ‘Is the God of the Bible true? Is the Bible really the Word of the Creator of heaven and earth?’

*****

“I remember J.C. O’Hair years ago, I listened to a radio program he’d made where he said, ‘You can’t understand the Bible without understanding the nation Israel—there are five chapters in the Bible that recount Israel’s history.’ I thought, ‘Wow, that’s interesting. There’s actually more than that!’

“In Acts 7, you have a whole recounting. Acts 13. Psalm 78. Psalm 105. Psalm 106. Romans 11. Whole chapters in Scripture given to the history and accounting of God’s purpose in that one nation. There’s not another nation on the face of the earth that God did that with.

“There’s one nation in the earth He said, ‘I choose them and they are mine.’ He said, ‘Here, to get rid of Israel you got to get rid of the universe; the ordinances I made with heaven and the ordinances I made with the earth.’

“In Jeremiah 31, right after He gives them the new covenant in verses 31-34, He says in verse 35: ‘Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:’

“To get rid of Israel you got to get rid of the universe, because God’s purpose in creating the heavens and the earth finds its embodiment in the creation of this nation in the earth.

“Malachi 3:6 says, ‘For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.’ If you could get rid of the nation Israel you could get rid of the God who created all things! They’ll be burned but they will not be consumed. The symbol of the nation Israel is not the Star of David. Amos 5 makes clear the Star of David is really the star of a false pagan God called Molech. The real symbol of the nation Israel is they’re burned but they’re not consumed.

“Moses saw it in Exodus 3 when he turned aside to see the burning bush. It was Moses, in Exodus 5, when he went before Pharaoh, who says, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel.’

"The first time when God identifies Himself to a gentile king, He said, ‘I’m the God of that nation right there.’ And by the way, when He calls himself 'the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,' that’s because He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give them the land.

“Go back in Genesis 13 and read where He says, ‘I’ll give you the land,’ and He talks about Hebron. You know where Hebron is? You hear politicians talk about the West Bank? God said, ‘I’m going to give that to you, Abraham, to walk in it.’ ”