Pastor John Kilpatrick – Israel: The Fig Tree
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I believe there are a lot of people that really love the Lord, but have a lack of teaching in regard to certain subjects. It causes them to have some error in their life. I could never thank the Lord enough for having a mentor in my life as a young teenage boy. One of the things he imparted to me as a young man was a love for Israel. He didn’t just impart that love to me, but he told me why! I believe that there are good people all over the United States and the world that lack understanding concerning Israel.
We’re going to be looking at Israel. At the end of my message, I have an email from an Oklahoma Senator in Washington that I want to read. It addresses seven particular things in regards to Israel. This excellent material was spoken on the floor of the senate in Washington, DC. I believe that our President loves Israel. I believe that on both sides of the aisle, the Democrats and Republicans both have some real strong positive feelings towards Israel. Anything that I’m going to say today, I’m going to say strictly from a scriptural standpoint. I want everybody here to understand that we certainly don’t hate the Palestinians. We love them and all the Arab people, and we’re praying for them. I know that many Palestinians are suffering because of the few.
Turn to Isaiah 27:6. I’d like you to get a copy of this tape and help me circulate it, because young people need to hear this. Don’t ever let any teaching going around today called “replacement theology” ever lead you to believe that the Church is replacing Israel. It has not and it will not! I do not know why they did it. I’m sure I don’t know what their motive was, but there is a teaching that the Church has replaced Israel, and Israel is no longer relevant. Surprise. Surprise. You are going to have a big surprise one of these days. The Bible says, “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not be ashamed, rightfully dividing the word of truth.” You have to take the Word of God and rightly divide it. Every part of the Bible has to complement and confirm other parts.
Isaiah 27: 6 says, “He shall cause them that come of Jacob, that is Israel, to take root. Israel shall blossom, bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” Many of you know that the Bible speaks in parabolic terms many times concerning nations. In the book of Daniel, it talks about the head of a god that was Babylon, which is modern Iraq. The arms were the Medo-Persian Empire, then the Grecian Empire, then the Roman Empire and then the toes, which is the revised Roman Empire, the time of the end. When the Bible refers to Israel, it refers to it in three different ways. When God refers to it just like any other nation, like England, or Russia, or Rome, He always refers to it as a “fig tree”. When God refers to Israel in a covenant relationship, He refers to it as the “olive tree”. Whenever God refers to the spiritual relationship with Israel, He refers to it as a “vine”. He also refers to the Church as a “vine”. When God refers to Israel in a backslidden condition in the Bible, He talks about it as a “wild grape” or a “bramble”.
If you were to give this Bible to a person that didn’t know anything about God or the Bible, ask him to read this Bible, and then to give a report on it, he would tell you that there is a main theme of the Bible. He would tell you that theme is redemption. He would say that the main people of the Bible is Israel. You can follow from Genesis to Revelation, and the Bible plainly says that Israel would take root, and it would blossom and bud. Then God said it would fill the face of the whole earth with fruit. That’s what Israel did after they were scattered throughout the nations of the earth in the Diaspora. They were scattered and they did take root in different nations of the earth. Israel was in captivity in Egypt for 400 years when God decided that He would deliver them. Adolph Hitler tried to destroy the Jews. He killed about one third of them, about six million. The Bible says that when the anti-Christ comes and rules during the Great Tribulation, he’ll kill two-thirds of them. So Israel, the main people in the main theme of the scriptures, have come under severe, severe persecution all of their existence.
The only thing that Jesus ever cursed was a fig tree. Why did He pick on the poor fig tree? He was also talking about Israel. When Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem in AD 30, He was rejected by Israel’s leaders. The common people thought Jesus was great, but religious and political leaders did not want any part of Him. That’s the way it’s been so much down through the centuries when it comes to Christ. The common people love Him, but leadership does not. The Bible then says that Jesus went to see Mary and Martha after He was rejected as Israel’s king. The next morning, He was hungry as He came from Bethany. It was a spiritual hunger, because Jesus had been rejected. He came to the fig tree and found nothing there but leaves. It was in the month of April. Now there are a hundred different varieties of fig trees. This fig tree had a few figs on it earlier, but they had fallen off; and then the leaves came. A good crop came in the fall, but it wasn’t really time for figs. It wasn’t time for Israel to accept Jesus; not the first time anyway. The Gentiles had to be given a chance, so the Jews were blinded to Jesus. Jesus spoke to the fig tree and He said, “No man eat of thee forever,” which means until the end of the age. When the Church Age is over, God will take Israel up again. This will usher in the millennial reign of Christ of 1,000 years of peace and rest on the earth, which will be God’s Sabbath. The very next day as they passed by, the fig tree had already dried up from the root, and the Bible says that the disciples were amazed that it had dried up so quickly.
In Luke 21, Jesus is speaking of a future scattering of the Jews. It started in AD 70. Titus slew 100,000 Jews. It was a terrible, bloody massacre. Israel was bottled up in Jerusalem and they were driven to eat cats and dogs, and finally even their own children, for survival. Nothing was left but the Wailing Wall. In 135 AD, General Hadrian, came and he slaughtered thousands of Jews. They ran like rats to the four corners of the earth. Christ’s prophecy in Luke 21 was fulfilled in 135 AD, when the Jews scattered to 81 nations of the earth. Let me tell you how it happened.
In AD 70, the city was taken. In AD 135, the land was taken. Joel prophesied in his book that whenever Israel would come from the dispersion of the nations of the world, and they’d come back to their own — their own homeland, their own nation — it says they would be given the land back first. This is the direct opposite of how they lost it. They got their land back first. Then in 1967, they got their city back — Jerusalem.
I want to give you a quick history trip. In AD 70, the Romans conquered Palestine and ruled it until 800 AD. In 800 AD, the Arabs came and ruled it until 1099 AD. In 1099, the Christian Crusaders came in and ruled it until 1188. In 1188, Egypt conquered Palestine and ruled it until 1517. In 1517, the Turks took Palestine and ruled exactly 400 years. In 1917, England got Palestine and ruled it until 1948. Seven is God’s number of completion. This was seven occupations of other nations in the land of Israel. So, seven being God’s number of completion and perfection, Israel got it back on the seventh round. They have it today, and they will not give it up.
In 1897, at the first Zionist Congress held in Basle, Switzerland, Theodor Herzl and others laid out the foundations of a Jewish State. The Jewish National Fund was established to buy land in Israel. Baron Edmond de Rothschild, a wealthy French financier, was also instrumental in buying land back from the Turks. It was already Israel’s land, but they were trying to buy back as much as they could from the Turks because God had put it in the Jews’ hearts already, even back in 1897, to want to go home! There were only 35,000 Jews living in Palestine, in 1897. In 1914, 85,000 Jews were living there at the outbreak of World War I.
Another key player was Dr. Chaim Weizmann. Russian born, he immigrated to Great Britain, where he was a research chemist. He discovered a method to produce synthetic acetone, required in the production of artillery shells. His scientific assistance to the Allied forces in World War I brought him into close contact with British leaders, enabling him to play a key role in the issuing of the Balfour Declaration on November 2nd, 1917 in which Britain committed itself to the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine. Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of Britain, promised the Jews, in writing, that they would get their homeland back. He ordered General Edmund Allenby to move into Palestine, and take it away from the Turks. How’d he do it? He ordered all the planes that he could get to just fly in the heavens and soar over Jerusalem, just circle the city. The Turks saw the planes and they ran without firing a shot.
It happened December the 9th, 1917. Haggai prophesied the day exactly in his book. He prophesied 9/24. The Roman calendar is 12/9, but the Jewish calendar is 9/24. The Bible prophesied it to the day in the Book of Haggai. On the 24th day of the 9th month, that’s December the 9th, the day Allenby took Jerusalem, he gave it back to the Jews. I’ll talk a little bit more about that in just a few minutes.
In Jeremiah 16, God said that He would send fishers and hunters for the Jews to go back to the Promised Land. Now, I don’t know if you know what that means. Let me explain it to you. A fisherman stays in a place, and he throws bait out on a reel trying to lure the fish. He’s trying to catch fish. He throws it out to pull them to him. A hunter does exactly the opposite. A hunter goes where they are and tracks them as a predator. Have you ever seen them run deer with dogs? God said he would call for the fishers and the hunters. Fishermen use bait; hunters do not.
Weizmann, Herzl, and de Rothschild worked to re-establish the land of Israel. They said, “The door is open. Come home!” They were the fishers. They were buying up the Promised Land, sending money back to Jews around the world that had been dispersed, telling them to come home. Most Jews did not heed the fishers. Then a hunter was raised up in Germany, and the Germans began to hunt the Jews. Six million of them lost their lives. The Zionists were fishers; Hitler was a hunter; but the message was clear. God was shouting to the Jews to go home, but the Jews did not get the message until the days of Hitler.
Now England promised Israel — I want you to listen to this — England promised Israel their homeland back, but they also gave the Arabs guns and ammunition, and told them to fight for the land. During the 1920s and 1930s, they fought and England refereed. England did not keep their promise, and England began to go down as a nation from that time. God plucked their feathers.
The United States is now the most powerful nation in the entire world. One of the reasons why the United States is the most powerful nation in the world is because we have been a staunch defender of the nation of Israel. If England had kept her word, there would have never been a World War II. Now listen to me. If England would have kept their word to the Jews, there would have never been a World War II. It took a Jew to end the Second World War. His name was Albert Einstein. He developed the law of relativity, which introduced the Atom bomb. After World War II was over, the United Nations was chartered and organized. Why? They were organized in New York for one purpose and that was to keep World War III from happening. They knew if there was another World War, there would not be any earth left. It would be such a drain on the populations of the nations that it would set back civilizations light years. In 1945, at the first meeting of the United Nations, the first thing on the agenda was, will Israel be accepted as a nation? The vote was, “Yes!” Why did they vote on Israel? Because Harry Truman said the U.S. would see to it that England gave back Israel, keeping the promise she made. In 1937, England got tired of being the referee, and it was turned over to the United Nations to decide the Mid-East questions. They decided to divide the land. The Arabs will get the south half, the fertile ground. Israel will get the north half. When the Turks had it, they taxed every tree, and so all the trees had been cut down to keep the Turk from having to pay taxes on the trees. At that time, the north half got two inches of rain per year –so no crops, just a vast wasteland. This is what the Jews got, a vast wasteland. The Arabs got the south part, which was the fertile ground. Five days after Israel got their part of the Promised Land, it rained for twenty-one days straight, and it has rained in Israel almost every month since. Israel exports more citrus fruit than the United States or any other nation, because Israel has become a fertile valley, just as Amos prophesied. Joel prophesied that there would come the first and the latter rain, all in the first month, and it did when Israel got the land back. In chapter 9, Amos prophesied that Israel would reap all year round. Even as I speak, Israel has crops coming in around the calendar.
Let’s look and see how the Jews got back into the Promised Land. It’s interesting. The United Nations had another problem on their hands. How are they going to get the Jews back into their land? England boycotted the United Nation and said, “We’re neutral.” They also said this. I want you to listen to this. They said, “The Jews cannot come through our waters!” Some of you that are older remember seeing on film, pictures of the Jews floating around on rafts because England would not let them land in Palestine. England, being a Christian nation, did the most horrible thing they have ever done. After that, England would have been whipped several times, but America stepped in to spare the nation of Great Britain. Once again, Harry Truman got mad and said to General Eisenhower, “You’ve got to get those Jews back in their homeland!” Eisenhower asked Truman, “Well how? I can’t go through the English waters.” Truman said “We’ll fly them back. Round up as many as you can and fly them back in empty cargo planes.” Eisenhower said, “I can’t. I’d have to fly over Arab territories, the Arabs would shoot down our planes, and then we’ve got World War III!” He said, “President Truman, what am I going to do?” So Truman and Eisenhower got a map and studied it to see how they could get the Jews home and they figured it out. They would fly them in around Arab territories, over the deserts, over the mountains, and they would fly them in towards the west, which fulfilled a major prophecy of the Bible. In Isaiah 11:11-12:
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
Look at verse fourteen:
“14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.”
General Eisenhower said he flew 600,000 Jews into a land they had never been to from 81 nations of the world, speaking 71 different languages, and he said it was the greatest miracle he ever witnessed. He said, not one got sick, not one died and nobody got hurt!
Now, they’re back in their homeland. Their crops were coming up pretty and green, and a locust plague developed. It started destroying their crops, all around their borders. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion called a 24-hour fast and the locusts turned and went into the sea and were destroyed. That was in the leading magazine in America back in that day.
In 1967, Israel captured all seven mountains around Israel and got Jerusalem back. According to God’s Word, they’ll keep it until the time of the end. In Zephaniah 3, it says that in the end times Israel will begin to speak the Hebrew language again. Did you know right now if you go to Israel or if turn on your television, you see all those Jewish people speaking the original Hebrew language, just as Zephaniah prophesied? If you wanted to move to Israel tomorrow, you would have to learn Hebrew if you wanted to communicate. They didn’t even speak that in the time of Jesus.
Everything in God’s Word points toward the end. That’s why the prophet Isaiah said that Israel will take root; Israel will blossom. It happened when Allenby took Jerusalem away from the Turks. Israel budded. In 1948, they became a nation. Israel will bring forth fruit. It happened in 1967. They got back Jerusalem. All the prophecies that you will find in the Bible concerning Israel have come to pass. That little bit of the history of Israel is what I wanted you to hear.
I’m about to read something to you that really touches my heart. This is written and was spoken as a speech by Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma. It was made on the floor of the U.S. Senate, on March 4th, 2002, with Secretary of State Colin Powell escalating criticism of Israel. Senator Inhofe said that he believed it was time for this speech to made on the floor of the United States Senate. He calls it, “Seven Reasons That Israel Has a Right to Their Land,” and I wanted you to hear this.
This is what the Senator said before he got started. He said, “I suggest to you that what Crown Prince Abdullah talked about a few days ago was not new at all.” He talked about the fact that, under the Abdullah plan, Arabs would normalize relations with Israel in exchange for the Jewish State surrendering the territory it received after the 1967 Six-Day-War, as if something were new. He went on to talk about other land that had been acquired and had been taken by Israel. When it gets right down to it, the land doesn’t make that much difference, because Yasser Arafat and others don’t recognize Israel’s right to any of the land. They don’t recognize Israel’s right to exist! If this is something that Israel wants to do, he said, that it’s their business; but anyone who tries to put the pressure on Israel to do this is wrong. He said, “We are going to be hit by skeptics who are going to say we will be attacked because of our support for Israel. If we get out of the Middle East, that is us, the United States, all the problems will go away.” He said, “That’s just not true. If we withdraw, all these problems will come again, even to our door. I have some observations,” he said, “to make about that, and I’d like to re-emphasize once again, these are seven reasons that Israel has a right to their land.”
1. All archaeological evidence says that the land is Israel’s.
The first reason that Israel has the right to the land is because all archeological evidence, all archaeological evidence, supports it. Every time there’s a dig in Israel, it does nothing but support the fact that the Israelis have had a presence there for 3,000 years. They have been there for a long time — the coins, the cities, the pottery, the culture. There are other people and groups that are there, but there is no mistaking the fact that Israel has been present in that land for over 3,000 years. It pre-dates any claim that other people in the region may have. The ancient Philistines are extinct, and many other peoples are extinct. They do not have an unbroken line to this date that the Israelis have. Even the Egyptians of today are not the racial Egyptians of two or three thousand years ago. They are primarily an Arab people. The land is called Egypt, but they’re not the same racial and ethnic stock as the old Egyptians of ancient time. The Israelis are, in fact, descended from the original Israelites. The first proof then is archaeology.
2. Israel has an historic right to the land.
History supports it totally and completely. We know there had been an Israel up until the time of the Roman Empire. The Romans conquered the land. Israel had not had a homeland, although the Jews were allowed to live there. They were driven from the land in two dispersions, one in 70 AD, and the other in 135 AD; but there has always been a Jewish presence in the land. The Senator said the Turks who took over about 700 years ago ruled the land up until World War I, then the land was conquered by the British. The Turks entered World War I on the side of Germany. The British knew they had to do something to punish Turkey, and they also had to break up the empire that was going to be a part of the whole effort of Germany in World War I. The British sent troops against the Turks in the Holy Land. One of the generals leading the British armies was a man by the name of Allenby, General Edmund Allenby. Allenby was a Bible-believing Christian. He carried a Bible with him everywhere he went and knew the significance of Jerusalem. The night before the attack against Jerusalem to drive out the Turks, Allenby prayed that God would allow him to capture the city without doing damage to the holy places. That day Allenby sent World War I bi-planes over the city of Jerusalem to do a reconnaissance mission. You have to understand that the Turks at that time had never even seen an airplane; so there they were flying around. They looked up in the sky, saw these fascinating inventions, did not know what they were and they were terrified. Then they were told that they were going to be opposed by a man named Allenby. Allenby means, “man sent from God.” It also means, “a prophet from God,” so the Turks dared not fight against a prophet from God. The next morning, when Allenby went to take Jerusalem, he went in and captured it without firing a single shot. The British government was grateful to the Jewish people around the world, particularly to the Jewish chemist who helped them manufacture nitre. Nitre is an ingredient that was used in nitro-glycerin that was sent from the new world, but they did not have a way of getting it to England. The German U-boats were shooting on the boats, so most of the nitre that they were trying to import to make nitro-glycerin was on the bottom of the ocean. A man name Weizmann, a Jewish chemist, discovered a way to make it from materials that existed in England, and as a result they were able to continue that supply. The British at that time said that they were going to give the Jewish people a homeland. That is all a part of history. He says it is written down in history. They were gratified that the Jewish people, the bankers, came through and helped finance the war. The homeland that Britain said it would set aside consisted of all what is now Israel, and also including the nation of Jordan. Britain promised all of what is now Israel, and even the nation of Jordan, to the Israelis; but the promise that Britain made was made in 1917. In the beginning, there was some Arab support for this action. There was not a huge Arab population in that time. There was not even a reason for that. The land was not able to sustain a large population of people. It did not have development. It needed to handle that amount of people. The land was not really wanted by anybody. Nobody really wanted this land. It was considered worthless land. And then the Senator said to the Presiding Officer of the Senate, “I want the Presiding Officer to hear what Mark Twain said. Of course, you may have to read “Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer”. Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens, took a tour of Palestine in 1867. This is how he described the land. He said — we’re talking about Israel now –he said, ‘It’s a desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but given over wholly to weeds. A silent, mournful expanse. We never saw a human being on the whole route. There was hardly a tree or shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.’ Where was this Palestinian nation? It did not even exist. It was not there. Palestinians were not there. Palestine was a region named by the Romans, but at that time, it was under the control of Turkey. There was no large mass of people there because the land could not support them. This is the report that the Palestinian Royal Commission, created by the British, made. It quotes an account of the conditions on the coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea, in 1913. This is the Palestinian Royal Commission. ‘The road leading from Gaza to the north is only a summer path, suitable for transport by camel or cart. No orange grove, orchards or vineyards were to be seen until one reached a Yavnev village. Houses were made of mud. Schools did not exist. The western part toward the sea was a desert. The villages in the area were few and thinly populated. And many villages were deserted by their inhabitants.’ That was 1913. The French author Voltare described Palestine as a ‘hopeless, dreary place’. In short, under the Turks, the land suffered from neglect and low population. This is an historic fact. The nation became populated by both Jews and Arabs because the land came to prosper when the Jews came back and began to reclaim it. Historically, they began to reclaim it. If there had never been any archeological evidence to support the rights of the Israelis to this territory, it’s important that other nations in the area had no long-standing claims to the country, either.
Did you know that Saudi Arabia was not created until 1913? Lebanon did become a nation until 1920. Iraq did not exist as a nation until 1932! Syria did not become a nation until 1941. The borders of Jordan were not established until 1946, and Kuwait was not a nation until 1961. Any of these nations that would say Israel is only a recent arrival would have to deny their own existence and be proclaimed as recent arrivals, as well. They did not even exist as nations. They were all under control of the Turks. Historically, Israel gained its independence in 1948.
3. Israel’s practical value to the Middle East.
Israel today is a modern marvel of agriculture. Israel is able to bring more food out of a desert environment than any other country in the world. The Arab nations ought to make Israel their friend and import technology from Israel that would allow all the Middle East, not just Israel, to become an exporter of food. Israel has unarguable success in its agriculture.
4. Israel’s land on the ground of humanitarian concern.
The fourth reason I believe Israel has a right to the land is on the grounds of humanitarian concerns. You see there were 6 million Jews slaughtered in Europe, in WWII. The persecution against the Jews had been very strong in Russia since the advent of Communism. It was against them, even before these people had a right to their homeland. If we’re not going to allow a homeland in the Middle East, then where are they going to have a homeland? What other nation on earth is going to cede territory and give up land? They’re not asking for a great deal. The whole nation of Israel would fit into my home state of Oklahoma, seven times. It would fit into the Presiding Officer’s state of Georgia, seven times. They’re not asking for a great deal! The whole nation of Israel is extremely small. It is a nation that, up until the time that claims starting coming in, was not desired by anybody.
5. Israel is a strategic ally of the United States.
The fifth reason that Israel ought to have their land is that she is a strategic ally of the United States. Whether we realize it or not, Israel is a deterrent, a detriment, an impediment to certain groups hostile to democracy and hostile to what we believe in. Hostile to what makes us the greatest nation in the history of the world. They have kept them from taking complete control of the Middle East. If it were not for Israel, they would have overrun the region many years ago; but Israel was our strategic ally that stopped that. It’s good for us to know that we have a friend in the Middle East on whom we can count. They vote with us in the Untied Nations more than England, more than Canada, more than France, and more than Germany. More than any other nation in the world does Israel vote with the United States.
6. Israel is a roadblock to terrorism.
The sixth reason that Israel has a right to their land is it’s a roadblock to terrorism. The war we are now facing is not against a sovereign nation. It is against a group of terrorists who are very fluid, moving from one country to another. They are almost invisible. That is who we are fighting against today. We need every ally we can get. If we don’ stop terrorism in the Middle East, it’s coming to our shores.
[And we have said this again and again and again, and it’s true! One of the reasons I believe that the spiritual door was opened for an attack against the United States of America is that the policy of our government has been to ask the Israelis, and demanded with pressure, not to retaliate in a significant way against the terror strikes that have been launched against them.]Since its independence in 1948, Israel has fought four wars: the war in 1948 and 1949, the war for independence; the war in 1956, the Sinai campaign; the Six-Day War in 1967; and the Yom Kippur war in 1973, the holiest day of the year. That was with Syria and Egypt. You have to understand that in all four cases, Israel was attacked. Israel has never been the aggressor! Some people may argue that this is not true, because they went in first in 1956; but they knew that at the time, Egypt was building a huge military to become the aggressor. Israel, in fact, was not the aggressor and has not been the aggressor in any of its four wars. Also, they won all four wars against impossible odds. They are great warriors. They consider a level playing field being outnumbered two to one. There were 39 Scud missiles that landed on Israel’s soil during the Gulf War. Our President asked Israel not to retaliate. In order to have the Arab nations on-board, we asked Israel not to participate in that war. They showed tremendous restraint, and they did not.
Now we have asked them to stand back and do nothing again over these last several attacks. We have criticized them. We have criticized them in our media. Local people in television and radio often criticize Israel, not knowing the true facts. We need to be informed! I was so thrilled when I heard a reporter pose a question to our Secretary of State, Colin Powell. He said, ‘Mr. Powell, the United States has advocated a policy of restraint in the Middle East. We have discouraged Israel from retaliation again and again and again, because we said it leads to continued escalation, and that it escalates the violence. Are we going to follow that preaching ourselves?’ And Mr. Powell indicated that we would strike back. In other words, we can tell Israel not to do it, but when it comes to us being hit, we’re gonna do something. All of that changed in December, when the Israelis when into Gaza with gun-ships and into the West Bank with F-16s. With the exception of last May, the Israelis have not used F-16s since 1967’s Six-Day War. I’m so proud of them because we have to stop terrorism. It’s not going to go away. If Israel were driven into the sea tomorrow, if every Jew in the Middle East were killed, terrorism still would not end. You know that in your hearts, ladies and gentlemen. Terrorism will continue. It’s not just a matter of Israel in the Middle East. It’s the heart of the very people who are perpetrating this stuff. Should they be successful in overrunning Israel, which they won’t be, but should they be, it will not be enough. They will never be satisfied.
7. We must support Israel’s right to the land because God say’s so!
I believe very strongly that we are to support Israel because it has a right to the land. This is the most important reason, because God said so. As I said a minute ago, look it up in the Book of Genesis. It’s right there upon that desk. He said in Genesis 13:14 through 17, “The LORD said to Abram, lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are standing, northward and southward and eastward and westward. For all the land, which you see, I’m going to give it to you and to your seed forever. Arise Abram, walk through the length of the land and in the breadth of it for I will give it to you.” That’s God talking! The Bible says that Abram removed his tent and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there before the LORD an altar. Hebron is now called the West Bank. It is at this place where God appeared to Abram and said, “I’m giving you this land!” And this land is the West Bank.
[I want you to listen to something important. I know this is taking some time, but I’m doing this for a purpose. This is not a political battle, at all. He says it is a contest over whether the Word of God is true. The seven reasons, I’m convinced, clearly establish that Israel has a right to the land.]This is not a political battle, at all. It is a contest over whether the Word of God is true. The seven reasons, I’m convinced, clearly establish that Israel has a right to the land.
Eight years ago on the lawn of the White House, Yitzak Rabin shook hands with PLO chairman, Yasser Arafat. It was an historic occasion, but yet it was a tragic occasion. At that time, the official policy of the government of Israel began to be about appeasing the terrorists; trading the land for peace. This process continued unabated up until last year. Here in our own nation, at Camp David, in the summer of 2000, then Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak, offered the most generous concessions ever to Yasser Arafat that has ever been laid on the table. He offered him (Arafat) more than 90% of the West Bank territory, giving them sovereign control of it. There were some parts he did not want to offer, but in exchange for that, he said he would give up land in Israel proper that the PLO had not even asked for. He also did the unthinkable. He spoke of dividing Jerusalem and allowing Palestinians to have their capital there in East Jerusalem. Yasser Arafat stormed out of the meeting. Why did he storm out of the meeting? Everything he had ever said he wanted was offered on the table. It was put into his hand. Why did he storm out of the meeting?
A couple of months later the riots started and the terrorism. The riots began when now Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, went to the Temple Mount. This was used as the thing that lit the fire that caused the explosion. Did you know that Sharon did not go unannounced, that he contacted the Islamic authorities before he went and secured their permission to be there? It was no surprise; but the response was very calculated. They knew the world would not pay attention to the details. They would portray this in the Arab world as an attack on the Holy Mosque. They would portray it as an attack on the Mosque, and use it as an excuse to riot. Over the last eight years during this time of the peace process where the Israeli public has pressured its leader to give up land for peace because they are tired of fighting, there has always been increased terror. In fact, it has been greater in the last eight years than in any other time in Israel’s history. Showing restraint has not produced any kind of peace. It is so much today that the leftist peace movement in Israel does not even exist because the people feel they were deceived. They did offer a hand of peace, but it was not taken. That’s why the politics of Israel have changed so drastically over the last twelve months. The Israelis have come to see that no matter what we do, these people do not want to deal with us. They want to destroy us! And that is why, even yet today, the stationery of the PLO still has upon it the map of the entire state of Israel; not just the tiny little part they call the West Bank. They want it all. We have to get out of this mindset that somehow you can buy peace in the Middle East by giving a little land, or lots of land. It has not worked before when it was offered.
These are the seven reasons the senator gave for his belief that Israel must have the land.
I think probably every preacher feels a lot like I do whenever you get up like this before a congregation to talk about events like this. You don’t know that you can really say adequately what you feel. I’m in one of those places. I’m just gonna talk to you out of my heart for a minute before I let you go. There is a lot of speculation and a lot of questions that I’m asked all the time, on the road, and people coming in here, even our own Brownsville people. I’m asked this question more than any other question. “Brother Kilpatrick, what in the world is going on in the world?” And then they ask the question, “Where do you think Brownsville is headed?”
Friday, it was a week ago that I had a real powerful encounter with the Lord. This last Friday, I had another one. I didn’t hear a word this time, but I had a real powerful encounter with the Lord. I was even late coming to church Friday night. I had a real powerful encounter with the Lord, and I’m not even going to get into it because I can’t even explain to my wife what I’m going through. It’s just something I can’t explain. It’s something I feel, but I can’t explain. Whenever I got up on that Friday night a couple of weeks ago and told people what happened to me that day, even as I was telling it…. it just didn’t…I could tell it wasn’t making an impact. You can’t understand what was going on in my own life. And the last Friday, the same thing happened. I’ve just come to realize that God is doing something in me that I can’t explain to people, and I don’t want to really take the time to try to explain it to you; but I will say this. I believe with all my heart that what is going on in Brownsville and what’s going to be going on in churches all over America and around the world; I believe that whatever God is about to do in the church is going to be linked to world events. I think that somehow the two are going to be in there together. If I were to tell you to be on the look out for one thing in particular in regard to prophecies of the Bible, I would say beyond all other signs, keep your eyes on Israel. Israel is the deal. Always has been. Always will be! None of us know what’s going to happen, but when you read the Word of God, there’s an outline there — not details really –but there’s an outline, a general outline. We know that things are happening and we know we can see the outline, but the details are not filled in. But things now are rapidly happening. There is going to ultimately be somebody emerge in the Middle East, that’s going to show up in the Middle East, not necessarily from there, but somebody going to emerge. Yasser Arafat’s in his 70s. Yasser Arafat probably is suffering some physically and mentally, I would imagine. He’s just not probably going to be a major player very much longer; but somebody is going to emerge that’s going to befriend Israel in a peaceful way, and lead them to believe that everything is okay. The Bible says, “When they say, ‘peace and safety’ …” Now you can understand why Israel will say “peace and safety”, because it’s such a thing that the whole world, everybody in the whole world, looks at the Middle East, and we all know what they want.
There’s so much bloodshed. They say that the way they can tell in the Middle East how many people were killed in a bombing is they count the heads that were blown off the bodies. That’s how they can tell. They count the heads. That’s how terrible the terrorism is. They count the heads and it says how many people were killed. That’s the only way they can tell. And with the whole world looking in and seeing what’s going on in Israel right now, the whole world understands that. I even hear people say, people off the street, they’ll say, “There’s never been peace in the Middle East and there’ll never be peace in the Middle East.” Well, that’s why the Bible says its going to be so significant whenever Israel says, “peace and safety”. Sudden destruction will come upon them. So somebody is going to emerge eventually that’s going to make peace with them. We understand that to be a time that will be associated with the tribulation period. That’s going to happen during the tribulation period. Somebody’s going to arrive. I don’t know who it will be. I don’t know what his name will be. I can’t tell you what nationality, but I have some suspicions. Somebody is going to come in there and sign a peace agreement with Israel, and that will actually technically start the tribulation period. The first half, as I’ve often said, will be a time of peace. Israel will go through a peace. They’ll think that it’s a time of peace, and they’ll think that they’ve found them a real leader that’s going to bring them peace; but it’s going to turn terribly, terribly sour after about three, three and a half years. Then the Bible says there will come a time on the earth such has not been since man has been on the earth. It’s going to be that bad. Somewhere in the time, there’s going to be a stopgap. Somebody’s going to come along and stick their finger in the whole of all this hell in the Middle East, but it will just be a stopgap. It will not be a permanent thing. Russia is going to come against Israel like it’s prophesied in Ezekiel. The nations and her allies that the Bible prophesies in Ezekiel 37, 38 and 39 will come against Israel. That’s going to happen. It’s the Bible. All the Bible is going to come to pass. What I’m trying to tell you is this. If the whole inhabitants of the world see what’s going in the Middle East and Israel and the Palestinians is on the lips of everybody in the whole world, and God said He’d make Jerusalem a “cup of trembling” and a “burdensome stone”. And God said all that burden themselves with this burdensome stone will be cut in pieces. In other words, if they don’t handle Jerusalem right… I’ve told you this before, but let me just tell you again in light of what I just read; I remember, I read a prophecy that came to my office by fax from a woman and it was addressed to Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin. And I read it at least 30 days before he was assassinated. And here’s what the prophecy said:
“Dear Prime Minister Rabin. I beg you in the name of Jehovah God, do not make a deal with the Palestinians, land for peace. If you do, you will not live. Your life will be taken.” She also said, “Do not make a deal with the Palestinians and do not give up the land, because it’s going to increase the problem.”
As you know, Prime Minister Rabin and Israel got so tired of the violence, he was willing to sacrifice the land for peace. As you know, he was killed by one of his own, an Israeli young man shot and killed him.
I read that prophecy 30 days before he was killed. She sent that to him in Jerusalem, and just as I read to you from the Senator, every time they start talking about land for peace and dividing up Jerusalem, the terror gets increased. It just becomes more and more fiery and violent.
So, that’s where we are. My concern is this, and I’m not going to come back and re-visit this next week. We are going to move on to other things; but I just want to leave it with you today, and I want you to help me pray. My concern is this. I just pray to God that President Bush will stand firm. I pray that Colin Powell will also have a heart for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. I pray that he’ll stand firmly with him. I pray that if Colin Powell is affected by what’s going on the Middle East and sees it a different way, I hope he’s not able to influence the President, because I did get to ask the candidate for President, before he was elected, “What about Israel?” He said, “My stance is the Bible’s stance.” He said, “Whenever anybody else tuck’s tail and runs from Israel, I’ll still be there!” So, I’m just trusting that the President will stand by Israel, because our very existence, I believe, depends on it!
Did you know in America terrorism started back when they tried to bomb the World Trade Center a number of years ago? When the airplanes hit it September 11th, they actually consummated what they tried to do several years earlier. They developed a plan and they came back and finished what they tried to start several years earlier. Terrorism is now on these shores and in this country, and it’s not over! The more we stand by Israel, the more those demons, strong demons, principalities and powers are going to come against America, because we are Israel’s ally and staunch defender. Just as Israel is going through it there, America is going to go through it over here. However, my prayer is this. No matter how vicious it gets … They say that they have so developed dirty bombs now, dirty nuclear bombs now; that people can come with components from different parts of the world; fly in with just different components and put together a dirty nuclear bomb in a matter of just a few hours strong enough to destroy hundreds of thousands of lives. We’re trusting that’s not going to happen; but I will say this. I feel safe to say this: that you have not seen that last of terrorism in America, especially as we continue to stand with Israel. We are living in some dangerous times and we’re living in some perilous times. I strongly suspect, I can’t say this for sure, but I strongly suspect what’s been happening to me for the last two Fridays, from the best I can tell, is that God is dealing with me concerning these things. I’m so deeply moved. I’m just so deeply moved. I was raised by a pastor that loved Israel and loved Bible prophecy. Now in my time, God’s sent revival to this church, and now in my time, the Lord has let me have a voice as we travel. He’s letting me have a voice to speak up in regard to Israel and end-time Bible prophecies, and I thank Him for it. I just want to say today to this church, thank you, so much for loving Israel. Thank you for being her defender. Israel is not perfect. Israel is not. When you think about Israel today, it’s not the people that you read about in the Bible. Israel today is pretty well a secular nation. There is not really even a lot of religion in Israel today. There are pockets of it, but it’s not what you think it is. However, they are still the seed of Abraham, and God is obligated to that covenant that He made with Abraham. We’re going to pray for Israel. We’re going to continue to pray for Israel in this church, and I’m so thrilled that that offering came in last week of $50,000 for Israel. I believe, by the grace of God, by the time I get ready to present it, I’ll have a $100,000 check to give to the nation of Israel. If God never gave us a dime back, if he never blessed us, if there was not a blessing to be had for blessing Israel, I would still do it. I would still do it, but I will say this. With us blessing Israel, God is going to bless this church.
I want to make one other statement. Let me get this out of my craw. I don’t care what preacher mocks us and criticizes us for standing so firmly with Israel. I will not back up an inch! I will not back up an inch! I’m not going to do it! I appreciate people like John Hagee that stand so firmly with Israel; but I’m going to tell you friend. You have to search far and wide today to find a church and a preacher that will staunchly defend Israel. I’m proud to be one of them, and I’m not going to back up. I don’t care who it offends. I don’t care how anti-Semitic you are and call yourself a Christian. If you come to Brownsville, you’re going to hear about Israel!
God bless you. Thank you!
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