Jerusalem: In the Eye of the Storm Zechariah 12
No man-made treaties will end this world’s bitter fight over Jerusalem. God will end it Himself—in a most definitive and remarkable way.
No man-made treaties will end this world’s bitter fight over Jerusalem. God will end it Himself—in a most definitive and remarkable way.
If you think Satan appears like the caricatures of him, with horns and a red tail, think again. More often than not, he appears as the “noblest” among us.
The Bible tells us what it will take to destroy the Jewish people. And it tells us when God finally will say to Himself, “I’ve had enough of them!”
Religious vs. Secular. Likud vs. Labor. Hawks vs. Doves. For a country fighting to stay alive, little Israel has more than its share of domestic troubles.
If you think “Judgment Day” is just a joke, you don’t know much about the Great White Throne.
Do Christians read more into the words Son of God than the Bible intends? Examine the origin of the title and how it applies to Jesus.
Where does the power come from to live the Christian life? Chapters 6 through 8 of Romans have the answers.
If there is one question that seems to come up more than any other these days, it is this one: “Do you believe that the coming of the Lord is really near?” For almost 2,000 years believers have been looking forward to that…
With a new Israeli prime minister who appears more open to negotiating with the Palestinians than his predecessor, it is appropriate to raise this question: What would a Palestinian state involve?
The average person speaks nearly 30,000 words each day—enough to fill a good-sized book. Do we realize that each of us is writing an unwritten book every day of our lives? As we read a book, we often form certain opinions about…
The clearest declaration about the historical facts of the Christian gospel is found in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures…
To the casual observer of life in the Middle East, the real struggle there appears to be about the issue of soil. Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs are arguing over “land rights.” At times, this struggle has erupted into violence over how…
Early Christians probably did not fully realize how serious the persecution would eventually become. John Foxe’s classic volume, Book of Martyrs, describes in rather gruesome detail the horrors of the arena, the stake, and the wild beasts that…
If you ask someone to name the founder of Christianity, he or she will probably reply, “Jesus Christ.” Most people think that Jesus was His first name and Christ was His last name. The word Christ, however, is not a name—it is a title. It means Messiah. Therefore…
“He who has not seen Herod’s Temple has never seen a beautiful building.” With those deliberately exaggerated words, rabbis extolled the magnificence of the Temple that was in Jerusalem during the first century A.D. Although the religious Jews often despised…
“A people considered for centuries as non-fighters carried out in June, 1967 against long odds the most nearly perfect military operation in modern history.” With these words an eminent American historian opened her…
Ezekiel 36:16–24 A few years ago a survey was taken to determine which events cause the greatest stress on a family. It was discovered that, next to the death of a spouse…
History has bestowed on him the descriptive title, “the Great.” The primary Jewish chronicler of his period, Josephus, was the first to use the actual phrase “Herod the Great” in his Antiquities of the Jews.
It has become quite fashionable among some feminist writers and people sympathetic to the women’s liberation movement to castigate biblical writers for their “sexism.” Often biblical authors have been characterized as “male chauvinists”…
The most prominent events marking the early days of the modern Zionist movement were the publication of Theodor Herzl’s The Jewish State in 1896 and his calling of the First Zionist Congress in 1897.
Within the world of Orthodox Judaism there is a group of intensely religious Jews whose influence and significance far outweigh their number. Termed ultra-Orthodox by outsiders, they are more properly known as Hasidic Jews…
As the aged, bedridden Jacob pronounced prophetic blessings on his sons by Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah, he must have looked forward with great anticipation to what God had in store for his two youngest sons…
It is easy to determine the Jewish opinion of Jesus during His earthly ministry by reading the Gospel accounts. In simple terms, the common people, even if they did not accept His Messianic claims, generally…
Flavius Josephus was a Jerusalemite priest who lived in the last half of the first century. He also was the commander of the Jewish forces in Galilee during the war with Rome from AD 66–70.
In his essay, “The Messianic Idea in Israel,” the renowned scholar, Gershom Scholem, contrasted the Jewish and Christian concepts of the Messianic redemption. While Christianity conceives of redemption as an event in the spiritual…
Was Ezekiel a paranoid schizophrenic? If not, he must, according to some writers, at least have had an abnormal personality. To lovers of the Bible, such a diagnosis of a biblical prophet is nothing short…
I was scared stiff at the prospect of preaching in my hometown! A few years earlier, I had come to the Lord in a church in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
It has often been said that truth is stranger than fiction. That is certainly the case when studying the writings of those who deny the occurrence of the Holocaust.
The beginning of 2 Thessalonians 2 makes it clear that at least two events will precede the advent of the Day of the Lord: the arrival of the great apostasy and the unveiling of the…
In August of each year, the synagogue Scripture reading from the prophets is taken from the Book of Isaiah. Around the third Sabbath in August, the reading ends at Isaiah 52:12…
“And Isaac entreated the Lᴏʀᴅ for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lᴏʀᴅ was entreated by him, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. And the children struggled together within her;
When Bible readers move from the Old to the New Testament, they encounter many new ideas and institutions. They encounter groups like the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, and Zealots, who are not mentioned in the Old…
Every year new members are elected to the various sports’ Halls of Fame. Many good players, however, never receive this public honor. Buried in the past rosters of hundreds of teams are thousands of excellent…
As with so many important chapters in God’s Word, Matthew 24 actually begins at the end of the previous chapter. The 23rd chapter records what was undoubtedly the hardest-hitting message Jesus delivered during His earthly…
Being a leader is an unenviable calling. It appears glamorous and glorious, but it is more often lonely and thankless. The best training for a would-be leader is to observe closely the model…
There is a saying in Israel that if you really want to learn about the political situation in the country, the person to ask is a taxi driver.
On February 21, 1993, three Jewish families in Israel were ordered out of what they had hoped would be their adopted country. Gary and Shirley Beresford came to Israel from their native Zimbabwe in 1987…
It would not be appropriate to ask which is the most important Old Testament covenant. Each of the covenants plays its own unique role in God’s marvelous plan of redemption and is therefore very important.
The Arabs of the Middle East are constantly in the news, one probable reason being that they control a major portion of the world’s petroleum. Islam, the religion most often associated with them…
Relationships between Jews and Christians have always been characterized by an uneasy tension, which has at times turned into violence of the worst kind. At other times, relations between the two have been more peaceful…
The charming little account contained in the Book of Ruth has all the interest-catching elements of an absorbing short story. The reader is exposed to a plot containing elements of tragedy, conflict, characterization, and resolution.
Although the Bible deals primarily with Israel and the Messiah, it is surprising to realize how much the Scriptures teach about the Gentile nations and their future role in God’s prophetic plan.
With the shadow of the cross shading their minds, two of Christ’s disciples left Jerusalem. They were headed for Emmaus, a village seven miles from the city.
The Law is known in Hebrew as the Torah, the first of the three traditional divisions of the Hebrew Bible. The other two divisions are the Prophets and the Writings.
This Jewish man called himself “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13) and twice referred to his role as that of “a teacher of the Gentiles” (1 Tim. 2:7; 2 Tim. 1:11).
Jesus’ message to the church in Philadelphia, located in the province of Asia Minor, has always been my favorite among those found in Revelation 2 and 3 for three reasons: (1) Philadelphia was the ancient…
The New Testament epistles do not teach systematic theology. That statement may appear shocking to some readers, but a little reflection will clarify what is meant. A systematic theology textbook gathers all that the Bible…
What did the Jewish people of Jesus’ day believe about the Messiah? What Messianic preconceptions greeted Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God and the Messiah of Israel?
Many questions have been asked recently about the Jewish people in Ethiopia and their immigration to Israel. These Ethiopian Jews are sometimes referred to as the Falashas. Who are they? How did they become Jewish?
It is the most awesome day of the Jewish year. Yom Kippur is the Hebrew phrase for the Day of Atonement. For more than 3,000 years, Jewish people have observed this annual day of solemn…
Revelation 20 is one of the great chapters of the Bible. It presents the tremendous events that relate to the reign of Christ on earth. Before we begin our examination of the chapter…
The time was 4:00 p.m. The date was Friday, May 14, 1948. A black sedan pulled up to the front of the Tel Aviv Museum. Out of the back seat emerged a short, white-haired man…
Although it has sometimes been overlooked, a straightforward reading of the Book of Acts reveals that Christianity began as a sect within the Jewish community. Jesus was born of a Jewish mother, was reared…
The Friends of Israel recently had the privilege of joining thousands of others in an unprecedented relief effort to Poland. On Tuesday, April 24, 1990, four of our workers drove to New London, Connecticut…
Many Bible students are aware of the Old Testament Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary of the Lord described in graphic detail in Exodus 25-40. Fewer students however, have paid close attention to the Temple, the permanent…
It was the only sacrifice for which the animal had to be a special color. It was the only sacrifice that had to be performed outside the camp instead of on the altar.
We nearly fell out of our cushioned synagogue seats when we heard the rabbi’s answer! I had accompanied a group of believers from a suburban Detroit church to a conservative synagogue to learn more about…