Download World Capital for the Messianic Age

Special Feature
Dr. John D. Garr
Jerusalem
World Capital for the Messianic Age
 Jerusalem! The City of the
Great King, the place which God chose to
place His name. Jerusalem! The geographical center of the earth, the focal point of the
world’s history and of the world’s future.
Jerusalem! The joy of the whole earth! The
very mention of its name brings joy and awe
to all those who love and honor Yahweh, the
eternal God of heaven and earth, whether
they be Torah-observant Jews or Bible-believing Christians. Jerusalem! The City of Peace.
The most prayed-for city in the history of the
world, with millions of Jews and Christians
interceding for the city’s peace in obedience
to the explicit Word of God in Psalm 122:6.
Jerusalem! The Holy City – so called because
the very topography of Jerusalem is sacred
ground to three of the world’s great religions,
where even the stones cry out in testimony
to God’s dealings with His People for more
than thirty centuries. Jerusalem! The City of
Scripture, from which the Word of God goes
forth (Is. 2:3), a city mentioned no less than
800 times in the Bible.
CITY OF PEACE,
HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
The name  (Yerushalayim–
Jerusalem) probably means “people, house,
or habitation of peace,”with  (Yeru)
being a segolate noun meaning “men or
people and hence, house or habitation”
and meaning “peace” (Genesius’
Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament). At any rate, the central part of the
name is Salem, which means peace. Ironically, however, from the pages of the most
ancient of recorded history to the headlines
of today’s newspapers, Jerusalem, the city of
peace, has been the scene of ongoing vio-
lence as a veritable parade of princes, kings,
megalomaniacs, despots, religious leaders,
Messianic pretenders, and zealots of different religious faiths have vied for dominance
over this area.
Because it has been identified as the
one piece of real estate chosen by God Himself, Jerusalem has been a focal point of the
ongoing conflict between good and evil,
between the angels of light and the angels
of darkness, between God and Satan. Indeed,
more battles have been waged in the heavenly realms over this city than those that
have shed human blood on the Earth. The
reason is simple: Satan hopes to foil God’s
plan to one day make Jerusalem the capital
of a world without evil.
EARLIEST RELIGIOUS
HISTORY
The religious significance of Jerusalem
John D. Garr Ph.D., Th.D., Chancellor of Hebraic Heritage
Christian College has pioneered research, writing, and teaching on the
Hebrew Foundations of Christian Faith for more than thirty years.
His international ministry has enlightened Believers of various
communions, teaching them the historical and theological emergence of
Christianity from the matrix of biblical Judaism.
John and his wife, Pat, with the support of their sons, John, Timothy,
and Stephen, work to promote the Restoration Foundation and Hebraic
Heritage Christian School of Theology.
6 Jewish Voice Today | July/august 2007
extends to the time of Abraham, a Babylonian by birth and an Assyrian by nationality
who, at the age of seventy-five, heard God’s
voice saying, , (“Go for yourself ...
from your land, and from your kindred, and
from your father’s house, to the land which
I will show you.”). As he traversed the length
and breadth of the Land of Israel promised to
him and his descendents in God’s unilateral
covenant, Abraham “was looking forward to
a city with foundations, whose architect and
builder is God.” (Heb. 11:10)
Tradition has it that it was at the site
of Jerusalem, possibly on the very stone
on which the sacrifices of the later Temple
were offered, that Abraham demonstrated
his absolute faith in God by offering his
son Isaac to the Lord. This foundational
event for subsequent Judaism prefigured the
time when God Himself would offer His only
begotten Son in this same place as the sacrifice for humanity’s sins.
CENTURIES OF
RELIGIOUS FERVOR
Since Abraham is revered as the progenitor of Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
it is only natural that the Land of Israel
and the city of Jerusalem should have great
significance to people of all three religions.
Dr. John D. Garr
Judaism and the corporate body of the Jewish People recognize Jerusalem as their capital city. The Jewish People were given title
to the Land and to the city in the greatest
real estate transaction of history when God
promised Abraham, “Unto thy seed have I
given this Land, from the river of Egypt unto
the great river, the river Euphrates...” (Gen.
15:18)
Christians recognize Jerusalem as the
site of the crucifixion and resurrection of
Jesus, the empowerment of the Church on
the day of Pentecost, and the place where the
Gospel was first preached. The events central
to Christian faith occurred here. It is for this
reason, as well as for its pre-Christian history
as the city of God, that Jerusalem is sacred to
Christians.
}
Teddy Kolleck,
longtime mayor of
the city of Jerusalem
once said,
“I have the most
difficult job in the
world: preparing
the capital city of the
world for the
coming Messiah.”
~
Following Muhammad’s fictional
account of history, Islam teaches that Abraham offered Ishmael (rather than Isaac) on
the rock of Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. It
also teaches that it was from this very stone
that Muhammad took flight into heaven. As
a result, Jerusalem is now considered by the
followers of Islam to be one of its three holiest cities.
Unfortunately for the Jewish People –
who have always been and will always be
Jerusalem’s rightful inhabitants – this city
has been the scene of unrelenting, religiousmotivated violence. During the Middle Ages,
Christians and Moslems launched wars to
gain control of the Holy City, wars in which
thousands of innocent people perished in the
religious madness of both the “Christian”
crusaders and the Moslem jihadists. Many
of those innocent men, women, and children were Jews caught in “no man’s land”
between the inflamed passions of Christians
and Moslems.
Ultimately, the followers of Islam came
to hate the Jews for their unwillingness to
convert to the religion of Muhammad. The
result has been virtually unrelenting murder
and mayhem. In more recent times, Jerusalem has been marked with terrorism directed against the Jewish People by the Palestinians who attempt to lay claim to the city and
the Land. As God has moved to restore His
ancient People to their own Land, Satan has
incited the people of Islam to stand against
God’s purposes, prevent the fulfillment of His
Word, and postpone the Messianic Age.
JERUSALEM AND
CHRISTIAN AMBIVALENCE
Because the majority of Christianity
has adopted a supersessionist view toward
the Jews and Judaism, the Land of Israel and
the city of Jerusalem have become subjects
of great ambivalence among Christian leaders, clergy, and laypersons. “The Jews are no
longer entitled to the Land of Israel because
God ended His covenant with them when
they rejected Jesus as the Messiah,” many
Christians reason. “Jerusalem should be
taken from the control of the Jews and internationalized,” say others.
On the other hand, there are those who
believe God’s covenant with the Jews remains
intact, including His promises to their forefathers regarding title to the Land of Israel
and the city of Jerusalem. Many of these
believe that the prophecies of the Scriptures
regarding the People and the Land of Israel
are being fulfilled in preparation for the
return of Jesus.
But what should the position of the
Church be toward the Jewish People, Judaism, Israel, and Jerusalem? In this time of
international uncertainty and ambivalence,
surely there is a clear rock of divine revelation on which Believers can build a right
and divinely ordered perspective on the
Middle East.
CHRISTIANS AND JEWS, A
SHARED HISTORY AND A
SHARED DESTINY
When asked by Christians, “What have
you and we in common?” the great Martin
Buber replied, “A book and an expectation.”
To this assessment, perhaps we could now
add, “a land and a city.” Israel and Jerusalem are uniquely titled to Abraham and his
descendants. Christians have been chosen
(1 Pet. 2:9) to be grafted into God’s family
tree of covenant salvation (Rom. 11:17), to
partake of the nourishing sap of its root of
faith, and to become naturalized citizens by
adoption (Gal. 4:5) of the commonwealth
of Israel (Eph. 2:12-16). Believers share by
spiritual rebirth in the same promises of God
Special Feature
to Israel’s natural children, including those
relating to the Land. The righteous Gentiles
will be full participants with Israel in the
Messianic Age by coming up with acceptance
on God’s altar (Amos 9:11, 12; Is. 60:7, 10).
Christians, then, share in the responsibility to pray and work for the peace of
Jerusalem. They are called upon by both the
Hebrew and Apostolic Scriptures to pray for
the Jewish People, the Land of promise, and
the city of David. (Is. 40:2; Ps. 122:6;)
GOD’S PERSPECTIVE ON
JERUSALEM
What does God, Himself, think about
Jerusalem? Listen to His assessment: “I am
jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a
great jealousy. ... For Zion’s sake will I not
hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I
will not rest ... behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth ... I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people. ...Rejoice ye with
Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that
love her ... Behold, I will extend peace to her
like a river...” (Zech. 1:14; Is. 62:1; 65:17, 18;
66:10, 12)
Jerusalem is the place where God chose
to place His Name, a name of which He is
intensely jealous. (2 Kings 21:4) Some Jewish scholars have suggested that the very
topography of the city of Jerusalem actually bears the imprint of the name of God
since the three valleys that circumscribe and
intersect the city of Jerusalem seem to form
the Hebrew letter  (shin), the first letter of
the Hebrew name for God, (Shaddai)
and the Hebrew letter which stands for God
on mezzuzot on the doorposts of every observant Jewish home.
In Zechariah 12:2-3, God declares
His intentions regarding Jerusalem in its
relationship with the nations of the world:
“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of
trembling unto all the people round about
... all that burden themselves with it shall be
cut in pieces.” What clearer or more definitive word could God give to the nations? All
people who assume a posture of opposition
to God’s purposes with His People and His
city will be destroyed.
JERUSALEM AND THE
MESSIANIC AGE
Teddy Kolleck, longtime mayor of the
city of Jerusalem once said, “I have the most
difficult job in the world: preparing the capital city of the world for the coming Messiah.” Then, he offered this aside: “When the
Continued on page 17
july/august 2007 | Jewish Voice Today
7
I
n 1966 and early 1967, anyone who read the newspaper, watched TV
or listened to the radio knew it would be
just a matter of time before Egypt, Syria,
The
Jordan and Lebanon would attack IsBeginning of rael.
President Gamal Abdul Nasser
of Egypt and Syrian Defense Minister
Israel's Peace Hafez Assad talked of destroying the Zionist entity and driving Israel into the
Problem
Mediterranean Sea.
However, Israel was well prepared and won the June 1967 Six Day
War, decisively gaining control of Jerusalem, Judea-Samaria and the Golan
Heights.
Five months later, on November 22, 1967, the U.N. Security Council
passed U.N. Resolution 242 – which
called on Israel to give back the land she
had obtained in the Six Day War. That
resolution is the foundation of today’s Quartet Road Map, along with
U.N. Resolution 338, which stopped the Yom Kippur War in 1973. This
agreement was the beginning of the 40-year “land for peace” process
in Israel.
In reality – and you won’t hear this from the international community or the media – the very lengthy peace process in Israel has
been extremely costly to Israel and every Israeli prime minister, the
United States and our presidents, moderate Middle Eastern countries
and their leaders, and the EU and every international leader who has
been involved in the dividing of the Land of Israel.
Additionally, the world community’s continued efforts to effect a
peace deal in Israel have greatly empowered the Middle East terror organizations. These actions have also come back to haunt them via the
global war on terror and have ignited radical Muslims in the Middle
East and within their countries.
Israel’s enemies are now the world’s enemies, and a peace deal
in Israel is not going to cause radical Muslims to back off from their
future aggression and terror around the world. Terrorism has been so
1967
Continued from Pg. 7
Messiah comes, I want to ask Him the same
question that I have asked thousands of
pilgrims coming to Jerusalem, ‘Is this your
first time in Jerusalem, or have you been
here before?’ ” This anecdote illustrates the
expectation that Christians have shared with
Jews for nearly two millennia. Today both
Jews and Christians share the same expectation of the Messianic Age.
A CAPITAL CITY FOR THE
WHOLE WORLD
When Messiah comes, He will not establish the capital of the world in New York,
London, Moscow, Zurich, Beijing, Tokyo, or
Mecca. The Word of prophecy is just as sure
16 Jewish Voice Today | July/august 2007
Bill Koenig
effective that it has almost driven the United States out of Iraq.
This appeasement has also shown the terror organizations that
terror is effective – and thus has empowered them and continues to
embolden their activities.
Despite the rhetoric and activities of the terror groups, the world
community – especially the EU, the U.N. and the Arab League – keeps
pushing for meetings on Israel’s Land.
Furthermore, most world leaders have said publicly that a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the key to world peace. Most
world leaders have also stated they believe a solution to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict is the key to bringing peace to the Middle East.
For international leaders, and especially moderate Middle Eastern leaders, a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not going
to stop the sectarian wars between the Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, al Qaeda
and Iran. It’s also not going to end the infighting among the religious
groups in Iraq; in Lebanon between the Shiite (Hezbollah), Sunnis,
alQaeda-backed Palestinians and Syrians; the Palestinian factions of
Fatah and Hamas; the Muslim Brotherhood and the Egyptian government; the hardliners and the moderates in Iran; or solve the problems
between the Wahabi and Sunni extremists in Saudi Arabia … not to
mention the many other problems throughout the Middle East.
It’s totally unrealistic and naïve to think that a solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is going to solve the current Muslim infighting and ancient problems between the Shiites and Sunnis.
The irony is, the Middle Eastern countries, the EU and the United
States now face the same threat as Israel does; yet, realistically, if these
entities had never started the “land for peace” process or stopped it
when the terror began and allowed Israel to deal with it, the radical
Muslims would not have been empowered and the countries wouldn’t
be facing the same enemy on the battlefield as Israel is today.
The bottom line is: Israel’s problems with radical Islam are now
the world’s problems.
Bill Koenig is the President of “Koenig’s International News.”
The daily news service has readers in 50 states and 79 countries.
As a White House Correspondent and a student of the Bible and
Current Events, Bill has documented the relationship between
U.S. Mideast policy, and the swift consequences when the U.S.
pressures Israel to divide her Land. He has a web-based report available
at: www.watch.org
as ever on this issue: “Then shall the Lord go
forth ... and His feet shall stand in that day
upon the mount of Olives, which is before
Jerusalem on the east ... and it shall come
to pass, that every one that is left of all the
nations which came against Jerusalem shall
go up from year to year to worship the King,
the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.” (Zech. 12:3, 4, 16, 17) Jerusalem
is destined to be the capital of the world.
Where are the Christians today who
will “pray for the peace of Jerusalem” and
prosper for doing so? Where are the Believers
who, when they perceive faults and failures
in the Israeli government, will weep over the
city as did Jeremiah and Jesus? Where are the
Gentile Christians who will say to the Jewish People as did Ruth of old, “Where you
go, I will go; and where you live, I will
live: your people shall be my people, and
your God my God: where you die, will I
die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do
so to me, and more also, if anything but
death part you and me.” (Ruth 1:16, 17)
Through the agency of the Holy Spirit,
God is seeking righteous Gentiles who will
make such an affirmation, confirming their
identity with and among the ancient People
of God and joining with them in awaiting
and praying for the coming of the Messianic
Age and the establishment of God’s capital
city, Jerusalem. In that day, “...the moon
shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed,
when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount
Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His
ancients gloriously.” (Is. 24:23)