Yeshua

September 17, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

There is Peace, and then there is PEACE!

Don’t quote me wrong, I have no intention of minimizing the event that took place at the White House on September 15, 2020. It was truly historic! Considering the geopolitical crisis that has punctuated the Middle East since Israel’s birth as a modern nation on May 14, 1948, any Israeli/Arab peace treaty is a monumental achievement. There had only been two in 72 years. Egypt was the first in 1978 at Camp David under Jimmy Carter and between Anwar El Sadat and Menahem Begin. It was followed by Jordan in 1994, at the White House under Bill Clinton and between King Hussein and Yitzhak Rabin. Then came the 2020 negotiations in the Middle East under Donald Trump and his team, and the impossible took place; the United Arab Emirates declared that they would normalize relations with Israel and soon after them, Bahrain followed suit.

While nobody knows the details of what is to happen next, President Trump hinted at the fact that 5-6 other Arab nations are lined up to normalize relations with Israel. This is truly changing the entire dynamics of the Middle East. The Abraham Accords (Abraham being the father of both Jewish and Arab nations), as they are being called, are truly history being written in front of our very eyes. The positive aspect of such an event is most definitely welcome in 2020, a year that until now, could have been renamed “The year of all tragedies.”

In an exclusive interview with Vice President Mike Pence, Joel Rosenberg confirmed that the current administration desires to go the extra mile to strengthen US/Israel relations after they had been strained by the previous administration. Pence called Israel,“our most cherished ally” and said that “the president had decided from the very beginning of his administration that he was going to do everything he could to strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance and try to advance peace.” What a departure from the shaky relations that the US had under Barack Obama! Incidentally, Pence also mentioned that it was Democrat President Harry Truman who recognized Israel literally moments after Ben Gurion had declared independence in Tel Aviv.

The Peace Treaties that were signed are very special because they open the door to more countries in the region, and that is a good thing. Additionally, they put Iran and the Palestinian Authority on notice. When more countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, Sudan and others decide to normalize relations with Israel, the Middle East as we have known it for the last several decades will be a thing of the past. Iran, already weakened by major US sanctions, is seeing its hegemony of the region erode by the day. As to the Palestinians, their response to the peace deals was still typical of their ideology and agenda; they sent missiles onto Israel from Gaza. The consensus from the Palestinians is that “there will be no peace until Palestine is free.” For now, the Palestinian Authority has decided to dig its heels in the sand, but with a weakened Iran increasingly unable to finance Hamas and Hezbollah, the tide might turn soon. The Palestinian narrative might become irrelevant. Wow, I never thought I would say that in my lifetime! We are truly living as critical history is being written. It is about peace. But there is peace and there is PEACE!

Again, I do not wish to brush aside the momentous event that took place days ago, but I also want to bring some biblical perspective if I may. From a human perspective, nobody can argue that peace is good. The Bible tells us to get along with our fellow men whenever and however possible in Romans 12:18, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” We are also told not to seek revenge or hold a grudge in Leviticus 19:18, “ You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” So, there is definitely a biblical precedent for seeking peace with our neighbors. What about Israel? Does the Bible give us clues as to peace in the Middle East Region and the safety of Israel? I believe it does.

The first thing we must understand is that, from our limited human perspective, peace is simply the absence of war. This doesn’t make peace not worth seeking, but that is not the whole story. The peace we should be seeking is the one that comes from the Prince of Peace, Messiah Yeshua as He is called by that name in Isaiah 9:6 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.” Yeshua the Prince of Peace will return in the future to establish His messianic kingdom on earth as He promised. Isaiah goes further in describing what life will be in the messianic kingdom, under the just rule of Messiah, the Prince of Peace, in Isaiah 11:6-10 we read, “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them. Also, the cow and the bear will graze, Their young will lie down together, And the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD As the waters cover the sea. Then in that day The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, Who will stand as a signal for the peoples; And His resting place will be glorious.

We are told that the whole earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord and that the wild will fellowship with the tame as never seen before. The prophet Ezekiel (Chapters 40-48) also tells us with great details about that future time in history when a beautiful Jewish Temple will be rebuilt in a New Jerusalem. That is what real PEACE will be all about, and anything but that is a thin veneer of “pretend peace” painted over a lost world in need of a Savior. The Bible also tells us that a false peace will exist, and while I recognize the incredible events of the last few days, biblically speaking, I still see the region undergoing turmoil. The door has been open for more peace in the Middle East and for Israel to start feeling more secure. Israel will have to feel more secure in order to let her guard down and agree to sign a seven-year treaty with a charismatic new world leader that the Bible knows as the Antichrist.

At first, the world will become mesmerized by this new figure. He is known by many names like “the little horn” (Daniel 7:8), “the prince who is to come” (Daniel 8:23), “the one who makes desolate” (Daniel 9:27) and “the man of destruction” (2 Thessalonians 2:3) to name just a few. He will rise to power very quickly (Revelation 17:13.) Possibly his biggest achievement in the eyes of men will be the covenant he will sign with Israel to bring complete peace to the region. This will allow the resumption of Jewish sovereignty on the Jerusalem Temple Mount (Daniel 9:27.) Needless to say, that this area of Israel is currently sitting on a powder keg with a very short fuse, so when he brings “false” peace, it will be received by many as real peace. That is not the end of the story, but soon after–three and a half years to be exact–this will be the end of peace on earth, as he will claim to be god and will require to be worshipped (Revelation 13:4-8.)

The antichrist will also gather all the nations against Jerusalem as seen in Zechariah 14:1-3, “Behold, a day is coming for the LORD when the spoil taken from you will be divided among you. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on a day of battle.” and also in Revelation 16:16, “And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.” and yet, this is still not the end of the story.

The false peace that the antichrist will bring to the world will come to an end, but so will the antichrist’s career of lies, abuse and rebellion against God. Finally, he will fight against Messiah when He returns to earth and he will be completely defeated (Revelation 19:19-20.) Additionally, he will be thrown in the Lake of fire and brimstone forever (Daniel 7:11; Revelation 19:20.)

So, truly, there is peace and there is PEACE! What we are seeing right now in the Middle East should be exciting from a human perspective, but even more so from a prophetic perspective since it opens the door for the rest of God’s program to unravel and for the return of the Messiah to rule the earth.

I recommend that we all keep one eye in the Word of God and one eye in the sky because Yeshua is coming soon to rapture the believers before the antichrist steps onto the world stage. Will you be coming with us or will you be left behind? Don’t wait too long to decide.

In the meantime, L’Shanah Tovah for a prosperous New Year!

August 29, 2020 By Olivier Melnick 1 Comment

Let’s Set the Record Straight About Zionism – Part I

The terms “Zionism” and “Zionist” were coined in 1890 by Jewish activist Nathan Birnbaum (1864-1937), who also played an important part in the first Zionist Congress held in 1897, (and renamed the World Zionist Organization in 1960) alongside its first president, Theodore Herzl. The word Zion comes from the Hebrew tzion, a reference to Jerusalem and often, by extension, to the Land of Israel itself (first mentioned in II Samuel 5:7.)“Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.”According to scholar Mitchell Bard, Zionism is: “The national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel.”One doesn’t need to peruse the news for too long before reading or hearing about Zionism. So, it becomes necessary to go back in history to understand how Zionism came about.

European Jews had suffered at the hands of many popes, kings, and the masses since the Early Church Fathers. Anti-Semitism, in many shapes, from theological to social to ethnic, had punctuated Jewish life throughout the centuries, limiting if not eliminating any semblance of normalcy within the Jewish communities of Europe. The Crusades, the crushing hatred unleashed by false claims of blood libel against the Jewish people, the 1492 Spanish Inquisition and the creation of the first Ghetto in Italy in 1516, to name a few, were ominous milestones of terror against the Jewish people on the timeline of Jewish history. It would eventually get much worse, with the Russian pogroms (massacres occurring during fomented riots against the Jews in the Ghettos and the shtetls) and the Holocaust (1933-1945), a systematic extermination in which six million Jews were murdered by the Nazis.

After all this persecution and devastation, something had to change. Jewish people felt they had to “leave the Ghetto” not just physically, but spiritually and emotionally as well. In the midst of their misery, the Jewish people saw a ray of hope with the advent of the Haskalah. The Haskalah, also known as the Jewish Enlightenment, was a movement among European Jews of the 17th and 18th centuries advocating a more secularized way of life, hopefully leading to their emancipation and thus better integration into a non-Jewish society. Moses Mendelssohn (1729-1786) was a German-Jewish philosopher and the father of the Haskalah. The result of the Haskalah was a new emphasis on Jewish culture and history, much of it apart from religion. It was adapted to various Jewish communities across Western and Eastern Europe. For a short while, there seemed to be a period of respite for the Jewish people. Emancipation was working, or was it?

In 1894 France, at a time when Jewish people thought that their emancipation had prevailed, an event occurred that interrupted that hope. French Alsatian Jew, Captain Alfred Dreyfus, was accused of treason against the French Government. In a vitriolic explosion of hatred, anti-Semitism appeared once again in the treatment of Captain Dreyfus and the spillover to the French Jewish people in general. Mobs took to the streets of Paris, screaming, “Death to the Jews!” Even though Captain Dreyfus was later cleared and even fully reinstated in 1906, the climate had changed in France. In a sense, what is today still known as the Dreyfus Affair, was the catalyst for conceiving of and pursuing Zionism.

A Vienna newspaper sent their Paris correspondent, Hungarian journalist, Theodor Herzl, to cover the Dreyfus Affair. To be sure, Herzl’s obsession with Jewish existence in a land of their own predated the Dreyfus Affair. But it is the very treatment of Captain Dreyfus and, by association, the Jews of France, that prompted Theodor Herzl to compile his work of several years into the historic pamphlet Der Judenstaat or “The Jewish State,” published in Vienna in 1896 in which he stated: “Palestine is our unforgettable historic homeland.…Let me repeat once more my opening words: The Jews who will it shall achieve their State. We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and in our own homes peacefully die. The world will be liberated by our freedom, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind.” Herzl was convinced that the only viable solution was a mass exodus of the Jews of Europe back to Israel, the land of their ancestors, as he further stated: “Political principle will provide the basis, technology the means and the driving force will be the Jewish tragedy.” Theodor Herzl, if not the originator of the concept of Zionism, was definitely the visionary, catalyst and leader of political Zionism. Let me just remind all of us that the word Palestine is used in this article ONLY as the name for the geographical area known as Israel, prior to 1948.)

So, Herzl started lobbying for the Jewish people’s return to a safe land of their own. He first met with German Kaiser Wilhelm II in Istanbul in 1898 in an effort to convince him to help secure land in Israel. But Herzl wasn’t taken very seriously; and the Kaiser, influenced by his own anti-Semitic tendencies, flatly rejected Herzl’s appeals for a Jewish homeland. Disappointed and frustrated but not discouraged, Herzl met with British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain who, as a compromise, offered the Jews the country of Uganda in Eastern Africa. Eventually, in 1903, during the sixth Zionist Congress, and by now rather discouraged, Herzl proposed the move of the Jewish people to Uganda, as a temporary solution until Palestine could be secured. The Jewish people who followed his leadership reacted immediately and, at the sight of a possible split within the Zionist movement, Herzl decided against the compromise Herzl died a year later in Vienna at age 44, having spent most of his adult life fighting for a Jewish homeland.

In Vienna in 1897, he had said, almost prophetically: “At Basle I created the Jewish State. In five years, perhaps, and certainly in fifty, everyone will see it.” It is exactly 50 years later in November 1947, that the United Nations officially voted for the partition of British Mandate Palestine, later to become Eretz Yisrael on May 14, 1948. One could argue that during Herzl’s life, Zionism was mainly a political movement relying on diplomacy for any sustainable existence. But even Herzl saw that “political Zionism” and “practical Zionism,” while having the same goal, had different methods. The chasm would divide further as the Jewish homeland became more of a reality. Herzl had worked hard at gathering funds, yet they hadn’t been disbursed significantly, and a move from the theoretical to the practical was necessary. Additionally, there was a serious push for a Hebrew renaissance. The idea of a “cultural Zionism,” mostly introduced by Russian Jews, appealed to a wider spectrum within the Jewish community; while “political Zionism” left many of the more religious leaders unsatisfied and unable to relate to the cause.

A key player who had not always seen eye-to-eye with Herzl was Russian Jewish essayist, Asher Ginsberg (1856-1927), who went by the pen name of Ahad Ha’am, Hebrew for “one of the people.” Ha’am is known as the father of “cultural Zionism,” and his vision was “a Jewish State and not merely a State of Jews.” He felt that Jewish people should return gradually to Palestine while Diaspora Jews should be given a vision of the new homeland making them jealous and thus drawing them to a move. Another important figure in the fight for a cultural rebirth was Hebrew Lexicographer, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, who immigrated to Israel during the first Aliyah of 1881, and dedicated the rest of his life, not without tremendous hardship, to the rebirth of Hebrew as a modern tongue.

Robert St. John, Ben Yehuda’s biographer, wrote of him in Tongue of the Prophets: “In twenty years he had fathered ten children. Five had died but five still lived. Two of them spoke fluently the language he had spent so much of these twenty years trying to bring back to life. More important, the streets of Jerusalem, the market places, the villages scattered over the desert were thronged with other Jews who spoke this same revived language.”

In the decade following Herzl’s death, Zionist influx continued in the Holy Land, and about 100,000 pioneers lived there. Times were hard, workdays were long, and poverty was rampant; but the spirit of hope kept Zionism alive. On the eve of World War One, Zionism had become a reality; a fragile one, but a reality, nonetheless.

August 21, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Is the Antichrist Watching the News?

First, we need to realize that the Antichrist is a real person. He is not a Christian legend to scare people. The Antichrist is real and while nobody knows that for sure, he might even be alive today. What I can tell you, is that if he is alive, he is probably watching the news daily, awaiting to make his entrance on the world stage as the greatest “peacemaker” ever introduced to mankind. That is of course not taking into consideration the real peacemaker; Yeshua the Messiah! So, what do we really know about the Antichrist? For this, we have to go to the source, where truth can be found. The Bible actually has quite a few details about him:

• The Antichrist is a coming global human ruler – Daniel 7-12
• He will be a Gentile – Revelation 13:1
• He will be revealed after the departure of the Holy Spirit (after the Rapture) – 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7
• He will rise to absolute power – Daniel 7:8, 20; 8:23
• He will sign a seven-year treaty with Israel – Daniel 9:27
• He will break his treaty/covenant in the middle of the seven-year Tribulation – Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:21; Revelation 13:14-15
• He will claim that he is God – Daniel 11:36
• He will persecute the Jewish People – Daniel 7:21
• He will set-up and start “the abomination of desolation” – Daniel 12:11
• He will invade Israel – Daniel 11:40-45; Ezekiel 38-39
• He will conquer – Daniel 11:38-44
• He will be defeated – Daniel 7:11, 26; 9:27
Much more can be learned about the Antichrist from Mark Hitchcock in his book The End: A Complete Overview of Bible Prophecy and of the End days.

Over time, people have speculated about the identity of the Antichrist. Each time that a nasty world figure became prominent in the news, it garnered them the title–albeit potential–of Antichrist. Eventually, that person would fade away or die and their wrongly assigned title with them. Whoever he is, and regardless of him already being alive today or not, the world has to be in the right place for the Antichrist to enter the stage and be accepted by all. This leads me to the concerns I have about the recent normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. First, we must look at peace from three different perspectives:

From a human perspective, in a region that has been punctuated by wars since Israel’s birth as a modern nation on May 14, 1948, seeing peace between the two countries is highly unexpected and very exciting. There has been a “proverbial” hatred between Arabs and Jews for the last 75 years. In all honesty, the hatred is lopsided. There seems to be more hatred for Israel and the Jews from most Arab countries than there is from Israel towards the Arab world. This still takes into consideration the fact that both sides have friends and foes for either side. It’s complicated! But from a human perspective, peace is good. As long as we understand that humanly speaking, peace simply means the absence of war. I’ll still take that any day!

From a biblical perspective, it goes even further. We are asked to be at peace with our neighbors and love them (Leviticus 19:18; Romans 12:18). We are also supposed to be at peace and submissive to our governments (Romans 13:1-3). Additionally, in the very words of Yeshua, we are also to love our enemies (Matthew 5:43-48). From a human perspective, this is a very tall order and it is also the only command of the sort from any of all the world religions. I have to remind myself every day that I MUST pray for my enemies and love those who persecute me. In that sense, this makes followers of Yeshua very unique. We definitely need the help of the Holy Spirit for that one!

But I would also like to look at one more aspect, being the prophetic perspective. We read in Daniel 9:26-27, “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. 27 And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

There aren’t that many passages in the Bible that include so much meaning and span such a long period of time in only two verses. I would like to bring our attention to the semblance of peace that this individual will bring. It will apparently come at a time soon after the Rapture of the Church when a lot of people would have “mysteriously” disappeared. Havoc will reign worldwide and the need for stability will be greater than ever. The Antichrist will come and sign a covenant with Israel, giving the world the false idea that peace has arrived on earth in general and in the Middle East in particular. We have to always keep in mind that the Antichrist will counterfeit for his own profit, all that Messiah (Christ) does. If Messiah brought real peace in the heart of men (at His first Coming) and real peace in the world upon His return at the Second Coming after the Tribulation, the Antichrist will try to counterfeit that as well with false peace.

The region in the world that is the most volatile, and has been that way for decades, is the Middle East. If that region could appear to be at peace, that would go a long way to prepare the stage for the Antichrist. This is why I don’t look at the normalization of relations between Israel and the UAE with the same enthusiasm as others. I rejoice for the temporal human peace aspect from that historic decision, but I also see it as a potential first of many agreements setting up the stage for the Antichrist. I look at this with great anticipation because I know that the End-Times clock is ticking towards the final countdown.

Ezekiel told us that Israel will be invaded when “my people Israel are living securely” (Ezekiel 38:14), so Israel must feel at peace to somehow have its guard down. Antichrist will do his best at gathering nations against Jerusalem ( Zechariah 12:1-2; 14:1-3, Revelation 16:16; 19:19). There will be much damage and many casualties (Zechariah 13:9), but ultimately, Antichrist will be defeated (Revelation 20:10), and all Israel will know their Messiah (Zechariah 12:10; Romans 11:26.)

My intention is not to be the bearer of bad news. Again, from a human perspective, this normalization will undoubtedly bring a well deserved period of respite to the region, only the third treaty after Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994. Not to mention the threat to Iran if more Arab countries follow suit–and they most likely will. Looking at the geographical situation with Iran, alliances between Israel and any Arab country will continue to be a threat to Iran’s aspirations of hegemony. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” as they say, and this could have even played a part in the recent decision.

At the end of the day, the world is ready for the Antichrist, but the world is also ready for the Messiah. It is up to those of us who know the difference, to teach those who would be tempted to follow the Antichrist, and lead them to the only true Prince of Peace known as Yeshua of Nazareth (Isaiah 9:6-7; 52:13-53:12.)

August 15, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

Will Antisemitic Christians Miss The Rapture?

The Rapture of believers has long been a controversial topic. Some believe that it is a myth and that it will never happen. They usually belong to a group of people that shies away from studying and/or teaching Bible prophecy for various reasons, and that would mean that we ignore about 25% of the Bible. Others believe in the Rapture happening, but simply place it at different times in the prophetic future, and some others would like to alter the way it will take place and who it will include. This has led to a lot of faulty views that are not doing justice to the doctrine of the Rapture. One of these views, circulating in some circles, claims that some Christians WILL NOT be included in the Rapture. This view is also known as the “Partial Rapture” view. Is there validity to that view at all, and who would be excluded?

The word “Rapture” is not found in the Hebrew or Greek Scriptures, but this doesn’t mean that the concept is not real. The word “Trinity” also doesn’t appear anywhere in Scripture, and yet, Orthodox Christianity has the monotheistic belief in a triune Godhead including the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Rapture comes from the latin raptus, meaning “to snatch up or seize.” It is found 14 times in the New Testament as the word harpazo. While the Rapture itself isn’t spoken of in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), there are some examples of individuals being snatched up or raptured by God such as Enoch (Genesis 5:24) or Elijah (2 Kings 2.) There are also several instances of individuals being taken-up in the New Testament, but we need to concentrate on the events surrounding the future Rapture of the Body of Messiah (all believers in Yeshua of Nazareth.)

The most common view of the Rapture is that of a descending of the Lord Yeshua in the sky (without touching down to earth) and a snatching up of all the believers on earth–dead or alive. It is based on two key passages of the Bible: 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18. People see that event happening at various times around the events of the Great Tribulation (prior, during or after, being the three main views.) I adhere to a view of the last days that places the Rapture first, then the seven-year Tribulation (also known as the seventieth week of Daniel), followed by the Second Coming of Yeshua and the 1000-year Millennial Kingdom of Messiah on earth from Jerusalem.

In this view, believers are taken up to be with Yeshua prior to any other event of the end times. They are protected by God from any harm that will be inflicted upon unbelievers during the Great Tribulation also known as the “Time of Jacob’s Trouble.” Such an event is imminent, it could happen at any moment, and yet, nobody knows the exact time of the event. Even though many have speculated and written a myriad of books dating the Rapture, nobody knows the day or the hour. We are assured of the imminency of the event by passages such as John 14:1-3; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10; 1 Corinthians 1:7 and Titus 2:13. Author Renald Showers said it best in Maranatha, Our Lord Comes:” Other events may happen before the imminent return, but nothing else must take place before it happens.” I could continue to substantiate the pre-Tribulational, pre-Millennial view of the Rapture, but I am more interested in looking at who will be included and who will be excluded in that future event.

It should be obvious that the Rapture is seen as a reward for believers who will be protected from God’s wrath. That should never mean that because believers know that they will be snatched up before things get really bad, that we shouldn’t care. The opposite couldn’t be truer! Because we will be taken, and the unbelievers will be left behind, we should double up our efforts to share the Good News with the lost, so that many more can join in this epic upcoming event and be sheltered from the Great Tribulation. It should also be clear that those included in the Rapture–and this being whenever it takes place–are believers only. By this we mean those who have placed their trust in the death and resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah for their sins.

In spite of all the biblical evidence, there are people who believe that the Rapture will only include some Christians but not all. I have a serious problem with that view. It was recently brought to my attention while I was listening to a very popular teacher on prophecy who was speaking about Israel, gentiles and end-times. At some point in the message, it was said that:”Christians who hate Israel will not be included in the Rapture.” While I philosophically would agree with the exclusion of some believers in the Rapture, biblically, I simply cannot. Let me explain.

I have been a student of and teacher against antisemitism in all of its forms over the last several thousand years. As a result, I am painfully aware of Christian antisemitism over the centuries. By definition, Christian antisemitism means that one can be a follower of Messiah or a Christian and have resentment or hatred against the Jewish people. Their maturity as believers might be put in question, but their salvation shouldn’t. We come to Messiah by believing in the power of Yeshua’s atoning death and His blood shed on the cross on our behalf. That process is known as justification. Next comes a process that will take place for the rest of the life of the believer, and that is known as sanctification, when we are progressively made in the image of Messiah, until we are in our perfect glorified body, in God’s presence. Sanctification takes time and its progressive work is different in everyone. An antisemitic Christian is toxic to the Jewish community and negatively influential to the Christian community, and yet, they remain a Christian, saved by grace through the blood of Yeshua.

If the Nazi officer who pushed my grandfather to his death in Auschwitz was led to Yeshua moments before his death, he will be in heaven with me for all of eternity. In my still fallen human nature, I despise him, and I hate the possibility of his salvation, but biblically, I cannot avoid the reality of his inclusion in the family of God if he had indeed come to faith in Yeshua. Similarly, in Luke 23:42-43, the thief on the cross didn’t have any time to review his deeds and hang-ups when he placed his trust in Yeshua for his salvation. He simply turned his head, looked at Yeshua and asked Him to remember him: “And he was saying, “Yeshua, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.” The thief had no time to revisit his life in detail or denounce and reject any hatred or prejudice he might have had. In his case, there was not time for earthly sanctification, but he was in God’s family nonetheless.

When I became a believer in the 1980s, it took me several years of maturing in the Lord and reading the Word to change my view on abortion. I used to be 100% pro-choice, but I am now convinced that the Bible teaches 100% pro-life. I was not less of a believer then, I was just a baby believer and had the Rapture occurred at that time, I would have been included, just the same way that the potential “saved Nazi officer” would have been included, had he become a follower of Yeshua.

So, when I hear someone saying that “Christians who hate Israel will not be included in the Rapture”, I cringe. I agree that Christian antisemitism is a real problem, but the only way these people will be excluded is if they are Christians in name only and have not given their lives to Yeshua, but that is a very different group of people.

To say that there will be a partial Rapture, is not new. It is a view from the mid-1800s, based on the idea of obedience and watching for Messiah’s return. It is built on verses such as Matthew 24:40-51 and 25:1-13, to name just a couple. But it is a faulty view that according to Richard Mayhue in Christ’s Prophetic Plan, would also necessitate a partial resurrection and require an earthly purgatory–two concepts found nowhere in Scripture.

Alongside the concept of a partial Rapture, another passage is often cited to prove that hating the Jews will exclude Christians from the Millennial Kingdom. That passage is found in Matthew 25:31-46 and is known as the Judgement of the sheep and the goats. In it, Yeshua says that those who helped Jews (the sheep) during the Great Tribulation are akin to having helped Him, “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.” Additionally, Yeshua speaks of those who didn’t help (the goats), as receiving eternal punishment in verse 46.

Two things need to be understood from this passage. First, this is taking place during the Tribulation and has no connection to the Rapture, and secondly, the people who will help the Jews during the Tribulation will be doing it because they themselves have become believers after being left behind, thus after the Rapture. They will not help in an effort to gain acceptance from God unto salvation, but as a result of their late salvation and understanding of the need to help and bless Jewish people, otherwise, this would mean that we can work for our salvation, another doctrine not found in the Bible.

There is simply no validity to the statement that “Christians who hate Israel will not be included in the Rapture”. We can go as far as saying that hating Israel is akin to hating God, and we get that idea from Psalm 83:3-5, “They make shrewd plans against Your people, And conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more.” For they have conspired together with one mind; Against You they make a covenant.”

It is clear that when one conspires against Israel, one conspires against the God of Israel Who is our God. As much as I wish it were, Christian antisemitism is not an oxymoron. It is the unfortunate result of our fallen nature, lack of maturity and ignorance. It can and should be fought with prayer and education.

August 1, 2020 By Olivier Melnick Leave a Comment

There is a precedent for blind conformism, and you won’t like it!

The dictionary defines a conformist as:“A person who uncritically or habitually conforms to the customs, rules, or styles of a group”, and conformism as:” the tendency to adopt the attitudes, behavior, dress, etc, of the group to which one belongs.” In and of itself, conformism is neutral, it is just an action by someone in an effort to fit within a certain community, movement or group. When conformism becomes very dangerous, is when people conform to ideals or rules that are anti-constitutional or totalitarian.

People will conform for many reasons. Some will conform to fit in and be accepted by their community and peers. That is when conformity meets compromise. Others will conform simply by personal choice because they desire to make a change in their lifestyle that they deem necessary. There is yet another group of conformists; those who conform in fear for their lives as they are being forced by some sort of authority to do so. Fear is a powerful deterrent. When people conform out of fear, they usually do not realize that they are being conditioned for something bigger or for a later crisis. Are we being conditioned and if yes, for what? I understand that some people will think that I am over-reacting or seeing things that are not real. But please, bear with me!

There is a saying that goes like this:” Everybody called Noah a conspiracy theorist…until it started to rain!” Let me explain conditioning and conformism in a way that should clarify why I am very concerned about the current situation.

During the early stages of WW2, most of the world wouldn’t even believe that the Nazi war machine would be capable of such a carnage as the Holocaust. European Jews were slowly asked to comply with local authorities. “It is for your own safety!” They were told. So, as my paternal grandfather (who fought the great war of 1914-1918) did in Paris, Jews started to comply with the local authorities and slowly brought their radio sets to their police stations, not fully realizing that they were willingly disconnecting themselves from the world and the news.

Soon after that, my grandfather followed his people and brought his bicycle to the nearest police station, conforming to what was expected of him and the Jewish community “for their own safety”, again not fully realizing that their movement were being crippled as they all became forced pedestrians. The radios and bicycles were two of the many thin slices cut off the long salami of freedom. You cut enough thin slices one at a time and people don’t really notice until the salami is all gone. Pardon the analogy!

Then came the bolder moves. Jews had to have their ID cards stamped in red with the added name of “Sarah” for women and “Israel” for Men, as an easier way to identify them on the streets of Europe. But eventually, this was not enough. The authorities needed a way to identify Jews at a glance, so the 12th century French yellow circle known as “la rouelle”, previously used to identify Jews during the Middle Ages, was re-introduced. This time the color was the same, but the shape shifted. Enter the yellow star with the word “JEW” on it. But not to worry, it was for their own safety! My mother remembered having to take the last car on the subway as she was forced to display the infamous yellow patch that she had sewn on all her garments. I remember her telling me that at the risk of getting caught and possibly killed, she always worked hard at covering it up with a scarf.

Yet again, keeping Jews in their homes crippled and uninformed wasn’t enough, so we started to see the organizing of large, forced Jewish communities, contained behind walls. The Ghetto was reborn (it originally was created in Venice, Italy in 1516.) Jews became segregated in large numbers in various Eastern European ghettos in cities like Lodz and Warsaw. But it was for their own safety! Yeah right! Ghetto life was unhealthy, dangerous and infested with diseases. Death was running rampant.

But the answer to “the Jewish question” wouldn’t come until the Wannsee Conference when Hitler and his people decided to implement the Camps. First internment, then forced labor and eventually, the gas chambers and crematoriums. Was it still for our own safety? “Just bring in your radio sets”, they said. How did we get to the gas chambers from there? Conformism, compliance and blind obedience! But what does it have to do with 2020?
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that as the world is confining and conforming, we are being conditioned and prepared for the coming of the Antichrist and the New World Order. I have believed that this was coming since my early days as a believer in the mid-80s, but I didn’t think that I would live through its birth pangs.

I feel that it is important at this point to re-iterate the fact that as a Bible believing follower of Yeshua, I also am convinced that the event known as the Rapture (1 Thess. 4:15-16; 1 Cor. 15:52), will take place before the event known as the seven-year Great Tribulation and the 1,000-year long Millennial Kingdom (also known as the Messianic Kingdom.) This being said, there is no indication in the Bible that things will not become increasingly difficult and even violent before the events of the Great Tribulation. Current world events seem to indicate that.

What I see happening around the world in general, and in America in particular, is a conditioning of the people through fear. Covid-19 showed up and we were all told to stay put for 14 days. Don’t quote me wrong, I do believe in the real danger posed by the virus, but how it has been handled is cause for great concern The first shelter-in-place order was in California on March 16, 2020. The 14 days of confinement and social distancing have turned into 123 days SO FAR, with no sight of return to normal in sight. Each state has its own regulations, but for the most part, people are being forced to conform “for their own safety and the safety of others.”

First they asked us to stay home for two weeks for our own safety. Then we were asked to social distance for our own safety. Then we were told to wear masks in public places “for our own safety” to the point where some stores will refuse service if you do not wear a mask, not to mention the stink eye you get from people for not wearing one. Over 90% of people are wearing masks that offer zero protection from any kind of virus, let alone Covid-19. It is akin to throwing sand at a chain-link fence, most of it will go through. I see the masks as pure conditioning of the people.

So, when a vaccine is finally available, will you take it? what if the vaccine becomes the way you receive service from businesses, stores and restaurants? Remember, “it is for your own safety!” They closed the country, shut down the schools, churches, public gathering, and all this while instilling the fear of death and the fear of law-breaking in all good citizens. There is no sign of this changing at the very least until November 4th, but that’s a topic for another post.

We need to use common sense and be prudent. Social distancing is a good idea and washing hands has been a good thing since germs were discovered a very long time ago. Nothing new here! I am not certain that we can truly express our opinions and our freedom of choice anymore, but we must not be swayed in to thinking that this whole thing is for our own safety. It is much bigger than that. Not to mention the witch hunt against our current administration.

The Rapture and the Tribulation are real events. They will introduce a new player on the scene who is also spoken of in the Bible, that is the Antichrist. He too is very real and extremely dangerous, especially to the Jews but also to anyone who hasn’t placed their trust in Yeshua as their Messiah (Isaiah 52:13-53:12, John 3:16.) For believers today, we need to be reminded of Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

I only want to be conformed by the Holy Spirit to become more like Yeshua until I receive my eternal glorified body. In the meantime, my prayers for you and I is that we would use common sense and be bold about who we serve, who we bend the knee to and where we want to spend eternity.

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