Egypt Babylon Hand of God - Afrikaans

April 1, 2025

Egipte, Babilon, of in die Hand van God?®

Ons het al baie gepraat van dinge wat te doen het met die Laaste Dae en daar is baie dinge en tydperke in die Bybel in die geskiedenis van Israel wat ons leer wat in die Laaste Dae gaan gebeur.

Terwyl ek na die onlangse nuus gebeure en al die onluste rondom die Tempel Berg gekyk het, het hierdie dinge my laat besef dat ons in die Laaste Dae lewe.

Daar word vandag baie geredeneer oor die eiendomsreg en bewaring van Tempel berg. Ek het gehoor dat ‘n groot Amerikaanse universiteit in Massachusetts al die studente van die kampus verban het wat betrokke is met Evangeliese aktiwiteite omrede hulle standpunt oordat hulle teen die gruwel van homoseksualiteit opgetree het. Alhoewel hierdie saak onder appèl staan het dit ‘n president geskep. As u glo wat die Bybel sê oor onnatuurlike seks dan moet u weet dat u en die Bybel deel geword het van ‘n gehate Boek en ‘n gehate groep. In Amerika beskerm die Eerste Amendement nie persone teen aangehitste haat nie, en dit sê ook vir my dat ons in die Laaste Dae lewe.

Wanneer daar gekyk word na die afval in die kerk, die vorming van die ekumeniese eenheid, Pensacola en al die ander demoniese misleiding, dan wys al hierdie dinge na die Laaste Dae. In Engeland sien ek hoedat ‘n een wêreld geldstelsel in mense se kele af geforseer word, dit is ‘n beweging na ‘n federale ondemokratiese Europa en ‘n verlies van ‘n nasionale soewereiniteit. Dit is besluite wat deur burokrate agter geslote deur geneem word, mense vir wie nie gestem is en wat ook geen geloofwaardigheid besit nie. Hierdie is dinge wat op mense af geforseer word, maar hulle sit terug en aanvaar dit gelate.

Natuurlik is parlementariese demokrasie gebore uit Bybelse Christelike standaarde, maar nou dat Christelike standaarde oral laat vaar word, word die demokratiese Christelike standaarde ook laat vaar.

Vervolging van die kerk is alreeds duidelik in Amerika en ook hierby ons, en as iemand nie saamstem met homoseksualiteit nie dan word so ‘n persoon as skynheilig gebrandmerk, dit word as ‘n haat misdaad gereken.

Die laaste dae van die eerste eeu voordat die Tempel in 70 nC verwoes is, is een van die dinge wat ons vertel van die Einde. Die laaste dae van Samaria, 720 vC. is ‘n ander saak.

Psalm 119:105 leer ons van die Einde: “U woord is 'n lamp vir my voet en 'n lig vir my pad??”, Ons kyk nou na ongeveer 585 vC, die laaste dae van Juda, voor die Babiloniese Ballingskap. Alles wat vir ons in die Ou Testament opgeteken is leer ons onderandere van die Einde, dit is ook duidelik in die Nuwe Testament met betrekking tot die eskatologie, en dit is baie belangrik om op te merk waar die Here Jesus oor die Laaste Dae praat, dat sien ons dat die temas van die Boek Jesaja, Jeremia en Esegiël, wat handel oor die Babiloniese Ballingskap, weer na vore kom. Die vernietiging van die Tempel waarvan die

Here Jesus praat in Mat. 24 en Luk. 21 kom direk uit Jeremia. Dieselfde dinge het gebeur in die laaste dae van Juda toe Jeremia se waarskuwings ook verwerp was, Hierdie dinge gaan weer gebeur met beide Jood en die kerk. Dit wat gebeur het gaan weer gebeur.

Wat gaan gebeur met die getroue Christene in die Laaste Dae? Wat verwag u? Daar is verskeie Skrifte en ander inligting wat ons hier kan lei, byvoorbeeld die Makkabeërs. Kom ons kyk daarna uit die oogpunt van die Babiloniese Ballingskap periode. In Jeremia hoofstuk 40 is die ballingskap aan die kom.

Nebukadnésar het Jerusalem al vier keer binnegeval, en dit wat ons nou sien gebeur met die intergeloof, die ekumeniese en die New Age bewegings, is dieselfde wat gebeur het met die Babiloniese Ballingskap.

Gedurende die Middeleeue het Martin Luther besef dat daar Babiloniese Ballingskap onder die pousdom plaasgevind het, hy het die geestelike karakter van Babilon verstaan, die huwelik tussen ‘n politieke stelsel met ‘n korrupte wêreldse godsdienstige stelsel, die Heilige Roomse Heerskappy wat egter nie heilig óf Romeins was nie.

Vandag gebeur dit weer, Babilon en ballingskap is aan die kom. Daar is vandag baie mense wat glo dat daar net ‘Een Apostel’ oor ‘n gebied moet wees, dit is ‘n dwaling wat by Ingatius van Antiogië begin het en wat genoem is “mono?episcopacy”. Dit is hoe die pousdom ontstaan het, ‘n outydse misleiding wat homself herhaal het.

Die probleem natuurlik, is dat my mede Pinkster en Charismatiese broers en susters nie besef dat daar ‘n Babiloniese Ballingskap van die kerk besig is om plaas te vind nie.

Kom ons begin by Jeremia Hoofstuk 40?41: v9: “Die woord wat van die HERE tot Jeremia gekom het, nadat Nebusarádan, die owerste van die lyfwag, hom vrygelaat het uit Rama deur hom te laat haal, terwyl hy met kettings geboei was onder al die gevangenes van Jerusalem en Juda wat in ballingskap weggevoer sou word na Babel toe. Die owerste van die lyfwag het naamlik Jeremia laat haal en vir hom gesê: Die HERE jou God het hierdie onheil oor hierdie plek gespreek, en die HERE het dit laat kom en gedoen soos Hy gespreek het, omdat julle gesondig het teen die HERE en nie geluister het na sy stem nie; daarom het dit oor julle gekom.

v4 “Nou dan, kyk, ek ontslaan jou vandag uit die kettings wat aan jou hande is; as dit goed is in jou oë om saam met my na Babel te gaan??kom, en ek sal my oog oor jou hou; maar as dit verkeerd is in jou oë om saam met my na Babel te kom, laat dit staan. Kyk, die hele land lê vir jou oop; waar dit goed en reg is in jou oë om te gaan, gaan daarheen. En toe hy nog nie omgedraai het nie, sê hy: Gaan dan terug na Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, die seun van Safan, wat die koning van Babel oor die stede van Juda aangestel het, en woon by hom onder die volk, of gaan waar dit ook al reg is in jou oë om te gaan.

Daarop het die owerste van die lyfwag vir hom padkos en 'n geskenk gegee, en hom laat gaan.”

v6 “En Jeremia het by Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, in Mispa gekom en by hom gewoon onder die volk wat in die land oorgebly het. Toe al die owerstes van die leërs wat in die veld was, hulle en hulle manskappe, hoor dat die koning van Babel Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, oor die land aangestel het en dat hy aan hom manne en vroue en kinders toevertrou het, en van die arm mense van die land, van die wat nie in ballingskap weggevoer is na Babel nie, het hulle na Gedálja gekom in Mispa, naamlik Ismael,

die seun van Netánja, en Jóhanan en Jónatan, die seuns van Karéag, en Serája, die seun van Tánhumet, en die seuns van Efai, die Netofatiet, en Jesánja, die seun van die Maägatiet, hulle en hulle manskappe. En Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, die seun van Safan, het vir hulle en hulle manskappe gesweer en gesê: Wees nie bevrees om die Chaldeërs te dien nie; bly in die land en dien die koning van Babel; dan sal dit goed met julle gaan.” (Die koning van Babel is metafoor van die Duiwel, ‘n tipe van die Antichris, ons sien dit in Jesaja 14.)

v10 “En ek self, kyk, ek woon in Mispa om voor die Chaldeërs te staan wat na ons sal kom. Samel julle dan wyn en somervrugte en olie in en gooi dit in julle bakke, en woon in julle stede wat julle in besit kan neem. En ook al die Jode wat in Moab en onder die kinders van Ammon en in Edom en wat in al die lande was, het gehoor dat die koning van Babel vir Juda 'n oorblyfsel nagelaat het; en dat hy Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, die seun van Safan, oor hulle aangestel het; daarom het al die Jode teruggekom uit al die plekke waarheen hulle verdryf was, en in die land Juda na Gedálja gekom, in Mispa; en hulle het groot hoeveelhede wyn en somervrugte ingesamel. Maar Jóhanan, die seun van Karéag, en al die owerstes van die leërs wat in die veld was, het na Gedálja gekom in Mispa en vir hom gesê: Weet u wel dat Báälis, die koning van die kinders van Ammon, Ismael, die seun van Netánja, gestuur het om u dood te slaan? Maar Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, het hulle nie geglo nie.”

v15 “Toe het Jóhanan, die seun van Karéag, in die geheim met Gedálja in Mispa gespreek en gesê: Laat my tog gaan en Ismael, die seun van Netánja, verslaan sonder dat iemand dit weet. Waarom sou hy u doodslaan en die hele Juda wat by u versamel is, verstrooi word en die oorblyfsel van Juda tot niet gaan? Maar Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, het vir Jóhanan, die seun van Karéag gesê: Doen hierdie ding nie, want jy spreek onwaarheid van Ismael.”

v1 “Maar in die sewende maand het Ismael, die seun van Netánja, die seun van Elisáma, uit die koninklike geslag en uit die owerstes van die koning, en tien man saam met hom by Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, gekom in Mispa; en hulle het daar saam brood geëet, in Mispa.

Toe het Ismael, die seun van Netánja, opgestaan en die tien manne wat by hom was, en hulle het Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, die seun van Safan, met die swaard verslaan. So het hy hom dan gedood wat die koning van Babel oor die land aangestel het.???

“Ook het Ismael al die Jode verslaan wat by hom, by Gedálja, in Mispa was, en die Chaldeërs, die krygsmanne, wat daar te vinde was.” “En op die tweede dag, nadat hy Gedálja gedood het, sonder dat dit nog bekend was kom daar manne van Sigem, van Silo en van Samaría, tagtig man, met afgeskeerde baard en geskeurde klere, wat hulleself stukkend gekerwe het; en spysoffer en wierook was in hulle hand om dit na die huis van die HERE te bring. Daarop gaan Ismael, die seun van Netánja, hulle tegemoet uit Mispa, terwyl hy aldeur loop en huil; en toe hy hulle teëkom, sê hy vir hulle: Kom na Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam! Maar toe hulle binne?in die stad kom, het Ismael, die seun van Netánja, hulle gedood en in die put gegooi, hy en die manne wat by hom was.”

Die dinge wat met die getroue oorblyfsel van Juda in die laaste dae gebeur het is dinge wat met die getroue oorblyfsel van kerk in die laaste dae gaan gebeur. Hulle het drie keuses gehad: Egipte, wat ‘n

beeld van die wêreld is, Babilon wat ‘n beeld van al die valse godsdienstige stelsels is, of In die Hand van God. Let op? dit was die Woord van die Here wat tot Jeremia gekom het; Die Hebreeuse woord vir Woord is ‘Dvar’ wat die Griekse ekwivalent van Logos is. Wat Jeremia ondervind het was ‘n direkte ontmoeting met Christus in die Ou Testament.

Die ‘Woord’ was ‘n Christelogiese ontmoeting. Dit is nie die ‘woord’ wat die valse profete vandag loop en verkondig nie, ware profete lei mense na die Woord, Jesus Christus toe.

Almal het nou geweet dat Jeremia reg was en al die valse profete met hulle groot monde het verdwyn, niks wat hulle geprofeteer het, het gebeur nie, maar ten spyte daarvan dat mense geweet het dat hierdie profete vals was het hulle nogtans geglo wat hulle gesê het. (“??die profete profeteer vals, en aan hulle sy oefen die priesters mag uit, en my volk wil dit graag so hê.” (Jer.5:31) Dieselfde gebeur vandag, daar is mense soos Michael Brown, Rick Joyner, Benny Hinn, ens. Almal beproefde valse profete, en ten spyte daarvan het hulle nog duisende aanhangers, dit is ‘n direkte rebellie en daar gaan ‘n tyd kom wat hulle die vrugte van hulle dade gaan pluk, daar gaan ‘n ballingskap plaasvind. Dit is ‘n oorblyfsel, en net ‘n oorblyfsel wat nie in ballingskap sal gaan nie, en die oorblyfsel soos wat ons sien in vers 7 bestaan uit die arm mense van die land. Moet nie verwag dat die magtiges, of die mega kerke, ook nie die Christene wat betrokke is in al hierdie misleiding en leerstellings wat ontwerp is vir materiële voorspoed, ook nie die groot figure wat betrokke is by sogenaamde Christelike Radio TV aanbiedings, dat hulle dit gaan oorleef nie, hulle sal nie, hulle gaan na Babilon toe.

Dit sal net die armes van die land wees wat gaan oorleef, maar wanneer dit gebeur gaan God Hom ontferm oor Sy mense alhoewel die koning van Babilon altyd ‘n ogie sal hou oor al sy ontwerpe omdat hy altyd alles wil regeer.

Vir Israel was dit ‘n tyd van groot hongersnood. Die Babiloniërs het met ‘n namaaksel van die Assiriese oorlog tegnieke Jerusalem beleër en die mense se voorrade afgesny om hulle daardeur te dwing om oor te gee. Die idee van ‘n voedsel tekort en hongersnood is in beide Testamente ‘n metafoor van ‘n hongersnood na die Woord van God, dit is waarvan die profeet Amos praat, die fisiese hongersnood word ‘n geestelike hongersnood, maar vir die getroue oorblyfsel soos wat ons in vers 12 sien, sal daar ‘n oorvloed wees.

Die soort Woord bediening wat elke Sondag in die klein getroue gemeentes gebring word en die soort Bybel studies wat deur hierdie getroue Christene gedoen word, is dinge wat baie skaars geword het. Daar is mense wat na hierdie gemeentes of Bybel studie groepe gegaan het en dinge gehoor het wat hulle nog nooit van tevore gehoor het nie. Daar is mense wat al vir dertig jaar in Charismatiese bewegings sit wat nog nooit ‘n opregte Bybel studie byeenkoms bygewoon het nie, dit klink ongeloofwaardig maar dit is waar. Wat baie mense vandag wel in byeenkomste hoor is waar ‘n paar Bybel Tekste buite konteks en met beplande pop sielkunde gebruik word vir Bybel studie, dit is waaruit Bybel onderrig vandag bestaan. Hulle het nog nooit van werke van iemand soos A.E. Tozer gehoor nie. Maar die getroues, alhoewel hulle die armes van die land en in die minderheid is, sal ‘n oorvloed aan voedsel hê, hierdie getroues, in term van die geestelike dinge het baie om te eet.

Hulle weet dinge van die Antichris en die Laaste Dae en ander Skrif konsepte wat baie ander Christene nog nooit eers van gehoor het nie. Die meerderheid Christene van vandag is voorberei om in ‘n Babiloniese Ballingskap te gaan en hulle weet dit nie eers nie, maar die armes van die land, die oorblyfsel, die getroues, hulle sal oorleef. Kennis is mag, en die meerderheid het nie voedsel nie en hulle het ook niemand wat hierdie kennis het om hulle te leer nie. Maar om die vrede te probeer bewaar vertel Gedalja aan die mense dat hulle die koning van Babilon moet eer: “Kyk, ons kan nie teen wêreld raad en sy stelsel gaan nie, ons sal gedeporteer word, en ons wil mos nie uitmekaar gedrywe word nie, en ons wil graag behou wat ons besit, daarom moet ons die koning en sy stelsel eer en aan hom hulde bring!”

Dit is wat in die eerste eeu gebeur het en die rede waarom die vroeë Christene in die moeilikheid beland het is nie wat hulle geglo het nie, maar dit was omdat hulle nie eer betoon het die Heersers van die dag nie. Wie in daardie tyd was die gelykwaardige koning van Babilon? Dit was die misterieuse heidense godsdiens van Babilon, in Rome sien ons die godedom met die Pous as die Keiser wat die hoof is daarvan. Wat die koning van Babilon was in Jeremia se tyd, was hy ook in die eerste eeu. Dit was nie wat die eerste Christene in geglo het nie, maar wat hulle nie in geglo het nie wat hulle in die moeilikheid laat beland het. “Jy kan glo wat jy wil solank jy net saamstem met die program.” Dit is hierdie denkwyse wat in die Laaste Dae al meer na vore gaan tree, ons sien dit oral en ook onder die getroue oorblyfsel.

Ons gaan openbare figure sien wat gaan probeer om ‘n kompromis met Babilon aan te gaan en hulle gaan met toegewyde logiese pastorale redes en idees na vore kom om mense te oorreed. “Ek probeer net om julle en dit wat julle het, te beskerm.” Dit is dinge wat ons kan verwag, en wat al ver gevorder is om mense in ‘n status van eenstemmigheid te kry, en die getroue oorblyfsel is ook hierin betrokke. Maar God sal hierdie mense en hulle motiewe oordeel en hulle gaan ook nie oorleef nie. Gedalja was gewaarsku om op te hou waarmee hy besig was en hy was besig om sy eie dood te soek, omdat hy nie wou luister nie.

Moet nie vir een oomblik verwag dat u op enige wyse ‘n vrede verbond met die koning van Babilon kan aangaan nie, moet nie dink dat daar rus en vrede sal wees nie. Ons kan nie saam met die koning van Babilon in een huis lewe nie. Hulle was uitgenooi na Babilon, dit was hulle eerste keuse. Is jou kerk deel van die ekumeniese beweging en die Wêreld raad van kerke? Die Valse Profeet gaan die een of ander tyd hierdie bewegings beheer om aan die einde die Antichris te ondersteun, dit is die eerste keuse. U sal vind dat mense sal probeer om sekere dinge in glorie en glans te regverdig : “Wel, ek weet ons is die getroue oorblyfsels en miskien stem ek nie saam met hulle nie, maar ons moet nogtans probeer om saam met hulle te beweeg.” Dit is wat alreeds besig is om te gebeur, maar die dood skuil hierin. Let op dat nie net Gedalja gesterf nie, maar ook die arm en eenvoudige mense wat hom gevolg het. Op hierdie weg loer die dood, daar is nie vrede in Babilon nie. En wat ‘n feit is, is dat Babilon nie kan verander nie. Kyk na Jeremia 51, in vers 51 is Babilon onder ‘n oordeel, Babilon val omrede al die Israeliete wat hy doodgemaak het. In vers 60 skrywe Jeremia in ‘n Boekrol oor al die plae wat oor Babilon gaan kom. In Vers 24 staan geskrywe dat God Babilon sal vergeld oor wat Babilon gedoen het, maar in vers 6 sê Jeremia: “Vlug uit Babel uit, en red elkeen sy lewe; kom nie om in sy ongeregtigheid nie; want dit is die tyd van wraak vir die HERE: Hy gee hom sy verdiende loon.” Met ander woorde kom uit hierdie

ekumeniese denominasies, God gaan hulle verwoes. In vers 9 sien ons planne waar probeer word om Babilon gesond te maak, maar daar was geen genesing nie, en sy kan ook nie genees word nie. Dit het nog nooit verander vanaf die Toring van Babel tot in die Boek Openbaring waar die Babiloniese Ryk nog steeds is nie. Een van vandag se groot mites is dit: Die Roomse Katolieke Kerk het verander sedert die tweede Vatikaanse Raad, maar die dokumente van die tweede Vatikaanse Raad bevestig nog steeds die Raad van Trent. Daar is twee soorte leerstelling in die Rooms Kerk: : Proxima fadi en di?fadi. Proxima fadi leerstellings kan verander, die heidense mis kan van Latyn na Engels verander, maar ‘n di?fadi leerstelling kan nie verander nie, die mis self kan nie verander word nie en ook nie die vae vuur of enige leerstelling in hierdie soort nie, die Roomse Kerk erken dit.

Jeremia 51:17 sê die mensdom is onnosel, dom, sonder kennis, Jeremia gebruik baie sterk terme hier en deur hierdie Boek sê Jeremia dinge wat as ons dit reguit sal uitspreek, kru sal klink. Hy gebruik twee verskillende woorde vir menslike domheid, en nie een van die twee is mooi woorde nie. Kyk na Jeremia 10:8: “Maar almal saam word hulle dom en dwaas??”, Een van die Woorde wat hy gebruik vir dwaas. beteken ‘n verdorwenheid van die logiese om dit wat verkeerd is te regverdig. Mense weet dat sekere dinge verkeerd is maar hulle verdraai hulle eie logika en denke in ‘n groot skynheiligheid om hulle gewete te streel, met ander woorde, hulle doen dit moedswillig, hulle weet wat hulle doen. Dit is presies wat ons vandag sien, mense wat van beter moet weet, selfs mense soos J.I Packer is besig om hulle logiese denke self te ondermyn, en wat is die doelwit daarvan? ‘n Ooreenkoms met Babilon!.

Maar diegene wat Gedalja volg sal eindig waar hy geëindig het. Die eerste aanbieding was ‘n uitnodiging na Babilon. Kom ons gaan aan.

Jeremia 41:16: “Toe het Jóhanan, die seun van Karéag, en al die owerstes van die leërs wat by hom was, die hele oorblyfsel van die volk geneem wat Ismael, die seun van Netánja, uit Mispa as gevangenes weggevoer het, nadat hy Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, verslaan het??naamlik manne, krygsmanne, en vroue en kinders en hof dienaars, wat hy van Gíbeon teruggebring het.”

Johanan het nie Gedalja gehaat nie, hy het net probeer om die man te waarsku om nie so naïef, dom op te tree nie, want dit sou tot sy en sy volgelinge se ondergang lei. Ons kan verwag dat baie mense die Johanane en die Jeremias van ons tyd net so gaan ignoreer totdat dit te laat gaan wees. Net soos wat die mense uitgevind het dat Jeremia reg was het hulle ook uitgevind dat Johanan ook reg was, maar uiteindelik sal dit wat oorbly net die opregtes wees. Daar is ‘n sifting proses hier aan die gang, die misleiding kom, maar ook die misleiding wat van Babilon af kom is deel van hierdie sifting proses. Die Here het net behae in diegene wat werklik rein en heilig is. Kom ons kyk wat gebeur.

Johanan maak hulle bymekaar en in Vers 16 bring hy hulle terug van Gibeon af, vers 17?18: “En hulle het weggetrek en vertoef in Gerut?Kimham wat naby Betlehem lê, om verder na Egipte te trek, vanweë die Chaldeërs; want hulle was vir hulle bevrees, omdat Ismael, die seun van Netánja, Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, verslaan het, wat deur die koning van Babel oor die land aangestel was.”

Hulle gaan na Gerut?Kimham wat naby Jerusalem is. Waarom het hulle dit gedoen?

Teen hierdie tyd het troon van Dawid nie meer bestaan nie en daar was nie meer ‘n lewende opvolger vir die troon van Dawid nie en die mense se verlange was dat die troon van Dawid weer herstel sal word en hulle sien dit in ‘n Messiaanse term. Die hele konsep van die Messias, wat nog altyd daar was, en hulle het geweet van die Messias en dat Hy die Huis van Dawid weer sal herstel, het eers regtig na vore begin kom na die ballingskap. Dit was ‘n Belofte van God dat daar altyd ‘n nageslag van Dawid op die troon sal wees. Nou, óf die Here Jesus is geestelik in Jerusalem op die Troon van Dawid van waar Hy eendag sal regeer, óf God het Sy belofte verbreek, die Skrifte sê vir ons dit is onmoontlik.

Gerut?Kimham beteken: “Plek van verlange.” Gerut?Kimham was geleë baie na aan Jerusalem waar die stad van Dawid, of die huis van Dawid was. Hier verlang hulle na die herstelling van die Huis van Dawid en dit is hoekom hulle na Gerut?Kimham gegaan het. In die Laaste Dae sal ons onder die oorblyfsel vind dat hulle na Gerut?Kimham sal gaan, dit sal so sleg gaan dat hulle enigste hoop op die Wederkoms van die Here Jesus gerig sal wees, en daar sal ‘n besef wees dat niks en niemand ooit weer die oorspronklike Christelikheid sal kan herstel nie.

Die kerk word ‘n Huis van Verlange waar die enigste en die laaste hoop die Wederkoms van Christus gaan wees, en niks anders nie. Dit is die desperaatheid wat daar sal wees, maar in die midde van hierdie werklikheid sal die druk van hierdie desperaatheid vrugte begin afwerp. Daar sal mense wees wat nie na Babilon toe wil gaan nie want dit gaan nie werk nie en diegene wat dit geprobeer het is dood, maar die volgende versoeking is Egipte, en ons weet uit baie plekke in die Skrifte, dat mense sal probeer om na die wêreld toe te gaan vir hulp.

Van die begin af was en is Egipte daar, Egipte is Egipte en Babilon was en is Babilon, en niemand het verwag dat Babilon ook oor Egipte sal heers nie, en aan die Einde van Tye sal die Antichris prakties ook weer oor albei heers. Daar was sommige Jode wat ‘n heenkome gevind het in Edom en dit is interessant om in Daniël te sien dat dit wil voorkom of hierdie streek, Petra, vir een of ander rede, wat ek nie verstaan nie, nie onder die hande van die Antichris sal deurloop nie. Dit wil voorkom asof hierdie plek ‘n soort van heenkome bied. Uit Jesaja 16 en ander wil dit voorkom asof daar ‘n toekomstige eskatologiese gebeure rondom Petra in Edom sal wees. Daar was van die getroue Jode wat daarheen gevlug het.

Onder hierdie druk kom daar druk om na die wêreld te gaan vir hulp, dieselfde gebeur met Hiskia in Jesaja 30 en 31. Hulle is bang vir die Babiloniërs en nou vlug hulle na die wêreld toe. Die wêreld met sy regerings en wetlike stelsels en dinge sal ons nie kan bewaar in die Laaste Dae nie. Die enigste rede waarom enige regering in enige tyd die regte van Christene bewaar het was omrede die Christene se invloed. Paulus sê aan die kerk dat hulle moet bid vir diegene wat oor hulle aangestel is al is die Keiser ‘n heiden sodat hulle in vrede kan lewe. Paulus self stel vir ons die voorbeeld, ons kan dit doen, maar die Keiser het ook teen die vroeë kerk gedraai, die Keiser is ook die beeld van die Antichris. Die wêreld bied niks goeds nie maar wanneer dinge desperaat begin raak dan gaan baie mense na die wêreld toe hardloop vir hulp.

“Toe het al die owerstes van die leërs aangekom, naamlik Jóhanan, die seun van Karéag, en Asárja, die seun van Hosája, en die hele volk, klein en groot, en aan die profeet Jeremia gesê: Laat ons smeking tog voor u kom en bid tot die HERE u God vir ons, vir hierdie hele oorblyfsel??want ons het as 'n klein

klompie uit baie oorgebly, soos u oë ons sien??dat die HERE u God ons bekend mag maak die pad wat ons moet trek, en die saak wat ons moet doen. En die profeet Jeremia het hulle geantwoord: Ek hoor; kyk, ek sal tot die HERE julle God bid volgens julle woorde; en alles wat die HERE julle antwoord, sal ek julle bekend maak; ek sal vir julle niks agterhou nie. Toe sê hulle vir Jeremia: Laat die HERE 'n waaragtige en geloofwaardige getuie teen ons wees as ons nie stip handel ooreenkomstig elke woord waarmee die HERE u God u na ons sal stuur nie. Laat dit goed of sleg wees??ons sal luister na die stem van die HERE onse God na wie ons u stuur, dat dit met ons goed kan gaan as ons luister na die stem van die HERE onse God.” (Jer. 42:1?6)

Die getroue oorblyfsel het geweet dat Jeremia ‘n ware profeet was en hulle het ook geweet dat al die waarsêers waarna die koning geluister het, leuenaars en misleiers was wat nou óf dood óf in Babilon was. Die getroue kerk sal vra: “Wat sal ons doen Here? Ons is nou in hierdie omstandighede in Gerut? Kimham, ons verlang na Wederkoms van die Here Jesus, na Sy Koninkryk, dit is al hoop wat ons het, ons kan nie na Babilon toe gaan nie, kyk wat het met hulle gebeur wat dit probeer het, miskien kan ons na Egipte toe gaan, wat sal ons doen, ons sal na U luister, ons sal doen wat U vir ons sê.” Maar ongelukkig is dit ook so dat wanneer omstandighede en druk begin groot word dan gaan daar baie Christene wees wat sal sê: “Ons sal doen wat U sê solank dit volgens ons planne is.”

Jer. 42:7: “En aan die einde van tien dae het die woord van die HERE tot Jeremia gekom,”

Let op, Jeremia het gegaan en die Here se Aangesig gesoek en die Here het hom tien dae later geantwoord. Wees baie versigtig vir mense wat dink hulle kan rondloop en sê die Here het dit of dat gesê, dit is niks anders as waarsêery nie, dit is nie profesie nie. Ware profete doen nie sulke dinge nie. Wat ware profete doen is hulle wys mense na die Skrifte en as daar ‘n openbaring kom sal dit altyd gebaseer wees op die Skrifte. Jeremia het God gesoek.

Tien dae in die Bybel is ‘n betekenisvolle figuur, en veertig en tien is die twee getalle wat die meeste in die Skrifte geassosieer word met beproewings, ‘n toets tydperk. Onthou u wat staan in Openbaring 2:10? Jesus sê dat die kerk van Smirna sal vervolg word en in die gevangenis gegooi word vir tien dae, dit stem ook ooreen met die tien hoof tydperke in die geskiedenis van vervolging onder keisers. “??en hy het Jóhanan, die seun van Karéag, geroep en al die owerstes van die leërs wat by hom was, en die hele volk, klein en groot, en aan hulle gesê:

“So spreek die HERE, die God van Israel, na wie julle my gestuur het om julle smeking eerbiediglik voor sy aangesig te bring: As julle rustig in hierdie land bly, sal Ek julle bou en nie afbreek nie, en julle plant en nie uitruk nie; want Ek het berou oor die onheil wat Ek julle aangedoen het. Vrees nie vir die koning van Babel vir wie julle bang is nie; wees nie vir hom bevrees nie, spreek die HERE, want Ek is met julle om julle te verlos en julle uit sy hand te red. En Ek sal julle barmhartigheid bewys, sodat hy hom oor julle sal ontferm en julle terugbring na julle land toe. Maar as julle sê: Ons wil in hierdie land nie bly nie, sodat julle nie luister na die stem van die HERE julle God nie, en sê: Nee, maar ons sal na Egipte land trek waar ons geen oorlog sal sien of basuin geluid sal hoor of honger na brood sal hê nie, en daar wil ons woon?? daarom hoor dan nou die woord van die HERE, o oorblyfsel van Juda! So sê die HERE van die leërskare, die God van Israel: As julle werklik julle aangesig rig om na Egipte te trek en weggaan om daar as

www.Moriel.org

vreemdelinge te vertoef, dan sal die swaard waar julle voor vrees, julle daar in Egipte land inhaal; en die honger waar julle voor bang is, sal daar in Egipte kort agter julle aankom, en julle sal daar sterwe. Ja, al die manne wat hulle aangesig gerig het om na Egipte te trek om daar as vreemdelinge te vertoef, sal sterwe deur die swaard, die hongersnood en die pes; en daar sal vir hulle niemand wees wat vry raak of ontvlug van die onheil wat Ek oor hulle bring nie. Want so sê die HERE van die leërskare, die God van Israel: Soos my toorn en my grimmigheid uitgestort is oor die inwoners van Jerusalem, so sal my grimmigheid oor julle uitgestort word as julle na Egipte trek; en julle sal wees 'n voorwerp van verwensing, van verbasing, van vervloeking en van smaad, en julle sal hierdie plek nie meer sien nie. Die HERE het oor julle gespreek, o oorblyfsel van Juda: Trek nie na Egipte nie! Weet verseker dat ek julle vandag waarsku. Want julle het gedwaal ten koste van julle lewe, dat júlle my na die HERE julle God gestuur het, met die woorde: Bid tot die HERE onse God vir ons; en net soos die HERE onse God sal sê, maak dit ons so bekend en ons sal dit doen. So het ek julle dit dan vandag bekend gemaak, en julle het nie geluister na die stem van die HERE julle God, naamlik na alles waarmee Hy my na julle gestuur het nie. Weet dan nou verseker dat julle deur die swaard, die hongersnood en die pes sal sterwe in die plek waarheen julle verkies om te trek om daar as vreemdelinge te vertoef.” (Jeremia 42:8?17)

Wel, hulle het met dit alles tog maar na Egipte toe gegaan, hulle het na die wêreld toe gegaan vir hulp, ons moet verstaan dat hierdie mense het nie na die wêreld, na Egipte toe gegaan vir vleeslike plesier en dinge nie, nee hulle het na die wêreld toe gegaan in tye van groot vrees en verdrukking, vrees vir die koning van Babel. Wanneer die Antichris kom gaan hy ‘n verskriklike vrees verwek en net diegene wat in Gerut?Kimham bly sal ‘n keuse hê: Sal ons na Babilon of na Egipte toe gaan? Gaan ons saam met die een wêreld geloof beweging of gaan ons na die wêreld toe, of plaas ons onsself in die Hand van die Here en bly waar ons is en vertrou met ons alles op Hom? Dit was die keuse wat Israel gehad het en dit sal ook die keuse wees van die getroue oorblyfsel in die Laaste Dae. Egipte, Babilon of in die Hand van die Here. Diegene wat na Babilon toe gegaan het is dood, en diegene wat na Egipte toe gegaan het is vervolg deur die wêreld, die swaard, pes en hongersnood, daar is ook geen veiligheid in Egipte nie. Die Here sê: “Moet nie bevrees wees vir die koning van Babilon nie, en as julle in hierdie land bly sal Ek julle bewaar

!” God se beloftes is altyd goed alhoewel dit nie maklik is as ons om ons kyk en al die moord, roof en pes aanskou nie, die onsigbare krag van die koning van Babilon. Maar daar sal ’n keuse wees, maar daar gaan mense in goeie kerke wees wat die verkeerde keuse gaan maak, maar hulle sal gewaarsku wees, hulle sal weet wat hulle doen. Kom ons gaan ‘n bietjie verder.

In Hoofstuk 43:1?3 sê die Skrifte: “En toe Jeremia geëindig het om die hele volk toe te spreek met al die woorde van die HERE hulle God, waarmee die HERE hulle God hom na hulle gestuur het, naamlik al hierdie woorde, het Asárja, die seun van Hosája, en Jóhanan, die seun van Karéag, en al die vermetele manne gespreek en aan Jeremia gesê: U spreek onwaarheid; die HERE onse God het u nie gestuur om te sê: Julle mag nie na Egipte trek om daar as vreemdelinge te vertoef nie. Maar Barug, die seun van Nería, hits u teen ons op om ons oor te gee in die hand van die Chaldeërs, dat hulle ons kan doodmaak en ons in ballingskap na Babel kan wegvoer.”

Eerstens het die teruggevalde nasie en hulle leiers en die valse profete Jeremia verwerp, maar die druk het so groot in die laaste van Juda geword dat daar ook van die oorblyfsel Jeremia begin verwerp het,

www.Moriel.org

daar was die vermeteles onder die volk. Dit klink ongelooflik, hoe kan daar mense onder die getroue oorblyfsel wees wat so vermetel kan wees? Weet u wat, as u ‘n groot gemors wil sien gaan kyk na vandag se sogenaamde onderskeidings bedieninge. Baie van hierdie bewegings wat veronderstel is om wagters op die mure te wees, wat weet wie en wat Pensacola, Toronto en die ekumeniese beweging is, en die demoniese natuur van die “Koninkryk Nou” en die voorspoed bewegings ken, dit is in hierdie organisasies waar die goeie en die slegte gevind word, die vermeteles en die arrogantes onder die oorblyfsel, pasop! Die feit dat iemand die natuur van misleiding ken beteken nie noodwendig dat hy een van ons is nie. Hulle mag miskien in ons kringe beweeg maar dit kan mense wees met hulle eie agendas.

Ons het ‘n vrou in Pitsburg in ons bediening gehad en sy het gedink ek is ‘n wonderlike prediker omdat ek teen die Toronto en al hierdie dinge gepreek het, maar ek het uitgevind dat sy in die geheim ‘n Christen feminis is wat deur ‘n ketter met die naam van Peter Michas, wat die Drie Eenheid verloën, verorden was. Sy was ‘n immorele vrou wat haar man verlaat het vir ‘n ander man uit ‘n onderskeidings bediening in Suid Afrika. Onthou Satan is daarop uit om tussen die oorblyfsel in te kom. Die hoofstroom, Juda was alreeds weg, hy het hulle alreeds in sy mag, en dit was net die oorblyfsel wat ‘n probleem vir die koning van Babilon veroorsaak het. Dieselfde is waar vir vandag, Satan stel nie belang wat in die binne kringe van die afvallige kerke aangaan nie, hy het alreeds hierdie mense mislei, sy doelwit is nou die kerke waar die getroue oorblyfsel nog bymekaar kom, en hy gaan dit doen.

Iemand is nie outomaties reg as hy besef dat dinge verkeerd is nie. Daar is goeie mense in onderskeidings bedieninge maar daar is ook die slegtes, ek sal sê dat daar net so veel slegtes as goeies is. Dit is die wêreld, hulle sal enige iemand aanval wat regtig probeer om ‘n goeie herder vir die skape te wees. Hulle sal die Jeremias en Barugs aanval. Ek het gesien hoedat James Hunt en Bill Randles deur mense in onderskeidings bedienings aangeval word,. Phillip Powel het Jewel van der Merwe aangeval. Deur wie word hulle aangeval? Deur mense buite die sirkel? Nee??deur hulle eie mense, arrogante mense.

Ons moet een ding besef, en dit is dat enige goeie kerk vlugtelinge van die slegte kerke rondom hom sal trek. Sommige sal opreg wees, maar daar sal ook diegene wees met ‘n agenda, hulle is teen enige gesag of instelling gekant behalwe hulle eie en hulle eie terme, en hulle sal wil deel word van die goeie kerke om vir hulle ‘n platform te verkry waar hulle hul eie dinge kan bedryf. En wanneer hierdie goeie kerke teen hulle begin draai dan draai hulle teen hierdie bedieninge. Dit gebeur oral en ‘n persoon is nie noodwendig deel van ‘n bediening as hy met sekere dinge saamstem nie. Daadwerklike misleiding gaan toeneem in die Laaste Dae, en net soos wat Jeremia en Barug aangeval is in die laaste dae van Juda, gaan dit ook met die goeie kerke gebeur. Dit het gebeur en dit gaan weer gebeur.

Jer.43: 5?7: “Maar Jóhanan, die seun van Karéag, en al die owerstes van die leërs het die hele oorblyfsel van Juda geneem wat uit al die nasies waarheen hulle verdryf was, teruggekom het om in die land Juda te woon, die manne en die vroue en die kinders en die dogters van die koning en al die mense wat Nebusarádan, die owerste van die lyfwag, by Gedálja, die seun van Ahíkam, die seun van Safan, laat staan het??ook die profeet Jeremia en Barug, die seun van Nería??en hulle het na Egipteland getrek; want hulle het nie geluister na die stem van die HERE nie. En hulle het tot by Tagpánhes gekom.”

Johanan het vroeër na ‘n goeie man gelyk. Die misleiding in die Laaste Dae word ‘n gekonkel. Vroeër in die geskiedenis het een van George Washington se beste generaals, Benedict Arnold, met die Amerikaanse revolusionêre oorlog teen die Britte, teen Washington gedraai en een van die Britse leër se beste generaals teen Washington geword.

Jerm. 43:8?10 “Toe het die woord van die HERE tot Jeremia gekom in Tagpánhes en gesê: Neem groot klippe in jou hand en begrawe hulle in klei in die vierkant wat by die ingang van Farao se paleis in Tagpánhes is, voor die oë van die Joodse manne; en sê vir hulle:

“So spreek die HERE van die leërskare, die God van Israel: Kyk, Ek stuur en laat my kneg Nebukadrésar, die koning van Babel, haal, en Ek sal sy troon neersit bo?op hierdie klippe wat Ek begrawe het; en hy sal sy prag tapyt daaroor uitspan.”

Egipte kom ook onder die gesag van die koning van Babilon. Kyk na Openbaring 18:3: “??omdat al die nasies gedrink het van die wyn van die grimmigheid van haar hoerery, en die konings van die aarde met haar gehoereer het, en die handelaars van die aarde ryk geword het deur die mag van haar weelderigheid.”

Die konings van die aarde; die handelaars van die aarde het ryk geword deur haar mag en van haar weelderigheid. In die Laaste Dae sal die voorspoed en rykdom van die nasies afhanklik wees van hulle verhouding met Babilon.

Openbaring 13:11: “En uit die aarde het ek 'n ander dier sien opkom, en hy het twee horings gehad net soos 'n lam en het gepraat soos 'n draak.” Die aarde is Israel; die ander dier kom uit die see, die nasies. Jer. 44:30: “So sê die HERE: Kyk, Ek gee Farao Hofra, die koning van Egipte, in die hand van sy vyande en in die hand van die wat sy lewe soek, soos Ek Sedekía, die koning van Juda, gegee het in die hand van Nebukadrésar, die koning van Babel, sy vyand, wat ook sy lewe gesoek het.”

As God die Hebreeuse koning oorgegee het in die hand van die koning van Babilon, hoeveel te meer sal Hy nie baie vinniger die heidense koning oorlewer nie? As die koning van Babilon beheer kan kry oor ‘n groot gedeelte van die kerk, wat is daar wat hom gaan keer om nie ook die wêreld te beheer nie, niks gaan hom keer nie, die wêreld is ‘n dodelike valse sekuriteit.

Jerm. 44:12?14: “En Ek sal die oorblyfsel van Juda wegneem, wat hulle aangesig gerig het om na Egipteland te trek, om daar as vreemdelinge te vertoef; en hulle sal almal in Egipteland omkom. Deur die swaard sal hulle val, deur die hongersnood sal hulle verteer word, groot sowel as klein; deur die swaard en die hongersnood sal hulle sterwe; en hulle sal 'n voorwerp van verwensing, van verbasing en van vervloeking en smaad word. En Ek sal besoeking doen oor die wat in Egipteland woon, soos Ek besoeking gedoen het oor Jerusalem deur die swaard, die hongersnood en die pes; sodat daar geeneen sal wees wat ontvlug of vry raak vir die oorblyfsel van Juda wat in Egipteland gekom het om daar as vreemdelinge te vertoef nie, dat hulle kan teruggaan in die land Juda waar hulle siel na verlang om terug te gaan, om daar te woon; want hulle sal nie teruggaan behalwe enkele vlugtelinge nie.”

In die Bybel is die betekenis van om na Egipte te gaan ‘n beeld van terugval. Wanneer iemand terugval en hy gaan terug na die wêreld dan kla die Heilige Gees hom aan en probeer hom oorreed om terug te keer, maar in die Laaste Dae sal dit anders wees, want baie min wat na die wêreld toe sal gaan in die Laaste Dae gaan dit regkry om weer tot bekering te kom. Om terug te keer na Egipte is ter enige tyd ‘n gevaarlike stap, maar in die Laaste Dae is die kans om na die Here terug te keer baie skraal. Hoeveel mense word vandag genees van vigs? Dit is dieselfde met die geestelike, bitter min of enige gaan wat nou terugval gaan dit maak. Hulle het ‘n keuse gehad: Babilon en Egipte beteken die dood en die enigste besluit wat oorbly is die Hand van die Here. Jeremia 44:19 gaan ‘n groot probleem word in die Laaste Dae. Die uiteindelike misleier is die Antichris. Het u al opgelet in die Boek Openbaring dat wanneer daar van die Antichris gepraat word dan is daar altyd ‘n figuur van ‘n vrou in die agtergrond? Sy is die voorlaaste en hy is die allerlaaste. En dit is wat dit gaan wees: En die vrou sê: vers 19: “En as ons vir die hemel koningin rook laat opgaan en vir haar drank offers uitgiet??is dit dan sonder ons mans dat ons vir haar koeke maak om haar af te beeld en drank offers vir haar uitgiet?

Vers 24: “Toe het Jeremia gespreek met die hele volk, met die manne en die vroue en die hele volk wat hom antwoord gegee het, en gesê: So spreek die HERE van die leërskare, die God van Israel, en sê: Julle en julle vroue, julle het dan met julle mond gespreek en dit met julle hande in vervulling laat gaan, terwyl julle sê: Ons sal ons geloftes wat ons gedoen het, stellig hou om rook te laat opgaan vir die hemel koningin en vir haar drank offers uit te giet??bevestig dan nou maar julle geloftes, ja, hou nou maar julle geloftes! Daarom, hoor die woord van die HERE, o hele Juda wat in Egipteland woon! Kyk, Ek sweer by my grote Naam, sê die HERE:

“Nooit sal my Naam meer aangeroep word deur die mond van enige man van Juda in die hele Egipteland nie, met die woorde: So waar as die Here HERE leef! Kyk, Ek is wakker oor hulle ten kwade en nie ten goede nie; en al die manne van Juda wat in Egipteland is, sal deur die swaard en die hongersnood omkom, totdat dit met hulle gedaan is. Maar die wat van die swaard vry raak, sal uit Egipteland terugkom in die land Juda, min in getal; so sal dan die hele oorblyfsel van Juda wat in Egipteland gekom het om daar as vreemdelinge te vertoef, weet wie se woord sal bestaan, myne of hulle s'n. En dit sal vir julle die teken wees, spreek die HERE, dat Ek oor julle besoeking sal doen in hierdie plek, sodat julle kan weet dat my woorde sekerlik teen julle sal bestaan ten kwade??”

Die Hemelkoningin.

Die titel van die Pous Paulus II is: “Totos Tuam Maria” “Alles vir jou Maria” Hy aanbid Maria. Die verering en verheerliking van Maria is volgens die Bybel ‘n vorm van aanbidding. Die Roomse Kerk noem dit nie aanbidding nie maar iets net soos aanbidding wat genoem word ‘hyperdulia’. Wat hulle nie weet nie is dat die Hebreeuse woord vir afgodery ‘avodah zarah’ beteken “om te dien.” Deur die terme wat hulle gebruik bely hulle direk dat hulle afgodery bedryf, maar hulle sien dit nie so nie. Maar as hulle weet wat hulle doen is dit afgodery. Neerbuig is ‘n aksie van aanbidding. Hulle vat dit verder en bestrooi en beklee die beeld van Maria met blomme en pragtige klere, sy is die Een en enigste. Baie kultusse verchristelik hulle godsdiens met Bybelse figure en gedeeltes van die Skrifte. “Groot is Diana van Efése.” Wat het gebeur in Efése in die Boek Handelinge? Paulus het teen hierdie Diana afgodery gepreek en dit het groot onluste verwek. Wanneer iemand hom begin uitspreek teen die Maria aanbidding dan gebeur presies

dieselfde. Maria is die huidiglike Hemel koningin aan wie koeke geoffer word. Wat oor die wêreld begin het met Fatima en Lourdes, Medjugorje en Guadalupe, sal aanhou groei. Die Berg Karmel in Israel is die plek waar baie sogenaamde spook beelde van Maria verskyn, en dit is ook toevallig dieselfde plek waar die Hemel koningin in die Bybel aanbid was. Katolieke raak al meer en meer hierin betrokke en daar is ook vandag baie protestante wat daarmee saamgaan. Ons sien dit in Engeland waar Evangeliese biskoppe in Walsingham deel neem aan marse vir Maria, en dit word al slegter. Die Here het Sy Glorie aan niemand anders gegee nie. Daar is net Een Middelaar tussen God en die mens, en dit is die Here Jesus Christus die Regverdige. Die godsdiens van Maria aanbidding weerspreek die Bybel. Die Maria van die Katolieke kerk is nie die Maria van die Bybel nie, hulle dink dit is sy. Netso noem die Mormone hulleself die Kerk van Jesus Christus? “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter?Day Saints” Maar hulle Jesus is nie die Jesus van die Bybel nie, hulle Jesus is die broer van Satan! Ek praat nie teen die regte Maria nie, sy was die grootste vrou wat nog ooit gelewe het, sy was die moeder van die Here Jesus, die Messias, maar sy erken self dat sy ‘n Redder nodig het. Wat hierdie godsdienste het is iets wat reguit van Babilon af kom, die heidense Hemel godin, en soos wat hierdie godsdiens groei sal u sien dat baie Evangeliese Protestante al meer en meer by hierdie dinge betrokke gaan raak.

Hoe eindig hierdie dinge? Ons het Egipte en Babilon en die Hand van die Here. En dit is heel duidelik, moet nie na Babilon toe vlug nie want niemand sal daar vrede vind nie. Moet ook nie na Egipte toe vlug nie want die kanse dat iemand sal kan terugkeer is uiters skraal. Geloof in die wêreld gaan nie werk nie, Juda wat na Egipte toe gevlug het kon nie meer die Naam van die Here aanroep nie. Beide hierdie paaie is die wee van die dood. Daar gaan mense in onderskeidings bedieninge wees wat hulle eie broers en susters uit arrogansie gaan verloën, vooraanstaande en gesiene leiers, net soos Johanan. Die Protestante beweeg al nader na die Katolieke en daar is alreeds Charismatiese Katolieke wat in tale tot Maria bid!.

Wat is die einde van al hierdie dinge? Wat van diegene wat in Gerut–Kimham wil bly en wat verlang na die Wederkoms van die Here Jesus? Wat sê die Here aan diegene wat nie na Egipte of na Babilon toe wil gaan nie? Jer. 42:10: “As julle rustig in hierdie land bly, sal Ek julle bou en nie afbreek nie, en julle plant en nie uitruk nie; want Ek het berou oor die onheil wat Ek julle aangedoen het.

En laastens sê God vir Jeremia in 45:5: “En sou jy vir jou groot dinge soek? Soek dit nie; want kyk, Ek bring onheil oor alle vlees, spreek die HERE; maar Ek sal jou siel vir jou as buit gee in al die plekke waarheen jy sal gaan.” “Ek sal jou siel vir jou as buit gee in al die plekke waarheen jy sal gaan.” Moet nie baie van hierdie plek verwag nie, beplan vir die toekoms maar moet nie daarop beplan nie. Soek nie vir jouself groot dinge nie. As God vir jou ‘n groot bediening gegee het, Prys Hom daarvoor, maar moet dit nie soek nie??probeer om te oorleef. As God vir jou materiële sukses gegee het moet nie dat dit na jou kop toe gaan nie, gebruik dit tot eer van die Here, moet dit nie najaag nie, leef om te oorleef. Kyk hoe vinnig kan die wêreld mark in duie stort, die Midde Ooste kan binne ure in ‘n kern oorlog gedompel word. Islamitiese terroriste kan met biologiese wapens baie vinnig die helfte van New York uitwis. Nee vriende, ons het ons lewe as buit. “As julle rustig in hierdie land sal bly, sê die Here.”

Jer. 42:11: “Vrees nie vir die koning van Babel vir wie julle bang is nie; wees nie vir hom bevrees nie, spreek die HERE, want Ek is met julle om julle te verlos en julle uit sy hand te red.” Dit is die Belofte van Here. †††

< Older Post

Newer Post >

Staying the course amidst isolation

By David Passmore • May 30, 2026

Staying The Course Amidst Isolation Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Living in Israel one gets the feeling that the metaphorical walls are closing in. Israel's reputation is being tarnished all over social media and the mainstream media, and this is reflected in massive public disdain towards this country. We are constantly told that there is near consensus amongst academics and commentators that a genocide was committed in Gaza. The very legitimacy of the state is brought into question. The majority of Americans are now hostile towards Israel. There is real fear that the next U.S. administration will turn against Israel. Even if this were to happen passively, by the U.S. refraining from exercising its veto power towards Security Council Resolutions condemning Israeli actions this could be catastrophic. Internally it is a fractured society leaning increasingly right wing which further alienates Israel from world opinion. An example in point is how Ben Gvir mocked the most recent participants of a global aid flotilla to Gaza. Such conduct further agitates outrage at Israel. The left-wing media presents the ruins of Gaza as a mortal wound in Israel's side. When the world observes this level of carnage no degree of public relations can ameliorate the sense of indignation towards Israel. We can liken the situation of Israel to that of a depressed person. All he sees is hopelessness and gloom. But this isn't the first time that the Jewish nation has been faced with such darkness. Things change and we don't know how the geo-political map will reconfigure in the future. We need to ride out this storm and keep going. On a historical note, the situation is reminiscent of what our ancestors faced when we returned from the Babylonian exile to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Nehemiah was faced with constant lies and conspiracies designed to entrap him by hostile actors: Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite and Geshem the Arab. They employed deception, slander and ridicule in order to maintain their political eminence. There was also a certain sense of abandonment amongst the Jews in Israel then as in our own day. We read in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah about the anguish of the leadership in Israel concerning the lack of assistance from the Babylonian diaspora towards the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and the Temple. Only 20% of the exiles returned to the land. It was largely the poor who returned. Most of the affluent, established Jews remained in Exile. This is a continuing theme in Jewish history. It is also important to observe that from its very beginnings there were bible believing Christians who spearheaded the return of the Jews to their land. The idea of organizing a return of the Jews to Israel began as a Protestant Restorationist objective that can be traced to 17th century Puritan England. The protagonists of the Cromwellian Republic viewed themselves as the new Israel fighting the Papist forces of Satan. Alongside this, interest grew in the notion that biblical prophecies pertaining to the return of the Jews to Israel were a necessary precursor for the return of Christ. The growth of the British Empire in the 19th century lent political clout to Christian Restorationism with specific missions to the Jews established. Although there had been a longing to return to Israel as written in the thrice daily Amidah prayer, Jewish Zionism arose in the midst of mid nineteenth century nationalism and was further fermented by European antisemitism. It was an altogether secular enterprise. Although Israel's situation appears rather stark, we can draw strength from the Providence afforded to our ancestors in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah when they too were faced with defamation. This is also an opportunity to grow closer to our natural allies in the evangelical world who from the beginning of Zionism were steadfast supporters of the project to establish a Jewish homeland in Israel. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).

Signs of the Times - Tony Pearce

By David Passmore • May 25, 2026

Signs of the Times Tony Pearce ‍ ‍ Left, right or center – is our democracy in danger “Things fall apart, the center does not hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” W.B Yeats ‘The Second Coming. ’ ‍ ‍ Labour’s losses in the council elections and the battle for succession to their unpopular leader Kier Starmer have raised the possibility that we may soon have our seventh Prime Minister in ten years. Local elections saw Reform and the Greens make sweeping gains, leading Green Party leader, Zack Polanski to say that we are seeing ‘the end of the old two party system’. Maybe we are. In which case what comes next? Will we head to the far left, the far right or will the center hold on to power? Or will it end with ungovernable chaos as unqualified people take control of local and national government? Behind all this there are fundamental questions, ‘What is government for? Who does it represent and where is it going?’ ‍ ‍‍ ‍ According to the Bible (Romans 13) the purpose of government is to promote good and restrain evil. The government has the right to raise taxes for the common good of society and people should pay them. In 1 Timothy 2 Paul encourages us to pray for the government that ‘we may live a godly and peaceable life’. In other words, pray that the government will create an orderly and peaceful society and not interfere with our right to set up communities that teach and preach the Word of God. The situation becomes more difficult when we see government promoting things which are harmful and restraining things which are good and clamping down on freedom of speech with a threat to our ability to live a ‘godly and peaceable life’ ‍ Since becoming a Christian in my early twenties, I have wrestled with the question of how our faith applies to contemporary political issues. I started this quest on the left politically after leaving university and working as an English teacher with sympathies for Marxism. I then became a born again Christian in 1970, and joined my late wife Nikki in evangelizing the radical left, by handing out leaflets at their marches and demonstrations in London and attending their meetings to discuss matters of faith and politics with them. ‍ ‍‍ ‍ We had some good discussions with people and hope we made some consider the Christian alternative. However as we looked at Marxism from a Christian point of view and its practice in Communist countries, we understood that behind this ideology there is a strong anti-christian spirit. It denies the existence of God and promotes the idea of human perfectibility by our own effort. This is exemplified in the words of the Internationale, the socialist battle hymn, ‘No saviour from on high delivers, no faith have we in prince or peer, our own right hand the chains will shiver, chains of hatred, greed and fear.’ This Antichrist spirit led to the persecution of Christians in the Communist countries of eastern Europe, the Soviet Union and China. Far from creating the socialist paradise on earth that Lenin wrote about in ‘Socialism and Religion’, it created a society ruled by hatred, greed and fear, controlled by secret police, prison camps and responsible for the death of millions. ‍ ‍ In western society we have witnessed the growth of ‘cultural Marxism’ a movement aimed at infiltrating and changing society from within, rather than fomenting the workers’ revolution. Labour’s Fabian Society, with its (now discarded) logo of the wolf in sheep’s clothing, has been engaged in this process since the beginning of the 20th century. Social change really took off with the permissive society in the 1960s, which succeeded in changing traditional values, especially in the area of sex and the family. It replaced biblical values with a new ‘morality’ that is fundamentally anti Christian. These ideas have permeated large swathes of our society including the education system, the judiciary, the Civil Service, much of the media, mainstream political parties (including even the Conservative ‘wets’ and parts of the established church). ‍ ‍ Melanie Phillips describes the results of this in her book, ‘The Builder’s Stone.’ ‘Having decided that the West was rotten to the core, western elites set out to create a new culture that would usher in the brotherhood of man and eradicate hatred, prejudice, and war. Their Brave New World junked biblical religion with all its constraints on behaviour and revolved instead around self gratification. Everybody had the right to live as they wanted; nobody could say that their way of life was better or worse than anyone else’s; no one had the right to say that their culture was better than any other culture. That was ‘racism.’ At the heart of all this was the doctrine that there was no such thing as objective truth. Everything was relative; everything was a matter of opinion. Because there was no truth feelings became more important than facts. So the West abandoned the codes of morality, conscience, truth and lies, personal responsibility, and duty to others in favour of a culture of the self. In the process it junked its inherited traditions and biblical codes on which western culture was based.’ ‍ Britain changed from being a society that respected values based on the 10 Commandments and the teaching of Jesus Christ to one that discarded them for relative values. Ideas of ‘diversity, inclusion and equity’ became the norm, together with and a form of ‘tolerance’, that is really very intolerant if you oppose it. This ‘tolerance’ means accepting the virtues of multiculturalism and humanism and believing that all gods are equally valid or true (or none are). We must also accept that all lifestyles and family arrangements including homosexual and transsexual ones are just as valid as traditional two parent heterosexual families, with a father and mother committed to each other in lifelong matrimony looking after their own children. ‍ As society accepts this radical change in how we view culture, morality and religion, we are told not to criticize other cultures and world views or imply that they are anything less than equal to the culture, morality and faith derived from the Bible. ‍ All this has not improved society. Instead we have a collapse of values with no central idea to hold it together, just a group of competing ‘communities’ which are often only united in opposition to the traditional values and culture of Great Britain. A good example of this is the ‘red – green alliance’ of radical leftists and Islamists who come together to denounce Israel and campaign to ‘globalise the Intifada’. In practice this means a world wide war against Israel and Judaeo-Christian society and a desire to replace it with their version of either Islamism or Communism. However if one of them were to come to power, you can be sure that the Islamist’s would get rid of the leftists or vice versa. In fact that happened in Iran’s 1979 revolution, when Islamist supporters of Khomeini and Communists came together to get rid of the Shah. Then the Islamists seized power, turned on the Communists and wiped them out. ‍ Alisteir Heath wrote in the Daily Telegraph: ‘Ruined by decades of political vandalism, the Britain we knew and loved, a land of stability, pragmatism, and ancient freedoms, is no more. Today’s UK is uglier, impoverished, volatile and disorderly. We’ve lost our level-headedness. Anger and frustration have become our defining emotions. Our institutions have wasted away, and we have been taught to despise our history. The decline of family, community and faith have led to alienation, dependence on welfare and the rise of novel ideologies, mostly secular but also sectarian, turbocharged by social media. While the state becomes unnervingly authoritarian, the air reeks of insurrection and every variety of extremism. The British public’s sense of betrayal is as well-founded as it is dangerous. The machinery of state is incompetent and self-serving, a vehicle for social engineering in the global interest.’ ‍ ‍ ‍ Criticism of this process now risks being classed as ‘hate crime’ with a growing authoritarian society monitoring social media posts and public teaching of alternative ideas in ways which risk shutting down free speech in our society. A Christian teacher Enoch Burke is currently in prison in Dublin after he was suspended from his job and jailed after refusing to accept and teach transgenderism in the school. ‍ ‍ ‍ Nick Timothy, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, got into trouble when he questioned mass Muslim prayer in Trafalgar Square. He wrote: ‘Mass ritual prayer in public places is an act of domination. The adhan – which declares there is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger – is, when called in a public place, a declaration of domination. The domination of public places is straight from the Islamist playbook.” He is right in this. Allah hu Akhbar actually means Allah is greater, greater than your God, Muhammad is greater than Jesus and the Koran is greater than the Bible. ‍ ‍ ‍ Tim Dieppe of Christian Concern for our Nation wrote: “The fact that we have mass Islamic prayer in Trafalgar Square at all is indicative of the massive culture change that we have seen in the last few decades. A culture change that was not voted for or ever agreed to by the British people. And, a culture change that can hardly be described as having been entirely beneficial to our culture as a whole. I only need to mention grooming gangs involving mostly Pakistani Muslim men , sharia courts, honour crimes, terror attacks, the assassination of an MP, an attempt to blockade Parliament, mass antisemitic marches through London, a convicted terrorist standing for local elections, sectarianism, and many other examples to make the point. Earlier this month, the Government gave Muslims special protection with the adoption of an official definition of anti-Muslim hostility .” ‍ ‍ ‍ You are not really supposed to question this in public life today. A message circulating on social media is an apt commentary on all this. ‘First they overlook evil, then they permit evil, then they legalise evil, then they promote evil, then celebrate evil, then persecute those who call it evil.’ Soviet dissident Solzhenitsyn wrote: ‘A Communist system can be recognised by how it spares criminals and criminalises its opponents.’ ‍ ‍ ‍ The root cause of all this is the rejection of God and biblical values. The 18th-century French philosopher Joseph de Maistre coined the phrase "people get the government they deserve." David Pawson followed up on this idea, arguing that in democratic societies like ours, the moral and spiritual condition of a nation's citizens is directly reflected in the leaders they elect. If the general public abandons moral truths, they will inevitably vote for governments that reflect those same compromises. David Pawson taught that God may use governmental leadership to judge or bless a nation, depending on the people's obedience. He noted that Hebrew prophets saw wicked rulers as a form of divine judgement on a society that has strayed from God's laws. Therefore a nation's ultimate hope rests on repentance rather than just political change. His conclusion is that Christians should actively stand for moral truth in society. He believed that the church is meant to influence culture upward, and that a decline in national morality inevitably leads to deteriorating governance. ‍ ‍ ‍ Sadly much of the church today has become the ‘salt that has lost its savour’ through compromise with antichristian forces in society and government. It may be too late to save our country and western democracy as social and economic pressures create a collapse of democracy and push us either towards anarchy or dictatorship. ‍ ‍ ‍ Yeats’ poem quoted at the beginning of this article ends with the enigmatic line ‘Some rough beast slouches towards Bethlehem to be born.’ Most likely he is referring to the coming anti-Messiah who is labelled the Beast in the book of Revelation. Many believe his is now waiting in the wings to replace the true Messiah (born in Bethlehem) and bring in the dictatorship prophesied in Revelation 13. The Bible indicates that the Beast or Antichrist will have power for a moment, but it will be short lived and doomed to destruction at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to the earth. Then the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of His Messiah and He shall reign forever and ever (Revelation 11.15) and the ‘government shall be on His shoulder’ (Isaiah 9.6). ‍ ‍ ‍ Maranatha come Lord Jesus. ‍ ‍ ‍ Water, water nowhere and not a drop to drink. (Apologies to the Ancient Mariner) ‍ ‍‍ ‍ While nations worry about supply of oil and gas as a result of the war in the Gulf and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a much more vital commodity for human survival is water. And it is in short supply in a growing number of nations. ‍ ‍ As of 2026, over 25 countries face extremely high water stress, with the most severe crises located in the Middle East and North Africa. This region is home to the world's most water-stressed nations, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, and Libya. India and Pakistan face critical water scarcity due to overexploitation of aquifers and population density. Much of Africa , Somalia and Ethiopia in particular are facing severe shortages due to drought and climate change. Mexico and parts of the United States (particularly Texas and the west coast) are experiencing significant water shortages and declining groundwater levels. ‍ ‍ ‍ Iran is facing a severe, multi-year water crisis as of May 2026, with major cities like Tehran, Mashhad, and Karaj approaching the point where taps could run dry due to depleted reservoirs. Groundwater is depleted across most of the country, and nineteen provinces are experiencing severe drought. The crisis is driven by a combination of climate change and decades of poor water management, including excessive dam construction and inefficient, water-intensive agriculture. China is facing a severe, multi-faceted water crisis defined by extreme scarcity in the north, widespread pollution, and mismanagement, threatening its food supply and economic growth. ‍ ‍ ‍ Several countries are significantly affected by upstream dam construction that reduces downstream water flow, causing, environmental, and diplomatic crises. These countries include Iraq, heavily impacted by dams built on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers by Turkey and Iran, leading to reduced water for agriculture, destruction of forests, and increased sandstorms. Egypt and Sudanface significant water security risks due to the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile. Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laosare affected of dams built by China on the upper Mekong River ‍ ‍ One country which bucks this trend is Israel. Israel manages its water resources by transforming a chronic shortage into a surplus through large-scale desalination, extensive wastewater recycling, and a centralised national water carrier system. The agriculture sector has shifted away from freshwater, using treated effluent instead. Advanced drip irrigation technologies are widely used to minimise waste. Israel has exported its water technologies to countries around the world, particularly Africa where it has given advice on how to use limited water resources to great effect. ‍ ‍ ‍ Without water no society on earth can survive. Bible prophecies indicate that water shortage and pollution will be a global problem in the last days. Most obviously no water equals no food, so famine is an inevitable result of water shortages. Jesus warned of this as a sign of the last days in Matthew 24.7. Revelation 8.10-11 speaks of something called ‘Wormwood’ falling on rivers and springs of water causing it to become bitter and many to die from drinking it. ‍ ‍ Prophecy speaks of the two great rivers of the ancient world, the Nile and the Euphrates, being affected by a crisis causing the Euphrates to dry up (Revelation 16.12) and the Nile to become contaminated and its waters turn foul (Isaiah 19.5-11). Isaiah 24 speaks of a curse devouring the earth in the last days causing the earth to be ‘defiled (or polluted) under its inhabitants.’ ‍ ‍ ‍ According to the New Scientist, there are massive amounts of water hidden deep beneath the Earth's surface. Scientists have found evidence of a reservoir of water three times the volume of all surface oceans combined, located roughly 250–400 miles underground within the mantle. ‍ ‍ ‍ It may be that the Lord will release this water to replenish and clean up the earth in the Millennial kingdom when ‘waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.’ Isaiah 35. Zechariah 14.8-9 says, ‘In that day it shall be that living waters shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and half of them toward the western sea; In both summer and winter it shall occur. And the Lord shall be King over all the earth.’ Zechariah 14.8-9. See also Ezekiel 47. ‍ Rethinking Russia ‍ Things are not going well for Vladimir Putin in his ‘special military operation’. Four years after invading Ukraine in February 2022, Russia is not making advances and actually losing ground. Russia is losing as many as 25,000- 35,000 casualties a month and over 1.2 million have been killed and wounded since the war began. Ukrainian skills in drone warfare have destroyed large quantities of Russian equipment, tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and rocket systems, helicopters, and naval vessels. ‍ ‍ Russia is spending an estimated 40% of the entire federal budget on the war effort. As a result of this and western sanctions, Russia is increasingly unable to fix chronic infrastructure problems at home. During the bitter Russian winter thousands of people were left without heat, light, or even water. All forms of transport, trains, trucks and planes, are facing logistical problems, making it difficult to transport goods and people across the vast Russian regions. Russia is on the way to an infrastructure collapse that will likely take decades to recover. ‍ ‍ Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov warned the State Duma that Russia's faltering economy risks stoking a 1917-style revolution. He demanded urgent financial and economic measures by autumn to avert a potential economic collapse. This raises the danger of the Russian Federation fracturing. The Caucuses are restive, the far east is looking to China and Siberia is facing an acute problem as a result of melting permafrost, causing buildings, bridges and pipelines to collapse. ‍ ‍ In the present circumstances it is hard to see how Russia could lead the Gog and Magog invasion of Israel (Ezekiel 38-39). Some have said that it is more likely that Turkey is the lead power in the War of Gog and Magog. They say that Meshech and Tubal are not Moscow and Tobolsk, but regions of modern Turkey. Erdogan’s Turkey is backed by an Islamist world view hostile to Israel, seeking the recovery of its Ottoman Empire. He has his eyes on taking control of Jerusalem. Turkey is possession of a large land army already stationed in the region, some of it occupying part of Syria. ‍ ‍ The alternative is that the War of Gog and Magog is some way off, possibly part of Armageddon, giving time for Russia to recover from its present distress. We wait and see, but meanwhile spare a thought and a prayer for the people of Ukraine and Russia, suffering as a result of Putin’s futile war, oppressed by his corrupt dictatorship and facing an economic and social collapse caused by his failed policies. ‍ ‍

Trumps visit with Xi

By David Passmore • May 25, 2026

Trump's Visit with Xi Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM The tempest path of Sino-U.S. tensions came to a head during Trump's first term in office with the outbreak of Covid. Many commentators believed that the deterioration in relations was in terminal decline and that a major confrontation in the straits of Taiwan was fast looming. Trump held China responsible for the spread of Covid, insisting that he would pursue reparations. The election of Biden halted this commitment. Biden sought a non-confrontational policy towards Beijing. In the aftermath of the disastrous premature withdrawal from Afghanistan handing that country over to the Taliban and the Russian invasion of Ukraine under his watch, Biden became too preoccupied to assertively engage with China. Chinese State media portrayed Trump's visit as being rather unremarkable in the context of other foreign dignitaries lining up to meet Xi, pointing out that just a week later Putin would arrive in Beijing. China manifests that it is winning the trade war that Trump began in 2018, beating America at its own game of capitalism. They frame the U.S. as being in a position of weakness because China is able to source whatever products they buy from the U.S. elsewhere like oil from Canada, and soybeans from Brazil. The oil, soybeans and 200 Boeing's Xi agreed to purchase from Trump were presented as a mere gesture to placate Trump as China has already bought 350 Air Buses in the last year. China would have the world believe that it is only semi-conductors where America has the edge. Here China hints that it is not likely to buy H200 Invidia Chips because it would mean that China will always lag behind the U.S. in building their AI tech. China's major contention and concern is that the U.S. may impose export controls to contain China. China's strategy instead is to invest massively on indigenous innovation. China wants to become an innovation powerhouse that will export its own Chips to the Global South. China is fast catching up with America's lead in AI with the launch of Deep Seek and they claim similar progress with Chip making. China is now ostensibly only eight months behind the U.S. on Large Language Models. Running contrary to this narrative Trump insists that China is desperate to trade with America. China's economy has now peaked. Emblematic of this stagnating growth is rising youth unemployment. China is no longer America's biggest trading partner. Trump has shifted manufacturing back to the U.S. and Trump believes that China can't revive its economy without America. Lined up to meet Xi with Trump were the heads of some of America's biggest Tech Corporations. Corporations like nvidia seek a relaxing of export controls for Chips as they want short term profits, ignoring the risk that China will reverse engineer this technology. More broadly, China and the U.S. are playing a geopolitical chess game spanning the globe. Trump outmaneuvered China in Latin America with the removal of Maduro from power in Venezuela. China is exploiting its influence on Iran in order to get Trump to refrain from taking more active steps towards the defense of Taiwan. Indeed, Trump didn't say anything about Taiwan during his visit. Trump's instincts are of a transactional approach towards alliances, where he is only willing to underwrite defense assistance if allies pay up as an insurer would. It is also important to note that saber rattling the Taiwan card also serves the CCP agenda to distract internal dissent concerning the state of the Chinese economy. Most imminently Trump needs China to pressure Iran to open the Straits of Hormuz and get oil prices down before the midterm elections. China has largely insulated itself from the Gulf energy impact due to stockpiles. Trump would also like China to stop providing Iran with GPS for its missiles. Other Chinese weapons systems and technology sold to Iran have failed to perform well against U.S. and Israeli military hardware. Matters boil down to a leverage between whatever Trump can do on Taiwan, China can do on the strait of Hormouz with Iran. Human Rights concerns, espionage and the alarming rate of Chinese acquisition of U.S. land have been placed on the back burner for the time being. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).

Prayer request for Phil Malone

By David Passmore • May 17, 2026

Moriel & Jacob Prasch request prayer for Phil Malone and family “Please keep me and my family in prayer. My mum passed away on 13th May at the age of 93. It's a time of mourning, but may it be a time for the Gospel of Christ to be preached to my unbelieving family, especially my brother.”

Please Pray for Joanne Rizzetto, Pastor Dave Rizzetto's wife

By Mea Fredrickson • May 13, 2026

Moriel & Jacob Prasch request prayer for Sister Joanne Rizzetto, wife of Pastor Dave Rizzetto of Church of The Open Door in New York City. Joanne has developed painful complications and adverse side effects from medications following knee surgery. May The Lord intervene for healing and give guidance to her physicians. Lord, we humbly ask you to intervene in the life of our dear sister. We know you can do all things and that you hear our prayers and consider your servants. Please put a stop to the adverse reaction. Restrain and reverse its effects and restore our sister so that she can continue to serve you in the ministry that you have called them to. We do glorify Your Name. We don't ask as those who treat you as our debtor, but as those who have tasted your goodness and found such mercy and compassion at your feet. Grace and peace and mercy be with Joanne and Pastor Dave.

Will Lebanon miss its golden opportunity?

By David Passmore • May 5, 2026

Will Lebanon miss its golden opportunity? Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Converging new facts on the ground have transformed the political landscape in Lebanon. With Assad removed from power in Syria, a vital lifeline of arms supplies for Hezbollah originating in Iran has diminished. Hezbollah suffered considerable losses in its last round of fighting with Israel. The decapitation of its leadership with the targeted pager attack inflicted a severe blow. Hezbollah's new leader Naim Qassem is a weak substitute for the charismatic Nasrallah who was assassinated by Israel in 2024. Hezbollah in its frail state foolishly fell into line with Iran's instruction to join the fighting against Israel following the recent American-Israeli war with Iran. This was contrary to the wishes of the Lebanese government which was fearful of the inevitable destruction that would be wreaked by the Israeli response. The differing attitudes to Israel amongst Lebanon's population is reflective of its ethnic composition. The predominant groups in order of plurality are Christians, Shia Muslims and Sunni Muslims with a smaller minority of Druze. The major concern of most Christians in Lebanon is the dire state of their economy. They have no appetite to further their plight by invoking Israel's rage. During the colonial inter war period the French envisaged the demarcation between Lebanon and Syria as carving out enclaves for Christian and Druze control. Within Lebanon there would be a shared government that by convention would have the Executive power split between a Christian President, a Sunni Prime Minister and Shia Speaker of Parliament. The Christians in southern Lebanon (particularly Maronite Catholics) saw themselves as being anthropologically descendants of ancient Phoenicians as opposed to an Arab identity where the Arab Christians were largely Eastern Orthodox. The schism between the Maronites and the Arab Eastern Orthodox dates back to the time of the Crusades. The Maronites were culturally French, speaking French as their main language and held precedence in much of the Lebanese economy. The first threat to Lebanese stability and cohesion was settled by the U.S. Eisenhower administration in 1958 which landed Marines in an amphibious operation. A repeated attempt at this by the Reagan administration in 1983 ended in a military disaster for the U.S. due to suicide bombings by Iranian controlled terrorists. Israeli efforts to bring in stability during the Lebanese Civil War in conjunction with its Lebanese Christian allies led by Major Saad Haddad likewise came to calamity when the Sabra and Shatila revenge attacks took place following the assassination of Lebanese leader Bashir Gemayel. The ''Good Fence'' policy of an Israeli friendly free Lebanon zone in Southern Lebanon eventually ended badly following Menachem Begin's second incursion into Lebanon called ''Shalom HaGalil'' aimed at stopping the PLO rocket attacks on Israeli border communities like Metulla, Kiryat Shmona, Naharya, Rosh Hanikra, Tzfat and Carmiel. The proxy Israeli occupation from the Israeli border to the Litani river became an imbroglio that many in Israel viewed as Israel's Vietnam with widespread domestic protest and a collapse of morale within the IDF. Eventually Israel absorbed Christian war refugees from Lebanon, while the Vatican and most of the Christian world turned their backs on the Lebanese Christians. Lebanon was then saddled with two states within a state. The first was in the aftermath of Black September in 1970 when King Hussein of Jordan defended his Hashemite throne and government from Yasser Arafat's attempt to take over Jordan due to Jordan having a 70% Palestinian Arab demographic majority. The Jordanian legion drove tens of thousands of its pro Arafat Jordanian citizens into Lebanon, creating a population base for the first state within a state under Arafat. However the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and other factions had their niche interests. Courtesy of the Israeli Air Force Arafat relocated what he saw as his government in exile to Tunisia. This was a missed opportunity by the Lebanese government to assert its autonomy and full territorial control by making a Camp David type peace with Israel inclusive of economic and mutual security provisions. Instead an Iranian backed Syrian intervention replaced Arafat's state within a state with a new one that morphed into Hezbollah. The fall of the Assad regime and the Israeli counter-offensive against Hezbollah re-presents Lebanon with the opportunity that it once lost. The predominantly Christian controlled Lebanese military could and should operationally coordinate with the IDF, to obliterate and remove Hezbollah as the Israelis relieved Lebanon of Arafat's state within a state. Such a rapprochement would likely have strong American and possibly French and British support, allowing Lebanon to be at a non-combative peace with Israel along the lines of Egypt and Jordan, and now some of the Emirates. The natural comradery of the Lebanese Druze community with the Israeli Druze and the pro-Israeli Druze of Syria would additionally re-enforce a regional harmony, as would the Maronite Christian community in Israel with their co-coreligionists in Lebanon. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).

Pastor John Angliss

By David Passmore • May 5, 2026

PASTOR JOHN ANGLISS It is with profound sadness that we learned of the temporary separation from our friend and brother Pastor John Angliss. We look forward to being reunited with John in the millennial reign of Christ and indeed in God's Eternal Kingdom. Jacob Prasch visited John a few weeks ago in the UK while John was in hospice care having been diagnosed preterminal in his illness. While medically correct, it was of course a misdiagnosis. John is now cancer free and is alive and well in the presence of Jesus awaiting us in glory while his mortal body is being renewed for resurrection and immortality. In the meanwhile, during this temporary season of bereavement we do request prayer for his beloved wife Mary and for his congregation, The Ark Fellowship in England near Reading, England. Because he has recently arrived in the USA and is scheduled to address the Moriel Canada branch conference in Winnipeg, Jacob Prasch will regrettably not be able to attend the memorial service in Britain. Our condolences however are very much with Mary and our brethren in the UK who like us knew and loved Pastor Angliss. John was one of a minority of faithful voices who upheld a traditional biblically based Pentecostalism in the era of counterfeit revivals and apostasy that overtook most of British Pentecostalism. John was a faithful friend of Israel & The Jews standing on the prophetic purposes of God for Israel and the salvation of the Jews. John was a loyal friend to Moriel and Jacob Prasch and a colleague of David Pawson and Derek Prince, both of whom likewise stood by God's promises to Israel. John was also a founding leader of CMFI - the Christian Ministerial Fellowship International, former pastor of Three Mile Cross fellowship , and former board member of Focus On Israel (a Pentecostal Ministry to the Jews). While this separation is temporary, John's eternal gain will be our temporary loss. O GRAVE - WHERE IS THEY VICTORY, O DEATH WHERE IS THY STING ? Hosea 13:14 / 1 Corinthians 15: 55-57

We made it this far: Israel at 78

By David Passmore • April 28, 2026

We made it this far: Israel at 78 Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM Since the last anniversary milestone of Israel at 75, we have been embroiled in relentless wars. Citizens had little respite to enjoy this year's festivities, coming on the heels of a lull in fighting on the Iranian and Lebanese fronts. We are constantly waiting for a breakthrough on the horizon that will normalize our relations with our neighbors and secure our position on the world stage. It is acutely exhausting to be the focus of the world's attention. But also there is a sense of inevitability accompanying the Zionist project. Specifically that Israel is destined to be central in the wider region and global affairs. Why is this? Is it due to it being a western transplant? Being geographically positioned on the crossroads of three continents? Religious believers would point to prophetic fulfillment. It is short sighted to only look at how our problems are rooted in today’s' reality. Greater forces are at work that will dictate the direction that Israel is heading. The Jewish diaspora will likely find itself in a growing precarious position that will lead to increasing Aliyah (immigration to Israel) and will perhaps ferment the emergence of a second Jewish commonwealth that will not need to heed international pressure in the same way that todays' polity finds itself doing. In this light it is interesting to ponder how our posterity would view our predicament and gains. And I frame matters in these terms with intentionality. We are enmeshed in a seemingly intractable conflict with the Palestinians, and yet Israel has made great gains particularly in the technological fields. There is a current of thinking that perceives Israel's way out of its quagmire is by making itself indispensable to technological advancements. We don't know how tomorrows' world will be shaped by the rapidly advancing AI revolution but so far Israel has proven to be uniquely adaptable and innovative to technological change. This has proved to be a boon to Israel's economy, as have offshore natural gas discoveries being developed in concert with Greece, Greek Cypriot and American energy interests that are geographically and strategically removed from any Straits of Hormuz shipping impediments that strangle the Persian Gulf deposits shared by Qatar and Iran. On another note we should contextualize the situation. How different are Israel's challenges from other nations? Is Israel any less stable than other countries (particularly in the region)? Israel doesn't find itself uniquely challenged to define its identity (most European countries do also, particularly in light of immigration). Nor does the government experience any more volatility than other comparable democracies. Israel's real problems lay in the nature of how its Jewish citizens desire to govern themselves. It is arguable whether the judicial reform protests that occupied public discourse in pre-October 7th Israel would have led to serious civil strife. But it is without doubt that this impasse was allayed by the external attack. The underlying tensions remain unresolved and there are many ways that they could play out. It has been framed as a battle for Israel's soul. Israel's enemies predict that Zionism is imploding and that the State won't survive another 5-10 years. Supporting this claim, they point to Israel's increasing alienation and growing pariah status on the international stage. Our Prime Minister has been indicted for war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Even public opinion in our staunchest ally the U.S. has turned sharply against Israel. With 80% of the Democratic Party being anti-Israel in a growing climate of anti-semitism we have even witnessed the shift of Alan Dershowitz to the Republican Party which must be seen as emblematic of a trend. There is apprehension in Israel of a post-Trump America dominated by the Democrats. However, these seeming incontrovertible facts may be offset by other measures of fortitude. This may be partially countered by the high investment by Silicon Valley in the Israeli Hi-tech sector, making Israel an asset for purposes of Research and Development in America's AI race against China. New opportunities for economic relations have also been opened with Arab nations through the Abraham Accords and with the powerhouse India. Furthermore, it is difficult to imagine a world in which Israel's technological prowess will not carry the sway of western decision makers in the long run. Israel's 78th anniversary is a moment to take pause and not catastrophize what the future may behold. The entire world is currently in a state of transformation and Israel is not an outlier in this context. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).

Council attempts to shut down and censor local church’s evangelism efforts.

By David Passmore • April 23, 2026

Please click this link:https://mailchi.mp/christianconcern.com/action-alert-street-preaching-22-04-26?e=f1df30be3f

A critical juncture in NATO's future

By David Passmore • April 14, 2026

A critical juncture in NATO'S future Rubin Rothler LLB, LLM NATO was originally established in 1949 to keep the Russian hordes at bay from toppling those European countries not forked over to the Soviet sphere of influence at the Potsdam conference. Europe lay in ruins. Britain had passed on the torch of global hegemony to the U.S. by tacitly acquiescing to the decolonization of its Empire when Churchill and Roosevelt agreed terms of the Atlantic Charter for the post-war new world order in 1941. So from its start NATO was very much an American driven endeavor. American money with the Marshall plan was propping up western European economies and its military might was forming the bulk of their defensive capabilities. The lopsided nature of this dynamic has informed how tensions have persisted and recently erupted in the Alliance. During the Cold War the U.S. felt obligated to shoulder the costs of underwriting Europe's security in light of the broader interests to keep the Soviet's in check. Following the fall of the Iron Curtain European complacency became a sticking point with the 'peace dividend' further exploiting American largesse. European NATO allies spent ever smaller percentages of their GDP on defense expenditure at U.S. expense. Now in a multi-polar world U.S. and European perceived threats are less aligned. This was first tested in the aftermath of September 11th when for the first time NATO elected to trigger its article 5 collective defense protocol. And since then the U.S. has sought to continue to expand the traditional theatre of operations beyond Europe's borders. No longer is Russia perceived by America as being a proximate existential threat to its interests, but rather containing Chinese expansion in the Pacific arena. Parallel to NATO a discrete 'five eyes' intelligence sharing alliance comprising the Anglo-sphere (the U.S., U.K., Canada and New Zealand) emerged. This stands at the center of the U.S. – U.K. 'special relationship'. A relevant question would be can this signals intelligence (NSA-GCHQ) partnership persist should the U.S. withdraw from NATO? Conventional thinking would have led one to believe that with Brexit the U.K. would naturally pivot towards closer U.S. relations but under Starmer the U.K. is distancing itself. European powers misrepresent the present conflict as an aggressive, rather than defensive U.S. adventure while they themselves are more likely to be at risk. In this the Starmer government resembles the Labor party led committee for nuclear disarmament in the 1980's. It opposed the Thatcher supported deployment of U.S. cruise missiles in response to the Soviet SS20's pointed at Britain's cities. The British left branded their response to Soviet strategic escalation to U.S. aggression. This time however there is for the moment no Thatcher to bring common sense into an equation dominated by emotionally driven ideologies in the face of an aggressor with definite aims. In terms of the Russian-Ukraine conflict we are reverting to the old question dating back to the Napoleonic war era: to what extent is London happy with the European nations fighting it out alone for dominance of the continent. Britain was never willing to accept a single power in control. Many variables will dictate what kind of world emerges from the current conflicts in Ukraine and Iran. How will power be extracted from potential gains? What will be the strategic impact of this? What is sure, in the age of Trump this pattern of reliance on U.S. muscle is becoming quickly exhausted. Dating back to the Roman Empire, a factor in the decline of major powers has always been astronomical military spending, a budgetary demand that the U.S. under Trump is no longer willing to shoulder alone. (Author is an Israeli American lawyer academically qualified in British and in U.S.A. law, and a graduate of the School of Oriental & African Studies, London. He is a Jewish believer in Jesus and is currently based in Israel).