House of David - House of Saul - Afrikaans

April 1, 2025

‘N Skeur In Die Wapenrusting

Gegroet in die Wonder Naam van Jesus.



Wanneer die Heilige Gees ons meer as een keer in die Bybel van iets vertel dan is dit belangrik.

Net soos wat ons vier Evangeliese verslae het van dieselfde verhaal het ons in die Ou Testament Konings en Kronieke met twee aspekte van die dieselfde dinge en die profeet of profete wat in hierdie tyd geprofeteer het. Jy sal drie of vier aspekte van dieselfde episode in die Ou Testament kry net soos in die Evangelies. Wanneer die Heilige Gees met ons meer as een keer van dieselfde dinge praat dan is dit belangrik. Blaai saam met my na 2 Kronieke 18. Dit is ‘n parallelle oorsig van wat ons in 1 Konings 22 vind.

2 Kronieke 18:1?34 ?? 19:3, vers 1: “En toe Jósafat rykdom en eer in oorvloed gehad het, het hy hom verswaer met Agab.” Pasop vir nepotisme. (Onregmatige begunstiging)

Punt 1: Dit gaan oor kwesbaarheid, goeie dade vir familielede kom in plek van getrouheid aan Bybelse voorskrifte. Wanneer jy sien dat mense onder mekaar groepeer deur ‘n huwelik of waar hierdie pastoor daardie pastoor se swaer is, of waar sy suster met ‘n ander pastoor getroud is? pasop. Alles wat God vir goed ontwerp het sal die duiwel vir kwaad gebruik.

God het families en familie strukture geskep, maar weet julle wat, Jesus het gesê dat hy wat sy familie meer liefhet as vir Hom, is Hom nie waardig nie. My vrou se familie is Jode uit Oos Europa wat Hitler se gas oonde oorleef het. Toe my vrou tot die geloof gekom het dat Jesus ook Yeshua die Joodse Messias is, het hulle vir haar gesê: “Nou is jy ook een van hulle!? Hulle het ons dood gemaak en nou is jy een van hulle!” Die duiwel sal altyd as hy kan iets wat God vir goed bedoel het vir kwaad gebruik. Nepotisme is die eerste ding wat ‘n goeie Christen ontvanklik kan maak om te kompromitteer met dinge wat hy weet verkeerd is. Kom ons lees verder oor Jósafat. Sy naam in Hebreeus is Yahowshaphat yeh?ho?shaw?fawt

— God sal oordeel. En in 2 Kronieke 18:2?7: “En ná verloop van enkele jare het hy afgetrek na Agab, na Samaría, en Agab het vir hom en die manskappe wat by hom was, skape en beeste in menigte geslag en hom aangehits om teen Ramot in Gílead op te trek. Toe sê Agab, die koning van Israel, vir Jósafat, die koning van Juda: Sal u met my saam na Ramot in Gílead trek? En hy antwoord hom: Ek is soos u, en my volk soos u volk, en ons sal saam met u in die oorlog wees. Verder het Jósafat aan die koning van Israel gesê: Raadpleeg tog eers die woord van die HERE. Toe laat die koning van Israel die profete, vier honderd man, bymekaarkom en sê vir hulle: Sal ons teen Ramot in Gílead trek om te veg, of sal ek dit laat staan? En hulle antwoord: Trek op, en God sal dit in die hand van die koning gee. Maar Jósafat sê: Is hier nie nog 'n profeet van die HERE, dat ons deur hom kan raadpleeg nie? En die koning van Israel antwoord Jósafat: Daar is nog een man om die HERE deur hom te raadpleeg; maar ék haat hom, want hy profeteer oor my niks goeds nie, maar altyd onheil; dit is Miga, die seun van Jimla. En Jósafat sê: Die koning moet nie so spreek nie!”

Ek haat hom hy profeteer nooit iets goeds nie. Valse profete sal altyd aan mense vertel wat hulle graag wil hoor, maar die ware profete sal aan mense vertel wat hulle moet hoor.

Vers 8? 34 – 19:1?3: “Daarop roep die koning van Israel 'n hofdienaar en sê: Gaan haal gou vir Miga, die seun van Jimla. Onderwyl die koning van Israel en Jósafat, die koning van Juda, elkeen op sy troon sit, beklee met koninklike klere, en hulle op 'n dorsvloer sit by die ingang van die poort van Samaría, en al die profete voor hulle profeteer, het Sedekía, die seun van Kenaäna, vir hom ysterhorings gemaak en gesê: So spreek die HERE: Hiermee sal u die Arameërs stoot totdat hulle vernietig is.

En so het al die profete geprofeteer en gesê: Trek op na Ramot in Gílead en u sal voorspoedig wees, en die HERE sal dit in die hand van die koning gee. Toe sê die boodskapper wat gegaan het om Miga te roep, vir hom dít: Kyk, die woorde van die profete is uit een mond goed vir die koning: laat jou woord nou tog wees soos die van een van hulle, en spreek goeie dinge. Maar Miga sê: So waar as die HERE leef, wat God my sal sê, dit sal ek spreek!

Toe hy by die koning kom, sê die koning vir hom: Miga, sal ons na Ramot in Gílead trek om te veg, of sal ek dit laat staan? En hy antwoord: Trek op, en u sal voorspoedig wees, en hulle sal in julle hand gegee word. En die koning sê vir hom: Hoeveel maal moet ek jou besweer dat jy niks as die waarheid in die Naam van die HERE tot my moet spreek nie? Daarop antwoord hy: Ek het die hele Israel gesien, verstrooid op die berge soos skape wat geen wagter het nie. En die HERE het gesê: Hulle het geen heer nie; laat hulle elkeen in vrede teruggaan na sy huis. Toe sê die koning van Israel vir Jósafat: Het ek u nie gesê hy profeteer oor my niks goeds nie, maar onheil?

Verder sê hy: Daarom, hoor die woord van die HERE: Ek het die HERE sien sit op sy troon, terwyl al die hemelse leërskare aan sy regter?? en sy linkerhand staan. En die HERE het gesê: Wie sal Agab, die koning van Israel, oorhaal, dat hy kan optrek en val by Ramot in Gílead? En die een het so gesê, en die ander weer so. Toe kom die gees vorentoe en gaan voor die aangesig van die HERE staan en sê: Ek sal hom oorhaal. En die HERE vra hom: Waarmee? En hy sê: Ek sal uitgaan en 'n leuengees word in die mond van al sy profete. En Hy sê: Jy sal oorhaal, ja, jy sal ook oorwin; gaan uit en doen so. En nou, kyk, die HERE het 'n leuengees in die mond van hierdie profete van u gegee, terwyl die HERE tog onheil oor u gespreek het.

Daarop kom Sedekía, die seun van Kenaäna, nader en hy slaan Miga op die kakebeen en sê: Langs watter weg het die Gees van die HERE van my af weggegaan om met jou te spreek? En Miga antwoord: Kyk, jy sal dit sien op dieselfde dag as jy van kamer tot kamer sal gaan om jou weg te steek. Maar die koning van Israel sê: Neem Miga en bring hom terug by Amon, die owerste van die stad, en by Joas, die seun van die koning. En julle moet sê: So spreek die koning: Sit hierdie man in die gevangenis en spysig hom met brood van verdrukking en water van verdrukking totdat ek behoue tuiskom. Daarop sê Miga: As u ooit behoue tuiskom, dan het die HERE nie deur my gespreek nie. Verder sê hy: Volke, luister almal saam!

En die koning van Israel en Jósafat, die koning van Juda, het opgetrek na Ramot in Gílead. En die koning van Israel het aan Jósafat gesê: Ek sal my onkenbaar maak en in die geveg kom; trek u maar u eie klere

aan. So het die koning van Israel hom dan onkenbaar gemaak, en hulle het in die geveg gegaan. En die koning van Aram het die owerstes van sy strydwaens bevel gegee en gesê: Julle moet nie klein of groot beveg nie, net die koning van Israel alleen. En sodra die owerstes van die waens Jósafat sien, sê hulle: Dit is die koning van Israel! En hulle het hom omsingel om te veg; maar Jósafat het geskreeu, en die HERE het hom gehelp, en God het hulle van hom af weggelok. En toe die owerstes van die waens sien dat dit nie die koning van Israel was nie, draai hulle agter hom weg.

Toe het 'n man in sy eenvoudigheid die boog gespan en die koning van Israel getref tussen die aanhegsels en die pantser. Daarop sê hy aan die drywer: Ruk om en bring my uit die leër uit, want ek is gewond. En die geveg het dié dag toegeneem, terwyl die koning hom staande hou in die strydwa teenoor die Arameërs tot die aand toe; maar teen sononder het hy gesterwe. Maar toe Jósafat, die koning van Juda, behoue na sy huis in Jerusalem terugkom, het die siener Jehu, die seun van Hanáni, uitgegaan hom tegemoet, en aan koning Jósafat gesê: Moet 'n mens die goddelose help, en het u lief die wat die HERE haat? Daarom kom daar nou 'n toorn op u van die HERE. Tog is daar goeie dinge by u gevind, want u het die heilige boomstamme uit die land uitgeroei en u hart daarop gerig om God te soek.”

Koning Jósafat was ‘n goeie man, ‘n regverdige man. Elke koning van Israel het afvallig geword en ook die meeste van die konings van Juda, maar Jósafat was ‘n goeie koning, ‘n baie goeie koning. Wat gebeur wanneer ‘n goeie leier betrokke raak met slegte mense?

Ek glo nie aan skuldigheid deur assosiasie nie, die Bybel sê niks van skuldig deur assosiasie nie, maar skuldigheid deur samewerking? Skuldigheid deur identifikasie? Wanneer ’ goeie man in ‘n televisie program op ‘n platform verskyn saam met ‘n immorele ketterse persone dan promoveer hy hierdie mense se bedieninge deurdat hy homself met hierdie mense identifiseer.

‘n Ruk gelede het ek na ‘n uitsending oor TBN gekyk en ek kon nie glo wat ek sien nie en wanneer ongeredde mense na hierdie dinge kyk sal hulle sekerlik dink dat wedergeboorte ‘n klug is. Hierdie mense maak wêreldwyd van wedergeboorte ‘n groot grap. Dit gaan al meer en meer moeiliker raak om Jesus Christus en die Evangelie van redding aan mense te bring as gevolg van wat Satan deur die sogenaamde Christelike TV kanale doen. Ons is baie beter af sonder hierdie TV kanale omdat dit ‘n kragtige instrument is wat Satan so misbruik. Ongeredde mense kyk na die idioot kassies en hulle dink ons is almal swendelaar akteurs. Wanneer goeie mense met hierdie dinge deurmekaar raak dan word hulle geïdentifiseer met hierdie mense en dinge. Toe Jósafat in die strydwa van Agab gery het? het hulle hom verwar met Agab. Kom ons kyk hierna van die begin af.

Weereens het die Heilige Gees vir ons meer as een oorsig gegee. In 1 Konings se weergawe, aan die einde van hoofstuk 21, het Agab berou en vra om verskoning. Slegte konings is baie goed om berou te kry maar elke keer as hulle weer in sonde verval is hulle meer slegter as tevore. As Benny Hinn weer tot bekering kom gaan ek iewers skuiling soek.

Wat beteken dit? Hoekom? Hy is getroud met Jesebel. Jesebel is ‘n Bybelse metafoor vir die gees van al die valse godsdienste. Wat sê Jesus oor Jesebel? Op. 2:20: “Maar Ek het enkele dinge teen jou; dat jy die

vrou Isébel, wat haarself 'n profetes noem, toelaat om te leer en my diensknegte te verlei om te hoereer en afgodsoffers te eet.”

Dit is ‘n Sataniese misleiding deur ‘n valse geloof waarvan die vrou Jesebel tipologies ‘n verpersoonliking is. Met ander woorde, sy verteenwoordig geestelike misleiding, dit is wat Jesus vir ons sê. Jy word soos die mense met wie jy getroud is.

Ek is getroud met ‘n Joodse vrou wat ‘n senulyer is, ek dink dit is familie geskiedenis as gevolg van die nagevolge van die Jodemoord waarvan hulle ontsnap het. My vrou gaan die gas toestelle drie keer na voordat ons gaan slaap, sy kyk ten minste twee keer na elke venster in die huis. Ons woon in Engeland en hier word die ligte baie laat afgeskakel dan sê sy vir my in Hebreeus: “Yacov… het jy die venster in die kombuis nagegaan?” “Ja, Pavia, ek het dit nagegaan, lekker slaap.” Dan lê ek laat in die nag en wonder? het ek dit gedoen? Sy maak my deurmekaar, dan vat ek die flitslig en loop die trappe af om seker te gaan maak! Jy word soos die mense met wie jy getroud is.

Wel, Agab was met Jesebel getroud, die heks wat Israel mislei het in ‘n heidense demoniese geloof. Wat gebeur volgende? Jósafat is ‘n goeie koning maar daar is ‘n familie verbintenis. Nepotisme! Ek weet van twee Joodse missie beheer rade wat ondermyn is, wat basies vernietig is deur nepotisme? Joodse missie rade wat ‘n familie onderneming geword het.

Ek weet van kerke waar familie gunste die gemeentes vernietig het. As iemand nie saamgestem het nie was dit dieselfde asof hulle teen die familie opgetree het. Dit is gevaarlik. Enige iets wat God vir goed bedoel het sal die duiwel misbruik en nepotisme stel ons op vir sekere dinge.

In 2 Kronieke 18 sien ons wat altyd gaan gebeur, dit is wat Agab sal sê: “Ons het hierdie gemeenskaplike vyand. My mense is soos jou mense, my god is jou God, ons is broers. Ons moet saamstaan om die opposisie te oorwin. Kan jy nie sien dat aborsie hand uit ruk nie? Homoseksualisme is besig om die skole en die media ernstig te beïnvloed. Kyk na die groei van Oosterse gelowe en kultusse! Ons kan nie bekostig om verdeeld te wees nie, ons sal moet saam staan om God se land te red! Ons kan nie meer so onder mekaar stry nie. O ja ek weet ons het verskille maar ons kan dit nie meer bekostig nie. Daar is ‘n gemeenskaplike vyand, my mense is jou mense, my God is jou God.” Dit klink baie oortuigend, baie logies, aanvanklik klink dit ook Bybels. Soos wat ek al gesê het, die Heilige Gees is die Gees van Waarheid en Hy is ook die Gees van Heiligheid. Daar kan nie eenheid van die Gees wees waar daar dwaling en immoraliteit is nie. o’ Ons het ‘n gemeenskaplike vyand! Dit is maklik om met ‘n uiterlike vyand te deel, maar ‘n innerlike vyand is iets heel anders. Toe Jesus ons gewaarsku het teen valse profete in die Laaste Dae het Hy ons nie net gewaarsku oor kultusse soos die Moonies, Jehovah se Getuienis of Mormone nie.

Ja, hierdie dinge is van ‘n profetiese belang, maar die valse profete waarteen Jesus ons gewaarsku het is diegene wat in Evangeliese kerke insluip en probeer om ons te mislei. Ons vyande tussen ons, dit is hulle wat gevaarlik is.

Totdat ons nie met die vyand hier binne ons gedeel het nie sal ons nie instaat wees om met die vyand daarbuite te deel nie. Maar jy sal altyd dieselfde storie hoor: “Moet nie negatief wees nie, moet nie te krities wees nie, ons moet saamstaan teen ‘n gemeenskaplike bedreiging.” En dan kom die familie

element ook in. Kyk hoe het die koning vir homself ‘n naam gemaak. Agab gee ‘n groot partytjie met baie diere wat hy laat slag, dit is wat hy doen. Hierdie soort mense weet hoe om in guns by mense te kom, mens met ‘n agenda weet hoe om ander mense te manipuleer. Hulle leer dit by hulle vrou Jesebel. Kyk hoe veel mense het al Johannes Paulus II ontmoet. Die Vatikaan het ‘n paar maande gelede ‘n verklaring uitgereik wat sê dat hulle die een ware kerk is. In 1999 in Mexico het Johannes Paulus vir die Katolieke gevra om “teen Protestante op te staan.”

Hy maak nie ‘n geheim van sy agenda nie en tog is daar die een na die ander evangeliste wat hom “heilige vader” noem in weerwil van die feit dat Jesus gesê het dat ons niemand anders ons vader mag noem nie. Mens sê: “o’ die pous is ‘n wonderlike man, so saggeaard en vriendelik, hoe kan iemand teen hom praat? Ek het hom ontmoet en hy was dit of dat??” Hulle weet wat om te doen om in guns by mense te kom. Wat sê Paulus van Lucifer? Hy kom soos die engel van die lig en so ook sy dienaars want hulle weet hoe om mense om hulle pinkie te draai, net soos wat Merodach?Baladan Hiskia mislei het. Hy het vir hom geskenke gebring?? “Ek hoor jy is siek.” Wat ‘n pragtige mens wat omgee vir sy naaste, hy was die koning van Babilon, hy het ‘n agenda gehad, hy was ‘n manupilerende fop arties. Wel, Jósafat word ingetrek, daar is ‘n familie verbintenis maar daar is ook ander verbintenisse. “Ons het ‘n gemeenskaplike vyand, ons kan nie negatief wees nie, ons kan nie krities wees nie, ons wil nie tweedrag veroorsaak nie!

Die woord wat vir tweedrag in Rom. 16:17 gebruik word is dichostasia (dee?khos?tas?ee) waar die Engelse woord dichotomy? tweeledigheid vandaan kom. Hier word gesê dat mense wat tweedrag veroorsaak die mense is wat die Nuwe Testamentiese leer van die Apostels verlaat het. Ek veroorsaak nie tweedrag as ek mense waarsku teen Benny Hinn of Kennith Copeland nie.

As Hinn en Copeland die leer van die Nuwe Testament verwerp dan is volgens Bybelse definisie dit hulle wat tweedrag veroorsaak, dit is nie ek wat afgewyk het van die Nuwe Testamentiese Leer nie! As dit wel die geval is, sê my waar het ek verkeerd gegaan sodat ek dit kan regstel. Maar vandag is dit diegene wat opstaan vir die Waarheid wat tweedrag veroorsaak.

Hulle maak ‘n afgod van hierdie eenheid maar dit is nie die eenheid van die Gees nie. Paulus sê vir ons in 1 Kor. 11:19 dat daar partyskappe onder ons moet wees sodat die waarheid geopenbaar kan word. Die woord wat hier vir partyskap in Grieks gebruik word is “hairesis” (hah'?ee?res?is) waar die Engelse woord heresy? kettery? dwaalleer vandaan kom. Dit is dwaalleer wat skeiding bring en so baie dinge wat vandag in kerke gepropageer word is skoon kettery.

Kom ons kyk verder. Jósafat word ingetrek maar hy het sy bedenkinge. Hy is ‘n goeie koning en in ‘n sekere mate het hy by die Here gehoor. Let op wat het hulle gedoen by die fees, een na die ander valse profeet, 400 van hulle kom en bied ‘n vertoning aan en praat groot woorde.

Valse profete sal altyd vir jou vertel wat jy graag wil hoor en nie wat jy moet hoor nie. Hulle sal altyd jou ore streel en hulle word goed betaal vir hierdie goeie daad. Hulle is egter fop akteurs.

Een ware profeet teen 400 valse profete! Wel, laat ek vir julle iets vertel, vir iemand wat vandag profeties die waarheid praat is daar 400 valse profete in die liggaam van Christus wat teen hom gaan

www.Moriel.org

staan. Wat Jesus gesê het in die Laaste Dae gaan gebeur is besig om te gebeur. Baie min praat vandag die waarheid, baie is in kompromie met wat hulle weet valse profete is, ’n menigte wat ‘n valse leer verkondig. Net een man het opgestaan? Micaiah? en aan die einde was dit net sy profesie wat saak gemaak het. Ons sien dat daar duisende valse profete was in die dae van Jeremia en Barug, maar niemand het ooit iets van hulle gehoor nie? maar aan die einde het almal van Jeremia gehoor.

Dit was eintlik net Jeremia wat gepraat het, net hy wat die Woord van God gebring het is wat saak gemaak het. Dit is die laaste? een profeet wat die waarheid praat. Jósafat sê: “laat ek hoor wat hy sê.”

Ons moet verstaan wat die Hebreeuse teks hier sê. Daar is ‘n verbintenis in die name Micaiah? “hy is soos Yahwe,” en Jehoshaphat? “Jehovah / Yahweh. In Hebreeus is daar ‘n wortel wat wys op ‘n etimologiese vergelyking. As jy nie weet wat dit is nie moenie bekommerd wees nie, dit is een van die dinge wat hulle jou in teologiese skool leer.

Daar is ‘n soort geestelike verwantskap hier betrokke. Let op wat Miga sê wanneer hulle hom vra. In die begin sê Miga: “Ja gaan aan, God sal hulle in julle hand gee.” Hy sê presies dieselfde wat die valse profete gesê het. God se oordele kom in drie fases oor terug gevalle mense, die eerste fase is: “Ja gaan aan!” God hou op om hulle tereg te wys. God tugtig die wat Hy liefhet. Hoekom is dit dat dit altyd die getroue Christene is wat die meeste vervolging en verdrukkinge ondervind, dinge wat in Joods “Suris” genoem word? Dit is omdat God die vleeslike Christene oorgegee het aan hulle eie vleeslike begeertes. God tugtig net die wat Hy liefhet. Die ander is terug gevalle as hulle ooit gered is om mee te begin.

Pasop as God ophou om mense te tugtig, wanneer Hy hulle oorgegee het. In Romeine het God mense oorgegee aan hulle onnatuurlike onsedelikhede en dan gebeur dit ook met diegene wat daarop aanspraak maak dat hulle God se mense is. Dit is soos die profeet Amos se seun Loami? “Hulle is nie meer my mense nie.” God het hulle oorgegee. “Gaan aan, doen dit”? sê Miga.

Nou, koning Agab weet dit is nie wat God gesê het nie. Jy sien, hierdie valse leiers weet dat hulle verkeerd is. Ons lees in Timotheus dat hulle mislei is en ook misleiers is. Hulle is self mislei en hulle weet dat hulle misleiers is. “Gaan aan, doen dit.” Agab weet dit en sê: “Dit kan nie reg wees nie.” Agab het geweet, vertel my sê Agab, en Miga sê: “Ek sal jou vertel. Ek het Israel op die berge sien ronddwaal soos skape wat nie ‘n herder het nie.”

Ons moet die rol van die konings van Israel as herders verstaan. Koning Dawid is die Ou Testamentiese skaduwee van Jesus as die Goeie Herder. In Johannes 10 is Jesus is die Goeie Herder. In Psalm 23 Yehovah ra’ah? Die HERE is my Herder. Dawid is die Ou Testamentiese tipe of skaduwee van Jesus as Koning.

Die woord vir Pastoor en herder is dieselfde in Grieks en Hebreeus, en ‘n pastoor of herder in ‘n gemeente word gemeet aan hoe naby hulle soos Christus is. Dit is wat Petrus ons in sy brief leer. In die Ou Testament is ‘n koning ook aan Koning Dawid gemeet om te bepaal hoe ‘n goeie koning hy sou gewees het en dit is hoekom ons in die spreuk hoor dat die konings altyd met Dawid vergelyk was. “ en nie gedoen wat reg was in die oë van die HERE sy God soos sy vader Dawid nie.” Dawid het die maatstaf geword waaraan getrouheid gemeet was omdat hy die skaduwee van Christus as Herder was. Miga sê:

“Hierdie mense het geen herder nie.” Hy sê aan die koning dat so ver as wat die God aangaan, is die koning nie ‘n ware leier nie.

Dit is die tweede fase van God se oordele oor ‘n terug gevalle mense. God verwyder die leierskap en vervang hulle met preekstoel politiekkusse, akteurs en huurlinge, God gee vir hulle teokrate en nie herders nie.

Die eerste fase van God se oordele is, Hy hou op om mense tereg te wys en behandel hulle net soos die wêreldlinge, hulle word oorgegee. Die tweede fase van die oordele is, God neem die ware leierskap weg, hulle kry wat hulle wil hê. Dit is waar van die volke in die Boek Daniël. God stel konings aan en Hy neem hulle ook weg. Dit is waar in die politiek realm en dit is ook waar in die Kerk opset, God verwyder die leierskap.

Maar dan kom die derde fase van God se oordele, en dit is die gevaarlike een, God stuur misleiding. Onthou in Konings en Kronieke en in Samuel. Eenkeer het Dawid die mense getel en God het hom gemotiveer om dit te doen?? ‘n ander keer was dit die duiwel. Was dit God of was dit die duiwel wat Dawid gemotiveer het om die mense te tel? Wel, dit was eintlik God wat die duiwel gebruik het.

Blaai na 2 Thes. 2, hier word gepraat van die Antichris, die man van sonde, hier word in vers 3 gepraat van die Laaste Dae en die groot afval wat gaan kom met die manifestasie van die Antichris. Maar kyk wat staan in vers 11?12: “En daarom sal God hulle die krag van die dwaling stuur, om die leuen te glo, sodat almal geoordeel kan word wat die waarheid nie geglo het nie, maar behae gehad het in die ongeregtigheid.”

Die Waarheid is die Woord van God. Jesus is die Waarheid, Hy is die Woord, die Logos. As iemand nie die waarheid van die Skrifte liefhet nie, dan kan hy ook nie Jesus Christus lief hê nie.

Hulle kan sê wat hulle wil, en al sing hulle al die hallelujas, as hulle nie die waarheid van die Woord van God, Jesus Christus die Logos, die Bybel liefhet nie, dan het hulle volgens God Jesus Christus nie lief nie. “As julle My liefhet bewaar My gebooie.” As jy Hom nie liefhet nie dan kan jy ook nie lief wees vir Sy Woord nie, as mense nie die Waarheid liefhet nie dan is daar ook geen liefde vir Jesus nie. Hy is die Weg die Waarheid en die Lewe, as iemand Hom nie liefhet nie dan is dit omdat hulle op ‘n een of ander wyse sonde geniet. Wanneer jy sogenaamde Christene sien wat nie die Waarheid liefhet nie dat is dit omdat sonde en die boosheid vir hulle ‘n plesier is. Daarom sal God ‘n verduistering oor hulle stuur sodat hulle die valse dinge sal glo.

Hier gaan die Antichris mense mislei! Hy is die uiteindelike oordeel, God gaan mense wat nie die Waarheid liefhet nie aan sy invloede oorgee. As mense nie nou al deur hierdie opsigtelike valse profete soos Benny Hinn of Kenneth Copeland kan sien nie, wat gaan hulle doen as die groot misleiding kom? Daarom gaan God hulle denke verduister en dit is ‘n vreeslike gedagte!

In die Boek Sagaria word die Antichris tipologies voorgestel as “God se agent”? dit is skrikwekkend, dit is ‘n oordeel!

‘n Paar jaar gelede in Engeland waar ek bly, het ek ernstig probeer om die dronk Pensacola en Toronto laggende dwaling te stop, maar die Here het gesê nee, jy gaan dit nie stop nie! Jy kan net die uitverkorenes waarsku. Jy kan net diegene red wat onskuldig mislei is, maar jy kan dit nie stop nie.

Hoekom? Wat jy vandag met die geld en voorspoed predikers en met die Toronto dwaling en die ekumeniese bewegings sien, is alles God se oordele oor ‘n terug gevalle Kerk. Hierdie dinge is nie net eenvoudige misleiding nie, dit is God se oordele oor ‘n teruggevalle Kerk, oor Laodicéa! God sal ‘n gees van dwaling oor hulle stuur sodat hulle die leuen sal glo!

Onthou Laodicéa is blind en haar eerste groot probleem is sy weet nie sy is Laodicéa nie.

Oordeel begin in die huis van die Here, dit gaan nie begin by die Vrymesselaars nie, ook nie by valse gelowe of by korrupte besighede en politikusse of Wall Straat nie, oordeel begin in die huis van die Here! God se oordele gaan eerste oor die Kerk kom voordat dit oor die nasies kom. As gevolg van aborsie alleen moet dit kom maar dit gaan eerste oor die Kerk kom.

Fase 1, God stop teregwysing. As jy nie al hierdie verkeerde dinge kan sien nie, al die skandale en valshede en mens gemaakte godsdiens, as jy dit nie wil sien nie dan gaan God jou oorgee aan hierdie dinge, God gaan teregwysing staak.

Fase 2, God gaan die leierskap wegneem, Hy het dit alreeds in Groot Brittanje gedoen en Amerika en Suid Afrika volg dieselfde pad.

Fase 3, dan stuur God ‘n sinsverduistering. Let op wat sê God vir hierdie leuengeeste: “Gaan en oorwin”. Nou, wanneer God ‘n misleiding stuur dan is dit ernstig. Maar God doen niks voordat Hy dit nie aan Sy diensknegte, die profete openbaar het nie. Miga het dit geweet. Diegene wat waarlik Jesus liefhet en wat Sy Woord bestudeer sal deur die Heilige Gees verstaan wat besig is om te gebeur. Wanneer God so ‘n dwaling stuur sal die wat in die Waarheid wandel dit weet.

Drie stadiums van oordele, en my vriend, my grootste vrees, maar wat nie meer ‘n feit is nie omdat dit alreeds verby dit is, ons is alreeds in die derde fase. God het alreeds opgehou om mense tereg te wys, hulle glo alreeds wat hulle wil glo, God het hulle alreeds oorgegee, hulle word behandel soos die ongereddes, en baie van hulle is ongered. God neem leierskap weg, en derdens gaan Hy hulle oorgee. Dit gaan vir hulle ‘n groot probleem raak.

Kyk na Jósafat, ‘n regverdige koning wat van beter moes geweet het. Hy het van die begin af dinge nie vertrou nie, hy het die waarheid by die ware profete gehoor maar tog het hy saam met Agab in sy strydwa gery. Hoekom wou Agab hê hy moes saam met hom in sy strydwa ry? Hoekom wil TBN mense soos Chuck Missler, Josh McDowell, Greg Laurie op hulle strydwa hê? Hoekom wil hulle goeie mense, Godsmanne saam met hulle hê? Daar is drie redes.

Eerstens; Hulle probeer kredietwaardigheid vir hulleself verkry wat hulle andersins nie kan kry nie. Mense sal dink: “Wel, as so en so saam met hierdie Godsmanne optree dan moet alles reg wees! Hulle probeer ‘n regverdiging soek, ‘n kredietwaardigheid wat hulle deur hulleself nie kan bekom nie. “Ek

weet ek is nie goed nie maar as ek met goeie mense meng sal God my seën.” Dit is hoe hierdie mense dink. “As ‘n goeie man saam met ons in die ding is dan sal God ons seën omdat hy ‘n goeie man is.”

Tweedens; Hulle soek iemand op wie hulle die skuld kan pak. Iemand wat die sak kan vashou as die skip sink. “Dit is sy skuld.” Agab het altyd ‘n agenda gehad. Maar daar gaan Jósafat! Terwyl die Here hom gewaarsku het? het hy nogtans op daardie strydwa geklim?

Derdens: Jósafat word verwar met Agab, hulle dink dit is Agab. Wanneer jy in Agab se strydwa ry gaan mense dink jy is Agab. Wanneer jy goeie predikers op platforms en op televisie programme saam met dwaal leraars sien optree dan gaan mense deurmekaar raak met hulle.

Ek weet baie goed dat Chuck Missler en Greg Laurie, Ray Comfort manne van God is . Ek weet dat Josh McDowell ‘n Godsman is, ek weet wat hulle glo, hulle glo grootliks wat ek glo. Hierdie is nie slegte mense nie, net soos Jósafat, maar wanneer hulle saam met slegte mense op platforms en TV programme optree dat word hulle in dieselfde kategorie in gedeel en ek vrees hulle maak van hulleself ‘n teiken.

Daar gaan mense wees wat hulle met dieselfde kwas gaan skeer alhoewel mense soos Chuck Missler, Ray Comfort, en Josh McDowell glad nie deel sal hê aan hierdie vervalsings en opvoerings nie. Dit is gruwel hoedat hierdie vervalle geld predikers die name van groot Godsmanne misbruik om hulleself kredietwaardig te maak terwyl die eerlike predikers geen deel het aan die mammon aanbidding wat die woord van geloof voorspoed predikers vermom met ‘n Christelike brabbeltaal nie. “O hy is een van hulle!” Jong gelowiges gaan dit sien en dit gee aan ketters kredietwaardigheid alhoewel die goeie mane persoonlik weet dit is verkeerd.

Nou, Jósafat het van homself ‘n teiken gemaak, hy laat toe dat hulle hom verwar met Agab en die pyle vlieg. Agab wil iemand hê om die sak vas te hou, en ek sê vir julle? TBN en Hinn en die massas gaan dieselfde pad loop as die PTL klub. Ek sidder vir die goeie manne wat toegelaat het dat hulle hulself identifiseer met hierdie booshede, maar hulle gaan in die kruisvuur beland wanneer dit gebeur.

Kom ons gaan verder. Jósafat roep na God en God tree tussenbeide, God red sy nek. God sal altyd by opregte mense staan, regverdige Godsmanne mense kan groot foute maak. Van die grootse manne in die Bybel het dom foute gemaak, ek het in my lewe al dinge gedoen wat verkeerd was, nie net verkeerd maar totaal dom dinge, ek weet nie hoe ek dit kon gedoen het nie? Dit is nie vir my lekker om dit te noem nie, maar dit is waar, maar God is genadig. God red Jósafat se nek die eerste keer, maar kom ons kyk wat gebeur volgende.

Hulle gaan agter Agab aan, Agab probeer slim wees, hy soek ‘n plaasvervanger maar hy het iets nie raak gesien nie, daar is ‘n gaping in sy wapenrusting.

In Efese 6:13 sien ons hierdie wapenrusting. Die gaping hier is waar die borsplaat die by die skouers kom, die borswapen van geregtigheid. Sonde openbaar mense? dit openbaar die gaping in die mondering. Ek het eenkeer na ‘n Romeinse soldaat se wapenrusting uitstalling in Rome gekyk, dit is massief, en die grootse gedeelte van hierdie wapenrusting is die borsplaat, die borswapen van

geregtigheid. Toe Paulus van hierdie wapenrusting gepraat het – het hy van iets gepraat wat die Jode verstaan het want dit is ook in Jesaja. Maar dit is ook iets wat die Grieke en die Romeine moes verstaan het. Romeine 6:13 sê dat ons dit moet aantrek sodat ons kan vasstaan. Agab het sy wapenrusting aangetrek maar daar was ‘n gaping daarin en daardie pyl vind dit.

Hy het onder die oordeel gekom en was vernietig. Hulle het ook nie die oorwinning oor die Arameërs gekry nie. Kyk na 1 Konings 22:3 3: “??Weet julle dat Ramot in Gílead aan ons behoort? En ons sit stil sonder om dit uit die hand van die koning van Aram te neem!” “Ons moet oorwinning kry oor hierdie ongelowiges, die heidene, die homoseksuele en aborsie drukgroepe, oor die Moslems, die Vrymesselaars, die Mormone, die Jehova se Getuies.

Ons moet die land terug eis vir Christus, ons moet saamstaan!” Dit is wat hulle sê, maar hulle sal nooit oorwinning oor die vyand kry nie, nooit!

‘n Valse broeder kan nie jou bondgenoot wees nie, hy is jou verantwoordelikheid, hy sal nooit wen nie, God gebruik nie mense op die manier nie. Daar is ‘n gaping in die mondering.

Wat is volgende? Hulle verloor die geveg maar ‘n genadige God tree tussenbeide om Jósafat se onthalwe. Dan in 2 Kronieke 19:2: “?? het die siener Jehu, die seun van Hanáni, uitgegaan hom tegemoet, en aan koning Jósafat gesê: “Moet 'n mens die goddelose help, en het u lief die wat die HERE haat???”

Hierdie geldpredikers haat die Ware Jesus Christus, hulle aanbid Mammon. Hulle mag miskien hulle god “Jesus” noem, maar hulle god is mammon. Hulle noem die sonde van hebsug “geloof.” Hulle het ‘n ander god, ‘n ander “Jesus”. Hulle haat die Ware Jesus, hulle wil nie ‘n Jesus hê wat sê: “Neem op jou kruis en volg My”? nie! Hulle soek ‘n Jesus wat vir hulle nog ‘n Mercedes kan gee, en hulle erken dit.

Hulle is valse broeders.

En wanneer jy in sy strydwa, dan ry jy in sy Mercedes en jy kom in sy TV vertoning – mense gaan jou verwar met hom en jy gaan van jouself ‘n teiken maak en niks anders as die Genadige Hand van die Here gaan jou nek red nie.

Hoekom meng jy met mense wat God haat? Wat maak jy op daardie idiotiese TV opvoerings?

Hoekom is jy op dieselfde platforms as ketters? Kan jy nie sien hulle gaan dink jy is een van hulle nie? Kan jy nie sien dat ongelowige mense gaan dink jy stem saam met hierdie mense nie?

Ek wens dat Jósafat, hierdie goeie koning, geluister het. Maar ons sien in 2 Kronieke 20 hy het nie geluister nie! Vers 35, 2 Kronieke 20:35?37: “Maar daarna het Jósafat, die koning van Juda, 'n bondgenootskap aangegaan met Ahásia, die koning van Israel?? wat goddeloos gehandel het.”

Hy doen dit sowaar weer! “En hy het hom as bondgenoot geneem om skepe te bou om na Tarsis te vaar; en hulle het skepe gebou in Éseon?Geber wat naby Aloch was. Maar Eliëser, die seun van Dódawa, uit Marésa, het teen Jósafat geprofeteer en gesê: Omdat u 'n bondgenootskap met Ahásia aangegaan het, verbreek die HERE u werk. En die skepe het skipbreuk gely, sodat hulle nie in staat was om na Tarsis te

vaar nie.” Die tweede keer het God se oordele gekom, die eerste keer het God hom gered en hom tereggewys. Maar die tweede keer: “Gaan jy dit weer doen?” En hulle doen dit weer en hulle verloor alles wat hulle opgebou het.

Jy sien Godsmanne wat dinge bou wat God seën en gebruik en dan gaan hulle en plaas alles op die spel om saam in Agab se koets te ry, om op ‘n idiotiese TV program te kan verskyn? Hoekom? Chuck Missler is ‘n man van God, Greg Laurie is ‘n man van God. Josh McDowell' is ‘n Godsman, Ray Comfort is ‘n Godsman. Daar is genoeg kerke en baie mense en genoeg geld in Calvary Chapels om hulle eie Christelike TV kanale op te rig. Hulle het nie nodig om met hierdie mense deurmekaar te raak nie, ek sê dit in groot liefde. Maar dit is nie net hulle nie.

Hoe kan goeie mense deurmekaar raak met die ekumeniese beweging? In die hoof streke van Calvary Chapels is drie uit vier mense gewese Roomse Katolieke. Die Roomse Kerk sê: “ Jy gaan Hel toe omdat jy die een ware kerk verlaat het, omdat jy nie meer glo dat redding deur die sakrament kom nie, omdat jy nie meer glo dat daar vergifnis van sonde in die vae vuur is nie.” Maar vooraanstaande evangeliese leiers soos Chuck Colson, Pat Robertson, J. I. Packer is een na die ander besig om hulle by hierdie “kerk” wat hulle vervloek te skaar? wat hulle families Hel toe stuur? Ek het ma wat haar geloof in standbeelde van Maria plaas in plaas van Jesus Christus.

Hoe kan goeie mense betrokke raak in sulke dinge? Maar weereens, wanneer God hulle teregwys, hoe diep kan hulle betrokke wees? Maar hulle doen dit.

Nepotisme, familie toegifte, vriendskap? “Ek ken hom al vir 20 jaar, my broer is met sy suster getroud”? al hierdie dinge is besig om jou op te stel. Dan gee hulle jou die tou — “Ons moet saam staan? ons het ‘n gemeenskaplike vyand, ‘n gemeenskaplike gevaar? ons is almal broers!”

“Ons is almal wedergebore, ons het een geloof, een doop, kom laat ons saam staan. Ons kan nie negatief of krities wees nie, ons moet mekaar aanvaar!

Hoekom het jy die mense lief wat God haat? God het Jósafat gewaarsku, hy het geweet daardie 400 valse profete is vals. Al hierdie Kansas City profete en al hierdie fop akteurs, Rick Joyner, een na die ander is volgens Bybelse definisie beproefde valse profete!

Hulle is net so vals soos al die valse profete van enige ander kultus. Jósafat het dit geweet. Hulle gee ‘n groot partytjie, ‘n groot vertoning, ‘n groot feesvierdende lofprysing, ‘n groot Pensacola ? Pepsicola skouspel of wat ook al. Die een na die ander profeteer groot oorwinnings, maar daar is geen oorwinning nie. Nou kom God se oordele!

God staak teregwysing, God neem die ware leierskap weg en Hy gee hulle oor. Hulle word kwaad vir Miga en slaan hom, hulle sê: “Jy is ‘n valse profeet? sluit hom toe totdat ek terugkom.”

Miga sê: “Nee, jy gaan nie terugkom nie ander is ek ‘n valse profeet!” Let op, net ‘n ware profeet sal dinge in die Naam van die Heer profeteer en volle verantwoordelikheid daarvoor neem.

‘n Rick Joyner of ‘n Gerald Coates, Kim Clement sal dit nooit doen nie. Hulle haat ware profete al is hulle reg. Dan klim Jósafat op Agab se strydwa. Hulle verwar hom met Agab en begin skiet op hom. God is genadig, maar dan tugtig God. God wys hom tereg maar hy wil nie hoor nie, en hy doen dit weer, dan word sy skepe verwoes en hy kom nie by Tarsis uit nie.

Wat ‘n tragedie is dit nie wanneer God mense ophef en seën en hulle iets gee om te doen en alles wat hulle opgebou het begin verkrummel en hulle bereik nie hulle God gegewe doelwit nie!

Wanneer jy in Agab se strydwa ry dan word jy geïdentifiseer met Agab, jy is saam met hom in die bed, en hy is saam met Jesebel in die bed, jy is saam met die Pous in die bed, met die Dali Lama, dit is waar dit heengaan. Dit is soos dit was, dit is wat dit is, en dit is hoe dit gaan wees.

Die gebed van my hart is dat die Josafatte van ons dag, die Godsmanne, manne wat ek ken, van hierdie strydwa sal afspring voordat hulle geskiet word. Klim af van die idioot kassies, klim af van daardie platforms, gee nie plek vir Agab in jou gemeente nie, moet nie sy literatuur versprei en sy boeke verkoop nie, moet nie diegene liefhê wat die Here jou God haat nie.

Jósafat was ‘n goeie man, ‘n goeie man met foute, wat slegte foute gemaak het, en voor jou oë is daar goeie manne wat vandag dieselfde foute maak. Mag God in Sy Groot genade hulle teregwys en ons bewaar.

Die Here seën julle, groete. Jacob Prasch



By David Passmore June 10, 2026
MAJOR PRAYER REQUEST - STEVE MITCHELL MORIEL ORPHANAGE (Andar Pradesh, INDIA) Please read the enclosed missions report from Moriel Missions Branch India: Our children need us and we put a lot of money into buying and then expanding the Moriel orphanage to take in more children. These precious orphan children are coming to Christ and the devil is angry. Until now we had opposition from radical Sheikhs at the Moriel Horeb church we built in Punjab, but the Hindu Authorities in Andar Pradesh have largely until now left us alone. The BJP government is however as wicked as Hamas or Hezbollah - only Hindu (I was in India when radical Hindus burned the Australian missionary family alive in their car; these are the ones who wanted to murder Steve Mitchell when Moriel helped to quickly get him out of the country some years ago). Some pastors have been murdered again in West Bengal. (Samuel, who oversees the Moriel orphanage went to Bible College with one of them). Because our orphan children are Dalet (treated as subhuman 'out casts' by the Hindu caste system), or from Muslim backgrounds, we have largely been been left alone and some of the local officials liked us. This is obviously not a good situation. Prayer is urgently requested. Please pray for Mark Masih particularly that they will not cancel his visa. They are now forbidding us from bringing any more bibles into the country. What would happen if Britain, Australia, or America outlawed Hindus from bringing the Bhagavad Gita into England, Oz, or the USA? MARANATHA Come Quickly Lord Jesus  "You Will Be Hated By Men For My Name's Sake" Matthew 10:22
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).
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. ‍ ‍
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).
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.”
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.
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).
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
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).
By David Passmore April 23, 2026
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