Watchmen Who Are Not Watchmen - Afrikaans

April 1, 2025

Wagters Wat Nie Wagters Is Nie ®

Die profetiese wagters van Jerusalem en Juda, gister en vandag!

"O' Jerusalem, Ek het wagte op jou mure uitgesit wat gedurigdeur die hele dag en die hele nag nie sal swyg nie. o Julle wat die HERE herinner aan sy beloftes??moenie rus nie en laat Hom nie met rus nie, totdat Hy Jerusalem bevestig en maak tot 'n lof op aarde!" (Jes. 62:6?7)

Dit was Jesaja wat eerste geprofeteer het dat God wagters gaan oprig spesifiek met betrekking tot die algemene geskiedenis van die Hebreërs en met hulle land Juda, met ook 'n direkte verwysing na hulle hoofstad Jerusalem, waar die Tempel en die Ark ook was.

Soos wat die gebeure wat deur Jesaja geprofeteer was profeties begin ontvou het, sien ons inderwaarheid hoedat God die Profeet Esegiël begin oproep het as 'n duidelike Wagter volgens die riglyne van die geskrewe Woord: "Mensekind, Ek het jou as wag vir die huis van Israel aangestel; en as jy 'n woord uit my mond hoor, moet jy hulle van my kant waarsku." (Eseg. 3:17 /33:7) Dit is Esegiël wat vir ons in die Bybelse weergawe demonstreer wat 'n ware wagter behoort te wees.

Eerstens moet ons oplet dat wagters nie 'n term is wat in die Nuwe Testament gebruik word nie. Wagters was eerstens rigters vir die Hebreërs van ouds, daarom, alhoewel daar sonder enige misverstand sekerlik ook diegene is wat as wagters in die kerk kan optree, moet ons eerstens verstaan wat hierdie posisie in die Ou Testament beteken het as ons oplet na die voorbeeld wat die Profeet Esegiël vir ons gestel het, en ook wat die verskil is tussen die Ou en die Nuwe Testamentiese Profete. (Esegiël was die enigste individu wat spesifiek geroep was vir hierdie taak.) En soos u sal oplet is dit beslis nie die self aangestelde profete, sensasie soekers wat ons vandag sien nie, valse profete van vandag wat die Skrifte in 1 Kor. 12:29 & 14:32 misbruik om hulle valse profesieë te regverdig. Hulle beweer dat: "Een verskil tussen die Ou en Nuwe Testamentiese profete is NIE dat hulle altyd 100% reg moet wees nie, (Deut. 18:20?22) maar, sê hulle: "Omdat ons ten dele ken en ten dele profeteer kan die Nuwe Testamentiese profete half reg en half verkeerd wees?" Met sulke verdraaiings buite alle redelike woordverband wil mense vandag valse profete regverdig soos in die geval van die Vineyard Beweging met hulle self aangestelde profete soos Mike Bickel, Paul Cane, Gerald Coates, en Rick Joyner. 'Profete' wat probeer om hulle posisies te behou nadat hulle God se mense in 'n leuen laat glo het. (Jer. 28:15? 17). Daar bestaan geen grammatika samestelling in die Griekse óf die Engelse Skrifteks om hierdie verdraaide vertolking te regverdig nie.

Een groot verskil vandag tussen die Ou en die Nuwe Testamentiese profete is dat as iemand vandag in Israel, of in enige ander nasie, in 'n profetiese bediening wil staan, dan moet so 'n persoon 'n geredde gelowige Jood of Heiden wees, maar daar was in konteks nie geredde gelowiges in die N. T. voor die koms van die Messias nie. Korinte vertel ons dat 'n profetiese bediening ook in die kerk kan bestaan,

maar wat nie sodanig in die Ou Testament bestaan het nie. Nuwe Testamentiese profesie egter kan net betrekking hê tot woorde van stigting, troos en bemoediging, (1 Kor. 14:3) en dit hoef nie noodwendig 'n wagters element soos in die Ou Testamentiese konteks in te sluit nie. Israel se profete het die mense gewaarsku en aangemoedig om tot bekering te kom en terug te keer na die Tora. Die grootste en belangrikste verskil egter is dat die Ou Testamentiese profete die Kanon van die Ou Verbond se Skrifte geskrywe het en die Apostels die Nuwe Testamentiese Kanon.

Die Hebreeuse Profete het die volk gewaarsku en hulle terug geroep na die Wet en hulle het geprofeteer op die basis van wat alreeds in die Hebreeuse Skrifte, die Hebreeuse Kanon bestaan het. (Dan. 9:2) Maar die Bybel in die geheel was nog nie geskrywe nie, en so was daar verdere Skriftuurlike openbarings wat uitstaande was. Maar noudat die Kanon van die Skrifte, die Nuwe en die Ou Testament in die geheel voltooi is bestaan daar nie meer "Nuwe" openbarings en byvoegings tot die Skrifte nie, (Op. 22:18?19) net openbaring aan die Einde van die Tye oor dinge wat alreeds geskrywe staan. (Dan. 12:4) Dit is ook wat ons lees in die proloog tot die Boek Hebreërs 1:1:

"Nadat God baie keer en op baie maniere in die ou tyd gespreek het tot die vaders deur die profete, het Hy in hierdie laaste dae tot ons gespreek deur die Seun."? Dus sal enige voorspellende profetiese bediening in 'n waarskuwende vorm, soos in die geval van 'n wagter, nie net moet funksioneer in die karakter van die profetiese Wagters van Israel van ouds nie, soos in die geval van Esegiël, maar hulle profesie sal ook Skriftuurlik moet ooreenstem met dit wat alreeds geopenbaar is in die Nuwe én in die Ou Testament soos wat die Ou Verbond dit vertolk, verklaar en vervul word in die Nuwe Testamentiese openbarings deur en in Christus.

As ons dus na die karakter en die natuur van die wagters van ouds kyk, dan sien ons dat so baie van dit wat vandag gepromoveer word as 'n Wagter bedieninge in der waarheid niks anders as net uitvindsels van mense is nie, dinge wat niks in gemeen met die Bybelse model het nie. Soos wat die Bybel, soos in die geval van Esegiël dit duidelik stel, het die Wagters bediening in die besonders, maar nie eksklusief nie, 'n direkte verband met Jerusalem en Juda gehad. Dit is dus dan ook nie toevallig dat die eerste groot voorbeeld van 'n Nuwe Testamentiese Profetiese bediening wat deur Agabus gekom het, spesifiek betrekking gehad het op die belofte aan die gelowiges wat in Jerusalem en Juda was. (Hand. 11:27?30) Soos wat ons sien toe God die Wagters aangestel het, was 'n Wagter iemand wat die Woord van die Here aan die mense gebring het.

Esegiël het mense tot bekering geroep weg van afgodery en weg van die valse profete wat die volk mislei het. Dus sal enige wagters bediening wat vandag in Jerusalem kan staan volgens die Bybelse voorskrifte die Joodse volk tot bekering roep en hulle aanspoor om Yeshua ons Messias aan te neem, en om hulle te waarsku teen die valse profete en misleiers wat vandag in Jerusalem asof deur 'n magneet getrek bedrywig is. Dit sluit bewegings in soos: "Bridges For Peace," (Volgens die Bybel kan werklike vrede net deur die Vredevors kom.) en die sogenaamde "International Christian Embassy" met hulle geskiedenis van inhuisige probleme en dwalings. Die Woord van die Here sê dat die enigste Christen Ambassadeurs wat in Jerusalem kan bedien net die gesante van Christus moet wees, en niemand anders nie. (2 Kor. 5:20)

Een van die groot Christelike tydskrifte, wat self ook onderandere die hiper Charismatiese ekstremiste onderskryf, het Ruth Hefflin van die goue tande faam op die Olyfberg ontmasker, die sogenaamde "Goue Vlokkies" was niks anders as plastiekstof wat oral in die winkels verkrygbaar is nie. Maar by dit alles maak haar aanhangers daarop aanspraak dat hulle 'n "Wagter" bediening in Jerusalem bedryf!

Maar wat egter die swakste verskoning vir 'n wagter in Jerusalem is, is Lance Lambert wat by een van die Toronto groepe van Mahesh Chavada aangesluit het. Op 'n Video band is dinge vasgelê waar mense in 'n kerk in 'n deurmekaar rituele styl van die "Manifest Sons" al singende sonder hemde met swaaiende arms en swaarde skree en gil: "Prepare For War??prepare For War." Chavada was al in die verlede geassosieer met die Christen Ambassade? wat ook verbind word met die invoer in Israel van skatte jagters soos Morris Cerullo. Maar ten spyte van al die opvoerings van sy vriende het Mnr. Lambert saam met sy kollega Chavada in hierdie fiasko opgetree.

In Jerusalem is Bybelse Wagters mense wat die woord van God aan die mense gebring het, dit was mense wat geprobeer het om God se mense te bewaar van misleiding en verleiers, maar dit is 'n feit dat Israel en Joodse bedieninge 'n teelaarde is vir alle soorte dwalings.

Opregte Messiaanse leraars lê hulle daarop toe om die oorspronklike Bybelse Joodse konteks van die Skrifte te onderhou. Mense soos Arnold Fruchtenbaum en Dwight Pryor moet egter meeding met valse leraars soos Jospeph B.Goode en Peter Michas. (Wat die Drie Enigheid van die Godheid verloën.) Maar moontlik die mees bekende valse wagter in hierdie kategorie was seker Michael Brown, wat 'n kloning is van die Brownsville Assemblies of God uit die stal van die Toronto misleiding in Pensacola. Brown het jare gelede by 'n Messiaanse konferensie in Jerusalem met die nasionale ramp wat daar plaasgevind het toe 'n geweldige vuur ongeveer 'n kwart van die plantegroei vernietig het, het hy dit verklaar as die uitstorting van Heilige Gees!

Brown het toe saam met 'n groep mense 'n halwe nag gesit en wag vir die Wegraping wat natuurlik nooit plaasgevind het nie en toe eindig hy as 'n "wagter" in Pensacola!

Laastens is die karakter van wagters soos wat dit opgedra word deur Jesaja: Om die Here te herinner aan Sy Verbond beloftes en om hulleself geen rus te gun in hierdie proses nie. [Jes. 62:6: O' Jerusalem, Ek het wagte op jou mure uitgesit wat gedurigdeur die hele dag en die hele nag nie sal swyg nie. o Julle wat die HERE herinner aan sy beloftes??moenie rus nie.]

Dit is natuurlik die Nuwe Verbond beloftes soos wat dit aan Israel en Juda opgedra is in Jer. 13:31. Die klem op waaragtige wagters in Israel val altyd op gebed en intersessie om die Here te herinner aan Sy beloftes om Israel uit te red. Rom. 11:25?26: "Want ek wil nie hê, broeders, dat julle hierdie verborgenheid nie moet weet nie, sodat julle nie eiewys mag wees nie: dat die verharding ten dele oor Israel gekom het totdat die volheid van die heidene ingegaan het; en so sal die hele Israel gered word, soos geskrywe is: Die Verlosser sal uit Sion kom en sal die goddelooshede van Jakob afwend??"

Ander self aangestelde wagters vandag word getrek deur die identiteit bewustheid bewegings soos die mite van Britse Israelisme of soos ons hulle hier ken as die Israel Visie, wat in Noord Ierland deur Jim Mc Connell in Whitewell in Belfast gepromoveer word. Hierdie mense lewe in die skaduwee van hulle eie

denkes en hulle is ook in die meeste gevalle anti? Semities. Hierdie sogenaamde wagters se teologiese denkes is niks anders as die vervanging teologie nie? In plek van die Jode. Dit is eenvoudige onskriftuurlik en hulle is self aangestelde wagters wat leuens profeteer.

Predikers wat wolf? wolf skree

Dan is daar die ander groep wagters wat ook by hierdie groepering ingedeel word, maar wat hartseer is om te beskrywe. Hierdie mense is nie doelmatige misleiers of valse profete, of Anti Joods nie, maar hulle is eerlik en opreg in hulle motiewe en baie van hulle is pragtige Christene met 'n geroepe gawe om in 'n geldige bediening te staan in plaas daarvan om in 'n bediening te staan waarin God hulle nie in geroep het nie. Hier word gepraat van predikers wat wolf? wolf skree soos in die geval van die Y2K fiasko.

Hierdie is broers en susters wat met 'n kinderlike geloof optree maar wat nie onderskeidings vermoëns besit of wil besit met betrekking tot geestelike wysheid nie, kortliks hulle het nog nie Christelike volwassenheid bereik nie, hulle lewe in 'n waan en wil voorgee dat hulle Skriftuurlike en Teologiese kennis het wat hulle nie het nie. Ons kan egter nie hulle motiewe oordeel nie al sou dit uit hoogmoed, of 'n skuldige gewete of trots, of 'n kombinasie van dinge wees, ons sal nie weet nie.

Ons lees egter in 1 Thessalonicense dat sulke wilde denkes probleme veroorsaak het in die vroeë gemeentes daarom waarsku Paulus dat ons alle dinge moet ondersoek en die goeie moet behou, ons moet nie eens dink bo wat geskrywe staan nie. Maar dit gebeur vandag nog, mense hoor 'n klok lui maar hulle weet nie waar die klepel hang nie. So was daar deur die eeue die Montaniste teen die einde van die tweede eeu. Pous Sylvester met sy wegraping denke by die sluiting van die 10de eeu toe die 2de Juliaanse Millennium begin het. Die Muenster Ana Baptiste aan die einde van die 16de eeu; Die Shakers aan die einde van die 18de eeu; Die Milleriete / 19de eeue, en natuurlik ook by die einde van die 20ste eeu die Y2K en die Wegraping. Soos wat Dr. Martin Lloyde Jones gesê het: "As ons nie uit al die eeue van die kerk die lesse geleer het nie, dan gaan ons al die foute weer herhaal." ? Met dank natuurlik aan al die wagters wat nie wagters was of is nie!.

Dit is dan ook nie sonder oorsaak dat die self aangestelde, in plaas van deur God geroepe wagters ook deel gehad het aan die Bible Code uitvindsels en ander dwalings nie. Maar die ware probleem lê nie by die wagters wat nie wagters is nie maar by diegene wat nog steeds hierdie dwaalleraars bly ondersteun en volg ten spyte van hulle valse profesie. Kyk maar na die Kansas City, Toronto en Pensacola dwalings, die mense weet dit is vals maar nog bly hulle in hierdie bewegings: Dit is moedswillige sonde.

(Jer. 5:30?31: " " 'n Ontsettende en afskuwelike ding het in die land gebeur: die profete profeteer vals, en aan hulle sy oefen die priesters mag uit, en my volk wil dit graag so hê. Maar wat sal julle doen aan die einde daarvan?"

Met betrekking tot dinge soos die Y2k fiasko is daar in die wêreld sekere onstabiele persoonlikhede wat enige ding sal aangryp en saamflans om mense op hol te dryf sonder dat dit enigsins geondersoek word. Hulle het 'n obsessie met betrekking tot wêreld gebeure wat samelewings kan beïnvloed. Ek het nie 'n groot vertroue in sekulêre sielkunde nie maar hierdie is inderwaarheid kompulsiewe, of gedwonge onstabiliteit. So is dit ook in die politieke wêreld van vandag. Baie hooggeleerde mense het nooit verwag dat die Amerikaanse regering in 'n sameswering sekere feite oor die Kennedy sluipmoord sou wegsteek

nie, maar hierdie feite het deur forensiese ondersoeke en navorsing na vore gekom en nie deur wilde saamgeflanste spekulasies nie.

Die probleme in die kerk het begin toe hierdie sielkundige versteurde mense Christene geword het en met hulle verwronge idees van die Bybelse Eskatologie en profesie? wagters geword het. Die Internet is vandag letterlik oorlaai van naywerige dwaalleraars en dwalings en dit is hierdie groep mense wat met dinge soos die Y2K fiasko oploop gegaan het.

Maak nie 'n fout nie ek het geen tweede mening nodig om my te oortuig dat Vry Messelary 'n demonies beweging is nie, 'n beweging wat deur Felix Weisshaupt se Illuminatie onderskrywe word en dit is sekerlik dinge waaruit Christene gered moet word. Baie van die wêreld se hoof figure soos in die Internasionale Finansiële top bestuurslui en die wet en politieke sektore, is Vry Messelaars, maar om nou luidkeels dinge te verkondig, soos wat dit vandag gebeur, dat daar 'n Vrymesselaars sameswering bestaan en dat dit die Antichris se voetbank is om sy wêreld regering in te stel, is ongeregverdig, dit is maar een van die fasette.

Daar is egter duidelike planne van Satan om die Christene in 'n ekumeniese beweging saam te snoer onder die anti? christelike Roomse Pousdom, maar hierdie is nie dinge wat uit die lug gegryp word nie want dit is duidelike feite. Net so is daar ook planne om Groot Brittanje in 'n stoomroller taktiek deel te kry van 'n Federale Europa ten koste van haar soewereiniteit. Sommige mense sal sê dit is 'n politieke sagmaak proses terwyl baie ander sal sê dit is 'n demokratiese proses.

Die gebeure in die Midde Ooste vandag is van uiterste groot profetiese waarde en daar gebeur baie dinge wat 'n sameswerings is van die bose magte, maar om hierdie dinge te ondersoek moet 'n persoon 'n baie goeie Bybelse fondasie en ook oor Bybelse georiënteerde kwalifikasies beskik. Daar is mense soos die Christen joernalis David Dolan, of die universiteit lektor Bill Alnor wat God geroep het om die huidige toestande met 'n Bybelse oog te ondersoek. Maar God het Chuck Missler geroep vir 'n Bybelse oorsig oor die dinge en vir Barry Smith vir Evangelisasie, en dit is 'n tragedie om te sien dat twee sulke begaafde mense van hulle self sulke groot openbare pampoene laat maak het en so hulle bediening baie skade aangedoen het en alles wat hulle deur die jare opgebou het nietig gemaak het omdat hulle nie dinge Skriftuurlik geondersoek en beoordeel het nie. Hulle video's het uitgegaan en nou lag die wêreld, nie net vir hulle nie maar ook vir ons. Moriel is oorval deur mense met navrae en klagtes wat voel dat hulle mislei is deur die bediening wat hulle geondersteun het, die feit is, Moriel het Dave Hunt se boek oor die Y2K geondersteun deur saam te stem dat dit 'n massa histerie was. Terwyl ek self nie so voel nie, het ek niks teen iemand wat 'n paar kaste proviand bymekaar gemaak het vir die onbekende nie. Maar Christus vertel vir ons baie duidelik dat ons ons nie moet bekommer oor wat ons sal eet of aantrek nie, maar instede daarvan dat mense na die Gebod van Christus luister, sien ons hoedat predikers oral rondgaan en in seminare vrees en bewing preek. Die waaragtige wagters op die mure van Sion sal 'n baie duidelike reeks basuin klanke laat hoor, 'n absolute duidelike uitkenbare klank wat baie duidelik 'n waarskuwing alarm sal wees en nie valse note wat verdere onsekerheid sal veroorsaak nie. (Joël 2:1, Jer. 4:5, Hos. 8:1, Amos 3:16) Die skape is afhanklik van hulle wagters en daar word van hulle verwag om duidelike en opregte ongemengde boodskappe te verkondig, en nie dit wat ons vandag sien en hoor nie. Vandag vind ons leraars wat nie vir die skape duidelike antwoorde kan gee nie, en as mense begin vrae

vra oor misleidings soos die Toronto dwalings dan kan hulle nie vir hulle sê of die lig rooi of groen is nie, hulle gee vir hulle 'n geel lig!

Dit egter, is die klanke van 'n valse basuin, die lig is rooi maar hulle is te bang om dit te sê, omdat hulle mense meer vrees as vir God! Baie skerm vir hulle posisie en hulle waggel by die regspraak!. Die vrug van die Gees is selfbeheersing, (Ekreitei) en nie die teenoorgestelde, 'n wanorde nie, daarom het die ware Wagters geprofeteer dat geen herlewing deur die Toronto dwaling sal kom nie. Die feit is dit, hierdie dinge is 'n mengsel tussen dit wat goed en wat sleg is, wat dit 'n onreinheid (Akatharsis) gemaak het, en wat bewys het dat dit nie van God af gekom het nie, (1 Tes. 2:3) en die feit dat dit 'n mengsel tussen die Ware en die valse (parasouxousin) is, bewys dat dit 'n misleiding is. (2 Pet. 2:2) Net soos wat Jesaja gewaarsku het, is die leiers in die hierdie laaste dae besig om te wankel: "En ook die manne hier wankel deur die wyn en waggel deur sterk drank; priester en profeet wankel deur sterk drank, hulle is verward van die wyn, hulle waggel van sterk drank, hulle wankel as hulle gesigte sien, hulle waggel by die regspraak." (Jes. 28:7) In hierdie laaste dae het ons nie sulke leiers of wagters nodig nie, ons kan dit nie bekostig om na valse wagters en basuine te luister nie.

Wanneer 'n prediker geredde mense in sy bediening in 'n misleiding lei instede van 'n Bybelse gefundeerde kerk, dan is daar 'n ernstige afwyking van God se Standaarde. In die Berg Rede: Mat. 24 & 25; Luk. 21: Waarsku die Here Jesus ons eenmalig oor oorloë en gerugte van oorloë en pessiektes, vermeerdering in aardbewings en hongersnood en oor gebeure in die Midde Ooste rondom Jerusalem. Maar Christus waarsku ons vier keer meer oor misleiding en valse profete onder die uitverkorenes as oor die ander dinge. Christus het nie gepraat van onklaar rekenaars wat groot chaos sal veroorsaak nie, nie eers een keer nie!

As mense dan geroep is om in hierdie laaste dae die kerk voor te berei, hoekom waarsku hulle dan nie die Christen kerke oor die misleiers en die valse profete soos wat Christus beveel het nie? Hoekom konsentreer hulle op dinge wat Christus glad nie eens een keer beveel of genoem het nie? Die bediening van Barry Smith en Chuck Misler word op die prys gestel maar dit is baie jammer om te sien waarin hulle hul begewe het en van hulle pampoene gemaak het, mag die Here ons deur Sy Groot Genade bewaar dat ons nie dinge op spekulasie sal verkondig vir die waarheid nie. (Ondersoek alle dinge en behou die goeie.) Wanneer 'n begaafde prediker van die riglyne van die Woord van die Here begin afwyk en op sy eie ontwerpe begin konsentreer dan is hy besig om te beweeg na 'n vlak van 'n gekraakte kruik, en dit is hier waar die ongelukkige resultaat van so 'n misstap na vore begin kom. Barry en Chuck is ver van die gekraakte kruik stadium maar dit is presies wat hulle Y2K fiasko van hulle gemaak het.

Mense wat betrokke raak in sulke dinge is nog steeds ons broers en susters, hulle is nie diegene wat in 2 Timotheüs beskrywe word nie: [ 2 Tim.3:13: "Maar goddelose mense en bedrieërs sal voortgaan van kwaad tot erger, hulle wat verlei en verlei word."] Die werklike probleem egter is nie hulle voorspellings van grootskaalse krag onderbrekings, kern ontploffings, sosiale en politieke chaos, groot vlieg ongelukke en 'n totale ineenstorting van ekonomieë, wat nie plaasgevind het nie! ( Italië het 1.5 miljoen gespandeer aan voorbereidings terwyl Brittanje 'n halwe biljoen pond gespandeer het. Niks het egter in Italië gebeur nie.) Nee, die groot en werklike probleem is dat wanneer die werklike gevaar begin aankom en die Ware Wagters die Basuine van God sal begin blaas dan sal dit gebeur dat niemand meer daarna

sal wil luister nie, dit is die groot gevaar. Ek haat dit om enige iets goeds te sê van die Bose, maar hy ken sy werk, en as hy misleide Christene as pionne kan gebruik om die kerk te mislei dan is daar sekerlik nie beter gereedskap te vinde vir dit nie.

Die tye waarin ons lewe is sekerlik volgens die Skrifte die Laaste Dae, en persone wat die Bybelse Profesieë in hierdie laaste uur misbruik skep daardeur vir die skape 'n gevaarlike situasie. Mense wat voorgee dat hulle wagters is waarin hulle nie geroep is nie sal geweldige skade in die kerk aanrig. Hierdie is 'n ernstige saak vir baie pragtige mense wat God liefhet, 'n saak tussen die Hemel en die Hel, en ons mag nie voorgee wat ons nie is nie. Ons moet waaragtige Wagters in ons midde hê en laat dit ons gebede wees dat hierdie wagters wat nie wagters is nie navore sal kom en hulle oortredings bely, en laat ons tot God bid en vra dat as dit moontlik is dat Ons Hemelse Vader die skade sal herstel wat in die gemeentes aangerig is sodat die Waarheid weer kredietwaardig kan word.

Die Valse Makkabeërs

In Daniël 11:33?35 lees ons van wat teoloë noem, 'n dubbelsinnige profesie. Daniël profeteer van die doen en late van Matthias die Makkabeër en sy seuns, Johannes, Eleazar, Jonatan, en Yehudah onder in die regering van Antiochus IV wat ook geken was as Epiphanus wat 'n vark in die tempel geslag het en 'n wet ingestel het wat die Jode verbied het om die voorskrifte van die Tora te onderhou terwyl hy ook die algemene populasie verhelleniseer en verheidens het. Hy het ook 'n afbeelding van die afgod Zeus in die tempel opgestel met sy eie voorgeskrewe aanbidding wette. Antiochus Epiphanus was natuurlik die verpersoonliking van die Antichris wat gaan kom waarvan sy gees alreeds in die wêreld is, en tot en met vers 36 het die Skrifte gedeel met hierdie bose heerser. Die Antichris sal aan die einde van die tye weer die werke van Antiochus Epiphanus laat herleef? volg vanaf Vers 36 en verder, en net soos Epiphanus sal hy ook deur bedrog en misleiding mense onder sy mag kry.

Soos wat dit in die tyd van die Makkabeërs was, wat aan baie mense insig gegee het, so sal dit in die Laaste Dae ook weer wees wanneer hulle wat hulle God ken sal optree en vir baie tot insig wees wanneer die Riglyne van die Woord van die Here (Die Verbond) verontagsaam sal word. Dit is vandag baie duidelik dat die ekumeniese beweging wat ons baie duidelik vandag waarneem, 'n voorloper is van die hergeboorte van Babilon, die Groot Hoer van Openbaring, en dat misleidings soos die Toronto en Pensacola die voorloper is van die Groot Afval van Thessalonicense.

Soos wat dinge huidiglik ontwikkel in Israel met die valse vrede tussen Israel en Islam, die her? konfederasie van die Romeinse Ryk deur ooreenkomste in 'n federale Europa, is dit merkwaardige tekens van die tye wat daarop dui dat die resultaat van hierdie dinge besig is om die verhoog op te stel vir die verskyning van die Man van Sonde wat Antiochus onderandere tipifiseer, waarvan hy 'n skadubeeld is. En net soos in die voortyd sal daar diegene wees wat hulle God ken en wat gaan aksie neem en baie tot insig lei oor dit wat oppad is. Maar soos wat dit in die dae van Antiochus gewees het, sal daar baie wees wat in 'n skynheiligheid by hom sal aansluit en hulle broers en susters sal verraai. (Twee van die Oorspronklike Makkabeërs was doodgemaak as gevolg van interne Verraad) Net soos wat ons dit vandag duidelik sien gebeur. Daar is vandag mense in die kerk wat wil voorgee dat hulle wagters is, wat hulle self aangestel het as "Onderskeidings bedienaars" maar wat grootliks niks anders as 'n groepering van kwaksalwers, na?apers en misleiers is nie, mense met hulle eie agendas wat alreeds

hierdie roeping verloën het. Hierdie mense het baie in gemeen en neig om mekaar na te boots. Baie is sielkundige grensgevalle wat baie maklik beïnvloedbaar is. Hulle flans dinge saam op die basis van wat hulle vermoed of wat hulle dink, en diegene wat nie met hulle saamstem nie word as vals of ook as "New Agers" onder 'n vermomming gebrandmerk. Constance Cumby, wat self gepubliseerde verklarings uitgereik het vir haar ondersteuning van die Roomse Katolieke stelsels, het Dave Hunt aangeval. Kevin Burgess het Mike Oppenheimer, 'n Joodse broer wat in Hawai 'n Christelike TV en radiostasie bedryf onder die naam van :?Come Let Us Reason, ook aangeval. Tex Mars het 'n hele aantal pragtige mense aangeval en ook onderandere Dave Hunt. Daar is twee karaktertrekke van valse wagters. Die Eerste is: Hulle is sogenaamde Christene met 'n witgewaste teologiese kennis met geen egte akademiese teologiese agtergrond het in die bediening wat hulle probeer voorgee hulle spesialiste in is maar wat hulle nie is nie. 'n Persoon het nie nodig om 'n intellektueel te wees om 'n bediener te wees, of om onderskeidings vermoëns te besit nie, maar 'n persoon moet kwalifiserende kennis besit om te weet waarvan hy praat. Petrus, in sy Brief, het sy skolastiese probleme aan Paulus oorgelaat, en Paulus het die probleme wat hy gehad het aan Apollos oorgelaat.

Die tweede ding wat valse wagters definieer is hulle altyd soekende neigings na redes om die ware wagters in oneer te laat beland.

Die fondasie raamwerk van hierdie valse Makkabeërs is sekerlik die Ruckmaniete, genoem na hulle groot vader: Peter Ruckman, wat nou al in sy derde huwelik is na nog 'n egskeiding. Ruchman lewe met die idee dat die King James vertaling van die Bybel die enigste gemagtigde geskrewe Woord van God is, en hy maak daarop aanspraak dat die aanhegsels tot die 1611 uitgawe, wat egter nie in die ou manuskripte gevind kan word nie, 'n verdere openbaring van God is. Sy volgelinge stem nie almal met hom saam nie maar hulle word tog deur hom beïnvloed! Op hierdie gebied is daar dan ook Gail Riplinger wat in die openbaar teruggebring is aarde toe deur die Christian Research Institute deurdat sy nie eens Grieks kan lees nie. Sy het ook geen akademiese teologiese kwalifikasies in Grieks of Hebreeus of enige analitiese agtergrond van Aramese manuskripte wat uiters noodsaaklik is om Bybels vertalings op 'n basiese vlak aan te vat nie. Haar kwalifikasies strek egter net oor behuising ekonomie. In plaas daarvan dat sy 'n tesis opstel oor koste effektiewe skoonmaak produkte, waarin sy gekwalifiseer is, gaan sy en publiseer 'n boek oor "New Age Bible Versions" en doen hierdeur meer skade aan die bewaring van oorspronklike grondteks manuskripte as wat die omskrywende verklarende Roomse Katolieke Bybels, en die politieke korrekte vertalings ooit kon aangerig het. Laat ons dit net hier duidelik stel, Moriel het nie 'n probleem met die KJ vertaling nie, ons lees dit met toewyding en ons respekteer dit wat God in die verlede daarmee bereik het. Om meer na 'n punt te kom, wie kan nie die nalating waarde en die toegewydheid van mense soos Wycliffe, Tyndale en Coverdale in die voorbereiding tot die samestelling van hierdie werk waardeer nie? Die Trinitarian Bible Society om maar een voorbeeld te noem, het dit duidelik gemaak dat hulle niks met haar of haar boek te doen wil hê nie. Daar bestaan uitstekende boeke oor die betroubaarheid van die Nuwe Testamentiese manuskripte wat deur akademies gekwalifiseerde mense soos F.F. Bruce en Dr. Craig Blohmberg geskrywe is.

Mense soos: Ruckman, Engstrom, Aho, Dillen en Marrs is ook 'n voorbeeld van mense wat skriftelik te kenne gegee het dat hulle niks met haar en haar boek te doen wil hê nie, maar, Ruckman, Engstrom,

Aho, Dillen, Marrs en Riplinger is nie akademikusse nie, hulle is ook nie wagters nie, hulle is gewone mense wat wil voorgee wat hulle nie is nie. Maar die probleem hier is dat terwyl geen akademiese skool enige kredietwaardigheid aan sulke mense sal verleen nie, is daar altyd die gewone gematigde Christene wat ongelukkig uit onkunde dit wel sal doen. So is daar in hierdie rigting hiper Calviniste soos Peter Clover wat uit onkunde die Joodse Skrifuitlegkunde, Midrash, afmaak as gnosisme net om in die openbaar tereg gewys te word dat dit 'n geëerde Puritynse Kalvinistiese Teoloog was wat die eerste gedokumenteerde kommentaar geplaas het oor die gebruik van die Joodse Skrifuitlegkunde, Midrush, in die Nuwe Testament.

Net soos Cumby wat ander onderskeidings bedieninge aangeval het terwyl sy self vasgevang is in 'n ernstige afwyking van die Skrifte en ook in die Ekumeniese misleiding deel het. Clover het weer op sy beurt waardige bedieninge soos Bill Randles en Michal Penford aangeval, terwyl hy self betrokke was in 'n Aids geld insamelings veldtog saam met Patrick Dixon. Dixon is weer een van die mees ekstremistiese ondervindings georiënteerde charismatiese predikers wat hom toelê op New Age teologie soos in die Toronto dwaling. Kuber kultus leiers soos Aho, Dillen, en Engstrom met hulle verbintenisse met die Ruchmaniete en die identiteit bewuste bewegings en kan vergelyk word met 'n kinder bende. Hulle het nie die mag van 'n professionele kriminele organisasie, skelm prokureurs of geld verduistering skemas nie, maar wanneer iemand 'n geweer in 'n gewone misdadiger se hand plaas dan dink hy, hy is 'n groot meneer. Dit is dan ook wat gebeur wanneer 'n kuber ruimte ridder toegang kry op die Internet. Die meeste kuber kultus ridders het geen verbintenis met enige kerk nie, hulle doen ook nie Evangelisasie werk nie of enige iets wat met Bybelse georiënteerde Christenskap te doen het nie. Hulle spits hulle egter hoofsaaklik toe om net soos die dwaal wagters, die Ware en opregte wagters en ook diegene wat nie met hulle teorie saam stem nie aan te val. So was daar onlangs 'n voorbeeld van hierdie ridders se optredes wat gegaan het oor hulle weersin teenoor die Ster van Dawid, maar dit is niks anders as 'n sameswering van anti? Semitiese denkes en die identiteit bewuste bewegings nie.

Die feit is egter dit: In Judaïsme word hierdie ster geken as die Skild van Dawid of "Magen Dawid", en dit word nie gesien as 'n ster nie. Die Rabbiniese verklaring van hierdie teken is dat dit die samestelling van die 12 stamme van Israel is wat rondom die Ark opgestel is met hulle swerftog deur die woestyn. Dit was egter ook 'n Heidense simbool in die voor Christen era in Babilon, Phonecia, en in Egipte, net soos wat die kruis ook 'n voor Christen era heidense simbool in die Keltiese Brittanje en Ierland was. Die Menora, en nie die Ster van Dawid nie, was die simbool van die Jode van ouds en dit is vandag nog die staat simbool van Israel en ook die offisiële seël kenteken op die Israeliese staats dokumente. Net so was die vis, en nie die kruis nie, die oorspronklike Christen simbool. Die vis was egter ook eerstens 'n heidense simbool wat gebruik was by die aanbidding van die vis god Dagon, soos in die Ou Testament. Die vyfster Pentagram is 'n sataniese embleem en nie die Ses Punt Ster van Dawid nie. Dus het beide die Joodse en Christelike simbole albei hulle heidense ekwivalente. Die Hebreeuse Tempel het sy argitektoniese ewebeeld in heidense Egipte gehad en die Sondvloed verhaal in Genesis word weer verbind aan die mite van Gilgemesh. Maar beteken oppervlakkige ooreenkomste dat dinge boos is? Dit is wat die simbool beteken het in 'n gegewe historiese en kulturele tydperk wat bepaal of dit boos is of nie. Die Amerikaanse ruimte program het 'n projek naam gedra van Murcury, Gemini en Apollo maar niemand het hierdie projekte geïdentifiseer met heidense afgode of met astrologie nie, en hulle ook nie as

heidense praktyke gebrandmerk nie, maar die kuber kultus kwaksalwers wat gedryf word deur hulle eie vooropgestelde denkes kan dit doen en hulle kom weg daarmee. Daar is goeie Christen navorsers soos Dr. John Weldon, Dr. Ron Rhodes, en Dr. Tal Brooks wat uitstekende kennis het op die gebied van okultiese invloede. Dan is daar ook Dr. Curt Koch, 'n spesialis op die gebied van die okkulte. Dan is daar die meesterstuk: The Two Babilons van Alexander Hislop wat handel oor die invloede wat die insypeling van heidense simboliek op die Christen leefwyse uitoefen. Die Ahos, Dillens, Howards, en die Engstroms of die kubus ridders is nie antropoloë of argeoloë, of sielkundiges of teoloë nie, hulle is basies die valse Makkabeërs van ons tyd wat wil voorgee dat hulle wagters is maar wat hulle nie is nie. †††


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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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).