I had not anticipated making a sequel to the previous Apostolic Way message I shared with you a week ago but the demonic agenda is advancing so quickly and there are many who remain convinced that Yah'shua (Jesus) is about to return any day now that I feel strongly led by the Ruach (Spirit) to share a message especially for the "unruly", the "fainthearted" and the "weak" (1 Thes.5:14) who have never experienced the kind of distress in the West that they're currently experiencing, not since the Cold War at any rate and certainly not since the end of the Second World War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Of course, none of this is particularly 'new' for East Europeans and other nations who until recently have lived, or indeed continue to live, under dictatorships.

We have got to be realistic and live out from correct theologies or else the troubles we must all pass through - and have started passing through - will be unnecessarily compounded. Why make more difficulties when there are difficulties enough? Needless to say some of the biggest mistakes being made by Christians and Messianics today concern eschatology or the doctrine of the end-time with millions expecting to be suddenly 'raptured' out of trouble and as many that Christ is about to return...within months or at least a handful of years. I repeat, especially for those following us now for the first time, there is no rapture and we are at least a generation away from the Second Coming. The troubles we are passing through now are but a Penultimate Judgment to test and toughen up the spoiled, self-entitled, spiritually liver-bellied believers of the West and elsewhere.

So permit me to break you into today's special message gently by going back a couple of thousand years to some of the more mysterious sayings of Yah'shua (Jesus) that make little sense save in historical context. What we're not going to do is dive into the Apocalypse of John, better known by Protestants as the Book of Revelation, because the keys to its full understanding remained sealed and gospel teachers and ministers are saying all sorts of crazy things, thinking the time of literal fulfiment is now. Though outwardly there are certain superficial resemblances to events unfolding, such similarities have manifested numerous times during history.

The very first thing I want you to be aware of is that Yah'shua (Jesus) defeated evil only by letting it do its worst to Him. Yesterday my wife pointed out something preacher Dan Mohler recently said about the three boys who refused to eat the Babylonian king's food, which you can also read as a drash - meaning they refused to believe or live by the spiritual food of the world. That this was their spiritual diet they proved by subsequently refusing to worship Nebuchadnezzar's golden image. They ate spiritual manna as we are supposed to be doing too and they trusted Yahweh, saying:

"...our Elohim (God) whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up" (Dan.3:17-18, NKJV).

When the lads were cast into the furnace of fire, Elohim (God) did not immediately rescue them, did He? Rather, He joined them and supernaturally protected them from the consuming fire, until they were finally delivered from the red-hot furnace. There is an important spiritual tavnith or pattern to make careful note of here because we all face similar choices and testings right now. Not only the that, but the principle seems to be that Elohim (God) joins us in our sufferings, comfortaing and strengthening us, and then (if it is His will) delivers us. Will we defy the evil we are being commanded to do by satanic rulers? Will we be as bold and courageous as those three lads? Are we prepared to die if necessary so as not to defile His image, or will we compromise? Remember to compromise is in any case only to postpone being 'thrown to the crocdiles' for a short while, because once you give in on one area, the Enemy will always come back to demand more and more until he has got you completely in his power. So learn to stand up and say 'No!' to sin right from the start - there is no better character-forming habit to get into, so do it early on. Don't procrastinate.

One of the greatest tests we are being confronted with at this moment is whether or not to take the dangerous and untested 'gene-modification therapy' dressed up as a 'vaccine'. Will we compromise in order to gain some trifling concessions like the freedom to travel a little until new lockdowns are imposed anyway? Or will we adamantly say 'No!' because it's wrong, because it defiles our created programming - that which makes us human - and therefore His image? Worse is yet to come. The devil is on a roll so expect increasing totalitarianism and a real persecution of 'refuseniks', those who refuse to be jabbed. If you don't push back, as they have done in Tunisia and are starting to do in France, Italy and elsewhere, they will relentlessly push forward until they have steam-rollered you completely. The challenge, then, is to be brave like the three young lads in the Book of Daniel. Stand firm in the truth in word and deed.

Now I am not saying the vaccine is the 'Mark of the Beast' as some are because it clearly isn't, but it is a measure of your willingness to personally acquiesce to evil or not once you know the facts of what the agenda is. In a way we are choosing the route we intend to go down from now on (see The Sign of Waw-Taw: Marked for Salvation or Destruction?). However, as it's not the Mark you can still repent if, in a moment of weakness or unpreparedness, you do take the 'carrot' being offered - the risk, of course, to letting them begin the process of turning you into a genetically-modified organism (GMO) is that you could get very seriously ill or even die, as millions have done already. But then which ever way you choose, you're risking your life, as the three young men did, only one way leads to glory and the other is pointless...meaningless. Either way you suffer, but one form of suffering is unto life and the other unto death...a huge difference. The thing is, you don't get to eliminate the 'suffering' part however hard you try.

In Luke 23 Yah'shua (Jesus) makes a strange statement, the first of three riddles we're now going to take a close look at:

"'Daughters of Jerusalem,' He (Yah'shua/Jesus) said, 'don't cry for Me. Cry for yourselves instead! Cry for your children! Listen: the time is coming when you will say: 'A blessing on the barren! A blessing on wombs that never bore children, and breasts that never nursed them!' At that time people will start to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us!' Yes: if this is what they do to the green tree, what will happen to the dry one?" (Lk.23:28-31, KNT).

This was a warning to the women of Jerusalem, as we can see, about the judgment that will come upon themselves and their children, though it can be applied generally to those in parallel situations in any age. This statement by the Saviour, moreover, evokes various biblical prophecies about the coming destruction that would result from the city refusing her true King and for turning away from the Way of shalom (peace). Yah'shuah (Jesus) is here saying that that His own death at the hands of the Romans was the clearest sign of the fate in store for the nation that had rejected Him. Rome had condemned Him on a charge of which He was innocent but of which a good many of His compatriots were thoroughly guilty. He was the green tree, they the dry. And as you know, the one - be it an individual or a nation - laying a false charge against someone innocent - thereby becomes, by Yahweh's own Torah (Law), guilty of that charge him- or itself and must receive the very punishment required for that crime. So the punishment falls equally upon the sinner and the one accusing the innocent of sin.

I want you to especially note that this saying of the Saviour does not carry any sort of atonement-theology. That's not to say that Yah'shua's (Jesus') death wasn't atoning, because of course it absolutely was, but in this instance atonement is not in view. Why that's important is because, as N.T.Wright correctly points out, Yah'shua (Jesus) understood His death as being organically linked with the fate of the nation of Israel. Having announced Yahweh's judgment on Temple and nation (Israel-Judah) alike, Yah'shua (Jesus) is now going ahead to undergo the punishment that also symbolised the judgment of Rome on His rebel subjects. So there's a lot going on here on multiple levels.

I guess what I am trying to make you aware of is that in our highly individualistic Western culture the individual is intimately tied in with corporate structure - his family, his clan, his tribe, his nation, and even the whole world. There is a spiritual link between all of these. Thus Yah'shua (Jesus) died not only for me, and you, individually, but, because we are linked to units or groupings of people too, by virtue of this linking, He died for the whole of humanity as well. Indeed, it extends even beyond our species to include the whole of nature, the whole planet, and indeed the entire Cosmos. Thus every soul coming to Messiah is not only saved him- or herself, but is is or her salvation is also, in a tangible way, impacting the greater whole too, in the same way as the spiritual content of the Spring Festivals impacts the Summer and Autumn (Fall) Ones following them, for the latter are communal or corporate covenants.

Yes, Yah'shua (Jesus) cares about you and me individually - even individual sparrows - but He isn't only desperately interested in humans as independent units, because His purposes and glory are tied up in far more. And the worth or value of the corporate entitities, of which families and 'families of families' (like congregations) mean so much to Him, is always greater than the sum of its (or their) parts. If you can keep that in mind, Yahweh will accrete to that single emet (truth), many, many more truths for your benefit, as you build upon that divine tavnith (pattern). That's why Yah'shua (Jesus) linking Himself to, and indeed replacing, Old Covenant corporate Israel, is so essential to our understanding of what New Covenant Israel is because now there is no Israel outside of Him. And that is why modern Zionism is such a wicked, antichrist heresy because that doctrine delcares that there is a separate Israel to Him and worthy of its own private, distinct glory. No it isn't. Everything that is 'Israel' is by and of Him and anything outside of Him is counterfeit. Any restored nation of Israel has to flow out of right-relatedness to Christ and not because of the entitlemenmt of some allegedly privileged 'once blessed, always blessed' group. The apple of Elohim's (God's) eye is the Israel of Christ.

Let's go to the second riddle I want to talk about. We can look at either the Matthean or Lucan accounts, so let's just pick the one in Matthew:

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the nevi'im (prophets) and stoning those who are sent to you! How often have I longed to gather up your children, the way a hen gathers up her brood under her wings, and you didn't want Me to! Now, see here; your house has been abandoned by Elohim (God); it's a ruin" (Mt.23:37-38, KNT).

Yet again we have a warning of judgment upon the Yahweh-forsaken temple that modern Zionists want to rebuild! We are all familiar with the image of the chicken with its wings spread over her chicks in protection which typically evokes in us the beauty of motherly love and caring. But what is not always understood is how this imagery ties in with judgment which is the context of Yah'shua's (Jesus') using it in this passage. The picture He is conveying is that of a fire in a farmyard: the hen gathers her chicks under her wings to shield them, and when the fire has run its course, there will be found a dead hen scorched and blackened, but with her chicks alive under her wings. That's what we're supposed to see. How different the imagery appears when seen in context (which is why I keep hammering into you the absolute necessity of interpreting all Scripture in its own context and not ours)!

So why has Yah'shua (Jesus) shared this particular imagery with His listeners? Because He wanted them to know that it was He who would take upon Himself the corporate judgment that was hanging over the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem like that scorched hen. He's going to take their deserved punishment upon Himself otherwise Israel as a nation would be permanently over. Do you get it? He is now Israel, because He has ransomed Israel to Himself. No Yah'shua (Jesus), no Israel. And if you are pursuing or exalting any Israel other than the Israel-in-Christ, you are rejecting His corporate atonement of Israel and claiming Israel can go it alone without Him! No, no, no! That particular 'Israel'-without-Christ was burned up, destroyed, annihilated in judgment, and only He could ever resurrect it, as He is Himself the resurrection. The Israelites who trusted in Him as Master (Lord) and Deliverer (Saviour), and those gentiles grafted into that Messianic Israel, are alone the continuation of Israel because that is the only Israel He resurrects. The rest are either unsaved Jacob or unsaved gentiles. That is why all Christ-deniers, be they Jew or Gentile, are outside the salvation scheme of things. The heresy of Zionism angrily denies this truth which is why its behaviour is often so cultic and at times murderous.

What I am sharing with you now is not a new teaching. Not only is it the true apostolic doctrine (meaning that any true apostles in the future will also teach it) but it was clearly understood in first century Judaism that this is what the Messiah would do, something modern Judaism has repudiated along with their Messiah. It's plainly stated in the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus or The Wisdom of Yah'shua (Jesus) the Son of Sirach. Let me read a portion of it to you so that you can see it plainly:

"Then Elijah arose, a navi (prophet) like fire, and his word burned like a torch...At the appointed time, it is written, you are destined to calm the wrath of Elohim (God) before it breaks out in fury, to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and to restore the tribes of Jacob. Happy are those who saw you and have died with your love! For we also shall surely live" (Sirach 48:10-11, NRSV variant).

Thus Messiah, like Elijah in Sirach 48:10, turned away the divine wrath from Israel. This apocryphal writing, by the way, helps us understand what the first century Yehudi (Judahite) religious leaders understood Malachi 4:5-6 to mean: "Lo, I will send you the navi (prophet) Elijah before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes. He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, so I will not come and strike the land with a curse" (Mal.4:5-6, NRSV) - see the Spirit of Elijah website.

Remember also the context of this Malachi prophecy: "See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evil-doers wilkl be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up, says Yahweh of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root not branch" (Mal.4:1, NRSV). The context is the tribes of Jacob, i.e. Israel. Without the 'latter-day Elijah', the nation would be burned up like stubble for good, leaving neither root nor branch. In other words, it would be annihilated. Protestants tend to attribute this Elijah figure to John the Baptist who was the forerunner of Messiah, and that's certainly one layer of prophetic meaning, just as preachers lead souls to the true Messiah. But clearly 'Elijah' here is also a messianic figure for without him Israel would not be saved, and John the Baptist, great though he was, saved no-one.

However, what neither the writer of Sirah fully understood, nor first century Yehudim (Judahites, 'Jews'), nor modern-day Christian and Messianic 'Zionists', is that Old Covenant Israel was brought to literal judgment - fully and completely. When Yah'shua (Jesus) preached to them He was offering the nation a chance to become the New Israel in Himself, just as Yahweh had offered the exiles in Assyria and Babylon a new and glorious temple and a return from disaspora to the Holy Land as one nation reunited if they would but repent (See the Scrolls of Ezekiel). But they didn't repent in Ezekiel's day and had to serve their exile, without Ezekiel's Grand Temple, a token remnant being allowed to return to the Promised Land, not on account of any worth or righteousness of their own, but in order to fulfil the prophecies in the Tanakh (Old Testament) concerning Messiah.

Nevertheless Yah'shua (Jesus) gave the descendants of those returnees in Jerusalem in the early first century one last chance to repent, but they would not. Therefore, in order to save those who did accept Him as Israel's legitimate King, and to ensure that the nation of Israel was not exterminated altogether by the unstoppable judgment AD 70 (the destruction of the Temple) and the Second Century (the dispersal of the Judeans), Yah'shua (Jesus) spread His wings over the Messiah-trusting, Torah-obedient chicks and was mataphorically-speaking 'roasted to a cinder' by the fire, by dying on the cross as an atonement of sin, becoming both Israel as Israel's substitute recipient of just punishment for covenant-breaking and Israel's replacement prior to the establishment of the new believers-only nation of Israel at the first messianic Shavu'ot (Weeks, 'Pentecost'). All those who come to Him are naturally born or grafted into the Israel-of-Christ, becoming the only Israel that now matters anymore, whether they are of the seed of Jacob or not.

So what we see in this astonishing passage in Matthew 23 and Luke 13 (vv.34-35) is that the opportunity for old Israel has passed - forever (and has been for the last 2,000 years) - and that His fate was, in the first century, indissolulably locked together with that of Jerusalem (and by extension, the whole of Israel), but she chose not to benefit from His work. That is why Paul refers to the Jerusalem of his day as 'Hagar', the 'slave woman' (Gal.4:24-25). The only Jerusalem that matters now is the New Jerusalem in heaven above (Rev.13:12; 21:2) awaiting her coming to earth at the beginning of the Millennium, totally displacing the current City of Hagar ('Jerusalem') in the Middle East, just as the only Israel that matters now is the New Israel which is the corporate fellowship of all true spiritually regenerated, Torah-obedient believers in Messiah, for that is the definition of New Covenant holiness. The Israeli Republic is irrelevent eschatologically - it is but one of the latter-day nations on the earth and will be judged in the same way as them.

So let's consider one more riddle of Yah'shua (Jesus) - there are more but these three suffice to get my message across. I call them 'riddles' because they don't make a lot of sense on the surface and were certainly incomprehensible to the mindset of first century Palestine. The third riddle is Yah'shua's (Jesus') answer to James and John who asked if they could each, respectively, sit at His right and left side when He finally established His Kingdom:

"'You don't know what you're asking for! Yah'shua (Jesus) replied. 'Can you drink the cup I'm going to drink? Can you receive the baptism I'm going to receive?' 'Yes,' they said, 'we can.' 'Well,' said Yah'shua (Jesus), 'you will drink the cup I drink; you will receive the baptism I receive. But sitting at my right hand or my left - that's not up to Me. It's been assigned already" (Mk.10:38-40, KNT).

Obviously Yah'shua (Jesus) isn't speaking of His water baptism in the River Jordan at the hands of John the Baptist as that was in the past. He is speaking of something future. The "cup" He speaks of here is the same "cup" which is mentioned again in the Gethsemane narrative. And we should all know what it means: suffering and even martyrdom and in the prophetic writings it is identified as the cup of Yahweh's wrath.

The "baptism" - which we understand cannot relate to water-baptism but to some kind of other baptism - can only be pointing to one thing, namely, a fate which Yah'shua (Jesus) has to suffer, one that is connected to a second baptism that true followers of Yah'shua (Jesus) would be required to receive: the baptism of Fire. On the one hand, the preliminary baptism of John may be being hinted at, with its Exodus-symbolism (which simultaneously looks forward to our own time and the Last Exodus), which is most certainly an appropriate pointer. Why? Because, as we have already seen, Yah'shua (Jesus) shared the fate of the old Israel so that the true spiritual exodus out of sin and into salvation -- individually as born-again believers, and corporately as the new Israel -- could take place, including the Final (physical) Exodus.

Since only three baptisms are required of, or promised to, true believers, and we already understand what water-baptism is all about, with some having an inkling of what Baptism in the Ruach (Spirit) is, what then is the "baptism of fire"? Fire, as I have been preaching for years, is always a symbol of judgment and/or purification. Clearly Yah'shua (Jesus) was not saying He needed a future Baptism of the Ruach (Spirit) because that happened to Him right after He was baptised in water at the River Jordan (in order to fulfill all righteousness - Mt.3:15), didn't it? A dove was seen to descend upon Him to indicate Yahweh's approbation, approval or blessing. He did not start speaking in unknown 'tongues' either, did He? Rather, it was the father's Seal of Approval. So whatever the baptism of the Ruach (Spirit) is, we see it completely manifested at the River Jordan at Yah'shua's (Jesus') own baptism. Any other claim is 'adding' to what the Saviour has declared through Yahweh's action in respect of His Son.

Pentecostals and Charismatics think the baptism of the Ruach (Spirit) and the Baptism of Fire are one and the same thing in spite of the Master's own demonstration. Ruach (Spirit) and Fire Baptism appear side-by-side in only two passages of Scripture:

"I (John the Baptist) baptise you with water for repentance. But after me will come One who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptise you with the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) and with fire" (Mt.3:11, NIV; cp. Lk.3:11,16).

John the Baptist even explains what the 'baptism of fire' is because in the same breath he says:

"His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matt.3:12, NIV).

As far as the actual meaning of 'fire' is concerned, the Scriptures interpret themselves. Notice that the fire follows the Ruach (Spirit) so that once you are baptised or immersed in the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) and receive that divine seal of approval, you will be baptised in Fire too! What does that mean? It means that once you have been immersed in, and filled with, the true Ruach (Spirit) (as a bottle without a cap is filled when dunked under water), and not the counterfeit lawless Pentecostal/Charismatic 'filling with babbling spirits', you will undergo systematic purification which occurs through burning which typically comes in the form of persecution which Yah'shua (Jesus) promised would follow all true talmidim (disciples) (Mt.5:10-12; 24:9; Jn.15:20; cp. 2 Tim.3:12, etc.). That fire never goes out - it is unquenchable - it purifies the saved and burns up the wicked. This has nothing to do with 'eternal damnation' - it's the fire in the very rpesence of Elohim (God) which all true believers must learn to live in. Whatever discomfort may initially be experienced as we learn to live in Yahweh's presence is more than compensated for by the glory that results when all the dross is finally burned away! This process of gradual transformation, after the initial rebirth, is called sanctification.

But there is an additional purpose of this Baptism of Fire that is particulatly important at this challening time and it is TESTING. Albert Schweitzer, who lived a century ago, understood this well, within the context of second-Temple Yehudi (Judahite) beliefs about the coming eschatological (end-time) redemption. Within the controlling story of Israelite exile and restoration we discover a sub-plot to the story which those who have placed all their bets on a pie-in-the-sky 'rapture' refuse to see, and it's this: the deliverance will come about through a time of intense suffering, sometimes referred to as the 'messianic woes' or 'Jacob's trouble' (Jer.30:7). The great tribulation would burst on the nation of Israel in the first century AD and through it redemption, the new Æon, the forgiveness of sins, would come about.

In other words, Israel's Redemption would not come about by being whisked away or raptured into Heaven to escape the suffering but Messianic Israel would actually pass through it as indeed all Christians and Messianics have done for over two millennia. No one ever got whisked away to spare them grief. So why would pampered, self-entitled 21st century Western believers be any different to their spiritual forefathers? Are they any better or more deserving than them? Are they teacher's pets deserving of 'special treatment'? Could they teach a spiritual lesson to those who "were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated - the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground" (Heb.11:35-38, NIV).

Schweizer argued that Yah'shua (Jesus) saw this time of testing ahead (in Greek, the peirasmos [1]) - and coming upon Israel and that it was His calling to take it upon Himself. Hence His mitzvah (commandment) to His talmidim (disciples) to watch and pray lest they too should enter the peirasmos or time of testing (Mk.13:33; cp. Mk.14:38). That this idea is valid can be seen from the various Yehudi (Judahite) groups and individuals who thought of themselves as becoming the focal points of Israel's suffering - you only have to think of the Maccabean martyrs, various of the nevi'im (prophets) and the 'righteous man' who in the Wisdom of Solomon (chapters 2-3) is persecuted and killed but will be vindicated, to see how the thinking went: "My son, when you come to serve Yahweh, prepare yourself for testing...Accept whatever befalls you, and in times of humiliation, be patient. For gold is tested in the fire, and those found acceptable, in the furnace of humiliation" (Sirach 2:1,4-5, NRSV). It's worrth reading chapters 2 & 3. Similar scenes are to be found in the Qumran literature too.

Obviously the testing is all the more severe and hard for the unbelievers and especially for false, compromised and compromising believers. We do indeed have the right to ask to be delivered from that kind of testing, that is to say, that particular kind of testing reserved for those who embrace unbelief and disobedience. However, that does not absolve us of all testing because, as we have seen, there is that sense in Scripture, as found in Daniel, the Psalms, Zecharaiah, Ezekiel and of course Isaiah (and in particular the servant passages of Isaiah 40-55), where true believers, on a purely human level, must redemptively share in the suffering of the world (and not try to escape it in mythical 'raptures'), with all that that implies, for the sake of Christ, once they themselves have been tested, purified and are found overcomers. So there are various and numerous testings in every stage of our life.

If we are going to suffer in our testings, which can't be avoided, and in the greater testing that comes from all the troubles in the world around us (which likewise can't be completely avoided but can be made considerably easier if you are prepped in your places of refuge), let us at least do it well, gracefully, and with the same fortitude and grace as the Saviour did, being strengthened by Him as the three young men were in the Fiery Furnace. Neutrality won't work any more because there's nowhere to hide now. You have to make your choice, take sides. Messiah's banner is either conspicuously nailed to your mast or Babylon's is. That's the choice. Intelligently display your colours for all to see.

Whilst there are so many vitally important themes wrapped up in this idea, the most important one for us to grasp, that in the first century it was pretty much understood (even if it is now rejected by Judaism) that Yahweh would act through the suffering of a particular individual in whom Israel's sufferings were focussed - that this suffering would carry redemptive significance, and that this individual would be Himself as the Incarnate Son. In other words, from the earliest times, it was understood that the Messianic Figure would in a way bear the sins of the world and suffer terribly for it, but that this would finally lead to victory and a glorious redemption. This is standard Protestant Christology (doctrine of Christ) which we, as Messianic Evangelicals, unreservedly and wholeheartedly agree with - it's the central theme of the New Testament and we proclaim it from the rooftops.

The secondary truth that I want to highlight, beneath and linked to that soteriological (salvation) truth, is the notion that believers are in some way, on a human level, supposed to share in that suffering - exhibiting "patience in the face of suffering" (James 5:10, NIV) and not devote their energies either to trying to escape tribulation in the hope they will be flown out of the trials of earth (trusting that their blabbering nonsense and calling it a 'baptism of Spirit and Fire' is their exit ticket), but neither are they to waste their time in supporting one particular country in the Middle East called 'Israel' to the exclusion of all other nations because they have to understand that they are Israel and that all Israel comes only from Yah'shua (Jesus) who became Israel two thousand years ago. The whole of the Middle East, including the Israeli Republic, is to be burned in fire, along with the rest of ther world, in judgment. Messianic Israel is in the world everywhere, sharing in the suffering of fire, until finally gathered back to the Promised Land once it has been cleared of its unlawful squatters. Rather, we are to remember and accept that "Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps" (1 Peter 2:21, NIV).

I realise that was a mouthful but it's so important we have the big picture rightly set in our minds so that we don't get trapped or knocked off course by false theology and wishful thinking and in consequence find ourselves in dire straits. I also realise, and sympathise to some extent, that current events in the world very much look like 'the end' but then so have previous generations in their own times. I suppose, existentially, it might as well be 'the end', and since we are to be ready for the return of Christ at any time anyway, as all believers have for two millennia, living as though He is coming today, minus the bogus 'rapture', will not see you go wrong. So until next time, blessings to you all in Messiah. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Mark 8:31; 9:12,31; 10:32-34,45 with parallels in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke

Acknowledgements