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Zionism in biblical prophecy, part 6 (final)

In Isaiah 29:1-8, the prophet had a vision of the destruction of Jerusalem that sounds very much like a nuclear explosion. He does not tell us specifically whether or not this would be the full end of the city’s existence. However, we may surmise this from the fact that the victorious foreign armies (led by God) will not achieve their goal (“dream”).

Today we know that there are many neighboring countries who want to “push Israel into the sea” and to take the land back. Hence, we can interpret their “dream,” as the prophet refers to it, as the desire to retake the land. However, this desire will turn out to be just a dream, as no one will be able to inhabit the land when this war is concluded. I believe this will be due to nuclear fallout.

The war in Gaza, which began on October 7, the eighth day of Tabernacles, has continued to escalate and to involve other world powers, including the US and China. Yesterday, the US bombed Iranian targets in eastern Syria, according to Secretary of “Defense” Lloyd Austin.

https://wltreport.com/2023/10/26/world-war-3-erupts-u-s-bombs-syria/?utm_source=newsletter_ssp

The US government has had troops in Syria ever since the Pentagon hatched its plan to overthrow seven countries in five years.

https://genius.com/General-wesley-clark-seven-countries-in-five-years-annotated

The point is that the Syrian government did not invite any US troops to occupy any part of Syria. US troops are there purely on the basis of power politics, using “terrorists” as the pretext. On the other hand, the Iranians are there at the invitation of Syria. So yesterday’s bombing in Syria has no legal basis. We are there simply to steal oil from Syria with the protection of the military, as part of the Pentagon’s plan in 2001 to overthrow Syria and six other countries.

It is too soon to see how long this will continue to escalate, but the rising tensions are causing alarms to sound around the world. Many are already talking about the start of World War 3. I have long held the view that the final war will be centered in the Middle East and the Israeli state in particular. I base my view on biblical prophecy, of course. Yet the Lord has never told me, directly or indirectly, that there will be an all-out nuclear war between the major powers. Whenever I inquired of Him, the answer was always NO.

The age to come will not be an age of world fallout. It will be an age where the Kingdom of God will be dominant, and this will be a Golden Age, ruled by the Prince of Peace.

So when I read prophecies in Isaiah 29 and Jeremiah 19, I note that these are specifically directed toward Jerusalem and its immediate territory. My conclusion is that this will be a limited nuclear war. Scripture does not tell us who will actually unleash that nuclear device.

What we do know is that this is God’s judgment upon the earthly Jerusalem, the city that was supposed to be “the lion of God” but which turned out to be “God’s fireplace,” as the name Ariel indicates.

Blindness

After giving his prophecy, Isaiah then reveals God’s method to ensure that Jerusalem will indeed be destroyed. He blinded His own prophets and seers so that they would not understand His intent until it was too late to save the city. Isaiah 29:9, 10 says,

⁹ Be delayed and wait. Blind yourselves and be blind. They become drunk, but not with wine, they stagger, but not with strong drink. ¹⁰ For the Lord has poured over you a spirit of deep sleep. He has shut your eyes, the prophets, and He has covered your heads, the seers.

In other words, the spiritual eyes of the prophets will be shut, and God will put a bag over the head of the seers so that they cannot see. Nothing is said here of false prophets. God has done this to all prophets—except, of course, to those of the remnant of grace whose eyes are not blinded (Romans 11:7 KJV).

Isaiah 29:11, 12 continues,

¹¹ The entire vision [recorded in verses 1-8] will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” ¹² Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.”

So we see that Isaiah’s vision of Jerusalem destruction is “a sealed book.” One can read a sealed scroll only by breaking the seal, and so far, God has not done this. I know this, because the prophets today have no understanding of Isaiah’s vision. They twist the words to make it appear that God will intervene at the last minute and save the city from destruction.

But God has blessed us with eyes to see, so that we know the divine plan. We know that God will “cast out the bondwoman and her son” (Galatians 4:30), and that the earthly Jerusalem (“Hagar”) will not be the “woman” whose son receives the Kingdom. The blindness upon the prophets and seers is so complete that my conclusion is that it will not be lifted until the city is destroyed. Only then will their eyes be opened, for they will then have to find an explanation for what will appear to be failed prophecy.

In reality, it will be the failure of their understanding of prophecy. If they had understood the Autumn feast days, they might have had opportunity to teach the truth about the progression of events surrounding Christ’s second coming. If they had understood Galatians 4, they might have understood that the earthly Jerusalem is NOT the mother of Kingdom inheritors. If they had understood the difference between the two Jerusalems, they might have interpreted Scripture properly.

But I thank God that most of you who read this have eyes to see and ears to hear. God has raised up a body of inheritors in the end times who are able to bear witness to what God is doing in the earth.

Why?

Some may find fault with God for blinding the prophets and seers in this way. But we are given the explanation in Isaiah 29:13, 14,

¹³ Then the Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their words and honor Me with their service, but they remove their hearts far from Me, and their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote. ¹⁴ Therefore, behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; and the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the discernment of their discerning men will be concealed.”

When the people as a whole remain hypocritical, honoring God with their words and their praises but yet remaining lawless in their hearts, God then blinds His own prophets and seers so that the people will not receive key revelation to understand the plan of God. Jesus quoted Isaiah in Matthew 15:3, 7-9, saying,

³ And He answered and said to them, “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? … ⁷ You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: ⁸ “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. ⁹ But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts [or “traditions” KJV] of men.”

The root issue appears to be anomia, “lawlessness,” one’s disrespect for the law of God. Rejecting any portion of God’s word blinds us to the revelation of that word, and this condition is often difficult to reverse. (I speak from experience here.) The church as a whole suffers from the spirit of anomia, as Jesus prophesied in Matthew 7:21-23, concluding with this:

²³ And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness [anomia].

Many in the church today teach that the law was put away. They fail to see that the judgments of the law brought upon us through sin were satisfied by Jesus’ payment on the cross. But in no way did the law cease to be God’s standard of righteousness. Men often teach that Paul put away the law, though he himself wrote in Romans 3:31,

³¹ Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the law.

For this cause, Paul also admonished the church in Romans 6:19,

¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members [body parts] as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness [anomia], resulting in further lawlessness [anomia], so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.

Putting away the law, or despising the law, will result in sin, because “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). Sin is only sin because it is a violation of the law. Paul says, “where there is no law, there also is no violation” (Romans 4:15). I have met some who were under the illusion that if they just put away the law, then they would be sinless. (Lots of luck on that one!)

The point is that when Israel and Judah became lawless, praising God with their lips but failing to agree with God’s nature as expressed in His law, God then blinded the eyes of the prophets and the seers. He did not turn them into false prophets, yet He limited their revelation in order to lead the people themselves into judgment for their lawlessness.

We see this again in Ezekiel 14, where certain “elders of Israel” came to the prophet to inquire of the word of the Lord. God posed a question to the prophet, asking him if He should give them an answer, seeing that they harbored idols in their hearts. A heart idol is a strong belief or assumption, which gives the seeker the right to accept or reject the word of the prophet. In other words, they are not honest seekers of truth; they seek validation of their already settled beliefs. They probably inquired about the fate of the nation, believing that God would never allow Jerusalem or the temple to be destroyed.

The answer is found in Ezekiel 14:4 KJV, “I the Lord will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols.” What is the result? Ezekiel 14:5 KJV says, “That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from Me through their idols.” Worse yet, we read in Ezekiel 14:9, “And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand upon him and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel.”

This is a hard word to receive, but it is clear that heart idolatry causes people to hear their own deceptions and reject the word of the Lord. By setting up idols in the heart, they hear the word of those idols, thinking they are hearing the word of the Lord. Men who sincerely think they are worshiping and obeying the true God are, in fact, worshiping an idol of the heart.

When we relate this to Isaiah 29:10, it is very sobering.