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00:00Previously on The Account
00:02I can assure you that the men gathered around this table are the best in advertising.
00:07I need your firm to create campaigns targeting ten significant social and religious issues.
00:13To what end do you want these ad campaigns designed?
00:16To see our culture so swayed by each campaign that gradually and unknowingly people embrace my plan for moral change.
00:23You mean immoral change?
00:25I don't believe that anyone around this table thinks we'll ever see the day when society embraces such outrageous proposals.
00:35Create the campaigns. I will do the rest.
01:01Now listen, when they get here, we've got to treat them just like the general public.
01:07This campaign shouldn't attack our friends, just suggest they make new ones.
01:12Got it? Yep. Everyone know their part? Got it.
01:16Okay. Let's see what you got.
01:19If you can convince America and the rest of the world to desert an amazing country and ally like Israel,
01:24then you all deserve a raise.
01:26We'll hold you to that.
01:27Welcome aboard, gentlemen. And thank you for flying the friendly skies. Your seats are right here.
01:33So let me guess. We're going on a trip to Israel.
01:37I am so excited. Israel promises to be the trip of a lifetime.
01:41But I wonder if our friendship with Israel is keeping us from meeting new friends in the Middle East.
01:46What?
01:48This is your pilot speaking. I know you expected to travel to Israel today.
01:53But the Middle East beckons us to meet exotic people and experience fascinating cultures outside Israel's borders.
02:01This trip will be swell.
02:03There's a whole lot of land beyond the Holy Land.
02:07Just look out your window. It may surprise you how peace, love, wealth abound on the rich shorelines of Egypt,
02:18Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.
02:23I think it's time we visit someplace new.
02:26That's right. We shouldn't forget about the good-hearted people on the other side of Israel's borders.
02:31Gentlemen, it's guaranteed you'll make new friends and bring home new memories to last a lifetime from...
02:38Just beyond the Promised Land.
02:42I doubt that America will ever abandon Israel.
02:47But this was good.
02:49So?
02:53You convinced me.
02:56You all get a raise.
03:14The nation of Israel just might be the key to America's survival.
03:18Hello, I'm David Jeremiah, and I invite you to stay tuned as I explain the statement I've just made.
03:25You're watching a series called, I Never Thought I'd See the Day, Culture at the Crossroads,
03:31where we have considered some of the disconcerting developments happening in our world today.
03:36The title of today's message, I Never Thought I'd See the Day When America Would Turn Her Back on Israel,
03:43explains how America has begun to look beyond Israel for allies in the Middle East.
03:49I believe she does so at her peril.
03:52For God has said clearly in His Word that nations who abandon Israel will not be blessed by Him.
03:59And there are many examples in history that prove God's Word.
04:03So join me as I explain why Israel is the key to America's survival on today's edition of Turning Point.
04:18I believe that America's future depends in large part on one simple factor,
04:25our relationship to the tiny nation of Israel.
04:29And given the political trends in recent years,
04:32I believe that America is putting her future at risk.
04:36We supported Israel in the mid-20th century when she was reformed politically in her homeland.
04:42And if we do not return to our previous supportive policies toward Israel,
04:47our future as a nation is in peril.
04:51You may be wondering whether my thinking is upside down.
04:54I mean, after all, America is the world's greatest superpower.
04:57Israel is a sliver of land accommodating only a few million citizens.
05:02One would think that America is the key to Israel's survival,
05:06not the other way around.
05:08Given our history of vast military and economic aid packages to Israel over the years,
05:13it would seem that America could use the threat of withdrawn aid
05:17to leverage her influence over Israel and get that tiny nation to do whatever we want.
05:23Surely, a larger benefactor nation holds in her hand the survival of a smaller dependent nation.
05:31But I am saying the opposite is true,
05:34that Israel is the key to America's survival, and here's why.
05:40It is clear that America's leaders, at least in recent administrations,
05:45have not been looking at Israel with spiritual or biblical eyes.
05:50Had they done so, one small verse would have guided all of their policy decisions,
05:54and that verse is Genesis 12-3, which says,
05:58I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you,
06:02and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
06:05And God has a perfect track record, men and women, for keeping his promises,
06:11a fact that is demonstrated by several thousands years of history.
06:16Yet in spite of God's well-demonstrated trustworthiness,
06:21American leaders in recent years have rationalized and justified their way
06:26into denying Israel the free expression of her sovereignty as a nation.
06:31America has tolerated and coddled and even financially supported
06:37some of Israel's neighbors who have openly declared
06:40that their goal is to drive the Jewish people from their homeland
06:44and scatter them back into their pre-1948 homes around the world,
06:49if not to exterminate them altogether.
06:52No nation should take lightly the promise of God in Genesis 12-3,
06:58if for no other reason than self-preservation.
07:01And that includes America.
07:03Even if American leaders don't fully understand or agree
07:07with the Judeo-Christian teachings of the Bible,
07:10matching up Genesis 12-3 with the thousands of years of history
07:15involving Israel should be convincing enough.
07:18Bless Israel, and you will be blessed.
07:22Curse Israel, and you will be cursed.
07:26What is so special about Israel?
07:29To answer that question, we have to look briefly
07:31at the beginning of the nation of Israel.
07:34While Israel is often called God's chosen people,
07:37it is more accurate to say that God chose a person
07:41by the name of Abraham.
07:43Rather than choosing an existing nation, God chose a man
07:47and created a nation through him and his wife Sarah.
07:50That nation became God's chosen people.
07:54Actually, the phrase chosen people does not even occur in the Bible
07:58in the New King James Version.
08:00But there are abundant references in Scripture to the idea.
08:05Psalm 33-12 says,
08:07Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord
08:09and the people he has chosen as his own inheritance.
08:14The best summary of why God chose Israel to be his own people
08:20is found in a passage back in Deuteronomy chapter 7.
08:23Listen to what this says.
08:25You are a holy people to the Lord your God.
08:28The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for himself,
08:32a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.
08:36Now, the Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you
08:40because you were more in number than any other people,
08:43for you were the least of all peoples.
08:46But because the Lord loves you and because he would keep the oath
08:50which he swore to your fathers, that's why he chose you.
08:54There was nothing in Israel that caused God
08:57to embrace her as his people.
09:00Moses spoke the words in Deuteronomy to a new generation of Israelites
09:04whose parents had been poverty-stricken slaves in Egypt
09:08for over 400 years.
09:10Not exactly the kind of resume that would make a people appealing
09:14to a God who wanted to show off his best work.
09:18Israel became the people of God for two reasons.
09:21Number one, because of a promise that God made to Abraham
09:25centuries before.
09:27And number two, because of God's faithful love
09:30in keeping his promises.
09:33Here is the complete promise that God made to Abraham
09:36as recorded in Genesis 12.
09:38Now the Lord had said to Abram,
09:42get out of your country from your family
09:44and from your father's house to a land that I will show you.
09:48I will make you a great nation.
09:50I will bless you and make your name great
09:53and you shall be a blessing.
09:54I will bless those who bless you
09:57and I will curse him who curses you.
09:59And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
10:04Amen.
10:05This passage contains the words of warning that we are considering.
10:10But why such a warning?
10:12What is so crucially important about Israel
10:15that God protects her by promising to bless her benefactors
10:19and curse her enemies?
10:20The answer is found in the words that bookend the warning
10:24and you shall be a blessing
10:26and all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
10:30Through his chosen people, God intended to bless the rest
10:34of the human family.
10:35He chose a Mesopotamian man named Abram
10:38and promised that he and his descendants would be a channel
10:42of that blessing.
10:43People who recognize God's purposes for Israel
10:46and do whatever they can to preserve and protect
10:50and defend Israel will likewise be preserved
10:54and protected and defended.
10:56God will see to it.
10:58And let me ask you, has God blessed us through Israel?
11:01He gave us his word through the Israeli people.
11:04He gave us our savior through the people of Israel.
11:07He gave us the code of law through Moses,
11:10which is now the basis of jurisprudence
11:12in every free nation in the world.
11:15Oh yes, we have been blessed by the people of Israel,
11:18by the Jews.
11:19And people who stand in the way of Israel's prosperity
11:22will find themselves standing in the direct path
11:26of God's purposes for Israel.
11:28And history gives us the tragic story
11:30of what happens to anyone individually or nationally
11:34who puts himself in that inevitable position.
11:38God's providence in the story of Israel.
11:42Notice, secondly, God's promise of a land for Israel.
11:46Part of God's promise to Abraham was a land
11:49in which he and his descendants would dwell.
11:52That land was known as Canaan
11:54when Abraham first arrived there,
11:56and it became known as the promised land
11:58when Israel moved in following the exodus from Egypt.
12:01Not only did God promise to Abraham the land
12:05from the river of Egypt to the great river,
12:08the river Euphrates,
12:09he also promised to Abraham's son Isaac,
12:12and he promised it to Isaac's son Jacob,
12:15and he promised it to Jacob's 12 sons
12:18and to all of their descendants.
12:19And I have all the scriptures marked down in my notes.
12:23Israel moved into this land and prospered exceedingly.
12:27She became rich and powerful to be reckoned with
12:31under the successive reigns of her great kings,
12:34David and Solomon.
12:35But then the nation fell away,
12:38fell away from godly principles to the point
12:41that God stepped in and allowed the Jewish people
12:44to be conquered and dispersed
12:45throughout all the nations of the world.
12:48Israel began moving back to her land
12:51following World War I under the British mandate of Palestine,
12:54and then in earnest following World War II.
12:58Tension developed between the returning Jews
13:00and the Arabs who were then living in the land
13:03who did not then and have not since
13:05taken kindly to Israel coming home.
13:09This tension came to a head
13:11when Israel's statehood was announced in 1948.
13:15It's easy to slip into a kind of sympathetic mode
13:19toward these occupying Arabs,
13:21but the bottom line is simply this.
13:24This land belongs to God first,
13:26and God gave it to his people as an inheritance forever.
13:32That's what the scripture says.
13:34To get a proper perspective on this,
13:36let me give you a little illustration.
13:38You are sitting in your reserved seat
13:40at a theater production.
13:43Just before the curtain rises,
13:45you get an important call on your cell phone.
13:48So you leave your coat on your seat
13:51and go to the lobby to return the call in private.
13:54You return to discover a stranger
13:56is sitting on your coat in your seat.
14:00The squatter refuses to leave,
14:02and he only does so after an embarrassing scene
14:05in which the ushers force him to abandon a seat
14:08for which he cannot prove ownership.
14:11You, however, have your reserved seat ticket stub,
14:14so access to the seat is given back to you.
14:18In that illustration, the theater-goer is Israel.
14:23The seat is Israel's homeland.
14:25The ticket is the Bible where legal assignment
14:28to the land is recorded.
14:30The temporary vacancy of the seat represents
14:32Israel's temporary absence from the land
14:35from AD 70 to 1948.
14:38The squatter represents various groups
14:40who availed themselves of the opportunity
14:42to take the land in Israel's absence.
14:45The coat represents the historical artifacts
14:48throughout the land that show
14:50that Israel's previous habitation really happened.
14:53And the usher, at least in 1948,
14:56was the League of Nations,
14:58followed by its successor, the United Nations,
15:00who said, this is Israel's seat.
15:04Israel is not taking land that she does not deserve.
15:08She is just occupying the land that was given to her by God.
15:12She is not doing something that she should not do
15:15for which she should apologize or stand in defense.
15:18She is simply doing what God allowed her to do
15:21by his promise to her in the Scripture.
15:24The Jews were not restored to their homeland
15:26because they earned the right or turned back to God.
15:31In fact, if you know what's going on in Israel today,
15:33you know it's primarily a Zionist movement.
15:35It's not such a spiritual movement.
15:38So far, they have failed as a people
15:40to embrace Jesus as the Messiah,
15:42though the Bible tells us one day they will.
15:45But Israel remains to this day the apple of God's eye.
15:49And woe to any nation, including the United States,
15:53that tries to deny that fact
15:55for the sake of politics, preference, or popularity.
15:59Thomas Newton was the Bishop of Bristol, England,
16:04from 1761 to 1782.
16:07And he was an expert in biblical prophecy.
16:10He summarizes well the warning
16:13that accompanies Israel's uniqueness.
16:15He wrote, and I quote,
16:16the preservation of the Jews is really one of the most signal
16:20and illustrious acts of divine providence.
16:24And what but a supernatural power could have preserved them
16:28in such a manner as none other nation upon earth
16:31has ever been preserved?
16:33Nor is the providence of God less remarkable
16:36in the destruction of their enemies
16:38than in their preservation.
16:39We see that the great empires,
16:42which in their turn subdued and oppressed the people of God,
16:46are all come to ruin.
16:48And if such has been the fatal end
16:51of the enemies and oppressors of the Jews,
16:54let it serve as a warning to all of us
16:56who at any time or upon any occasion
16:59are for raising a clamor and persecution against the Jews.
17:05For America today, the question is,
17:08will we support Israel and continue to aid her
17:12in fulfilling God's purpose?
17:14There was a time when America answered yes
17:16to that question.
17:17And I believe America's blessing and greatness
17:20are due in part to that answer.
17:24The first book that I ever wrote back in 1975
17:30was a book called Before It's Too Late.
17:33It was the conservative book of the year.
17:36It was introduced and endorsed by Tim LaHaye.
17:41That was before I came here.
17:44And one of the chapters in the book
17:46had to do with why God has blessed America.
17:49And there's a whole section in that book written in 1975
17:53that talks about the reason God has blessed America
17:56is because she has been a homeland for the Jewish people.
18:00From his 18th century vantage point,
18:03the bishop that I mentioned earlier
18:05could survey the debris that remained of nations
18:08who dared to raise a hand against Israel.
18:11And from our vantage point in history,
18:13we have even more evidence than the bishop had.
18:16How much stronger would his warning be today
18:18had he lived to see the bombed-out ruins of Germany
18:21after that nation eliminated one-third
18:24of the world's Jewish population?
18:27Yet in spite of America's access to such overwhelming evidence,
18:32we are failing to learn from history.
18:36God's providence in the story of Israel
18:39and his promise of a land for Israel.
18:42Let's talk for a few moments about God's punishment
18:45of the enemies of Israel.
18:47I will bless those who bless thee
18:49and curse those who curse thee.
18:52Zechariah 2-8 says,
19:05Later in the ninth chapter of his prophecy,
19:08Zechariah mentions by name some of the nations
19:12that would fall under God's judgment
19:14because of their attitude toward Israel.
19:16These are old nations, some of which we may not know about,
19:20but the nation of Hadrach and Damascus and Hamath and Tyre
19:24and Sidon and Ashkelon and Geza and Edron and Ashdon,
19:28a roll call, literally a roll call of the people
19:32that lifted their hands against God's chosen people,
19:35and they were all decimated in history.
19:38And then Zechariah says at the end of the ninth chapter,
19:42speaking here for God, and I'm reading it from the message,
19:45I will set up camp in my home country
19:48and defend it against the invaders.
19:50Nobody is going to hurt my people ever again.
19:53I'm keeping my eye on them.
19:57God's statement concerning the people of Israel.
20:00Just as Zechariah called the roll call
20:04of ancient local nations that cursed Israel
20:06and were in turn cursed by God,
20:09we can see from our perspective
20:11and add even more ancient and modern names to the list.
20:15Egypt, all of the ite nations surrounding
20:18the Promised Land, the Emirates, the Kenizzites,
20:20the Girgashites, somebody said the termites.
20:25Later nations included Assyria and Babylon and Greece
20:30under Alexander the Great, the Roman Empire,
20:32Spain following the Spanish Inquisition,
20:35many modern Arab nations, the post-Holocaust Germany.
20:39Not all of these nations were totally destroyed,
20:41but all of them suffered various degrees of judgment,
20:45and I believe it was because of their ill-treatment
20:48of God's people.
20:50Great Britain is a course of study all its own.
20:55It was the last great world empire
20:57leading into the 20th century.
20:59At its height, Great Britain controlled more land
21:02and more people around the globe
21:04than any other nation in history.
21:06The British Balfour Declaration, approved in 1917,
21:10favored the establishment in Palestine
21:14of a national home for the Jewish people
21:16and pledged Britain's efforts to that end.
21:20Following World War I, the League of Nations
21:23gave Great Britain administrative oversight
21:26of much of the Middle East, including Palestine,
21:30in what was called the British Mandate of Palestine.
21:34British's rule lasted until 1948
21:37when the British Mandate of Palestine ended
21:39and the United Nations partitioned Palestine
21:42into two states, Jewish and Arab,
21:45and the Jews accepted the U.N. partition plan,
21:48but the Arabs did not.
21:50The U.N. declared Israel a state on May 14, 1948,
21:54one day before the British Mandate ended.
21:58And civil war erupted between the Jews and the Arabs
22:02over land and rights, followed by major wars
22:05in 1967 and 1973.
22:08In these wars, Israel gained control
22:11over even more land, further deepening Arab resentment.
22:16Between the 1917 Balfour Declaration
22:19and the 1948 ending of the British Mandate,
22:23Great Britain slowly but steadily withdrew her support
22:27for the regathering of the nation of Israel.
22:29Now, watch what happened.
22:30At times, she supported Israel while simultaneously supplying
22:35arms and support to the Arabs.
22:38Through their role as administrator of Palestine,
22:41they stopped Jewish immigration
22:43that could have saved millions of lives.
22:46America's President Roosevelt expressed
22:48to Secretary of State Cordell Hull his consternation
22:52of Britain's backing away from the Balfour Declaration,
22:55saying, I was at Versailles,
22:57and I know that the British made no secret of the fact
23:00they promised Palestine to the Jews.
23:03Why are they reneging on their promise?
23:06To gain Arab support, Great Britain made promises
23:09covering most of the Arab Middle East.
23:12Great Britain's actions, in spite of what they had promised
23:14in 1917, severely limited Israel's ability
23:18to establish a homeland.
23:20Almost exactly parallel to her walking away
23:26from her promises to Israel,
23:28Great Britain has descended down a long slope of insignificance
23:34and no longer is even considered among the major world powers
23:39of the world.
23:40We come now to God's preservation of America because of Israel.
23:46From America's founding, the Jews have been
23:49a welcome part of this nation.
23:51Ever since the first 23 Jewish immigrants landed
23:54in New Amsterdam, which was later New York City in 1654,
23:59America has, for the most part, been a place of safety
24:02and prosperity for the Jewish people.
24:05It is estimated that 250 Jews were living in the American colonies
24:09in the early 1700s.
24:11It's a little known fact that a Jewish businessman
24:15played a significant role in keeping alive
24:17General George Washington's struggling revolutionary army.
24:23Haim Solomon, what a great Jewish name.
24:26Haim Solomon was a Polish Jew who immigrated to America in 1775
24:32and became financially successful as a broker
24:35of overseas trade deals.
24:37The British arrested him more than once
24:40because of his American sympathies,
24:42but he continued to use his financial skills
24:45to raise money for the Revolution.
24:48On one occasion, Washington needed to march his army
24:51to engage the British in what proved to be the final
24:54and decisive battle of the Revolutionary War at Yorktown.
24:57But neither Washington nor the colonial government
25:00had any money to finance the campaign.
25:02Washington sent for Haim Solomon, who raised the money
25:06and enabled the campaign that ended the Revolutionary War.
25:10Solomon lent the colonies today's equivalent of a billion dollars,
25:14a large part of which was supposedly never repaid.
25:18An interesting but unverifiable legend concerns Washington's
25:22gratitude for Solomon's critical support to the colonies.
25:25If you look at the great seal on the back of a $1 bill,
25:30above the eagle's head you will see the 13 stars representing
25:34the 13 colonies arranged in such a way that by connecting
25:38the peripheral straight lines a six-pointed star of David is created.
25:43Washington supposedly had this done out of gratitude
25:47to his Jewish friend Haim Solomon.
25:50Whether or not the great seal legend is true,
25:54the facts are that the Jews were welcome in America
25:58from the beginning and always played a role in America's prosperity,
26:03greatly disproportionate to their numbers.
26:07America's official posture toward Jews on American soil
26:10has always been positive.
26:12And the same can be said of America's initial posture
26:15toward the newly reformed nation of Israel in her homeland in 1948,
26:20and the decades immediately following.
26:22I am very proud that America was the first nation
26:27to recognize Israel in her statehood.
26:30Providence ordained that the occupant of the Oval Office
26:34at the moment of Israel's political rebirth on May 14, 1948,
26:39would be Harry S. Truman.
26:41In my 2008 book, What in the World is Going On?,
26:45I tell the gripping story of the opposition President Truman faced
26:49from his top advisers over whether or not to recognize
26:53and affirm Israel's statehood.
26:55It was a watershed moment for U.S.-Israel relations.
26:59His decision would not only set the tone for the rest of his two terms,
27:02it would also set in motion a policy that would greatly influence
27:07his successors in the Oval Office.
27:10Truman stood fast against his advisers and issued a press release stating,
27:15the United States recognizes the provisional government
27:19as de facto authority of the new state of Israel.
27:22End of quote.
27:24Israel's chief rabbi later told Truman, quote,
27:27God put you in your mother's womb so that you would be the instrument
27:32to bring about the rebirth of Israel after 2,000 years.
27:36Amen.
27:37And I read the story in Truman's biography,
27:40how he was brought up by his parents reading the Bible,
27:43and he knew enough about the Bible to know that God had a plan
27:47for the people of Israel.
27:48And so, when the time came and he was pressed to make a decision,
27:51he looked at the decision at least partially through the Bible's eyes
27:54and through his mother's eyes, and God put him there at the right time
27:59so that Israel would be recognized by America.
28:02And Truman's not the only president to have made strong public statements
28:07backing Israel.
28:08I've read statements by many American presidents supporting the idea
28:13of Israel's right to someday be united in their ancient homeland.
28:18Go back through history and you will find that John Adams,
28:22John Quincy Adams, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Herbert Hoover,
28:27Franklin Roosevelt, just to name a few, more recent presidents,
28:30Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan
28:34are also on record as supporters of the nation of Israel.
28:39America, ladies and gentlemen, has been Israel's best friend
28:43in the world, and I maintain that America has been blessed
28:48because of how we have blessed Israel.
28:52But something has changed, and I find it more than coincidental
28:57that America's prosperity and posture and place in the world
29:01have begun to decline at the same time that our commitment
29:05to Israel has weakened.
29:07I fear that what happened to Great Britain over decades
29:10may be now beginning to happen to America.
29:14A 2010 survey showed that 52% of Americans believe
29:19that our president is less friendly to Israel
29:22than any former administration.
29:24But our pulling away from Israel didn't begin with him.
29:28George H. W. Bush initiated the process
29:31which has come to be known as Land for Peace,
29:35pressuring Israel to give up more and more of her land
29:38to secure a promise of peace from her Arab neighbors.
29:42Beginning with the efforts of President Jimmy Carter,
29:45it seems every president has wanted his legacy to include
29:50solving the Middle East problem.
29:54Each has been willing to chip away at Israel's sovereignty
29:57to satisfy the demands of the Arab nations.
30:01To further complicate our relationship with Israel,
30:04a new variable has provided more incentive for the United States
30:08to befriend the Arab states at her expense.
30:11Oil is that thing.
30:12Now the Arabs have oil.
30:14Israel doesn't have any.
30:17You remember Golda Meir's statement
30:19that she couldn't believe what God did to the Jews.
30:21He made them wander around the wilderness for 40 years
30:24and set them down in the one place in the Middle East
30:26that had no oil.
30:30The desertion of Israel by the United States
30:33was once deemed unthinkable, but no longer.
30:38Interestingly, our nation is catering
30:40to the oil-producing nations whose product gives them
30:43an inordinate hold over our contemporary lifestyle.
30:46On June 4, 2009, after being in office only six months,
30:50President Obama provided further evidence
30:52of our cooling relationship with Israel.
30:55On his first major international trip,
30:57he spoke these words to a predominantly Arab Muslim audience
31:01in Cairo.
31:04America's strong bonds with Israel are well known.
31:06This bond is unbreakable.
31:09It is based upon cultural and historical ties
31:11and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland
31:15is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied.
31:19On the other hand, it is also undeniable
31:23that the Palestinian people, Muslims and Christians,
31:26have suffered in pursuit of a homeland.
31:28For more than 60 years, they have endured
31:31the pain of dislocation.
31:32Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank
31:36and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security
31:39that they have never been able to lead.
31:42They endure the daily humiliations,
31:45large and small, that come with occupation.
31:48So let there be no doubt,
31:49the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable.
31:53America will not turn her backs
31:54on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration
31:56for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own.
31:59Now, that might not have caught your attention
32:01if you just listen to it on the surface.
32:04But the more than 60 years the president referred to
32:07is the exact time from Israel's founding in 1948
32:10until the day of his speech.
32:12He was obviously saying that the Palestinians' dislocation
32:16for 60-plus years is due to the establishment
32:20of Israel as a nation.
32:22Also note his claim that the Palestinians' daily humiliations
32:26are a result of the Jews occupying the Palestinians' land.
32:33Who's occupying whose land?
32:36God gave that land and a lot more to Israel
32:39as a permanent possession thousands of years ago.
32:43If there's anyone occupying somebody else's land,
32:47it's the opposite of what the president expressed.
32:49The Palestinians have for centuries been occupying
32:53the homeland of the Jewish people.
32:55That is not to say that there cannot be some measure
32:58of compromise between the two peoples.
33:00But in recent years, America's presidents have expected Israel,
33:05not the Arabs, to make all the concessions.
33:08Why?
33:08Because the Arabs have simply stated that they want their land back
33:13and they have proven they will do anything
33:15and commit any acts in order to get what they want.
33:18For example, President Bill Clinton initiated the signing
33:24of the Oslo Peace Accord on September 13, 1993,
33:28which was supposed to set forth a framework of peace
33:33between Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
33:36But since the signing of the accord,
33:39Palestinian terrorist organizations have killed
33:42more than 1,600 Israelis and injured
33:45more than 11,000 in attacks.
33:48If America's leaders continue down a path of not blessing Israel,
33:52we should not expect God's blessing in return.
33:55That's exactly what Genesis 12, 3 says,
33:58and I'm just bold enough to believe it.
34:00If Great Britain is any example, then one must ask,
34:03can America's current troubles have anything to do
34:06with our lack of blessing toward Israel?
34:08My unsolicited advice to our leaders is this.
34:12Do not think the promises of God can be compromised
34:15or renegotiated at the bargaining table.
34:18God has spoken about Israel,
34:21and his words never fail to accomplish the purpose
34:24for which they were sent.
34:27God's preservation of America because of Israel.
34:34Number five, we've talked about God's providence
34:37in the story of Israel, God's promise of a land for Israel,
34:41God's punishment of the enemies of Israel,
34:43and God's preservation of America because of Israel.
34:46Now, let me talk about God's program for the church and Israel.
34:50Integrity demands that I address a point that I fear
34:53may be unknown to many Christians.
34:56Many church leaders, pastors, professors, Bible teachers,
35:01and others are contributing to America's lack
35:04of faithfulness to Israel.
35:05They are preaching and teaching what is called
35:09replacement theology.
35:11This view holds that the modern state of Israel
35:14has no modern relevance, that Israel of the Old Testament
35:18has been replaced by the church of the New Testament,
35:22that any unfulfilled Old Testament prophecies pertaining
35:26to the nation of Israel have found spiritual fulfillment
35:29in the blessings of the church through Jesus Christ.
35:33Generally speaking, replacement theology denies a present
35:38and future role for Israel and the land promised to her
35:42and totally denies anything relevant about the millennium.
35:46Well, if they don't believe it's true now,
35:48I want to tell you it's coming.
35:50Listen to me.
35:51Romans 11 says,
36:04God has been at work for thousands of years in Israel,
36:09and we need to step back from the trees and look at the forest.
36:13What has happened in Israel since 1948 is nothing short
36:18of miraculous when viewed from the perspective of AD 70
36:21when the Jews were last in Jerusalem.
36:24God told Israel through the prophet Jeremiah
36:27that there is only one condition under which Israel
36:30would ever cease to be a nation before him.
36:35Do you know what the condition was?
36:37Let me read you the Scripture.
36:39This is what the Bible says has got to happen
36:42before Israel ceases to be a nation.
36:44Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day,
36:50the ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night,
36:53who disturbs the sea and its waves roar,
36:57the Lord of hosts is his name.
36:59If those ordinances depart from before me, says the Lord,
37:03then the seed of Israel shall also cease
37:06from being a nation from before me forever.
37:08Thus says the Lord, if heaven above can be measured
37:11and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
37:15I will also cast off the seed of Israel
37:18and all those that they have done, says the Lord.
37:22The next time you walk out into the night,
37:24look up at the sky and remember that God said,
37:27before Israel ceases to be a nation,
37:30the sky and all of the planets in the sky
37:32and all of the earth and all the ordinances
37:34that hold them together, all of those will have to cease
37:37before God ceases to acknowledge Israel as a nation.
37:42That's just the truth.
37:50And finally, I want to talk for you just a moment
37:54about God's plan for the peace of Israel.
37:57Scripture makes it clear that to the degree
38:00America stands with God's chosen people,
38:02to that degree America will enjoy the favor of God.
38:05This I know, Genesis 12, 3 promises that God blesses
38:10those who bless Abraham, Jewish descendants.
38:13And as a citizen of America, I want to enjoy
38:16the favor of God upon my nation.
38:19If I were a political leader in America,
38:22it would be incumbent upon me to lead this nation
38:24in such a way as to invite his favor.
38:28So why would I knowingly diminish America's support
38:31for the one nation to which God ties his promise
38:34of blessing or cursing?
38:36The history of nations that have abused the Jewish people
38:39provides more than enough examples of the inevitable doom
38:43they bring down upon their own heads.
38:46You and I can do two things to influence
38:49America's support of Israel.
38:51First, we can use whatever means are available
38:55to influence those who establish national policies
38:58in Washington.
38:58We can vote, we can write letters,
39:01we can call our senators, our representatives in short.
39:06We can fulfill the dream of the founders
39:09who wanted our nation to be governed by the consent
39:11of those who were governed.
39:13We are the governed who need to make our voices heard saying,
39:17the United States simply needs to recognize
39:19that Israeli lands belong to the Jewish people
39:23and that Jerusalem is indeed the capital of Israel
39:27and has been ever since God declared it to be so.
39:35And last but not least, we can pray for Israel.
39:40We can pray for our leaders
39:42and we can pray for the peace of Israel.
39:46As the spiritual children of Abraham, which we are,
39:49we can enter into the spirit of Psalm 122,
39:53which David wrote to express his heart
39:55for the city upon which God has chosen to place his name.
39:59Listen to these words from that great Psalm.
40:02When they said, let us go to the house of God,
40:05my heart leaped for joy.
40:07And now we're here, O Jerusalem,
40:09inside Jerusalem's walls.
40:12Jerusalem, well-built city, built as a place for worship,
40:16the city to which the tribes ascend,
40:18all God's tribes go up to worship,
40:20to give thanks to the name of God.
40:23This is what it means to be Israel.
40:26Thrones for righteous judgment are set there,
40:29famous David thrones.
40:31Pray for Jerusalem's peace,
40:34prosperity to all you Jerusalem lovers,
40:37friendly insiders, get along,
40:40hostile outsiders, keep your distance.
40:42For the sake of my family and friends,
40:45I say it again, live in peace.
40:47For the sake of the house of our God,
40:49I'll do my very best for you.
40:52God has called us to be friends to the people of Israel.
40:57Another church like ours,
40:59pastored by a man that some of you know about,
41:02John Hagee, had a special day for Israel,
41:06which they do pretty much every year.
41:08He's a great champion for the people of Israel.
41:11This year, for the very first time,
41:13that service was interrupted by Palestinians who wanted to make their point.
41:16In fact, what I learned is that one of them was in the balcony.
41:19When Hagee started to preach on the importance of Israel,
41:22they started throwing pro-Palestinian leaflets over the balcony,
41:25and they floated down into the auditorium.
41:27They finally got that person and removed him.
41:29There were 10 protesters located throughout the church,
41:32and every five minutes, another one would get up and start to scream
41:36Palestinian things to interrupt the service.
41:39Finally, John Hagee said,
41:41you can do whatever you want to.
41:42I'm going to finish this sermon if it takes till 6 o'clock tonight.
41:46And so, he preached away, and little by little, they got them out.
41:50It used to be in this nation that could never happen,
41:55in a church especially.
41:57But the lines are being drawn today as never before, my friends.
42:01I've been asked all through the years why America is not mentioned
42:06in biblical prophecy.
42:08I've always had some interesting answers,
42:10like maybe we're not in biblical prophecy,
42:12because by the time a biblical prophecy happens,
42:15we've fallen on our own moral sword and self-destructed.
42:19We seem to be pretty much on the way to do that.
42:22I've also said that maybe we are locked in with a European coalition,
42:27and so when the Bible was written, since we've come from Europe,
42:30they've included us in the European coalition.
42:32I really don't believe that's the reason.
42:34When I was preaching on the economic Armageddon, I said,
42:37maybe we aren't included, because by the time the prophecy things
42:41happen in the New Testament, we've gone bankrupt,
42:43and we're out of business.
42:44We're certainly on the way to that, too.
42:47Another reason that I've often offered is,
42:49we are no longer a power in the future,
42:51because all these events that happen in the future
42:53take place after the rapture, and some estimates are
42:56that a huge portion of America will be gone,
43:00and many of the leaders will be gone.
43:02I think probably those statistics are somewhat exaggerated,
43:05may not be as many people gone as you think.
43:11But what if this nation is not in the prophetic future
43:16because we have forgotten Israel in our national policy?
43:21What if we have turned our back on the nation that God promised us
43:26would bless us if we blessed them?
43:29And by the time these events happen,
43:31we've gone so far down the road of passivity and neutrality
43:34toward Israel that God has removed his hand of blessing
43:38totally from this nation.
43:41It's something to think about.
43:43Israel today, right now, this very day,
43:46is in the most serious situation she has been in
43:50since the nation was born in 1948.
43:55So let's pray that God will help us to be faithful to our calling
43:59and to win people of Israel to Christ.
44:03You know, many Jewish people are coming to the Lord.
44:06So let's pray for Israel.
44:11It has been said that the continued survival of the nation of Israel
44:15is the greatest proof available for the existence of a loving God.
44:20A nation that has wandered the world for centuries
44:23is gradually being regathered as a measure of God's faithful grace and goodness.
44:30And there is a wonderful lesson in Israel's history for all of us.
44:34Regardless of how far we might have strayed away from God,
44:38He welcomes us home to Himself.
44:40If that describes you in any way,
44:43I'd love to send you two free resources that will help you
44:46reconnect with the God who loves you.
44:49One is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point,
44:52and the other is our monthly devotional magazine, Turning Points.
44:56And we'll gladly send them both to you free of charge
45:00if you will contact us here at Turning Point today.