This sermon delves into the theological implications of prophecy as it relates to world events, emphasizing the unique nature of Bible prophecy and its fulfillment in current times. The speaker highlights the significance of Israel and the Messiah in biblical prophecy, addressing the challenges faced by the Jewish people and the importance of recognizing Jesus as the Savior. The sermon underscores the necessity of accepting salvation as a free gift through Christ's sacrifice, contrasting it with the inadequacy of human efforts to earn salvation.

About two years ago I had been reading some information by Dave Hunt that he had written and I read in the meantime a book by him called What Love Is This, a very informative book. He spoke in the early service concerning the theological implications of what is covered in that book. In this hour he is going to be speaking on prophecy as it relates to world events in this day and time and it's a great joy for me to welcome Brother Dave Hunt of the Berean Call. Tomorrow night at 7 p.m. you should be here because he's going to be speaking on a very interesting topic and I'll let him tell you about that. He's also written a book about that. So I think it would, as the old biblicist would say, I think it would behoove you to come and be here tomorrow night and be a part of that service. And Brother Dave, we want you to know we certainly gained a lot of information and enjoyed what you had to say in the early service. We're looking forward to what you're going to say here to us now out of God's Word concerning prophecy and relating it to world events today. So if you'll come and speak to our people we're glad to welcome you. Thank you. Thank you. It's my privilege to be here. You know, I think it's very difficult to be a pastor because one of the problems is you are restricted by time. He's given me so many minutes to talk. It takes me an hour to get warmed up, and so I have to be a little more restricted. You know, I thank the Lord for my parents. I grew up in a very godly home. We had, well they called it prayer and Bible, or reading and prayer is what they called it, twice a day. And my mother not only had gospel verses on the wall, she had some other very practical suggestions. One of them was a little note that said, let your words, like your friends, be few and well chosen. That's very good advice. I'm still trying to learn that. I don't have too many friends. My words are still too many. Another one said, these are just on the wall, learn to talk less and say more. Whoa, I've been working on that one. Haven't gotten very far. It reminds me of a man that drove, if you've ever been to Switzerland, they have a lot of tunnels through the mountains, and he drove through the tunnel and he came out the other side. The police were waiting for him. And the police officer said, congratulations, wasn't there to arrest him, congratulations. You are the ten millionth person to go through this tunnel, and we have a bouquet of flowers and 2,000 French, I'm sorry, Swiss francs. And the reporters were there and taking his picture and said, what do you think you're going to do with these 2,000 Swiss francs? Well, he said, I think that might be enough to buy a driver's license on the black market. I've never had a driver's license because I'm legally blind. And his wife spoke up and said, don't pay any attention to anything he says, he's drunk. A little boy in the backseat said, Daddy, I told you you'd get in trouble driving this stolen car. And then there was a muffled voice from the trunk that said, have we passed the border yet? Well, anyway, so I should stop while I'm ahead, don't keep talking, but I've just begun. Prophecy and world events today, that's an amazing statement. Why should the Bible have any relationship with what's happening today? And I find this is, I was telling you in the earlier hour, the Lord sits me next to all kinds of interesting people, and I sit next on the airplane. I fly about 150,000 miles a year, so United Airlines treats me well. I'm in first class because it doesn't cost me anything. And you meet chief executive officers from international corporations, meet all kinds of people there. I sit next to geneticists from Harvard University, MBAs from Harvard and so forth, and I find there is no one who isn't interested in Bible prophecy, if you present it to them properly. I can tell them what's happening in the world today is all laid out in God's Word, and that is absolutely unique. No prophecies in the Koran. We'll talk a bit more about Islam. I can't remember whether that's tonight or tomorrow night, but anyway, it's a very important subject today. There are no prophecies in the Koran, the Hindu Vedas, Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana, you name it. Prophecy is unique to this book, the Bible. That's one thing we need to understand. The Bible is about 28% prophecy. These are not cheap psychic predictions. These are history-making, world-shaping, and world-shaking events that have been foretold centuries, even thousands of years. A young man I mentioned earlier, the young man I was sitting next to yesterday just coming into Augusta, and he said, oh, well, the Bible, that was, you know, that was written—I started talking a little bit about prophecy—well, that was written far after the events happened. He had strange ideas about the Bible, and I said, wait a minute, you know, we have something called the Greek Septuagint. That was a translation done by 70 Hebrew scholars. It's translated into Greek, from Hebrew into Greek. That was done, we know that was done, maybe 250, 270 B.C. So we know we've got these prophecies centuries before they were fulfilled in the life of Christ, and certainly, I mean, Daniel tells you the very day, gives you the date, Jesus would ride into Jerusalem on that donkey, sixty-nine weeks of years from the going forth of the command to rebuild Jerusalem until the Messiah, the Prince, and then he would—anyway, you cannot escape it. I say, I love to speak at universities. I don't care who's in the audience. I tell you, I will prove to you the Bible is God's Word. I will prove to you that Jesus Christ is the true and only Savior of sinners. I will prove to you that this is the truth, and I challenge anybody to refute it. You can't do it. I was sitting next to an executive from an airline once, and he said to me—these were his words—he said, when I was in university, I became a born-again Christian. Now, I don't know what I believe anymore. Well, I meet people like that all over the world. Well, I say, I can prove to you that the Bible is God's Word. I can prove to you Jesus Christ is the true and only Savior of sinners. I can prove to you that God exists. He said, would you do that? Could you help me? We've got a lot of people who think they believe, and they don't really have a solid basis for what they believe. And turn to Isaiah 46, and prophecy is in fact the great proof that God gives. We said we were going to have a prophecy conference. People might think, oh, we're going to talk about the Antichrist, the Second Coming, or the Rapture, the Great Tribulation, and so forth. Well, you could talk about that. That's part of prophecy. But most prophecy has already been fulfilled, and that is the great proof that God gives. Look at Isaiah 46, verse 9, and remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like Me. Well, that's easy to say. Now let's prove it. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure. We were talking about Calvinism in the last hour. Very important doctrine, and you find that in Acts chapter 15, where James says, known unto God are all His works from the beginning. Does God know the future? He knows the future. He knows every thought you are going to ever think. That doesn't mean that you have to think the thoughts that God—well, you have to think the thoughts that God knows, but the fact that He knows it does not cause you to do it. He is omniscient, and He knows. And prophecy is one of the great proofs of foreknowledge. God tells us what's going to happen before it happens, and He says, I will tell you what will happen before it happens. I will watch over history and make certain that it does, so that you will have to acknowledge when it happens, you will have to acknowledge, I am God, and this is My Word. This is the distinction. If you go over to chapter 48, verse 5, notice what He says, I have even from the beginning declared it to thee, before it came to pass I showed it thee, lest thou should say, My idol hath done them, and My graven image and My molten image hath commanded them. God says, I'm not going to let you give credit to your idols. I will tell you what's going to happen before it happens. This is the great proof of the true God, and that the Bible is His Word, and it is absolutely unique. As I said, there are no prophecies in the Koran, no prophecies anywhere else, and we're not talking about cheap psychic predictions. Turn to chapter 42, in verse 9, Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare. Before they spring forth I tell you of them. Again, God is saying, I am the God, I'm the only one who can tell you what's going to happen before it happens, and you cannot be an atheist. You cannot be an agnostic. I don't care who you are. You cannot deny that what God said centuries beforehand has come to pass, and in fact, is coming to pass even today. It's stated in clear language. Now, there are two major topics of prophecy in the Bible. Israel, go to chapter 43, verse 1, But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel. Okay, so now we know to whom He is speaking. Verse 10, Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. Good verse for Jehovah's Witnesses. Verse 11, If Jesus is the Savior, He must be God, because all through the Old Testament, Yahweh says He is the only Savior. So if Jesus is the Savior, He must be Yahweh, and He tells us that over and over. I and my Father are one. Before Abraham was, I am, and so forth. But He says to the Jews, You are my witnesses to yourselves and to the world that I am God. How are they His witnesses? Because we have 144,000 godly Jews running around the world testifying that God is the one true God? No. Because of what He said would happen to them. He laid out the whole history of the Jewish race, everything that would happen to them, and it has happened and is in the process of happening. So you have these two major topics of prophecy. Israel, number one. Number two, the Messiah. Interesting. I think grace is mentioned maybe a hundred and some, a hundred and seventy times, I think, just my memory is not failing me, in the King James Bible. The Christ, Christ, you'll find the word there, 555 times. How many times do you think you find the word Israel? 2,565 times. This must be an important topic. This is a major topic of history. We have people, a major topic of the Bible as well as history. We have people today, they call them the Identity Movement, various names for them, and they deny that the church, they deny that Israel is of any importance. They say the church is Israel. The Jews, they're finished. Well, then you've wiped out the significance of Israel. You've wiped out the significance of much that God gives to prove that He is God. He has made so many prophecies that Israel would be restored to her land, a final restoration. You cannot escape it, and if that's not true, if Israel is finished, then you've pulled the rug out from under the Bible. Well, one of the things the Bible foretells, I turn to, go back to Deuteronomy for a moment. Deuteronomy chapter 28, I think that my Bible would open right to it. Notice verse 37, "...thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations, whether the Lord shall leave thee." Antisemitism, I could give you many other verses, but we have constraints of time here. But all through the Old Testament, antisemitism is foretold. You will be hated and persecuted like no other people on the face of this earth. You will be killed, you will be slaughtered, and we have that over and over and over in Scriptures. You cannot escape it. It's true. These people have been hated and persecuted. I don't know if you've ever thought of what it would be like to be raised a Jew. Antisemitism, is that going on today? The United Nations has condemned Israel more than 270 times for defending themselves. How many times have they condemned the Arabs, the terrorists, the so-called Palestinians? Zero! Is that a little bit of prejudice? They even voted—the United Nations even voted that Zionism was racism. Now, 16 years later, they reversed that. Zionism, just the desire that the Jews should have a home of their own, a national homeland? Racism? If you would study antisemitism, the history of it, it is beyond belief. You know that there was a Holocaust after the Holocaust? Do you know that the skeletal survivors of Auschwitz were released from that prison camp, extermination camp, to go back to reclaim the homes from which the Gestapo had taken them? When they tried to repossess the homes that were theirs, they were killed by the Polish people, more than 200 of them in the town of Kielce, Poland alone. There was a Holocaust after the Holocaust, killing Holocaust survivors across Europe. And you know that Holocaust survivors in rickety ships, trapped within sight of the Promised Land, driven back by the British Navy. Maybe you don't know, in 1944, Hitler Himmler offered to sell 500,000 Hungarian Jews to the Allies for $2 a piece. Nobody would take them. Britain said there's no room in Palestine for them. And if Wallenberg hadn't rescued 100,000, they would have all gone to the gas chambers. You remember the ship St. Louis? 1,100 escapees from Nazi Germany? They went to every port in South, Central, and North America, and they were turned away at every port. Roosevelt wouldn't take them, although 700 of them had valid entry permits to the United States that were just not ready. They were a couple of months in advance. Anti-Semitism, I think I could make you weep if I began to really tell you what this is. God said, I'm going to give you a land. I'll bring you into this land. If you disobey me, we're in chapter 28, look at verse 63, the end of it, you shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it. If you disobey me, I'll throw you out of this land, the promised land. And notice the next verse, and the Lord shall scatter thee among all people. I mean, I could just give you many verses. Amos 9.9, I will sift the house of Israel among all nations. Did it happen? It happened. We call them the wandering Jew. They're everywhere. And God said, you're going to be hated and persecuted like no other people in history on the face of this earth. And it came to pass. But then God said, I'm going to preserve you. An identifiable ethnic group of people. You've heard of the ten lost tribes? It's a myth. Ten tribes are not lost. If ten tribes were lost, then God cannot bring all twelve back into their land, can He? What did Jesus say? Jesus didn't seem to know about ten tribes that were lost. Jesus said to His disciples, you will sit on twelve thrones, judging the what? Twelve tribes of Israel. Paul talked about the twelve tribes. James talked about the twelve tribes. So, you get an insight into antisemitism. What is antisemitism all about? Well, look, go to Jeremiah chapter 31. Antisemitism, and I don't know, maybe some of you here don't like Jews, I don't know what your personal views are, but I can tell you from the Word of God, it is satanic. It is inspired of the devil. Very simple reason. Because the Messiah comes through Israel. Jesus was a Jew, wasn't He? It's the seed of Abraham that the Messiah would come. Then if Satan could wipe out the Jews, no Messiah. That's pretty simple. And even after Jesus came and defeated Satan on the cross, if Hitler could wipe them out, if the Muslims—we'll be talking more about that later, but listen, let me quote you Muhammad. Muhammad said, the last—you know who Muhammad is, I presume, everybody, the founder of Islam. Muhammad said, the last day will not come until the Muslims confront the Jews and the Muslims destroy them. Even the rocks and the trees will cry out, Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him. Okay? This is Islam. Why? Because if we could wipe these people out, even after Christ defeated Satan on the cross, which the Muslims don't acknowledge, they say Jesus not only didn't die in our place, somebody died in His place, He didn't even die, and certainly not for our sins, but if the Jews could be wiped out today, Satan has won his battle with God. Why? Because there are hundreds and hundreds of promises in the Word of God. We open our Bible to Jeremiah 31. Look at this, verse 35, hundreds of promises that God would preserve these people. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, the ordinances of the moon, and of the stars for a light by night, which divided the sea when the waves thereof roared. The Lord of hosts is His name. If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation. If you highlight in your Bible or underline that word, a nation before me forever. The Muslims say, oh, we don't want it. You know, let them be. They can live under us. That land belongs to us. But they cannot be a nation. They're an international people. These Zionists, they don't have any home. They don't have any nation. They don't have any loyalty, and they certainly cannot live in this land. God says Israel will not cease from being a nation, and if Israel ceases from being a nation, there's no sun in the sky. It's tied to the survival and the restoration and the blessing of these people. That's why anti-Semitism is out there, because Satan could prove that God is a liar. He could even prevent the second coming. In the second coming, Christ returns to rule over His people Israel in their land on the throne of His father David, right? If there's no twelve tribes there, the second coming can't occur. And I'm not talking about the rapture. The second coming can't occur. Satan at least has a stalemate with God. Now, of course, I mentioned we won't have time to go into that, but I mentioned that the second major topic of prophecy is the Messiah. Hundreds, and I don't have to tell this to you folks. I think you all know the signs for the Messiah, the prophecies for the Messiah. Listen, listen, listen. We've forgotten this. I'm sorry. How did Paul preach the gospel? Well, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Read of it in Acts chapter 17. And he opened their Scriptures, and he said, look, what your prophets have said about the Messiah. You cannot deny it was all fulfilled in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. He's the Messiah. Paul, it says, proved from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah. Romans chapter 1. He said, I'm an apostle separated unto the gospel of the Southern Baptist Church. Oh, I'm sorry, that was a Freudian slip. Separated unto the what? Gospel of God. Well, that's easy for you to say, Paul. Prove it. Which He promised before by His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son, Jesus, the Son made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and so forth. Paul went to the Scriptures. You know, if I asked you, where do you find the gospel in the Bible? Well, the gospel is the power of God and salvation of everyone who believes, Romans 1.16, and we get it laid out by Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This is the gospel that I preached out to you, by which you're saved, and you're standing, and so forth, how that Christ died for our sins and was buried and rose again the third day. What did I leave out, you bright biblical scholars? I left something very important out of there. That is not what he says. The gospel isn't that Christ died for our sins and was buried and rose again. The gospel is Christ died for our sins what? According to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. The gospel that we preach is according to the Scriptures, and we can absolutely prove that Jesus is the Messiah, because He fulfilled hundreds of prophecies, and otherwise He's not the Messiah. If He didn't fulfill the prophecies, don't believe in Him. But if He did, you better believe in Him, because there is no other way. I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. He said, if you turn to Zechariah chapter 12, this book, the Bible, you cannot escape it. It's God's Word. There is no doubt about it. Zechariah chapter 12, verse 2, This is an amazing prophecy, and it is right up to date, current events. He didn't say, Rome. He didn't say, New York. He didn't say, Washington, D.C. He certainly didn't say, Abilene. I'll make Abilene a burdensome stone around the necks of all the nations of the world. What is the number one problem the world faces today? Jerusalem. Oh, we've got a lot of problems around the world. But if you don't solve the problem of Jerusalem, you've got a nuclear holocaust. Believe me, Israel has the bomb. They can launch them from submarines and missiles. And what do you think all these nations around them are arming themselves for? Defensive weapons? Israel hasn't threatened anybody. They are determined, and we will document that for you. I think tomorrow night or tonight, I can't remember, but we'll document it for you. Extermination of Israel is their intent. Look, the United Nations has spent one-third of its time deliberating and pronouncing about Jerusalem and Israel. A little nation that has one one-thousandth of the world's population, they spent a third of their time on this. Is it a burdensome stone? Is what the prophet said, is it coming true even in our day? Of course it is. You cannot deny it. You can't be an atheist. You can't be an agnostic. Israel and Jerusalem will be the number one problem that the world will face in the last days. Now, I mentioned 2,565 times Israel is mentioned in the Bible. Two hundred and three times God says that He is the God of Israel. How many times does He say He's the God of the Americans, or of the Germans, or of the French? Zero. But two hundred and three times God says, I am the God of Israel. You remember when He identified Himself with the burning bush to Moses. Moses said, well, what's your name? You're sending me to Egypt to deliver your people. Who will I say sent me? God says, My name is Yahweh. I am that I am. The eternal self-existent God whose existence depends upon none other but Himself. And the existence of all creatures, beings, and things depends upon my existence. This is what it means. Yahweh, I am. I am that I am. You remember Jesus said, I mean He used that term in a way you wouldn't dare to. He said before Abraham was, I am. He said in John 8 to the Jews, except you believe that I am. And look in your King James, He is in italics. He is declaring that He is Yahweh. And if you don't believe that I am God, that I am the true God, you will die in your sins, and where I go you cannot come. You've got poles. I'm sure the pastor can give you more, keeps up with that better than I do. But you've got all kinds of poles. People who call themselves born-again Christians don't believe Jesus is God. You don't believe Jesus is God, you will not be in heaven. I didn't say that, Jesus said it. You don't believe Jesus is God, you are looking to someone less than God to be your Savior. And all through the Old Testament, Yahweh says, I am the only Savior. And on that occasion, Yahweh said to Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. This is my name, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Do you understand anti-Semitism? They are going after God Himself. This is His name. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And twelve times He states that. Remember Jesus putting the Sadducees? You know, they were Sadducees because they didn't believe in the resurrection. You've heard that. And Jesus said, wait a minute. God says, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. He used that to prove his point. Jerusalem. The number one problem. Why? Some of you have been there. I don't want to offend anybody here this morning, but Jerusalem is a little nothing place. I mean, I'll take Switzerland with its Alps and glaciers, and how about rivers and lakes and so forth. This is in the middle of the desert. This little hill, Zion. Oh, God says He put His name in Zion. He didn't say that about any other city in the world. God says that this is His city. Jerusalem is the city of God, He says, over and over and over. And this is the number one problem that the world faces today. Israel is remarkable, and it is in the news day after day every day. You cannot escape it. When you think of, when you study the history of this, as I've put in a lot of study on this, the history of Israel, its very survival today is a miracle. The whole world has been against this. You think that when Israel declared their independence in May 14th, 1914, and 1948, they were instantly attacked by the regular armies of five Arab nations, with others backing them, about seven of them in all. They had tanks, they had planes. These are Jewish settlers living in this land. They don't really have anything, and no one will sell it to them. The United States would not sell them armaments. They had to smuggle them out of Czechoslovakia. They are outnumbered forty to one, at least. Overwhelming numerical superiority, overwhelming firepower, and so forth. Who won? They have won every war. They have won it against an enemy that has sworn to exterminate them. Look at verse 6, Zechariah chapter 12, verse 6, 6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, like a torch of fire and a sheaf. And they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left. And Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem. Look, you don't take on the idea of the Israeli defense forces. I was talking with a man who was a member of a top secret elite U.S. military group, and he said, we're training the military in twenty-five Muslim nations. I said, you're training them? He said, well, we're not so much as training them as terrifying them. When they see what we've got, we don't give them our weapons. Well, I said, what about Israel? Are you training them? I knew what he would say. I'd heard it before from military men. Oh, he said, we don't train them. They're better than we are. And they are. And yet, the world is against them. You remember when, look, it's so interesting. Anybody remember in 1981, June 7th, 1981, what happened? Saddam Hussein, that nice guy over there, that I'm sorry, we gave him billions to arm him, because he was against Iran. They were having a battle with Iran. And we were against Iran. We wanted Iran to be put down. We armed Saddam Hussein. He almost had the atomic bomb. Almost. He was very close. The world would do nothing. Israel had to take it on itself, because they knew that he was making that for them. And they sent their planes in at low altitude with twenty-two hundred pound bombs, and they took out his whole nuclear establishment. They were condemned. The United Nations, just think about it. Gene Kirkpatrick gave a speech. The worst condemnation the United Nations ever made against Israel, and the United States joined in that. What about today? We send our boys in there. We're going to take Saddam out finally. We realize what an evil man he is. But the whole world condemned Israel for getting rid of his nuclear capabilities. Now we're searching for them. Israel is the center, is the heart. Somebody says, why do you believe in God? The Jew. That's very simple. Not only, you know, not only the Muslims are against Israel, but again I don't want to offend anybody here this morning. The Roman Catholic Church is against Israel. They've been against Israel. It was the popes who first put Jews in ghettos, made them wear a yellow badge or an identifying hat or something like that. The Muslims did it later. You have to humiliate these people. How are you going to humiliate them if you can't recognize them? They had to wear something that you would identify these people. That was in Islam. A thousand years before Hitler came along, 1,300 years before Hitler came along, he only picked it up from them. And Hitler said to a couple of bishops, Catholic bishops, he said, I'm only doing what the Church has done for 1,500 years only. I'm going to finish the job. The Catholic Church has been opposed to Israel. It was not until 1994 that the Vatican even acknowledged the existence of Israel. By the way, I don't know if you know this, I'll challenge you, travel around the world, go to any Arab nation, you try to find a map in any Arab textbook that shows Israel. They do not acknowledge that Israel exists. There is no map that even acknowledges the existence of Israel. It was not until 1994, 46 years after Israel declared its independence, that the Vatican acknowledged the existence of Israel. In 1904, Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionist movement, he tells us that he asked Pope Pius X, would you give us help to get a homeland, to get back into the land that God promised to us. He records the Pope's reply. The Pope said, we cannot prevent the Jews from returning to Palestine. We could never condone it. By the way, how did it become Palestine? This is the land of Israel. I don't like it, folks, I'm sorry. I look in the back, this is a Bible someone gave to me, a Scofield Bible, and I look in the back, and there are maps back there. It says Jerusalem, I'm sorry, Palestine in the time of Jesus. No, there was no Palestine in the time of Jesus. I've got a map here that says Palestine under the Maccabees. There was no Palestine under the Maccabees. This was Israel in 130 A.D., the Romans who had destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D., remember, under Titus. They rebuilt Jerusalem as a pagan city, and they put a temple to Jupiter on Temple Mount. You can imagine that upset the Jews. There was an uprising, a rebellion, and it lasted about five years, and in that rebellion about a half a million Jews were killed, thousands were sold into slavery, and in anger the Romans renamed Israel Syria Palestina, after their chief enemies the Philistines. From that time on it was known as Palestine. I don't like that word, folks. This is not Palestine, this is Israel. This is the land that God gave to these people. By the way, everybody living there from that time on was known as Palestinians. Who lived there? Jews. World War II, the British had a volunteer brigade, the Palestinian Brigade. Who was in it? Jews. There was a symphony orchestra, a Palestinian symphony orchestra, all Jews. There was the Palestinian Post, a Jewish newspaper. In fact, the Arabs at that time refused to be called Palestinians, and I could give you quotation after quotation of Arab leaders in commissions in England, in France, and so forth saying, we are not Palestinians. There never was a Palestinian people. There is no nation called Palestine. There never was a Palestinian language, a Palestinian culture, a Palestinian government, and that is true. Anti-Semitism, and the Catholic Church was one of the major ones. Pope, well before I get to the next Pope, let me just quickly stop in 1919. This is Cardinal Pietro Gasparri. He said, he was the Secretary of State of the Vatican, he said, the thing that frightens us the most is the thought of Jews returning to Palestine. Can you imagine this? Hundreds of promises that God would bring His people back. The Pope cannot condone it. The Cardinal is frightened by it, and you remember Pope Pius XII. We've written a lot about it in the Berean Call. By the way, if you don't get our newsletter, you're welcome to sign up out there. We send it out free each month. This is the man who didn't speak out about the Holocaust, and Catholics say, well, because he didn't want to upset Hitler, he was working behind the scenes. Okay, but he knew how to speak out very clearly when he wanted to, and June 22, 1943, the Pope wrote to President Roosevelt, and you know, I've abandoned my notes long ago, so I'm not even going to find this, but I can quote it. He wrote to President Roosevelt, he knew how to speak out forcefully. He said, if a national home is desired for the Jewish people, some place other than Palestine would be better, because if you let them back in there again, that will cause great problems for the world. Utterly opposed to the promises—this is the vicar of Christ, claims to represent and be the head of the one true church, claims to represent God on earth—opposed to the hundreds of promises in the Bible that God would bring His people back into the promised land. Well, let me just give you a couple of quotes, and then I'd better bring this to a halt. You know, Anwar Sadat, remember him, he was a good guy. He went to Jerusalem to make peace with the Jews. But you don't know that he wrote an open letter to Hitler after Hitler's death, and he said, I hope you're still alive. You were right. The only thing we have against you is you didn't finish the job. I can give you speeches in—well, I'll just give you one speech. This is a Friday sermon, Gaza Ziyad bin Sultan al-Nayan Mosque, October 14, 2000. This is the mufti speaking. This is on TV. Have no mercy on the Jews. Kill them and those Americans who established Israel here in the beating heart of the Arab world. That was the day. Two Israeli reservists—remember? They made a wrong turn. They ended up in Ramallah, and they were torn apart by a mob, beaten to death, literally torn apart, running around with parts of their body—you should see the video of this—cheered on Palestinian television, because this is the teaching of Islam. Well, what does all this have to do with our salvation? It has a lot to do with our salvation, because if the Bible isn't true, then Jesus is not the Savior. We can prove the Bible is true. You know, the modern weapons that we have today are beyond comprehension. The Bible, Jesus said in Matthew 24, verses 22-23, Jesus said, it's going to be a time of tribulation such as this world has never seen. Remember what He said? If those days are not shortened, if I don't intervene and stop the destruction, no flesh will be left alive on planet earth. That is a prophecy that relates to our day. You couldn't have understood that a hundred years ago, even seventy-five years ago. We have the weapons that can wipe out all flesh on planet earth, and Jesus warned He's going to have to stop and intervene. We have the computers—amazing—to rule this world with a number, to control all banking and commerce. You couldn't have done that before. Revelation 13 says the Antichrist would do that. Jesus warned of these days. The Bible foretells these days—just turn to Isaiah. I've got to read it. And notice what God says, because people say, well, you know, are we getting close? Are we getting close? I think we're getting very close. Verse 9, Isaiah 66, 9, "...shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord? Shall I cause to bring forth, and shut the womb, saith thy God?" No, God says, look, we're not going to come all this way through history to where we have Israel back in her land. Israel is a burdensome stone. Jerusalem is a burdensome stone around the necks of the nations. They are like fire. You're going to attack them? You're going to have a real holocaust on your hands. They're the best in the world. Though the whole world comes against them, they will be broken in pieces, God says. I read you the prophecies. You will have a man ruling this world with a number. The fulfillment of Bible prophecy is all around us today. You cannot escape it. But the great prophecies are about the Messiah. And, you know, I mentioned this young man. I could tell you hundreds of stories sitting next to him. I'm only one of several people the Lord brought me to yesterday on various airplanes. And he's saying, well, and you hear it all the time. Well, I'm just going to, I just do good. I try to do good, you know. And I don't think I'm so bad. I said, look, you break one law. You're a lawbreaker. You cannot make up for breaking the law in the past by keeping the law in the future. You tell the judge, well, I know I was speeding the other day, but I've driven more times within the speed limits than I have exceeding it. Wouldn't my good deeds outweigh my bad? You've got people who think this. They think God will go for that. There's not a court of law on this earth that will go for that. And the Bible very clearly lays out the problem. We're sinners. We've broken God's laws. I was talking with a Sikh. He was driving me in a taxi. And he said, well, I'm not so bad. I think I'm okay. I think I've done enough good works to get me to heaven. I said, do you know the first commandment? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength, with all thy mind. And the second, ne'er neighbor as yourself. Oh, he said, I haven't kept that for one minute. And none of us have. Well, then what are we going to do? God has a problem. He loves us. He wants to forgive us. But you can't just whitewash. You just can't ignore sin. You can't just say, that's okay. Let's say my only son is standing before me. He's been found guilty of multiple murders and so forth. The jury has laid out the evidence. They've said he is guilty. I have to pronounce a sentence. Somebody in the back of the courtroom says, yeah, but Dave's going to let him off because it's his only son and he loves him. If the judge lets the guilty off, he is a partner in their crime. You understand that God is righteous and holy? It's a matter of justice. He can't just forgive people. There has to be a basis. I talked about that with this young man again yesterday. How can God, Paul says, be just but forgive sinners? Because the penalty has been paid, and only if the penalty has been paid. And as Christ gave His Spirit into His Father's hands on the cross, He cried with a loud voice. I love that. He didn't just expire. He said, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down in myself. Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. Tetelestai! It is finished. And that's a Greek word that they stamped on promissory notes on documents in that day. It means paid in full. And if Jesus Christ did not pay the debt in full, a righteous God cannot forgive you. And if that's the only basis, then it's a gift. It's a gift. And I want to just illustrate it. Pastor, I'm trying desperately to stop. This young man has been looking at me so intently here that I want to give you something. My wife and I just discovered the basement of our home. Actually, we don't have a basement. We live in volcanic land. You'd have a tough time making a basement. But anyway, we just discovered a long-lost Rembrandt, and I just want to give it to you. And he says, Dave, thanks. I'll give you a penny for it. Now, you don't mind me using you as an illustration, I hope. He's done two things. He's offered me a penny for a priceless gift. What has he done? Number one, it's an insult, right? Is it an insult to offer a penny for a painting that's worth hundreds of millions? Listen, please, it's not my words. This is the Bible. You need to think about this carefully. You offer God anything—your good works, your gifts to charity, your church membership, your prayers, turning over a new leaf. You offer God anything for the infinite gift that Christ bought at a price you cannot pay, and you are insulting God. He wouldn't dare to do that. The second thing he's done, he's rejected the gift. Isn't that true? Oh, just offer me a penny for a priceless painting. You've rejected the gift. To take a gift, you have to accept it without any payment. So if you offer God anything, you think your good deeds or whatever, your character, whatever it is, is going to get you to heaven. You're going to add that to what Jesus did? Then Jesus didn't do enough. You offer God anything. You are rejecting. You are denying that Christ paid the full penalty. That's serious. You understand? Jesus wept in the garden. This is the Son of God weeping before His Father, saying, if it's possible for men to be saved any other way, don't make me go through with this. And He wasn't afraid of having nails driven in His hands and feet. He would be made sin for us. He was going to pay the penalty for the sins of this world. I can't even comprehend what that is. It was horrible. And He said, if man can be saved any other way, don't make me go through with this. What did the Father say? There's no other way. And you think that after the Father tells the Son there is no other way, you've got to pay the penalty, that then God can just let you in some other way? It's a slap in the face to Jesus. You couldn't believe anything else God said. He goes back on His word. Do you understand how serious this is? And He offers salvation as a free gift, paid for by Christ on the cross. And you can receive it as a gift. That's all you have to do, is trust in Him. Father, thank You for Your Word. Lord, we haven't even been able to touch the beginning of the prophecies that prove Your existence, that prove the Bible is Your Word. Thank You for the prophecies that prove Jesus is the Messiah. And Lord, each of us in our conscience, we know that there is no hope apart from Christ. And Father, I don't know the people here this morning, but there may be some who have never humbled themselves to the point of realizing their good works aren't enough, their character's not enough. But we're all sinners, and they have not received that free gift that You offer of salvation that is in Christ alone. O God, I pray You would speak to their hearts. And Lord, those of us who do know You, help us as we present Christ to others, that we will present Him from Your Word, from prophecy fulfilled, the gospel that You promised by Your prophets that cannot be denied. And Lord, use us to rescue many before it is too late. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.