The Legacy of Ron Nachman

Ron Nachman passed away last week.  He was a friend of mine.  No, he was more than that.  He was a dear friend of mine.  If you did not know Ron, I’d like to introduce you to him.

Ron was a visionary.  Proverbs 29:18 says “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”  By implication, where there is vision, the people thrive.  In 1978 Ron pitched two tents in the barren Judean hills.  That was the beginning of Ron’s vision of the city of Ariel.  Like Nehemiah rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, Ron suffered mockery and opposition to his dream.  He would stand on the hilltop and described the vision embedded not only in his mind, but in his heart.  And the people would tell him he was foolish, reckless, and crazy.

He was a young man back in 1978 and at the midpoint of his life.  From the age of 35, Ariel was his dream, his burden, and his goal.  He chose to develop Ariel deep into the territory away from the Green Line.  And he was determined to build a city there that was unrivaled for a city of its size in Israel.  Though he formally staked his two tents in the middle of a barren region, he had plans that were far bigger than two tents.  Instead of hoping for new residents to dribble into his experiment, he approached large groups of people to join with him.  In effect, he drew entire communities of people – initially some 6,000 – so that Ariel would not be built as a disjointed collection of desert homes with a cobbled infrastructure, but rather, a place where the essentials of a city could be well planned for the moment and the future.

Today the population of Ariel is 20,000.  It is a regional center for surrounding communities.  Ron would never settle for average or anything else that was less than the best.  I am proud to have assisted Ron on many occasions to help his dream come true.  I am proud to sit on the board of Ariel University, the first accredited Israeli university in the West Bank and an institution that only Ron could see through the dust of the desert in 1978.  It was as real in his mind back then as it is for the students who walk its campus today.

A critical interviewer asked Ron, “How can you build in Occupied East Jerusalem?”  To which he replied, “I just came from my hotel room, where I searched for proof that this land belongs to the British.  I found a Bible there, but it made no mention of London.  It didn’t speak of Washington, DC, or Paris or Berlin.  But do you know how many times the word ‘Jerusalem’ appeared?  And you are asking me if we have rights to our capital city?”

In a later conversation Ron posed the question, “If this land was given to us by God, how can we be considered trespassers?”  His question is legitimate.  If God has given us something, who has the right to consider our gift invalid?  Ron’s vision, and that of all Zionists, was to possess the land was given to Israel by Jehovah God Himself.  The Jews are not interlopers; they are inheritors.  They are not claim-jumpers; they are the children of the Most High God.

As we mourn the passing of this great man, would you also join me in giving the Lord thanks for how he used Ron as an instrument to accomplish His will?  Of course, you know that I am going to ask you to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. (Psalm 122:6)  I always will.  But, if I may, I would like to ask you to pray for the next generation of young people in Israel, like those who are students at Ariel University.  Please pray that they will have a Ron Nachman kind of vision for building the nation of Israel and that they would not sell their birthright for a mess of pottage.

Your ambassador to Jerusalem,
Dr. Mike Evans

Source material for this article can be found at the Jerusalem Post, the Jewish Press, and CBN News.

The Marvelous Modern Origins of Zionism

A solid case could be made to say that Zionism began in 70 AD at the beginning of the Diaspora following the destruction of Jerusalem, because from that day the dream of every Jew has been to return to their homeland.  But, as Leon Pinkster explained in 1882, the belief in the intervention of the Messiah “to bring about our political resurrection and the religious assumption that we must bear patiently divine punishment, caused us to abandon every thought of our national liberation. 

  Consequently we renounced the idea of a nation and did so the more readily since we were preoccupied with our immediate needs.  Thus, we sank lower and lower.  ‘The people without a country’ forgot their country.”

In other words, the Jewish people had drifted deeper and deeper into apathy through the centuries, resigning themselves to their situation, giving up the hope that the Scriptures clearly held out as a certainty.

Theodor Herzl, an early leader in the Zionist movement, in one of the most extra-Biblical prophetic statements ever spoken, said, “Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word, it would be this:  ‘At Basel I founded the Jewish State.  If I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter.  If not in five years, certainly in 50, everyone will know it.”  He made that statement in 1897.  If you are not impressed, add 50 years to 1897 and see what year you get.

Admittedly there are those who believe that the nation of Israel is a humanly-conceived and man-made venture and that it is, therefore, not of God.  That is possible to accept, but only on one condition:  that one ignores that God always works through men.  To list them all would be impossible, men like Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David, Solomon, Nehemiah, and Daniel.  It is, therefore, absurd to think that He would do anything different to bring the promised rebuilding of the nation of Israel through any other means.

To object to the work that these faithful men and woman committed to and have accomplished, to call it human rather than divinely conceived, is akin to calling Noah a fool because he built an ark.  Sure, God could have spoken the Ark into existence in a literal heartbeat, but He didn’t.  Instead it took Noah over 100 years to do it.  The problem is that some folks believe only what their eyes can see and their hands can touch.  Yet the Bible describes faith as “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

To see the nation of Israel as it is today and to say that it is not a work of God is stunningly preposterous.  Zionism exhibits the rising faith of the Jewish people in the latter 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries that God, working through willing servants and leaders, would keep His promise that Israel would, indeed, return to the Promised Land.  As the sometimes disturbing scenario in the Middle East unfolds, it is possible for Bible scholars to see how the table is being set for prophecies concerning Israel to be fulfilled, such as the expansion of its territories and the rebuilding of the Temple.

In order for the Lord to do the things He has promised to do with and for Israel, it was necessary for Israel to be gathered together again as a nation.  Using men and women who longed for that day, people called Zionists, God has brought them into the land and has prospered them.  What a beautiful and blessed fulfillment of His promises we have been able to witness, and are witnessing still.  Pray with thanks when you pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6) and pray with faith, believing that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He has said He will do.

Source material for this article included the Jewish Virtual Library, and Zionism-Israel.

Iranian Death Squads are in the US Now

In an exclusive report published today by World News Daily, Reza Kahlili revealed that Iranian death squads are already in the United States and are ready to wreak havoc inside our borders in 2013.  Khalili’s resume lends credence to his report.  He has served in the CIA Directorate of Operations, has been a spy in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, is a counter-terrorism expert, and currently serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security.

The source of WND’s information is deep within the Iranian government.  There are ten highly trained Revolutionary Guard officers who have been embedded in the US over the past five years.  They are leading terrorist cells of 50 men each.  US officials have been made aware of many of the details of the planned operations.

Targets of these cells include parts of the national power grid, cell towers, water supplies, public transportation and strategic buildings and compounds, especially belonging to the US Military.  The attacks, therefore, are already planned.  The initial damage inflicted is projected to be much greater and, of course, much more widespread than 9/11.  Al-Qaeda operatives, also in hiding, are scheduled to take part in the final phase of the attacks which are designed to cripple the infrastructure and the economy as well as to take the lives of as many Americans as possible.

The “red line” for the imposition of the plan is not well-defined, but could be anything from an increase in sanctions upon Iran, an Israeli attack on Iran, the overthrow of the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad, or even the failure of the US to accept Iran’s nuclear program within six months.  The deputy head of Iran’s military General Massoud Jazayeri, has previously said that “In the face of any attack, we will have a crushing response.  We will not only act in the boundaries of the Middle East and the Persian Gulf; no place in America will be safe from our attacks.”

The real problem is that a showdown is coming in March 2013 which the US has set as a deadline for Iran to comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency rules.  The threat is that, should they fail to do so, they will face additional, harsher sanctions.  The Iranian’s know that stricter sanctions will collapse their entire economy.  Their terrorist attacks within the US will be designed to bring our country to its knees.

In this same report, the source said that the Iranian nuclear program is far more advanced than anyone realizes and that it is wrong to assume that it is very far from reaching its goals.

The Islamic extremists have the US and Israel in their crosshairs and their fingers are on their triggers.  We need pray diligently for both the US and Israel.  We need to pray that the ties between our two countries will be strengthened and unbreakable.  We need to pray for God’s protection.  We need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6).  “The eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”  Let us pray that “He will drive our out our enemies before us” (Deuteronomy 33:27).

The source material for this post may be found at World Net Daily.

Hundreds of Thousands of Terrorists Ten Miles Away

Just a few days ago Israeli citizens watched television broadcasts of the return of former exiled Hamas leader Khalen Mashaal’s return to Gaza to commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the founding of the terrorist group.  Literally hundreds of thousands of Hamas members and Arabs living in Gaza assembled to hear Mashaal and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh shout insults, epithets, and warnings to the nation of Israel.  Even children were dressed in Hama military uniforms.

Now stop thinking like an American and start thinking like a Jew living in southern Israel.  Start thinking about what it would feel like to be watching live TV and seeing hundreds of thousands of your worst enemy being incited to conquer your country and kill you – and they are only ten miles away.  That is not just a nightmare.  That is reality.  Seriously, stop reading for a minute and just try to imagine it.  It is not just a reality, it is a frightening reality.

Mashaal not only said that Hamas will “never recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation,” but that “Jihad and the armed resistance is the only true path to liberation.  We kill the Zionists because they are conquerors and we will continue to kill anyone who takes our land and our holy places.”

Before we discover more of what Mashaal said, let’s review:

·         Gaza was taken from Israel by Egypt in the War of 1948

·         Gaza was taken back by Egypt in the Six Day War in 1967

·         Israel subsequently allow Palestinian refugees (from their own Arab countries) to live in Gaza as a separate entity.

·         Hamas has repeatedly and almost continually wrought terror in the south of Israel.

Okay.  Now that we know that Mashaal is another maniacal Islamic terrorist leader molded in the likeness of Ahmadinejad and Arafat, we can keep his tirades in proper perspective.  Things like, “Liberating Palestine, all of Palestine, is the duty and right and goal of all Arabs and Muslims.”  When he says, “Palestine” he is including Israel.  He went on to say that “From the sea to the (Jordan) river, from north to south, we will not give up any part of Palestine.  It is our country, our right and our homeland.”  That is patently not true, but it is what he believes to be the truth.

Israeli Vice-Premier wrapped up the situation, describing the difference between Mashaal and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas it that the latter wraps his extremist ideology in pretty words.  He is absolutely right.  Israel is not only surrounded enemy countries, but it borders two very large terrorist threats with the PA/PLO in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.

By the way, Hamas thinks that it won the eight-day war a couple of weeks ago, because Israel agreed to a ceasefire rather than invade Gaza.  This is a clear example of the twisted Islamic propaganda machine.  They could not tell the truth if it hit them in the face.

Our friends in Israel need our prayers.  They are in a desperate situation.  Normally it would be described as an impossible situation, but “with God nothing shall be impossible.” (Luke 1:37)

Our prayers can shake the very heavens because our God is Jehovah.  He is the protector of Israel.  People have tried to eradicate the Jews, but that will never happen.  Even if the situation gets worse, and it will, the Protector of Israel will always save them from oppression.  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. (Psalm 122:6)

Foundational information for this article can be found at the Times of Israel, International Business Times, and Israel National News.