Coconuts, elephants and leopards

There is a time-honored confidence trick known as the shell game or coconut shell game, often played for money. A ball or an object is hidden underneath one of three coconut shells as they are quickly shuffled back and forth on a flat surface. The player attempts to point out the shell which covers the hidden object. In most cases the hapless victim and his money are soon parted, since he was unable to keep track of the coconut shells.

In a similar manner, the fast-paced events of the past week in the Middle East could easily confuse any bystander. What lies underneath each coconut shell on the diplomatic table: Is it peace? Is it war? A new Golden Age for the Middle East? Or is it something similar to the apocalyptic Munich Agreement of September 1938? A lot depends on uncovering the secrets of men’s hearts (see Psalm 44:21; Daniel 2:29; 1 Corinthians 14:25). We need God to shine His divine spotlight on what is motivating the leaders of Syria and Qatar, of Saudi Arabia and the USA.

Coming newsletters will focus on unpacking these events.

The ideal leader

The ideal leader in God’s sight (according to the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 17:14-20) is a man who weighs matters, makes and implements his decisions based on the Scriptures. His heart must not be influenced by pursuit of power or wealth. Based on these guidelines, sad to say, there are precious few godly leaders in our world today.

Being a world leader does not guarantee wisdom or godly policies, for “foolishness is set in many exalted places” (Ecclesiastes 10:6). Political strategies fashioned by godless leaders can sometimes bring destructive results: “YHVH knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are useless” (1 Corinthians 3:19-20). But when Biblical foundations are present, godly geopolitics can bring blessing and not futility.

Solomon son of David was the wisest man who ever lived: “Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt” (1 Kings 4:29-30). Yet Solomon ended up disqualifying himself from the throne by his chasing after ‘girls, gold and glory.’ Toward the end of his life, David’s son summed up what he had learned: “The conclusion, when everything has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

God’s scalpel cuts deep into the torso of humankind, exposing fat, muscle and bone: “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). The rollercoaster of Middle East events is being crafted by YHVH to expose the thoughts and hearts of many peoples and leaders.

The elephant in the living room

The Western world is for the most part ignorant of what the Arabic-speaking world thinks, what the Islamic community believes, and what Muslim sensitivities are. The secularized West is mostly unaware of what the Quran teaches, and of how the concept of military jihad is central in the Muslim world. For those who would want to broaden their understanding on these matters, a good place to begin is David Pryce-Jones’ penetrating book ‘The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs’ (1989, Harper & Row).

Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar, senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, served for 25 years in IDF military intelligence specializing in Syria, Arab political discourse and mass media, Islamic groups and Israeli Arabs. An expert on the Muslim Brotherhood, his take is worth considering: “Given Islam’s pervasive entrenchment in Palestinian society (and for that matter in all Middle Eastern societies) – even Yasser Arafat and most of the PLO’s founding generation were Muslim Brotherhood members in their young age – the acceptance of Israel’s existence by Muslims communities, both within Israel and abroad, will only be feasible upon their realization of the Jewish state’s overwhelming strength and invincibility. Only a powerful, well organized, highly determined and militarily invincible Israel can stand a chance of surviving in its violent and merciless neighborhood.”

This can be described as ‘the strong horse’ principle. In mid-November 2001, Osama Bin Laden spoke to a room of supporters, discussing the September 11th terrorist attacks: “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature, they will like the strong horse. This is [the] goal . . . following the doctrine of Muhammad.” Bin Laden saw Islam as the strong horse, and Christian America and the Jewish state as the weak horses.

Journalist Lee Smith based the name of his book The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations on Osama bin Laden’s quote. Smith states that strength or “violence is central to the politics, society, and culture of the Arabic-speaking Middle East, and that Arab politics is driven by the ‘strong horse’ principle.” “Bin Ladenism is not drawn from the extremist fringe but represents the political and social norm [of the Arabic-speaking Middle East].” According to T. Edward Donselm (writing in the Arab Studies Quarterly), Smith sees revived modern Islamism using the fourteen-hundred-year old tool of jihad to restore Sunni Islam once again to world supremacy.

Dr. Daniel Pipes (director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University) applies Bin Laden’s ‘strong horse’ principle to Israel’s role in the Middle East. Israel serves as ‘a proxy strong horse’ for both the United States and the Saudi-Egyptian bloc in the latter’s Cold War rivalry with Iran’s bloc. Pipes explains that non-Arab actors in the Arab world must demonstrate force and staying power – otherwise they lose. “Being nice – say, withdrawing unilaterally from southern Lebanon and Gaza – leads to inevitable failure. More broadly, when the U.S. government flinches, others (e.g., the Iranian leadership) have an opportunity to ‘force their own order on the region.’ Walid Jumblatt, a Lebanese Druze leader, has half-seriously suggested that Washington [should] ‘send car bombs to Damascus’ to get its message across and signal its understanding of Arab ways.”

Pipes concludes that the ‘strong horse’ paradigm helps us to comprehend the Arabs’ cult of death, honor killings, terrorist attacks, despotism and warfare. Pipes acknowledges that the strong-horse principle may strike Westerners as crude, but it is nevertheless a cold reality that outsiders must recognize, take into account, and respond to. An awareness of how life is lived and war is waged ‘in the hood’ known as the Middle East, is essential for Israel’s survival.

There is an old Persian/Iranian proverb which warns: “Do not invite an elephant trainer into your living room unless you also have room there for an elephant!” Islam’s view of Israel and the Jewish people is the ticking time-bomb which lies at the heart of the Middle East. It cannot be brushed under the carpet, in the same way as an elephant in one’s living room can’t be ignored. Both the West and the Islamic world must tune in to the reality that, from the perspective of the God of Jacob, anti-Jewish attitudes and actions are going to have divine ramifications in the Day of God’s judgment.

How to get the spots off the leopard

Hatred and rejection of the Jewish people are deeply imbedded in the Islamic scriptures – both the Quran and the hadith (Islamic authoritative commentaries). Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, Iraq, Iran and Turkey all flow with that anti-Semitic stream, following centuries-old traditions calling for the crushing and elimination of Israel. These perspectives and prejudices are deal-breakers when it comes to establishing peace between Islamist nations and the Jewish state. Poisonous roots must be eradicated. Ancient hatreds must be recognized, repented of and rejected. All of the spots must be removed from the anti-Semitic leopard.

A simple declaration that there is now going to be ‘a new partner to the Abraham Accords’ will not in itself ultimately achieve something. And by the way: neither Syria, the United Arab Emirates or Morocco are descendants of Abraham – based on both the Bible, their own history and traditions. Their ancient roots are respectively from Aram (Genesis 10:22), Shem (Genesis 10:26-29), and Hamitic Berber (Genesis 10:6-14). See my book ‘Jews, Arabs and the Middle East: a Messianic perspective’ for a more in-depth look.

At a June 2009 meeting between POTUS Obama and Saudi King Abdullah, the King referred to “the historic and strategic ties between our two countries . . . that go back to the time of the meeting between the late [President] Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the late [Saudi] King Abdul-Aziz.” Abdullah was referring to that historic February 14 1945 meeting on the deck of the USS Quincy as it lay anchored on Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake at the close of WWII. There the Saudi King asked and received a promise from Roosevelt that the USA would “do nothing to assist the Jews against the Arabs and would make no move hostile to the Arab people.” These assurances were confirmed in a letter dated April 5 1945 and signed by Roosevelt, acting in his capacity as the Chief of the Executive Branch of the US government. Of paramount importance to King Abdullah was that America would not assist or defend the Jewish people in the coming clashes with the Islamic mujahidin (jihadi armies).

Islamist terror groups – be they PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards, Iraq’s Kata’eb Hezbollah, or Syria’s HTS (‘Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,’‘Organization for the Liberation of the Levant’; abbreviated HTS).) – all are committed to the total destruction of the Jewish state and the Israeli people. They base these goals on orthodox Islamist principles, backed up by extensive quotes from the Quran and the Hadith. Not only terror groups but also Islamist states (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Syria and the regions of Gaza, Houthi Yemen, and West Bank areas under Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah control) are also committed to the same anti-Jewish goals and strategies.

A new ‘Golden Age for the Middle East’ will not happen apart from the Islamic world undergoing deep repentance (as described in Isaiah 19:16-22 as Egypt’s future lot). A glut of Islamist gold invested into US military and computer/AI industries will also not achieve spiritual or physical restoration for the Arab world. Sadly, the curse of the God of Jacob rests on the Islamic world, based on Genesis 12:3. The principle is straight out of the Abrahamic Covenant: “I will bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you I will curse!” (Genesis 12:3 ESV).

The Arabic-speaking world needs a spiritual heart-transplant –where it receives the God of Israel’s heart and passions for His Jewish people. Apart from that, no super-power deal can be pushed through which will bring God’s pleasure and achieve His peace. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you as well can do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jeremiah 13:23).

How shall we then pray?

Here are three major snares facing the international community. It is worth praying for your country and neighborhood about these issues:

foundational ignorance of how God views the world according to biblical realities

lack of awareness of God’s irrevocable calling on and gifts to the Jewish people

flat-out hatred of the Jewish people

As well, we encourage you to pray with us:

Pray for revelation and courage to be given to Israel’s leaders in political, intelligence and military spheres – to understand and counteract strategies against Israel, the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8) – as jihadi armies gather at our borders.

Pray that enemy strategies against the Jewish people and their state, against Middle East Christians and other minorities – will be confounded, and that a great harvest would take place in all of these areas!

Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations and Western fellow-travelers, and the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel

There are approximately 20 living Israeli hostages remaining, kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP/PLO and the Mujahideen Brigades. Hamas is also holding on to approximately 70 Israeli corpses as cold storage bargaining chips. Pray for the speedy release of all the hostages, and for YHVH’s justice to be brought on the heads of the Islamist kidnappers

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: https://davidstent.org/

“Behold, I know the plots you devise against me”

Nehemiah was commissioned by the God of Israel to travel across the deserts of Iran and Iraq into the Promised Land, seeking the physical restoration of Jerusalem. He quickly set about rebuilding the defensive walls of the city which had been burned and razed by Babylon and Edom (Psalm 137:7). But events on the ground had shifted over the previous 100-150 years. The tribes of Judah and Shimon had been exiled to the rivers of Babylon (see Psalm 137:1), while the enemies of the Jewish people had swarmed into the city of Jerusalem, exerting pagan control over the Temple Mount.

One of these enemies was Sanballat the Horonite (Nehemiah 2:19) – either a Moabite from Horonaim near Ammon (see Jeremiah 48:1-5), or a Samaritan from Beth Horon (as per Josephus Antiquities XI, Chapter 7). Another foe was Tobiah the Ammonite official (with possible Jewish family roots), and a third adversary was Geshem (or Gashmu) the Arab. Nehemiah was well aware of their enmity and their plotting against him: “Now when it was reported to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and to the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall . . . [they] sent a message to me, saying, ‘Come, let’s meet together at Kfirim in the plain of Ono.’ But they were plotting to harm me” (Nehemiah 6:1-2). The Philistines of Ashdod (near Gaza) joined in this political-military conspiracy (Nehemiah 4:7). Together, the enemies of Israel were intent on crushing the restoration of the Jewish people to their Holy Land and to their royal city.

Job in his day spoke of Zophar’s evil machinations: “Behold, I know your thoughts, and the plots you devise against me” (Job 21:27). Nehemiah received divine discernment and courage regarding his contemporary Middle Eastern enemies. David and Asaph also prophesied about present and future enemies in the Psalms:

“Why are the nations restless and the peoples plotting in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together” (Psalm 2:1-2)

For behold, Your enemies make an uproar, and those who hate You have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Your people, and conspire together against Your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let’s wipe them out as a nation, so that the name of Israel will no longer be remembered.” For they have conspired together with one mind. They make a covenant against You (Psalm 83:2-5)

But what about our day? As plots thicken before our eyes, what can we discover about the schemes which the enemies of Jewish restoration are hatching, and how is the God of Israel exposing those conspiracies in our day?

“Devise a plan, but it will fail. State a proposal, but it will not stand, for God is with us! [in Hebrew, ‘Immanuel’]” (Isaiah 8:10)

When sweet and bitter waters mix

The words of James drive home a powerful point: Sometimes in diplomacy, sweet and bitter water flow out of the same spring. Such things rarely happen in nature, but they do happen in politics:

“But no one among mankind can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, these things should not be this way. Does a spring send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, bear olives, or a vine bear figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh” (James 3:8-12)

Though recent political events in the USA have radically and positively changed attitudes and actions toward the Jewish state, there is still a strong residue of anti-Israeli sentiments and strategies hidden deep within the US State Department, intelligence agencies, the oil industry and tycoons. The uncovering of significant State Department support for Hamas and anti-Israel jihadi forces over the years is being spotlighted with greater precision at this moment in time.

Funding Israel’s enemies

Recent investigative reporting has shined the light on some unsavory lizards creeping silently under Washington’s cobbled streets. Many of these exposés are connected to US government funding flowing through USAID (the United States Agency for International Development) to Hamas-related activities and organizations, as well as to jihadi Islamist bodies.

“Rather than being used to provide humanitarian aid and stabilize conflict-ridden regions – in accordance with USAID’s stated goal – American funds have often been funneled into corrupt, Hamas-tied institutions, with minimal oversight. A new multiyear study of USAID by the Middle East Forum identified $164 million in grants to radical organizations, including $122 million to those ‘aligned with designated terrorists and their supporters.’ The MEF also found that ‘millions of federal dollars have been handed by USAID to organizations directly in Gaza controlled by Hamas, with government officials even visiting Gaza terror proxies’ offices and launching joint programs’ . . . The U.S. has distributed $2.1 billion to Hamas-controlled Gaza since Hamas killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages on October 7, 2023”

The Washington Free Beacon reported on February 10, 2025:

“Some of the terror-tied funding initiatives are publicly known. In November 2022, for instance, USAID awarded $100,000 to a Palestinian activist group whose leaders hailed the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror group. Just six days before Hamas’s Oct. 7 assault on Israel, USAID handed $900,000 ‘to a terror charity in Gaza involved with the son of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’”

Rivers of sweet and bitter waters are indeed joining together. The American government has for years been surreptitiously supporting Hamas while publicly avowing its undying commitment to the Jewish state.

Dividing up the Promised Land

Many are not aware that the U.S. intelligence community has had backdoor connections and a significant working relationship with the PLO since 1969, at the height of its involvement in Middle East and world terrorism (see our November 9, 2023 newsletter – https://davidstent.org/caiaphas-kissinger-and-the-cia/).

A recently declassified U.S. State Department document sheds light on long-standing and secret U.S. policy and strategies regarding Israel’s borders. At a Paris meeting between Henry Kissinger (U.S. Secretary of State) and Sadun Hammadi (Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs) (www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB193/HAK-12-17-75.pdf) on December 17, 1975. Kissinger communicated a ‘no-nonsense’ US foreign policy regarding Israel in the following selected quotes:

“Israel does us more harm than good in the Arab world”

“We can’t negotiate about the existence of Israel but we can reduce its size to historical proportions”

“So I think in ten to fifteen years Israel will be like Lebanon – struggling for existence, with no influence in the Arab world”

“If the issue is the existence of Israel, we can’t cooperate. But if the issue is more normal borders, we can cooperate”

“I think the Palestinian identity has to be recognized in some form … (It) will be a tremendous fight … (but) no solution is possible without it”

These shocking quotes show where the deeper strategies of the U.S. State Department lie. Israel’s borders must be shrunk in order to weaken its military and political standing in the Middle East. A Palestinian state needs to be established on land which has been pried away from Israeli control. These perspectives continue to guide many in the U.S. State Department and in American intelligence. Knowledge of these perspectives can guide intercessors in their prayers for leaders and diplomats in the US and elsewhere, for these talking points are part and parcel of British, European and Russian strategies as well.

Sponsoring political putschs and street riots against a friendly government

In a March 26, 2025 letter from the U.S. Congress’ Jim Jordan (Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary) and Brian Mast (Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs) addressed to Dr. Eliad Shraga (Chairman, Movement for Quality Government in Israel), the following was stated:

Dear Dr. Shraga, According to reports, the Biden-Harris Administration funneled U.S. taxpayer money to certain Israeli entities, including the Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG), with the effect of attempting to undermine Israel’s democratically elected government. The use of federal grants in this manner not only jeopardizes America’s relationship with one of its closest allies, but also undermines core civil liberties protected within the United States and Israel. Additionally, the misuse of federal grant funds may, in some cases, amount to a criminal offense . . . This was not the first time U.S. taxpayer-funded grants had been used to support protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or the policies he supports . . . From 2007 through 2024, USAID and the State Department sent at least $122 million to NGOs aligned with designated terrorist organizations. Many of those NGOs have openly espoused antisemitic rhetoric and encouraged violence against Jewish individuals.

The U.S. Congressmen further requested:

“a detailed breakdown of how funds MQG received from USAID, the State Department, [from] Blue and White Future, the Middle East Peace Dialogue Network, PEF Israel Endowment Funds, Jewish Communal Fund, or Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors from January 20, 2021 to the present were spent, including the amount, date, recipient, and purpose of each expenditure, along with any relevant supporting documentation . . . Please produce all documents and information as soon as possible but no later than 5:00 p.m. on April 9, 2025.”

In an investigative report by Adam Kredo in The Free Beacon dated July 12, 2016 (see also his recent article of March 6, 2023), reference was made to a U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee in Investigations disclosure “that the Obama administration provided U.S. taxpayer dollars to the OneVoice Movement, a liberal group that waged a clandestine campaign to smear and oust Netanyahu from office.” Evidently such American State Department political undermining did not begin during POTUS Biden’s tenure, but has older and more weathered roots.

As noted over the past few years, street protests and riots aimed at overthrowing Israel’s elected government have been led by a handful of frustrated and ambitious Israeli ‘ex-leaders’ – ex-Prime Ministers, ex-IDF Generals, and some ex-heads of State Intelligence (SHABAK and Mossad). Funding for demonstrations (in both the US and Israel) and PR costs has been provided by USAID, as well as by other well-known Foundations. Here are four newsletters which give detailed information and sources about these events (which have convulsed Israeli society, and continue to do so, even though POTUS Trump is now attempting to clean these Augean stables:

https://davidstent.org/the-caesarea-syndrome/

https://davidstent.org/the-wisdom-of-ahithophel/

https://davidstent.org/in-a-wilderness-of-mirrors/

https://davidstent.org/following-after-the-crowd/

Exposing the rot

The blowback from the horrific jihadi pogroms carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023 lanced a pus-filled boil in Israeli society. Toxic discharge has been splattering on the people of the Jewish state ever since.

Information about Israeli failures and fiascos surrounding that terror attack have surfaced in the media. Some of it is certainly yellow journalism and anti-government propaganda funded by both USAID and by the blind ambition of failed former leaders in Israel. But pressing questions remain regarding criminal negligence by top leaders in the IDF, AMAN (IDF Military Intelligence), SHABAK (Israel’s General Security Services – similar to FBI), a ‘woke’ (left-leaning and falsely labeled ‘progressive’) activist judiciary, corrupt politicians, and a quasi-treasonous media. All are in some measure allied with ‘deeper state’ forces in other countries, some who are considered Israel’s allies. Nepotistic connections and ‘old boys networks’ are being exposed, shaking Israeli confidence in the formerly unshakeable reliability of many top leaders. In particular, SHABAK’s mollycoddling of leftist rioters while spying on right-wing Knesset members and citizens has raised clanging alarm-bells on both sides of the political aisle. Troubling comparisons are being made between top SHABAK directors exercising draconian powers of arrest and interrogations against the Prime Minister’s aides, and the dark shadow of the former East German Stasi (Ministry for State Security/Ministerium für Staatssicherheit).

As William Shakespeare said it in ‘Hamlet’: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” (spoken by Marcellus, Act 1, Scene 4).

And as far as regards the nations, about to stumble blindly into the God of Israel’s soon-coming Judgment Day – as Joel 3 and Zechariah 14 chart out for us – it might be helpful remind ourselves that there really is a divine game plan being played out. It is described in our recent newsletter: https://davidstent.org/why-are-the-peoples-plotting-in-vain/. Three major pitfalls facing the international community are:

foundational ignorance of biblical realities

lack of awareness of God’s irrevocable calling on and gifts to the Jewish people

flat-out anti-Semitism.

The secret war against the Jews

In 1948 the US State Department opposed the establishment and recognition of a Jewish state. It had also opposed the rescue and immigration of European Jews from Hitler during WWII. US Secretaries James Forestall (Navy, Defense), General George Marshall (State, Defense), John Dulles (State) and Allen Dulles (CIA Director), as well as business magnate and later Vice President Nelson Rockefeller – they and many more were opposed to recognizing and aiding the fledgling Jewish state.

In their magnum opus The Secret War Against The Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish People (by John Loftus & Mark Aarons, St. Martin’s Press, 1994), the authors reveal how many Western countries, especially the United States and Great Britain, profess on the surface to be ardent allies of Israel yet, behind the scenes, have worked for years through their intelligence services to betray Israel and her secrets to her Arab enemies. A more detailed background of these issues is available at our newsletter link: https://davidstent.org/shakings-weighings-and-divisions-syria-annapolis-and-the-return-of-yhvh-part-three-of-three-cutting-israel-down-to-size/.

It is indeed a comfort to remember the promise of the God of Israel amidst the barking and yapping of the “dogs who have surrounded” Israel. Even though “a band of evildoers has encompassed” the Jewish people (see Psalm 22:16), the Psalmist boldly declares that “YHVH nullifies the plan of nations; He frustrates the plans of peoples!” (Psalm 33:10).

How shall we then pray?

Pray for revelation and courage to be given to Israel’s leaders in political, intelligence and military spheres – to understand and counteract strategies against Israel, the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8) – as jihadi armies gather at our borders.

Pray that enemy strategies against the Jewish people and their state, against Middle East Christians and other minorities – will be confounded, and that a great harvest would take place in all of these areas!

Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations and Western fellow-travelers, and the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel

There are approximately 24 living Israeli hostages remaining, kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP/PLO and the Mujahideen Brigades. Hamas is also holding on to approximately 70 Israeli corpses as cold storage bargaining chips. Pray for the speedy release of all the hostages, and for YHVH’s justice to be brought on the heads of the Islamist kidnappers

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: https://davidstent.org/

Prophets and the Exodus

Jewish people across the entire planet will be celebrating Passover (in Hebrew, Pesach) on Saturday evening. The God of Israel gave our people specific instructions to commemorate the holiday on the exact time of day when the twelve tribes of Israel began their Exodus from the Land of Egypt. The nation of Israel still sanctifies the eve of that Day with a Passover seder (commemorative meal).

“Observe the month of Aviv and celebrate the Pesach of YHVH your God, because in the month of Aviv He brought you out of Egypt by night, so that all the days of your life you may remember the time of your departure from Egypt … There you must sacrifice the Pesach in the evening, when the sun goes down, on the anniversary of your departure from Egypt” (Deuteronomy 16:1,3).

Another fascinating aspect of the Passover concerns the tying-in of the prophetic to this holiday. The waters bubbling up from this prophetic well have world-shaking significance for both the Jewish people and the Gentiles.

The daughter of a lion is also a lion

The first time the word ‘prophet’ is used in the Bible is with reference to Abraham. Abimelech the ‘sheikh’ of Gerar was visited in a night dream by the God of Abraham, who informed the pagan king that he was about to be put to death by divine judgment for having kidnapped Sarah. Abimelech protested that he had only kidnapped Sarah, but had not yet had relations with her. God responded to his plea, saying:

“I also kept you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her. Now then, return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not return her, know that you will certainly die, you and all who are yours!” (Genesis 20:6-7)

YHVH calls Abraham a prophet, and explains that Terah’s son (Genesis 11:26) has the ability to bring healing to people for whom he prays. The progeny of a lion are also lions, and the Jewish nation – the descendants of the prophet Abraham – are also prophets. YHVH declares in Psalm 105:15 that He rebuked the kings of the Middle East, warning them to be aware of His protection on the seed of Abraham and the children of Jacob:

“When they were only a few people in number – very few, and strangers in it – they wandered from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people. He allowed no one to oppress them, and He rebuked kings for their sakes, saying, Do not touch My anointed ones, and do not harm My prophets!”

Moses is aware of God’s heart and strategic calling on Israel, as his declaration reveals: “If only all YHVH’s people were prophets, that YHVH would put His Spirit upon them!” (Numbers 11:29). Paul also was in sync with this divine perspective, according to his statement in 1 Corinthians 14:5: “Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but rather that you would prophesy. And greater is the one who prophesies than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the congregation (ἐκκλησία/ekklesia in Greek) may receive edification.”

Miriam the sister of Moses is described as a prophetess in Exodus 15:20, while Aaron the brother of Moses is described by YHVH as functioning as a prophet to Moses (see Exodus 7:1) – one who receives words of divine origin and communicates them to the whole nation: “Then YHVH said to Moses, ‘See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.’”

Moses, the prophet par excellence

Among a nation of prophets, and born into a prophetic family, Moses nevertheless stands out as the first among equals. The God of Jacob declared to the whole nation of Israel:

“Now hear My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, YHVH, will make Myself known to him in a vision. I will speak with him in a dream. It is not this way for My servant Moses: He is faithful in all My household! With him I speak mouth to mouth – that is, openly, and not using mysterious language, and he beholds the form of YHVH” (Numbers 12:6-8)

The final words of the Scroll of Deuteronomy emphasize this point:

“Since that time, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, who YHVH knew face to face, for all the signs and wonders which YHVH sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh, all his servants, and all his land – and for all the mighty power and all the great terror which Moses performed in the sight of all Israel” (Deuteronomy 34:10-12)

The anonymous prophet

Whereas Moses was the most famous of the prophets, the Book of Judges tells us about an anonymous prophet whose calling was to remind the nation of Israel of their disobedience to Moses’ covenantal commands. He was faithful to his calling, as Moses was faithful to his vocation:

Now it came about, when the sons of Israel cried out to YHVH on account of Midian, that YHVH sent a prophet to the sons of Israel, and he said to them, “This is what YHVH, the God of Israel says: It was I who brought you up from Egypt, and brought you out of the house of slavery. And I rescued you from the hands of the Egyptians, and from the hands of all your oppressors, and I drove them out from you and gave you their land, and I said to you, I am YHVH your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites in whose land you live. But you have not obeyed Me” (Judges 6:7-10)

The prophetic calling of Israel

The God of Israel laid out a prophetic calling in Numbers 6:22-27, which is known today as ‘the Aaronic Benediction’:

Then YHVH spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying, ‘In this way you shall bless the sons of Israel. You are to say to them:

‘YHVH bless you and keep you;

YHVH cause His face to shine on you and be gracious to you;

YHVH lift up the light of His countenance upon you and give you peace.’

So they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and then I will bless them.”

Aaron and his descendants (the Jewish high-priesthood) were to ask YHVH three times to shine the light of His face upon the entire Jewish people. This radiating glory had been seen on Moses’ face every time he met face-to-face with YHVH (see Exodus 34:29-35). The Aaronic prayer was asking the God of Israel to shine so strongly upon the entire Jewish people, that all the nations of the world would see His glory and bow in worship before YHVH.

An anonymous writer of one of the Psalms – a music director himself from the family of Aaron – composed a song which was to be accompanied by an orchestra of stringed instruments. Using Aaron’s benediction/prayer, he intercedes before God, asking Him to shine His face on the Jewish people – in order that all the nations (to the ends of the earth) would fear YHVH, come to know YHVH and be saved by Him:

God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us! Selah! That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. May the peoples praise You, God! May all the peoples praise You! May the nations be glad and sing for joy! For You will judge the peoples with fairness and guide the nations on the earth. Selah! May the peoples praise You, O God! May all the peoples praise You! The earth has yielded its produce. God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us, so that all the ends of the earth may fear Him (Psalm 67)

Israel’s shining face brings about the revival of the nations

Isaiah was granted prophetic insight into how the God of Israel would bring this all to pass. He saw the day when YHVH’s light would shine upon the Jewish people – at a time when the nations would be dwelling in gross darkness. World revival would come when God’s light would reflect off Jewish faces and transform the darkness of this planet’s peoples:

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of YHVH has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples. But YHVH will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising!” (Isaiah 60:1-3)

The Apostle Paul mirrors this Last Days vision, describing Israel’s spiritual fulfillment as bringing “much greater riches to the Gentiles” and the Jewish people’s acceptance of Messiah Yeshua as bringing “life from the dead” to the entire earth (see Romans 11:11-15). From Abraham the prophet to Moses the ‘super-prophet,’ to the entire Jewish people shining God’s reflected glory onto the faces of all nations – the Passover story and the Exodus from Egypt are bound up in YHVH’s prophetic calling on the sons and daughters of Jacob.

As Paul emphasizes in his conclusion of Romans chapter 11, “in relation to God’s choosing, [the Jewish people] are beloved on account of the Patriarchs. For the gifts and calling of God [on Israel] are irrevocable!” (Romans 11:28-29). Happy prophetic Passover!

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: https://davidstent.org/

A Messianic perspective on the Kabbalah

The past three decades have seen a renaissance of popular interest in the Jewish roots of the New Testament faith. The Jewish face of Jesus (or Yeshua, His original Hebrew name), like some long-buried archeological mosaic, is gradually appearing out of the sands of antiquity. Today a significant minority of the Christian book-buying public is fascinated by titles dealing with the Jewishness of the Christian faith.

Some of these books offer captivating insights into the history, archeology and religious life of Yeshua’s’ contemporaries. Other books convey less than kosher teachings while nevertheless appealing to the same public. Not all that glitters is gold, and not all that is Jewish is necessarily praiseworthy. Numbers 16 points out that both Moses’ humility and Korah’s arrogance were intrinsically Jewish phenomena. It is, of course, only when Jewishness is combined with godliness that it is of much value in every way, as Paul succinctly states in Romans 3:1-2. Godly Jewishness must be faithful to the Apostles’ teaching and to all the Scriptures. This is our presupposition as we examine the world of the Kabbalah.

Kabbaláh (also spelled Cabbala, Qabbalah) is a Hebrew word which means ‘something received’ – in this case, a received tradition passed on from generation to generation. The kabbalistic tradition is a mystical tradition within Judaism which claims to possess mystical truths about the nature of God, heavenly realities, perspectives on the origins of evil, and both a detailed angelology and demonology. Furthermore, this tradition claims to be based on supernatural revelation.

How should believers in Yeshua relate to Kabbalah? Is there any spiritual advantage in studying its arcane secrets? Readers here are for the most part aware of the present reality of the Holy Spirit’s ministry, as well as the subtle deceptiveness of spiritual warfare. It is with pastoral concern and caution, therefore, that this article offers some instruction to those interested in passing safely through the minefields of kabbalistic mysticism.

A HISTORICAL THEOLOGY OF KABBALAH

Early roots of the Kabbalah (First - Eighth Centuries A.D.)

The late Second Temple period (100 B.C. - 70 A.D.) was a tumultuous time in Judea. A cruel and crushing ‘pax Romana’ (‘Roman peace’) caused the ancient Jewish Messianic hope to burst into flames. Various false messiahs rose up in Israel (e.g., Acts 5:36-37; 21:38) offering a military solution to Roman rule. In the end the Zealot revolt culminated in the destruction of both the Herodian Temple and Jerusalem, and led to a further scattering of the Jewish people across the Mediterranean basin.

Radical religious changes were occurring in Pharisaic (later called ‘Rabbinic’) Judaism, as well as in the budding Messianic (later called ‘Christian’) movement. These two hundred years were times of great religious creativity as well, witnessing the rise and proliferation of extracanonical books (books not part of Scripture). These scrolls and papyri dealt with the period of the last days (apocalyptic). ‘Apocalypse’ comes from the Greek apokalypsis and means the ‘unveiling of divine hidden revelation.’ Apocalyptic Bible books would include Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Revelation. These new books attempted to prepare the faithful for the soon-coming judgments of God and the speedy return of Messiah. Their style and content imitated the Bible’s prophetic and apocalyptic portions. Prophecies about the eschaton (final or last events) would include Genesis 49; Numbers 24; Deuteronomy 30; Isaiah 24-27, 56-66, etc.

This literature has been recognized as not meeting the grade of Scripture regarding both its prophetic accuracy and its theological content. These books are classified as either apocryphal (outside the Jewish and Protestant canon), pseudepigraphal (some of these writers forged the names of biblical heroes as the false authors of their works) or sectarian (e.g., the Essene/Qumran/ Dead Sea scroll literature).

During the middle second century B.C. the pseudepigraphic Book of Enoch attempts to bring new revelation about Yahweh’s awesome theophany (or ‘appearing’) in Ezekiel 1:4-28. This author speculated that Yahweh’s chariot (Heb., mérkaváh) is a mystical or symbolic key, representing the order of the unseen divine world and the hidden secrets of redemption. Within a few centuries these speculations would be deeply influenced by Oriental Gnosticism, and grow into Merkavah mysticism (Heb. ma’aséh mérkaváh).

By the close of the second century A.D. the Gemara describes a child who received a revelation of the hidden meaning of the ‘glowing metal electrum’ (Heb., hashmál) referred to in Ezekiel 1:27 (“whereupon a fire went forth from hashmál and consumed him”) in Talmud Bavli, Hagigah 13a. Four rabbinic sages are similarly described as searching out spiritual experiences through ecstatic contemplation of Merkavah mysticism. One died; one became insane; one forsook rabbinic Judaism and only one returned both Orthodox and sane. (TB Hagigah 14b; Shabbat 80b; Sukkah 28a; Berachot 7a; Hullin 1b; Megillah 25b).

Due to these powerful and dangerous spiritual encounters, the rabbis sought to place severe limitations on Merkavah studies: “The ma’aséh bereshit should not be expounded before two persons, nor the ma’aséh mérkaváh before one person, unless he is a sage and already has an independent understanding of the matter” (Mishna Hagigah 2:1). Other conditions for study were eventually added – teachings should be communicated in a whisper; a high level of intellectual ability was required; the initiate had to be a male at least thirty years old; certain ethical qualities and later physical characteristics were also required. (see TB Hagigah 13b; Seder Eliyahu Rabbah, chapter 29).

Essentially what is being discussed here is a human attempt to obtain hidden or occult information about heavenly realities. The human writers of Merkavah mystical works assumed that they were able to accurately assess the truths of their own revelations. Yet the spiritual forces they unwittingly unleashed were potentially and frighteningly destructive. As well, the symbolic and allegorical interpretations of Scripture used by the mystics resulted in teachings which were diametrically opposed to the plain teaching of the Torah of Moses. Merkavah mystics were wooing Israel into a spiritual stupor, and though they were receiving real revelation, that revelation was coming from spiritual forces not obedient to Yahweh and to His word (n.b., Deuteronomy 18:9-14; Psalm 103:20-21; Isaiah 8:19-22).

Merkavah mysticism was the spiritual precursor of the Kabbalah. Its books give detailed descriptions of the spirit-world of ‘the Chariot’; the technical and magical means which assist the ascending soul through the eight levels of spirit-palaces and firmaments; the empty visions and angels of destruction which try to confound him; the magical seals, containing the secret names of God, which are presented to the spirit doorkeepers of each level; etc. These demonically inspired teachings are “very similar to a number of important texts preserved among the Greek magic papyri and to Gnostic literature of the Pistis Sophia type” (Gershom Scholem, “Kabbalah”; Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 6, p. 500,). Gershom Scholem, the world’s leading expert on Kabbalah, notes that “the growth of Merkabah mysticism among the rabbis constituted a Jewish and rabbinic Gnosticism” (ibid, p. 498).

Other beliefs peculiar to Merkabah mysticism include Shiúr Komáh (Heb., ‘the measurement of the body’), a description of God’s mystic body which is in turn a symbolic blueprint for a Gnostic view of Creation. This perspective re-interprets salvation to mean something very different from ‘the four spiritual laws’: God is separated from His creation; redemption/salvation occurs after the ascending soul attains sufficient magical and occult knowledge (Greek, gnosis); these keys allow the ascending soul to pass through successive layers of evolving spirit worlds, eventually arriving at his ultimate destination.

Merkavah mystics began to use the Torah and the Psalms in magical ways. Based on the occult teaching that each Hebrew alphabet letter has its own secret meaning (Heb. gemátria), these mystics reinterpreted the Scriptures, grouping biblical verses together not for their exegetical meaning but for their numerological values and magical powers.

Babylonian and German developments (Eighth - Ninth Century A.D.)

In Babylonia further developments included conjuring up angelic princes on the day before the Day of Atonement; the doctrine of middót (Heb., hypostatic beings) - lesser forces employed in the creation of the world (the result here, says Scholem, is that “the monotheistic theory of creatio ex nihilo loses its original meaning and is completely reversed by the esoteric content of the formula” [ibid., p. 569]); and the belief in the transmigration of souls. In Germany the Hasidéi Ashkenáz (Heb. ‘pious ones of Germany’) practiced stringent asceticism. Many were considered prophets or masters of the Holy Spirit and claimed divine revelation.

Franco-Iberian developments (Twelfth - Fourteenth Centuries A.D.)

The central transitional figure between Merkavah mysticism and Kabbalah was Isaac the Blind of Narbonne, France who died ca. 1235 A.D. He developed a contemplative mysticism leading to communion with spiritual forces through meditation on the ten Sefirót (enigmatic Hebrew word referring to emanations from God) and on the havayót (the heavenly essences). These Sefirot were gradually understood to be the Godhead divided into planes of existence which exist “as lights, potencies, and intelligences, each of unlimited richness and profundity, whose content man could study and seek to penetrate. Each one was like ‘a world unto itself’” (ibid., p. 569).

The highest Jewish legal and religious authority in Spain, Nachmanides (the RAMBAN, d. 1270), embraced kabbalistic doctrines and contributed to their spread among Jewish theologians of his day. Another great light of kabbalistic teaching was Abraham Abulafia (1240-1292) who wrote textbooks on how to practically apply kabbalistic principles including breathing exercises and trances so that the initiate would eventually move into a mystic state which he labeled “prophetic”. Finally, Isaac ha-Kohen of Spain developed the theory of a demonic parallel series of emanations, later known as the sitra áchra (Aramaic, ‘the other side’), which were the evil and opposite balance to the Sefirot in this dualistic worldview.

The Zohar and Moshe ben Shem Tov de Leon (Spain ca. 1285 A.D.)

The Séfer ha-Zóhar (Heb., Book of Radiance, Splendor or Emanation) was written largely between 1280 and 1286 by Moshe ben Shem Tov de Leon in Guadalajara (a small village northeast of Madrid). The book was pseudepigraphic, de Leon falsely crediting its revelations to Shimon bar Yohai, a second century A.D. Galilean sage. According to Scholem the aim of the Zohar was “to attack the literal conception of Judaism... (T)his was accomplished by emphasizing the supreme value and secret meaning of every word and Commandment of the Torah” (ibid., p. 534). Under the guise of ‘hidden revelation’, de Leon put the finishing touches on his intended heart-transplant operation for Judaism.

From now on, in Kabbalistic Judaism the literal meaning of the Bible that Yahweh gave to Moses would be supplanted by a secret and occult meaning representing a supposedly more spiritual and deeper significance – one, however, that would come not from the Bible but from demonic sources. “The Kabbalah represented a theological attempt, open to only a relative few, whose object was to find room for an essentially mystical world-outlook within the framework of traditional Judaism without altering the latter behavioral norms” (ibid, p. 638).

Lurianic Kabbalah and Safed (Upper Galilee ca. 1550 A.D.)

In the year that Columbus departed for the New World, Ferdinand and Isabella forced Spain’s Jewish population to flee across the Mediterranean to Turkish lands, or be forcibly converted to Catholicism. The Inquisition caused many Jews to wonder if a catastrophe of such magnitude could be the portent of the end of days. This resulted in the spread of kabbalistic hopes and a renewed eschatological emphasis in kabbalistic thinking. The rise of the false messiah David Molcho and the break-up of the Catholic Church due to Martin Luther were also seen as portents of the apocalypse. At this time the new center for kabbalistic studies was shifting to Safed in Palestine.

An unknown kabbalist summed up the times:

“The decree from above that one should not discuss kabbalistic teaching in public was meant to last for a limited time — until 1490. We then entered into the period called the last generation, and then the decree was rescinded and permission given. And from 1540 onward the most important commandment will be for all to study it in public, both young and old, since this, and nothing else, will bring about the coming of the Messiah” (Scholem, ibid, p. 541).

Revelations now were coming from spirit-beings known as maggidim (Heb., ‘recounters’) - supposedly angels or sacred souls who spoke through the lips of the kabbalists or made them write down revelations. The most important kabbalist of this period was Isaac Luria Ashkenazi, the ‘Ari’; (Heb., ‘the lion’; 1534-72). Lurianic teachings were thoroughly Gnostic in character, stressing tzimtzum (Heb. contraction’) – a contraction of the divinity in order to make a vacuum within which divine emanations could create the universe.

Tikkún (Heb., ‘repairing’ or ‘restoration’) involved a process whereby the sparks of the feminine aspect of divinity which are lodged in the klippót (Heb., ‘shells’ or ‘husks’) of matter can be liberated and fly upwards to re-unite with the masculine aspect of divinity. This ‘releasing of sparks’ results in ‘the sacred marriage’ between God and the feminine Shechináh (the glory or presence of God), and it has become the focus in many modern Hasidic movements. From this perspective salvation is not the redemption of human souls by atonement, but the releasing of imprisoned sparks which are trapped in nature or in people. This freeing is done either by magical techniques, or by outwardly obeying the Law of Moses and its rabbinical traditions, while inwardly focusing on kabbalistic and magical meanings and formulae. Scholem states: “The Gnostic character of these ideas, which constitute a new mythology in Judaism, cannot be doubted” (ibid, p. 547.)

MAGIC & PRACTICAL KABBALAH

Gershom Scholem states:

“For the most part, the realm of practical Kabbalah is that of purely motivated or ‘white magic’, especially as practiced through the medium of the sacred, esoteric Names of God and the angels, the manipulation of which may affect the physical no less than the spiritual world. Such magical operations are not considered impossible in the Kabbalah, or even categorically forbidden, though numerous kabbalistic writings do stress the prohibitions against them. In any case, only the most perfectly virtuous individuals are permitted to perform them, and even then never for their private advantage, but only in times of emergency and public need. Whoever else seeks to perform such acts does so at his own grave physical and spiritual peril. Such warnings were generally observed in the breach, however, as is demonstrated by the extensive literature of practical Kabbalah that has survived . . . The ostensible lines drawn by the kabbalists to set the boundaries of permissible magic were frequently overstepped and obscured, with the consequent appearance in practical Kabbalah of a good deal of ‘black’ magic – that is, magic that was meant to harm others or that employed ‘the unholy names’ . . . of dark, demonic powers, and magic used for personal gain.” (Scholem, ibid, p. 632-33)

“The practice of practical Kabbalah raised certain problems concerning occult phenomena . . . A number of these come under the category of gilúy eynáyim, whereby a man might be granted a vision of something that, generally speaking, only the rare mystic was permitted to see. Such visions included a glimpse of the ‘sapphiric ether’ that surrounds all men and in which their movements are recorded . . . (Also) invisible letters (might appear) that spelled out the secret nature of each man’s thoughts and deeds which hovered over every head and might be perceived by initiates. Other aspects include automatic writing (‘the mystic secret of writing with no hand’), levitating tables, the use of divining rods, the issuing of amulets, invoking angels or demons, and exorcising evil spirits (the Dibbúk of popular mythology)” (ibid, p. 632-33)

CHRISTIAN KABBALAH

Gershom Scholem gives us a brief historical perspective on the Christian use of Kabbalah:

“From the late 15th century onward, in certain Christian circles of a mystical and theosophical persuasion a movement began to evolve with the object of harmonizing Kabbalistic doctrines with Christianity, and, above all, of demonstrating that the true hidden meaning of the teachings of the Kabbalah points in a Christian direction.

Naturally, such views did not meet with a friendly reception from the kabbalists themselves, who expressed nothing but derision for the misunderstandings and distortions of kabbalistic doctrine of which Christian Kabbalah was full.

Historically, Christian Kabbalah sprang from two sources. The first was the Christological speculations of a number of Jewish converts who are known to us from the end of the 13th century until the period of the Spanish expulsion, such as Abner of Burgos and Paul de Meredia, who pseudepigraphically composed several texts of Christian Kabbalah entitled Iggéret ha-Sodót and Galéi Rezayá in the name of Judah ha-Nasi and other tannaim.

Another matter entirely, however, was the Christian speculation ... that first developed around the Platonic Academy endowed by the Medicis in Florence... These Florentine circles believed that they had discovered in the Kabbalah an original divine revelation to mankind that had been lost and would now be restored, and with the aid of which it was possible not only to understand the teachings of Pythagoras, Plato, and the Orphics ... but also the secrets of the Catholic faith…These theses – especially the daring claim that no science can better convince us of the divinity of Jesus Christ than magic and the Kabbala – first brought the Kabbalah to the attention of many Christians” (ibid, p. 643-44).

Dr. Jakob Jocz adds a Messianic Jewish perspective:

“It is unfortunate that excess of zeal . . . has led to extending the field of evidence from the Old Testament first to the Talmud and then to Jewish mysticism. In the search for a starting-point the temptation to elaborate any affinity of ideas is very natural... (When the mystical literature of the Synagogue became more widely known amongst Christian scholars, the apparent affinity with Christianity led to the conviction that it actually contained in esoteric language the doctrines of the Church. Thus, the Zohar was held to be an important witness to the truth of the Christian faith. Some resemblance to the Christian doctrines of the Atonement, Mediation, the Holy Trinity, etc, and the metaphysical speculations of the Cabbalah has led to the assumption of an internal harmony between Christianity and Jewish mysticism. Medieval scholasticism was specially attracted by the speculative, fanciful method of exegesis employed by the Zohar. Fascination for Jewish mysticism has survived to our days” (Jakob Jocz, The Jewish People and Jesus Christ: The Relationship Between Church and Synagogue [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1979], p. 209).

A modern example of such excessive zeal is seen in the work The Great Mystery or How Can Three Be One? by Tzvi Nassi (a.k.a. Hirsch Prinz; Rabbi Tzvi Nassi, 91 pp., no date, publishing house or city given, p. 89.). Prinz quotes liberally from the Zohar and from other kabbalistic writings, coming to his final conclusion:

I now appeal to every candid and unprejudiced Israelite or Christian, who has read these pages, whether I am not right in maintaining that the Jewish Church before the Christian era, and in the first two centuries of the same, held ráza d’shalishá, the Doctrine of the Trinity, as a fundamental and cardinal article of the true faith?

Prinz’s conclusion, based on the Zohar, is that the doctrine of the Trinity was a cardinal article of faith of the Pharisaic and Rabbinic Jewish Synagogues prior to Yeshua and up until the 200’s A.D.! Since Prinz’s dating of the Zohar is inaccurate by a minimum of 1200 years, his hypothesis cannot stand the test of scrutiny.

Dr. Jocz again makes a valuable contribution:

“The association of Cabbalah with Christian theology throws a shadow of suspicion upon the Church. Christianity is more than speculative mysticism . . . Besides, the Cabbalah itself owes some debt to Christian ideas, having drawn upon a large variety of sources. Orthodox Judaism, on the whole, has looked upon its mystical speculations with suspicion. Judaism, though making room for a certain amount of mysticism, is essentially a religion of law and reason . . . While there is an undeniable affinity of outlook between Jewish and Christian mysticism, Jewish mystical speculations cannot serve as a bridge leading to Christian orthodoxy. The underlying principles of Judaism and Christianity are such that they automatically exclude each other . . . The divergence between Jewish mysticism and the Christian Faith is fundamental. Spiegel rightly says ‘The Kabbalah teaches nothing less than that this deliverance of God can be brought about by man and by man alone.’ It is here that the disparity appears in all its force” (Jocz, op. cit., pp. 210-11).

CONCLUSION

The Kabbalah and its traditions are an admixture of men’s thoughts and spiritual revelation from the second heaven – revelation from the enemy of our souls. Its presuppositions are Gnostic and magical – philosophies condemned by the Apostles Paul (1 Timothy 6:20; Colossians 1:15-18; 2:1-10, 15-23) and John (1 John 2:18-23; 4: 1-6; 2 John 7-11).

Though temptation may come upon us, wakening within us a curiosity to consider revelation from demonic sources, “the people who know their God will display strength and take action, and those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many” (Daniel 11:32b - 33a). “Little children, guard yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey
Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: https://davidstent.org/

The thorns of prophecy

During the latter part of January 2025 Rachel and I went on a ministry/family trip to the USA. Immediately after our return to Israel, I (Avner) came down with a strong case of bacterial pneumonia – high fever, intense shakings, sweats, brain fog and much physical weakness. I eventually ended up in Beersheva’s Soroka Hospital for a few days, responding well to strong antibiotic treatment. I received excellent care from the primarily Arab Bedouin medical staff. At this point I am home, gradually regaining strength (about 80% back to normal). Fever, sweats and shakings are gone. Mental clarity is nearly fully recovered. Sense of humor is untouched. Prayer is appreciated for a full and speedy recovery.

So much has happened during this last month in our fast-moving world. In particular, in the Middle East, head-spinning and earth-shaking events continue at break-neck speed. Yet the Scriptures’ prophetic perspective and spiritual wisdom still speak with clarity, authority and truth to all who would listen. Our generation is moving so quickly that we could well be missing the main thrust of the divine story: God, the Great Referee, is operating on the playing field of this planet – for His glory and for the salvation and restoration of His chosen people Israel.

Thorns in your eyes

God warned Moses and Joshua that the Jewish people would be confronting mortal enemies who were still living in the Promised Land. He gave the Hebrew nation clear instructions on how to deal with these enemies, and soberly warned Israel of specific consequences if His commands were to be ignored (see Judges 1):

“But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from you, then it will come about that those whom you let remain of them will be like thorns in your eyes and like pricks in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. And just as I plan to do to them, I will do to you” (Numbers 33:55-56; see also Judges 2:1-5, where the Angel of YHVH re-emphasizes this point directly to Israel).

The armies of Israel were to make no covenant or agreement with the ‘inhabitants of the land’; they were also to tear down their religious sites. If Israel allowed their foes to co-exist with them in the Promised Land, YHVH declared: “Know with certainty that YHVH your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you. But they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which YHVH your God has given you” (Joshua 23:10-15). The God of Jacob promised that, if Israel did not follow YHVH’s commands on this matter, “YHVH will bring upon you all the warnings, until He has eliminated you from this good land which YHVH your God has given you.”

According to the words of Moses, Joshua and even YHVH Himself, Israel’s refusal to exile its mortal enemies from the Land would lead directly to the Exile of the Jewish people – to Assyria, Babylon and New York. Since the biblical covenants promise the Land of Israel exclusively to Jacob’s children, no treaty, accord or covenant between Israel and its enemies is kosher in the sight of YHVH – especially when it involves handing over any part of the Promised Land to its foes. The Bible tells us that this is how God views the matter.

Edom and Amalek – all in the family

Over 2,600 years ago, about 600 B.C., the prophet Ezekiel described Edom/Esau as Israel’s sworn enemy:

ADONAI YHVH says this: “Because Edom has acted against the House of Judah by taking vengeance, and has incurred great guilt, and avenged themselves upon them, therefore this is what ADONAI YHVH says: I will also reach out with My hand against Edom and eliminate human and animal life from it. And I will turn it into ruins; from Teman even to Dedan they will fall by the sword. And I will inflict My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel. Therefore, they will act in Edom in accordance with My anger and My wrath. So they will know My vengeance,” declares ADONAI YHVH (Ezekiel 25:12-14)

Eight hundred years before Ezekiel entered into prophetic ministry, Moses had already pinpointed the coming significance of Esau’s firstborn grandson Amalek: he was described in the Scriptures as an arch-enemy of the Jewish people: “Timna was a concubine of Esau’s son Eliphaz, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz” (Genesis 36:12). The background to this enmity is explained in Exodus 17, at the Battle of Rephidim:

Then Amalek came and fought against Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose men for us and go out, fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will station myself on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” Joshua did just as Moses told him, and fought against Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. So it came about, when Moses held his hand up, that Israel prevailed; but when he let his hand down, Amalek prevailed. And Moses’ hands were heavy. So they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur supported his hands, one on one side and one on the other. So his hands were steady until the sun set. And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. Then YHVH said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly wipe out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and named it YHVH NISI [‘YHVH is My Banner’]. And he said, “Because YHVH has sworn, there will be war for YHVH against Amalek from generation to generation” (Exodus 17:8-16)

Wiping out the name of Amalek

The God of Israel’s commandment to destroy Amalek is something very serious in His eyes.

“Remember what Amalek did to you on the way when you came out of Egypt, how he confronted you on the way and attacked among you all the stragglers at your rear when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. So it shall come about, when YHVH your God has given you rest from all your surrounding enemies in the land which YHVH your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, that you shall wipe out the mention of the name Amalek from under heaven. You must not forget!” (Deuteronomy 25:17-19)

The principle here is straight out of the Abrahamic Covenant: “I will bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you I will curse!” (Genesis 12:3 ESV). In Moses’ day the Amalekites attempted to slaughter the Jewish people – exactly what Hamas jihadis tried to do to Jewish people on October 7, 2023 in the Gaza border area. YHVH’s response to Amalekite atrocities was not to proffer a Camp David peace treaty or an Oslo Peace Accords. The God of Jacob didn’t even suggest the possibility of a ceasefire, or the exiling of all Amalekites to another country. YHVH’s orders were straight to the point: Israel is ordered to slaughter Amalek, to wipe out even the remembrance of that people from the face of the earth. How many people today would consider these commands of the God of the Hebrews to be politically correct?

Deadly serious about Amalek

YHVH’s determination to remove Amalek from the rosters of mankind is something that some people have difficulty comprehending. King Saul was one such person.

Then Samuel [the Prophet] said to Saul, “YHVH sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel. Now therefore, listen to the words of YHVH . This is what YHVH of armies says: ‘I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, in that he obstructed him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and completely destroy everything that he has, and do not spare him. But put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey’”

Then Saul defeated the Amalekites, from Havilah going toward Shur, which is east of Egypt. He captured Agag the king of the Amalekites alive, and completely destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the more valuable animals, the lambs, and everything that was good, and were unwilling to destroy them completely; but everything despicable and weak, that they completely destroyed

Then the word of YHVH came to Samuel, saying, “I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands” . . . So Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed are you of YHVH! I have carried out the command of YHVH!”

So Samuel said, “Is it not true, though you were insignificant in your own eyes, that you became the head of the tribes of Israel? For YHVH anointed you as king over Israel. And YHVH sent you on a mission, and said, ‘Go and completely destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are eliminated.’ Why then did you not obey the voice of YHVH ? Instead, you loudly rushed upon the spoils and did what was evil in the sight of YHVH !”

Samuel said, “Does YHVH have as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of YHVH? Behold, to obey is better than a sacrifice, and to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as reprehensible as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Since you have rejected the word of YHVH, He has also rejected you from being king” (1 Samuel 15; see also 1 Samuel 28:18)

The God of Israel sees the dividing up of the Promised Land and sharing it with the Jewish people’s enemies as major rebellion against His will. Such a step disqualifies kings and brings exile upon the Jewish people. We live in sobering times, when both the majority of the world and a significant percentage of the Jewish people are not tracking with the abiding nature of these commandments of God; they have no problem ignoring these divine principles. Yet the word of God has not changed.

Jewish history and enemies of the Jews

The Jewish calendar of feasts and fasts is replete with the names of our enemies – those who tried to commit genocide against the Israeli nation, and nearly succeeded in doing so. Egypt’s Pharaoh, Sinai’s Amalek, Balak of Moab and Balaam his professional curser, Edom, Haman of Persia – this is a partial biblical list of our historical foes.

Psalm 83 lists eleven enemy nations who are trying to carry out genocide against the Jews: Edomite Palestinians, Ishmaelite Bedouin, Moabite Jordanians, Sinaitic Hagrites and Amalekites, Lebanese from Gebal and Tyre, Central Jordanian Ammonites, Gazans from Philistia, Northern Iraqis from Assyria, and Southern Jordanians descended from Lot. The upcoming Feast of Purim reminds us of how another nation – Iran - nearly wiped out all the Jewish people living in the Persian Empire. And once again, in our day Iran’s shadow falls across the doorstep of the Jewish nation, glowing with nuclear energy.

In modern times, Islamist and jihadi enemies have become part of the equation. According to the words of the Hebrew prophets, these nations are taking counsel to divide up, occupy and rule the Jewish homeland, actively pursuing the murder of the sons and daughters of Jacob. They are backed up at the UN, strengthened by the EU and USAID, and trained and armed by superpowers of East and West. These Islamist forces push counterfeit strategies directly opposed to biblical principles: they strive not to bless Israel but to curse her; not to liberate the Jewish people but to enslave them; not to bring life to the Hebrews but to annihilate Jacob’s seed. And in a perverse reversal of Genesis 12:3 and Romans 1:16, they strive to actuate these demonic strategies “ to the Jew first.”

The Bible’s most-wanted list of enemies of the Jews

In Ezekiel chapters 25, 35 and 36, a comprehensive list of Middle Eastern enemies of the Jewish people is given. Their sins against Israel are detailed and coming judgments are described. Here are the countries, their sins against Israel, and their judgments:

Ammon

“Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet, and have rejoiced with all the malice in your soul against the land of Israel, therefore, behold, I have reached out with My hand against you and I will give you as plunder to the nations. And I will cut you off from the peoples and eliminate you from the lands. I will exterminate you. So you will know that I am YHVH” (Ezekiel 25:6-7)

Moab

Moab and Seir say, “Behold, the House of Judah is like all the nations,” . . . I will give Moab to the people of the East . . . So I will execute judgments on Moab” (Ezekiel 25:8-11)

Edom

ADONAI YHVH says this: “Because Edom has acted against the House of Judah by taking vengeance, and has incurred great guilt, and avenged themselves upon them, therefore this is what ADONAI YHVH says: I will also reach out with My hand against Edom and eliminate human and animal life from it. And I will turn it into ruins; from Teman even to Dedan they will fall by the sword. And I will inflict My vengeance on Edom by the hand of My people Israel. Therefore, they will act in Edom in accordance with My anger and My wrath. So they will know My vengeance,” declares ADONAI YHVH (Ezekiel 25:12-14)

Philistia

This is what ADONAI YHVH says: “Because the Philistines have acted in revenge, and have taken vengeance with malice in their souls to destroy [Israel] with everlasting hostility,” therefore this is what ADONAI YHVH says: “Behold, I am going to reach out with My hand against the Philistines and eliminate the Cherethites. And I will destroy the remnant of the seacoast. I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes; and they will know that I am YHVH, when I inflict My vengeance on them” (Ezekiel 25:15-17)

Edom

Since you [Edom] have had everlasting hostility and have turned over the sons of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their disaster, at the time of the punishment of the end, therefore as I live, declares ADONAI YHVH, I will certainly doom you to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you. Since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you. I will make Mount Seir a waste and a desolation and I will eliminate from it one who passes through and returns. I will fill its mountains with its slain; those killed by the sword will fall on your hills, in your valleys, and in all your ravines. I will make you a permanent desolation, and your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am YHVH. Since you have said, “These two nations and these two lands will be mine, and we will possess them,” although YHVH was there, therefore as I live, declares ADONAI YHVH, I will deal with you according to your anger and according to your envy which you displayed because of your hatred for them; so I will make Myself known among them when I judge you. Then you will know that I, YHVH, have heard all your insults which you have spoken against the mountains of Israel saying, ‘They are desolate; they have been given to us as food.’ And you have spoken arrogantly against Me and have multiplied your words against Me; I Myself have heard it. This is what ADONAI YHVH says: As all the earth rejoices, I will make you a desolation. As you rejoiced over the inheritance of the House of Israel because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You will be a desolation, Mount Seir, and all Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am YHVH (Ezekiel 35:5-15)

Now you, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say, ‘You mountains of Israel, hear the word of YHVH. This is what ADONAI YHVH says: “Since the enemy has spoken against you, ‘Aha!’ and, ‘The everlasting heights have become our possession,’ therefore prophesy and say, ‘This is what ADONAI YHVH says: “For good reason they have made you desolate and harassed you from every side, so that you would become a possession of the rest of the nations; and you have been taken up in the talk and the rumor of the people.” Therefore, you mountains of Israel, hear the word of ADONAI YHVH. This is what ADONAI YHVH says to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, to the desolate ruins and to the abandoned cities which have become plunder and an object of ridicule to the rest of the nations which are all around – therefore ADONAI YHVH says this: “Certainly in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, who appropriated My land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and with contempt of soul, in order to make its pastureland plunder.” Therefore prophesy in regard to the land of Israel and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, “This is what ADONAI YHVH says: ‘Behold, I have spoken in My jealousy and in My wrath because you have endured the insults of the nations.’ Therefore ADONAI YHVH says this: ‘I have sworn that the nations that are around you will certainly endure their insults themselves (Ezekiel 36:1-7)

Prophecy about Gaza

About 720 BC, Isaiah prophesied concerning a Last Days military invasion of Gaza (the Philistine Plain) by the combined forces of Israel’s armies. This invasion will conquer all of Gaza, as well as possess the Edomite/Palestinian West Bank, all of Jordan and other unnamed Arabic speaking peoples east of Israel.

Then it will happen on that day that YHVH will again recover with His hand the second time the remnant of His people who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He will lift up a flag for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and those who harass Judah will be eliminated. Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not harass Ephraim. They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines on the west. Together they will plunder the people of the east. They will possess Edom and Moab, and the sons of Ammon will be subject to them (Isaiah 11:11-14)

Current events show us that this End of Days oracle is not far off.

When the God of vengeance arises

When Messiah Yeshua returns, He will not have a long-stemmed rose between His teeth. On the contrary. According to Revelation 19:11-16:

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many crowns; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called ‘The Word of God.’ And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written: “King of kings, and Lord of lords.”

The New Covenant Messiah, “out of whose mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword” (Revelation 1:15-17), is the same Lord spoken of in Psalm 137:7-8:

Remember, YHVH, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem – those who said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare to its foundation!” Daughter of Babylon, you devastated one: Blessed will be one who repays you with the retribution with which you have repaid us!”

The God of the Bible is not only the God of love and of mercy; He is also the God of justice and vengeance, though many believers sidestep these aspects of His divine character. Psalm 94:1-10 enlightens us:

YHVH, God of vengeance – God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, Judge of the earth! Pay back retribution to the proud. How long, YHVH, shall the wicked – how long shall the wicked triumph? They pour out words, they speak arrogantly. All who do injustice boast. They crush Your people, YHVH, and afflict Your inheritance. They kill the widow and the stranger and murder the orphans. They have said, “YHVH does not see, nor does the God of Jacob perceive.” Pay attention, you stupid ones among the people, and when will you understand, foolish ones? He who planted the ear, does He not hear? Or He who formed the eye, does He not see? He who disciplines the nations, will He not rebuke – He who teaches mankind knowledge?

The enemies of the Jewish people are very much alive. Their murderous malice shimmers before us. God is raising up His Ezekiel 37 army to confront and vanquish Israel’s foes. Our prayers to Him need to recognize His multi-faceted nature: the God of victory is also the God of vengeance. We are to call on Him for His strategies and heart to be fulfilled – not only for international repentance, but also for His glory, His victory and His holy vengeance.

How shall we then pray?

Pray for revelation and courage to be given to Israel’s leaders in political, intelligence and military spheres – to understand and counteract strategies against Israel, the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8) – as jihadi armies gather at our borders.

Pray that enemy strategies against the Jewish people and their state, against Middle East Christians and other minorities – will be confounded, and that a great harvest would take place in all of these areas!

Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations and Western fellow-travelers, and the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel

There are approximately 24 living Israeli hostages remaining, kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP/PLO and the Mujahideen Brigades. Hamas is also holding on to approximately 70 Israeli corpses as cold storage bargaining chips. Pray for the speedy release of all the hostages, and for YHVH’s justice to be brought on the heads of the Islamist kidnappers

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: https://davidstent.org/

The Black Riders of Jihad

Jihadi terror is not new – it has ancient roots. Though some in the West see themselves as ‘post-Christian,’ many in the Islamic world look back with longing for the ‘Golden Age’ when mujahidin (jihadi armies) terrorized North Africa, the Middle East and southern Europe – Muslim warriors on horseback, armed with sabers and black flags. That black flag traces its roots to the very beginning of Islam: it was traditionally carried into jihadi battle by Muhammad and his armies.

Magnus Ranstorp, an expert on Islamic fundamentalist movements and the Research Director of the Centre for Asymmetric Threat Studies at the Swedish National Defense College, notes that modern jihadi groups – al Qaeda in Iraq, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia), and the al-Shabab group in Somalia – all use the same flag. “The most important thing is the color. This raya (راية), the solid black flag, was the Prophet Mohammed’s war banner. This flag compresses time and space – it harks back to where they came from and where they are going. It is not just the color of jihad and of the caliphate, but it represents the coming of what some believers see as the final battle and the day of resurrection.” There is an Islamic End-of-Days element in the flag, pitting the forces of Islam against the Christian West. “This symbol tells us where they have come from, the sacredness of their mission and what they want – a caliphate.” “In the contemporary Islamist movement, the black flag is used to symbolize both offensive jihad and the proponents of reestablishing the Islamic Caliphate.”

There is a connection between the Islamist desire for the return of the Caliphate, and the activist terror tactics of jihad – the return of the Black Riders of jihad. For some historical and literary context, see the Nazgûl, and the oprichniki.

The aching vacuum

Islam began not with a whimper but with a bang. There are four stages which can help us to understand the Muslim past and how many Muslims understand their future.

The first stage was the revelation Muhammad received from a demonic spirit-being who called himself ‘Jibril’ and conveyed teaching that God’s name is not YHVH; that the Jewish people’s calling has ended; that Yeshua is not the Son of God; that He did not die on the cross; that every knee must bow not to Yeshua but to allah through Muhammad’s message.

The second stage was that this message must be declared to the whole world (in Arabic, da’wah). If it is received, the hearers become Muslims. If it is rejected, jihad (Islamic holy war) is declared against those who have not bowed the knee to the Jibrilian revelation. The choices here are three: convert under threat; become a slave-status dhimmi (Arabic for ‘protected’, but in reality a second class citizens with few civil rights and needing to pay a punishing tax called the jizya); beheading or some other form of killing.

The third stage was the caliphate – the governmental and organizational solidification of the Islamist dictatorship in all the countries that Islam conquered.

The fourth stage was the blunting of jihadi expansion in such countries like France (Charles Martel and the Battle of Tours/Poitiers in 732 A.D.); Vienna (the Siege of Vienna in 1529, and the Battle of Vienna in 1683); the Reconquista or ‘Reconquering’ of al-Andalus/Spain between 722 and 1492 A.D.. Combined with a waning of jihadi zeal and the growth of Islamic prosperity, Islamic theology began to declare a new definition – ‘dar al-‘Ahd’/ ‘dar al-Sulh’ (‘the house of truce’ or ‘house of treaty/conciliation’) – instead of continuous military jihad leading to full Islamist conquest of the world. This breakdown in Quranic Islamist strategy was described and rebuked by Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328). He adamantly insisted that Islam’s weakenings and defeats were due to Muslim adoption of Western culture, ideas and practices and a slacking of prosecuting jihad. The modern Salafi movement agrees, believing that these former empires lost their greatness because they had fallen away from ‘authentic Islam.’ Only a return to strict (‘salafi’) interpretation of Islamic shari’a law and a restoration of caliphate government would make Islam great again. That was (and remains) their perspective.

Two strategic questions guide modern Islamist revivalists:

Should Islam’s first priority be to re-establish the caliphate, or should its first priority be to rekindle jihad?

Should Islamic jihad be targeted against the overwhelmingly non-zealous ‘apostate’ leaders of modern Islamic countries leaders, or should jihad’s target be the traditional ‘dar al-Harb’ (Arabic for ‘the house of war’) – the pagan, Christian and Jewish states of the West?

The Egyptian Godfather and his four-fold cord

The collapse of the Ottoman/Turkish caliphate in 1924 led to movements for a revival of the Caliphate. The first major one was the Muslim Brotherhood, spearheaded by Hassan al-Banna. The vision of the Muslim Brotherhood as per al-Banna: the formation of an Islamic state governed by shari’a and a return to a society modelled after that of Muhammad and his first followers. The purpose of the Muslim Brotherhood was and remains: to restore Islam to the global power and dominance over Christendom that it had wielded for more than a thousand years; and, to return Islam to its divine destiny – the unification of all regimes under the banner of the Caliphate, the universal Islamic state.

Four of Al-Banna’s disciples became the apostles of jihad: Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, Jordanian Abdullah Azzam, Yemenite/Saudi Osama bin Laden and Egyptian Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), an Egyptian political theorist and revolutionary, was a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood and is considered the ‘father of Salafi jihadism,’ and ‘intellectual godfather of Osama bin Laden.’ His philosophy underpins those of both al-Qaedaand ISIS. Here are four links to articles explaining his significant influence on jihadi thought and action:

https://thesoufancenter.org/tsg-intelbrief-the-lasting-legacy-of-sayyid-qutb/

https://www.counterextremism.com/threat/qutbism

https://web.archive.org/web/20181002133334/https://www.abc.net.au/religion/sayyid-qutb-father-of-salafi-jihadism-forerunner-of-the-islamic-/10096380

From Qutb And The Brotherhood To Isis And The Caliphate – https://www.tutorhunt.com/resource/22045/

Qutb was the founding father and leading theoretician of the contemporary extremist movement, and was one of the two most influential Muslim thinkers of this century (the other being Indian Abul A’la Maududi). Most Sunni Islamic revolutionaries base their models of revolution on Qutb’s epic book ‘Milestones.’ William McCants, of US Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center, notes that the jihadi enemies of the West “cite Sayyid Qutb repeatedly and consider themselves his intellectual descendants. ”

Whereas Hassan al-Banna tried to build an Islamic society from the bottom up, Qutb developed a top-down approach, focused on removing non-Islamic rulers and governments. He advocated the use of violence to establish Islamic rule, inspiring thousands to take up the cause of “establishing God’s rule on earth” (i.e., the Caliphate). But Qutb struggled with the reality that most Muslims were not zealously committed to jihad. His perspectives can be condensed to the following three Arabic words:

Jahiliyya – originally meant to describe pre-Islamic ignorance and barbarism, Qutb expanded the term to include both the whole non-Muslim world and most of what is considered the Islamic world, since they are not ruled by a strict interpretation of shari’a (original Islamic law). Instead of adopting al-Banna’s dream of establishing an Islamic state in Egypt after a systematic and patient Islamization, Qutb called for a revolutionary vanguard which would first establish an Egyptian Islamic state by violent jihadi revolution.

Shari’a (original Islamic law) – Qutb scorned and spurned the Islamic scholars and medieval commentators, declaring that they had departed from the original early Islamic teachings of Muhammad. Their religious structures (and the states that support them) are all ‘takfir’ – heretical, and should be removed. A valid caliphate is only one which uncompromisingly holds to the teachings of Muhammad without compromise.

Violent jihad – Al-Banna and Qutb both advocated violent jihad. Qutb now provided an Islamist theological basis for violent jihad against Muslim governments as well. Specifically: Jihad is to encompass the entire world. All current Muslim governments are heretical, because they do not uncompromisingly obey shari’a. Therefore, jihad must be carried out in all countries that do not obey shari’a law. Any place where the Islamic shari’a law is not enforced and where Islam is not dominant is seen by Qutb and his followers as ‘dar al-Harb’ – the territory of war and hostilities.

Qutb’s blend of Islamist and Nazi anti-Semitism

Qutb was influenced by classical Islamist anti-Semitism, and he faithfully passed on what had been transmitted to him through his religious training. To this foundation he added classic Nazi racist teachings of Judenhass – Jew-hatred. Here are some examples of his teaching:

“Explaining the purpose of man and his historical role in philosophical terms is one of the tricks played by world Jewry, whose purpose is to eliminate all limitations, especially the limitations imposed by faith and religion, so that Jews may penetrate into body politics of the whole world and then may be free to perpetuate their evil designs. At the top of the list of these activities is usury, the aim of which is that all the wealth of mankind end up in the hands of Jewish financial institutions which run on interest” [Qutb, ‘Milestones’, pp. 110-111]

“At the beginning the enemies of the Muslim community did not fight openly with arms but tried to fight the community in its belief through intrigue, spreading ambiguities, creating suspicions. They do likewise today. They have plotted and they go on plotting against this nation. Hundreds and thousands have infiltrated the Muslim world, and they still do in the guise of Orientalists. The pupils of the latter fill today the positions of the intellectual life of the countries whose people call themselves Muslim. Their aim is clearly shown by the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion]. The Jews are behind materialism, animal sexuality, the destruction of the family and the dissolution of society. Principal among them are Marx, Freud, Durkheim and the Jew Jean-Paul Sartre.”

The Jews have confronted Islam with enmity from the moment the Islamic state was established in Medina . . . The Muslim community continues to suffer the same Jewish machinations and double-dealing which discomfited the early Muslims. This is a war which has not been extinguished ... for close on fourteen centuries its blaze has raged in all the corners of the earth and continues to this moment. (Sayyid Qutb, ‘Ma’rakatuna ma’a al-Yahud,’ (Our Battle Against the Jews) [essay written in 1951. Published in book of the same name [Ma’rakatuna ma’a al-Yahud], Jedda, Saudi Arabia, 1970). Just as Wagner and the Nazis insisted that the Jews had ‘corrupted’ ‘true’ Aryan and German culture, Qutb expounded on the idea that Jews had infiltrated and corrupted Islam. This idea may have begun from his efforts to discredit the ‘Israeliyya’ - portions of Islamic lore that were believed to have been inserted by Jews into Islamic tradition, but it bears an uncanny resemblance to Nazi propaganda.

“Just as in the past, it was the Jews who had disrupted the early Islamic community... it was the Jews who had more recently undermined Islam by installing a generation of fifth-columnists in its midst, posing as true Muslims but in reality betraying the Muslim cause... The Jews have installed... a massive army of agents in the form of professors, philosophers, doctors, researchers... some even from the ranks of the Muslim religious authorities...intending to break the creed of the Muslims by weakening the Sharia in many ways... with this and that they fulfil the ancient rule of the Jews.” (Sayyid Qutb, ‘Our Battle Against the Jews’, Jedda, Saudi Arabia, 1970). Qutb’s virulently anti-Semitism is independent of any issues related to Israel or Zionism.

From Jordanian Jenin to Russian Jihad

Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam was born in 1941, in the village of Silat al-Harithiyah northwest of Jenin (then Jordan), just south of Afula in modern Israel. He studied Islamic Law (shari’a) at Damascus University’s Sharia College and at Cairo’s al-Azhar University. He later developed the slogan “Jihad and the rifle alone: no negotiations, no conferences and no dialogues!”. In the mid-1970’s he lectured at King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where one of his reverent students and later aide-de-camp was Osama bin Laden. In 1981 Azzam moved to Pakistan, becoming one of the top figures in the Afghani jihad against the Russians in Afghanistan. The Islamic epicenter of Saudi Arabia heavily funded his jihad activities at that time. In 1984 he co-founded MAK (Maktab Khadamāt al-Mujāhidīn al-'Arab), a pre-al-Qa’eda organization for recruiting jihadi warriors to face combat against Russian forces in Afghanistan. In November and December 1989 he established a vanguard jihadi organization known as ‘al-Qaidah al-Sulbah’ (Arabic for ‘the solid base’). Azzam wrote an article at the time in the monthly al-Jihad (April 1988) declaring a global Islamic jihad:

“Every principle must have its vanguard that will carry it forth. [The vanguard] will pay a steep price and suffer many losses while paving the road for the [Islamic] society. There is no belief, either earthly or heavenly, that does not need such a vanguard, one that will give all it has for its belief to be victorious. This vanguard is the solid base (‘al-Qaidah al-Sulbah’) of the society we are awaiting.”

In December 1987 Azzam maintained close contact with Hamas as it was being established, as well as with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. This was no surprise, since both groups were birthed out if the same parent movement – the Muslim Brotherhood. Both Azzam and Hamas founders had been Muslim Brotherhood members. Azzam called Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmad Yassin “the symbol of the firm position of the Islamic movement.” Azzam’s closeness of heart to Hamas is seen in his book ‘Hamas: The Historical Roots and the Charter’, where he declares that only Hamas is capable of restoring Palestine into Muslim hands.

Abdullah Azzam worked with the CIA to arm and train Taliban jihadi fighters against Soviet Forces in Afghanistan. Azzam’s Islamic perspective was that three things were necessary for an Islamic End-of-Days scenario:

World-wide jihad must be waged wherever possible, until Islam is victorious

As countries would become exclusively Islamic territories and ruled by shari’a , Islamic sub-states could be established

When Israel is destroyed and all Christians are subjugated or killed or converted to Islam, then a world caliphate would be established.

This apocalyptic Islamist scenario is the prime motivator for the jihadi terrorists of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza and the West Bank; for HTS (Hay’at al-Tahrir as-Sham) in Syria; for much of Turkey’s leadership; for Islamic State/Da’esh in Iraq and Syria; etc. The Muslim vision for the restoration of the Caliphate, for world Islamic control and for crushing defeat of Israel and the West, is something that most Westerners (and even many Israelis) do not fully grasp. Much prayer and dedicated intercession is needed on these matters.

How shall we then pray?

Pray for revelation and courage to be given to Israel’s leaders in political, intelligence and military spheres – to understand and counteract strategies against Israel, the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8) – as jihadi armies gather at our borders.

Pray that enemy strategies against the Jewish people and their state, against Middle East Christians and other minorities – will be confounded, and that a great harvest would take place in all of these areas!

Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations and Western fellow-travelers, and the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel

There are approximately 44 to 50 living Israeli hostages remaining, kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. Plans are tentatively underway to release a total of 33 out the 98 remaining Israeli hostages – half who are dead. Hamas is holding on to their corpses as cold storage bargaining chips. That would leave 65 hostages with Hamas, some dead, some alive. Pray for the release of all the hostages, and for YHVH’s justice to be brought on the heads of the Hamas kidnappers

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

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Playing poker with Hitler

Why is Israel giving in to a hostage exchange with jihadi murderers? Wasn’t the IDF winning the war against these Islamist terrorists? What’s going on?

God bless the child

On May 9 1941 Billie Holiday stepped into Columbia Records’ Studio A at 799 Seventh Avenue in New York to record what would become perhaps her most classic song, ‘God Bless The Child.’ The song was born out of frustration and a family argument, and it was co-written with Jewish songwriter Arthur Herzog, Jr. Here is one memorable line from that hit: “Rich relations give crusts of bread and such – You can help yourself, but don’t take too much.”

The wry observations that Billie and Arthur made here have pertinent relevance to what is going on in Israel.

We’ll help you for a price – so just don’t take too much!

The determination of world powers to shrink the borders of the Jewish state (expressed so laconically by Kissinger in 1975) and to establish a terrorist jihadi state in the heartland of the Land promised by the God of Israel to Jacob’s children, is the nuclear core which has powered US realpolitik for the past 75 years:

“Israel does us more harm than good in the Arab world . . . We can’t negotiate about the existence of Israel but we can reduce its size to historical proportions . . . I think in ten to fifteen years Israel will be like Lebanon – struggling for existence, with no influence in the Arab world . . . If the issue is the existence of Israel, we can’t cooperate. But if the issue is more normal borders, we can cooperate . . . I think the Palestinian identity has to be recognized in some form … (It) will be a tremendous fight … (but) no solution is possible without it”

The tightening of American diplomatic thumbscrews on Israeli fingers over the years has caused nearly two handfuls of Israeli Prime Ministers to cry ‘Uncle’ to Uncle Sam, forcing them under superpower duress to consent to the dividing up of the Land of Israel: Begin, Rabin, Peres, Barak, Sharon, Olmert, Bennett/Lapid, and Bibi. This dangerously flawed U.S. State Department conception has led to strategically suicidal withdrawals from the Sinai (the Camp David Accords), the West Bank (the Oslo Accords), Gaza (Ariel Sharon’s Disengagement) and the latest pressures by both the Biden and incoming Trump administrations to ram through an Israeli ceasefire and withdrawal – leaving Hamas still the master of Gaza, and the Palestinian Authority jihadi terror group being granted a new lease on life under the protection of the US ‘Godfather.’

These political machinations – American and European pressure on Israel – have resulted in Israel caving in and bowing to that pressure. Internationally accepted political wisdom has determined that Israel must continue to withdraw from both the West Bank and Gaza, and that a Palestinian terrorist state must be established in the heart of the Promised Land, on lands which the God of Israel declared as Israel’s national patrimony forever (see Joel 3:1-2). The world is ‘cruising for a bruising’.

A Jekyll-and-Hyde relationship exists between Israel and the USA. On one hand, America makes state-of-the-art military weaponry available to Israel (which the Jewish state pays for, directly to the American arms industry). On the other hand, the US State Department and POTUS rudely rebuke and threaten Israel’s Prime Minister, government and military forces, treating Israel like a problem child who needs to be spanked and sent up to his room without supper. This usually happens when Israel is well on the way to decisively defeating its enemies. Recent events highlight these dynamics on steroids. They show that for America, Israel is not their priority concern in the Middle East. Thus, the US treats the Jewish state in a schizophrenic and Machiavellian fashion, strengthening the Jewish state’s enemies while simultaneously allowing munitions to flow to Israel.

The government of Israel finds itself in nearly total dependence on US arms, whether it be tank and artillery shells, bunker-buster bombs or F-35 stealth fighter jets. American displeasure has tremendous influence over IDF policies and battle strategies. This has been seen in how the Israeli government has swallowed hard many times and obeyed US diktats regarding how it is prosecuting its war on Hamas, specifically on such issues as:

accusing Israel of indiscriminate slaughter of Gazans – based on wildly inaccurate figures from Hamas:

increasing humanitarian aid without achieving the complete release of Israeli hostages, and where most of that aid ends up in Hamas hands

the supply of oil, gas, water and electricity to Hamas control, which allows Hamas’ war machine to keep firing rockets at Israeli civilians and to keep attacking IDF ground troops. This has caused over 100,000 Israeli civilians in the communities beside Gaza to flee their homes and become refugees in their own homeland

holding back pre-emptive strikes on Hezbollah (Iran’s proxy in Lebanon) for nine months, while Hezbollah has been attacking Israeli civilians in the North of the country and causing 80,000 Israelis living near the Lebanese border to abandon their homes and become refugees in their own land. This gives a combined total of at least 200,000 Israeli refugees within Israel as a result of Hamas and Hezbollah jihadi attacks

The combined political and military carrot-and-stick approach by successive US administrations has decisively influenced the IDF top brass, resulting in them making policy decisions which avoid eliminating Hamas, and which shrink the IDF’s available inventory, IDF reserves training times, and length of regular military service. As a result, the IDF has become less than fully prepared to wage and win war on seven fronts simultaneously. On top of that, the US Secretaries of State and Defense have joined with the POTUS in micro-managing Israel’s present prosecution of the war, rebuking the IDF publicly and even threatening the Jewish state with embargoes and diplomatic censure when the IDF does not respond quickly enough to American ‘suggestions.’

In the words of one of Bob Dylan’s lesser-known songs ‘Medicine Sunday’:

Well, that midnight train pulled on all down the track
You’re standing there watching, with your hands tied behind your back
And you smile so pretty, and nod to the prison guard . . .

Israeli political analyst Carolyn Glick sums up how the US Administration’s bear hug has affected Israel’s successful prosecution of the current war:

“This was why the U.S. opposed Israel’s ground operation in Gaza; supported Egypt in blocking Gazans from fleeing Gaza for shelter in Egypt or third countries; opposed Israel’s takeover of Rafah and the border with Gaza; slow-walked the delivery of offensive weapons, including assault rifles, tank and artillery shells and bombs for the air force in an effort to compel Israel to adopt a defensive posture; and consistently sought to coerce Israel to accept hostage deals with Hamas that would precipitate its strategic defeat in the war. This is why the administration began sanctioning Israeli citizens who they claim obstruct their goal of establishing a Palestinian state in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. Likewise, the administration’s consistent, unswerving pressure on Israel to admit massive quantities of goods into Gaza, under the headline ‘humanitarian aid,’ facilitated Hamas’s survival in power.”

A divided American heart leads to a divided Jewish state

The Hamas-Israel deal did not descend from the clouds on angels’ wings. It was forced through by incoming POTUS Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff on January 16 2025.

“Last Friday evening, Steven Witkoff, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, called from Qatar to tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's aides that he would be coming to Israel the following afternoon. The aides politely explained that was in the middle of the Sabbath but that the Prime Minister would gladly meet him Saturday night. Witkoff's blunt reaction took them by surprise. He explained to them in salty English that Shabbat was of no interest to him. His message was loud and clear.” Witkoff then said that Trump expected Israel to agree to the ceasefire, and then “things that Netanyahu had termed life-and-death issues … suddenly vanished”.

Witkoff, a longtime friend and golfing buddy of Trump, is a billionaire real-estate executive from New York City. Nancy Okail, an Egyptian American human rights activist (sentenced to jail in absentia by Egyptian court), thinks that Trump’s pick of property mogul Steve Witkoff as Middle East envoy was the “most interesting decision,” indicating as it did that the incoming president sees the region “as one giant real estate deal.”

Witkoff’s intricate connection with the Middle Eastern country of Qatar goes back to November 2013, when his Witkoff Group acquired the 610-room Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan for approximately $654 million. Due to various DOJ-connected problems, Witkoff ended up selling the property to the Qatar Investment Authority (the country’s sovereign wealth fund) for $623 million in August 2023. Journalist Caroline Glick shed light on the role of Steve Witkoff and his business ties to Hamas-supporting Qatar. “They have an enormous amount of money that they use to buy influence in the West, and especially in Donald Trump’s circle. And one of those people is Steven Witkoff”, Glick said.

At Qatar’s May 15 2024 Economic Forum, Witkoff praised Qatar, calling it “really impressive,” adding, “this is solid government.”

Witkoff has expressed similar admiration for the UAE’s pro-business agenda. In December 2024, he took the stage at Bitcoin MENA, a cryptocurrency conference in Abu Dhabi. Witkoff and Trump’s sons are cofounders of World Liberty Financial (WLF), a crypto-platform with investments from TRON (blockchain crypto-platform). There seems to be a small fly in the financial ointment here: Israeli authorities say that Hamas and other groups designated as terrorist organizations have used Tron’s low-cost, high-speed network for illicit financing. Israel’s National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing froze numerous Tron wallets since July 2021, linking many to Hamas, Hezbollah, and other groups. Crypto seizures announced by the Israeli security services since 2021 have frequently singled out Tron’s use by militants, including Hamas whose 2023 attack on Israel killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli authorities, and triggered the Gaza war. The US Treasury Department also seized Tron wallets allegedly connected to terrorism financing after the 2023 attack on Israel.

It bears mentioning that Jared Kushner (POTUS Trump’s son-in-law) was instrumental in negotiating the Abraham Accords in 2020. Kushner’s private equity firm Affinity Partners has received more than $2 billion in investments from Saudi Arabi after Kushner left the White House in 2020. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is an investor in Affinity. In May 2018 Kushner Companies received a bailout of its flagship New York building (666 Fifth Avenue) by Brookfield Properties, a publicly traded company headquartered in Canada, one of whose major investors in the Qatar Investment Authority. On December 20 2024 Affinity Partners raised an additional $1.5 billion from the Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi-based asset manager Lunate. Wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates and a Qatari entity (both unnamed) also have each invested over $200 million apiece in Affinity.

In November 2024, Jewish Insider noted that Witkoff’s previous financial dealings with Qatar, a country that has sought to influence him through its lobbying efforts, have raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest. Ben Baird, the director of advocacy for the Middle East Forum, commented on Witkoff’s appointment: “One can’t help but wonder if there aren’t some geopolitics at play here. It’s not a sure bet how people like Witkoff are going to enact policies.”

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani credited Witkoff on Wednesday January 15 2025, in a speech announcing the Hamas-Israel deal.

Dr Daniel Pipes notes in the Middle East Forum that the present deal releases many hundreds of jihadi murderers who have killed hundreds of Israeli civilians. “It nearly assures continued Hamas rule in Gaza. It boosts Islamist morale worldwide. It humiliates the West’s foremost Middle Eastern ally.”

Qatar is the world’s primary bankroller of Hamas. Qatar is also a full-fledged mediator (along with the USA) in this deal. Qatar also houses the US’s largest airbase in the Middle East, as well as hosting the US military’s CENTCOM and Hamas’ senior leadership. For America to allow it such influence and power in these negotiations reveals that the US has a divided heart in these matters. And for the incoming POTUS and his family to have such close financial connections with Hamas’ biggest bankroller should give us all pause for thought and for increased prayer. Qatar and the US are both on board in seeking a Palestinian state led by terrorists, to be created on land that God has promised to Israel alone.

Jihad is not just a philosophy

In ‘Neighborhood Bully’, Bob Dylan’s masterpiece about the Jewish people and the Jewish state, he wryly notes: “There's a noose at his neck and a gun at his back and a license to kill him is given out to every maniac – He's the neighborhood bully!” Hamas’ Charter declares: “The Platform of The Islamic Resistance Movement [Harakat al-Muqawima al-Islamiyya]: Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors.”

The Gazan enemy attacking the Jewish state is Hamas – a Muslim Brotherhood offshoot Islamically committed to Israel’s total destruction. Western secular leaders for the most part have absolutely no idea who Hamas is, and what its end-game strategy is – or what the God of Jacob says about who Israel is in His eyes, and what His end-game strategy is for them. In the rare case where some might faintly grasp these issues, most of them don’t care enough about the Jewish people for it to make any difference in their political and diplomatic decisions.

Jeremiah’s prophetic declaration rings down the corridors of time. His summation of God’s heart and coming judgments on the nations who deal casually or cruelly with Israel are crystal-clear:

“And do not fear, Jacob My servant, declares YHVH, and do not be dismayed, Israel. For behold, I am going to save you from far away, and your descendants from the land of their captivity . . . For I am with you, declares YHVH, to save you. For I will completely destroy all the nations where I have scattered you, only I will not destroy you completely . . . There is no one to plead your cause . . . All your lovers have forgotten you; They do not seek you . . . Therefore all who devour you will be devoured, and all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity . . . Those who plunder you will become plunder, and all who plunder you I will turn into plunder. For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds, declares YHVH, because they have called you an outcast, saying: ‘It is Zion; no one cares for her’” (Jeremiah 30:10-17)

Yahya Sinwar’s less famous brother

On June 25 2006 a squad of Hamas terrorists attacked an IDF Merkava Mark III tank near Israel’s Kerem Shalom border crossing. Their RPG fire killed two of the tank crew, badly wounded the third, and the fourth, Corporal Gilad Shalit, was captured and taken back into Gaza. Shalit was held prisoner in Gaza for 1,934 days before being liberated in a hostage-for-terrorist deal. In the first stage, Shalit was transferred to Egypt and then to Israel. At the same time Israel released 477 prisoners. Two months later, Israel released another 550 prisoners. Lists of prominent Hamas prisoners released can be found here and here.

Over 190 Israelis were murdered by these terrorists. A 2011 Israeli poll reported that, at the time, 79% of Israelis surveyed supported the exchange, while 14% opposed it. One of the Hamas prisoners release was Yahya Sinwar, who later took over leadership in Hamas, and orchestrated the October 7, 2023 jihadi massacres – resulting in the death of 1,180 Israelis (797 civilians and 383 IDF soldiers); as well as 3,400 wounded and 251 Israelis taken captive. Sinwar’s brother Mohammed (commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade) was one of the masterminds behind the October 7 pogrom. Mohammed Sinwar is currently the one leading the hostage-terrorist deal negotiations.

Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Ronen Bar presented data to the ministers in the Israeli government’s security cabinet on Friday January 17 2025, stating that “82% of those released in the Gilad Shalit deal in 2011 returned to terrorism,” and that 15% of them carried out attacks themselves after their release in the deal, or planned the attacks.

The deal which was brokered mandates the release of over 1,000 prisoners (most who are Hamas-connected). A partial Hebrew list of 734 of these terrorists is available here, an a very short list in English is available here.

It is to be assumed that the release of so many hardened jihadi murderers – many of them into Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and East Jerusalem – will result in many more Israeli fatalities. This deal was not the Israeli government’s choosing, nor does it reflect the heart and thoughts of most Israelis. It is a deal that has been forced on Israel by political pressure, by Israel’s allies.

Releasing the kraken

There is an old Norwegian word kraken or krakjen, which in turn comes from the Old Norse krókr (literally, ‘hook’ or ‘hooked’). This probably refers to primitive grapnel anchors shaped like hooks, which grab onto earth at the bottom of a lake or shallow body of water. In Norwegian sailor folklore, the kraken (also known as horven) is a legendary sea monster said to appear in the sea between Norway and Iceland.

Modern literary use of the word kraken includes: John Wyndham’s novel The Kraken Wakes (1953), the Kraken of Marvel Comics, the 1981 film Clash of the Titans and the 2010 remake. A kraken was also featured in two of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. There is also a professional hockey team known as the Seattle Kraken. To ‘release the kraken’ in colloquial speech means ‘to release a great destructive force.’

Many in the Western world have chosen to castigate Israel and champion Hamas in this latest terrorist-catalyzed war. As a result, a ‘kraken of anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel’ has been released across the face of the globe. Shocking though it is, even feminists and civil-rights activists have championed mass rapes of Israeli teens and women, and the murder of children and Holocaust survivors by Hamas jihadis. The moral philosophies of these people – who delight in describing themselves by the epithet ‘woke’ – have melted down into ethical idiocy and quasi-Nazi endorsements. The advocacy of Islamist anti-Semitism by these people is releasing divine judgment on their nations. This is resulting in a super-fast slide downhill into moral and spiritual darkness (as per Romans 1:18-32). As the English Standard Version accurately translates the Hebrew of Genesis 12:3: “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse!”

Though the clash between Hamas’ jihadi terrorists and the Jewish state of Israel seems to some to be only regionally significant, the God of Israel is using international responses on this issue to sift the destinies of the nations.

How shall we then pray?

Pray for revelation and courage to be given to Israel’s leaders in political, intelligence and military spheres – to understand and counteract strategies against Israel, the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8) – as Islamic State/al Qa’eda armies gather at our borders.

Pray that enemy strategies against the Jewish people and their state, against Middle East Christians and other minorities – will be confounded, and that a great harvest would take place in all of these areas!

Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations and Western fellow-travelers, and the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel

There are approximately 44 to 50 living Israeli hostages remaining, kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. Plans are tentatively underway to release a total of 33 out the 98 remaining Israeli hostages – half who are dead. Hamas is holding on to their corpses as cold storage bargaining chips. That would leave 65 hostages with Hamas, some dead, some alive. Pray for the release of all the hostages, and for YHVH’s justice to be brought on the heads of the Hamas kidnappers

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: https://davidstent.org/

The morphing of the Caliphate

The defeat of the Ottoman Empire in 1917-1918 meant the downfall of the world’s only Muslim superpower. It also meant the collapse of Islam’s caliphate. Muhammad’s armies had been decisively crushed, and the body of the Muslim juggernaut was left headless on the battlefield. What would happen now?

No longer a Turkish Caliphate

Ḥusayn bin ‘Alī was a 37^th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad, coming from the Banū Hāshim clan (an offshoot of the Quraysh tribe). Though born in Constantinople, his family was from Mecca, and he grew up in Arabia. On November 1 1908 he was appointed Sharif and Emir of Mecca by the Ottoman/Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Less than eight years later, on June 10 1916 he proclaimed himself leader of the Great Arab Revolt and began a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire. Four months after that, in October 1916 his own son Abdullah declared his father Ḥusayn to be “sovereign of the Arab nation. Then all those present arose and proclaimed him ‘Malik al-Arab’, King of the Arabs.” According to US State Department sources, a formal ceremony recognizing Emir Ḥusayn as “king of the Hedjaz” then occurred in Mecca on November 6 1916. Those American sources added a note that King Ḥusayn was hoping to re-establish the Caliphate: that “a request for the recognition of an Arab caliphate was also advanced; and it is not to be doubted that, even in these early years of the war, Hussein was inspired by dreams of future imperial rank and caliphal dignity.”

Emir/King Ḥusayn (also spelled ‘Hussein’) was not running blind: he was relying on Britain’s secret diplomatic promise going back to November 1 1914. This had been communicated to him from then Consul-General of Egypt Herbert Lord Kitchener. Britain promised to “guarantee the independence, rights and privileges of the Sharifate against all foreign external aggression, in particular that of the Ottomans.” At that time, both Britain and America were generous in promising things to King Ḥusayn that were more flattery than reality, in their attempt to assuage ‘medieval dignity.’ Britain even sent British Army officer T.E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence of Arabia’; renowned archeologist and Arabist) to help Ḥusayn in military, diplomatic and intelligence preparations. As a bonus, Ḥusayn’s sons Faisal and Abdullah were appointed in 1921 as puppet-rulers of the British Crown – Faisal to Iraq (August 23 1921 – September 8 1933) and Abdullah to Transjordan (as Emir April 11 1921-May 25 1946; then as King, May 25 1946-July 20 1951). Iraq and Transjordan were two new colony-nations, created by Whitehall within the Sykes-Picot framework – part of the United Kingdom’s colonialist strategy for the Middle East.

But a deeper problem was brewing in Araby. In 1916 the new King Ḥusayn had also declared himself ‘Malik bilad al-Arab’ (‘King of all Arab lands’). Arabian warrior Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman al-Saud (ibn Saud), a Bedouin not descended from Muhammad’s bloodline, already had his ambitious eyes set on seizing the Meccan prize. Bad blood existed between these two leaders – the Hashemite and the Saudi – and it would end up bringing disaster to the Hashemite Ḥusayn and to his dynasty.

A short-lived Arab Caliphate

King Ḥusayn was proclaimed as the new Sharifian/Arab Caliph on March 10 1924, one week after Turkey’s new Grand National Assembly abolished the Ottoman Caliphate on March 3 1924. For much of the Arab world, this announcement of a new Arab Caliph was seen as a fleeting consolation, the culmination of a long struggle to reclaim the caliphate from Ottoman hands. On that very day, King Ḥusayn visited the Supreme Islamic Council in Jerusalem, situated on the Temple Mount, to discuss the matter with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini (a personal friend of Hitler and the Nazi High Command, and an advocate of the Holocaust). A document of allegiance to the Caliphate of Hussein bin Ali was then issued, stating:

“We, the muftis, judges, dignitaries, and representatives of the Palestinian land, the people of authority and contract, pledge our allegiance to His Majesty, the Hashemite King of the Arabs, Hussein bin Ali bin Awn al-Hashemi, with the Islamic caliphate, on the condition that the matter is conducted through consultation, as commanded by allah almighty. It is also conditioned that no actions contradict the public interest of Muslims, and that decisions regarding the affairs of Palestine, its government structure, and its opinions are made only with the consent of its people.”

That same month, in March 1924, King Ḥusayn published in Amman a public bay’ah or oath of allegiance sworn to himself as new ruler by the Muslims of Jerusalem and Amman:

“The act of the Ankara government abolishing the caliphate prompted the distinguished religious scholars of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina, as well as those of al-Aqsa Mosque and the surrounding countries, to surprise us and compel us to pledge allegiance with great enthusiasm to the grand leadership and the grand caliphate. This was in lieu of observing religious rituals and the fasting prescribed by clear legislation, due to the inadmissibility for Muslims to remain without an imam for more than three days, as explicitly stated in the recommendations of the venerable Farouk [i.e., ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb]”

King Ḥusayn received support for his becoming Caliph from the second-to-previous Ottoman/Turkish Caliph, Mehmed VI Vahideddin, according to an article published on March 18 1924 in the British newspaper ‘The Times’: “Vahideddin, who is in the Italian city of San Remo, has sent a telegram to King Hussein and announced that he recognizes Hussein as Caliph.”

But Caliph Ḥusayn would only get to rule as caliph for a short 20 months. He was forcibly removed from that office on December 23 1925, when Ibn Saud and his Wahhabi armies (known as ‘Ikhwān man Aṭāʿa allāh’ – ‘the Brotherhood of those who obey allah’) conquered what is now known as the Western Province of Saudi Arabia (the Hejaz). Ḥusayn abdicated and fled to Amman, Transjordan. But Saudi pressure on the British resulted in Ḥusayn soon being exiled to British-controlled Cyprus. Just over five years later, when Ḥusayn became gravely ill, the British allowed him to return to Amman. He died on June 4 1931. As a sharif of Mecca, Ḥusayn would traditionally have been buried in Mecca, but Ibn Saud would not permit that, so Ḥusayn was buried in the al-Arghuniyya Madrasa on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. On the window above his tomb is written the following Arabic inscription, acknowledging his brief status as caliph: (‘This is the tomb of the Commander of the believers’; ‘Haḏa qabru ʾamīri ʾal-mūˈminīna ʾal-Ḥusayn bnu ʿAlī’). On January 8 1926, the leading figures in Mecca, Medina and Jeddah proclaimed Ibn Saud as King of Hejaz; the bay’ah ceremony was held in the Great Mosque of Mecca. The non-Hashemite and non-Sayyid clan known as the House of Saud has ruled Mecca and Medina since that time – as kings but not as caliphs.

After both the Turkish abolition of the Ottoman caliphate and the Saudi non-Hashemite conquest of Mecca, a few Islamic attempts were initiated to consider how the Caliphate could be revived. In 1926 the ‘Pan-Islamic Congress for the Caliphate’ was convened in Cairo (text available in Russian) to discuss the revival of the caliphate. But most Muslim countries did not participate, and no action was taken to implement the summit’s resolutions. Various scholars in attendance promoted conflicting claims by the competing Arab sovereigns to the title of ‘caliph’. But, as Marvin Kramer states in ‘The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World,’ “All such efforts were foiled by internal rivalries or the intervention of the European powers.”

A renewed vision for the re-establishment of the Caliphate

Most Westerners didn’t pay too much attention to the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate or how this was affecting the Muslim world. Western secularists tended to belittle Christianity and any constructive role it could play in guiding their culture and civilization. Certainly, they assumed, Islam was similarly not relevant for the Middle East. Hilaire Belloc, French writer and historian, notes, “Millions of modern people . . . have forgotten all about Islam. They have never come in contact with it. They take for granted that it is decaying, and that, anyway, it is just a foreign religion which will not concern them.”

But Islamic self-understanding of their own history is significantly different. The Muslim world had watched over centuries as their empires – whether Abbasid, Persian, Fatimid, Indian Mughal or Ottoman – declined in power, honor and influence. Back in the medieval period, Islamic philosopher-scholar Ibn Taymiyya (1263-1328) adamantly insisted that Islam’s weakenings and defeats were due to Muslim adoption of Western culture, ideas and practices. The modern Salafi movement agreed, believing that these former empires lost their greatness because they had fallen away from ‘authentic Islam.’ Only a return to strict (‘salafi’) interpretation of Islamic shari’a law and a restoration of caliphate government would make Islam great again, was their perspective.

The Salafi movement believes that the first three generations of leaders after Muhammad – the ‘salaf’ – exemplify the purest form of Islam. The writings and traditions of these ‘al-salaf al-ṣāliḥ’ or ‘pious predecessors’ are to be given authoritative precedence over later Islamic traditions. This of course means that Muhammad’s geopolitical goal – jihadi conquest of the world – is to be carried out in the same way as Muhammad himself pursued it.

With the departure of the last Caliph Abdulmejid II from Ottoman Turkey in 1923, a new wave of Islamist thinkers came on the scene. They blended a vision for Muslim renewal with a drive for the restoration of the caliphate. And they saw in Ibn Taymiyya’s teachings a Sheikh, a Muslim leader, who could lead Islam back to power, greatness and world domination through jihad – Muslim holy war. Most Islamist jihadi movements of the last 100 years (including the Muslim Brotherhood, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Islamic State and Syria’s new HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa/Abu Muhammad al-Julani) look to Ibn Taymiyya for inspiration and legal authority. Islamic scholars like Yahya Michot have noted that Ibn Taymiyya “has thus become a sort of forefather of al-Qaeda.”

Egypt – the Brotherhood presents strategic keys

The age of modern jihadism began in 1928 with the creation of the Muslim Brotherhood, itself a reaction to the collapse of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924.

The Muslim Brotherhood (‘Jama’at al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin’ or ‘Society of Muslim Brothers’) was founded by an Egyptian schoolteacher and imam, Sheikh Hassan al-Banna (October 14, 1906-February 12, 1949) in March 1927 at Ismailia, Egypt. He was the son of an Islamic teacher who was both an imam and a muezzin (Islamic cantor).

Al-Banna’s memories of his first stay in Cairo as a student in his early twenties is revealing. He was living close to the al-Azhar al-Sharif – the oldest and most respected of Islamic institutions. Yet in Cairo’s adjacent Azbakiyya Quarter, al-Banna saw music and dance, coffeehouses and gambling, drinking, drugs and prostitution – all of which deeply pained him: “I saw that the social life of the beloved Egyptian nation was oscillating between its dear and precious Islam . . . and this violent Western aggression, armed and equipped with all the deadly material weapons of money, status, outward appearance, indulgence, power and the means of propaganda.”

Al-Banna learned of the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924, while he was still a student. This event influenced him greatly: al-Banna viewed the collapse of the Caliphate as a “calamity.” He later called these events a “declaration of war against all shapes of Islam.” He attacked “the [falsely] reassuring promises and binding treaties drawn up by the Allies with the mightiest potentate of the Peninsula, King Husayn, stating that they would help him achieve the independence of the Arabs and support the authority of the Arab Caliphate.” What was needed, al-Banna concluded and asserted, was a restoration of the Caliphate: “The outcome of these steps will be, without a doubt, consolidation and a resurrection of the Islamic empire as a unified state embracing the scattered peoples of the Islamic world, raising the banner of Islam and bearing its message.”

The vision of the Muslim Brotherhood as per al-Banna: the formation of an Islamic state governed by shari’a and a return to a society modelled after that of Muhammad and his first followers. According to al-Banna, Egypt’s many problems could only be solved by a return to a society modelled after the example of Muhammad and his followers. As far as the role of jihad in this equation, al-Banna warned his readers against the “widespread belief among many Muslims” that ‘jihad of the heart’ (‘jihad bil qalb/nafs’) was greater (‘al-jihad al-akbar’) and more important than ‘jihad of the sword’ (‘jihad bis saif’). He called on Muslims to prepare for military jihad against colonial powers and against their puppet-regimes:

“Muslims [are now] compelled to humble themselves before non-Muslims, and are ruled by unbelievers. Their lands have been trampled over, and their honor besmirched. Their adversaries are in charge of their affairs, and the rites of their religion have fallen into abeyance with their own domains . . . Hence it has become an individual obligation, which there is no evading, on every Muslim to prepare his equipment, to make up his mind to engage in jihad, and to get ready for it until the opportunity is ripe and God decrees”

Jihad is central to Muslim Brotherhood ideology. In his booklet entitled “Jihad”, al-Banna clearly defines jihad as violent warfare against non-Muslims to establish Islam as dominant across the entire world: “Jihad is an obligation from allah on every Muslim and cannot be ignored nor evaded. allah has ascribed great importance to jihad and has made the reward of the martyrs and fighters in His way a splendid one. Only those who have acted similarly and who have modeled themselves upon the martyrs in their performance of jihad can join them in this reward.” Al-Banna was a devout admirer of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.

The purpose of the Muslim Brotherhood was and remains: to restore Islam to the global power and dominance over Christendom that it had wielded for more than a thousand years; and, to return Islam to its divine destiny. To the Brotherhood, the ultimate goal of human civilization is the unification of all regimes under the banner of the Caliphate – the universal Islamic state. According to al-Banna, the Caliphate must govern all lands that were at one time under the control of Muslims. He states:

“We want the Islamic flag to be hoisted once again on high, fluttering in the wind, in all those lands that have had the good fortune to harbor Islam for a certain period of time and where the muezzin’s call sounded . . . Then fate decreed that the light of Islam be extinguished in these lands that returned to unbelief. Thus Andalusia, Sicily, the Balkans, the Italian coast, as well as the islands of the Mediterranean, are all of them Muslim Mediterranean colonies and they must return to the Islamic fold. The Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea must once again become Muslim seas, as they once were.”

Once that is accomplished, the Caliphate is to be expanded to cover the entire globe, erasing national boundaries under the flag of Islam.

World domination – the Caliphate and jihad

Al-Banna was zealous in his stated vision and goals: “It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet.”

The Muslim Brotherhood’s motto is: “allah ghayatuna. Al-rasūl za‘imuna. Al-Qur’an dusturuna. Al-jihād sabīluna. Al-mawt fi sabīl allah asma amanina. allah akbar, allah akbar.” (“allah is our goal. The rasul [Islamic messenger – i.e., Muhammad] is our leader. The Quran is our Constitution. Jihad [military struggle] is our way. Death on the path of allah [in jihad] is our supreme aspiration. allah is great! allah is great!”)

After the British departed from Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood proclaimed that it could not compromise with modern secular Arab societies or military dictatorships. In the eyes of the Brotherhood’s leadership, Egypt, Algeria and even Saudi Arabia were less than purely Islamic. Most Arab and Islamic states are evil and need to be overthrown. Only strict Islamic shari’a rule and the re-establishment of the Caliphate is ultimately acceptable.

During the 1930’s and 1940’s the Muslim Brotherhood had links with the Nazis. Much of the contact went through Haj Amin al-Husseini, SS Reichsleiter Heinrich Himmler’s man in Jerusalem. The Brotherhood first established a cell in Gaza, and in May 1946 set up a Jerusalem cell in the Sheikh Jarrakh neighborhood. Yasser Arafat joined the Egyptian Brotherhood in in 1952. Brotherhood members in East Jerusalem established a shadow organization in 1953 called Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami (‘Party of Islamic Liberation’) which today is another worldwide terror organization. In the late 1970’s Brotherhood members established ‘Egyptian Islamic Jihad’ (Al-Jihad al-Islami; also called ‘the Islamic Jihad’ or ‘the Jihad Group’) led by Ayman al-Zawahiri, and ‘Jamaat al-Islamiyya’ or ‘al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya’ (‘The Islamic Group’) led by the blind Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. Rahman served a life sentence in Florence Colorado for his role in overseeing the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993, as well as for plans to bomb NY tunnels and bridges and FBI and UN headquarters. These organizations’ goals have been to overthrow the Egyptian Government, to replace it with a Caliphate Islamic state, and to attack American and Israeli interests.

By 1948, the Muslim Brotherhood claimed half a million adherents. The primary state backers of the Muslim Brotherhood at present are Qatar and Turkey. As of 2015, the Muslim Brotherhood is considered a terrorist organization by the governments of Bahrain, Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The Muslim Brotherhood has presented the ideological model for almost all modern Sunni Islamic terrorist groups. In his October 22 2003 discussions concerning Hamas, al-Qaeda and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Richard Clarke – former U.S. National Security Council chief counterterrorism adviser – told a Senate committee: “The common link here is the extremist Muslim Brotherhood – all of these organizations are descendants of the membership and ideology of the Muslim Brothers.”

An internal Muslim Brotherhood memorandum, released during the terror-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) trial in July 2007 shows that the Brotherhood’s jihad adopts more subtle and longer range approaches in the West. A memo of May 22, 1991 states: “The Ikhwan [Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.

Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi was a world-respected spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood who had been deeply influenced by al-Banna. After meeting him at his school in Tanta, Egypt when al-Banna lectured, al-Qaradawi wrote of the lasting impact of this encounter, describing al Banna as “brilliantly radiating, as if his words were revelation or live coals from the light of prophecy.” Al-Qaradawi had this to say regarding the Jewish people:

“There is no dialogue between [the Jews] and us other than in one language – the language of the sword and force. allah stated: ‘Fight the war of allah against those who fight you . . . And you should kill them in every place in which you capture them, and you should expel them from all the places from which you were expelled’” [quoting the Quran; Surat al-Baqara, verse 191]

This short look at historical developments since the Ottoman abolition of the Caliphate reveals a blending of two separate but related points: an activist vision for the re-establishment of the Caliphate; and activist vision and preparation for Islamist jihad terror.

How shall we then pray?

Pray for revelation and courage to be given to Israel’s leaders in political, intelligence and military spheres – to understand and counteract strategies against Israel, the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8) – as Islamic State/al Qa’eda armies gather at our borders.

Pray that enemy strategies against the Jewish people and their state, against Middle East Christians and other minorities – will be confounded, and that a great harvest would take place in all of these areas!

Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations and Western fellow-travelers, and the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel

There are approximately 44 to 50 living Israeli hostages remaining, kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. Plans are tentatively underway to release a total of 33 out the 98 remaining Israeli hostages – half who are dead. Hamas is holding on to their corpses as cold storage bargaining chips. That would leave 65 hostages with Hamas, some dead, some alive. Pray for the release of all the hostages, and for YHVH’s justice to be brought on the heads of the Hamas kidnappers

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: https://davidstent.org/

The Caliphate on the Orient Express

The Islamic world of the early 1900’s was shaken to the core. The superpowers of the United Kingdom, France and Germany had burst out of the West with huge advancements in weapons, science and engineering, leaving Muslim countries in the Arabian dust. British war ships and trading ships plied the waters of the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, turning primitive Arabic-speaking principalities into Crown Colonies and Protectorates. Crisp British-uniformed brigades marched into Muslim marketplaces and souqs to the wail of Scottish bagpipes, manifesting imperial power among poverty-stricken dictatorships whose livelihood had up to that point consisted of date farming, dhow-based fishing industries, and diving for pearls. The imminent downfall of the Ottoman caliphate would be “the proof of the pudding” for some Arab thinkers and philosophers: something had drastically failed in the Islamic world.

The collapse of the Caliphate would kick-start the rise of Twentieth Century radical jihadi Islam.

Blood in the streets

Bob Dylan once said, “There’s a battle outside and it is raging. It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls . . . As the present now will later be past. The order is rapidly fading, for the times they are a-changin’” (‘The times, they are a changin’’; © 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1992 by Special Rider Music). Rivers of blood accompanied the dawn of the 20^th century, both in Europe and the Caucasus. The revolutionary rise of subject nations desiring to be free – and the corresponding crushing of these movements with great cruelty – let to millions being murdered, raped and exiled during this time. These included:

the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), with between 200,000 and 330,000 killed (including 30,000 Bulgarians massacred by Ottoman troops May 11-June 9 1876 and 100,000 Bulgarian refugees; over 200,000 Muslims killed through famine, disease and massacres, and up to 500,000 refugees)

the Circassian genocide in Western Caucasus, by Russia’s Tsarist army (1863-1878), with between 625,00 and 1.5 million murdered, and 500,000 died while fleeing, involving mass killing, mass rape, death marches, exceedingly brutal torture and impalement of enemies, forced starvation, etc. 95-97% of all Circassians were murdered

the Armenian/Hamidian massacres (1894-97) named after Turkish Caliph Sultan Abdul Hamid II: up to 300,000 Armenian and Assyrian Christians massacred, at least 50,000 orphaned children as a result, accompanied by looting, forced conversion, mass rapes, ethnic cleansing

the First Balkan War (1912–1913) and Second Balkan War (1913), with over 49,000 killed on the Balkan side (Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro) and 56,000 killed on the Ottoman Turkish side

the Armenian Genocide (1915-16, and 1922-23) with 1.5 million Armenians murdered out of a total of 2.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, set into action through the passing of the Tehcir (‘Temporary Law of Deportation’) by the Turkish Ottoman Council of Ministers on May 27 1915, authorizing the deportation of all Armenian Ottoman citizens.

The conquest of Caliphate Constantinople

WWI was drawing to an end in the Middle East. On October 30 1918 British Admiral Somerset Arthur Gough-Calthorpe and Ottoman Minister of Maritime Affairs Hüseyin Rauf Orbay signed the Armistice of Mudros on board HMS Agamemnon in Moudros harbor on the Greek island of Lemnos, bringing combat in that theater to an end. French troops entered Istanbul/Constantinople on November 12 1918, with British troops following on November 13, and an Italian battalion entering on February 7 1919. This was the first time since 1453 (the Fall of Constantinople) that the keys to that city had changed hands – from Islamic to Christian.

The Treaty of Versailles was signed June 28 1919 in the Palace of Versailles’ Hall of Mirrors, and ratified by the defeated forces of Germany. On August 10 1920 the Treaty of Sèvres was signed (but not ratified) between the Principal Allied Powers and the Ottoman Empire. Had this treaty been ratified, large parts of Ottoman territory would have been partitioned and handed over to France, the UK, Greece and Italy. However, the treaty aroused great hostility among various streams of Turkish leadership, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. This led to both the Turkish War of Independence (May 19 1919–October 11 1922) and the Turkish National Movement (June 22 1919–October 29 1923). These in turn led to the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate on November 1 1922, the declaration of the Republic of Turkey on October 29 1923, and the abolition of the Ottoman Caliphate on March 3 1924.

The divvying-up of the Ottoman Empire had been foreseen and planned in the British-French Sykes-Picot Agreement (ratified May 9-16 1916). In the event of an Allied victory, the Ottoman Empire would be divided as follows:

Britain would control Jordan, southern Iraq, and the ports of Haifa and Akko, though part of what was then labeled ‘Palestine’ would fall under “international administration”

France would control southeastern Turkey, the Kurdistan Region, Syria and Lebanon

Russia would control Western Armenia, Constantinople and the Turkish Straits

Italy would control southern Anatolia

As a result of Turkish military opposition to the crushing terms of the Treaty of Sèvres , the Western Allies stepped back from pushing that agreement, and replaced it with the Treaty of Lausanne. Lausanne was ratified between August 23 1923 and July 16 1924, and signed in the Palais de Rumine in Lausanne, Switzerland, on July 24 1923. The Treaty established the following:

It recognized the sovereignty of the new Republic of Turkey

It restricted the boundaries of Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey

It forced Turkey to relinquish all claims on the Dodecanese Islands, Cyprus, Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Asir, the Hejaz and Medina

It did not recognize Armenia’s territorial hopes. Armenia was granted only a small homeland area in Soviet-controlled territory

In this treaty Lausanne granted immunity to Turkish Ottoman soldiers and military leaders for crimes they committed between 1914 and 1922 against the Armenians and the Greeks. In doing this, Lausanne established the legal right of state governments to expel large parts of their citizens on the grounds of ‘otherness’. Some seeds from this malevolent weed would sprout with a vengeance less than twenty years later during Hitler’s Holocaust.

Caliph on the Orient Express

The defeat of Caliphate forces on the battlefield and the conquering of the Caliphate’s capital city of Constantinople/Istanbul were events which echoed deeply in the soul of the Islamic world. For many, it would mark the zenith of the Infidel West’s domination of Islam. Many years later Osama bin Laden would reflect this perspective less than 30 days after 9/11 in his videotaped address on October 7, 2001:

“Here is America struck by God Almighty in one of its vital organs, so that its greatest buildings are destroyed. Grace and gratitude to allah. America has been filled with horror from north to south and east to west, and thanks be to allah. What America is tasting now is only a copy of what we have tasted. Our Islamic nation has been tasting the same for more than 80 years of humiliation and disgrace, its sons killed and their blood spilled, its sanctities desecrated.”

Professor Bernard Lewis (deceased), formerly Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton University, noted in his article ‘The Revolt of Islam’:

“We can be fairly sure that bin Laden’s Muslim listeners – the people he was addressing – picked up the allusion immediately and appreciated its significance. In 1918, the Ottoman sultanate, the last of the great Muslim empires, was finally defeated – its capital, Constantinople, occupied, its sovereign held captive, and much of its territory partitioned between the victorious British and French Empires. The Turks eventually succeeded in liberating their homeland, but they did so not in the name of Islam but through a secular nationalist movement. One of their first acts, in November, 1922, was to abolish the sultanate. The Ottoman sovereign was not only a sultan, the ruler of a specific state; he was also widely recognized as the caliph, the head of all Sunni Islam, and the last in a line of such rulers that dated back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad, in 632 A.D. After a brief experiment with a separate caliph, the Turks, in March, 1924, abolished the caliphate, too. During its nearly thirteen centuries, the caliphate had gone through many vicissitudes, but it remained a potent symbol of Muslim unity, even identity, and its abolition, under the double assault of foreign imperialists and domestic modernists, was felt throughout the Muslim world.”

At the end of the Turkish War of Independence, the Ottoman Empire became defunct. The Turkish National Movement’s Grand National Assembly took over the government of the new Republic. They then voted to take two drastic measures: one, to separate the caliphate from the sultanate into two separate offices; and two, and to abolish the Ottoman Sultanate – which act they legislated on November 1 1922. On November 19 1922, Crown Prince Abdülmecid II was elected Caliph (the 28^th and last Ottoman caliph) by the Turkish National Assembly. Abdulmejid chose to use the ceremonial title Halîfe-i Müslimîn (‘Caliph of the Muslims’) to describe his status, instead of the more traditional Emîrü’l-Mü’minîn (‘Amīr al-Muʾminīn’; Commander of the believers).

But the position had been stripped of any authority, and Abdulmejid’s purely ceremonial reign would be short-lived – sixteen months in toto. When Abdulmejid was declared caliph, Kemal refused to allow the traditional Ottoman sword ceremony to take place, bluntly declaring: “The Caliph has no power or position except as a nominal figurehead” In response to Abdulmejid’s petition for an increase in his allowance, Kemal wrote: “Your office, the Caliphate, is nothing more than a historic relic. It has no justification for existence. It is a piece of impertinence that you should dare write to any of my secretaries!

On October 29 1923, the National Assembly declared Turkey a republic, and proclaimed Ankara its new capital. After over 600 years, the Ottoman Empire had officially ceased to exist.

Abdulmejid II served as caliph under the authority of the newly founded Turkish Republic until March 3 1924, when the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and President of the Turkish Republic (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk) constitutionally abolished the caliphate and ordered Abdulmejid into exile. The ex-caliph and his family entourage (and 725 Kg of personal luggage) left the Dolmabahçe Palace at 05:00 the next morning, before boarding the ‘Simplon Express’ (also called ‘The Orient Express’) from the Çatalca Train Station, bound for Switzerland. Abdulmejid stayed at the Grand Alpine Hotel on the shore of Lake Geneva. He later moved to Nice on the French Riviera in October 1924, and finally to Paris, where he dedicated his time to painting, playing the piano, and collecting butterflies. He passed away on August 23 1944 of a heart attack, which date coincided with the liberation of Paris from Nazi occupation. The Turkish government did not permit him to be interred in Turkey, so his remains were preserved at the Grand Mosque of Paris for ten years. His body was eventually transferred to Medina, Saudi Arabia where he was subsequently buried.

The last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, died at his San Remo, Liguria, Italy exile on May 16 1926 and was buried at the Sulaymaniyya Takiyya mosque complex in Damascus, Today the royal family of these previous sultans and caliphs is known as the Osmanoğlu family.

In March 1924, Muhammad al-Jizawi, Rector of Cairo‘s prestigious al-Azhar University, in direct response to the collapse of the Caliphate, issued a statement calling for a possible pan-Islamic conference to elect a new Caliph:

“Whereas the Caliphate in Islam implies general control of the spiritual and temporal affairs of Islam; Whereas the Turkish Government deprived the Caliph Abdul Mejid of his temporal powers, thereby disqualifying him from becoming Caliph in the sense that Islam required; seeing that in principle the Caliph is destined to be the representative of the Prophet, safeguarding everything concerning Islam, which necessarily means the Caliph should be subject of respect, veneration and obedience; and whereas the Caliph Abdul Mejid no longer possesses such qualifications and has not even the power to live in his native land; now therefore it has been decided to convene an Islamic conference in which all Muslim nations shall be represented in order to consider who should be appointed Caliph.”

The abolition and exile of the last Ottoman Caliph did not mean that the hopes and vision of a reborn Caliphate had died. The 20^th century would see this hope become a major motivator and stimulus to a reborn jihadi movement that would shake both the Middle East and the Western world to its foundations.

How shall we then pray?

Pray for revelation and courage to be given to Israel’s leaders in political, intelligence and military spheres – to understand and counteract strategies against Israel, the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8) – as Islamic State/al Qa’eda armies gather at our borders.

Pray that enemy strategies against the Jewish people and their state, against Middle East Christians and other minorities – will be confounded, and that a great harvest would take place in all of these areas!

Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations and Western fellow-travelers

Pray for the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 44 to 50 living Israeli hostages (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some of these hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Sadly, over 100 of all Israeli hostages are dead; Hamas is holding on to their corpses as cold storage bargaining chips

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

Donations can be sent to:

FINAL FRONTIER MINISTRIES

BOX 121971 NASHVILLE TN 37212-1971 USA

Donations can also be made on-line (by PayPal or credit card) through: https://davidstent.org/

The collapse of the Caliphate

The Islamic Caliphate has played a significant role in history past, as well as in our day. It still has a role to play in the prophetic future. In a 1948 speech to the British House of Commons, Winston Churchill once said, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” It has also been said that “a text without a context is a pretext.” It is our hope that this newsletter will contribute to a deeper understanding of the historical context of the Muslim Caliphate, and how these matters are connected to fast-paced present and future developments in the Middle East.

The Caliphate was birthed in Arabia, though it later moved its capital to Syria, Iraq and Egypt. After 900 years it set up shop in what is today called Turkey – in the geographical belt which Ezekiel once called ‘the Land of Magog.’ Over the centuries, Islam’s leadership morphed from a Caliphate based on Muḥammad’s bloodline to a power consortium of Machiavellian generals-autocrats. What changed when the Caliphate sank its roots down into Turkish soil? And how will present and future developments in Turkey affect the Middle East – indeed, even the whole world?

The original Turks

Anatolia is an ancient Hellenistic name for Turkey, coming from the Greek word verb ἀνατέλλω – ‘I rise up.’ It is meant to recall the rising of the sun in the East. For Greeks, the morning sunrise broke every day from the direction of Turkish Anatolia.

At the beginning of recorded history Anatolia was called ‘the Land of Hatti.’ A non-Semitic and non-European people known as the Hattians lived there circa 2,000 B.C. Their capital city was Hattusa (near modern Boğazkale, Turkey).

About 1650 B.C. the Hittite people (see Genesis 15:20; 23:10; Exodus 3:8; Numbers 13:29; Deuteronomy 7:1; Joshua 1:4; Judges 1:26; 2 Samuel 11:3; 1 Kings 10:29; 11:1; 2 Kings 7:6; etc.) moved from the Black Sea area into north-central Anatolia/Turkey, establishing at least three sub-kingdoms. The Hittites called themselves the ‘Neša’ or the ‘Kaneš.’ Their Hittite Empire reached its peak between 1400 and 1200 B.C., at times clashing with the New Kingdom of Egypt, the Middle Assyrian Empire and the Mitanni Empire. The ‘Treaty of Kadesh’ between the Hittite King Hattušiliš III and the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II (1259 B.C.) fixed the boundaries between these two empires as being in southern Canaan. The Bible tells us that, in Solomon’s day, the Hittites had solid mercantile connections with Israel, much of it involving the trade in horses (2 Chronicles 1:17).

In 1160 B.C. Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser I defeated the Anatolian Mushki in Turkish Phrygia (probably the ‘Meshech’ of Ezekiel 38:2). The Mushki lived not far from another southern Anatolian people – the Tabal (mentioned also in Ezekiel 38:2 as the Tubal).

Another group of settler-conquerors moved into Turkey nearly 1,000 years later; these were the Galatians, a Celtic people whose origins are subject to much discussion. The Galatians came from the following regions: France (‘the Gauls’ and the ‘La Tène culture’); Germany (the ‘Hallstatt culture’); Ireland (as in the ‘Gaelic’ language); Thrace, the Balkans and Hungary. Thracian Gauls invaded the Balkans in 279 B.C., later moving into the Turkish provinces of Ankara and Eskişehir,. They gave that region the name ‘Galatia.’ Paul the Apostle’s Letter to the Galatians was addressed to Messianic Jews and Gentiles living in that area. In his ‘Antiquities of the Jews,’ Josephus connects the Galatians to another people-group from Ezekiel 38:6, Gomer: “For Gomer founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians (Galls), but were then called ‘Gomerites.’”

Mongol and Turks

The leaders of Islam were a combination of warriors and religious authorities known as ‘the Caliphs’. Their successive administrations were known as ‘the Caliphate.’ That imperial organization morphed in stages from Rashidun to Umayyad and Abbasid manifestations. As this happened, the Caliphates mutated from being world conquerors to turning into shadows of their former ‘glory’. The cruel Arab desert warriors who (in the seventh century A.D.) ran roughshod over the Middle East and Europe, had at that time given those populations a ‘take it or leave it’ choice between decapitation, enslavement and full submission to Muḥammad’s ‘Jibrilian revelations.’ But by 1300 A.D. these Caliphs and their Caliphates ended up being more on the receiving end – bulldozed by Mongol invaders from the East who were descendants of Genghis Khan.

The origins of Mongol-inhabited regions goes back to the khanates – Turkic, Mongol and Tatar-ruled tribal states populated by nomadic wanderers and invaders. The first connection between Mongols and Anatolia/Turkey was in the days of the Il-Khan khanate, established by Genghis Khan’s grandson Hülegü Khan, between 1256 and 1335 A.D. At its zenith, the core territory of this khanate included Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran, as well as parts of Syria, Armenia, Georgia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Dagestan and Pakistan. This khanate empire controlled Anatolia/Turkey for one hundred years, slowly disintegrating by 1353 A.D.

The next conquerors of Anatolia/Turkey were Muslim nomadic tribes of Oghuz Turks, ‘Oghuz’ being a common Turkic word for ‘tribe.’ This Turkic tribal confederacy had founded the Oghuz Yabgu State back in 766 A.D., between the coasts of the Caspian and Aral Seas. The Oghuz nomads moved back and forth in the pastureland steppes between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and China.

Seljuk (Selçuk) (who died in 1007 A.D.) was an Oghuz Turk warlord living in Central Asia and leader of a tribe later called ‘the Seljuks.’ About 985 A.D. Seljuk separated from the bulk of the Oghuz Turks and converted to Islam. During that same time period, Islamic writers began to call the Oghuzis ‘Muslim Turkmens.’ By the 1100’s A.D. that name stuck with the Byzantines as well.

Seljuk’s grandsons Chaghri Beg and Tughril I led Muslim armies which invaded Persia/Iran in the 1000’s A.D., establishing their administrative center in the province of Khorasan (modern Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan). These battles included the Battle of Nisa Plains near Ashgabat in modern Turkmenistan (June 1035 A.D.), and the Battle of Dandanaqan near the city of Merv in modern Turkmenistan (May 23 1040 A.D.)

Another grandson of Seljuk, Ibrahim Inal, defeated the 50,000 strong Byzantine-Georgian armies at the Battle of Kapetron on September 10 1048, bringing back (so it was reported) 100,000 captives as slaves, as well as a vast booty on the backs of 10,000 camels. The Seljuk army (under Tughril I) moved on to conquer Baghdad, the weakened seat of the Abbasid Caliphate, in 1055. Alp Arslan, Seljuk’s great-grandson, defeated Armenia and Georgia at the Battle of Akhalkalaki in 1066 A.D., and on August 26, 1071 vanquished the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert in Muş Province, East Anatolia, Turkey, capturing the Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes. This breakthrough battle sealed the future of Anatolia, which would now undergo the dual processes of Turkification and Islamization.

Osman the Great

The last and most famous group of warrior-wanderers to settle in Anatolia were also of Oghuz Turk ethnic background. They were led by Osman I (ʿOsmān Ġāzī) son of Ertuğrul, whose dynasty-name was later Westernized to ‘Othman’ or ‘Ottoman’. Both Osman (who died in 1324 A.D.) and the Seljuks were Oghuz Turks, but from different tribes. The majority of today’s residents of Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Turkmenistan are descendants of these Oghuz Turks, and the languages they speak all belong to the Oghuz group of the Turkic language family.

At their zenith the Seljuks had established various sub-sultanates in Anatolia, one of which was the Sultanate of Rum (1077-1308 A.D.). Rum’s eventual disintegration left in its wake many smaller beyliks (Turkic sub-principalities or petty kingdoms). One of these was the Beylik of Osman or the Osmanoğlu (from the Kayi branch of Oghuz Turks). Its capital was Söğüt, in modern Bilecik Province, Turkey.

Osman’s principality gradually absorbed other beyliks under its command, like the Karasi and the Karaman. Later, the Ottoman Sultans Mehmed I, Murad II and Selim I annexed the beyliks of Ramadan and Dulkadir. The result ended up being the creation of an Islamic superpower – the Ottoman Empire – led by the Ottoman Dynasty (in Turkish, Osmanlı Hanedanı).

On May 29 1453 the 21-year-old Sultan Mehmed II (1432-1481) led his Ottoman armies in the conquest and pillaging of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. This strategic victory enabled the Ottoman Turks to wrest control over all major land routes between Asia and Europe, as well as to solidify their domination of the Mediterranean Sea.

On the third day after the fall of Constantinople, Sultan Mehmed II entered the pillaged Hagia Sophia cathedral. This church building was originally called ‘Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία; Megálē Ekklēsíā; ‘the Great Church’) and had been consecrated on February 15 360 A.D. by Emperor Constantius II, the son of Emperor Constantine the Great. Mehmed approached the church altar, knocked it over and trampled on it. At that point he ordered one of the ulama (Islamic scholars) who was also a muezzin (Islamic cantor) to ascend the pulpit and proclaim the shahādah (the Islamic confession) and lead the ‘Adhan’ – the communal call to prayer which is part of the Ṣalāh al-Jumuʿa (the Muslim congregational prayer service). Mehmed pronounced the khutbah, the Islamic traditional address preceding the sermon. Hagia Sophia was then converted into a mosque.

The name of the city ‘Constantinople’ was changed at that time to ‘Ḳosṭanṭīnīye’ in Turkish, ‘al-Qusṭanṭinīyya’ in Arabic, and ‘Istanbul’ in colloquial Turkish. This Turkish word came from the Medieval Arab/Armenian ‘Stamboul’ – a shortening of the Greek original ‘kon-STAN-tino-POLis’. The letter ‘P’ is usually morphed into a ‘B’ in Arabic and Turkish by reverse assimilation (e.g., ‘Panyas’ becomes ‘Banyas’, etc.), while Turkish grammar also requires the addition of a specific -i- or -ı- prefix before an s + consonant, since Turkish syllables cannot begin with more than one consonant (e.g.: Smyrna > İzmir) The result was the Turkish word ‘Istanbul’ (in Turkish, I̋s-tán-bul) to replace ‘Constantinople.’

The jihadi crushing of Byzantine Christianity

But the Conqueror of Constantinople (who was also the desecrator of Hagia Sophia cathedral) Sultan/Caliph Mehmed II, invented another word for the city, based on an Islamic word-play. He named the city ‘Islambol’ (اسلامبول) – meaning ‘full of Islam’ or ‘abundance of Islam.’ This stressed Islam’s crushing of Byzantine Christianity, and the new role the city was to play as the capital of the Ottoman Caliphate. In the 1600’s A.D., the Ottoman explorer Evliya Çelebi noted that ‘Islambol’ was the common Turkish name of the town, and the word ‘Islambol’ was minted on coinage from 1730 during the reign of Sultan Mahmud I, and on coinage from 1774 during the reign of Sultan/Caliph Mustafa III.

A severed head claimed to be that of Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos was nailed to a column, while the Sultan, standing in front of the severed head, proclaimed in a public speech:

“Fellow soldiers, this one thing was lacking to make the glory of such a victory complete. Now, at this happy and joyful moment of time, we have the riches of the Greeks, we have won their empire, and their religion is completely extinguished. Our ancestors eagerly desired to achieve this; rejoice now since it is your bravery which has won this kingdom for us!”

The vast majority of Constantinople’s Christians – over 50,000 – were enslaved, and more than 4,000 were immediately murdered. Thousands of women were raped. In those days these actions were considered standard behavior on the part of jihadi warriors, and such behavior has again been demonstrated in all its satanic cruelty by Hamas in its October 7 2023 murder, rape, torture and kidnapping of the civilians and farmers – pensioners, babies, children and civilians – residents of Israeli kibbutzim and towns just across the security line from Gaza.

When does a Sultan get to be a Caliph?

As the Ottoman Dynasty developed, the Ottoman capital was moved: from Söğüt to Bursa in 1326; to Edirne/Adrianople in 1363; and finally to Constantinople/Istanbul in 1453. During this time period, various sultans began to use the term ‘Caliph’ to describe their rulers. This included:

Murad I (reigned 1362-1389) after his conquest of Adrianople/Edirne in the 1360’s A.D.

Murad II (r. 1421-144; 1446-1451)

Mehmed II (r. 144-1446; 1451-1481) who also used the caliphal title ‘Amir al-Mu’minin’ (‘Commander of the Believers’)

Selim I – who ordered that the khuṭbah (invocation of the ruler’s name before public sermons are given in a mosque, as a declaration of sovereignty and suzerainty) be recited in his name as Caliph (in Tabriz 1514 and Aleppo in 1516)

Though Ottoman sultans now used the title ‘Caliph’ to describe themselves, other Islamic jurists were of the opinion that the Caliphate came to an end with the death of the last Abbasid Caliph al-Musta’sim during the Mongol sack of Baghdad in 1258. Within a short time, however, the entire Sunni Muslim world would accept Ottoman Caliphate authority and priority.

How does a Sultan get to be a Caliph?

During the reign of Sultan Selim I (1470-1520), huge conquests were made by the Ottoman Empire. By 1510 A.D. Selim I had occupied Iran, Azerbaijan, southern Dagestan, Mesopotamia/Iraq, Armenia, Khorasan and Eastern Anatolia/Turkey. By 1517 he had defeated and annexed the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, Syria, Israel, Tihamah (the Red Sea Coast from Aqaba to Bab el Mandeb), and the Hejaz/Saudi Arabia (including Mecca and Medina). Selim then took upon himself the Islamic title ‘Ḫādimü'l Ḥaremeyn aš -Šarīfayn’ (‘The Servant/Custodian of The Two Noble Sanctuaries’).

The actual physical possession of Mecca and Medina by the Ottoman Dynasty led to the perception among many Muslims that the Ottoman claim to be the leaders of the Islamic world was a reasonable one. Did they not control Mecca and Media? Were they not one of the strongest empires in the world? The Ottomans realized that defining themselves as a Caliphate would have a number of benefits: it would hold their empire together; it would lend an Islamic ‘kosher seal of approval’ to their dynasty; it would strengthen the Sultan’s authority politically and militarily.

The decision had been made. On June 2 1517 Selim I brought the last Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil III to Constantinople/Istanbul as a prisoner. According to a later tradition, at that point al-Mutawakkil transferred the caliphate authority to Sultan Selim I in a ceremony. Whether or not this actually transpired, soon afterwards Ottoman sultans started using a new title ‘Halife-i Uzma’ (‘Great Caliph’) in official documents. Defenders of the new Ottoman Caliphate argued at the time that the Ottomans could justly claim to be caliphs, since they combined in themselves the “principle of the maintenance of faith with justice, command of the good and prohibition of evil, and general leadership.”

The Sultan of the Ottoman Empire was in all respects the chief capstone of a hierarchical system. He had absolute authority in political, military, judicial, social, and religious capacities. He was was seen as responsible only to allah and to Islamic shari’a law. Two of the Arabic titles that Sultans began to use were ‘Caliph of the face of the earth’ (Ḫalife-i rū-yi zemīn; خلیفه روی زمین ) and ‘shadow of allah on Earth’ (ẓıll allāh fī'l-ʿalem; ظل الله في العالم). Any legal decree he issued was called a firman or fermān. The Sultan-Caliph was considered the supreme military commander of the realm and possessed the official title to all land in the Ottoman Empire.

After the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by Mehmed II (1432-1481), Ottoman sultans began to describe themselves as ‘successors’ (i.e., caliphs) of the Roman Empire, as seen in their occasional use of the titles ‘kayser-i Rûm’ (‘Caesar of Rome’), ‘fasiliyus’ (from Latin ‘basileus’ or king), ‘Emperor of the Romans’ (‘padişah-i Rûm’) and ‘Emperor of Constantinople’ (‘padişah-i Kostantiniye’).

A state-of-the-art tradition was then developed for newly enthroned Ottoman rulers. Rather than having their top followers swear an Islamic bay’ah or oath of allegiance to the incoming Caliph, a novel ritual – an ‘Ottoman equivalent’ of European coronation ceremonies – was created using one of the nine ‘traditional swords’ of Muhammad. In this case ‘Ma’thur al-Fijar’ (Turkish: Osman'ın Kılıcı, or the ‘Sword of Osman’ which is now stored in Istanbul’s Topkapi Museum) was used. That ceremony was deemed essential for validating the enthronement of each new Caliph. The Ottoman jurist Ebussuud Efendi called both Suleiman I ‘the Magnificent’ (1520-1566) and his son Selim II (1566-1574) “caliphs to the apostle of the lord of the worlds” – a claim to Muhammed-based succession and authority for the Ottoman Caliph. The use of a sword in these ceremonies was highly symbolic, showing that the Ottoman Caliph was being inducted into a leadership role that was first and foremost that of a warrior.

A Caliphate sealed in blood

The Ottoman Caliphate continued Muhammad’s ancient Islamic tradition of violent jihad against ‘unbelievers’ and against those who crossed swords with appointed leadership or approved teachings. This included murderous attacks on Shi’ites, Alevis and Alawites – all of them civilians living in the Caliphate.

In 1514 Selim I attacked Persian Shi’ite Shah Isma’il I’s kingdom to counter Shi’ism seeping into Ottoman territories. On his march to face Ismā’il at the Battle of Chaldiran in northwestern Persia/Iran, Selim’s forces rounded up and executed all the Shi’ites/Alevis they could find on the way and beheaded most of them – up to 40,000 in total – as enemies of the state. The massacre was the largest in Ottoman history up to the end of the 19th century. In the Turkish historical record ‘Selimşâh-name’, the following is recounted:

“The omniscient Sultan Selim I sent accurate writers all over the country to take note of the supporters of the group called ‘Qizilbāshs’ [i.e. Turcoman Shi’ites/Alevis] part by part and name by name. It has been ordered by Divan [a senior executive institution of the Ottoman Empire] to retrieve records to Divan on everyone from age seven to seventy and the names of forty thousand persons were noted in those registers, old and young. Then officials brought the registers to the administrators of all regions [of the country]. The places they went, they killed more than forty thousand by sword in these areas.”

In 1517 Selim I obtained an Islamic religious ruling (a fatwa) permitting jihad against ‘infidel’ Alawites. According to contemporaneous historical sources: “Sultan Selim I summoned some Sunnite religious men and obtained from them a fatwa to fight the ‘infidel Alawis’. It is estimated that 9,400 Shiite men assembled in Aleppo. All were maliciously murdered by the order of the Ottoman Sultan on the sanction of the Sunnite religious leader.”

There were many other mass murders instigated by the Turkish Caliphate against religious and ethnic minorities over the centuries, but limitations of space prevent further discussion here. It should be mentioned that toward the end of the Ottoman Caliphate, between 1915 and 1923, over 2 million Christian Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians were cruelly murdered in genocidal attacks in Eastern Turkey and Azerbaijan, carried out for the most part by Ottoman forces.

‘The sick man of Europe’

In September 1833 Tsar Nicholas I of Russia was having a discussion with Klemens von Metternich, Prince and Chancellor of the Austrian Empire in Mnichovo Hradiště (Münchengrätz), then Austria-Hungary. Nicholas described the Ottoman Empire/Turkey as “the sick man of Europe,” referring to the economic, social and military decline of the Caliphate in terms of the balance of power in Europe.

Whereas at one time in European history, the thought of Muslim invasion caused national leaders to shake in their boots (consider the Siege of Vienna in 1529, and the Battle of Vienna in 1683), things had changed by the 1774 Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji (Küçük Kaynarca). In that treaty the Ottoman Empire ceded territory and religious rights to the Russian Empire. For the first time in Ottoman history, a foreign power assumed a measure of direct responsibility for the fate and welfare of the Ottoman Empire’s Orthodox Christian subjects.

A rising tide of nationalism (especially in the Balkans), numerous revolts and wars of independence, repeated mini-invasions by Russia, France and Britain into Russian-controlled territories, and significant economic shakings – all of these contributed to a shrinking of Ottoman borders and a growing disdain for the influence of the Turkish Caliphate among world powers.

The Islamic world, represented by its Ottoman Caliphate masters, was no longer a force to be feared. Jihad was no longer an issue on the agenda. Western colonizers viewed Ottoman influence as collapsing, giving way to a hoped-for ‘Christian’ expansion across North Africa, the Levant, the Middle East, and even parts of Asia. The Islamic dream of conquering the Jewish, Christian and pagan world seemed to have faded. A resurgence of jihadi victories was no longer a realistic ‘Weltanschauung’ – a philosophic perspective or worldview – for the rapidly collapsing Caliphate. For Islam, such hopes would have to wait for another day and another century.

How shall we then pray?

Pray for revelation and courage to be given to Israel’s leaders in political, intelligence and military spheres – to understand and counteract strategies against Israel, the apple of God’s eye (Zechariah 2:8) – as Turkey-backed Islamic State/al Qa’eda armies gather at our borders.

Pray that enemy strategies against the Jewish people and their state, against Middle East Christians and other minorities – will be confounded, and that a great harvest would take place in all of these areas!

Pray for the protection of Israeli and Jewish people from the assaults of jihadi terror organizations and Western fellow-travelers

Pray for the return of the Jewish people to both the Land and the Messiah of Israel

Pray for the physical rescue of the approximately 44 to 50 living Israeli hostages (including babies) kidnapped by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP/PLO. At this moment some of these hostages are being tortured, raped and starved (this based on testimonies of recently released hostages). Sadly, over 100 of all Israeli hostages are dead; Hamas is holding on to their corpses as cold-storage bargaining chips

Pray for the raising up of Ezekiel’s prophetic Jewish army throughout the earth

Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the very practical enablement of God to us in the work He has called us to do.

In Messiah Yeshua,

Avner Boskey

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