The prophet Daniel had no idea what forces would be unleashed when he interceded to God about the return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. Major spiritual warfare exploded, with the Archangel Michael and Gabriel wrestling with demonic forces known as the “princes of Persia and Greece” (Daniel 9-10). After the dust settled, Daniel was given revelation of end-time strategies and battles surrounding the sons of Jacob, including one of the clearest prophecies concerning the coming of Messiah, His atoning death and the resurrection of the dead.
The angel Gabriel explained to Daniel that powerful demonic princes control and influence superpowers. The world-shaking empires of Persia (modern Iran) and Greece were not simply mighty kingdoms; they were superpowers “under control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19). Demonic princes actively influenced Haman’s Persia and Antiochus IV’s Greece. They also influence modern superpowers today.
We need to keep reminding ourselves: the spirits behind Stalin’s atrocities, Hitler’s genocide and jihadi Islam’s terror are not dead. They are very much alive. And they are actively influencing modern superpowers, attempting to turn them against Israel and the Jewish people.
Out of touch with Middle Eastern realities
“East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,” wrote Rudyard Kipling in the 1890’s. Kipling spoke with authority. He had spent 12 years in India and had a good grasp of both British and Indian cultures.
On the other hand, most Westerners do not have anything close to a realistic grasp of Middle Eastern culture, worldview and logic. One striking example of this – post-Christian secular Westerners find it hard to believe that hatred and violence directed at Israel and the West could be due to spiritual reasons or religious beliefs.
The usual explanations given in the secular media is that poverty, unemployment, lack of “progress” on the Palestinian front – these are the supposed reasons for jihadi violence and anti-Western actions. Since many Westerners have abandoned belief in the personal God of the Scriptures, it is nearly impossible for them to imagine that Middle Easterners could really be motivated by jihadi teachings and worldview.
The Bible and the Iron Lady
A recent release of official papers by the British National Archives reveals a 1980 conversation that British PM Margaret Thatcher had shared with French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing regarding biblical perspectives on Israel’s borders (http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/britaindiplomacyisraelunrestnuclearweapons).
The Iron Lady had told Israeli PM Menahem Begin that his policies on Jewish people repopulating the West Bank through building settlements were “unrealistic” and “absurd.” Thatcher told Giscard d’Estaing that Begin’s “response was that Judea and Samaria had been Jewish in biblical times and that they should therefore be so today.” She then added that she “had never had a more difficult man to deal with.”
The same sentiments expressed by Thatcher could well be spoken by many Western world leaders today. When a society casually dismisses biblical promises as unrealistic and absurd, it is no wonder that superpower leaders simply pooh-pooh Islamist threats of unending jihad and mass murder against the Jewish people and their state.
Looking through a glass darkly
Western media tend to respond with secular disbelief when confronted with Quranic teachings on jihad and genocide. Islamic leaders who issue those calls are dismissed as “radical,” “extremist,” “militant” and “primitive.” In the West there is a stubborn unwillingness to be intellectually honest, and to grapple with this uncompromising and unappetizing message found in the source texts of Islam.
Western intellectuals often create a false dichotomy involving “good” and “bad” Islamic streams. “Fundamentalist” Islam (perhaps like secular views on “fundamentalist Christianity”?) is labeled reactionary and bad, while a virtual reality called “progressive Islam” is pushed as the antidote to all the West’s problems. The truth here is that this Unitarian-like form of “progressive Islam” is purely a Western creation, and not at all an accurate reflection of the Quran and the Hadith (Islam’s two central sources of law and theology).
In these times, when the Middle East is trembling on the precipice of an Islamist-energized world war, to behave like a Western secular ostrich is a modern form of “fiddling while Rome burns.”
A picture tells a thousand words
We would like to make you aware of the following 23 minute on-line video (http://vimeo.com/16779150), called “New Trends in Arab Anti-Semitism” and published by MEMRI (http://www.memri.org/), the Middle East Media Research Institute. MEMRI translates Arabic language media (print, TV, film etc.) and makes the fruit of their research available in real time to governments, think tanks and even the UN.
This video was presented to the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland on September 28 2010. It is a collage of clips taken from Arab TV stations in Egypt, Hamas-controlled Gaza, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries in the Middle East. Islamic religious teachers, preachers and media commentators openly communicate their perspectives on jihad and genocide against the Jewish people.
No holds are barred. Even rare Nazi film footage of torture and murder of Jews is presented approvingly by top Islamic clerics. This video will help you to understand better what the spiritual forces opposing the Jewish people and their state are actually propagating. Caution should be used for young or sensitive viewers regarding this video.
The spirit of Hitler is on the move
This astounding video presentation reveals that the anti-Semitic propaganda and murderous call for mass murder of the Jews used by the Nazis in the 1930’s are commonplace in modern Middle Eastern media. Hitler would feel right at home watching Egyptian, Saudi or Gaza TV programs.
During WWII the famous intercessor Rees Howell led a small band of praying people. This intercessory community prayed for the Allies’ military success on a battle by battle basis. They interceded for the protection of the Jewish people from Hitler’s murderous hands, and for the restoration of the Jewish people to their Promised Land of Israel.
Were Rees Howell alive today, he would be mobilizing world prayer –
- for the protection of the Jewish people from jihadi Islam’s murderous hands
- for the restoration of the Jewish people to Israel
- for the full salvation of the Jewish people through Yeshua the Messiah.
Pray with us in this new year of 2011 for these same burdens which are on God’s heart (Romans 9:2)!
Thanks for standing with us. Your prayers and support hold up our arms and are the 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) through: www.davidstent.org