The Plastic Bible - Moriel Ministries

DOUBLE CROSS – Continued
By Jesus’ day there was a temple
dedicated to Caesar Augustus at Caesarea
Philippi on the ruins of the ancient temple
of Pan. This is where declared Himself
the Rock in Matthew 16. This was on the
lower ridge of Mt. Hermon, towering over
Galilee below. In Jerusalem the Fortress
Antonio overshadowed the Temple Mount
with its eagles—symbols of Pagan Rome’s
dominion over the house of God. This
eclipsed the heart and soul of the people of
God and their identity as a nation in a covenant
relationship with the One True God.
It was quite a mess, but in the final analysis
it was largely a mess of their own making.
It is of little surprise that on February
1, 2010 Prime Minister Berlusconni of
Italy arrived in Jerusalem. Breaking with
the left-wing socialists who dominate the
European Union, Mr. Berlusconni, despite
being immersed in a series of financial and
political scandals, remains an outspoken
friend of the USA, a critic of Islamic culture
and civilization (which he has compared
to Communism as a deficient entity
that must be defeated and that will fall in
the squalor of its own depravity) and has
consistently been a vocal supporter of Israel.
Upon arrival in Jerusalem Mr. Berlusconni
announced his plans to push for Israel
membership into the European Union.
Meanwhile, the Vatican in Rome remains
consistent in posturing itself to play a role
in brokering a Middle East peace based on
some kind of internationalization of Jerusalem
in a climate where the pope seeks
to regain the cloak he inherited from the
Pagan emperors of Rome as Pontiff.
The emperors bore the religious title
of Pontifex Maximus (the Great Bridge
Builder between and among faiths) as head
of Rome’s Pantheon, again in a marriage of
church and state. A political figure wants to
draw Israel into a revived Roman Empire
while a religious one wants to be the bridge
between Judaism, Christendom, and Islam.
To those who understand Scripture and understand
history in light of Scripture, the
prophetic implications of these events are
evident. At the very least they demonstrate
a trend that is plainly of eschatological
consequence. The prophet Daniel tells us
that the Antichrist (akin to Pompey) will
deceive Israel into making a treaty, break
it, and betray them, leaving them not merely
disillusioned, but devastated.
America and Israel have labored for
decades to shift a normally pro-Arab Europe
towards one more favorable to Israel
at a time when grass root reactions to
growing Islamic radicalism are mounting
in Britain and Holland, and incipiently in
Italy, Germany, and France. Meanwhile,
the Israeli left of the Labor Party coalition
are dominated by socialists such as Simon
Peres and other members of Socialist International
who are natural bedfellows to
the socialist eurocracy of Brussels and the
so-called quartet mediary Tony Blair who
is a member of the Bilderbergers and who
converted to Roman Catholicism without
gravitating into the fanciful speculations of
conspiracy theorists.
It is obvious that the stage is being set
for something to happen that will not be
simply politically transforming, but theologically
stupendous. When and how this
will happen we can only speculate, and
again it is imperative that we avoid the
wild conjectures of lunatic fringe conspiracy
theorists, including those who combine
conspiracy theories with their particular interpretations
of End Times prophecy. What
is also imperative, however, is that we recognize
that these events are indeed lining
up with end-times prophecy. As always the
early trends are brought, but at some point
they become specific and defined. Betrayal
is once again on the horizon. As in the past,
it arrives from Rome. As in the past, it is
self-inflicted. As in the past, it fulfills the
prophecies of Daniel. And as in the past,
those people whose hearts and minds are
truly the Lord’s, and these alone, will understand
(Daniel 11:33; Daniel 12:3).
To spiritually discern the politics of
betrayal, one must understand the theology
of betrayal. Whenever a nation, no matter
how strong its biblical heritage, stops looking
to the living God and looks to man for
salvation, it is doomed, and it brings the
doom upon itself. This is foremost true of
God’s own covenant people Israel, but this
principle co-equally applies to the Christian
church; as the Apostle Paul wrote us,
“If God did not spare the natural branches,
neither will He spare you” (Romans 11:21).
Israel’s closest thing to a true friend has
been the United States. And this is without
doubt one reason God’s judgment has not
already fallen on America (Genesis 12:3).
Yet the theology of politics and betrayal
abound no less in the USA than they do in
Israel and Europe.
Naïve Christians heralded Ronald
Reagan as a pro-life brother in Christ. In a
colossal act of betrayal Reagan appointed
pro-abortion judge Sandra Day O’Connor
to the Supreme Court. It was O’Connor, a
Reagan Republican, who wrote both the
Supreme Court’s decision on outlawing
the Texas anti-sodomy law (which opened
the door for states to move towards samesex
marriage with co-equal adoption rights
for homosexuals and lesbians to be able
to raise up a child to be a homosexual or
lesbian) and the decision ordering the Ten
Commandments out of the judicial building
in Alabama. It was Dwight Eisenhower’s
Republican Supreme Court of Earl Warren
who ordered God out of the classroom. It
was Richard Nixon’s Republican Supreme
Court of Warren Burger who ordered God
out of the maternity ward with Roe v.
Wade. All the while, naïve and undiscerning
Christians have swallowed the lie that
the Republican Party is more “Christian”
than the Democrat Party, when in fact the
record proves that it was Republicans who
ordered God out of the classroom, the maternity
ward, and the court, demonstrating
that a Republican politician is everything
that a Democrat politician is plus a liar on
top of it. These are the simple and undeniable
facts of history.
It was George W. Bush who first celebrated
Ramadan at the White House. The
Epistle of 1 John that denies the Father and
Son relationship is by scriptural definition
“Antichrist.” Yet George W. Bush placed a
copy of the Koran, which states that God
has no Son, in the White House in order to
honor Islam after September 11th as he continued
the express visa program for Saudi
Arabians who outlaw the New Testament
from even being brought into their country.
One cannot imagine Winston Churchill
putting a copy of Mein Kampf in 10 Downing
Street after Hilter’s Luftwaffe leveled
Coventry and half of Liverpool and London,
nor can one imagine even an FDR
issuing visas to Japanese Kamikaze pilots
after Pearl Harbor. Yet many Evangelical
clergymen have lined up in election after
election to endorse one Republican candidate
after another.
As we speak, Senator Scott Brown,
who sensationally won Ted Kennedy’s
Senate seat in Massachusetts, announced
that while he opposed federal funding for
abortions, he believes in the right to abort
a baby in circumstances where there is no
clinical warrant, as has the Republican
candidate for Senate in Illinois.
While Jesus was born into a politicallycharged
environment, He would not enter
the political arena or reduce His message
to something that could be identified with a
political party. The New Testament restricts
its comments on political activity to understanding
the prophetic significance of such
events and to pray for those in authority lest
they be influenced by things more sinister.
On the left, liberal clergymen such as Al
Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Jeremiah Wright
(and some would say Rick Warren), endorse
Democratic candidates the same as the late
Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson endorsed
Republicans. This replays the state of Israel
in the early 1st Century in terms of corruption
of the clergy who misled the people.
Jerry Falwell accepted millions of dollars
in contributions from Korean cult leader
Sun Yung Moon, who claimed to be the
return of Christ in the flesh. Pat Robertson,
16 Moriel Quarterly • March 2010