Christian Zionism - New Life Tabernacle of Chattanooga

Jerusalem, sees the prediction Jesus made in Luke 21:24 as now fulfilled.
‘Finally, after nearly 2,000 long years, the Jewish people were reunited with
their ancient city and capital. Jerusalem - literally trodden under foot by so
many different nations - was back in the fold of her own people just as Christ
had foretold.’ 903 Wendell Stearns explains why the events of 1967 resulted in
a ‘reunification’ of Jerusalem: ‘The artificial boundary line that had divided
Jerusalem was broken down in 1967 when Israel, in the miraculous Six-Day
War, reunited the city which had been “trodden down by the Gentiles” for
nearly two thousand years. Jerusalem was again under Jewish jurisdiction.’ 904
Lindsey, however, suggests the ‘times’ are not quite over. On the basis of the
same verse, he believes attempts to negotiate a settlement of the Arab-Israeli
conflict will always remain futile. He insists the ‘Bible tells us’ that the dispute
over Jerusalem and indeed Israel’s borders will never be settled by any peace
agreement, ‘nor any whiz-bang diplomatic breakthrough.’ Jerusalem will, he
insists, continue to be ‘a stumbling block for the entire world ... we are literally
witnessing the end of the times of the Gentiles.’ 905 A year later, in 1995,
Lindsey rephrased the last sentence to give more emphasis to his timing, ‘We
are literally witnessing the last hours of the times of the Gentiles. God’s focus
is shifting back to His people Israel.’ 906 By ‘hours’ it is assumed Lindsey was
speaking metaphorically. If it is problematic trying to make sense of the past
based on a futurist reading of prophecy, interpreting the future is even more
controversial.
5.2 Jerusalem in Eschatology: Ground Zero
It would be an understatement to suggest that the future described for
Jerusalem by Christian Zionists is anything but bleak. Hagee claims,
‘Jerusalem the golden is caught in a supernatural crossfire … We are racing
toward the end of time, and Israel lies in the eye of the storm.’ 907 In Matthew
24 and Luke 21 Jesus describes events about to occur in Jerusalem. In
903 Jan Willem van der Hoeven, Babylon or Jerusalem? (Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, Destiny
Image, 1993), p152.
904 Wendell Stearns, Biblical Zionism, (Hilversum, Holland, Moriah Foundation, 1994),
p123.
905 Lindsey, Planet, op.cit., pp162, 164.
906 Lindsey, Final, op.cit., p95.
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