NEWSARTICLES ON RESTORATION OF ISRAEL

January 1998

As we enter 1998, I can't help but think about how close we must be to the Second Coming--when the Lord will return for His church and personally rule over the Earth for 1,000 years.

Oh, I know, some of you don't believe in such things. You think it's just a bunch of silly superstition. You prefer I stick to writing about news events of the physical world rather than arcane spiritual matters.

But, as a journalist, I can't ignore hard evidence--no matter where it may lead me. And the more I study the prophetic scriptures of the Holy Bible and look at the condition of our world today, the more convinced I become that we are nearing that time. In fact, I think we are very close.

For just as Jesus' virgin birth in Bethlehem was foretold by the Hebrew prophets hundreds of years earlier, so, too, was His return to Earth predicted. The only question is when.

Interestingly, Orthodox Jews have long taught that the world would last for 6,000 years before the Messiah would come and usher in a 1,000-year period of restful human history. Since God created the world in six days, according to Genesis 1:31, and rested on the seventh day, according to Genesis 2:2, they reasoned the world's history would climax the same way. They cite Psalm 90:4, which says: "For a thousand years in Thy sight are like yesterday when it passes by."

Likewise, Christians have looked to II Peter 3:8: "But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."

The early church understood this "six-day theory" of world history. It was widely accepted teaching for the first three centuries of the church. From the time of Adam, we've got genealogical records to show that 4,000 years passed until the time of Christ. From Jesus' time until the present age represents another 2,000 years, for a total of 6,000 years or six days.

There's also a three-day theory: Jesus rose on the third day. Would the beginning of the third millennium--or thousand-year period--not be the likely time for His return to earth?

In 1776, Edward Gibbon published "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," in which he cites early documents suggesting the Christian disciples of the first century were taught that Jesus would return after 2000 years. We'll soon find out if they were right.

For many reasons, I believe Jesus is returning soon--if not in the year 2000, certainly thereabouts. But I'm especially drawn to II Timothy 3:1-5, which describes the state of the world in the "last days." Tell me if this doesn't sound like our world: "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these."

Jesus came 2,000 years ago and died for our sins. Now we should be hopeful and expectant of His imminent return.

(David:) Wow, whatta witness! Sometimes people have to hear it from someone who isn't part of what they consider a "cult" or from a scientific standpoint before they'll sit up and take notice. I like this article! I believe it was written by a sincere man who has discerned the signs of the times. You ought to get excited when you see these things! You ought to get moved and motivated to get out the witness. Look up, for your redemption draweth nigh! It won't be long now!

(Reuters) Israel said it regarded as "null and void" a 1947 U.N. resolution that called for the internationalization of Jerusalem. In remarks in Jerusalem to foreign ambassadors, Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon said: "Resolution 181 which speaks about Jerusalem not being part of Israel is null and void and … we have a very wide national consensus about this issue."

The hawkish Sharon reaffirmed Israel's hold over all of the holy city against the backdrop of a diplomatic dispute with the European Union over the EU's position that Jerusalem is a separate entity from Israel. Most countries reject Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem, saying the city's status is unresolved. Under interim peace deals the future of Jerusalem is to be decided in final status talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

(AP) Ignoring Israeli and U.S. objections, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for an international conference on Israeli settlements in traditionally Arab areas that Palestinians claim are illegal. The vote was 115-2 with five abstentions.

The resolution contends that Israel is violating the Geneva conventions by constructing new settlements in east Jerusalem and on other lands the Israelis captured in 1967. During two days of speeches, speaker after speaker supported the Palestinians and demanded that Israel halt construction in contested areas and adhere to the peace agreements.

Israel's U.N. ambassador, Dore Gold, said that his country opposes "one-sided U.N. resolutions." Israel has routinely ignored U.N. declarations regarding relations with the Arabs.

(AP) In a speech about the concern people have over the new millennium, the Rev. Jerry Falwell said the Antichrist is probably alive today and is a male Jew. Falwell also told about 1,500 people at a conference that he believes the second coming of Christ probably will be within 10 years.

"Who will the Antichrist be? I don't know. Nobody else knows," said Falwell, whose Sunday morning services are carried by television stations nationwide.

"Is he alive and here today? Probably. Because when he appears during the Tribulation period he will be a full-grown counterfeit of Christ. Of course he'll be Jewish. Of course he'll pretend to be Christ. And if in fact the Lord is coming soon, and he'll be an adult at the presentation of himself, he must be alive somewhere today."

[Later, after accusations that he was encouraging anti-Semitism by speaking of the Antichrist as a Jewish man, Mr. Falwell said he regretted saying this.] "I should have known better," Falwell said at the 18th International Christian Prayer Breakfast.

"I apologize to my Jewish friends here and around the world and I apologize to the Christians here for having created any kind of rift. I apologize not for what I believe, but for my lack of tact and judgment in making a statement that served no purpose whatsoever," Falwell said.

FRANKFURT--The Rothschilds, the family that emerged from Frankfurt's Jewish ghetto 200 years ago to become virtually synonymous with international banking, are returning home after an absence of nearly a century. A spokesman for the family, which has branches in London, Paris & Geneva, confirmed Friday that N.M. Rothschild & Sons, the British investment arm, & Bank Rothschild AG, the Swiss branch, plan to set up a representative banking office as early as this summer in Frankfurt. "Frankfurt is the last major international banking center where the family is not represented," said Reto Lyk, senior vice president of Rothschild Bank AG in Zurich. "It is high time to be present there."

The Rothschilds, whose emergence from the ghetto in the late 18th century led them to nobility & power throughout Europe & beyond, closed their Frankfurt bank in 1901 & folded the unit into their Vienna operation. Even though the new entity is to be less than a full-fledged bank, the move to establish it would nevertheless be a milestone for one of the world's most important banking centers, where the home-town Rothschilds became more & more conspicuous by their absence with each passing decade. The Rothschilds, unlike other Jewish banking families in Germany such as the Warburgs, did not have to flee Hitler. The male line of the German branch of the Rothschilds died out around the turn of the century, & the bank in Frankfurt closed its doors in 1901.

But the Third Reich did not leave the family unscathed. The Vienna branch was pressured to sell its banking operations, & one of its leading members, Baron Louis de Rothschild, was held hostage for a year after the German occupation of Austria. He was released through a combination of ransom & international financial pressure. And a member of the French branch of the family, Robert Rothschild, was exterminated in the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 after repeatedly refusing to assign rights to his company, Austin SA, a tractor manufacturer, to the Krupp industrial concern.

Mayer Amschel Rothschild, the founder of the dynasty, began operations in the late 18th century as a coin dealer & lender in Frankfurt. His business acumen soon caught the attention of Elector William of Hesse, the extravagant local lord who could recognise financial talent & often needed it. The elector's family had accumulated one of the largest fortunes in Germany--due in part to his father's hiring out of mercenary Hessian soldiers to the British for use against the United States--but William's heavy spending forced him to become the first major client of the Rothschilds.

The elector, like many German princes an enemy of the invading Napoleon, fled to Prague & left the Rothschilds to fend for themselves in Frankfurt, where their home was searched by French soldiers who never did find evidence of incriminating transactions. Another enemy of Napoleon & client of the Rothschilds, Emperor Francis I of Austria, rewarded the house with the first of its many titles of nobility in 1817. Mayer Amschel Rothschild sent his sons to open banks in London, Paris, Vienna & Naples, where they continued to finance state treasuries & played a major role in financing the construction of Europe's railroads.

There are few traces of the Rothschilds left in Frankfurt. But Mayer Amschel's tombstone somehow survived the pillagings of Nazi toughs in the 1930s, & remains untouched to this day in the old Jewish cemetery.

By the year 1916, World War I was going badly for England. She was in a desperate plight due to shortage of gun powder. Up until then, gun powder had been made from nitrates taken from mines in Chile, South America. But with German submarines controlling the sea lanes, Britain was unable to obtain the precious raw material.

At this time, Chaim Weizmann, a brilliant Jewish scientist, discovered how to make gun powder from nitrogen that was taken from the air. Eighty percent of the air we breathe is nitrogen! This changed the course of the war.

In appreciation, Lloyd George, representing the British government, told Dr. Weizmann to name his reward. He requested that Palestine be declared national homeland for the Jewish people. Consequently, the Balfour declaration was drawn up and signed on November 2, 1917. The letter reads: