As the war in Israel continues and more of the surrounding Muslim-majority nations indicate they might escalate the situation further, one of the questions we have been asked most frequently at Denison Forum is if the fighting there is a sign of the end times.

It’s an understandable question and, from an eschatological perspective, “wars and rumors of wars” in Israel do feel different than the ongoing struggle in Ukraine or conflicts elsewhere in the world (Matthew 24:6).

But why is that the case? And why do so many Christians in particular seem to jump so quickly to the end times when conflicts in Israel arise?

While answers vary, one of the most prominent factors among evangelical Christians is the belief that the nation of Israel will play a central role in the apocalyptic conflicts that will ultimately result in Christ’s return.

Now, it must be said from the start that not all Christians agree with that assessment. As Dr. Jim Denison describes, there are seven primary approaches that people have taken to understanding the book of Revelation and, by extension, how the end times will play out. And people continue to argue about it because no approach is inarguably more biblical than the rest—though strong adherents to any one of them might disagree.

For our purposes today, however, one approach in particular stands out.

Today’s most popular end-times theology

Of the seven ways that Christians have historically viewed end-times theology, the most popular in evangelical circles today is premillennialism.

While a variety of perspectives are housed within that term, they share the basic belief that the world will never be made right until Christ returns. And a quick look at the news on any given day offers a helpful reminder of why that perspective makes sense to so many.

However, that wasn’t always the case.

In the wake of the Second Great Awakening, many Christians in the West believed that the church was on the path to ushering in the kingdom that Christ would one day return to rule. However, for many believers, the Civil War put cracks in that belief before the first World War ultimately shattered it.

In its wake, more and more Christians began to believe that Jesus was the only one who could fix this world, and the premillennial approach became more common as a result.

In typical Christian fashion, though, even when people agreed on the basics, the details proved divisive. And of the factions within that faction of belief, dispensationalism is the most important for understanding why Israel is so important to many Christians today.

God’s two plans?

Dispensationalism came to America through the writings and sermons of British pastor John Nelson Darby during the late 1800s, but it rose to prominence through the preaching of St. Louis pastor James Brookes and—to an extent—famed evangelist D. L. Moody. Then, in 1909, Cyrus Scofield published one of the first study Bibles and included notes throughout explaining how the various parts of Scripture fit within a dispensationalist model.

A host of Bible colleges, institutes, and seminaries—with Dallas Theological Seminary perhaps the most important—then trained generations of pastors to see Scripture through that lens as well. And while other forms of evangelicalism grew to prominence across the same period of time, some of the most influential leaders within the evangelical church have approached Scripture from the dispensationalist perspective.

I bring all of this up today because one of the most distinctive convictions within dispensationalism is the belief that, as Timothy Weber describes, “God had two completely different plans operating in history: one for an earthly people, Israel, and the other for a heavenly people, the church.”

And that plan would eventually culminate with a reestablished Israel at the center of the Lord’s work as he began to usher in his kingdom. Given that Darby began preaching about that eventuality nearly a century before the nation of Israel was rebirthed in 1949, it’s understandable that the latter event was seen by many to confirm the dispensationalist perspective on Israel’s role in the end times.

As Israel has continued to court evangelical support in the decades since, that relationship has only grown stronger, and a view that found its modern origins within the dispensationalist perspective has been adopted by many who hold to a different approach to the faith as well.

As a result, now when Israel goes to war, Christians pay attention and openly wonder if this conflict will kick off Scripture’s final conflict.

So how can we know?

Will you be ready?

Ultimately, the answer to that question is that we won’t know which conflict is the final conflict until Jesus comes back. We’ve been in the “last times” since Christ’s incarnation. For the better part of two millennia, there have been Christians who were convinced that his return was imminent.

I’m thirty-seven years old and, not to brag, but the latest conflict in Israel is about the fifth end of the world I’ve experienced so far. Yet, whether it’s the other wars in the Middle East, 9/11, Covid, or the host of other global conflicts and persecutions that meet many of the criteria described in Scripture, Christ still hasn’t returned.

But one day he will, and while we can continue to debate the degree to which present events should be seen as a sign of the end times, what Jesus was absolutely clear about is that the best way to live now is to be ready for his return.

So how can we do that?

Think back for a moment to your initial response when you thought about the question of if we are now living in the end times. Did it make you frightened? Excited? Skeptical? Did someone come to mind who doesn’t know Christ? If Christ did return today, would there be something you feel like you’d left unfinished?

Ultimately, Christ’s call is to live every day with the expectation that it might be your last, coupled with the reality that we often won’t know if it is until it’s too late to do much about it.

So what would such a life look like for you today? And is your answer to that question primarily the product of your own guesses and expectations or as a result of guidance from God?

Only the Lord knows when your last day will be, so he is the only one capable of helping you live well every day until that time comes.

Have you asked for his help yet today?

Denison Forum

“This war, which has entered a dangerous phase, will plunge the region into an unspeakable disaster.” This was the warning of Jordan’s King Abdullah II after an explosion Tuesday in the courtyard of Gaza’s al-Ahli hospital killed hundreds of people. It is made all the more ominous by his nation’s moderate political stance and longstanding peace agreement with Israel. After the blast, the king canceled a planned summit between President Joe Biden, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.

Hamas immediately blamed an Israeli airstrike for the tragedy. However, Israel, the US government, and independent security experts said yesterday that preliminary evidence shows the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were not responsible and points instead to a failed rocket launch from Gaza by Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a local militant group.

Nonetheless, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh called on Arabs and Muslims worldwide to protest against Israel and claimed the explosion will mark “a new turning point.” Early response across the Muslim world indicates that he may tragically be right:

• The Jordanian government announced three days of mourning after the hospital explosion, which it called the “Israeli massacre.”
• Hezbollah called for a “day of rage against the enemy” after the blast. Hundreds of demonstrators threw stones at the French and US embassies in Beirut, chanting “death to America” and “death to Israel.” The government closed schools yesterday.
• Iran, which has warned of “preemptive” attacks should Israel proceed with a ground offensive on the Gaza Strip, condemned Israel for the “heinous attack.”
• Syria stated that it holds Western countries, especially the US, “responsible for this massacre.”
• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the explosion “the latest example of Israel’s attacks devoid of fundamental human values.”
• Saudi Arabia stated that it “condemns in the strongest possible terms the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation forces.”

Is Israel facing an “existential threat”?

Could the al-Ahli hospital bombing indeed be a “turning point” in this tragic conflict?

Palestinians are understandably shocked and grieved by the death and devastation so many are suffering from the explosion. As the atrocities of October 7 rallied Israelis against Hamas, could this rally Palestinians against Israel? Could we see another intifada (“uprising”) in the West Bank incited by Hamas and PIJ there?

Will this bring Hezbollah, with an estimated 130,000 rockets capable of striking all parts of Israel, more fully into the war? Iran’s foreign minister has warned that the group could destroy Tel Aviv “tower for tower” and identified Israel’s nuclear reactor as a potential target. According to the Jerusalem Post, there is a “growing concern” in Israel that “Hezbollah is waiting for the moment that most IDF ground forces are committed to Gaza to open a full front with the IDF in the north.”

Will Iran, which backs Hezbollah and Hamas and has been warning of “new fronts” opening against Israel, mobilize its jihadist forces in Syria and Iraq? In other words, will we see the multi-front war against the Jewish state that a former Israeli security advisor called an “existential threat”?

“Israel was born in battle”

Israel has been here before.

In Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine, retired Gen. David Petraeus and historian Andrew Roberts describe Israel’s 1948 War for Independence in fascinating detail. They note that the war began when the infant nation was invaded by “five armies comprising over twenty thousand well-equipped Arabs from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Transjordan (later Jordan), and Saudi Arabia.”

When the war was over, some six thousand Jews had died—1 percent of the entire population of the country—but they had gained 30 percent more territory than they had been allotted by the United Nations Partition Plan the Arabs had previously rejected. While “the whole country remained within Arab artillery range, and the state’s wasp-like waist was only nine miles to the sea at its narrowest,” the nation survived.

Petraeus and Roberts quote Chaim Herzog, the head of military intelligence for the IDF in their War for Independence and a future president of the nation: “Israel was born in battle.”

We can and must join them.

Seven biblical prayers

This is not just a military, cultural, and sociological conflict—it is a spiritual war. Those who committed unspeakable atrocities on October 7, and those who would join them to destroy the Jewish people and nation, are influenced by Satan, who “comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10).

So, let’s join this battle on our knees as we “wrestle against . . . the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Specifically, I encourage you to offer seven biblical prayers in these days, asking God to:

• Give leaders on all sides wisdom leading to peace through righteousness (Proverbs 3:5; James 1:5; 3:18).
• Protect noncombatants and provide for their needs (Psalm 121:7–8; Zechariah 7:10).
• Protect and strengthen Christians and churches throughout the region as they share their faith and serve with compassion (1 Peter 4:10).
• Give victory to Israel over those who would annihilate her (Deuteronomy 20:4; Isaiah 54:17) while giving the Palestinians a new future with justice and peace (Amos 5:24).
• “Comfort all who mourn,” both Jews and Palestinians (Isaiah 61:2–3)
• Help all in the region to “repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations” (Isaiah 61:4)
• Reveal his Son to Muslims and Jews in miraculous ways that lead them to faith in him as Lord (cf. Acts 9:1–19; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9).

What if this crisis is a “new turning point,” not for escalating conflict but for spiritual awakening? What if it shows those on all sides that they need the hope found only in Christ?

What if, as a consequence of this horrific war, the One who was born in this ancient land is born again in millions of hearts?

Let us pray fervently that it may be so, to the glory of God.

Denison Forum

President Joe Biden arrived in Israel this morning to show support for Israel. His trip comes less than a day after a horrific blast at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which was sheltering thousands of displaced people when it was bombed. More than five hundred people were killed.

Palestinian officials blamed Israeli airstrikes, but the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) “categorically” denied any involvement in the attack, blaming a “failed rocket launch” by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a rival militant group in Gaza. President Biden likewise assigned blame to “the other team,” not Israel. Independent analysts who reviewed footage of the explosion also supported the IDF’s denial.

Meanwhile, a different kind of conflict is continuing in American society. Many critics of Israel have claimed for many years that they “colonized” their land from its rightful Palestinian owners and that the state continues to “oppress” the Palestinians. This explains the support voiced on many university campuses and in cultural centers for Hamas after their October 7 atrocities.

So let’s ask: Who are the Palestinians? Did Israel steal their land? Is their plight in Gaza Israel’s fault? How should Christians view them today?

Is this colonialism?

“Palestine” derives from “Philistia,” the name given by Greek writers to the land occupied by the biblical Philistines. The Romans called the area “Syria Palestina.” It was ruled successively by Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Mamluks, and the Ottoman Empire.

After World War I, the area came under British control. In 1947, the United Nations approved a “Partition Plan” whereby the West Bank (so-named for its location on the west bank of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea) and the Gaza Strip would become the nation of Palestine. The remainder of the area would become the State of Israel.

Jewish authorities accepted the plan; Arab leaders rejected it, leading to Israel’s War for Independence in 1948 and the creation of their nation.

The people commonly called “Palestinians” today largely descend from Arabs who conquered the area in the seventh century during the first era of Muslim expansionism, as well as those who emigrated from Egypt, Algeria, Bosnia, and other Arab nations in the nineteenth century. The vast majority are Muslim, though there is a significant Christian minority. I have several Palestinian Christian friends in the West Bank.

This history gives the lie to the claim that Israelis are “colonizers.” They were present from the time of Joshua until the Roman Empire dispersed them, though many remained in the land afterward. There were eras when the land was dominated by Christians (AD 324–640; 1095–1291) as well as Muslims (AD 640–1095; 1291–1917).

If we wish to “return” the land to its rightful owners, to whom would we give it—Canaanites, Jews, Christians, or Arabs?

Is Israel an oppressor?

When Israel warned Gaza residents to flee from their homes for their own safety, Hamas told them to stay. Hamas would rather use Gaza residents as human shields and their potential deaths as propaganda fodder. Sen. Mitt Romney was right: “Do not forget the lives that you will see lost on TV. Israeli lives and Palestinian lives [lost] are all the result of Hamas.”

The Wall Street Journal editorial board agreed. After describing Hamas’s strategy of hiding its soldiers and weapons behind civilians, it noted: “Blaming Israel for . . . civilian casualties amounts to denying the Jewish state its right to self-defense. It means that Hamas can launch attacks on Israel with the goal of slaughtering women and children, but Israel can’t attack Hamas in Gaza because civilians might be unintentional casualties. It means Hamas would retain a terrorist sanctuary from which it can attack Israel whenever it has the means and opportunity.”

In a recent New York Times article, David Brooks timelines opportunities for the Palestinians to create a two-state solution with Israel. He lists several major peace efforts: the Oslo process, the Cairo Agreement, Oslo II, the Hebron Protocol, and the Wye River Plantation meeting.

Late in the year 2000, for example, the Israeli cabinet accepted a plan that would have created a Palestinian state. However, Brooks writes, “Yasir Arafat [the Palestinian leader] did what he generally did. He never said no, but he never said yes.”

According to Forbes, Arafat died a billionaire. Mahmoud Abbas, his successor and the current leader of Fatah (which controls the West Bank), is worth an estimated $300 million. The leaders of Hamas, many of whom live in luxury in Qatar, are likewise estimated to be billionaires.

New York Times columnist Bret Stephens cites a 2014 Wall Street Journal report that with the money Hamas could have spent to build a single tunnel to infiltrate into Israel, it could have purchased construction supplies “enough to build eighty-six homes, seven mosques, six schools, or nineteen medical clinics.” At the time, Israel had identified at least thirty-two such tunnels.

Stephens concludes: “The central cause of Gaza’s misery is Hamas. It alone bears the blame for the suffering it has inflicted on Israel and knowingly invited against Palestinians. The best way to end the misery is to remove the cause, not stay the hand of the remover.”

A thought experiment

Let’s close with a thought experiment: Why doesn’t Israel take Palestinian hostages?

Because Hamas would pay nothing to get them back since it has essentially taken the entire populace hostage and views the Palestinian people as a means to its jihadist ends.

Conversely, why does Hamas take Israeli hostages?

Because Israel, grounded in the biblical worldview, values every human life.

As should we.

God loves Palestinians just as much as he loves Jews (cf. Galatians 3:28). We are each made in his image (Genesis 1:27), someone for whom Jesus died (Romans 5:8).

Consequently, please join me in praying daily for protection for civilians on both sides of this conflict, Israeli and Palestinian. Pray for the “shalom” of Jerusalem (Psalm 122:6), which is peace in the region based on justice and righteousness (cf. Isaiah 1:17). And pray that God would redeem this unfolding tragedy by leading many Jews and Muslims to Christ as their Messiah.

To that end, let’s make these words from the Book of Common Prayer our intercession today:

O God, you made us in your image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Denison Forum