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>>I have been to Israel 45 times, and every time my
spiritual life has been enriched. I recently took a
video cameraman with me and had him shoot on the fly as I
led a pilgrimage group to the land. We began in Tel Aviv,
and went from there to Tiberias in the north, and
then back to Jerusalem. I hope to share some highlights from
that trip with you over the next few weeks. As I do so I
think you will come to understand why a person once
wrote, "A pilgrimage to the Holy Land converts the Bible
from black and white into Technicolor." Stay tuned for a
visit to Independence Hall in Tel Aviv.
♪[Music] Lamb and Lion Ministries
presents Christ in Prophecy, a program
that focuses on the fundamentals of Bible
prophecy, showing how current events in the news relate to
Biblical predictions of end time events and the soon
return of Jesus. Now, here's your host, Dr. David Reagan.♪
>>Welcome to the Holy Land and to the city of Tel Aviv,
Israel. I'm standing here on a beach that runs north and
south beside the city of Tel Aviv. And to my right looking
west is the Mediterranean Sea and to my left looking east
toward Jerusalem is the modern city of Tel Aviv. Today on our
first day here in Israel we are going to start out at
Independence Hall and where the Declaration of
Independence was declared on May the 14th, 1948. Then we
are going to go over to the Carmel Market a big outdoor
market here in Tel Aviv and give people kind of feel of
what all that it's like. Then we'll go to the old City of
Jaffa the Port of Jaffa the port that served as a port of
this nation for many, many years and where Jonah took off
on his journey to Tarsus. We'll conclude the day by
eating lunch and then going to the Messianic congregation
that is headed up by a wonderful Messianic Jew by the
name of Avi Mizrachi. We'll visit the site where Rabin was
assassinated in November of 1995. And then we are going to
give the folks a chance to come back here early and get
their toes in the Mediterranean. I'd like to
introduce you at this time to my co-host and that is Gary
Fisher. Gary, step on in here. This is Gary Fisher who is the
Founder and Director of Lion of Judah Ministries in
Franklin, Tennessee. And he has come along to be the
co-host of this particular trip. You'll be seeing him a
lot along the way. Gary you know what our schedule is
today, you know where we are going. Of all the sites we are
going to visit today which one is your favorite and why? >>It
has to Independence Hall. >>Ok. >>There's lots of
museums in Israel and it is probably per capita has the
greatest amount of museums in the whole world. But this
particular museum, Independence Hall there is
something very, very special about it, it marks one of the
greatest prophetic events recorded in Scripture. And
that Scripture is found in Isaiah 66:8, Isaiah
anticipating the electricity of that moment over 2,000
years ago, cried out in desperation, "Who has heard
such a thing? Can a land be brought forth all at once? Can
a nation be born in one day?" And the answer is yes, it was
on May the 14th, 1948. So I get very excited about what
took place in that room. Incidentally because of the
importance of the prophecy of that event we look back and we
see that the world, the whole world, was limping along the
economy and so forth and so on, we just came through the
Great Depression, we just come through World War II. All the
economies in the world were limping along. The President
of the United States walked up to the microphone right after
David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of Israel on 4:00
in the afternoon on May the 14th, 1948. And our President,
Harry S. Truman, declared support for the State of
Israel and the US economy took off. And my point in bringing
that up is because God was interested in what was
happening in that little museum that day. He is still
interested in what's happening in that museum today. He is
declared in that museum that the Jewish people would come
back to the land of Israel and they would be no other time in
history like the one that we are living in where we are
seeing those Jewish people coming back. And it is a sign,
that little museum is a sign that the Messiah is about to
appear. The Jewish people are gathering back in the land.
And I get this electricity every time I go there that
soon Jesus is going to come to this country. He is going to
come to Mt. Zion. He is going to rule and reign in peace,
righteousness, and justice. And that little museum is a
sign that we are living near that event. >>Well, thank you
Gary. And all I can say is let's go to the museum and see
it, alright. >>Amen. >>Alright, thank you.
♪[music]♪
♪[music]♪
This building was built in 1911 and it was the home of
the mayor. And then when he died he gave it to the city of
Tel Aviv. Can you hear me ok? Gave it to the city of Tel
Aviv and it became an art museum. And then it fell
into--it was used for the Declaration of Independence
and years later it just fell into disrepair. Finally the
government took it over and restored it to look exactly
the way it was on the day that the Independence Declaration
was pronounced here. And so it has been open ever since the
70's and they've just been renovating it and so far the
only thing that I can tell is different is that glass wall
that we came through there, everything else looks the
same. I would like to begin by looking at a Bible verse that
is in Isaiah 66 that has to do with what happened here in
this room. Isaiah chapter 66 there are many, many
prophecies in the Bible concerning the re-gathering of
the Jewish people and the reestablishment of the state.
In fact there are more prophecies in the Old
Testament about the regathering of the people and the
reestablishment of the state than any other topic. It is
the most prolific prophecies in the Old Testament. Just
over, and over, and over, God is going to regather the
Jewish people in the end times in unbelief and their state is
will be reestablished. The reason I'm going to read you
this one is because it's really my favorite. It's a
symbolic prophecy, its put in symbolic terms but those terms
are very, very descriptive. Isaiah 66 beginning with verse 7
"Before she was in labor, she gave birth. Before her
pain came, she delivered a male child. Who has ever heard
of such a thing?" You ever hear of somebody give birth to
a child and then have the labor pains afterwards? "Who
has seen such a thing? Shall the earth be made to give
birth in one day? Shall a nation be born all at once?"
Well that's what happened. In one day the nation was reborn
here in the city of Tel Aviv in this place right her, and
the birth pains began the next day when five Arab nations
attacked. And the birth pains have continued to this day.
First was the War of Independence in '48 and '49.
Then came the Suez War in 1956. Then came the Six Day
War in 1967. Then came the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Then came
the two Arab Intifadas, the first Gulf War. It's just been
war, after war, after war, the most recent one being the War
with Hezbollah and then the War with Hamas. And now
everything is gathering for the great war. The next one's
probably going to be the great one as the Arab nations close
in and try to take Jerusalem. So, and it's going to be the
most destructive war for Israel because in the past I
would even bring groups over here during wars because it
was very safe. But that would not be true in the future
because the future war is going to be a missile war.
Thousands of missiles are going to come in here. They
are going to come from Iraq, Iran, they are going to come
from the north, Hezbollah, they are going to come from
the south, from Hamas and there just going to be raining
down like rain. And so it's going to be a very, very
serious time and the people here in Tel Aviv are the ones
that are most subject. This is the focal point; this is where
they're going to focus the missiles because they are
afraid if they shoot into Jerusalem they may end up with
a missile hitting the Dome of the Rock. Which I think would
be very appropriate, but nonetheless they don't want
that to happen. So anyway with that Scripture in mind let's
talk a moment about what happened here. When we get to
Jerusalem we're going to go to Mt. Herzl Cemetery and we're
going to see the centerpiece of that cemetery is the tomb
of this man Theodore Herzl. And we'll talk more about him
when we get there. All I want to say right now about him is
that he was a Hungarian Jew who lived in Austria. He
wanted to be a playwright but never made it, but he was a
writer, and he was a great intellectual, he was an
egomaniac in fact hardly anybody could get along with
him. But he was a man who had a vision for the Jewish people
to go back to their homeland. And in 1896 he wrote a book
called, "The Jewish State." It wasn't really a book, it was a
booklet in which he said, "It's time to go back home."
He had a--I'll talk about this more at his tomb it had
premonition of the Holocaust coming. He said, "It's time to
go back home. We must go back to our homeland." There were
only two people in the entire US government who favored the
creation of the State of Israel. One was the President,
Harry Truman, the other was his right-hand man, his
counselor, his private lawyer rather his personal lawyer and
that was Clark Clifford. Clark Clifford favored it because he
was a Bible student and he believed that the Jewish
people needed to come back to their homeland. Harry Truman
favored it because he was a Bible student. I don't know
how much you know about Harry Truman he was a remarkable
person. You can look at this and see God's hand
orchestrating Harry Truman into this position because
prior to Harry Truman the Vice President of the United States
had been Henry Wallace who FDR just dropped summarily and
said I want Harry Truman to be the next Vice President. Henry
Wallace turned out to be an extreme Socialist, a Communist
sympathizer, an extreme liberal. So anyway God
orchestrated that. Harry Truman comes in FDR doesn't
even know Harry Truman they met maybe one time. Harry
Truman was not informed of anything when he became
President, he didn't even know there was an atomic bomb, they
had to call him in and tell him that because FDR had never
shared that with him. So Harry Truman is in the position. Now
here's an interesting thing about Harry watch how God
orchestrates this, first He orchestrates for Harry Truman
to be President. Second, Harry Truman was a child prodigy; he
was reading at age three. By the time he started school at
age six he had already read the Bible two times. He was a
member of a family that was devote Christians they were
Baptists. And he knew the Bible backwards and forwards
by the time he started school. He was a guy who almost had a
photographic memory. I used to teach a course on the
presidency and every year when the course was over we would
go to Independence, Missouri and we would meet with
President Truman. We did this many times this was after he
was President. And you could ask him about any President of
the United States, any President anything, "How many
children did he have?" "What was his wife's name?" It was
like a--it was just unbelievable he was a walking
encyclopedia of the history of the Presidents of the United
States. So God's orchestrating this, He puts him in as Vice
President, He has a man who knows the Bible. But they were
the only two, everybody else in the US Government was not
only opposed they were overwhelmingly opposed to the
establishment of the State of Israel. The Joint Chiefs of
Staff had a special meeting they came to the President and
said, "Mr. President, we voted unanimously, no Jewish State."
And you know what the argument was? It was the same argument
you hear today, very same one, if you recognize a Jewish
State it will cut off our access to Arab oil. The most
important thing in the Middle East is access to Arab oil we
must have access, we must placate the Arabs. Don't worry
about the Jews, the Arabs will destroy them overnight any
way. But Truman wouldn't make any commitment, he wouldn't
say one way or another he just listened. Now more important
than the Joint Chiefs of Staff were two other people, one was
the Secretary of Defense who was a very renowned man and he
was totally opposed and he was telling the President, "Do not
recognize Israel." But the most important person was
General Marshall, George C. Marshall, Truman worshiped at
his feet, He idolized the man. He was the leader of the
United States Forces in World War II. Most people think it
was Eisenhower. No, Eisenhower was a field commander. The
person who was in charge of all US Military Forces and all
US strategy in World War II was General George C.
Marshall. So valuable to FDR that FDR would never allow him
to go into the field for fear he might be killed. General
Marshall had become Secretary of State and he gave a famous
speech I believe it was at Harvard University right after
he became Secretary of State and said, "We must rebuild
Europe it's lying it ruins. The Communist will take over,
all kinds of radical groups unless we go in and rebuild.
We've got to provide them aid to rebuild." And the Marshall
Plan was born. And that Marshall Plan rebuilt Europe.
And as a result of that he was given the Noble Peace Prize.
He was given the Man of the Year in 1947 on the front of
"Time Magazine." The Man of the Year, this was the man
that Harry Truman idolized. And General Marshall came to
Truman and he said, "Under no condition are you to recognize
Israel." And he was Secretary of State at that time. Truman
hated the State Department if you've ever read his writings
he always referred to them as the "guys in fancy stripped
pants." "The guys in the fancy stripped pants," that's how he
referred to the State Department, they're a bunch of
intellectuals who don't have any common sense is the way he
referred to them. But he really idolized General
Marshall and General Marshall said, "You will not recognize
the State of Israel." So there's tremendous debate
going on but God was preparing Harry Truman's heart. Not only
had he put him in that position. Not only had he
given him this ability to read and he knew the Bible
backwards and forwards. But something else happened, this
is really amazing you can see God's hand in this. When Harry
Truman became a solider in World War I and went to Europe
guess who became his very best *** buddy? A guy by the name
of Eddie Jacobs a Jewish man from Independence, Missouri.
This was a time when Jews were spit upon and hated in the
United States like blacks were. And yet he became Harry
Truman's best friend and was his best friend for the rest
of his life. In fact when World War I was over they came
back and the two of them opened a haberdashery shop and
sold men's clothing together. And for the rest of his life
that was his best friend. So God puts as his best friend a
Jewish man. He gives him as his right hand council Clark
Clifford who believed in the Jewish destiny. So He is just
surrounding him with these people like it's a fence
around him while the rest of the US Government is saying,
"No, no, no, no." On May the 12th, 1948 the Jews were going
to make their declaration on the 14th. On May the 12th
there was a meeting at the White House, incredible
meeting, George Marshall said I want to bring my staff and
we want to meet with you Mr. President and we're going to
tell you all the reasons why you should not recognize the
State of Israel. He came with a large staff and one of them
was appointed to present the argument to the President.
This fellow got up he presented this long argument
to the President about all the reasons why the President
should not recognize the State of Israel. And then when he
sat down the President said, "Ok, Mr. Clifford would you
speak." And Clark Clifford got up and started speaking and
General Marshall stood up and said, "Why is this political
hack speaking at this meeting?" Because that is what
he considered Clark Clifford to be nothing but a political
hack. He said, "This is the State Department I want to ask
you Mr. President why is this man even at this meeting?" And
the President said, "Because I invited him." And Marshall sat
down. Clark Clifford continued, he gave his entire
talk why it should be recognized. George Marshall
was sitting there steaming and when he finished his speech
Marshall said something that absolutely astounded everyone
in the room. I mean to this day it's hard to believe that
he said this. He said, "Mr. President I won't argue about
this anymore I have only one thing to say." Now this is in
front of a lot of witnesses, "If you recognize the State of
Israel I will vote for your opponent on Election Day." The
people over there said they just were so astounded they
just sat in absolute silence, nobody could believe that he
spoke to the President that way. You see the election was
coming up in November of 1948. Finally they said it seemed
like an eternity and the President said, "You know I
think the best thing for all of us to do is to go home and
get a good night's rest, and think about this," and they
all left. The next morning May 13, the Secretary of State
called the President he said, "Mr. President I thought about
it." And he said, "Here's where I am. I am still totally
opposed to it, but if you recognize the State of Israel
I will not speak one contrary word. I will be silent and I
will not speak out against your decision, the decision is
yours." Still nobody knew for sure how he was going to
decide. Meanwhile while all that was going on Eddie
Jacobson called the President and he said, "Mr. President
you've been in office since 1945 and I've never once asked
anything of you. I want to come to Washington, D.C. and
meet with you personally." He had never done that. He came
to Washington, D.C. he meet with the President he said,
"Mr. President I believe that when you were in your father's
loins that God anointed you to recognize the State of Israel.
I've never asked anything of you I want to ask you to
recognize the State of Israel." He said, "I think
this is of God," and he left. Well there was Truman in the
midst of all this. The next day on May the 14th, 1948,
David Ben-Gurion stood up here and he read the Declaration of
Independence and 11 minutes later Harry Truman signed the
short document saying that he recognized the State of
Israel, and armaments began to flow to Israel. And that is
the reason that Harry Truman is considered such a great
person here in the State of Israel, with statues of him
all over the place, because he is considered to be the Savior
or Israel on that day because the next morning they were
attacked by five Arab nations. I want us to pause here for a
moment and I'll come back and I want to ask Gary Fisher to
come up. And I want to ask Gary to read from the
Declaration of Independence. >>In the land of Israel the
Jewish people came into being. In this Land would shape their
spiritual, religious, and national character. Here they
lived in sovereign independence. Here they
created a culture of national and universal import, and gave
to the world the eternal Book of Books. Exiled by force,
still the Jewish people kept faith with their Land, in all
the countries of their dispersion, steadfast in their
prayer and hope to return and here revive their political
freedom. Fired by this attachment of history and
tradition, the Jews in every generation strove to renew
their roots in the ancient Homeland, and in recent
generations they came home in their multitudes. Veteran
pioneers and defenders, and new comers braving blockade,
they made the wilderness bloom, revived their Hebrew
tongue, and built villages and towns. They founded a thriving
society, of its own economy and culture, pursuing peace but
able to defend itself, bringing the blessing of
progress to all the inhabitants of the Land,
dedicated to the attainment of sovereign independence. In
1897 the first Zionist Congress met the call of
Theodore Herzl, seer of the vision of the Jewish State
gave public voice to the right of the Jewish people to
national restoration of their land. The right was
acknowledge in the Balfour Declaration on 2nd of November
1917, and confirmed in the Mandate of the League of
Nations, which accorded international validity to the
historical connection between the Jewish people in the Land
of Israel, and to their right to re-establish their National
Home. The holocaust that in time destroyed millions of
Jews in Europe again proved beyond doubt the compelling
need to solve the problem of Jewish homelessness and
dependence by the renewal of the Jewish State in the Land
of Israel, which would happen wide the gates, open wide the
gates of the Homeland to every Jew and endow the Jewish
people with the status of a nation with the equality of
rights within the family of nations. It is the natural
right of the Jewish people, like any other people, to
control their own destiny in their sovereign State.
Accordingly, we, the members of the National Council,
representing the Jewish people in the land of Israel and the
Zionist Movement, have assembled in the day of the
termination of the British mandate for Palestine and, by
virtue of our natural and historic right, and the
resolution of the General Assembly of the United
Nations, do hereby proclaim the establishment of the
Jewish State in the land of Israel- the State of Israel.
♪[music]♪
So the State was established, Harry Truman
recognized it, arms began to flow, five Arab nations attack
and the Israeli's were able to survive until this day. But
that doesn't end the story following that was a national
election coming up in November of 1948. Harry Truman had no
chance of winning the election, none whatsoever. The
Democrat Party split three ways, Harry Truman received
the nomination of the Democrats. Strom Thurmond
pulled out of the party and formed what was called the
Dixiecrat Party which composed all the southern states; a
party that was in charge of favor of state's rights and
segregation. And Henry Wallace the Socialist formed the
Progressive Party and all of the Socialist Democrats and
Liberal Democrats pulled out and they supported him. The
Democrat Party split three ways. The Republicans united
under the very handsome and charismatic Governor of New
York, Tom Dewey. Truman had so little chance of being elected
that many newspapers printed their headlines in advance,
"Dewey Defeats Truman." You've probably seen the famous
picture of Truman holding up one of those papers. Through
the astonishment of everyone including Harry Truman he was
re-elected. It was the greatest upset in the history
of American politics, no Presidential Election like it
since then or before. And how he won nobody knows. But God
says in His word, to those who bless Israel I will bless them
and to those who curse Israel I will curse them. And He
blessed Harry Truman for the decision he made. Why should
this be of any significance to us? Simply because God
fulfilled a promise that He made thousands of years ago in
this room. And He's made a lot of promises to His Church, a
lot of promises. And every time I see Him fulfilling a
promise to the Jewish people; the regathering from the four
corners of the earth, the re-establishment of their
State, the revival of their language, the re-occupation of
the City of Jerusalem. When I see all these things happening
I know God is going to be faithful to fulfill every
promise He has made to you and me,
and we can praise Him for that.
♪[music]♪
>>I'm sorry to say that we do not have the
time to show you all the other things that we did on our
first day in Tel Aviv. I will just summarize by saying that
we visited the ancient port of Jaffa, which today is a
southern suburb of Tel Aviv. Then we went to the outdoor
Carmel Market that is located in the heart of Tel Aviv. We
visited the site where Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin was
assassinated in 1995. And we concluded our day with a visit
to the Messianic Jewish Center called Dugit which is run by a
remarkable Messianic Evangelist named Avi Mizrachi.
I hope you have enjoyed this visit to Independence Hall in
Tel Aviv. Next week, the Lord willing, we will continue our
pilgrimage through the Holy Land by traveling up the
Mediterranean coast of Israel, from Tel Aviv to Haifa, and
then on north to the Crusader capital of Akko, which is
located on the border with Lebanon. At that Crusader site
I will deliver a message about the terrible Christian legacy
of anti-Semitism. Well, folks, that's our program for this
week. I hope it has been a blessing to you, and I hope
you will be back with us next week. Until then this is Dave
Reagan speaking for Lamb & Lion Ministries, saying, "Look
up, be watchful, for our redemption is drawing near.
[music] ♪We are pleased to announce that Dr. Reagan's
newest book has just been published. It is titled, "The
Jewish People: Rejected or Beloved?" In this 230 page
book, Dr. Reagan deals with a variety of challenging
questions: Have the Jews ceased to be God's Chosen
People? Are they guilty of the unforgivable sin of "killing
God"? Has God replaced them with the Church? Have they
lost all hope as a nation? Are they devoid of any role in the
end times? If God still loves them, how could He allow them
to experience the Holocaust? Dr. Reagan deals with these
and many other questions regarding the Jewish people,
and in the process, he reveals the evil of Replacement
Theology and the tragedy of Dual Covenant Theology, and he
does so in simple understandable language. This
book can be yours for a donation of $15 or more, plus
the cost of shipping. To order, call the number you see
on the screen, Monday thru Friday between 8 am and 5 pm
Central time, or place your order through our website at
lamblion.com.
♪[music] Hello my name is Nathan Jones, Web
Minister with Lamb and Lion Ministries. We are using the
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♪[music] Thank you for joining us on today's Christ in
Prophecy, a presentation of Lamb and Lion Ministries, a
non-denominational ministry dedicated to teaching the
fundamentals of biblical prophecy and proclaiming the