Shalom Partner and Friend of Israel,

"FOR BEHOLD, in those days and at that time when I shall reverse the captivity and restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all nations and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and there will I deal with and execute judgment upon them for their treatment of My people and of My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and because they have divided My land." (Joel 3:1-2; Parallel Bible, KJV/Amplified Bible Commentary)

This verse is one of the most exciting in the entire Bible, because the first part of it has already been fulfilled, in our lifetime! God “reversed the captivity and restored the fortunes” of Judah and Jerusalem ~ Israel ~ on May 14, 1948! We can write this date in the margin of our Bibles on Joel 3:1 and mark it “Fulfilled.” Very few other prophecies have been so exactly fulfilled in modern history. Truly, God is consistently working in the life of Israel in this modern day and age!

Israel is the spiritual capital of the world. This is what God calls the navel of the earth in the Old Testament. Why are all of the nations so concerned about Israel? Because it is God's land and it would be, in a sense against Him if His plans were frustrated by human beings. And He will not let people frustrate His plan.

When we look at the above map we see what is known as the West Bank territory but God called it Judea and Samaria. And this is what the Palestinians want.

Now let's see what the West Bank looks like. Here are the cities you have been hearing and reading about. Hebron is a famous town in the Old Testament. Bethlehem is the birthplace of Yeshua (Jesus). Ramallah is another one of the key cities along with Nablus and Jenin in the so-called West Bank.

Important facts about Shechem (which is today called Nablus in the so-called West Bank) ~ was the location of numerous events of Bible History:

Shechem is first mentioned when Abram arrived in what would become the Land of Israel. The Lord appeared to him there and promised the land to his descendants. Abram then built an altar there (Genesis 12:6 - 7).

When Jacob returned from Paddan-Aram with Leah and Rachel, after his meeting with Esau, he purchased land from the sons of Hamor at Shechem (Gen. 33:18 -19).

The incident involving Dinah and Shechem, the son of Hamor the Hivite who had the same name as the city, occurred around Shechem, and it was there that her brothers Levi and Simeon took their revenge. (Genesis 34:1 - 31)

Joseph's brothers were herding sheep near Shechem before they sold him away to Egypt (Genesis 37:12). In the time of Joshua, the area was allotted to the tribe of Ephraim (Joshua 16:1 - 10, 17:1 - 18).

Joseph's remains, that the Israelites under Moses and Aaron had brought out of Egypt with them in the Exodus, was buried at the plot of ground that Jacob had purchased there (Joshua 24:32).

After the death of Solomon, Rehoboam was made king of Israel at Shechem (1 Kings 12:1, 2 Chronicles 10:1).

After the Israelites split into two kingdoms, Jeroboam became the first king of the new northern kingdom of Israel at Shechem (1 Kings 12:25).

Shechem is not mentioned by name in the New Testament; however Yeshua (Jesus) would have often travelled through the city. His conversation with the Samaritan woman occurred in the area (John 4:1 - 26).

Abraham walked with Isaac in Judea and Samaria; Jacob pitched his tents there; Joshua drove out the Canaanites from the land.  Tens of thousands of Bible holy sites are here.  When God visited Jacob as he slept with his head on a stone at “Beit El” Bethel (House of God), He gave Jacob a vision of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven. 

Those who say that today's Israel does not have prophetic significance or a legitimate right to the land stand in opposition to God and to His Word. Indeed, they are denying and are in opposition to what the prophets have foretold in Gods Word. God has declared that the land of Israel is His land, it is never to be sold (Leviticus 25:23) and that all nations would be punished for dividing His land (Joel 3:2).

Down along the Mediterranean Sea is what is known as Gaza. It is virtually impossible to link these two parts through Israel ~ so just in that we have a problem. And, if we see the tiny nation of Israel in relation to the vast amount of land that is here, Israel is maybe three-tenths of one percent of the land mass of the entire Middle East.

We can see the enormous amount of land in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq… etc. The people of these nations have so much land, and yet they want to crowd all of the Palestinian people into this tiny little area (Israel) that will not support them. Maps don’t lie!

Now if the Palestinians get this, look what is left of Israel? It is seven to nine miles across the smallest section of Israel, and that is all they have between this territory and the Mediterranean Sea. And, the thought of Arab nations is to squeeze the Israelis as hard as they can and push them into the sea.

All the nations wanting to divide Israel and Jerusalem are touching prophecy, and are therefore placing their own nations in great peril.  The Bible warns us that ~ “...he who touches Israel touches the apple of God’s eye!”

We must not let that happen.  The Bible says in Isaiah 62:6; “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, (which) shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence, And give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” (KJV+)

The vultures are gathering again and again… each time sensing that more of Jerusalem ~ the City of David and the State of Israel would be laid on the altar of sacrifice.

Israel’s land covenant is a contract between God and them. The assurance that God will give the land to Israel; Genesis 15:18: “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the (little] river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” Scripture affirms the title deed to the Land belonging to Israel, the dimensions of the land are found in Numbers 34:1-15.

“And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.”Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Genesis 17: 7 - 8

There are literally a hundred scriptures that say this promise in the Bible concerning God's Covenant with Israel and their land.

“O our God, did you not drive out those who lived in this land when your people arrived? And did you not give this land forever to the descendants of your friend Abraham?” (2 Chronicles 20:7 NLT).

Satan knows that prophecy depends on Israel being there. God has brought them back into the land, and the enemy of God is doing everything he can to change this, using nations and a religion (Islam) that opposes her. And, Satan has pulled out all his resources to prevent prophecy from taking place, even using the church to stop evangelism to Jews and keep them from the inheritance God has promised them.

The overarching theme to Hitler was to exterminate the Jewish people, instead God turned it around on its head and hands Hitler a defeat and gives the Jews their old homeland and begins to fulfill what He had promised. Yet there are those who want us to believe that God does not care for Israel or about his promises made to them. This is not found in the worlds view ~ but some Christians also!

Psalm 129:5:  “Let all those who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back.”

Israel as a nation has a right to exist independently. The land was given to her by God, and any decisions, either good or bad are inconsequential to the promises in God's covenants.

Genesis 12 is specific and still in place. As far as Israel being God's chosen ~ you either accept the Bible and God's unchanging covenant that is still in effect or you are against it. If you do not accept it you have become an enemy of God for God is for his people Israel. But, of great interest to this subject is the last reason God gives for pouring out judgment… “They have divided My land.” (Joel 3:2)

Woe… will be to those who divide Israel!

The nations will be punished for their unbelief in God, and even those in the church who take a stand against Israel's right to her land and the promises God has written for her. Despite whatever wrongs she does today she has a right to the land because of the Lord's promises.

God says He is for Israel and will keep His promises exactly as foretold. We must make up our mind in this increasing worldwide conflict where we stand ~~~ with the worlds opinion who are in rebellion with God or with God who will have His way in the end. God over 200 times calls Himself “the God of Israel” and has declared Israel his people ~ the apple of his eye. The title deed to this land is almost 4000 years old, it’s the Bible. What are still in effect are His covenants; Genesis 12:3: “And I will bless them that bless you and curse him that curses you.”

“And say to them, so says the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and will gather them on every side, and will bring them into their own land.” (Ezekiel 37:21) Today we see Jews called from all four directions as Isaiah 43:5 - 6 states. Jews living in Israel today have come from more than one hundred nations. For this reason we should have confidence that we are witnessing the Last Days re-gathering of Israel as stated repeatedly in the Bible; with her enemies surrounding her exactly as the Bible foretold.

Ezekiel 38 has not happen, but all the ancient nations mentioned are the enemies of Israel today. Coincidence, certainly… think not!

Israel became a nation in 1312 BC, Two thousand years before the rise of Islam.

Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as the Philistines in 1967, almost 20 years after the establishment of the modern State of Israel. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 AD lasted no more than 22 years.

End Times prophecy against Palestinians states that they shall proclaim a nation… but shall not receive one!

Today, powerful nations are trying to wrestle Jerusalem from the hands of the Jews as appeasement for Arab rage.

Now there is absolutely no debate that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. The Jews took East Jerusalem in fulfilment of a prophecy by Yeshua (Jesus). It was made 2,500 years ago. He said, “Jerusalem will be trodden under the foot of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Luke 21:24

Jerusalem should never be divided for any reason. It is the property of the people of Israel!

The dividing of Jerusalem is the true story of what is happening today in Israel and the Middle East. It is the tragic story of Israel’s future, brokered in backrooms and in terrorist lairs, in cabinet rooms and across conference tables, with no regard to Israel’s security or historic claims to the land. Dictators who practice the most barbaric customs are crying for a “negotiated peace” when, in truth, the desire is to see Israel “wiped from the map.”

The Conspiracy to Divide Jerusalem will transport you back in time to the purchase of the property by King David from Araunah the Jebusite and forward to the rebirth of the nation of Israel according to God’s prophetic plan. The United States, EU, United Nations and Russia who make up the Quartet and Leaders of many other powerful nations and the Arab League have no authority to tell the people of Israel what they can and cannot do with the city of Jerusalem.

We are told to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (Psalm 122:6) this “Shalom” will only be answered by the Messiah coming back again and only then will there be true peace for Israel and all the world.

Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for over 3,300 years.

Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.

Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Old Testament, (Tanach the Jewish Holy Scriptures). BUT, Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran!

• King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.
• Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.

Sooner or later the world will have to acknowledge what is being done to the City of God in the name of “foreign relations” and “peace in the Middle East.”  The warfare the nations are waging against Israel takes many forms.  These patterns of deceitfulness among so many powers raise a multitude of questions about recent disasters, bombings and terrorist attacks.

Dividing Jerusalem will not lead to prosperity and peace!

The widely held presumption, that dividing Jerusalem will lead to prosperity for the city and to peace for Jews and Arabs is a huge mistake. Partitioning Jerusalem will destroy the city. It will die, in every way ~ culturally, religiously, economically and in many other ways. And, politically, the shearing of Jerusalem into Arab and Jewish sovereignties will turn it into a bull’s eye of Middle East battle.  The main reason for this is that any section of the city handed over to Arab rule will immediately become a target for the fierce war being waged within the Arab World over Islamic lifestyle, ideology and legitimacy.

Just who is going to rule in Arab Eastern Jerusalem?

Will it be the declining, secular Palestinian movement whose authority in the so called West Bank is weak at best? Or the radical Islamist Hamas (which openly seeks Israel’s destruction), or the al-Qaeda affiliated forces (who are growing in strength in the territory), or the increasingly radical and violent Israeli Arab Islamic Movement (which has been the main force behind recent unrest on the Temple Mount), or the Jordanians (who have a superior claim to Arab leadership in Jerusalem under the 1994 peace treaty with Israel), or the Moroccans who head the Arab leagues supreme Jerusalem committee), or the Saudi’s (who see themselves as the true custodians of Islamic holy sites)?

Each of these forces will seek to prove its supremacy and bolster its legitimacy in the Islamic world through the control of Arab Jerusalem and aggression against what remains of Jewish Jerusalem. What better way to prove ones loyalty to the Islamic cause than to attack the Israeli presence in the city? And with bases of operations to work from in the eastern half of the city (whose neighbourhoods will no longer be under Israeli security control) ~ locations that are mere metres away from Israeli homes and Government and commercial centres ~ such terrorism will be so very easy and tantalising. (Jerusalem Post – March 2011)

Thus, if the City of Jerusalem is irresponsibly divided, it will eventually die a slow death!

What Israeli family is going to walk with its children to the Western Wall on a Friday night, Shabbat, through check points and alleyways controlled by Palestinian police? Which Christian Church group is going to walk along the “Via Dolorosa” Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem’s Christian and Muslim Quarters with Hamas or Saudi patrols harassing the women? Which Hi-Tech companies will invest in Jerusalem when the Kassam missiles start flying into Jewish neighbourhoods?

The world needs to be reminded directly; it is only complete Israeli security control over united, greater Jerusalem that prevents the city from becoming a boiling pot of conflict within the volatile Islamic world. There is no neutral “peacekeeping force” in the world that could replace the IDF and Israel police of keeping Jerusalem a terrorist ~ free zone.

There is no Arab or Muslim country in the Middle East where Christians or Jews can freely operate religious institutions. Under Palestinian Authority and Hamas rule, Christians in the so called West Bank and Gaza have been hounded, terrorised and driven out. Christian Bethlehem is in fact no more! The Church of Nativity was defiled by Palestinian Muslim terrorists in 2002.

Who will protect the Churches and Synagogues under Islamic rule? 

The Arabs and Palestinians don’t really care about Jerusalem; they never did! In fact they would consider it a victory if Jerusalem was so destroyed by conflict and poverty that it was ruined for a 1,000 years ~ just as long as it would be lost to the Jews. This is one more reason why Jerusalem cannot be divided and given to the Arabs and Palestinians.

We need “to tell the truth” and the world needs to know the “truth.” The “truth” is that Jerusalem under Israel has flourished. The past 43 years have been good times and never before in its 3,000 year history has the City of Jerusalem been such a magnet.

To this day the nation of Israel has never enjoyed ALL of the Promised Land. We must distinguish between the promise of ownership of the Land on the basis of the Abrahamic Covenant and Land Covenant and the actual enjoyment of their being in the Land. This began when Jews entered the Land under Joshua after Moses. But they will not enjoy all of the Land until they become a saved nation, at which point the Messiah will give it to them.

Replacement theology teaching says; any covenant relationship God had with Israel was annulled at the first coming of Christ. Therefore, God is through with the Jewish people as a nation, and there is no legitimate State of Israel, now or in the future.  There is to be no Temple built, and no Millennial Kingdom for Israel with Jerusalem as its capital.  And, that God has transferred all the promises to the Church.

However, the majority of the end of the age prophecies involves Israel! Without this key, one is left not watching or knowing the signs of his return as Jesus told us to do. If you do not have correct Bible perspective on Israel you will adopt a wrong view of the end times.

The Promised Land was never given to the church; she never occupied it as a “nation.”

The church was never removed from the Promised Land because of her disobedience or taken captive into foreign lands. The word Israel is always descriptive of the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In the Scripture we find the Church is not Israel the nation, but a separate entity under an entirely new covenant.

The church is not a nation, nor a theocracy but is made up of people from every nation both Jews and gentiles who believe in Jesus ~ this is the mystery hid from the beginning of the world according to Ephesians 1:9 - 10, 3:6 , 9 and Colossians 1:26, “Christ in you ~ the hope of Glory.”  Therefore the church could not have replaced Israel in prophecy. There is only one nation, one people whom God ever gave a land with specific perpetual promises to ‘The Jews’ (Hebrews) alone.

The Church is made up of both believers in Yeshua (Jesus) from both Jews and Gentiles, not so for Israel.

Israel we are told is in unbelief. The word Israel is used 73 times in the New Testament, not once is it used for the Church. And God treats Israel differently than the church.  Romans 9:4. Paul writing of his kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, etc. If you replace the church or Christian with the words Israel or Israelite you completely change the meaning of the verses. Paul declared that Israel isn't saved. Then how could Israel be the church?

God did not ever say all of Israel would be destroyed or that he would forsake them, He said the opposite- because of His promises. God’s covenant will not be broken Romans 11:26 All of Israel will be saved.  Does this mean that everything Israel does, God approves of or turns a blind eye to what is wrong? Absolutely not as they are to have a higher standard and are always punished double for their sins. Those who reject Israel’s significance in Bible prophecy have no foundation to understand the future tense of prophecy being fulfilled in the world right now ~ they simply do not believe it. With this vital piece missing they become blind to the events that are taking place, events that will involve them.  

We encourage you to watch the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4bM2QG3r-I

We hope that you enjoy and become more informed by our work. We serve an awesome God and we are humbled by this opportunity to bring you this information. With Shalom to you and your family always,

Alf & Julie Saunders  

15^th April, 2011