The Cause of Zion
Written by: Pastor Keith Myatt
To the saints who are at Third Baptist Church-
“For you are children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober” (1 Thess. 5:5-6). There is an enormously burdensome amount of information, analyses, “teachings,” and opinions swirling in the nations right now regarding the brutal and barbaric attacks upon the children of Israel by Hamas. What is happening? Why is it happening? Why is it significant? What is God doing? What should we do? Hereafter is my humble and lowly attempt, as only one of His insignificant under-shepherds, to provide you, the sheep of Jesus, some biblical clarity. Now, to be clear, I am a “nobody,” and a babe in the Scriptures. But, “I think that I too have the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 7:40).
This brutal attack upon Israel is not “Jacob’s Trouble” (Jer. 30:7), but it is a wake-up order from the LORD of Hosts. To begin, these barbaric attacks matter to the church of God because the people of Israel are fellow image-bearers of God who are suffering greatly. Beyond this, though, the church must be rebuked, corrected, and trained in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16) regarding the people and their significance in the grand plan of redemption. The Return of Jesus, the Resurrection, and the ushering in of the New Heavens and the New Earth (of which all of us long for with the deepest of groanings), has everything to do with the people of Israel on the earth. God’s plan didn’t change once Jesus came; it was only clarified and focused. The Messiah would come in two installments, the first to suffer and die for sins, then rise from the dead and ascend to His duty of Melchizedekian priestly service over the nations at the right hand of the Father. The second time, He would execute God’s vengeance on His enemies, be crowned on Mount Zion, and rule the cosmos as He rules over the regathered and newly-new covenanted entire nation of Israel, the Bride of the YHWH-Man, Jesus Christ.
Let me propose something to you that might disrupt you a bit: in the present evil age, the Enemy’s primary concern is not the persecution and killing of Christians amongst the nations (though he is not displeased with it). His primary goal–and has been from the beginning–is one of extermination of… the fleshly descendants of Abraham. Think of it–Pharoah, Nebuchadnezzar, Haman, Hitler, and now Hamas, and finally the kingdom of the Beast. Why is Satan interested in the annihilation of the people of Israel? Because, simply, he knows God’s endgame. God has put “all His marbles” in on the full and final salvation of the people of Israel. In other words, if God does not, at the end of the age, save every one of the remaining Jews on the earth, then His plan of redemption, restoration, and resurrection has failed.
But, you may say, Jesus has already conquered, hasn’t He? Isn’t He ruling now in heavenly Zion with peoples saved from all over the earth? Yes, and amen. But, a question for you, dear saint: has heaven come down to earth, yet? Is what is true in heaven true on earth yet? By no means! Now, I’ll ask you another question: how will what is true in heaven come down to earth to fully and finally redeem it? Beloved, there is a crystal clear, enthusiastic, oft repeated, and important answer: when all Israel is saved.
Now, back to Satan’s plan. If God must save all Israel at the end of the age in order for the full and final plan of redemption and resurrection to be accomplished, how would Satan try to stop that plan? By eliminating the Jewish people. It’s heavy; it’s dark; it’s evil… it is also simple. Let me see if I can sum up so far with a bold and clear statement:
In order for the New Heavens and New Earth to descend from Heaven to earth, Jesus, the Son of David, must perfectly rule and reign on the earth for 1000 years on David’s throne, in Jerusalem, over the people of Israel. If Jesus has no people to rule over in Israel at His return, He has no Kingdom. If Jesus has no Kingdom, there is no redemption and resurrection. And, if there is no redemption and resurrection, then God’s plan has failed, and the principalities and powers will have “successfully” thwarted God’s plan of cosmic redemption through Zion. Then, for them, there is no pit nor Gehenna.
The last 3.5 years of the final 7 years of this age will find the culmination of Satan’s efforts to destroy the people of the covenant through the wicked rule of the “little horn,” or, the “Beast.” Satan through the Beast will attempt–with much of the world’s nations endorsement, blindness, and lack of care–the greatest campaign of genocide the world has ever seen committed on no other people but the fleshly children of Abraham. And, as the children of Israel are in flight, they are being confronted with God’s final phase of covenant chastisement, which will perfectly prepare them to, literally, see Jesus’s effulgent face in the sky and believe! And, when they finally believe, they will believe forever. No more backsliding; no more falling away; no more expulsion from the Land. They will be with Him, and with Him forever as His nation of priests and priestesses to the nations (meanwhile, the saints–you and I–are ruling and reigning with Jesus already in our glorified bodies).
Now, allow me to connect the dots of the Enemy’s plan to today’s news. This attack is not Jacob’s final trouble. It is not the beginning of the last 3.5 years, nor is it the beginning of the final 7 years. What we are seeing today is a preview, a shadow, of the antichrist’s final assault on the people. It will be quick, unexpected, awful, and absolutely brutal–something that today’s attacks give only a faint preview. Additionally, with sobriety and seriousness we can approach the vision and theology of Islamic extremism versus a messianic-Judaistic theology and vision. Islamic theology presents Ishmael as the chosen son. The Scriptures truthfully speak of Isaac as the chosen son. Whose land, city, mountain, destiny, and promises, is it? Ishmael or Isaac’s? I want to propose to you that the strife between Ishmael and Isaac that began under Abraham’s tent roof is coming to its fullness at the end of the age. However, we have not entered the birth pangs. These days are only “braxton hicks” mini-contractions.
What, then, should the church do? First, repent! Understanding the coming of Jesus is not for you to understand and know unless you are clean and pure before the Lord. Be clean before Him! Second, give yourself wholly and totally to Him and His Word. Ask Him to fill you with His Spirit and the fruit of righteousness. Next, beg of Him to give you understanding, wisdom, and clarity regarding His glorious plan and your role in it.
Now, with a broader lens, what is God calling the church to? I believe, with all my heart, God is in the process of training His people for the days of trouble, yes, but above that the days of blessing. The generation of the church that, through prayer and action, usher in the Kingdom of God is the most blessed generation. This day, this hour, is a day and an hour of proclamation and preservation. Proclamation of the King, the Son of David, Son of God, coming down from
heaven to save His people and destroy His enemies in a very short time, to sit on David’s throne in Jerusalem, literally, on this very earth! So, kings in high places and peoples everywhere: repent, because Jesus is coming down from heaven with a flaming sword.
Secondly, the church must enter into a ministry of preservation. God’s mission in the last 3.5 years is to save the remnant of Israel who will then become the matriarchs and patriarchs of an all-righteous nation of Israelites of whom He will rule over for 1000 years. How will God preserve this ultra-important remnant of Jews? Through the church. The church who has learned her tragic and painful lesson from the 1930s and 40s. A church that will NOT turn a blind eye to Jewish suffering, but will instead open our borders, churches, and homes, and pantries to the Jewish people in flight for their lives. Then, when we meet them in their wilderness, we will tell them of their coming Savior and King–who is also OUR Savior and King! Their King is our King. Their hope is our hope. Their salvation is our resurrection…
And, beloved, by the way, until all Israel is saved on that great Day, you and I do not receive our glorified bodies and inheritance. Their hope is our hope. Their Trumpet of gathering is our Trumpet of gathering. When every son and daughter of Israel is saved on the earth, resurrection is unlocked. Paul says, “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead” (Rom. 11:15)? Paul is only saying what Moses, David, and the Prophets have always said, time and time again: When Messiah comes and gloriously and mightily saves the lost remnant of Israel scattered among the nations, then and only then will God’s promises of curse-reversal, Eden-restoration, and promise to Abraham be fully, finally, and openly vindicated amongst the earth.
So, church, let us pray for the people of Israel. Let us pray that God would give us His heart, and invest the details of His plan in us. Let us pray for the people, for the remnant that will be saved on that great Day, and for the Lord, by His grace and mercy, to allow us to participate in this grand plan of proclamation and preservation.
To close, how will Jesus judge the survivors of the nations after His return? By how they treated “his brothers, the least of these” (the Jews!) in their greatest hour of peril. Here’s some homework: first, read the entirety of Joel 3. Then, read Matthew 25:31-46 in view of Israel’s final day of trouble. The church leads in this ministry before she is translated to be with Jesus. May our hearts be turned and churned towards the precious people of the covenant that are, no, not believers in Jesus Messiah yet; but, He is preserving a remnant to “look on him whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:10) and will then subsequently become His nation of humble servants to shepherd the nations for 1000 years, completing and fulfilling both the Abrahamic Covenant and the Great Commission.
And, by the way, as we are proclaiming the King of Israel and preserving His people, we are giving white-hot, God-endorsed witness to our neighbors and nations that we serve the God who raises the dead, and His Anointed, the King who was raised from the dead.
My hope in this essay is to whet your appetite and excite you for God’s plan. There are, literally, hundreds of Scripture references that could have been inserted in just this essay. Please, interact with the Lord! Search these things out! Let us gather and speak of these glorious things! Come and talk to me! Let’s serve the Lord by seeking Him out. For those who seek Him, “he makes known to them his covenant” (Ps. 25:14).
Blessings, and yours in the Beloved Son,
Keith
To the saints who are at Third Baptist Church-
“For you are children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober” (1 Thess. 5:5-6). There is an enormously burdensome amount of information, analyses, “teachings,” and opinions swirling in the nations right now regarding the brutal and barbaric attacks upon the children of Israel by Hamas. What is happening? Why is it happening? Why is it significant? What is God doing? What should we do? Hereafter is my humble and lowly attempt, as only one of His insignificant under-shepherds, to provide you, the sheep of Jesus, some biblical clarity. Now, to be clear, I am a “nobody,” and a babe in the Scriptures. But, “I think that I too have the Spirit of God” (1 Cor. 7:40).
This brutal attack upon Israel is not “Jacob’s Trouble” (Jer. 30:7), but it is a wake-up order from the LORD of Hosts. To begin, these barbaric attacks matter to the church of God because the people of Israel are fellow image-bearers of God who are suffering greatly. Beyond this, though, the church must be rebuked, corrected, and trained in righteousness (2 Tim. 3:16) regarding the people and their significance in the grand plan of redemption. The Return of Jesus, the Resurrection, and the ushering in of the New Heavens and the New Earth (of which all of us long for with the deepest of groanings), has everything to do with the people of Israel on the earth. God’s plan didn’t change once Jesus came; it was only clarified and focused. The Messiah would come in two installments, the first to suffer and die for sins, then rise from the dead and ascend to His duty of Melchizedekian priestly service over the nations at the right hand of the Father. The second time, He would execute God’s vengeance on His enemies, be crowned on Mount Zion, and rule the cosmos as He rules over the regathered and newly-new covenanted entire nation of Israel, the Bride of the YHWH-Man, Jesus Christ.
Let me propose something to you that might disrupt you a bit: in the present evil age, the Enemy’s primary concern is not the persecution and killing of Christians amongst the nations (though he is not displeased with it). His primary goal–and has been from the beginning–is one of extermination of… the fleshly descendants of Abraham. Think of it–Pharoah, Nebuchadnezzar, Haman, Hitler, and now Hamas, and finally the kingdom of the Beast. Why is Satan interested in the annihilation of the people of Israel? Because, simply, he knows God’s endgame. God has put “all His marbles” in on the full and final salvation of the people of Israel. In other words, if God does not, at the end of the age, save every one of the remaining Jews on the earth, then His plan of redemption, restoration, and resurrection has failed.
But, you may say, Jesus has already conquered, hasn’t He? Isn’t He ruling now in heavenly Zion with peoples saved from all over the earth? Yes, and amen. But, a question for you, dear saint: has heaven come down to earth, yet? Is what is true in heaven true on earth yet? By no means! Now, I’ll ask you another question: how will what is true in heaven come down to earth to fully and finally redeem it? Beloved, there is a crystal clear, enthusiastic, oft repeated, and important answer: when all Israel is saved.
Now, back to Satan’s plan. If God must save all Israel at the end of the age in order for the full and final plan of redemption and resurrection to be accomplished, how would Satan try to stop that plan? By eliminating the Jewish people. It’s heavy; it’s dark; it’s evil… it is also simple. Let me see if I can sum up so far with a bold and clear statement:
In order for the New Heavens and New Earth to descend from Heaven to earth, Jesus, the Son of David, must perfectly rule and reign on the earth for 1000 years on David’s throne, in Jerusalem, over the people of Israel. If Jesus has no people to rule over in Israel at His return, He has no Kingdom. If Jesus has no Kingdom, there is no redemption and resurrection. And, if there is no redemption and resurrection, then God’s plan has failed, and the principalities and powers will have “successfully” thwarted God’s plan of cosmic redemption through Zion. Then, for them, there is no pit nor Gehenna.
The last 3.5 years of the final 7 years of this age will find the culmination of Satan’s efforts to destroy the people of the covenant through the wicked rule of the “little horn,” or, the “Beast.” Satan through the Beast will attempt–with much of the world’s nations endorsement, blindness, and lack of care–the greatest campaign of genocide the world has ever seen committed on no other people but the fleshly children of Abraham. And, as the children of Israel are in flight, they are being confronted with God’s final phase of covenant chastisement, which will perfectly prepare them to, literally, see Jesus’s effulgent face in the sky and believe! And, when they finally believe, they will believe forever. No more backsliding; no more falling away; no more expulsion from the Land. They will be with Him, and with Him forever as His nation of priests and priestesses to the nations (meanwhile, the saints–you and I–are ruling and reigning with Jesus already in our glorified bodies).
Now, allow me to connect the dots of the Enemy’s plan to today’s news. This attack is not Jacob’s final trouble. It is not the beginning of the last 3.5 years, nor is it the beginning of the final 7 years. What we are seeing today is a preview, a shadow, of the antichrist’s final assault on the people. It will be quick, unexpected, awful, and absolutely brutal–something that today’s attacks give only a faint preview. Additionally, with sobriety and seriousness we can approach the vision and theology of Islamic extremism versus a messianic-Judaistic theology and vision. Islamic theology presents Ishmael as the chosen son. The Scriptures truthfully speak of Isaac as the chosen son. Whose land, city, mountain, destiny, and promises, is it? Ishmael or Isaac’s? I want to propose to you that the strife between Ishmael and Isaac that began under Abraham’s tent roof is coming to its fullness at the end of the age. However, we have not entered the birth pangs. These days are only “braxton hicks” mini-contractions.
What, then, should the church do? First, repent! Understanding the coming of Jesus is not for you to understand and know unless you are clean and pure before the Lord. Be clean before Him! Second, give yourself wholly and totally to Him and His Word. Ask Him to fill you with His Spirit and the fruit of righteousness. Next, beg of Him to give you understanding, wisdom, and clarity regarding His glorious plan and your role in it.
Now, with a broader lens, what is God calling the church to? I believe, with all my heart, God is in the process of training His people for the days of trouble, yes, but above that the days of blessing. The generation of the church that, through prayer and action, usher in the Kingdom of God is the most blessed generation. This day, this hour, is a day and an hour of proclamation and preservation. Proclamation of the King, the Son of David, Son of God, coming down from
heaven to save His people and destroy His enemies in a very short time, to sit on David’s throne in Jerusalem, literally, on this very earth! So, kings in high places and peoples everywhere: repent, because Jesus is coming down from heaven with a flaming sword.
Secondly, the church must enter into a ministry of preservation. God’s mission in the last 3.5 years is to save the remnant of Israel who will then become the matriarchs and patriarchs of an all-righteous nation of Israelites of whom He will rule over for 1000 years. How will God preserve this ultra-important remnant of Jews? Through the church. The church who has learned her tragic and painful lesson from the 1930s and 40s. A church that will NOT turn a blind eye to Jewish suffering, but will instead open our borders, churches, and homes, and pantries to the Jewish people in flight for their lives. Then, when we meet them in their wilderness, we will tell them of their coming Savior and King–who is also OUR Savior and King! Their King is our King. Their hope is our hope. Their salvation is our resurrection…
And, beloved, by the way, until all Israel is saved on that great Day, you and I do not receive our glorified bodies and inheritance. Their hope is our hope. Their Trumpet of gathering is our Trumpet of gathering. When every son and daughter of Israel is saved on the earth, resurrection is unlocked. Paul says, “For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead” (Rom. 11:15)? Paul is only saying what Moses, David, and the Prophets have always said, time and time again: When Messiah comes and gloriously and mightily saves the lost remnant of Israel scattered among the nations, then and only then will God’s promises of curse-reversal, Eden-restoration, and promise to Abraham be fully, finally, and openly vindicated amongst the earth.
So, church, let us pray for the people of Israel. Let us pray that God would give us His heart, and invest the details of His plan in us. Let us pray for the people, for the remnant that will be saved on that great Day, and for the Lord, by His grace and mercy, to allow us to participate in this grand plan of proclamation and preservation.
To close, how will Jesus judge the survivors of the nations after His return? By how they treated “his brothers, the least of these” (the Jews!) in their greatest hour of peril. Here’s some homework: first, read the entirety of Joel 3. Then, read Matthew 25:31-46 in view of Israel’s final day of trouble. The church leads in this ministry before she is translated to be with Jesus. May our hearts be turned and churned towards the precious people of the covenant that are, no, not believers in Jesus Messiah yet; but, He is preserving a remnant to “look on him whom they have pierced” (Zech. 12:10) and will then subsequently become His nation of humble servants to shepherd the nations for 1000 years, completing and fulfilling both the Abrahamic Covenant and the Great Commission.
And, by the way, as we are proclaiming the King of Israel and preserving His people, we are giving white-hot, God-endorsed witness to our neighbors and nations that we serve the God who raises the dead, and His Anointed, the King who was raised from the dead.
My hope in this essay is to whet your appetite and excite you for God’s plan. There are, literally, hundreds of Scripture references that could have been inserted in just this essay. Please, interact with the Lord! Search these things out! Let us gather and speak of these glorious things! Come and talk to me! Let’s serve the Lord by seeking Him out. For those who seek Him, “he makes known to them his covenant” (Ps. 25:14).
Blessings, and yours in the Beloved Son,
Keith
Recent
Archive
2023
January
February
October
2022
No Comments