A lot has changed since I sat down over a week ago to begin a post for this week’s edition. Like most of us, I woke up last Saturday morning to news that Israel’s Shabbat had been desecrated in ways no one would have imagined. As thousands of rockets streaked across the early morning skies to rain death and destruction on them from above, their shalom was further shattered by the screams of those being assaulted by terrorists on the ground. Hundreds of innocent, defenseless men, women, and children had their bodies torn apart by bullets, shrapnel, flying debris and blades in the hands of heartless killers. In the days that followed, the minds of Israel’s people and their friends around the world have been shocked and traumatized by scenes of the human carnage left behind. Videos revealed in the most gruesome terms how cold-blooded, psychopathic killers randomly murdered, maimed, and brutalized anyone they could find. Helpless concert attendees were gunned down, women and children were beaten, babies were beheaded, girls were sexually abused and openly humiliated. Many were dragged away as hostages to be tortured and used as human shields. Last Saturday’s massacre gave the world another graphic and indelible demonstration of what terrorism really looks like. Once again, the true nature of those who perpetrate this inhuman savagery has been exposed. Once again, we can see clearly the true intent of the ideology used to promote these atrocities.
Not Just a Regional Conflict ~
As thousands fight to preserve their existence in Israel, another conflict is underway here in America. Within hours of the rockets being launched in Israel, a carefully planned and orchestrated propaganda war began over here. The anti-Semitic forces entrenched all around us began to shed their deceptive cloaks and openly reveal that their sympathies and their
support were for the terrorists. They have been hard at work to deceive our uninformed and indoctrinated younger generations into believing that Israel brought this massacre on themselves and that they deserved it. They portray this attack as just some faithful Muslims pushing back against their Jewish oppressors. Their narrative paints this conflict as just a fight about regional politics and that the terrorists’ grievance is geographical. That could not be farther from the truth.
This is a religious war. All of what unfolded last Saturday, every murder, every rape, every horrifying wound inflicted, every dehumanizing act performed, every innocent eye forced to watch what eyes should never see, was purposefully planned and carried out in the name of the god the terrorists serve. Every drop of Jewish blood that stained the earth that morning was celebrated as an offering made to the god they seek to please. No dispute about regional boundaries, cultures, or nationalities motivated the hell that was unleashed in Israel last Saturday. The victims did nothing to provoke the brutality they suffered other than to be Jewish. The terrorists were demonstrating the fruit of a lifetime of being taught that ridding the world of Jews is a good thing and that killing them will earn them extravagant rewards.
A Relevant Question at a Crucial Time ~
But we might look at this war and say, “Wait a minute. We might be their allies, but we aren’t in Israel, and we aren’t Israeli citizens, so what does this conflict have to do with me personally?” Many will consider that question and decide to embrace the pacifist mentality. 
They’ll retreat into what they consider to be the morally superior safe zone and declare things like, “War is bad and I’m against it, so I refuse to take sides.” That, of course, grants the added benefit of not having to actually pay attention to anything outside their own little self-centered world. Others, whose anti-Semitic teachers and internet influencers have denied them exposure to the real history of the region, will be neither passive nor quiet. Armed with total ignorance of the truth behind this conflict, they will take to the streets, blindly blame Israel, and declare their support for the terrorists. But neither of those situations adequately addresses the question we began with. In this spiritually crucial time, and in the face of these horrific events, how do we followers of Jesus react?
Each of us must formulate our own personal response to Israel’s plight, but it might be wise to begin that process by reminding ourselves that the God we serve and whose love we cherish also loves that land. When God asked Abraham to pack up his family and move, it was from Ur of the Chaldees to that land. It was there that the living God established a covenant with the man He had chosen. It was in that land that God made a promise that would eventually affect the entire world, and it was there that He defied the laws of nature to fulfill it. God established Abraham and his children in that land, and for generations, He instructed them, nurtured them, protected them – and when necessary, chastened them. And it was there that they grew from a family to a nation. God has an eternal connection with that land, and because He does, so do we.
Incredible Distinctives ~
In no other place on earth did God ever direct the erection of a temple to symbolize His presence, much less fill it with His glory to demonstrate His approval. And when it was time to unveil His Master Plan to offer forgiveness and redemption to this fallen, sin-cursed, rebellious human race, He chose to do it in that land. In one of its most humble and inconspicuous villages, the God of the Universe was born as one of us. That land we call Israel
saw the most incredible demonstrations of God’s love and redemptive power the world ever witnessed. As God walked its streets through His Son, Jesus, sickness and disease were banished with a touch. As He sat on its hillsides to teach, the poor, the lame, the broken and afflicted, the hopeless, oppressed and hungry gathered to Him and were healed, freed, restored and fed. God revealed Himself in that land in ways no one ever expected. He forgave sins, freed captives, exiled demons, and taught that faith in Him could grant life that would never end and could fill us with love that could change the world.
Israel was home to Jesus. He found inspirational solitude in its gardens; He found love and companionship among its outcasts; He made profound truths simple through its grapevines and weeds; He called its ordinary people to leave their ordinary lives and prepared them to transform the world. He exposed the heart of God in its synagogues and overcame Satan in its wilderness. And finally, after vindicating Truth in its highest court, Jesus submitted to its most horrific death. Then, a tomb in that land received a body it couldn’t keep, and three days later, sin and death were vanquished forever as the Lamb of God breathed again and the Lord of Glory emerged!
A Reason that Stands Out ~
If we are followers of Jesus, our roots run deep in that Holy land, and among the multitudes of Scriptural reasons why we should care about what happens to Israel, there is one that stands out to me today:
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26–29 NKJV)
We may not be physical descendants of Abraham, but we have a much more significant and enduring connection. We are his spiritual offspring, and as such, have a spiritual connection to the land that both he and the Son of God called home. We cannot go and fight her enemies or free the hostages there, but we can engage the enemy over here and work to free the hostages being held in the grip of sin nearby.
“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to Tweet & Share from the pull quotes below. Each quote links directly to this article through Twitter.
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- “God has an eternal connection with that land, and because He does, so do we. In no other place on earth did God ever direct the erection of a temple to symbolize His presence, much less fill it with His glory to demonstrate His approval.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- “When it was time to unveil His Master Plan of forgiveness and redemption to this fallen, sin-cursed, rebellious human race, God chose to do it in the land we call Israel. It saw the most incredible demonstrations of His love and redemptive power the world ever known.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- “God revealed Himself in that land in ways no one ever expected. He forgave sins, freed captives, exiled demons, and taught that faith in Him could grant life that would never end and could fill us with love that could change the world.” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- “If we are followers of Jesus, our roots run deep in that land. Among the multitudes of Scriptural reasons we should care about what happens to Israel, one stands out to me “… if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal 3:26–29 NKJV)” @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
- “We may not be physical descendants of Abraham, but we have a much more significant and enduring connection. We are his spiritual offspring, and as such, have a spiritual connection to the land that both he and the Son of God called home.”@GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
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Check out Ron’s book, “Right Side Up Thinking in an Upside Down World ~ Looking at the World through the Lens of Biblical Truth” 
Gallagher's Pen ~ 
This past week has been one of the most traumatic I’ve ever experienced, Ron. As I watch the news, I can’t begin to tell you the many times I’ve wept. To see God’s Holy Land and His chosen people desecrated and denounced just breaks my heart in two. Lord, please come to the aid of Your children who love you. Come, Lord Jesus!
Blessings for your wonderful words here, my friend.
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My heart resonates with yours, Martha, and with those whose lives and families have been forever scarred by the demonic brutality inflicted on those innocent people over there. But the truth is that I am as much or more concerned about the impact on our own nation because of what we have allowed our system of presumed “education” to become. Public (government run) education has been infiltrated with every kind of God-hating, anti-American philosophy that Satan ever devised. They are taking the minds of our children captive and selling them to the highest bidder. Even if we have another widespread revival, cleaning out that cesspool will probably take generations. But our hope is not in our own strength or in the power of any political party. The only real, proven, and dependable hope we have is in the One who gave His life for us. God bless you, my faithful fellow warrior, for refusing to give in or give up.
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As someone who was born Jewish and became a Christian in college, THANK YOU for this eloquent post.
Warmly,
Laurie Herlich
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Thank you and God bless you, Laurie! You are such a special kind of encouragement to me today, and my heart is knit with yours in the midst of this awful conflict. The Spirit of the One who gave His life for us in that land lives in us, and I’m confident that together we can overcome the enemy in both the war against Hamas and the propaganda war against the enemy over here.
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Hard to know where to start my friend, as like you, my heart remains broken to see these atrocities unfolding on these precious lives, and to also see the apathy shown here by so many. I close my eyes and see images from the liberation of death camps at the end of World War II. Can World War III be far behind? We know from Scripture that these things must come, but watching it unfold before my eyes does not come easy. It convinces me, now more than ever before, of just how close Christ’s return for His bride is. I know that I will not have to be an eyewitness to what will come soon enough. Reading your post, I offer the following heartfelt thoughts.
1) “a carefully planned and orchestrated propaganda war began over here”: How very sad this statement made me. The fact that it is so evident made me wonder (and I know for a fact I’ve seen this government not disclose firsthand intelligence so they could manipulate the narrative) if indeed the corrupt U.S. political system chose to withhold critical intelligence that could have prevented at least some of the bloodshed. Have we as a nation become so morally corrupt and values-depraved that we would “allow” such sick, cruel, demonic actions to take place?
2) “Their narrative paints this conflict as just a fight about regional politics and that the terrorists’ grievance is geographical. “: I didn’t watch much news on this because I refuse to watch much news as I believe ALL OF IT to be propaganda these days, on both sides. I did, however, see sitting U.S. Congressional members romanticizing these terrorists and showing their support for their actions. Again perhaps, part of the Propaganda War being waged internationally. I asked myself, how could a representative of the people of the United States of America say these things, less than a quarter century since the horrific terrorist attacks that claimed and affected so many innocent lives on 9-11-2001? How far we have fallen?
3) “A religious war”: Hasn’t it always been my friend? From the moment of Satan’s first thought of his desire to be equal to or greater than God, there has been a religious war. When I think of the resurgence of eugenics, the dehumanization of the un-born, the rise of “Humanism”, the “ethnic cleansing” that has gone on since the days of Noah, I view it all as Satan’s desire to remove God from power. It will never succeed, in fact, He lost the final battle over 2,000 years ago, but like any serpent, it still writes and wiggles long after its death. All of this is a natural progression of the manifestation of evil that is to come.
4) “In this spiritually crucial time, and in the face of these horrific events, how do we followers of Jesus react?” All this week, the words of God’s promise to Abram/Abraham in Genesis 12:3 has been screaming out. “I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3, NKJV) “I will curse him who curses you”; aren’t we doing exactly that by standing on the sidelines, some cheering on the evil that is taking place?
5) “We are his spiritual offspring, and as such, have a spiritual connection to the land that both he and the Son of God called home.” Indeed we are, and indeed we do, my friend. While I feel a much closer relationship to my Messianic Jewish friends, I have many friends who are Orthodox Jews also who I have trained with, worked with, and learned from through the years. And we can agree that division and divisive terms like these are no better than calling folks Black Americans or White Americans. True Americans are Americans, period. As Christians, we are adopted into God’s family. We forget friends, Jesus was Jewish; and if He is my brother, then guess what I am as a Christian. We Christians indeed have Jewish roots. Perhaps this is why I identify (don’t you just abhor that term?) as “Christian-American.” If I have to play that game, then I have chosen to identify as CHRISTian, first and foremost. I’ll fly the Christian flag, defend my Christian faith and beliefs, and I will fight to defend my brothers and sisters in Christ and all the blessings God has given me stewardship over.
6) “We cannot go and fight her enemies or free the hostages there, but we can engage the enemy over here and work to free the hostages being held in the grip of sin nearby.” I respectfully both agree and disagree on this point my friend. Should we order those serving in our military to go to a foreign land and fight in this Holy War? No sir, I don’t believe we should. The oath of office that I took directed me to “defend our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” There are battles that we should perhaps be fighting on that front, but should the United States, who has ALWAYS before been a friend and ally of Israel offer to provide every form of assistance, weapons, weapon systems, intelligence, intelligence gathering, and those who would volunteer to help defend Israel against these Satanic forces of evil? Do I need to tell you where I would send the $6 Billion dollars that is due Iran? I believe we should be prepared to support and defend Israel and the Israeli people every bit as much as they have the United States. I think of the large number of American veterans who found their way to Israel immediately after their country’s rebirth following WWII to begin the Israeli Air Force. I agree wholeheartedly that we must first fight to free those “hostages held in the grip of sin” here first. Some of them sit in church pews every Sunday morning. Some of them, given the statistic that only 37% of Christian pastors hold a biblical worldview (American Worldview Inventory 2022) today, stand in front of these churches as their leaders. THAT, my friend, in my albeit not so humble opinion, is the battlefront. Until we see restoration in our spiritual lives, true revival cannot take place. Revival does not happen in the lives of non-Christians. When our Christian hearts are once again made on-fire for God and we are convicted to repent of our lives and live righteous lives before God’s eyes, then we will once again have the impact that brought God’s blessings upon our land and our people. Until that time, we will languor in mediocrity and fear.
As I’ve watched the events of this past week unfold, the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller have become louder and louder my friend.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists
Thank you so much for speaking truth and standing in defense of God and His people. Know that I stand with you sir. God’s blessings and please continue to fight the good fight of faith. His reward awaits us my friend.
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Wow… what an insightful and inspiring dissertation, Brother. And regardint that last point, let me be quick to say that I should have been clearer. I didn’t mean that we as a country shouldn’t engage the enemy over there and I totally agree with what you said about what our involvement as a nation should be. But when I wrote that, I was thinking about me/us as individuals. I can’t jump on a plane and go to Israel or Gaza and join the fight over there, but I can stand for truth against the barrage of lies being launched from every quarter over here.
I’m so grateful for your input in regard to this situation and what I endeavored to say about it. As always, I absolutely love to hear your heart for the living God and for this country and I’m so grateful that you sacrificed years of your personal pursuits to protect and defend the rest of us. Obviously, we share the same page again in regard to this latest upheaval, and though you might not be doing it in a military setting, it’s encouraging to know that in the midst of the spiritual war going on all around us, you are once again guiding, instructing, preparing, and leading others.
At the moment, I just returned from a morning gathering of men at our church. I had an opportunity to pray with a bunch of mostly younger guys and to encourage them not to get so lost in the labyrinth of anxieties that the devil’s world system throws our way that they end up in a state of spiritual paralysis. It’s easy to just watch the panorama of evil being perpetrated in the world and shake our heads, but do nothing to push back against it. Jesus doesn’t call people to follow Him an refuse to equip for service in some way, and He doesn’t equip us and then fail to empower us to use He has equipment He provided. I find that principle reinforced every time I read what you write. Whether it’s in an article you post or a response to someone else’s, it’s clear that you aren’t just another guy with a keyboard trying to get an audience. I hear and see God in you, and that is nourishing to my faith. I don’t know how much more God might have in mind for either one of us, but whatever it may be my prayer is that we won’t get in His way. God bless you, my long distance friend, and may He grant victory in every battle we face.
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