Implosion (9 page)

Are We Seeing the Signs Come to Pass?

Is there any sign on that list we haven’t seen come to pass over the course of the last century?

Let’s briefly consider a few of these “birth pangs.”

Wars and Revolutions

Jesus told his disciples that in the last days there would be “wars and rumors of wars” when “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom” (Matthew 24:6-7). Surely there have been wars and rumors of wars throughout history, but have any been as widespread and destructive as the wars in the last century? They were, after all, called World War I and World War II for a reason—because they were unprecedented in their scope and devastation. The first led to at least 37 million casualties (injuries and deaths), including 200,000 American casualties.
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The second led to at least 46 million deaths alone—including 6 million Jews exterminated by the Nazis—though some historians believe the number of worldwide military and civilian deaths tops 60 million.
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Add to this all the other wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and a ghastly picture emerges unlike any other period in history, yet consistent with the prophecies.

Jesus also said there would be uprisings and revolutions and geopolitical disturbances in the last days (see Luke 21:9-10). Surely there have been uprisings and revolutions throughout history, but there has never been a span of history with more sweeping, bloody, and internationally game-changing revolutions as the last hundred years or so. One country after another has experienced unprecedented upheavals, from the Mexican Revolution of 1910, to the Russian Revolution of 1917, to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, to the Cultural Revolution in China from 1966 to 1976, to the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, to the pro-democracy revolutions that brought down the Warsaw Pact countries and the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s, to the multiple Palestinian uprisings, to the 2011 revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya that led to the downfall of each of those Arab countries’ tyrannical yet long-serving dictators. The list goes on and on, including revolutions in Cuba, Nicaragua, Vietnam, Bosnia, Rwanda, Liberia, and beyond. These trends are all consistent with Bible prophecy.

Earthquakes

Jesus said in the last days there would be “earthquakes” and “great earthquakes” (Matthew 24:7; Luke 21:11). Can anyone reasonably deny that this has been happening in the past century or so?

The top five most intense earthquakes in all of recorded history have occurred since 1900, each 9.0 or higher on the Richter scale.
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Three of the top five deadliest earthquakes in human history have occurred since 1900.
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The 2011 earthquake in Haiti “only” registered 7.0 on the Richter scale, and thus isn’t in the top five, or the top ten, or even the top hundred most intense earthquakes in history in terms of magnitude. It actually ranks number 352.
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Yet it was the deadliest earthquake in nearly five hundred years and the second-deadliest earthquake in all of recorded history.
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Given increasing urbanization around the globe, an earthquake doesn’t necessarily have to be a 9.0 magnitude or higher to cause apocalyptic levels of death and destruction. The 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan, for example, measured “only” 7.6, yet tragically 86,000 people died, and some 4 million people were left homeless. Likewise, the 2008 earthquake in eastern China measured “only” 7.9 but killed more than 87,000 people and displaced more than 5 million people.
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Again, such trends are consistent with Bible prophecy.

The Remarkable Advance of the Gospel

The good news, Jesus said, was that in the last days, “this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). In other words, Jesus’ return won’t occur until every man, woman, and child in every nation on the planet has had the opportunity to hear the salvation message of Jesus Christ and has had the opportunity to either receive Christ or reject him. Church congregations, denominations, parachurch ministries, and missionaries around the globe have worked hard over the past several centuries to accomplish this task of giving everyone the opportunity to hear the gospel. With the advent of radio, broadcast television, satellite television, the Internet, and new developments in transportation and translation technology, the most dramatic advancements in the history of the gospel have been made over the past century. Some pastors and missions experts say we still have a ways to go to reach everyone on the planet. Others, however, believe we may actually be there already.

Consider, for example, the reach and impact of just two ministries: the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the
JESUS
film project. Two
Time
magazine reporters published a book in 2007 noting that “Billy Graham is believed to have spoken face-to-face with more people in more places than anyone in history, having preached the gospel to 210 million people in 185 countries in 417 crusades over the course of more than half a century. Not even Billy Sunday or Dwight L. Moody or any of the great evangelists going back to Saint Paul had spread their message so far; it was Billy Graham alone, inserted into history at just the right moment, who became the unrivaled global ambassador for Christ.”
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At the same time, the
JESUS
film—produced in 1979 by Warner Brothers and Campus Crusade for Christ—has been translated into more than five hundred languages and dialects. It has been shown by Campus Crusade and more than 1,500 other Christian agencies in every country on the planet. According to the
JESUS
film project’s website, the film “has had more than 6 billion viewings worldwide since 1979” and “as a result, more than 200 million people have indicated decisions to accept Christ as their personal Savior and Lord.”
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These trends too are consistent with the fulfillment of Bible prophecies.

Skeptics and Cynics

Are there skeptics out there, people who are cynical about the possibility that we may be living in the last days? Are there those who mock followers of Jesus Christ for believing in the Bible and in the prophecies of Christ’s second coming? Of course. But that should come as no surprise. Indeed, Bible prophecy tells us there will be mockers in the last days. “Know this first of all,” the apostle Peter wrote, “that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:3-4). Such mockers are all around us, and we should expect their numbers to grow.

One night in the spring of 2011, while I was taking a break from working on this book, I was scanning through the TV channels and saw MSNBC talk show host Lawrence O’Donnell mocking the Bible. “The book of Revelation is a work of fiction describing how a truly vicious God would bring about the end of the world,” O’Donnell said. “No half-smart religious person believes the book of Revelation.”
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In his 2000 book,
The End of Days
, Israeli journalist Gershom Gorenberg mocked belief in biblical prophecies of the End Times as a “fantasy” and “dangerous.”
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Bill Moyers, the longtime PBS journalist and former White House press secretary for President Lyndon Johnson, mocked American Christians during a 2004 speech, saying that evangelicals care nothing for the environment because the last days are here. “Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine, and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the Rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?” he sneered, quoting a left-wing journalist who had caught his attention. Calling End Times beliefs “bizarre,” Moyers was incredulous that there are actually “people who believe the Bible is literally true” and that they are trying to shape the future of America.
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Kevin Phillips, the former Republican political strategist, wrote in his bestselling 2006 book,
American Theocracy
, that Americans who believe in Bible prophecy are “overimaginative” at best and “radical” at worst, asserting that “the rapture, end-times, and Armageddon hucksters in the United States rank with any Shiite ayatollahs.”
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Over the years, I’ve met similar skeptics, cynics, and mockers. Occasionally they’ve challenged me during speaking events. Often they e-mail me. I have been interviewed by some of them on radio and television and for various newspaper and magazine articles and for books. Fox News Channel analyst Alan Colmes once asked me on his late-night radio show whether Jesus was coming back so soon that he needn’t bother picking up his dry cleaning or buying green bananas.

A few years ago, I was interviewed by a Cambridge- and Princeton-educated professor of history from Great Britain named Nicholas Guyatt. He said he was writing a serious book about American evangelical Christianity and Americans’ interest in Bible prophecy. I was happy to answer his questions, even knowing he was, at best, a skeptic. The final product, unfortunately, did not turn out to be a serious look at the beliefs of sincere Christians, as Guyatt suggested.

Guyatt’s book,
Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans Are Looking Forward to the End of the World
, turned out to be part mockery, part incredulity that so many Americans could believe such ridiculous things. He wrote, “It’s easy to imagine Bible prophecy as a playpen for lunatics” and that “the temptation, when considering these notorious cult leaders or the avid audience for the Left Behind novels, is to dismiss End Times thinking as deranged.”
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Yes, people have believed in Bible prophecy through the ages, he conceded, but he argued that it’s worse now because “apocalyptic Christians” are trying to persuade officials in Washington to bring about the end of the world. He warned that Christian interest in the last days, and specifically in the reconstruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, is not only “kooky” but “lethal.”
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Bottom Line

We are living at an extraordinary moment in human history. The Bible gives us a list of signs to be watching for that indicate when the return of Jesus Christ is increasingly close at hand. Remarkably, we have seen all of these signs come to pass over the past century or so, and we are continuing to see them come to pass in our lifetime, up to and including this present time. From this preliminary assessment, is it reasonable to conclude that we are living in what the Bible calls the last days? I believe it is. But let’s go further.

CHAPTER SIX

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE REBIRTH OF ISRAEL

The most definitive and conclusive sign that we are living in the era the Bible calls the last days was the miraculous rebirth of the State of Israel in 1948, the return of millions of Jews to the Holy Land after centuries of exile, the wars and rumors of wars that have engulfed the Jewish state for the last half century and more, the rebuilding of the ancient ruins in Israel, and the increasing international focus on the nation of Israel as the epicenter of the momentous events that are shaking our world and shaping our future. Some Bible scholars have described the rebirth of Israel as the “super sign,” and I agree.

Many people did not see the modern resurrection of the Jewish state coming. Many thought it would never happen and shouldn’t. For centuries, world leaders had cruelly scattered and persecuted the Jewish people and denied their right to return to their ancient homeland. Sadly, even many church leaders throughout history came to believe in a pernicious doctrine called “replacement theology,” which denied the veracity and legitimacy of Bible prophecies that said Israel would be reborn in the last days. Such replacement theologians, and the pastors and laypeople who read and followed their conclusions, said God had rejected the Jewish people and would no longer honor the ancient covenants to give the Jewish people the heretofore “Promised Land.” Unfortunately, many people in the United States and around the world also vigorously opposed the creation of the modern State of Israel. Indeed, most of the Arab and Islamic world was willing to use any means necessary, including war, to strangle the reborn infant nation in her cradle, as they demonstrated time and time again.

Yet those who were watching events through the third lens of Scripture knew Israel would one day be reborn. What’s more, those who believed the ancient biblical prophecies were true and valid often did much to assist the young nation of Israel. In this chapter, we will take a look back at the early days of Israel’s modern rebirth and see how the United States played a key role in the Jewish state’s resurrection. We will also take a look at some of the Bible prophecies fulfilled by Israel’s rebirth and what they might mean for the future of our own nation.

Showdown in the Oval Office

Over the past six decades, the United States has been Israel’s best friend and chief ally. That warm and strategic relationship began with President Harry Truman’s official and highly public decision to be the first world leader to recognize and support the newly declared State of Israel on May 14, 1948. Yet few Americans realize the tectonic struggle that took place at the highest levels of the U.S. government and almost prevented Truman from making or implementing that decision.

Until recently, despite decades of studying Jewish history, traveling to Israel, and working with various Israeli leaders, I had no idea just how close the Jewish state came to being denied early and critical recognition by the American government. Not long ago, however, an Israeli friend recommended that I read
Counsel to the President
, a book that takes readers inside the Oval Office and describes the political infighting against Israel in vivid detail. What I found absolutely fascinated me.

The book is the memoir of Clark Clifford, a highly respected Democrat who served as senior advisor for and special counsel to President Truman. Later, Clifford served as chairman of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board for President John F. Kennedy, as secretary of defense under President Lyndon Johnson, and as an informal but highly trusted advisor to President Jimmy Carter before retiring from government and later passing away in 1998 at the age of 91. Clifford’s memoir explains his up-close-and-personal role in some of the most dramatic moments of American history in the post–World War II years, from advising Kennedy after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, to helping Johnson seek an exit strategy from the Vietnam War, to counseling Carter during the darkest days of his presidency, to playing poker with Winston Churchill on a train bound for Fulton, Missouri, where Churchill was set to deliver his “Iron Curtain” speech.

Yet Clifford didn’t begin his 709-page tome with a description of any of these events. His first chapter, titled “Showdown in the Oval Office,” begins like this:

May 12, 1948—Of all the meetings I ever had with presidents, this one remains the most vivid. Not only did it pit me against a legendary war hero whom President Truman revered, but it did so over an issue of fundamental and enduring national security importance—Israel and the Mideast.
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Clifford noted that Truman regarded then–secretary of state (and decorated Army general) George C. Marshall as “the greatest living American,” yet Truman and Marshall were on “a collision course” over Israel that “threatened to split and wreck the administration.”
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Simply put, “Marshall firmly opposed American recognition of the new Jewish state,” opposition that was “shared by almost every member of the brilliant and now-legendary group of men, later referred to as ‘the Wise Men,’ who were then in the process of creating a postwar foreign policy that would endure for more than forty years.”
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President Truman, in contrast, was a strong supporter of Israel, in large part because of his belief in the Bible.

Among the secretary of state’s allies in opposing recognition of Israel was James V. Forrestal, the secretary of defense. Some months before, Forrestal had told Clifford, “You fellows over at the White House are just not facing up to the realities in the Middle East. There are 30 million Arabs on one side and about six hundred thousand Jews on the other. It is clear that in any contest, the Arabs are going to overwhelm the Jews. Why don’t you face up to the realities? Just look at the numbers!”

“Jim, the president knows just as well as you do what the numbers are . . . but he doesn’t consider this to be a question of numbers,” Clifford replied. “He has always supported the right of the Jews to have their own homeland, from the moment he became president. . . . He is sympathetic to their needs and their desires, and I assure you he is going to continue to lend our country’s support to the creation of a Jewish state.”

“Well, if he does that, then he’s absolutely dead wrong,” the secretary of defense shot back.
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Now the moment of truth had come. The British Mandate for oversight of the land then referred to as Palestine (a term that dated back to the Greeks’ and Romans’ descriptions of the Holy Land) was set to expire in forty-eight hours. David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, was poised to announce the declaration of the Jewish state’s independence on May 14. That action, the administration knew, would almost certainly trigger a war between Israel and the surrounding Arab nations. Interestingly, Clifford noted that Ben-Gurion and his advisors had not yet decided on a name for the Jewish state. “The name ‘Israel’ was as yet unknown,” Clifford wrote, “and most of us assumed the new nation would be called ‘Judaea.’”
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At four o’clock in the afternoon on Wednesday, May 12, Marshall, Clifford, and several other advisors entered the Oval Office to meet with the president. Secretary Marshall explained that the creation of a Jewish state would be “dangerous.” He said he had told a representative of the Jewish Agency that if the Jews got into trouble and “came running to us for help . . . they were clearly on notice that there was no warrant to expect help from the United States, which had warned them of the grave risk they were running.”
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When Marshall and his colleagues were finished making their case opposing a Jewish state, the president turned to Clifford and asked for the case in support. Clifford noted a war between Israel and its neighbors was going to begin any moment and that delaying support would be tantamount to denying support. He said that the more quickly the president supported the Jewish state, the more likely it was for the new state to become friendly with—and hopefully eventually an ally of—the United States. If the Soviet Union, however, were the first to recognize the state, perhaps the Jews would form closer ties to Moscow. He continued by stating that in the Balfour Declaration, the British government had long before promised a state to the Jews and that “the United States has a great moral obligation to oppose discrimination” against the Jews and to create a “safe haven” for Jews escaping the Holocaust and Eastern European Communism. Finally, he argued that the U.S. should support the creation of democracies, that the Middle East had long been unstable, and that helping establish a democracy in the Middle East would be consistent with American values.

At that point, Secretary Marshall exploded. “Mr. President . . . I don’t even know why Clifford is here. He is a domestic advisor, and this is a foreign policy matter.”

“Well, General,” the president replied calmly, “he’s here because I asked him to be here.”

Marshall and his colleagues protested that Clifford was pressing for support in order to win Jewish votes in the next presidential election. Marshall then threatened that if Truman supported the Jewish state, he would lose Marshall’s vote. The room grew silent. The president ended the meeting by saying he would consider both sides seriously and make his decision soon.
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American Jewish Opposition to Israel

Actually, Truman’s support of the creation of the Jewish state was opposed by many American Jews, a fact unknown or forgotten by many friends of Israel.

“A significant number of Jewish Americans opposed Zionism,” Clifford wrote in his memoir. “Some feared that the effort to create a Jewish state was so controversial that the plan would fail. In 1942 a number of prominent Reform rabbis had founded the American Council for Judaism to oppose the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. It grew into an organization of over fourteen thousand members, which collaborated closely with State Department officials.” Clifford also noted that Arthur H. Sulzberger, the Jewish publisher of the
New York Times
, and Eugene Meyer, the Jewish publisher of the
Washington Post
, “opposed Zionism” as well.
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Nevertheless, Truman had spoken favorably of the creation of a Jewish national homeland since not long after taking office. In 1947, for example, Truman had publicly made it the policy of the United States government to back passage of the United Nations Partition Plan, creating the legal framework for the rebirth of the State of Israel as well as an adjoining state for the Palestinian Arabs. To succeed, the Partition Plan needed a two-thirds majority vote of the U.N. General Assembly. With just days to go before that historic vote on November 29, 1947, however, supporters of the plan were still three votes short. Some have suggested that President Truman personally called leaders of other nations to encourage them to support the American position. Others say he didn’t but that staff in his administration did; the record is not clear.
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Either way, most historians—including David McCullough, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his extraordinary biography
Truman
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—acknowledge that Truman wanted the plan to pass and played a role behind the scenes.
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In the end, Truman got his way. The Partition Plan dramatically passed at the last moment, thirty-three to thirteen, with ten abstentions.
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Truman’s Historic Decision

Given the president’s backing of the Partition Plan, it would seem in retrospect that his decision to formally support the new state was a fait accompli. But the political crisis inside the White House and State Department was real and festering for the next two days. Tensions mounted, and time was running out. Reporters were asking what the president would do on the issue, and the advisors closest to the president had no clue. President Truman kept his cards close to his vest. Clifford later wrote that he thought “the chances for salvaging the situation were very small—but not quite zero.”
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By May 14, neither the secretary of state nor the secretary of defense nor any of the Cabinet or senior advisors knew which side the president would come down on. Then, a few hours before Ben-Gurion’s scheduled announcement, an aide to Secretary Marshall called Clifford at the White House to say that Marshall still did not support the creation of Israel but would not oppose the president publicly if he declared in favor. This was a significant breakthrough. With less than an hour to go, the State Department aide called back to suggest again that Secretary Marshall hoped the president would delay making any decision for more internal discussions, presumably over the next few days.

“Only thirty minutes . . . before the announcement would be made in Tel Aviv,” Clifford recalled, “the American segment of the drama was now coming to a climax.” Clifford told the aide he would check with President Truman and get back to the secretary. He waited three minutes, then called the aide back, saying delay was out of the question. Finally, at six o’clock, the president formally announced his final decision to Clifford. The United States would recognize and support the State of Israel. Truman handed his statement to Clifford, who immediately took it to the president’s press secretary, Charlie Ross. At 6:11 p.m., Ross read the statement to the press, and thus to the world: