Jerusalem: A Political Issue for some, Spiritual for others...

Right now Jerusalem is a hotly debated topic. "Why should we care where their capital is?" "Why the riots?" "Don't you think that Donald Trump should leave 'God's Country' alone?" 

Everyone seems to be up in arms over the fact that the person elected to represent our country as it's leader has spoken for us as a nation on Israel. Presidents have been speaking for us about Israel for years and no one blinked an eye. The United States has, for decades, positioned itself as the primary mediator between Israelis and Palestinians. Neutrality ostensibly allows the United States to remain a credible arbiter and keeps both sides at the negotiating table. It is only because "The Donald" finally took a step towards recognizing reality that Jerusalem was set up by King David in approximately 1010BC as the capital of Israel. I know you are thinking "But what about the Muslims? Isn't Jerusalem sacred to them?" 

The city is sacred to all three of the monotheistic religions. Christians, Jews, and Muslims all revere the city and see religious significance there. As such, it has been the gem in the eye of conquerors for centuries. The Romans, Crusaders, Ottomans, and the British Empire all once sought for control of the city. Since the creation of the modern state of Israel, both the Israeli leadership and their Arab neighbors have laid claim to the historic city. For example: In the center of the Old City is a hill with great significance to both Jews and Muslims, for example. The hill is known to Jews as Har ha-Bayit, or Temple Mount. To Muslims around the world, the hill is known as al-Haram al-Sharif, or The Noble Sanctuary.

That hill was the home to Jewish temples during antiquity, though many of those no longer exist above ground, and just a restraining wall for the foundations can still be seen. That wall is known as the Western Wall, and Jews view it as a sacred place for prayer.

Muslims, on the other hand, revere two holy sites just yards from that wall. They are named the Dome of the Rock, and the Al-Asqa Mosque. The mosque was built in the 8th century. Muslims consider the site to be the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina.

But maybe that doesn't appeal to you; maybe you want to know what this means politically?  Well most people mistakenly believe that Jerusalem became a united capital of Israel in 1967 during the Israeli-Arab conflict. However, that isn't when the modern conflict began. Truly it began when British rule of the area ended in 1948, the Jordanian military invade to occupy the Old City, and Arab East Jerusalem. Decades later, Israel captured that land from Jordan during the 1967 Middle East war, and annexed it. That move has not been recognized internationally. The Israelis passed a law in 1980 that declared Jerusalem the “complete and united” city of their country, and its capital. The United Nations, which regards East Jerusalem as occupied, took the position that the city’s status is disputed and in need of resolution through negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. 

The Muslim answer to all of this has been tried and true: Between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Palestinians threw Molotov cocktails a road near the Israeli West Bank city of Ma’ale Adumim, causing no injuries or damage. Border Police in the area arrested 10 suspects, the report said. Rioters also threw Molotov cocktails and stones at Israeli cars on a road near the West Bank village of Rantis, outside Ramallah. There were no reports of injuries. Also on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, several thousand Palestinians marched in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, burning US and Israeli flags while chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.” In a Wednesday address from the White House, Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace a new approach was long overdue, describing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality. "Trump also said the United States would move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, though he set no timetable for that. Furious Palestinian leaders in the Fatah-controlled West Bank had responded to Trump’s speech with outrage, declaring that the United States could no longer serve as Middle East peace broker." 

When the truth is, the Palestinians don't want peace; they want to take control of all they can and conquer all they may as their Qu'ran tells them to do.  As a matter of fact, "Palestine" wasn't founded until 1988 as a nation; Modern Israel was recognized as a Jewish state in 1948, but originally founded in 1050B.C. as a kingdom by King Saul. And that is truly when the trouble starts; if one actually bothers to read their Bible, you will note a timeline of exile and return, due to people wanting to lay claim to Israel. 

Timemaps, a history site (that uses timelines and atlases to share information) posted this timeline of events in Ancient Israeli History. 

c. 1300-1200 BCE: The Israelites enter the land of Canaan: the age of the Judges starts

c. 1050-1010: The Israelites establish a kingdom, first under Saul (c.1050-1010) and then under David (c.1010-970)

c. 970: David’s son Solomon becomes king. He builds the Temple in Jerusalem

c. 931: After Solomon’s death, Israel divides into two kingdoms: Judah in the south, Israel in the north

722: The northern kingdom of Israel is destroyed by the Assyrians

c. 620: A major religious revival takes place in the southern kingdom of Judah

597-582: Judah and Jerusalem are destroyed in a series of invasions by king Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The leading men of Judah are taken into exile in Babylon

538: The Persian king Cyrus allows the exiles back, and encourages them to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem

164: The Jews revolt against the Seleucid kings under the leadership of the Maccabbees brothers

63: The Romans conquer Judaea and soon install the family of Herod the Great as rulers of Judaea

66-73 and 132-5 CE: Two great Jewish rebellions against the Romans end in the destruction of the Temple (70) and the expulsion of the Jews from near Jerusalem (135)

So what does this mean for the long term: Warnings of a long-term shift tend to hinge on the idea that losing American neutrality means losing American leverage over Israelis and Palestinians to achieve peace. But the simple fact of American power makes the country an important broker, neutral or not. American leverage with Israel also comes from implicitly guaranteeing Israel’s security and providing it with lots of military hardware. Still, because Israel got something for nothing from Mr. Trump’s announcement, it has little reason to make difficult concessions. 

American leverage over Palestinian leaders is also significant, since those leaders rely on American support to keep their administration funded and stable. But those leaders are deeply unpopular with their own people. A real risk here is that they one day grow so unpopular that their administration collapses. This would risk chaos and violence in the short term and, long term, a likely takeover by the militant Palestinian group Hamas. 

All of that points toward a future in which peace is less likely, a Palestinian state is less likely and Israel is one day forced to choose between the two core components of its national identity: Jewish and democratic. Either it asserts permanent control over Palestinians without granting them full rights — a sort of state that critics sometimes compare to apartheid South Africa — or it grants Palestinians full rights, establishing a pluralistic democracy that is no longer officially Jewish. 

Mr. Trump’s move likely edges Israelis and Palestinians closer to that future. But things were probably moving in that direction already.

So in the end, I think what Mr. Trump has done is exactly what I believe he was meant to do. He recognized reality; one that will possibly bless Israel, certainly bring some blessing to America. Now to find out what all this means spiritually...

To some this is ushering in the end of Days. Certainly if Dr. Tim LaHaye were still alive, he'd tell you this is what is going on, so would Jerry Falwell, and I would say "The "End Times' have already started; this is just a part of all that." I have said so many times before and my cousin Wendy will be more than happy to confirm this..."Truly this could be the last trump!" 

For many conservative evangelicals, Jerusalem is not about politics. It is not about peace plans or Palestinians or two-state solutions. It is about prophecy. About the Bible. And, most certainly, it is about the end-times. 

As Diane Butler Bass wrote: Jerusalem has an important role to play in these end-times events. When the Jews rejected Jesus as the messiah, he explained, God chose the church to accomplish his mission. Soon this "church age" would end with the rapture of true believers. But God still loved the Jews, and wants to redeem them. Thus, absent the church, the Jews would experience a great religious rebirth and rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. This would spark a series of cataclysmic events that would culminate in the Battle of Armageddon, the last war of humanity. But it would also cause the Jews to finally accept Jesus as their savior. After all this occurred, Jesus would return in glory and God's kingdom -- a thousand-year reign of peace. And it would begin in Jerusalem.

This theology -- a literal belief that all these things must happen before Jesus will return to reign on Earth -- is called "dispensational pre-millennialism" and it is not the quirky opinion of some isolated church. Although the majority of Christians do not share these views, versions of dispensational pre-millennialism dominate American evangelicalism. 

This teaching is hardly new; it started in the 1840s, and by the 1970s was furthered with Hal Lindsay's "The Late Great Planet Earth" and in the 1990s and 2000s by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins in their Left Behind series--which if you get past the pre-millennialism theology--isn't a half bad series to read. If you know evangelicals, chances are very good that you know this theology, whether you believe it or not. You cannot avoid it. And if you hear the President of the United States say something about Jerusalem, you take notice. Especially when that President won 81% of the white evangelical vote.

When the President issued his order, I was not the only person hearing echoes of dispensationalism. Robert Jeffress, one of Trump's evangelical advisers, declared: "Jerusalem has been the object of the affection of both Jews and Christians down through history and the touchstone of prophecy."

Other evangelical pastors and teachers also praised the action as "biblical" and likened it to a "fulfilled prophecy."

While that may sound benign (or perhaps nutty) to the theologically uninitiated, they are referring to the "prophecy" of the conversion of the Jews, the second coming of Jesus, the final judgment, and the end of the world -- the events referred to as the biblical apocalypse.

I doubt that President Trump could explain dispensational pre-millennialism. I doubt he knows the term. But his evangelical supporters know it. Some of his advisers are probably whispering these prophecies in his ears. Trump might not really care how they interpret the Bible, but he cares that white evangelicals continue to stand with him. Moving the embassy to Jerusalem is one way to affirm his commitment to these evangelicals -- reminding them that he, Donald J. Trump, is pressing biblical history forward to its conclusion and that he is God's man in the unfolding of these last days.

Dr. Michael Brown also asked the question; and his answers are based off the blessing Christians are promised in Genesis 12:2-3 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and pin you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

He states: My question is spiritual in nature: Will God bless President Trump and the United States for making this bold and courageous move?

I believe He will, since:

1. In doing so the president is blessing Israel, and God still blesses those who bless His covenant nation, despite that nation's sins;
2. Out of all the cities on the earth, the Bible only calls us to pray for the welfare of Jerusalem (see Psalm 122; Isaiah 62:1-8);
3. The tremendous resistance to the president's decision gives evidence to the intensity of the spiritual battle over this city; and
4. There are prophetic scriptures that speak of a Jewish Jerusalem welcoming back the Messiah, and so the decision to fortify the unity of the city is in explicit harmony with those Scriptures (see especially Zechariah 12 and 14).

And what about God's love for the Muslim world? What about justice for the Palestinians? The answer is simple: If they want to be blessed, they too must recognize the Jewish claim to Jerusalem, a city that they do not need to possess or divide. They don't need to call for violence and war. Instead, they need to accept that East Jerusalem will not be the capital of a Palestinian state, that working with the Jewish people rather than against them will be in their best interests too, and that the Jewish people have a massively greater claim to Jerusalem than the Muslims do. As for President Trump, he is convinced that this formal recognition of Jerusalem will aid and abet the peace process. But even if that is not the case, I truly believe that God will bless him and bless America for making this courageous and righteous decision.

Charisma Magazine shared this "fact sheet" 

Naming Jerusalem the Capital of Israel Fact Sheet:

Historical Significance:

• The history of Israel dates back to Genesis and the story of Abram who would become Abraham.
• Abraham was promised a land by God (the promised land), and that land was Canaan and would later become Israel (Genesis 12—fulfilled when descendant Joshua takes the land in Joshua 6 when the walls come down).
• David declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel (City of David- 2 Sam. 5).

Political Significance:

• Legally documented in 1950, the Jerusalem Law was passed by the Israel Knesset, declaring Jerusalem to be the eternal, undivided capital of the state of Israel.
• In 1995, Democrat President Bill Clinton signed a statute stating, "Since 1950, the city of Jerusalem has been the capital of the state of Israel."

Theological Importance:

• Christianity begins in Jerusalem serving as the context for Jesus' life and earthly ministry
• The city where Jesus was crucified on a cross
• The city where He was laid in a tomb
• The city where He rose from the grave
• The city where He showed Himself to many others over a forty-day period
• The city where many believe Abraham brought Isaac up Mt. Moriah and passed God's test of faith
• The city where King Solomon built the magnificent Temple, declaring it a house of prayer for all nations
• The city Isaiah envisioned as the world's center where the nations would beat their swords into plowshares, and learn war no more
• The city where Jesus wept

Shared Significance with Orthodox Jews:

• The significance of Jerusalem to Christians cannot be separated from the significance of Jerusalem to the Jewish people 
• Their history is our history
• We are intertwined through our Old Testament scriptures and spiritual legacy. Their biblical examples are our biblical examples and we share this heritage in Jerusalem as our spiritual capital while Israel also legally proclaims it as her national capital. Their national history has become our spiritual history

Contributing Sites: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/world/middleeast/jerusalem-trump-capital.html

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/888913/Palestinian-riots-Israel-over-Donald-Trump-US-embassy-move-to-Jerusalem

https://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinians-riot-in-west-bank-gaza-as-tempers-flare-over-jerusalem/

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/08/opinions/jerusalem-israel-evangelicals-end-times-butler-bass-opinion/index.html

https://www.onenewsnow.com/perspectives/michael-brown/2017/12/07/the-political-and-spiritual-significance-of-trumps-decision
https://www.charismamag.com/life/culture/34967-jentezen-franklin-the-biblical-significance-of-recognizing-jerusalem-as-israel-s-capital
The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ge 12:2–3.