IAW Day 720

Before I get into my lead story I wanted to get us up to date on the war in Israel. As the Israel Defense Force (IDF) continues to neutralize Hamas strongholds in Gaza City, the evacuation of Gazans has reached 700,000 as we read in a report from The Jerusalem Post:

The IDF has succeeded in evacuating over 700,000 Palestinian civilians from Gaza City as part of the recent invasion, up from around 550,000 earlier in the week and around 250,000 last week.

I don’t like this offensive called an invasion, but the press in Israel is mostly liberal so you have to take that into account. Unfortunately Hamas may be leaving with the Gazans at the same time, something I think will come back to haunt Israel:

There are still around 300,000 Palestinian civilians in Gaza City, but the clear trend now seems to show that as the ground force invasion expands, the general civilian population is evacuating.

It also seems so far that Hamas is mostly evacuating with them, given that the IDF is not vetting those who are evacuating and all of the fighting between the military and Hamas has been at most small skirmishes.

But the real success here is that an evacuation is happening in spite of all the hinderances.

Taking Back Judea And Samaria

Many are only looking at the activities in the Gaza Strip, but Israel is planning on annexing Judea and Samaria which would effectively end any plans for a Palestinian state. We read more on that in an article from the Jewish News Syndicate:

Jerusalem is considering applying sovereignty to Jewish communities in Area C of Judea and Samaria, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in an interview published on Thursday. Sa’ar noted that no decision had yet been made and emphasized that the government would not annex any Palestinian Authority-controlled territory.

Only part of this area is under Israeli control:

Under the Oslo Accords Jerusalem signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1990s, Area C of Judea and Samaria is under full Israeli security and civilian control.

Sa’ar said that this is under review right now:

“The government of Israel will assess timing and content. No decision has been made on the matter at the moment,” Israel’s top diplomat stated in the remarks to the daily (Italian news source), which were translated to Italian.

Sa’ar stressed that “there is not even an intention to discuss annexing the territories of the Palestinian Authority, because we do not want to control the Palestinians.

“What can be discussed, but has not yet been decided, is implementing Israeli law in the Israeli communities that are there and are not under Palestinian Authority,” he said.

A solid majority of Israelis want the area to be fully under Israel’s control:

Nearly 70% of Israelis want Jerusalem to extend full legal sovereignty over the disputed territory, according to a poll conducted on Jan. 29.

About The Rapture

Without actually saying I told you so, I knew that today would most likely come. What day is5th that you ask? The day after the predicted Rapture of the church on either the 24th or 25th of this month. Someone actually thought I should have waited when I was critical of the date setting when I did a podcast on it a few days ago. Now we can say with certainty that it didn’t happen when a South African minister said he saw Jesus tell him it would happen on one of those two days. He actually stated he was a billion percent sure of it. If you want a more detailed view of his actual prediction I detailed that on another podcast. Unfortunately he doubled down on his stance multiple times on the 23rd and the 24th. So here we are after another failed date setting for the Blessed Hope. Yes, these things happened in the past, but this time it is different. This time the reach and scrutiny of these predictions were magnified by the power of social media on the Internet. And as I also predicted the failed date setting is getting pilloried by all manner of Rapture haters both Christian or not. It happened in 1844, 1988, 1989, but this time it can’t be hidden. So I’ll do my best to clean up the public shame and derision the Body of Christ is experiencing now.

The Rapture Will Happen

I’m not a Rapture denier, not in the slightest so let’s get that out of the way. I just avoid setting specific dates for it happening not because I want to not be seen as a false prophet, but because that’s what the Bible teaches. It will be imminent or could happen at any time. Immanency is a blessing for the Church because it helps us keep our edge both for living pure lives and gives us reason to be evangelistic all the time. Date setting takes that away in part or in whole. When you start saying that the Rapture will happen on this day or that day that prediction becomes the focus of your life and it encourages others to jump on the bandwagon, too. Of course when it almost always doesn’t happen then it can deflate their faith and the faith of others. And worse it can become yet one more reason for people to leave the faith or reject it even more. But I don’t want us to live in that reality. The Rapture is still the Blessed Hope. We need to pray for the people who led the charge on the date setting and then allow Holy Spirit to tell us what to do next. He might tell us to keep praying and nothing more. But He may instruct us to study and make sure our stance of immanency is stronger than ever so we can confidently defend it to others. Or He may have us engage with these people and see why they missed it. Regardless, we don't shoot our wounded but do our level best to heal their wounds.

Haters Gonna Hate

So how can we deal with the blowback from those who are mocking the Rapture now? Well, my first advice is to pray before speaking. It will always be that. Next, ask God to tell us what to do and He will tell us. Then be obedient to follow His instructions. Changing the minds of these critics is not something we should enter into rashly if engagement is our lot. Get your defense down to specifics and avoid not knowing the answer to a pointed question. Make sure you’re ready for the incessant and predictable verbal assaults. And know when the time for walking away from the debate. There is a thin line between advancing in a debate and throwing your pearls before swine. Know it and don’t think you can debate out from under the anointing. Lastly, don’t be depressed or make you doubt your faith and make sure any hint of date setting again is killed and buried deep into the ground. We will get past this even though it will get very difficult now.