Thus saith the Lord God; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her.(Ezekiel 5:5)
The center of the world, is Israel, the center of Israel is Jerusalem and the center of Jerusalem is Mt Zion, the temple mount.Jerusalem also happens to be at the center of the most momentous events in History as well as in the End Times scenario.
Consider the fact that in Jerusalem, God ordained that a Holy House be erected, that He might descend and inhabit it.
When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’s house. When all the children of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the LORD upon the temple, they bowed down with their faces to the earth on the pavement, and worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever.” (2 Chronicles 7:1-3)
Jerusalem is the only city on earth in which God has said “I will place my name there, forever…”.
But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there; and have chosen David to be over my people Israel.( 2 Chronicles 6:6,7:16)
Christians love to sing the 48th Psalm,
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.(Psalm 48:1-2)
Jesus quoted this Psalm in the sermon on the mount, when he admonished his disciples not to swear by anything,
But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.(Matthew 5:34-35)
This city of David, was the place where our LORD Jesus was crucified, and outside of the city, the place where He was raised up from the dead. Thus to was that Jerusalem was where Satan was dealt a fatal blow.
Zechariah tells us that when the LORD returns to judge the world in Righteousness, his feet will land on the Mt of Olives,
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.(Zechariah 4:4)
Jerusalem is where the church was born, on that first day of the week in which the tomb of Jesus was found empty, and Jesus appeared alive, offering many infallible proofs to his witnesses.
Jews and Christians alike regard Jerusalem as Holy and significant.
Of course we wouldn’t naively believe that to go to Jerusalem is to encounter personal piety and sanctity among her current residents. Isaiah lamented that “The faithful city has become a harlot…”. and in the New Testament she is called “Sodom and Egypt, the place where our LORD was crucified…”.
Jerusalem is significant to another world religion for the Muslims claim it as their third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina. The Bible mentions Jerusalem hundreds of times, but the Koran makes no mention of Jerusalem by name. In fact, in all of the Koran there is only one passage that the confirms the claim of Jerusalem as the third holiest site, and that is the passage known as the Isra.
The Isra tells the story of Mohammed’s night journey, riding a flying horse(named Baraq) who took him to “Al Aqsa” the farthest place, where he ascended to heaven and had a Muslim prayer meeting with Moses, David, and Jesus.
Modern Islamic scholars now claim ‘Al Aqsa” to be Jerusalem, thus Jerusalem is regarded as the third holiest site within Islam. You have heard of the Al Aqsa martyrs brigade, an Islamic terrorist militia. That is where they get the name.
Currently the Islamic waqf is the custodian of the temple mount, even though Moshe Dyan liberated the Temple mount in 1967. I have often wondered what Dayan turned the holiest Jewish site over to Muslims, who have regularly desecrated it and even used it as a platform for acts of sacrilege, assaulting Jews as they worship at the retaining wall, known as the “Wailing wall” of the second temple.
Then I remembered the words of Jesus,
…and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.(Luke 21:24)
It should be of interest to us all, that the most anti-christ president in American history, Barack Hussein Obama, in an unprecedented speech to the Muslim world, in 2009, only cited one passage of the Koran. Which passage did the leader of the free world choose to reference to his audience of 1.7 billion Muslims?
The Isra was Obama’s only text. Let that fact soak in for a moment. The so called “Leader of the free world” addressed 1.7 billion people of the world and cited the only passage in their whole book which gives them tenuous claim to the city of Jerusalem, thus encouraging them in their Jihad.
A tremendous conflict is soon to erupt over Jerusalem, which will involve all nations of the world, and will lead to the earth’s last battles.
Pastor Bill Randles Blog 