October 31^st – time to recapture territory from the enemy!

As we have celebrated the significance this week of 31 October, which marks 500 years since the Reformation began, we would do well to be reminded of other important anniversaries which add to the significance of this day.

Nearly 2,000 years earlier on the same day, according to Jewish tradition, the Prophet Ezra called for national repentance as he read the Book of the Law to Jerusalem’s citizens. It was 445 BC and they had sinned grievously against God.

Fast forward to 31 October 1917, to another hugely important event largely ignored by the many Protestants marking the day, 400 years earlier, when Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 theses to a church door in Wittenburg, challenging the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church.

For it is now 100 years since Britain’s War Cabinet agreed the Balfour Declaration (though the letter itself is dated 2 November 1917), promising to make every effort to repatriate Jews in their ancient land. It just happened to coincide with the Battle of Beersheba when 800 bayonet-wielding ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand) soldiers pulled off a surprise, and astonishing, victory over Turkish forces which paved the way for the capture of Jerusalem and all of Palestine, ending 400 years of rule under the Islamic Ottoman Empire.

I have written elsewhere of how the ANZAC horsemen rode a death-defying gauntlet of shrapnel, high explosives and machine-gun fire in a bid to prevent the intended destruction of local wells, and this too is an incredibly important centenary because it opened the way for Jewish restoration and the implementation of the Balfour Declaration – along with the fulfilment of Bible prophecy relating to the return of Jews from every corner of the globe.

If, like Ezra, we support the Book of the Law, we will stand with the people of Israel who gave it to us!

If, like Ezra, we support the Book of the Law, we will stand with the people of Israel who gave it to us!

Reformation Needed

Luther faced two major challenges – a corrupt Church, and the real possibility of a Turkish Muslim invasion via central Europe – in the face of which he recognised the importance of the Book of the Law (the Bible) and the need for national repentance.¹

Many disagreed with Luther. Some German pastors even suggested welcoming Islam, seeing it as less oppressive than their situation under the Church.²

Today’s Church faces the same challenges and more, with secular humanism seriously eroding society’s Judeo-Christian foundations, leaving the Book of the Law despised and Christianity increasingly abhorred.

Dark Distractions

Part of this erosion has included the substitution of a Christian festival – Hallowe’en – for a celebration of the occult, which has taken the shine off the spiritual triumphs we have experienced on this special day.

Hallowe'en (a contraction of All Hallows’ Evening) was originally dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs and all the faithful departed. But it is widely thought to have pagan roots and is now associated with ghoulish practices. One view is that it originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts, in which case it is hardly surprising that it has morphed into an obsession with ghostly goings-on, playing pranks and divination games.³

If the Church of the Middle Ages had focused less on the dead and more on the resurrection, we may have been spared this nonsense. In any event, it is clearly a devilish ploy to substitute the light of truth with the darkness of witchcraft.

A City Set on a Hill

We are living in dark times, and it is the duty of those who follow Christ to be a light “on a hill”, not hidden under a bushel (Matthew 5:14f), in aiding restoration of the Book of the Law, following in the footsteps of Ezra, Luther and others. It is time to take back spiritual territory lost to 21^st Century paganism, just as the ANZAC horsemen bravely charged across the Negev desert to capture vital wells that would save the Allied forces from dehydration and defeat. We too are called to run a gauntlet of spiritual bullets in order to recapture the wells of salvation from an enemy intent on silting them up with lies and propaganda.

Modern-day Zionists should be seeking the restoration of the Book of the Law – not only to Israel, but to our land as well, where we have endured a long famine of hearing the word of the Lord.

We are living in dark times, and it is the duty of those who follow Christ to be a light “on a hill”, not hidden under a bushel.

We must pray and work towards the day when the Jews are able to fulfil their calling to be a light to the Gentiles (Isa 49:6). True, they have already become a powerful nation since their re-birth 70 years ago, but have not yet fully returned to the Book of the Law. They are back in the Land, but not yet fully with the Lord.

That will come, and Ezekiel 36:24-28 will be fulfilled. But in the meantime we must, by our friendship, support and prayer, encourage them to acknowledge that Jesus, whom they had believed was the God of the Gentiles, is actually their own Messiah too. In fact, he came for them first (John 1:11f; Rom 1:16) and has promised that, if they fully obey him, they would be his “treasured possession” (Gen 19:5).

The Times of the Gentiles

In this respect, it’s interesting that the patriarch Joseph was taken into Egypt after being rejected by his brothers. After Jesus was largely rejected by the Jewish people (though a significant number accepted him, of course, or the Church would never have come into existence), the message about him was taken to the nations, and the Gentile world elevated him to a prominent role in their affairs. Isaiah had prophesied that the Gentiles would put their hope in him (Isa 42:4; see also Matt 12:21).

As far as the UK and the USA are concerned, it would be true to say that from the 17^th through 19^th centuries the Gospel of Christ and the Bible itself was the most influential teaching they possessed, affecting virtually every institution and producing great wealth and power in the process. At the same time a host of passionate preachers went out to the far corners of the world spreading this Gospel to heathen nations.

Jesus had in some respects become Lord of the Gentile world, a situation that would, in time, make Israel “envious”, according to the Apostle Paul, an orthodox Jewish rabbi who led the mission to the Gentiles (Rom 11:11).

But just as Joseph never forgot his brothers, and longed for reunion with them, so Jesus – actually descended from Judah and described in the Bible as the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Rev 5:5) – reaches out in love to his long-lost brothers in the flesh, for whom things got worse before they got better. Now, over the past two centuries (even in the midst of multiple pogroms and the Holocaust itself), he has been revealing himself afresh to his people.

Ezekiel 36:24-28 will be fulfilled. But in the meantime we must, by our friendship, support and prayer, encourage Israel to acknowledge that Jesus is their Messiah.

Jewish Restoration to Messiah Jesus

Though sadly Jesus is still seen largely as God of the Gentiles, Jewish eyes have gradually been opened. It is believed, for example, that there were as many as 100,000 Jewish followers of Jesus at the outbreak of World War II in 1939.⁴

Tragically, many of them would have perished in Hitler’s gas chambers. But out of the ashes of the Holocaust, we not only have a re-born nation of Israel, but a growing number of so-called Messianic fellowships bringing Jesus back to where he belongs.

Just as Joseph was a sign of what was to come 400 years later, with deliverance from Egypt through the blood of the lamb, so the voice of the prophets recorded in the Jewish Tanakh (what Christians call the Old Testament) fell silent for 400 years until the revelation of Jesus in the New Testament. Joseph provided his brothers with grain amidst the famine. And now Jesus is “the bread of life” – the manna from heaven – as he “fills the hungry with good things” (John 6:35; Luke 1:53).

There will come a time when, back in the land of promise and delivered from bondage in a hostile world, all Israel will recognise Yeshua, their Messiah (Zech 12:10; Rom 11:26). What a day that will be – life from the dead as he who was despised and rejected of men is revealed to his brothers alive…and as Lord of all!

Notes

1 BarnabasAid editorial, September/October 2017, published by Barnabas Fund, an aid agency for the persecuted church.

2 Ibid.

3 E.g. see here.

4 Restoring Israel by Kelvin Crombie, published by Nicolayson’s Ltd, Christ Church, Jerusalem, p156.

100 years ago, an epic cavalry charge opened the way for Jerusalem’s liberation.

The liberation of Jerusalem by Allied forces 100 years ago was undoubtedly one of the great moments of history that should be remembered not only as a military success, but also as a stupendous spiritual victory.

The man in charge, General Edmund Allenby, is said to have carried with him a message from British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who “wanted Jerusalem as a Christmas present for the British nation”.

The PM’s War Cabinet was in the meantime working on plans for Jewish restoration to their ancient land, but felt that any public announcement of sympathy towards Zionism should be coupled with a military breakthrough.

The Last Great Cavalry Charge in History

And at 4:30pm on 31 October 1917, about 800 bayonet-wielding ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand) horsemen set off in three columns at a canter across a 5km plain to Beersheba on an epic cavalry charge that, in author Kelvin Crombie’s words, would change the course of world history, triggering a chain of events that would lead to the creation of modern Israel.

The Aussie soldiers were evidently riding a death-defying gauntlet of shrapnel, high explosives and machine-gun fire from some 4,000 entrenched Ottoman troops, and their rapid advance prevented the intended complete destruction of local wells, which would have been disastrous for over 50,000 troops and their animals.¹

The epic cavalry charge of the ANZACs would change the course of world history. 

British-led forces had already been repelled twice in their efforts to break through a Turkish/German line of defence stretching from Gaza to Beersheba, the Israeli city now known as capital of the Negev desert region.

Photo thought to show the charge of the Australian Light Horse Brigade, 1917. See Photo Credits.But the Turks were taken by surprise as they did not suspect that anyone would be so foolish as to attack the fortress from the desert. Unfortunately for them, as one wag has put it, nobody has ever accused the Aussies of being in their right minds – enthusiastically charging out on what has been dubbed ‘the last great cavalry charge in history’ even after riding 60 miles through the white-hot, searing sands of an unforgiving Judean desert.

The Australians suffered just 31 troopers killed and 36 wounded as they captured 750 Turks, nine artillery pieces, three machine guns, and tons of other munitions and supplies. Even more importantly, they seized 17 of the 19 wells intact, recovering 90,000 gallons of fresh, drinkable water from the town, enabling the Army to stave off death by dehydration.²

Paving the Way for Balfour Declaration’s Fulfilment

It was surely significant that the Balfour Declaration, through which the British Government promised to do all in its power to establish a national home for the Jews, was signed on the very same day, and subsequently conveyed to Britain’s Jewish leaders. The Battle of Beersheba thus paved the way for the fulfilment of this pledge, and within just six weeks Allenby’s forces ended 400 years of Ottoman rule in the region.

A park dedicated to the Australian soldiers was opened in 2008. It was a $3 million project funded by the philanthropic Pratt Foundation, whose chief executive Sam Lipski told journalists at a ceremony there five years ago that the history of Zionism and the Middle East could have been very different had the ANZACS not defeated the Turks at Beersheba.³

Yet for many young Aussies, the annual pilgrimage to Gallipoli in Turkey – the site of a tragic military defeat in 1915 that cost some 8,000 Australian lives – has become a rite of passage, whereas the stunning military victory at Beersheba remains relatively unknown.

It is surely significant that the Balfour Declaration was signed on the very same day. 

The Liberation of Jerusalem

General Allenby enters Jerusalem unmounted, in reverence of Jesus, 1917. See Photo Credits.The Royal Flying Corps also played a vital role in the liberation of Jerusalem by dropping pamphlets calling upon the Turks to surrender, an event evidently foretold by Isaiah some 2,700 years earlier: “Like birds hovering overhead, the Lord Almighty will shield Jerusalem; he will shield it and deliver it, he will ‘pass over’ it and will rescue it” (Isa 31:5). As it happens, this passage was also the required reading in all Anglican (Church of England) churches that week.

As a result, Jerusalem surrendered without a shot being fired, perhaps also helped by the similarity of Allenby’s signature to the Arabic (Al-Nebbi) for the prophet Mohammed. Victory in Jerusalem coincided with the Hanukkah festival recalling Jewish liberation from Greek-Syrian tyranny in the second century before Christ.

On 11 December Allenby declared British military rule from the ancient steps of the Tower of David, right opposite Christ Church, headquarters of the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people (CMJ) who had done so much to convince political and church leaders of Israel’s destiny under God. He arrived at the Old City on horseback, but dismounted at Jaffa Gate before entering the holy enclave on foot, declaring: “It does not behoove me, a Christian, to enter the City of my Messiah mounted.”

The Role of Evangelical Christians

Without in any way minimising the contribution of the ANZAC troops towards Israel’s re-birth, the ground had been well prepared over the previous century by British evangelical Christians such as William Wilberforce, Lord Shaftesbury, Charles Spurgeon and Bishop JC Ryle, who believed that Jewish redemption is a fundamental aspect of biblical truth, and prayed to that end.

They in turn influenced the movers and shakers of the age, backed up (through divine providence) by the rise of Jewish Zionism under Theodor Herzl. The result was the Balfour Declaration.

The ground had been well prepared over the previous century by British evangelical Christians who believed that Jewish redemption is a fundamental aspect of biblical truth, and prayed to that end. 

An interesting footnote is that most of Lloyd George’s 1917 War Cabinet were evangelical Christians – ironically, the only member strongly opposed to the policy, Edwin Montague, was Jewish. Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, had already served as Prime Minister and declared on his deathbed that aiding Jewish restoration was possibly the most worthwhile thing he had done. Also in the cabinet was South Africa’s Jan Christiaan Smuts, who had long predicted that a great Jewish state would arise once more.⁴

Notes

1 Crombie, K, 1998. Anzacs, Empires and Israel’s Restoration: 1798-1948. Vocational Education & Training Publications.

2 Dan Goldberg, Haaretz newspaper, 30 October 2012, though some facts are gleaned from an anonymous blogger.

3 Ibid.

4 Gardner, C. The Magnificent Ten. Prophecy Today UK, 3 February 2017.