The outbreak of terror and violence in Israel has gripped the world lately.
Although news headlines are everywhere, it can be difficult to understand what is really taking place, especially from an eternal perspective. With that in mind, we recently spoke with Nic Lesmeister, the director for the Gateway Center for Israel in Dallas, Texas, for clarity on the conflict.
“All of this is rooted in the fact that God chose for Himself one group of people when He called Abram in Genesis 12. Anything that God chooses for Himself and says, “This is Mine,” the devil is going to come at with everything he has.”
After Israel evacuated the Gaza Strip in 2005, a Palestinian political party called Hamas took over. Hamas’ stated vision a political movement denies Israel’s right to exist and seeks to “liberate Jerusalem” from Jewish presence.
In fact, the preamble from the original Hamas charter states, “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it.” It continues to state in seventh article of the charter, “the day of judgement will not come about until the Muslims fight Jews and kill them.”
In short, the basis for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an utter hatred for God and the things of God, which includes the people who He has called and made covenant with. This goes back thousands of years.
Before the recent ceasefire was signed, the terror organization Hamas had fired over 4,000 rockets into Israeli civilian areas, intentionally doing so from Gazan civilian areas.
For a clearer understanding of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and why Christians should care, listen to Nic’s full interview on Missions in the Modern Day on the Charisma Podcast Network. {eoa}
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