The Burdensome Stone

As mentioned a few days ago, we need to closely watch the upcoming meetings which are intended to broker a peace deal in Israel and create the coveted "two-state solution". If these talks follow the usual patterns, Jerusalem will ultimately prove to be the last sticking point in these negotiations and most likely the ultimate "deal-breaker".

Interestingly, the talks haven't even started and we're already seeing evidence of this:

"PA Minister Threatens War over Jerusalem"

The Palestinian Authority religious affairs minster, a week before peace talks in Washington, warned of war if Jerusalem is not “returned” to "its owners. And we are its owners."

"With PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in the audience, Mahmoud Al-Habbash declared in his Friday sermon, "Jerusalem can ignite a thousand and one wars,” according to a translation supplied by Palestinian Media Watch.

Unless Jerusalem "becomes the capital of the Palestinian people, there is no peace," he warned. "The term 'war' will not be erased from the lexicon...as long as Jerusalem is occupied.

“If Jerusalem is dishonored, if Jerusalem is disgraced, if [Jerusalem] is lost, it may leave the door open to all possibilities of struggle, all possibilities of war.

That isn't all. It gets better and the consistency with biblical prophecy is astonishing:

"Jerusalem is not just a city. Al-Aqsa is not just a mosque. Jerusalem is the key to peace…. Unless Jerusalem will be Palestinian, as it was throughout history, the capital of the Palestinian state and the capital of the Palestinian people, the place which is the object of heartfelt longing and which all Muslims aspire to reach; unless Jerusalem is like that way, there is no peace. There is no peace without Jerusalem. There is no stability without Jerusalem.”

It is times like this that I find biblical prophecy even more amazing than before. To think that over 2,500 years ago, God's prophets foretold that Jerusalem would be the burdensome stone to the world and that all nations would be gathered against her and that Jerusalem would be "immovable", etc. is astonishing.

For folks who refuse to view prophecy in a literal way - while we watch the fulfillment of prophecy played out in a literal way almost daily, reveals to me a form of denial that is hard to grasp. One would think that Israel's miraculous regathering on May 15, 1948 would be enough, as that unlikely event represented one of the most dramatic fulfillments of biblical prophecy imaginable. However people still bury their heads in the sand and refuse to acknowledge the direct fulfillment of prophecy as we approach the last days. Denial. As they say, it ain't just a river.

Lets look at the scriptures one more time and compare it to the news today and the upcoming peace talks:

"This is the word of the Lord concerning Israel. The Lord who stretches out the heavens, earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares:

'I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that sends all the surrounding peoples reeling. Judah will be besieged as well as Jerusalem. On that day, when all the nations are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.'"
(Zechariah 12:1-3)

It will all boil down to Jerusalem - just as the prophetic scriptures have told us. We see evidence of this on a daily basis.

As Joel Rosenberg states - Israel is the epicenter of the world, Jerusalem is the epicenter of Israel, and the Temple Mount is the epicenter of Jerusalem.

Yep, its all about the epicenter. Just as predicted.