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This week as we celebrate Yom Kippur, the Hebrew Day of Atonement, we should also remember the miracle of the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

After their miraculous victory over the Arabs in the 1967 war, Israel had become complacent and confident in its military superiority. Its 1967 enemies, Egypt and Syria, seethed with resentment and desire to avenge their humiliating defeat. Together they developed a plan to attack Israel in the Sinai dessert and the Golan heights using new tactics and new technology. The attack was set to take place on a date which would hit the Israelis when their preparedness was at its lowest point, the Yom Kippur Holy Day.

The Israelites were taken completely by surprise. Worse, the Egyptians inflicted defeats on Israel tanks and air power using their new Soviet technology while the Syrian tank forces overwhelmed the few scattered Israeli tanks on duty. Israel was days away from a total collapse, but the Egyptians outran their technical protections and the Syrians were stopped by a handful of Israeli tanks. Miraculously the war turned around, resulting in a massive defeat of the Egyptians and Syrians. As a result, Egypt entered into a momentous peace treaty and Israel’s borders remained secure. God had turned disaster into security.

In the years since the Yom Kippur miracle the hand of God can be seen as He has watched over Israel. The terrorist Palestinian Liberation Organization has been defeated and rendered impotent in the West Bank. Saddam Hussein, who wanted to take Jerusalem, attacked his Kuwaiti bankers instead and he and his threat to Israel have been eliminated. Another anti-semetic terrorist, Gadaffi, has been overthrown in Libya.

The so-called “Arab Spring” has brought instability and new threats to Israel, but God’s protection continues to be manifested. For a while it appeared that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt would wage war on Israel, but the Brotherhood was overthrown and its ally, the Hamas terrorists in Gaza, has been cut off from Egyptian support and defeated by Israel in a 2014 invasion. Syria has fallen into a full scale civil war where Israel’s enemies Iran and Hezbollah are fighting Israel’s other enemies Al Queda and ISIL, and leaving Israel alone for now. Thanks to God, the miraculous peace won in the 1973 Yom Kippur war is still holding.

This is not to say that Israel is not still threatened.  We believe that Israel is in the middle of a 150 year war which is described in Revelation 9:1-11 (See our Blog of 5/7/14 “The Peace of Jerusalem”). But we also know that God watches over Israel.

Let us thank God for His continued miraculous intervention on behalf of Israel.

And we pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

           Tomorrow we celebrate the Jewish Feast of Trumpets, also known as Rosh Hashanah.

            The Feast of Trumpets is one of the Seven Feasts of Israel established in the Bible. It was set on the first day of the seventh Lunar month and celebrated by the blowing of Trumpets, a sacred assembly, and a special sacrificial offering. The Jewish Rabbis stated that the Trumpet blasts were to bring Israel into remembrance of the Lord, to confound Satan, and to call men to repentance by awakening their slumbering spirits. Rabbinic teaching also holds to the idea that on the Feast of Trumpets the books were opened and those whose names were in the Book of Life were kept alive, those in the Book of Death died, and a third group were given the chance to repent and be Judged on the Day of Atonement 10 days later.

At some point the Feast of Trumpets also became celebrated as Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish civil New Year. Some say that Moses established this custom, although Moses also recorded God’s instruction that the religious year would began in the Spring. Others believe that the custom began during the Babylonian exile. And still others think that the Civil New Year was set in the Seventh Month because of a Jewish tradition that the world was created in the seventh month. In any event, the day was celebrated along with the Fest of Trumpets, with special benedictions for the Kingdom of God, the remembrance of God, and the blowing of the horns.

For Christians the Feast of Trumpets and the Seven Feasts of Israel are a prophetic picture of God’s plan for redemption. The first three feasts, Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits, celebrate the atoning death and resurrection of Christ which occurred during those festivals in 30 AD. The Feast of Pentecost, celebrating the beginning of the harvest, was the birthday of the Church on that day in 30 AD. Trumpets, with its emphasis on repentance and judgment, is equated with the trumpet sound at Christ’s Return (See 1 Cor 15:52). Some think that the awakening of the dead at Trumpets is the source of the saying “Wake up O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Eph 5:14b).

But the feast of Trumpets is more than a prophetic picture for Christians. The Church needs to hear the trumpet call to remember God, confound Satan, and repent, just as the Israelites did. We need to awaken our slumbering spirits as the Israelites did with their trumpet blasts, and remember God and His Kingdom as we come into a New Jewish Year.

Let us pray that the Church will hear the clarion call of the Trumpets and awaken from her slumber.

            As we approach another anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against United States, it is a good time to revisit Jonathan Cahn’s important 2011 book The Harbinger.

Mr. Cahn draws a parallel between God’s warning given to the Northern Kingdom of Israel as its enemies attacked and the warnings given to the United States as the terrorists attacked. Like ancient Israel, America seems to have turned away from God into Idolatry, child sacrifice, and sinful lifestyles. As a result, ancient Israel and America had stepped outside of God’s protective covering, allowing judgment fall as their enemies attacked. And, in both instances, the response to God’s judgment was a defiant declaration to rebuild and replant independently of God.

The defiance of the ancient Israelites was captured in the book of Isaiah (9:9b, 10): “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with hewn stone; the fig trees have been felled but we will replace them with cedars.” That the very same scripture was quoted by leading American politicians as they voiced a determination to do the same thing. We rebuilt the World Trade Center and planted a cedar “Tree of Hope” at Ground Zero to show our defiance.

In the case of Northern Israel, they had received their final warning and their kingdom was destroyed ten years later. We in the U.S. received a second warning, the economic crash of 2008. And again our politicians said they would rebuild without God. One of our political parties even went so far as to try to remove all mention of God in it platform in the 2012 Election. Yet we have continued to suffer warnings as our ambassador to Libya was assassinated on September 11, 2012 and terrorists are overrunning large areas of Africa and the Middle East in 2014. Even the “Tree of Hope” has died and been quietly removed from Ground Zero.

Mr. Cahn points out that the only way to save America is for the Church to awaken and follow the instructions given to King Solomon almost three thousand years ago:

“If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” 2CH 7:14

It is not too late to save America, if only the Church will stand up and do its part.

            Last week marked the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s monumental 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington DC.

In his speech, Dr. King reached back to the basic values of Americans, calling on the Nation to honor the promise of “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” made in our Declaration of Independence. (See our Blog of 7/2/14 “Declaration Day”). He looked forward to the day when segregation evaporated and people of different races could meet together as friends. And he expressed his vision of equality, where a person would be judged by the content of his character rather than his skin color.

Dr. King’s speech electrified the Nation. Within a few years the Civil Rights laws passed ending legal segregation. More importantly, people began to see the ugliness of racism and the atmosphere of the country began to change. For most Americans, hatred and bigotry have been replaced by acceptance and tolerance. Opportunity opened up for minorities and today a black man is president of the U.S.  While pockets of bigotry remain in both black and white communities, we are closing in on Dr. King’s dream of a color blind society.

The key to understanding Dr. King’s astonishing accomplishment is to understand who Dr. King really was. Dr. King lived his life as a Christian Pastor, committed to Christ and the Biblical way of living. While many called for violent revolution, Dr. King told his followers to take the non violent path and turn the other cheek like Christ did. He understood the power of blessing and not cursing his enemies, and in the end he won many of them over. By following his Christian principles, Dr. King changed the atmosphere of the Nation and won a great victory not only for his people, but for all people.

Today it is the Bible believing Christians who are becoming an oppressed minority. Christian institutions like marriage are being degraded as the sexual revolution reaches its “Anything Goes” conclusion. The resulting fatherlessness has created poverty, despair, and violence in our communities as godless generations come of age. Christianity is banished from the public square in many places, and it values are attacked as ignorant and outdated. Our spiritual atmosphere is becoming toxic, and we are desperately in need of another Christian like Dr. King to change our atmosphere.

Instead of cursing the darkness, as many do, we should follow the path laid out by Christ and followed by Dr. King. Let us bless and not curse our enemies, winning them over by love.

We can change our atmosphere if we do it God’s way.

Niall Ferguson, a recognized economic historian and bestselling author, has identified a crisis in Western societies which he names in his book title The Great Degeneration.

The symptoms of social decay are all around us. The economies of the U.S., the U.K., and the Western European countries have become stagnant, with little or no growth. Unemployment rises higher and higher, with many leaving the workforce and “Disability” doubling from 3% to 6% of the U.S. population in just 3 years. Total unfunded U.S. government debt is over 15 times Gross National Product and 3 times total U.S. net worth. The impending collapse of the once vibrant Western Economies is the “Great Degeneration.”

While the symptoms are economic, Ferguson identifies four root causes which go far beyond economics:

1. Western democracies have pandered to their voters by creating the huge unfunded welfare programs which are beginning to depress economic growth and opportunity. Essentially, we have committed massive theft of the resources of future generations.

1. Governments have instituted even more complex regulations which have the effect of choking off economic growth and prosperity. The cost to the U.S. economy alone is almost 2 trillion annually. In their pride, governments fail to see the consequences of their regulations, such as the 2008 housing meltdown being caused by mandated expansion of home ownership, and then pile even more regulations to “fix” the problem they created.

1. The rule of law, which is foundational for the protection of our property, prosperity, and freedom, is under attack. Governments have whittled away at our rights in the guise of national security or crime fighting (See our Blog of 7/16/14, “Society’s Immune System disaster”). The truth is, we live in an emerging police state where government power is turned against political opponents, entrepreneurs, and politically incorrect groups including the Church.

1. The fourth symptom of degeneration is the decline in voluntary civic organizations such as charitable organizations, private schools, and Churches. These organizations are increasingly being supplanted by government programs, as people are abandoning their responsibilities to care for their cities, schools, and neighbors. The result is a loveless dependency on government which alienates both the giver and recipient.

From a Christian perspective, these signs of degeneration illuminate the sins of our age. We have not only stolen from our children, we have also murdered many of them and sacrificed their educations and futures for political gain. Thinking ourselves wise, we have become fools by crippling our society with a vast web of destructive regulations and laws. We have sold our freedom for empty promises of safety and government benefits. And even the Church has abandoned many of its functions to the god of government.

As we see our sins and see the “Great Degeneration” all around us, the question is what to do about it. Ferguson pins his hope on a revival of voluntary civic organizations, focusing on education outside of the Government schools. Yet he overlooks the largest voluntary organization of them all, the Church, which still has 2 of 3 Americans as memebers. Our only chance to save our societies is through a revival in the Church.

We must start with repentance of our generational thefts and murders, and our idolatry of the government. We must defend the freedom of religion and speech, and the foundational Biblical principles of private property and free enterprise. At the same time the Church must take up its mantle of ministry to the poor and the marginalized, bringing social justice not through the false promises of police state coercion, but through the love of God. And Christians must join together in unity to speak with one voice, Christ’s voice, as He intended.

As intercessors, we must join together to pray for a revival in our Churches, so that God’s people will seek His face and heal our land.

Only God can turn around The Great Degeneration.

            On August 20, 1619, 395 years ago, the first African slave was brought to Virginia. Along with him came the curse of slavery.

The slave trade is as old as humanity, with African slaves being sold to Arab slavers long before Europeans appeared. The Europeans, however, took slave trading to a whole new level as they used Africans in the New World to replace the Native American populations who had been decimated by European diseases. By the time African slave trade had been brought to an end, almost 10 million Africans had been brought to the New World. Millions more died to in the passage.

The curse of slavery fell hardest on Africa. The work of catching and selling slaves was done by local African kings and traders. In exchange they received European goods and weapons, enabling them to expand their power to catch more slaves. However, the incessant warfare depopulated and destabilized both victors and victims. Ultimately the African kings were subjected by the Europeans. Even today, much of the poverty in Africa can be traced back to the slave trade and its aftermath.

European slavers also suffered greatly from the slave trade. Since they had no immunity to African diseases, over half died in their first year in Africa and only 10% made it back alive. The slave ships took yellow fever and other African diseases to the New World, creating deadly disease zones in the jungles of Central and South America. Areas like the Amazon River Basin, which had supported large Native American populations, became virtually uninhabitable. Only in modern times has science rolled back the areas dominated by the deadly African diseases.

The Americans also fell prey to the curse of slavery as the institution undermined American values and then divided the country. The American Civil War was fought to end slavery, and one American died for each slave brought into the country. Even today, race relations remain strained because of the curse of slavery. Every so often we get a reminder of our past as we are now getting with the racial riots in Fergusson, Missouri.

Some have tried to use the Bible to support slavery, but they twist the Scriptures to do so. Slavery was a fact of life in the ancient world, but God established Israel with laws that forgave debts and gave liberty to slaves every 7 years. Our modern bankruptcy laws come from God’s debt forgiveness laws.

Slavery, like its modern cousins Socialism and Communism, is a manifestation of the Spirit of Money, or Mammon, which steals the labor of its victims. Make no mistake, God wants to see people set free from bondage.

Let us pray that the curse of slavery will be banished from our world. We must ask and give forgiveness so that God’s blessings can bring healing, and reverse the curse.

In recent weeks we’ve seen horror stories come out of Iraq as the fanatic Islamist “Caliphate” has begun a genocidal campaign against Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq.

The Yazadis, a group following the Zoroastrian religion of the ancient Persian Empire, with a mixture of Islamic and other religions, faced extinction as the Caliphate army has driven them out of their homes. The Caliphate also set their sights on the Kurds, a Muslim people group living in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran who are related to the Iranians. The Kurds, who have appreciated the U.S. for freeing them from persecution under Saddam Hussein, are asking for help to fight off the Caliphate forces. And, finally, it appears that America has responded with humanitarian aid for the Yazadis and military aid for the Kurds.

Meanwhile the Chrsitian population of Mosul (formerly Nineveh) and other areas in Northern Iraq has been told to convert or die. These ancient communities were actually welcomed by the real Islamic Caliphate of 1200 years ago, and included Nestorian Christians who has carried the Gospel to China. Even before the Caliphate persecution, over a million Christians had fled from the increasingly hostile area of Northern Iraq. The persecution and genocide against Christians, it seems, has not drawn the humanitarian outcry and response that the persecution of the Yazadis has drawn. As Americans, we were right to help the Yazadis but wrong to neglect the Christians.

American politics has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq. We have wasted the sacrifices of our troops and abandoned our friends in a shameful rush to make political points back home. Now the consequences of our reckless retreat, easily foreseen and easily preventable, have come to pass. Their blood is on our hands.

The Church in America cannot turn its back on the suffering Church and people in Iraq. We must intercede for our brothers and pray that our leaders will have wisdom and compassion, repenting of their errors and not compounding them by covering them over.

We must also pray that the American Church will be moved with compassion to meet the needs in Iraq. The refugees need food, water, clothing and shelter. We can and should send help in the name of Jesus. We must also pray blessings on the Islamists, that their eyes will be opened to the truth and their hearts to God.

Oh, and don’t foreget to pray that the Yazadis will be open to the saving message of Christ.

In the end, our spiritual weapons of prayer and love can overcome Satan’s weapons of hate and fear. Lets start using them.