Painted into a Corner

Try this: Go to any major city in Israel today and stand on a busy street corner. Then pick up a pebble, close your eyes, and give it a fling. Chances are that you will hit a rabbi who is predicting the Messiah will come in the Jewish year 5776. Such is the current climate among many religious Jews in Israel, and this messianic fever is growing and intensifying like gangbusters.

FYI: The Jewish year of 5776 runs from sundown on September 13, 2015 to sundown on October 2, 2016.

So, here we are. The most revered rabbis in all of Israel are getting it from Bible codes found in the Torah. They are getting it from signs and visions. They are getting it from their own interpretation of the interplay between Old Testament Scripture and current events. And they are shouting it from the rooftops, and urging Jews throughout the world to make aliyah, or to return to Israel. They are telling all Jews to repent and spit shine their moral behavior in order to hasten the Messiah's arrival and prepare for this earth-shattering event—an event every observant Jew prays for three times a day:

"I believe with complete faith in the coming of the Messiah, and though he may delay, nevertheless I wait for his coming every day."

Of course, as everyone knows, the Jews do not accept the idea that Jesus Christ was their prophesied Messiah. But make no mistake—the expectation of the Messiah is a fundamental and deeply ingrained part of the Jewish religious mindset. Although Israel today is largely a secular society, to roughly half of the population of Israel, yearning for the arrival of the Messiah is an integral part of what it means to be a Jew.

And that yearning is reaching fever pitch.

Many biblically knowledgeable born-again Christians, however, are watching with keen interest as the prophetic scenario congeals into the shape outlined in Scripture, and understand that we are rapidly approaching the beginning of Daniel's 70th Week, aka the Tribulation. What many Christians are not aware of, however, is how the current Jewish expectations of the coming Messiah play an integral part in the way the end-time scenario will play out.

What I'd like to do in this article is briefly review some of the fundamental reasons why Jews do not accept Jesus as the Messiah, partly in order to establish the context for my second goal, which is to review some of the things the Jews do expect of the man they will hail as their Mashiach (Messiah). Finally, I want to discuss how some of these same messianic expectations will ultimately lead the Jewish people right where God wants them—painted into a corner with no one to turn to except their God and their true Messiah that they spurned 2,000 years ago.

Many people (both Christians and Jews) don't realize that two thousand years ago there were certain groups of people in Jewish society who were anticipating the arrival of the Messiah, and the reason is simple: They knew the Old Testament. They had studied the book of Daniel and were familiar with the prophecy of Daniel's 70 Weeks:

This prophecy was given to Daniel in the sixth century BC, and the command to rebuild Jerusalem being referred to was issued 90-odd years later by Medo-Persian King Artaxerxes Longimanus in 445 BC. It is the considered opinion of many biblical scholars that Jesus entered Jerusalem as the Messiah on the back of a donkey in AD 32, exactly 483 years later (calculated using the standard 360-day prophetic year). And although it is notoriously difficult to be 100 percent certain, it is the opinion of some of the most capable researchers that the prophecy was in fact fulfilled not just to the exact year, but to the very day.

The point, however, is that there were people in ancient times who properly understood Daniel's prophecy, and so understood they were on a 483-year countdown. They knew when the Messiah was going to die, and thus were looking decades in advance for Him to be born. That's why the magi, who probably traveled by caravan from Iran and brought gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to Jesus some months after His birth (Matt. 2:1–12) had been actively looking for an astronomical sign—they knew from the book of Daniel that they were in the general season of the Messiah's birth. God always has a remnant of people who have some idea of what He's up to.

For the last two thousand years, of course, after rejecting and crucifying their prophesied Messiah, Jews have had no choice but to sandblast from the book of Daniel any trace of reference to the Messiah's first appearance.

Ditto for the rest of the Old Testament.

First Advent? What First Advent?!

When Christians talk to Jews about religion, the first question out of their mouths is usually this:

"Why do Jews reject Jesus as the Messiah?"

It seems like a perfectly reasonable question to us; and when we ask it, we are thinking along the following lines:

"After all, when you read in the New Testament about all the miracles He performed, how He was crucified and rose from the grave according to prophecy, and how He fulfilled every other prophecy about the First Advent, how on earth could anyone not believe He was the prophesied Messiah? My goodness, are you blind?"

In reality, however, the question is almost an insult to Jews because it assumes that they have (a) given serious, biblically based consideration to Jesus as a potential candidate for the Messiah, (b) perhaps found Him wanting on one or more points although generally fulfilling many prophecies, and (c) scratched Him off the list for those biblically based reasons. But that's not quite the case.

What Christians fail to understand is that in the minds of most Jews, we may as well be asking them:

"Why do Jews reject Spider-Man as the Messiah?"

Which would arguably make more sense to them because to most Jews, Spider-Man is clearly better qualified to fill the position than Jesus ever was. What many Christians don't get is that Jesus isn't even on the short list for Jews—He is rejected out of hand without further discussion. In any conversation about the Messiah among Jews, the name "Yeshua" will not be mentioned—probably not even in jest.

As Christians, we look at all the prophecies Jesus fulfilled at the First Advent and scratch our heads in bewilderment as to how anyone can miss the fact that He fulfilled every one of them to the last detail. To which Jews reply:

"First Advent prophecies? What First Advent prophecies?!"

Oh, you know, just a few minor details, like the following Top 20 list of prophecies that state that the Messiah would...

• be born of a virgin (Isa. 7:14)
• be born in the town of Bethlehem (Mic. 5:2)
• come from the tribe of Judah (Gen. 49:10)
• be a legal heir of King David (Isa. 7:13–14)
• be preceded by a messenger/forerunner (Isa. 40:3)
• perform miracles (Isa. 35:5–6)
• speak in parables (Ps. 78:2)
• enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zech. 9:9)
• be rejected by Israel (Isa. 55:2)
• be betrayed by a friend (Zech. 13:6)
• be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zech. 11:12)
• be deserted by His friends (Zech. 13:7)
• be silent before His accusers (Isa. 53:7)
• be beaten and spit on (Isa. 50:6)
• be crucified (Ps. 22:16)
• be crucified with sinners (Isa. 53:12)
• have His garments gambled for (Ps. 22:18)
• have none of His bones broken (Ps. 34:20)
• be buried in a rich man's tomb (Isa. 53:9)
• be resurrected (Ps. 16:8–10)

...and scores of other Old Testament prophecies concerning the First Advent. To which Jews reply:

"First Advent? What First Advent?!"

Uhmm...and the argument is effectively over. Ever since they rejected Jesus and had Him crucified two thousand years ago, the Jews have been forced to find ways to scrub the Old Testament clean of any reference to the Messiah that could conceivably point toward Jesus. A variety of techniques are used for this search and destroy mission, but two primary themes shine through clearly:

• Jews insist that for the last two millennia Christians have deliberately mistranslated and misinterpreted the Hebrew Scriptures in order to elevate some (possibly fictional) character named Yeshua to messianic status. Not only that, but we have concocted our own phony "New Testament" to back up our story and make it appear as if He fulfilled all these so-called First Advent messianic prophecies, and then use the whole kit and caboodle as an excuse to persecute them and rob them of their spiritual heritage.

• Jews insist that only native speakers of Hebrew (i.e., Jews) are capable of understanding exactly what the Old Testament really says and really means. Thus, whenever our interpretation differs from theirs, ours is automatically wrong and theirs is automatically right. In other words, they play the Hebrew card. Naturally, this leaves 99.99 percent of Christians on the outside looking in, squawking about some alleged rabble-rouser named Yeshua and desperately clinging to our fake New Testament "Skriptchers."

One of the most amusing examples I've ever come across of Christians being accused by Jews of mistranslating the Old Testament has to do with the prophecy concerning the Messiah's virgin birth:

The Hebrew word translated as "virgin" is almah (virgin, young woman, girl, maid). Jews will become apoplectic in their insistence that it should be translated as "young woman" here, not "virgin."

Talk about a sign from God...there's a news item that would rock the world:

Young woman conceives and bears a son! Details at 11.

As far as mistranslating and misinterpreting Hebrew Scripture is concerned, the overarching accusation against Christian belief in the Messiah's supposed first appearance two thousand years ago is that the Old Testament verses that Christians claim speak about the Messiah and the alleged First Advent are really speaking about the nation of Israel.

"No no no, you've got it all wrong...we're the Suffering Servant!"

Isaiah 53 is arguably the premier example of this. Jews claim that the nation of Israel is being referred to (in the singular) in Isaiah 51 and 52, and so obviously chapter 53 is also about the nation of Israel—and nothing more. Not the Messiah. No sir.

Now, they do have a valid point when they say that Israel is sometimes spoken of in the singular, often as "my servant" and so on. There's no question about that. But the truth is that Isaiah 53 speaks prophetically about the Messiah and His first appearance as the Suffering Servant with such stark, unmistakable clarity that the only things missing are the flashing neon signs. It is so clear that the most hardened obstinacy is required to not see it—you have to simply refuse to see it.

And that is precisely what Jews must do to maintain their biblical viewpoint. But what they don't tend to do very often is discuss the details of the resulting interpretation. Just to illustrate the level of absurdity this can reach, I took the liberty of inserting the words "the nation of Israel" along with the appropriate pronouns into Isaiah 53 just to see how it would read (which is something I've never seen a Jewish person do) and below is a short excerpt.

First, the way the passage actually reads:

This clearly speaks prophetically of Jesus, point by point. It also makes perfect theological sense. God laid the punishment for the sins of Israel (and of the world) on His perfect, sinless Son. That's what Jesus was born into the world to do. Now, here is how the same passage reads when we insist that it is the nation of Israel that is being spoken of, and not the Messiah:

But the nation of Israel was pierced for our transgressions. It was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on the nation of Israel; and by its wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on the nation of Israel the iniquity of us all.

The nation of Israel was oppressed, yet when it was afflicted it didn't open its mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so the nation of Israel didn't open its mouth.

The nation of Israel was taken away by oppression and judgment; and as for its generation, who considered that it was cut off out of the land of the living and stricken for the disobedience of my people (i.e., Israel)?

Read this carefully, and then look me in the eyes and tell me it makes sense to you. Yes, the nation of Israel has suffered and been punished in many ways. No one disputes that. Yes, God has judged and continues to judge Israel for breaking their covenant with Him—for playing the harlot and abandoning His ways, and for rejecting His Son the Messiah He sent them—and He's doing it to ultimately compel them to repent and return to Him (which they will). That judgment will culminate in the Great Tribulation, which is the means by which God will accomplish His will for His people.

But the resulting passage of Scripture above borders on gibberish! Not only does it make no theological sense, it doesn't even make good grammatical sense. For example, in the last sentence (Isa. 53:8), we basically have Israel being killed and stricken for the disobedience of Israel.

Uh...excuse me?

You don't have to be a grammar maven to see that the sentence is written in such a way that the object must be distinct from the subject. To get a feeling for how little sense this interpretation makes, consider the following sentence:

Ex. Dr. Johnson performed heart surgery on Henry.

Now, try to convince me that Dr. Johnson is Henry: Dr. Henry Johnson.

It makes no sense at all. But this is the extreme that the Jews must go to maintain their position that there are absolutely no Scriptures that speak of the Messiah's first appearance as the Suffering Servant, and that Jesus couldn't possibly be that Messiah.

But just as Jews dismiss any verses Christians claim speak to the First Advent, they enthusiastically embrace many of the prophecies regarding the Second Advent. As far as legitimate messianic prophecies go, most Jews only consider prophecies that are general descriptions of the Messiah's character (which apply no matter when He comes) and descriptions of what the Messiah will do when He comes to establish the kingdom. And as we shall see, the Jews will mistakenly see some of the Second Coming prophecies as being fulfilled (prematurely) by the Antichrist.

In other words, as far as what the Messiah will actually do is concerned, they only consider prophecies that Christians understand as pertaining to the Tribulation, the Second Coming, and the Millennial Kingdom, all of which are yet future and so unfulfilled. Jews will point to something the Messiah will do at or following the Second Coming, and the only thing Christians can do is stand there and say:

"Well, yeah...Jesus is gonna do that when He comes back!"

Which I admit sounds incredibly lame.

This is why the Jews can be so emphatic when they insist that Jesus didn't fulfill one single messianic prophecy! Zip. Zero. Nada. They eliminate every trace of the First Advent prophecies (all of which Jesus fulfilled in stunning detail), and focus only on prophecies that revolve around the Tribulation, Second Coming, and Millennial Kingdom, which include prophecies He will fulfill when He returns. They insist that there is no biblical justification to think the Messiah comes twice, and claim that the Messiah only comes once (in the future) and will do everything when He does. End of story.

And that's an easy story to sell—all you have to do is trash a couple hundred First Advent prophecies* that Jesus fulfilled to the letter, and you're in business.

*Note that due to the inherent difficulty in dispensing with or reconciling some of the prophecies of the First Advent without pointing to Jesus in any way, there are many Jews who believe that the soul of the Messiah is somehow "split," and that there will come in the future two Messiahs: a Messiah son of Joseph (the spawn of a few pesky First Advent prophecies that seem to contradict Second Advent prophecies) and a Messiah son of David (the product of mostly Second Advent prophecies).

The spin varies, but most of the interpretations I've seen relate how Messiah son of Joseph (a political and/or military leader) will come first, win battles for Israel, be killed, and somehow pave the way for the advent of Messiah son of David, who will resurrect Messiah son of Joseph (and quite probably all Jews who have died while he's at it) and then proceed to establish the Davidic Kingdom and world peace.

Confused? Let me help you out: Jesus fulfilled the "Messiah son of Joseph" prophecies two thousand years ago, and will fulfill the "Messiah son of David" prophecies in the not-too-distant future. Problem solved.

There's only one Messiah. There's always been only one Messiah.

And His name is Jesus.

The Messiah checklist

So, if the Jews are anxiously anticipating the arrival of their Messiah and they adamantly refuse to consider the fact that it's Jesus, then exactly what are they looking for? What do they expect this character to do when he gets here? How will they know him?

Messianic expectations among Jews are all over the place, which is no surprise when you consider that they stubbornly reject any messianic prophecies in the Old Testament that clearly and unmistakably point to Jesus. Current Jewish expectations about the Messiah tend to be somewhat vague, and often tinged with a nebulous (and rather arrogant) "It's Old Testament...we'll just know, OK?" attitude.

Of course, the problem is they didn't "just know" two thousand years ago, and the Bible clearly teaches that they won't know this time around, either. Jesus Himself makes a reference to this fact while excoriating the hard-hearted, unbelieving Jews of His day:

That same hard-hearted unbelief is still prevalent today among Jews, and it's because God Himself has hardened their hearts:

And that means only God can soften them.

By the way, the above verse is a reference to the Rapture, and it points toward a pre-trib Rapture because one of the purposes of the Tribulation is for God to soften the hardened hearts of the Jews in order to bring them back to Himself and ultimately to faith in their true Messiah. According to Romans 11:25, the Church won't be here to see that—our ship will have already set sail.

Oh, and next time you hear a Christian say derogatory things about those stubborn, hard-hearted Jews who reject our Lord and Savior, gently remind them that it was God who hardened their hearts and He did it so that He could (a) ultimately draw His people back to Himself, and (b) make it possible for the Gentiles to be saved by being grafted into their covenant through faith in Christ. Thank you very much.

In spite of the fact that Jewish messianic expectations are somewhat fuzzy and vary from group to group, I narrowed it down to the following five items that seem to pop up pretty frequently. There seems to be widespread agreement among most Jews that the Messiah will meet the following basic criteria:

1. He will gather all Jews back to the land of Israel.
2. He will spread the universal knowledge of God.
3. He will usher in an era of world peace.
4. He will be a mortal man, not divine.
5. He will facilitate the building of the Third Temple.

Let's take a look at these one at a time, and consider how they might impact Israel's decision to declare someone to be their long-awaited Messiah.

1. He will gather all Jews back to the land of Israel (Isa. 43:5–6).

This is actually one of many references to what Jesus will do at the Second Coming, when He will gather all the remaining exiles back to Israel so the Jewish remnant can be ushered into the Millennial Kingdom. The fulfillment of this is described in Matthew 24:31 and Mark 13:27, verses that a lot of Christians mistakenly believe refer to the rapture of the Church. This interpretation has influenced many people to adopt an errant post-tribulation view of the Rapture, a view that leaves Israel out in the cold.

But as more and more Jews from around the world make aliyah and return to the land of Israel, if push came to shove this could easily be checked off as a work in progress.

2. He will spread the universal knowledge of the God of Israel (Zech. 14:9).

After the judgments that Jesus will execute following the Second Coming to determine who is granted or denied entrance into the Millennial Kingdom (Matt. 25), the kingdom will be inaugurated with a population in which every single individual will be a born-again believer in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. So, I guess the above would be a fair statement.

But since the man Israel will embrace as the Messiah will surely be a charismatic leader who will be hailed as a great peacemaker and will no doubt be in the news on a regular basis making grand speeches about peace, love, God, universal brotherhood, etc., it's not too difficult to see how this one could be checked off with relative ease as well.

3. He will be a mortal man—not divine (Num. 23:19, according to Jews).

Jews have always held firm to the fundamental idea that God is absolutely incorporeal, and neither possesses nor assumes any physical form. God is eternal, and exists outside of realm and flow of time, which He created. Everything about Him is infinite. Thus, He cannot be born and cannot die. So, claiming that God assumes human form makes God small and diminishes His divinity. They frequently quote Numbers 23:19 to back it up, claiming it says "God is not a mortal."

There's just one small problem—that's not exactly what it says:

In other words, God is not like sinful men. God doesn't lie like sinful men, nor does He need to repent or change His mind about things like sinful men. No, God in His full essence and in the entirety of His being is not a mortal man in the exact same sense we are. But it doesn't say God's essence cannot inhabit a physical body. Of course, Jews will conveniently only quote the first part of the verse because that meets their need.

Jews insist that God is incapable of temporarily allowing part of Himself to dwell in a body of flesh. The Bible, however, clearly teaches that the one true God exists as a Trinity of three distinct Persons: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. It also clearly teaches that one of them not only can, but did step out of the heavenly realm to come to earth to temporarily inhabit a body of flesh.

As with many things, it comes down to the same old question: Are we or are we not going to believe what God says in His Word?

According to the Jews, God is utterly incapable of fulfilling John 1:14. So, my Jewish brethren, I ask you:

Who's diminishing God here?

For the present discussion, however, the key point is this:

The Jews believe the Messiah will be mortal, and not divine or supernatural in any way. Just a man—not God in the flesh. Not the visible manifestation of an invisible God, as Jesus claimed He was and God's Word confirms that He was. So, if a potential candidate for Messiah comes along, this is the easiest one of the bunch to check off the list—he's gotta be human.

4. He will usher in an era of world peace, and will end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease (Isa. 2:4).

A perfect description of the Millennial Kingdom that Jesus will establish and rule from Jerusalem after He returns following the Tribulation.

When the Jews say the Messiah will usher in an era of world peace, naturally they understand that this won't happen overnight—they'll be the first ones to admit this will take time. Thus, if someone comes along and brokers some type of major peace agreement between Israel and her Arab neighbors, or perhaps implements such an agreement already in existence, he could certainly be considered to be in the running on this criterion.

While one peace agreement alone wouldn't necessarily fulfill the "usher in an era of world peace" requirement, if it brought even a temporary peace between Israel and the surrounding Arab nations, it would at least allow Jews to pencil in a check mark by it.

As you can see, most of these items are a tad on the vague side. They're generally not quantifiable or definitive. Some could be considered a work in progress in some sense. They're not really solid, tangible, black-and-white items that can be seen, touched or measured. You can't kick the tires. You can't take a selfie standing in front of any of them.

All except one.

Third time's a charm

Solomon's Temple, Israel's first, stood for approximately 400 years, from the early tenth century BC to the early sixth century BC. Zarubbabel's Temple (later known as Herod's Temple), their second, stood for roughly 600 years, from the late sixth century BC to AD 70. And for the last two thousand years, Israel has been dreaming of what is usually referred to simply as the Third Temple.

Over the last few years, the drumbeat for the building of the Third Temple has been steadily mounting, and it has reached the point where it's booming like thunder. The Temple Institute in Jerusalem has painstakingly recreated virtually everything needed for temple worship—every garment, every vessel, every implement, every piece of furniture. Jewish men from the tribe of Levi are being trained in every aspect of temple service so they can serve as kohanim, or Levitical priests. Everything needed for the reinstitution of temple worship is about as ready as it can possibly be.

All they need now is a temple.

And that leads us to what is arguably the single biggest thing the Jews are expecting their Messiah to do:

5. He will facilitate the building of the Third Temple (Ezek. 37:26–28).

Of the various things that various groups of Jews expect the Messiah to accomplish, this is the only one I have come across that is absolutely tangible. Either it's there or it's not there.

And for most Jews, it's absolutely nonnegotiable. Deep in the heart of every observant Jew burns a desire to return to the Levitical worship of the one, true, living God. Yahweh. HaShem. The LORD. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the prescribed method of worshiping Him and honoring His holy name was personally delivered to Moses by God and recorded in the Torah. Temple worship is their connection to the Creator of the universe who chose them to be His people forever and to bless the nations of the world through them. For Jews, it's all about them and their relationship with their God.

But that requires a temple. In order for the Jews to return to their covenant relationship with God, there must be a functioning temple standing in Jerusalem. Today, however, if a Jew so much as ascends the Temple Mount and is spotted moving his lips, it is assumed he is praying and he is likely to be arrested and dragged away by Muslim security guards, and possibly tased and pepper-sprayed in the process.

As far as the Jews are concerned, they have chafed under this disgraceful state of affairs far too long, and they are looking to their coming Messiah to turn the status quo on its head and fulfill their aspirations to return to the proper worship of their God. And that involves a temple. They must have a temple, and the Messiah must build it. So, we have our first and only truly tangible, black-and-white criteria—the Messiah must facilitate or pave the way for the Third Temple to be built.

Incidentally, there are groups of Jews today who believe that, rather than being built with human hands, the Third Temple will descend from heaven fully formed. Not surprisingly, they have taken a page from the Evangelical Christian playbook and argue about whether this will happen before or after the Messiah shows up. In other words, they argue over whether the temple will be "pre-Messiah" or "post-Messiah" (and one can only hope that they don't start calling each other "pre-Messies" and "post-Messies").

It's a delightful story, but the truth is that most Jews are looking for the temple to be built using more conventional means, and for the coming Messiah to make it happen.

Setting the stage

So, in a nutshell, the Jews are anticipating the appearance of a mortal man who will gather the Jews back to Israel, spread the knowledge of God, bring peace, and build the Third Temple. I want to take a closer look at these last two items, because I'm convinced they are key and that there's a significant connection between them.

As far as bringing peace and building the Third Temple are concerned, I have good news and bad news:

The good news is that someone will bring peace and build the temple.
The bad news is that he won't be the Messiah.

Let's start with the temple. If you read the prophecy of Daniel's 70 Weeks carefully, you'll notice a key bit of information:

We know the "week" being referred to is Daniel's 70th week, or the seven-year Tribulation. Thus, the "middle of the week" is the midway point of that seven-year period. We know that the second half of the Tribulation, or the Great Tribulation, begins when the Antichrist sets up an image in the holy place and the False Prophet forces people to worship the Antichrist as God (Rev. 13:11–18; 2 Thess. 2:3–4). According to Daniel's prophecy, temple worship will come to a stop at that point.

The abomination of desolation occurs in the holy place, and there's only one holy place in Scripture and it's in the temple. For the Antichrist to "cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease," it must have already started—in the temple. My point is slapping us right in the face:

There must be a functioning temple by the midpoint of the Tribulation.

As I said, the Jews absolutely expect the Messiah to facilitate the building of the Third Temple. And they emphasize that it's the Third Temple—not the Fourth or the Fifth. In other words, in their minds, by their own criteria:

Whoever builds the Third Temple must be the Messiah!

Now, let's talk peace. In Ezekiel 38, we see a coalition of nations including Russia and Iran attacking Israel sometime either just before or during the Tribulation (the exact timing of this attack with respect to the Tribulation is the subject of much speculation, and I don't want to get into that here). But notice what Ezekiel says about Israel when this attack occurs:

The people of Israel are "at rest" and "dwell safely." The walls have come down. Peace and security—the mantra of the entire world today. Clearly someone (and the prophet Daniel points to the Antichrist) will broker a peace agreement between Israel and her Arab neighbors at some point prior to this attack in Ezekiel 38–39, only it will turn out to be a false peace that allows Israel to be caught off guard.

Now, if you know anything at all about the situation between the Jews and the Arabs concerning Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, you know that in order for Israel to be allowed to build the Third Temple, there will have to be some earth-shattering changes to the current status quo. It will take a peace deal of historic proportions to make building the Third Temple even remotely possible, much less a reality.

Many Bible prophecy teachers are convinced (and I agree) that it is precisely this false peace that will be brokered and/or enforced by the Antichrist that will clear the way for Israel to build the Third Temple, and in all likelihood the green light to build it will be part of the terms of the "covenant" that is "confirmed" that launches Daniel's 70th Week (Dan. 9:27).

Let's summarize:

Q. Who will confirm the covenant that brings peace?

A1. According to Jews, the Messiah.

A2. According to Daniel, the Antichrist.

Q. So, who will facilitate the building of the Third Temple?

A1. According to Jews, the man who brought them peace: the Messiah.

A2. In reality, the man who brought them a false peace: the Antichrist.

For the Jews, it will be irrefutable. Inescapable. By their own criteria, the man who brings them peace and facilitates the building of the Third Temple can be none other than their long-awaited Messiah.

Whoever or whatever he may be.

Painted into a corner

I can't help but chuckle when people argue about whether the Antichrist—the man the Jews will be deceived into accepting as their Messiah—will be a Jew or a Muslim, and write their bestselling books in which they state so authoritatively that the Antichrist must be this, that, or the other thing.

As if that really mattered...because in the end, it really doesn't.

I always get the feeling these authors haven't talked to a lot of Jewish people recently, because in the Jews' opinion (the only one that counts in this situation, incidentally), as soon as a man comes along and establishes peace between Israel and her Arab neighbors and facilitates the building of the Third Temple, he's the one. Period. Bingo. Gotta be. Of course, the Jews assume he'll be a Jew, and roll their eyes at the suggestion he might be something else. But if he brings Israel peace and builds the Third Temple, any pesky details that might potentially disqualify him in the minds of some Jews may be swept away in the euphoria.

Now, I'm not saying everyone in Israel will agree on it, because it's like the old joke: When two Jews get together, you have three opinions. Although I'm sure there will be Jews in Israel who will disagree, I am convinced that there will be tremendous pressure across the board for them, as a nation, to accept this man as the Messiah because he will fit the bill—a bill they themselves have defined.

With their expectations of what they believe their Messiah will do, the Jewish people are effectively painting themselves into a corner.

The point I want to leave you with is this:

It's precisely the corner God has led the Jews to paint themselves into.

God is orchestrating these events and allowing them to play out according to His will to bring Israel back into their covenant relationship with Him and to ultimately bring them to faith in their true Messiah, Jesus Christ.

In order to do that, however, He is going to allow them to be deceived by the hardness of their own hearts and accept an impostor, a satanically indwelt man God will use to purge them during the Great Tribulation in order to bring forth a believing remnant who will seek Him with all their hearts and finally come to faith in their real Messiah.

Good luck with that: This is the reason why well-meaning Christian groups that organize high-octane efforts to proselytize Jews in Israel are typically met with rock-throwing resistance. It was God who hardened the Jews—and it's God who will un-harden them. Not Christian "missionaries," a word used as a derogatory term for Evangelical Christians in Israel that is roughly equivalent to calling someone a Nazi (a word that is also used).

It's all part of God's plan, and when He's done, His name will be sanctified in the earth and all the nations of the world will know He is the LORD.

We've all seen the classic cartoon where some hapless schmuck is painting a floor and has foolishly painted himself into a corner, and now he's stuck with no way out. God is sovereignly allowing the Jews to paint themselves into an eschatological corner—one in which they will almost have to embrace the Antichrist as their Messiah. But why?

Recall that one of the criteria the Jews are looking for in the Messiah is the fact that he will be a mortal man, not divine. This is precisely why when the Antichrist demands to be worshiped as God, most Jews will balk and realize they've been deceived. But when they refuse to worship him, the Antichrist will launch an onslaught against the Jews that will dwarf anything that has been done to them in their entire history.

During WWII, the Holocaust killed one out of every three Jews. During the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist will kill two out of every three Jews (Zech. 13:8). God will use the Antichrist to vent His wrath against His people (Isa. 10:5), but His purpose is to purge them and bring them to the point where they finally turn their hearts back to their God and cry out to Him and to their real Messiah to save them, and save them He will (Hos. 5:15).

In order to get the Jews to realize that their salvation and reconciliation with God is only through repentance and belief in faith in their real Messiah Jesus Christ (and not through legalistic observance of the Torah), God is going to have to inflict persecution on them that will make the Holocaust look like a fraternity hazing. The Great Tribulation will be so horrific that I just shake my head and ask myself:

Dear God, is that what it's going to take to get them out of the corner they've painted themselves into?

These days, I meet a lot of people who don't believe in God. Some worship the god of science, and tout grand-sounding ideas like the theory of evolution and the Big Bang theory, brashly claiming that "science" reduces the biblical accounts of Creation, a global flood, etc. to mythical absurdities.

Some equate belief in God to belief in Zeus or Thor. Jesus (if He existed) was just a great moral teacher. The Bible is a bunch of fairy tales sprinkled with a dash of moral philosophy. They believe it's time for people to jettison the airbrushed superstitions of religion and come to grips with the fact that we are our own gods and have the power to make the world a better place. (Can you say "Agenda 2030"?)

Others believe God is an impersonal cosmic force that we can learn to tap into and control through techniques that amount to repackaged mysticism. Jesus attained Christ-consciousness, and showed us how we can do the same if we meditate and tune into the cosmic force that dwells within us all.

I also meet a lot of good people who just try to get along with others and hope things will all work out in the end. They don't really think they are "sinners," and so all this talk about how the only way to have a relationship with God is through repentance and belief in faith that Jesus Christ died for their sins is just a religious guilt trip Christians try to lay on them.

And as the prophetic clock inexorably counts down, I watch these people stubbornly, foolishly, and naively paint themselves into a corner of pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo, philosophical skepticism, New Age religion, and plain old wishful thinking, and I ask myself a similar agonizing question:

Dear God, what's it going to take to get them out of the corner they've painted themselves into?

Greg Lauer — SEP '15

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