Dragged Across the Rubicon

On a winter's day in 49 BC, Julius Caesar and his men crossed a shallow, muddy river in northeastern Italy that formed part of the northern border of the Roman Republic: the Rubicon. After the four-year civil war that ensued, his fateful decision to cross that river would culminate in the establishment of the Roman Empire.

Under Roman law, a general entering the Roman Republic from the province in which he held authority automatically forfeited his imperium, or the right to command his troops. The Senate had recently ordered Julius to step down from his command and return to Rome following his success in the Gallic Wars, and the normal protocol would have been for him to essentially disband his army before doing so. Failure to obey this law, and thus act in a manner toward the Republic that could be deemed threatening or aggressive was a capital offense—not only for the general, but for his men as well.

So, when Julius Caesar and a single legion of soldiers splashed through the muddy waters of the Rubicon and into the Roman Republic to march on its capital Rome, he and the men he commanded knew they had just signed their own death warrants.

They knew there were only two possible outcomes: victory or death.

Not one to act rashly, Julius agonized over his decision to lead his men across the Rubicon. They were all keenly aware that they would either be executed as traitors, or change the course of history as a result of the bold military gamble that crossing one muddy river represented. But on January 10, 49 BC, cross they did.

Upon crossing the Rubicon, Julius Caesar uttered the famous words:

"Alea iacta est." ("The die is cast.")

Indeed. For Julius Caesar and his men, there was no turning back.

Today, when someone talks about "crossing the Rubicon," they mean someone has just passed the point of no return and a fateful outcome is inevitable, whether good or bad. Just as with Caesar and his men, there's no turning back. Something has been set in motion that will inexorably play out to its conclusion, be it triumph or tragedy.

I hope you'll forgive the little history lesson, but what brought this phrase to mind was a current world leader who has just effectively crossed his own Rubicon, and it looks as if it is having a major impact on the unfolding of Bible prophecy. This man is the leader of the small nation that lies in the eye of the prophetic storm that has been brewing for a long time, and which could now be set to intensify:

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel.

But unlike Julius Caesar, who marched resolutely across the Rubicon in open defiance of the Roman Republic, Benjamin Netanyahu didn't cross his Rubicon willingly. In fact, he didn't choose to cross it at all.

He was dragged across it.

"Dewey defeats Truman"

Leading up to the Israeli election held on March 17, 2015, it looked very much as if incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party was going to be defeated. Exit polls had shown him trailing challenger Isaac Herzog in recent days, and on the eve of the election, polls indicated they were neck and neck.

But by the following morning, Benjamin Netanyahu had pulled off a shocking last-minute comeback and scored a decisive victory, much to the chagrin of the Obama administration, the Palestinians, and the rest of the Arab/Muslim world.

I know that it's God who raises up and removes leaders to carry out His will, so when a world leader has such good fortune befall them, I like to think that it just may be that they've done something God approves of—whether they realize it or not.

For example, when Israel became a nation again after nearly two thousand years on May 14, 1948, it was done with the controversial support of President Harry Truman. At 12:11 a.m. on the morning of May 15, President Truman authorized a message to be relayed to Israel by telephone, stating that the United States officially recognized the brand new State of Israel. And he was the first world leader to do so, 11 minutes after the British Mandate on Palestine expired at midnight of May 14 and the State of Israel was officially born in fulfillment of prophecy.

Now, do you think God was pleased with what Harry Truman did? An event that occurred six months later leads me to believe He was indeed:

As Americans went to the polls on November 2, 1948, most political pundits and media outlets were predicting a victory by New York Governor Thomas Dewey over incumbent Harry Truman, who had been vice president under Franklin Roosevelt and had assumed the presidency after Roosevelt's death in April 1945. Dewey had just been featured on the cover of Life magazine with the caption "The next President of the United States," and the influential Chicago Daily Tribune had derided Truman as a "nincompoop" in a recent editorial. Like most major newspapers, the Tribune was expecting a Dewey win.

But as the evening wore on and the election results that were coming in indicated that the gap between Dewey and Truman was narrowing, Pat Maloney, managing editor of the Chicago Daily Tribune, had to make a decision on the next day's headline. And as fate would have it, he had to make that decision several hours earlier than usual due to a printers' strike. He made phone calls, and his trusted contacts all assured him Dewey would win. So, the headline that went to press for the next day's issue of the Chicago Daily Tribune was:

But later that night, the tide inexorably began to turn. When the final results were in, Harry Truman had won the 1948 presidential election in what would go down as the most stunning come-from-behind victory in the history of American politics. The next day, as Harry Truman headed back to Washington by train, they made a whistle-stop in St. Louis. Someone handed Truman a copy of the Chicago Daily Tribune (today it's called the Chicago Tribune, and it was a newspaper that Truman hated nearly as much as it hated him), and a beaming, newly elected president got his revenge by triumphantly holding up the newspaper with its errant headline for the world to see in one of the country's most iconic photos.

"This land is my land..."

Before I go any further, let me make one thing crystal clear:

God does not support the world's so-called "two-state solution."

The Bible makes it abundantly clear that God is dead set against the world's idea of carving out a chunk of Israel's land and splitting Jerusalem in half in order to create space for missile launching pads for terrorists bent on Israel's destruction...oops, I mean a "state" for perpetually displaced Syrian and Jordanian refugees...oops, I mean the "Palestinians." And the reason is simple: It involves dividing God's land that He covenanted to the Jews forever. According to the Bible, it's God's land.

My land. This passage is talking about the end times, and I believe the judgment of the nations that is spoken of refers to the Sheep and Goat Judgment that follows the Tribulation (Matt. 25:31–46). And one of the stated reasons for the judgment?

They have divided my land.

The same goes for dividing Jerusalem. According to the Bible, it's God's city:

Naturally, the Palestinians demand the half of God's city that includes the Temple Mount, the holiest site on earth for the Jews, as their "capital."

So as you can see, anyone who opposes the two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians is in good company. And in the eyes of the world, that now officially includes Benjamin Netanyahu.

Whether he really opposes it or not seems to be irrelevant.

He said what?!

The concept of a two-state solution—an Israeli state and a Palestinian state existing side by side in peace and security—got rolling around 1974, but has remained the ultimate diplomatic brass ring in Middle East politics. To date, all efforts at negotiating such an agreement have stalled and ended in failure and frustration. Presidents and prime ministers have come and gone, and they've gotten nowhere.

A firm commitment to the peace process and the achieving of a negotiated settlement between Israel and the Palestinians has been the centerpiece of American foreign policy in the Middle East for many years, and Israel has gone to great lengths to accommodate the negotiations, making many concessions along the way in an ultimately futile process.

Enter the most recent players: Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, Barack Obama, and John Kerry. For the last six years, Obama and company have made several efforts to push the negotiations forward, chasing resolutely after the goal of a negotiated settlement, a chase that is viewed by many as Obama's desperate attempt to slap a shiny gold star on his presidential legacy (one that would be his first and only to date).

The perennial sticking points, however, have been the Palestinians' refusal to recognize Israel's right to exist, and Israel's frequent refusals to halt settlement construction on their own land...er, I mean "disputed" land (and in many cases, not even disputed land).

But in spite of the daunting diplomatic challenges and private frustrations, at least all parties have tried to maintain the public appearance of desiring a negotiated settlement—that is, an interest in continuing the so-called "peace process," no matter how difficult or elusive the goal.

As a result, the fruitless, faltering negotiations have lurched forward, because Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, Barack Obama, and John Kerry all know in their heart of hearts that even though the two-state solution is fictional diplomatic theater, it must be pursued because (a) Benjamin Netanyahu knows that to do otherwise is to invite severe international condemnation, (b) Barack Obama wants (at least one) gold star on his presidential report card, (c) John Kerry wants his Nobel Peace Prize (after all, he's worked a whole lot harder than Obama did for his), and (d) Mahmoud Abbas need a ruse to distract people from his true goal: the annihilation of Israel.

So, Obama and Kerry bully, Abbas balks, and Netanyahu is caught in the middle, having to go along to get along. But they all agree to continue pursuing the phantom of a two-state solution.

That is, until March 16, 2015. What's this?! It seemed as if somebody had finally blinked; that somebody had finally announced that the emperor was as naked as a jaybird.

It appeared as if Benjamin Netanyahu had crossed the Rubicon.

On March 16, the day before the election, left-wing (i.e. anti-Netanyahu) Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz published an article with the following headline:

Netanyahu: If I'm elected, there will be no Palestinian state

(He said what?!) The article accused Netanyahu of doing a complete about-face on the issue of a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians and called his statement a "definitive disavowal" of the two-state solution and the attendant peace process. The article quoted the prime minister from an interview he gave in Hebrew with right-leaning Israeli news website NRG earlier that same day.

Since Netanyahu had always maintained a public commitment to the two-state solution, the mainstream media pounced on the headline and blasted it as a total betrayal of the Palestinians and of the peace process and a slap in the face to Obama and his administration's efforts to negotiate a settlement.

This wasn't a bombshell—it was Hiroshima.

There's just one tiny little problem: That's not what he said and that's not what he meant.

In the interview with NRG, Netanyahu was talking about the fact that the current conditions made it nearly impossible to create a Palestinian state, with two peoples living side by side in peace and security, for the simple reason that terrorist groups like Hamas continue to move in and use the land to launch attacks against Israel—and that's exactly what they do. That's not news—that's a fact of life.

In other words, in order to successfully negotiate a peaceful settlement, it's obvious that something has to change. Here's a translated quote from the actual interview:

Now, here's the quote as printed in the Haaretz article:

Look carefully. Notice anything different?

The first quote is accurate and represents what he actually said: "I think that anyone who moves to establish a Palestinian state today..." When taken in the context of the entire interview, it's obvious that he's discussing the current conditions on the ground, which as anyone with an ounce of common sense knows, are not currently very conducive to the negotiation of anything resembling a peaceful settlement. What he's saying is that for anyone to negotiate a peaceful two-state solution, the not-so-peaceful situation on the ground must change—which is a no-brainer.

But notice that the second quote from Haaretz omits the word "today," and voilà: Suddenly you have the impression that he genuinely opposes the two-state solution and has no intention of negotiating such an agreement.

The Western media immediately picked up the headline from Haaretz and ran with it, and never looked back. Since the original interview was conducted in Hebrew, a language extremely few of them can either read or speak, they couldn't quickly or easily verify the accuracy of the Haaretz article—so they didn't bother. In the days since, other media outlets have repeatedly referenced the Haaretz headline to the point where it has become an undisputed fact. And just like that, thanks to the left-wing media, the entire landscape of Middle East politics experienced a tectonic shift.

Even as Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party emerged as the surprise victor in a last-minute comeback, he was simultaneously being excoriated by the mainstream media for supposedly scuttling the peace process, and things quickly began spiraling out of control.

Well, at least it can travel from Tel Aviv to Washington, D.C.

Naturally, Benjamin Netanyahu strenuously insisted he hadn't changed his position on the two-state solution (because he hadn't), and tried to make people understand that his remarks had been taken out of context and misinterpreted (because they had), but to no avail. If anything, Netanyahu's denials made the situation worse because all it did was make him appear to be backpedaling, as if the morning after the election he had suddenly realized that he'd said something stupid or reckless in the heat of a close election and now regretted it and was trying to take it back:

"What's this?! First Netanyahu scraps the two-state solution, and now he's denying it and trying to soften what he said? Liar! Flip-flopper!"

Literally overnight, six years of jumping through hoops and bending over backwards to accommodate the demands of the Palestinians and enduring grindingly frustrating negotiations with them sponsored by the United States were flushed down the toilet.

"Stop the presses! Israel scraps the peace process! Netanyahu refuses to allow a Palestinian state! 'No Palestinian state on my watch!' says Israeli Prime Minister."

So now the Obama administration, the Palestinians, and the United Nations are furrowing their collective brows, gnashing their collective teeth, clenching their collective fists, and channeling their collective rage into concocting ways to deal with Israel's apparent intransigence.

Fallout

To say this is a game changer is an understatement of the first magnitude, and its consequences continue to ooze out of every major media outlet on the planet on a daily basis. Here are a few highlights from the fallout of Netanyahu's supposed about-face on the two-state solution that are continuing to develop:

• First of all, nobody is letting Netanyahu "retract" the statement made in the article and set the record straight. The idea that he is now officially refusing to agree to a two-state solution is firmly fixed in the minds of President Obama, the Palestinians, and even right-leaning members of the Israeli government who really don't want a Palestinian state and aren't shy about saying it out loud and wearing it on their sleeves.

• As Netanyahu tries to form a coalition government, key people that he wants and needs to join his new government are demanding that he pledge in writing that he will not agree to a Palestinian state before they take positions in his coalition. So, there are those in the Israeli government who are using what amounts to political blackmail to force him into formalizing a position he has never held but is now accused of taking.

• Convinced that Netanyahu is flatly refusing to let them have their state, the Palestinians are preparing to take their case to the United Nations, trying to get the UN to force Israel to accommodate them. For Israel, that promises to get ugly in a big hurry.

• The degree to which the world views Israel as a pariah that needs to be boycotted, divested from, sanctioned, kicked around and slapped into submission has suddenly been ratcheted up dramatically. And this on top of the fact that anti-Semitism has already been growing at alarming rates all over the world for the last few years.

• Refusing to accept Netanyahu's "softening" of his alleged rejection of the two-state solution, a petulant President Obama has been throwing a temper tantrum because his clumsy, covert efforts to unseat Netanyahu failed spectacularly. Obama has recently made not-so-thinly veiled threats to abandon Israel at the UN, saying that the U.S. needs to "reassess" its ties to and support for the Jewish nation (and, of course, get his petty personal revenge on Netanyahu). In other words, like everyone else, he is remaining willfully blind to the facts and is eagerly pouncing on the opportunity to stick it to Netanyahu and the nation he governs.

• The EU has suddenly come out with a laundry list of proposed sanctions against Israel for its "refusal to halt construction in disputed areas as well as its stance on negotiations with the Palestinians."

This is just a taste of what is happening right now, and these trends are growing and gaining traction at an accelerating rate. The world's message to Israel is becoming thunderingly clear:

"You're dead meat."

As a result of Benjamin Netanyahu's being dragged across the Rubicon, Israel has been set on a collision course with the nations of the world.

And there's no turning back.

A tipping point

When this whole story broke about Netanyahu's surprise come-from-behind win and the allegations of his disavowal of the two-state solution, I actually set aside the article I was writing and immediately switched topics, and the reason is simple: This has very real prophetic implications.

This one couldn't wait.

The Bible says that in the end times, Israel will be regathered as a nation, but in unbelief. That happened in 1948, and they are still in unbelief (that is, they are still out of their covenant relationship with God and still don't acknowledge Jesus Christ as their true Messiah). But the Old Testament prophets also say that before Christ returns, Israel will be increasingly isolated until it stands alone against the rest of the world and will come under attack, particularly over the issue of Jerusalem:

Anyone who follows events in that part of the world knows that the Middle East is a cauldron of violence and unrest, and the temperature in that cauldron has been rising steadily over the last several years. It's clear that Israel has precious few friends left in the world, and it's also clear that it's Israel's willingness to negotiate with her enemies and make concessions (usually to her detriment) that has managed to bring her this far.

The question is, how much further can Israel go? It's an open secret that the Palestinians want all of Israel's land, and expect other more powerful nations (read the United Nations) to hand it over to them on a silver platter. Muslim extremist group ISIS openly brags of establishing a headquarters for their caliphate in Jerusalem and is obviously eager to kill as many Jews as necessary to do it.

But as long as Israel was at least seen as being willing to negotiate with the Palestinians about giving them their state, in spite of periodic flare-ups, things didn't get too far out of hand. Israel has managed to maintain a relatively stable existence while staving off World War III—and a sequel to the Holocaust.

Israel's fundamental willingness to negotiate seemed to be enough to keep the dogs on a leash...for the time being.

Now, an indignant world is fixated on the idea that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to give the Palestinians their state. Suddenly Israel won't play ball anymore, and a sensitive nerve that lies just below the surface has been exposed. Something has shifted. Something has been set in motion.

Suddenly Israel is The Problem to the greatest degree in modern history, and all the dogs are emphatically growling in agreement.

And I believe those dogs are about to be unleashed.

Spiraling under control

It is becoming clearer to me with each passing day that we have reached a prophetic tipping point—and most students of Bible prophecy already know where things are tipping.

I believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's alleged rejection of the two-state solution coupled with his surprise victory in the recent election has helped to trigger a sequence of events that will ultimately lead to a forced attempt to divide Israel's land to establish a Palestinian state, the actual implementation of which will mark the beginning of Daniel's 70th Week (aka the Tribulation), as per Daniel 9:27.

Not to sound all dramatic or anything. Actually, it is likely one of a number of such triggers, but this is just one that was highly visible. Part of me almost hopes I'm wrong, which I could be. Part of me almost hopes I'm missing something, which I could be. Part of me almost hopes things will play out for six or eight more years—maybe even a decade or more, which it could. But all of a sudden things are accelerating rapidly in that direction and there seems to be no slowing it down.

What I feel led to share with you in this article, however, is not something to evoke fear:

Remember that God's promises are eternal, and contrary to certain false teachings out there, God has a long memory when it comes to keeping His promises to His people Israel, and a long arm when it comes to fighting for them. And He is preparing to do both.

You can hide and watch.

Today, the Middle East is roaring to life with violent conflict in ways that are leaving world leaders wringing their hands in fear and desperation. The pot is being stirred, and most of the world is oblivious to the fact that God is the one who is doing the stirring.

But if you are in Christ—if you have been born of His Spirit and adopted into His family—you have absolutely nothing to fear:

The thought I want to leave you with is simply this:

Things are not spiraling out of control—they're spiraling under control.

God has His hand on everything that is happening, and these things need to happen and they will happen just as prophesied in His Word to accomplish His will. Benjamin Netanyahu, and by extension the nation of Israel, has crossed the Rubicon.

And as I said, they didn't cross it willingly.

Israel has been dragged across the Rubicon.

But it's crucial to understand one thing:

• Haaretz didn't do the dragging.
• The mainstream media didn't do the dragging.
• The Obama administration didn't do the dragging.
• The Palestinians didn't do the dragging.
• The UN didn't do the dragging.

God did.

It was God who dragged Israel into a vortex of increasing isolation (none of the above are anywhere near clever enough to have arranged all of this). It is God who is orchestrating the circumstances of Israel's further isolation on the world stage, and He is doing it so His plans and His promises to His people can ultimately be fulfilled.

All of this confirms that we are rapidly approaching the time when God will turn His attention to Israel once again in order to bring them back into their covenant relationship with Him and purge them as a nation during the Tribulation, a time during which they will have no one to turn to except their God—and ultimately their Messiah, Jesus Christ. And when they do finally turn to their Messiah in their distress, it will trigger His return to earth to save them and establish the kingdom God has promised them.

Ain't goin' there: Notice what I am not doing in this article. I am not burdening you with a rehash of the popular speculative theories about the timing and placement of the conflicts described in Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38–39.

Look, I can speculate with the best of 'em, but why bother? Bible prophecy continues to barrel headlong toward its fulfillment...and at the rate things are going, we'll find out the details soon enough. My purpose is not to speculate—it's to sound a warning to those who have an ear to hear.

What we are witnessing now is preparatory to what is going to occur in relationship to Israel during the Tribulation. And since the Rapture will most likely precede that seven-year period, feel free to speculate just how close we may actually be.

Of course, the only preparation you need for this is repentance and belief in faith in the atonement for your sin that Jesus accomplished on your behalf. You don't need to know the details of how these events will play out, but you do need to know where you will spend eternity.

My point is that the only way to know that you will spend it in heaven with a God who loves you more than you can comprehend is to be born of His Spirit. In other words, the way you prepare for what is coming in the future is to change your mind about your sin and your need for a Savior and trust Christ for your salvation today.

Are you prepared?

When Julius Caesar marched his men across the Rubicon over two millennia ago, he didn't know what fate ultimately awaited them—he just knew it would either be a glorious victory or utter destruction. But as Israel is dragged across the Rubicon in preparation for her central role in end-time prophecy, we know exactly what fate ultimately awaits her after her purging during the Tribulation, because God has revealed it in His Word.

Spoiler alert—it's not that second one.

Greg Lauer — MAR '15

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