Viewing 1 - 3 out of 3 Blogs.

Ahmadinejad, Ayatollahs, and the Apocalypse
I have a concern: The West is not taking Iran's Ahmadinejad seriously enough. The West, including Washington, does not know that Islam is as excited--if not more excited--about the return of their "messiah" as some Christians are about ours. Iran is apocalypticaly apoplectic. Official Iranian radio has completed broadcasting a lengthy series on the imminent appearance of their messianic figure who will defeat Islam's enemies and impose Islamic Shiite rule over the entire world.
"Be joyous my heart, miracles of the Messiah will soon be here," reads a poem used to conclude the first broadcast. "The scent of breaths of the One we know comes near. Grieve not or sorrow . . . a savior will come, it is clear."

After the coming of the 12th imam, or Mahdi, "liberal democratic civilization" will be found only in history museums, stated the program. So much for the Islamic world wanting the democracy we keep offering them.

At times the statements seem to jump out of the book of Revelation. One TV program stated, "In short, when he reappears, peace, justice, and security will overcome oppression and deceit and one global government, the most perfect ever, will be established." The Mahdi will appear suddenly in Mecca. The Shiites are told that no one can know the day or hour of the Islamic messiah's return. Sound familiar?

It gets more intense. In a greeting to the world's Christians for this new year, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said he expects both Jesus and the Mahdi to return and "wipe away repression."

While some of this sounds bizarre, see it for its seriousness. Ahmadinejad's mystical preoccupation with the coming of the Mahdi is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Republic of Iran could easily trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions. The Iranian President sees his main mission to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi."

All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th Imam and the role Iran and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the latest developments.

So whether the man is psychotic or delusional, he cannot be ignored. He is whipping the country into a frenzy and a part of that frenzy is to launch nukes if it will hasten the Mahdi's return. Outdated cold war concepts such as mutually assured destruction are irrelevant when it comes to Iran, because the Iranian president and his circle see such a scenario "as an incentive, not a deterrent."

The threat of many Iranians perishing in a war does not deter the Iranian leadership, which believes "it would be doing them a favor by giving them a free pass to heaven."

The scenario spins out of control when we realize that the Islamic world believes there is something they can do to hasten their messiah. They believe passionately in the return of their messiah as do many Christians. But ours returns to bring peace to the earth. The Mahdi could destroy half the earth indirectly as his devotees do what they can to hasten his return.

The restrainers in this scenario may be the Ayatollahs who are not all that eager to wage a world war.

Pray the world gets very serious about this scenario. The West is asleep and sanctions and negotiations will no more stop the intensity of the longing for the Mahdi messiah than they would for Christians and the true Messiah, Jesus Christ.

View a serious two-minute clip here making the same point: http://www.aish.com/iran/

To better understand this I also recommend my newest DVD, "Facing the Fury: The West's War Against Jihad and the new Fascism" with an exclusive interview with Avi Lipkin (Victor Mordecai). There are also clips by Caryl Matrisciana, Dave Hunt, and Steve Emerson. See "Our Products" http://www.olivetreeviews.org/catalog.shtml This DVD will be shown on Sky Angel Two March 23, 2007 and again in May and September. We also offer the helpful book by Dr. Mark Hitchcock, "Iran: The Coming Crisis--Radical Islam, Oil, and the Nuclear Threat." It is also found at "Our Products."



Awaiting His return,
Jan Markell

You may pass on these items or have people sign up on our Website, www.olivetreeviews.org. We update "Current Headlines" twice a day and you can access our radio programming from the last two years on "Radio Archives." Also see the Website for other options to catch the program, "Understanding the Times," live and tape-delayed. Report e-mail address changes reporting old and new.
Subscribe to our weekly radio show podcast, or view more information on podcasting here.

Please remember us prayerfully and financially.
Donate on our website (Gifts are tax-deductible with receipts in January.)

Olive Tree Ministries
Box 1452
Maple Grove, MN 55311.

read

  What is Messianic Judaism?
 
 

What is Messianic Judaism?

 

Messianic Judaism is a biblically-based, prophetic end-time revival, congregational community movement of Jewish and non-Jewish people, who have come to believe Yeshua is the promised Messiah of Israel. "Yeshua" is the Hebrew name for Jesus and it actually means "the Lord saves".

Today, there are hundreds of thousands of Messianic Jews and hundreds of Messianic Synagogues right here in the United States of America.

Nations such as Israel, Canada, Russia, England, France, Brazil, South Africa, and others are experiencing similar prophetic growth in the number of Messianic Jews and synagogues.

Is it Jewish to believe in Yeshua (Jesus)?

To some, the concept of a Jew believing in Yeshua seems to be a contradiction. The reason is many people have a dichotomy set up in their minds. On the one hand you have "Jews" and "Judaism", while on the other hand "Christians" and" Christianity".

You are either one or the other (so the thinking goes). But this simple dichotomy is in reality not so simple. If we go back 2000 years we find that Yeshua was a Jew living in a Jewish land among Jewish people. All the apostles were Jewish as well as the writers of the New Covenant (New Testament) and for many years this faith in Yeshua was strictly a Jewish one.

From the Book of Acts and other historical evidence, many believe that in the first century there were literally hundreds of thousands of Messianic Jews.* In addition, there were Messianic Synagogues scattered throughout the Roman Empire and beyond.**

These first century Messianic Jews remained highly loyal to their land and their people.

Whether it was Jewish to believe in Yeshua was never an issue. Of course it was Jewish! What else could it be?

The big question back then was whether Yeshua had been sent for the Gentiles also. God miraculously showed the Messianic Jews that Yeshua was the Messiah for both Jew and Gentile alike. Then Gentiles from every nation began top our into this Jewish faith.

Through the years, as the number of Gentiles believers increased, they began to predominate in this Messianic faith. With the passing on of the Jewish apostles and the early Messianic Jews, the Jewish roots of the faith were eventually lost.

This "De-Judaizing" process continued until in one of the greatest paradoxes in history, it became alien for a Jewish person to believe in Yeshua as his Messiah!

* Acts 2:41, 2:47, 4:4, 6:7, 9:31, 21:20
**James 1:1, 2:2

The REAL Issue

Today we are seeking to put the Messiah back within His biblically-Jewish context.

Messianic Judaism is a spiritual renaissance, a revival, and a return to the same faith the Messianic Jews had in the 1st century unencumbered by the traditions of men. It is a return to the pure and simple faith based upon having a living, vibrant and personal relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through the Messiah Yeshua.

The real issue we must recognize is not whether it is Jewish to believe in Yeshua, because the Jewishness of Yeshua is historically unquestionable. The real issue at stake here is whether Yeshua is truly the Messiah or not. If He is, then it is the most Jewish thing in the world to believe in Him. If He is not the Messiah, then we should not follow Him.

There is only one way to find out and that is to go back to the Jewish Scriptures ourselves and study the Messianic prophecies.

According to the Jewish Scriptures, the Messiah was to come twice: the first time to suffer and die and the second time to usher in the Messianic era of peace upon the earth.

Why did the Messiah have to die?

The Jewish prophet Isaiah answered this question when he said, "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD