Another bonus from Rabbi Farber

I was inspired by this story. Years ago, this type of story in Kazakhstan inspired my wife and I to pursue missions on our ill fated missions adventure. Enjoy.

"The Time Of The Gentiles?"

There is a Christian revival going on in the world, but it is not one that you would expect nor is it taking place anywhere you would normally imagine. Since the tragedy of 9 / 11 in 2001 hundreds of thousands, even millions of Moslems have and are still coming to faith in Jesus; they are becoming Christians! The amazing thing is that it is happening in countries that you would least expect it to be happening in; countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Egypt, Morocco and most of the other Middle-Eastern Moslem countries. Now remember in all Moslem countries conversion out of Islam into another religion, any other religion could mean and in most cases does mean certain death. The minimum punishment would be imprisonment and torture.

The astonishing thing about what is happening among Moslems is that this revival is happening in the Middle East while we are seeing many Christian denominations here in the West falling away from the faith. Churches like the United Church, Methodist Church and bastion of Christianity, the Anglican Church have in one form or another fallen into apostasy and who know who will be next.

What is truly incredible is that in reading the testimonies of these Moslem conversions many of them were the result of actual personal appearances to the person by Jesus. Yes, He appeared and introduced Himself to them as Jesus not Yeshua. Many more Moslems came to faith in Jesus through having visions and dreams. In these visions and dreams they received confirming messages that Christianity is the true faith and that they needed to believe in Jesus as the true Messiah and that they needed to follow Him and His teachings. Even though these dreams and visions are widespread among Moslems the vast majority of Moslems are coming to faith because of their disenchantment with a religion that fosters Jihad, hate and the killing and maiming of fellow Moslems. They have witnessed what has been happening in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan where Moslems are killing Moslems and they have been seeing their Moslems brothers using women and the handicapped as suicide bombers and children as shields in war. They are disenchanted with radicalism and yes, even Al Qaeda. So, all these things have been doing much for the Christian revival among Moslems. Add to this the fact that many Moslem converts have become evangelists, preacher and teachers (underground, of course) and the fact that there are now radio, and satellite television evangelists beaming their broadcasts about the G-d that died for you as apposed to the Moslem god who wants you to die for him, in every Arab dialect and in the languages of Ethiopia's and Iran's and you can understand why the revival.

The religion of Islam does not have an assured way of salvation which guarantees entrance into heaven like Christianity. It is a works oriented religion, which means that a Moslem never knows if his works have merited him heaven until he actually gets there, or does not! The religion of Islam is also very aggressively taught from the time children enter school so this theology of working and doing in order to be worthy to go to heaven is engrained in Moslems from a very early age. Sadly, they are falsely taught that the only sure and fool proof way a Moslem has of salvation, the only guaranteed way he can get into heaven is if he were to be martyred defending Islam against infidels, which happens to be anyone who is not a Moslem but especially Americans and Jews. Is it any wonder than that radical Moslems do not have any trouble recruiting terrorists for they demented suicide causes!

How does one defend against a religion that teaches such a philosophy, whether overtly, as by the radicals or in inference as by the Koran? There is no way because there has to come a time when a devout Moslem comes to a crossroad in their religious life where a decision of becoming or not becoming a radical becomes a real choice and I believe that is what is also fuelling the present revival.

This Moslem revival has had another effect; it has thrown a kind-of monkey wrench into Messianic Jewish theology, including mine. What do I mean? Well, Messianic Judaism has always thought that with the recapture of East Jerusalem and the re-unification of the city during the Six Day War of 1967 it marked the end of the Times of the Gentiles and the beginning of a Messianic Jewish revival.

Uri (Luke) {21:24} and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Yerushalayim will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

We have believed that with the reunification of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) this Scripture was fulfilled and yes Messianic Judaism has seen an unprecedented renewal since 1967. In fact, Jewish people have been coming to salvation in numbers not seen since the first century. If the times of the Gentiles is over, however, how then do you explain the millions of Moslems (Gentiles) coming to faith in Jesus since 2001. Did the 67 war really mark the end of the times of the Gentiles? The only way I can explain it is that it did not! The time of the Gentiles therefore, is not over and that will also mean that the tramping down by them of Yerushalayim is also not over. This, I believe, is confirmed by the following Scripture:

Zekharyah (Zechariah) {14:2} For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.

The skyline of Yerushalayim is still dominated by the abomination of the Dome of the Rock and if Zekharyah's prophecy is yet unfulfilled Yerushalayim will yet again be divided and trampled down by the Gentiles. So that, I believe, would mean that the times of the Gentiles will only be over upon Yeshua HaMashiach's (the Messiah's) return to the earth to set up His throne. For that is when all surviving Jews, those that made it through the tribulation period (Jacob's Troubles) will be saved and all the nations of the earth will turn to Yeshua. At that time there will no longer be any Gentiles because everyone will be saved, remembering that the biblical interpretation of a Gentile is a pagan. It is then that Yerushalayim, Yisrael and the Jewish people will take up their biblical, G-d ordained position and role in the world.