By Bill Randles
Used with permission (source).
Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. (Psalm 2:1-6)
The US Supreme Court recently gave a ruling (Zivotovsky vs. Kerry), which would prevent any U.S. passport holder born in Jerusalem to declare they were also born in Israel.
This, in spite of a 2002 law passed by the Congress of the United States allowing Jerusalem born U.S. passport holders to declare Israel as their nation of origin.
The 2002 Passport law has never been implemented because U.S. politicians have been afraid to be seen taking sides against the “Palestinians” on the issue. Since 1948, official US Government policy has been to treat the “Jerusalem” question as unresolved.
As a rare reaction to the 6-3 vote, Justice Antonin Scalia read his dissent aloud in the court. Among other complaints, he warned that giving so much unchecked power, even over passport declarations, to the President was “more reminiscent of King George the third, than of the U.S. presidency.” Justice Scalia had already indicated his leanings earlier in oral arguments, as Haaretz reports (http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/routine-emergencies/.premium-1.66050422):
In the oral arguments, Scalia’s political leanings on the issue were pretty clear, when he described the State Department’s resistance to changing the passport line from “Jerusalem” to “Israel” as less of affecting real policy than its “desire to make nice with the Palestinians.” (Source: http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/routine-emergencies/.premium-1.660504)
This ruling is considered a slap in the face to many in Israel. From Haaretz again:
Dissatisfied American-Jerusalemites, or Jerusalemite-Americans (because we can’t call them American Israelis, right?), like my son had some powerful sympathizers. President Reuven Rivlin pointedly noted to Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, during a Thursday meeting that “I was born in Jerusalem and I am Israeli.” Former ambassador-turned-MK Michael Oren posted on his Facebook page that “the decision is an affront to Israel’s sovereignty and to the honor of America’s crucial ally. During my service as Israel’s ambassador to Washington, I met the principled Zivotofsky family and others who brought the case before the court, I unconditionally supported them. But the frustration of their effort changes nothing for Israel and the Jewish people. Jerusalem will remain our undivided and eternal capital. Irrespective of what’s written or not written in her U.S. passport, our daughter, Lia, was born in Jerusalem, Israel.”
A major aspect of the 6-3 decision was the issue of separation of peers. Congress passed a law in 2002, but the court ruled that it is the Executive branch that has jurisdiction in foreign policy. In other words, Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel, even if Congress says it is, unless the President says it is.
This Supreme Court is the same un-elected body which has struck down school prayer, mention of God or the Ten Commandments in the classroom, and other public affirmations of the professed majority faith of our nation. On the other hand, these black-robed tyrants have foisted on the American body politic such horrors as Abortion on Demand and “Gay Marriage” in spite of the many referendums in states across the country against them.
Little do they realize they are fulfilling prophecy concerning the last controversies between God and Man, which will lead to the final judgment and the return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Prophet Zechariah predicted 2,500 years ago that in the Last Days the issue of the status of Jerusalem would consume the attention of the entire world.
Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it. (Zechariah 12:2-3)
Jerusalem is the most important city on earth. It is the only place on earth where God says He has “Placed His name.” It is the place where our Lord was crucified, thus the place where Satan was dealt a fatal blow. Jerusalem is where our Lord’s feet will touch down again (sees Zechariah 14) and where all nations will one day be gathered together for judgment.
Consider the 48th Psalm: “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God and in the mountain of his holiness, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mt Zion on the sides of the North, the city of the great King!”
Jesus himself quoted this Psalm in the sermon on the Mount, when He said:
“Swear not at all, neither by Haven, for it is God’s throne, nor by earth, for it is God’s footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King!” (Matthew 5:34)
Of course, the Bible is realistic about the Jerusalem of today, for the book of Revelation calls it “Sodom and Egypt, the city where our Lord was crucified” (Revelation 11:8).
But if Jerusalem is important to God, it is also important to the forces of evil.
Islam claims Jerusalem, though it is never named in all of the Koran. There is a verse, which they now say refers to Jerusalem. The verse is called the IZra, and it is the story of Mohammed’s flight on a winged horse to the “Farthest places,” Al Aqsa, where he ascended to heaven to have a prayer meeting with Jesus and Moses. On that alone, Islam claims Jerusalem as her third holiest spot.
Interestingly, when Obama gave a speech to the entire Muslim world in 2009 from Cairo Egypt at Al Azhar university (the Harvard, Yale and Cambridge of world-wide terrorism), he cited only one passage from the Koran . . . the IZra.
Think about it, the leader of the free world cited to one seventh of the world, the only scripture in their book, which they believe gives them a legitimate claim to Jerusalem!
The U.N. has split Jerusalem in two and adamantly insists that part of it, East Jerusalem, be the capitol of the new Palestinian state. The other half is designated to be a “universal city.”
It should be obvious by now, a terrible conflict is coming, something God calls, “the controversy of Zion” (Isaiah 34) . The Supreme Court of the United States, in their own small way, has taken sides with Obama, against the God of Scripture. Pray for America!
Used with permission from Bill Randles blog.
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