False Peace and Safety of I Thessalonians 5 will be a Hudna (Truce)!
March 7, 2007
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
We have been discussing this Hudna (False Peace Truce) since 2001 in our Archive Prophecy Updates and Blogs, and have described all of the characteristics of the Islamic version of a Hudna. However, since it is becoming more and more important in the current activities between the Palestinians and Israel, I will give a brief review of the Hudna in this Blog.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hudna is an Arabic term meaning “truce” or “armistice” as well as “calm” or “quiet”, coming from a verbal root meaning “calm”. It is sometimes translated as “cease-fire”. In the Lisan al-Arab (Ibn al-Manzur’s definitive dictionary of classical Arabic, dating to the 14th century) it is defined as follows:
“hadana: he grew quiet. hadina: he quieted (transitive or intransitive). haadana: he made peace with.
The noun from each of these is hudna.”
A particularly famous early hudna was the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah between Muhammad and the Quraysh tribe.
According to Umdat as-Salik, a medieval summary of Shafi’i jurisprudence, hudnas with a non-Muslim enemy should be limited to 10 years: “if Muslims are weak, a truce may be made for ten years if necessary, for the Prophet made a truce with the Quraysh for that long, as is related by Abu Dawud” (‘Umdat as-Salik, o9.16).
I believe I Thessalonians 3:3,4 is describing a long term hudna that will be violently broken when the Palestinians, in coordination with other Islamic nations, think they have attained sufficient strength to finally defeat Israel.
I Thessalonians 5:3,4 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
Hudna has a distinct meaning to Islamic fundamentalists, well-versed in their history: The prophet Mohammad struck a legendary, ten-year hudna with the Quraysh tribe that controlled Mecca in the seventh century. Over the following two years, Mohammad rearmed and took advantage of a minor Quraysh infraction to break the hudna and launch the full conquest of Mecca, the holiest city in Islam.
When Yassir Arafat infamously invoked Mohammad’s hudna in 1994 to describe his own Oslo commitments “on the road to Jerusalem,” the implication was clear. As Mideast expert Daniel Pipes has explained, Arafat was asserting to his Islamic brethren that he will, “when his circumstances change for the better, take advantage of some technicality to tear up existing accords and launch a military assault on Israel.” Indeed, this is precisely what occurred in Sept. 2000 when Arafat & Co. launched a terror assault upon Israeli citizens.
As for Hamas, they have proven time and again their commitment to a tactical hudna — replenishing their strength during the quiet periods, then returning with increased deadliness.
As recently documented by The Washington Institute, Hamas agreed to no less than ten ceasefires in the past ten years, and after every single one returned freshly armed for terror. Hundreds of Israeli citizens have paid for these hudnas with their lives.
When the hudna false peace truce of I Thessalonians 5:3,4 is broken, the death toll suffered by the Israelis will be in the millions. Only one-third will escape into the Negev Wilderness, where they will remain for some three and one-half prophetic years (1260 days).
Zechariah 13:8 – And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
Revelation 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
I believe what is currently happening in Israel will eventually lead to a Hudna false peace declared by all the internal terrorist groups existing across Israel, which will eventually be broken by a lightening Jihad. My guesstimate is that the Jihad by a coalition of Arab nations will occur at some point in time between 2008 and 2012.
This Hudna (false peace truce) is the same one from Archive Prophecy Update Number 12, March, 2001, which follows.
Begin Archive Prophecy Update Number 12
PROPHECY UPDATE 12
March, 2001
The Apostle Paul had a deep spiritual burden for his own people, the nation of Israel. His born again heart longed for them to forsake their unbelief by turning
to Jesus as their Messiah. He expresses this desire in Romans 10:1 as he states: “Brethren, my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.”
There is no question that Paul saw Israel as being in unbelief. But he knew that some future day they would believe, and consequently be grafted back into God’s olive tree, from which they had been broken off because of their unbelief. He stated this principle in Romans 11:20, as he wrote: “Well, because of unbelief they were broken off.” But he goes on in verse 23 to indicate they will one day believe, and thereby restored to being part of God’s olive tree. He writes, “And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.” I said all this to explain the words “they” and “them” in I Thessalonians 5:3, where Paul states: “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh on them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” Paul, in his use of “they” and “them,” is referring to the nation of Israel in unbelief. However, it would also in part apply to all unbelievers in the last days.
So why have I given this discourse? The word translated as “safety” is “asphaleia,” which means “the security one experiences when standing on something that is firmly fixed.
It gives the one standing on it a sense of “not falling.” After four major victories over the Arabs, Israel doesn’t think she could ever “fall” to them in a major war.
The last four leaders of Israel have worn out the following expression: “We must have a peace with security.” We have heard it used hundreds of times on the media, and it has been printed over and over again in countless articles. Why is this important? God indicates a time will come when Israel actually believes she has “a peace with security.” Why is it so important that we understand this prediction
? Because we can know that the final war, involving Israel’s Islamic neighbors, will not occur until it is fulfilled! Israel must be lulled into a false sense of security before any united Islamic attack against her can be successful. Until this happens, and it will, I merely wait for it to come to pass. Then, when peace and security for Israel does appear to arrive in the Middle East, you can know that the final war of this age is about to occur.
Don’t believe all these terrorist attacks will suddenly cause the final war of this age to begin. It is only when they cease that you can know the last war, which finally produces Armageddon some 3 and ½ years after it begins, is imminent.
End Quote of Archive Prophecy Update Number 12
Begin Haaretz Article
Hamas vows full truce if Israel helps end boycott
By Avi Issacharoff and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents
March 7, 2007
If Israel agrees to persuade the international community not to boycott the new Palestinian unity government,
the Palestinians “will offer a promise from Hamas and Fatah of a total cease-fire with Israel, including a complete halt to Qassam [rocket] fire and suicide bombings,” a senior H
amas official told Haaretz on Tuesday.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas plans to deliver this offer at his upcoming meeting with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian sources said.
The meeting is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, thought according to the Palestinians, the date has not yet been finalized.
However, the Hamas official warned, if Israel presses for a continuation of the international boycott and refuses to work with the unity government, the existing partial cease-fire will be in danger.
Olmert, however, plans to use the meeting to urge Abbas to ensure that the new government, which is currently being formed, accepts the Quartet’s conditions: recognizing Israel, renouncing violence and honoring previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements.
“This will not be a scolding conversation,” said a government source, “but a heart-to-heart talk in which Olmert will try to exploit the grace period that remains before the new PA government is established.”
Israel is also working to persuade the European Union – one of the Quartet’s four members, along with the United States, Russia and the United Nations – to continue the boycott should the unity government not meet these three conditions, laid down by the Quartet last year.
Olmert has no plans to announce any additional steps to ease Palestinian life at his meeting with Abbas. This will be their third meeting over the last three months.
The Palestinians said the unity government was unlikely to be finalized until after the Olmert-Abbas meeting. As of Tuesday, Hamas and Fatah were still arguing over who the interior minister should be.
Should the unity government not accept the Quartet’s conditions, Israel also plans to boycott ministers from Abbas’ Fatah Party. In Europe, however, there is growing support for dialogue with “moderate ministers.”
One reason for this is the change in Abbas’ position. When Hamas comprised the entire government, he supported the boycott. But now that a unity government is being formed, he wants the Europeans to work with Fatah government members, arguing that this will strengthen Fatah’s position in its ongoing debate with Hamas over diplomatic policy.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who returned Tuesday from a meeting with EU foreign ministers, said that thus far, the EU appears to be standing firm on the Quartet conditions, as evidenced by its rejection of an Italian-Spanish-French proposal to set up a special committee to reconsider the conditions for dialogue with the new unity government. However, fearing this position might erode, she devoted much of her visit to urging her counterparts to stand firm on this issue, arguing that insisting on the Quartet conditions would strengthen Palestinian moderates, whereas “compromising at this time would strengthen Hamas.”
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema, one of the leaders of the anti-boycott camp, opined recently that the EU should not insist that the new government recognize Israel. Instead, it should say that abiding by the other two conditions would be sufficient, in order to encourage Hamas to be more flexible rather than trying to pressure it, he argued.
The EU’s external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, harshly criticized Israel at a meeting with opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu last week: “You’re not giving the Palestinians anything – neither territory nor hope,” she said. But Israeli government sources claimed that she took a more moderate tone in meetings with other Israeli officials and refrained from criticism.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met Tuesday with Khaled Meshal, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, and urged the Palestinians to continue the armed struggle against Israel, “which is undergoing the worst period of its existence, and getting worse.” Iran also pledged financial aid to the new PA government.
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