Intellectually, some say there are No Absolutes!
April 12, 2007
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
I was informed during my University and Seminary years, by some very intelligent teachers I studied under, that “there are no absolutes!” I can understand why they made that statement, but I did come to believe in one “absolute” after I put my graduate years behind me. Ironically, as far as being able to academically validate it is an “absolute,” I cannot. And yet all of my anticipations of future events are based on this one “absolute” in perhaps all the universe. It is the Bible, the living word of the living God. My interpretations of it are not “absolute,” because I am quite fallible in my
interpretations of Scripture, but the Scriptures themselves are infallible.
I must confess that my belief in its “absolute” infallibility does make it a lot easier to draw “absolute” conclusions as to the certainty of some of the characteristics of future events in the Middle East. One of those “absolutes” is the impossibility of a genuine lasting peace coming to the Middle East prior to the Second Advent. Another “absolute” is that a peace will come to the Middle East before Messiah’s return, but it will be as phony as a three-dollar bill! Another “absolute” is that it will fool Israel and the rest of the unbelieving world, because when they declare they have obtained it, sudden destruction will come on them.
The Scriptures are not “absolute” as to whether the false peace will come in by negotiations, force, diplomacy, or a truce (hudna), only that it will come into place before Armageddon.
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.
Mark 13:34-37 – For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
[35] Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: [36] Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. [37] And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
I Thessalonians 5:5,6 – Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. [6] Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
I am a child of light, not of darkness, and I am wide awake to the events in the Middle East, which are crying out that the false peace is not too far away, at least not in the distant future.
When Israel’s Messiah came at his First Advent, Israel had strayed so far away from the absolute truths of God’s Word, that they could not “see” the Son of God visiting among them and, as children of darkness, they paid a terrible price. To “watch” implies knowing all one can know of him and his coming before he comes.
Luke 19:41-44 – And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, [42] Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. [43] For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, [44] And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.
Matthew 23:37-39 – O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! [38] Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. [39] For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.
Begin Voice of America (VOA) Article
Israel’s Parliament Reviews Unofficial Israel-Syria Talks
By Jim Teeple
Jerusalem
April 12. 2007
A Syrian-American businessman and a former senior Israeli diplomat briefed a high-level Israeli parliamentary committee Thursday about their efforts to revive Israeli-Syrian peace talks. VOA’s Jim Teeple reports from Jerusalem that both say peace is possible between the countries.
Ibrahim Suleiman, a Syrian-American businessman with close ties to Syria’s leadership, and Alon Liel, the former director general of the Israeli foreign ministry briefed the influential Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee about the prospects for peace with Syria. After their talks, they told reporters they believe Israel and Syria could conclude a peace agreement in six months.
Suleiman and Liel held eight rounds of Swiss-brokered unofficial talks over the past three years.
Both men say the talks took place with the knowledge and approval of senior officials in both countries. Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has downplayed the talks, saying Suleiman does not speak for the Syrian government, but Knesset members invited him to Israel to explain Syria’s position. Suleiman says Syria is ready for peace with Israel.
“Syria is ready to talk peace right now,” he said. “I am convinced that Bashar Assad [Syria’s leader] is very sincere and
very realistic in his talk. He wants to talk peace with Israel. Israel, please answer him. Talk peace to him.”
Israel and Syria held multiple rounds of peace talks brokered by officials in the Clinton administration, but the talks collapsed in 2000 over the issue of who would control the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. Israel captured the area along with the Golan Heights in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.
During their unofficial talks, Suleiman and Liel drew up a plan for Israel to withdraw from the Golan Heights, and for Syria to stop its support for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas. Under their plan the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee would be turned into a park that could be used by both Syrians and Israelis. The two say they submitted the plan to their respective governments, but received no response. Alon Liel says he doubts if further progress can be made unless Syria scales back its ties with Iran, but if Syria does that, peace talks could be revived.
“Nobody can speak on an exact timetable, but the feeling is that we were very close twice already on the official bilateral level,” he said. “I think we are even closer today with the ideas we created in our channel.”
Israel’s government had no official comment on today’s meeting.
Unofficial talks between Israelis and their Arab neighbors are nothing new.
Similar talks between Israelis and Palestinians in the early 1990s led to direct talks resulting in the 1993 Oslo Peace Accord.
End VOA Article
Remember the “absolutes” – There cannot be a true peace, only a brief false peace, but the “way” it will come in is not an “absolute,” So, just WATCH!
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