By Mark Landler, NY Times, Jan. 18, 2018
The Trump administration is moving faster than expected to transfer the American Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv by 2019, senior officials said Thursday, despite insisting last month that the move would not happen until the end of President Trump’s term.
The administration’s plans, following Mr. Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, suggest it no longer cares about cushioning the blow of the new policy, which has drawn angry protests from Palestinians and other Arabs and cast Mr. Trump’s peacemaking ambitions into doubt.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel first broached the prospect of a faster move on Wednesday, telling reporters that the embassy would be moved “in the course of the year.” That put him at odds with Mr. Trump, who hours later said, “We’re not really looking at that.”
It was not clear whether Mr. Trump’s advisers had briefed him on the new timetable until Thursday. Officials said he was referring to the construction of an entirely new embassy compound in Jerusalem, which Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson predicted would be completed “probably no earlier than three years out, and that’s pretty ambitious.”
But the State Department has since settled on a more modest plan to convert an existing consular building in Arnona, a neighborhood in West Jerusalem. That will reduce the cost of the project and allow Ambassador David M. Friedman and his staff to move there as early as next year.
Since Mr. Trump’s announcement, relations between the United States and the Palestinians have curdled.
The Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, vowed never again to take part in peace negotiations brokered by the United States. In a recent speech to Palestinian officials, he said of Mr. Trump, “May your house be destroyed.”
The administration, in turn, said it would withhold $65 million–or more than half the funding that the United States generally provides–to a United Nations agency that aids Palestinian refugees.
The decision was a rebuke to the United Nations, whose members voted by a lopsided margin last month to condemn the United States for its Jerusalem decision. It also reflected the view of some in the White House that the organization, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, needed to be overhauled and was impeding, rather than aiding, the peace process.
Moving the embassy quickly, officials said, could also be a political boon for Mr. Trump in a midterm election year, given the popularity of his decision to recognize Jerusalem with evangelical voters and hard-line pro-Israel Americans like the casino magnate Sheldon G. Adelson.
Dennis Edwards: Again we see these decisions by Trump seem to fit in nicely with Bible prophecy. The Bible tells us in the book of Daniel that in the last days the world will confirm a Holy Covenant broached by the Antichrist.
[1]
Could the fact that the USA seems to have isolated itself away from being involved in organizing the peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians open the way for the Antichrist to do the job?
The Scriptures, if we are understanding them properly, seem to indicate that the Antichrist is the author of the seven-year Holy Covenant which is confirmed by many.
[2] As troubles continue in the Middle East even with the covenant, the Antichrist breaks the agreement half way through and places the famous abomination of desolation spoken of by Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew.
[3][4]
Jesus gave the placing of the abomination of desolation in the Temple as the sign of the beginning of the Great Tribulation, a period in world history so horrible that Jesus says there was nothing like it before, or after.
[5]
The Great Tribulation lasts for three and a half years, or forty-two months, or one thousand two hundred and sixty days.
[6][7][8][9][10] It is immediately after the tribulation that Christ returns in the skies to rescue His children in the famous rapture event.
[11][12] A short time afterwards as the nations gather together for the Battle of Armageddon, Christ must stop the carnage or mankind would destroy itself.
[13][14] It is at that time that He implements a Godly One-World 1,000 year government which He will oversee Himself the details of which we have little information.
[15]
Notes
[1] Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week. (seven year period) [2] Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week.
[3] Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week (half way through the seven year period or at the three an a half years mark) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
[4] Daniel 11:31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that makes desolate.
[5] Matthew 24:15-21
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
[6] Revelation 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
[7] Revelation 12:14 And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. ( "a time" equals 1 year, "times" equals 2 years, and "half a time" equals half a year.)
[8] Daniel 12:1, 7 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.(This could be referring to the Rapture at the end of the tribulation period.) And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
[9] Daniel 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
[10]Revelation 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
[11] Matthew 24:29-31 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
[12] 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
[13] Revelation 16:14-16 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
[14] Revelation 19:11-21 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King Of Kings, And Lord Of Lords. And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
[15] Revelation 20:4-6 And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Where to read and when to read may be another problem you may face. I find that if I keep my Bible with me or at least a small New Testament I can use those moments when I am not doing anything to read. I can read while waiting in the car, during lunch break or waiting for an appointment or for my turn at the bank. I like to read for some minutes in the morning, but for me I enjoy reading more at the end of the day before going to bed. I use a highlighter to highlight those verses that I find more important. I use a fine-point pen to mark cross references or write notes in the columns. Some people do not like highlighters because they may go through the page, so some suggest using a yellow grease pencil. I copy down verses I want to memorize on small file cards and review them during the day.
