Exploits Magazine April 2018

Christine Darg Receives Lifetime Achievement Award at Israel’s Night to Honor Christian Allies WWW.JERUSALEMCHANNEL.TV

Christine Darg Receives Award from Knesset

Members of Knesset and World Jewish Congress Officials with Christine Darg at Award Ceremony Cover photo: Christine with Josh Reinstein, Director of Knesset Christian Allies Caucus

Jerusalem Channel presenter and founder of Exploits Ministry, Christine Darg received this year’s lifetime achievement award for tourism and contributions to Israel by Israel’s Knesset Christian Allies Caucus (KCAC) and the World Jewish Congress at Israel’s 12th annual “Night to Honor Our Christian Allies.”

Peter and Christine Darg with Travel agent Amos and Dr. Nili Mazur of Ami Travel

e event was attended by nine Knesset members. e award was given for “steadfast commitment to bring tourism to the State of Israel and for her endless contribution to the Jewish State,” signed by Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin and Member of Knesset (MK) Robert Ilatov, KCAC chairman. e master of ceremony, Josh Reinstein, who is director of the KCAC and president of the Israel Allies Foundation, said the award is a “lifetime achievement,” but Christine said, “I feel like I’ve only just begun!”

Also receiving the annual “Christian Ally” lifetime achievement award was Republican Representative Alan Clemmons from the U.S. state of South Carolina for “his sincere friendship and support for the State of Israel.”

Clemmons draed the first bill prohibiting boycotting, divesting from and sanctioning the State of Israel.

MK Anat Berko (left) with award winners Christine Darg and S.C. Representative Alan Clemmons

Both Christine and her husband Peter have helped the KCAC as well as the Jerusalem Summit organization to stage a number of convocations with Christian allies in Israel and in many nations over the years.

She brings groups to Israel at least three times a year for various prayer gatherings.

At the ceremony held at Jerusalem’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, Christine said that many Christians and eschatologists only pray for Israel’s destiny in the future, but she believes that God has raised up a generation of believers to pray for Israel to fulfil the nation’s destiny now.

“God envisioned that Israel should be a holy nation: a holy nation of priests, a light to the nations, God’s am segulah, his treasured possession,” Christine said. “e Church has a divine mandate to pray that God will fulfil Israel’s calling and destiny. Already Israel has become a beacon of democracy and stability.” She also told e Jerusalem Post that “Israel is a shining light of hope for both the region and the world. ”

Yair Mazur, the Ami Travel guide who has worked with Exploits Ministry for decades, remarked that “together we have lived to see the day of transition, when Jews and Christians work together and build bridges together.” In fact, Christine has been building bridges with both Jews and Arabs. She has been active with the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) since its founding in 1980. In 2017, she also received the annual Jerusalem Merit Peace and Reconciliation Prize from the Jerusalem Merit organization of Canon Andrew White, “the Vicar of Baghdad,” for her work of reconciliation among Jews, Arabs and Christians.

Keynote speaker at the award ceremony was the American Ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, who spoke about his role in helping President Donald J. Trump with the decision to move the US embassy to Israel’s capital Jerusalem!

US Ambassador David Friedman and Christine Darg

G o d ’ s Sh e e p f o l d i

Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

(Jeremiah 30: 7) So when you see standing in the holy place “the abomination that causes desolation,” spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand— then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the housetop go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get their cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath.

For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

(Matthew 24: 15-22) e woman [Israel] fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.

(Revelation 12: 6)

By Christine Darg A biblical sheepfold consisted of stone walls with a narrow gate where the shepherd actually sat and slept, thus Jesus as the Good Shepherd called himself “the door.” e WikiCommons photo at right

of the ancient rose city of Petra looks like a gigantic natural sheepfold with a narrow gorge as a gateway. For what purpose did the Creator design this great natural fortification? Will it be the hiding place where Israel is protected during the Great Tribulation?

But the pivotal question is: Has Jacob’s Trouble already been fulfilled during the Nazi Holocaust? Or, is there yet in the future an unprecedented time of trouble for the Jewish people when the Anti-Christ rules? Evangelical prophecy watchers are divided on the issue. On the one hand, many messianic Jews along with Christian Zionist organizations such as the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem advocate for Jewish people to make aliyah (to return) to Israel, because they believe that the Jewish people have already endured Jacob’s Trouble. ey do not believe that God would call home the Jewish people to the Holy Land only for the majority to be killed during a future Tribulation. But on the other hand, many eschatologists, such as Chuck Missler and Bible expositor John MacArthur, teach that the time of Jacob’s Trouble is yet in the future and that Jesus’s command for the Jews to flee to the mountains aer the abomination of desolation will be fulfilled in the future. Some Bible

in P etra? scholars say the prophecies cited at the beginning of this article have already been fulfilled, but others believe that Bible prophecy can have more than one fulfillment and will repeat itself in the last days.

Even prominent rabbis in Israel have stated that we have entered the general time of Jacob’s Trouble.

Clue number one about Petra as a city of refuge is found in Daniel 11:41. It prophesies that the coming world leader [the anti-Christ] “will enter the Glorious Land [of Israel], and many countries shall be overthrown; but Edom, Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon shall escape from his hand.” Who are Edom, Moab and Ammon? ey are three ancient peoples whose territories include the natural mountain fortress of Petra in present day Jordan. It is also significant that Petra has been declared a World Heritage Site; therefore it should not be attacked, bombarded or damaged during times of war— a factor rendering Petra a place of refuge.

A second biblical clue about Petra as an end-time hiding place is found in Revelation Chapter 12, which describes a great (the Greek is mega) sign in heaven: a woman crowned with 12 stars, representing Israel, will flee to a place prepared for her by God. e closest desert stronghold is the ghost town of Petra.

Now if you search the Bible for the Greek name Petra, you will not find it. Instead, search for the Hebrew equivalent, Sela, and then you will find a number of Scriptures. Both Petra and Sela mean rock. Search also for the ancient capital of Edom, Bozrah, meaning “sheepfold.“ Revelation 12 is a symbolic overview of Israel's history. In Revelation 12: 6, we read the prophecy about the woman—Israel-- who flees into the desert to a place prepared for her for 1,260 days. at’s three and a half years. e woman is given the wings of a great eagle to fly to the place where she will be protected. In Revelation 12, Satan is seen as a red dragon. Water is spewed from the dragon’s mouth like a flashflood in the wadi, to sweep away the woman in a torrent. But as in the days of Bible miracles, when Pharaoh’s armies perished in the Red Sea, the earth opens its mouth and swallows the river, frustrating the dragon’s plan.

A third biblical clue that suggests Petra as a hiding place for the Israelis during the Great Tribulation is found in Isaiah 63, where the Lord is seen coming from Bozrah, the region where Petra is located. He comes triumphant over his enemies!

Who is this who comes from Edom, With dyed garments from Bozrah, is One who is glorious in His apparel?

The Bewitching Of the Church

By Christine Darg

Christians and Jews are forging new and strong relationships. However, there is a big temptation for believers in the Hebrew Roots movement to become enamored with Jewish traditions and to be seduced into thinking that it’s not good enough to be a Christian. I’ve known of “Christians” who have converted to Judaism, but in my opinion, they were never born again, because when you really know Jesus, you’ll never give Him up!

Some people in the Hebrew Roots movement go overboard, insisting that we need Jesus PLUS the Sabbath, or Jesus PLUS circumcision, or Jesus PLUS the Torah. roughout the history of the church, this sort of error has been called legalism or Judaizing, and yet we have to be careful what we label Judaizing because not all Hebrew Roots teaching is Judaizing. One of my former pastors in Jerusalem oen brought us wonderful insights, for example, into the Lord’s Last Supper, the Jewish Passover seder, because as a Messianic Jew, he knew the Hebraic roots of our faith. His detractors wrongfully accused him of Judaizing. But he was simply explaining the Gospels in their cultural context. Aer all, the first Christians were Jews. ey continued gong to the Temple on the Sabbath, but they celebrated the resurrection of Jesus and broke bread together on Sundays.

Recently an acquaintance on Facebook said she was fed up with her Torah study group condemning other Christians for not keeping the Sabbath, for not pronouncing the name of God a certain way, and so forth. She said, “ey set themselves up as God’s elite and look down their noses with haughty pride on others. ey’re all about Law, and express no love for the Messiah or appreciation for the Cross. I'm staying away,” she said, “they’re toxic.”

at was one person’s experience. Yet on the other hand, I’ve participated in Torah studies where none of that sort of superior spirit was exhibited. e Church has a lot to learn and to recover ….such as the importance of celebrating the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus when those events actually occurred—during Passover.

Jesus and the apostles never celebrated “Easter”— that pagan name is associated with a fertility goddess. Passover is the biblical feast when the Passover lamb was killed sacrificially. Messiah our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us! Passover and not Easter is the correct time to remember the Lord’s death, burial and resurrection. is year our ministry will celebrate our 21st Passover Convocation in Israel 1 to 6 April 2018 to honor the Lamb of God. Why should churches commemorate the Lord’s death and resurrection at the wrong time? e Gospels clearly tell us that Jesus died at Passover and was resurrected on the Feast of First Fruits.

If the apostle Paul could visit some of the churches today, he might rebuke congregations as he rebuked the Galatians. Paul wrote, “I’m amazed that you’re so quickly deserting Jesus for a different gospel. . . . But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we’ve preached to you, let him be accursed!” Paul dramatically pronounced a rabbinic curse, an anathema, on false prophets. Also, when Paul departed from Ephesus, he wept because he foresaw that savage wolves would penetrate the flock. Paul

Basildon Park, The Iliffe Collection (National Trust)

The Apostle Paul Painting by Pompeo Batoni Paul pronounced a rabbinic curse on anybody who preached a distorted Gospel.

didn’t mince words. “Even from your own number,” he said, “men will rise up and distort the truth.” Why? “To draw away disciples aer themselves.” And it still happens today. False teachers are always drawing away disciples aer themselves. e Lord Jesus warned his followers repeatedly to be aware of false Christs, false prophets and false teachers.

In light of various ongoing controversies in the church, such as the ecumenical movement that seeks to unify charismatics and Roman Catholics, it’s been healthy and refreshing to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

Reformation sermons and teachings have been a booster shot against error and a refresher course in basic Bible doctrine. It’s vital to re-visit the Reformation and to renew our understanding of the great price that the reformers paid—some of them with their life’s blood—to recover the biblical truth of the complete reliance on Scripture as the only source of proper belief. e Reformation also taught the essential Christian doctrine that faith in Jesus alone-and not faith in our own righteousness or the Law-- is the only way to obtain God's pardon for sin. e Apostle Paul expressed his personal heartbreak that the Galatians had fallen into the deception of trusting in good works for their salvation. ey were no longer trusting in the Savior alone. ey had lapsed into a works-faith doctrine. So he wrote in Galatians 3: 1,

“Oh foolish Galatians who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth?” Bewitched is a shocking word. is is the only verse in the Bible where “bewitched” is used. In the Strong’s Dictionary of Bible Words, “bewitched” means “to cast an evil spell,” or to “wish injury upon someone.” It also can mean to exercise evil power over somebody.

Synonyms are captivate, fascinate and spellbind. In classical Greek, Aristotle used bewitched to describe putting someone under a spell so they no longer could think straight or act according to reason. It’s also associated with the “evil eye”-- a Hebrew idiom denoting envy, as opposed to somebody who has a generous, “bountiful eye.” So Paul was saying that the Galatians had become spellbound by legal observances. ey were foolish because they had allowed themselves to be robbed of their former happiness and Gospel liberty. e Contemporary English Version renders Galatians 3: 1, “You stupid Galatians!” Another translation renders it, “You foolish Galatians! Who has hypnotized you?”

Paul had placarded the Messiah with word pictures before the eyes of the Galatians. Yet they were fickle! ey had become….bewitched. e false prophets came along and claimed that grace wasn’t enough, the Cross wasn’t enough, the Holy Spirit wasn’t enough. ey said, “You must maintain all the laws and ceremonies of Moses.” e Galatians fell for it—they le their first love. ey were enchanted, and their view of the Cross was clouded. Paul said,“You’ve abandoned the Messiah and you’ve gone back to the Law! But what about the outpouring of spiritual gis by the Holy Spirit? Was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that you experienced due to the works of the Law, or was it due to Messiah and your faith in Him?” So let’s go back in time to the beginnings of the early church to solve this. In Acts 15, we learn that certain people from Judea visited Antioch and were teaching the believers that “unless you’re circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” Sharp disputes arose resulting in the Jerusalem Council to settle the question of Law vs. grace. Paul and the Apostle Peter testified that it’s impossible to keep the Law perfectly.

Only the Savior who never sinned could achieve that. Aer much discussion, Peter got up and said, “Brothers, God showed me when I preached in the home of the Gentile centurion Cornelius that God had accepted them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. God didn’t discriminate; he purified their hearts by faith. So now, why do you test

The Bewitching of the Church God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as the Gentiles are also saved by Him.” In the end, the apostles and elders wrote a letter to the churches settling the matter: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following four requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.”

Amen! So! Peter, James the brother of Jesus, and all the apostles came to the conclusion that even if you broke the Law only once—you’re still guilty of all. You are essentially a Law-breaker. A glass or a plate only needs one tiny crack to be broken. James 2: 10 states, “For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.” In fact, the New Testament says the Law is our schoolmaster to teach us our need of the Messiah!

When we receive Jesus as Saviour, his righteousness is imputed to us and thus we become the righteousness of God. Legalists claim Abraham as their father. Yet Abraham was justified by faith and not by law. Genesis 15: 6 says Abraham “believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.” Genesis 15: 6 is quoted at least four times in the New Testament. It is by faith in the finished work of Jesus at the Cross that we stand and live.

Now then, putting aside Law vs. Grace for a moment, there are plenty of other issues that can bewitch believers, sad to say, because people in the churches have basically become biblically illiterate. ey’re so busy chasing aer signs and wonders that basic Bible study has oen been neglected, and consequently, very few

know the full counsel of God outlined in the Bible.

For sure signs and wonders are part of the Gospel, but signs and wonders are not our goals; they are natural by-products of the Gospel.

Very few today in the churches can rightly handle the Word of God. Our very real danger is deception. We learn the harsh reality from Paul’s letter that genuine believers CAN be bewitched if we’re not careful and diligent. Jesus himself said in Matthew 24: 24 that false messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. When we consider the crainess of deceivers, the Bible warns us that “signs and lying wonders” will be the trademarks of the coming Wicked One, the anti-Christ. e trouble is that the Gospel has been watered down into a popular “Pop” Christianity, a user-friendly version of the Gospel, that doesn’t require repentance or commitment. Today’s Christianity is oen celebritycentered around a big group hug. It’s a socially acceptable form of Christianity that’s not Christcentered. e emphasis is upon happiness, not holiness. Meanwhile, the Hebrew Roots movement is popular because it offers deep spiritual nuggets over vapid “bless-me” teachings. But isn’t it our job as believers in Messiah to provoke the Jews to jealousy, and not the other way around? Let’s not regress like the Galatians did! Let’s go forward trusting in the Savior in these difficult days of deception. ose of us who have looked upon the crucified Messiah by faith must guard against false teachers telling us we need Jesus PLUS something else-- Jesus PLUS the Torah, Jesus Plus Mary, or Jesus PLUS church traditions. No--Just give me Jesus!

The mandate of EXPLOITS MINISTRY ®

Acts 1:8 ‘And ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.’

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