Worship to Cease at Jerusalem

Then she went on to ask Him to explain something. "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship (?)" He answered, "Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father." This is testimony by Christ Jeremiah, lamenting Jerusalem's destruction Himself that worship of God was to cease in old Jerusalem and old Palestine!

Then Jesus explained how worship would be from that time on. "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."

Jesus said to her that this old Jerusalem was not to be a place of worship. As we read these Scriptures and look over at old Jerusalem, we can see that that has come to pass. In fact, in the Jewish state of Israeli a person cannot even become a citizen if he is a professing Christian! It is written in their laws. It was tested by a "racial" Jew a few years ago. He went to Israeli and applied for citizenship. He proved his racial lineage, but stated he believed in Jesus Christ as the son of God. His case went through the courts, and his request for citizenship was denied. Only atheists or followers of Judaism are granted Israeli citizenship. Recently, additional laws and regulations have been passed in Israeli restricting or ending most Christian missionary work there. Jesus said worship of God would cease in old Jerusalem and in Samaria, and it has.

Jerusalem A Burdensome Stone

Let's turn to Zechariah 12:1, "The burden of the Word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him. 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." This is Jerusalem in prophecy, yet future, as we can see by the next verse. "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." God calls Jerusalem a "stone" and indicates it will destroy its enemies.

In Matthew 21:43-44 Jesus Christ speaks to the chief priests and Pharisees, and He says, "therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation (yes, a nation) bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." The same terminology - the same thing is going to happen to the people who gather against prophetic Jerusalem as will happen to those who fight the nation to which Christ will give the Kingdom. And both the nation and Jerusalem are called a stone, God's Stone Kingdom! Prophetic Jerusalem is the same as the Kingdom.

People are Gathering Against New Jerusalem

In Zechariah we read that "all the people of the earth be gathered against it." What are the people of the earth being gathered against? Why prophetic Jerusalem, of course! That huge Jerusalem that is so big it takes an angel to measure it, that has a multitude of people and cattle (Zechariah 2), the one God dwells in, the one He calls Zion. That is what they are gathered together to destroy.

And they are not all trying to destroy Jewish occupied Jerusalem. In fact, all the nations of the world, including Communist nations, got together in the United Nations in 1947 and created the present nation we know as Israeli. And this idea that Russia is trying to destroy Jewish Israeli does not stand on close examination. It was Russian Communists who tricked the Egyptians into moving all their armies out into the Sinai desert in 1967 where they were completely at the mercy of Israeli planes. And the Russians never raised a hand to save the Arabs.

The only nation that all the world is being gathered together to destroy is the United States of America. Even our so-called allies like the governments of Sweden, France and England (and the American government) are helping the anti-God enemies of America. Yet deluded Christian ministers look at old Jerusalem and erroneously call its Jewish occupants "Israel." No, my friends, "all the people of the earth" are gathered against the New Jerusalem, the United States of America, God's Country, the land of the regathering of the true descendants of the twelve tribes of Israel.

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