Was Hamas’s Attack on Israel Prophesied in the Bible?

Was the Hamas attack on Israel prophesied in the Bible? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. Hi, it's Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question. Our phone lines are open. We'll be taking calls for the next 25 minutes or so. Here's the number.

Jot this down. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673. Now you can also watch Adriel right now on YouTube and send him your question through our YouTube channel, or you can email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, here's a voicemail from one of our listeners named Robin. When it talks about he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.

Who is it that is restraining? And when it says he is out of the way, what does that mean? Thank you.

Excellent question. I love that we're diving right into the text of Scripture here. Second Thessalonians chapter two, I'm just going to read verses one through seven to give some of the context. That you not be quickly shaken from your composure to be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.

So let's just set the scene. Paul is saying, I don't want you to think that the day of the Lord has already happened. That the final judgment has occurred, even if you get a letter, you know, supposedly from us.

Don't buy into it, he says. And so it seems like there was some confusion there in Thessalonica about this. The day of the Lord has already happened. The resurrection has already happened. Paul says, let no one deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed. The son of destruction who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God. Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things, so you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. In other words, there's this force or person restraining the revelation of this man of lawlessness. Some people refer to him as the antichrist. And your question, which is a really good question, is what is this restrainer?

And there have been a number of different views here. Some people say it's the Holy Spirit restraining the lawlessness in the world. Others say it's the role of civil government. Paul in Romans 13 talks about how civil government is called to execute justice, to punish wrongdoing. God's law has always had this restraining effect in society, even more broadly outside of the Church, just his natural revelation restraining evil, restraining wickedness in the world. I think my sense is that here we're talking about God's providential care and restraint, that that restraint happens through the work of the Lord, the work of the Holy Spirit in the world, until God in his providence allows this to take place. We believe that God is in control of history, that he's sovereign over all things, including Satan and the forces of evil.

That's my view. And again, this is all coming in the context of Paul wanting to warn the Thessalonians that the day of the Lord had not already happened. And so thank you for reaching out with that question. And as I said, Robin, wonderful to just dive right into the scriptures as we begin. Just love it when our listeners are reading the Bible for themselves and they're really digging in.

It's so encouraging to us. By the way, we have some great core Bible studies on a wide variety of topics, including on the book of Revelation, which a lot of people are discussing these days, given what's happening in the Middle East. And you can find those at corechristianity.com. We also receive emails here at the Core.

You can email us anytime, questions at corechristianity.com, or you can call us at 833-THE-CORE. Got this question that came in from Richard in Texas. He says, in light of all the negativity in the world and the difficulty to decipher real versus fake news, is it wrong for me not to be watching the news? Richard, honestly, it's probably good for your health.

I don't know. I wrestle with the same thing that it sounds like you're wrestling with, because it seems like so much of what's out there is heavily biased one way or another. And of course, that's just the world that we live in, but it makes it hard to feel like, okay, is what I'm getting here, are they just shooting it straight, or is this being twisted for some other agenda?

And so I get the frustration. Let me just say, this is one of the things, brothers and sisters, if you wrestle with this, if you're always like, man, how can I trust this? Can I trust this? If you wrestle with that, this is one of the things that makes me just so grateful for God's word. Talk about having something where we don't have to go back and say, well, is this really true? No, God has spoken to us, He's revealed His word to us, and we can take it to the bank, we can rest in it, we can sink our teeth into it. The last few years have made me all the more grateful for the word of God in a world where information is just so difficult to discern.

Is this totally accurate or not? Being able to say, man, we have the inspired word of God. One, there's an encouragement for you, and hopefully a comfort to you, but two, I wouldn't say that it's wrong to not watch the news. And again, frankly, I think there's so much in a lot of the news cycle, there's so much bias and there's so much of an attempt to strike fear into our hearts that it's probably good not to be consumed with it 24-7. Now, it's also good not to be oblivious concerning what's happening around us, but I think that's something where you're going to have to weigh that for yourself, considering, okay, how can I be aware of what's happening around me for the sake of prayer, but not be so consumed by it that it's causing distress in my life?

And so, may God bless you, may God comfort you with his word, and may God give you wisdom as you think about your own diet of news and how much you should or shouldn't take in. You know, this really hits home for my wife and I, Adriel. We've been watching a lot of the coverage out of the Middle East, and the other night we just had to turn off the television. It's so sad, it's so heartbreaking. I mean, we obviously know what's happening, we've been praying for what's happening there, but just the constant barrage of those images, you know, it was just really taking an emotional toll on us. You know, we had the same experience, Bill, and I think it should encourage us to pray and to cry out to God on behalf of those who are suffering immensely right now. And so that could be a good thing, you know, as we see these things and, okay, we're praying. Too often, I think, that's not what happens, and we don't turn to prayer.

But man, God help us all to pray. And Bill, I feel you, and I think many of our listeners do as well, it's been really difficult, especially in the last couple of days. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Our phone lines will be open for the next 15 minutes or so. Here's the number, 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Steve, who's calling in from Sioux City, Iowa. Steve, what's your question for Adriel? Hey, Adriel, I got Matthew chapter 18, verse 18, what's bound in heaven, bound on earth, loosed in heaven, loosed on earth. What are they talking about? What's being bound, what's being loosed?

Yeah, great question. So here, Jesus is talking in the context of what we call church discipline. He says in verse 15, if your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private.

If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a gentile and a tax collector.

In other words, treat him like a non-believer. Truly, verse 18, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth, and here he's talking about the action of the church, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Jesus gave to the apostles the keys of the kingdom of God. And those keys of the kingdom are administered, used through the preaching of the gospel and the administration of those ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, that Jesus gave to the church. Now, when there are those within the church who continue in sin, unrepentant sin, they're not willing to turn from their sins, well then you have this process of church discipline. And Jesus says when the church goes through that process, acting in the name of Christ and in accordance with the word of God, if somebody is excommunicated, if they are driven out of the church because of their hard-heartedness and sin, he says whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. In other words, the action there of the church isn't something to be treated lightly. God is working through his people by his word. And so that's what's being spoken of here, that binding and loosing happening in the context of the ministry of the word and of the church. And I think the big takeaway here for all of us, Steve, is that God really does work through the church in a day like ours today, where so many are tempted, I would say, just to set aside the church to think, oh, we don't really need that anymore. I have a personal relationship with God. I love Jesus.

I'm not so much into organized religion and so forth. And you hear those things over and over again, but we don't recognize that Jesus promised to build his church. The church is not perfect.

No church is perfect. Nevertheless, Christ is working in and through her by the power of his word and spirit. And we need to take that seriously, and that's one of the things, I think, at least that's implied there in those verses. And so thank you for bringing us to Matthew 18, Steve, and may the Lord bless you. Steve, thanks so much for listening to Core Christianity. It's great to have you as one of our regular listeners. We'd love to have you as a regular listener as well, and you can find out more about this ministry at corechristianity.com.

Coming up on Halloween just a few weeks away, and every time of year around right now, we start getting calls about spiritual warfare and Satan's influence in our world. And we've actually prepared a great resource on that topic, and we'd like to offer that to you today. Yeah, the resource is called Can the Devil Read My Mind, written by Pastor David Cassidy. It's a booklet about 70 pages, 73 pages.

Something that you could read in an afternoon, and something I think that will really encourage you in your walk with the Lord. Getting into that topic that we often broach on this broadcast, spiritual warfare, and our role as Christians here in this. And so get a hold of this resource. Again, it's at corechristianity.com, and it's called Can the Devil Read My Mind. While you're at the website, browse around.

Check out some of our other resources, many of them absolutely free, including our core guides and our core questions. The website, again, is corechristianity.com. Let's go to Marjorie, who's calling in from Kansas. Marjorie, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, I've heard many preachers preach that God's love is unconditional, and these several verses here sound like that it's conditional. They're John 10, 17, and John 14, 21, and I know I should feel God's love more by faith for all that He's done for me.

I am grateful. Marjorie, thank you for this question, and this is a struggle that we can really have, wondering, God, do you really love me? Do you really love me because for many of us, you look inside, you still see indwelling sin, you see struggles that you've had maybe for many, many years, and you think, I don't know that God could love me. And there are some who are, I think, kept away from the church because they feel hopeless. They think, yeah, God loves some people who have their lives together, who haven't sinned in the ways that I've sinned.

I'm not entirely sure that He could love me. And then you read some of these passages. You brought up John 14, verse 21, whoever has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. And then also the words of Jesus in John chapter 10, verse 17, the reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life only to take it up again. And so there you have this sort of relationship between obedience and the love of God. But let me just say to you, sister, that scripture is very clear that the love of God for humanity was not dependent upon humanity's purity or righteousness. When John 3.16 says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life, the world there in John chapter 3 is the world of sinners, rebels, the enemies of God. And Paul makes it absolutely clear in Romans chapter 5. I think that this is the text to go to.

Listen to what he says. Romans chapter 5, verse 6, while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In other words, the love of God is magnified in that He has set His love upon those who did not deserve it. Sinners.

People who were in rebellion against Him. And so we can read this and say, you know, what makes you a good candidate for the love of God, for His grace and His forgiveness? What we bring to the table is our sin and wretchedness. Don't ever think that because of your sin, you cannot come to God.

That's what the devil would want you to think. God invites sinners to Himself to be washed and cleansed. And the good news is, it's not on the basis of your righteousness, it's not on the basis of your works, it's not this conditional love that were, I mean, obviously right there in Romans chapter 5 and elsewhere too. I think of Ephesians chapter 2, for example, chapters 1 and 2, really, talking about the love of God to those who were dead in their trespasses and sins. And so we should, man, take comfort from God's Word here and remind ourselves of the fact that the love of God, the love that He set upon us, was not dependent upon or based on our righteousness, but His goodness and the abundance of His love that He lavished upon us in His Son, Jesus Christ, so that we might be forgiven.

And if you wrestle with this, if you wrestle with, I don't know if God could love me because of my sins, remember that God demonstrates His love for us and that while we were yet sinners, the ungodly Christ died for us, and He calls us to the table to receive His grace. Amen. Such a good explanation of the Gospel. Thank you for that, Adriel.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. You can leave us your question on our voicemail system 24 hours a day. We try to review those voicemails each day. Here's the number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Here's a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners in Bend, Oregon. This is Millie. Bill, I think it's an email. Oh!

I'm sorry. So you're going to have to be Millie's voice. Can you maybe change your voice a little bit and do a Millie for us? No, never mind.

The producer's saying, don't try it. So yeah, just read the email. All right. I don't actually have the email in front of me right now. Do you happen to have it? Let's see if I do, in fact.

Here's Millie's email from Bend, Oregon. As I've been reading more and more about the Hamas attack, I'm wondering if we are watching end times prophecy unfold in real time. How should we as Christians think about all of this? What should we be doing or praying for right now as things continue to develop?

It does seem like, especially when you have war in the Middle East and surrounding Israel in particular, the first question that people have is, is this it? I mean, we're talking about Armageddon here. Is this what was prophesied in Scripture? Or was this, and Millie, it seems like that's your question specifically, is this specific Hamas attack something that was prophesied in the Bible? The war in Jerusalem, in Israel, that's prophesied in the New Testament in particular, Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 talks about the destruction of Jerusalem.

He prophesied it very clearly. The disciples are walking around, and they see the temple, and they begin to remark how beautiful and grand it looked. And Jesus says, look, this is all going to be torn down. And sure enough, in the year 70 AD, it was. There was the siege of Jerusalem, and the Romans destroyed the city and the temple.

And it hasn't been rebuilt since then. So you do have specific prophecies that were fulfilled about Jerusalem and her destruction. And that's not just in Matthew 24. There are other places, I think, in the New Testament that allude to that same event. I don't think that the Hamas attack specifically is something that was, you know, that you can go to a chapter and verse and say, this is talking about the Hamas attack like you can with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It does seem to me, you know, my read of the book of Revelation is that Revelation is giving us a snapshot of human history and these cycles of repetition where things get progressively...

I mean, it's almost like birth pangs. You know, you think of, again, that language coming from Matthew 24 and these judgments that are repeated throughout world history until the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ so that when we see war and destruction and famine and the death of the innocent and so forth, that's a part of the judgment upon this present evil age, this world, looking forward to the new creation. So I think the Bible does have something to say about what we're seeing and does give us words to pray. And that was the second part of, it seems like, you know, how should we... what should we be doing and how should we be praying?

And I said this yesterday on the broadcast. I'm grateful that you asked this question because for many people, you know, they see us, Bill, we were talking earlier, and you see those images and you think, what can I do? You know, donate money or something like that. But certainly one thing that we can do as God's people is lift up our voices to the Lord and pray. And God hears your voice. And so we pray lamentation. And what I mean by this, we cry out to God for the death and destruction that we are seeing, for the great injustices that we've seen. We cry out to God and ask Him to pour out His mercy. We pray for peace and healing and for the comfort of those who have been...

I mean, who have had loved ones taken from them in a violent and horrible way. And so there are so many things that we need to pray for. We need to pray for justice.

I think we can pray for justice on those who committed these great and horrendous acts of violence. You think of Hamas, that God would bring judgment and repentance. And so those are ways that we can be praying, Millie. And the Bible is full of prophecies, prophetic testimony, that bears witness to the fact that this is the inspired Word of God. I think of what the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 46 verses 9 and 10, where God in those verses says, I am God and there is no other.

I am God and there is none like me. I declare the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done. So God gives us the unfolding of history. He may not always give us this specific incident that happened on this day, but He gives us the unfolding of history and He focuses in His revelation on Jesus and on the coming of Messiah and on the advancement of His kingdom because that's where He wants our eyes to be focused even today. As we see the death and destruction and carnage all around us, not to take our eyes away from Christ, we need to fix our eyes upon the Lord and cry out to Him for His mercy and for His grace and for the salvation of many in this time, that His Spirit would be at work in those places that desperately need it. So well said. Thank you for that, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity. Let's go to Rick in Nebraska. Rick, we just got about a minute left.

What's your question for Adriel? Yes, Pastor. I had a question about the disciple Judas. I was always under the impression by reading the Bible several times that Judas hanged himself. However, I recently discovered, and I don't know why I didn't discover it before, said that he hit his head and his intestine split open all over the ground. So I was curious, how did Judas actually die?

This is one of the things that people will bring up. Is this a contradiction? Because you read about Judas' suicide taking his own life in the Gospels, and then you have that account in Acts chapter 1 that describes what you just mentioned. I think that those can be harmonized so that it's not two different things.

Some people have said he basically fell from the noose, and his body is pretty grotesque, but that's what took place. So I don't think that there's a contradiction. I think that those two accounts can be harmonized in a way that makes perfect sense. Rick, thanks for reaching out to us. Brothers and sisters, please do continue to keep that situation in Israel in your prayers, and thank you for listening once again to the Corps. May the Lord bless your day. Thank you.