News Brief
The Real News

Most things which are reported in the news media are sort of transparent. Almost anyone can read them and understand it well. There are no hidden little nuances that are intended to be noticed by that especially informed person or group. For the most part, the news is the news.

Yet, from time to time, events occur which have ominous overtones, with no help or intent of the reporter. If there is a flood watch and you live in a potential flood area, you need to "get the message." The flood watch is critical for your well being, and it would behoove you to monitor the news media for any such news.

We have received a long term watch alert from our Lord himself. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record His admonition, but Mark alone recorded the comment, "What I say unto you I say unto all watch." When I was a young Christian, I used to wonder what He meant. Were we to occasionally go out in the open and look up for a while? Certainly that is not what our Lord intended.

Jesus told us of certain signs which would be our signal to begin to watch diligently for His arrival. He said in Luke 21, "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man."

In Matt. 24:32, Jesus said, "Learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh." The establishment of the nation of Israel in 1948 fulfilled that prophecy, being the first great sign of the imminence of the coming harvest, which, in Matthew 13, Jesus said was the end of the world. Another was the annexation of Jerusalem by Israel in 1967. That event set the stage for other signs yet to come, for prophecy requires certain things to occur, not in Jerusalem, Jordan, but in Jerusalem, Israel.

Have you been watching to see what other signs God would give us by way of events in Jerusalem? We have just now seen the unfolding of what is perhaps the greatest sign which God has given to His people since the first century. Just after the Gentiles began to tread the Holy City underfoot, on September 28, 2000, we began to declare that the attacks in Jerusalem would continue until late March or early April this year.

In the last couple of weeks, in the forty second month of that assault upon Jerusalem, something changed, and near the end of March the carnage in Jerusalem stopped. The prophecy in Rev. 11:2 has now been fulfilled, in that for 42 months that group of Gentiles have "trodden under foot" the holy city. Oh yes, Islam will come against Jerusalem again in due time to fulfill the prophecy in Zechariah 14:1-2, but, for the time being, the violence in the city has stopped. As Jesus said, "The Scriptures cannot be broken." Even as Herod could not kill Jesus before His time, the antagonists against Jerusalem could not continue beyond the requirement of the prophecy.

Revelation 11:2 has now been fulfilled. And so what's next? Revelation 11:3.