Reader Mail — Peace or No Peace?

FP reader Greg Healy shares why he believes prophecy students should not be watching for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. We thought his letter offered good food for thought.

I have managed to read your Web site articles with great interest since 2006 and believe your ministry is on the right track. I would like to write you, however, regarding one expectation many prophecy students have concerning the 70th Week of Daniel … and that is the expectation of the “false short peace” in Israel, just prior to the mid-point of the 70th Week of Daniel.

I am certainly not a know-it-all in the prophecy area, but I confess the Lord’s coming is my passion, and I always seek to know the truth regarding the issues of his coming, not conventional assumptions, which in fact is what really first attracted me to your father’s Web site in 2006. About a year ago you recently pointed out in your article Temple or Sanctuary? that we may need to reconsider our expectation of an actual Third Temple simply because of what Scripture plainly says when the words of Scripture are more closely examined. It is with this same premise that I put forward that we also need to be prepared for no peace actually ever to occur in the first three and a half years of the 70th Week of Daniel, even though this is the traditional view of many prophecy writers. If we are waiting on a final peace deal to be in place to justify what we believe may be the 70th Week of Daniel, then we may be following views that have always hung around, yet never have been clearly seen in the Scripture.

Case in point: Daniel 9:27. Here is the verse that many Christians have pointed to which many have said proves there will be a final “peace deal” between Israel and the Antichrist. The sentence “And he shall confirm a covenant with the many for one week…” In the concordance, the word “covenant” in the ancient Hebrew (as used in Daniel 9:27) may be translated to mean “confederation.” So, the sentence in Daniel 9:27 would actually read: “And he shall confirm (or make strong) a confederation with the many for one week…” This meaning actually supports your father’s discovery of the Euromed, or European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which is in fact a confederation. A confederation is the loose joining of several or more countries with a common purpose. So this verse in no way points to a “peace deal,” per se.

What it points to is a confederation involving Israel and the EU … two states where peace is not at issue. The Euromed or ENP, as I see it, is meant to develop conditions for peace between Mediterranean countries and is not in itself a peace treaty.

The other verse that Christians point to regarding the expected final peace deal is found in 1 Thessalonians 5:3: “While they are saying peace and safety then destruction will come upon them…” Well, here again, what does the Scripture say? It says (and only says): “While they are saying peace and safety …” This has been happening on and off since Arafat shook hands with Rabin on the White House lawn in 1993, yet in reality all they are doing about peace is saying it (or talking about it). The Scripture says nothing about there actually being peace. They are just saying peace, when destruction occurs. Perhaps just wanting something really badly is enough to deceive a people, even though they may never have it. And, yes, Israel very much so wants peace.

Another common assumption is that a peace deal has to be in effect to clear the way for Israel to build their Third Temple (or place of worship) on the Temple Mount. Does it? Why does it? Does Scripture say this? I have not come across one Scripture verse that says “ a peace deal needs to be in place for the Third Temple to go up,” so why do Christians say this?

Already we know that Israel has completed a synagogue very near the Temple Mount, and I have also heard that an antiquities organization in Israel is, or has, or is about to erect a temple replica museum very near the Temple Mount (read about it here), and I for one have not heard a hoot of complaint from the Arab community. With American Christians already missing the bus on events that have been transpiring in the EU since 2002, why would it seem unusual for there to be a Third Temple structure, or somewhat of a temple structure, which would be very easy to disregard as prophetically significant, and which received virtually no fanfare? Thus, a further missing of the next big (and last) bus by Christians in America?!

Does this mean there will not be a false short peace in Israel? Maybe. Maybe not. But we cannot assume that there will be with certainty — based upon what the Scripture plainly says or doesn’t say. And with Netanyahu now at the helm of government in Israel, the prospects for “peace” as the world community sees it look all that much dimmer.

If I am missing something I would love for someone to kindly pass it along to me. I do not intend to nit-pick, but this has been on my heart and I have not seen this issue brought up.

— Greg Healy
6/9/09