When Jesus told His disciples and us about the future, he built every word of it around one city on earth named Jerusalem (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21). Jesus framed His words about the rest of the planet’s history by the sight of Jerusalem in all its earthly glory spread out before Him. Jerusalem is the catalyst that will trigger the grand finale for planet Earth.
Jerusalem is the Trigger
Twenty-six hundred years ago, God foretold that the fate of the entire planet Earth would hinge upon one city.
The Fight for Jerusalem, and all the events leading up to that fight, is the spot in the news that you should keep your eyes riveted—if you want to know what God has planned for this world.
“No city has been coveted and fought over as much as Jerusalem, the City of Peace. Babylonians, Macedonians, Ptolemies, Seleucids, Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Arabs, Seljuks, Crusaders, Mongols, Mamelukes, Turks, British, and Jordanians are only some of the conquerors whose names have fluttered across the pages of its bloody and anguished past. Jerusalem is a sacred city – a city that has played a role in history out of all proportion to its economic importance or size!”
Here, briefly, are the periods in Jerusalem’s fascinating history so far. Then we will look at what may soon be in the world’s headline news reports.
PERIOD-1: FIRST TEMPLE PERIOD FROM 1000 B.C.- 586 B.C.
PERIOD-2: THE SECOND TEMPLE FROM 538 B.C. TO A.D. 70
PERIOD-3: GENTILE PERIOD FROM A.D. 70 TO 1948. Remember what Jesus said about these times in which we live, that He called the “times of the Gentiles”? Luke 21:24 (NKJV) And they will fall by the edge of the sword and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. What have these “times of the Gentiles” looked like? Let’s take a tour of this Gentile period, noting the different eras that span nineteen centuries.
1. The ROMAN PERIOD (AD 70 – 33) The Romans brought their own people to repopulate the city.
2. The BYZANTINE PERIOD (330 – 638) This is the period after Constantine.
3. The FIRST MUSLIM PERIOD (638 – 1099). Mohammed began the religion of Islam and conquered the city of Jerusalem with the sword.
4. The CRUSADER PERIOD (1099 – 1187) Pope Urban 2 issued a decree saying that anyone who was willing to go to the holy land to liberate it from the Muslims would be forgiven all sins, and if unable to go, the same benefits would extend to those who contributed financially to send a substitute
5. The LATER MUSLIM PERIOD (1187 – 1517) Once again, the Muslims dominated the land of Israel for four long centuries.
6. The Ottoman Period (1517-1917) The Ottoman Turks defeated the Muslims, and Suleiman ruled from Constantinople over the Eastern wing of the Roman Empire. Under his reign, the present walls of the city of Jerusalem were built nearly four hundred years ago.
7. The BRITISH PERIOD (1917 – 1948) The British asked the United Nations to resolve the conflict surrounding the city, and the land was given to the Jews in 1948. Jerusalem was divided into four sectors – Jewish, Muslim, Christian, and Armenian.
8. Current period from A.D. 1948 to the Tribulation. But in the war of 1967, the city fell into Israeli hands, and the territory all the way to the Jordan River (known as the West Bank) became a part of the Israeli state. Many people believe that this ended the domination of the Gentiles, which Christ spoke about. ‘Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (Luke 21:24). This explains why some people think that Christ’s return may be near.
PERIOD-4: TRIBULATION PERIOD JERUSALEM. The fourth period is still in the future. The battle of Armageddon will spill over to Jerusalem.
(EBI-10; 130901PM)
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