Are You Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.  Here is this week’s question:  Dear Mr. Hunt and Mr. McMahon, I have heard preachers say we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. But isn’t there going to be a false peace there in connection with the Antichrist?Certainly that’s not the peace we are to pray for is it?

Tom:

Well let me read so somebody doesn’t think this is just a pastor’s idea.This is from Psalm:122:6Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.
See All..., “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.”So it’s a—

Dave:

Well Tom it’s a very practical question.It touches on all of prayer.We are to pray for example: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done…”That’s the so-called Lord’s Prayer.It’s really a prayer for the disciples.

Tom:

Is that why you say “so-called.”

Dave:

Yes, it’s not the Lord’s Prayer, he never prayed it.It would be altogether wrong for Jesus to pray that prayer, but the disciples asked him.They said teach us to pray and he said after this manner.It’s not something you repeat by rote.It’s not a magic formula, but it’s a pattern for prayer.Part of it is that we are to desire God’s will be done on this earth as it is in heaven.Well as a practical matter, we realize that won’t happen until Jesus returns.Even then in the millennial kingdom, there will be a lot of people, millions who will behave themselves outwardly, but in their hearts they are still rebels and they will eventually attack Jesus in Jerusalem.Now we know that there is a false peace coming.The Bible tells us that.In fact they are in the process of preparing.Whatever peace they come up with over there will be a false peace.Now whether that will be THE false peace guaranteed by the Antichrist—I think we’re very, very close to that happening.But it won’t change.Whatever they put in print on paper, won’t change the fact that Mohammad said the last day will not come until the Muslims confront the Jews and the Muslims destroy them.It won’t change anything about Islam.

Tom:

Dave is that from the….

Dave:

The Hadith.

Tom:

Oh the Hadith, not the Qur’an.

Dave:

No, but there are more than 100 verses in the Qur’an about doing violence to promote Islam and Islam requires the whole world must submit to it, but the Jews especially must be wiped out and Islam claims that the land belongs to the Muslims and the only way they can validate Mohammad and the Qur’an of their religion is to wipe out the Jews and to take over all of that land and until they do, it’s an affront to their religion and to their prophets.So yes, there will be a false peace.The Bible talks about it.Ezekiel 38 talks about a people who are living in peace and are in unwalled villages—they don’t have walls today, but although they do have barriers and barbed wire fences and if you go along the edge of Israel, you’ve got that dirt road that is smoothed over to make sure you can see any footprints, but they will be a people, the Bible says who have been scattered to all the nations and have been brought back into their land, and are in peace and prosperity.And that is when the attack is going to come.Armageddon we call it.So we aren’t praying for a false peace, but we are praying for the peace of Jerusalem to show our love for Jerusalem, because in spite of the plans the world has for Jerusalem and their resistance to God’s plans, God has great plans for Jerusalem.This is the city where he says he placed his name forever.Jerusalem is mentioned 811 times in the Bible and never once in the Qur’an.It was never a holy city to Mohammad or to the Muslims down through the centuries.This is a new idea they’ve come up with lately.

Tom:

Right, but the Muslims believed that this is the place that is the TempleMount, that’s the place where Mohammad ascended to heaven.Where did that come along?

Dave:

That’s a tradition; again it’s a myth, no witnesses.We have witnesses when Jesus left the Mount of Olives and ascended into heaven.

Tom:

So this would be a writing in the Hadith?

Dave:

Yes, it’s a tradition, it’s a claim that the Muslims make, but there’s no basis for it.But that in itself did not make Jerusalem the holy city.In fact, the Qur’an does not tell you it was Jerusalem.I said Jerusalem was not mentioned in the Qur’an.That’s Surah 17:1.It speaks of the Al Aqsa, which means “the far place of worship.”Well it couldn’t have been Jerusalem because Jerusalem was never a place of worship.So although the Qur’an said this, it was never understood to be Jerusalem and that was not why the Dome of the Rock was built there because in the various many verses of the Qur’an, inscribed in Arabic on the Dome of the Rock, Surah 17:1 that talked about Al Aqsa is conspicuous by its absence.So obviously when they built the Dome of the Rock they did not believe that that was Al Aqsa.This was a belief that came later.So nobody even knows where Al Aqsa was.It’s a far place of worship to which Mohammad journeyed on his magic horse and launched from there without witnesses into heaven, supposedly.But we are praying for the real peace and the passion of our hearts is that for example, I pray for people to be saved.God sent prophets to plead with Israel not to continue in rebellion and idolatry because he desired to bless them, but that didn’t mean that it would necessarily happen.So much happens in this world that is not God’s will.Is it God’s will for rape, murder, crime, evil, wars—no, no, but we are at least expressing our desire, our passion to God that Jerusalem would be a place of praise.That it would be a place of peace, that it would be what he wants it to be.When will that happen?It won’t happen until Christ returns.But nevertheless we should pray for this.

Tom:

Yes, we are also praying for the Prince of Peace, that he would return and that’s the only way.

Dave:

Amen.

Tom:

We just talked about the Dalai Lama and his crying out to young people for peace and so on.It’s only going to happen through the Prince of Peace.

Dave:

Tom I remember I think it was way back 10 years ago, a New Age large newspaper had a picture of the Dalai Lama, it was the Christmas edition, and it said “Peace on Earth.”Not a word about Jesus in there, it was that the Dalai Lama was going to bring peace.No, he’s not and he didn’t have any prophecies backing him up, but Jesus does.