{"id":222,"date":"2011-09-04T15:42:54","date_gmt":"2011-09-04T19:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/?p=222"},"modified":"2011-09-04T15:42:54","modified_gmt":"2011-09-04T19:42:54","slug":"anomalies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html","title":{"rendered":"Anomalies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On our recent trip to Israel, Jonathan took note of a hilarious oddity we saw as we emerged from the shopping bazaars of Jerusalem&#8217;s Old City.<\/p>\n<p>Fastened overhead was a sign that one might hardly take notice of in, say, Mobile, Alabama. The nod to Dixie is something we are familiar with, those of us who live in the South.<\/p>\n<p>Yet anomalies like this\u2014numerous in our world\u2014pale in comparison to the state of Israel itself. For many, this &#8220;resurrection&#8221; of an ancient people, the Jews, is a coincidence (as I&#8217;ve read in a popular study Bible).<\/p>\n<p>It certainly is not a coincidence, but it is an oddity. Israel is an anomaly in our world, and our suffering world can actually find a ray of hope if they look to the Jewish state, which, by historical standards, should not exist.<\/p>\n<p>But the prophets spoke of a return. There is never going to be a return of Babylon. Or the Aztecs. <\/p>\n<p>This anomaly on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean is at the end of the day a marvelous display of God&#8217;s power and provision, directly through the fulfillment of predictive prophecy.<\/p>\n<p>Think about that.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_223\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-223\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2011\/08\/anomolies.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/237\/2011\/08\/anomolies-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-223\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-223\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dixie-land in the Promised Land<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On our recent trip to Israel, Jonathan took note of a hilarious oddity we saw as we emerged from the shopping bazaars of Jerusalem&#8217;s Old City. Fastened overhead was a sign that one might hardly take notice of in, say, Mobile, Alabama. The nod to Dixie is something we are familiar with, those of us&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Anomalies - Is it the End of the World?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anomalies - Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On our recent trip to Israel, Jonathan took note of a hilarious oddity we saw as we emerged from the shopping bazaars of Jerusalem&#8217;s Old City. Fastened overhead was a sign that one might hardly take notice of in, say, Mobile, Alabama. The nod to Dixie is something we are familiar with, those of us&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-04T19:42:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2011\/08\/anomolies-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Fletcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Anomalies - Is it the End of the World?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anomalies - Is it the End of the World?","og_description":"On our recent trip to Israel, Jonathan took note of a hilarious oddity we saw as we emerged from the shopping bazaars of Jerusalem&#8217;s Old City. Fastened overhead was a sign that one might hardly take notice of in, say, Mobile, Alabama. The nod to Dixie is something we are familiar with, those of us&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html","og_site_name":"Is it the End of the World?","article_published_time":"2011-09-04T19:42:54+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2011\/08\/anomolies-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Jim Fletcher","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html","name":"Anomalies - Is it the End of the World?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2011\/08\/anomolies-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2011-09-04T19:42:54+00:00","dateModified":"2011-09-04T19:42:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2011\/08\/anomolies-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2011\/08\/anomolies-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/anomalies.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anomalies"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/","name":"Is it the End of the World?","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jim Fletcher","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96","name":"Jim Fletcher","description":"Blogger and researcher Jim Fletcher has worked in the book publishing industry for 15 years, and is now director of the apologetics group Prophecy Matters. 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