{"id":225,"date":"2011-09-04T15:51:26","date_gmt":"2011-09-04T19:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/?p=225"},"modified":"2011-09-04T15:51:26","modified_gmt":"2011-09-04T19:51:26","slug":"the-trigger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/the-trigger.html","title":{"rendered":"The Trigger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There are several amazing prophecies in the Bible&#8217;s book of Zechariah. At the very end of the book, we see a scenario in which the nations of the world come against &#8220;Jerusalem.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n<p>I submit that this occurs for one reason: the Jews control the Holy City, today. <\/p>\n<p>For thousands of years, no one came against Jerusalem. It was just there. In 1949, though, the Israelis took control of the western side of the city. Nineteen years later, they took the Old City. <\/p>\n<p>The world has hated them ever since. <\/p>\n<p>When people ask me what I think the trigger or catalyst will be for the Bible&#8217;s stated consummation of history, I answer that it will be the status of Jerusalem. Zechariah recorded that the nations of the world would want it. Israel has it.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you believe in Bible prophecy or not, you must admit\u2014if you know history at all\u2014that the positioning of Israel, in the context of the international community&#8217;s wishes (Palestine!), is quite striking.<\/p>\n<p>It is something, I would suggest, for the individual to meditate on, for sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are several amazing prophecies in the Bible&#8217;s book of Zechariah. At the very end of the book, we see a scenario in which the nations of the world come against &#8220;Jerusalem.&#8221; Why? I submit that this occurs for one reason: the Jews control the Holy City, today. For thousands of years, no one came&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-225","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>The Trigger - 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\/the-trigger.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Trigger - Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are several amazing prophecies in the Bible&#8217;s book of Zechariah. At the very end of the book, we see a scenario in which the nations of the world come against &#8220;Jerusalem.&#8221; Why? I submit that this occurs for one reason: the Jews control the Holy City, today. For thousands of years, no one came&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/09\/the-trigger.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-09-04T19:51:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Fletcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Trigger - 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\/the-trigger.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Trigger - Is it the End of the World?","og_description":"There are several amazing prophecies in the Bible&#8217;s book of Zechariah. At the very end of the book, we see a scenario in which the nations of the world come against &#8220;Jerusalem.&#8221; Why? I submit that this occurs for one reason: the Jews control the Holy City, today. 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