I Didn't See This One Coming

We're familiar with the UN. UNESCO. UNICEF. etc. etc.

We're familiar with the various apparatuses of the U.S. government - Congress, the Senate, the FBI, CIA, USDA, etc.

Canadians are familiar with Parliament, the Senate, the provincial legislatures, and the infamous Human Rights Commissions.

But I didn't see this one coming.

The Sanhedrin?!

Christians are familiar with the Sanhedrin as the judicial body that condemned Jesus to death for blasphemy. But it's been out-of-sight, out-of-mind since 70 AD, when the Jewish nation was destroyed (within one generation of the condemnation of Jesus the Christ). In fact, a swing by Wik. indicates that it carried on until 358 AD. It's last binding decision was the definition of the Hebrew calendar.

Well, dust off a relic from the past -- it's back!

In the free Toronto newspaper, The Epoch Times, a headline caught my eye this morning: The Sanhedrin Got It Right. Sounds like a post-crucifixion editorial headline in a conservative Jewish newspaper circa 33 AD, but, no, it's a commentary on the Beijing Olympics being an indirect danger to world peace.

I'm not sure what official status this reconstituted Sanhedrin has within the legal state of Israel, but, regardless, "welcome back".

The reconstitution of Israel is one of the evidences that Christians use to argue for the authenticity of the Old and New Testament prophecies. The Bible speaks of both the dispersing and reconstitution of the Jews from and to their historic land. And this has happened, like the discovery of so many new scientific facts that point to a Creator, in our generation.

This leads us to conclude that God is not only the Lord of creation, but also the Lord of history, with history's pivot point being a Galilean Jew hanging on a Roman cross just outside of Jerusalem, the locus and ground-zero of man's rebellion and God's redemptive act.

Just like the Big-Bang points to a Big Beginning, the Scriptures assure us that there will also be a Grand Finale. And, with events in the scientific and historical spheres unfolding rapidly as they are, it looks like we are getting pretty close to that moment in the Sergeant Pepper reprise: "it's getting very near the end".

And then, the eternal concert in the new heaven and the new earth, with myriads of worshippers and worship leaders, will begin.

It's gonna be heaven on earth.

And you're invited.

Revelation 21: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Then he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."

He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.

And that's the way the Ball bounces.

http://www.thesanhedrin.org/en/index.php/The_Re-established_Jewish_Sanhedrin