Joel Richardson has a stark warning for Christians: “The world is melting down around us.”
“I live in the United States; my nation is melting down,” he said. “If you’re from Europe, Europe is melting down. The Middle East is melting down. The global economy is melting down. Morality, globally, is melting down.”
It’s a feeling shared by millions of evangelical Christians, many of whom believe the end times will soon be upon us.
For that reason, Richardson, the New York Times bestselling author of “The Islamic Antichrist” and “Mideast Beast,” has unveiled a new teaching series called “The Coming Battle for Jerusalem,” which seeks to educate Christians about the prophecies being fulfilled in these times.
“The Coming Battle for Jerusalem,” produced by WND Films, is an explosive multimedia presentation that takes believers from the world of the Old Testament to the cutting edge of contemporary geopolitics, revealing how the future was clearly laid out in prophecies.
Richardson believes contemporary Christians have too often neglected the Old Testament, which he contends is key to understanding both the New Testament and current events.
“Most Christians are what I’d call ‘Old Testament illiterate,'” he said. “They probably spend at maximum 10Â or 20Â percent of their time in the Old Testament and the overwhelming majority of their time in the New Testament. And really the way the history of Christian theology has developed is that most Christians see various statements made in the New Testament and they interpret them through their ‘Old Testament illiteracy.’ So they don’t really have this foundation of the Old Testament, they don’t have a foundation of understanding the covenants of God as giving insight and clarity to concepts in the New Testament, particularly to the handful of statements that are a difficult to understand. And as a result we sometimes misinterpret very basic biblical concepts.”
Richardson believes the covenants God made with the Jewish people in the Old Testament are central to understanding the Scriptures.
“I’ve been shocked at the degree to which many Christians really don’t know the details regarding what are the covenants throughout the Old Testament. The reality is, these promises of God, these covenants of God, these form the very foundation for understanding the rest of the Bible, for understanding the New Testament. These are the very foundation for understanding the Gospel.”
Richardson calls learning about these covenants “Bible 101.”
In “The Coming Battle for Jerusalem,” Richardson also takes on some of the most explosive controversies within the church, including the debate between “replacement theology” and what he calls “restorationism.” Richardson says the promises God made to the Jewish people in the Old Testament have never changed, because God can’t break His word. And Richardson maintains God will restore the Kingdom of Israel itself, which he sees as central to God’s plan of redemption.
REMARKABLE SECRETS about what is to come revealed. “The Coming Battle for Jerusalem,” the explosive new teaching from New York Times bestselling author Joel Richardson. Available now at the WND Superstore.
“A simple survey of some of these most important passages which deal with the coming forward of the Messiah and his being birthed into the Earth and being central to the Lord’s plans settles this matter,” said Richardson. “It settles this controversy. And I believe as I’ve expressed that ‘restorationaism,’ the idea that God is going to restore the throne of David, that he’s going to restore the kingdom to Israel and that Jesus is central to that plan, means that through the restoration of Israel He’s going to restore and redeem all of creation.”
Richardson also recently produced a blockbuster film, an “end times blueprint” called “The Global Jesus Revolution.” The “Global Jesus Revolution” describes how “God is moving” in the Middle East, as Christianity is swelling even in nations governed by Islamic tyrannies that discriminate against believers in Christ. It features remarkable interviews with underground church leaders and believers who say they have witnessed the power of God working in the Middle East.
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“The Coming Battle for Jerusalem” describes the end stage of what Richardson believes is being prepared through these events, “the age to come” of the restoration of the kingdom of Israel. He says that even though times seem hard, Christians should be joyful.
“Despite all of these things we see, we have a hope,” he said. “We have an anchor. As the storms begin to swirl, as this great storm that the Lord said would happen, the eye of the storm is Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the center of His purposes and that just happens to be the location where the greatest spiritual conflict is taking place as Satan is raging against the fulfillment of the promises of God.”
Richardson takes this phrase “hope as an anchor” from Hebrews 6: 17-19. It reads: “Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold for the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”
“It’s speaking to those of us who are believers,” Richardson explained. “What does it mean, ‘we who have fled?’ What have we fled from? We have fled from this present system, this present age, the nature of this present age, the systems that govern this age. The ideas, the philosophies that govern this present age, we have fled from them. We have fled from the world. We have fled from the false and passing hopes of this present age. We’ve rejected them, we’ve said there’s nothing this world can offer us we can put our hope in. We’ve come to something that’s solid, that’s substantial.”
Richardson says Jesus embraced the cross because of the “joy to come.” He argues out the “age to come” is part of that joy, yet he believes many Christians don’t know or talk about it. He hopes his teaching series will help change that.
“We may be greatly encouraged despite all of the discouragement of the current age,” he said. “And we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”
Richardson urges all believers to educate themselves through “The Coming Battle for Jerusalem” about the mysteries revealed in the past and the great events that will unfold in the future.
“This is a basic teaching that every Christian, every student of the Scriptures out there should go through,” he said.
REMARKABLE SECRETS about what is to come revealed. “The Coming Battle for Jerusalem,” the explosive new teaching from New York Times bestselling author Joel Richardson. Available now at the WND Superstore.
