Pastor Jack Hibbs believes there’s a rampant deception afoot confusing and confounding Christians and others when it comes to the topic of Israel.
The preacher, reflecting on last month’s terror attack against Jewish people at Bondi Beach in Australia, said he immediately recognized in the wake of the horror the same evil pattern observed during the assault waged by Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Listen to the latest episode of “Quick Start” 👇
“It feels like the beginning of something that history has recorded over the centuries, and that is the rise of Islamic Jihad,” he said.
Hibbs said there’s a theological reason the Jewish people are so often the targets of hatred and chaos.
“What has history shown? Well, let’s go back to Egypt. Let’s go back to Babylon. Let’s go back to the Medo-Persian Empire. Let’s go back to the Assyrian Empire. Let’s go back to the Grecian Empire, the Roman Empire,” he said. “You can just go back to every empire that’s ever been, and the target has been the Jewish people.”
He continued, “Now, either … they got really, really bad luck, or there is something that has a spiritual connection to it that maybe the God of the Bible wrote all this stuff out telling us why it’s happening and that Israel does have a day of reckoning coming for its sake.”
Hibbs said that this day of reckoning is a deliverance during which Israel will be relieved from the nations that have persecuted, murdered, and taken their land. Ultimately, the pastor believes the physical events being observed right now are a manifestation of what’s happening spiritually.
“I believe what we’re seeing in the world today, physically, is a manifestation of what’s happening in the world of the invisible spiritual realm,” he said.
One of the issues he lamented has been a perceived antisemitism or anti-Israel sentiment that is increasingly permeating the conservative movement.
While right-leaning critics have long criticized people on the political left for such dynamics, Hibbs said there have been shifts among conservatives — including prominent individuals — as well. He believes these shifts and changes are spiritual.
He noted it’s likely the result of the fact that “Jesus actually knew what he was saying when he said in the last days there’s going to be doctrines of demons and deceiving spirits that are going to be deceiving people.”
“I don’t think anybody … is deceived if somebody jumps out of a bush with red underwear on and a pitchfork and a black goatee,” Hibbs continued. “You’re not going to be deceived by that, but you will be deceived by what Jesus warned us about. Jesus said, be careful what you hear. “So, today, there are very famous people with very big followings because they’re saying things, and it’s more of a personality cult that people are following these influencers.”
But rather than merely material, he believes some of what’s being said is being fed by the demonic.
“Behind it all, there are doctrines of demons and deceiving spirits that are manipulating people just like [we] might sit down and play chess,” Hibbs said. “We are thinking it all out, we’re playing it out on the board, and from time to time, we will actually move our piece. There’s a lot of spirit stuff going on in the invisible realm, and from time to time, you’ll see the piece move in the physical realm on the table.”
At the moment, Hibbs said a lot of the pieces are rapidly moving around the globe. He encouraged Christians to be watchful and to observe what’s going on, encouraging them to defend Israel.
“When we mention Israel or the Jew or the land, this is something that everybody needs to take a deep breath and study on,” he said. “There’s no other country in the history of man where God has clumped something together from Father Abraham — and that is the Jew. This person called the Jew. What is the Jew? The origin of the Jew, the Israeli, the Hebrew people, the land … God promised the land to Abraham and his believing descendants.”
Hibbs said Israel is “altogether unique” and that people shouldn’t approach Israel the same way they do other countries. Israel must be seen through a biblical lens, he argued.
“When Jesus Christ returns in the Second Coming and sets up His throne, the Bible tells you where it’s going to be,” he said. “It says he returns to Israel, not Palestine. It says in the Bible, He’s going to return to Israel and He’s going to set up his throne in Jerusalem, more specifically in the city of David, which is called Zion.”
He said this word “Zion” can be triggering, but he believes there’s an important significance.
“I think we are so close to epic biblical times that names and words like ‘Israel,’ the ‘Jew,’ ‘Zion’ just blows people up,” Hibbs said. “Because why? I think it’s a spiritual indicator. It’s like a barometer or a weather vane pointing. It’s amazing.”
As the number of voices facing big-tech censorship continues to grow, please sign up for Faithwire’s daily newsletter and download the CBN News app, developed by our parent company, to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.