[Darris McNeely] U.S. President Donald Trump recently announced his decision to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This is a big decision and it has met a great deal of controversy because of concern about appending any peace process and also what will happen with riots and unrest within Israel in the Middle East as a result of this. Many leaders have opposed it, but the president pledged that he would do it during his campaign and he has done this. Now, what does this mean and what should we understand about this as we look at the situation of Jerusalem, Israel, the Bible prophecy and what it means for the world of today? Let's understand a few points. 

First of all, this decision to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is a long-standing decision that has been put off by many past presidents of the United States. It is actually a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. And virtually every president of the past 30 years has said they would do it as part of their campaign or in other comments but when they held the power, they didn't do it. President Trump has decided to do that. So, it is a matter of U.S. law that is being fulfilled here and enacted by the president. From a biblical perspective, Jerusalem was an important and it is an important...but from the historical biblical perspective, Jerusalem is extremely important to the nation of Israel. It was chosen by King David and became the capital of the united monarchy of the nation of Israel in the Bible story, in the Old Testament. The original name of Jerusalem was Salem. It was a fortress, a small fortress, a Jebusite fortress. King David overcame that, planted his capital there, and it was the capital of the united monarchy. And until the fall of Jerusalem, it was the capital of the kingdom of Judah. So it's very important to the history of Israel, and in fact, the modern state of Israel does have a connection to that. And that's the third point that I want us all to understand regarding this.

Today's state of Israel, existing since 1948, represents the remnant of the holy people of the Bible, the covenant people, the nation of Israel. And the Bible tells us in many different areas that God still has unfinished business with Israel, the people that He claimed as His own and upon which His name was placed during that time. There are many prophecies that show that in the events and days leading up to the second coming of Jesus Christ, that time ahead of us, Jerusalem and the presence of that remnant people in that land are critical to those prophecies. And so, when it comes to prophecy and understanding this, Israel's claim is bona fide and it connects in with a lot of what we understand about prophecy. 

So, this is important from a number of areas. I doubt that the present decision is going to erupt in some major conflagration and another war there. There's already been enough unrest and my guess is that it is going to settle down. I don't think it's going to undermine any present peace process because, at the present, there is no credible peace process that is taking place. What we need to understand, we need to be appreciative of the history, the biblical connection and the geopolitical importance of Jerusalem today. Jerusalem is the bull's-eye of Bible prophecy, and we need to understand and pay attention to anything that takes place connected with Jerusalem.

That's BT Daily, join us next time.