For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree. -Romans 11:22-24
The World Factbook estimates the number of Christians in the world to be approximately 2.1 billion. It places the number of Muslims (adherents to the 2nd largest religious group) at 1.6 billion. According to this same book, Judaism has 14 million adherents worldwide. All of these groups look toward the land now known as Modern Israel and claim it as their own, especially the Holy City of Jerusalem.
This is the land given to Abraham’s descendants by God through war. And war continues there to this day. In fact, many of the many conflicts in the world today are rooted in the disposition of this tiny strip of land along the Mediterranean Sea. It is the center of our world, the epicenter of the current global conflict and it is central to God’s gospel message to mankind.
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