Ray Bentley. The Holy Land Key. Colorado Springs CO: Water Brook P,2014. E-book.
Yes, I confess. I make an attempt to keep track of what is going on the Middle East because there may be a connection to Bible prophecy. So The Holy Land Key sounded like it might scratch that itch. It does.
Bentley does not break much new ground when speaking of the formation of the state of Israel or the recognition of Jerusalem as its capital. What makes The Holy Land Key stand out are the stories of a few men and women connected with Israel. Particularly inspiring is the story of a man who helped build a city in the desert from scratch. He had a remarkable vision.
He also cites Palestinian man from Nazareth who has done remarkable work in a very volatile setting.
Another man, a native of Zimbabwe and not a Jew, gave a prophetic word to Benjamin Netanyahu in the nineties. It came to pass and Netanyahu was voted out of office. He is back in now, Bentley suggesting that the Prime Minister learned his lesson and has taken the man’s counsel more seriously.
This is no trivial matter because of what is called the Jerusalem Syndrome. It seems that many visitors to Israel—Jew, Christian, and Muslim alike—often seem to get suddenly inspired to tell people a message that they claim to have come from God. An early example is told in the novel Jerusalem by Nobel winner Selma Lagerlöf.
Bentley does speak of the lunar eclipses or blood moons that some folks got excited about a few years ago. He does not make any prediction, but notes that sometimes such phenomena accompanied significant events in history.
Probably the weakest section is his interpretation of zodiac signs. He basically summarizes E. W. Bullinger and D. James Kennedy from their books. He does actually quote from Isaiah 47:13-14 which warns about using astrological signs, so he understands the controversy, but he says that God intended the signs to be a simple message and mankind twisted their message into idolatry.
Bentley relies on a number of interesting historical sources for some of his observations, and his bibliography and endnotes are definitely worth a look. It is a reminder that the God of the Bible is the God of history. We may not always understand what God is doing until after He has done it. Indeed, Bentley’s favorite quotation is from a former pastor of his, Chuck Smith, who said, “Prophecy is best understood after it has come to pass.” (114, 193)
Smith also counsels, “Watch to see where God is working and join Him.” (207) For some people, that means the Middle East. And Bentley shares a few personal vignettes of what some of those people have been doing.
N.B. I would re-read this short book about a year and a half later. I reviewed it both times, but the reviews emphasized different things. For the second review see https://langblog.englishplus.com/?p=4389.