I, too, agree that the visible church - the church as we see it - is waning and giving way to corruption, compromise, and apostasy. It is the invisible church - the true Church, as God sees her - that will gain purity and faith (persecution historically has always had this effect on the true Church) as time goes on. While the true (invisible) church may remain a small remnant, over the centuries it has become a vast multitude! All the elect of God who are alive today are added to those who have gone before us and those to come after.Perhaps a tiny number at any given time, but gathered from across the centuries, an innumerable kingdom!

Do I see Jerusalem become the "capitol city of planet Earth" someday? No way. His kingdom is not of this world! I do not share the Post-millennialist's (nor the "Dispie" Premillennialist's) dreams of a Jewish kingdom ruling the whole world.

And consider this: In order for a Jew to be saved he or she must convert to Christianity, and the two religions do not even worship the same God, contrary to popular belief. I have a Baptist acquaintance who asked a hospital chaplain who was a Jewish Rabbi to pray for him prior to surgery. "After all," my Baptist friend quipped, "We both worship the same God, don't we?"

Not at all. We Christians worship Jesus Christ of Nazareth as God, do we not? We worship the Triune God of the Bible; Father Son, and Holy Spirit. They do not. They do not recognize Jesus of Nazareth as the one true and living God as we do. Their god does not exist!

In my Dispie Premil days I was taught that Christ Himself would someday preside over restored animal sacrifices in a rebuilt permanent temple in Jerusalem, capitol city of planet Earth! I can think of nothing that would be more offensive to the Lamb of God, than to preside over Jewish animal sacrifice! It would be like saying He didn't do quite a good enough job on the cross to atone for all the sins of His people, but these sacrifices will "make up for the shortfall."

Does God have a special plan for the nation of Israel? Sure. And one for France, and Iceland, and Papua, New Guinea too. None are pre-eminent. Will there be a national repentance in Israel towards the true God? I'd love to think so. I hope the Postmillennialists are right about that, and I pray that Israel - and every other nation on Earth - will experience national, global revival.