THE TIME HAD COME

This account of General Allenby’s deliverance of Jerusalem is not only a historical miracle, but it also has to do with my dream, Your Mission if You Choose to Accept It ~ The Dream.  I mentioned Lawrence of Arabia in that post.  General Allenby and Lawrence of Arabia worked together.  They were contemporaries in Arabia before the taking of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, December 1917:  

"The atmosphere was electric as General Allenby dismounted his horse in humility, removed his hat in reverence, and entered the walls of the Old City through the Jaffa Gate, which hadn’t been in use for many years. 973 years of Muslim rule were over. Iconic footage shows Jewish people welcoming him as if he was some kind of messiah, and the Land was never the same again. As time went on, Britain’s involvement would not always be so positive, but the story of how this particular moment came about is one of breathtaking wonder.

After other Muslim conquests had come and gone, the Turkish Ottomans conquered and ruled over Jerusalem and what was then Palestine for 400 years. In the Bible, 400 years seems to be a bit of a byword for slavery and oppression – 400 years of Canaanite sin stored up for wrath, 400 years of slavery in Egypt… and here we have 400 years of Ottoman rule. The building of churches and synagogues was outlawed, church bells were forbidden, non-Muslims (dhimmis) did not have equal rights for the vast majority of that time and had to pay the additional ‘jizya’ tax. But most catastrophically of all, in 1915 the call had gone out to get rid of every Christian in the Empire. The Armenian Genocide included not only Armenians but also Catholics and Greek Orthodox Christians. One and a half million were murdered, and many more suffered horrifically before making their escape. Perhaps God had decided that enough was enough.

THE MOMENT FORETOLD AND THE STRATEGY GIVEN IN ISAIAH 31

As the Turks were allied with Germany in the First World War, the British found themselves fighting against the fading Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. General Allenby was charged with liberating Jerusalem and had expressed concern to his superiors about the magnitude and sensitivity of the task before him. He had been ordered to take the city without firing on the people or the city. How on earth was it to be done? “Pray”, the answer came from above, which perhaps did not seem to be very helpful at the time. But Allenby did pray.

He came across the work of Bible scholar, Dr H. Aldersmith, who had been studying the prophecies regarding Israel. Aldersmith explained in his book from 1898, The Fullness of the Nations, that he believed Jerusalem would be delivered by Great Britain in 1917. He had become convinced from Isaiah 31:4-5 that the UK would have a part to play in the restoration of Jerusalem, and that it would be accomplished by some kind of flying machine.

Aldersmith had arrived at this idea even before the Wright brothers took their first flight in 1903 – airplanes had not even been invented, but of course that is precisely what ended up happening. Fourteen years later in 1917 airplanes were used but not commonly, and most people had never seen one. This man’s conviction about Isaiah 31 was Allenby’s inspiration. He would fly planes over Jerusalem, and drop notes written in Arabic saying, “Surrender the city! Allenby”.

There was an Arab saying that “The Turks will not leave Jerusalem until the river Nile flows in Palestine and the prophet expels them from the city”. Remarkably enough, events conspired to bring these two highly unlikely things to pass.

British troops were stationed in Egypt in the years leading up to these events, and Lieutenant General Sir Archibald Murray gained authorization to build a pipeline to pump fresh Nile water and a railway to supply their troops. By 1917, the water had arrived, along with the troops, in Palestine. The river Nile was, bizarrely, flowing in Palestine.

Secondly Allenby’s airdropped note when written in Arabic looks like: “Surrender the city! Al Nabi”, which means “The Prophet”. Many of the Turks left at that time, after the mysterious flying objects sent messages from “Al Nabi”. From the evening of December 8, 1917, and all through the night, Turkish troops were leaving Jerusalem. By early the following morning all had gone, and the Mayor of Jerusalem with a small party came under a white flag to surrender the keys of the city. That white flag along with the keys are on display in the Tower of David Museum today." 

Events in Jerusalem, 1917, as Foretold in the Bible - ONE FOR ISRAEL Ministry

General Allenby Takes Jerusalem After It’s Miraculous Surrender

The following historical event, I found fascinating especially as it ended with a white horse!  In addition, the cloud cover reported on that day is similar to what happened in the Yom Kippur war of 1973.  I bet an angel was in charge of bringing the clouds!

“Our feet shall stand within thy gates oh Jerusalem. Psalm 122.  British General Allenby agreed in 1917 as his feet walked through the Jaffa Gate of the old city after it’s miraculous and peaceful surrender.

The Turkish Ottoman Empire had control of Jerusalem. The British were planning on taking over. In preparation and defense of this invasion the Turks planned to seal up all the gates to the city and blast open the Eastern gate in order to create a fortified, secret supply line entrance that would come down into Jerusalem from the Kidron valley and up through the Eastern Gate. In order to create this supply line, they would have to blow open the sealed Eastern Gate and break an ancient biblical prophecy.

“Then He brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary which faces toward the east, but it was shut. And the Lord said to me, ‘This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter by it, because the Lord God of Israel has entered by it; therefore, it shall be shut’.” Isaiah 44:1-2.

The Turks that were commissioned with this task were captured and stopped just hours before the bomb would have been ignited.

In the meantime, General Edmund Allenby and his British troops were getting into position to apprehend Jerusalem. Allenby was known as a Christian and follower of the bible. It is reported that the night before the invasion, Allenby prayed that he might take the city without destroying the holy places. He had wired London for instructions and had received a scripture verse as a reply; “As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it” (Isaiah 31:5).

He was so excited about this verse that he read it aloud before all his troops that were positioned in the foothills of Jerusalem. Allenby commandeered every available aircraft for a fly-over. On the morning of December 10, what seemed like hundreds of planes skirted low over the Temple mount.

When the planes went up. a cloud covering hid them so that they were not seen, only their sound was heard. Fliers were dropped that said, ‘surrender immediately, you don’t have a prayer.’ and were signed by Allenby. What the General did not know was that the Turks believed in an old prophesy that they would never lose the Holy City until “a man of Allah came to deliver it”. According to reports, the signature of Allenby on the paper dropped from the sky was interpreted by them to mean the word ‘Allah’ in Arabic meaning ‘God’ and ‘beh’ in Arabic that means ‘son’. The Turks were looking at a demand to surrender signed by Allah-beh, the son of God. In response, they hoisted a white flag and surrendered the city without firing a single shot.

This was an incredible fulfillment of Biblical prophecy which put Israel under British mandate. This mandate, called the Balfour Declaration, called for a Jewish homeland and set the foundation for modern Israel. Jerusalem had been under Muslim control for centuries.

After the Turks surrender, General Allenby mounted off of his white horse as he entered Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate because he knew from the bible that only the Messiah will enter the city on a white horse.”