Derek Prince - The Key to the Middle East: Discovering the Future of Israel in Biblical Prophecy

O n a fine night in April 1946, I stood on a saddle of land uniting Mount Scopus on the north with the Mount of Olives on the south. Before me to the west, the gold Dome of the Rock and the silver dome of the Mosque of Al Aksa glistened in the moonlight. Around and behind them, the Old City of Jerusalem, with its serrated walls and towers and its variegated rooftops, seemed to sleep peacefully, awaiting the predawn call of the Muslim muezzin from the mosque.

Yet I knew that the peaceful appearance was deceptive. Beneath the surface lay forces already at work that would inevitably erupt in violence and bloodshed.

Behind me stood the massive stone buildings and the square tower of the Augusta Victoria Hospice. Built originally as a hospice for pilgrims from Europe, it had been taken over by the British authorities in World War II for use as a military hospital. Within its walls, I had completed my service as a hospital attendant and was now ready to be discharged from the Army.

I found myself at a watershed in my life. I had just married Lydia Christensen, a former schoolteacher from Denmark, whom I had met in Jerusalem. Lydia was mother to a small childrens home located in Ramallah, an Arab town ten miles north of Jerusalem. Through my marriage to her, I had become father to the eight girls then in her home, ranging in age from four to eighteen. Of these eight girls, six were Jewish, one was Arab and the youngest was English.

Since Lydia and I planned to go on making our home in Ramallah, I had arranged to take my discharge from the Army in Jerusalem.

What Lies Ahead?

As I lingered there on the mountain, savoring the beauty of Jerusalem, I found myself asking, What lies ahead? I was thinking not merely of Lydia and myself and our girls, but also of all the people of that land, with their unique intermingling of races, cultures and religions.

The future of the whole area was in the melting pot. Different racial and political groups were advancing claims to both territory and sovereignty that could not be reconciled with each other. The British government had come forward with a series of proposed solutions to the apparent impasse. Invariably, however, solutions that were acceptable to one group were rejected outright by the others. Was there any other source from which to seek a solution? I had come to believe that there was.

In the course of nearly six years in the Army, I had become a dedicated student of the Bible. Throughout three weary years in the sandy wastes of North Africa, my Bible had been my constant companion, my unfailing source of comfort and strength. At one point, I had been hospitalized for a full year with a skin condition that did not yield to any medical treatment available in that situation. I had regained my health only when I dared to forgo further medication and trust simply in the Bibles clear promises of physical healing.