SUMMARY:
All of this is a reminder that God is in control and that He will have the last word on the affairs of the Middle East. All that is happening is paving the way for the return of the Messiah according to the clear prophecies of the Bible. When He comes there will be peace in the Middle East and the world and the real New World Order in which there is righteousness and truth. Make sure you are ready for this event by accepting Him as Saviour and Lord now!
Editorial: At the time of writing this brief comment there has been an agreement of cease fi re between Israel and Hezbollah. This could change at anytime. CWM has decided to publish Tony Pearce’s article as he wrote it notwithstanding any change in the events. (October 2006)
THE Middle East is in turmoil. War has erupted across the border of Israel and Lebanon while the killing in Iraq brings in a daily toll of victims.
As the region supplies most of the world’s oil, what happens there is of vital importance to the rest of the world.
Behind the scenes there is a momentous confl ict taking place between Iran and its allies and the United States and its allies.
The war between Israel and Hezbollah is really a war between Israel and Iran and ultimately a war about whether Islamic fundamentalism will succeed in imposing itself on the whole Middle East.
It is ultimately a war which involves us all whether we like it or not. Iran is the supplier of Hezbollah through Syria and is seeking to export the Shiite *1 version of revolutionary Islam through this client army operating as a state within the state of Lebanon.
Israel is now accused of destroying Lebanon but it is Hezbollah together with Syria and Iran who must bear the responsibility for what is happening.
For what purpose does this organisation want 12,000 missiles?
For what purpose has Iran supplied them?
Iran’s President Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of the State of Israel and threatens all those who support Israel.
At a rally on August 1st he said, “…the fi re of the wrath of the peoples is about to erupt and overfl ow … the peoples will soon rage … Today, the Iranian people is the owner of nuclear technology.” *2
Iran’s leader Ahmadinejad believes he is preparing the way for the appearance of the Mahdi, a Saviour fi gure in Shiite Islamic teaching who will reappear at the end of this age at a time of great distress on the earth and impose Islam on the whole world. Defeating Israel is seen as a key preparation for this event. Posters in Iran show that the Iranian regime is standing shoulder to shoulder with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrullah said the world would soon see the demise of Israel.
His aim is not just the destruction of Israel but also the elimination of all Jewish people.
On October 22, 2002, Hassan Nasrullah told Lebanon’s Daily Star,
“If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them world wide”.
The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran does not just frighten Israel.
The rest of the Arab world is alarmed at the rise of Iran as a regional power.
The Lebanon confl ict has the potential of bringing Syria and Iran into direct confl ict with Israel with the possibility of weapons of mass destruction being fi red.
This along with the confl ict already taking place in Iraq has the potential to cause a meltdown in the Middle East with incalculable consequences for the whole world if oil supplies are cut back or shut off from the region. Looking at the rest of the world we see different positions being taken. America is hostile to Iran and supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself.
The possibility of a direct assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities from America cannot be ruled out.
Russia has supplied Iran with nuclear technology in the fi rst place and also entered a defence pact with Iran and Syria. China is supportive of Iran, which supplies it with much of its oil.
In the middle is the EU3, which is generally critical of US foreign policy in the Middle East and of Israeli action in Lebanon, but also aware of the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran and wanting to restrain the spread of Islamic jihad in the Middle East and in Europe itself.
The search for a peace option to prevent all out war has now centred on Europe with an international conference held in Rome on July 26th 2006.
The present crisis has the potential to push the world rapidly towards Armageddon or to create conditions for a peace settlement backed upon an international agreement to be imposed on the region by a military force.
The big questions are “How to get such an agreement?” and “Where would the military force come from?”
For the fi rst time in its history Israel has agreed in principle to an international force to be stationed on its border with Lebanon to guarantee that Hezbollah does not re-arm after the confl ict is over.
A force involving US or British troops would not be possible given the fact that their armies are already overstretched in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Nor would it be acceptable to Lebanon and the Arab world. The one region which could supply such a force is the 10 nation military alliance known as the Western European Union (WEU). *4
Interestingly the decision to incorporate the WEU into the “crisis management” process of the EU was taken on Recommendation 6665 of the organisation.
The key negotiator in all of this is the EU’s foreign and security affairs chief, Javier Solana.
Solana has said deploying a multi-national force “under the umbrella of the UN Security Council” would be “a diffi cult undertaking but a real possibility”.
French President Chirac has said he is willing to send French forces into Lebanon provided they are part of a WEU deployment.
France has historic ties with Lebanon which may make this more of a possibility.
Another country which could be approached is Turkey which has a strong army, and an interest in keeping the peace in the region of which it is a part.
All of this has amazing implications in the light of Bible prophecy.
The book of Revelation chapter 13 speaks of a world leader arising out of a 10 nation alliance and using the 666 number as his mark.
The book of Daniel implies that this leader will arise out of the region of the Roman Empire and will make a covenant with Israel for 7 years (Daniel 9:26-7).
This world leader is known in the Bible as the Beast or Antichrist.
He offers peace but causes the time of the Great Tribulation which brings this age to an end.
At the end of the 7 year tribulation period, Jesus the Messiah returns to the earth and brings peace to the world, ruling from Jerusalem during the Millennium or Messianic Age for 1000 years.
At the same time the fact that Israel’s main foe in all of this is Iran which has links with Russia is also rather amazing.
In the book of Ezekiel chapters 38 & 39 we read of an army coming against Israel in the latter days made up of Islamic countries led by a great power to the uttermost north (Russia) which mentions Persia (Iran) as a prominent member.
This army meets its doom “on the mountains of Israel” by direct intervention of God, saving Israel from destruction.
Finally a piece of information from a most unlikely source—an Irish peat bog. Workers digging in this bog in July, around the time the confl ict between Israel and Hezbollah started, found a copy of an ancient book written about 800-1000 AD miraculously preserved in the bog
. It was a book of Psalms open at Psalm 83.
So what does Psalm 83 say?
O God, do not remain quiet; do not be silent and, O God, do not be still. For, behold, your enemies make uproar; and those who hate you have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against your people, and conspire together against your treasured ones. They have said, “Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more.” For they have conspired together with one mind; against you do they make a covenant: The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites; Moab, and the Hagrites; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assyria also has joined with them; they have become a strong arm to the children of Lot. Selah. Deal with them as with Midian, As with Sisera and Jabin, at the torrent of Kishon, who were destroyed at Endor, who became as dung for the ground. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, and all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna, who said, “Let us possess for ourselves the pastures of God”. O my God, make them like the whirling dust; like chaff before the wind. Like fi re that burns the forest, and like a fl ame that sets the mountains on fi re, so pursue them with your tempest, And terrify them with your storm. Fill their faces with dishonour, that they may seek your name, O LORD. Let them be ashamed and dismayed forever; and let them be humiliated and perish, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the LORD, are the Most High over all the earth.
Ron Ross, from Bridges for Peace, comments on this Psalm: “One hundred missiles landed on northern Israel on Wednesday when we visited Kiryat Shmona. I saw the ‘fi re that burns the forest’. It came as a product of hate and anger.
Psalm 83 makes me long for the fi re of God, which defends His holiness and righteousness, the fi re of love.
I saw the evil fl ame that set ‘mountains on fi re’.
Psalm 83 says to all who will listen we have a day of the Lord which will repay evil for good and the Lord will defend his people.”
All of this is a reminder that God is in control and that He will have the last word on the affairs of the Middle East.
All that is happening is paving the way for the return of the Messiah according to the clear prophecies of the Bible.
When He comes there will be peace in the Middle East and the world and the real New World Order in which there is righteousness and truth.
Make sure you are ready for this event by accepting Him as Saviour and Lord now!
Footnotes:
1 Alternate rendering of Shiite is “Shi’ite”. Shi’a Islam is the second largest Islamic denomination, after Sunni Islam.
2 < http://www3 European Union. See < http://europa.eu/index_en.htm>. cf < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union>
4 < http://assembly-weu.org/en/index.php>.
5 “Recommendation 666: on the consequences of including certain functions of WEU in the European Union - reply to the annual report of the Council”, “< http://www. assembly-weu.org/en/documents/sessions_ordinaires/ txt/2000/jun00_txts_adopted.php>; cf. “Reply of Council to Recommendation 666”, < http://www.assembly-weu. org/en/documents/sessions_ordinaires/rpt/2000/1710. php>..memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1216>.
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Appeared in Issue CETF 12.3 #37 October 2006
"...contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" -- Jude v3
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-Last revised-
Monday, October 09, 2006
