[hethathathears]

With all the smoke and mirrors that has hit the internet in days past, I thought I could spent a few minutes talking about a prophecy that nobody seems to be talking about that seems to be fitting into current affairs. Warning- this is not warm and fuzzy reading, however it is prophecy that will shortly come to pass. I put this forth so that we might know from what direction it might come. But if we are prepared, we have no reason to fear, and if it so be that I am taken, even as prepared as I am, that's ok, because I hear that the Celestial Kingdom is very nice this time of year. Besides that, one of my kids is still a teenager and is really causing me grief.

Gog and Magog

In the last few months, I have learned two things. 1st- it is very important for us to study and be up on the prophecies of the Bible, especially of those that speak about the last days. 2nd- We should keep an eye on what is going on in the Middle East. Why you might ask? Because if you study the Bible, you will know that the last 2 major Battles on planet earth will take place in Israel. Those battles are the battle of Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38-39) and of course, the Battle of Armageddon. And by knowing what is going on, you will be able to see just how close we are to the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ.

Now just as one might refuse to go to school and therefore never learn that 2 x 9 = 18, or that a verb is an action word, or that by spinning a magnet around a copper wire can produce electricity and therefore produce light or heat, in the same way, if we refuse to study the Bible and its many prophecies, then we will not begin to understand the reality of the Bible, and the future events that will come upon us in the near future.

Now to understand prophecy, you need to understand that it is written in kind of a code, and can be unlocked by anyone who is willing to pay the price. One such prophecy was included in Jesus’ list of the signs of the times discourses. His disciples came to him privately, and asked, “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matt 24:3) Then Jesus went on to make a list of signs- False Christs (v.5) Hear of wars and rumors of wars (v.6) Nation shall rise against Nation, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places (v. 7) false prophets (v. 11) iniquity shall abound, and love of many shall wax cold (relationships that are all about sex and one night stands) (v. 12) and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world, and then shall the end come. (v. 14) the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven (v. 29) then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven…who shall come in power and great glory. (v. 30)

But the Savior doesn’t end there, because you might say that we have always had these things. Jesus goes on to give a real time qualifier. He says,

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree, When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves,
ye know that summer is nigh, So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that
it is near, even at the doors. Verily, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass, till all
these things be fulfilled. Matt 24:33-34

The word “fig” is mentioned in the Scriptures 64 times. If we study the scriptures, we learn that the word “figs” represents the Jews that are carried away.

“Thus saith the LORD, the GOD OF ISRAEL, like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them
that are carried away captive of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the
chaldeans for their good. Jere 24:5

“The LORD showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs…one basket had very good figs, even
like the figs that are first ripe, and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be
eaten, they were so bad, then said the Lord unto me, what seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, figs,
the good figs, very good, and the evil , were very evil, …Again, the word of the LORD came
unto me, saying, thus saith the LORD, the GOD is Israel, like these good figs, so will I
acknowledge them that are carried away captive of Judah. Jere 24:1-8

The time is coming when Jacob’s descendants will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and
Fill the whole earth with fruit. Isa 27:6

So the parable of the fig tree is about Israel or the Jews that were taken captive. And after winter (nearly 2000 years of being cast out of their home, they are allow back into Israel to become a people again, or in other words, they were reborn) The branches are yet tender and putteth forth leaves because Israel is home again and is alive as a nation and producing fruit. This generation shall not pass away, until all these things shall be fulfilled. (meaning Jesus Chris will return) The Nation Israel was restored in 1948. They were allowed to return home, and grow again as a nation. Therefore, we know that the generation starting in 1948 will not pass away until the end will come. Wow! This all fits into Matt. 24 because Jesus starts out warning of the Jewish temple being destroyed, then he warns of Jerusalem and Judea being concord. It is only fitting that he gives the major sign of the end of the world as being in Jewish / Israel terms, that is the parable of the fig tree.

Now to know how close we really are, we need to compare current events with a prophecy found in the scriptures. The prophecy that I am referring to is the 2nd to the last war, the battle of Gog and Magog that is found in Ezekiel 38-39. Again, this prophecy is written in parable form and so only those who are willing to pay the price to understand it can do so.

Gog was the King of Magog. They lived around the time of 2300 B.C. and settled in the region that was north of the Black Sea. Today this region is known as Southern Russia. Gog and his kingdom were incredibly brutal and ruthless, and went forth killing and destroying all the tribes that were around them.

In the prophecy in Ezekiel 38-39, Gog and Magog (Russia) will lead a massive army that includes Persia (Iran), Ethiopia (Syria) Libya (same) basically, an Islamic lead army to go in and destroy Israel. Tubal and Meshech are also invited, which is present day Turkey. They will go forth with their entire army to solve the Israel problem, once and for all. This is the beginning of the prophecy found in Ezekiel 38-39. It says in Ezekiel 38:2, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, and the land of Magog… I didn’t really understand this, knowing that God is a loving and fair God, however, when we learn that under Stalin, how millions and millions of Jews were massacred and killed, and now in the present day, the Russian government is hunting down and persecuting those who are true followers of Christ. My boss at the school was just one such family. They were basically kicked out in the middle of the night without visas and ordered out of the country. Whatcom county has a lot of Russian immigrants, and my supervisor tells me that all were displaced from Russia because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

Let’s hold this up against current affairs. At present, we have the President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actively pursuing Jihad, that is a Holy war against the Big Satan (the United States) and the Little Satan (Israel) He is moving forward with all of his might to develop a nuclear bomb so he can destroy Israel, once and for all. Helping him with this task, it is reported that there are over 2,000 of Russia’s top scientist, not to mention some from North Korea. President Ahmadinejad has freely admitted that as soon as they have perfected the bomb, he intends to share Iran’s nuclear power with all Islamic Nations so they will no longer be held hostage by America. (Jerusalem Coutdown pg 4) At present, Iran, along with Russian scientists are working on medium and long-range missiles that would be capable of hitting London, New York, and Jerusalem. (Jerusalem Coutdown. pg 3)

In his acceptance speech, the newly elected President of Iran promised to ignite a worldwide Islamic revolution. He said, “The wave of the Islamic revolution will soon reach the entire world…We will soon experience a world without America and Israel, notwithstanding those who doubt…. And to those who doubt, to those who ask is it possible, or those who do not believe, I say accomplishment of a world without America and Israel is both possible and feasible.” (Jerusalem Coutdown pg 18) Like Adolph Hitler, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is very vocal about what he plans and intends to do, and he believes that he can deliver. With the help of Russia’s technology and weapontry, he truly believes he can wipe Israel and America from the map. On June 4th, 2005, Asia times did a report-

In the past several years a number of …Russian companies have faced US sanctions for selling missiles and missile technology to Iran. Rather than slowing or stopping such sales, the pace of missile acquisition and development in Iran has accelerated…Russia’s relation with Iran have also advance considerably in the past 18 months.

Getting worse, Russia has negotiated to supply Iran’s missile defense systems- a contract that is 4 Billion in three years. When the parliament of Iran met, they voted to pursue their nuclear program, 247 of the 290 approved by standing and shouting, “Death to America, Death to Israel.” Prophecy 20/20 pg 154

All this is very special. However, Israel isn’t known for their patience. Back in 1967 there is what is known as the 6 day war. That is where all the Islamic nations came against Israel to wipe them off the map. Syria, Iran, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and others all massed their forces on Israels boarders. Israel did the pre-emptive move and got up early and hit this massive coalition while their planes were still on the ground, totally wiping out their air support and a lot of their artillery. Back in 1981, Iraq began their nuclear program to develop weapons to destroy Israel. Again, it’s leadership was very blatant about their plans to destroy Israel. And so Israel again, pre-emotively entered Iraq and not only bombed but totally destroyed Iraq’s nuclear program. Back in Sept 2007, Syria was again bombed by Isreal, it wasn't until later that we learned that Syria had a secret nuclear weapon plant that they were working on with North Korea. And now, we have Iran, with the help of Russia, seeking to develop the bomb for the same reason.

On December 12th, 2006 President Ahmadinejad came on television and promised that very shortly Israel would drink the fiery mushroom cloud of the Islamic wrath. America received the same kind of threat 5 months before our attack on Sept 11th, 2001. Have we learned anything?

On January 8th, 2007 the top news story was that Israel began training with American made Bunker Buster Bombs that they could take out 6 of Iran’s nuclear development sites. We transferred to Israel 5,000 heavy, precision-guided bombs, including 500 “earth-penetrating” 2,000 pound bombs designed for the use against underground facilities.

Iran has stated- We will deal seriously with all threats made by the Israelis and the Americans. The people behind these threats are playing with fire. We warn them against becoming involved in a war of aggression against us. (Iran) In another speech Ahmadinejad said, “If America were to make a mistake and carry out an attack against the sacred state of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we will set fire to its interests all over the world and will not leave it with any escape route…Let the US know that if it starts a war on our soil, a war of attrition against Washington will start immediately and we will destroy all its sensitive spots.

If Israel does a pre-emptive strike against Iran, destroying all of their nuclear plants and their Russian missiles and kill Russia’s 2,000 scientists, the time would be right, once and for all to take care of the Israel problem forever. During the last week of January, 2007, the President of Iran met with Russia’s defense minister behind closed doors. Some say it is to buy more and greater weaponry, others say it is to move Iran’s nuclear program to Russia where it will be able to move on without sanctions in Iran and attack from Israel.

And perhaps the time is right, as President Bush has just committed another 21,000 American troops to Iraq, wouldn’t that be the perfect time for Israel to do their pre-emptive strike, when America is strongest in the region.

The good news is that when this goes down, Gog and Magog are going to loose, and loose in a big way. God will fight for Israel and will destroy 80% of the Islamic and Russia led army, however, the bad news is that the U.S. will be hit hard as well. In Ezekiel 39:6 it states, I will send fire on Magog, and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles. Will the fire that is sent upon Magog and it’s coalition be American nukes that when detonated reaches a temperature of 5000 degrees un less than one second.

Now for the term, “them that dwell carelessly in the isles.” The word translated coastlands or isle in the Hebrew bible is ‘ity. The word was used by the ancients in the sense of continents today. It designated the great Gentile civilization across the seas, which were usually settled most densely along the coastland- just like America. (Jerusalem Coutdown pg 114) And the term carelessly also applies as we spend our days and night watching T.V. and in the pursuit of entertainment while much of the world in embroiled in wars and rumors of wars. It is stated that 62% of the American population lives within 50 miles of the coasts. It is no wonder that President Ahmadinejad is regularly stating that very soon the Big Satan (America) and the Little Satan ( Israel) will be no more. They will be destroyed. Even as lately as January 26th, 2007, that was his promise unto the Islamic nations on channel 1. That is pretty bold for a man or nation that hasn’t even completed one nuclear weapon. Now because of this, 99.9999% of American’s don’t even look at any of this as a threat and just goes on watching American Idol as if nothing is up, however, if we truly understood the threat, we would do a better job preparing for the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ.

Maybe a story from the bible could help illustrate this story better. In Daniel 5 there is the story of Belshazzar. He was an arrogant Babylonian king who was held up with his armies in the city of Babylon. All around him, the cities and Kingdoms were falling to the Meds and the Persians. Belshazzar in his drunken pride felt that because Babylon was such an impenetrable fortress that nobody could overpower him. He boasted of having walls around his city being 87 feet wide, so that you could drive a four horse chariot around the top of it. Then there was a mote on the inside of the wall that was fed by the Euphrates river that went through the city and then out the back. And then a second wall stood between the people of Babylon and those wanting to do them harm. There were over 250 towers around the outer wall that men could shoot arrows from and pour flaming tar and rocks. With these conditions as well as having his entire army held up within the confines of the city, Balshazzar felt very secure. On the night of the “you can’t touch me party,” Balsharzzar saw the hand of God appear and write something on the wall. Basically it said, this very night, your kingdom will be taken away and given to the Meds and the Persians. And that is exactly what happened, the Meds and the Persians dammed up the Euphrates river and under the cover of night, marched underneath the 2 walls in water up to their waste and took the city without loosing a single man.

America is a lot like Belshazzar. We feel that we are all powerful with our armed forces, and our weapons and technology, and yet we have this 3rd rate dictator over in Iran saying that very shortly we will be no more, that very soon America will drink of the Islamic wrath of the fiery mushroom. Do we have need to fear? I would say so, not so much from missiles being shot through the air, although that could happen, but more importantly, from the threat within.

General Alexander Lebed, the popular Russian General admitted on national television while visiting the U.S. that Russia had manufactured 132 “Suitcase nukes”, and that 85% of them are missing from inventory. We have also learned that 700 more of these suitcase nukes, manufactured for the KGB are missing as well. (Prophecy 20/20 pg 104)

Osama Bin Laden has been amassing nuclear weapons and materials since he was in Sudan in 1992. In 1996, when he returned to Afghanistan, Bin Laden made further purchases from the Chechens (Russia) including highly portable nukes that had been manufactured for the KGB. From 1996 to 1999, he made additional purchases from Russian and Ukrainian sources including international arms dealer Semion Mogilevich. Mogilevich on one occasion provided bin Laden with fifteen kilos of highly enriched uranium at the bargain price of seventy million dollars. (Prophecy 20/20 pg 153)