If you haven't read any or all of the End Times studies, I would urge you to do so first as this section will then make more sense when you read it.
EZEKIEL 38:6
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands:
Since the end of WW I, Turkey has been a secular nation, and has had a strong, solid relationship with Israel, with both nations having mutual defense treaties and their militaries frequently sharing joint exercises. The Turkish military has especially admired the Jewish State in its fight for survival against the hostile Arab nations surrounding it. In that light it has seemed very unlikely that Turkey would be one of the hostile nations attacking Israel during WW III.Turkey is trying to play a double game in which it is trying to become a part of the European Union yet its leaders are extending an open hand to the Arab nations, seeking the best of both worlds.
The European Union is uneasy in considering Turkey's membership application, for although Turkey has long been a staunch NATO ally, especially during the Cold War, their recent overtures to the Arab world and active promotion of Islamic religion and policies have indicated the beginnings of a radical change within the country.
Turkey is also considered to be the "poor man" of the NATO alliance, as it's per capita income is much lower than those of the European nations it seeks to join. As such, if Turkey is allowed full membership there would be no restrictions to it's citizens flooding across Turkey's borders into the rest of Europe seeking employment. This would also bring a flood of Islamic members into the Union at a time when Europe is starting to have problems with increasing Islamic terrorism within it's borders.
During the week of October 3-8, 2005, Austria vehemently objected to the proposed acceptance of Turkey into the Union, and threatened to veto the membership application. Diplomats furiously worked to defuse the situation, and Turkey flatly stated that it will only accept full membership within the Union, not a partial membership as Austria suggested.
The situation is still ongoing as of this writing.
I believe that Turkey will ultimately be refused membership, with the result that the Turkish government will use the issue as an excuse to turn away from Europe and embrace the Islamic world, turning from a secular nation into an Islamic ruled theocratic nation much like Iran, fulfilling Ezekiel's ancient prophecy.
Condoleeza Rice rushed to Moscow, as did Israeli officials to try to stop the sale, only to find out that the transaction was finished business and delivery of the weapon systems had been started. Along with the missile systems, Russian advisors and trainers will be stationed in Syria, the first since the late Syrian dictator Hafez Assad kicked them out after Syria's humiliating defeat by Israel in the 1976 Yom Kippur war.
I'm have little doubt that the Russians are using this as an opportunity to scout out the area, link up with radical terrorist groups and expand their presence into that part of the Middle East.
If you have been watching the news lately, you will know that Iran has become increasingly belligerent in it's rhetoric, openly threatening to wipe Israel off of the map and racing to build an Islamic nuclear weapon, one which can be placed on a warhead capable of striking Israel.
Iran has also become a major power in the Middle East to the point where Syria obeys their dictates and they have pumped thousands of their troops and agents into Iraq to the point where even the United States admits that Iran essentially controls most of Iraq.
Most importantly though, is Iran's promise that if the United States attacks it will in turn attack Israel with everything it can muster. In other words, if t the United States attacks Iran, they in turn will throw everything they have at Israel.
In an interesting development, Iran's fiery president has been preaching that the 12th Imam (Islamic mystical spiritual ruler who disappeared in the 10th century) will reappear and rule the world after a period of great turmoil and destruction, and he is predicting that the destruction of Israel will bring this great ruler to power.
Sounds like an advertisement for the coming of the Antichrist to me.
In other news, Russia has been actively courting and supporting the Islamic world, especially Syria, and has been passing on intelligence concerning movements and composition of our troops to terrorist groups in Iraq. They have also been cozying up to Iran, blocking efforts by the United States and the European Union to stop Iran's quest for a nuclear weapon. Russian president Putin has also called for a massive increase of government spending to upgrade Russia's military to again put it on a parity with the United States. The present weakness of Israel in the face of it's enemies is also a part of the End Times, as for the Arabs to feel confident enough to attack with the intention of destroying the Jewish State, Israel must be perceived as weakened enough to be unable to repel an attack by the surrounding Arab nations.1 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2 "Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: 'When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman,
3 'when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people,
4 'then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head.
5 'He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life.
6 'But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.'
34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and [so] that day come upon you unawares.
35 For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
MARK 13:3737 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
The significance of this? Somalia was once part of ancient Ethiopia, which God told Ezekiel will be one of the nations attacking Israel during WWIII. Up to now, Somalia has been no threat to anyone, as the various Somali warlords were too busy concentrating on fighting each other to be a threat to anyone but their own citizens.
Now this Islamic coalition, backed (and perhaps controlled) by Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda is
in a position to threaten shipping through the Red Sea going to and coming from the Israeli
port of Eilat at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba.
Recently Middle East experts have been closely watching the Syrian port of Tartus, where Russian engineers and equipment are dredging and deepening the harbor to allow Russian deepwater ships from the Black Sea port of Sevastopol to pay visits there.
On the surface, this may seem like a friendly gesture to Syria, but the real purpose is to allow Russian and Iranian military and supply ships to dock and unload supplies and weapons at a Russian military base being built there.
The recent arrival of the Russian aircraft carrier hunter Moskva (Moscow) and it's escorts at Tartus at the time that Israel was attacking Hezbollah in Lebanon was a pointed warning to both the West and Israel - an attack against Syria would be considered as an attack against Russia. Russian warships have also been seen at the Syrian port of Latakia
The Moskva has highly advanced radar detection systems that could be used to relay
targeting information to Syrian anti-aircraft and missile batteries in the event that Israeli
aircraft and ships were to attack any part of Syria.
Israeli warship heavily damaged by Iranian surface-to-surface anti-ship missile
The Israeli corvette Ahi-Hanit that was struck and nearly sunk off the coast of Lebanon at 8:15 P.M. July 17th, was hit by what has been identified as a C802 surface to surface anti-ship missile, an Iranian copy of a Chinese Silkworm missile, launched by Hezbollah. The ship was saved from sinking by the bravery of the Israeli sailors who fought the fires and explosions so that the ship could be towed back to Israel. Five Israeli sailors were killed in the attack.
Hezbollah tried to deceive the world by showing a grainy video of a small unmanned explosives-packed aircraft crashing into the sea and exploding, trying to make it seem that such a device is what struck the ship. But radar on the Israeli ship would have picked up such a slow aircraft long before it arrived and would have taken defensive measures, blasting the threat from the sky before it even came close.
However the Silkworm clone, like it's parent, is a supersonic missile that hugs the water to avoid radar detection, and has no active homing radar system of it's own. Instead it relies on guidance signals from another source, while using active on-board jamming systems to foil detection by it's intended target.
Israeli troops in Lebanon were shocked to hear commands being shouted in Farsi, the
language spoken in Iran. This told them that Iranian personnel were fighting with Hezbollah,
indicating direct Iranian involvement in the present war.
Iran is reinforcing it's Persian heritage by banning any western words from the Farsi language, ordering that any western words be replaced with Persian equivalents. For example, the word "pizza" is now being replaced with the Persian equivalent of "elastic bread".
Considering the increasing nationalistic fervor of Iran's president, I wouldn't be too surprised if Iran doesn't change it's name back to Persia, which would fit perfectly with the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 in which Persia is listed as one of the nations that will attack Israel, triggering WW III.
The war in Lebanon has served the purpose of bringing Iran openly into the Middle East arena with it's avowed support of Hezbollah and it's open threats against both Israel and the United States. Material support for Hezbollah from Iran has been airlifted into Syria and smuggled into Lebanon via trucks and even donkey caravans.
However as of this writing, it appears that Israel is gaining the upper hand as it has blasted all roads from Syria into southern and central Lebanon, and is finding and systematically destroying Hezbollah's rocket launchers.
Hezbollah field commanders are begging for more ammunition and fighters, but have received terse commands to prepare to be martyrs and to fight to the last man. Hezbollah's political and military leaders have gone underground (literally) and have cut off all telephone communications.
WW III - Shi'ite Arabs vs Sunni ArabsIt was most interesting to note that as Israel was wasting Hezbollah that the major Arab nations (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, etc)) remained strangely silent instead of condemning Israel as they routinely do.
What is also not well known, is that Israel early on in the war began running out of targets to
attack. Shortly afterward, a new list of Hezbollah strongholds to target came discreetly from
these Arab countries, who are apparently enjoying the fact that Hezbollah (and through them,
Iran) is being taken down.
The reasons for this are actually due to the fact that most of the Arab nations previously
listed are Sunni Muslims, whereas Iran and Hezbollah are Shiite Muslims. I won't go into
details, but the Muslim faith was split in the 1200's by a dispute over the identity of one of the
descendants of Mohammad. One side followed the Shia faith, the other followed the Sunna
faith, and they have been at odds ever since.
Most of the Arab nations listed above are Sunni Muslims, with small Shiite enclaves that are usually repressed. Iran on the other hand, is one of the leading Shiite nations in the Middle East, and constantly seeks to rally it's Shiite brethren in other Arab countries to their cause.
As a result, most of the Sunni Arab states are keeping a sharp eye on their Shiite minorities
and are relentlessly squashing any attempts at uprising, jailing their leaders and banning
assemblies.
Iran's leaders seek to make Iran the dominant Muslim power in the Middle East, but they are
scorned by the Arab world as being Persians, not true Arabs. This creates a strange but
volatile situation in which the Shiite Muslims side with Iran on religious grounds, but seek to
distance themselves from them because they are Persians.
Iran's leaders are slowly coming to the realization that the only way for them to become
masters of the Middle East will be for an all-out assault against both the Sunni Arab nations
and virulently hated Israel. And recent reports of Israeli tanks being destroyed by Russian
anti-tank missiles shows increasing collusion between Russia and Iran against Israel, as
Russian weapons of that caliber could not be used without Russian President Vladimir Putin's
knowledge and permission.
The Shiite vs Sunni component of WW III now makes sense, as I have often wondered why
Scripture records that Muslim nations like Iran would attack other Muslim nations such as
Saudi Arabia. Thus we will see the fulfillment of the Scripture which says;
EZEKIEL 38:13
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall
say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey?
to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
(Remember, Sheba and Dedan refer to the western coast of Saudi Arabia, and Tarshish was located in ancient Lebanon, probably close to the port city of Tyre.)
Kurdish rebels have long been fighting Turkey and have been staging many cross-border attacks into both Turkey and Iran. Iran now sees this as an excuse to invade northern Iraq with the intention of seizing the oil fields and openly establishing it's dominance in Iraq.
Turkey has been coming to a similar conclusion, with an eye on seizing the oil fields and crushing Kurdish aspirations for independence once and for all. The result is that both Turkey and Iran are gearing up for a massive invasion of northern Iraq.
Considering that both Turkey and Iran are named as being among the attackers of Israel
during WW III, I think we are seeing what might be the trigger for the war, namely a massive
invasion of Iraq as an excuse, followed by a sweep southward against Israel.
Considering the list of Middle Eastern nations that hate Israel, (Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Iran,
Iraq, Turkey) looking at a map one can see that this forms a direct line of attack into northern
Israel, just as prophesied in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39.
On the same note, Syria's President Assad has been buying advanced Russian weapons using Iranian cash vouchers. The Iranian cash was given to Syria partly for allowing Iran to use Syria as a staging point for weapons being sent from Iran to Hezbollah and partly to bring Syria into a tighter orbit with Iran against Israel.
Russia stands to gain much by courting the Lebanese government, as if they succeed in
persuading Lebanese President Siniora into allowing them to build bases in Lebanon,
especially naval bases, Russia will at last have succeeded in gaining warm-water ports for
their naval vessels, a desire coveted since the time of the Czars, and will put them squarely in
the Middle East making them a direct threat to Israel and a counterbalance to United States
military power in the region.
Iran is stepping up it's rhetoric saying that Israel will soon be wiped off the face of the Earth, and Syria is training troops to take back the Golan Heights captured by Israel in the 1967 war. Hezbollah has now re-armed itself to the levels it had before the Israeli invasion and the Palestinians are arming themselves as fast as they can with missiles to emulate Hezbollah's successful 2006 war with Israel.
This actually makes sense, as for the Arabs to attack Israel as prophesied by Ezekiel, Israel must be seen as weak and vulnerable to an all-out assault by the Arabs. And with Israeli politicians bickering among themselves and frantically trying to avoid blame for their failures the 2006 war with Hezbollah and the Israeli military being hamstrung by weak and indecisive politicians, Israel's weakness is becoming more and more evident.
The importance of this is the fact that Lake Victoria is the main source of the Nile River in Egypt, a source of life for the Egyptians since the times of the ancient Pharaohs who worshiped it as a god. If the Nile were to dry up, the economic damage to Egypt would be beyond calculation as Egypt for the most part is desert and most of it's population lives along the Nile river and the seven-stream delta region.
This may very well be the beginning of the fulfillment of a prophecy given by God to Isaiah when He said;
ISAIAH 11:11-15
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
15 And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty
wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make
[men] go over dryshod.
Note that in verse 15, it says that God will dry up the seven streams of the Nile River delta, which means that the Nile River itself will be dried up. Much of this prophecy has been fulfilled already in that Israel has been again gathered the second time from exile and is again one nation, Ephraim (Northern Israel) and Judah (Southern Israel) together, with no Jew today knowing which tribe they are from.
The rest will be fulfilled after Jesus comes back as Lord and Messiah.
Saudi Arabia has been quietly bringing surrounding Arab nations on board in order to blunt Iranian attempts to dominate its neighbors. The Arab nations closest to Iran have been wary of Saudi Arabia's efforts, but have been told to either join the Arab bloc or be left to Iranian domination. (Iranians are considered by the Arab world to be Persians, not Arabs).
This Saudi muscle-flexing hasn't gone unnoticed by Iran, and this will eventually set the stage for the coming attack by Shiite Iranian forces against Sunni Saudi Arabia, as explained under the title of "WW III - Shi'ite Arabs vs Sunni Arabs" previously explained in this document.
The Iranian religious leadership doesn't want war with anyone, especially the United States. They just like "stirring the pot" and would rather rule over their neighbors from a religious position, rather than a military position.
This makes a canny sort of sense, as the Iranians keenly feel their isolation from the rest of the Arab world, with the Arabs rejecting them as Persians, not true Arabs. The Iranian clergy, while claiming to be Muslims like the Arabs are hedging their bets in that they are seeking to dominate surrounding nations as a buffer against attack from outsiders through religion.
Nazi Germany invaded woefully unprepared Soviet Russia during WW II, conquering vast
areas before being stopped outside of Stalingrad by Russian troops and one of the worst early
winters in centuries. After the war, paranoid Russian dictator Josef Stalin surrounded
Russia's western borders with conquered "buffer states" with the idea that if any NATO
force attacked the Soviet Union, they would have to go through the buffer states first before
reaching Russian soil, giving Russia time to prepare for the feared invasion.
The equally paranoid Iranians are seeking the same sort of protection, wanting to surround
themselves with religious allies so that if any Western power decided to attack, Iran could stir
up border nations who could attack the invading forces from multiple fronts, thereby forcing
the invaders to dilute their strength to defend themselves against attackers from these
"buffer states".
The Iranian leadership is controlled for the most part by the ayatollahs (religious teachers) headed by Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khameini, while the Revolutionary Guards are headed by Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, a hard-line firebrand who openly advocates the destruction of Israel.
The Revolutionary Guards are chafing under what they see as the timid attitude of the
religious leaders toward the West and Israel, and are especially angry at the reluctance of the
religious leadership to develop an Iranian atomic bomb. The religious leaders keep telling the
world that their nuclear program is meant for peaceful purposes but watching the increasing
belligerence of President Ahmadinejad, their surrounding neighbors and the Western nations
know better.
Aging ayatollah Ali Khameini has been reported to be seriously ill in recent months, and has been conspicuously absent during some religious festivals and meetings, sparking rumors that he may be more gravely ill than reported by the state-controlled media.
If Ali Khameini dies, it will be a prime opportunity for the Revolutionary Guards to stage a coup and seize control of the government. Much of the Iranian populace would like to see the religious leadership overthrown because of their harsh repression and restrictions against "Western decadence" such as music, movies, and other forms of entertainment and styles of dress.
If the Revolutionary Guards were to seize power, they would be helped by much of the populace who would welcome the overthrow of the religious leadership. However, like Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution, they would soon find themselves as having thrown off one form of tyranny only to have a worse one installed in it's place.
But in order for WW III to take place as prophesied, Iran must be controlled by the military and the radical Revolutionary Guards would fit the bill perfectly. They would have no qualms about spearheading an attack against hated Saudi Arabia and even more deeply hated Israel.
The next several months should prove interesting, to say the least.
However, officers with Islamic beliefs and backgrounds are quietly being promoted to top positions in
the military, while those with secular beliefs are being passed over. In time, the military will be salted
with enough Islamists to back an Islamist government when the Islamist politicians decide the time is
ripe to make their move.
At the same time, French winemakers are protesting the glut of wines in global markets, which is forcing them to sell their wines to companies who turn them into industrial alcohol.
This may be the opening of the Third Seal of Revelation, which states;
Revelation 6:5-6
5 When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come and see." So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine."
A denarius was a days' wage back in Biblical times. Note especially that grains are mentioned as being
in short supply, while wine and cooking oils are in abundance.
Russia states that it is doing so for "security reasons", but military analysts believe that Russia is
Please watch for further updates as they become available.