iran – Page 3

What praying for the peace of Jerusalem really means, also, Muslim Brotherhood crucifying protestors

Posted on August 18, 2012May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

The world is at the brink and staring at the abyss, and the world knows it. That’s why the world is clamoring for a strong leader with answers to take charge. That person is not the next President of the United States. That person is not the next United Kingdom Prime Minister. That person is not the next North Korean king. That person will be the antichrist.

The war talk from Middle East leaders is not just rhetoric any more. The usual chest thumping, threats, rhetorical subterfuge, ambassadorial slyness and outright propaganda has changed in tone and substance. Israel is talking about imminent war and speaking of actual fronts. Israel expert Joel Rosenberg said this a few days ago:

“Yes, it is possible that Israeli leaders could be bluffing. Yes, it is also possible that they are simply trying to pressure the U.S. and international community to take more decisive action to neutralize the Iranian nuclear threat. But reading the latest tea leaves, I believe evidence is rapidly mounting that this could really be it — Israel could be just days or weeks away from a massive preemptive strike against Iran. I believe there are significant changes in the way Israeli leaders are speaking about the possibility of war. One fact that has particularly caught my attention in the last 24 hours is that Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon is telling reporters that it is time for the world to admit that diplomacy has not worked, and that Iran only has “weeks” and not “months” to cease nuclear activity.”

Rosenberg’s last few posts have exclusively focused on the Middle East situation, specifically Israel-Iran. In the last few days he has consecutively posted,

“Top U.S. Defense Officials Say Israel Can’t Destroy Iran Nuke Program: Why are they undermining an ally?

Senior Israeli Official Warns Of “30 Day War” With Iran

New Natural Gas Wealth Means Historic Change For Israel: National Geographic

Why is the third news headline about the natural gas part of the clips on a possible upcoming war in the Middle East? I’ll explain in the next blog entry. First, these news headlines from the last few days that show how serious the talk of war really is getting. And I mean serious.

‘Tumour’ of Israel will soon be destroyed: Ahmadinejad
“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an annual anti-Israel protest in Tehran on Friday that the Jewish state was a “cancerous tumour” that will soon be excised, drawing Western rebukes.”

Israel sees month-long war after Iran strike
“An Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program could trigger a bloody month-long war on multiple fronts, killing hundreds of Israelis or more, the Israeli Cabinet’s civil defense chief warned in an interview published Wednesday.”

Israeli school children learning to use gas masks.

Iran: Israel’s existence ‘insult to all humanity’
“Israel’s existence is an “insult to all humanity,” Iran’s president said Friday in one of his sharpest attacks yet against the Jewish state, as Israel openly debates whether to attack Iran over its nuclear program. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said confronting Israel is an effort to “protect the dignity of all human beings.”

Iran commander ‘welcomes’ possible Israeli strike
Head of Revolutionary Guard’s air force says Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities would give Tehran a reason to retaliate and ‘get rid of’ Jewish state ‘forever’
“A senior Iranian commander says a possible Israeli airstrike against his country’s nuclear facilities is “welcome” because it would give Iran a reason to retaliate and “get rid of” the Jewish state “forever.”

Iran and Hezbollah issue warnings to Israel
“Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Lebanon-based Hezbollah group, and Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the Iranian president, have issued stern warnings to Israel, saying that any aggression on that country’s part would be met with a swift armed response….If we are forced to use them to protect our people and our country, we will not hesitate to do so… and that will turn the lives of hundreds of thousands of Zionists into a living hell,” he said in a speech marking al-Quds [Jerusalem] Day.”

Saudi Cleric Questions Holocaust
“A prominent Saudi Arabian religious cleric declared that the Holocaust is an “exaggeration” and that Jewish people consume the blood of children during a wide-ranging interview with an Arabic television station. Saudi cleric Salman Al-Odeh, a well-known scholar revered by millions globally, went on a lengthy tirade against the Jews during an interview Monday in which he stated that “the role of the Jews is to wreak destruction, to wage war, and to practice deception and extortion,” according to a translation of his remarks by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Al-Odeh ranted about the use of human blood in Jewish religious rituals, a notorious anti-Semitic smear commonly referred to as a “blood libel.”

The news article called it a tirade but it wasn’t. It was actually a calm and reasoned, quite believable argument against the Holocaust and against the sanctity of God and the right of the Jews, His people, to exist. That is why his lie is so devastating.

Muslim Brotherhood Supporters Scourge and Crucify Secular Protesters
“According to reports on Friday, Muslim Brotherhood supporters scourged and crucified secular protesters in Egypt’s capital city of Cairo. Using the same punishments described in Bible as having been inflicted on Jesus, Brotherhood backed mobs rampaged through the streets, seizing protesters against the Islamist government of Mohammad Morsi, and dragging secular journalists from their offices. Their victims were beaten, scourged with whips, and crucified naked on trees.”

As a watchman, I must bring you this news. I must show you the times in which we live. I must tell of the glory of Jesus, who is and was and IS TO COME- SOON. It is not doom and it is not gloom- it is hope.

Psalm 122:6-9 gives us instructions on what to pray regarding Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, being God, He not only commands to pray for Jerusalem, but promises blessings unto those who do! (Blessed are the peacemakers- Matthew 5:9). The Psalm says-

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! “May they be secure who love you!
Peace be within your walls and security within your towers!”
For my brothers and companions’ sake I will say, “Peace be within you!”
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.

Peace in Jerusalem & Israel will only come when Jesus Himself returns to establish permanent peace. Between now and that blessed day, terrible wars and holocausts will occur on the people of Israel and then the world. However, God uses the devastating military attacks upon Israel, especially the Gog-Magog war of Ezekiel 38-39, to show Israel that no military might will ever be sufficient to protect them, and that He alone is their protector. It is during the Ezekiel 38 battle that Israel seeks the LORD and turns to Him. They cry out to the LORD and He saves them from Iran’s threat of obliteration. Blessed be the LORD!

Therefore we must understand that before that peace comes, praying for the peace of Jerusalem means that the worst wars of the world will happen. Just as prior to the new babe born of a mother, there is agonizing pain of the bloody labor. But would a mother trade that pain, forgoing giving birth to new life? No. The pain is instantly forgotten when the new babe, who is beloved and precious to the parents, is placed in their arms. So it is with God.

He will birth a new age, one with satan gone into the pit for 1000 years, one where Jesus is seen in His glory by His bride gathered around Him, with His people Israel thriving under His reign.

As of today, the fact remains, that praying for the peace of Jerusalem means that we are praying for His return! We must steel ourselves for the persecutions. How long will it take the angry mobs of ‘Muslim Brothers’ to turn from crucifying and scourging other Muslims and turn their satanic wrath to crucifying and scourging Christians and Jews? Not long. No, not long at all now. We must prepare our minds for the utter knowledge that wars and horror will come, and we are not gleeful nor excited about that. We lament in our prayers for the peace of Jerusalem, because we know what it entails. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

ahmadinejad, emp, iran, israel, netanyahu, prophecy, threa

Twitter wit, and a sobering look at EMP

Posted on August 2, 2012 by elizabethprata

I enjoy Twitter. I get news, fast, ‘meet’ like-minded Christians who encourage each other, and usually have a laugh. People really are very funny and witty. There are two guys who are usually re-tweeted by someone I follow. One is the Surly Deacon and the other is the Church Curmudgeon. Church Curmudgeon’s tag line is “It ain’t the way it used to be, I’ll tell you that.”

The Church Curmudgeon ‏said the other day, “I am big! It’s the deacons that got small! #DeaconMovieLines”.

I thought that was pretty funny … because we’re all part of the body in equal standing before the Lord.(1 Corinthians 12:27-31).

If you know that famous movie line from Sunset Boulevard and how Gloria Swanson nailed the delivery, all the better. Here is Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond:

“The Surly Deacon said on Twitter the other day- “Under the cover of darkness someone (me & Ted) replaced the 2008 Baptist hymnal with the 1975 one. Contemporary worship has to go.”

The wit for me is that the Surly Deacon thinks 2008 Baptist hymnal is contemporary. There’s depth to that comment if you think about it.

Here is something more sobering, especially in light of today’s headline from Drudge regarding yet another threat from Iran’s President Ahmadinejad that Iran’s only goal in life is to annihilate Israel. When, oh, when will the US top level officials begin to understand Iran really means it? Iran not coincidentally wants to annihilate the US as well. They’re just not as vocal about it.

Here is the headline:

Ahmadinejad: World forces must annihilate Israel
“In a speech published on his website Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the ultimate goal of world forces must be the annihilation of Israel…. Ahmadinejad added that “liberating Palestine” would solve all the world’s problems, although he did not elaborate on exactly how that might work. … Ahmadinejad, who has called the Holocaust a myth, has previously called for Israel’s annihilation, in a 2005 speech in which he used a Persian phrase that translates literally as “wiped off the page of time.”

Psalm 83 says they would say that:

“O God, do not keep silence; do not hold your peace or be still, O God! For behold, your enemies make an uproar; those who hate you have raised their heads. They lay crafty plans against your people; they consult together against your treasured ones. They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!” (Psalm 83:1-4).

If you live in the US and you are reading this, don’t get too comfortable. The video below shows how easy it is for Iran or one of its paid proxies can attack us and send us back to the year 1700 in one second.

Joel C. Rosenberg brings us up-to-date on the war drums in Israel-Iran-Syria, you note, the exact hot zone today and the exact prophesied hot-zone at the end of days according to Isaiah 17:1, Psalm 83, and Ezekiel 38-39.

Here is a short clip on the tenuous and vulnerable position the US is in this very day.

The US is in a vulnerable position before her enemies, but no Christian is. We are safe in Jesus. No matter what happens, we are safe in His arms.

“The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” (Zephaniah 3:17)

iran, prophecy, russia, tb, tuberculosis, vortex

Update: Current news and current prophecy

Posted on July 12, 2012May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

UPDATED:

Regarding the mention made below of the possibility of X-flares due to the large sunspot turning into view: it has occurred. Spaceweather.com reports:

X-FLARE! Big sunspot AR1520 unleashed an X1.4-class solar flare on July 12th at 1653 UT. Because this sunspot is directly facing Earth, everything about the blast was geoeffective. For one thing, it hurled a coronal mass ejection (CME) directly toward our planet. According to a forecast track prepared by analysts at the Goddard Space Weather Lab, the CME will hit Earth on July 14th around 10:20 UT (+/- 7 hours) and could spark strong geomagnetic storms. Sky watchers should be alert for auroras this weekend.

————–end update————–

Here are some news excerpts for you today which I thought were interesting and had a prophetic tinge, if not outright seriously end of days kind of interesting.

The Lord said in His response to the disciples as to when the end of days will come and what shall be the signs, (Luke 21:11) that at the end of days one of the signs would be pestilence. Pestilence is an epidemic disease with a high death rate.

With that in mind, here is a story in the Palm Beach (FL) Post from yesterday-

The Palm Beach Post exposes a hidden menace
Government cutbacks and the worst TB epidemic in 20 years
“Reporting on tuberculosis is not most reporters’ idea of a glamor assignment. It’s an ancient disease, drug companies aren’t keen to develop blockbuster medicines, and, anyway, few people get it, right? Wrong. A powerful expose by Stacey Singer, the health reporter for The Palm Beach Post, has revealed a serious outbreak of TB in Jacksonville—the worst the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has investigated in 20 years. Thirteen deaths and 99 illnesses are linked to the outbreak so far, which Singer reports, “was, and is far from contained.”

I’ve been worried about TB for a long time, even writing about it as long as three years ago, here. In that blog essay, a news article documented the first case of highly resistant TB in the US. It mentions something I think is an equal menace to the increase of TB itself: secrecy.

“this country’s first case of a contagious, aggressive, especially drug-resistant form of tuberculosis. The Associated Press learned of his case, which until now has not been made public, as part of a six-month look at the soaring global challenge of drug resistance.”

In this week’s article about TB, again mention is made of how the outbreak was hidden. In an unfortunate series of events, the CDC report of a dangerous outbreak in Jacksonville FL was issued at the same time the Governor signed a bill that cutbacks in Florida’s health programs were to be implemented, including closing a Jacksonville hospital 6-months ahead of schedule. None of the right people saw the report that a dangerous TB outbreak was underway. Even today, three months after the CDC report was issued, they still have not circulated it widely.

Keeping important news from the people can happen by collusion, as what happened in the 2007-2008 Obama campaign. Or it can happen through incompetence or too many bureaucratic layers, inhibiting efficiency, as the FL TB case shows us. Either way, this is a dangerous time of history, when the truth can and is suppressed so often and in so many ways.

Not coincidentally, Gallup Poll Finds Confidence In TV News Has Hit A New Low. Really? And this is news? It’s like saying, “Scientists discover we need air to breathe”.

At least this news of a TB issue in Denver was reported widely. It’s from February 2012: 40% of Longmont students test positive for latent TB. Though man believes he has “advanced” beyond such mundane diseases as tuberculosis, he has not. As Jesus said, pestilence will visit man, and that will likely include all the old diseases we thought we stamped out, or could manage, like TB, influenza, bubonic plague or malaria. It will likely include some new diseases from mutations we haven’t thought of…but God has.

In Roanoke VA, a School Board is being sued for posting the Ten Commandments. The judge handling the case said in an attempt at mediation, could the top four commandments be cut, leaving the bottom six. After all, the thinking went, the first 4 commandments are religious but the bottom 6 are ‘just’ secular and should appease the atheists.

Beware appeasing the false idols.

Remember in March, the push in the UK to re-rewrite the Ten Commandments? They updated them in modern language. I wrote about it here.

God does become angry. Messing with His word will result in curses. (Revelation 22:18-19; Deuteronomy 4:2). Hebrews 10:26-27 says: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.

In China, an entire herd of pigs was electrocuted during a thunderstorm. Reminds me a little of the Herd of pigs in Gadara… (Mark 5:1-20). I don’t think there is a prophetic link, but it just reminded me of the same.

“A livestock farmer in southern China recently received a shock when her entire pen of pigs was electrocuted by a bolt of lightning. Austrian Times reports that Chen Lin, a farmer from Loucun in Guangong province, watched her herd of more than 50 pigs die after being shocked with 300,000 volts of electricity. “I saw them all shaking and screaming terribly but there was nothing I could do,” she told the paper. “I was only a few feet away from being electrocuted too. “The incident occurred during a thunderstorm that shattered the roof of the pigs’ enclosure. It’s believe that the lightning struck the sty’s metal frame and a deadly current was carried across the wet floor.”

Iran has continued making her usual belligerent threats, but they are darkening in their pointedness and causing consternation because it seems like they really plan to carry them out. It was revealed that there are 40,000 Iranian agents in the Western Hemisphere waiting to be deployed into terrorism.

Russia is also bringing more and more war ships and marines and weapons to the area, recently docking in Syria. It seems that Russia is seriously intentional about protecting Syria.

—Is The Russian Navy Really Going To Syria – And Why?
—From Iran, new threats to close key oil route
—Russia: Khamenei urges Iran to prepare for the End of the World

Not to be left out, North Korea makes a new, unusually specific threat.

So the US ramps up too.

—U.S. deploys sea drones to Persian Gulf to clear Iranian mines
—USS Stennis going right back to Mideast

And what’s up with the weird vortex on Saturn’s moon? The Lord also said that there would be signs in the sun, moon, and stars. (Luke 21:25). Perhaps this is one.

Stunning vortex appears on Saturn’s moon, puzzles scientists

The article says in part, [Cassini], “the high-powered orbiter captured images of a massive vortex forming at its pole, and scientists can only guess as to why it’s suddenly appeared. The massive collection of swirling gas has gathered at Titan’s south pole, which measures approximately 3,200 miles across. The whirlwind has never before been spotted, and it remains unclear how long it has been forming. Cassini — which first arrived near Saturn in 2004 (and shot the stunning images below) — had been orbiting the moon too far north to have captured it, until now.”

Sunspot AR 1520 is a monster. In size that is. You can see it without a telescope! But it could turn into a rampaging monster, having lots of potential for earth-effective impacts through either flares or Coronal Mass Ejections or aurora.

Spaceweather.com asks, “Calm before the storm? Big sunspot AR1520 has been relatively quiet for the past 48 hours, but this could be the calm before the storm. The sunspot has a delta-class magnetic field that harbors energy for X-class solar flares.” Also auroras, On July 10 Spaceweather reported, “For the second day in a row, Earth’s polar magnetic field is unsettled and glowing with auroras. Paul Zizka sends this picture from Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada:

Pretty! The Lord is so creative. How about this shot from Cassini of Saturn, her rings and a moon?

The Lord is great!

iran, psalm 83, wipe israel from the face of the earth

Iran says they will wipe Israel off the face of the earth

Posted on July 2, 2012 by elizabethprata

Iran issues new threat to Israel
“An Iranian military official threatened to “wipe” Israel “off the face of the earth” if the Jewish state attacks, a stark new threat coinciding with the start of a European Union oil embargo to put pressure on Iran’s nuclear program, Reuters reported. Revolutionary Guards General Amir Ali Hajizadeh reportedly issued the warning as he announced new missile tests to take place in the coming week.”

“If they [Israel] take any action, they will hand us an excuse to wipe them off the face of the earth,” Hajizadeh said, according to state news agency IRNA.

They say, “Come, let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more!” (Psalm 83 ESV)

When prophecy meets the news, and the news meets prophecy… the convergence really gives me chills

iran, kings of the east, prophecy, turkey

Enter the Kings of the East into prophetic play

Posted on June 23, 2012May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

I saw the following news article and I though, “Hmmm, that’s a little strange.”

Jerusalem Post: ‘Iran, Russia, China, Syria plan ‘largest’ war game‘
“Syrian, Iranian media reports say air, ground and naval forces to conduct ‘Middle East’s largest ever military exercise.’ “

China? I can see Iran and Russia and Syria, they are prophesied to ally in the Gog Magog war. Russia has a port in Syria and Syria is the proxy nation for Iran. But China? Where’s their stake in it?

Of course the next day Russia, Syria deny war games with China, Iran. But the inclusion of China into the prophetic mix perked up my ears.

Then I see the following by an an energy media outlet synopsizing from the Wall Street Journal:

“Saudi Arabia, China Sign Nuclear Cooperation Pact“:

“With its energy consumption surging and its own power supply under threat, Saudi Arabia will rely increasingly on nuclear generation. To help it along, it has turned to the country that is emerging as the world leader in nuclear technology: China. The Wall Street Journal reports that the two countries have agreed to jointly develop nuclear power plants, reactors, fuel and maintenance. The agreement follows a 6-day visit to Saudi Arabia by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.” [Photo above from Lebanon Daily Star, released by Saudi Press Agency, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, left, meets with Saudi King Abdullah, right, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012.”]

This deal, Saudi’s oil free flowing to China in exchange for nuclear technology, is already shaping up to be be responsible for a dramatic shift of the security environment of the Middle East, not to mention the future of the petrodollar.

The Washington Times explained it this way:
“U.S. intelligence agencies are closely watching Saudi Arabia for signs that the oil-rich kingdom will seek to develop nuclear weapons, amid tensions in the region centered on Iran’s nuclear program. One key warning sign was the cooperation agreement signed Sunday in Riyadh by China and Saudi Arabia. According to the Saudi Jidda News, the agreement will seek joint development of “atomic energy for peaceful purposes, which will help to meet the kingdom’s rising demand for energy and cut its growing dependence on depleting resources.” The agreement was signed by King Abdullah and Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao ”

The Asia Times simply said: Saudi Arabia pivots toward Asia

I kept thinking…hmmm, enter the Kings of the East. It wasn’t until last night when this week’s Hal Lindsey’s report dropped the last penny for me and the pieces fell into place. He opened his weekly report by bluntly saying:

“Why is no one in the mainstream media talking about the latest deal between Saudi Arabia and China? In case you haven’t heard, the Saudis recently offered to guarantee the Chinese unlimited oil until 2035. In exchange for Chinese off-the–shelf nuclear missiles. … [Here, Lindsey cites the source DebkaFile, which is a dubious source, but the following is true:] “The raw fact, which the West does not want to acknowledge, is that the Saudis fear Iran and want nuclear weapons as a counterbalance to Iran’s growing nuclear potential.”

Lindsey continues:
“This is what the Israel has been warning the West about for years now. If Iran is allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, not only would it pose a direct threat to Israel, but it will force other nations in the Middle East to acquire nuclear weapons for heir own self defense. It will ignite an arms race in a rough neighborhood. I think it is interesting that even though most nations in the Middle East have long suspected that Israel possessed nuclear weapons, none of them felt threatened enough to seek their own arsenals. But now that is almost a guarantee that one of their own Muslim brothers is going nuclear, some of them suddenly feel the need for a nuclear deterrent.”

Lindsey widens the picture from the looming new nuclear arms race in the unstable regions to the wider view of additional prophetic pieces entering the picture. It begins to bring into focus a long puzzling question: how or why China would be drawn into the war of Armageddon.

Revelation 16:12 says “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.”

Revelation chapter 9 describes the preparation for that war. It involves the King of the North and the King of the South. In Daniel’s prophecy of “the time of the end” beginning in Daniel 11:35, a king is pictured in the Mediterranean area who engages in a military conflict with the king of the south, the king of the north, and a military force from the east. A question that has always puzzled Lindsey is why would the kings of the East cross the Euphrates with a 200 million man army? Daniel 11:40-45 describes the battle plan of this final war.

‘“At the time of the end the king of the South will engage him in battle, and the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. He will also invade the Beautiful Land. Many countries will fall, but Edom, Moab and the leaders of Ammon will be delivered from his hand. He will extend his power over many countries; Egypt will not escape. He will gain control of the treasures of gold and silver and all the riches of Egypt, with the Libyans and Cushites in submission. But reports from the east and the north will alarm him, and he will set out in a great rage to destroy and annihilate many. He will pitch his royal tents between the seas at the beautiful holy mountain. Yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him.’ “

Now, I don’t understand all that. And by the disagreement over who, exactly, is the King of the South, others aren’t sure either. But from what I have read on Bible.org, Hal Lindsey and Jack Kelley, there seems consensus that it looks like Iran and Turkey both want to be seen as the King of the North, while Egypt is the front-runner for King of the South, supported by Saudi Arabia.

Jack Kelley describes the final power struggle:
“According to Daniel 11 the End of the Age would see two Middle Eastern power blocks, which he called the King of the North and the King of the South. Today, although they appear to be allies, two countries from the former Seleucid Empire, the first King of the North, are openly competing for the right to be the Bible’s End Times King of the North. They are Turkey and Iran. … Until recently it seemed like Syria and Iran would combine to take the title King of the North, but now there’s a new kid in town due to Turkish PM Erdogan’s vision of resurrecting the Ottoman Empire into the leader of the Moslem world.”

If you have seen the news of Turkey’s shift away from the West over the last five years, Prime Minister Erdogan’s call for the reclusive but powerful Imam currently living in Pennsylvania to come home and take his place in the faith and in the nation, and the issue with Syria downing a Turkish jet fighter and Turkey’s declaration that it will not be ignored, you know that Turkey’s rise as a powerful player over these last few years is incredibly prophetic.

As we sort out the prophetic kings and the final pieces of prophecy, one consensus seems clear. The Kings of the East seem generally acknowledged to be an Oriental Confederacy, which includes the 200 million man army of China. China is now considered to have the most powerful army ever assembled in world history.

North Korea: Kim Jong Il’s funeral

I used the photo above to demonstrate that the Oriental kings already have the ability to mass not only the military but their civilian populations, with ease. As we go forward on this day and this week and this month…let’s remember Jesus. he is the King, Prophet, and Priest into whose hands God has delivered all authority. (Matthew 28:18). His hand is passing over the earth to bring these events about. He is in control, and nothing is out of control. All is progressing exactly as He ordained. The best thing we can do is obey him and be joyful in His works, which are to the good of those who love Him. (Romans 8:28).

We witness, sharing His peace with one and all, even in the face of mounting war. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8:

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

First, war. Then, eternal peace.

Do you love Jesus? Do you want to? Here is what you must do. And here is a simple, concise explanation of the Gospel. Please read it, if you are not saved. We’re experiencing a moral, spiritual, financial, and cultural implosion as we speak. Please don’t be caught in the rubble. Jesus will forgive you, lift you, and bring you to heaven to feast with Him as part of His bride. You will be born (again), heal, build up, laugh, dance, embrace, seek, speak, and have peace.

iran, last days, persia

Iran rising

Posted on March 28, 2012 by elizabethprata

Persia figures prominently in the last days. This segment below is from Joel C Rosenberg’s Q&A about the Gog Magog war (Ezekiel 38-39), in which Iran, Russia and Turkey with others attack Israel, and no one comes to her defense…except God Himself.

Will the War of Gog and Magog happen before or after the Rapture?
“The truth is we simply do not know the answer for certain, because Ezekiel does not say. Many of the theologians I have cited in this book believe the war will occur after the Rapture. In the novel Left Behind, Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins describe the War of Gog and Magog as having already happened before the Rapture takes place. In The Ezekiel Option, I also chose to portray the war occurring before the Rapture.”

“In Matthew 24:14, Jesus says, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (NASB). We also know from Ezekiel that God will use the War of Gog and Magog to display his glory to all nations and to pour out his Holy Spirit, particularly on the nation of Israel. As a result of the entire world seeing God defend Israel from the onslaught of the Russian-Iranian coalition, a dramatic spiritual awakening will occur around the globe. It would certainly be consistent with God’s heart for humanity that he would cause this cataclysmic moment to occur before the Rapture in order to shake people out of their spiritual apathy and/or rebellion and give them at least one more chance to receive Christ as their Savior before the terrible events of the Tribulation occur.”

“But let me be clear: I believe that the Rapture could occur at any moment, and I would certainly not be surprised in any way if it occurred before the events of Ezekiel 38 and 39 come to pass. Christian theologians speak of the “doctrine of imminence.” This means that according to the Bible there is no prophetic event that has to happen before Jesus snatches his church from the earth. That is, the Bible teaches us that we should be ready for Jesus to come for us at any moment. I fully believe that. But it should be noted with regard to this doctrine that while no major prophetic event has to happen before the Rapture, that doesn’t mean no such event will happen first. Perhaps the clearest evidence of this truth is the rebirth of Israel. This major prophetic event was foretold in Ezekiel 36–37, yet its fulfillment happened before the Rapture. Thus, it is certainly possible that other events—such as the events of Ezekiel 38–39—could happen before the Rapture as well.”

Persia (Iran) has always been opposed to God’s people. The angel that came to Daniel was hindered by the prince of Persia (Daniel 10:4-21). Places in the world have fallen angels behind the leadership to spread evil amongst the people and to rule in oppression and fear, and in the invisible realms they hinder God’s angels and try to oppose God’s work. Iran has always been a place in the real earth and in the celestial realms that has been a stronghold of opposition against God’s people.

Report: Iran planned to bomb Israeli ship in Suez Canal
“Iran had planned to bomb an Israeli ship while it crossed the Suez Canal, the prosecution in Egypt’s state security court said, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported on Saturday.According to the report, two Egyptians were recently arrested and investigated for allegedly planning an attack on an Israeli ship in the Suez Canal.”

Iranian weapons half Syria’s Assad put down unrest
“Iran is providing a broad array of assistance to Syrian President Bashar Assad to help him suppress anti-government protests, from high-tech surveillance technology to guns and ammunition, U.S. and European security officials say.Tehran’s technical assistance to Assad’s security forces includes electronic surveillance systems, technology designed to disrupt efforts by protesters to communicate via social media, and Iranian-made drone aircraft for overhead surveillance, the officials said. They discussed intelligence matters on condition of anonymity. “Over the past year, Iran has provided security assistance to Damascus to help shore up Assad. Tehran during the last couple of months has been aiding the Syrian regime with lethal assistance – including rifles, ammunition, and other military equipment — to help it put down the opposition,” a U.S. official said.”

Despite Iran’s continual prayers that Islam prevail, despite the fact that Iran as repeatedly said that they want to wipe Israel from the map, despite the fact that Iran is inches away from obtaining a nuclear bomb and has said they have no hesitation to use it, despite myriad foiled plots against Israel AND the United States, some 1000 Israelis marched against the thought of striking Iran’s nuclear bomb-making facilities–

Hundreds of Israelis march in Tel Aviv to protest war with Iran
“Hundreds of Israelis marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday to protest against a possible Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The protest came amid a recent Facebook campaign linking Israeli and Iranian citizens in their opposition to war between the two nations. Campaign leaders, however, made it clear on their Facebook page that they had nothing to do with the Tel Aviv protest march.”

Iran is in the news just about as much as Israel. Just as the bible said the world would be focused on these matters in the last days, we are.

egyptian candidate, iran, mahdi

Egyptian Presidential Candidate: ‘I am the Mahdi’

Posted on March 18, 2012 by elizabethprata

From Jihad Watch:

“According to today’s edition of Egypt’s Al-Wafd, a popular political website, the latest candidate for the Egyptian presidency, Muhammad Muhammad Musa, claims he is the hidden Mahdi — a savior figure in Islamic eschatology.”

“After exiting from the Supreme Council for Elections, Musa said that “he is the awaited Mahdi who will liberate the Arab world, and that the anti-Christ [al-Masih al-Dajjal] appears to him daily in dreams trying to prevent him from running for the presidency and liberating the Arab countries from tyranny. He confirmed that he ran for presidency in 2005 against [ousted Egyptian president Hosni] Mubarak, but that the military intelligence service and police arrested his son in an effort to force him to withdraw from the race,” which he did.”

“The Mahdi, of course, is “the rightly-guided one” who, according to Islamic tradition, will come immediately before the end times to battle the evil Dajjal and make the entire world Muslim. One of his signs is that “Muhammad” must be part of his name — and Musa has it twice — or some derivation, e.g., “Ahmad.”

“Nor is this some arcane fiction ignored by all. As Timothy Furnish writes over at Mahdi Watch:”

“Over the last 1400 years numerous claimants to the mantle of the Mahdi have arisen in both Shi`i and Sunni circles. Modern belief in the coming of the Mahdi has manifested most famously in the 1979 al-`Utaybi uprising of Sa`udi Arabia, and most recently in the ongoing Mahdist movements (some violent) in Iraq, as well as in the frequently-expressed public prayers of Iranian President Ahmadinezhad bidding the Mahdi to return and, in the larger Sunni Islamic world, by claims that Usamah bin Ladin might be the (now occulted?) Mahdi.”

Posted by Raymond on March 13, 2012 10:55 AM”
———————

Last March I’d reported on an interesting video that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard had produced for their circles but was smuggled out to the West by an undercover operative. In it, Ryan Mauro of Frontpage Magazine analyzed the documentary produced by the Iranian regime. It was re-published in the Assyrian International News Agency. Here is Mauro’s synopsis:

“The Iranian government has produced a bone-chilling documentary that claims that Ayatollah Khamenei, President Ahmadinejad, and Hassan Nasrallah are talked about in Islamic prophecy as leaders who will wage war to bring about the arrival of the Hidden Imam, which the film says is “very close” to happening.” [ed. note: Nasrallah is the man currently leading the militant terrorist group Hezbollah.]

“Reza Kahlili, a former member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards who spied for the CIA and authored A Time to Betray last year, procured the entire film and says it was created by close associates of Ahmadinejad and was shown to top clerics two weeks ago. His chief of staff, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, is said to have played a role in its creation. Kahlili allowed FrontPage to view a shortened version of the film over the weekend, which he says the Iranian regime intends to distribute to mosques and Islamic centers throughout the region with an Arabic translation and is currently being shown to members of the Revolutionary Guards and Basiji.”

“The purpose of the film is to make the case that Iran is prophetically destined to lead the war against Islam’s enemies, which is as a prelude to the appearance of the Hidden Imam, also called the Mahdi, who brings the final victory for Islam and reigns over the whole world. It uses current events to argue that “the final chapter has begun” and the Mahdi’s arrival is imminent. Most disturbingly, it teaches that Khamenei, Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah are the individuals prophesied to make this happen.”

“The documentary claims that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei is the Seyed Khorasani talked about in the Hadith that leads a nation in the East (Iran) as “the preparer” for the Mahdi’s intervention. In July 2010, a senior Iranian cleric revealed that Khamenei had told close associates that he had privately met with the Mahdi and was told that he’d arrive before his time as Supreme Leader ends. Khamenei is 71 years old and widely understood to be in poor health, so the grand jihad that Khamenei believes he must command must come soon.”
—————–

This week Iran had come out with bellicose language of talk of destroying America. Joel Rosenberg termed: “Such language is consistent with the Twelver eschatology held by the senior Iranian leadership that says Iran must seek to annihilate Israel (the “Little Satan” in their view) and the U.S. (which they call the “Great Satan”) in order to hasten the coming of the Twelfth Imam and the establishment of a global Islamic kingdom or Caliphate.”

The feeling of imminence for both Christians and Muslims is heavy. Both religions share a similar end time eschatology, except that the Muslim eschatology is opposite to the bible’s and therefore exactly false. This link is to the transcript of the Iranian video, the title of which is “The Coming is Near“. Both religion’s adherents feel that the time is nearing for the final showdown between sin and holiness, good and evil, saved and unsaved meeting their everlasting fates. That the Egyptian presidential candidate is talking of these things, even that he feels he IS the final Imam/Mahdi, is not surprising, as the Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran feels also that he is a high-end player in the final events. Since Iran feels so strongly that they are the nation to lead the Muslim world into wiping out tyranny and liberating the population into Islam, I wonder how they will feel that now an Egyptian man is claiming to be the Mahdi. These times are daily getting more prophetic.

banks, iran, swift

Swift expels 30 Iranian banks from global banking system

Posted on March 18, 2012 by elizabethprata

Global Network Expels as Many as 30 of Iran’s Banks in Move to Isolate Its Economy
By RICK GLADSTONE and STEPHEN CASTLE
Published: March 15, 2012

“A global communication network vital to the banking industry announced on Thursday that it was expelling as many as 30 Iranian financial institutions — including the Central Bank — crippling their ability to conduct international business and further isolating the country from the world economy. The network, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or Swift, took the action to comply with European Union sanctions on Iranian banks, which were enacted in response to Iran’s disputed nuclear energy program. It is the first time that Swift, a consortium based in Belgium and subject to European Union laws, has taken such a drastic step, which severs a crucial conduit for Iran to electronically repatriate billions of dollars’ worth of earnings from the sale of oil and other exports.”

Foreign Press renting rooftops in advance of expected Israel-Iran war

Posted on February 9, 2012 by elizabethprata

This was in Hebrew and google-translated to English

The foreign media is preparing an Israeli confrontation with Iran
—Various agencies, including Reuters, the roofs of houses in Tel Aviv hired to prepare an attack on the town photography
–In addition, television networks in Israel sent senior producers
“Although non-ongoing uncertainty in Israel around the nuclear confrontation with Iran, Globes “has learned that the foreign media feel that the great event – meaning going to happen. Learned that recently hired various agencies, including Agence Reuters, roofs of houses in Tel – Aviv, to prepare for the shooting attack on the city. Also, the world’s television networks, more and less significant, senior producers sent to Israel to examine means of Helena, communications infrastructure, and protective measures in favor of big teams will come to Israel to cover the events. Between the agencies considering the deployment of these networks is currently FOX , NBC and CBS networks of American and European and Asian. One senior source said foreign broadcasters Globes: “It would be illogical not to prepare for it, when we hear your defense minister expressed constantly on. This assessment is similar to that which was here before the days of the Gulf War, the early ’90s.”

This article was in English originally, it is an opinion piece of irony and sarcasm from Eurasia Review:

Foreign Press Rents Tel Aviv Rooftops To Cover Iran War – OpEd
“You remember the descriptions of the First Battle of Bull Run when all of Washington’s high society rode out in their fine carriages and horses to picnic under the shady trees and watch their Union boys send the Rebs packing? Did they get the shock of their lives when the Rebel musket balls whizzed over their heads and the Union soldiers ran for their lives from the field? Or similarly, the Israelis in southern Israel who took lawn chairs out to watch the IDF smash Gaza to smithereens in 2009? Here’s a picture of another group of expectant, thrilled Israelis watching the action. That’s what the foreign press corps appears to be doing now in Tel Aviv in preparation for an attack on Iran. They’re renting the right to put film crews and reporters on the city’s rooftops (Hebrew) during the upcoming war in order to cover the anticipated Iranian counterattack. That way they can get great photo ops and pictures of missiles wreaking havoc on the city. What a story! What a feast for the eyes! Other news organizations like CBS, Fox News, and NBC are sending their senior producers to Israel to scope out the place in case they have to send in the big boys–the news anchors and senior correspondents (especially since no one can report from Tehran!).”

On one webpage discussing this story/rumor of the day, Daniel F stated, “In January 1991 everybody was caught by surprise at 03:00am in the morning when the first Scuds hit Tel Aviv. CNN, the most aggressive news agency at the time, had paid handsomely for access to a rooftop and provided excellent live coverage (and were also inadvertently acting as a forward artillery spotter for the Iraqis). Other news agencies were quick to follow suit until some understood that the Iraqis might be watching TV. So I suppose that some of the news agencies are “buying options”, hardly surprising and I suppose that the asking prices are still reasonable. More dancing in the streets of Gaza?”

We know from prophecy in Ezekiel 38-39 that Israel and Iran get into it, as well as Israel and the Psalm 83 nations (Lebanon, Gaza, Hezbollah, Hamas, Jordan, Egypt) and we know Syria’s capital of Damascus is obliterated at some point in between all this (Isaiah 17). The only question is, when. I don’t think we have long to wait to find out.
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gog and magog, iran, prophecy, psalm 83

Russia: ‘an attack on Iran is an attack on Moscow’ and other Middle East news

Posted on January 15, 2012May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Iran has been pretty bellicose lately, daring to threaten nations and assume power it does not have. Two weeks ago Iran threatened the United States by telling the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier to leave the Strait of Hormuz and not come back. That was pretty startling to hear. Stennis’s tour was up and they were about to leave anyway, relieved by the USS Carl Vinson, but Stennis did an about-face in the Arabian sea and there it is to this day. Iran also threatened to close the Strait, but that was an overstep because it is Iran and Oman whose territorial waters extend into the Strait. I wonder what Oman thinks about their neighbor’s threat to close waters upon which Oman depends.

Now Iran warns Gulf states not to compensate for oil shortfalls after Western sanctions
“Iran has warned its Gulf neighbors to not compensate for any shortfall in its oil exports after it has been hit with Western sanctions, the Iranian OPEC representative said on Sunday. “If the oil producing nations on the Persian Gulf decide to substitute Iran’s oil, then they will be held responsible for what happens,” Mohammad Ali Khatibi was quoted as saying by Sharq newspaper. “We would not consider these actions to be friendly,” Khatibi added.”

He was really speaking about Saudi Arabia not making up the shortfall…

“Sanctions have been imposed on Iran when European Union countries agreed in principle to embargo imports of Iranian oil as part of the latest Western efforts to step up heat on Tehran. These countries will look to other oil exporters to increase output to make up for the shortfall and Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Saturday his country was ready to meet any increase in consumer countries’ demand. Iran is the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cartel, after Saudi Arabia which currently exports some 6.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and has an output of about 3.5 million bpd, according to OPEC estimates.”

So not only is Iran threatening Israel, not only is Iran threatening the West, now they are throwing their weight around to their neighbors, their brothers in the Arab League.

Maybe Iran feels safe enough to do that because Russia is their new best friend.

Russia: ‘An attack on Iran is an attack on Moscow’
“Russia has given Iran its bear hug and warns Israel and the West that an attack on Tehran would be considered an attack on Moscow. The threat heightens the prospect of World War III in the event of a military strike on Iran. “Iran is our neighbor,” Russia’s outgoing ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters in Brussels. “And if Iran is involved in any military action, it’s a direct threat to our security.”

Neighbors? Not in the geographic sense. Two nations are between them, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Moscow is 1600 miles from Tehran.

Maybe Russia is still thinking Georgia and Azerbaijan are still part of the old Soviet Union. Yeah, that’s it.

On the map, look for Israel. See how tiny it is. See all the looming geography surrounding that tiny nation, the size of New Jersey. They ALL want her wiped out. In this Al Jazeera article, we see the quotes again about wiping Israel out. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has a solid history of tough talk, but it has escalated its provocative rhetoric in recent months. Sardar Mohamad Reza Naghdi, the commander of the Basij armed group, has said his organisation is “counting the moments” and waiting for an excuse to “put an end to the Zionist agenda”.

But that’s not news. Psalm 83:2-4 tells us this exactly:
“For behold, Your enemies make a tumult;
And those who hate You have lifted up their head.
They have taken crafty counsel against Your people,
And consulted together against Your sheltered ones.
They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation,
That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”

In that same Al Jazeera article, the question is asked,

“What is motivating Iran’s tough talk of enriching uranium and shutting down a major global oil chokepoint?” Why all this ramped up rhetoric? Here is what has gone down recently:

–September 2010 the Stuxnet computer virus attacked Iran’s nuclear power plant in Bushehr.
–December, a high-altitude stealth reconnaissance drone was downed in Iran, and images of the drone were broadcast on Iranian TV with banners hanging off of its wings which read: “We’ll crush America underfoot” and “US can’t mess with us”.
–Several mysterious explosions at key locations in Iran. In October 2010, a blast at a military base in the western province of Lorestan killed “several” and was dubbed “an accident” by the government.
–Explosion in November killed 17 at an arms depot west of Tehran. Later that month, a blast was heard near the city of Isfahan.
–Although the US navy has twice in the past week rescued Iranian crews in Gulf waters – once from Somali pirates, once from a wrecked vessel – its presence in the Gulf is nonetheless unwelcome and seen as a threat by Tehran.
–Strings of deaths, disappearances, and, in one case -reappearance – of Iranian physicists continues to deepen the acrimony and mistrust between Iran and the US and Israel.

What is driving Iran, at root? Secular nations look for secular answers, but at root is Iran’s goal of preparing the world for the final Mahdi’s arrival. Therefore at root is a religious reason that is the polar opposite of biblical truth. That is because satan is behind it, and we know that satan is a liar and the father of lies, and a murderer from the beginning. (John 8:44). It seems that the demonic prince of Persia is still holding on to Iran for his stronghold. (Daniel 10:13)

As Jack Kelley explained in his weekly essay last night:

“It’s no secret that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is preoccupied with the coming of a Shiite Islamic messiah figure, al Mahdi. This continues to raise concern that a nuclear-armed Iran would create the kind of global chaos he believes will be necessary to set the stage for the Mahdi’s return. Recent events seem to confirm this. For example, after years of promising that their nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful, Iran just announced their intention to test a 1 kiloton nuclear warhead this year. Iran’s Supreme Leader is thought to favor announcing Iran’s nuclear capability as an accomplished fact as soon as possible.”

“Al Mahdi, which means the guided one, is said to have gone into “occlusion” (disappeared) in the year 941 AD, at the age of five. Shiite Moslems believe he will reappear at the end of the Age. They say his reappearance will be preceded by chaos, war and bloodshed. When he comes he’ll establish a world wide Islamic caliphate, and following a cataclysmic confrontation with evil and darkness that lasts 7 years, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.”

“As he has publicly explained, Ahmadinejad believes he’s been called to “pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance.” To some, this means creating the chaos necessary to bring al Mahdi back.”

Another motivating factor is the plunder. Perhaps that plunder is oil. After the Psalm 83 war occurs and Israel defeats the coalition of Lebanon, Hamas, Hezbollah, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, they occupy all those lands again. Remember, the LORD had promised Abraham certain lands and described the borders of it in Genesis 15:18-21. This is a part of the Abrahamic Covenant, specifically outlining the dimensions of the land God promised to Abraham and his descendants. Israel hasn’t occupied them all yet. But they will. (Ezekiel 20:33–37, 40–42; 36:1–37:28).

Here is a map of the Genesis 15 covenant lands:

See the scriptures that talk of the plunder being the motivation for Iran, Russia, Turkey et al to attack Israel:

“[Have you come] … to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land. Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder?’” (Ezekiel 38:12-13)

Saudi Arabia has a lot of oil. According to Wikipedia, “Saudi Arabia has the largest oil reserves in the world. It is the world’s top oil exporter and producer. Oil actually accounts for “90% of the country’s exports and nearly 75% government revenues.” On the Abrahamic Covenant map, Saudi Arabia is the pink one.

With all the war rhetoric, drumbeats, and tension, I am reminded of Henry Kissinger’s old adage, coming to fruition in these last days–

“Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people.”

These heated words from Iran are emanating from the epicenter of all the world’s attention and tension right now: Middle East, where the oil (plunder?) is. The major problems in the world right now are there, as Isaiah 17, Psalm 83, and Ezekiel 38-39 tell us, and also Europe, the place where the revived roman empire will spit out the Antichrist. (Daniel 7:23-24). Did you know that Germany, currently Europe’s economic engine, is flirting with leaving the Euro currency and union? The news from Europe, the last empire in Daniel’s dream, is dire. The antichrist will control the world through food: access to it through purchase and through participation in the economy is denied unless the consumer wears the Mark of the Beast. The Gog Magog war happens because of plunder/ treasure, that the enemies have come to steal.

It is all shrinking down to oil & food, Middle East and Europe. Just as Jesus said it would.

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