MIDDLE EAST AND PROPHECY
Events following the supposed implementation of the “Road Map to Peace” have taken their predictable course, and that is more violence from both the Palestinians and Israelis!
On June 11, 2003, Newsday.com reported: “The Bush administration doled out a rare dose of criticism to Israel over its military attack on a Hamas leader yesterday but failed to dissuade the Israelis from launching a second assault in Gaza a short time later.” President Bush was quoted as saying that he doesn’t “…believe the attacks help Israeli security.”
The Washington Post reported on June 10, 2003, “President Bush this afternoon scolded Israel, saying he was concerned that its attacks today on Palestinian targets could derail the road map toward Middle East peace, less than a week after he assembled Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan for an upbeat summit… Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said… it was correct to say Israel’s action was not keeping with the road map.”
Der Spiegel Online commented on June 10, 2003, “The Israeli government is obviously determined to do everything they can to sabotage President Bush’s road map to peace.”
USA Today reported on June 11 that “Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was unapologetic about Tuesday’s botched strike against Hamas co-founder Abdel Aziz Rantisi, despite a sharp reprimand from President Bush… Sharon said after Bush’s rebuke that Israel will ‘continue to fight the heads of the extremist terrorist organizations – those who initiate, those who fund and those who send terrorists to the Jews.'”
On June 11, events in this area of the world simply exploded with some commentators calling the conflagration a war between Israel and Hamas. MSNBC.com reported on Wednesday (6/11/2003): “Privately though, administration officials admitted that what they believed was a triumph at the summit in Aqaba, Jordan, has been shattered in a matter of days.”
First, as USA Today reported on June 11, “a suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus in downtown Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people and wounding nearly 70 a day after Hamas threatened bloody revenge for an Israeli attack on one of its leaders.” Shortly thereafter, Israel killed at least six Palestinians in a first rocket attack in Gaza City. Israel claimed that that attack was unconnected with the suicide attack in Jerusalem. However, two more Israeli attacks followed.
USA Today reported on June 12, 2003: “In the third Israeli airstrike in 24 hours, Israeli helicopters fired several missiles at a car of a Hamas fugitive Thursday, killing seven people, including the wanted man [Yasser Taha], his wife [Fatima] and 2-year old daughter [Asnan].” This latest strike injured 29 people. The article continued, “The latest spike in violence – 35 Israelis and Palestinians killed and more than 130 wounded in two days – suggested a new stage in the 32-month-old conflict, with ISRAEL AND HAMAS THREATENING TO FIGHT EACH OTHER TO THE FINISH. Hamas said it would unleash multiple attacks and urged foreigners to leave Israel for their safety. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said that despite a new U.S.-backed peace plan, he would hunt Palestinian militants ‘to the bitter end.'”
Der Spiegel Online reported on June 12, 2003, that Hamas advocates attacks against Ariel Sharon personally. The magazine stated, “Ever increasing attacks from Israel and the extremist group Hamas destroy the hope that violence in the Middle East might stop.”
Things will get worse! The lesson of history is that violence leads to more violence, and wars lead to more wars. We see a vicious cycle of violence in the Middle East, with no end in sight.
Even the unique support and alliance enjoyed between the U.S., Israel and Great Britain will not hold. Isaiah 9:21 prophecies: “Manasseh Ephraim’s, and Ephraim Manasseh’s, And both of them AGAINST Judah” (Tanakh translation)! The New International Version renders this passage this way, “Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh; together they will turn against Judah.”
In chapter 11 of Isaiah, we find this statement about a future change in relationships that will actually correct a problem that is even now arising between Judah and Ephraim: “Also the envy of Ephraim shall depart, And the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, And Judah shall not harass Ephraim” (verse 13).
Events in the very near future will see Judah isolated. The Arab world enjoys more and more sympathy and support from countries within the European Union. Although this doesn’t yet entail any military overtures, prophecy clearly shows that Europe will find itself embroiled militarily in the Middle East. It will be Europe that will be called upon to bring “peace” to the Middle East. However, their efforts will create more havoc in that part of the world. Notice this frightening prophecy in Zechariah 12:2-3, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though ALL NATIONS OF THE EARTH are gathered against it.”
For more about the prophecies of these events, please note the publications available on our web page http://www.eternalgod.org/
APOCALYPSE NOW?
CNN.com published an interesting article on June 10, stating the following: “This is the way the world might end: A genetically engineered pathogen is released, debris from an erupting ‘supervolcano’ blocks the sun or scientists in the biggest ‘bioerror’ of them all accidentally trigger a matter-squeezing ‘big bang.’
“The demise of civilization has been predicted since it began, but the odds of keeping Planet Earth alive and well are getting worse amid a breakneck pace of scientific advances, according to Martin Rees, Britain’s honorary astronomer royal. Rees calculates that the odds of an apocalyptic disaster striking Earth have risen to about 50 percent from 20 percent a hundred years ago.
“The 60-year-old scientist, author of the recently published ‘One Final Hour,’ says science is advancing in a far more unpredictable and potentially dangerous pattern than ever before. He lists as mankind’s biggest threats: nuclear terrorism, deadly engineered viruses, rogue machines and genetic engineering that could alter human character. All of those could result from innocent error or the action of a single malevolent individual. By 2020, an instance of bioterror or bioerror will have killed a million people, Rees contends.”
The Bible prophesies that at the time of Jesus Christ’s return, the conditions on this planet will be so bad that no human being would be saved alive, unless God were to intervene and “those days were shortened” (compare Matthew 24:22). We seem to be moving toward this final climax of human “accomplishments” with frightening speed.
