On August 17th – in a column entitled, “Putin Rising: But Is He Gog?” — I wrote that “after keeping a relatively low profile for the last several years, Vladimir Putin is rising. In recent weeks, the Russian leader — currently serving as his country’s prime minister — once again has been making headlines, stoking controversy, and seeming to position himself to run for president of Russia again in March 2012.”
Now it’s official. Putin is officially running in the March 4th elections. The announcement came over the weekend and, barring unforeseen circumstances, should win in a landslide. His anti-American, anti-Western “tough guy” image of crushing the Chechens, and the Georgians, and building a vibrant economy through Russia’s oil and natural gas industries, and building strategic alliances with radical Islamic allies such as Iran has played well and made him very popular throughout Russia’s eleven time zones. Putin is counting on such support to allow him to emerge as the next Czar of Russia for many years to come. Reuters notes that “the next president will be elected for six years and the constitution still allows the head of state a maximum of two straight terms — meaning Putin could be in power for another 12 years.”
The re-emergence of Putin as Russia’s central tyrant will re-stoke speculation that we are heading towards the “War of Gog and Magog”as prophesied in the Bible in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39. Many evangelical Christians believe we are, in part because the prophecies of Ezekiel 36 and 37 have already come true regarding the dramatic rebirth of the State of Israel and Jews coming back to the Holy Land in the last days after centuries of exile. And Putin strikes many as far closer to the image of the evil dictator “Gog” described in the prophecy than the current President Dmitry Medvedev. A growing number of Jews also believe Ezekiel 38 and 39 could come true in our lifetime, and possibly in the next few years. In June of 2010, for example, a group of Rabbis in Israel said current events seemed to be leading to the “War of Gog and Magog.”
While it is still too early to say such prophecies will be fulfilled soon, the rise of Putin — combined with Russia’s increasingly close ties to Iran, Libya, Turkey, Central Asia and other countries described by Ezekiel – certainly doesn’t bode well for the State of Israel or the Jewish people.
TRUTH: ISRAEL WANTS PEACE, BUT THE U.N. IS THE “THEATER OF THE ABSURD”
Posted: September 24, 2011 by joelcrosenberg in Uncategorized
Israeli PM Netanyahu addresses the U.N. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who decades ago served as his nation’s ambassador to the United Nations — spoke to the General Assembly on Friday and gave one of his most important speeches of his life and in the history of the modern State of Israel. He said he came not to win applause, but to speak the truth. And he did.
Let us pray that many in that hall and around the world have ears to ear, hearts to understand, and the courage to do justice and love mercy according to the Scriptures in these last days.
- Netanyahu quoted from the Hebrew Prophet Isaiah saying, “‘The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.’ Let that light be the light of peace.” [The verse comes from Isaiah 9, a famous chapter describing the coming of the Messiah].
- Explained that Israel is the “ancient biblical homeland” of the Jewish people
- Explained how to achieve peace with the Palestinians
- Urged the world to stop Iran’s bid for nuclear weapons before it’s too late
- Noted that there are many fine diplomats at the U.N. who work honorably for peace and security, but noted with regret that all too often the U.N. is a “house of lies” and the “theater of the absurd”
Key excerpts:
- “Today I hope that the light of truth will shine, if only for a few minutes, in a hall that for too long has been a place of darkness for my country. So as Israel’s prime minister, I didn’t come here to win applause. I came here to speak the truth. The truth is that Israel wants peace. The truth is that I want peace. The truth is that in the Middle East at all times, but especially during these turbulent days, peace must be anchored in security. The truth is that we cannot achieve peace through UN resolutions, but only through direct negotiations between the parties. The truth is that so far the Palestinians have refused to negotiate. The truth is that Israel wants peace with a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians want a state without peace. And the truth is you shouldn’t let that happen.
- “It was here [at the U.N.] in 1975 that the age-old yearning of my people to restore our national life in our ancient biblical homeland — it was then that this was branded shamefully, as racism. And it was here in 1980, right here, that the historic peace agreement between Israel and Egypt wasn’t praised; it was denounced! And it’s here, year after year that Israel is unjustly singled out for condemnation. It’s singled out for condemnation more often than all the nations of the world combined. Twenty-one out of the 27 General Assembly resolutions condemn Israel – the one true democracy in the Middle East.
- “It’s the theater of the absurd. It doesn’t only cast Israel as the villain; it often casts real villains in leading roles: Gadhafi’s Libya chaired the UN Commission on Human Rights; Saddam’s Iraq headed the UN Committee on Disarmament. You might say: That’s the past. Well, here’s what’s happening now — right now, today, Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon now presides over the UN Security Council. This means, in effect, that a terror organization presides over the body entrusted with guaranteeing the world’s security.You couldn’t make this thing up.”
- “A malignancy is now growing between East and West that threatens the peace of all. It seeks not to liberate, but to enslave, not to build, but to destroy.That malignancy is militant Islam. It cloaks itself in the mantle of a great faith, yet it murders Jews, Christians and Muslims alike with unforgiving impartiality. On September 11th it killed thousands of Americans, and it left the twin towers in smoldering ruins. Last night I laid a wreath on the 9/11 memorial. It was deeply moving. But as I was going there, one thing echoed in my mind: the outrageous words of the president of Iran on this podium yesterday. He implied that 9/11 was an American conspiracy. Some of you left this hall. All of you should have.”
- “The international community must stop Iran before it’s too late. If Iran is not stopped, we will all face the specter of nuclear terrorism, and the Arab Spring could soon become an Iranian winter….The world around Israel is definitely becoming more dangerous. Militant Islam has already taken over Lebanon and Gaza. It’s determined to tear apart the peace treaties between Israel and Egypt and between Israel and Jordan. It’s poisoned many Arab minds against Jews and Israel, against America and the West. It opposes not the policies of Israel but the existence of Israel.
- “In 2000 Israel made a sweeping peace offer that met virtually all of the Palestinian demands. Arafat rejected it. The Palestinians then launched a terror attack that claimed a thousand Israeli lives. Prime Minister Olmert afterwards made an even more sweeping offer, in 2008. President Abbas didn’t even respond to it. But Israel did more than just make sweeping offers. We actually left territory. We withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and from every square inch of Gaza in 2005. That didn’t calm the Islamic storm, the militant Islamic storm that threatens us. It only brought the storm closer and made it stronger.
- “The Jewish state of Israel will always protect the rights of all its minorities, including the more than 1million Arab citizens of Israel. I wish I could say the same thing about a future Palestinian state, for as Palestinian officials made clear the other day – in fact, I think they made it right here in New York — they said the Palestinian state won’t allow any Jews in it. They’ll be Jew-free — Judenrein. That’s ethnic cleansing. There are laws today in Ramallah that make the selling of land to Jews punishable by death. That’s racism. And you know which laws this evokes.
- “There’s an old Arab saying that you cannot applaud with one hand. Well, the same is true of peace. I can not make peace alone. I cannot make peace without you. President Abbas, I extend my hand — the hand of Israel – in peace. I hope that you will grasp that hand. We are both the sons of Abraham. My people call him Avraham. Your people call him Ibrahim. We share the same patriarch. We dwell in the same land. Our destinies are intertwined. Let us realize the vision of Isaiah — [Isaiah 9:1 in Hebrew] — “The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.” Let that light be the light of peace.”
Read Ahmadinejad’s speech. You won’t find it re-printed in the major newspapers. It was pitifully covered by the media, not carefully or properly analyzed. Like Hitler’s speeches in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, Ahmadinejad isn’t hiding what he believes. He’s pretty clear. He denied the Holocaust. He blasted the U.S. for bringing Osama Bin Laden to justice. He blamed the terrorist attacks 9/11 on the U.S. government. He insisted that his so-called messiah known as “Imam al-Mahdi” or the Twelfth Imam is coming soon. He insisted Jesus Christ will come with the Mahdi to take over the world. He called for a one-world government when he called for “the shared and collective management of the world.”
Consider these excerpts: “This movement is certainly on its rightful path of creation, ensuring a promising future for humanity. A future that will be built when humanity initiates to trend the path of the divine prophets and the righteous under the leadership of Imam al-Mahdi, the Ultimate Savior of mankind and the inheritor to all divine messengers and leaders and to the pure generation of our great Prophet. The creation of a supreme and ideal society with the arrival of a perfect human being who is a true and sincere lover of all human beings, is the guaranteed promise of Allah. He will come alongside with Jesus Christ to lead the freedom and justice lovers to eradicate tyranny and discrimination, and promote knowledge, peace, justice freedom and love across the world. He will present to every single individual all the beauties of the world and all good things which bring happiness for humankind.”
So what’s the world doing to stop him? Precious little. Yes, some world diplomats walked out of Ahmadinejad’s speech. Big deal. They walked softly, but where is the big stick? Why aren’t they taking decisive action to stop Iran from building, buying or stealing nuclear weapons and the ballistic missile systems to deliver them? Time is running out. Once Iran has the Islamic Bomb, does anyone really believe they won’t use it against the U.S. and Israel, either directly or through terrorist surrogates?
Rather than stopping Iran from getting the Bomb, however, the leaders of the world — including our own President — are hyper-focused on pressuring Israel to divide Jerusalem and divide the Land of Israel and create a corrupt and dangerous Palestinian state co-led by the missile-firing Hamas terrorist group. Don’t get me wrong: the Israeli-Palestinian issue is an important one, and it should be treated seriously and carefully. But it’s not the most important issue in the Middle East today. The murderous, apocalyptic Iranian regime and its race for nuclear weapons is Issue #1, 2 and 3. We would be fools not to take decisive action while we still can.
The above excerpts make it clear that we are on a fast pace toward "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jeremiah 30:7). The Word of God makes it clear that there will be a final world empire lead by the Antichrist who will seek to annihilate the nation of Israel. I posted the above as a "watchman on the wall" who is seeking to wake up the Body of Christ from its sleep. Church, it is time to be done "with straightening up the chairs on the Titanic" and submit ourselves to what God is doing NOW! No more time to play church. It is time to put the Kingdom first. Would you take a few minutes and pray and ask God to show you what time it is and what He would have you to do so as to position yourself for the last days that are upon us? Shalom on God's people.
No comments:
Post a Comment