Two big things in NY at the UN this week affecting Israel and thereby the whole world:
A. the "Durban 2 Conference on Racism," where Israel will be villified and branded as the root of all evil. and
B. a vote in UN Security Council to grant the Palestinian Authority a new status in the UN as an "observer state" (which is the same status that the vatican has) which is a big step towards the UN granting the PA full statehood, a vote on which is being pushed for 2012. (This just in... The Palestinian Authority this week announced that on Friday, September 23rd it will formally submit its bid for full membership in the United Nations. A General Assembly vote would likely go overwhelmingly in favor of the Palestinians.)
All this to pressure Isael to give over more land, (e.g. the West bank, Golan Hts., Gaza, and East Jerusalem... they already gave up the Sinai), in exchange for "peace."
Some notes on these so-called "land for peace deals"
1.Where was Abraham when God said , “To your offspring I will give this land?”
Shechem/Nablus (Gen. 12:6)
2. Where are Abraham and Sarah buried?
Kiriath Arba/Hebron (Gen 23:1,17)
3. Where are Isaac and Rebekah buried?
Kiriath Arba/Hebron (Gen. 49:29-33)
4. Where are Jacob and Leah buried?
Kiriath Arba/Hebron (Gen. 49:29-33)
5.Where is Rachel buried?
Bethlehem (Gen. 35:19)
6. Where was Jacob when he had the dream of angels climbing and descending on a ladder and heard God say "I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying?'
Luz/Bethel/Beitin (Gen. 28:19) Jacob also heard God re-affirm his promise “I will give this land to your descendants “ at this same location many years later. (Gen. 35:12-14)
7. Where is Joseph’s tomb?
Nablus (Joshua 44:32) He died and was embalmed in Egypt (Gen. 50:26) 400 years later, Israel comes out of Egypt with Joseph’s bones (Ex.13:19) and they bury him here 50 years later!
8. On which two mountains did the returning descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob make the covenant of Blessings and Curses after the Exodus?
Mt. Gerazim & Ebal (Dt. 29-30)
9. What modern city is located between these two mountains?
Shechem/Nablus
10. Where is the Covenant confirmed to Joshua with the words “So, I give you this land?”
Shechem/ Nablus (Josh. 24:13)
Now, Which of these locations were granted by the U.N. as part of the 1948 establishment of Israel? Answer: NONE! All were gained by Israel in the 6-day war and all are in the land that they are now being pressured to relinquish - the land that God explicitly says is theirs.
The prophet Joel speaks of a time of coming judgment on the nations of the world sue to their treatment of Israel in accordance with His everlasting covenant with Abraham to "bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you" (Gen . 12:3) "I will gather all nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning my inheritance, my people Israel, for they scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land." (Joel 3:2)
Note the final phrase ....judgment is coming due the "nations" ... "dividing God's land !"
...wakey wakey
.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
What Do I Really Know?
Life gets complicated, doesn’t it? From time to time, (in fact very often!) things get so….
a.) Hectic; b.) Overwhelming; c.) Hopeless; d.) All of the above… that you just want to scream and pull your hair out! Well, maybe that’s a little over-dramatic, but you know what I mean. Everyday life can grind you down: babies crying, bills to be paid, kids going off to college, even 40 days of 100 degree temps can get pretty overwhelming. Then there are those “crisis” moments when it truly seems the world is collapsing all around you – to use the words of the psalmist, when “the mountains tremble and the oceans roar” or when I feel as though “I am sinking into the depths of hell, the cords of death are wrapped around me dragging me down!” The world around us is constantly in a state of panic, and not without good reason: wars, financial meltdowns, political turmoil, strikes, lock-outs, etc. etc. etc. Sometimes terrible feelings of fear, doom and panic can engulf us too. When a loved one dies; when a diagnosis of cancer comes; when a spouse announces that they are leaving; when a false accusation threatens to destroy your family; when a bleak reality stares you in the face that seems to leave no acceptable options – in times like these, what we need to ask ourselves is this: What do I really know? What are the BIG truths that never change that can sustain me now? The answers to these questions are what give the believer hope when the world has none. So what do you really know, not just think, or wish for, or agree with, but really, really, in the marrow of your bones know?
Do you know that…
God is in control; that He loves you and will never leave you and that His plan is best?
Jesus proved His love by dying on the cross for you and paying the price for your sins?
Because of what he did, you are God’s child, chosen, dearly loved and fully forgiven?
You died with Him and have been raised to new life in Him?
You are a new creation - God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works?
He is more than able to do far above anything we could ever ask, think or imagine?
We have peace with God and are seated with him in the Heavenly realms?
He has given us authority over all the power of the evil one?
We will live forever with Him and when we see Him we shall be like Him?
He is coming soon to redeem all things, establish His kingdom and make all things new?
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 4:4-7)
Monday, April 25, 2011
David, version 5.0
This month is my birthday and I am turning 50 or as I prefer to say, Five-Oh! (You know, like “Book ‘em Dano”) I guess that makes me “middle aged.” (Especially since I prefer the old McGarrett to the new one!) At least it used to. I am quite certain that “middle age” starts much later now than a generation ago! According to popular culture, I’m ripe for what is known as a “mid-life” crisis. That’s when you start wearing open-collared disco shirts that reveal large gold medallions, (that certainly sounds like a crisis to me!), trade in your SUV for a convertible coupe and begin trying in every way possible to re-capture your youth by re-living your glory days, (even if you really never had any!) A mid-life crisis is the result of a violent fellow named “Self Evaluation” who inevitably comes around during this stage of life to kick you in the stomach with the cold hard fact that you haven’t accomplished the things you always thought you would and hit you over the head with the thought that now, it may just be too late.
But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. Moses was 80 when God called him to lead Israel to the promised land and Joshua was probably about the same age when he kicked the Canaanites out of it. Caleb was the oldest guy in Canaan and he asked for and got the toughest assignment. With God, every day is an adventure! And with Him, all things are possible! So I probably don’t need to get a gold chain or trade in anything, (although I did get a different truck last month …and it was gold….hmmmm,) I just need to trade in worldly thinking (caterpillar identity) for godly thinking (butterfly identity.) Instead of listening to Mr. Evaluation, who I have a sneaking suspicion is really a clever disguise for the devil, why not listen to God? He says about me, (and you) that He has made us “competent” as ministers of the new covenant; He encourages us not to throw away our confidence and He promises us that we can do all things in His strength. When you serve the Lord, you never come to the point when you are useless. You can always pray, always sing, (even if only in your heart!) always smile, and always encourage someone else with your story. I may have more days already in the book than I have left, but so what! I am connected to the timeless One who is more than able to do exceedingly and abundantly above and beyond, all I can ask, think or imagine according to His power that is at work…. in me.
But it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way. Moses was 80 when God called him to lead Israel to the promised land and Joshua was probably about the same age when he kicked the Canaanites out of it. Caleb was the oldest guy in Canaan and he asked for and got the toughest assignment. With God, every day is an adventure! And with Him, all things are possible! So I probably don’t need to get a gold chain or trade in anything, (although I did get a different truck last month …and it was gold….hmmmm,) I just need to trade in worldly thinking (caterpillar identity) for godly thinking (butterfly identity.) Instead of listening to Mr. Evaluation, who I have a sneaking suspicion is really a clever disguise for the devil, why not listen to God? He says about me, (and you) that He has made us “competent” as ministers of the new covenant; He encourages us not to throw away our confidence and He promises us that we can do all things in His strength. When you serve the Lord, you never come to the point when you are useless. You can always pray, always sing, (even if only in your heart!) always smile, and always encourage someone else with your story. I may have more days already in the book than I have left, but so what! I am connected to the timeless One who is more than able to do exceedingly and abundantly above and beyond, all I can ask, think or imagine according to His power that is at work…. in me.
Monday, March 28, 2011
What’s Going On Over There?
As most of you are aware, there is a big shake-up taking place within the Muslim world right now, with armed insurrections having taken place or currently happening in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Jordan, Syria, and Bahrain. Smaller protests which have not yet exploded into major violence have happened in almost every Middle-Eastern Islamic nation including Lebanon, the U.A.E., Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Many are wondering just what is happening “over there?”
Unfortunately, those in power in Washington, Moscow and other more “civilized” power-centers of the world are struggling to understand what is happening too! That is because they are looking at these events, as they do all world events, with a non-Biblical, non-Christian, irreligious world view. They do not believe in God, the devil, or demonic forces, nor do they understand the power of religious fervor and the certainly do not understand the true nature of Islam. They do not acknowledge the divided factions within these various Islamic countries or the driving spiritual forces behind them. They prefer to look at conflicts through the outdated cold-war lens of capitalism vs. communism. They size up Islamic regimes as either being pro-U.S. or pro-Russia, as though these were the two sides of the larger battle. Some, like George W. Bush did, see the conflict as good vs. evil, a stance for which he was roundly mocked. While his understanding was a step closer to the truth, he miss-identified “good” as freedom and democracy, and “evil” as brutal totalitarian dictatorships. Granted, brutal dictatorships are in fact evil, but freedom is not necessarily good.
Think back to the founding of the United States. Our fathers came here looking for freedom, but when it was achieved it was a societal freedom framed by a constitutional rule of law and hemmed with the individually-imposed boundaries that come from a citizenry devoted to Jesus Christ and Biblical morality. Without true Biblical morality guiding the people, freedom is only a freeway to anarchy. Picture a soda pop bottle, capped and full, but shaken until the pressure inside is about to burst. When the bottle opener comes to provide “freedom,” what happens next is neither beneficial to the contents of the bottle nor anyone standing nearby!
Oppressed peoples suffering from lifetimes of suppressed freedoms are the pressurized soda pop in my metaphor and whether it be the pressurized people themselves or the U.S., the U.N., or N.A.T.O., acting as a bottle opener, once it starts to spew, it becomes apparent that there it can not be bottled up again. In reality, freedom is the unrestricted ability to follow the underlying morality. In his case, it is not based on the teachings of Christ, but of Mohammed, bringing a freedom to kill, steal and destroy one’s enemies, a freedom to take vengeance, a freedom to lie and deceive in order to gain an advantage - a freedom that will lead to an evil greater that the one it replaced.
Earlier this year, before the fall of Mubarak, I wrote an article called “The Jasmine Revolt.” (http://davidacrisp.blogspot.com / Jan. 26th) In it, I described what I thought would happen next based on recent past history. What I saw happening then in Tunisia reminded me of the events just prior to the fall of the Soviet Union and the break-up of the communist bloc in Eastern Europe. I predicted that the so-called “Jasmine revolt” would spread, just like the Romanian overthrow of communism in 1989 led to the fall of the Berlin wall, and engulf places like Egypt and Libya, and so it has. Using that same model, one can also understand what is happening now and predict what will happen next. Let’s look back just 20 years. When the iron boot of Soviet domination was taken from the neck of Yugoslavia, that country devolved into tribal, racial, and religious warfare. Yugoslavia became Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia. Centuries old factional hatreds suppressed by the Russian Bear remained smoldering just under the surface for decades. Then, when the fresh wind of “freedom” blew through and the yoke of Soviet domination was taken away, those embers sprang into a raging fire of killing, maiming, raping and savagery that shocked the world. The only thing that stopped it was military intervention by the UN, led primarily by the U .S. That same lesson was re-taught to us in the 2nd Persian Gulf War with Iraq and in Afghanistan. Getting rid of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein was the easy part, trying to keep the unleashed factions from killing each other after the rulers were gone was the hard part and only somewhat successfully accomplished because of our ten-year long commitment to nation building there -a strategy which the U.S. is no longer willing or able to employ elsewhere. What happened in Bosnia in the 90’s and Iraq in this decade is about to happen again, this time on a much, much larger scale across the Middle East. The removal of Ben-Ali from Tunisia, Mubarak from Egypt, and Kaddafi from Libya, may bring freedom, but it will not be a “good” freedom - and this time the U.S. will not be able to stop the wild-fire of violence. Now multiply this scenario by several more nations across the region and you will begin to see the ominous dark clouds gathering there.
What everyone seems to be missing is that within these Middle Eastern nations are the same smoldering factional hatreds that erupted in Bosnia, and Iraq. The bottle cap is being pried off by NATO airstrikes and the mess is about to start. The factions are tribal, sectarian, racial, and religious. The only thing that temporarily unites them from time to time is hatred for the “the little Satan,” Israel, and “the great Satan,” the Untied States. But beneath all that is this: “You shall name him Ishmael, for he will be a wild-donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility and hatred towards all his brothers.” (Gen. 16:11b-12) These are the words of the Angel of the LORD to Hagar regarding her son Ishmael. Not a curse, but a revelation, a revealing of the future. That future is now present to us.
Within each of the Muslim nations now in turmoil are two major factions: the two major branches of Islam, Sunni and Shia. Within these are smaller sects, like the Allawite sect of Shia Islam adhered to by Syrian President Bashar Assad. Most Sunnis consider Shias to be heretics! The Allawites are sometimes thought by Sunnis to be further away from the true teaching of Mohammed than Christians and Jews! Within Syria, 74 % or the people are Sunni but the rulers are Allawite Shia, as well as about 15% of the population. Over the centuries these groups have fought and killed and slaughtered and oppressed each other. Then there is the racial division within Middle Eastern Islam: the Persians, led by Iran, and the Arabs, led by the Saudi Arabia, as well as many other various racial and tribal sub-groups which have been persecuted and subjugated by one another over the years. The hatred of these groups for one another is only outdistanced by their hatred of Christians and Jews. What will “freedom” give these groups? An opportunity to kill each other, and the rest of the world will not be unscathed. Fifty percent of all the world’s oil-reserves lie within these nations- and all that oil traverses through the Persian Gulf, the body of water that geographically separates these future combatants. What is shaping up is a battle royal between a host of people-groups falling mainly into two camps: Shia and Sunni, led respectively by Iran and Saudi Arabia. What is at stake is nothing less than control over the world’s oil reserves, and Islam itself.
Let’s look at some specific situations within some of these nations.
Just off shore, a few miles south of Kuwait, lies the tiny island nation of Bahrain. Bahrain is about ¼ the size of Rhode Island, 28 miles long and 10 miles wide .But this tiny country may play a big role in what happens next. It is as a nation of 80% Shia ruled by a Sunni king, who happens to be best friends with the rulers of Saudi Arabia. Bahrain is also the home to the U.S. navy’s 5th fleet and 30,000 American service personnel. While Bahrain is majority Shia ruled by a Sunni king, (a recipe for trouble both here, and in reverse, in Syria), Saudi Arabia is, by contrast, majority Sunni and ruled by Sunni King. In Saudi Arabia though, Sunnis are a majority only in the western regions. In the oil-rich east, across the gulf from Iran, Shia are the majority. In addition to these potentially troubling issues, Saudi King Abdullah is considered to be a “liberal” Sunni while most of his Sunni subjects are of the very conservative “Wahhabi” variety.
The Royal House of Saud, long a U.S. ally, (a relationship that makes them even more vulnerable to revolution right now), are very worried about the “Jasmine Revolution” sweeping across the Islamic world. When protests began in their back yard in Bahrain, King Abdullah saw what could happen to him. Last week he sent 2000 Arabian troops to Bahrain to bolster the monarchy there. This move has angered many; especially President Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollahs in Iran who are jumping up and down to see Sunni monarchs deposed and be replaced by “democracies” in Shia majority lands. Iran even claims Bahrain as its rightful territory. Again appealing to recent history, we can find similar rhetoric employed by Saddam before invading Kuwait, and Hitler before invading Austria. If Bahrain falls into rebel hands it will undoubtedly have a negative impact on U.S. ability to affect matters in the region. But with the U.S. fleet there and King Abdullah’s soldiers in place, I think the King of Bahrain is safe…. for now. I do not think Iran will invade Bahrain. Instead, Iran will continue to bide its time, letting the Jasmine Revolution do its bidding until the Iranian nuclear weapons programs have succeeded in building a bomb.
Meanwhile, Iran has an interesting choice to make in Syria. Just after the fall of Mubarak, Egypt gave permission for two Iranian warships to pass through the Suez Canal. (This gives us an interesting glimpse into the minds of those now in power in Egypt.) Those Iranian ships were headed to Syria loaded with men and supplies to build a deep water port. On March 1,st Iran announced plans to build and man a permanent naval base in Syria, about which one Iranian Admiral predicted, “This will be a development that cripples Israel.” Ahmadinejad has been a supporter of Assad, (both of them are Shia, even though Assad’s brand of Allawite Shia Islam, is thought by Ahmadinejad to be a cult), but now that Assad’s government may be in danger of falling, Ahmadinejad must make a decision. He could ride to Assad’s rescue and firm up that alliance or leave him hanging out to dry and support the rebels, giving Ahmadinejad greater influence with the Syrian majority and keeping his supply chain open to Hezbollah, the dominant political and military force in Lebanon to the south (another country split by factions.) My guess is that Ahmadinejad will wait to see how it is going to turn out in Syria, then throw Iranian support to the side that seems to have the upper hand, Assad or the rebels. Either way he will strengthen his position.
What will be the end result of these revolutions and how far off is it? Good questions. It appears to me that conditions are ripe for a mass chaos to engulf the Middle East and even perhaps a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, or even a full-blown war between the two. A war, which if it comes, will find America on the wrong side- especially if Iran has the bomb. Not that we should support the Iranians! God forbid! But neither should we support Saudi Arabia. The House of Saud is destined for a fall. I believe the King of Saudi Arabia may be the harlot of Rev. 17 riding on the back of the Beast (Islam); the beast eventually hating and devouring her. (v.16)
The ten-horned beast-kingdom ridden by the harlot in Rev. 17 is none other than the ten-toed kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2, the final earthly kingdom before Christ’s millennial reign; the kingdom ruled by the Anti-Christ. This kingdom is described as a “mixed” or “divided” kingdom of partly iron and partly clay. This passage was originally written in Aramaic. What is the Aramaic word for “mixed?”....the word is “arab!” Listen to how Daniel describes this final kingdom in Daniel 2:41-43: “Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.” Sounds like a kingdom made from Shia and Sunni to me! When it comes to be, it will turn its eyes and its claws towards Jerusalem. (Ez. 38-39)
What is happening right now with the “Jasmine Revolution” is the fore-runner of this final kingdom. The dissolution of the current geo-political national structures in the Middle East is going to bring about a Shia vs. Sunni, Persian vs. Arabian, inter-Islamic war. This structural change will also nullify peace treaties that had been previously made with Israel, for example: the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, since the countries which made those treaties will have substantively changed. In the end, there will arise a leader to unite Islam (Shia and Sunni - iron and clay) and make a “covenant with many” to stop the fighting and enter into peace with Israel. This man is who both Ahmadinejad, and interestingly enough this week, Louis Farrakhan have announced is now on earth: the Mahdi, the 12th Imam. This man is the Anti-Christ. Where will he come from? Look to Turkey, the only Middle-Eastern Islamic nation which will not be caught up in the aforementioned inter-Islamic war. Turkey fits all the scriptural prophecies about his origins, and is being touted by western governments as the only “stable” Islamic nation that can bring peace in the region.
When ? I do not know, but I believe the events we are now witnessing in the Muslim world are ushering in the conditions for his arrival.
Source articles:
http://www.islamimehfil.com/topic/7294-saudi-arabia-fears-of-a-shiite-uprising/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/unitedarabemirates/7521219/Naval-battle-between-UAE-and-Saudi-Arabia-raises-fears-for-Gulf-security.html
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/bahrain-u-s-backs-saudi-military-intervention-conflict-with-iran/
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=213175
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703784004576220690229874246.html
http://debka.com/article/20718/
http://debka.com/article/20803/
http://debka.com/article/20770/
http://debka.com/article/20782/
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/03/27/syria-muslim-brotherhood-playing-crucial-role-in-sunni-uprising-against-allawite-dominated-assad-regime/?amp
Unfortunately, those in power in Washington, Moscow and other more “civilized” power-centers of the world are struggling to understand what is happening too! That is because they are looking at these events, as they do all world events, with a non-Biblical, non-Christian, irreligious world view. They do not believe in God, the devil, or demonic forces, nor do they understand the power of religious fervor and the certainly do not understand the true nature of Islam. They do not acknowledge the divided factions within these various Islamic countries or the driving spiritual forces behind them. They prefer to look at conflicts through the outdated cold-war lens of capitalism vs. communism. They size up Islamic regimes as either being pro-U.S. or pro-Russia, as though these were the two sides of the larger battle. Some, like George W. Bush did, see the conflict as good vs. evil, a stance for which he was roundly mocked. While his understanding was a step closer to the truth, he miss-identified “good” as freedom and democracy, and “evil” as brutal totalitarian dictatorships. Granted, brutal dictatorships are in fact evil, but freedom is not necessarily good.
Think back to the founding of the United States. Our fathers came here looking for freedom, but when it was achieved it was a societal freedom framed by a constitutional rule of law and hemmed with the individually-imposed boundaries that come from a citizenry devoted to Jesus Christ and Biblical morality. Without true Biblical morality guiding the people, freedom is only a freeway to anarchy. Picture a soda pop bottle, capped and full, but shaken until the pressure inside is about to burst. When the bottle opener comes to provide “freedom,” what happens next is neither beneficial to the contents of the bottle nor anyone standing nearby!
Oppressed peoples suffering from lifetimes of suppressed freedoms are the pressurized soda pop in my metaphor and whether it be the pressurized people themselves or the U.S., the U.N., or N.A.T.O., acting as a bottle opener, once it starts to spew, it becomes apparent that there it can not be bottled up again. In reality, freedom is the unrestricted ability to follow the underlying morality. In his case, it is not based on the teachings of Christ, but of Mohammed, bringing a freedom to kill, steal and destroy one’s enemies, a freedom to take vengeance, a freedom to lie and deceive in order to gain an advantage - a freedom that will lead to an evil greater that the one it replaced.
Earlier this year, before the fall of Mubarak, I wrote an article called “The Jasmine Revolt.” (http://davidacrisp.blogspot.com / Jan. 26th) In it, I described what I thought would happen next based on recent past history. What I saw happening then in Tunisia reminded me of the events just prior to the fall of the Soviet Union and the break-up of the communist bloc in Eastern Europe. I predicted that the so-called “Jasmine revolt” would spread, just like the Romanian overthrow of communism in 1989 led to the fall of the Berlin wall, and engulf places like Egypt and Libya, and so it has. Using that same model, one can also understand what is happening now and predict what will happen next. Let’s look back just 20 years. When the iron boot of Soviet domination was taken from the neck of Yugoslavia, that country devolved into tribal, racial, and religious warfare. Yugoslavia became Bosnia, Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia. Centuries old factional hatreds suppressed by the Russian Bear remained smoldering just under the surface for decades. Then, when the fresh wind of “freedom” blew through and the yoke of Soviet domination was taken away, those embers sprang into a raging fire of killing, maiming, raping and savagery that shocked the world. The only thing that stopped it was military intervention by the UN, led primarily by the U .S. That same lesson was re-taught to us in the 2nd Persian Gulf War with Iraq and in Afghanistan. Getting rid of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein was the easy part, trying to keep the unleashed factions from killing each other after the rulers were gone was the hard part and only somewhat successfully accomplished because of our ten-year long commitment to nation building there -a strategy which the U.S. is no longer willing or able to employ elsewhere. What happened in Bosnia in the 90’s and Iraq in this decade is about to happen again, this time on a much, much larger scale across the Middle East. The removal of Ben-Ali from Tunisia, Mubarak from Egypt, and Kaddafi from Libya, may bring freedom, but it will not be a “good” freedom - and this time the U.S. will not be able to stop the wild-fire of violence. Now multiply this scenario by several more nations across the region and you will begin to see the ominous dark clouds gathering there.
What everyone seems to be missing is that within these Middle Eastern nations are the same smoldering factional hatreds that erupted in Bosnia, and Iraq. The bottle cap is being pried off by NATO airstrikes and the mess is about to start. The factions are tribal, sectarian, racial, and religious. The only thing that temporarily unites them from time to time is hatred for the “the little Satan,” Israel, and “the great Satan,” the Untied States. But beneath all that is this: “You shall name him Ishmael, for he will be a wild-donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility and hatred towards all his brothers.” (Gen. 16:11b-12) These are the words of the Angel of the LORD to Hagar regarding her son Ishmael. Not a curse, but a revelation, a revealing of the future. That future is now present to us.
Within each of the Muslim nations now in turmoil are two major factions: the two major branches of Islam, Sunni and Shia. Within these are smaller sects, like the Allawite sect of Shia Islam adhered to by Syrian President Bashar Assad. Most Sunnis consider Shias to be heretics! The Allawites are sometimes thought by Sunnis to be further away from the true teaching of Mohammed than Christians and Jews! Within Syria, 74 % or the people are Sunni but the rulers are Allawite Shia, as well as about 15% of the population. Over the centuries these groups have fought and killed and slaughtered and oppressed each other. Then there is the racial division within Middle Eastern Islam: the Persians, led by Iran, and the Arabs, led by the Saudi Arabia, as well as many other various racial and tribal sub-groups which have been persecuted and subjugated by one another over the years. The hatred of these groups for one another is only outdistanced by their hatred of Christians and Jews. What will “freedom” give these groups? An opportunity to kill each other, and the rest of the world will not be unscathed. Fifty percent of all the world’s oil-reserves lie within these nations- and all that oil traverses through the Persian Gulf, the body of water that geographically separates these future combatants. What is shaping up is a battle royal between a host of people-groups falling mainly into two camps: Shia and Sunni, led respectively by Iran and Saudi Arabia. What is at stake is nothing less than control over the world’s oil reserves, and Islam itself.
Let’s look at some specific situations within some of these nations.
Just off shore, a few miles south of Kuwait, lies the tiny island nation of Bahrain. Bahrain is about ¼ the size of Rhode Island, 28 miles long and 10 miles wide .But this tiny country may play a big role in what happens next. It is as a nation of 80% Shia ruled by a Sunni king, who happens to be best friends with the rulers of Saudi Arabia. Bahrain is also the home to the U.S. navy’s 5th fleet and 30,000 American service personnel. While Bahrain is majority Shia ruled by a Sunni king, (a recipe for trouble both here, and in reverse, in Syria), Saudi Arabia is, by contrast, majority Sunni and ruled by Sunni King. In Saudi Arabia though, Sunnis are a majority only in the western regions. In the oil-rich east, across the gulf from Iran, Shia are the majority. In addition to these potentially troubling issues, Saudi King Abdullah is considered to be a “liberal” Sunni while most of his Sunni subjects are of the very conservative “Wahhabi” variety.
The Royal House of Saud, long a U.S. ally, (a relationship that makes them even more vulnerable to revolution right now), are very worried about the “Jasmine Revolution” sweeping across the Islamic world. When protests began in their back yard in Bahrain, King Abdullah saw what could happen to him. Last week he sent 2000 Arabian troops to Bahrain to bolster the monarchy there. This move has angered many; especially President Ahmadinejad and the Ayatollahs in Iran who are jumping up and down to see Sunni monarchs deposed and be replaced by “democracies” in Shia majority lands. Iran even claims Bahrain as its rightful territory. Again appealing to recent history, we can find similar rhetoric employed by Saddam before invading Kuwait, and Hitler before invading Austria. If Bahrain falls into rebel hands it will undoubtedly have a negative impact on U.S. ability to affect matters in the region. But with the U.S. fleet there and King Abdullah’s soldiers in place, I think the King of Bahrain is safe…. for now. I do not think Iran will invade Bahrain. Instead, Iran will continue to bide its time, letting the Jasmine Revolution do its bidding until the Iranian nuclear weapons programs have succeeded in building a bomb.
Meanwhile, Iran has an interesting choice to make in Syria. Just after the fall of Mubarak, Egypt gave permission for two Iranian warships to pass through the Suez Canal. (This gives us an interesting glimpse into the minds of those now in power in Egypt.) Those Iranian ships were headed to Syria loaded with men and supplies to build a deep water port. On March 1,st Iran announced plans to build and man a permanent naval base in Syria, about which one Iranian Admiral predicted, “This will be a development that cripples Israel.” Ahmadinejad has been a supporter of Assad, (both of them are Shia, even though Assad’s brand of Allawite Shia Islam, is thought by Ahmadinejad to be a cult), but now that Assad’s government may be in danger of falling, Ahmadinejad must make a decision. He could ride to Assad’s rescue and firm up that alliance or leave him hanging out to dry and support the rebels, giving Ahmadinejad greater influence with the Syrian majority and keeping his supply chain open to Hezbollah, the dominant political and military force in Lebanon to the south (another country split by factions.) My guess is that Ahmadinejad will wait to see how it is going to turn out in Syria, then throw Iranian support to the side that seems to have the upper hand, Assad or the rebels. Either way he will strengthen his position.
What will be the end result of these revolutions and how far off is it? Good questions. It appears to me that conditions are ripe for a mass chaos to engulf the Middle East and even perhaps a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia, or even a full-blown war between the two. A war, which if it comes, will find America on the wrong side- especially if Iran has the bomb. Not that we should support the Iranians! God forbid! But neither should we support Saudi Arabia. The House of Saud is destined for a fall. I believe the King of Saudi Arabia may be the harlot of Rev. 17 riding on the back of the Beast (Islam); the beast eventually hating and devouring her. (v.16)
The ten-horned beast-kingdom ridden by the harlot in Rev. 17 is none other than the ten-toed kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2, the final earthly kingdom before Christ’s millennial reign; the kingdom ruled by the Anti-Christ. This kingdom is described as a “mixed” or “divided” kingdom of partly iron and partly clay. This passage was originally written in Aramaic. What is the Aramaic word for “mixed?”....the word is “arab!” Listen to how Daniel describes this final kingdom in Daniel 2:41-43: “Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.” Sounds like a kingdom made from Shia and Sunni to me! When it comes to be, it will turn its eyes and its claws towards Jerusalem. (Ez. 38-39)
What is happening right now with the “Jasmine Revolution” is the fore-runner of this final kingdom. The dissolution of the current geo-political national structures in the Middle East is going to bring about a Shia vs. Sunni, Persian vs. Arabian, inter-Islamic war. This structural change will also nullify peace treaties that had been previously made with Israel, for example: the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, since the countries which made those treaties will have substantively changed. In the end, there will arise a leader to unite Islam (Shia and Sunni - iron and clay) and make a “covenant with many” to stop the fighting and enter into peace with Israel. This man is who both Ahmadinejad, and interestingly enough this week, Louis Farrakhan have announced is now on earth: the Mahdi, the 12th Imam. This man is the Anti-Christ. Where will he come from? Look to Turkey, the only Middle-Eastern Islamic nation which will not be caught up in the aforementioned inter-Islamic war. Turkey fits all the scriptural prophecies about his origins, and is being touted by western governments as the only “stable” Islamic nation that can bring peace in the region.
When ? I do not know, but I believe the events we are now witnessing in the Muslim world are ushering in the conditions for his arrival.
Source articles:
http://www.islamimehfil.com/topic/7294-saudi-arabia-fears-of-a-shiite-uprising/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/unitedarabemirates/7521219/Naval-battle-between-UAE-and-Saudi-Arabia-raises-fears-for-Gulf-security.html
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/bahrain-u-s-backs-saudi-military-intervention-conflict-with-iran/
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=213175
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703784004576220690229874246.html
http://debka.com/article/20718/
http://debka.com/article/20803/
http://debka.com/article/20770/
http://debka.com/article/20782/
http://weaselzippers.us/2011/03/27/syria-muslim-brotherhood-playing-crucial-role-in-sunni-uprising-against-allawite-dominated-assad-regime/?amp
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Daddy!
Yesterday a couple of my friends (yes, I mean Facebook) shared a link to a video which I almost didn’t watch. I thought I knew what it was about and I have seen stuff like that before and I didn’t really have time, etc. etc. (I’ll post the link at the end of my blog but I want to talk about it before you see it.) I did watch it. And it was good. But what happened later was better. The Lord began to teach me some things using those touching scenes that has my spirit all stirred up.
The video is a montage of clips featuring soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan to surprise their families. It gets to you on a lot of levels and tugs at all your heart strings! It combines elements of all the things that make us emotional, so don’t expect to watch it without a tear or two. It’s a great video, even if you just take it at face value. It makes us thankful for family and for our soldiers and for the sacrifices they all make…but there is something more to see here; something spiritual and eternally significant.
I was struck by the reactions of the kids when they saw their Dad. First, shock and awe, disbelief and dumbfoundedness. Then, when the reality sinks in that this guy standing there in front of them really is their Daddy, everything - and I mean everything and everybody around them - shrinks to utter insignificance. They drop and immediately forget everything that they were doing, things that just one second ago seemed very important: baseball, volleyball, school, their friends. The things of earth grow strangely dim, as it were, in the light of his face. Nothing is even close to remotely being in the same zip-code as one overriding thought and emotion: “That’s my Daddy! My Daddy is home! My Daddy is here to get me! Then, what comes next is a run-as-fast-as-I-can-to-get-to-you-jump-in-your-arms-and-hug-so-tight-around-the-neck–and-bury-my-face-in-your-chest-with-tears-of-joy reaction that is apparently, universal.
What we see in the eyes, faces and reactions of these children is probably the best earthly expression I have ever seen to illustrate what we will experience when we close our eyes in death over here, only to immediately open them up in eternal life over there and see HIS face! To me, it gives a whole new understanding to this verse: “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ""Abba," (Daddy) “Father." (Rom. 8:15)
One of the clips is of a wife who is engrossed in her computer, probably answering e-mail or chatting on a social network, but when her bridegroom comes “like a thief in the night” she is immediately caught up in the ecstasy of being with him. Her thoughts are evident in her face and in her immediate response to his presence. It’s as though she says with her hug, “I’ll never let you go, and we will never be apart again!” In an instant, whatever she was looking at and thinking about before he appeared immediately becomes a faint, distant, trivial memory- perhaps never to be brought to mind again.
So, as I was pondering and chewing on all this, amazed that my Heavenly Father wanted to share these things with me and overwhelmed by my emotions as I thought of what it might be like to be in heaven, seeing Jesus and experiencing all the glorious re-unions with loved ones there…(if you want to mentally play “I Can Only Imagine” in your mind right now it would be helpful)… the Lord quietly dropped this bombshell of an idea on me: “Son, this is what true worship looks like.”
When we become aware of the presence of our Father - I mean truly aware – everything else disappears. We run to Him, reach for Him and express our love for Him in every way that our heart has available. We are not concerned about what others think, in fact, we don’t even consider it! Our entire being is given over to one pursuit: connecting with Him… and that connection brings us the greatest joy, peace and love that we will ever know. And while it is true that we can not experience the complete fullness of that connectedness till we actually see Him face-to-face, it is also just as true that we often miss out on connecting with our Father, our bridegroom. It is possible right now. It is available each time we enter into worship.
Now… How does that impact your thinking about church this week? Yeah, me too.
Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=10150394422860707&comments
The video is a montage of clips featuring soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan to surprise their families. It gets to you on a lot of levels and tugs at all your heart strings! It combines elements of all the things that make us emotional, so don’t expect to watch it without a tear or two. It’s a great video, even if you just take it at face value. It makes us thankful for family and for our soldiers and for the sacrifices they all make…but there is something more to see here; something spiritual and eternally significant.
I was struck by the reactions of the kids when they saw their Dad. First, shock and awe, disbelief and dumbfoundedness. Then, when the reality sinks in that this guy standing there in front of them really is their Daddy, everything - and I mean everything and everybody around them - shrinks to utter insignificance. They drop and immediately forget everything that they were doing, things that just one second ago seemed very important: baseball, volleyball, school, their friends. The things of earth grow strangely dim, as it were, in the light of his face. Nothing is even close to remotely being in the same zip-code as one overriding thought and emotion: “That’s my Daddy! My Daddy is home! My Daddy is here to get me! Then, what comes next is a run-as-fast-as-I-can-to-get-to-you-jump-in-your-arms-and-hug-so-tight-around-the-neck–and-bury-my-face-in-your-chest-with-tears-of-joy reaction that is apparently, universal.
What we see in the eyes, faces and reactions of these children is probably the best earthly expression I have ever seen to illustrate what we will experience when we close our eyes in death over here, only to immediately open them up in eternal life over there and see HIS face! To me, it gives a whole new understanding to this verse: “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ""Abba," (Daddy) “Father." (Rom. 8:15)
One of the clips is of a wife who is engrossed in her computer, probably answering e-mail or chatting on a social network, but when her bridegroom comes “like a thief in the night” she is immediately caught up in the ecstasy of being with him. Her thoughts are evident in her face and in her immediate response to his presence. It’s as though she says with her hug, “I’ll never let you go, and we will never be apart again!” In an instant, whatever she was looking at and thinking about before he appeared immediately becomes a faint, distant, trivial memory- perhaps never to be brought to mind again.
So, as I was pondering and chewing on all this, amazed that my Heavenly Father wanted to share these things with me and overwhelmed by my emotions as I thought of what it might be like to be in heaven, seeing Jesus and experiencing all the glorious re-unions with loved ones there…(if you want to mentally play “I Can Only Imagine” in your mind right now it would be helpful)… the Lord quietly dropped this bombshell of an idea on me: “Son, this is what true worship looks like.”
When we become aware of the presence of our Father - I mean truly aware – everything else disappears. We run to Him, reach for Him and express our love for Him in every way that our heart has available. We are not concerned about what others think, in fact, we don’t even consider it! Our entire being is given over to one pursuit: connecting with Him… and that connection brings us the greatest joy, peace and love that we will ever know. And while it is true that we can not experience the complete fullness of that connectedness till we actually see Him face-to-face, it is also just as true that we often miss out on connecting with our Father, our bridegroom. It is possible right now. It is available each time we enter into worship.
Now… How does that impact your thinking about church this week? Yeah, me too.
Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=10150394422860707&comments
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Crescent Dawn
It is three hours before the early morning call to prayer rings from minaret towers across the Islamic world. In Cairo, Egypt, a passionate Imam steps to the podium at the center of the revolutionary square and announces. “Mubarak is against Islam! This revolution is jihad – a holy war. Mubarak has given water from the Nile to the hated Zionists! March to the palace – overthrow the President… Allah Akbar!”
The opening line from a Joel Rosenberg fiction novel? No, this is really happening right now. I am watching it on live TV as I write! As we close out Thursday here in the west, Friday dawns in the Middle East; Friday- the Islamic day of prayers and sermons. On Thursday, it was reported that embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would step down, but later it was told that he would not step down but instead transfer his presidential power to former Egyptian security head, now Vice President, Omar Suliman. These news reports first thrilled… then enraged the crowds. Suliman has issued a warning to the protestors, that they not do exactly what the Imam is calling for – march against the palace. Will the military fire on its own people? Will the soldiers join the protestors and attack the palace? That remains to be seen. But this is obvious: the struggle has shifted, at least in rhetoric from a political struggle to a religious one. The Muslim Brotherhood is smiling. If they are successful in re-defining the conflict in these terms they will win a huge victory.
Meanwhile, today on Capitol Hill, the directors of the CIA, FBI, and Homeland Security, were called to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee where they were asked questions about the uprising in Egypt. Specifically, they were asked about the Muslim Brotherhood. CIA Director Clapper stated that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is basically a secular organization that has eschewed violence. Excuse me? Apparently our CIA director is very naïve and completely uninformed, or worse, he knows the truth about the Brotherhood but won’t say it! The head of the FBI later characterized the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group fermenting violence! One thing is clear: the U.S. intelligence community is at the very least, confused. In addition these men were asked about the spread of this uprising to Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. The answers were few, but the tone was grave.
Yesterday the King of Saudi Arabia spoke to President Obama on the phone and gave our President a stern warning: if the Obama administration “humiliates” Mubarak by calling for his immediate departure, the Saudis will step in with billions of dollars to bolster Mubarak and keep him in power. Perhaps the “ghost of revolutions future” has visited the King in his bed-chamber with a nightmare of things to come for him! Remember when Obama bowed to the Saudi king? http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/obama-bows-to-saudi-king/7bf3977d58797b80a4b47bf3977d58797b80a4b4-605252616399?q=obama%20bows%20to%20saudi%20king
Wonder if he regrets that now? In the president’s defense, he really has no good play right now. He, and by extension we, are going to be blamed no matter what we do.
All of this is going somewhere. Myriads of the best diplomatic minds proficient in foreign affairs are scrambling to figure out just where. I certainly don’t know where it will lead or how it will all pan out. I do know this much: what is happening in Egypt is very significant and important. Why? Look at the map. It all centers around Israel. All of Israel’s ancient and historic enemies are in turmoil: literal unrest on every side. Eventually all this anger and hatred will boil over and turn towards God’s covenant people.
When you pull back the curtain, you can see where this conflict really is. The events on earth mirror those in the heavenly realm. (Rev.12) There are two sides, good and evil, light and dark, God and Satan. It may take years, or only hours… but these events will move the world closer to its Biblically prophesied end.
Tomorrow, Feb. 11, 2011 may well write the next chapter. I think it will. Watch and pray.
The opening line from a Joel Rosenberg fiction novel? No, this is really happening right now. I am watching it on live TV as I write! As we close out Thursday here in the west, Friday dawns in the Middle East; Friday- the Islamic day of prayers and sermons. On Thursday, it was reported that embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would step down, but later it was told that he would not step down but instead transfer his presidential power to former Egyptian security head, now Vice President, Omar Suliman. These news reports first thrilled… then enraged the crowds. Suliman has issued a warning to the protestors, that they not do exactly what the Imam is calling for – march against the palace. Will the military fire on its own people? Will the soldiers join the protestors and attack the palace? That remains to be seen. But this is obvious: the struggle has shifted, at least in rhetoric from a political struggle to a religious one. The Muslim Brotherhood is smiling. If they are successful in re-defining the conflict in these terms they will win a huge victory.
Meanwhile, today on Capitol Hill, the directors of the CIA, FBI, and Homeland Security, were called to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee where they were asked questions about the uprising in Egypt. Specifically, they were asked about the Muslim Brotherhood. CIA Director Clapper stated that the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is basically a secular organization that has eschewed violence. Excuse me? Apparently our CIA director is very naïve and completely uninformed, or worse, he knows the truth about the Brotherhood but won’t say it! The head of the FBI later characterized the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group fermenting violence! One thing is clear: the U.S. intelligence community is at the very least, confused. In addition these men were asked about the spread of this uprising to Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia. The answers were few, but the tone was grave.
Yesterday the King of Saudi Arabia spoke to President Obama on the phone and gave our President a stern warning: if the Obama administration “humiliates” Mubarak by calling for his immediate departure, the Saudis will step in with billions of dollars to bolster Mubarak and keep him in power. Perhaps the “ghost of revolutions future” has visited the King in his bed-chamber with a nightmare of things to come for him! Remember when Obama bowed to the Saudi king? http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/obama-bows-to-saudi-king/7bf3977d58797b80a4b47bf3977d58797b80a4b4-605252616399?q=obama%20bows%20to%20saudi%20king
Wonder if he regrets that now? In the president’s defense, he really has no good play right now. He, and by extension we, are going to be blamed no matter what we do.
All of this is going somewhere. Myriads of the best diplomatic minds proficient in foreign affairs are scrambling to figure out just where. I certainly don’t know where it will lead or how it will all pan out. I do know this much: what is happening in Egypt is very significant and important. Why? Look at the map. It all centers around Israel. All of Israel’s ancient and historic enemies are in turmoil: literal unrest on every side. Eventually all this anger and hatred will boil over and turn towards God’s covenant people.
When you pull back the curtain, you can see where this conflict really is. The events on earth mirror those in the heavenly realm. (Rev.12) There are two sides, good and evil, light and dark, God and Satan. It may take years, or only hours… but these events will move the world closer to its Biblically prophesied end.
Tomorrow, Feb. 11, 2011 may well write the next chapter. I think it will. Watch and pray.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
The Jasmine Revolt
Ever hear of that before? Most of the western media is not giving it much airplay and most Americans are not paying much attention to it. The “Jasmine revolt” is not a long-ago historical event that has little impact on us today… (e.g. the “Whiskey rebellion of 1790” - Google it)… rather, the Jasmine revolt is a current event happening right now in the North African country of Tunisia, (ancient Carthage) that may, in fact, have a great impact on all of us in the near future! This month, the long-oppressed Tunisian people rose up and ousted their president, Ben-Ali, a corrupt power monger who had remained in office for decades on the backs of his people. (Not unlike many before him!) Something woke-up in me and I began to think back to 1989. .... Remember before the Berlin wall came down and the breakup of the Soviet Union? It all started with the Romanians overthrowing dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu in a week long riot. The resulting domino effect rippled across all the eastern-European Soviet satellites. Within weeks, the wall came down and over a period of months things happened that most of us thought were flat-out impossible: the fall of the iron curtain and the dissolving of the Soviet empire. What if this Tunisian revolt is the beginning of a similar shake-up in the Muslim political world?
Remember the Iranian revolution of 1979? The Islamic hardliners overthrew the corrupt (and staunch American ally) Shah of Iran resulting in the Islamic Republic of Iran ruled by the Ayatollahs and bringing us to the present apocalyptic death-cult leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad! Could what started then be expanding now? Well, it appears that the dominoes may be starting to fall across the 10-40 window. Since Tunisia, surprising demonstrations and revolts have erupted in Yemen, Algeria, and Egypt. (Although none have produced a Tunisian-like overthrow of their seemingly securely entrenched tribal / royal / aristocratic potentates ….. yet.)
History teaches us that when any oppressed people begins to imagine that they might actually be able to throw off the yoke of their oppressors…it is only a mater of time till they do! One might think that overthrowing oppressive dictators would be a good thing. It would be, if what followed was freedom. But what is waiting in the wings for these poor people is not freedom but an even harsher taskmaster: a Sharia law-driven Islamic Caliphate. If Ahmadinejad gets his way, all the Muslim nations of the world will throw off their secular governors to prepare the way for the Caliphate and the Mahdi. In the mean time, what will result will be anarchy and chaos, like what now reigns in places like Somalia, and Darfur. After a while people will be so sick of it they will flock to a charismatic leader who promises peace. Does that ring a bell?
If I am right these revolts and demonstrations will spread both in scope depth of violence. Right now, these relatively small demonstrations have some very well known people shaking in their boots - some who are enemies of America like Libya’s Khadafy, and some who are our “friends” like the King of Saudi Arabia. In the end, the 10-horned beast will utterly destroy the prostitute who rides it. (Rev. 1715-18) Consider the possibility that the “beast” is the religion of Islam, who in the final days will be led by the Mahdi Anti-Christ, and that the woman who rides it, ripe for a fall, is none other that the House of Saud. These kings have been riding on the backs of Islam for generations and certainly fit the descriptions of corruption given in Rev. 17-18.
There once was a woman from Niger, who smiled while riding a tiger…she went for a ride… and came back inside… with the smile on the face of the tiger!
Remember the Iranian revolution of 1979? The Islamic hardliners overthrew the corrupt (and staunch American ally) Shah of Iran resulting in the Islamic Republic of Iran ruled by the Ayatollahs and bringing us to the present apocalyptic death-cult leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad! Could what started then be expanding now? Well, it appears that the dominoes may be starting to fall across the 10-40 window. Since Tunisia, surprising demonstrations and revolts have erupted in Yemen, Algeria, and Egypt. (Although none have produced a Tunisian-like overthrow of their seemingly securely entrenched tribal / royal / aristocratic potentates ….. yet.)
History teaches us that when any oppressed people begins to imagine that they might actually be able to throw off the yoke of their oppressors…it is only a mater of time till they do! One might think that overthrowing oppressive dictators would be a good thing. It would be, if what followed was freedom. But what is waiting in the wings for these poor people is not freedom but an even harsher taskmaster: a Sharia law-driven Islamic Caliphate. If Ahmadinejad gets his way, all the Muslim nations of the world will throw off their secular governors to prepare the way for the Caliphate and the Mahdi. In the mean time, what will result will be anarchy and chaos, like what now reigns in places like Somalia, and Darfur. After a while people will be so sick of it they will flock to a charismatic leader who promises peace. Does that ring a bell?
If I am right these revolts and demonstrations will spread both in scope depth of violence. Right now, these relatively small demonstrations have some very well known people shaking in their boots - some who are enemies of America like Libya’s Khadafy, and some who are our “friends” like the King of Saudi Arabia. In the end, the 10-horned beast will utterly destroy the prostitute who rides it. (Rev. 1715-18) Consider the possibility that the “beast” is the religion of Islam, who in the final days will be led by the Mahdi Anti-Christ, and that the woman who rides it, ripe for a fall, is none other that the House of Saud. These kings have been riding on the backs of Islam for generations and certainly fit the descriptions of corruption given in Rev. 17-18.
There once was a woman from Niger, who smiled while riding a tiger…she went for a ride… and came back inside… with the smile on the face of the tiger!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The View From ……. THERE?
Since my last posted “View,” we have had a geographic change. Over the first four days of this new year, we traveled almost 1400 miles westward over mountains and plains and have now arrived at our very own “little house on the prairie” Honestly, along the way, we felt a real kinship with our pioneer ancestors who made the same journey generations ago in Quaker bonnets and covered wagons. Our sturdy Conestoga was of the U-haul variety, and it only took us 3 ½ days instead of 3 ½ months, but we felt like wagon-train settlers just the same!
The title of my column/blog has always been, “The View From Here.” Several of my Virginia friends have teased that I will now have to change it to “The View From There!” But another good friend of mine taught me a saying over the years that certainly applies now: “Wherever you are… be there!” That seems kinda obvious, right? But obvious or not, many people live in the past, dwelling in the regretful land of coulda- shoulda-woulda, while others are constantly worried about what’s coming up next. Many of us flip-flop between the two, never landing on “today.” Often I find I am not really enjoying the experience of the “right now” because I am not “being where I am? Does that make sense? Have you ever heard a coach being interviewed after a big win? Usually the coach fails to celebrate the team’s great victory even for a moment. Instead he immediately begins to talk about his next game; all the future problems and obstacles to be overcome, and all the past mistakes they made during the last game. It’s hard to live in the present – to be where you are!
God proclaimed His name to Moses as “I AM”. Not “I was” or “I will be,” although both those things are true…. as we perceive time anyway. God is outside of time, He lives as the constant “I Am” - the forever present. He is always “being where He is” and He is omnipresent! (Ever-and-everywhere-present) So what’s the application? Well, it would be easy for me to try to hang on to the past right now and perhaps just as tempting to fret about the future. God calls us to neither. He asks us to give Him the past and trust him for the future. He wants us to just be where we are, and where we are is …. in Him. So whether from my new office overlooking the grasslands of central Kansas or from wherever my “View” originates, it will always be from “here.” My goal for now is to work on simply “being where I am”…. want to join me in that?
PS. This will be the last “View” posted on the Hanover Friends website. “Being where you are” means embracing the present and you can’t wholeheartedly do that until you let go of the past. So to that end, no more “View” at friendlychurch.org. You can however, keep following my musings at www.davidacrisp.blogspot.com. If you’d like to continue receiving the “view” via e-mail, send me an e-mail at davidndes@gmail.com with that request and…. eventually…. I’ll make it happen. Blessings!
The title of my column/blog has always been, “The View From Here.” Several of my Virginia friends have teased that I will now have to change it to “The View From There!” But another good friend of mine taught me a saying over the years that certainly applies now: “Wherever you are… be there!” That seems kinda obvious, right? But obvious or not, many people live in the past, dwelling in the regretful land of coulda- shoulda-woulda, while others are constantly worried about what’s coming up next. Many of us flip-flop between the two, never landing on “today.” Often I find I am not really enjoying the experience of the “right now” because I am not “being where I am? Does that make sense? Have you ever heard a coach being interviewed after a big win? Usually the coach fails to celebrate the team’s great victory even for a moment. Instead he immediately begins to talk about his next game; all the future problems and obstacles to be overcome, and all the past mistakes they made during the last game. It’s hard to live in the present – to be where you are!
God proclaimed His name to Moses as “I AM”. Not “I was” or “I will be,” although both those things are true…. as we perceive time anyway. God is outside of time, He lives as the constant “I Am” - the forever present. He is always “being where He is” and He is omnipresent! (Ever-and-everywhere-present) So what’s the application? Well, it would be easy for me to try to hang on to the past right now and perhaps just as tempting to fret about the future. God calls us to neither. He asks us to give Him the past and trust him for the future. He wants us to just be where we are, and where we are is …. in Him. So whether from my new office overlooking the grasslands of central Kansas or from wherever my “View” originates, it will always be from “here.” My goal for now is to work on simply “being where I am”…. want to join me in that?
PS. This will be the last “View” posted on the Hanover Friends website. “Being where you are” means embracing the present and you can’t wholeheartedly do that until you let go of the past. So to that end, no more “View” at friendlychurch.org. You can however, keep following my musings at www.davidacrisp.blogspot.com. If you’d like to continue receiving the “view” via e-mail, send me an e-mail at davidndes@gmail.com with that request and…. eventually…. I’ll make it happen. Blessings!
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