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 They prefer to look at conflicts through the outdated cold-war lens of capitalism vs. communism.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

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