The Validity of the Resurrection: Personified

Re-Posting: Sunday, 31 March 2013: Four years later and also in honor of our Lord and Savior's Resurrection Day there is nothing better to recognize on this occasion than the truth as it is presented in this Spirit-filled article by Dr. David R. Reagan.

Resurrection Sunday 12 April 2009: In honor of this day, Resurrection Day, I am pleased to present this outstanding piece by Dr. David Reagan, the founder and director of Princeton, Texas-based Lamb and Lion Ministries.

The Validity of the Resurrection: Personified

By Dr. David R. Reagan

There is simply no way to overemphasize the importance of the resurrection to the Christian faith, for the resurrection of Jesus is the Christian faith. Christianity stands or falls on the validity, the historical reality of the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is either the greatest event in the history of mankind, or it is the cruelest hoax that has ever been perpetrated. Which is it, truth or fantasy?

Transformed Lives Personify ItI will hasten to say that the greatest evidence of the resurrection of Jesus is not the empty tomb. It is something else. The greatest evidence of the resurrection in Scripture is to be seen in the transformed lives of Jesus' disciples. For within 50 days of His crucifixion, His disciples had been miraculously transformed from a defeated, frustrated, hopeless group of individuals into a confident band of Christian soldiers determined to win the world for their Lord.

Jesus' own brother James is a good example of what Dave is talking about. James did not believe in Jesus while He was alive. Yet after the resurrection, James became the leader of the Church in Jerusalem. Or consider Peter, who denied Jesus three times in a fit of cowardice. He began to proclaim boldly, Jesus Christ the Lord, even before the very Sanhedrin council that had condemned Jesus to death. And then there was a young Christian by the name of Stephen who was stoned to death because of his witness of Jesus. And let's not forget the most ruthless persecutor of the church, Saul of Tarsus. He became the greatest missionary in the history of the Church, all because he encountered the risen Lord on the road to Damascus.

And for what I consider to be the most convincing evidence of all, I have in mind the way in which peoples lives continue to be transformed today through their encounter with the living Jesus.

What about you? Have you met Jesus? Have you been born again by placing your faith in Him? Are you ready to face death without fear because you know you will spend eternity with God?

Salvation is to be found in a personal relationship with a living Savior. Jesus said that eternal life is knowing Him. You know, when one of Jesus' disciples named Thomas finally encountered Him after the resurrection, he cried out, "My Lord and my God." Jesus replied, "Because you have seen me you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." I challenge you to believe in the risen Jesus. John 20:31 says that through belief in Jesus, you may have life in His name.

Global SITREP A6-13

"He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name." Revelation 13:16-17

31 March 2013: I'm sure we all recognize the above Scripture. It is the greatest detail given regarding the global financial system brought about by the second beast of Revelation 13, the False Prophet. In the economy of only the seven sentences therein that describe his origin, powers and activities during Israel's 70th Week. Those seven sentences describe in symbolic terminology his appearance as a benevolent religious figure whose very spoken word is with Satan's deceptive tongue.

The final two sentences describe the very real economic system he will impose upon all those within his power to impose it upon. However, in the sequence given of his activities on the earth I make note that this satanic 'mark of the beast' financial system follows his specific directive to mankind to construct the image of the Antichrist; its standing up in the Temple of God in Jerusalem, and his giving the image artificial life, a type of intelligible universal language and the supernatural power to kill those who refuse to worship itself. Also, as we all know, this is known as the Abomination of Desolation. By all exegesis of all passages of Scripture related to this event (Daniel and Jesus' Olivet Discourse) the time period for this is clearly in the middle of the 70th Week; this event defines the two 42  month halves of the 70th Week. Therefore it appears that the satanic 'mark of the beast' financial system goes operational for the final 42 months of the 70th Week.

Now let's look at those two sentences, verses sixteen and seventeen. It is noticeable in them that real currency, cash and coin, are not mentioned in the financial transactions that will be controlled, the routine buying and selling. Many who have written on this subject have pointed to the technology of a global cashless system. This global cashless system already exists today with a debit or credit card, which is basically nothing more than a magnetically digitized account number and an ID number selected by the user. A few years ago I converted US dollars into Australian dollars through a through a bank teller machine in a hotel lobby in Hobart, Tasmania from my bank about on the east coast of the USA. On the other, upside down half of planet earth from my perspective. All I needed was a card pulled out of my wallet. The same thing was done with US dollars and Euro currency. It's almost certainly true with any national currency conversion. The basis for a future system is in place, here today.

But hard currency presents a problem with traditional banks who all engage in what is known as fractional banking, which is a requirement for them to only keep a small fraction of the hard currency (Gold, silver and cash money) their customers deposit on hand for immediate withdrawals. As we have seen in cities all over Europe, in Greece especially, and most recently in Cyprus where European Union economic policies nearly brought down the financial house of cards and caused a run on hard currency bank deposits. Controlling these runs is known as "capital control" for a stressed financial system. So what's a banking system to do to solve this problem and prevent it from occurring in the future when the big globalist bank comes to seize hard currency assets in return for bailouts in a globally stressed financial system? I think it is obvious, they convert to a completely cyber-based monetary system, a currency that is based in ones and zeros of computer language, simple ethereal bits and bytes of data. Cybernetic money or cybermoney in other words.

One form of this cybermoney already exists. It is called Bitcoin Virtual Currency. Bitcoin for short. There's an artistic representation of Bitcoin in the image above. It is the world's first "decentralized digital currency." It's just four years old and is not tied to any of the world's leading currencies, but it can be used to buy and sell any real-world goods or services that exists. Your virtual bitcoin cybermoney is carried around by you in your virtual online wallet that is secured by public-key encryption. So, anywhere you go your online wallet is with you; you cannot leave it on the top of your dresser in the morning, or in your vehicle - it's wherever you are. Who doesn't have a smart phone or similar device? Who leaves the house or apartment without one of these marvels of technology? There's your access point to your bitcoin cybermoney, 24/7/365. 

All that is required is a global activation key. A global enabling 'mark' that logs you into the system. Without the 'mark' you have no 'logged in' access, no bitcoin with which to by or sell. That isn't some futuristic science fiction brothers and sisters, it's here now and it's growing. And we know from the Word of God where it's going and the damnation that will come upon all who agree to accept its operational 'mark.'

Does there exist a financial bridge from where we are today to where we will likely be tomorrow?  Yes, and it is explained in this article published today at Canada Free Press.

Global SITREP A5-13

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, 'Who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him?'" Revelation 13:1-4

31 March 2013: I certainly hope that this will not be the first time that you have read something which links the global institution of the United Nations with the military power of the first beast of Revelation 13. I've had this eschatological thought percolating in the back of my mind as a 15-year old in 1969, from the first time I read the Bible's prophetic accounts of the coming beasts global military power. 'How could one Satanically empowered man wield such power from his base in central Mediterranean Europe," I silently questioned myself, "the days of European colonial power are gone forever, never to return." Back then America was Europe's defender and champion, World War II had ended just twenty-five years previously and only the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics could pose a serious challenge to American global military power. But that was then, and this is now and the global military power paradigm has certainly changed. The prophetic players of the Book of Daniel and of Revelation are coming much, much more clearly into view as we get closer to the arrival of Israel's 70th Week, and in particular, the first 42 months of that week of years.

In the past couple of weeks the history of the Korean conflict has been front and center and that brought me back to how the United Nations could be the vehicle by which the Antichrist might exert positive control over the world's military forces from his base in the West. I remembered that the Korean War was not just a war between the military forces of South Korea and the U.S. versus North Korea and the People's Republic of China, but between the armed forces of the whole of the United Nations versus North Korea and the People's Republic of China, or more correctly, U.N. Security Council Resolution 84 versus North Korea and the People's Republic of China. Again, that was then, this is now, and a new paradigm is at play.

Back then the People's Republic wasn't part of the U.N.'s on-call military forces, Taiwanese China held that UN Security Council seat. And at this time the People's Republic of China, with its rapidly growing conventional and nuclear military capabilities is a major player. Back then it was inconceivable that "Red China" would ever place its armed forces at the United Nations disposal; they were enemies right? Wrong. The Chinese of today are an integral if not a key part of the United Nations ability to deploy "peace keepers" (i.e. combat forces) in any global hotspot. A hotspot like Cyprus, for example.

Did you know that troops from the People's Republic of China wearing UN blue berets are deployed on the line between Greek and Turkish military forces on the financial basket case of Cyprus. Again, Red Chinese troops are keeping NATO allies Greece and Turkey separated from each other on Cyprus. In fact, the commander of the U.N. military mission on Cyprus is Major General Chao Liu of the People's Liberation Army, and the U.N. forces he commands there are primarily Chinese, and this is how the Chinese are learning how to deploy a military force far from home at the direction of the United Nations. 

So, going forward into the future, at a minimum looking at the first 42 months of the 70th Week when the whole world will be under the sway and in awe of a satanically empowered beast from the sea of gentile nations, who will be able to make war with him who will have the ability to control United Nations Security Council permanent member nations and their world-class military forces at that time? Food for eschatological thought, no?  Keep in mind that those 'kings of the East' and the 'king of the North' will not be militarily aligned against the Antichrist until some point in the second 42 months of the 70th Week as I would say can be seen in Daniel 11:44. That time looks to be after the breaking of the "covenant among many" and the Abomination of Desolation.

Global SITREP A4-13

25 March 2013: Yesterday's viral reports on Bashar al-Assad's assassination originated with Sunni Arab media.

Most are saying the event occurred during the evening of Saturday, 23 March when an Iranian bodyguard fired multiple shots. 

Reports are that he is either dead or very seriously wounded and that he was taken to Shami Hospital in Damascus. Some Israeli media are confirming these reports, others are denying the reports are accurate. 

It seems to boil down to Assad's enemies claiming he's dead or seriously wounded, and his allies are saying these rumors are not true.

This may be a disinformation campaign ahead of a Sunni rebel offensive intended to demoralize his army because Bashar al-Assad and his regime is the bottom line of what they are fighting to defend.

I tend to believe this is disinformation that is designed to offset serious problems with the rebel factions. I do not believe the US-backed FSA leader Moaz Khatib would have resigned yesterday were the Assad assassination or serious wounding true.

Similarly, the Lebanese government under the Hezbollah-puppet Najib Mikati might not have collapsed this weekend either.

One thing I am reasonably sure of is that the entire situation in both Syria and in Lebanon is in the process of literally disintegrating and turning into uncontrollable chaos. Without some type of foreign intervention or stabilizing factor there is an unprecedented catastrophe in the making at the present time.

Global SITREP A3-13

24 March 2013: According to a report at SOFTPEDIA.COM published yesterday morning three groups of  hackers, (Sector404, Anonymous and Turkey-based RedHack) have continued their cooperative efforts and for a short time at least brought down the official Israeli Secret Intelligence Service (Mossad) website and also exposed the personal files of more than 30,000 people. The compromised personal files has not been directly attributed to the hack of the Mossad website, but "includes politicians, government employees, military and police officials." The Sector404 hackers launched the directed denial of service attack (DDOS) while Anonymous and RedHack leaked the compromised files. The Mossad website, mossad.gov.il is back online. However, more may be coming with the announced OpIsrael cyber assault to commence two weeks from today, 7 April 2013. SOFTPEDIA.COM also reported that as of 9 March 2013 a total of 54 Israeli websites had been attacked by these and other hacker groups. The Psalm 83 prophecy includes cyber warfare as well.

In the former-Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan (Qazaqstan) the authoritarian government of President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev persecution of Christianity took a decided turn for he worse with the government court-ordered destruction of 121 pieces of Christian literature, including Bibles, children's Bibles and pamphlets.  All of the Christian literature came from a suitcase belonging to a Christian street evangelist in the Kazak city of Shchuchinsk who was detained last October while passing out the Christian literature to passers-by on the street. Our brother-in-Christ, Vyacheslav Cherkasov, was ordered by the government court to pay 86,550 Tenge (US$574) which is an amount well above the average one month’s earnings in Kazakhstan, and was charged with violation of rules established for "importing, publishing and distribution of religious literature" under a harsh new Religion Law of 2011. Kazakhstan is an authoritarian state which all but evenly divided with half of its population being Muslim and the other half being Russian Orthodox or Protestant. Kazakhstan's potential role in the Ezekiel 38/39 "Magog confederation" appear to continue apace. Christian persecution is also ongoing in neighboring Uzbekistan under the equally authoritarian government of President Islam Karimov.

Global SITREP A2-13

"Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city,
And it will be a ruinous heap."

22 March 2013: (Updated 25 March 2013) There are ever increasing indications that the literal fulfillment of Isaiah 17 may well be on the proverbial 'fast track' to prophetic fulfillment.

My assessment in Global SITREP A1-13 reflected two types of known chemical agents, PCl3 and BZ, that were initially suspected in that attack according to most MSM reports. Those chemical compounds led to an early and possibly premature accusatory finger being pointed at the al-Assad regime by the Obama Administration and the European allies. However, what is coming from our intelligence services now is that there was no WMD chemical attack per se, that what occurred in the Khan al'Asal district on the western approaches to the city of Aleppo appears to have been a chlorine IED attack that bears extremely similar fingerprints to the early Al Qaeda chlorine IED attacks that occurred in the Al Anbar Province of western Iraq during 2007, and which re-directs the accusatory finger on the Al Qaida elements within the rebel forces.  It goes without saying that the first casualty in any war is the truth, but if this was Al Qaida then there will be more attacks like it in the very near future and they will mirror those that occurred in Iraq with increasing sophistication and body count. It may be that Al Qaida would like nothing better than for the Al-Assad regime eventually to retaliate with a WMD chemical assault of its own. They may yet get their wish.

(Update) The DEKBAfile report of 25 March 2013 1:03 PM GMT contains these concluding sentences:

"Before he left Amman for home Saturday, Obama received information that the Iraqi Al Qaeda front had begun preparing Chlorine gas-CI trucks ready to push across the border into Syria for the use of its Jabhat al Nusra partners.
This poisonous gas was used more than once for jihadist terrorist attacks inside Iraq. And this peril brought John Kerry hurrying over to Baghdad Sunday, March 24. He was not able to persuade Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to discontinue the Iranian airlift of weapons and troops to Assad through Iraqi skies, but he left al-Malilki with a grave warning that Washington would hold Baghdad responsible if any of the chorine gas trucks reached Syria."

This brings us to a report published in the first week of February 2013 by retired Army intelligence officer LTC Rick Francona entitled "The Coming Battle for Damascus" and "The Coming Battle for Damascus - Addendum" published on 9 March, 2013. Look at the title carefully and consider it... not the battle of Damascus, but rather the battle for Damascus. The thinking goes that whoever controls Damascus controls all of Syria. Now reflect on Isaiah 17 and the image above which is not of Damascus. It is actually an image taken of a section of Aleppo already reduced to ruins by rebel versus government civil warfare. Here we have another possible avenue to the destruction of Damascus, and indeed the entire country. The analysis continues by noting that the FSA has determined that Al-Assad intends to defend Damascus with  four combat divisions all led by loyal officers of Al-Assad's own Alawi sect, the 1st Armored, 5th Armored, 7th Mechanized and 9th Armored, which have been pulled back from their normal positions facing Israel across the Golan. In addition to these four there are also the two most elite divisions of Al-Assad's army, all of whom are loyal Alawis, the 4th Armored Division and the Republican Guard Division. Damascus is now surrounded by and filled to its gills with six of the Syrian army's best divisions. It would not take long for a two or three pronged rebel offensive assault on Damascus to actually reduce the city to something far worse than the image above. Add in the significant potential on this urban battlefield for the use of persistent chemical weapons should the regime's fortunes in war come to the point of collapse and the situation could well turn out to effect a literal fulfillment of Isaiah 17.

The point of this is that while most eschatological views currently hold that Israel will be involved in the fulfillment of Isaiah 17, there are now in place around Damascus the right military forces with the right capabilities to turn this most ancient city to the ruinous heap as foretold by Isaiah in very short order and possibly within a very short span of time from today.

Global SITREP A1-13

19 March 2013 (Updated 21 March): It seems like yesterday. Anniversaries can do that to you. Ten years ago today after all the preparations were long since completed we were ready to go over the berm from Kuwait into Iraq. Within 48 hours after starting the movement northward 3rd ID would be almost 100 miles deep into Iraq. My thoughts were drawn into consideration of the four angels bound at the Euphrates River awaiting their release. With Saddam's threats of WMD warfare and all of us in full MOPP IV gear I had to wonder if this was the war that would release those four angels upon the world. And here I was smack dab in the middle of it with thousands of other guys dressed in DCUs on a mission to liberate Iraq. Nebuchadnezzar's, Cyrus' and Alexander's ancient stompin' grounds, this was going to be no fun at all I thought. Saddam's Scuds, Al-Samouds, Silkworms and U.S. Patriots and hundreds of coalition aircraft were launched, danced in the air and some occasionally landed explosively nearby. Seems like yesterday, but a decade later and far more learned about the correct exegesis of Bible prophecy than I was at that time, the effect that decade of spent time now has me wondering if its not four angels that are about to be released, but rather how much time Damascus has left to be a habitable city. You live, you learn.

So, it seems fitting at this point to begin doing an occasional global sitrep (situation report) on this blog because, who knows, Damascus could get ruined overnight one of these days, so why not keep track of events a little more closely leading up to that paradigm changing event. Thirteen years earlier, just after Operation Desert Storm and when Iraqi Scuds were pelting Israel little did anyone know that that war would come and go and just make an even bigger and more important war occur in the future. Hindsight is 20/20, so a little journal seems a good idea at this point. Now I do not think at this point it will be another decade because there's just too much going on in the Middle East right now for me to accept there that much time to expend yet again. Could be, but one cannot be dogmatic about these things.

At present we have North Korea threatening to nuke the US at a time when they have completed a couple of actual nuclear tests and long range missile launches. We have the US responding to this by flying B-52 missions from Guam to South Korea and the Pentagon essentially telling dear leader Kim Jong-Un that while he's feeling all kinds of froggy these days he had better think twice and not jump.  In the same time frame we have Russia flying nuclear-armed Bear-H bombers from distant bases in Kamchatka making simulated nuclear strikes against US and allied bases in South Korea, Japan (Okinawa) and Guam, and Communist Chinese gunboat diplomacy kicking things up a notch or two from Vietnam and the Philippines to Japan. East Asia is looking as warlike as the Middle East is. Rumors of wars.

In the Middle East, the ever present basket-case, we have Syrian Alawite jets bombing Sunni columns in Lebanon while the Al-Assad government and Sunni rebel forces trade accusations of chemical warfare attacks. I now am holding the assessment that two chemical agents were used Phosphorus Trichloride (PCl3) which is under controlled production by Schedule 3 of the Chemical Weapons Convention, and BZ which is a deliriant incapacitating agent. Which side executed this chemical attack remains undetermined; it could have been Al-Assad's forces or it could have been the FSA rebel forces. If our "red lines" have any meaning then Western military intervention will have to be forthcoming, with the possibility of  special forces seizing Syrian and/or FSA rebel chemical stocks or destroying them in place by surgical strikes. Syria does have a serious missile-borne WMD capability and Israel must look like a convenient game-changer to Al-Assad and his apocalypse-minded pals in Tehran given their poor battlefield prospects in Syria. No rumors here, real war is ongoing from the Turkish border to the Lebanese border to the Israeli and Jordanian borders. All the places mentioned in Bible prophecy that I am concerned about and always watching closely.

In Europe a financial crisis is threatening to come unraveled from one part of the former Roman Empire to another. The once mighty Euro currency is now worth about seventy-five cents American, and American currency is being printed as if were playing an artificially extended game of Monopoly. The Obama Sequester is about to chew up our armed forces at a time when really big shooting wars could erupt in any or all of the places I just mentioned. Oh, and we're still at war in Afghanistan. This is wars and rumors of wars.

Sorry for all of the seemingly bad news in this first installment, but at least we know that the new Pope isn't Petrus Romanus and we can giggle a little bit at those who gave that nonsense serious consideration. See you at the next edition of Global SITREP... if we aren't called home first.

What is the "Great Commission" and How Are We to Execute it?

17 March 2013: What is the "Great Commission" and How Are We to Execute it?

Do we execute our mission by sitting on our backsides in our own church witnessing to the choir? Or do we go where those who need the saving Grace of God are?

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

Did the Apostles stay in the Upper Room or did they go into in the sinful world and into very belly of the beast of that day, into Rome itself?

Did they risk their very lives to execute the mission that Christ mandated, and did they stay on that mission even when the brethren were being rounded up and crucified or fed to wild beasts as sport?

And look at us, the Bride of Christ, what are we doing? Are we worthy of the rewards to which we think we are entitled? Did God call a time-out because we are living in the last days and we need a good rest before the final trump blows? Are we wasting the power of the Holy Spirit that our Lord has sent among us? These are questions each Christian has to place in self-examination and if necessary act upon with all due haste and with conviction. Surely the Lord will lead.

"Go therefore and make disciples."

So, what are the Lord's instructions on executing the mission to go and speak to others about the good news, to make disciples of other men and women?

I think it is a simple matter. Witnessing is about being an example of what it means to be a fisher of men, of being what it is that Christ has called us to be, of giving those who are as yet unaware first the good news, and then then bad news, to tell them "this" is what life can and will be with with Christ, and "this" is what it will definitely be without Him in the future.

We plant the seed and allow the Holy Spirit do His work. We do not convict, preach fire and brimstone and then force it down someones throat. We witness to the holiness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We start a conversation from common and level ground and we build it from there. Are you a Protestant, then other unsaved Protestants are who you are prepared to witness to right from the start. Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Pentecostal or you-name-it, you start from where you are, on that common and level ground and work your way up the mountain from there.

When was the last time you left your comfort zone and went to the sinner and to the unsaved on his or her turf as our church fathers did?

2013: Is This the Year for Isaiah 17/Psalm 83 Fulfillment?

16 March 2013: In "The Bedouin Rebellion Against Israel" on FrontPageMag yesterday author Eric Burns has written a very informative article that serves as both a reminder and background brief for the coming greater Middle East war and the Bedouin role in it.

I'd only read the first couple of paragraph's of this article when I recalled writing in a December 2011 forecast for the year 2012 how the Sinai Bedouin would likely fulfill the modern-day role of Amalekites in the Psalm 83 prophecy. In "The State of the Middle East 2012" I wrote:

"In Egypt, as in other Islamic Arab nations formerly ruled by dictators, the military remnant of the Mubarak regime still tenuously holds power in the face of renewed uprisings by the Muslim fundamentalist masses led by the al-Ikhwan al-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) and the Salafists in their respective strongholds around the country and in Cairo. In the Egyptian Sinai the overt rise in the past few weeks of the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group "Ansar al-Jihad in the Sinai Peninsula" since the fall of Mubarak was inevitable and led to the attacks in Eilat, Israel as well as the repeated attacks on the Egypt-Israel gas pipeline. This newly emergent terrorist organization could not exist without the tacit support and/or involvement of HAMAS, Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Islamic Republic of Sudan (Ezekiel's Kuwsh, as noted here). These Islamic terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula will likely fulfill the role of Amalek per Psalm 83 verse 7."

In the next paragraph of that blog item I brought up the "basket case that is Bashar al-Assad's Syria," saying in full:

"Then there's the basket case of Bashar al-Assad's Syria, ruled by a minority Shi'a faction of Alawites it remains in the throes of a Sunni Islamonazi insurrection very much like that which just toppled the dictatorial regime of Muamar Ghadaffi in Libya. This internal Syrian affair has drawn in both Turkey and Iran on opposite sides of the conflict, and placed Israeli-Turkish relations in the odd position of being simultaneously belligerent and non-belligerent with respect to each others national interests. Clearly Ezekiel 38/39 is not an imminent or next-in-line prophetic fulfillment as Isaiah 17, Psalm 83 and Joshua 13:1-7 all appear to be."

And so, here we are in the closing days of the first quarter of 2013, and it's as if all these things are being held in place by some kind of limbo, orchestrated for a precision release in the violent outburst that I believe will be the imminent fulfillment and last battle of the prophetic Psalm 83 war (November 1947 to the Present) and that I also believe will be catalyzed into that state by events to the north and the fulfillment of the Isaiah 17 prophecy.

And it all could blow up one of these evenings without any further warning. On that day we here in the USA will awake to the news that war between Syria and Israel erupted; that Damascus has been nuked and that war rages throughout Lebanon, Syria and northern Israel.  The thing is... thanks to the Lord's prophetic word we know how it ends before it really begins, and this is what I need to be talking about and focused on instead of other distractions.