Global SITREP B1-13: Reliving Daniel 11 in Preparation for Daniel 12

29 September 2013: We have all just lived through a series of events during August and September 2013 that almost defy description. If my analysis of these events is correct, then we will have all been eyewitnesses to international travesty and conspiracy of Biblical prophetic proportions whether we all realize it or not. It is, in some sense, as if we are reliving the prophetic text of Daniel 11which prepare the way for the prophetic text of Daniel 12 which is without question about the 70th Week. 

Once verse which immediately came to mind in the midst of the recent G20 Summit reflects the text of Daniel 11:27 as far as what transpired between the President of the United States Barack Obama and the Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin:

"Both these kings’ hearts shall be bent on evil, and they shall speak lies at the same table; but it shall not prosper, for the end will still be at the appointed time."

On the surface the text Daniel 11 is clearly about prophecies the series wars that occur between the two great empires of the Middle East, the Macedonian-Greek Seleucid Empire and the Macedonian Greek Ptolemaic Empire. However, the subtext, the foreshadowing text is about the conditions and events that precede the arrival of the future Antichrist of the 70th Week. This is clearly evident because it is within this text that the forerunner Antichrist, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, is introduced to us along with all of the international intrigue and conflict which preceded his arrival. 

It was during the classical historical period of the late 4th Century BC to the early 1st century BC that world events developed which fulfilled the bulk of the prophecies found in the Book of Daniel, many of them directly from the mouth of the angel Gabriel. When it comes to authority, Gabriel is an angel who stands in the presence of God when he is in Heaven. He literally transmits the word and will of God to human beings. It is during this so-called classical period of human history that the Babylonian Empire was overtaken by the Medo-Persian Empire, which in turn was overtaken by the Macedonian-Greek Empire, which was divided into four parts and was then absorbed piece by piece by the final world empire of Rome explicitly as prophesied in Daniel, and completed by the prophesies in The Revelation of Jesus Christ. 

It is during the final century of this period that geo-political events, particularly rampant wars and the absorption of entire nations into a known-world empire, occurred at a rapid pace, so much so that the map of the Mediterranean and Middle East of 1 AD greatly resembles the current map and military dynamic of the same region of the Eastern Hemisphere. There is much to be learned by just looking at the maps of the Eastern Hemisphere between the 4th Century and 1st Century BC.

Given that we are now living in the last days prior to the advent of the 70th Week, I think we can look to Daniel 11 as the foreshadowing of the time in which we are currently living; it is the time immediately preceding the arrival of the Antichrist, and the events between this day are preparing the way for his arrival. My view is that this is not prophetic stage-setting per se, this actually is the fulfillment of already existent prophetic templates found in Daniel.

A brief re-cap of current events shows us that in early August President Obama went from a very public snubbing of President Putin by refusing to meet with him at a Moscow Summit (see: SITREP A18-13) to the face-to-face meeting that I forecast would occur during the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. This meeting happened at St. Petersburg Konstantin Palace and it had all of the overtly evidence marks of a grand performance, a charade, where the visitor pretended power and the host knew he was flexible in such a manner that he would cave-in climactic fashion within mere days later. 

After all the naval drama on the high seas of the Eastern Mediterranean and the bellicose threats of unilaterally and without Congressional approval in an exercise of not-quite-so-crushing military power upon Vladimir Putin's Syrian ally and his in-country Persian and Lebanese Shi'a allies, Obama did indeed fold like a cheap camera in the face of pure evil, all the while still embracing the equally and purely evil desires of Sunni jihadism in Syria. This, my brothers and sisters, is the kind of "flexibility" that President Obama told former Russian President Dimitry Medvedev in March 2012 that he would have after the November 2012 election. This "flexibility" took us from the apparent brink of a regional war over WMD in Syria a couple of weeks ago to acceptance of Syrian WMD as well as a nuclear-armed Iran. 

All of this has left Israel holding the proverbial bag. A week or so ago I might have needed someone to tell me this was not President Obama's intent all along; that this kind of crisis-to-resolution-to-crisis behavior has not occurred repeatedly during his tenure irregardless if the crisis is between himself and President Putin, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu, Egyptian President Hosni Murbarak or even the U.S. Congress. 

In seeking the Lord's Word on what is going on these days it's been made very clear that these things must take place, that we are not to fear them, and "the end' is not yet. We're living in the modern part of the Daniel 11 foreshadowing and the imminent fulfillment of existent prophetic templates on the road to the 70th Week. Stay tuned... the concluding prophetic paragraphs are something to behold, and this is why I believe we are still here as witnesses of them.

Global SITREP A30-13: A Nuclear Iran

26 September 2013: It appears that the worst fears of many regarding a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic of Iran may well be realized, and we have a DEBKAfile article published yesterday and the Ayatollah Khamenei and IRGC-linked Kayhan newspaper published in Tehran this morning to thank for the confirmation of those fears.

Yesterday DEBKAfile published an article in which it reported that President Obama has been in direct secret negotiations (led by SECSTATE John Kerry) with Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his newly elected sock-puppet president Hassan Rouhani. The core issue in the DEBKAfile report on the secret deal is that Obama has caved-in and accepted Iranian nuclear enrichment capability at 20% as well as all of the stocks of fissionable uranium possessed by Iran. Additional details are at the link.

In exchange for Obama's epic proportion cave-in Iran will agree to limit the number of enrichment centrifuges operating at its Natanz facility. The number of advanced IR2 and IR1 centrifuges Iran will be limited to is unknown. There is no mention of the many other Iranian enrichment facilities known to be in operation. Also completely absent are any undeclared sites involved in the Iranian nuclear weapons program, or what penalties might be incurred should Iran secretly execute the short hop from 20% to a weapons grade level enrichment of uranium. This sounds like a trust but verify secret deal with the IAEA in full control of the verify portion.

This morning the Kayhan newspaper published a front-page article under a red-letter banner headline declaring that DEBKAfile had revealed the details of the secret US-Iranian nuclear agreement. 

What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall of Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu's next Security Cabinet and fully-staffed National Security Council meetings. For that matter, as loud as voices might be raised anywhere in a near vicinity might suffice.

Who is “Gog” and Why he’s NOT the Beast of Daniel’s 70th Week

Collective Security Treaty Organization

Организация Договора о коллективной безопасности

Update 19 September 2013: Four years is a long time between updates, nevertheless, this item is back to the top of Eschatology Today with an update.

In my assessment the CSTO is about to kick itself into high gear due to the very recent events which pitted the CSTO military alliance against a faltering NATO alliance over the issue of chemical weapons use in the Syrian civil war. While the world may see that confrontation as one of Russia versus America, I see it as a CSTO versus NATO confrontation because the charters of these organizations view an attack upon one member as an attack upon all members who are then obligated to join in a common defense.

As a direct result of these recent events a CSTO Council and statutory bodies meeting will convene in Sochi, Russia on Monday morning, 23 September 2013 at which the member nations representatives will sign numerous documents and agree to the creation of a CSTO Joint Air Force. The CSTO Joint Air Force will complement the already existing CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force (CSTO CRRF). One week later, between October 1 and 4, these same CSTO members will reconvene in Yerevan, Armenia for further tightening of the alliance in all areas of military cooperation. 

The key military function of both meetings is the CSTO CRRF which as of yesterday morning began a large scale military exercise on the territory of member nation Belarus. The exercise is known as "Cooperation 2013." The "Cooperation 2013" exercise will continue through September 27, 2013 and includes the CSTO CRRF contingents from Armenia, Belarus, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

It is my assessment that the CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force and its newly integrated Joint Air Force will be the forces that are prophesied to march against Israel in the near future during the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39. It is these forces which will be annihilated by God and buried by the people of Israel in the Valley of the Passengers (the Valley of Hamon-Gog) east of the Dead Sea.

See also:  The Prophetic Road to Revelation (Part IV): The War of Gog and Magog

  

02 October 2009: Armies of Gog, The Chief Prince of Magog, Rosh, Meshech and Tubal Initiate Military Exercises
 

The Russian-led military alliance of seven former Soviet Republics known by the acronym CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization), the counter-balance to the American-European NATO alliance, began large-scale military exercises today at the Matybulak training grounds in southern Kazakhstan.

The name given to this CSTO military force is "Collective Rapid Reaction Force" (CRRF). One of the CRRF's principle mission objectives is to wage war on Islamic insurgent groups on the territories of the member countries: Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Just another nail in the coffin of the Gog is Antichrist shoehorned eisegesis.

14 September 2009: The overwhelmingly accepted Christian eschatological definition for the name Ezekiel 38 and 39 identified as “Gog” is that of a man who will be the chief prince or leader of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal and who is to come from the land of the Magog located far to the north of modern day Israel.

Eschatology Today and our sourced documents have provided the ancient historical records, themselves from additional multiple-sourced historical records, from which a firm eschatological conclusion has been achieved in determining that Magog, Rosh, Meshech and Tubal are ethnically diverse nations which exist today within modern Russia to include the 46 oblasts, 21 republics, 4 autonomous okrugs, 9 krays, 2 federalized cities and 1 autonomous oblast of Russia; officially and internationally recognized as the Russian Federation, or within the increasingly totalitarian political confederation known as the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Let’s compare the above regarding “Gog” with my July 8, 2009 article “Origin of the Antichrist.”

A few excerpts of my research should suffice for this comparison.

“He (Antichrist) has always been an enigma, a man of mystery, prophesied to be of fierce countenance, a master of deceit and deception, of such unearthly evil power and charisma that by his mere presence all of mankind will be subdued and submit to his will.

The beast will be a man who ultimately will be wholly possessed by a demonic spirit ascended out of the abyss and identified by the name of Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in the Greek; a man of mind bending unconscionable evil destined to stand as Satan incarnate during Daniel's 70th Week. He is a man whose name John revealed in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter 13 verse 18, would count to or calculate to the Greek alphabetical-numerical equivalent of χξϚ (chi-xi-stigma) or six-hundred, three-score and six. 666.”

Who among us is so bold as to declare, contrary to the Word of God in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, that the name of “Gog” must be given the same alpha-numeric value as the 666 assigned to the Antichrist? Only someone completely ignorant of the Lord’s admonition found in Revelation 22:18-19 would do so.

As I wrote and cited Scripture in the above article, all indications from the prophet Daniel are that the coming Antichrist would be modeled on his Biblical predecessor, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a man of a definitive Greek-Macedonian bloodline; that he would possess a might that is not derived from his own power; that he would exalt himself above everything, including God and Christ, and yet in the end he would come to his end without human means, as revealed in Revelation 19:20-21:

“Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse. And all the birds were filled with their flesh.”

To review what has already been covered in this blog, Gog comes from the land of Magog and is a prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal. Gog is a man who is from an ethnic Russian origin. Gog is killed in battle in Israel and buried in Israel in a mass grave in what will become known as the Valley of Hamon Gog. Gog has no side-kick or accomplice such as the False Prophet.

In stark contrast to the fate of Gog, the Antichrist is indwelt by a demonic spirit from the Abyss known as Abaddon/Apollyon. It is my absolute conviction that Daniel's prophecy informs us in no uncertain terms that the coming Antichrist will specifically arise from a Greek or Hellenic ancestry; that he will be a direct descendant of the Biblical Javan via one of his sons whose progeny populate Europe and most of the nations of the West. In his defeat Antichrist and his False Prophet are captured by Jesus Christ and are immediately “cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.” This fate is entirely and wholly different than that of the human followers of Antichrist who are “killed with the sword which proceeded from the mouth of” the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OR LORDS, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The differences between Gog and Antichrist are exceptional differences. They are even more exceptional than the brief synopsis provided in this article. However, even these brief exceptional differences cannot be overlooked by anyone unless they are conducting eschatological studies in a manner not unlike the locomotive ability of some surface skimming water strider.

UPDATED EXEGESIS: The ultimate proof that Gog cannot possibly be one and the same as the Antichrist is found in the Biblical fact that Gog and his armies are IMMEDIATELY UNSUCCESSFUL in their invasion of Israel. Almighty God will personally see to that. On the other hand, the Antichrist WILL BE SUCCESSFUL and will stand in the Temple declaring himself to be God. Put another way, since Gog will be dead and buried in the Valley of Hamon Gog it will be literally impossible for him to stand in the Temple much less have an image of himself placed there. Therefore Gog cannot possibly be the Antichrist.

The Doctrine of Imminence: Have Men Determined That Our Sovereign God Cannot Act According to His Will?

The man-made and so-called “Doctrine of Imminence” has three main tenets according to an article at the Pre-Trib Research Center by Dr. Gerald Stanton, “The Doctrine of Imminency: Is It Biblical? ”  Those three tenets are:

(1) While no one knows the time of Christ's return, He may come at any moment and it is possible that He might come today.

(2) The Rapture is signless, and will be unannounced and largely unexpected.

(3) No clearly prophesied event must transpire prior to the Rapture (Harpazo), for this might date the time of His coming.

While I accept and agree with the first two tenets because they are based solidly upon multiple Scriptures, the third presents a very significant problem because it unilaterally precludes our Sovereign God from any prophetic act according to His will prior to the Rapture (Harpazo) during the present age. This tenet is not based upon any Scripture that I am aware of, and therefore is based upon human error.

Since when can any man or group of men attempt to dogmatically tell other men what our Sovereign God can or cannot do according to His will? 

Since when has any man or group of men determined to dogmatically know the precise order of fulfillment of all prophecies our Lord God has given us in His Word, and when they can or cannot come to literal fulfillment?

What language might one use to describe such a man or group of men holding to such a dogmatic view as this?

This is the error within the third tenet as expressed above. There is nothing within the Word of God which unambiguously states that the Rapture (Harpazo) is the next prophetic event on “the revealed program of God.” How can the third tenet be correct when the tenet which precedes it clearly holds that the Rapture (Harpazo) is signless, unannounced and unexpected?  

I’m not aware of any Scripture wherein God has published His personal calendar of unalterable prophetic events. On the contrary, Scripture clearly tells us that only the Father knows when He will send His Son to collect His Bride.

I maintain that there are numerous prophecies in the Word of God which must come to a literal fulfillment prior to the 70^th Week because they are essential precursor events that will shape the geo-political world that will exist during the 70^th Week.

For the brevity sake I’ll name just a few of the more important among these prophecies.

Have not the prophecies of within Ezekiel 36/37 come to a literal fulfillment in the modern State of Israel?

Is the modern State of Israel not the single stick composed of the house of Joseph and the House of Judah as prophesied? And has this prophecy not come to literal fulfillment within just the past 70 years?

Do not the prophecies of Ezekiel 38.39 foretell of this State of Israel living securely within the land, and is this state of existence not prior to the 70^th Week? And how does Israel achieve this existent sate of safety and security if not for the literal fulfillment of other prophecies such as Isaiah 17, Isaiah 19, Psalm 83, Joshua, 13:1-5 and Jeremiah 49 among still others? Does not Ezekiel provide prophetic proof of this prophetic fulfillment occurring prior to the prophecy of chapters 38 and 39 by saying the following in Ezekiel 28:20-26:

“Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it,
And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the Lord.
And there shall be no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord God.
Thus saith the Lord God; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.
And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the Lord their God.”

Is this prophecy from Ezekiel not mirrored by Isaiah 11:11-15:

^“ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod.”

And, to conclude, there is also the prophetic rebuilding of the Temple which the fulfillment of these prophecies will by then have created the conditions for in allowing unfettered construction to occur on Mount Moriah where the previous two Temples once stood on that sacred ground. 

The sovereign will of God is His alone, He determines its course for His purposes; it is not subject to tenet within a man-made doctrine.  The Harpazo will occur when God the Father determines the time for the Son to elope with His Bride and keep her from the wrath that will follow on the Earth.

Global SITREP A29-13: The Fate of Damascus and Syria Assured

15 September 2013: The image above is of the ruin of Duma, formerly a thriving suburb lying just 6 miles from the heart of Damascus, Syria. This image was taken by war correspondent Goran Tomasevic of Reuters seven months ago. It has gotten worse since then. There are many other neighborhoods completely within the city limits of Damascus that look worse than this. The cities of Homs, Hama, Aleppo and dozens upon dozens of others throughout Syria are worse than this. Thus, the literal text of Isaiah 17:1-3 is coming to fulfillment before our eyes. 

In the news today the so-called Kerry-Lavrov agreement all but guarantees that the larger regional war, which will involve Israel as made clear by Isaiah 17:9, will come to its fulfillment precisely as the prophecy declares it will. The fact is that the Kerry-Lavrov "agreement" is fatally flawed, first and foremost because it is an agreement by two men representing two opposed nations who have lied to each others faces before their shaking hands on something that is both unenforceable and unimplementable. 

Secondly, this agreement between Russian and American negotiators will not be implemented by Bashar al-Assad's Ba'athist Syrian government because of al-Assad's added conditions that: 

1) Israel must dispose of its nuclear arsenal prior to Syria disposing of its chemical weapons.

2) America and its allies (including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar) must halt all military assistance to rebel forces even while Russia continues arming al-Assad's own loyal military forces with more firepower than they have ever possessed in the past.

In simple parlance this entire "deal" is a non-starter from the get-go. The hand-shakers haven't stopped anything; they have enabled much, much worse to come. The "negotiation" has been a sham and a scam from the get-go, and has resulted in a recipe for chaotic regional warfare the likes of which this world has never seen before. It will consume tens of thousands of lives, many dozens of cities and villages as well as the complete destruction of Damascus and the Syrian nation as we have known it. The end-game of the fulfillment of Isaiah 17 stands before us, and that takes us one prophetic step closer to the coming of our Lord and His everlasting Kingdom. Marana tha!

Global SITREP A28-13: Syria-Hezbollah Crisis Deepens Exponentially

Syrian Jihadists and their Chemical Weapons

UPDATE 20 September 2013: Arutz Sheva/Israel Nationa News (INN) - "Assad Smuggling (Chemical) Weapons Through Tunnels to Hizbullah." The first two paragraphs of the INN report state: "A Saudi newspaper has reported the Syrian President has begun smuggling chemical weapons to Hizbullah using underground tunnels. A Saudi newspaper has claimed Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is using tunnels to smuggle chemical weapons to Hizbullah. The report by the Al-Watan daily said the regime had made the move to avoid being spotted, moving the deadly weapons before the arrival of international inspectors."

16 September 2013: Saudi Arabian, Lebanese and Israeli newspapers are all reporting this morning that Syria has either transferred or is in the process of transferring chemical weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, to Russian ships in Syrian ports and back to Iraq under Iranian Quds force guard from whence they came prior to the 2003 start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The Saudi Al-Watan newspaper reports that the shipment to Iraq is occurring with the full knowledge of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. It is unknown at this time if these reports are part of a full-scale Sunni propaganda campaign against their Shi'a-Alawi enemies or if they are essentially factual. At a minimum, if the transfer of Syrian WMD to Hezbollah is factual then a red line set by Israel will have been crossed and a very significant military response from Israel will be forthcoming without further notice.

11 September 2013: Based upon new intelligence the crisis in Syria is in the process of deepening exponentially as you read this.  A just received report transmitted at 0100 this morning and which originated with a senior Lebanese military officer states unequivocally that Syria is actively in the process of transferring a significant amount of its chemical weapons arsenal to Hezbollah. The source reports these Syrian chemical warfare agents are doing directly into Hezbollah's Bekaa Valley storage bunkers. Expect an Israeli response at any moment.

Additionally, while we wait for the official UN report (which itself may well contain a certain amount of politicization) on the chemical attack in the Ghouta/Jobar suburb of Damascus on 21 August, intelligence on preliminary forensic evidence strongly indicates a terrorist home-brew of a chemical agent closely approximating Sarin was involved and that the specific formula for this agent was provided to Al Qaeda by North Korea in 2002. The official death toll from this event is no where near the numbers reported by the Obama Administration. As of 10 September the Doctors Without Borders organization continues to report a death toll of 355 individuals. The other physical evidence collected by Doctors Without Borders points directly to the blue-colored cylinder (see image above) seen in many images and videos taken at that time. A very detailed, 'must read' article by Dr. Yossef Bodansky was published on Monday, 9 September 2013 by the World Tribune.com website.

In Defense of Isralestine: The Errors of Dr. Thomas Ice in "Consistent Biblical Futurism (Part 10)"

8 September 2013: I'm taking a very brief time-out from the Global SITREP series in order to properly address what I consider to be an important issue among dispensationalists. Very recently I came across Part 10 of the "Consistent Biblical Futurism" series published by Dr. Thomas Ice of the Pre-Trib Research Center. As postulated in Part I, this multi-part series of articles by Dr. Ice was predicated upon his identifying and discussing the various but significant differences in the literal prophetic interpretation strictly among fellow dispensationalists of the historicist and futurist views, as well as Dr. Ice's personal suggestions on which of these interpretations are correct and why certain individuals within the whole of literalist dispensationalism hold to viewpoints different from his own viewpoint. Dr. Ice also made clear in his introduction that both Psalm 83 and Isaiah 17 would be dealt with relative to their potential fulfillment either prior to or within the final 7 years of the 70th Week.

Consistent with Dr. Ice' request that these issues be subjected to the peer review process of public discussion and based upon what I found within his "Consistent Biblical Futurism (Part 10)" I find it necessary to respond with my own views on what Dr. Ice has written. 

Firstly, whether a particular interpretation can be labeled as "historicist' or "futurist" is very subjective in my view because ALL unfulfilled Bible prophecy is clearly in the future from the here and now, irregardless of that fulfillment is prior to the 70th Week, during it and afterwards during the Millennium of Christ's rule on Earth. 

Secondly, I must point out that Dr. Ice makes it abundantly clear that he regards the views of others as "speculation" instead of their being a specific prophetic interpretation worthy of truly brotherly discussion. It is this apparently ego-driven and unwarranted adoption of an interpretive superiority over the views of his brothers-in-Christ which constitutes an appalling error on the part of Dr. Ice right from the get-go.

To the case-in-point, the essence of Part 10 is the 2008 book Isralestine by author Bill Salus, the crux of which is a study of Psalm 83. I will leave the gross distortions of what Dr. Ice has written concerning the views expressed in Isralestine by Bill Salus for others to address should they so desire. I am going to focus on two items: the manner in which Dr. Ice discusses this issue, and the fact that Dr. Ice has made what I believe is a very significant Scripture-based error in his argument against Isralestine.

The first item is the manner in which Dr. Ice treats Bill Salus' work in Isralestine has the distinct intonation of a direct personal attack upon the author in that he casts serious accusations on the manner in which Bill Salus' mind operates, thereby impugning the mental well-being of Bill Salus. Here are the specifically offensive phraseology used by Dr. Ice: "...this scenario is merely manufactured from the speculative mind of Bill Salus... his thinking on this matter... is merely a speculative belief."  This is not how one brother discusses the work of another brother. It is rude, condescending, arrogant in the extreme and unbecoming of a brother-in-Christ in my opinion.

The Scripture-based error made by Dr. Ice is with respect to his identification of the Philistines per Psalm 83:7. Dr. Ice writes: (emphasis is mine) "The first problem with this view is that "Early Palestine was dominated by white Caucasians from the eastern Mediterranean area."

Dr. Ice continued with: "By the time of the intertestamental period, the Philistines disappear from history. Why is this important? This is important since it is legitimate to trace a modern people group from their ancient ancestors mentioned in the Bible if that people group remains the same over the years. The fact that the Philistines have totally vanished from history, while the Palestinians, who take the name from the ancient Philistines are ethnically unrelated to them. Since there is not ethnic relationship, this disqualifies one from identifying them as the same people group today. Modern Palestinians are generally made up of Arabs from all of the surrounding counties that have immigrated to Israel over the years."

Dr. Ice got his cited "facts" wrong here, and that leads to the greater error of his conclusion of who exactly the Philistines were and are to this day.

In Genesis 10 the Lord instructs us very clearly that the Philistines did not come from the line of Noah through Japheth (the so-called white northern peoples, a/k/a Caucasians).

Genesis 10:6 and 13-14 instructs us that the Philistines came from the line of Noah through his son Ham who begat Mizaim who begat Casluhim -- whence went forth the Philistines.

The Philistines are the same stock, the same ethnic peoples, the same relative family of people as are the rest of the Hamites, such as Cush, Mizraim, Put and Canaan!  White Caucasians? Absolutely not!

6 And the sons of Ham: Cush, and Mizraim, and Put, and Canaan.
13 And Mizraim begot Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
14 and Pathrusim, and Casluhim--whence went forth the Philistines--and Caphtorim.

Then turn to Exodus 13, verses 17-18 where God instructs:

"Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.” So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea."

The Philistines lived in that coastal strip of eastern Mediterranean land through the time of when Israel was being ruled by her Judges (the Book of Judges) and by her Kings (the Books of Kings) and they continued to live here until the Assyrian conquest. Then the Philistines gradually intermingled back into the same genetic stock of the Hamite-Mizraimite family of this same region from which they originated.

The Philistines haven't gone anywhere, they have not disappeared from history, they still live in the same place where their ancestors lived, and have intermingled even further since the Islamic conquest of the region in the 7th century AD. There are even greater details that I could cite  from the text of Moses in Genesis and of Asaph in Psalm 83, but this should serve to make the point I have made sufficiently.

Now, to be clear, I have assumed Dr. Thomas Ice actually wrote and is therefore responsible for the whole of "Consistent Biblical Futurism (Part 10)" and the errors I have cited here; that Part 10 wasn't just some cut and pasted work done by an intern within his ministry. Nevertheless, the error is a significant one in my opinion, and should preclude Dr, Ice's from publishing and widely distributing a personal attack and Scripturally-incorrect article like his "Consistent Biblical Futurism (Part 10)" has turned out to be. This is something I ordinarily would never have expected to see published on the Pre-Trib Research Center's website, and that is truly just a crying shame.

Global SITREP A27-13: How Stupid is Bashar al-Assad?

Al-Kibar September 2007: Before (left) and After (right)

05 September 2013: This Saturday marks the 6th anniversary of Israel's September 7, 2007 destruction of Bashar al-Assad's attempt to complete the construction of a North Korean-designed nuclear reactor known as Al-Kibar. Al-Kibar was to have been a plutonium reactor for the specific purpose of producing weapons grade fissile cores for nuclear weapons. This is particularly relevant today in that the question posed by many media pundits of late relates directly to "How Stupid is Bashar al-Assad."  As this timely Israeli-preempted endeavor amply illustrates, Bashar al-Assad has already proven beyond any doubt that he and his closest allies and advisors are absolutely capable of being in the category of world-class tin-foil hatter stupid.

The recent question whether or not Bashar al-Assad would be as stupid with his existing and quite considerable chemical and biological weapons as he was with his desire for nuclear weapons capability is, as former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld would likely have framed it, "a known known."  Of course he would and will use these weapons of mass destruction, otherwise there would be no purpose in his possession of them. This is true of all nations which possess such weaponry. If a human being or a group of human beings possess a club, or a stick and a stone, or a bow and an arrow, or a bullet and a rifle, or a rocket with a WMD warhead -- it will be used. This logic has been proven throughout the course of human history. However, the more radical, the  more fanatical, or ideologically or apocalyptically motivated that group of human being is towards their enemies the more the likelihood increases for the use of their most fearsome weapons against their enemies. This is not rocket science. It is fact, Biblically prophetic fact at that.

I have just made the case for a full-scale, no holds barred preemption of both Syria's and Iran's weapons of mass destruction capabilities before they can use them against their enemies. That means us. All sides in the current conflict appear to have adopted the conclusion that the coming war in the Middle East is an inevitability; that there is no chance of walking this one back; that an object in motion tends to stay in motion. So if its war, then we have no other option but to ensure that we dictate its outcome in advance. 

My previous arguments pointing to why our going to war have been based upon falsehoods have fallen upon many deaf ears and blind eyes. These leaders believe they can manage this coming war like one manages the harvesting of turnips from field to truck to market. They are fools. World-class. The first thing that happens in any war is that all plans and anticipated management techniques are killed off in the first engagement with the enemy. And that is saying a lot because based upon the briefing our top military commander gave to various Congressional committees in the past day we have no established warfighting objective here; we're going to be winging it freelance style.

Now I say we must execute this war as the image above indicates Israel executed its preemption of Bashar al-Assad's nuclear ambitions -- leave absolutely nothing but flattened, glass-encrusted dirt and be done with it. Given the manner in which Obama has rundown and castrated our military forces in the past five years anything less than this guarantees that my young sons and your young sons (and daughters) are destined to be boots on yet another Middle Eastern battlefield because current conditions guarantee a re-institution of a military draft. Another Middle Eastern battlefield is the last place I want any of them to be in because it is hell.

Global SITREP A26-13: The Syrian Crisis Phase Two

CVN-68 USS NIMITZ Carrier Strike Group Eleven (CSG-11)

2 September 2013: The Labor Day holiday weekend is still in full-swing in the United States, but our Sailors, Marines and Combat Pilots are still in the thick of the potential conflagration in the Middle East this morning. One little known secret is that should push come to shove in Syria or in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, our military forces will come under fire from within the Syrian air and sea defense systems by Russian "volunteers" who have recently taken up stations manning those Russian-made defense systems for Bashar al-Assad's government as a part of Russia's commitment to defend its Syrian ally.

Key Syrian government forces of Bashar al-Assad (land and air) and their Iranian and Hezbollah allies have mostly gone into an underground and heavily fortified redoubt. This redoubt is a just completed 32 by 36 mile contiguous bunker complex in the Coastal Mountain Range just northwest of Damascus. It can accommodate more than one million individuals plus the entire Syrian army. It has supplies for a three-year siege and an integrated hydro-electric power grid. There are underground airbases within this complex, as well as missile silos and artillery positions. It will prove to be a tough nut to crack being a much larger and natural version of Hitler's Atlantic Wall of WWII. This Syrian military redoubt will make any adventure begun by Obama a very long and expensive one that he cannot afford. The only effective response to missiles fitted with Syrian chemical warheads launched  from within this 1,152 square mile fortified under-mountain defensive position might well prove to be a nuclear response.

As I predicted a week ago, CVN-68 USS Nimitz (also known as CSG-11) has been moved into a position in the Red Sea from which a strike on Syria can be launched. This is a move that may or may not involve a transit into the already crowded eastern Mediterranean Sea through the Suez Canal and deeply troubled Egypt. It is no secret that President Obama is in very hot water with the Egyptian interim government for his unwavering support of the Muslim Ikhwan (Brotherhood).

For the record, the other ships of CSG-11 with the Nimitz now in the northern Red Sea are the  USS Princeton (CG-59); USS Stockdale (DDG-106); USS William P. Lawrence (DDG-110); USS Shoup (DDG-86) and the USS Higgins (DDG-76). The embarked airwing of CVW-11 includes (VFA = Fighter Strike Wing) VFA-146, VFA-147, VFA-154; (VAW = Carrier Early Warning) VAW-117, (VAQ = Electronic Attack Squadron) VAQ-142; Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron Six, and VMFA-323 (Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 323). It should also go without saying that US nuclear submarines are a part of this mix.

The military forces of more than a half-dozen nations are now crowded into the Middle East, from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, and from the Arabian Sea to the Persian Gulf, are on tenterhooks in anticipation of hostilities erupting without further notice. Frontline nations Turkey (which is on high alert and still wanting payback for the 2012 shoot-down of one of its reconnaissance aircraft by Syria) and Jordan have a mix of both NATO and Arab land combat and antimissile forces arrayed, as does Israel, the most powerful and nuclear-armed nation in the entire region. And it could all erupt should U.S. President Barack Hussein Obama decide to fire a "warning shot" without US Congressional approval and with the vast majority of We The People of the United States of America against such action being taken.

3 September 2013: The results of an ongoing poll at the DrudgeReport.com as of 06:20 this morning to the question:  

GIVE OBAMA AUTHORITY TO CONDUCT MILITARY OPERATION IN SYRIA?

YES: 8.35% (20,247 votes)

NO:  91.65% (222,175 votes)

Total votes: 242,422

This is a poll in which the IP of the voter is recorded; a second attempt to vote by that IP is not accepted. That means the votes reflect an accurate sampling of how individual Americans are responding to the question. These results clearly indicate a 10:1 ratio AGAINST Obama conducting any military operation in Syria.  By the way, the Administration has not preliminarily briefed members of Congress about a single strike, but on their plan for a continuing series of strikes against Syria.

In this extremely tense military environment, reports are just coming in from both the US, Israel and Russian military sources that the US and Israel have just conducted and completed a ballistic missile interception test with at least two objects being tracked and having fallen into open waters of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Sending a message to al-Assad and the Ayatollah no doubt.

Another item that is dated but extremely important to know is that the Obama Administration is issuing a bald-faced lie when they say that the Syrian rebels do not possess chemical weapons. To the contrary, the rebel faction aligned with Al Qaeda, Jabhat al-Nusra, was caught red-handed with 2kg (4lbs) of sarin gas. The sarin was seized from them by Turkish authorities during a raid as reported on 30 May 2013 by the Turkish daily newspaper Today's Zaman.

This is extremely important because Russia intends to use this incident to prove before the whole world, most likely in the UN Security Council, that the Obama Administration is hiding the truth and politicizing intelligence to suit its own aggressive agenda against Syria. In fact, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov predicted that the Obama Administration would do exactly this less than three months ago when he demanded that the Turkish government release all of the information regarding its seizure of the rebel jihadists sarin gas. Said Lavrov, “I do not rule out that some force may want to use it [Syrian chemical weapons] to say that the “red line” has been crossed and a foreign intervention is needed.” This statement was carried in the Turkish media but it was not picked up or repeated in Western media, particularly in the United States.

According to an excellent and extremely well-connected source comes new intel that Russia intends to fight for Syria. Russia has dispatched (re-routed actually) some very significant firepower from its Northern Fleet which has been exercising in the Atlantic. The Slava-class guided missile cruiser Moskva (image above) with Admiral Aleksandr Vitko, Commander Black Sea Fleet, embarked is enroute via the Strait of Gibraltar (with three other major surface combatant platforms) to take command of the entire Russian Mediterranean Sea flotilla off Syria. The Russian Mediterranean Sea flotilla will soon also include the extremely silent water-jet propelled hunter-killer (modified Kilo-class) submarine Alrosa.

Isaiah 17: An Unfulfilled Prophecy!

Update 1 September 2013: Considering the very high volume of reader interest is this blog item I am moving it forward from the original posting date to the present. It is the position of Eschatology Today that Isaiah 17 is fast approaching the date of its literal fulfillment in our day.

12 February 2012: It has come to my attention recently through Christian foum posts and Email exchanges that there are Bible prophecy teachers today who are teaching that the prophesied destruction of Damascus by Isaiah (Chapter 17) was fulfilled in 723 BC in the Assyrian conquest of Aram-Damascus by Tiglath-Peleser.

I am going to be very blunt about this: such teaching does not originate from within the Word of God. Period.

Damascus was not destroyed in the Assyrian conquest. Damascus did not "cease from being a city," and it was not reduced to "a heap of ruins" as prophesied by Isaiah.

The conclusive answer to this question originated elsewhere within God's Word. The Assyrian conquest of Aram-Damascus in 732 BC is discussed in detail in 2 Kings 16. 2 Kings 16 is the Lord's historical record.

As the 2 King 16 historical record points out Judah's king Ahaz instigated Tiglath-Peleser of Assyria to launch an invasion of Aram-Damascus which then was under the reign of king Rezin. Moreover, it was Judah's king Ahaz who paid for the Assyrian invasion of Aram-Damascus with gold and silver he took from the Temple in Jerusalem.

Then we read in 2 Kings 16:9:

"So the king of Assyria heeded him; for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it, carried its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin."

In the very next verse (verse 10) we see Judah's king Ahaz meeting with Assyria's king Tiglath-Peleser in the city of Damascus. Clearly the city of Damascus was not destroyed in any manner, and most certainly not according to the prophecy of Isaiah 17. The Aramean population of Aram-Damascus was deported as the Assyrian standard operating procedure following a conquest dictated. The Assyrians then re-populated the city with people from elsewhere within the empire and Damascus has remained a settled city continuously for the past 2,744 years.

There are these additional facts which have been known to scholars and historical researchers for thousands of years.

• Damascus was still mentioned in Assyrian sources in 727, 720, and 694 B.C.E. and even as late as the reign of Ashurbanipal (668–627 B.C.E.).

• Assyrian decline led to Damascus being taken over by Pharoah Necho II of Egypt circa 610 BC. Damascus then fell to the Babylonians when Pharoah Necho II lost the epic Battle of Carchemish in 605 BC.

• In the Persian period, Damascus was an important administrative center, and may have been the capital of the satrapy of Trans-Euphrates (cuneiform, ebir nãri; Aram. avar nahara [Ezra:4:10, etc.]; Heb. ever ha-nahar [Ezra 8:36; Neh. 2:7, 9]).

• Circa 333 BC there occurred the conquest of Damascus under the rule of Darius III of Persia by Alexander the Great. Damascus was thereafter a Macedonian colony and the capital city of Coele-Syria and Phoenicia to 111 BC.

• Then to the Roman times when Damascus was conquered from the Seleucid's by Roman General Pompey in 64 BC, and of course, the many references to Damascus in the New Testament.

Let this information serve as an attention-getting red-flag to all Christian prophecy teachers who are incorrectly interpreting and teaching Isaiah 17 to their lay people and those who read their work online or in periodicals.

Let these teachers take note and make the required correction immediately. Since 2 Kings 16 does not tell us that Damascus ceased "from being a city," that it became "a ruinous heap" at the hands of Assyria's Tiglath-Pileser, then what would the correct prophecy teaching regarding Isaiah 17 be?

Obviously, Isaiah 17 is an unfulfilled prophecy!