13 May 2014: Until very recently when Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin commenced its campaign of aggressive westward-oriented territorial enlargement, it had begun to look like NATO was fast becoming an alliance without an adversary. The military drawdown in Afghanistan in 2014 was supposed to herald the end of NATO combat operations that had been in progress in Central Asia for the past thirteen years. Now, thanks to Russian ill-timed military belligerence against its neighbors, all bets are off when it comes to NATO becoming an irrelevant military alliance. The post-Soviet trend that had been in existence from 1991 to April 2014 has suddenly become the thing with R.I.P. freshly engraved on its tombstone.
While the Russian conquest of Crimea will have to stand the test of time in order to become something of a permanent reality, it is the threats against the rest of Ukraine and the whole of Eastern Europe, from Finland to Romania, which now has NATO's undivided attention. As duly noted in Kim Zigfeld's must read article "Putin and the Dogs of War" published today at AmericanThinker.com, what had not been under active consideration a little over 30 days ago is now on the front burner in Finland and Sweden:
"Those facing Russia at close range have few illusions about what the future holds for them. Two-thirds of Finnish generals and the prime minister believe that Finland, long independent, must now join NATO in order to protect itself from potential Russian aggression."
The United States and Europe's current leadership may be decidedly liberal and openly socialist, but they're not stupid, and most certainly they are not suicidal. They recognize when they have been lied to repeatedly, irregardless of whether the liar is the president of the Russian Federation or the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. A "peace at all costs" mindset is not something that has a particularly long life expectancy in the face of blatant military aggression as occurred against Czechoslovakia little more than generation ago, or would survive Iranian Ayatollah Obi Wan Khameini's attempt to wave his hand and say "These are not the Exploding Bridgewire Detonators (EBW) that you're looking for," or "Our nuclear weapons are only for peaceful purposes."
In this environment I think we should expect that in the coming months a search will begin in earnest among the transatlantic elite for a strong, willful and charismatic leader for the NATO alliance. Someone who can look either Putin or the Iranian wannabe al-Mahdi straight in the eye and make them both blink and swallow hard. Someone to replace the ineffectual leadership at the E3/EU+3 and Iran Talks in Vienna. That's my forward leaning observation of the current situation.
I don't know, sean. A strong, willful NATO leader doesn't seem to fit with Ezekiel 38:13. I tend to lean the other way, for now anyway. I will concede that they still may look, and even find a strong leader who will stare Putin down.....except when it comes to Israel. I guess the question right now is do the western powers offer a weak and toothless protest out of weakness or simply out of lack of any concern for Israel.
ReplyDeleteI do understand you hartdawg...
ReplyDeleteI understand you're saying that you think the duration of the prophetic event detailed in Ezekiel 38/39 is long-term;
that the invasion coming against Israel will not be a blitzkrieg-like event that will commence and conclude almost as quickly as it is begun;
that there will be plenty of time after-the-fact for the Western elite to engage in in a slow, methodically deliberate search for a strong, willful, charismatic leader for the alliance;
that the wealthy, politically and militarily powerful Western elite are ignoring the clear and present danger which this 'Gog of Magog' (a/k/a V.V. Putin of "Holy Mother Russia") is now manifestly presenting both himself and Russia to them;
that a man who is strong, willful and charismatic does not comport with how so very many traditional Bible commentators have preemptively taught as being a weak, ineffectual, and outright cowardly response from the Arabian-Western allies to the sudden appearance of Gog's armies coming against Israel.
Believe me, this interpretative view is entirely understandable if one is focused solely on the lone and somewhat less than completely descriptive verse of Ezekiel 38:13.
However, what would happen to that particular mindset and the view it engenders of being completely divorced from what the angel Gabriel has prophesied about the antichrist in a fully descriptive explanation of the vision Daniel had in the third year of Belshazzar as he stood by the river Ulai in Elam (i.e. the Karkheh River in Khuzestan province, in the present-day Islamic Republic of Iran).
Perhaps it is about time for a fresh, Berean, big-picture look at ALL of the vividly descriptive details that are available within the text Daniel 8.
In the meantime, there will be parliamentary elections in the EU (Euro parliament to be renewed for the 5 years to come) at the end of May in which far right and other forces hostile to the EU will progress a lot. Expect something huge, currently they are nearly non existent in the assembly that was elected in 2009.
ReplyDeleteSo I think both the outside (Putin) and inside (euroskeptics) threats to EU's current leadership will force a change. To face these threats, EU will need a strong and charismstic personality at the helm.
So both EU and Nato may well see dramatic change of leadership in the coming months.
Antichrist on the rise?
Again, we need to pay very close attention to the details within the Book of Daniel.
ReplyDeleteThe text of both Daniel 7 and Daniel 8 are out of the historical sequence of the other chapters of the Book.
Daniel 8 is set in the 3rd year of Belshazzar's reign, yet we all know from Daniel 5:30 that Belshazzar was slain in the nighttime by the invading Medes and Persians. I have never heard any Bible teacher satisfactorily explain why this is so.
So, I asked the Lord to explain it if it be His will.
Daniel 7 and 8 are reinforced by Daniel 9 through 12, and they must be studied as a whole, continuous stream of prophetic teaching, especially about the emergence of the antichrist and the kingdom he will control. It's all there, but must be properly arranged by the student of Bible prophecy.
Take this knowledge and use it to understand Revelation 13.
I totally understand what you mean about Daniel 7, 8 and 9 being studied as a whole (and might I add chapter 2 as well) if not studied as a whole then how would we know that the "Prince who will come" is the antichrist? The author assumes in Daniel 9 that we are familiar with who the "prince who will come" is, yet many careless scholars, not really scholars, assume the prince is referring to Jesus
ReplyDeleteThat that leader they are looking for might eventually offer Israel a 7 year peace treaty?
ReplyDeleteMaranatha!
Mark
hartdawg,
ReplyDeleteYessir, that's exactly right!
Maranatha Mark,
Yup, and that is how antichrist will be revealed... by confirming a 7-year treaty/alliance/covenant among many nations.
The key operative Hebrew words from Daniel 9:27 are gabar bĕriyth.
Speaking of NATO, it is now no closely held secret that a military contingency operation involving a number NATO ground troops going ashore in the continually crumbling disaster that is Libya is in advanced stages of execution.
ReplyDeleteThe WashingtonExaminer.com filed this report yesterday on the forward deployment of 200 US Marines from their base in Spain to Sicily. Most likely this Marine force has been forward deployed at NAS Sigonella prior to an entry into Libya.
Libya has become a lawless ground zero for thousands of Islamic jihadists as a direct result of the NATO operation which made possible the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi's regime.
Eschatologically speaking, per Bible prophecy that is, the Libyans (Luwbiy) are very clearly and concisely identified as being under the full military control of the coming "Roman" antichrist in Daniel 11:43, as are Egyptians (Mitsrayim) and the Cushites (Kuwshiy of the Horn of Africa (Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia).
This is yet another example of how real-world events being reported in the open source news reports of today can be viewed as the precursory stage-setters of the undeniable prophetic fulfillments in the near future.