Global SITREP E11-14: 2014 Year-Ending Current Events

UPDATE 31 December 2014: This is the final SITREP update for the year 2014 and it will touch upon a couple of items that I think have strong chances of leading to prophetic fulfillments or furthering the potential for fulfillment in 2015.

Top of the list is the defeat of a Palestinian Authority attempt to force the statehood issue via a UN Security Council resolution this past Tuesday (30 DEC). The resolution required 9 of the 15 UNSC members to vote for it. It fell one vote shy of that mark. This means that its failure makes the nuts and bolts of the non-debated resolution a moot point, and that's a good thing because I would rather focus on a more important element - the fact that most "Palestinians" were opposed to it.  Had the vote passed it would have legitimized a two-state solution and that is something most "Palestinians" and all Muslims are dead set against. They want Israel to die and soon, preferably prior to 2017.

That brings me to the second item. As reported directly below HAMAS and the sum of all the terrorist forces in Gaza believe they are fully prepared to resume war with Israel. The two primary military forces of HAMAS in Gaza, Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and the National Security Forces just completed within the past couple of days a series of very complex exercises with which they plan to commence hostilities - assaulting and seizing IDF observation posts, and then taking both living and deceased IDF troops back into Gaza as hostages. Full and exquisitely detailed reporting on HAMAS' war planning can be read and seen in video via this embedded link to The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. It is my contention that this is how the final fulfillment of the entire Psalm 83 prophetic scenario will begin... and end for the so-called "Palestinian" cause. The will likely not survive the next war.

One last thing for 2014. You have got to see this amazing technology that has been developed in France and Israel. Meet the Cicret Bracelet!

25 December 2014: This is a follow up to what I wrote below on 20 December. In today's edition of YNet news we find this report: "Clock Ticking Fast Towards Next Round of Gaza Fighting." The article's author, Yossi Yehoshua, wrote in his analysis of the current situation, "The worse Hamas' financial distress becomes - and the later international air arrives - the more the organization will fire at Israel." This confirms what I wrote in my own analysis here five days ago. The international aid referenced above MUST be delivered according to the internationally brokered ceasefire agreement to HAMAS' possession via Fatah and the Palestinian Authority(PA). At this time the PA is not inclined to provide HAMAS with so much as a shekel. So HAMAS fires rockets and allows snipers to shoot without warning at IDF soldiers as occurred yesterday, Wednesday, 24 December, thereby triggering a cross-border firefight between the IDF and HAMAS. Something just like this could cause the whole tenuous situation to rip wide open.

24 December 2014: Eschatology Today has NOT forgotten about the still unexplained disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 and its passengers, and neither the aircraft nor the passengers will ever be forgotten as long as this blog exists.  There was an article published by Western Journalism.com yesterday that was brought to my attention by a retired CIA field officer I have known for well over a decade now. The headline of the article: Shocking New Malaysia Airlines MH370 Claim Made By Aviation Expert Could Solve The Mystery.  Via this embedded link you can read for yourselves the content of that important article. What I will note is that the details in the article tends to confirm what I wrote in this blog (linked above) back in March 2014 regarding both Diego Garcia and the Maldives Islands.

Oh, by the way, someone has asked (anonymously), "What has MH-370 to do with Bible prophecy?" Well, anonymous, I believe the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH-370 and the 239 souls on-board has everything to do with Jesus Olivet Discourse prophecy (Matthew 24:12) about "lawlessness multiplied" as a sign indicating "the end of the age."

23 December 2014: Within a very few hours of North Korea (DPRK) issuing a direct threat against the White House, the Pentagon and the whole of the continental United States, somebody, nobody knows who exactly, turned off the North Korean connections to the global internet. Not just one plug was pulled, but all of them, and there are many routes that provide internet connectivity between North Korea and the world-at-large. The total disconnect lasted for about 9 hours and during that time it was as if North Korea had ceased to exist as far as the World Wide Web is concerned. Somebody has a very powerful information technology (IT) tool in their cyberwar arsenal to be able to completely make an entire nation's IT infrastructure disappear from the world IT map. The hack of the Sony Corporation servers was bad enough, but what was just done to North Korea makes the Sony hack look like Camp Fire Girls at play.

20 December 2014: This update is to inform so that no one should be caught unawares when full-scale war erupts without warning in HAMAS continuing war against Israel. It could literally begin at any moment. The key you have to knowing when this war will re-erupt is watching the news for anything regarding the current jihadi feud between HAMAS and Fatah. Specifically, if the tenuous relationship between HAMAS and Fatah collapses then renewed war against Israel will erupt without warning. The IDF and State of Israel are not unaware of this fact.

17 December 2014: Is Recent History a Primer to the Literal Fulfillment of Bible Prophecy?

In 1918 following The Great War (WWI) imperial Germany under the Kaiser (Caesar) endured a revolution. In 1919 following the revolution a new new constitution was adopted and the Wiemar Republic was born. For the next decade the Weimar Republic faced economic hardship and a debt burden imposed by the Western Allies that was brought to a head by an economic collapse known as the Great Depression. In 1930 emergency dictatorial rule came to the Weimar Republic which ultimately found total collapse which resulted in the rise of the Nazi Third Reich under Adolf Hitler in 1933. In just 6 years time thereafter World War II erupted.

Fast forward to 1991 when after four decades of the so-called Cold War (it was anything but cold) the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved and ceased to exist due to  unrelenting economic stagnation and political collapse that had been building over the previous decade. A following a very brief civil war/coup d'etat an independent Russian Federation was created. Now after 23 years the Russian Federation is itself on the verge of total economic and political collapse. One day ago the Russian Federation's currency collapsed leaving President Vladimir Putin and his ruling oligarchs with a national crisis they almost certainly will blame the West for due to its imposition of economic sanctions and the effect of American oil shale on the global market which has collapsed oil prices. Half of Russia's economy depends on oil.

The conditions may now be right for Russia to find itself once again in a totalitarian dictatorship, one foretold by the prophet Ezekiel two and a half millennia ago. We may now bear witness to the sudden rise of Gog of Magog, chief prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, who will find it necessary to play the ongoing Russian military adventure gambit to the hilt and in a direction other than that which the LORD God will ultimately take him via some supernatural hooks.

15 December 2014: With just about two weeks remaining in 2014 it seems like a good idea to fashion a year-ending SITREP to take a look at prophetic themes becoming manifest at the present time. Nobody knows what 2015 may bring, but all things considered it's hard to see anything but danger ahead.

One of the most persistent eschatological themes is of a world governance that will come under the control of the Antichrist during the 70th Week prophesied by the angel Gabriel. I have on more than one occasion opined on this blog about certain leaders of government, industry and finance in the West following an agenda pursuant to the establishment of a body of world governance, all the while steering clear of any hint of the more conspiratorial theories out there which I have always held at the end of a ten-foot pole. 

However, in a speech given this past Friday in the Senate chamber by a Republican Conservative and true American patriot, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, there sprang forth a quote which minces no words regarding the aforementioned agenda, and could be placed on the same page and in the same ink as quotes from many of this Republic's founding fathers. Stated Senator Sessions, "These super-elites in Washington and Wall Street dream of a world without borders, a paradise where things like laws and rules and national boundaries don’t get in the way of their grand chimera."  The full text of this Senator Sessions' speech is available here. 

And in case there is any doubt about which eschatological theme I am linking Senator Sessions quote to, let me say that it is beyond the most often referenced last days themes of wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes. I am referring to the last days theme of lawlessness. We Americans have seen an incredible abundance of lawlessness in very recent days. Our Constitution is our law; it is the law of this land.  For the most part it is based upon entitled truths which our founding fathers held to that were self-evident due to the fact that they were based upon "the Laws of nature and Nature's God."

Those founding fathers in the Congress of the 13 original united States wrote and individually signed their fifty-six names to the Declaration of Independence stating that that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." They then crafted and ratified the Constitution to enumerate the powers of three co-equal branches of human governance and reserved those powers not enumerated to the States or to the people. When blatant and ongoing usurpation of the enumerated and non-enumerated powers occurs via executive fiat and memorandum that is called lawlessness, and lawlessness is against the consent of the governed and therefore it is also against God. And here we sit in near total silence. Has our national motto become "In Lies We Trust"?

Lawlessness is one of the signs of which our Lord Jesus Christ spoke during the Olivet Discourse as recorded in Matthew 24:12. There are many types of lawlessness and if you read your local newspaper or favorite online news source you can probably find in today's edition a half-dozen or more examples of rampant lawlessness both here in the U.S. but also the world over. 

How about protestors in New York City this past weekend calling for the immediate deaths of law enforcement officers? How about a Muslim jihadist supporter of the Islamic State just overnight holding dozens in a Sydney, Australia Lindt chocolate shop and cafe? Or how about the President of the United States, one of the above referenced "super-elites", engaging the lawlessness of unconstitutional executive fiat, not by Executive Order mind you, but by a mere memorandum which has no standing whatsoever in American law. We fought a revolution against the British Empire nearly 240 years ago to put an end to this type of lawlessness. Does history repeat? And what of the lawlessness in the U.S. Department of Education! Oops, did I say education? Pardon me, I meant  to say the U.S. Department of Indoctrination.

Now read Jesus' words again and try to imagine a world where such abounding lawlessness causes to love of many to grow cold. These current events and examples of lawlessness raise my righteous indignation precipitously, but for them to cause my love to grow cold? Perish the thought!

When Jesus said 'wars and rumors of wars' He wasn't just speaking about the Middle East, he was talking about planet earth in general. While we mainly place our focus on the Middle East, there are very serious wars going on in the periphery, and this is the reason for the maps above. North-central Africa is the location of a great deal of warfare these days, and most if not all of that is due to the Muslim jihadists known as Boko Haram.  The warfare at present is centered on the region defined by Lake Chad. The Republic of Cameroon recently found itself the object of an invasion by Boko Haram when a thousand or more jihadists crossed lake Chad by boat to attack along a broad front encompassing eight different towns and villages. After days of firefights the Cameroonian soldiers fought off the jihadists and chased them back into Lake Chad where many of their boats were sunk leaving the jihadists to their fate of drowning or as prey to crocodiles. Wherever war occurs, disease and other pestilence soon follows, and Lord knows Africa due west of where this fighting occurred is the epicenter of the current Ebola epidemic. Things here will get much, much worse in 2015.

Most of us awoke to the horror of the Taliban jihadist assault in Pakistan on Tuesday, 16 December. Over 140 people, the vast majority children between the ages of 12 and 16 were gunned down or blown up or burned to death in school. Why do I mention this here? because this is precisely the type of attack the jihadists have long promised (for the better part of ten years now) to bring into one or more American elementary schools. There was the school massacre in Beslan, Russia, and now in Peshawar, Pakistan. Sometown, USA will be next. It's a near certainty as the U.S. becomes more lawless and more like a third-world country with every day that passes because we are allowing it to happen across our lawless borders which are undefended by a lawless federal government.

Another item that doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves is the insane amount of deadly radiation that continues to pour into the Pacific Ocean from the several crippled Japanese nuclear reactors at Fukushima. Beta radiation levels are reportedly upwards of 50,000% higher than what they were one year ago, or even just a few months ago this past summer. The great ocean conveyor current and prevailing westerly winds have raised radiation levels in the continental United States to very unsafe levels, and not just along the US West Coast. Locations such as Phoenix and Tucson Arizona where beta radiation levels at 10 and 21 times government safe standards are comparable to levels in Chicago, Illinois; Montgomery, Alabama and Madison, Wisconsin where the greatly exceed the 1000 beta radiation CPM (counts per minute) which Uncle Sam knows very well to be a serious health issue. Or in the city of my birth, San Diego, beta radiation levels are now 60 times higher than they were one year ago. What you don't know about, or can't see, can kill you... slowly. You can read all of this and more yourself at the EnviroReporter.com website. The good news, if it can be called that, is Fukushima and these current beta radiation levels are not even close to what will occur at the Second and Third Trumpets of Revelation 8, but it would appear that we're getting a slight foretaste of of those events.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP E12-14: 2015 War on the Islamic State

Generic image of an American airborne assault in the Middle East

26 December 2014: Things have progressed to the point where one final SITREP is indeed required to close out the current year.  I believe there is now no doubt that despite all claims to the contrary by the Obama Administration, large numbers of elite American combat troops are returning to staging areas in Kuwait and Iraq, and possibly even the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, in order to close with, engage in ground combat and utterly destroy the forces of the newly declared Caliphate, the Islamic State.  I believe this to be the case because otherwise there would be no reason for the U.S. State Department to have published a little more than two weeks ago its case for an "Authorization for use of Military Force against ISIL (Islamic State). In modern parlance, that amounts to a de facto U.S. declaration of war against the Islamic State.

The initial element of the American "boots on the ground" contribution to the component land forces of the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) engaged and decimated a sizable Islamic State force that was attempting to overrun the Ein al-Asad Air Base in Iraq's Anbar Province. The two-hour battle occurred on Sunday morning, 14 December between 0100 and 0300 hours in the al-Dolab region, approximately 6 miles from the perimeter of the air base. Within the next month an additional 1,300 elite US airborne troops will deploy. This deployment will include an entire Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division, Ft. Bragg, NC (hence the image above).

Another Western power contributing combat troops to CJTF-OIR on the same January 2015 deployment schedule are "hundreds" of the United Kingdom's best troops according to the BBC and other UK news sources.  These two January 2015 deployments, I believe, will constitute the vanguard of other NATO ground forces being requested to deploy into Iraq. Germany may have to change its constitution in order for Chancellor Angela Merkel to make good on her pledge to send even more German combat troops to Iraq in support of CJTF-OIR objectives - unless NATO as a whole authorizes deployments as it did for combat operations in Afghanistan. 

With only five days to go before 2015 can officially be rung in as the New Year, we can already see that the deployment of American, British, German and likely other NATO combat forces into Mesopotamia will make for early headlines. Getting these forces into Syria might not be too far behind as 2015 progresses. The Syrian border cannot be permitted to provide sanctuary to the enemy's forces as had occurred all along the Afghan-Pakistan frontier.

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

Updated: 12 December 2014

There have been several updates applied within this part of the series. These updates are the result of ongoing study and research. The most profound of them is the view that the invading hordes of the Magog confederation's forces do not come to carry away the spoils of war, but rather they come to conquer the entire territory, the entire population and all of the wealth therein of the State of Israel as it will exist in the near-future of the post-Psalm 83, Isaiah 11:14 and Ezekiel 28:24-26 Middle East.

There are innumerable commentators who have discussed at length the identification of the nations comprising the Gog/Magog confederation which comes against Israel in the “latter days.” I will simply cite the Table of Nations found in Genesis 10 and provide the reader with this incredible map which graphically illustrates the distribution of the descendants of Noah. Those nations and their modern equivalents can be quickly located on this map.

In the concluding paragraph in Part 3 of this series, it was stated that another result of the War of Psalm 83 will be to precipitate the subsequent War of Gog/Magog so chillingly detailed in Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39 attended by destruction of Russia, Iran, Turkey, Libya, Sudan and a host of smaller Caucasian and Central Asian nations who will be drawn to their fates along with the enigmatic “Gog.” In consideration of the “who” and “when” aspects having been fairly well identified by so many commentators, this section will look at some other specific details concerning the “what,” “where” and “why” aspects of Ezekiel’s 2600-year old Divinely inspired prophecy.

What Did Ezekiel Say?

First let us examine some of Ezekiel’s descriptive vocabulary with the understanding that he was describing events and physical items of at least two and one half millennia into the future. To put ourselves in Ezekiel’s sandals, just imagine the difficulty of accurately describing full-scale warfare and identifying the specific combatants some 2,600 years into the future. Such hypothesizing would be a daunting task to be sure and quite likely unachievable in the absence of demonstrated God-given prophetic accuracy within the Holy Bible and to which we all surely testify to in these ‘last days. We will also look at the very specific reason of why Ezekiel was made to impart such specificity in his description of this coming war.

In Ezekiel 38:8 the prophet says that Israel has been qabats (gathered, assembled) against the har (mountains, hill country) of Israel. Har is the same word used in Exodus 15:17, denoting the place God has made and established for Israel to dwell in, which have always been waste. Since ancient times what we consider as Israel ‘proper,’ that sliver of land along the Mediterranean coast and west of the River Jordan between Lebanon and Egypt has not always been chorbah (waste), so what part of Israel does this har that has always been chorbah refer to? I believe it is that part of Israel which was encompassed in the ancient Kingdom of Israel ruled by David and Solomon and which included large swaths of territory east of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. This is the future Israel that will result from the literal, prophetic fulfillment of Psalm 83 as detailed in the portion of the map seen below.

I cite as further evidence of the not-so-distant future Israel expanding east of the Jordan River, and the specific location of the destruction of the Gog/Magog confederation armies, is identified in Ezekiel 39:11 where the prophecy states (emphasis added), “And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the [noses] of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call [it] the valley of Hamongog.”

The reader will note that the “valley of the Passengers” is firmly identified in this verse as being in Israel. It is within this specific valley where God long ago determined that Israel would someday bury the enemy hordes of the Gog/Magog confederation. At the present the valley of the passengers is located in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, but as a result of Psalm 83 will be located within the territorial boundaries of Israel. Ezekiel informs us that this valley of passengers is located “on the qidmah (east) of the yam (sea).” Since we’re in present day Jordan, then the sea referred to is the Dead Sea as seen on this next map.

“The valley of the Passengers” is bounded on the south by the 45-mile long Arnon River, strongly referenced in Numbers 21:14-15 and in Isaiah 16:2. The central town of this valley was known in ancient times as Dibon, or as the Israelite tribe of Gad called it Dibon-Gad. This town is currently known as Dhiban, and lies just north of ancient Aroer. (See Numbers 21:30, Numbers 32:34, and Numbers 33:45). In Joshua 13:17 this town was given to the tribe of Reuben. According to an entry at Biblos.com, "The form of the name, Dimon, in Isaiah 15 may have been given to make it resemble the Hebrew word dam, (blood) to support the play upon words in the verse." This is also consistent with the vivid description of the destruction God inflicts upon the Gog/Magog hordes. It does appear to this writer that modern Dhiban may well be officially renamed “Hamonah.” Indeed, if one executes a Google search today for “Hamonah” the first result will be a map identifying Dhiban, Jordan as Hamonah. Upon fulfillment of Ezekiel 38 and 39 the valley of the Passengers will then henceforth be known as the valley of Hamongog.

Ezekiel Identifies Many Nations!

It is interesting to note that Ezekiel also mentions other nations besides those of the Gog/Magog confederation. In chapter 38 verse 13 we are informed by Ezekiel that Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish with all the kefer (young lions) thereof appear to question the motives of the invading Gog/Magog horde.

Of these nations Sheba and Dedan clearly represent the Arabs of the peninsula, Saudi Arabia and Yemen respectively, who along with their western Arab Muslim al-ikhwan (brothers) have just recently had their Islamic world rocked an enfeebled as a direct result of the final battle of the Psalm 83 War. The Islamic “Allah” was proven to be a powerless, false moon god in head-to-head confrontation with YHWH, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel). Again, Psalm 83 reveals that the IDF will go to war against the combined armies of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and possibly a token military force from Iraq like a galgal (whirlwind) and sweep these Arab armies before them like so much qash (chaff) in the wind, so that these armies are bä’ar (consumed whole) as esh (fire) consumes an entire yahar (forest).

Thus it will be that the God of Israel will make Himself known to the Arab Muslims as the true God (Psalm 83:16-18). It is this realization of the one, true God of these formerly Muslim Arabs which has them inquire of Gog/Magog if their intent is solely the spoils of war, and intimating that any power in direct military confrontation with Almighty God will suffer the same totally consumed and burnt up fate as the combined Arab armies were previously.

The other nations are represented as ‘merchants of Tarshish’ and their kefer (young lions weaned and ravening of their own accord). These are clearly the commercial and maritime nations of the Western (Mediterranean) Sea and their former colonies across the Atlantic Ocean. Here we see what I would consider the best Biblical prophetic reference yet to the emergent world power of the European Union and their former colonies of the Western Hemisphere, from Canada to Chile.

Skipping forward to our final destination in The Revelation of Jesus Christ, note that it is the continental and economic base of Europe which is the primary power that is backed by the equally immense population and resources of the former colonies in the Western Hemisphere. This is the global militarily peerless power of approximately of 1.6 billion people that will emerge under the sudden emergence of an incredibly charismatic and immensely popular peacemaker. This global peacemaker, whom we know from Daniel 9:27, will gabar (confirm and give strength to) a bĕriyth (treaty, alliance or Global Constitution) among many nations for 7-years duration. This period is also known as Daniel’s 70^th Week (i.e. the Tribulation) destined to be disrupted at mid-point by the apparent assassination and seemingly miraculous recovery from a mortal head wound of the peacemaker. This man will be re-animated to life and totally indwelt by Satan himself. Enter the Antichrist.

When God Goes To War

Again, to set the stage we’re returning briefly to Ezekiel 38:8. In this verse not only are we informed through Ezekiel that this impending invasion form the tsaphown (the obscure, dark northern nations) will occur in the achariyth shaneh (latter years) but that Israel will be a eretz shuwb chereb which means a country, territory returned or restored through the sword, (warfare) and populated by the returning descendants of those Jews dispersed worldwide by the Roman wars of total conquest between 66-70 A.D. This is precisely, exactingly descriptive of how the modern Eretz Israel was re-born as described previously in Part I from the winter and spring of 1947-48 to the present, and yet still in the immediate future as a result of the imminent fulfillment of Psalm 83. It is into this land, a territorially expanded Israel that the multinational military hordes and nations of origin of the Gog/Magog alliance will be brought to their destruction through chach lechiy, hooks placed into the jaws of these enemies by God.

I am compelled to make a specific note at this point that there is not just one hook or one jaw, but plural "hooks" and "jaws." There are more than one hook and more than one jaw, or many hooks and many jaws. Secondly, the "hook" is not necessarily a "fish hook" as we might imagine. The Hebrew word is chach can mean a ring, like a nose ring as found Ezekiel Ch 29:4, or a bracelet, and both of which were run through the nose of wild animals in order to tame them. Often in Old Testament times a rope was attached to the ring or the bracelet to lead the animal to where the trainer wanted it to go. The next Hebrew word to note is lechiy which is a reference to the cheek of a man, or the jawbone of an animal.

Read and compare Ezekiel's use of this word with the text found in Isaiah 37:29. The purposes are literally identical, to "turn thee back". Therefore, the "hook" is a metaphor which represents the vehicle of the judgment that God has declared upon ALL of the nations of the Gog/Magog confederation. God Almighty has determined that His judgment is due to these nations which He considers to be no better than animals. It is God who nathan (gave, put or set) these devices of His choosing and by His sovereign will so that 5/6ths of these nations military forces will be drawn to their deaths in the Valley of the Passengers in what is today the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, but in that near-future time will have been conquered to become the land of Israel. God has from ancient times made the determination to nathan chach (set rings, hooks) into Gog/Magog and ALL of those nations to execute His Divine judgment of near total destruction (5/6ths) upon the entirety of that confederation of nations.

Additionally, in Ezekiel 38:10 we are introduced by the prophet to ra machashabah which transliterates in English as “an evil thought or evil plan.” That ra machashabah is the shalal, the spoil of war and source of the resultant coveting by the Gog/Magog alliance of Israel's expanded new territories, the sum of which contain newly acquired sources of wealth which are the net result of the final fulfillment of Psalm 83, Isaiah 11:14 and Ezekiel 28:24-26 and/or other additional or as yet possibly undiscovered vaults of oil, gas, precious stones, gold, silver or mineral wealth within the land of Israel’s expanded boundaries. The sum of all these things also result in the establishment of a new military reality and regional paradigm, first and foremost of which is that Israel will live in total security and fear no nation on this earth.

Moreover, the text of Ezekiel 38:12 is completely unambiguous about the fact that the Gog-led horde of enemy invaders intention is the complete and total conquest of Israel... meaning a conquest of all the land, all of its people and all of of the wealth they possess in that land. The entirety of the shalal (spoils) is everything that God has given to Israel in its rebirth to possess all the land under the Abrahamic Covenant. This is what the hordes led by Gog of Magog will come to take possession of. And make no mistake about this, they come to take what belongs to God. Ezekiel 38 verse 12 begins with a repetition of two Hebrew words: "Shalal shalal."  "Shalal shalal" transliterates to "a spoil a spoil," or more correctly in English as, "a spoil of a spoil."  This confirms that the Israel Gog's hordes come to take as their possession is one which Israel has already totally taken as their possession in total fulfillment of the three prophecies linked directly above.

And So They Will Come Against Israel

At the appointed time when this northern horde is mobilized and moves against a physically larger and prosperous Israel, the very face of the Lord will display the chemah, a burning rage which is manifest in his sending ‘esh ebrah, a supernatural excess of consuming fire against them. Simultaneous with this is sent a great gadowl ra’ash, an earthquake of intense shaking and magnitude with the epicenter in Israel will radiate outwards across the entire planet. These things are prophetic and unmistakeable signs which all people and living creatures of the Earth will both feel or experience with their senses directly; there will be no question among the people of Israel, or of the world, or among the wild animals that YHWH is the source. The Lord will get the entire world’s attention in the most unambiguous fashion.

When God Goes To War.

The voice of God will call out to His chosen weapons of war and the hordes of Gog/Magog will begin to slay one another. He will cause them to turn loose their weapons of deber (pestilence, plague, WMD) in the manner of shataph geshem (an overflowing raining down) of the ‘elgabyish ‘esh gopiryth (fiery pearls and breath of God) against themselves. The prophetic picture painted by Ezekiel is one of truly Divine “Shock and Awe.”

The Aftermath

The death, destruction and carnage will be truly horrific, so much so that when it is finished all the people who are gainfully employed full-time to cleanse the land will find are bones and shards of bones. Gog/Magog’s weapons of war will be used for fuel for the subsequent seven years. All Israel then returns to their covenant of faith with and in the Lord, for we see in Ezekiel 39:29
“Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.”

It is at this point I would suggest the reader turn to Romans 11:25-32 where we read:

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written,

“There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”

'As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.'

In comparing the text of Ezekiel 39:29 and that of Paul in Romans 11:25-32 does it appear to you, as it does to me, that at some point during this sequence of events the time of the Gentiles comes to its completion, and therefore the Church age, and thus the Harpazo and “catching up” of the Bride of Christ? Ezekiel 39:29 refers to the Lord pouring out His Spirit upon all Israel not in the past tense, but as something already accomplished. While no man can know for sure, surely the conclusion of this season, as these Spirit-filled writers attest, is surely at hand, even at the door.

Originally version posted on May 17, 2009.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

Part III

Part II

Part I

Global SITREP E10-14: Preemptive Strikes in the Al-Dimashq of Syria

Contrails assessed to be those of IAF strike aircraft over southern Syria

Update 09 December 2014: There is considerable and mounting evidence that Bashar al-Assad's military forces continues its unrelenting battlefield use of chemical weapons against the array of jihadist forces attacking the regime on all sides. Most recently Syrian government aircraft prevented the military air base at Deir Ez-Zor from being overwhelmed by Islamic State forces during a battle that raged on 6 and 7 December by hitting the IS attackers repeatedly with chlorine gas. Elsewhere, particularly in northern Syria, yellow-colored barrel bombs containing chlorine gas were successfully deployed from regime helicopters to repel al-Nusra in an engagement. The IS jihadists are also using chemical weapons, particularly in the siege warfare that is occurring around Kobani, Syria near the Turkish border according to Kurdish military sources. The specific type of toxic gas has not yet been identified. Does anyone doubt that no matter which side prevails in the Syrian war, eventually they will use their chemical weapons against Israel. See: Isaiah 17.

08 December 2014: In the last quarter of 2013 and first half of 2014 the Bashar al-Assad regime of Syria was forced by a binding agreement between the United States and Russia to divest itself completely of what was considered to be the world's second largest chemical weapons program. By October of this year the lion's share of that WMD capability had been destroyed under international supervision, even though Syria has retained, according to Israeli intelligence, a residual chemical weapons capability amounting to just under ten tons of material. The important thing to note about the US-Russian agreement is that it included a clause whereby foreign airstrikes against the Al-Assad regime would not occur again, and if they did Russia reserved the right to militarily intervene against the attacker in defense of the Syrian Al-Assad regime.

This is the reason behind the current Russian government anger and threats of direct military intervention in the wake of the alleged Israel Air Force strike on Sunday. Obviously the Syrians and the Russians believed the agreement would make Syria immune to any further IAF preemptive strikes on Syrian soil, and until just over 48 hours ago this was the reality they believed existed. However, from the Israeli perspective the agreement was not binding upon Israel in the event of significant ongoing weapons transfers to IRGC/Hezbollah in Lebanon from Syrian soil. The Russians and Syrians see the IAF strike as being directly related to the months-long prospect of the Turkish-US agenda to establish a "no-fly zone" for Syrian military aircraft over northern Syria and thereby directly inhibit its ability to defend against incessant Islamic State attacks along the entire length of the Turkish-Syrian border region. 

Within the cauldron that is Syria today boil the highlighted volatile ingredients for not only a wider regional war, but a war of intercontinental proportions.

07 December 2014: In a repeat of strikes that occurred in May 2013, it is my assessment that the IAF conducted preemptive strikes on specific military targets in the al-Dimashq (Damascus countryside) region of Syria. These targets included the military side of Damascus International Airport and the al-Dimas Air Base. As occurred in May 2013 the targets were advanced military hardware deliveries to Syria intended for IRGC/Hezbollah units in Lebanon.

Without detailed imagery from the sties which were attacked any identification of the military hardware would be speculative at best. However, based upon the targets destroyed in the May 2013 preemptive strikes these targets were most likely a combination of mobile air defense systems similar to the SA-8 Gecko platform or the Russian-made S-300 air defense missiles as well as ballistic missiles such as the Iranian Fateh-110.

Unlike the May 2013 strikes when Syria bit its tongue for several days, this time the al-Assad regime has immediately accused Israel in the attacks. In one just released video taken by a Syrian observer from a safe distance large secondary detonations were occurring at the target site. Below is a screen capture of a secondary detonation from that video.

Secondary detonations

Secondary detonations tend to indicate that these weapons were fueled and/or were armed and had not just arrived at the target sites. Another possibility might be that these weapons were staged and prepared to fire against Islamic State targets elsewhere in Syria. In either eventuality Israel cannot stand down when such weaponry is being prepared for firing. This possibility might also explain the al-Assad regime's immediate reaction to the strikes. Also of note is the fact that once again, as in previous IAF preemptive strikes on Syrian soil, there was absolutely zero Syrian air defense reaction. The IAF can operate with impunity in Syrian skies.

Global SITREP E9-14: Israel's Zero Hour - The Gibor Option

2 December 2014: PM Bibi Netanyahu has fired from their cabinet positions Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Finance Minister Yair Lapid and will shortly dissolve the Knesset in order to hold new elections. This is what most of the corporate media are reporting. I would report that the government of PM Netanyahu finally collapsed as a direct result of the failed Operation Protective Edge and rampant infighting within Netanyahu's governing coalition. I would also report that I am surprised it took this long for the collapse to occur. Bibi has other problems to deal with, namely installing the next Chief of Staff (likely Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot) and Deputy Chief of Staff (likely Maj. Gen. Yair Golan) of the IDF into their respective positions without much  ado and further political turmoil. Once this dust settles we may get a clearer picture of what 2015 may hold in store. The average religious Israeli is probably wondering, "Where's our Moshiach ben Yossef when we need him?"

27 November 2014: A year and ten days ago I posted to Eschatology Today the final update for the fictional Operation Gibor: Iran Strike Scenario Simulation. That very realistic scenario was crafted in the heady days of years gone by when everybody, even the Obama Administration, was hand-wringing in great expectancy over the very real prospect of an Israeli preemptive airstrike against the Iranian nuclear program. Many reports held that the Saudi's and the GCC states had given their tacit assent to IAF overflights during the mission. Iran would not be forewarned. 

For all intents and purposes most military observers and analysts now assess that the previously existent 'window of opportunity' for a long-range IAF preemptive strike spearheaded by F-16I Sufa and F-15I Ra'am aircraft has been closed. Israel, under the leadership of PM Bibi Netanyahu, took a very high-stakes gamble and aborted a planned airstrike at the last minute, most recently in 2012, according to most knowledgeable accounts. The aborted preemptive was in deference to Israel's supposed US and EU allies whose sanctions and negotiations with the Hojjatieh-led Iran had to be given a minimum of a fortuitous opportunity to succeed. 

Now in late 2014, the "really bad deal" of 2013 has given way to the utter failure of the P5+1 negotiations with Iran. Truth is - they never had any chance of success to begin with. If you've not done so already, just watch the MEMRI video embedded in SITREP E8 below to see the epic P5+1 failure in living color. Another seven to eight months of worthless banter with the Iranian Hojjatieh al-Mahdi-hastening lunatics will result in just that many more Iranian nuclear weapons, unless... Israel seizes what's left of the initiative and snatches victory from the threat of a nuclear incineration of Tel Aviv and Haifa, and does so real soon.

My current assessment is that the only option Israel has remaining to stop a nuclear-armed Iran in its tracks most preferably begins with a series of non-nuclear preemptive EMP strikes as postulated in the fictional scenario linked above. The image at the top is of a real-world nuclear EMP-generating airburst. This is not a Sampson Option, it is what I will call The Gibor Option. There is a big difference between the two. The Sampson Option is a nuclear annihilation scenario. The Gibor Option, as the ancient Hebrew word implies, is a mighty option, a potentially non-nuclear fallout option. This option does not turn Iran into a sea of radioactive green glass, but turns the mullahs regime and dreams of an al-mahdi back into the 9th century where they rightfully belong.

This option envisions a series of non-nuclear EMP detonations over western and central portions of the country that will literally turn off everything in Iran. Afterwords there will be no communications, no discrete computing chips, no power, Iran as it was when that alleged mahdi fell into a well never to be seen or heard of again. This option, if executed, could potentially turn out to be a literal fulfillment of one prophetic verse: Jeremiah 49:36a which reads: "Against Elam I will bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven."

Still, we must patiently wait to see how the Lord will bring Jeremiah 49:34-39 into fulfillment.

Global SITREP E7-14: Advancing Our Situational Awareness of 'Last Days' Wars

20 November 2014: SITREP E7-14 is a work in progress, and it is as focused an attempt as I can manage to advance our situational awareness of the wars that will occur in these 'last days'. This is one of the most important SITREPs on Eschatology Today. It is a one-post overview of five-part series The Prophetic Road to Revelation linked below. I define the phrase 'last days' as encompassing the time remaining between the present and the onset of Christ's Millennial Kingdom, how ever long that duration of time may actually turn out to be. As we approach what men have declared will be the year 2015 AD, I happen to believe these 'last days' could constitute a relatively short span of time, perhaps a decade and a half at most. I am absolutely certain these 'last days' will be shortened by the Lord in order to prevent the extinction of human life from planet earth. Within a microsecond at any point prior to the start of Israel's 70th Week the Bride of Christ will be taken from this earth in the Harpazo, otherwise known as the Rapture.

As a starting point I'll begin in the very near future, in a post-Psalm 83 world in which Israel will have vanquished those enemies with an 'olam ebah' ancient hatred of the God and people of Israel. These enemies are primarily Sunni and may well manifest themselves on this coming battlefield in the form of the newly declared Islamic State and its Wilayat (provinces). In this near-future world the situational awareness brief would hold that Damascus is a city which no longer exists as described by Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27. In this world there will have been effected a military 'one-state solution; there will be no such thing as a West Bank or a Gaza, there will only be Israel.  Israel will be territorially expanded beyond her present frontiers and, at the minimum, have military control to the north over the whole of Lebanon (Joshua 13:1-7), Syria as far as the Euphrates River to the northeast, western Jordan (Ezekiel 39:11), and the northern Sinai to the Wadi al-Arish and possibly even further south as indicated by Isaiah 19:18-25.

In this time, which is apparently still prior to the advent of the 70th Week (Daniel 9:20-27), Israel will be a an economic power doing robust mercantile business with the Arabian Peninsula and the European Union (Ezekiel 38:13) and other nations of the world. Israel will be at peace, living in safety and security (Ezekiel 38:10-11). By now you have discerned that I am referring to the time just prior to the attempt by a confederation of nations led by the resurgent Russia, its commonwealth of nominally independent, former Soviet states (the military alliance known as the CSTO in other words), along with a lesser group of military powers such as Iran, Libya and Sudan.

At this point we need to take a quick diversion to discover why the Islamic Republic of Iran is not the menacing, nascent nuclear threshold military power that the P5+1 and Israel are currently concerned about. The diversion takes us to Jeremiah 49:34-39 and the second sentence of that passage (verse 35) which states clearly and unequivocally, "Thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the foremost of their might." I believe this verse is a direct reference to Iran's intended delivery system for the nuclear weapons the majority Shi'a Islamic nation is now attempting to arm itself with. The remainder of these verses detail what I have long interpreted to be a preemptive conventional military suppression of Iran by a coalition of nations who come from every direction of the compass.

While it is not known precisely when this fulfillment might occur, we can look to the recent past of the paragraph above concerning Psalm 83 to see that Iran did not play a role of belligerence and armorer of Israel enemies in the final fulfillment of the Psalm 83 war that it is currently casting itself in. There is a reason why Asaph did not itemize Persian participation in the Psalm 83 scenario. In sum, by the time Ezekiel 38/39 comes to fulfillment, Iran is a lesser military power that it is in late 2014, but Iran is not so weak that it cannot participate in the Ezekiel 38/39 attempt by Gog of Magog's confederation of forces invasion. This indicates the Jeremiah 49:34-39 in another prophecy of the end-times prophecies which goes through a process of literal fulfillment, not unlike Psalm 83 which is now in its 66th year of fulfillment process. We'll come back to this shortly.

At this point I will put a few key prophecies in a comparative spotlight.  The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel reiterate key points of the same prophetic word given to them by the Lord. I have often searched for Scripture to parallel what is written in Ezekiel 36-39. I believe that parallel exists in Jeremiah 30:1-7 regarding the restoration of Israel and Judah to the land and a point blank reference which ties this restoration directly to the time of Jacobs trouble (i.e. the final 42-months of the Megas Thlipsis). In this set of verses we see a period of time that literally holds within its context a minimum of 1947-48 to at least two and one half decades into the 21st century (according to the generational template of Psalm 90:10). Again, a process of fulfillment is maintained in the plain text of the prophecy.

Then at Jeremiah 30:10b there is something that should be very familiar to all students of prophecy: "Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, and no one shall make him afraid." Compare this with Ezekiel 38:11 which says: "You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’" That these are things of the 'last days' is beyond question as Jeremiah writes, "In the latter days you will consider it." 

Jeremiah 30:16 reads, "Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who plunder you shall become plunder, and all who prey upon you I will make a prey." Turning immediately to Ezekiel  39:10b the identical judgment is pronounced: "...Israel...will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who pillaged them,” says the Lord God."

Another prophetic parallel is found between Jeremiah 31:33-34, where it is written, "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”" This is clearly a direct reference to what the Lord says in Ezekiel 39:29, "And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God." 

Is there any doubt these things are specifically the Lord God's dealings with Israel that will be occurring during the 70th Week, the purpose of which the angel Gabriel informed of Daniel by saying:

"Seventy weeks are determined
For your people and for your holy city,
To finish the transgression,
To make an end of sins,
To make reconciliation for iniquity,
To bring in everlasting righteousness,
To seal up vision and prophecy,
And to anoint the Most Holy."

Since we are looking at the 70th Week, I must now turn to Daniel 11:40 and make an important note that the "him," and the "he" in this verse are direct references to the Antichrist, the rest of the plain text is virtually self-explanatory. "At the time of the end the king of the South shall attack him; and the king of the North shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through." And where is "he" at this time when these armies from the south and the north attack him? I  think he  is in Israel at this time which gives us the point of reference for identifying the directions from which these enemies come against him.

Let me ask a question here.  Are there two invasions of Israel in the last days? Is Daniel 11:40 a different end time war than the one Ezekiel prophecies about with enemies coming from both the north and south of Israel? If so, then during what period of time would Israel have men set aside to mark and bury the dead in the Valley of the Passengers/Hamonah east of the Dead Sea or be burning the enemy weaponry for the subsequent seven years?

Before these questions are answered, I will pose another necessary question that needs to be addressed first. Does Israel currently dwell in all of the land the God promised to them “for all time”?

According to Joshua 1:4 (Joshua ben Nun) the answer is no, Israel does not yet possess all of the land God has promised to them for all time. That land includes the entire wilderness that Joshua’s feet have trod upon; plus Lebanon, and all of the land to the east as far as the Euphrates River, plus all of the land of the ancient Hittites towards the west where the sun sets shall be Israel’s sea coast border. Going back further to the Abrahamic Covenant, the land is detailed in Genesis 13:14-17 and in Genesis 15:18-21. 

During Joshua’s time the Hittites were in the era known as the ‘New Kingdom’ circa 1400-1200 BC. This Hittite territory was in what is today virtually all of central Turkey and extended in a strip of land westward to the Aegean Sea. The Hittites were the principle enemy of the Egyptian pharaohs.

When will Israel take full possession of the land God has promised to them “for all time”? That answer depends on which scholar of the Bible one makes such an inquiry.  However, based upon my studies it appears full possession of the promised land will occur in stages over a certain, and now decidedly limited, amount of time. It will also be conditional or dispensational to the time when Israel is fully within the new covenant relationship with God and Christ on the throne in Jerusalem during the Millennium. Everything that has happened to Israel over time, at the present and into the future is for the purpose of God fulfilling His covenant with Abraham, and the 70^th Week prophecy given by the angel Gabriel is without question the culmination of that promise. This is when Israel will take full possession of the promised covenant lands. 

I believe the ‘last days’ wars are key to the acquisition of the promised possession. These wars commenced with the Psalm 83 war and will conclude with the Magog war and the wars of Israel’s 70^th Week. As it is written in Jeremiah 30:16, thus says the Lord, “‘Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; Those who plunder you shall become plunder, and all who prey upon you I will make a prey.” So much for Turkey being a dominant force during the 70^th Week according to some theories.

Let’s return now to the questions I posed above.  

Are there two invasions of Israel in the last days? That depends on some specifics, such as if at the time of Daniel 11:40 the Antichrist in Israel with power and authority at the start of the 70^th Week. It occurs to me that for the literal fulfillment of John 5:43 his physical presence in Israel would appear to be a necessity. After all, it is this impostor of Moshiach ben David's 7-year covenant that Israel will accept in their misguided belief that he will be Moshiach ben David. I think the covenant he makes with the expanded great power that Israel will be at that time is a 7-year ‘partnership for peace’ between the Antichrist’s EU/NATO and Israel. 

Therefore, is Daniel 11:40 a different 'last days' war than the one Ezekiel 38/39 prophecies about with enemies coming from both the north and south of Israel?  I think not. While there is no mention of Temple worship and the associated rituals, that omission may merely be an indicator that the Temple structures complex on Mount Moriah (Zion) remains under construction or is nearly completed but unconsecrated at that time.

The  start of the 70^th Week is precisely 42 months prior to the Abomination of Desolation. It should be obvious that those  42 months amounts to a very short, finite amount of time; just enough for one great world war centered in the Middle East around Israel, but not two.  I have come to think that these Scriptures indicate the Magog Confederation invasion occurs when Israel is living in a false sense of peace and security during the first 42 months of the 70^th Week (the Thlipsis). God supernaturally destroys five-sixths of those enemies and send fire upon Magog Confederation's homelands and those dwelling securely in the coastlands. However, Antichrist is there with his False Prophet and all the attendant signs and lying wonders to usurp full credit of the miraculous defeat of the Magog Confederation's forces. And the people will believe this lie, as can be seen in the great overview of this period given to us by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-11, with particular respect to verse 11.

Then there's the second 42 months of the 70th Week, the Megas Thlipsis, and I believe Daniel 11: 41-45 are a brief overview of that period of time, with verse 44 directly related to the gathering Antichrist's forces at Harmagedōn (a/k/a Armageddon) to square off against a remnant army from the north and the approaching massive army of the kings of the east (image at the top) for whom the Euphrates River has been prepared for their passing over. But instead of fighting each other these forces square off to wage war upon Jesus Christ and His Saints at the Second Coming.

This now leaves one final question I posed above:  During what period of time would the fulfillment of Ezekiel 39:11-16 occur where Israel has men set aside and employed to mark and bury the dead soldiers  of the Magog Confederation in the Valley of the Passengers east of the Dead Sea? When would Israel be burning the enemy's weaponry for a subsequent seven years of time? Could this activity not be occurring at the start of the Millennium? I think the answer here is an affirmative.

This has been an attempt to advance an understanding of the ‘last days’ wars in consideration that there does not appear to be enough time left with the outside limit set by Psalm90:10 for all these prophetic things to take place and in consideration of the Lord cutting short those days into order that mankind survive the Megas Thlipsis.  Do not consider this to be chiseled in stone doctrine or dogma; it’s an interpretation of many inter-related Scriptures which I pray will lead to increased Bereanism by all.

Addendum: An Eschatological Clarification

 Daniel chapter 10 and 11 are the angel Gabriel's instructive narrative to the prophet Daniel of world events - primarily warfare and conflicts waged by European kings and their kingdoms in the Middle East across a great span of time totaling 27 centuries (6th century BC to the 21st century AD).

These two chapters are an indispensable key to unlocking and understanding 'last days' events; primarily leaders, battles and wars, and the future of Israel across this great expanse of time to the 'last days'.

The prelude to this entire narrative (Daniel 10:1-9) by the angel Gabriel occurs when Daniel is lying beside the Tigris (Hiddekel) River, in present-day Iraq which was at that time under the control of the Medo-Persian Empire (the second great world empire) and Daniel has an incredible vision of Gabriel in all of his angelic glory.

Gabriel begins the narrative by relating to Daniel how there are angelic contests involving Gabriel and Michael against other angelic beings which determine which kingdoms on the earth rise and which fall.

Gabriel begins this narrative be describing when the rise of the Macedonian-Greek king Alexander the Great (Alexander III of Macedon) and his world empire would occur (the third great world empire).

From Alexander the narrative of Gabriel traces a bloodline, a genetic lineage of kings to the forerunner of the Antichrist, Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Antiochus wars against the Macedonian-Greek kings of Ptolemaic Egypt are vividly described, as is his all important encounter in 168-67 BC with the rising fourth great world empire, the Roman Empire. The details of this are found in Daniel 11:29-31.

There is a seamless transition in Daniel 11 between the forerunner Antichrist Antiochus IV Epiphanes and the future Antichrist of Israel's 70th Week. This evokes the bloodline, a direct genetic link between the two. I believe this transition, a literal leap forward in time of more than 2,100 years plus a generation (this generation) occurs in the empty space between verses 35 and 36 of Daniel 11.

In Daniel 36 through 39 the angel Gabriel foretells the coming Antichrist's exploits in the near future and his rise to power, his takeover of entire nations at the start of the 70th Week.

Daniel 11:40 therefore is a battle which occurs during the early part of the 70th Week. I think this could well be the same battle as the Lord had Ezekiel prophesy about in chapters 38 and 39.

Then in Daniel 11:41-43 there's the European Antichrist's retaliatory military campaign of conquest throughout the eastern Mediterranean region.

Finally, Gabriel ends the narrative at verse 44 in what I believe is the intelligence report Antichrist receives informing him of the approach of massive armies - a remnant army from the north and the army of the kings of the East heading for the Euphrates River which has been dried up for their crossing. This is the stage setting for the final battle of Har Megadone (Armageddon) at the end of the 70th Week.

We all know what happens next.

Marana'tha!