Global SITREP C5-17: The Syrian Situation Revisited Part VII

Marjan Oil Field rig 

30 June 2017: Last entry for Part VII. Warfare for control of Quneitra resulted again in the Syrian Army deliberately sending mortar rounds into Israel. No one can be that far off in getting their mortar fire on-target. The IAF response was to immediately obliterate the Syrian mortar position.

Also, within the past 24-hours Russian propaganda media has reported that rebel forces in Daraa plan to use chemical weapons in a manner so as to blame it on the Al-Assad regime and in so doing cause retaliatory US/French air strikes on the regime. This report is an I&W that the Al-Assad regime, backed by Russia and Iran, is likely behind any such event should it actually occur in the stalemated Daraa warzone.

28 June 2017: It turns out that we caught the Syrians red-handed making Sarin at one of the Al -Sha'irat Air Base shelters not destroyed in the Tomahawk attack of two months ago. It looks as if the mixed of precursor chemicals has stopped and Syria has, for the moment at least, backed down. 

Last night, 27 June, the White House issued a warning to Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime which is identical to the expectation published here (highlighted below) one week ago. The Associated Press published and then updated the White House warning early this morning. 

The warning is based on received, actionable and highly critical intelligence that al-Assad's military was detected preparing precursor chemicals "for a possible sarin gas attack in either the east (or) south of the country." So highly critical, urgent and actionable was the received intelligence that the normal American inter-governmental channels for issuing a direct warning to the Syrian government were bypassed. The warning was direct in stating that both Bashar al-Assad and his military forces would pay a "heavy price" if the chemical attack were to occur.

There is nowhere more south in Syria than the under siege city of Dara'a, and the east of the country is hotly contested by the U.S.-led CJTF-OIR forces against approaching Iranian/Hezbollah and Syrian columns as reported here in the previous parts of this SITREP.


26 June 2017: All eyes on the Golan Heights. A major flare-up could occur here at any moment's notice. Since Saturday the IAF has destroyed a Syrian heavy machine gun bunker and two Syrian Main Battle Tanks, both costing Syrian soldiers their lives.  

20 June 2017: Two noteworthy items. First, Saudi coastal security forces caught a team of IRGC-QF terrorists red-handed in the midst of an operation to blow up several Marjan Oil Field rigs. The Saudi's apprehended one IRGC terrorist team in their explosives-laden watercraft while two other teams managed to escape back into Iranian waters. Such an attack, even though it was thwarted, is an act of war, and serves to illustrate the nearness of Jeremiah 49:34-39 to its literal fulfillment.

Second, as noted earlier in comments, Russia is seriously outgunned by the US in the ongoing showdown in Syria. Also noted in the previous SITREP was the recent forward deployment into Syria of just two U.S. HIMARS rocket artillery system vehicles. Russian squawking about this deployment of two HIMARS 6x6 vehicles illustrates how sensitive they are to their mere presence.

However, two HIMARS vehicles do not constitute an overwhelming offensive juggernaut. So why the Russian angst? Note Russia's recent ultimatum to strike U.S. air or ground assets which located west of the Euphrates River. This is precisely where the HIMARS have been deployed. So, would Russia actually launch strikes against the HIMARS to show their resolve to counter the U.S. build up and make good on their threat? If this is Putin and his generals plan they had better reconsider and recalculate their risk assessment.

For the sake of argument, let's say Russia takes them out. In the U.S. counter-strike we would in a matter of minutes, certainly within an hour's time, take out all of their expensive big boy toys toys at Hmeimim Air Base. The embarked airwing of the USS G.H.W. Bush is a mere 5 minutes away from reaching out and touching those Russian toys, even while in port Haifa, and in a manner that would leave none of them operational. Without their vaunted S300 and S400 air defense systems and an operable runway at Hmeimim Air Base the Russian mission in Syria would effectively be eliminated. Mission incomplete, mission fail. The point is that Russia is severely outgunned in Syria.

Putin feeling froggy? Think he might jump? Not if he's as smart as he thinks he is. President Trump and his senior Pentagon military planners are calling Putin's bluff. Nevertheless, miscalculations do happen and Bible prophecy indicates there may well be a near-term miscalculation in Syria.

F/A-18 Super Hornets

The Eschatology Today predicted event written about in Part V of this series has now occurred and the also predicted new phase of the war in Syria is now a fact. It took almost exactly 30 days for the prediction within the 15 May update of that SITREP to occur in the real-world:

15 May 2017: The two nuclear-armed (US and Russia) opposing armed force coalitions in Syria now appear to be engaged in operations designed to seize and hold territory. This is conventional warfare as we have known it for millennia. The real danger here is the allies with each coalition could engage each other in combat, either deliberately or by accident and particularly in southern and western Syria. In the skies overhead a free-for-all dogfight could also occur between the two sides combat aircraft. And then there's the continuing Iranian-Hezbollah drive to seize the Syrian side of the Golan. This is all stage-setting for the major conflagration this series on the Syrian Situation has been highlighting according to Bible prophecy (Isaiah 17; Jeremiah 49:23-27)

If one were to continue to read the paragraph following the above from that same update and then look at the situation that is now developing just to the north of the "cities of Aroer" of northwestern Jordan, that is, around Dara'a, Syria, and as reinforced in the recent 18 June update in Part VI of this series, one might be able to see how these events are eminently predictable through the literal interpretation of the plain text wording of Isaiah's and Jeremiah's prophetic texts:

I would speculate (actually, I expect) that the Dara'a campaign appears to be falling into an Aleppo-like grind where the Syrian regime's offensive makes no headway resulting in the use of chemical weapons by the al-Assad regime in an attempt to break the stalemate. We all should understand what will result if this does occur as Dara'a lies just 9 miles from the Jordanian border.

So, with this as the lead-in to Part VII of this series, we can hopefully have a better understanding of how these prophecies will come to their literal fulfillment. What is Bible prophecy if not God telling us well in advance what will happen in the future due to the decisions made by the opposing sides in these last days "wars and rumors of wars." 

The critical thing is, these are no longer a hazy or distant future fulfillment of prophetic texts, but fulfillment that we can see occurring now, coming with as little advance notice as a Biblical month of 30 days. We're talking in this series on Syria about literal prophetic fulfillment before it happens, not as occurs from far too many preachers pulpits where the discussion is after the fact. This is utilizing the fulfillment of Bible prophecy as testimony to the inerrant nature of the LORD God's prophetic word. If this is not a here and now witnessing tool, then none exist. 

Does Revelation 12 Point to a Specific Day in the Near Future?

The sky on the morning of 23 September 2017

Clear artistic rendering of the top image

UPDATED 27 June 2017: A big hat-tip to Jeff for finding and bringing this update to our attention. The importance of this sign has been reinforced by a prophecy that Micah wrote about 150 years before the Babylonian conquest, or roughly 2,600 years ago. Micah's prophecy is a jaw dropper.

Let's get straightaway to the point. We all know by now the details of the text of Revelation 12, that this prophetic sign will occur in the heavens above us on 23 September of this year.  The prophecy of Micah 5:2-4 is our focus here, and verse 3 in particular: (bold lettering mine for emphasis)

"Therefore He shall give them up Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth; Then the remnant of His brethren Shall return to the children of Israel."

"Until the time that she who is in labor has given birth." In the Revelation 12 sign it is Virgo that is in labor, and she gives birth on 23 September 2017. The Revelation 12 sign specifically points to and specifies what we know prophetically about the sequence of events in these last days; and Micah tells us when! Micah says here point-blank that the change from the dispensation of the Age of Grace to the focus being returned to Israel per the 70th Week prophecy given by the angel Gabriel, as well as what Paul wrote in Romans 11, is about to occur!!

2 March 2017: In my last comment prior to this update, I mentioned I was focused on the specifics of this God-given prophecy; that because of the fact that it is The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ nothing can be added to or taken away from it.  That was several hours ago at this point.  I now understand the 'big picture' of what the prophecy of Revelation 12 is about. As you will see in the embedded links of this update, Eschatology Today has already touched upon most of the aspects of this 'big picture' view.

I believe the signs of Revelation 12 are literally two-fold. Notice the gap of time between verses 5 and 6 of Revelation 12 are separated by about two thousand years of literal time as we know it. So while this chapter of The Revelation of Jesus Christ is parenthetical to the book as a whole, but this chapter itself is presented in a sequential order.  

First-fold: this prophetic sign (many scholars agree) appeared on 11 September 3 BC.  It literally foretold by three or so years in advance the earthly virgin birth of our Lord. It was the sign that the Persian Magoi had been waiting on and were actively looking for according to what Daniel had taught them hundreds of years previous to that time. It was the sign they followed westwards into Roman-occupied Judea. When the Magoi saw the sign they immediately set out having the requisite amount time necessary to make that long journey from Persia, arriving in Judea in time to inadvertently alert the Roman puppet governor to the birth of the newborn 'King of the Jews,' and then to locate and arrive at the manger of our Messiah King to present their gifts. Satan was there also, as we know, because the Roman-puppet governor, being duly informed, ordered the slaying of all newly born male children in his realm. We know all of this from the Gospels.

Second-fold: The signs of Revelation 12 will appear again on 23 September 2017. It now foretells of what is to occur during the very near future of the 70th Week. It is a sign, among all of the other signs which our Lord has given us (Olivet Discourse), which alerts all watchmen to the season we are in. In this second-fold part of the prophecy, the woman is not Mary mother of Christ, but rather it is Israel, the bride of God, the remnant thereof, that God will supernaturally hide from the Beast (Antichrist, Satan-incarnate) in a location to the east of the River Jordan during the final 1,260 days (42 months) of the 70th Week. The twelve stars around her head signify the twelve tribes of remnant Israel, and which we also know will constitute the 144,000 Jewish evangelists who will preach the Gospel in saving the souls of millions of the Saints of the 70th Week. So this sign, this year, announces the fast approach of the 70th Week and the pre-70th Week Harpazo of the bride of Christ who will be found worthy to escape the horrific events of those final seven years. 

Notice that the appearance of Satan in both aspects of this prophecy are how he appears ultimately as the Beast, the Antichrist, the little horn who rises up among ten horns who are the modern-day heir of ancient Rome. Satan, who will indwell Antichrist the man, or Satan-incarnate, is pictured in this prophecy in his final Beast form of having seven heads and 10 horns. This must occur in very close proximity to the Harpazo. Virtually all expositors of prophecy that I will pay attention to agree that the bride of Christ is caught up into Heaven in the blink of an eye with Christ, as Satan and his fallen angels cast out of Heaven permanently as the war in Heaven against the Archangel Michael and his faithful angels is lost. Would our Lord remove us from this earth to take us into a Heaven that is experiencing a final war between good and evil? No, I think we arrive there as heaven is rejoicing in verse 12.

We do not know they day or hour, but we know that the coming of the Groom for His bride is close; really, really close!


25 February 2017: It has been just over three years since this item was posted here. I have brought this discussion forward from December 2013 because at this point during these last days the astronomical events described in Revelation 12:1-2 will occur in just over 6 months time. I am reminded at this time of the sermon that Peter gave to the crowd on the Day of Pentecost. Peter's sermon leaned heavily on the God-breathed words of the prophet Joel  as recorded for us in Acts 2:14-39. As commanded by our Lord, we watch therefore for all of the signs which He has foretold to us.

Revelation 12:1-2 (NKJV)

"Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth."

The video down below provides an excellent introduction to this topic.  The referenced celestial event in these two verses appears to correlate to this event coming to literal fulfillment beginning on the morning of Saturday, 23 September 2017.  That said, I must make one thing absolutely crystal clear. This has nothing whatsoever to do with "astrology." Period. This is a study of Revelation 12:1-2 and the purposes of the heavenly bodies which the Lord Himself has assigned to them, specifically per Genesis 1:14, which says:

"Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years..."

I have just begun to study all of the elements involved in this celestial occurrence, having previous looked at just portions of this subject, yet I do believe it is something that occurs at an appointed time as the text of Revelation 12:1-2 clearly tells us. That this particular celestial alignment occurs in conjunction with the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) on 21-22 September 2017 is special to say the least. 

The year 2017 has long figured prominently in my eschatological studies, it is the year that will mark the 70th anniversary of the rebirth of Israel. It is less than four years into the future from today.  It fits perfectly within the number of years discussed in Psalm 90:10, and leads me to conclude that this final generation is indeed one of "strength."  I am of the belief that this celestial event marks the start of a flood of prophetic fulfillment (2017-2020) which leads directly to the commencement of the 70th Week and not it's midpoint as discussed in the video presentation. In no manner whatsoever does this date set the Harpazo, but it does inform one and all just how truly imminent the Harpazo is.

On Saturday, 23 September 2017 the moon rises above the horizon at 9:17 AM. It will be broad daylight if it is not a cloudy day, yet to an earthbound observer the moon will appear as seen in the image above on the third day following the New Moon of 20 September. Therefore, the woman referenced in Revelation 12:1 would appear to be standing on top of the approximately 12% of the moon illuminated on that particular day, the first day of the week following the Sabbath Day. As the angel Gabriel informed Daniel, knowledge in these 'last days' has increased to the point that we can see this celestial event in advance through the technology that has been developed. .

Enjoy the video presentation

Global SITREP C4-17: The Syrian Situation Revisited Part VI

Iranian Routes to the Mediterranean Sea. Image: The New Yorker 09JUN17

Update 18 June 2017: It seems disinformation has clouded the tactical picture in southern Syria. The 13 June update last week (directly below) regarding the conquest of Dara'a by Syrian and Hezbollah forces was premature and overly optimistic. What had been thought to be reliable OSINT turns out to have been pro-regime news reported as fact by Western media sources.

In fact, Dara'a has not been conquered despite the Syrian Army and Hezbollah's best efforts to take the city behind a significant weeks-long bombardment which included the use of napalm barrel bombs. For all intents and purposes the city of Dara'a has been blasted into rubble, large structures appear to be mere shells of their former selves. 

Dara'a on 07JUN17. Image MEMO/Anadolu Agency)

I would speculate (actually, I expect) that the Dara'a campaign appears to be falling into an Aleppo-like grind where the the Syrian regime's offensive makes no headway resulting in the use of chemical weapons by the al-Assad regime in an attempt to break the stalemate. We all should understand what will result if this does occur as Dara'a lies just 9 miles from the Jordanian border.

Further west, at the Al-Tanf/Al-Walid border crossing, US-led CJTF-OIR forces have pushed forward approximately 45 miles northeast to the desert village of al-Zakf to establish a second base camp. Some patrols have reportedly been operating up to 60 miles north of the Jordanian-Iraqi-Syrian border triangle. On the Iraqi side of the border the Al-Walid crossing was fully secured this past week from Islamic State units by U.S. and Iraqi Army forces, permitting the deeper penetration into Islamic State, and blunting the Syria-Hezbollah advance into this region. 

U.S. HIMARS

The CJTF-OIR forward push was augmented this week with the arrival of at least two U.S.  M142 HIMARS, a highly accurate HIgh Mobility Artillery Rocket System riding on the back of a 6x6 all-terrain vehicle which deployed into Al-Tanf. The introduction of the HIMARS has caused great consternation for the Russians, as well as the Iranians. It places Syrian-Hezbollah and other Iranian-militia troops at risk of devastating strikes should they make further moves into the CJTF-OIR Area of Responsibility (AoR) in southern Syria. HIMARS enables CJTF-OIR forces to reach out and touch the enemy up to 180 miles away.

13 June 2017:  The situation along Syria's southern border has seen dramatic change in the past 24 hours. The city of Dara'a just north of the Jordanian border is now under the control of the Syrian 4th Division and Hezbollah. Syrian anti-regime fighters have reportedly retreated south into Jordan or east towards the CJTF-OIR base at the Al-Tanf/Al-Walid border crossing defended by US, UK, NATO and Jordanian SpecOps troops and air power.

Most other information of the past 48 hours about southern Syria is either disinformation or pure propaganda coming from Russian, Syrian, Iranian or their proxies. Further update coming...

11 June 2017: This past Tuesday, 6 June, coalition aircraft attacked a second convoy of Iranian, Hezbollah and Syrian armored vehicles and troops threatening the CJTF-OIR base at Al-Tanf. The convoy was stopped dead in its tracks, most of it destroyed. It is this region shaded gray in the above map and in detail in the below map where the Syrian war appears most likely, as has been started here previously, to be where a great clash continues to be on a steady simmer. 

On Friday, 9 June, as reported by The New Yorker, Iran-supported Shi'a militias reached the Syrian border from inside Iraq, and this is somewhat reflected in the above map. But the map has to be looked at closely. As you can see the primary route passes through Iraqi Kurdistan or Syrian Kurdistan. This hardly provides Iran clear passage from Iran to Lebanon, yet that is precisely what most media has been claiming, rather prematurely I might add. Iran does not control the major highways from its border to Lebanon.

The current eastern Syria war zone. ISW Graphic.

30 May 2017: Today, as reported by TASS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the not-so-veiled threat of a possible Russian-US military confrontation in eastern Syria. This is the potential confrontation Eschatology Today has been warning about in this series of Syrian Situation SITREPs. Lavrov accused the US-led coalition of directly infringing on Syrian sovereignty and said "these issues need to be settled, which is what our military is currently engaged in."  

The Iranian's are buoyed by this open Russian support for the combat operations their forces are engaged in eastern Syria and in northwestern Iraq (Hashd al-Sha'abi Shi'a militia), and now it appears they are seeking to directly engage in combat against the forces of the US-led CJTF-OIR and NATO which joined the Coalition effort recently. Iran informed Russia yesterday during a meeting in Moscow it is ready to double the size of the force it currently has deployed in Syria. The Hashd al-Sha'abi militia is rapidly becoming known as the Iranian Hezbollah of Iraq. This Shi'a Iraqi militia, under direct orders form the IRGC in Tehran will almost certainly now invade eastern Syria. 

The US has been dropping leaflets specifically instructing the Iranian militias and Hezbollah to withdraw their forces from the Syrian border regions on the Golan and Israeli frontier, and from all along the Jordanian border as well as the Iraqi border. The warning states that any movement of these Iranian forces towards CJTF-OIR Coalition and/or NATO forces will be viewed as hostile movements and attacked accordingly. The Iranian directed confrontation with US CJTF-OIR allies, the Kurdish/Arab Syrian Democratic Forces, as well as the New Free Syrian Army is now only a matter of time. The literal fulfillment of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 will be the result of this imminent warfare. 

28 May 2017: Al Mayadin (a/k/a Al-Mayadeen) is a small town in eastern Syria's Euphrates River valley. It lies closer to the Iraqi border town of Al-Qaim than it does to the Islamic State's de facto capital of Ar-Raqqa. Just to the north lies Dier ez Zor (a/k/a Dayr az Zawr), one of the focal points in the war against Islamic State. 

CJTF-OIR coalition aircraft are claimed to have stuck Islamic State assets in Al Mayadin on Wednesday, 24 May. Other organizations say the airstrike was by the Syrian Arab Air Force (SAAF). Almost immediately the Syrian regime, their allies in Russia and Iran, and alleged moderate Arab media (Aljazeera) and left-of-center US media (CBS, et. al.) began whining about fourteen alleged civilian deaths as a result of the strike which they blame on the US-led Coalition. 

This is rather telling as all of these media are utterly silent when it comes to civilian deaths due to Russian and Syrian military airstrikes since Russia's intervention in September 2015. Russian airstrikes have been conducted since that time with what various observing groups have said is a "reckless disregard for human life" in Syria. A conservative estimate of civilian death due to Russian airstrikes would be in the neighborhood 5,000 men, women and children. A liberal assessment would be double that number.

Due to the fact that all of Syria and much or Iraq are active war zones, any number of civilian deaths are unavoidable no matter whose bombs are falling. However, attributing those deaths falsely or using them for political expedience is just as abhorrent as the pure evil intent and ethnic genocide being perpetrated by the Syrian regime and their Russian and Iranian allies. The fact is that airstrikes and artillery barrages in this region, both Syrian Regime and their allies and CJTF-OIR are occurring every day, often overlapping one another. Accurate accounting of who, what when is very probably near impossible for any one or group of organizations due to the intensity of the warfare.

The truly big news for this SITREP is that NATO announced that it had joined the US-led CJTF-OIR operations against Islamic State as the strike on Al-Mayadin was being heralded in the media on May 25th. Also the ground war around Raqqa and elsewhere in eastern Syria is entering what may be a final phase that will result in its liberation from and the annihilation of Islamic State forces. We need to prepare ourselves for a series of really horrific news reports when these areas long under IS control are liberated. The depravity of the Islamic State is as bad or worse than anything that's occurred thus far in either Iraq or Syria since 2003.

The Significant Issues With Bill Salus' 'Gap Theory'

Depiction of the Seven Seals Scroll of Revelation 5:1

16 June 2017: Is there something in the water? One has to wonder when a growing number of prophecy teachers slide into teaching things which the Holy Spirit immediately recoils from as being inconsistent with the discernment He has always provided. The bottom line here is that, and this is said in the brotherly love of Christ Jesus: such teaching is man-made and is not of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, in prayerful dealing with this issue I was led by the Spirit to 1 Peter 4: 7-11.

The issue at the head here is that our brother Bill Salus has been teaching things which are contrary to the above linked passage from Peter, and contrary, in my view, to Revelation 22:18-19. 

A recent advertisement heralded across the web by Bill Salus "Revealed Tonight on National TV - The Nation Discovers What The Bible Reveals is the True Content of the False Covenant Between Israel and the Harlot of Mystery Babylon." The program was a pre-recorded discussion between Gary Stearman and Bill Salus on Gary's half-hour Prophecy Watchers program. 

In all actuality the program is a discussion on Bill's beliefs (i.e. "I believe") in which the unstated details require the reader to purchase Bill's most recent book in order to read about them. We are asked up front to accept as fact that what is stated by Bill is correct exegesis, even though he acknowledges that our likely reaction to the theory he puts forward is a rather lengthy stretch from proper hermeneutic of the various prophecies discussed. The YouTube version of half-hour program is linked above.

Readers who've long been visiting Eschatology Today know there are two types of prophetic interpretation and they are diametrically opposed to each other. The two types are (1) proper exegesis, which solidly rests upon careful, objective study as well as one or more gifts of the Holy Spirit for discernment, and (2) eisegesis, which is based on a very subjective personal reading of the prophetic text in which the author intends to lead the reader into the conclusion, or interpretation he has drawn. We know well the result of when the infallible Holy Spirit leads, and when the fallible man leads. The former is proper hermeneutic exegesis in communion with Scripture and the latter is personal eisegesis.

Three key points of what Salus teaches in this video are as follows. 

A) Bill Salus is teaching that there is an undetermined amount of additional time between the Harpazo of the bride of Christ and the start of the 70th Week (i.e. the confirming of the covenant among many by the Antichrist per Daniel 9:27). This is Salus' so-called 'Gap Theory' which theorizes an additional dispensation of time between the current Church Age and Israel's 70th Week.

B) Bill Salus is teaching that Jesus opens the first five of the Seven Seals prior to the start of the 70th Week; that the four horsemen of the apocalypse, (i.e Divine judgment), are loosed upon the world prior to the start of the 70th Week. This teaching also includes opening of the Fifth Seal which martyrs who have died for their faith in Christ Jesus prior to the advent of the 70th Week. This teaching destroys the integrity of the 70 Weeks prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27.

C) Bill Salus is teaching that it is the Harlot of Revelation 17 and the rider of the fourth pale horse, ridden by Death and followed by Hades (Sheol), are "the many" who Israel makes a covenant with that is confirmed by the Antichrist for 7 years.

These three are primary points and are directly linked to other points, as mentioned before, which are not discussed at length in the video, and do require a monetary remittance in order to learn of them in the newest Bill Salus' book. I strongly disagree with our brethren having to pay for that which God has ostensibly revealed to us through Bill Salus' theory because it is an eisegesis until proven to be hermeneutic exegesis.

Here, in a nutshell - because this is a blog and not a book - is the problem with this teaching. Right from the start this teaching grossly violates the integrity of the God-breathed 70 Weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27). I'm going to concentrate on this issue for the moment. 

The violation is that prior to the sequential string of Jesus' judgments on the earth (Seals, Trumpets, Bowls per Revelation 6, 8, 11 and 16) during the of 70th Week, according to Salus, our Lord Jesus cuts loose the Antichrist who immediately goes out conquering an to conquer; the red horse whose release triggers a world war; the black horse which is rampant monetary inflation and/or price gouging from the scarcity of commodities due to of global warfare and the interruption of global trade and commerce; and, finally the pale horse ridden by Death and followed by Hades, which are the results of the global war, starvation and death that consumes a quarter of the earth.

Why is this a problem? It is a problem because these are Jesus judgments occurring prior to the 70th Week. How did the angel Gabriel explain to Daniel what the specific purpose of the 70 Weeks was? Daniel 9:24. So how can there be judgment prior to the 70th Week. 69 weeks were completed, and leaves but one week, the 70th to fulfill the purpose of 70 Weeks, not 70 Weeks plus a year, or two years, three, four or more. 70 Weeks. This is how Bill Salus' current eisegesis attempts to destroy the God-breathed sanctity of the 70th Week. it is a horrendous thing to do in my opinion.

So here, according to Bill Salus, are 5 of 7 Seal Judgments occurring outside of and prior to the 70th Week. Then the Lamb of God opens the 6th and 7th Seals within the 70th Week. Continuity here, anyone? No, there is no continuity here. There is no integrity. Five seals of judgment upon the earth opened by the Lamb of God prior to, and two within along with the remainder of sequential Trumpet and Bowl judgments which occur uninterrupted. 

Then we have the problem of the 5th Seal occurring after the Rapture and prior to the 70th Week according to Bill Salus theory. In this aspect of his gap theory the Harpazo, {a/k/a the Rapture, and also known in Hebrew as the Laqach, i.e. the LORD God's taking of Enoch and Elijah} of the dead and living Bride of Christ has occurred. The physically dead in Christ have been raised to life in their new, immortal bodies and those alive on the earth were changed to their immortal bodies in the twinkling of an eye. In a microsecond of time all of the saints are now with Christ forever more. But wait... here prior to the 70th Week there's suddenly another group of martyred souls under the altar who've been murdered, martyred, for the word of God and their testimony. 

How can this be? The dead in Christ were raised to incorruptible bodies just prior to this point in the future, so who has murdered these redeemed Christian brethren enmasse because they've preached the word of God as their testimony? The cannot be the 144,000 as they've not yet been selected from the 12 tribes of Israel, nor can they be those 70th Week saints who are martyred for Christ during the 70th Week. So, who are these saints? Bill Salus has no answer for this equally critical flaw in his gap theory. Get that? A flawed theory. Since when does the Holy Spirit reveal flawed prophetic theories or interpretations to men? Simple answer brothers and sisters: He doesn't reveal flawed anything; His word and testimony are inerrant.

Another item. The 70th Week comes in two halves. 1,260 days each, for a total of precisely 2,520 days, which we are also told by Bible prophecy will be shortened in order that the 70th Week does not become a 7-year long extinction level event for human life on the earth. And by the way, there is a gap, two gaps in fact, but they both occur after the 70th Week has taken place. Gabriel also informed Daniel (Daniel 12:11-12) there would be an additional gap of 30 days (one additional month) followed by another gap of 15 more days, for a total gap of 45 days following the 70th Week. So, there's a 45-day gap at the end of the 70th Week according to the angel Gabriel. 

Here's something else that I find to be a problem with Salus' gap theory. He says the first five seals are opened before the 70th Week begins. Where in the God-breathed text of Revelation 5 or 6 is this stated with the certitude of Salus' assertion?

In Revelation 5 (read this carefully!) the scroll is seen by John in the right hand of God. This scroll is written on both sides of its surface. This means the entire scroll is one continuous document which is sealed with seven (also obviously visible to John) seals along its outer leading edge (see the image above).

The Lamb of God takes this sealed scroll from the right hand of God the Father who is seated on His throne. The 24 elders - who are redeemed men - then fall down in worship. 

Jesus the Lamb of God was worthy to look at, recieve and open the seven seals on the scroll upon His ascension into Heaven. 

John sees each Seal being opened by the Lamb, and as each of the first four Seals is opened each of the four living creatures tells John in sequence, "Come and see." And immediately John sees a vision of what is within the text of that Seal.  

The 5th and 6th Seals are revealed straight away to John, and they are, as the first four are, FUTURE EVENTS which take place during the 70th Week and NOT PRIOR TO IT! 

Also, there is Revelation 7:1-3 where all of the aforementioned Seals are held from occurring until AFTER the 144,000 of all Israel have had the Seal of God placed upon their forehead. 

This completes my refutation of Bill Salus' "gap theory."

Thinking cap time. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, "Come now, and let us reason together." Would not Gabriel have given Daniel detailed prophetic instruction from the LORD God of any gap of time (days, weeks, months or years)  to exist after the Harpazo but prior to the 70th Week? Would the angel Gabriel have withheld this kind of detail when such exquisite detail about the week and its immediate 45-day day aftermath were given?  And why, oh why, did the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul in II Thessalonians 2:3 not mention even a single word about a gap of time containing five Seal Judgments of the Lord Jesus Christ along with a Great Apostasy and full revealing of Antichrist in his own time? 

If you are like me, and many other of our brethren, the believing in and teaching of this kind of eschatology is very problematic, and we have strong objections to it. Aside of the above stated issues, my objection is centered first and foremost upon the sum of this erroneous teaching, taken from Revelation 5, 6, 7 and 17, and it is contrary to the warning given in Revelation 22:18-19. I do not intend to belabor this issue further, and would prefer to dust off my sandals and move forward in my own labors,. I prefer to allow the reader to determine what they will about this. 

A Fresh Look At Revelation 13 and 17

(Updated) 11 March 2013: (Updated: 16 March 2013) Once again my comments are about the prophecies found in The Revelation of Jesus Christ and the interpretation many prophecy writers have placed in the public domain, be they blog items or books that have been written in the past ten years or so. And once again it is the 13th chapter combined with the 17th chapter that has been a focus of my attention in recent weeks.

It appears to be a foregone conclusion in many writers exegesis of these chapters, and even by some of their followers who treat their interpretive works as if they are inerrant dogma, that the prophetic figures of the "allos thērion," the so-called "second beast, a/k/a the "False Prophet," and the "megas pornē,"  the great harlot are, respectively, a future Pope representing the city of Rome, the Vatican City and the Roman Catholic Church, and the Roman Catholic Church members as the global apostate church (great harlot) of the 70th Week.

First things first. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who tries to witness to a Roman Catholic with this mindset as their core exegesis of Revelation 13 and 17 might as well save his or her breath. You lost your ability to witness to Roman Catholics before you even uttered a single word out of your mouth. One cannot reasonably expect to hit someone over the head with a hammer and then expect to feed them milk and honey. Nowhere in Scripture is there any specific 70th Week reference to Vatican City. The 70th Week is about Israel, as the angel Gabriel informs in Daniel 9:24-27 and Paul informs in Romans 11.

I believe that the world as it will exist at the start of the 70th Week will bear only a passing resemblance to the world we know today; that if any of us were given a glimpse of that world as John on Patmos was given a glimpse of it in visions we would be hard pressed to explain the changes that will have occurred. A tremendous world-changing paradigm shift of geo-political, societal and religious conditions will have occurred on planet earth. At the minimum the Harpazo of the Bride of Christ will have occurred. Also, in that future world many nations and and nationalities of people which are prominent today will not exist on day one of Israel's 70th Week. The literal fulfillment of three prophecies routinely discussed on this blog will be responsible for just a very small portion of those changes: Isaiah 17, Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38/39.

So, with this background as a starting point, I would ask the reader to look carefully at the text of Revelation 13:11-16 and offer a viable explanation of how anything in this descriptive passage refers to the physical location of the "False Prophet." The most descriptive thing that I have found stated as fact is referenced by the image above. However, when it comes to actually locating him physically on the face of the earth... there is not so much as a single word to this effect.

It is assumed in the exegesis of a great many Christian eschatologists that the false prophet will be headquartered in Rome. Yet according to the prophecy of the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel (Daniel 9:27), and that prophecy found in Revelation 13:14-15, and as spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Olivet Discourse as covered in all of the Gospels, the only physical location on the earth that is directly associated with the false prophet is the 3rd temple of God on Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Israel. As we all know, that is where he will go to stand up the man-made image of the Antichrist constructed under his direction. That "Abomination of Desolation" image of the first beast of Revelation 13 will be stood up in the Holy Place with the Temple. According to Revelation 11:1-2, I think we can safely assume that the Sanhedrin during Israel's 70th Week will only allow Kohanim priests and not the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church to enter into these spaces, for they will be the only spaces in Jerusalem not under international sovereignty or trampled underfoot by the gentile nations. Then again, I don't believe the False Prophet will be the Pope. I am inclined to believe that the man who will be the False Prophet will be of a superior rank to the Pope in the false religious order of that day.

Another consideration for the reader to be mindful of is that in all of Revelation 17, which greatly details the association between the Antichrist, his kingdom and the "great harlot," there is not one word about the false prophet to be found. Not one. Yet, amazingly, an association to Vatican City, and thus the 1 billion some-odd parishioners of the Roman Catholic Church is drawn.

I ask the question: On what basis in this assumption made?

This finely adorned woman is figuratively described as riding on the back of the Antichrist and his kingdom of seven heads and ten horns. This beast is very obviously the first beast of Revelation 13, the Antichrist, and not the second beast, the false prophet. The prophetic association is to his European-based global kingdom and not to a specific city. The association here is to "many waters" and "peoples. multitudes, nations and tongues" that have existed since ancient times, to ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Macedonia-Greece and Rome. The great harlot is global in nature and also very ancient. Also, in Revelation 17:8 we see that the Antichrist at that time will be synonymous with Abaddon/Apollyon ascended out of the abyss from the text of Revelation 9:11.

But wait, I can hear some saying that Revelation 17:9 says the woman is sitting on the seven heads of the beast which are seven mountains, that this is a direct reference to Rome. Yes, one might assume that, but one must also be acutely aware that the text first advises the reader that this portion of the text is for the mind that has wisdom. This is a front and center clue that there is more here in the text than meets the eye. 

The text says there are seven mountains. The next sentence states those seven mountains are seven kings, five of which have previously fallen in history (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia and Macedon-Greece), one that is, the sixth king (Rome), and one that will be, the 7th king which is the revived Roman Empire as foretold by the angel Gabriel in Daniel chapter 9. The 7th king is also the 8th king as the 70th Week has two halves, the Antichrist of the first half (the Thlipsis), and the Satanic-empowered Antichrist of the second half (the Megas Thlipsis).  This text for "the mind that has wisdom" is about former, present and future world empires, not the city of Rome and not the Vatican City.

There is yet another problem for eschatologists who associate the Vatican City and the city of Rome with all of this. That problem is the 1929 Lateran Pacts between the Italian Republic and Vatican City. These pacts are de facto and de jure law; they are legally binding on both parties, the Roman Catholic Church and the Italian State. 

One of the key provisions of the Lateran Pacts is that the "Catholic Apostolic Roman religion" is the only State religion permitted to exist in the State/Kingdom of Italy. This poses an enormous problem in that a new international all-encompassing religion as made clear the the text of Revelation 17 within the Vatican City or within the Kingdom of Italy is an impossibility due to the Lateran Pacts. It would be big-time illegal to say the least. Another problem is that the Lateran Pacts cite very specific religious worship dates which the Italian State is obligated to adhere to. Changing any of these for a new global system of worship in The Vatican or the Republic of Italy would be definitively against the de jure of the Lateran Pacts.

As I read the text Revelation chapters 13 and 17, in association with the Book of Daniel, I discern a focus on Israel, on Jerusalem and on the coming Jewish Temple that will stand on Temple Mount. I also discern a revived "Roman Empire" led by a "Roman Antichrist" (probably of Jewish blood) that is symbolized by "Ten Toes" of two feet of a statue dreampt of by Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar and interpreted by the prophet Daniel. I don't discern anything singularly pointing to the Pope, the Roman Catholic Church or its parishioners being, respectively, the False Prophet or great harlot global religion.

In conclusion I also note that through the prophet Isaiah God referred to Jerusalem as a harlot (see Isaiah 1:21-23) and also through the prophet Ezekiel (see extensive passage of Ezekiel 16:15-63). Then we turn back to Revelation 11:7-13 which deals with Jerusalem in the 70th Week; the ministry of the Two Witnesses; their murder at the hands of the Antichrist, who is fully indwelt by Abaddon/Apollyon at his recovery from what appears to be a mortal head wound, and the Two Witnesses resurrection on the third day and immediate Harpazo directly into Heaven in the view of the whole world:

When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. Now after the three-and-a-half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them. In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. In the earthquake seven thousand people were killed, and the rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven." 

Notice the bold text in the above quote and consider it with respect to Revelation 17:15...

"Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues."

In conjunction with what we were told in Revelation 11:2 about the city of Jerusalem...

"But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it has been given to the Gentiles. And they will tread the holy city underfoot for forty-two months."

And it becomes clear that Jerusalem is as much a part of the global "great harlot" as is anywhere else on the earth at that time. This is also concurrent with  the fulfillment of Jesus prophecy to the Jews in John 5:43

"I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive."

And receive him they will, so much so that in short order his image created by men at the behest of the false Prophet will be standing in the Holy Place within the temple of God in Jerusalem, and thereby leaving nothing in Jerusalem not occupied by the Antichrist, his False Prophet and the Great Harlot during the final 42-months of the 70th Week.

And thus begins the Megas Thlipsis, the  Great Tribulation, the final 42 months before the return of Jesus Christ with His Bride to the earth leading to the establishment of the Kingdom of God on the earth.

Global SITREP C5-17: Making Sense of Current Events

President Donald J. Trump

4 June 2017: We, as the body of Christ on this earth, either believe God is in complete and total control, that His will is being done through the various birth pangs heralding the establishment of Christ's Millennial Kingdom - or we don't. There is no half-measure here, no room to be lukewarm, and no excuse to misunderstand current events when it all lies before us in the Lord's inerrant prophetic word.

Some of us are upset because President Trump did not announce his promised move of the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Israel when they expected it during his recent trip to the Middle East. One of us even stated that Trump is "chicken" to effect the embassy move; that Trump covered it up by using Globalist media via his announced withdrawal of the United States from Obama's Paris Global Climate Accord. 

Unfortunately, and to be very frank about such opinions, this view is not only well shortsighted of the mark, but it also evidences a very critical and crucial misunderstanding of current events in light of Bible prophecy. Bible prophecy does not comport with what we human beings want to see happen, it comports with the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent will of Almighty God. Period.

To make sense of these recent events one needs to understand President Trump and the Order Of Battle (OOB) his Administration is following in its continuing war against the Globalist machine. The Globalist machine is the precursor of the coming Beast Empire of the Antichrist. Refresh your memory with a review of July 2016's Global SITREP B10-16. 

Now, being refreshed and mindful of the fact that the November election was just an electoral victory, a single battle won, over the Globalist candidate (Hillary Clinton) look closer at the ongoing big picture. That big picture reveals that a real war against the Globalist machine has been engaged ever since the election was decided. This war, as all earthly wars do, has both secular and Spiritual attributes, and the great battles on both planes of existence still lie directly ahead in the passage of time as we understand and experience it. 

The LORD God prophetically declared there will be war in Heaven, when the archangel Michael and his angels will prevail over Satan and his fallen host and throw them down to the earth. This is an event which I believe will occur around the mid-point of the 70th Week. Eschatology Today readers are well versed in this due to the continuing discourse on the Great Sign of Revelation 12. If you've only read as far as Revelation 12:1-6, then continue on and read Revelation 12:7-12.

So too the ongoing war against the Globalists will turn south around a corner in the future. But that's a future the bride of Christ will not be here to witness, and what we need to understand here and now is the Trump Administration's Order Of Battle against the Globalists. 

What is the Trump Administration's OOB? Well, he's told the world repeatedly what they are and has, as of this date, already initiated several of them. In order they are: saying goodbye to the TTP, win the war against Islamism, move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, Keystone XL, Judicial Appointments, replace Obamacare, end IRS and VA malfeasance, Tax Reform, rebuild America's infrastructure, and pull America out of the Global Warming charade. All of these specific orders of battle are against what the Globalists want to achieve. Each is a battle in its own right, many are inter-related or inter-dependent.

Look at the list above again. See what follows winning the fight against Islamism (both Sunni and Shi'a variants of jihad)? Yes, the fight to defeat Islamism has a priority position, and President Trump so stated this before the Sunni Muslim leaders in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This means creating the coalition I have recently begun referring to as The Ezekiel Summit. Refresh your memory here also if necessary. 

This specific, and second most important Order Of Battle requires two objectives be achieved: the defeat of the Islamic State and the reduction of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its agenda for a pan-Shi'a crescent of power from Tehran to Beirut. In order to achieve both of these a (where have you heard this before?) "Coalition of Nations" both Sunni Muslim and Western allies (think: "Ten Toes") is an indispensable necessity. Iron and miry clay, they work as allies, but do not cleave to one another. 

Those "Ten Toes" of Daniel 2 are, as some of you understand, "The Ezekiel Summit" manifest in the real-world we live in. These two objectives will result in the literal fulfillment of Isaiah 17 as well as Jeremiah 49:23-27 and 34-39. These fulfillment's are stage-setting for the final fulfillment of Psalm 83, Isaiah 11:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:24-26, and, ultimately, Ezekiel 38-39. These are the 'flood of prophetic fulfillment' I have discussed time and again which shall set the conditions that will exist in the very near future arrival and final fulfillment of the angel Gabriel's 70th Week prophecy to Daniel (Daniel 9:24-27).

Moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem will occur upon its Divinely appointed time. That is the time God decides, not any American President or his administration. In the future, as we surely all must be aware of by now, all nations shall move their national representation to Jerusalem.