Global SITREP E5-16: "Behold, I will break the bow of Elam"

14 December 2016: Ten days ago the above video appeared online, and like a couple of others which date to 2012 and 2015 respectively, it clearly records in graphic detail another in a series of epic failures of the vaunted Russian S-300P surface-to-air (SAM) missile system to launch. The failure is that of the 5V55KD missile itself to ignite following its 'cold launch' from the tube. The missile (the arrow) then falls back onto the launcher (the bow) destroying both.

Upon seeing this video an instantaneous reminder came to mind of the God-breathed words of the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah 49:35 to be exact:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts:

‘Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,

The foremost of their might.'"

Behold indeed! It has been with much media fanfare and all-around hand-wringing dread that the Russian S-300P air defense system was recently deployed to Iran after years of political delays.  As discussed previously, the land of ancient Elam is where the crown jewel of Iran's nuclear program is located, and it is here that Iran would seek to defend with the foremost of their military might that crown jewel. Undefended jewels are exposed and vulnerable, as is the country in which they reside.

UPDATE 18 December 2016: According to a report published yesterday afternoon by the Middle East Monitor (MEMO), the Islamic Republic of Iran through the mouthpiece of its IRGC commander, General Hossein Salami, has threatened the Gulf States with "Islamic conquest" as has just occurred in Aleppo, Syria. 

Quoting IRGC General Hossein Salami's comments to Iranian media: “It is now time for the Islamic conquests. After the liberation of Aleppo, Bahrain’s hopes will be realized and Yemen will be happy with the defeat of the enemies of Islam.”

NOTE: In the above linked MEMO report are a pair of embedded videos showing that as the remaining civilian refugees begin to evacuate eastern Aleppo city, mostly on foot but also in cars and buses, the Shi'a militia proxies of Iran open fire with small arms and heavy machine guns, further terrorizing those fleeing through checkpoints set up by the Russian military forces. These videos lend themselves to corroborating other reports of the massacre of fleeing civilians in eastern Aleppo in the past week.

General Salami's statement indicates that Ayatollah Khamenei and his clerical support have authorized these wars of "Islamic conquest" which are without any doubt the creation of chaos in the furtherance of the Shi'a Hojjatieh agenda of hastening the appearance of their awaited al-Mahdi figure. It is noteworthy to also say that neither Bahrain or Yemen could be conquered by Iran without also launching full-scale war against the Sunni's of Iraq, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and several other nations as well, including the Western alliance led by the United States, and Israel. 

Clearly within this Iranian threat is an overt threat of a greater war in the heart of the Middle East. A 'rumor of war' in the words as prophesied by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24-25. Virtually all of us can now see clearly the inter-linking of several very specific Bible prophecies concerning the final wars of the pre-70th Week world as we know it. Time is short.

The Islamic War: Sunni versus Shiite

15 March 2011: It appears as though the Sunni Arab regimes of the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf region have drawn a circle in the sand around the militarily expansionist plans of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a manner akin to that when the Consul of the Roman Republic, Gaius Popilius Laenas, drew a circle in the sand around the feet of the Seleucid Empire’s King Antiochus IV Epiphanes regarding his planned conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt and Cyprus about 2,180 years ago.

First, a brief look at history and prophetic fulfillment.

When the prototype of the coming Antichrist, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, arrived with his military forces outside the city of Alexandria he was met by Consul Laenas. Antiochus reached out with his hand in friendship, but instead of Laenas’ hand in reciprocity he received instead an ultimatum from the Roman Senate demanding his immediate withdrawal from Egypt and Cyprus. This ultimatum contained the stipulation that anything short of immediate and unconditional compliance would place the Seleucid Empire in a state of war with the Roman Republic. Antiochus attempted to play for time, saying he would consult his staff about the ultimatum, whereupon Laenas then took a staff and drew a complete circle in the sand around his feet and demanded, “Before you step out of this circle I will have your reply to the Senate.”

This monumentally historic event in the history of the ancient world, where Rome directly confronted the prototype Antichrist, was a literal precursor fulfillment of Daniel 11:30, “For the ships of Kittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant,” just as this fulfillment led directly to the precursor fulfillment of the Abomination of Desolation, and all of the other barbarous acts as discussed in the useful but not divinely inspired apocryphal book, 2 Maccabees, chapters 5 and 6.

In the above passage from Daniel, Roman Consul Laenas is represented as “the ships of Kittim” according to the Vulgate (Latin) translation of the original Hebrew text.

"et venient super eum trieres et Romani et percutietur et revertetur et indignabitur contra testamentum sanctuarii et faciet reverteturque et cogitabit adversum eos qui dereliquerunt testamentum sanctuarii"

"And the galleys and the Romans shall come upon him, and he shall be struck, and shall return, and shall have indignation against the covenant of the sanctuary, and he shall succeed: and he shall return, and shall devise against them that have forsaken the covenant of the sanctuary."

Kittim was a son of Javan, grandson of Japheth and great-grandson of Noah.

Back to the present era.

It would seem that the pro-Western regime (majority Sunni Muslims) in Lebanon understood the intentions of the Islamic Republic of Iran though its Hezbollah proxy, a military entity directly related to the IRCG, and decided to allow the United Nation determine culpability for the assassination of its former president, Rafik Hariri and couple of dozen other people. It’s interesting to note that Lebanon did not turn to the Arab League or neighboring majority Sunni Islamic states to offer their support for its sovereignty. Not only did the Sunni Arab regimes fail to act, but so has the United Nations (read: global governance) thus far. This failure of Sunni Muslim cohesion and the UN’s powerlessness did not go un-noticed by the apocalyptic-minded Shi’a regime in Iran and they exploited it fully to the point that Lebanon has now become a de facto Iranian client state through Hezbollah’s military prowess.

Then, as the wave of Sunni Arab protests swept into the heart of the Middle East from North Africa, many of which the Iranian regime has claimed credit for, a paradigm shift occurred within the Sunni-led regimes of the Arabian Peninsula that has been driven as much by fear and the need for self-preservation as it is by the ages old Sunni-Shi’a schism within Islam.

Gone are the days of proxy warfare primarily between Iran and Saudi Arabia as evidenced in Iraq between Sunni and Shiite, or direct, albeit somewhat covert, Saudi military intervention in the Iranian backed Shiite insurgency in Yemen. Now as the very real specter of Iranian expansion directly threatens Sunni rule in the Arabian Peninsula, a line has been drawn in the sand, and that line encircles the tiny nation-state of Bahrain.

Within the past day Saudi Arabian military forces, accompanied by the military forces of Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations, have made great spectacle in deploying significant numbers of their armored vehicles and combat troops into Bahrain at that government’s request to forcibly put down an insurrection of Iranian-inspired Shi’a Muslims. Iran’s reaction to this deployment makes the unambiguous threat of war against the Saudi’s and GCC nations all too real.

The Iranian foreign ministry, as if they have a say in the affairs of another sovereign state, has declared the Bahrani government’s request “illegal.” The Iranian parliament also branded Saudi Arabian regime of King Abdullah as “illegitimate” and the deployment of his troops as being “interference” in Bahrain’s internal affairs which would have “dangerous consequences.” This is far more than just a case of Islamic hypocrisy with the Iranian pot calling the Saudi kettle black; “them's fightin’ words” in any culture.

My curiosity now is piqued in wondering if the escalation of this new inter-Islamic crisis might lead to the fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:34-39. Only time will tell how this plays out, yet it will be very interesting to watch closely nonetheless; the whole of the Middle East is a boiling cauldron setting the conditions under which Biblical prophecy will continue to fulfill literally before our eyes.