Global SITREP C4-24: "Catastrophic Success"

Clickable Map of Syrian Governorates

UPDATED 8 December 2024: The above clickable (enlargeable) map is for those who would like a graphic point of reference for provinces (governorates) and their capitals and the locations of important cites. The chosen title for this SITREP, "Catastrophic Success" comes from a decade ago when many in the government feared a radical Islamist (ISIS) takeover of the whole of Syria. Eschatology Today accepts this terminology as being appropriate for the current situation in Syria.

ANNOUNCEMENT:

For those who are new here or just arriving after searching out a website like this (yes, I do see you accessing this site), Eschatology Today is first and foremost a blog about God-breathed prophecy in the Holy Scriptures. The sovereign will of God Almighty has been expressed through His prophets of ancient Israel; He has known what will come to pass on this earth since before time began as He has always existed outside of time and space as humanity can understand those concepts. 

Hence, the LORD spoke of future events through the prophets He selected; He did so for the purpose the living in those days would have understanding by seeking out His Word. To those who seek He provides understanding as necessary through His Spirit. For questions that begin with, "Will this or that happen..." seek His inerrant counsel on the issue as Jesus our Messiah (Christ) taught us, and that is go into a private place and ask of Him directly the question you may have. My personal suggestion for those who earnestly are seeking Him, ask Him to prove to you that He is what He has always said He is. He is the "I AM that I AM." (In Hebrew this is written as YHWH." Be ready for His response - it will change your life FOREVER and in ways that will leave no doubt about His love for you personally. There is no better time for this as we are living in the days of the so-called "end times." The "end times are simply those days, months and years prior to the physical Second Coming of Jesus Christ to establish the His Millennial Kingdom on this Earth.

The Syrian Ba'athist regime of Bashar al-Assad that arose in a coup d'etat led by his father Hafez al-Assad is no more. Remnants of the regime will fade into history over the coming days, weeks or months, as the fractious conglomeration of rebellious militias, primarily Sunni, begin to assert control over the areas they currently hold. They may begin to war amongst themselves or strike out at other enemies such as Shi'a militias which are not Syrian but foreigners. They may move against Russian controlled territory in the governorates of Tartous and Latakia. Thay may, as Islamist all, move against Israel on the Golan. Whatever does actually take place going forward has been foretold primarily be the prophet Isaiah (Chapter 17) and the prophet Jeremiah (Chapter 49). These things are what will take place in the near-term. Eschatology Today will track these events as the LORD directs based upon His revealed word in Scripture.

Clickable Map of the UNDOF

The IDF has occupied the area on this map shaded in yellow. With the collapse of the Syrian regime the 1974 Disengagement of Forces agreement (DOF) became null and void. Israel increased in land area today.

It has long been said that World War IV (WWIV) would begin in the Middle East. Yes, WWIV, because WWIII  was fought and won, it was the so-called "Cold War" of 1944-1991. 

WWIV began on October 7, 2023 and it continues to this very minute and will continue for some time to come. WWIV will likely conclude, if that's the correct terminology, with Ezekiel 38-39, which heralds the start of the 70th Week of Years, a/k/a the Thlipsis and Megas Thlipsis (Tribulation and Great Tribulation). You all are well aware of how this ends, and for the Bride of Christ it's with the shout "COME UP HITHER!"

9 December 2024: The Bottom Line - The al-Assad regime is gone but the civil war in Syria has not ended. There has not been a legitimate transfer of political power which realistically keeps Syria a powderkeg with a lit fuse.

An amalgamation of insurgent militias have control of Syria's major cities in most of western Syria. These insurgents have differing ideological views. 

Some, possibly a majority, are Sunni jihadists. 

Some are scattered remnants of ISIS.

Some are north Syrian tribesmen who are loyal to Erdogan's Turkiye. 

Some are Kurds who control a third of Syria in the regions east of the Euphrates River and are backed by the U.S.-led military coalition.

Some are southern Syrian tribesmen also backed by the U.S.-led military coalition centered in Al-Tanf on the Jordan and Iraq border region, and who recently extended their control northward to Palmyra.

Some are Arab Syrians from the southern Dara'a region who are mixed with local Druse populations.

And then there are the Alawi, cousins of Shi'a Islam in Tartus and Latakia on the Syrian coastline who until a day ago had been dominant over the rest of Sunni Arab Syria via the al-Assad regime.

Added to this mix are foreign military groups such as the IRGC-QF advisors and technical support from Iran, the Shi'a Iraqi PMU militia formations and the Shi'a Fatemiyoun militia from Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as isolated Russian troops in several makeshift encampments scattered across the rest of Syria west of the Euphrates River.

All of this lies right across the northern border of Israel.

And the prophecies of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49;23-27 have not come to complete fulfillment, which is something global media would never mention.

It's not over in Syria yet, not by a longshot.

OPERATION "BASHAN ARROW"

UPDATE 11 December 2024: In the elapsed time since the last update (about 48 hours) Israel's land, sea and air forces have attacked and destroyed more than 250 military bases, depots, facilities, grounded aircraft (fixed and rotary wing), missile batteries, AA gun emplacements, tanks and armored vehicles. You name it as a military asset of the former regime and the Israeli Air Force has destroyed it. This continuing IDF action, known as Operation Bashan Arrow, is unprecedented in the past 100-year history of modern warfare. 

And it has been a virtual turkey shoot because since the former regime's troops abandoned their posts there has been ZERO air defense over Syria or any kind of defense against Israel's actions. Zip, nada, nothing. Russian and Iranian forces are of no help, they can't fly or are hunkered down in survival mode and looking for a way out. The U.S. and Turkey have hit select targets but not nearly on the scale that Israel has. 

One has to wonder how the victorious Sunni-led insurgency is viewing the annihilation of their expected war booty. There's not much left except for burnt and charred scrap metal.

UPDATE 14 December 2024: The image above captured one of seventeen IAF air strikes on Friday night directed at Iranian-constructed tunnels within the Qalamoun Mountains west of Damascus.

The strategic tunnels were identified by intelligence operations to contain missiles, warheads and their launching platforms. Battle damage assessments have not yet been released on mission objectives. 

It's not too far-fetched to envision that IDF special forces will need to converge on the area, raid the tunnels and destroy them completely as strategic tunnels would contain strategic assets of the former regime such as WMD warheads for the missiles.

A masked opposition fighter carries a flag of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in the courtyard of the Umayyad Mosque in the old walled city of Damascus, Syria, on December 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The flag carried by the "opposition fighter" in the image above IS the standard Black Flag of Jihad used by Islamic Jihadists all over the world in their ongoing war against non-Muslim kufr (infidels). HTS was and remains a Jihadist army now in control of Syria.

Any questions?

The above are Sunni jihadists of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP). Their contingent in Idlib, Syria is reported to be 4,000 fully equipped troops. The TIP are Uighurs from Xinjiang, PRC. They call their homeland East Turkistan, but currently operate as a integral component force of HTS in Syria. Their ultimate objective is to wage jihad against the PRC and establish an Islamic caliphate in Xinjiang and throughout Central Asia.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP A1-24: The Regional War Zone

 

The War Zone

FINAL UPDATE 27 January 2024: In the nine days since Pakistan launched retaliatory strikes deep into Iranian territory there's been only one OSINT analysis that carries any water. 

To begin with, why did Iran initiate hostilities with a nuclear-armed Pakistan? Was it to signal the world powers that it was now nuclear-armed itself and had no fear of Pakistani nukes? It was Pakistan, in the person of the father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program (A.Q. Khan, for those with recollection) who clandestinely put Iran and the IRGC on the fast track to nuclear weapons development. So why strike Pakistan which is neither an ally of Iran nor a full-fledged foe either. 

Consider that Iran has been attacked on its soil a great many times by Israel, much less its bases and operatives in Lebanon and Syria, and Iran has never once retaliated against nuclear-armed Israel in a reciprocal manner. Ditto for the USA, and the assassination of IRGC-QF MG Qassem Soleimani by the Trump Administration. Hajj Soleimani was a very, very close ally of Ayatollah Khamenei, a fact discussed previously on Eschatology Today. 

The fact remains Iran fears both Israel and the US (even with Biden at the helm, and albeit at different levels, so direct retaliation has not occurred, and likely will not occur at the present time. Therefore, Iran took the lesser risk and hit Baluchi separatist camps in Pakistan to vent its desire for vengeance. The mullahs assessed quasi-correctly that Pakistan would reciprocate in-kind; a diplomatic kerfuffle would ensue (it did) and that would be that. This is what took place, but lost in 99% of all discussion on this is the fact that Pakistan is the only nation on earth to attack the territory of Iran with ballistic missile strikes since the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988. 

This does not sit well with the mullahs in Tehran, and additional fall-out will surface soon, perhaps in a month's time in the coming election in Iran of the next Assembly of Experts. The new assembly will be far more radical as the days of the so-called "reformists" are over. It is also quite likely according to many observers of the Islamic Republic that the new Experts Assembly will elevate the current president, Ebrahim Raisi, to the office of Supreme Leader in place of the increasingly frail Ayatollah Khamenei. None in Iran today have more innocent blood on their hands than Raisi, and upon elevation he'll be more lethal than ever before. 

15 January 2024: At 03:00 this morning US and UK strike aircraft, supported by the Canadian, Dutch, Australian and Bahrani military forces, swarmed into Houthi-controlled Yemen to strike multiple Houthi military bases, launch pads, ordnance depots located in Sana'a, Hodeida port, Dhamar and their stronghold at Saada. A Houthi spokesman says the US and UK "will pay a heavy price for this blatant aggression." Once again, at Iranian Twelver instigation and outright arming with missiles and drones, Yemen has become a new front in the End Times "wars and rumors or war." 

It would seem logical that a campaign by the aforementioned Western allies for regime change in Houthi-controlled Yemen is the viable path to put an end to the ballistic missile and drone threats to commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait. This may seem wishful thinking given that a UK government official has stated that today's strikes in Houthi Yemen were "limited." What is obvious is that a war has been in progress at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula for some time now, and with these airstrikes that war has escalated once again with a necessary Western intervention. 

10 January 2024: The lead off SITREP for 2024 is to highlight the war zone where kinetic warfare is occurring, and anticipated, sooner or later, according to Bible prophecy which has been covered here for 15 years and counting. The archives are readily accessible for refresher reading. Eschatology Today assesses that now is the time to lean forward once again in anticipation of coming events. 

In this map Yemen, a currently active participant in the ongoing war against Israel, as well as Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Somalia are included because in ancient times they were inclusive of the Biblical land of Sheba to one extent or another. The land of Sheba is prominently referenced in the subsequent prophecy of Ezekiel 38/39. At this time it is not possible for Sheba in conjunction with the land of Dedan, to complain or protest the invasion attempt of Gog of Magog. Clearly it can be inferred that some major event will transform the current paradigm for Ezekiel's prophecy to occur as literally as it is written, which undoubtedly will be the future reality. Sudan is included as it is Kuwsh of Ezekiel 38/39. Egypt is included for both the current Israel-Gaza war and other prophetic events which will see Israel in control of all the land from the Nile River through the Sinai to the southern Negev border of the State of Israel. Libya, not specifically color-coded here is the land of Phut, also a participant of the Magog invasion.

Currently there are unconfirmed reports of IDF special forces operating along the Philadelphia corridor between Egypt and Gaza. This operation is designed to detect the remaining HAMAS leadership attempting to escape into Egypt with Israeli hostages through the extensive and currently active tunnel system underground there. These forces are also reportedly operating in Libya and Sudan for the same interdiction purposes.

The map above also illustrates in a single frame of reference the three critical maritime choke points of the Suez Canal, Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Strait of Hormuz. Blocking of one or more of these cannot be tolerated, particularly by the West, due to dire economic damage that can be done to the global economy with their closure.

The Philadelpi Corridor (image below) that will be in the news in the next few days as the IDF intends to take full control over it.

Global SITREP D5-21: We Await Our King

14 January 2021: We are monarchists. We are awaiting our King, and therefore the previous SITREPs focused on the upheaval in our nation and around the world will remain for viewing on Eschatology Today but will not be a primary concern going forward. The primary  concern for us has been and will be eschatology - the study of what the word of God says will happen in these end times. 

We are seven days away from the inauguration of a new executive administration. We have seen the extraordinary and the unprecedented ignoring of the long-established law of our land - the Constitution of the United States of America. We have seen unconstitutional rigging of elections in several of our states. We may yet see the inauguration of an illegitimate president and his administration. Give to Caesar what is Caesar's; give to God what is His.

What we have not seen, as has been widely circulated, is any proper legal unveiling or court decision or legal recourse to remedy or rectify a stolen election. Maybe that will happen in the next few fleeting days, but we're not going to pine around for what might be. We are going to continue looking up and going our way and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in anticipation of His coming at the Harpazo.

We are going to watch events in the Middle East centered upon the secular and yet unbelieving State of Israel. We will have an eye to the global pandemic and other pestilences yet to emerge. We will watch the continuing rise of the kings of the East. We will keep an eye to the skies and heavens above for potential impactors. And we will call out the coming official announcements of "alien visitations" for what it is - demonic deception. We will watch the rise of the ten toes and the little horn spoken of by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel. We will watch weather patterns change and the roaring and tossing of the seas, not because mankind is responsible for them, but because God Himself is shaking the heavens. 

This is what we will busy ourselves with because it is Bible prophecy.

Global SITREP C8-20: Looking Ahead on the Prophetic Road to Revelation

23 October 2020: We Christians are looking ahead on the Prophetic Road to the Revelation of Jesus Christ. And we have smiles on our faces because we know exactly what lies on the road as it crests the far horizon. Somewhere along this road, we know not where, the view seen in the image above will suddenly change to a bird's eye view when the Lord snatches us all away in the blink of an eye. In that moment our eyes will see the full scope the victory that was won for all mankind at the Cross.

But before that moment, when time for us will cease to exist as we've entered into an infinite eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ, we will see, as we are seeing right now with increasing frequency, troublesome times, fearful sights and lots of things no one has seen ever before. Yet, we do not fear them, they have no power over us of the victory that has been won. Many of those things have been foretold in prophecy as we've discussed on Eschatology Today for more than a decade. This is the Lord's purpose of His prophetic word, to let our inquisitive minds know what lies ahead over that horizon. The Lord, in His omniscient wisdom, knows of our need to know, so He told us in advance what we needed to know, all we have to do is read it.

From ancient times we have the testimony of the angel Gabriel, given from God as testimony of the events to come. The overriding theme of what Gabriel passed along was concerning present day Israel, the political events and political intrigue of these last days, and the rise of the beast and his unholy kingdom, the final fourth kingdom. The Apocalypse (Revelation) of Jesus Christ echoes much of what what Gabriel related to Daniel but in ever more exquisite details. The greatest of all the details that has been given to us is the fact that God has complete and total control of His will being done. Right here, right now.

And in addition to this, we have the Spirit-spoken word from Peter: "No prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." (2 Peter 1:21) Tell me that Paul did not speak from the Spirit in saying that in these final days "people would be narcissistic, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their elders, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, not lovers of good, treacherous, reckless, puffed up with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying it power. Avoid such people." (2 Timothy 3:1-5) Everywhere one can cast his or her gaze today this is what that person will see; one would have to be willfully blind not to see it.

And here in America we have seen it, almost all summer long and to this day we have seen Paul's prophetic words on full display. In the coming days, during this next week even and thereafter, we shall see them in living color. 

And this is where we'll leave it for now. Updates to this SITREP will continue to our election day, unless the Harpazo occurs first. If Jesus is not your Lord and Savior this would be a good time, possibly even your final chance, to accept Him and escape the catastrophes to come. Marana'tha!

Global SITREP A4-20: Miscellaneous Items

(6FEB20 UPDATE BELOW) 23 January 2020: This SITREP is to cover miscellaneous items, some new, some just for updating purposes.

Firstly, it's necessary acknowledge the passing of televangelist Dr. Jack Van Impe. He was truly amazing in his ability to call up chapter and verse of prophetic Scripture, and his passing is mentioned here simply because he was a brother in Christ. It is irrelevant if one agreed or disagreed with some of what he taught, but I do thank the Lord that Dr. Van Impe was true to his calling for several decades. He will be missed. There is an entire generation of us who grew up with prophecy teachers in Jack's class, and now we look forward to being with them again at the Lord's side.

Secondly, in recent studies the angel Gabriel's prophecy in Daniel 9:26b, "And the people of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary," has been in the forefront. Almost exactly ten years ago at the very beginning of Eschatology Today several posts were made to identify specifically who the people of the prince to come were. The prince is the coming Antichrist; the people were the several legions of the Roman Empire that besieged, sacked and destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Temple, specifically and most prominent among them was Legio X Fretensis. 

The army of the Antichrist, as has been written about here in several posts, is back in the news. One post in particular was brought to mind recently because of this, "It Was Never About the EU, But All About NATO." It's three and a half years old now, but that post deserves a revisiting because there's lots of noise of late about an EU army being stood up, one building block at a time. Breitbart published an article on this today that is worth reading. And yet, the EU army will be wholly reliant on NATO and buttressed American military power that will enable it to take the field in future combat operations as seen in our discussions on Daniel 11:40-45 taking place during the 70th Week.

The thing here, and this is a lot to wrap any one's head around at one time, but I must also be recalling other Eschatology Today posts such as "Ten Toes" and "The Little Horn," which rest upon even more very specific Bible prophecy regarding ten kings or leaders of nations among whom an eleventh little horn rises and plucks three of the ten out by the roots (making them his own). This occurs while there's a war going on. This is the fourth beast of Daniel 7:7-8. So, while some might tend to think its quiet and not much is going on, oh but to the contrary!, this world has a great deal going on andis moving inexorably down the Prophetic Road to Revelation.

Thirdly, and as an adjunct to the above (rumor intelligence (RUMINT) has been rampant all week long in advance of the Davos economic summit and the VP Pence trip to Israel) it looks as if Trump will have both Israeli PM Bibi Netanyahu and Israeli PM wanna-be Benny Gantz as his guests in the White House next week to be briefed on the so-called "Deal of the Century" peace initiative. 

Both Netanyahu and Gantz have pledged to annex the Jordan Valley to Israel, and Netanyahu acknowledging that since that is now the case, then Israel should move forward immediately an make the annexation happen. And guess who would like to blow that up in all of their faces? The Iranian Ayatollah. So little wonder that today rockets were launched again from Gaza.

Meanwhile, In Iraq, there are raging battles between anti-Iran protesters and pro-Iran forces in several cities this evening, and just about every evening this week, most involving life fire automatic weapons. In the Iraqi-Syria border town of al-Qaim unknown aircraft attacked the 45th Brigade of Kata'ib Hezbollah with reports that a commander was killed. This coincides to today with the United States warning the new IRGC-QF commander, MG Esmail Qa'Ani, that he faces that same fate of MG Qassem Soleimani if any US forces are harmed in Iraq.

Finally, the truth about the coronavirus that emerged in China and has spread around the world is finally being acknowledged. There are over 20 million people trapped in Chinese cities as that government attempts to get a handle on an epidemic in the making. Wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes in diverse places, plagues and pestilences... sounds like a Jack Van Impe telecast, but its real and its all happening today just as our Lord said it would in the Olivet Discourse.

UPDATE 06 FEB 20: Taiwan News recently leaked the actual numbers of 2019-nCoV in the PRC. Infected 154,023; Suspected infected 79,808; Deaths 24,589, Victims cured 269. These numbers dwarf the "official" numbers being reported. The 2019-nCoV Infected and Suspected Infected total is well over one-quater million people (circa 234,000). 

2019-nCoV Data
Left to Right: Confirmed cases, Suspected cases, Cured cases, Deaths.

Other data from Taiwan strongly suggests that 2019-nCoV may be an "unkillable" virus due to the many insertions of other viruses in the core. That may mean in 2021 it may resurface again with unknown consequences. Also, H5N1 Bird Flu has recently made a reappearance in the People's Republic just south of Wuhan.

UPDATE 25 January 2020: Another of the older posts, one from December 2018, is worth noting again. "Psalm 68: A Messianic Prophecy for a Snowy Israel." There are a couple of interesting passages in it, with a reference to a specific season of the year; when snow is present upon a certain mount. This has me recalling what Jesus said in the Olivet about the middle of the 70th Week as Matthew 24:20 recorded. More convinced than ever that nothing here is coincidental.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP B6-19: "Deal of the Century" vs "Covenant With Many"

22 April 2019: There is only one place on the planet to find anything authoritative regarding the "covenant with many" amd that place is the Book of Daniel, chapter 9, verse 27. This critically important verse of Scripture is the final verse of the four verses (Daniel 9:24-27) that the angel Gabriel spoke to the prophet Daniel concerning the future of Israel, from the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the present era and just beyond. These four verses are inseparable and are commonly referred to here and elsewhere as the "70 Weeks Prophecy." Of those 70 weeks of years (490 years), 69 weeks of years (483) have come and passed into history; only the final 70th week of years (7 years) remains to occur to complete the total of 490 years, and that 70th week of years lies within our present and very immediate future.

The purpose of the sum total of the 70 weeks (past, present and future) is itemized in a very straitforward manner in verse 24. In verse 25 we find the only instance within of all Scripture where our Messiah (Mashiyach) is actually referred to as "Messiah the Prince (Mashiyach HaNagiyd)." Elsewhere in Scripture, Jesus of Nazareth is referred to by all the other names and titles with which we are familiar. The 69th week of years ended with His crucifixion, death and resurrection, which we just celebrated last Sunday.

The 70th Week, as Gabriel declares, begins with "and he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week." Since 69 weeks of years have passed, then only one week of years remains, the 70th week of years. The "he" in this verse is the antichrist.

However, that all said, there are many among us who are now either teaching or strongly advocating that the Trump Administration's much heralded "Deal of the Century" between Israel and the "Palestinians" for a two-state or a one-state solution to the now 71-year old conflict (the Psalm 83 war) is the "covenant with many." The projected release date for the "Deal" is after the soon formation of the new coalition government under PM Netanyahu and following the Muslim observance of Ramadan the first week of June at the earliest. 

Eschatology Today believes this is an extremely dangerous teaching for a variety of reasons, the primary being - it may not even be revealed as planned, or if it is it could fairly quickly result is the flood of sequential or simultaneous prophetic wars we've discussed here for many years. Given what the prophetic Scriptures say about which peoples and nations are vanquished in these wars, the "with many" is a virtual unknown in its full scope. Then there's the always present possibility of our not being here by cause of the Harpazo occurring, making the aforementioned dangerous teaching also very premature. And further still, the "covenant with many" is something that Eschatology Today places as becoming a fact immediately after the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39, and therefore still future.

Eschatology Today will watch closely for related developments, such as an expected annexation of vast sections of Judea and Samaria (i.e. West Bank) by Israel. Finally, and based upon certain leaks of information by various parties, the "Deal of the Century" appears at this point to involve a dividing of the covenant land of Israel, which if true could be a nightmare scenario.

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP D4-18: Recognizing Eisegetical Teaching in Today's Church

Amir Tsarfati at 2018 Understanding the Times

7 October 2018: I need to issue a disclaimer right from the get-go so that some folks do not get the wrong idea. The posting which follows is not intended to disparage Pastor Jan Markell, Olive Tree Ministries or the associated annual "Understanding the Times" prophecy conference. All are very well-regarded by Eschatology Today and within the greater Christian eschatological community. The intent here is simply to illustrate and highlight eisegetical teaching in the church today, in this case it is the teaching presented by Amir Tsarfati one week ago the this year's conference.

Last evening I received an email from Donald Dolmus. For those who don't know Donald, he is a prolific prophecy teacher and minister (En Defensa de la Fe - In Defense of the Faith) who lives in amid the ongoing civil conflict in today's neo-communist Nicaragua. Donald translates articles by Dr. David Reagan and Bill Salus from English to Spanish. 

In that email was the above screen capture from the YouTube video of Amir Tsarfati's teaching. The subject line of Donald's email read simply "This is pure "newspaper exegesis." I searched out and watched the Amir  Tsarfati video linked above. I then slept on my reaction to the video and awoke this morning feeling a very strong urge to respond to our brother's email - not in defense of Amir Tsarfati's teaching, but in brotherly rebuke of the teaching he presented to the Understanding the Times conference.

Here, with Donald's concurrence, is my emailed response. My response was also shared with several other prophecy teachers.

"Donald, 

I understand your intended point with this, however Amir Tsarfati did not engage in "newspaper exegesis" in his monologue at Jan Markell's Understanding the Times conference last Saturday in Minneapolis. 

I say this because Amir Tsarfati clearly did not cite any media article in support of the eschatological claims he made. 

On the contrary, Amir's claims were pure eisegesis, and eisegesis is typically something a little bit worse than run-of-the-mill "newspaper exegesis" in my opinion.  Not that it's necessary, but I will explain my view.

What Amir did was issue a series of eisegetical talking points that are at their core based upon a kind of modern-day Israeli zealotry; they appear to be based upon the rather unique mindset that MIddle Eastern origin prophecy teachers are superior or more knowledgeable than those who've been brought up in the West - as if there's a different Holy Spirit interpreting God-breathed prophecy depending on where one was born and raised. In this way Amir's commentary was more ideological than eschatological. He rightly claimed not to be a prophet; that Old Testament prophets spoke as inspired by the Holy Spirit, but then lauched into several minutes of eisegetical pronouncements forgetting that interpretation of the Old Testament prophets words is by and through the same Holy Spirit. I noted that Amir did not claim ANY Spiritual discernment as underlying and guiding his words.

I quote Amir with my emphasis added:

"I can tell you Israel today is safe, secure and prosperous, and a world power."  

This is a glaring and egregious misstatement of reality. Worse - this statement outright denies Old Testament prophecy that is currently in a process of fulfillment (Asaph, Isaiah, Ezekiel - just to name a few)!  And the worst part of all this is that Amir then attempted to support his first unsupportable contention with more eisegetical contentions. These additional contentions, in and of themselves, actually serve to contradict his original unsupportable contention! 

(My emphasis again in the quote below)

"We (Israel) will not be attacked by our immediate enemies all around us - from the north, to the east, to the south. We're (Israel) not going to be attacked because of who we are - 'The name of Israel will be remembered no more' - . No! We (Israel) are now the eigth most powerful country in the world; we are the most innovative country in the world; we are the start-up nation of the world. We (Israel) even extract water from the air - you sneeze; we drink."

As can be seen, this is a prideful eisegesis as well. It completely ignores the not yet fulfilled text of Psalm 83; Isaiah 11:14; Isaiah 17; Jeremiah 49:23-27 and 34-39, as well as Ezekiel 28:24. These I believe will be the literal fulfillments that will bring about the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38:8-11 just prior to the 70th Week prophesied by the angel Gabriel to Daniel the prophet.

That Israel is currently safe and secure ignores the ongoing war between Israel and Iran and its several proxies within Lebanon and Syria. If Israel is secure then why are there several battalions of Amir's fellow IDF troops on the Golan, and opposite Gaza? Why are Judea and Samaria the scene of repeated terrorist atrocities with knives and guns? Why has the IAF launched over 200 strike missions into Syria, from Abu Kamal on the Iraqi border to Latakia in Syria? Why has Israel's PM recently threatened Hezbollah and the government of Lebanon as he did in the UN recently? Nations which are safe and secure do not engage in such things as these. You know it, I know it and especially Amir Tsarfati should know it.

Amir clearly appears to be within that peculiar group of prophecy teachers which believe and often proclaim that the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39 is imminently imminent. This may be a driving impetus to his eisegesis."

Global SITREP A1-18: A Quick Perspective Analysis on What to Expect

The Lord Jesus Christ delivering the Olivet Discourse

1 January 2018: The Eschatology Today blog began on 18 January 2009. Over the course of the initial four years (2009-2012) the average number of Eschatology Today posts was 34. Beginning in 2013 (Global SITREPs commenced in March of 2013) and continuing through  the next four years (through 2016) the number of posts virtually doubled for 2013, 2015, and 2016. 2014 was quite the anomaly with a total of 99 posts, bringing that four year average to 75. This brings us to the present and the just completed 2017 in which there were a total of 72 posts, more than double the number of posts in 2009. 

People who do analysis use figures like these to illustrate trends. The increasing frequency of yearly SITREPs is a kin to a siren calling firemen to the firehouse; the number of prophetic fires having doubled. The urgency of reporting has increased two-fold. In 2009-2012 Eschatology Today looked at future prophetic events and how they might be expected to unfold. IN 2017 WE SPENT A LOT OF TIME WATCHING THEM UNFOLD. We spent much of the year anticipating the fulfillment of the Great Sign of Revelation 12:1-2. It occurred exactly as detailed in that Scripture.

And some will still say that tomorrow never comes. I've got news for those folks, tomorrow is here - today. This should be pretty apparent to the 1.6 million of you viewing the 505 Eschatology Today posts during the past 9 years on an average of 14,900 times per month. Hindsight is 20/20; it provides the proper perspective.

So, 2018 begins Eschatology Today's 10th year, and many are wondering what to expect. As always, expect what our Lord Jesus Christ told us to expect. Expect the unexpected! 

"Be ready because in the hour you do not expect the Son of Man comes." (paraphrased Matthew 24:44) 

In ancient times, and in the words of the Lord's prophets, time and date were given in a certain format. Most often the format was akin to how Daniel's 9th chapter begins. The first two verses read (and please read these prophetic words carefully, a couple of times if necessary):

"In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the lineage of the Medes, who was made king over the realm of the Chaldean's in the first year of his reign I, Daniel, understood by the books the number of the years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet, that He would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem."

Could I now write:

"In the first year of Trump, who was made leader over the realm of the Americans and of the free world, on the twenty-third day of the eighth month, I understood by the words specified by God, who had given them to Christ Jesus and who gave them to His servant John on Patmos, that the Great Sign came to pass."

Yes, and I just did write them. But they're not prophetic words, they are words of what is now historical fact. And all one has to do is look at what has occurred as detailed in the dozen or so posts, from Global SITREP D1-17 through E3-17 to see what has occurred of prophetic importance in the three months since the Great Sign. Jerusalem, has become the the focus of last days prophetic fulfillment we have long known it would become. Not to be lost on anyone reading here - this has occurred in the 70th year of Israel's modern, end-times existence, which is also the 10th sequential HaShemittah since Israel was re-born in the covenant land. 

And make no mistake, this is not about politics or an issue of secular import, this is about the literal fulfillment of the Lord's inerrant word. And just as with the Great Sign it is prophecy occurring in fulfillment before all of our senses, along with everything relevant to the imminent literal fulfillment of the several prophecies involving Iran (Persia, Elam), Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and, of course, Israel. And just about 24 hours ago the process of Israel taking full, sovereign possession of Judea and Samaria very probably began in earnest.

"Be ready because in the hour you do not expect the Son of man comes."

Global SITREP C6-17: The 3rd Trilateral Summit of the New Mediterranean Alliance

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades last week, in Thessaloniki, at the third trilateral summit, signed joint statements for the continued strengthening of relations. YWN image.

Updated 3 July 2017: Without moving Global SITREP A6-16: A New Mediterranean Alliance forward by 16 months, consider this to be a continuation of that SITREP. An important re-fresh is always a good thing, especially this new geo-strategic alliance in the eastern Mediterranean in terms of Bible prophecy. To put it another way, these are quite likely three of the full number of ten toes we're looking for in last days prophetic fulfillment. They bridge the left and right foot of the image seen in Daniel 2. The importance of this cannot be understated; it is no accident this alliance has emerged within the past 17 months.

There are several OSINT sources for this update, but I have deliberately chosen the one published by Yeshiva World News last Sunday. The  published story is the text of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's statement following the third trilateral summit held by Israel, Greece and Cyprus in Thessaloniki, Greece. At the bottom of the linked YWN webpage is a video. Take in PM Netanyahu's words. Think about what Paul wrote 2000 years ago in 2 Thessalonians 2. No, this alliance is not any accident of happenstance. It is prophetic.

Elite IDF 'Egoz' commando training in Cyprus, June 2017.

Eschatology Today held back for some time, a week longer than Israeli media, in posting a report on this unique and now completed event. For us this is an early glimpse at how near-term prophecy-related events could and may very well occur. 

Two weeks ago approximately 400 IDF special forces soldiers from the elite Egoz unit, the elite Yahalom combat engineers and Oketz canine unit trained during the day and at night with approximately 100 of their Cypriot allies in Cyprus' Troodos Mountains and Paphos Forest. The elite IDF special forces troops which were selected to deploy for this exercise were not told in advance where their training would take place; they boarded IAF military transports in Israel and landed on Cyprus. 

Elite 'Egoz' special forces soldiers during a mission brief in Cyprus.

This exercise simulated a deep infiltration behind enemy lines. In military terms this kind of an operation is known as Enroute Mission Planning and Rehearsal Simulation (EMPRS). Once these boots hit the ground, multiple 'enemy' positions were assaulted, both above and below ground. The simulation mimicked probable future operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, or in Syria. This exercise undoubtedly enhanced and advanced the combat effectiveness and capabilities of the participating special forces units. Movement within the exercise 'box' was accomplished via ten IAF Blackhawk special operations helicopters and several C-130 'Shimshon' Super Hercules transport aircraft. The exercise will pay great dividends when these units are called upon to execute their real-world mission. This is the boots on the ground aspect of the handshake photo at the top of this SITREP.

Global SITREP C3-16: It Was Never About the EU, But All About NATO

24 June 2016: This is a special SITREP that I think is necessary because Bible prophecy teachers will be talking about it in their sermons this weekend.  So I see the need to tell you where I stand, and because I anticipate there are more than a few who will ask questions on this subject.

When it comes to Bible prophecy and 'last days' eschatology, I hold to the opinion that the EU was never the central theme of the fifth and final world empire. This final world empire has been discussed at length in many Eschatology Today posts over the past 7 years which have looked at the angel Gabriel's prophecies recorded in the Book of Daniel, chapters 2 and 8 through 12, as well as Revelation 13. In my view the central eschatological focus should never have been on the EU, but always should have been on NATO. And this is the bottom line on why I see the BREXIT vote as much ado about nothing. It is irrelevant when it comes to the eschatological 'big picture.'

Why? Because the EU is not a military force, NATO is. And the dominant theme in last days prophecy of the 70th Week is one of a final world-dominating empire of the Antichrist wielding overwhelming military power. Without NATO the Antichrist would be a great big nothing. The final dominating world empire is "Rome" in the 21st century, and this time "Rome" will include not only the United Kingdom and other European nations, but also the whole of North America and its peerless arsenal.

"And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation." 

Revelation 13:7b

Addendum 29 June 2016: So how does this relate to prophetic events just prior to the 70th Week (Ezekiel 38/39) and that week itself? What follows is my forward-looking view on how it plays out.

As discussed briefly above, the EU is not powerful; it never has been since 1958.  

NATO, on the other hand, is where the real power lies since right after the end of World War II. NATO was created by its member nations within 1 year of Israel's rebirth: Israel in 1948, and NATO in 1949. Given the type and duration of negotiations that occurred, the establishment of Israel and NATO were contemporaneous. 

NATO and its adjutant North Atlantic Council (NAC), established by Article 9 of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty (NAT), stand as the empowerment of Article 3 and Article 5 of the treaty. This is where the true power of "Rome" in the late 20th century and early 21st century AD abides. The North Atlantic Council has been in active session from 1952 to the present moment - that's 64 years in continuous session. This is where NATO's legal power to engage in warfighting in defense of the alliance's member nations and the Council's interests exists.

By definition, the North Atlantic Treaty (NAT) is a currently existent "covenant among many." (Reference: Global SITREP C2-16: Israel Takes a Big Step Towards the "Covenant Among Many")  In the near future, at the start of the 70th Week, this NAT (covenant among many) will be expanded to include Israel, and a few other nations. Most likely the post-Psalm 83 rump of modern day Jordan and other Sunni Arab states are among those nations. 

Antichrist will "confirm" this expansion of the NAT for a period of 7 years, and after which those nations would be extended full membership in the treaty organization. At the present, this legal mechanism is known as NATO's "Partnership For Peace." And as we know from Bible prophecy this extension of the NAT to Israel will be unilaterally abrogated halfway into the 70th Week. Antichrist's NATO forces would enter into Israel during the Daniel 12:40-45 war under the provision of NATO's Article 5. 

So, this 70th Week "covenant among many," just as its pre-70th Week version, will be crafted, maintained and enforced from a position of military strength, not weakness. These are core principles that have governed the politics of world empires from Nebuchadnezzar to the present. This is accordance with Ecclesiastes 1:9.

Has the UK withdrawn or threatened to withdraw from NATO? From the North Atlantic Council and the North Atlantic Treaty? No, and it never will. 

Consider this as i have mentioned previously on Eschatology Today: are these nations prior to the 70th Week truly dealing from a position of weakness as some interpret Ezekiel 38:13?  All should now be aware of my disagreement with that interpretation. I think the initial response of NATO to the sudden appearance of the Magog horde suddenly coming south towards Israel from the Crimean Peninsula and the Caucasus is one of incredulity ("Are you blankety-blank kidding me!?"), and that quickly shifts to a response of massive retaliation (warfighting) in support of Israel. This becomes a brief world war as seen in Ezekiel 39:6 and elsewhere in Ezekiel's prophecy.

The EU Army?

1 July 2016: With the UK's BREXIT vote still resonating around the globe the French and German foreign ministers jointly issued an obviously prepared in-advance dictum announcing the European Union's transformation into a "political union" that would include massive rearmament to enable future offensive military operations anywhere around the globe. 

The website German-Foreign-Policy.com (click link) published on 28 June its own report, entitled "The European War Union," which included the full text of the joint position paper written by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (a Social Democrat) and French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault (a Socialist). 

This dictum might well be seen as a whole lot more than the words of European socialist dreamers bent on creating a European Superstate. German Chancellor Angela Merkel very recently declared that Germany's defense budget would converge with that of the United States on the basis of Germany's GDP. Based upon World Bank GDP figures the 2014 German GDP was $3868.29 Billion, so the announced German defense spending increase would rise from the current $36.6 Billion to $131.5 Billion. France would be required to do the same, as would the other eight nations necessary to form the prophetic 10-nation confederacy, as would other attendant and necessary requirements for the establishment of a European Superstate. Such a thing would truly be unprecedented in world history and will be watched to see if the development of this "European Security Compact" truly matches or even exceeds the dream it is to be built upon.

UPDATE 5 July 2016: Something I've noticed that is sticking out like a sore thumb and which remains unmentioned by prophecy teachers in all of the discourse and sermon pronouncements since the UK vote to leave the EU late last month. That something is that neither The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Lithuania or Latvia were a part of the Roman Empire in 70 AD nor at its greatest extent in 116 AD. Neither were, of course, any North American nations. On the other-hand, there are other nations which were within the Roman Empire in ancient times but have no connection whatsoever to either NATO or the EU since their establishment after World War II.

This indicates to me that spending a lot of time looking at maps of ancient Rome should not be a key part of any exegesis regarding the geographical nature of the final beast empire; that the ten, reduced to seven, political entities represented by ten crowns on the heads of the beast do in fact symbolically represent something which simply did not exist in ancient times, but which does exist in these latter days. That something is an artificial global construct which symbolically would appear as dissimilar material being partly strong and partly weak, like iron and clay. Something which had its origins in and is based in the West, but has legal extraterritoriality as a primary feature. Is it from this recent man-made artificial "sea" of nations that the rise of 10 crowns have their origin?

Global SITREP A9-16: Rise of the Prophetic Assyria?

Critical Update 9 March 2016: The U.S. CENTCOM Commander, General Lloyd Austin, informed the U.S. Congress yesterday that the failure of Mosul Dam (ancient and Biblical Nineveh) is a catastrophe waiting to happen: "If the dam fails, it will be a catastrophic. There will be thousands of people downstream that will either be injured or killed, certainly displaced. And the damage could extend all the way down to -- close to Baghdad, or into Baghdad"

 According to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad the "unprecedented" catastrophe would be of biblical proportions with the resultant 200-mile long flood potentially killing 500,000 to 1.5 million of the people who live in Mosul, the Tigris Valley towns of Tikrit and Samarra and southwards to Baghdad. The Mosul hydroelectric dam holds 2.2 cubic miles of water behind it in Lake Dahuk. These flood waters could reach depths of 45 or more feet during their rampage to the south. Mosul itself could suddenly find itself under 70 feet of water within an hour of the dam's failure.

Since the dam was build in the 1980s is has required a constant maintenance practice known as 'grouting' to keep it from collapsing completely. The process of grouting essentially shores up the ground underneath the dam with millions of tons of concrete. In 2014 when forces of the Islamic State over ran Mosul and took control of the dam all of the maintenance workers fled for their lives and have never returned. For two years now the critically essential grouting maintenance has not occurred and the dam is now in imminent danger of collapse.


27 February 2016:  There are a couple OSINT items that need to be part of an update to this SITREP. The first is from Bloomberg Business News which reported early this morning that all Kurdish leaders have agreed to proceed with a national referendum. In this referendum the issue of Kurdistan's independence from Iraq is an issue that will be decided by the Kurdish people themselves. 

An independent Kurdistan will be born with a Kurdish-developed petroleum production infrastructure sitting on 45 billion barrels of crude oil reserves according to British Petroleum (BP Plc) data. The Iraqi government, for its part, says the planned referendum is illegal without coordination and approval from itself. Kurdistan has been exporting its own oil and reaping the financial benefits through a pipeline into Turkey for the past six months. These profits has largely been consumed by a collapsing oil market as well as the increasingly successful prosecution of the war against Islamic State invaders.

A report in The Economist supports what has been posted below, Kurdish independence is a virtual fait accompli among the resident 6 million Iraqi Kurds. What they have yet to determine is when independence will occur and where the national borders will be fixed. All of the factors necessary for a successful independent nation exist in Kurdistan. A hundred years after the Kurdish people were divided up by European colonial powers (principally Britain and France) into four artificially created national borders of the former Ottoman Turkey, Iran, Syria and Mesopotamia (Iraq) self-determination will be begun by the Kurds in Iraq. The rise of the Islamic State has been central to the drive for Kurdish self-determination and, ultimately, independence as a nation-state.

 

25 February 2016: There are strong indications that a specific but rarely discussed Bible prophecy from the Book of Isaiah may actually be in the process of becoming a reality in the world.

Isaiah 19:23-25 (KJ21)

In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance.”

As clearly indicated by the map above, I think this prophecy may be directly related to the emergence of an independent Kurdistan, which for all intents and purposes is occurring in de facto fashion due to the fracturing of Iraq and the ongoing war against the islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Compare the above map with one which depicts the same area as it was circa the time that Isaiah lived gave this prophecy.

The point of this map is the area of the in the darker shade of green. You will notice that the intended future state of Kurdistan is virtually identical to that which was the central homeland of Assyria in Isaiah's day, or roughly 800 to 750 BC.

In the past several weeks an increasingly loud call for an independent Kurdistan has been made not just by Kurdish leaders, but also by an array of international voices. Notable among them is the State of Israel, in particular its Justice Minister, Ayelet Shaked, who one month ago called for an independent Kurdistan. Her call was more or less specific to Iraqi Kurdistan given that the rest of Iraq is currently under the Ayatollah Khamenei's domination.

But what is perhaps one of the driving forces at present is an American reliance on the Kurds in the war against the Islamic State. Iraqi Kurds are fighting to free themselves and others who live in the region from IS tyranny, such as the Yazidis and native Assyrians. It is highly unlikely the Kurds will relinquish a de facto independence they have purchased with their own blood.

But the Kurd's are taking their quest for statehood a step further than just de facto existence. Masoud Barzani, President of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq has announced that the time has come for a popular referendum of Kurdish independence. There is little doubt that the referendum will pass with 98% of the people voting for independence.

To be sure there are other important factors involved. Chief among them from the eschatological point-of-view are the fulfillment of prophecies regarding Syria (Isaiah 17, and Jeremiah 49:23-27), Iran (Jeremiah 49:34-39), as well as Psalm 83 and Ezekiel 38/39. What all of these prophecies make clear is that, with the exception of Israel, the majority of current nations which these prophecies directly involve will have ceased to exist in the not too distant future. That leaves a vacuum in the region, one that a new country such as a Kurdistan, or as the Bible prophetically calls it, Assyria, to fill those territories north and east of the Euphrates River.'

This is another of the rapidly changing dynamics in the Middle Est that could have been part of SITREP A8-16, but I believe warrants a SITREP of its own given that the Bible prophecy of Isaiah 19:23-25 clearly foretells the rise of a new nation north of a greater Israel in the near future.