Global SITREP B7-24: Joshua 13 (Operation: Northern Arrows)

SIDON Being Driven Out, Monday 23 September 2024

24 September 2024: Oh, come now Brothers and Sisters, is this nothing more than coincidence, simply a happenstance??!?!

In my New King James Version of the Holy Bible, the first seven verses of Joshua 13 are boldly captioned "Remaining Land to Be Conquered." And those first seven verses read (underscored italics mine for emphasis):

Now Joshua was old, advanced in years. And the Lord said to him: “You are old, advanced in years, and there remains very much land yet to be possessed. This is the land that yet remains: all the territory of the Philistines and all that of the Geshurites, from Sihor, which is east of Egypt, as far as the border of Ekron northward (which is counted as Canaanite); the five lords of the Philistines—the Gazites, the Ashdodites, the Ashkelonites, the Gittites, and the Ekronites; also the Avites; from the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that belongs to the Sidonians as far as Aphek, to the border of the Amorites; the land of the Gebalites, and all Lebanon, toward the sunrise, from Baal Gad below Mount Hermon as far as the entrance to Hamath; all the inhabitants of the mountains from Lebanon as far as the Brook Misrephoth, and all the Sidonians—them I will drive out from before the children of Israel; only divide it by lot to Israel as an inheritance, as I have commanded you. Now therefore, divide this land as an inheritance to the nine tribes and half the tribe of Manasseh.”

In the image above, taken yesterday (Monday 23 September 2024), looking south towards southern Lebanon and northern Israel, are these Sidonian not being driven out before the children of Israel? Is this not a direct literal fulfillment of prophecy before our eyes?

I suggest a thorough reading of Joshua 13 is an essential task as it is a prophecy to be fulfilled and witnessed by our eyes in the present time. As you read you will hopefully notice that verses 15 and 16, wholly part of the remaining land to be conquered by Israel, specifically name geographic place names, such as Aroer, the River Arnon and the city which is in the midst of the ravine, Dibon. 

The Valley of the Passengers Ezekiel

Eschatology Today has been here previously in the series The Prophetic Road to Revelation (Part IV): The War of Gog of Magog. This is linked here for good reason as a refresher for some, and new knowledge for others. A good portion of the discussion of Ezekiel 39 notes these places in the Valley of the Passengers as being in Israel, even though they are today within the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Well prior to the prophetic words of Ezekiel, here we have the writer of Joshua naming the same places as being part of the land to be conquered by Israel! 

How much more prescient can these prophetic indicators be with respect to the lateness of the time in which we are living, eating and breathing with the bodies in which we were born?

Thus, a thorough reading of Ezekiel 38/39 is also highly recommended. Notice what takes place at Ezekiel 39:29, a very strong indicator (and Warning or I&W) that the Harpazo (Rapture) of the Bride of Christ will have occurred in the unknown interim!

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP D1-22: Syria

12 September 2022: Israeli Defense Minister Gantz today revealed ten military sites within Syria which Iran is using for the production of medium and long range precision guidance missiles and weaponry. Advanced strategic weaponry in other words. These sites are known within Syria as Centre D'Etudes et de Recherches Scientifiques or CERS. A number of these sites have been struck repeatedly by Israel for the past four years, most recently in May and August this year (reference the clickable map above). 

There is no question that these CERS sites will be the targets of a major campaign in the coming days - otherwise there's really no reason to publish a map and specifically identify each of them, some above ground, others in tunnels and other underground, as DM Gantz has done today. Timing is everything. As we've noted in recent SITREPs these sites are now largely undefended by Russian air defense systems which were redeployed back to Russia for the Ukraine war, and the meager Syrian and Iranian air defense systems are simply not up to the task, especially considering that Israel is more than likely to task their squadrons of F-35I Adir with precision above ground strikes and F-16I Sufa and F-15I Ra'am aircraft with delivery of heavy earth-penetrating ordnance.

Such a campaign is assessed by Eschatology Today to result in fulfillment of the Isaiah 17 prophecy and all that it relates in a short but destructive war. This is not mere speculation, but an assessment which is subject to re-assessment given the Iranian nuclear issue. Iran's own ballistic rockets are not part of this equation simply due to what is related in the opening verses of Jeremiah 49:35. Rather it is the Iranian rockets already primed to strike Israel's population centers from launch locations in Lebanon (Hezbollah/IRGC) and Syria (IRGC and proxy militias). Great loss of life is certain in this coming exchange: Damascus destroyed complete, Syria wiped out as a nation, and Israel bloodied severely per Isaiah 17.

With Russia's battalion tactical groups being decimated and militarily dissected by Ukrainian forces armed with the best the Western Alliance has to offer, the loss of Syria, which Russia has long expected rich dividends from their billions of investment, is their any wonder that Russia would be looking to Israel in the future to recoup their billions upon billions of evaporated rubles? If this assessment holds then we are seeing clearly through the looking glass of Bible prophecy. The assessment will update accordingly as events play out simultaneously in eastern Europe and the Levant.

UPDATE 14 September 2022: Next we will lean forward and look at the inevitable changes that a Ukrainian military victory over Russia will bring to the EU and even more so to NATO!

These assessed changes will occur as a direct result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. Wars ALWAYS produce massive geo-political changes, and this war will be no different. Eschatology Today assesses that the coming changes will occur within the Russian Federation and they'll conform to the prophetic geo-political aspects we find in Ezekiel 38/39. 

As for Europe and the NATO alliance we'll likely see ten leading nations arise as per the visions and prophecy Gabriel imparted to the prophet Daniel. We also have to watch for a nation the size of Ukraine, and as well-armed as they are now if not more, becoming a major anchor, along with Poland on NATO's eastern flank. 

Early on in the SITREP series regarding the Ukraine war the Budapest Memorandum was included because of its importance. That agreement was a Russian guarantee of Ukraine's sovereignty, and in exchange for that guarantee Ukraine agreed to relinquish its nuclear weapons to Russia. 

Now that Russia unilaterally abrogated the Budapest Memorandum agreement with an unprovoked invasion its stands to reason that sooner or later Ukraine will get nuclear weapons again as a guarantee against no future Russian military adventurism at Ukraine's expense. NATO membership is almost a certainty as is membership in some type of Euro-centric federation of nations (a/k/a the feet of miry clay and iron we've referenced as the Ten Toes in the prophecy of Daniel 2.) 

We do well to remember "past as prologue." It was geo-political events (war is a type of international politics in action) which resulted in the fulfillment of the events in 70 AD between the Roman Empire and the Jewish people of Judea, Jerusalem and the destruction of the second temple. Likewise it was World War II which led to the fulfillment of Isaiah 66:8 which foretold of Israel being born again in a since day. Real-world events result in the direct and literal fulfillment of Bible prophecy. The war in Ukraine and all things related to it will be no different.

"Who is like the beast, and who can wage war against it?" (Revelation 13:4). This also is a prophecy in the process of fulfillment, and we today are witnesses to its beginning.

Global SITREP C6-22: A New Emergent Prophetic Paradigm

Destroyed Russian Armor

11 July 2022: Meanwhile, over in Ukraine, Russian battlefield losses of personnel is now well north of 37,000 troops. Many thousands of main battle tanks (MBTs) like those above litter the Ukrainian countryside as rusting, burned out and rusting hulks of scrap metal and combustible materials. There will yet be many more joining them as Russian forces now face a major Ukrainian offensive featuring a 1 Million-man army armed with the latest and most lethal Western weaponry.

"Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, ordered the Ukrainian military to re-establish control over coastal regions in southern Ukraine. Ukraine is amassing a million-strong fighting force in order to achieve this goal."

Source: Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s Minister of Defence, in an interview for The Times [of London]

Details: "Ukraine is massing a million-strong fighting force equipped with western weapons to recover its southern territory from Russia," The Times wrote.

Eschatology Today asks: How does a 100,000-man, demoralized, conscripted Russian army on foreign soil stand any chance of withstanding a highly motivated Ukrainian military force 10 times its size and armed with the best and most lethal and powerful conventional weapons the Western alliance has to offer?

Might the coming days and weeks show evidence of the Hand of God at work in a process of turning Russia's vaunted military force into a mere shadow of its former regard as an unassailable juggernaut; might this all be in preparation for the "hooks" to drag the Russian armed forces to its ultimate destruction of the mountains of Israel? 

The old 20th Century "Cold War" era notion, used by all Bible prophecy interpretations for a minimum of the past 60 years no longer holds water in the second decade of the 21st Century - as the ill-conceived war in Ukraine has proven in the clear view of the whole world.

Eschatology Today answer: A new prophetic paradigm now exists and we are all seeing it manifesting before our eyes in real-time.

Global SITREP B7-22: Russia's War in Ukraine - Phase III ("I Will Turn Thee Back...")

Russia's Military Defeat in Northern Ukraine

UPDATE 07 April 2022: Two days ago in the comments of this SITREP it was noted how Eschatology Today has viewed this war from the get-go based upon Ezekiel 38:4 and the importance of the Hebrew word shoob within that verse. There is a small gap of time between the first part and second part of that verse. The gap lies between "I will turn you around," and "Put hooks into your jaws and lead you out..." The turning around is now well underway and what remains unknown is the precise gap of time until the Lord inserts those prophetic hooks in the jaws. In that the overall prophetic narrative is moving along at what appears to be warp speed these days, well, it may not be a case of the Lord tarrying very much. "These things must take place" and that requires the passage of some minute passage of time as we understand the ticking of the clock.

The map image above, is the situation on the ground in Ukraine as of this morning, 07 April 2022. The map image below is from just over three days ago. What this new image and what all senior military leaders (both US and NATO commanders) are saying is that the mighty Russian military (army, navy, air force and rocket forces) have been thoroughly defeated in northern Ukraine. This is a stunning reversal. The hand of God as the One responsible for the turning around is evident, perhaps not to all of you, but definitely to yours truly. 

Even Russian soldiers making unsecure phone calls to mothers, family members and girl friends back in Russia are admitting that they are being "whipped" by Ukrainian forces. In fact, in their hasty, no-time-to-waste, head-long flight out of the country, elite Russian units have abandoned their most devastating weaponry. These the Ukrainians promptly captured, made speedy repairs to in some cases, and then turned them upon their former owners. This weaponry notably includes the TOR-1A Buratino (featured early on in this SITREP series) thermobaric "vacuum" artillery system. Russian units were then given no rest and were further annihilated in full retreat. It's that ancient Hebrew "shoob" word that Ezekiel was inspired to use and its literal meaning in full display, at least for those like me who take the Lord's prophetic word literally. 

And to think, this is just the beginning of woes to befall Russia's and her allies military forces as we approach the 70th Week of Years.

04 April 2022: The above graphic encapsulates the known and estimated combat losses suffered by the armed forces of the Russian Federation in the forty days of its invasion of Ukraine (24 FEB - o4 APR 2022). This is where Eschatology Today's SITREP coverage begins the clearly evident third phase of this war, which begins not only with this accounting, but also with the overwhelming and mounting evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity in just two of the dozens of Ukrainian suburbs and villages surrounding the capital Kyiv. 

In the settlements Bucha and Irpin in Kyiv Oblast, which are nearly twin cities separated only by the Bucha River, the mass graves and many human corpses littering the streets are visible in satellite reconnaissance imagery. Bucha/Irpin are separated from Kyiv City boundary only by about one-thousand feet of the Irpin River basin. This is how close Russian armor came to entering the capital. Now the Ukrainian counter-attack has driven Russian forces back to the Belarus border along the entire axis of the west banks Dnieper River. Forced Russian retreat is also occurring along the east bank in the direction of Chernihiv, and east of Kyiv to a point well over 60 miles in the direction of Nizhyn. Map below.

It is in this third phase of the war that Russian forces are regrouping and being re-deployed south in an attempt to secure Luhansk, Donetsk and a land corridor along Ukraine's Azov Sea coastline to connect with Crimea. There's no way to determine the duration of this third phase, or its outcome, but the Lord's hooks will drag these armies to their destruction in Israel in days to come.

 

Global SITREP A8-22: How Far Will God Let Russia Go in its Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine?

 

Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts of Ukraine

UPDATE 25 February 2022: Firstly, it has become painfully apparent in the past 24 hours that all of those folks who heretofore had expressed high levels of distrust of the Lame Stream Media, both foreign and domestic, and its rampant "fake news" campaigns of recent memory have had been camped at their feeding trough like hordes of people starved of information. 

Eschatology Today has warned extensively throughout the past seven years (at a minimum) that none of the MSM's product is to be trusted or taken at face value. The MSM remains controlled and staffed by Western globalist interests and elites. The rampant disinformation and pure, politically motivated propaganda coming from the MSM at present is on a scale that this observer has not seen previously. Their agenda has not changed one iota. Their objectives remain the same. Many hours of intensive data mining has proven this observation to be absolutely correct. Which devil is acceptable to these people, the one from the East or the one from the West?

The conflict in Ukraine and its end-state is a known-unknown, but as we all know God is in control. What we need to see and understand right now is that events are taking place that are leading to other events, both prophetic and otherwise. Patience of saints is called for and well as being watchmen and students of the Lord's Holy Words. Nothing else really matters in the short-term because, in the words of our Lord, "all these things must take place, but the end is not yet." Just keep looking up until He comes to take us up! Marana'tha!

24 February 2022: As of 5 AM Kyiv time on 24 February 2022 the Union State (Russian Federation and Belarus) has been engaged in a full-scale war against pro-Western Ukraine. Ballistic and cruise missiles have rocked Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro and other Ukrainian cities and bases, depots and assembly areas of the Ukrainian Armed forces throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. Russian forces, backed also by the forces of Belarus have attacked into Ukraine on at least five different axes of advance. The Budapest Memorandum in which Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for a Russian guarantee of Ukrainian sovereignty, peace and security is now a worthless piece of rubbish. Israel needs to pay very close attention.

22 February 2022: Leading the way for news and information of prophetic consequence, the obvious detail not seen as yet in MSM or 99.99% of other reporting, is that the "occupied" territory of Ukraine's two oblasts (provinces) of Luhansk and Donetsk is less than half of their full-size territory as the map above illustrates. Dark blue is occupied, medium tan is un-occupied and still under Ukrainian government control, and the light tan is the rest of Ukraine's territory.

This leads to the question Eschatology Today is now considering: How far will God allow Russia to go before the prophetic hooks are put in Gog of Magog's jaws (Ezekiel 38:4)?  Will Russian armor press forward beyond the current "line of control" which is marked by WWI-like trenches along the entire length of the blue-medium-tan divide to take all of Luhansk and Donetsk? Or will the invading Russian armored forces sweep west through the important port of Mariupol and along Ukraine's Sea of Azov coastline to link up with the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula? 

Ukraine in full

And why stop there? Why not continue westward to Odessa to link up with Russian forces in the sliver of land in eastern Moldova known as Transnistria seen in the map below? If you heard Vladimir Putin's nonsensical speech yesterday, what he said included all of these other locations. In fact, what he said includes the whole of Ukraine! And depending on how far this goes, be mindful that Romania is NATO, and Moldova is a member of NATO's "Partners for Peace" program and has a mutual defense pact with Romania. Moldova and Romania were, not so long ago, one country known as Bessarabia, and they could be again. 

Transnistrian Region Map

This, in a nutshell, is where the MSM news and analysis of the day will eventually go. As usual, you've seen and heard it here first, in cutting edge graphic format. What we also are aware of is what the MSM is currently ignorant of - the prophecy of Ezekiel 38/39. Yet still, and what is more, major events and great conflict will now have to take place in and around Israel. Our eyes are wide open and we watch as our Lord has commanded us because "these things must take place."

Global SITREP A2-22: Wars and Pestilences (Polemos and Loimos)

Central Asia Demographic Map

6 January 2022: This SITREP is more or less a continuation of SITREP A1-22 in that the focus will remain on Russia and the rapidly emerging Magog military confederation of Ezekiel 38/39, as well as what was included in the comments section of A1-22 regarding the pestilences raging in China that have become a global pandemic of a novel coronavirus and what may yet become a global plague of biological horrors, hence the Koine Greek subtitle of Polemos and Loimos.

The above (clickable) demographic map of Central Asia features our immediate area of interest in Kazakhstan, and the more heavily populated former-Soviet Republics to the south. Today as the revolution in Kazakhstan came dangerously close to toppling the pro-Moscow regime in the capital Astana, the airborne forces of several CSTO nations (first discussed here in September 2013 and noted with comments of SITREP A1-22) made the immediate airborne deployments to thwart the rapidly growing revolt absolutely essential. Tonight there are hundreds of dead Kazakh citizens and Russia is once again the power broker in what had been a nominally independent country rich in oil, gas, and other natural resources like uranium.

We've discussed how Ezekiel 38:4 ("I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out...") with respect to events that continue on Russia's western borders with Ukraine, the EU and NATO. Now with direct military intervention in Central Asia which constitute the other nations of the CSTO that figure prominently in the prophetic attempt to invade and plunder Israel, we are suddenly faced with two distinct areas from which Gog and his Magog confederation can be dragged to their destruction on the mountains of Israel. 

As you are aware from SITREP A1-22 Russia is under tremendous economic pressure (Western sanctions over Crimea and Ukraine) and well as population demographic pressures. Yet the situation in Kazakhstan was so critical to Putin and the Russian Federation that the increased burden of financing yet another military expedition into the vastness of Central Asia made military deployment there essential. A quick note here the the former Kazakh capital was Almaty, but due to its geographic proximity to Communist China, ally or not, made relocation of the seat of government to Astana, and therefore closer to the Russian Federation, an imperative. And between Almaty and Astana, across the breadth of Kazakhstan what you can see in the above map is a whole lot of... nothing. It's a vast plain that sparsely populated and virtually defenseless against foreign invasions, as the Mongol hordes of history made clear.

What happens from this point forward no one knows, but given the expense placed upon this expedition and having to secure this vast country, it resources and its population against the potential of creeping Islamic extremism to the south will be something that would drain any nation. Now image the loss Russia would suffer with the loss of Syria as seen in Isaiah 17, and the further adventure of seeking to extract spoils and riches from Israel one day soon begins to make a little more real-world sense. This is beside the point that God declared it so it will happen, but now we have an inkling of His omniscience that these events would precede the prophecy given to Ezekiel.

Also as discussed in the comments of SITREP A1-22, the reality of what is truly occurring in the Chinese city of Xi'An is made clear by the image above that was received this afternoon. This image goes a very long way to confirming that a biological disaster above and beyond a SARS-CoV-2 variant is underway in that city of 13 million and others. Sources have been relating for a couple weeks that a hemorrhagic virus, very likely Nipah Virus (NiV), is completely out of control. 

PLA troops wearing full biological protective suits with an enclosed oxygen supply backpack are not required for an outbreak of any SARS-CoV-2 variant, but are essential for human survival in a hemorrhagic virus environment where victims bleed from their eyes, nose, mouth and ears from an acute encephalopathy. NiV is know to cause this. If this escapes from mainland China the entire world will be faced with an existential threat as Nipah, if it has undergone gain-of-function research as many are now saying, is anywhere from 50 to 80% lethal to anyone unlucky enough to become infected.

Some western media are beginning to report on the crisis in Xi'An and other Chinese cities, but going so far to admit this is NiV has not yet occurred, not even on Steve Bannon's War Room program. All they will say thus far are that the symptoms of encephalopathy are very real. I have different very reliable sources who initially identified the pathogen as NiV some weeks ago when the crisis began but no one outside of mainland China knew anything about it.

We're watching... 

Global SITREP A1-22: The Death of Nations

UPDATED 1 January 2022: One thing all good intel analysts do is read. And I mean they read a lot. So, guess what I've been doing a lot of. Yup, reading. Forecasts, trends, OSINT, lot's of stuff to be sure. And one of those was an article that used the image above to illustrate the point the author was making. The author is Peter Zeihan, formerly of Strator but now running his own concern, Zeihan on Geopolitics. The analysis that got my attention was about Russia, the Russian Federation, and how it continues to collapse politically and especially demographically. 

Demographics are important, and it's the equivalent of when the Lord's words speaks of nations and peoples. It's also related to what has been written here about the process or processes involved in prophetic fulfillment. I believe the judgment of God upon the nations and peoples of this world is prophetic and follows a given path to ultimate fulfillment. In this case, and although this author does not even come close to the prophetic implications involved with Russia in particular, the points made are clearly in sync with the Lord's judgment.

Russia as a distinct nation is dying simply because there aren't that many Russians, the birthrate has sunk to a fairly slight percentage. Have you ever wondered why in Ezekiel 38/39 mighty Russia (Magog) comes against tiny Israel with such a massive confederation of armies in addition to its own? This is besides the fact that coalition warfare has become the norm of the 20th and 21 centuries. Russia today has a very small ethnically Russian army. Much of its 'boots on the ground' in various hotspots around the world today are mercenaries,' and so it will be with Ezekiel 38/39. 

The bottom line here is that Russia cannot afford to lose the bulk of its ethnic Russian armed forces, and this is especially true with the rising superpower on its western frontier. The EU has become and will continue to coalesce into an ethnic European polity, and we know this is a fact per prophecy. Ten Toes, Ten Horns, Ten Kings that rise to become a feared and dominant military power in these last days who willfully allow and eleventh king to rise up and take totalitarian control of all. And we know from previous SITREPs that Russia, as we see at the present time, is embarked on a great gambit to expand its power westward (see image again) in a vain attempt for forestall the rise of a revived "Greco-Roman Empire" backed by the military might of the young lions of the North American hemisphere. Yet before this takes place, or more correctly, is allowed to come to completion, events take place in the Middle East and hooks are placed in the jaws to draw Russia and its cohort to the death on the mountains of Israel. But the end it not yet, there is much more to follow.

UPDATE 4 January 2022: Time has come to conclude this SITREP in preparation for the next.  Events that have been expected to occur now have at least preliminary OSINT reports of having taken place. In the past 72 hours numerous reports have appeared in foreign media, and separating fact from fiction and pure propaganda is ongoing. The Indications and Warnings (I&W) are heavy that big and very near-term events are brewing in Syria, Lebanon and Gaza.

On top of the I&W, it has been expected that the January 3, 2020 anniversary of IRGC Quds Force Major General Qasem Soleimani's assassination would include attacks against US and coalition forces. Current indications are that coalition forces may have launched preemptive strikes with artillery and missiles against Iranian militias in Deir Ezzor from the Coalition firebase at Al-Omar oil field, also in Deir Ezzor. Iranian propaganda is running rampant and taken with a grain of salt.

It appears that the second Israeli attack against Iranian armed smuggling at Syria's critical Latakia port has had the desired effect upon the Syrian regime. Initial reports are the weapons smuggling operation by IRGC QF Unit 190 at Latakia has been ordered by Bashar al-Assad, not doubt with Russian urging, to curtail its operations. Other reports indicate that the Al-Dimas airfield west of Damascus has been taken over by Hezbollah and IRGC-QF forces. Eviction of local farmers and underground base construction by Hezbollah are said to be ongoing. Expect the IAF to target this base soon.

HAMAS and PIJ may be on the cusp of igniting a new round of fighting against Israel's civilian population. The anticipated trigger event is the death of a 140-day hunger strike by a terrorist prisoner named Abu Hawash. There is much credence to the terrorist threat with direct fire from Gaza into Israeli border communities having occurring in recent days. IDF tanks return fire into Gaza.  

Russia-Ukraine, China-Taiwan, Iran, North Korea and the Middle East are all hot spots which have the potential to ignite a sudden global conflagration in 2022. 

Global SITREP E5-21: Trouble Brewing in Eastern Europe

 

Pravda illustration of Russian
forces massed on Ukraine border

1 April 2021: Breaking news in the past 24 hours is that both Russia and Byelorus (Belarus or White Russia) have been massing their armored forces on their mutual borders with the Ukraine (For relative background see Global SITREP D3-17). In previous Ezekiel 38/39 discussions on Eschatology Today we've discussed "Magog" being involved militarily in other conflicts closer to its homeland, and from which God will put hooks in its jaws to turn those forces around to the south, to the mountains of Israel for destruction (Ezekiel 38:4). Armed conflict in Ukraine might well be such a scenario where this prophetic passage could come to literal fulfillment in the near future.

Accordingly, the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) has placed our forces on the highest watch level of "potential imminent crisis."  The map above only illustrates Russian forces facing the Ukrainian border from three adjacent Russian military districts with Russian forces in occupied Crimea being a fourth. To the far north is Byelorus. Ukraine's western border faces NATO/EU countries Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova. No doubt in many western minds that these movements are a dangerous test directed at the perceived weakness of the Biden Administration more than to the Ukrainian government in Kyiv (pronounced Keev).

This subject requires close watching going forward; updates as they occur.

Global SITREP D6:19: A Syrian Precedent With Overtones of Ezekiel's Prophecy

U.S. Forces Secure Oil Fields in Eastern Syria

6 November 2019: For several months we've heard about the U.S. forces in Syria east of the Euphrates River were being brought out, only to find out that they stayed, built several bases and were defending the Kurds. Then in October we learn again that out troops were coming home, only to find out days later they were redeploying into Iraq, and days later that even heavier U.S. forces were moving into eastern Syria to defend a whole lot of oil fields that our forces supporting the Syrian Kurdish Forces (SDF) had captured in destroying the ISIS caliphate east of the Euphrates River. 

President Trump correctly decided that fighting over that desert was not in America's interest; that's it's been fought over for thousands of years by the groups of people still fighting over it right now, so our troops were going to have no part in that forever conflict. So American forces were not going to defend the Kurds after three years of fighting side by side with them. Then, in a real stunner, President Trump announced, "...but we have the oil." And within hours of that announcement we learn that significant U.S. armored forces were rolling into Syria from Iraq to seize the vast oil fields that cover the desert all along the Iraqi border. 

Let me ask something that might be of critical interest to us. Doesn't this remind us of what Ezekiel 38 has prophesied about the vast Magog military confederation which will one day soon swoop down upon a wealthy and secure Israel "to take plunder and to take booty"?  

Has the U.S. just now become engaged in taking plunder and taking booty from Syria's eastern oil fields? And then look at Iraq and realize that this taking of oil plunder and booty is exactly what Iran has been doing in Iraq for months that has the entire population of Sunni and Shi'a Iraqis in open revolt against the Iranian Ayatollah and his military forces?

Yes, there's a whole lot of plundering and booty-taking going on in Syria and Iraq. This appears to be setting a precedent for the prophetic future in Israel we've been studying and drilling down on in Ezekiel 38/39 for years now. Plundering and the taking of booty is no longer some obscure Old Testament language any more, it's right here, right now in our faces, and even the United States of America is participating in it! 

This realization hit me today out of the clear blue like a ton of bricks. What do you all think; what do you have to say about sudden new reality?

Global SITREP B4-19: Another Look Ahead

UPDATED 6 April 2019: Within 48 hours the Trump Administration will have the U.S. declare the iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The designation was accompanied by a warning to all US interests and military forces around the world to be prepared for retaliatory strikes or outright attacks by the IRGC or any of its proxies (i.e. Iraqi, Lebanese or Yemeni Shi'a militias).

The IRGC was founded by Iran's first Shi'a Twelver Ayatollah (literal meaning: "Sign of God") in 1979. The IRGC's purposes are to be the Ayatollah's personal army, to defend the Ayatollah and his regime from foreign or domestic enemies, and to export the Shi'a Twelver revolution globally in order to create the apocalyptic chaos necessary to thereby hasten the arrival of their mythical al-Mahdi. 

The IRGC, and its most notorious offshoot, the Qods (Jerusalem) Force (IRGC-QF), are actively involved in terrorist military and covert assassinations activity within Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, several nations in South America, (most notably Venezuela) as well as within the European Union. They do, in fact, operate in covertly on a global scale. 

The timing and rationale behind the IRGC FTO designation is not a stand-alone event, even though it is decades over due. It is part of the US-Israel commitment to contain, confront and roll back the Shi'a Twelver agenda as kinetically executed by the IRGC around the world. This means in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Afghaistan and, yes, Venezuela. 

Eschatologically, this US-Israeli alliance against the IRGC can be seen as part and parcel of the Jeremiah 49:34-39 prophecy. The US-Israeli alliance also has strategic partnerships with the EU nations as well as the Arab GCC nations. These are all nations directly referenced in the text of Ezekiel 38:13. 

It is also a fact that the rocket fired on March 25th by the terrorists in Gaza which indiscriminately struck a private civilian residence in Mishmeret, Israel, injuring 7 (including an infant), precipitated the current military crisis with Gaza. That rocket launch was an order by Iran to its terrorist proxy in Gaza. That rocket resulted in PM Netanyahu cutting short his meeting with POTUS Trump, but not before they agreed to coordinate to robustly act in-concert against Iran.

We now also know that the US sanctions regime re-imposed upon Iran after the unilateral US withdrawal from the 2015 JCPOA is having a devastating effect as a form of the economic war upon the Ayatolaah's regime. One of the most affected is Hezbollah, and this assists (blesses) Israel greatly. 

The effect has been manifested in Iran being forced to drastically cut its financial support to Hezbollah. Consider:

1.) Hezbollah's soldiers have not been paid regularly in the past three months, and what they have recieved is half of their normal salary. Same goes for Hezbollah's reserve soldiers.

2.)These Hezbollah soldiers have had their upscale apartments in Beirut's al-Dahieh al-Janubiya neighborhood taken away from them and their families because Iran can no longer afford to pay the rent. 

3.) Hezbollah's social engineering network, the backbone of its popular support in Lebanon, has been shut down due to the lack of Iranian funding.  

The next time someone tries to tell you that America is not blessing Israel as it should, tell them to read this and think again.

5 April 2019: In this update we do not have to look ahead to see what's coming. Instead we look at what a senior IDF source assesses to be the threats Israel is facing right now. We also must understand that since senior IDF leadership assesses this, then it's a fair assessment to make that some part of their senior civilian leadership assesses it as well.

The assessment is that Hezbollah and HAMAS are acting in concert to drag Israel deep into Lebanon and Gaza where an underground network of tunnels has created a spider web maze of direct links between homes, mosques, educational facilities and hospitals. IAF air power alone cannot defeat these terrorist armies or completely destroy the tunnel networks, so the insertion of significant ground forces in such a campaign would be essential. 

As the IDF would pass through these areas of Lebanon and Gaza then the enemy infantry in the tunnels below deployed to execute many ambushes with heavily-armed elite forces plus anti-tank rockets in order to kill IDF armor from their rear, as well as killing and capturing individual IDF soldiers. Therefore, the assessment continues, the IDF ground entry into this combat is something that would occur only under the most extreme circumstances. 

This precisely confirms my 6:59 AM comment on March 31 beneath SITREP B3-19: 

"Clearly, it will require a far more serious threat to Israel's national security than a largely unarmed mass of 40,000 Gazans and hundreds of small IEDs before Isaiah 11:14 is fulfilled. Not even a barrage of unguided rockets roughly aimed at civilian housing has been a triggering event. Yes, something of greater consequence will occur for this part of the Psalm 83 fulfillment to take place. Yet, it will happen at the appointed time."

The senior IDF assessment then continued to identify Iran, meaning Iran as forward deployed in the IRGC-QF, as the power directing the activities of Hezbollah in Lebanon and HAMAS in Gaza in drawing Israel into this combat scenario. And so accordingly, Israel is quite busy laying the groundwork for "the big war" and the day when the IDF actually will enter into Lebanon and Gaza. In military terms, Israel is busy right now preparing the battlefield and setting conditions favorable to the IDF emerging from it victorious. This may happen soon, or down the road a bit, but it will happen. Iran will be dealt with leaving Hezbollah and HAMAS, divided by some distance, to each fend for themselves against Israel's formidible military power. We know how this will conclude.

As students of Bible prophecy we have to recognize this IDF assessment as dovetailing very nicely with the pre-70th Week prophetic scenarios we see in Scripture, even if the IDF does not see this direct linkage at present, they will definitely see it in hindsight in the not too distant future. We see in the prophetic Scripture of Psalm 83 Gaza and HAMAS plotting together in direct from the text of Psalm 83. Only the Hashemites of Jordan need be added to the mix, and that, according to Psalm 83, Isaiah 11:12-14 and Ezekiel 28:24-26 is precisely what will take place. And Iran is taken care of to a great extent, and prior to Ezekiel 38/39, per Jeremiah 49:34-39. Syria, per Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27.  Eschatology Today will leave the issue of what occurred at the Russian Ministry of Defense a day ago to address the almost certain questions that will appear in the comments section below this SITREP.

3 April 2019: While we wait for Gaza's fate to be determined, there are a couple of items that should be addressed from the perspective of prophetic implications.

The first item regards the stunning turn of events in Ukraine where a popular comedian and TV actor (who has a role playing the president of Ukraine) could soon actually become elected to that office. Perhaps you've read about this or seen a news report on it in the past week. It certainly and immediately got my mind racing with the potential for possible prophetic implications. 

The actor, Volodymyr Zelensky, captured twice as many votes (30%) as the current Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko (16%) in the first round of the election. These two will face-off in the next round of voting on 21 April. The result is surprising as both Zelensky and Poroshenko have fairly similar views. Both are pro-NATO and pro-EU. Conventional wisdom would say that Poroshenko, as the incumbent, would be favored over Zelensky who has zero experience in this kind of arena. Yet, by 2:1 margin the Ukrainian people went for the comedian/actor. That result was despite the fact that Russia interferred in it with a massive disinformation campaign. My take is that Zelensky took 30% of the vote because Poroshenko has not been effective in countering an aggressive Vladimir Putin and his designs on the whole of Ukraine.

Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky

And there's the rub. If Zelensky wins the presidency of Ukraine it's a near certainty that Russia's Putin will pounce after him like a lioness getting after a gazelle. And what it is that Ezekiel tells us? God puts hooks in the jaws of the northern leader (Gog of Magog): "I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws and lead you out..." Gog of Magog will be busy with his army in one direction, when God hooks him up and turns him about face, with his military forces and allies, and leads them all into a great slaughter of the mountains of Israel. I'm not saying Ezekiel 38:4 will be fulfilled precisely in this manner, but if the election result places Zelensky in the Ukrainian presidency it may be too much of an opportunity for Russia to let pass. Oh, and not to forget, but did I mention than Zelensky is Jewish from parents who are both Jewish?

Among the signs our Lord has given as indicators of the end times are natural disasters. Floods are a big one and they are occurring all over the globe as a direct result of severe weather. We pray and open our wallets to assist those affected here in the US and abroad. One place where significant, even unprecedented flooding is taking place is in Iran. Of particular note is the flooding taking place in ancient Elam. Ancient Elam is today divided among a few modern provinces, three of which are known as Ilam, Lorestan and Khuzestan. These floods are even more of a disaster for the people because they're already hard pressed due to an economic form of war we refer to as sanctions that are intended to turn the Iranian government away from its nuclear weapons program. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has been more direct in acknowledging the economic sanctions imposed upon Iran has severely hampered their ability to deal with the flooding, calling the sanctions "economic terrorism" in a recent social media post.

The provinces of Ilam and Lorestan have been ravaged by the floods and all of that water is moving south towards the gulf through Khuzestan. Khuzestan has a great many dams throughout it territory, but those dams are at 95% full and the water coming will easily overwhelm their capacity to hold it back. Disaster looms in a region where the population is mostly ethnic Arabs who aren't very happy with the clerical regime in Tehran to begin with. And these floods are not just occurring in Iran's southwest, the entire country is experiencing flooding, particularly since the middle of March. Roads are blocked, which brings land transport to a complete halt, which bring deliveries of essentials to a halt. Most locations are reachable only by rotary winged craft, helicopters, and Iran's antiquated fleet of choppers is simply not up to the task. 

Flooded Iran

So the people are very quick to blame the clerical regime which has spent, and continues to spend, billions upon billions on the wars in Iraq, Syria and far away Yemen. Iran already has a festering insurrection of its people as we have discussed previously. This is just another important aspect of what the prophet Jeremiah has forecast to occur in Iran. Eschatology Today's position on Iran has for ten years been that Iran will be greatly reduced by the time Ezekiel 38/39 is appointed to occur. We are seeing that reducing happening in real-time today, and there's much more to come.

Speaking of Ezekiel 38/39, and to some extent this will be a repeat of what has been written about on Eschatology Today before, the view here is that Saudi Arabia and the bulk of GCC (Sheba and Dedan) are clearly referenced as the allies of the West, and therefore allies of Israel in the pre-70th Week fulfillment of this prophecy. This strongly indicates that the emerging Israel-Saudi ties will not be broken in the series of conflicts we refer to as the Psalm 83 scenario. The Saudi's will have no qualms with the overthrow of the Jordanian monarchy as Asaph prophesies in Psalm 83. In this we need be aware that the al-Saud monarchy and the Hashemite monarchy of Jordan have long been bitter rivals, well over a millennia in fact.

As a segue into the probable next SITREP to follow, expect new IAF strikes on Iranian targets in both Syria and Lebanon following PM Netanyahu's meeting with Putin on Thursday, 4 April. Some Israeli media have reported the meeting was cancelled. To the contrary, it has not been cancelled.

Global SITREP A6-19: Israel's Northern Front Offensive - Part III

IDF Merkava MBT and Armor on the Goaln

Update 1 March 2019: Iran continues its build-up in Syria unimpeded for many weeks now. A large number of watchers in Israel expect a major IAF strike on Iranian targets to occur within the next 72 hours.

12 February 2019: As best as can be gleaned from OSINT, yesterday IDF Merkava MBTs opened fire on Iranian forces in Quneitra on the Syrian side of the Golan demarcation line. The tank and self-propelled howitzer fire was directed at the Iranian forces wearing Syrian uniforms who were observed setting up a forward HQ in an abandoned hosptial and establishing a pair of garrison obervation posts nearby. The Syrian's say the hospital was destroyed; iranian forces were killed in the attack.

As stated before, the Israel-Iran war has been fully in the open; there is no ambiguity on Israel's part as it has openly attacked and will continue attacking Iranian targets in Syria. The Syrians reportedly have sent considerable reinforcements to the Golan region, both regular army and reserve units. 

Watching...

Putin, al-Assad and Nasrallah

9 February 2019: Israeli media is today rife with reports on comments made by the Russian Ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, praising the Iranian-led narco-terrorists of Hezbollah. But that's not the half of it. For some time now the neo-communist Zasypkin has been all over Hezbollah's semi-official and official media channels spouting Soviet-era rhetoric about "imperialist America" and an ongoing "American rampage" in the Middle East. His claims that Russian military adventures against the Ukraine (2014-2019), Georgia (2008) and now in Syria (2015-2019) are the Russian repsonse to the ongoing American rampage, and that it may ultimately result in nuclear war.

That nonsensical Soviet-era rhetorical lie is actually a bodyguard for the truth hiding behind it. That truth is that Russia expects to win a large stake in the Lebanese offshore natural gas field contracts that will result as expected stability in Syria takes hold amid its reconstruction. Russia expects that Syrian stability will equate to Lebanese stability. With the Iranian-led Hezbollah now clearly in charge of and running the show in Lebanon, it is little wonder Ambassador Zasypkin is praising the holder of the keys to Lebanon's government, and therefore its potentially very lucrative offshore gas field contracts. To this end Ambassador Zasypkin announced in mid-January that a Russia-Lebanon military agreement would soon be signed with a stabilized Lebanese government led by Hezbollah. This will take place in the very near term.

Students of Bible prophecy should be able to clearly see the glaring problem with all of this, and the certain failure of its becoming a reality. No matter who spins this or in what direction it is spun, what the prophetic Word of God says will be the fact of the matter. Here also is yet another example of the coming epic financial loss that Russia will suffer and blame Israel for, and eventually leading to the 'hooks in jaw' spoils issue found within Ezekiel 38/39. Eschatology Today merely wishes for its readers to fully understand the bedrock truth that is behind the current and future reports appearing in the Israeli media. 

Global SITREP B2-18: Ideas on the Ongoing Prophetic Flood

(UPDATES BELOW) 17 April 2018: As mentioned in the previous SITREP a lot of information has been posted on Eschatology Today that deals with a flood of prophetic fulfillment. 

This 'prophetic flood" theme is taken directly from the angel Gabriel informing the prophet Daniel about the seventy weeks prophecy (Daniel 9:24-27). This is a prophecy which we all should be very familiar with as it is one of the most critical set of prophetic verses regarding "last days" eschatology. 

Gabriel informed Daniel that three distinct periods of time would transpire in the future for Israel as part of a total of 70 weeks. These periods of time are related as being weeks of years, with each of them constituting a period of seven literal years of 360 days each within each week. The first period was for 7 weeks (7 x 7 = 49 years); the second period was for 62 weeks (7 x 62 = 434 years). These two periods combined total 69 of the 70 weeks. In essense the conclusion of 62nd week is simultaneously also the conclusion of the 69th week.

In the plain text language of Daniel 9:26 Gabriel explains that after the 62nd/69th week three key events would transpire: 

(1) Jesus Messiah would be cut-off for our sake, which was and remains for the salvation of all mankind. This occurred circa 33 AD. 

(2) The people of the prince to come would destroy Jerusalem and the 2nd Temple on the Mount. This was Rome, the fourth beast empire in its first iteration, and from its people would rise the coming Antichrist. This event of Jerusalem and the Temple's destruction occurred in 70 AD.

(3) The end thereof this period, the pre-70th Week period, also known as the Church Age or the present dispensation, shall be with a flood. This is the flood of prophetic fulfillment that has long been a central theme of Eschatology Today.

There is a fourth event which follows these first three, and that is the 70th Week itself, the final seven years of human rule over the earth. The 70th Week commences with the Antichrist confirming of a peace treaty among many nations; this is a treatly which is clearly centered upon Israel, Jerusalem and the coming 3rd Temple on the Mount.

So, what we're concerned with now is the flood of prophetic fulfillment. All of these prophecies are either in a process of coming to their final fulfillment or are about to be fulfilled. The Psalm 83 prophecy has been in a process of fulfillment since 1948, and is about to observe a 70th anniversary, which coincides exactly with Israel's 70th anniversary year as an extant nation. Also, to Psalm 83 it is also necessary to link Joshua 13 as it regards the immediate future of Lebanon.

There are also the twin Syria prophecies of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27 which, as we all know, are as hot as they could possibly be at the present time. There is also the Jeremiah 49:34-39 prophecy concerning Iran, which will likely tie-in directly at some point to the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38/39 just prior to the commencement of the 70th Week.

What I would propose that we give due and specific consideration to is that the Syria prophecies are a critically important aspect of the flood; their ongoing active fulfillment serving as the catalyst for the ultimate fulfillment of all these pre-70th Week prophecies. 

It is in Syria where chemical warfare WMD has been introduced to the battlefield on a scale not seen on this earth in over 100 years. This is a proverbial WMD genie that will not be put back into the bottle, and will very probably lead to the utilization of even more destructive WMD. 

Chemical warfare WMD usage by the Syrians has the world's major nuclear powers in a threatening loggerhead situation, a full-blown stand-off against each other. The use of chemical warfare WMD, according to how Eschatology Today interprets Isaiah 17:11 as "in the day of grief (chalah) and incurable ('anash) pain (keh-av)," will come to be used soon against Israel. In Isaiah 17 we also see the result of this being tied directly to the ruination of Damascus and the the nation of Syria as a whole.

Moreover, the use of WMD also spreads to what is today northwestern Jordan; noted as the forsaken "cities of Aroer." It should come as no surprise that there are thousands of US and allied troops in this region of Jordan, and it is where many would fall back to if the order to depart Syrian territory comes to fruition as we have been told recently. 

It is also very important to include Zechariah 9:1-8 in any eschatological discussion of the above listed prophecies and their fulfillments. This prophetic chapter touches on aspects of each of them. It is, more or less, a general overview of all of them.

UPDATE 25 April 2018: This update is intended to make folks think. A lot. Cast aside preconcieved notions about how and when the prophetic flood will runs its course; if one knows where to look one might see that the course has always been determined and is discussed within the prophecies themselves.

For example, Jeremiah 49:35 where the LORD of hosts says, "Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the foremost of their might." This has always been interpreted to refer to Iran's preeminent weapon of modern warfare - the ballistic missile. Here's the thing: Iranian missiles are not just in Iran, they have also been deployed to Syria, to Lebanon and even to Yemen.  

The Houthi's of Yemen have fired off dozens of Iranian missiles, but not one has yet to actually hit its intended target. Most have been shot out of the sky, others left to fall harmlessly in desert expanses. Just an interesting observation I suppose.

In Iran itself, and in Lebanon with Hezbollah, the missiles have a more menacing impact upon Israel, and to a lesser extent US bases in the region and also the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

Yet we are left with the refrain of the LORD of hosts (i.e. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as The Existent ONE, and His innumerable army of angelic beings) is going to break (shabar) as in a violent act of wrecking, crushing, destruction into many pieces of this weapon of war. The question is, is this applicable just to the thousands of missiles in Iran which pose a direct threat to Israel, or does this shabar also include the throusands in Lebanon as well?

Final Update 2 May 2018: One final item to add to Global SITREP B2-18. Back in February, within SITREP A8-18 Regional Warfare and Global SITREP A5-18: Syria - Part III, readers were introduced to the Russian mercenary corporation known as ChVK Wagner. A rather large component of this Russian mercenary group was annihilated by CJTF-OIR at the battle of al-Tabiyeh in Dier Ez-Zor.

A late April OSINT report by the Conflict Intelligence Team, based upon British and French news reports, revealed an interesting detail about where ChVK Wagner has deployed its mercenrary troops that has a direct linkage to Ezekiel 38/39 as well as Daniel 11. 

One of the Magog allies in Ezekiel's prophecy is Kuwsh. The nation of Kuwsh are are black men descended from Ham who have lived in Africa, south of Egypt for millennia. Also, in Daniel 11:40 this same ally is found "at the time of the end" in league with the "king of the north," but here he is identified as the "king of the south."

ChVK Wagner troops, allegedly serving as "instructors," have been deployed into the war-torn Central African Republic (CAR) and the Sudan. A quick look at any map of Africa locates the Central African Republic on the southwestern border of Sudan... a/k/a Kuwsh. 

Marana'tha!