Global SITREP A3-26: Operation Epic Fury Endgame PART III

April 22, 2026: We now know that President Trump's unilateral extension of the ceasefire with the Iranian Twelver regime is due to the fact that the regime is in a fractured and highly unstable political state. The IRGC appears to be acting since yesterday as the de facto power of the government in ordering attacks by IRCG fast attack craft on M/Vs in the Strait of Hormuz and east of it from the Iranian Port of Chabahar into the Gulf of Oman. The lack of a U.S. response thus far to the serious attacks gives weight to what Pentagon sources say will come next.

Multiple sources are reporting that officials in the Pentagon are strongly indicating that a resumption of the war is imminent. However, the resumption of combat operations will far surpass the power and violence rained down upon Iran since the initiation of hostilities on February 28. Three U.S. Navy supercarrier CSGs are now in the CENTCOM AOR (Lincoln, Ford and G.H.W. Bush) plus several thousand U.S. Marines, Airborne and Special Operations forces plus the inherent and significant increase of combat airpower. Israeli forces are also primed to resume their Operation Roaring Lion combat operations

The meaning here is that Trump's indefinite ceasefire probably does not indicate a long-term cessation but a finite extension of potentially very short duration in order to give the Twelver political echelon a chance to impose control over the IRGC.

24 April 2026: The U.S.-Iranian Twelver "negotiations" in Pakistan have taken a big hit because hardliners in the Ayatollah's inner circle and the IRGC have forced (former) lead negotiator Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf to resign. Ghalibaf was also severely reprimanded by the inner circle over inclusion of the nuclear issue in negotiations with the US. His participation is likely the reason any progress was made in previous rounds. Regime hardliners and the Ayatollah's inner circle have clearly won the internal power struggle.

With Twelver hardliners in control there's no chance for a successful outcome, which explains why Vice President Vance has cancelled his plans to travel. President Trump now has his response from Tehran. 

25 April 2026: Iranian Twelver envoy Araghchi met with his Islamic brothers in Pakistan and delivered Tehran's "comprehensive response" to Trump's demands. He has since departed for chats in Muscat and Moscow. Meanwhile, Trump's envoys Witkoff and Kushner are still hours away from landing in Islamabad. Once arrived they'll receive the Twelver response - which is, essentially, there can be no further negotiations with the U.S., there is no nuclear issue, the SoH will remain closed and the U.S. and Israel owe the Twelver regime billions in war reparations. To say at this point that Trump has not been played like a fiddle by the Twelver regime would be a massive understatement. Trump's reaction is sure to be epic.

1 May 2026: It appears to be crunch time for the current phase of Operation Epic Fury as the 60-day threshold of war powers act has arrived. 

The Trump Administration has a couple options to employ. One is to ignore the 60-day mark as previous presidencies have done. Another option is to seek a congressional declaration of war against the Twelver regime. The decision has either already been made or will be made in a matter of a few more hours. 

I believe the decision has been made as the U.S. Army made a request to deploy its Dark Eagle (Long Range Hypersonic Weapon or LRHW) system to the CENTCOM AOR.

7 May 2026: Today Iranian forces launched attacks on three U.S. Navy destroyers transiting eastbound (outbound) from the gulf. USCENTCOM released the following AAR:

“Iranian forces launched multiple missiles, drones and small boats as USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115), and USS Mason (DDG 87) transited the international sea passage. No US assets were struck."

FINAL UPDATE 13 May 2026: Eschatology Today closes out this SITREP in noting that both the UAE and Saudi Arabia have conducted retaliatory airstrikes on specific targets inside Iran. This news has been accompanied by reports of Israel's Mossad director making covert visits to the UAE in March and April. These visits signal the close strategic and intelligence cooperation between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi.

There is also a newly revealed international military coalition of more than forty nations, led by the United Kingdon, who will defend maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz from Iranian attacks and operate to restore freedom of navigation in the Gulf. The Royal Navy air defense destroyer HMS Dragon looks to be this force's flagship.

Within the next day or so the previously noted return to far more destructive attacks on Iran by the US and Israel appears very likely. Operation Sledgehammer will be the subject of SITREP A4-26.

 Maranatha!

Global SITREP C2-24: Rockets Red Glare

RS-26 Rubezh IRBM a/k/a RS-26 Oreshnik MRBM

UPDATED 22 November 2024: The Russian ballistic Missile attack on Dnipro, Ukraine yesterday morning appears to have been a new variant of a Russian Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile known as the RS-26 Rubezh. 

Russia's clandestine development of this weapon almost certainly was the reason President Trump and SECDEF Esper announced the US's unilateral withdrawal from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (a/k/a INF Treaty) on August 2, 2019. The development of the RS-26 Rubezh was a one of a series of blatant violations of the INF Treaty signed in 1987 by U.S. President Ronald Regan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.

Development continued and an MRBM variant of the Rubezh was rebranded as (RS-26) Oreshnik. It is difficult to distinguish between these two missiles which led to major confusion in expert media reporting yesterday on the identity of the missile. 

RS-26 Oreshnik test launch

However, what is now known puts yesterday's strike in an entirely new perspective. First and foremost is that the Oreshnik strike is the first use of an IRBM or MRBM in the history of warfare. The proverbial genie is out of the bottle, and with this strike a clear signal was sent; the world has crossed into unknown territory. Secondly, analysis of imagery makes clear that the Oreshnik warhead contained six (6) warheads or MIRVs (Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles). Three were either inert, kinetic or decoys and three had conventional high explosives. These MIRV warheads were also impervious to Ukrainian air defenses; they never even came close to being shot down due to their hypersonic speed and maneuverability. A third aspect, not widely reported, is that ALL of the missiles Russia has launched into Ukraine in more than 1,000 days of warfare were capable of carrying nuclear warheads of various yields.

So, with Russia having let the genie out of the bottle who's to say that Israel would not deploy a mix of its Jericho-2 MRBMs and Jericho-3 MIRVed IRBMs in a follow-up strike on Iran's now virtually defenseless nuclear and petroleum infrastructure. Maneuverable warheads can arrive on target from every direction on the compass.

UPDATE 28 November 2024: This past Tuesday morning as I lay in my hospital bed, I turned on the wall-mounted television not intending to watch a particular program, to channel surf. It was a big surprise to find that the channel was not set to the Monday Night Football station I had been watching but was now set to a CSPAN channel. The program CSPAN was airing was a live, in-progress UN Security Council session concerning the Middle East. 

Israel's Ambassador Danny Danon was on the receiving end an exceptionally nasty series of exchanges with both the PA representative and an Algerian representative. Despite repeated decorum warnings from the UNSC chair (held by the UK), the venom being spewed by Israel's enemies continued unabated. Credit to Ambassador Danon for remaining in his seat, but a rage of volcanic anger was plainly evident on his countenance.

Then a thought came to mind and the Ezekiel 38/39 "Battle of Gog of Magog" prophecy consumed my thoughts. A seed that had been planted recently suggesting a broadening of the actual identities of both "Kuwsh (Cush) and Put" was now a necessity. This continual enlightening strongly intimates that the closer we get to that prophetic day, the clearer the prophecy becomes. 

The people Ezekiel identified as "Put" is far more than just those inhabiting Libya but includes most of North Africa on the Mediterranean Sea's southern coastline to include Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria. Together, these are the populations of Put. And of Kuwsh the same is true, they are not just Sudan and Ethiopia as many interpretations suggest. Kuwsh includes the peoples of the Horn of Africa as well as modern-day Yemen.

The Horn of Africa and Yemen

I prayed for the LORD to show me in Scriptures where this has already been revealed. Within a few minutes my gaze was directed to reading passages in Isaiah and Joel. There, in Isaiah 45:14-17, as if it were an adjunct to Ezekiel 38/39 are all these peoples listed together and who will be given into the hand of Israel by the God of Israel. Egypt, Kuwsh (Horn of Africa) and Sabeans (Yemen). We know the end of this because God has known of it from the beginning.

Thus says the Lord:

“The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush
And of the Sabeans, men of stature,
Shall come over to you, and they shall be yours;
They shall walk behind you,
They shall come over in chains;
And they shall bow down to you.
They will make supplication to you, saying, ‘Surely God is in you,
And there is no other;
There is no other God.’ ”

 Truly You are God, who hide Yourself,
O God of Israel, the Savior!
 They shall be ashamed
And also disgraced, all of them;
They shall go in confusion together,
Who are makers of idols.

But Israel shall be saved by the Lord
With an everlasting salvation;
You shall not be ashamed or disgraced
Forever and ever.

And then we can turn to Joel 3:4-8 where we find Tyre and Sidon (Lebanon) and all the coasts of Philistia (Gaza), as if they're all in the same basket of judgment, who have retaliation repaid upon their heads. The Sabeans (Yemenites) are seen in verse 8.

The current SITREP in the Middle East reads like a sidebar, a very short interlude, before the next and final act that sets the whole region in the conditions graphically illustrated in Ezekiel 38/39. 

Marana'tha!

Global SITREP C2-20: Rumors of War Part VI

Some of the IDF Armor arrayed on the Northern Front
opposite the Lebanese and Syrian borders..

03 August 2020: Hidai Zilberman, a spokesperson for the IDF, said today that Israel holds Damascus responsible for Sunday's attempted IED cross-border attack at a temporarily unmanned IDF post. According to Zilberman Israel may yet retaliate against Damascus for that action in which the four terrorists were killed by ground and air fire from the IDF's Maglan Special Forces unit. There were no IDF injuries in the action.

Update 05 August 2020: About the Beirut Port Disaster

Beirut Port Before

Beirut Port After

Hezbollah and the IRGC are under no illusions about what took place yesterday at the Port of Beirut, Lebanon because they know they caused the explosion at Beirut port by their own negligence.

They have been negligent in the handling and storage of 2,750 metric tons of volatile ammonium nitrate, explosives and other munitions (i.e. the reported fireworks) at this site for many years. Since 2014 at a minimum. The resultant early tally of casualties speaks to scores of dead and 3,000 to 4,000 or more injuries.

The "white building" was a massive grain silo. Grains lie before the massive, now water-filled crater where the explosions occurred.

Details:

In 2018 the IDF made public their concerns about this site in releasing surveillance imagery with detailed analysis of the risks posed to the immediate civilian neighborhood, infrastructure, the port itself and Hariri Airport (source of the aircraft seen in some videos).

IDF release from 2018

Thereafter, Hassan Nasrallah released a video of himself 'theorizing' about a "nuclear like' explosion occurring in Haifa port, just as the Beirut port explosion appeared to all who witnessed it yesterday. Ironic to say the least.

Beirut Port Panoramic as it appears today courtesy of Hezbollah and their IRGC masters.

Hezbollah and the IRGC, and by extension the current Government of Lebanon, are 100% responsible for the Beirut Port disaster. They know it. Israel knows it, and so does the U.S.A. The ultimate repercussions of this disaster are currently unknown, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to assume that Israel will be blamed in due course by its many enemies. And therein lies the prophetic significance should Lebanon, Hezbollah and Iran opt for the wrong course of action going forward.

Global SITREP B8-19: SCALING UP THE WAR

Patriot PAC-3, B-52H Stratofortresses, 100,000+ Combat Troops, Naval Armada

FINAL UPDATE 16 May 2013: This will be the final update for SITREP B8-19. A lot has taken place in these past two weeks, most of it from Gaza to the Arabian Peninsula. 

However, a question must be posed: Are we in a crisis? The Eschatology Today answer is, no, we're not in a crisis. It is the Islamic Republic of Iran that is in the midst of a serious crisis, and how it attempts to extricate itself from its self-made crisis will determine how severe this crisis will become for the abhorent Twelver regime and whether or not literal fulfillment of Jeremiah's and Isaiah's relative prophecies occur within a relatively short span of time. Remember, Jesus said, "these things must take place, but the end is not yet."

What will take place next is a classified briefing to the members of the U.S. Congress next week regarding what Iran has done this past week, what it has done via its proxies, and what the potential responses will be should further attacks take place. The United States took the leadership role only it can provide by surging significant military power into the Middle East. Even more will move if that becomes necessary and that depends entirely on how foolsih the clerics in Tehran decide to become. They are a seriously apocalyptic-minded lot, so no one's going to hold their breath in the hope they suddenly become peacemongers.

14 May 2019: As the title of this SITREP attests, the situation in the Middle East is being significantly scaled up. The reason for this can be stated in one word: Iran. Take a cold, hard, objective look around the whole of the Middle East and one thing becomes blatantly obvious from the Bible prophecy perspective: none of the ongoing conflicts or areas of military tension have abated one iota. To the bold contrary, the over-riding theme of "wars and rumors of wars" has only increased; scaled up, in every imaginable and even unimaginable way.

There was a very high-level meeting of all the significant players of the US National Security apparatus at CIA HQ Langley last Thursday. Speculation was rampant on what the meeting was about. Now we know, and again, it's a one word answer: Iran. To the mix of American military forces and capabilities being surged into the Middle East in the past week, the meeting also pushed forward the high potential for a 120,000-strong combat force of US soldiers to deploy into CENTCOM build-up of American combat force projection.

This projection of American power clearly focused against the Iranian Twelver regime's regional aspirations of dominance over Sunni Arab nations, but mostly against the State of Israel, has had a curious effect. It has shown how weak in the knees our European NATO allies are. They, meaning nations like the UK and Spain most notably, appear to prefer a path of appeasement towards the apocalypse-minded clerical regime in Tehran rather than stand firm and hold a line drawn in the sand. 

As of yesterday, following a weekend (Sunday morning actually) where Iranian forces clandestinely attacked four oil tankers of the coast of Al-Fujairah port in the UAE, causing significant damage (big holes) to those vessels, but without creating oil spillage or injury to the crews. A prompt US investigation issued a preliminary assessment just yesterday that Iran was responsible for the apparent limpet mine attacks against the four oil tankers. As the U.S. bristled over these attacks, a Spanish frigate sailing as a part of the Lincoln CSG which had just entered the Gulf of Aden, was ordered by its government authority to withdraw itself from the CSG operations. In the UK that government began expressing fears that another Iraq-like war was in the offing. Fear and trepidation are not signs of leadership in the face of clear aggression.

So much, at this point, for the prophecy-based theory circulating that an all-powerful all-EU, without the United States, will be the beast empire military juggernaut of the 70th Week. We would do well to read again the text of Daniel 2; not to mention chapters 7 through 12, to refresh once more about the "Ten Toes" and the rise of the "Little Horn." Prophecy theorems that do not begin with these texts, plus Ezekiel 38:13, will miss the mark, first time, every time.

We have our Lord's assurance that "these things," that is the several signs He gave in the Olivet Discourse, "must take place." We emphasize this a great deal here on Eschatology Today, and it's for good reason. While no one can foretell specifically what will happen in the next day, next week or next month, we can understand the "big picture" that has been given to us in Scripture. Eschatology Today interprets the Lord's prophets, it is not one of them.

9 May 2019: A flight of B-52H Stratorfortresses departed Barksdale AFB in Louisiana yesterday on their deployment to Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar. The "Buffs" were topped off with fuel for their intercontinental transit by KC-10 Extenders flying out of Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst, New Jersey. The "Buffs" are joined in this expedition by the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group which is currently in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The Lincoln CSG will probably not enter the Gulf without an extensive US de-mining of those shallow waters.

 

B-52H being refueled over Atlantic by JB-MDL KC-10A 8MAY19.
Image courtesy USAF AMC.

Barksdale AFB B-52H on the tarmac at Al-Udeid AB Qatar late yesterday.
This is real power projection. Image via CENTCOM.

7 May 2019:There's a very good reason why the Netanyahu government has paused operations against the terrorists in Gaza: Iran. Both President Trump and PM/DM Netanyahu are completely aligned in what is about to take place. 

The US/Israel plan of action has been developing for the past few weeks, with only glimpses of its scope hinted at in statements made prior to this past weekend. An interuption was caused by the assassination attempt on an IDF Colonel and another soldier on the Gaza border by a PIJ sniper on Friday. Israel retaliated for this action and resumed heavy rocket fire following the IAF's retaliation strike. Both assassination attempt and high-volume rocket fire were ordered to take place by Iran which hoped the resulting combat would derail the US-Israel action plan. 

Israel did great damage to HAMAS and the PIJ through Saturday and Sunday (4/5 May), and also assassinated the critical HAMAS-Iran money man in very tight quarters on a busy Gaza street in broad daylight with a precision missile strike. Even the terrorists have acknowledged this in a statement early today saying they needed the current respite from combat to lick (heal) their wounds. Netanyahu has told the Israeli people point-blank that the Gaza combat is not over and will be resumed soon.

Standing by on Gaza border...

So what took place about 8 weeks ago? Israel provided to the US the intelligence its Mossad had collected indicating that that Iran was in advanced stages of tasking the IRGC and its proxy forces throughout the region to launch wide-scale attacks on US forces in Syria, Iraq and in the Gulf. In the ensuing week or so the US detected these preparations first-hand for itself. A military response was ordered. 

As background, in March the B-1 bomber group that had deployed to Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar concluded its deployment and returned home to Dyess AB in Texas. This left the Middle East without a combat bomber group in the CENTCOM CJTF-OIR AOR. The announced deployment of a new bomber group (either B-52 or B-1, or a mix of both) fills this void. Concurrent with the new bomber group deployment the US has also rerouted the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group (Lincoln CSG) to the the Gulf and operations within 5th Fleet. These two combined are part of the "unrelenting force" promised to Iran by NSA Bolton should Iran follow through on its attacks.

Updates as they occur. This situation should develop rapidly over the next day or so, and there is sporadic firing along the Gaza border as you read this.

5 May 2019: The Eschatology Today expectation forecast of the previous B7-19 SITREP hit the proverbial nail on its head - the Twelver regime of Iran has commanded its Gaza proxies to launch a rocket war (500+ and counting) against the civilians of southern and central Israel just as Israel prepares to celebrate its 71st anniversary of modern-day existence. 

This time there is a mounting death toll in Israel, and the Israeli response has all appearances of being a more lethal and expanded or upscaled set of military actions. The IDF even struck and destroyed a mosque adjacent to the beach area of al-Shati (NW of Gaza city) that the PIJ was using as a Command and Control (C2) facility. 

Israel has also begun targeted assassinations of the HAMAS and PIJ leadership in Gaza. Israel will also go after this leadership cadre in Beirut, Lebanon and wherever else they may hole themselves. No quarter is to be given, vehicular movement is also no guarantee of avoiding death from above as HAMAS' senior field commander Hamed Hamdan el-Hadary just learned while driving his Toyota. Before his death this morning El-Hadary was the Iran-to-Gaza money transfer official for HAMAS and the PIJ according to IDF sources.

Hamed Hamdan el-Hadary's Toyota destroyed in IAF precision missile strike

Israel has reinforced the IDF envelope around Gaza with the deployment of an additional armored brigade. The closure envelope announced by PM/DM Netanyahu extends outwards from Gaza by 40km (25 miles). Netanyahu and his Security Cabinet has also issued the order this morning ti intensify the IAF airstrikes in Gaza as well as a general mobilization of deploying ground forces. It is a near certainty the IDF inject itself into Gaza at some point. Whether these insertions are hit-n-run strikes are rocket launch sites or a campaign to seize territory remains to be seen. 

Going Forward: Eschaology Today's focus will be whether or not this round of warfare becomes a fulfillment of Isaiah 11:14 and Ezekiel 28:24-26 as the culmination of the Psalm 83 prophecy, meaning an armed conflict which begins in Gaza but comes to involve Lebanon, Jordan, Sinai, Syria and Iran. Ongoing rapid and fluid developments wil be covered in the next update.

Global SITREP A4-19: Israel's Northern Front Offensive - Part II

Updated 7 February 2019: The importance Eschatology Today placed upon the OSINT reporting in yesterday's update on the S-300 battery going operational at Masyaf has been confirmed via a just updated report published this morning in Israel by i24News: "Operational Advancement of S-300 Mean a Dangerous Junction Ahead in Syria." As stated in the i24News assessment, the use of the S-300 against IAF aircraft striking Iranian military targets, which Israel will strike again as determined necessary, can easily pull the Syrian regime into full-scale war against Israel. We know this potential war as the fulfillment of Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49:23-27, and it could ignite, as noted previously, at any moment within the new few weeks. 

Question: Was the shoot down last September of the Russian IL-22 "Coot" ELINT aircraft over the Mediterranean Sea by wildly-firing Syrian air defense batteries a possible fulfillment of Jeremiah 49:23? Is the still impending battle of Idlib, where skirmishes all along the front lines are a near daily occurrence, the "bad news" Hama (Hamath) and Idlib (Arpad) are to hear? Make no mistake, these are the events which Jeremiah's prophecy declares as preceding the destruction of Damascus by an all-consuming fire. Keep watching brothers and sisters.

The second of two expect Iranian rocket launches (read: ICBM tests) has failed.
Sounds like the Lord's breaking of the Iranian bow is in-progress. The current plan is for US forces to be withdrawn from Syria by the end of April.

The US announced today that our military forces are prepared to protect US facilities and personnel in Venezuela if the need arises. Venezuela immediaely rolled out its Russian-made S-300VM air defense system. Massive amounts of life-saving humanitarian supplies (50 metric tons from the U.S. alone) are now building up at the border crossing of Cucuta, Colombia at the request of Interim President Guaido. Supporting Interim President Guaido is important as that will be the most expedient method of getting Hezbollah out of Venezuela. Mass defections of the Venezuelan military to the Guaido forces are increasing by the hour. Let's see what tomorrow brings.

6 February 2019: OSINT reports indicate that Iranian military entrenchment continues with large IRGC and Syrian government cargo aircraft flying continually in a Damascus-Tehran-Damascus circuit. These flights are monitored extensively by OSINT reporting as well as US/Israeli military aircraft as noted below.

The Syrian S-300 battery that arrived from Russia and deployed to Masyaf northwest of Damascus in October 2018 is nearing an operational capability according to satellite imagery acquired by the Israeli company ImageSat International (ISI). The latest ISI image (Times of Israel clickable image below) released yesterday reveals that three out of the four missile canisters of this battery are now standing upright in pre-launch position. The 4th canister tube launcher remains covered by camouflage netting.

In other OSINT news, the U.S. Army has purchased for immediate use an upgraded version of Israel's Rafael/IAI-built Iron Dome Air Defense System. The new block variant has an increased range of intercept from 45 miles to 155 miles. Testing of the upgraded system was done in the United States. Cost: $400 million. For immediate deployment and potential use against Iranian tactical missiles.

There is an increased yet secretive Russian transfer of armored vehicles, howitzers, ammunition and supplies into the Russian-occupied Donbas region of southern Ukraine. 

4 February 2019: OSINT this morning is reporting several US and Israeli intelligence collection aircraft are active over the eastern Mediterranean Sea opposite the Lebanese and Syrian coastlines. The intel collector aircraft involved are two USAF RC-135 Rivet Joint and two IAF G550 SIGINT Nachshon Shavit. There is also IAF activity over Mt. Hermon and a pair of RAF (UK) Tornado GR4 aircraft out of Cyprus.. Inbound large cargo aircraft from Tehran to Damascus are the object of the ongoing intelligence collection. Action of this type has been known in recent time to precede IAF strikes in southern Syria. We'll soon see if the bellicose threats from Tehran and Damascus have been a bluff or not.

A day ago CJTF-OIR aircraft attacked and destroyed a Syrian Army artillery piece and wounded two soldiers in the region just west of Abu Kamal. The artillery piece was identified as firing upon CJTF-OIR ground forces.

Russia recently completed the contruction of 18 hardend shelters for its strike aircraft based at Khmeimim Air Base. The Russians are not planning any soon withdrawal of their forces from Syria; they have a 50-year deal with the Syrian government.

29 January 2019: All indications are that Israel's airborne offensive targeting Iranian bases and supply depots in Syria have caused extensive and severe damage to the three primary enemies, Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, and their warfighting infrastructure. If the rhetoric coming from these three enemies in just the past week is to be believed, and there's no reason not to believe them, then the flood of prophetic pre-70th Week fulfillment discussed on Eschatology Today for the past several years may well be just a matter of a few weeks away, if not sooner.

Of interest is the news that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has emerged from a period of virtual invisibility which led to rampant rumors of his death or medical incapacitation. Nasrallah's re-appearance was perhaps forced by the overwhelming success Israel has achieved in its two most recent strikes on Iranian bases in around Damascus, Syria; the preemptive destruction of war materiel destined for delivery to Hezbollah, as well as the destruction of strategic tunnels (Operation Northern Shield) which had been of critical import to their war plans for the coming hostilities. With a matter of just six weeks Israel significantly has altered the battlefield to its great tactical and strategic advantage.

Why is this kind of detail important? It may not be to many readers, but it is to Eschatology Today as it is a real-time record and historical account of the prophetic events that are upon this world.

As stated previously on this blog, the prophetic pre-70th Week wars will come to pass as a flood comes to the unsuspecting village in the valley below. The vast majority of the world today is not concerned with the Lord's prophetic word; this world denies His word and ridicules those who profess it. Think back to the days of early 70 AD as several Roman legions began to invade the land. The Roman legions marched their conquering way in battle after battle, skirmish after skirmish towards Jerusalem, eventually surrounding and laying a siege to the city and its Holy Mount which the Lord's presence had departed at the crucifixion of Jesus Messiah. Is there any written account of that day circa 33 AD in which the writer exclaimed the literal fulfillment of Daniel 9:26? Is there any citing the passing of thirty-seven years between the first two lines of that verse? No, there isn't. The closest writings are the Gospels and the Book of Acts which were written decades after-the-fact. 

So it is today with the majority of those alive on planet earth in utter disbelief of the ongoing process of eschatological fulfillment. There are even those calling themselves 'Christians' who profess denial of these facts known to us and which are progressing forward on a daily basis, just as the Roman legions progressed upon Jerusalem two-thousand years ago. Echatology Today is currently proclaiming that we are nearing the culmination of time in the coming flood of fulfillment. The time remaining is so very, very short. And in a still unknown nanosecond we shall be taken. Hopefully the Lord will allow this and other blogs to remain for the benfit of those to be redeemed during the 70th Week. 

"The end of it shall be with a flood,
And till the end of the war desolations are determined."

Russia's role in these coming events is on everyone's mind these days. Some believe that Ezekiel 38/39 will be launched from Syria. Eschatology Today has never accepted this faulty theory, and will offer some recent OSINT in support of this position. 

But first, there is a Biblical reason why Gog of Magog will not launch his attempt to conquer and loot Israel from Syria, and it is found in Isaiah 17:1-3. This passage of Scripture directly links the ruination of Damascus, the abandonment of human habitation of the "cities of Aroer," with the end of the miv·tsär' (hold, fenced-in, fortress) of Ephraim (so-called 'Palestinian territory" of the northern West Bank/Judea and Samaria), the kingdom (sovereign government) in Damascus and the remnant of `Aram (Syria). The exsum exegesis of this, as we've discussed previously, is that Syria as we know it today will have ceased to exist. Put another way, Russia's military forces in Syria are, by hook or by crook, going back to Russia prior to Ezekiel 38/39. Additionally, Russian forces in Syria at present are by no means even close to being adequate to fulfill what is prophesied in Ezekiel 38/39.

Now for the real-world OSINT. Russia is in deep, deep economic trouble. This is on the surface a real-world high-probability cause for Gog of Magog to one day soon seek the conquest and looting of the coming 'greater Israel.' Russia has been spending huge sums of currency on modernizing its own military hardware, its military ongoing adventurism, plus the military hardware of Bashar al-Assad in Syria (and elsewhere, like Venezuela) and for which it has not been paid-in-full. But this is all a veneer beneath which lies a Russian economy in an utterly pitiful state. Few in the Russian population believe their current leader can solve Russian problems at home. There are tens of millions of Russians living daily in horrible conditions while the ruling elite of the country bask in luxury. Russia, it could be said, it a Venezuela waiting to happen.

In exsum, Russia today is in many cases in economic worse shape than it was when the Soviet Union collapsed, and no one in Russia has any idea how to put this humpty-dumpty back together again. Eschatology Today believes that Russia, one way or another, will withdraw its meager forces out of Syria and then God will take over to complete the impending collapse as we see in the Ezekiel 38/39 prophecy.

To be continued...

Global SITREP B6-14: An Eye On Kurdistan

24 January 2014: This is a good time to look through the periscope and see what's going on around on the periphery of the Middle East battlegrounds. One rather expansive tract of territory to place an eye on is that of "Kurdistan."

What we know as Kurdistan looms large right now. The Kurds, all 30 million of them, live in contiguous territory within southeastern Turkey, northeastern Syria, northern Iraq and northwestern Iran and constitutes the world's largest ethnic group without its own internationally recognized homeland.

Since the end of the 1991 Gulf War the Kurds in northern Iraq, a/k/a "Iraqi Kurdistan," have maintained and improved on an autonomous political entity known as the Kurdistan Regional Government. This government essentially functions as if it were a separate country, but it remains an integral part of Iraq. In Iran and Turkey the Kurds have long been a festering insurgency for those two governments, especially with respect to Turkey. 

In Syria it's not much different, except that the over two million Kurds living there take on all sides in the ongoing civil war should they encroach upon "Syrian Kurdistan."  Following the rejection of a Syrian Kurdish request to join the Syrian civil war negotiations in Switzerland the Kurds on Tuesday of this week made known their extreme displeasure at being rejected as peace parlay participants and promptly declared the formation of their own provincial government for "Syrian Kurdistan." The image at the top is from one of the Kurds flag-festooned rallies this past week in northern Syria.

In the map image, the part of Syria is actually slightly out of date as the Kurdish militia has taken a lot more territory for itself with all lands from Ras-al-Ain on the Turkish border, south along the Khabir River to the city of Al Hassakah and then on to the Iraqi border being under their military control. 

The most interesting thing to note with respect to the above map is how much this territory resembles that of ancient Assyria prior to the conquest of Aram, Damascus and the northern kingdom of Israel. With 30 million people longing for a homeland of their own I have come to consider that the prophecy of Isaiah 19:23-25 might very well apply to Kurdistan (Assyria) during the Millennium of the Lord's reign finally getting their homeland as the inheritors of the northern part of ancient Assyria.

"In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”"

The prophetic "In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria - a blessing in the midst of the land..." tells me that the map of the Middle East will be radically different than it looks today. Gone from the current map are the countries of Lebanon, Aram (Damascus) Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. In their geographic place are just three countries serving the Lord of hosts: "Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance."