Global SITREP A1-13

19 March 2013 (Updated 21 March): It seems like yesterday. Anniversaries can do that to you. Ten years ago today after all the preparations were long since completed we were ready to go over the berm from Kuwait into Iraq. Within 48 hours after starting the movement northward 3rd ID would be almost 100 miles deep into Iraq. My thoughts were drawn into consideration of the four angels bound at the Euphrates River awaiting their release. With Saddam's threats of WMD warfare and all of us in full MOPP IV gear I had to wonder if this was the war that would release those four angels upon the world. And here I was smack dab in the middle of it with thousands of other guys dressed in DCUs on a mission to liberate Iraq. Nebuchadnezzar's, Cyrus' and Alexander's ancient stompin' grounds, this was going to be no fun at all I thought. Saddam's Scuds, Al-Samouds, Silkworms and U.S. Patriots and hundreds of coalition aircraft were launched, danced in the air and some occasionally landed explosively nearby. Seems like yesterday, but a decade later and far more learned about the correct exegesis of Bible prophecy than I was at that time, the effect that decade of spent time now has me wondering if its not four angels that are about to be released, but rather how much time Damascus has left to be a habitable city. You live, you learn.

So, it seems fitting at this point to begin doing an occasional global sitrep (situation report) on this blog because, who knows, Damascus could get ruined overnight one of these days, so why not keep track of events a little more closely leading up to that paradigm changing event. Thirteen years earlier, just after Operation Desert Storm and when Iraqi Scuds were pelting Israel little did anyone know that that war would come and go and just make an even bigger and more important war occur in the future. Hindsight is 20/20, so a little journal seems a good idea at this point. Now I do not think at this point it will be another decade because there's just too much going on in the Middle East right now for me to accept there that much time to expend yet again. Could be, but one cannot be dogmatic about these things.

At present we have North Korea threatening to nuke the US at a time when they have completed a couple of actual nuclear tests and long range missile launches. We have the US responding to this by flying B-52 missions from Guam to South Korea and the Pentagon essentially telling dear leader Kim Jong-Un that while he's feeling all kinds of froggy these days he had better think twice and not jump.  In the same time frame we have Russia flying nuclear-armed Bear-H bombers from distant bases in Kamchatka making simulated nuclear strikes against US and allied bases in South Korea, Japan (Okinawa) and Guam, and Communist Chinese gunboat diplomacy kicking things up a notch or two from Vietnam and the Philippines to Japan. East Asia is looking as warlike as the Middle East is. Rumors of wars.

In the Middle East, the ever present basket-case, we have Syrian Alawite jets bombing Sunni columns in Lebanon while the Al-Assad government and Sunni rebel forces trade accusations of chemical warfare attacks. I now am holding the assessment that two chemical agents were used Phosphorus Trichloride (PCl3) which is under controlled production by Schedule 3 of the Chemical Weapons Convention, and BZ which is a deliriant incapacitating agent. Which side executed this chemical attack remains undetermined; it could have been Al-Assad's forces or it could have been the FSA rebel forces. If our "red lines" have any meaning then Western military intervention will have to be forthcoming, with the possibility of  special forces seizing Syrian and/or FSA rebel chemical stocks or destroying them in place by surgical strikes. Syria does have a serious missile-borne WMD capability and Israel must look like a convenient game-changer to Al-Assad and his apocalypse-minded pals in Tehran given their poor battlefield prospects in Syria. No rumors here, real war is ongoing from the Turkish border to the Lebanese border to the Israeli and Jordanian borders. All the places mentioned in Bible prophecy that I am concerned about and always watching closely.

In Europe a financial crisis is threatening to come unraveled from one part of the former Roman Empire to another. The once mighty Euro currency is now worth about seventy-five cents American, and American currency is being printed as if were playing an artificially extended game of Monopoly. The Obama Sequester is about to chew up our armed forces at a time when really big shooting wars could erupt in any or all of the places I just mentioned. Oh, and we're still at war in Afghanistan. This is wars and rumors of wars.

Sorry for all of the seemingly bad news in this first installment, but at least we know that the new Pope isn't Petrus Romanus and we can giggle a little bit at those who gave that nonsense serious consideration. See you at the next edition of Global SITREP... if we aren't called home first.

What is the "Great Commission" and How Are We to Execute it?

17 March 2013: What is the "Great Commission" and How Are We to Execute it?

Do we execute our mission by sitting on our backsides in our own church witnessing to the choir? Or do we go where those who need the saving Grace of God are?

"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” 

Did the Apostles stay in the Upper Room or did they go into in the sinful world and into very belly of the beast of that day, into Rome itself?

Did they risk their very lives to execute the mission that Christ mandated, and did they stay on that mission even when the brethren were being rounded up and crucified or fed to wild beasts as sport?

And look at us, the Bride of Christ, what are we doing? Are we worthy of the rewards to which we think we are entitled? Did God call a time-out because we are living in the last days and we need a good rest before the final trump blows? Are we wasting the power of the Holy Spirit that our Lord has sent among us? These are questions each Christian has to place in self-examination and if necessary act upon with all due haste and with conviction. Surely the Lord will lead.

"Go therefore and make disciples."

So, what are the Lord's instructions on executing the mission to go and speak to others about the good news, to make disciples of other men and women?

I think it is a simple matter. Witnessing is about being an example of what it means to be a fisher of men, of being what it is that Christ has called us to be, of giving those who are as yet unaware first the good news, and then then bad news, to tell them "this" is what life can and will be with with Christ, and "this" is what it will definitely be without Him in the future.

We plant the seed and allow the Holy Spirit do His work. We do not convict, preach fire and brimstone and then force it down someones throat. We witness to the holiness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We start a conversation from common and level ground and we build it from there. Are you a Protestant, then other unsaved Protestants are who you are prepared to witness to right from the start. Catholic, Jewish, Lutheran, Pentecostal or you-name-it, you start from where you are, on that common and level ground and work your way up the mountain from there.

When was the last time you left your comfort zone and went to the sinner and to the unsaved on his or her turf as our church fathers did?

2013: Is This the Year for Isaiah 17/Psalm 83 Fulfillment?

16 March 2013: In "The Bedouin Rebellion Against Israel" on FrontPageMag yesterday author Eric Burns has written a very informative article that serves as both a reminder and background brief for the coming greater Middle East war and the Bedouin role in it.

I'd only read the first couple of paragraph's of this article when I recalled writing in a December 2011 forecast for the year 2012 how the Sinai Bedouin would likely fulfill the modern-day role of Amalekites in the Psalm 83 prophecy. In "The State of the Middle East 2012" I wrote:

"In Egypt, as in other Islamic Arab nations formerly ruled by dictators, the military remnant of the Mubarak regime still tenuously holds power in the face of renewed uprisings by the Muslim fundamentalist masses led by the al-Ikhwan al-Muslimeen (Muslim Brotherhood) and the Salafists in their respective strongholds around the country and in Cairo. In the Egyptian Sinai the overt rise in the past few weeks of the Al Qaeda-linked terrorist group "Ansar al-Jihad in the Sinai Peninsula" since the fall of Mubarak was inevitable and led to the attacks in Eilat, Israel as well as the repeated attacks on the Egypt-Israel gas pipeline. This newly emergent terrorist organization could not exist without the tacit support and/or involvement of HAMAS, Egypt, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Islamic Republic of Sudan (Ezekiel's Kuwsh, as noted here). These Islamic terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula will likely fulfill the role of Amalek per Psalm 83 verse 7."

In the next paragraph of that blog item I brought up the "basket case that is Bashar al-Assad's Syria," saying in full:

"Then there's the basket case of Bashar al-Assad's Syria, ruled by a minority Shi'a faction of Alawites it remains in the throes of a Sunni Islamonazi insurrection very much like that which just toppled the dictatorial regime of Muamar Ghadaffi in Libya. This internal Syrian affair has drawn in both Turkey and Iran on opposite sides of the conflict, and placed Israeli-Turkish relations in the odd position of being simultaneously belligerent and non-belligerent with respect to each others national interests. Clearly Ezekiel 38/39 is not an imminent or next-in-line prophetic fulfillment as Isaiah 17, Psalm 83 and Joshua 13:1-7 all appear to be."

And so, here we are in the closing days of the first quarter of 2013, and it's as if all these things are being held in place by some kind of limbo, orchestrated for a precision release in the violent outburst that I believe will be the imminent fulfillment and last battle of the prophetic Psalm 83 war (November 1947 to the Present) and that I also believe will be catalyzed into that state by events to the north and the fulfillment of the Isaiah 17 prophecy.

And it all could blow up one of these evenings without any further warning. On that day we here in the USA will awake to the news that war between Syria and Israel erupted; that Damascus has been nuked and that war rages throughout Lebanon, Syria and northern Israel.  The thing is... thanks to the Lord's prophetic word we know how it ends before it really begins, and this is what I need to be talking about and focused on instead of other distractions.

The Day When The Earth Will Stand Still

26 February 2013: There is a specific event and a sign that will occur before the Day of the Lord and it is virtually never, ever referenced in Bible prophecy articles about the 70th Week.

This sign will occur at the relative beginning of the 70th Week, concurrent with the sealing of the 144,000 of every tribe of Israel. This sign is a physical manifestation that every living soul on the earth on that day will experience. For the left behind potential gentile Tribulation Saints this sign needs to be made known to them so that when it does occur it will be an important indicator that their salvation draweth nigh also. That is the ultimate purpose of this blog item.

To contemplate what incredible yet largely ignored global dynamic forces will be withheld from occurring by angelic power should absolutely boggle your mind.

On the day as the 144,000 are being sealed the prophecy of Revelation 7:1 occurs:

"After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree." 

Nowhere on planet earth will there be even the slightest breeze as the atmosphere of the entire planet will be brought to a stand still. There will be no wind pressure gradients whatsoever. The barometric pressures from the ground to the edge of space will be thoroughly equalized. Every last one of the world's ocean currents, from the surface to abyssal depths, are a driving force behind atmospheric movement and will be brought to a standstill. The Corolis force at this time will cease to exist. The climate for the entire planet will suddenly cease to exist. And the clouds in the sky, what is to become of them?

And then an angel will rise from the east and the sealing of the 144,000 will commence and so will their ministry.

This prophecy occurs immediately after the 6th Seal (Revelation 6:12-17 'Cosmic Disturbances') has been opened by Jesus, but just prior to the 7th Seal (Revelation 8 - 'Prelude to the 7 Trumpets') being opened. Check out what occurs in those Seals and one of the unique powers the Two Witnesses will possess - to stop any rain from falling. Spiritual actions by the various angels will have very consequential and direct effects on the earth, and which makes very clear that the LORD's power is being manifest all over the earth during that 70th Week. 

Things On My Prophecy Radar Screen

9 February 2013: A couple of things have popped up as blips on my radar screen.  Both have some relationship to the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, but exactly what that is I do not yet know exactly, but I do have an idea.

The first blip is seen in the above image. As most will recognize this is an atypical map illustration of the Ezekiel 38/39 prophecy. There are many variations of this map that I am sure we have all seen, yet despite those variations all of the maps have one peculiar thing in common. This peculiarity never registered with me before just a few moments ago, and when it did it set me back to consider how such a blatant oversight was possible given the number of decades I have involved in the study of or have written about Ezekiel 38/39.

The allies of Gog that come against Israel from the continent of Africa are named in Ezekiel 38:5 as Kuwsh (modern-day Sudan located immediately to the south of Egypt) and Puwt (modern-day Libya and northern Africa located immediately to the west of Egypt). And therein lies the blip that is on my prophecy radar. The nation of Egypt lies smack dab in the path of both of Gog's allies most direct land approach to Israel, yet as we all know Egypt is utterly absent for the prophecy God gave to Ezekiel.

In verse nine God tells Ezekiel this invasion will be an airborne invasion that will cover the land like a cloud, and therefore neither the Mediterranean Sea nor the Red Sea nor the Suez Canal constitute any type of natural barrier between Gog's African allies and Israel. However, as the maps all indicate, they will have to overfly Egypt and the Egyptian Sinai in order to reach Israel.

Egyptian non-participation in Ezekiel 38/39 to the point of total irrelevance as made clear by this prophecy also makes several very important eschatological points, not the least of which are the high likelihood of either or both Isaiah 19 and Psalm 83 coming to fulfillment prior to Ezekiel 38/39. Indeed, no matter how we look at this something extraordinary will have occurred prior to Ezekiel 38/39 which would preclude a major Islamic nation of about 90 million people and the 14th largest military force on planet earth to be so completely absent and its territorial sovereignty so grossly violated as described by the prophetic texts.

The second blip on my radar screen is seen in this 20 December 2012 image of five American aircraft carriers lined up like ducks in a row in port Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia. From bottom to top are the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), USS Enterprise (CVN 65), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), and USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). What is not seen is the stealthy modern-day "Zero" which is picking them off as Japanese Zero's picked of "Battleship Row" in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii going on 72 years ago.

In less than a week four of America's ten carriers have been idled at their docks due to the irresponsible, reckless and unpatriotic fiscal policies of the Obama Administration. These city-size, floating, nuclear-armed airports are the primary instrument of America's global power projection, a "global force for good" as the U.S. Navy television commercial very recently attested. Thanks to Obama our fleet's readiness to defend the nation from foreign threats to our homeland and our troops deployed abroad during wartime as well as our allies and international commitments and alliances has been placed in jeopardy.

Due to  budget shortfalls and the sequestration of military funding the USS Abraham Lincoln's required nuclear refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) has been scuttled. The USS Enterprise's defueling and the USS George Washington's pending RCOH are also up in limbo. Yesterday (Friday, 7 February 2013) the USS Harry S. Truman's scheduled deployment to the Persian Gulf did not occur due to a lack of funds. Later this month the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower will sail to the Persian Gulf to relieve the USS John C. Stennis instead of joining forces with that Carrier Strike Group in containing Iran, protecting the free navigation of the Straits of Hormuz and other operations in support of our forces in harms way within the CENTCOM Area of responsibility.

No longer will the apocalyptic Iranian regime have to face the prospect of the overwhelming power of at least two U.S. Carrier Strike Groups sailing in the region. Moreover, at a time of unprecedented crisis in the Middle East the policies of the current U.S. administration have increased rather than decreased the probability of unrestrained regional warfare. I suppose the Iranian Ayatollah will shortly be sending a 'thank you' note to the American Commander-In-Chief for his efforts and able assistance in the destabilization of the entire region by idling one half of the U.S. Navy's aircraft carriers.

One can imagine the prophetic consequences of this new paradigm in the Middle East.

Ayatollah Khamenei: "Set Israel on Fire."

3 February 2013: It is interesting how the Jerusalem Post announces one thing with its headline, yet the article launches into a discussion of something that is actually benign in comparison.

As if the EU's non-recognition of the Shi'a Hezbollah as a terrorist organization compares to what the Ayatollah has decreed as his personal mission twelve years ago.

In the first place, Hezbollah has from its first day of existence been an integral part of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Since its founding by Hassan Nasrallah in 1982 Hezbollah has been a a forward deployed branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The EU's failure to identify them as a terrorist organization seems a rather minor and blatant moot point, does it not? More than that, it's a patently stupid thing to be discussing at such a high-level think-tank of "global experts" in a conference setting.

Then, however, if you click the link to the main article URL you do get to the heart of the real issue facing the world-at-large and Israel in particular for the past twelve years.

Allow me to paraphrase two paragraphs of the article with all due emphasis:

Rafael Bardaji, is a former special adviser to former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar. Bardaji, who attended a 2001 meeting between PM Aznar and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said when Khamenei was asked what his role within the Islamic Republic is he responded: “To set Israel on fire.”

It is a point of fact that Western leaders and other assorted talking heads are on record saying that they are waiting for hard evidence that Ayatollah Khamenei has issued a decree, a nuclear weapons fatwa, to Iranian scientists for the construction of nuclear weapons before launching preemptive military counter-measures.

It is not obvious to these Western leaders that the Ayatollah's response to former Spanish PM Aznar twelve years ago was the decree they have been so patiently waiting for? Is there some ambiguity in Iran pursuing nuclear weapons capability and the Ayatollah's stated role of "setting Israel on fire?"

The Iranian leadership, from the Ayatollah on down to his sock-puppet Ahmadinejad, will on a day-to-day basis to Western media and Muslims alike refer to Israel as the "Zionist entity." However, when they are being deliberate and direct in their comments they refer to Israel as Israel. Iranian intentions as decreed by Ayatollah Khamenei  in 2001 could not be more crystal clear.

The time for "coercive diplomacy" with Iran was over before it began. Military action against Iranian nuclear designs is now fully twelve years past its due date.

Syrian Air Defenses on High Alert?

2 February 2013: Syria says its air defenses are on high alert.

Oh Really?

My question is... What Syrian air defenses?

This strike (mere seconds as an F-16I Sufa flies from downtown Damascus!) and the strike in September 2007 make it perfectly obvious that Israel's electronic warfare capabilities make the phrase "Syrian air defenses" an oxymoron. Syria, nor any of the other Islamic Arab (or Persian for that matter) nations, have any defensive capability capable of defeating an Israeli air assault as we have just witnessed.

Zippo. Nada. None. Both in 2007 and on Wednesday of this past week the "Syrian air defenses" never even saw the F-16I Sufa strike aircraft. Not coming inbound nor departing.

The folks next door in Lebanon heard the Israeli aircraft overhead for most of the evening and night before the actual strike, but this was of absolutely no help to the "Syrian air defenses."  There was a partial moon Wednesday night, and some cloud cover. But radar sees right through those things when it is operating normally. Millions upon millions of radar pulses emitted in a split second detect objects in the sky at great distances at the speed of light. Syrian radar and fire control systems were very much blind. In fact, they were completely dead. Useless, and not so much as a single shot was fired against the Israeli aircraft.

And the Turks, who are currently royally angry with Bashar Assad's regime and even having threatened military action of their own after the Syrians shot down one of Turkey's F-4 Phantom jets with great ease, are absolutely mystified and besides themselves as to why the Syrians are so impotent to defend their skies against the so-called Zionist invaders. Case in point, the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu cried to the media about this gross technological disparity, saying "Why didn't Assad even throw a pebble when Israeli jets were flying over his palace and playing with the dignity of his country?"

Catch a clue Mr. Davutoglu!!! The Syrians didn't because the Syrians couldn't. Their air defense systems were completely and totally suppressed. Utterly powerless. Like Godzilla stomping on the Geico Gecko.

So superior are Israel's technological advantages over its Arab neighbors military forces that they even surpass the superlatives I am futilely attempting to apply to them.

Folks, we're looking in real-time at the basis for the overwhelming Israeli victory that will occur in the fulfillment of the pre-70th Week prophecies; we're looking in real-time at the military basis for Israel's rise to overwhelming regional dominance and superpower status. It is an awesome sight to behold and abject proof of the literalness of Ezekiel 37:10.