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MIDDLE EAST UPDATE
by Steve Ashburn
Events in the Middle East rapidly are
converging towards a possible regional war. Deputy Mayor of
Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum recently stated in an interview that the great powers are
anticipating this war, which will be between armies (not
terrorist groups) and the events we’re seeing presently are
just skirmishes leading up to “The Big One.”
Her prediction is completely secular and outside of
the Bible.
But there are many chapters in the
Old Testament which describe this war, the “Psalm 83” war.
It begins with nuclear destruction of the Aswan Dam (“the
tower of Syene” [Ezekiel 29:10]) and other “countries” and
“cities” in the area, which will “be desolate forty years”
(Ezekiel 29:12). The parallel account in Isaiah 19 actually
describes a missile headed toward Egypt: “the LORD rideth
upon a swift cloud [missile contrail]….” Isaiah 19:1).
This 40-year period contains all the
events of the end times: the nuclear war which begins it, a
long period of complacency which follows, and then the
rapture, the Russian invasion of North America (Isaiah 18;
Daniel 7), the Ezekiel 38-9 Russian invasion of Israel, the
formation of world government (the third “beast” of Daniel
7) and finally the tribulation as its final 7-year segment.
I go into all of this in detail in my book, “End Times
Dawning” (www.endtimesrecord.com).
The Psalm 83 war apparently will be
instigated by Iraq (see
“Nuclear War in the Mideast: Part 8”
for a detailed analysis of this) and will cause absolute
worldwide outrage at all the nuclear destruction they caused
and result in a third US-led coalition invasion ( Isaiah 13;
Jeremiah 50-51). Interestingly, Iran will not participate in
the Psalm 83 invasion of Israel, but instead be a coalition
partner in the invasion of Iraq. Isaiah 13:3 describes the
US as still a Christian nation at the time (“my sanctified
ones….even them that rejoice in my highness”) and Iran as
absolutely massacring the Iraqis, including women and
children:
“Every one that is
found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined
unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall
be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be
spoiled, and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir up
the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and
as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also
shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no
pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare
children.” (Isaiah 13:15-18)
This alliance with Iran obviously
requires a change from their presently rabid anti-Western
government to a more US-friendly type. And since this war is
only a few years away, this requires quite a drastic
change—or does it? Things perhaps are not as they seem. . .
. Read on.
The biblical history of this area is
replete with intrigue, deception and duplicity and is
characteristic of the peoples of this region even today. For
example, Iran recently has engaged in silly, transparently
obvious covert operations designed to make them look good at
the expense of the West:
On January 12, 2016, two United
States Navy riverine command boats were seized by Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy after they
entered Iranian territorial waters near Iran's Farsi Island
in the Persian Gulf. Initially, the U.S. military claimed
the sailors inadvertently entered Iranian waters owing to
mechanical failure, but it was later reported that they
entered Iranian waters because of "navigational errors". The
sailors never put up a fight, and had their passports with
them, which you never carry on a combat mission. (I wonder
if they also had return plane tickets?!)
Iranian General Soleimani was on a
diplomatic visit to Iraq—requested by the United States—on
Jan. 3, 2020 when he was allegedly killed by a missile fired
by the US. This was highly unlikely. If the US really wanted
him, they would just have arrested him at the airport.
Then on Jan. 8 Ukraine International
Airlines Flight 752 from Tehran to Kiev was allegedly
brought down by a missile 3 min after takeoff at 4600' AGL,
and a video camera *conveniently* recorded the exact moment
of "missile impact," then ANOTHER video camera
*conveniently* recorded the exact moment of ground impact 8
nm N of the airport, looking suspiciously just like a
missile impact. And photos of the crash site looked like
typical junk from a junkyard, not bone fide aircraft
fuselage debris. Again, this was highly unlikely since
flight 752 carried mainly Iranians and no Americans, and the
Iranians simply do not shoot down airliners.
These incidents smell like staged
psyops. Soleimani is probably still alive, retired now, and
living under a different name. The whole Iranian-US
"conflict" appears to be subterfuge with Iran covertly
cooperating with the US. This is just what Isaiah 13
predicts for the upcoming third US-led coalition invasion of
Iraq. Iran will NOT be a part of the Psalm 83 Arab invasion
of Israel.
On October 1, 2024 Iran allegedly
launched over 180 guided missiles at Israel in retaliation
for Israel’s killing of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on
Sept. 27. These missiles, having GPS/INS guidance and
accurate to within 1 cm, apparently didn’t do any damage and
Israel refused to report the damage for “military” reasons.
Pictures of these missiles showed intact fuselages sitting
on apparently undisturbed ground. Videos of these missiles
showed them hitting “somewhere” on the outskirts of Tel
Aviv, but never Tel Aviv itself.
Of course, missiles from Hamas and
Hezbollah are real, but I can’t help but think that this
Oct. 1 incident was just a military drill. I’m not even sure
the missiles came from Iran—they might have been blanks
launched by the IDF as part of a psyop to make Iran to look
like some kind of evil adversary. And Iran was only too
happy to play along, since words are cheap.
But why go through all this trouble?
The answer seems to be to disguise covert operations. For
example, how is it that Israel knew exactly where Nasrallah
and his top commanders were located? And how did they know
exactly which living rooms and garages all across Lebanon
missiles were located in? Is their intelligence really that
good? It seems more likely that
Iran told them.
And Iran supplies the majority of
Hezbollah’s missiles. Although most of these are unguided,
the Iranians are in the process of upgrading these with
movable fins and adding GPS/INS guidance. But something
tells me that if they are ever launched, they will miss
their target by some distance and land in an empty field—by
design! And who knows, maybe they also have encrypted GPS
pinger devices allowing US satellites to pick up their exact
location. . . .Heck, maybe they’ll even detonate like the
pagers did. But that would give the scheme away, which
Israel is probably saving for the Psalm 83 war.
So we have deception in the Middle
East, so typical of the history and peoples of this region.
But the question remains: Why the duplicity of Iran? The
answer apparently is that the Iranians (a Japhetic people)
are no friends with the Arabs, and they would love to have
their oil revenue, plus be part of an international refining
& marketing network. According to Ezekiel 30, Psalm 83 and
several other chapters in the Old Testament, the defeated
nations will include Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia,
Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and Gaza. Some of
these are rich in mineral resources, which will be spoils of
war after the Psalm 83 war.
After the third US-led coalition
invasion of Iraq, a governor will be appointed to build an
international city in what was formerly Iraq for the
distribution of spoils of war to coalition member nations,
as described in Isaiah 23:13: “Behold the land of the
Chaldeans; this people [international citizens] was not,
till the Assyrian founded it for them that dwell in the
wilderness. . . .” This man, the “Assyrian,” will become the
Antichrist.
According to Zephaniah 2, this city
will be located at the site of ancient Nineveh (present-day
Mosul, Iraq) and eventually become the Babylon of
Revelation. According to Nahum 1:8, prior to this, Mosul
will be scraped clean down to the bedrock with a flood,
probably by rupture of the Mosul Dam, 40 miles upstream, so
that it indeed becomes “the wilderness”: “ But with an
overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place
thereof. . . .” And according to Nahum 1:11 this man, the
Antichrist, called the “wicked counseller” will be born in
Nineveh (present-day Mosul). [I have published a series of
articles entitled, “Who is the Antichrist” at
www.endtimesrecord.com explaining this in more detail.]
Therefore, the
end goal of all this duplicity appears to be a regional
Mideast war (the Psalm 83 war) against the Arabs and seizure
of Arab and Iraqi oil, to be administered by an
international governor for distribution to coalition member
nations. The trigger for this war—a
blitzkrieg Arab invasion of Israel—shouldn’t
be too hard to incite since it is akin to releasing a
bulldog from his chain who is foaming at the mouth and ready
to kill you.
Now the timing
of this war appears to be several years away. But it will
not happen until the other signs Jesus mentioned in the
Olivet Discourse have happened: famine, pestilence, great
earthquakes in various places, fearful sights and great
signs in the heavens, and political and economic troubles.
Perhaps the
timing of this is analogous to a fireworks show: at first, a
few fireworks go off, followed by oohs and aahs in the
audience. This is akin to local famines, pestilences and
occasional meteors we see streak across the sky. But when
the finale comes, many fireworks go off at once and everyone
knows what it means: the show is almost over. Likewise, when
we see all the signs Jesus mentioned in the Olivet Discourse
happening at once, it will be unmistakable: The end times is
about to begin.
So there’s your
Middle East update. Shocking, isn’t it? But true, if you
read between the lines! I have much more information about
this in my books, which you may obtain at
www.endtimesrecord.com. Please read them!
Yours in Christ,
Steve Ashburn
[This article was published on October 7, 2024] |
