The Everlasting Hatred (32 page)

The United Nations, the European Union, and the current U.S. government are pushing Israel to grant the Palestinians a state. This despite the fact that the multiple terrorist organizations within the Palestinian territories will not even halt terrorist attacks long enough for the Palestinian state to be negotiated and granted.

For many years I have predicted that the United States will be neutralized as a major power. That appears to be taking place now via the unprecedented economic problems hitting the U.S. President Barack Obama's socialist ideas are accelerating the catastrophe. After America's fall, a great leader will suddenly rise
out of the old Roman culture and people, and he will be miraculously healed from a fatal wound. He will quickly take over the ten strongest nations of the EU and make Rome his seat of power. He will then negotiate the final “peace treaty” between the Muslims and Israel. It is the signing of this treaty that begins a seven-year count down that will climax with the greatest war of all times, ending with the Second Coming of Christ.

As incredible as it may sound to some readers, the precise scenario of how this will all finally end was predicted over two thousand years ago. And events happening today are fitting into the forecasted pattern. But the timing for all of these things to happen is not quiet ready.

While writing this section, there was one thing that kept bothering me. The time is not yet right for the Russian-Iranian confederacy to launch the predicted war I just outlined. And then came the announcement that a cyber attack was secretly launched against Iran's nuclear facilities a few months ago.

The Iranian government announced that they had arrested dozens of “cyberspies” in the wake of the discovery of what has been called the “Stuxnet,” computer worm-virus. “Stuxnet” differs from the typical computer infections that normally target computers or servers. The Stuxnet worm breaks into the types of computers that control industrial machinery—things like pumps and motors and valves and alarms.

Stuxnet could, in theory, shut off safety systems at a nuclear plant and allow materials to overheat. It could contaminate water treatment plants. Or open pipeline valves. Or even cause explosions. According to the internet security giant Symantec, “Stuxnet
can potentially control or alter how the system operates. A previous historic example includes a reported case of stolen code that impacted a pipeline. Code was secretly ‘Trojanized' to function properly and only some time after installation instruct the host system to increase the pipeline's pressure beyond its capacity. This resulted in a three kiloton explosion, about 1/5 the size of the Hiroshima bomb.”

Stuxnet has been found lurking in systems manufactured by the German electronics conglomerate Siemans Systems in India, Indonesia, and Pakistan.

Stuxnet is able to recognize a specific facility's command and control network. Once it does, it copies the data and transfers it to an outside system before destroying the local network. But it's apparently not designed primarily for espionage. Stuxnet was designed specifically for sabotage. The Stuxnet attack proves that Iran's entire industrial infrastructure is vulnerable to attack. Indeed, “whoever” did this has demonstrated that it's capable of melting down Iran's entire cyber-command infrastructure. So the war that most thought would never happen may have already been won—at least for the moment.

Another development in the aftermath of the discovery of “Stuxnet” may be even more damaging to Iran's nuclear weapons program than the “worm.”

The Iranian Security Service announced that the infection could not have come from the outside via the Internet. The infected computers were never connected to the Internet. They were closely guarded and only connected to local infrastructure command circuits. No one outside of trusted Iranian workers was allowed near the computers—with the exception of the resident Russian nuclear scientists and specialists. The Iranian security agents say that the only way the “worm” could have been intro
duced is by someone using a small flash drive to manually download the virus-worm into each of the separate systems.

So when the Iranian agents began detaining Russian scientists and specialists for interrogation, and then arresting some, the Russians began packing up their families and leaving the country. This is a catastrophe for the Iranians at this stage of their pursuit of nuclear weapons. They need the expertise of the Russians more now than ever.

Furthermore, this could potentially cause a serious rift between Iran and Russia.

However all of this was orchestrated, I see the hand of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob sovereignly protecting His people in an impossible situation.

How all this ends is the subject of the next chapter.

“They say, ‘
Come, and Let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be remembered no more
.' They conspire with one accord; against YOU they make a covenant—the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek [various Arab tribes], Philistia with the inhabitants of Tyre [Gaza and Lebanon]; Assyria [Syria] also has joined them . . .”

—P
SALM
83:48
²⁴¹

“The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: ‘Have you not noticed that these people [Israel's Arab neighbors] are saying, “The LORD has rejected the two families he chose”?' So they despise my people and no longer regard them as a nation. This is what the LORD says: ‘If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will bring them back from captivity and have compassion on them.”'

—J
EREMIAH
33:23-26

“‘I will lay waste your cities, And you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Because you
[the Arab
people]
have had everlasting enmity
and have delivered the sons of Israel to the power of the sword at the time of their calamity, at the time of the punishment of
the end
, therefore, as I live,' declares the LORD God, ‘I will give you over to bloodshed, and bloodshed will pursue you; since you have not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you.'”

—E
ZEKIEL
35:46
²⁴²

Beginning thirty-four hundred years ago and continuing for the next fourteen hundred years, the Hebrew prophets predicted a precise pattern of events that would all fit together during the same time frame. All the elements of this predicted pattern will lead to the apocalyptic war of Armageddon, which will draw all nations into it.

Even though different Bible prophets predicted the facets of this pattern at different times and from different locations, they can easily be identified and properly fit together because they all pertain to the great final conflict that begins in the Middle East and draws all nations into it. The prophetic scenario deals with all the events and peoples that lead to this final war, the war itself, and events that immediately follow the war. This great final conflict is a major theme of all end-time Bible prophecy. It is therefore like the “Grand Central Station” of end-time prophecy. Every facet of prophecy in the Bible that is to be interpreted as occurring in the end times somehow relates to the time of this great final war.

Concerning this global catastrophe, which is usually known as the war of Armageddon, Jesus Christ predicted, “For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now—and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.”
²⁴³

The prophet Daniel foresaw this same war and also notes it
will be without parallel. He writes, “There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.”
²⁴⁴

The prophet Isaiah wrote about this war: “The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the Lord has spoken this word. . . . The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.”
²⁴⁵
Note that Isaiah also predicts that very few people will survive this great final war.

The key sign that would signal that the predicted pattern of events had begun would be the miraculous return—and national rebirth—of the scattered people of Israel to their ancient homeland. This prophecy was formally fulfilled May 15, 1948. Precisely as predicted, the ancient enmity of the neighboring nations, which are all Muslim today, immediately began to seek Israel's annihilation.

Jesus Christ predicted how Jerusalem would be central to this prophetic pattern, saying “They [Jews in A.D. 70] will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles
until
the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
²⁴⁶
(emphasis added) Jesus made this prophecy just before his death. He predicted the destruction and dispersion of the nation would fall upon the
generation that was rejecting Him. That literally happened thirty-seven years later.

But the second half of this same prophecy
puts a time limit
on the period of Jerusalem's desolations and captivity. Jesus predicted that it would be only “
until
the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” The “times of the Gentiles”—the era of Gentile world domination”—began a gradual phasing out in June 1967 with Israel's recapture of old Jerusalem. This process will be completed with the coming of the Messiah to set up God's promised kingdom.

At around 520 B.C. Zechariah predicted:

Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes intoxication to all the surrounding peoples; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah [the Jews]. And it will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples; all who attempt to lift it will be severely injured. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered [for war] because of it.
²⁴⁷

As prophesied, Israel has regained control of its ancient capital city—Jerusalem—amid tremendous opposition from the surrounding nations. As the prophet Zechariah foresaw some 2,450 years ago, Jerusalem will cause all of the neighboring nations (which are all Muslim today) to become intoxicated with religious passion to repossess it.

The metaphor “a cup that causes intoxication” is used in the Bible to illustrate religious passions out of control. Just as a drunken person acts emotionally without reason, so it was predicted that the neighboring people would be intoxicated with religiously driven passion and hate.

It is important to note that the name Jerusalem never appears in the Koran or the Hadith. The claim for Jerusalem arose years after Mohammad's death. The justification for this Muslim claim comes from a verse that says Mohammad traveled to the “uttermost mosque” (which is the meaning of
Al Quds
in Arabic) shortly before his death.

In the days of Khaliph Omar, who was the first Muslim to conquer Jerusalem, there is the first record of the legend that Mohammad, escorted by the angel Michael, flew on a winged horse named “Barak” to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. According to legend, Mohammad ascended to the seventh heaven from the great rock that is on top of the Temple Mount. He then returned to the rock and flew back to Mecca.

In many parts of the Muslim world, the name
Jerusalem
isn't even known; instead the city is called “Al Quds.” Omar was the first to erect a mosque over the sacred rock of the Temple Mount, and later, a magnificent mosque known as the Dome of the Rock was built there. There is no historical evidence that Mohammad ever was in Jerusalem. But in the Middle East, it doesn't matter whether something is actually true. It is what is believed to be true that matters. There, many have died for the sake of myths.

As predicted by Zechariah, Jerusalem has become a heavy burden for all peoples. It is at the heart of the Muslim passion to destroy Israel and has been named Islam's third holiest place—on par with Mecca and Medina. True Muslims believe it is their sacred duty to Allah to retake Jerusalem and all of Palestine.

Because the Muslims currently control most of the world's oil reserves, whatever troubles them can be made to trouble the world. Zechariah's prophecy indicates that Islam's religiously
driven obsession to retake Jerusalem and drive the Jews out of the Middle East will ignite a global war, for it is written, “All the nations of the earth will be gathered [for war] because of it.”

The Last Days prophetic scenario features four dominant spheres of political power. It was predicted that these four power blocs would become identifiable during the general time of Israel's restoration and rebirth. The dispute over the land and Jerusalem draws all of these powers into it, much like a whirlpool irresistibly draws in all around it.

The four power centers would be:

The Muslim sphere of power that Daniel calls “the king of the South”