Category: News

Readers of THE END OF AMERICA know that the God of the universe has been sending repetitive messages to America, accelerating since Bush ’41. (See Wm. Koenig’s book –“Eye to Eye” outlining the parallels between US treatment of Israel and “natural” catastrophes in America.) What has He been saying? ‘I Love Israel. I’m serious about how the nations of the world treat Israel. Those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed’. (Genesis 12:3).

The relevance? U. S. Special Envoy George Mitchell, named as the President’s “point man in the Middle East” met with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in mid April, 2010. What did they discuss? We don’t know, as neither side of the discussion released any details. However, we can reach an informed conclusion. On Monday, May 3rd, Secretary of State Clinton announced in a speech at the United Nations that the United States was pushing a new policy in the Middle East. What are the details of that new policy? Clinton stated that the US favors a “Nuclear Free Middle East’”. As noted in our last News Flash, former US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton warned that such a policy, if successful, would result in the nuclear disarmament of Israel. What did Mitchell say to Netanyahu just a few days before Clinton’s public announcement? It is safe to assume that Ambassador Mitchell broke it to Israel that America wants Israel to give up its nukes as the price for “Peace in the Middle East”.

Besides US pressure on Israel in mid-April, did anything else happen in mid-April? Well, actually, yes. A BP oilrig in the Gulf of Mexico mysteriously blew up. Experts still can’t explain how it happened, as there are redundant systems built into the rigs to avoid such catastrophes. The result? 11 immediately died and financially the future impact on fragile ecosystems can’t be estimated at this point, but will probably be in the several Billions. Did anything else happen?

If you live near Nashville, you don’t need to ask, as the Tennessee Valley began to flood at about the same time. The results, so far, 30 dead and possibly a Two Billion dollar loss. Even the Nashville Grand Old Opry will be closed for several months. Tennesseans rightly objected to the fact that their plight has been largely ignored by the national media and by the national administration. These Biblical events look a lot like fulfillments of Genesis 12:3. Are we listening? Do we understand that when we hurt Israel, when we threaten Israel, when we attempt to weaken Israel, that we are only hurting America? Evidently not, though we can pray that the light will still dawn on our leaders. It’s not too late. Not yet.

I first read about it on my iPhone as I was standing in line to vote on Tuesday. I couldn’t believe it, at first, and then it made perfect sense, politically and prophetically. Secretary of State Clinton included in her speech at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference that the US was pushing for a game-changing agreement in the Middle East. What she unveiled is no small change. Secretary Clinton let it be known that the United States is negotiating with Egypt to make “the Middle East a nuclear-free zone” (Wall Street Journal, May 1, 2010).

Former US Ambassador John Bolton nailed what this proposal would actually mean: “Egypt and the Obama administration are negotiating right now on an Egyptian proposal for a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East, which certainly sounds good. Except when you think about it, there is only one country that resolution is targeted at and that is Israel. The President is not happy with Israel’s nuclear capabilities. I think he would be delighted if Israel gave up its nuclear weapons. The only unknown answer at this point is exactly how much pressure he would exert on Israel to do just that. Part of that pressure is being exerted right now by even considering the possibility of a conference on a nuclear-weapons-free Middle East.” (Interview with Army Radio – reported in Jerusalem Post, May 4, 2010)

Ezekiel in chapter 38 describes Israel as dwelling in peace and safety when the Russian/Iranian land invasion starts. Today Israel is not dwelling in either peace or safety. Once it agrees to a comprehensive peace agreement, under the intense pressure of the United States, the United Nations and the nations of the world, it will finally, it will then believe, be allowed to survive and live in the security of the peace treaty, and under the military protection of the United States. Prophecy confirms, though, that the peace agreement will be broken, as Iran, Libya, Russia and other Muslim dominated nations, sweep in to try to “push Israel into the sea”. It is at that point that Israel cries out to the Daughter of Babylon/America for its military assistance and protection.

Why not just use its own nuclear weapons to stop the invasion? Oops. Under US pressure, and as part of its “unshakable commitment” to Israel’s military security and survival, Israel may well be talked into giving up its nuclear arms. If Israel does so, it would be a foolish, dangerous move, but it has previously given up Hebron (where Abraham and many Patriarchs are buried), surrendered Gaza and now has agreed to stop new settlements in east Jerusalem. None of these “steps for peace” actually brought Israel any peace. On the contrary, each has encouraged Israel’s enemies towards more violence.

Genesis 12:3 promises that those who curse Israel will themselves be cursed. If the US continues to pursue an effort to force Israel to dis-arm itself, the results will be catastrophic for both Israel and for the United States. Israel, without nukes, holding a worthless military defense commitment from the US, will be an irresistible plum to be plucked by its enemies. The US, having enabled the arms lay down under its “unshakable commitment” to defend Israel, won’t keep its commitment, and will be destroyed because of its “treachery”. (Jeremiah 51:35)

These are serious times. Serious Christians and Jews, living in America, must be more than aware of what our nation is doing to hurt Israel. Continuing to dwell in such a nation will lead to death and destruction. God in His infinite compassion has warned us. Will we listen? Will we act in obedience? “Come out of her, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the Lord”.(Jeremiah 51:45)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly promised that he would not stop Israel’s permits to allow new housing permits in East Jerusalem. Why did he make those strong assurances? Besides the fact that any sovereign nation has the right to decide how its nation’s housing will be permitted and built, Netanyahu was only continuing Israel’s long-standing policy of allowing housing starts in an area of Jerusalem that it never intends to give up in future “peace” negotiations.

But something happened. This week PM Netanyahu caved. He folded. The Associated Press reported that “the procedures for approving new housing have been put on hold”. On March 9, Vice President Biden was embarrassed in his visit to Israel which apparently coincidently coincided with an announcement of new housing permits in east Jerusalem. The Obama Administration reacted (some may legitimately say – over-reacted) to the new housing permits. Secretary of State Clinton and Special Envoy George Mitchell attacked Israel for its sovereign authorization of housing in its own borders. Clinton was reported as giving Netanyahu a 43 minute “tongue lashing”. Imagine our reaction if the nations of the world attacked Mayor Bloomberg for granting new housing permits in Harlem.

But, after Mitchell made a hurried trip to Israel, things changed. Secretary of State Clinton and other Administration officials suddenly “made nice” with Israel, assuring Israel that Washington’s security commitment to the small Middle Eastern nation was “unshakable”. Really? Shouldn’t Israel worry about an ally which vacillates from harsh condemnation to “unshakeable” support? What did Mitchell say to Netanyahu? It hasn’t been reported yet, but we can assume that whatever the former Senator said to Israel’s leader, it was quite effective.

Sovereign Israel has allowed another sovereign nation to tell it what it can do within its own borders. The tip off to what is going on was this line from the Associated Press article on Netanyahu’s reversal/cave-in: “The quiet halting of east Jerusalem housing approvals coincides with signs that talks are now about to start…Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signaled Monday he was ready to start indirect talks with Israel after weeks of hesitation.” One doesn’t have to be particularly politically astute to see that the Obama Administration has exerted maximum pressure on Israel, and on Palestinians, to make them agree to begin “indirect talks” for the purpose of a “Peace Treaty”.

Why is this important? When Israel signs a peace treaty with its enemies, as an American Christian or Jew, you should be making preparations to emigrate out of America. See “THE END OF AMERICA” for more details (Pp. 295-300). Once Israel makes peace, which PM Netanyahu said in January of this year would surely happen within two years, the prophetic stage will be set for the next major end times event. Ezekiel tells us that once Israel is “dwelling peacefully”, that it will only be a matter of time before the Ezekiel 38/39 land invasion by Russia, Iran and their named allies. The Daughter of Babylon/America will default on its military defense agreement (p. 321) with Israel, stabbing Israel in the back, which will directly lead to its destruction in one day, one hour, one moment. This week, with Israel’s caving in on its sovereign rights over its own land, the world, and America/Daughter of Babylon, have moved yet another step closer to the next stage of the end times. Jesus told us to “watch”, thus, watching these events unfold, and understanding their meaning for our lives, is our Lord’s command.

It probably shouldn’t surprise us, but end times events are happening on an increasingly rapid pace. It seems that daily we read about an earthquake, or another assault on Israel, or a slur on religious people and institutions, or economic problems that must inevitably lead to a global crisis. Google “earthquake” and look at how dramatically the number of earthquakes has increased since the early 1980s. We are told in scripture that earthquakes will be like “birth pangs”.

It also seems that the White House, now that the distraction of the “health care law” is over, comes up with new policy surprises almost every day. Examples: a.) dismissively walking out of a meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu violating protocol and good manners (thereby conveying a clear message of anti-Israeli US sentiment); b.) announcing that America’s enemies who kill us with chemicals or biological agents (but who are “in compliance” with Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaties) are assured that the US will not use its nuclear weapons in response; c.) opining as part of signing an essentially meaningless arms control agreement with Russia that the former US nuclear umbrella over Europe wouldn’t apply today because if Russia invaded Europe today (though it was said this would be unlikely) US nukes would today not be used – thus amounting to handing Russia an invitation to invade if it so chooses.

Not content with offending Israel by snubbing its elected leader, an Obama Administration insider on Sunday in the Washington Post sent an unmistakable message of warning. What was the warning? Give up the eastern part of the West Bank and Jerusalem, otherwise the President will fly to Israel and force Israel to do so. The warning was contained in an article co-written by Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, and undoubtedly advising the White House on Middle Eastern affairs. Brzezinski called on President Obama to fly to Israel, along with leaders from Russia, the European Union and the UN, and demand that the Israeli Knesset “share” Jerusalem by giving East Jerusalem up to Muslim rule. He suggested a speech by the President in Jerusalem’s Old City “addressed to all the people in the region and evocative of his Cairo speech to the Muslim world in June, 2009”. What if Israel says no, even under all that pressure? Brzezinski suggests that the President go the United Nations and generate “worldwide pressure”. Nice way to treat an ally nation.

In the midst of all of this, the US is essentially giving Iran a free pass to continue to develop its store of nuclear materials and ultimately nuclear weapons. By January of this year, Iran was to have decided during its one year warning period to eschew nuclear weapons. Didn’t happen. And the US, Russia and China are doing nothing, literally nothing, to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Joel’s and Ezekiel’s descriptions of a land invasion of Israel (after it “dwells safely” as a result of a signed peace agreement) mean that Iran is not likely to use its (newly acquired) nuclear weapons on the land that it wants to conquer, but Jeremiah 51:28 tells us that part of the destructive force when the Daughter of Babylon/America attacks will come from the Kings of the Medes, which is a description of today’s Iran. We turn our backs on Iran’s manufacture of nukes at our own peril. Senator Lieberman described this as “The turning point in history…I worry more that we’re not going to do enough to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon quickly enough.”

Israel – and the United States – are truly standing at a turning point in history. What they do, through their elected leaders, in the next few months, will determine how the people of the world live in the years ahead. Prayer is still the best way to influence our times, and the timing of those times.

What a week! Under the cover of the media circus surrounding the “Healthcare Reform” debate, our nation has been wrecking havoc with the traditional American-Israeli diplomatic relationship. The results? Ask people in the Northeast (11 die in unprecedented floods) or in Minnesota (worst storms on record). What message is being sent to us? It’s the same message. “Those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed”. Genesis 12:3.

One media commentator justified US verbal assaults on Israel by saying “Israel shouldn’t get a free pass”. What? Let’s analyze what’s really happening by viewing it in this way. Imagine that America has a treaty relationship with a major nation. Further imagine that the other nation decides that America shouldn’t have annexed the area of Arizona and New Mexico, demanding that the area be carved out as a separate nation. So, this “friendly” nation publically attacks America and, are you seated? Then it assails America for granting zoning and building permits for a new apartment project in Phoenix. Hunh? And add this, the attacks on the granting of building permits comes after America announced, months ago, that it is now committed to the idea of giving up its land in order to “make peace”, after years of saying it would never do so.

Only Israel is questioned by the world for building homes on its own territory. Only Israel’s leader is called by America’s Secretary of State and “reamed out for 43 minutes”. The New York Times (3/16/10) called Secretary Clinton’s comments a “harsh rebuke” to Israel. Where does our nation get off rebuking Israel? Who made us God? God didn’t. Why aren’t our leaders “reaming out” the leaders of Iran, who are daily building nuclear weapons that can be used to vaporize hundreds of thousands of human beings, maybe even Americans?

How will this all play out? Prophecy tells us that in the end times, after Israel, like a fig tree (Mark 11), is re-blossomed and re-gathered in the land, it will make peace with its enemies. America appears to be ‘hell-bent’ on forcing Israel to ‘make peace’ by giving up its land (contrary to God’s command not to do so) and by dividing Israel’s traditional capital – Jerusalem – God’s chosen city. Once the “peace” is forced on Israel the stage will be set for the Ezekiel 38/39 invasion by Russia, Iran and Libya. Thousands will die as Israel’s major friend/nation decides to look the other way, stabs Israel in the back and betrays her, contrary to our 1979 military defense agreement. May God help us then as we pay the ultimate price for our future treachery (Genesis 12:3 and Revelation 18:2).

The Daughter of Babylon/America will be destroyed, according to five Biblical writers of prophecy, when it stabs Israel in the back, leaving many in Israel to die when it is attacked by Russia (Gog), Iran (Persia) and other Muslim nations (Ezekiel 38/39). The attack will come when Israel is at peace with its neighbors. (Ezekiel 38:8 and 11). So, how close is Israel to making peace? Except for its peace with Egypt, which led to America signing an agreement to defend Israel if it’s attacked, Israel has not yet agreed to peace with those who seek to destroy it.

The prospects for an Israeli peace agreement are rapidly changing, however, behind the scenes. Vice President Biden is in Israel this week for a singular purpose. To push Israel. Under US pressure, Israel and the Palestinians are now starting a four months series of “proximity talks”, which means the parties aren’t talking directly to each other, but only indirectly through a mediator, the United States government. These “talks” are the first in several years, and only happened because the US provided the Palestinians a letter promising to “overcome…obstacles” (purportedly the Israeli government) and assuring them that “our core remains a viable, independent and sovereign Palestinian State with contiguous territory that ends the occupation that began in 1967”. The key word that helped lead the Palestinians to agree to the “talks” was the word “occupation”. The United States in the past has not referred to the land that Israel was given when it was attacked in 1967 as a land of “occupation”, though the word is frequently used by Israel’s enemies. The US promise to get the Palestinians a “State” from Israel, thus forcing Israel to give up the land that God gave to Israel (and which He told Israel not to give up), was quite an inducement.

In the midst of VP Biden’s visit, and the start of indirect talks, a major glitch developed. Israel’s Interior Ministry announced that it would approve the building of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. Ooops. PM Netanyahu denied that he knew anything about the decision, saying he was “surprised”. Probably true, as the Interior Ministry is headed by Eli Yishai, who is ultra-Orthodox, and apparently opposed to giving up the land. How did VP Biden react? Not well. He “condemned” the “timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks”. The Palestinian Authority said that the housing announcement “ended efforts to renew negotiations with Israel”. True? We can be sure of one thing – based on Biblical prophecy – Israel will eventually enter into a peace treaty with its enemies. The US government, the United Nations, the European Union, the Vatican are all publically invested in making it happen. When will it happen? Stay tuned. We need to be packed and ready to go no later than when we learn that Israel is at peace with its neighbors. (Ezekiel 38:8 and 11).

That was my frequent question to my very pregnant wife during her labor with our two youngest children. I could see the meter registering spasms of pain on her electronic fetal monitor. My questions were usually answered by “Of course I felt it!”. Similarly, the Bible describes increasing earthquakes in the end times as “labor pains” or “birth pangs”.(Mark 13:8). Do the devastating earthquakes in Haiti, and now in Chile, have any prophetic meaning? Are these earthquakes “labor pains” prior to the end of time, or just random incidents?

Jeremiah in 15:17 said “They keep saying to me, ‘Where is the word of the LORD? Let it now be fulfilled’ “ Those who don’t believe in God and His Son will raise the same questions in the end times, doubting that prophecy will ever be fulfilled. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” (II Peter 3:4). Last week’s quake in Chile actually shifted the axis of the earth, according to NASA scientists (AP, 3/9/10). The shift was only microseconds, but think of the power that it takes to move an entire planet. God was, once again, proving His omnipotence. The recent shift of the earth’s axis is just one more proof of God’s end times power and actions.

At the same time, what has been going on with Israel, the nation the treatment of which will determine the future of the world, according to scripture? For the last two years the 22 member Arab League has avoided any negotiations with Israel. The League cut off contact with Israel after it responded to rockets launched against it by invading Gaza. However, for the last few months the United States has been pressuring Israel and the members of the Arab League to resume negotiations. On Wednesday, after two years of no contact, the Arab League members voted to resume negotiations with Israel, hoping to convince Israel to give up the land Israel obtained when it was attacked in 1967. In voting for the resumption, the League affirmed that US pressure led to the change: “The American administration’s current direction for serious involvement in the peace process is a positive manner and a window of opportunity that can be built upon”, said Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallam on Egyptian state television. Other League members, according to the New York Times, said that the vote was “a reaction to the sustained United States diplomatic efforts”. (NYT, 3/3/10).

What does this tell us? First, America is exerting maximum pressure on Israel to give up its God-given land, contrary to scripture. Second, America has quite obviously convinced the members of the Arab League that the US will be able to push Israel into surrendering its land to Palestinians. Otherwise, why would the 22 Arab nations agree this week to re-start negotiations with their hated enemy? Why should we care? “Those who bless Israel will be blessed and those who curse Israel will be cursed”. (Gen. 12:3). Unfortunately, our nation is embarked upon a regular, persistent and persuasive effort to make God’s chosen nation give up the land that He said not to give up. We will certainly pay the price for doing so.

Grocery shelves empty. Electricity out. Government agencies shut down. Transportation crippled. Is this week’s east coast “Snowmageddon” also, like Haiti, a small preview of a larger catastrophe that America can expect to experience after it stabs Israel in the back and refuses to come to its defense? The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday featured a front page picture of empty shelves in the produce section of a grocery in Virginia. One commentator, upon first seeing the picture in the WSJ, said he thought it was a picture taken in Russia. Food, and the increasing lack of food, will be the major human problem encountered by the people living in the Daughter of Babylon/America once it betrays Israel.

Israel was in the news, as it usually is, all week, as the media focused on Iran’s threats that it would shock the world on February 11^th, the regime’s 31^st annual founding day. Iran, identified in the Bible as Persia, the land of the Medes – its original name – announced that it was now a “nuclear nation.” Jeremiah prophetically told us: “Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD,….” (Jeremiah 51:11). Not only will Iran invade Israel, along with Russia (Ezekiel 38 and 39), it will also be used by God to destroy the nation that betrays Israel, His chosen people. So, Iran’s announcement today, which some derided, is significant, because Iran has confirmed what many have known for some time that Iran/Persia/Land of the Medes is now in the “Nuclear Club”, and will soon be able to produce nuclear weapons. In 2007 Russia’s Vladimir Putin became the first leader of Russia to pay a state visit to Iran. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s Muslim President, met with Putin. It’s doubtful that they spent their time together discussing global warming. The Lord looked down through time to the collaboration between Russia and Iran, and inspired Ezekiel to write about what would come. Today, as Iran confirmed that they have/will have the ability to engage in nuclear war, more clues of the end times mystery came into place. We live in interesting times.

Last week Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made history by becoming the first modern day leader of Israel to claim Ezekiel 37’s promise of Israel’s return to the land. Netanyahu thus used words that no former Israeli PM had ever uttered — that God Himself had brought Israel back to their ancient land. In claiming Ezekiel 37 Netanyahu put his official stamp of approval on God’s future promise through Ezekiel that He would “bring you back to the Land of Israel” (Ezekiel 37:12) and “I will take the Israelites out of the nations where they have gone. I will gather them from all around and bring them back into their own land. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel.” (Ezekiel 37:21-22).

What is most fascinating about Netanyahu’s acknowledgment of the truth of God’s Word, confirmed by His actions, is that the events foreseen in Chapters 38 and 39 follow 37 in Ezekiel’s prophecies. The Prophet tells us that once Israel is returned to the land that it will come to a period of time in which it will “live in safety” (Ezekiel 38:9) as a “peaceful and unsuspecting people (Ezekiel 38:11).

PM Netanyahu is being pressured by the United States, Europe, the Vatican, the United Nations and his neighboring nations to agree to give up portions of the land of Israel. He has confirmed in public statements that he will do exactly that, in a “two state solution”, within the next two years. Israel will then be “at peace”, ‘living“ in safety”. It will then be attacked from the North as Ezekiel prophesied by nations which are today known as Russia (Gog) and Iran (Persia). Israel’s cry out to the Daughter of Babylon/America to keep its promise and defend it militarily will be ignored, leading to the destruction of the Daughter of Babylon/America.

In the meantime, as the arrangements are being made for Israel to give up its land (which God told Israel not to do), the United States is standing back and waiting while Iran continues to develop its nuclear capability. The US will not attack Iran, nor will it allow Israel to do so. Iran will therefore continue to build weapons of mass destruction, unlike Iraq, which only pretended to do so. How will those WMDs be used? Not on Jerusalem, due to its holy sites. Its possession, and ability to launch its nukes with ballistic missiles in the future, will be a major inducement for Israel to split up the land and sign a peace agreement. How Iran will eventually use its nuclear weapons is detailed more fully in “The End of America”. God is bringing together the precise fulfillment of His prophetic Word.

After the third person told me that in their opinion what happened in Haiti was a “preview” of America’s future, I started to pay attention. Each had read “The End of America” and discerned similarities between recent events in Haiti and prophesied future events for the Daughter of Babylon. Let’s analyze the similarities.

Earthquakes and nuclear disasters both are unexpected, instantaneous and wholly catastrophic. Hundreds of thousands can die within seconds. More then die as a result of injuries suffered in the initial disaster. Electricity, water and sanitary systems cease to function after both events. Many lose their shelter. Most lose their food supplies within hours/days. Looting and widespread violence follow as hungry people do what hungry, desperate people do. One study cited in the book estimated that up to 90% of the population of a nation hit with nuclear strikes die within one year of the attack, mainly due to the lack of food. New estimates are that over 200,000 have and will die in Haiti.

In Haiti, there was no warning in advance, of course, to flee the coming earthquake. In the Daughter of Babylon/America, though, we have been given advance prophetic warnings, nine times, by four Bible writers (Jeremiah, Isaiah, Zechariah and John). What do they say? “Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins.” (Jeremiah 51:6). In the Old Testament God warned His people in Jerusalem to flee and live in Babylon. Those who failed to obey His instructions died in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 42). As events continue to unfold, as Israel moves closer to a Peace Treaty, we need to understand and heed God’s warnings to flee. “A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.” (Proverbs 22:3)