Friday, September 18, 2009

Iran in the news (again)

Just this morning we see more news relating to Iran and their leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

According to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran is currently able to build a nuclear bomb.
In an article reported by Israel National News, "IAEA:All Iran Needs Now is a Delivery System", we can see where Glyn Davies, the U.S. envoy to the IAEA confirmed long-time Israeli intelligence reports that Iran is close to the ability to produce a nuclear bomb.

After making the case that Iran is progressing towards a delivery system for their nuclear weapons, the article closes with these words:

"Israel, meanwhile, remains committed to its position on Iran regardless of any international political machinations. In an interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu repeated his familiar formula that Iran must not be allowed to get its hands on nuclear weapons. He provided no further details regarding Israel's plans to prevent that eventuality. "

Meanwhile, we see an article in the Jerusalem Post also confirming this IAEA finding, article here
plus some additional information. This article includes the new information regarding President Obama's decision not to install an Eastern European missile defense shield. Caving to pressure from Russia, the U.S. is hoping that Russia will now vote to impose sanctions on Iran until they abandon their nuclear plans.

Lets be honest and politically incorrect for a second.

Russia is building the nuclear facilities for Iran. They have a massive amount of money and resources engaged in this project. Without Russia, Iran would have made no progress at all, as they are completely dependent upon Russia for this technology. They have military and economic ties to Iran. It seems clear, even to the casual observer that the U.S. is being "played" here, as Iran will never abandon their nuclear plans, and Russia will never seriously attempt to derail their plans. In fact, more "negotiations" or "talks" will play directly into Russian-Iranian plans, as any such discussions will simply buy more time for Iran to achieve their goals of nuclear weapons with a missile delivery system.

Its hard for a secular U.S. to understand the deep, radically religious Islamic view that Ahmadinejad holds towards Israel and the U.S. - he is not thinking in secular, "worldly" terms. He is thinking only of hastening the coming of the Islamic messiah, the Mahdi. This requires ongoing war between Iran and Israel. Normal negotiations are irrelevant in this scenario.

The reason many prophecy watchers follow this story SO closely is simple. We are watching the events which ultimately lead to the Gog-MaGog invasion described in Ezekiel 38-39. The reason this is so significant, is because God will reveal Himself to the world, as he supernaturally thwarts the invasion, and His intervention will be obvious to the entire world.

As mentioned before, I personally do not believe the Church will be here to witness this. My basis for this is strictly opinion and is not scripture based. However, by looking at bible history, we can see that such actions by God have never occurred during the church age - but such actions did occur in Old Testament times, as God dealt directly with Israel. In other words, the way that the world will be following the Rapture of the Church.

Either way, this event will be enormously large. Imagine seeing the hand of God directly intervening on earth, in a way that is clearly God, and not confused with "natural events" or other mechanisms. If we ARE here to witness these events, then we will also see a world which has seen God's hand directly. Thats also pretty epic in nature.

The clock is ticking on this situation. God is watching and waiting for His perfect moment to intervene. How obvious will this intervention be?

"This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign Lord. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence." (Ezekiel 38:18-20).

"And so I will show my greatness and my holiness in the sight of many nations. They will know that I am the Lord." (Ezekiel 38:23)

"I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay upon them."
(Ezekiel 39:21).

Perhaps more importantly, we see this scripture:

"I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the Lord am the Holy One in Israel. IT IS COMING! IT WILL SURELY TAKE PLACE, declares the Sovereign Lord. This is the day I have spoken of." (emphasis mine, Ezekiel 39:7-8).

There should be no doubt that these events are coming. God said so. Just see the scriptures above. We are seeing the stage being set for these events. Every day we move closer and closer to the invasion of Gog-MaGog, and the subsequent dramatic revealing of God's hand.

It doesn't get any bigger than that. Well, perhaps it does. The Rapture of the Church will be a pretty big event too.

Keep watching, as Bible prophecy states, our redemption is drawing near!

No comments: