Israel The Hated Nation

Israel- The Hated Nation.

The end times are coming. Already a beautiful pastel of colors is being splashed across the world canvas to describe in vivid detail that which is appearing with the famed four horsemen. Iran swears on the destruction of Israel; their leader is only waiting for the appearance of the 12th Iman to signal its destruction. Meanwhile the “civilized” (yes, Iran, I do mean the slur) world (yes world I do mean the quotes) is appalled at Israel’s inappropriate response. I even read one commentator (a US birdbrain) who suggested that Israel contrived the whole situation, that they are using the two soldiers who were taken from Israeli soil as an excuse to bomb Lebanon. This birdbrain evidently is incapable of factoring in the thousands of bombs landing on Israel, driving many millions to leave their homes and their businesses to live for weeks in bomb shelters.
Why is it that the world does not understand that Moslems are being driven in their hatred not by themselves, but by another? This "other" defies all reasoning and peace proposals; only left are summurizations of destruction. I wish we were better than this, yet we are not.
It is precisely this other that has yet to be identified. Is it the 12th Iman? Or is it some future pope- which a Christian I have intermittent contact with suggests, and it has been suggested (by Protestants only obviously) for centuries? Much speculation has gone into the identity of this man, and all I can say is that the Bible promises that he will be revealed in due time.
Currently the US support of Israel is anemic at best. Bush and all of his zealous support for Israel is being derided by nearly half the country. This past week there were even attempts by some to oust Condi Rice by trying to pretend she was not in tune with what the administration. I do not think it worked but it is perhaps only a matter of time.
If there is one place that I do not support Bush it is in the Iraq war. I simply believe that over a long period of time people get the government that they deserve. The Iraqi people have been here for thousands of years; their government has not evolved beyond the basic bestial dictator model. Why? To me the answer is obvious: the people are so factionous that they cannot survive under any other model of government. Bush is attempting to bring democracy to this people and while I laud his attempts to do so, it seems to me that he so obviously is shortchanging our founders, namely Jefferson, Adams, and Monroe (both Christians and non Christians). It took thousands of years of thinking and reasoning for us to get to the point of responsibly handling democracy, even with this great slate of leaders we had. Even today, the D'Toqueville ascription of the great experiment still exists; we may well self ignite and destroy ourselves- such is the abomination of democracy (for further info ask France, who had everything and voted it away).
May I add one point? I do hope fervently that my analysis is wrong and that Bush is right. He certainly has a great goal- but one I do fear is doomed to failure. It does relate to my twenty year problem with neocons, but there are many other things about Bush that I do admire.
There is a ten nation confederation governing the world; it is not the ten nation confederation of Europe much ballyhooed by Lindsey and others in the seventies. It is instead the ten nation confederacy (the same confederacy I thought in the seventies to be much more likely to hold economic power- boy, did the Late Great Planet Earth miss that one!) holding virtually all the oil pools of the world (the US has much more oil, but it also has wacko environmentalists who have stopped its development these past thirty years).This is the same ten nation confederacy prophesied about in Daniel. May I point out that this confederacy has already blackmailed both France and Germany to its cause, to the embarrassment of its leaders?
All this has been foretold beforehand. It will become apparent as time unfolds. What exciting times to live in! To think that I may live to see the changing of the ages, the coming of our Christ.
Nevertheless, it needs to be said plainly that there is a coming time when those in the world will all appear to be against Israel. Iran will march against Israel, the tiny nation the size of greater Sacramento, and will send something towards Judea that should call all to flee. At that time Judea better look out; moreover the world better look for the coming of the Son. I suggest the skeptical do a reading of Jeremiah, particularly the 50th and the 51st chapter (please do read Jeremiah 51: 24).
Finally, it needs to be said that when I became a Christian in 1972, I was warned by a prescient godly man to watch Iraq and Iran. Why is it that 35 years later the world is watching Iraq and Iran?
Great explanation of Isreal by Charles Krauthammer here.

The End Times?

I have waited since the age of 19 for these days! My coming to a knowledge of Christ took place under very dramatic circumstances (for me). I was about as agnostic as one could be; trained hard in biological theories, and so skeptical. I remember questioning so many people who went to church, asking them to defend their beliefs, most of whom admitted to a weak stupid sort of faith. However, two people, Mike and my future wife, talked to me, not about salvation, but rather about the end times. They talked to me at a college cafeteria table about Daniel and Revelation, telling me that the Bible spoke specifically about the “Last Days” before the coming of their Christ. I was so interested that I went home, found an old (and unread) Bible and proceeded to read The Revelation.
I at 53 remain the only person I know to have received Christ on the basis of having read The Revelation. I found it absolutely filled with stuff I did not understand (neither did my prof understand it later in Bible college), but it was filled with stuff that seemed to prick my spirit. But after reading it, I prayed perhaps for the first time as an adult that God, if He were real, would reveal Himself to me, and implicit in that prayer was the knowledge that I must follow Him if He were real.
Some thirty three years later I find my life so different than what I might have thought. But my purpose in saying this is that there was a special revelation among a very few revelations that I received in those first days. I know this is a personal anecdote, and as always, people should remain skeptical of it unless it is confirmed from outside sources. But I was so excited about the times that were coming upon us, and I queried the Lord as to when this may be, sure in my own mind that it was going to be the next month or the next year. The year was 1972. Instead what I got was a specific dream in which I saw myself as an “old man” seeing the coming of Christ. Needless to say for a young man to receive this kind of dream was sort of dismaying. God is coming, but how much better for a young man if it were right now? Young men do not wait well. Nevertheless my dream was that as an old man I would see the coming of Christ. I am now 53. Is that old? Replacing my father’s roof (I did this 20 years ago) certainly makes me feel old. My ankles and my back tell me I am not young anymore.
But what do world events tell us? Iran and Syria are launching a war against Israel. They both want the total destruction of Israel because of their religion. Israel is yet again in the fight for their very existence. Will they win again? Or is this the time prophesied from long ago:
When you see the abomination that causes desolation standing where it does not belong—let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that this will not take place in winter, because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again. If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them.
Mark 13: 14-20

Sometime soon this is happening. Those in Judea who will heed will run. Is this day upon us in this time, or five years from now? I am not at all sure as I have no particular vision into the future, but I am sure that I am getting older.

When you see the abomination that causes desolation standing where it does not belong—let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down or enter the house to take anything out. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that this will not take place in winter, because those will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning, when God created the world, until now—and never to be equaled again. If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive. But for the sake of the elect, whom he has chosen, he has shortened them.
Mark 13: 14-20

I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.
Mark 13:30

That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
2 Peter 3:12

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/07/the_war_comes_to_us.html
The War Comes to Us, by Robert Tracinski

Israel's Existence at Stake, by Charles Krauthammer
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/07/israels_existence_at_stake.html

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/07/a_tricky_battlefield_for_israe.html
A Tricky Battlefield for Israel and America
By David Ignatius

http://www.saneworks.us/Is-the-War-Against-Terror-Rational-article-131-1.htm
Is the War Against Terror Rational?
By Dick Morris

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/442luknw.asp?pg=2
The Rogues Strike Back Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hezbollah vs. Israel. by Robert Satloff
Excited about End Times!