Israel’s Last Battle in the Last Days

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Israel and Prophecy

Gog against God: an Exposition and Study of Ezekiel 38-39

For, lo, thine enemies [O God] make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people [Israel], and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
Emphasis added, Psalm 83:2-4, KJV.

Introduction
The planet is in crises—political, military, economical, ecological, societal, spiritual, and more. According to news reports, crises seem to be popping-up all over the planet, especially in the volatile Middle East where, despite multiple attempts of western governments to bring peace to that region, the conflict between Israel, the Palestinian State and militant Islam defies solution. ISIS (Islamic State of Iran and Syria) now wages war to establish an Islamic Caliphate, and Iraq continues its quest, with the approval of western nations, to develop nuclear weaponry. If successful, Iran’s possession of this weaponry will further destabilize that volatile region of the world. [1]

Russia and Iran
With Iran closing in on becoming a nuclear power, the question becomes whether for the sake of national survival Israel will tolerate an enemy nation like Iran possessing a weapon to blast Jerusalem and its environs into extinction. If Israel decides to attack Iran’s developing nuclear installations, there is no telling how interested and surrounding  nations or Islamic terrorist groups will react (i.e., Russia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, ISIS, etc.). In an attempt to protect its economic interests in that area of the world, will Russia in alliance with Shiite Arab nations it supports, lead an invasion of the Holy Land?

Based upon Vladimir Putin’s seizure of Crimea, his continuing agitation in eastern Ukraine, and the Kremlin’s support of the militant Islamic Shiite Resistance Alliance (i.e., Assad’s Syria, Iran and Hezbollah in Palestine), one observer thinks Russia’s real geo-political agenda is southward and involves establishing its hegemony in the Middle East. [2] With its economy in shambles for reason of western economic sanctions against her, Russia has her eye upon the Middle East’s wealth. To get cash for his strapped economy, Putin recently sold Iran sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air missiles that could make Iran invulnerable to an air attack by Israel or other nations. [3] Despite the U.S. State Department’s  lame protest, and B.B. Netanyahu’s warning that the sale “could further undermine the stability of the Middle East,” the deal between Russia and Iran was signed. [4] So as Iran develops a nuclear bomb, it awaits delivery of a defensive weapons system that will make its nuclear development facilities invulnerable to attack by air.

Crazy Diplomacy
For many years economic sanctions have been levied against Iran by western nations. Though suffering from these sanctions, Iran continued to export and support terrorism in the Middle East. In 2010, Putin withdrew his offer to sell Iran the S-300 missiles. Now five years later, western nations, following the lead of the Obama administration and Secretary of State John Kerry, have brokered a treaty with Iran, an agreement which lifts economic sanctions and pours billions of dollars into Iran’s economy. Because of Iran’s sudden new found wealth, Russia, economic woes outstanding, seized the opportunity to reinitiate the deal with Iran to purchase the sophisticated air-defense missile system by which to defend itself against any air attack Israel might launch. The treaty also allows Iran to obtain nuclear weaponry in the future. And for all this, there’s talk of giving John Kerry a Nobel Peace Prize! Is this not crazy diplomacy? Yet all of this appears to be coming down as the biblical prophets predicted 1000s of years ago.

Millennia ago, ancient Hebrew prophets predicted the geo-political alignment of nations that can be observed today. In the “later days” Ezekiel saw that to Israel’s north, east and south, perennial enemies would unite to invade the Jewish state, plunder her wealth and attempt to drive her re-gathered people from the land.
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Desolations Are Determined

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Israel and Prophecy

On the possibility of peace for the Middle East.

Even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.” Daniel 9:26b, NASB

Along with other Middle East terrorist groups like Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas remains dedicated to Israel’s extermination as a nation. Hamas, a reporter noted, has a “leadership unyielding, determined and increasingly confident of achieving their goal: the eradication of Israel as a Jewish state.” [1] Terrorist groups want “no” negotiations with Israel and will not be satisfied until all Israeli settlements are dismantled and four million displaced Palestinians, living in surrounding nations like Jordan, are granted a full right of return. After that, says one Hamas leader, “Jews could remain, living ‘in an Islamic state with Islamic law’.” [2]

As much as many in the West might want to pretend it isn’t happening, a Holy War is raging in the Middle East, a war that threatens the availability of oil and as a result, the stability of western economies which are dependent upon that oil. Fronted to be democratic revolutions of the people, Islamic extremists are using these political and military crises to enhance their influence in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and to a lesser degree, Jordan. Maybe Saudi Arabia is next, and who knows where the current crisis in Syria will lead?

With the storming of US Embassies in Egypt and Libya, and the killing of our Ambassador to Libya and three other embassy workers a few days ago, we now know what the overthrow of  governments in the name of “democracy” will bring to that region of the world. In every crisis exists an opportunity, and the political revolutions taking place are the bad fruit of an Islamofacist conspiracy which has viewed most Arab regimes to have been too western in their orientation and hence, too tolerant of Israel’s existence as a nation. But our interest in the Middle East, along with that of our European allies, is motivated by the fear of how an interruption, or even cutoff, of the oil supply might impact western economies which are so dependent on it.
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The Coming Middle East Trifecta

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Israel and Prophecy

Egypt in Crisis: A Prophetic Perspective

In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord near its border. And it will become a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the Lord because of oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Champion, and He will deliver them. Thus the Lord will make Himself known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day.” (Isaiah 19:19-21a, NASB)

Egypt in the Present
Egypt is in the news. Mass public demonstrations against Hosni Mubarak’s régime have turned violent as demonstrators, the majority of whom are against the current government, a minority of whom are for it, throw rocks and Molotov cocktails at each other. Mubarak has offered to step down in September after an orderly transition, but the demonstrating mobs want him out now. Sniper fire has also been heard from rooftops over Liberation Square (Tahrir) in Cairo, Egypt’s capitol city. A few persons may have been killed; all of which is to say, the political situation in Egypt, a country formerly aligned with the United States and tolerant of Israel’s existence, has turned dicey. Nobody, not even the expert talking heads on network newscasts, dare to forecast where this anarchical mess might lead. So far, the Egyptian military, having been trained in the West and carrying some western values, has remained neutral. How long it will remain so is unknown. But why, it might be asked, is all this happening?


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Is Christianity Anti-Semitic?

by Pastor Larry DeBruyn for Israel and Prophecy

For, behold, Thine enemies make an uproar; And those who hate Thee have exalted themselves. They make shrewd plans against Thy people, And conspire together against Thy treasured ones. They have said, ‘Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation, That the name of Israel be remembered no more’.” (Psalm 83:2-4, NASB). 

In the over half-century since the conclusion of World War II, there has resided in the Jewish community a tendency to blame Christianity for the rise of Nazism and the unspeakable evil that befell the Jewish people during the tyrannical reign of, and the Holocaust conducted by, the Third Reich. The senior inter-religious advisor at the American Jewish Committee, Rabbi James Rudin once expressed this conviction: ”Christianity and Christian teachings over the centuries created the seedbed for Nazism to grow in.” [1] Wrongly, I believe, some historians assign blame for the rise of modern European anti-Semitism to Martin Luther. [2] Lately however, such linkage is being questioned.


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