COUNTDOWN TO ARMAGEDDON
By David Dolan
Dec. 2004
(FOJ Note: This brief expose by journalist
David Dolan on current world conditions squares with the Focus On Jerusalem
Prophecy Ministry’s expectations. Like Mr. Dolan, I too believe that the Ezekiel
38-39 scenario fits into the Armageddon scenario. And like Mr. Dolan, I also
believe that a Syrian-Hezbulloh event is the next foreboding event that will
give occasion to the rise of the Antichrist. In the meantime, America is playing
a deadly game with democratizing the Middle East (Iraq-Palestine) and
compromising the Promised Land. )
THE INGATHERING GOES ON
In my estimation, the bedrock biblical
prophecy that continues to unfold before our eyes is the constant influx of
Jewish people into their ancient Promised Land, with the largest single Jewish
community on earth now living in Israel for the first time in nearly 2,000
years. True, the number of immigrants has dropped substantially in recent years
from the record levels reached in the 1990s after the floodgates swung open in
the crumbling Soviet Union. Indeed more Russian-speaking Jews migrated from the
former Communist empire to Germany last year than to Israel, due mainly to a
more generous absorption aid package offered by Berlin. On top of this, some
Israelis continue to exit the Lord’s special land for other nations, mostly
because of the prolonged Palestinian attrition war and the resulting economic
decline. Nevertheless, many more Jews are still moving here each year than are
departing. Increasing numbers are coming from wealthy Western nations, partly in
response to escalating worldwide anti-Semitism. Although all Jews are obviously
welcomed here, better educated and wealthier ones can usually contribute to the
country’s up-building more quickly.
SYRIA
As I spelled out in my 1995 novel, The End of Days,
I expect that the next major prophesied event involving regathered Israel will
be a devastating war with Syria. Detailed in Isaiah 17, the regional and
international indications that this may be drawing very near are seemingly
multiplying every day. Various Israeli leaders have made clear in 2004 that they
are becoming increasingly alarmed over the massive buildup of Hizbullah missiles
aimed at their small country from the soil of nearby Lebanon. Syria is the main
facilitator of this escalating armed threat, providing transit from Iran for new
weapons shipments and vital political support for the radical Lebanese Shiite
militia.
Many of you will recall that I warned of the
current insurgency in Iraq before US and British forces entered the country in
March 2003. I noted how similar the situation there was to Lebanon, where I
worked as a journalist during the early 1980s. I wrote that in my estimation,
the two main destabilizing agents in Lebanon in those years, Syria and Iran,
would undoubtedly repeat their horrific terrorist sponsorship in Iraq after
Saddam was overthrown (along with his own Baathist agents). That has sadly
proved to be the case, with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Alawi now openly
fingering his two meddlesome neighbors as the main regional parties behind the
destabilizing violence rocking his country every day. Mid-east analysts agree
that after President Bush’s substantial re-election victory in early November,
the way is more open than ever for an American military response to Syria’s
insurgency sponsorship. This has been made increasingly clear in recent weeks,
with several leaders, including the President himself, warning the Assad regime
in Damascus to halt this nefarious activity or face the consequences. Many,
including myself suspect that the White House will wisely involve Israel in any
military response, which becomes almost a given in light of the heavy burden
that stretched US forces are already bearing next door in Iraq.
Already coping with an ongoing revolt in his
ruling Likud party over a perceived softening line concerning a Palestinian
state and his unilateral Gaza withdrawal plan, Ariel Sharon would probably be
glad to demonstrate that he has not really morphed into the lefty-trendy leader
that many now suggest. Nothing would show this more plainly than a major
clean-out operation against Hizbullah’s tumorous outposts along the Lebanese
border, and rear bases in the Bekaa Valley and elsewhere. This would undoubtedly
involve a direct clash with occupying Syrian forces at some point, if not
premeditated strikes on terrorist positions in and around Damascus (where Hamas
and other radical Palestinian groups also have offices).
Would such a conflict
fulfill Isaiah 17, which seems to foretell an end-time Syrian-Israeli clash that
ends with the complete destruction of the Syrian capital city? Not necessarily,
but it certainly has every potential to do so. As they say in my business, stay
tuned…
IRAN
What about Israel and America’s other main
regional antagonist, Iran? Will President Bush and Prime Minister Sharon join
forces as well in destroying the Shiite regime’s nuclear weapons program? I
doubt it very much. Along with Israeli military experts like Likud politician
Yuval Steinitz, I have pointed out to some of my recent international audiences
that taking on Iran would hardly be comparable to Israel’s daring 1981 air
strike that easily destroyed Saddam’s French-built nuclear reactor. For one
thing, the Iranian mullah’s rule a country that is far more heavily armed and
significantly larger in both population and landmass than Iraq, not to mention
further away from Israel.
The United States, with possible assistance
from Great Britain and Israel, would be in a better position to lead such an
operation against Iran’s widely scattered nuclear facilities. Will they do this?
Again, I doubt it. As difficult as it is to write the next words, I think it is
much more likely that my homeland will suffer a non-conventional Al Qaida attack
sooner than later, designed to trigger immediate economic chaos and a subsequent
US military retrenchment around the globe.
As stated above, I suspect that Iran’s proxy force in
southern Lebanon will be destroyed in the coming months or years, either by
Israel acting alone or in conjunction with America (with quiet support from
France!). But I also think it likely that the fundamentalist Shiite regime will
remain in power and continue to build doomsday weapons, which may be deployed in
the Gog and Magog invasion of “restored Israel” prophesied in Ezekiel, chapters
38 and 39. Persia, the ancient name for the area where modern Iran sits today,
is said to be a major player in that “last days” (38:16) invasion, originating
in the “remote parts of the north” (15) and led by the notorious “Gog, prince of
Rosh, Meshech and Tubal” (38:3).
RUSSIA
I see no reason to abandon my long held assumption,
postulated by many others before me of course that “Gog” will turn out to be
none other than Russia. Located over one thousand miles due north of Jerusalem,
Moscow continues to recover from its humiliating loss of superpower status in
the early 1990s. The man leading the forward charge is Vladimir Putin, who is
worrying Western leaders every day with growing evidence of his Kremlin
heyday-like machinations. The latest is the reputed poisoning by KGB-related
agents of pro-Western Ukrainian presidential candidate Victor Yanukovych,
leaving the politician looking like a literal ghost from the awful Soviet past.
Unlike many of my Bible prophecy-dissecting
cohorts, I do not expect a Russian-led invasion to be the next major event on
the Lord’s pre-recorded prophetic calendar. I think the textual evidence in
Ezekiel 39 and Revelation 16 strongly suggests that the northern-led invasion,
involving Iran and other Mideast
powers listed in Ezekiel 38, will instead occur at the end of the 48 month reign
of the Antichrist world ruler (Rev 13-14). This would be around the time of the
final battle of Armageddon, and possibly spark it off
Speaking of Antichrist, when will the
long-anticipated Antichrist appear, and from exactly where? Although I have some
pet theories that I’ve elaborated on in another of my books, Israel in Crisis,
no one on earth can say for sure before he openly arrives on the scene. But
indications are mushrooming that his appearance is not far off, given the
dramatic developments here in the Middle East and elsewhere following the
unprecedented 2001 terror attacks in New York and Washington. Personally I
suspect he might jump onto the world stage in the wake of the Syria-Israel clash
noted above, which may immediately precede or follow an even more devastating
Islamic terror assault upon America.
COUNTDOWN TO ARMAGEDDON
One other parting prophetic pearl: The
Jewish prophet Daniel foretold that the final world ruler mentioned above would
come out of the successor empire to Persia, Babylon and Greece, the ancient
Roman Empire, which had not yet even appeared in his day. Its modern incarnation
is apparently the burgeoning European Union, which from May 1st of
this year has stretched from Portugal and Ireland in the west to Estonia and
Cyprus in the east. With the Greek portion of Cyprus included in the May
expansion, the EU now almost literally borders Israel. More significantly, the
Israeli government recently approved an EU “Action Plan” that will make Israel a
part of a select few satellite states designated as special partners of the
expanding union. The “European Neighborhood Policy” was endorsed by the cabinet
on December 12th. When fully implemented, it will insure that Israel
and several other countries located around the EU will have “full and free
access to goods, services, people and capital” inside the 25 nation union. It
will therefore further tie modern Israel to its largest trading partner,
possibly as relations with the United States decline as a result of domestic
American conditions.