Update: September 25, 2009

What Bible Prophecy Teaches about God

In my book detailing events leading up to the return of Christ, I stress the sovereignty of God, meaning God is in control of all things. I do so because that is a clear lesson from Bible prophecy.

For example, one of the Bible books that tells us the most about prophetic events leading up to, and including, the return of Christ is the book of Daniel which announces that God “removes kings and raises up kings” (Daniel 2:21). This means that God is fully in control of who attains authority, and when God’s timing for a person’s authority is over, God removes that person from that authority; or, as Jesus stated, one “could have no power at all . . . unless it had been given . . . from above” (John 19:11). Or, as John the Baptist proclaimed, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven” (John 3:27). No one can attain power of any kind unless God has ordained for that one to be in power. In addition, God not only appoints the what (such as power and authority but also the when (see Acts 17:26). He is in full control of the political, economic, etc. events occurring both now and in the future.

Another lesson gained from studying Bible prophecy is that God couples His sovereignty with His love for us. What He directs and allows, He does so out of love—love for the world and love for us. He has always had our best at heart. After all, since He did not withhold even His own Son, but sent Him to die for us (Rom. 8:32; also John 3:16), how will He not have our best at heart in all things?

So what does this mean for us? It means that we can trust God in our present circumstances as well as in the future. He has committed Himself to provide for our needs as we seek Him (Matthew 6:33), so no matter what the future may look like, we can rest in His control and in His love for us.

A New Website

I want to thank John Goodding at 289 Design (www.289design.com) for his great work on my website. It is now available! Check it out at www.2012apocalypsebook.com. The video at the site was taped by John and is also being shown on You Tube. In addition, John and I plan to tape more five-minute segments from the book, and when we do, we will post them at the website.

Many to Thank

I have many people to thank for getting to this point in the publishing / promotional process of my book. I have mentioned a couple of people in my updates, but there are many of you who receive these updates that I want to thank. (I feel I owe so much to so many!) Thank you for your prayer (without which I could accomplish very little), for your promotion of this update, for your support (i.e., in pre-purchasing copies of my book), etc. I feel that we are all in this together, and I believe God will use your efforts to advance His kingdom work of helping people prepare for the return of Christ.

Now let’s get to what has been happening this past week.

Focus on Iran

It seems that the number of articles on Iran closing in on nuclear capability increases week by week. For example, a Washington Post article reports that an Iranian exile group, which has passed on information to the U.S. about Iran’s developing nuclear program, claimed that Iran is now working on nuclear bomb detonators at two sites previously unknown by the U.S. (see Detonators).

A Washington Times article focused on Iran’s deception to buy more time in order to develop nuclear weaponry (see Deception). The article maintains that Iran’s apparent willingness to entertain talking with the U.S. is nothing more than more deception to further the nuclear program.

The U.S. Department of Defense published a transcript of Secretary Gates revealing that the Iranian missile threat has been advancing more rapidly than the defense department was aware (see Iran Missiles). (Also see the interview with White House Security Advisor James Jones at Jones' Assessment.) This causes one to wonder that if the U.S. intelligence on the Iranian missile program has not been accurate, then how accurate is the U.S. intelligence on how long until Iran is at a point of no return in its race toward nuclear capability? Perhaps Israel’s intelligence (which I have stated in past updates puts this point at the end of this year) is more accurate? (However, a Las Angeles Times article this week claims Israel may think it has more time than that as the writer states that Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu may give until next summer or early fall for negotiations and sanctions (see below) to take effect—see More Time.)

The U.S. Plan to Handle the Iran Nuclear Threat

As I have stated in the past, the Obama administration plan is to sit down with Iran to discuss the issue. However, as I pointed out in the last update, the September 15 deadline for Iran to come to the table has come and gone.

The next step would be sanctions, but there are two basic problems with that approach. First, the U.S. allies are not in complete agreement on the sanctions or their timed delivery (for example, French President Sarkozy does not want to employ sanctions until the end of December to give more time for “talks” with Iran).

But the much larger problem is that Russia and China not only refuse to go along with sanctions against Iran, but they are also undermining their possibility (see China; also see the Washington Times article Deception cited above). For example, one possible part of sanctions that has been discussed is to work with other nations to refuse to ship gasoline to Iran (which, in spite of all of its oil, does not have the capability to make gasoline in quantities for its national interests or to take care of the needs of its citizens); however, both China and Russia have gladly been selling Iran all of the gasoline it wants, and the two nations have refused to stop this practice.

The U.S. has also announced its plan to scrap the missile defense shield in Eastern Europe and, instead, employ a smaller version in Israel (see Missile Defense). In fact, the Jerusalem Post reported that ships from the U.S. began arriving at Israel Sunday for a planned missile defense drill with Israel next month (see Missile Drill).

In summary, the U.S. is willing to talk with Iran. What is the recourse if those talks do not materialize into any meaningful results (which are highly doubtful)? Well, the plan is to employ sanctions; however, Russia and China will not cooperate, rendering the sanction plan null and void. So the U.S. scraps the plan to employ a missile defense system in Eastern Europe (did that have anything to do with Russia not wanting it in its former satellite countries?), but is planning to set up a smaller one in Israel. How long will that take? Estimates are to have it employed by 2015, but you know how estimates go. Meanwhile, what is Israel to do for the next five years while Iran has nukes? Hmmmm. How about pray? Actually, Israel has another plan as indicated in this week’s articles.

How Soon Will Israel Attack Iran?

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi warned Iran that Israel will defend itself against any attack, but, in the same article, Israeli President Shimon Peres is quoted as saying “we have not taken any Israel will not take any tact off the table (see Israel Defense). The Washington Institute issued a veiled threat of an Israeli attack upon Iran when it stated in a bulletin: “When confronted with emerging proliferation threats, countries at risk may see no real option other than to respond unilaterally, as Israel did in the case of Syria.” (See Veiled Threat.) However, in a Jerusalem Post article, former Israeli deputy defense minister, Ephraim Sneh, was not as veiled when he was quoted as stating that Israel may need to attack Iran by December (see December Attack—so much for the L.A. Times assessment of waiting until late next year!). A Reuters article this week (see Decision Point) indicates that Israel may be at a decision point right now regarding attacking Iran, since intelligence claims that Iran may already have enough raw material for one nuclear weapon. (A New York Times article indicates that Iran understands Israel may soon attack as Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadenijad warned that no one would dare attack Iran now—see Iran Warning.)

To sum it up, Professor Efraim Inbar, Head of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University, stated this week: “The economic sanctions that are being placed on Iran do not work: economic pressure will not stop them. The only way is military action and if Israel carries out the military operation the entire world will breathe a sigh of relief.” (See Sigh of Relief.)

What Will Happen If Israel Attacks Iran?

In a CNN interview with Wolf Blitzer this week, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu stated that the Iranian people detest its government and that the regime is susceptible to “pressure” (see Unpopular Regime). Though the Prime Minister may have been referring to what tough sanctions might do to the Iranian government, it is not difficult to read into this that if Israel attacked Iran, its government may be overthrown. (This same claim was made by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman this week. See Ripe for Overthrow.) As I have stated in the past, if this occurs, other terrorist groups could fall (see one Iranian terroristic connection, for example, this week’s article entitled, “The Chavez-Iran Alliance: A Menace to the Western Hemisphere” at Menace) and conditions could be ripe for two significant results as prophesied in the Bible: 1) the world proclaiming “peace and security”; and 2) ten nations working with Israel to accomplish a seven-year peace treaty which, when it goes into effect, will begin the seven-year tribulation period.

U.S.-Israel Relations

I have addressed the worsening U.S.-Israel relationship in past updates and have indicated that I believe that God could use U.S. politics in this area to move the U.S. out of the Biblical, prophetic picture with Israel. There seemed to be a couple of examples of this worsening political relationship in the news this week. First, a Wall Street Journal article claimed that President Obama is pushing Israel to war with Iran by his handling of the situation (see Pushing Israel).

Second, the President’s U.N. speech did him no favors with Israel when he called for Israel to end its occupation of land gained by the Six-Day War (in 1967) and when he stated that the U.S. must put more pressure on Israel to meet Arab demands (see Occupation; also see U.N. Speech). In response, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, claimed that with that speech, the President put Israel on “the chopping block”.

Based on God’s announcement to Abraham and his descendants (Israel) in Genesis 12:3, it does not seem to be a good idea to treat Israel in this way. Based on that promise and warning by “God, there may very well be repercussions for this approach that will take the U.S. out of the prophetic picture. (Could one of those repercussions involve U.S. economics? See U.S. Credit which reveals that the U.S. credit at a Great Depression rate fueling fears of a double-dip recession.)

Peace Treaty

I have stated in past updates that the peace treaty Israel will sign will be one—not between Israel and the Palestinians—but one between Israel and ten other nations (five from the Western half of the old Roman Empire and five from the Eastern portion). This week, several articles surfaced which shows that no matter how hard the Obama administration tries to get a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, it will not happen. This is due to: the lack of ability and authority of the Palestinian leaders to make it happen; the pressure by Hamas to keep any peace deal with the Palestinians from happening; the complete lack of support for this treaty from the Arab nations (unless Israel withdraws from “occupied” land and then, maybe!); and the hypocrisy of the U.S. in its dealing with Israel on this. (See No Hope; Palestinian Leader; Arab View; and U.S. Hypocrisy.)

Winning Cover Design

I will conclude this update by thanking all of you who voted for a cover design for my book. To see this cover, go to my website at www.2012apocalypsebook.com. Thank you for your help!

Keep looking up!

John