2012 Alerts: December 18, 2009
In This Issue:
Peace Treaty
Toward a One-World Currency
U.S. Financials
Israel-U.S. Relations
Iran: The Clock Continues to Tick
The State of the Church
Update on the pocalypse 2012
Peace Treaty
As I have brought out in past “2012 Alerts,” Israel’s final peace treaty will be a seven-year treaty with ten other nations; it will not be one made with the Palestinians. Each week we have seen evidence that there will be no treaty between Israel and the Palestinians, and this week has been no exception to that. Even after Israel made more concessions to the Palestinians within the past two weeks (including agreeing to stop any settlement construction), Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas declared there will be no peace talks with Israel unless Israel first agrees to give up all of the land it acquired in the 1967 Six-Day War. In response to Abbas’ declaration, the Jerusalem Post quoted one Israeli official as responding, "Whatever we do is not enough."
While Israel has made concession after concession, the Palestinians still refuse to make peace with a Jewish state. There is more than one reason for this, but certainly one reason Abbas refuse to advance the peace process with Israel is because he does not have the authority to speak for all of the Palestinians. At least a third of the Palestinians (if not more) are controlled by Hamas, and just this week, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh announced that gaining the Gaza strip was just one step toward acquiring "all of Palestine," meaning the land on which Israel sits. Therefore, the ultimate solution for those Palestinians is not a Palestinian state but the elimination of Israel.
So one reason why Abbas refuses to advance the peace process with Israel is because he does not really have the authority to do so. But we also know another reason why he cannot; it is not in God’s plan to do so. (To see out of harmony Abbas is with God’s plan as laid out in the Bible, an article published today quotes Abbas as declaring that Jerusalem belongs to the Palestinians. This flies in the face of God’s declaration that Jerusalem is His holy city and belongs to Israel.)
Toward a One-World Currency
The book of Revelation predicts that the world economy will eventually be controlled by one man (see the end of chapter 13). This will be much easier to facilitate this one-world economy with a unitarian currency, and there are signals that the world is working toward that goal. For example, just this week, the Global Times reported that the creation of a regional currency in Latin America has taken shape with nine Latin American and Caribbean countries participating in the use of the sucre as the standard currency. Of course, a number of years ago, the Europeans adopted the euro as their common currency as a modern starting point of commonality related to currency. Just this week, Kuwait’s finance minister announced that the Gulf Union Monetary Pact has come into effect, giving the Gulf States their own common currency, displacing the U.S. dollar as the pricing currency for oil contracts. In addition, discussions have taken place within the IMF (International Monetary Fund) regarding a one-world currency. It seems the world may be ripe for that to take place and may be evolving toward it, with its interest buttressed by the recent financial crisis. Could God be using this stirring toward a unitarian currency to provide one more signal we may be close to prophetic fulfillment? We’ll see.
U.S. Financials
I have indicated in past “Alerts” that God may use the United States’ financial crisis as one tool to move the U.S. from center stage in the prophetic theater. Biblically, Israel is at the center of God’s prophetic plan; and in past years, the U.S. has been at the right hand of Israel. But, as the great philosopher (?), Bob Dylan, wrote: “The times they are a-changin’.”
I do not see the U.S. mentioned in prophecy, but I do see ten other nations—all of which reside within the borders of the old Roman Empire—which will step forward to confirm a seven-year treaty with Israel. It may seem amazing to many that the U.S., which, over the years, has been such a good friend to Israel, might step away from Israel in some way—or, at the very least, hand over the confirmation of a peace treaty to ten other countries. But “the times they are a-changin,’” particularly in regard to our nation’s political handling of Israel which has produced an all-time low favorability rating for this administration among Israelis. (A recent poll indicated that only 6% of Israelis believe the Obama administration is a true friend of Israel.)
The U.S. financial condition could also be an impetus for the U.S. to hand over the peace process to others, as the nation focuses on its own internal struggles. This week, CBS News reported that the U.S. debt now exceeds the statutory debt limit imposed by Congress last February. According to the report, a senior Treasury official told CBS News that the department has some “extraordinary accounting tools” it can use to give the government breathing room in the range of $150-billion when the Debt exceeds the Debt Ceiling, and were it not for the use of those “tools,” the U.S. would not be allowed to borrow any more money! (That doesn’t sound good to me!)
More bad news this week was predicted by a financial management office which predicted that the U.S. economy will go into a relapse, spurred on by option ARM’s (adjustable rate mortgage) resets and foreclosures. Sub-prime loans, which were accompanied by ARM’s, were blamed as a contributor to the economic tailspin our country went into in 2007 and 2008. It seems the problem was never really solved, and the prediction is that by 2012, these new ARM’s, giving borrowers the option of how much they want to pay within the first five to ten years will hit full force with more re-sets (resetting the interest rate on them, making homes more expensive than they are worth) followed by another massive set of foreclosures. According to this prediction, the bubble is about to burst, and if it does, the economic outlook for the U.S. will not be pretty.
U.S.-Israel Relations
As Hizbullah increases its hold over the Lebanon government and continues to gather weapons in preparation for another attack on Israel, this week President Obama told Israel to honor the U.N. declarations. He was referring to allowing the U.N. military outfit in Lebanon to disarm Hizbullah. In other words, he was telling Israel, “Lay off Hizbullah.” The problem is that UNIFIL (the UN military unit in Lebanon) has given up on trying to keep Hizbullah from accumulating weapons in preparation to attack Israel. Thus, the President has effectively ordered Israel to stand by while its enemy on its northern border gets ready for war. For some strange reason, this does not seem to help U.S.-Israel relations.
One problem with the U.S. not working for Israel’s best interest was expressed in Genesis 12:3 when God announced to Abraham that those who bless Israel (Abraham’s descendants) will be blessed, but the one who “curses” (comes against) Israel will be cursed. This has proved out historically as one nation after another has suffered consequences for coming against Israel.
(This can even be seen in this country’s recent history in that since President Truman, presidents who have been friends of Israel have been two-term presidents, while presidents who have not been friends of Israel have served only one term. In addition, it is interesting to note that at the time the elder President Bush was conducting the Madrid Conference to push Israel to give away land that his Kennebunkport home was hit by a hurricane; while President Clinton was convening the Oslo Accords to push Israel into giving away land to the Palestinians, the Monica Lewinsky scandal hit the press; and while the administration of the younger President Bush was pushing Israel to give up much of the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem, his public approval rating took a nosedive.)
Could it be that as the administration pushes Israel that God will allow consequences (such as a financial crisis) to afflict our country? If so, the good news is that the God who is in control is perfectly good and has promised to provide for the needs of those who trust Him.
Iran: The Clock Continues to Tick
Former Secretary of Defense, William Cohen, published an article this week stating that efforts to dissuade Iran from attaining nuclear weapons have failed. In addition, the Washington Post declared that Iran cannot be contained, no matter what kind of sanctions might be employed. Moreover, the Brookings Institution agreed with this assessment. And Forbes indicates that due to Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s connections, sanctions will not work. (It is interesting that though the Obama administration gave the end of the year as a deadline for talks with Iran—which, obviously have failed—and though the administration has stated that the next step would be sanctions against the rogue nation, the administration has slowed efforts toward sanctions.)
There is now evidence that Iran is closer than ever to the attainment of nuclear weapons, as a document has been uncovered that details research on a neutron initiator—a device that sets off a nuclear detonation. This is the final component of a nuclear bomb. Israel Military Chief Amos Yadlin said Tuesday that Iran has accumulated enough materials to create a nuclear bomb and warned, "The technological clock has almost finished winding." (A good Los Angeles Times article this week shows us why it would not be good for Iran to acquire a nuclear bomb.)
I mentioned in a past “Alerts” that one reason the Iranian President is so determined to acquire nuclear weaponry is because of his belief in the Twelfth Imam, the Muslim Messiah. Ahmadinejad believes the world is on the cusp of the public arrival of the Twelfth Imam who will set up a one-world government in which Islam rules. The belief is that world chaos needs to be effected in order for the Imam to step into the public arena, and this is where nuclear weaponry comes into play. He is likely planning to make that happen by launching nukes. So all of that is old news, but what became new to me this week was the claim by a defecting member of the infamous Iranian Basj militia who stated that Ayatollah Khamenei, the current spiritual leader in Iran (whom was reported last week as having gone into hiding), is the Twelfth Imam! Since Ahmadinejad believes that, it is no wonder he is racing as fast as he can to acquire nuclear weaponry; for he must launch nukes to prepare the way for this Imam—before he dies!
Thus, Iran has already accumulated the material it needs, and is near the technology for, acquiring nuclear weaponry. In addition, we have seen that sanctions will not work to stop Iran from acquiring it. Moreover, we have seen in past “Alerts” that Israel cannot allow Iran to get to that point. Thus, it is incumbent upon Israel to attack Iran soon—in order to put a halt to the insanity. When that occurs, we have noted that there will most likely be a regime change with Iran which will turn it away from its nuclear ambitions and turn it from the terrorism it has been supporting. This will likely bring about conditions for serious negotiations on a peace treaty between Israel and ten other nations (five from Europe and five Arab countries, who will be in debt to Israel for having removed the great Middle East threat). In turn, this will bring the environment in which the world will believe it has achieved “peace and security,” though, as the Bible makes clear, will be short-lived. When we see all of this occur, we can know that Jesus’ return in the air for all who have believed Him for eternal life is very, very near! (I have much more on this in my book, Apocalypse 2012: The Ticking of the End Time Clock.)
The State of the Church
In my book, I argue that one reason Jesus will pull the Church (consisting of all who have believed in Christ for eternal life) out of the world prior to the last seven years before His return to the earth is because of its ineffectiveness at reaching the world with the gospel. There may have been two indicators of this ineffective state of the Church in the news this week.
First, there was a report that "Christians" in the Holy Land have denounced Israel. They question Israel’s role in God’s present (and future) plan and its right to the land it has. Unfortunately, this is the position of most major Christian denominations today; and it is not a good position to take. By doing so, Christians denounce the Bible and turn against God’s chosen people. This cannot make them effective for Christ in the world today.
A similar article cited U.S. Christian leaders who have abandoned support for Israel. Again, this is not a movement toward God and His word; and this cannot help the effectiveness of the Church in the U.S. (Further evidence for this state of the Church is given in Apocalypse 2012.)
Update on Apocalypse 2012
Apocalypse 2012: The Ticking of the End Time Clock: What Does the Bible Say? was featured this month in two newsletters put out by LeTourneau University, and students have put in orders for the book. (In addition, a local bookstore approached me about doing a book signing at the store as soon as I receive my copies of the book.) As I have previously mentioned, while the book will be officially released on May 1, the publisher has promised me a thousand copies by the end of February. People have been pre-purchasing those copies, which are going fast. If you would like to get your copy (or copies) early, I would encourage you to place your order soon by mailing a check in the amount of $16 per copy (plus $3.99 shipping per copy) to:
John Claeys
2709 S. Garrett St.
Marshall, TX 75672
Again, thank you for your support. This includes forwarding the “2012 Alerts” onto others. I have heard back from some who received the e-letter and decided to subscribe so they will receive it every week.
Keep looking up!
John