Podcast # 25: The New Crusade

Scott: My name is Scott Paton.  I am joined today by Allan Colston.  He is the author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”.  This is a book dealing with prophecy.

For those listeners who may be new to this topic, this Podcast is another in the series “Signs of the Times”.  Hello Allan and welcome to the Podcast.

Thanks Scott, it’s good to have the opportunity to talk to you again.

Scott: So Allan, what do you plan to talk about today?

Well Scott, I thought it was about time I returned to a topic that I have not addressed for over a year now. Back in June of last year you and I talked about affairs in the Middle East in a Podcast entitled “Arabian Entropy“.

Scott: Yes, I recall that conversation. Didn’t you talk about how the situation in Egypt and other countries in Northern Africa had deteriorated since the onset of the “Arab Spring”?

You have an excellent memory Scott. Well since that time, the situation in the Middle East has changed dramatically, and in ways that seem to me ever more likely to confirm that the prophecies of the Old Testament prophets are coming true before our eyes.

Scott: Perhaps you could begin by reminding us what the Old Testament prophets predicted would happen in the Middle East during the “End Times”.

Certainly Scott. As I explained in my book “The Last Days of Tolemac“, the “Latter Days” described by the prophets refer to a period of seven years which they call the “Great Tribulation”. Jesus himself said that this time would be the greatest period of human suffering since the beginning of the world.

It is important to note that Israel is central to an understanding of the “End Times”, not only because it was the land where Jesus lived and taught, but because Israel was the place where the prophets predicted that the events of the final days would begin and end.

We need to remember that the Mount of Olives, located just outside the ancient city of Jerusalem, was the place where Jesus ascended into heaven, and that it was also the place where angels told the disciples who looked on in wonder, that Jesus would return.

The Old Testament prophets said that this seven year period of tribulation would begin with an event that would involve the land of Israel. They referred to this event as, and I quote, the “Great and Terrible Day of the Lord”. And they went on to describe what this event would be.

This seven year period would end with the battle of Armageddon that would take place in the valley of Jezreel in Israel, followed by the return to earth of the long-awaited Saviour, who would lead the world into a new Golden Age of peace, that was predicted to last for a thousand years.

As I explained in my post entitled “The Invasion of Israel“, the tribulation would begin when Israel was threatened by a coalition of nations, and the armies of these nations would surround Israel on every side. These armies would come from, and I quote, “the north parts”, and from countries like “Persia, Libya and Ethiopia”.

So you can see Scott why Israel is so important in “End Time” prophecy, and why Old Testament prophets focused on the events of the Middle East. And if they are correct, we may only have a few years left before the entire world is plunged into chaos and misery.

Scott: How do we know that Israel will be surrounded by the armies of its enemies?

Well if you will just bear with me Scott, in case some of our listeners think that I am making this up, or that I am misinterpreting the words of Biblical prophecy, I’d like to quote from the relevant parts of Chapters 38 and 39 of the Book of Ezekiel.

“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, thus saith the Lord God; in that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it? And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army.”

“And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.”

According to Ezekiel, this vast mechanized army would assemble on the borders to the north, south and east of Israel. Their goal would be to wipe out the Jewish nation once and for all, and take over their land. The Jews would be powerless to stop the mighty forces that would be arrayed against them on every side.

But just when all hope seemed to be lost, and the entire nation seemed to be doomed, the Jews would be saved by a supernatural event. A comet would appear in the skies of earth that would cause earthquakes throughout the land, as well as “hailstones, fire and brimstone” that would rain down on their enemies. Ezekiel goes on to write:

“And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken. Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel.”

Scott: Does Ezekiel say what will happen to these armies?

According to Ezekiel, the armies that are gathered on the borders of Israel will be caught on the open plains. They will be defenceless, and will be exposed to the full fury of the meteorites and the fiery hail that will descend on them from the sky. As Ezekiel writes:

“And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire and brimstone.”

As a result of the earthquakes on the land, and the aerial bombardment from the skies, the armies that gather on the borders of Israel will be decimated. Those few who survive these disasters will either be unable, or unwilling, to pursue their assault.

Ezekiel writes that only “a sixth part” of the invading armies will survive the onslaught of the comet.

“Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, thus saith the Lord God; behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee.”

“And I will smite the bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beast of the field to be devoured.”

Ezekiel goes on to write that, after the comet has passed, the countryside will be littered with the wreckage of the armaments and the bodies of the dead. So many people will die on the open plains that it will take the Israelis seven months to bury them all.

Anyway Scott, the main point I want to emphasize here is that the “hailstones, fire and brimstone” that Ezekiel predicted would destroy the armies gathered on the borders of Israel, will not be confined to the land of Israel. They will cause destruction all over the world.

Scott: What makes you say that, Allan?

In Chapter 8 of his Book of Revelation, John describes a vision in which he saw seven angels with seven trumpets. As each angel sounded their trumpets, so the earth was assailed by a specific disaster. Verse seven of this chapter begins (and I quote):

“The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all the green grass was burnt up.
 
“And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; and the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.”

So what John is describing here is a global disaster emanating from the sky, which not only causes “hail and fire” to rain down from the heavens, but also an asteroid to plunge into the ocean, destroying “a third part of the ships”, as well as “a third part of the creatures in the sea.”

I have written about this in greater detail in my Post entitled “What is Wormwood in the Book of Revelation?“. And it is because of the world-wide destruction caused by the asteroid slamming into the ocean that the prophets called it “the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord”.

So based on the Biblical passages that I have quoted from here, the attack on Israel by the armies of its enemies is the key to understanding the time-line of events of the “End Times”, because it is this attack that sets in motion the final seven years of tribulation leading up to the return of the Christ.

So as you can see Scott, the events that are unfolding in the Middle East at this time have a crucial bearing on predicting the last days of the world as we know it. Jesus also warned his disciples that the Day of the Lord would come suddenly, “like a thief in the night”, when people least expected it.

Scott: So Allan, do you think there will be a land invasion of Israel any time soon?

Well Scott, that’s the 64,000 dollar question. But when you look back on the events that have happened in Israel over the last year, together with events that have taken place in neighbouring countries, they seem to be making such a confrontation not only likely, but inevitable.

When President Obama was elected to his second term in office, he made a concerted effort to try to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that had been festering pretty much ever since Israel became a nation in 1948, by getting Secretary of State John Kerry to set up a series of negotiations.

These negotiations between the government of Israel on the one hand, and the Palestine National Authority on the other, were hamstrung right from the start by the fact that the Palestine National Authority was split into two opposing groups.

There was the Fatah group headed by Mahmoud Abbas which governed the West Bank, and there was the Hamas group which ruled the territory of Gaza. The basic problem was that Israel, as well as the United States and most of the European countries, regarded Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Nevertheless, John Kerry was instructed to go ahead without Hamas, and he ordered both Abbas and Netanyahu to authorise a series of secret negotiations over a nine month period ending in April of this year, using the pre-1967 borders as a basis for negotiation.

The hope was that, with the assistance of the United States, both parties would come to an agreement on the boundaries of their respective countries, as well as their capital cities. Kerry’s view was that West Jerusalem would be the capital of Israel, with East Jerusalem the capital of Palestine.

Although it had already become clear to outside observers that nothing of any consequence was likely to come of these negotiations, affairs came to a head when Abbas suddenly announced that there had been a reconciliation between himself and Hamas, and that in future he would be negotiating on behalf of both groups.

Israel immediately pulled out of these negotiations, and as a result of a crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank, tensions soon boiled over leading to the third Israeli-Gaza conflict in eight years. The fighting, which caused extensive damage in Gaza, continued for forty days until Hamas finally agreed to a ceasefire.

Scott: So was anything substantial agreed upon during those nine months of negotiations?

Unfortunately Scott, nothing significant was achieved, even though both parties appeared to be motivated by similar goals. They both wanted to have a defined territory, bound by secure borders, with capital cities that would be recognised by each other, as well as by the international community.

In reality, however, there never was any hope of an agreement on any of these issues. For starters, Abbas was never in a position to guarantee the security of Israel following the creation of a Palestinian state, despite John Kerry’s assurance that the United States would act as the protector of Israel.

After all, the Israelis had already learned the hard way that peace with the Palestinians was no guarantee of their own future safety. They learned this lesson in the Gaza strip, which they had captured from Egypt during the Six-Day War in 1967.

Israelis occupied and ruled Gaza until 1993, when it was agreed that Gaza would be governed by a new administrative body called the Palestinian Authority, while Israel would retain control over airspace, territorial waters and all border crossings except the one between Gaza and Egypt.

This arrangement continued until 2005, when Israel decided unilaterally to withdraw all of its people from Gaza. When elections were held and Hamas became the newly elected government in July 2007, the first thing they did was to expel their rival party Fatah from Gaza.

From the start Hamas refused to accept the existence of Israel, and committed itself to the extermination of the Jews. With funding obtained from the Arab state of Qatar, and armaments provided by Iran, Hamas soon began the first of its many wars with Israel.

So the net result of handing over control of Gaza to the Palestinians, was to find themselves under constant threat of artillery and rocket fire. So as you can see Scott, there is no appetite in Israel today to negotiate a new Palestinian state where similar hostilities could break out much closer to Jerusalem.

Scott: Why is the city of Jerusalem so important?

Well Scott, as I have already pointed out, John Kerry had hoped that he could persuade both parties to share the city of Jerusalem, with the Western part being the capital of Israel and the Eastern part the capital of Palestine, largely because of its historical association with both countries.

What he failed to take into account was that Jerusalem remains at the core of the conflict between the Arabs and the Jews, and has been pretty much ever since the state of Israel was first created. At that time it was an independent city administered under the mandate of the United Nations.

When the Israeli war of independence broke out in 1948, the Jews seized the western part of Jerusalem as well as certain areas originally allocated to the Arabs, while Jordan took control of the old city of Eastern Jerusalem, along with what is today known as the West Bank.

During the Six-Day War of 1967, Jordanian forces attacked West Jerusalem. After hand-to-hand fighting on the Temple Mount, the Israeli army repelled this attack, and went on to capture East Jerusalem along with the entire West Bank of the river Jordan.

When the war ended, Jordan was allowed to retain control of the Islamic holy sites located on the Temple Mount, such as the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque. However, Israeli troops guarded all of the entrances and controlled who could obtain access to the Temple area.

Then in July 1980, the Knesset, or Israeli Parliament, passed the “Jerusalem Law” which declared that Jerusalem was the capital city of Israel and the seat of its government. Although this has never been accepted by the international community, it remains the Jewish capital to this day.

So the present reality is that despite nine months of negotiations overseen by John Kerry, nothing has changed. The Palestinians are no nearer to having their own country with designated borders, nor do they have a capital city. In their day-to-day affairs they still remain under the control of Israelis.

Scott: So where does this leave the present state of negotiations?

Well Scott, at present there are no ongoing negotiations, and Mahmoud Abbas has been left with little choice but to appeal to the United Nations and the international community to intervene on their behalf. However, there is little that either group can do to change the existing stalemate.

Of course President Obama was infuriated by what he saw as Israeli intransigence coupled with a refusal to negotiate in good faith. Israel in turn countered by blaming the United States for the breakdown in negotiations, by refusing to accept the realities of the region, and by making demands on Israel which their people would never accept.

So Israel continues to thumb their noses at the Palestinians, by approving new housing projects throughout East Jerusalem as well as increasing areas of the West Bank. But this is a policy that carries great risk, and makes it ever more likely that the predictions of the prophets will come to pass.

Scott: Why do you say that Allan?

Well Scott, the immediate outcome of the breakdown of negotiations will be to isolate Israel from the international community. Already Sweden has decided to recognise the State of Palestine, declaring that this is the only way to end the conflict.

Soon, the Parliaments of France, Denmark and the European Parliament in Belgium will vote on similar resolutions, because of the increasing frustration felt by these nations at Israel’s disregard for their protests about the expansion of Jewish settlements in areas set aside for the Palestinians.

Furthermore, the Swedish resolution urges all European Union member states to recognise the State of Palestine on the basis of borders that existed before the 1967 war, and with the City of Jerusalem as the capital city of Palestine.

It is also likely that this movement to recognise the State of Palestine will spread to the United Nations, where other nations hostile to Israel will no doubt choose to follow the lead of the European Union. But far from improving the present situation, it will only serve to inflame it.

International support for an official State of Palestine will not help in bringing Mahmoud Abbas and Benyamin Netanyahu closer together, but will only drive them farther apart, leaving both to withdraw into ever more extreme positions. More and more acts of violence will follow.

Besides, the reality is that no matter how many resolutions are passed by these various bodies, neither the European Union nor even the United Nations have the power to resolve this Middle-Eastern impasse. Even the threat of international sanctions will prove ineffective.

The United States will find itself equally handicapped. Since the breakdown of official negotiations orchestrated by John Kerry, two things have changed in Washington. First of all, President Obama’s focus has switched from Israel to the challenge of fighting the forces of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, as well as the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran.

And secondly, the Democratic Party has just suffered a resounding defeat in the mid-term elections, leaving the Republican Party in complete control of Congress and the Senate. Any move by Obama against Israel now will be met with fierce opposition from those who are staunch supporters of Israel.

The threat to Israel will come not from the West, but from the East.

Scott: What sort of threat are you referring to?

Well Scott, the reality is that Israel is sitting pretty at the moment. It is true that they face continuing threats of violence from Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. But essentially they are ensconced once more in their own ancestral land, exactly as the prophets of old predicted.

The threat that I am talking about is something that could not even have been imagined just a few short months ago. It is the threat of ISIS, or ISIL as President Obama prefers to call it. Whereas ISIS refers to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, ISIL refers the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

And it is the Levant that we all need to be aware of right now. The Levant is a word of French origin that was used in the Middle Ages to refer to the lands of the Eastern Mediterranean, including Cyprus, Southern Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan and Israel.

The difference between ISIL and other terrorist groups spawned by the civil war in Syria, is that they formed an alliance of Islamic extremists that unleashed a war of undreamed of brutality under the banner of religion. They have begun a new crusade designed to recapture the glory of the past.

The goal of ISIL is to create an Islamic Caliphate, or Islamic State, that will stretch from Southern Turkey all the way down to the borders of Egypt, including all of Israel and Palestine. So from their point of view, the present impasse between Netanyahu and Abbas is of no consequence.

According to their plan, they will both be swept away when the all conquering forces of ISIL sweep over the land. And they have a rallying cry that unites all who fight for them, and that is to recapture the ancient city of Jerusalem and make it the Capital City of their new Islamic Caliphate.

This is the threat that hangs over the land of Israel. And because of their coming isolation as a result of their continuing incursions into Palestinian territory, when the Islamic armies appear at their gates, they will find that they have no one to help them defend their country but themselves. The prophecies of the Old Testament will be vindicated.

So while the world watches and waits to see how the events of the Middle East will turn out, the wheels of Fate are grinding remorselessly towards their long prophesied conclusion, exactly as the prophets of old foretold.

Finally Scott, if anyone has any comments or questions on this or any other subject, they are welcome to email me at tolemac@shaw.ca

Scott: Thanks Allan. This has been a fascinating insight into the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and how this fits in with ancient prophecies of the “End Times”.

You have been listening to Allan Colston, author of the book “The Last Days of Tolemac”.  Do join us for our next Podcast in the series titled “Signs of the Times”.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2014 at 9:31 pm and is filed under AUDIO, Signs of the Times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments and pings are closed.