The FOX story notes that this rail line will be expanded later in order to “connect the Middle East and Central Asia to Beijing.” The British story lists Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan as nations which are likely to be added into what will obviously be a massive system of rail links anchored on a Chinese-Iranian axis. Since the last two nations are former Soviet provinces, I would not be surprised to see Russia eventually connected to this rail network as well. I also would not be surprised if this rail link eventually includes multiple sets of parallel railroad tracks running along the same routes so many trains can traverse the route simultaneously.

Surely, this rail network will be used to transport trade goods and raw commodities. However, in Ezekiel 38-39, God warned our “latter-day” world that Russia, China and Iran would build a military alliance which will eventually attack all the nations of the modern house of Israel and their allies in an age-ending World War III (see my article, What Ezekiel 38-39 Reveal about a Future World War III, for in-depth information on this subject). This alliance has been put together in recent years so biblical prophecy has been fulfilled right in front of our eyes. However, the world is unaware of this fact because they were deceived into rejecting God long ago and they do not read or understand the Bible.

This Iranian-Chinese railroad will also surely transport cruise missiles, heavy tanks, nuclear-processing machinery, fighter aircraft, and all kinds of military hardware from China into Iran and likely to Iran’s ally, Syria. The ultimate, future target of this railroad is Israel and the Sunni Moslem Arab nations allied to the USA and the West. I have mostly written about the Ezekiel 38-39 prophecy that this Gog-Magog alliance will attack the nations of the house of Israel (the USA, Canada, many European nations, Australia and New Zealand) from the north (Ezekiel 38:5). However, in some of my writings, I have also mentioned that the Ezekiel 38-39 attack against the latter-day nations of the house of Israel will occur simultaneously with an attack by the Gog-Magog nations against the Israelis in the Mideast. All of the tribes of Israel are descended from the man named Jacob, and Jeremiah 30 prophesies that both Israel (the USA, NATO and many western nations) and Judah (the Israelis) will be attacked simultaneously at the end of this age (verse 24) in a great conflagration called “Jacob’s trouble” (verse 7). Zechariah 14 is a prophecy about the Israeli/Jews being targeted in this warfare even as Ezekiel 38-39 is a prophecy about this war as it applies to the modern nations of the house of Israel.

The Gog-Magog alliance of Ezekiel 38-39 is called the “kings of the east” in a parallel prophecy in Revelation 16:12-21. Both prophecies feature a world war accompanied by an unprecedented earthquake (Ezekiel 38:19-20 and Rev. 16:18), and the heavenly pronouncement that “It is done” in terms of reaching the climax of our latter days (Ezekiel 39:6 and Revelation 16:17). We clearly are seeing the same age-ending world war described in both prophecies. A lot of soldiers will have to be in the invading army that attacks the Israelis from the east and eventually reaches Jerusalem, conquering half of it before the Messiah/Jesus Christ intervenes and saves both the Israelis and the nations of the house of Israel (Zechariah 14:1-14, Jeremiah 30:7-9, Ezekiel 38:20-39:12 and Revelation 16:14 & 19:11-21).

This Chinese-Iranian railroad which is going to be expanded to include links to many Asian and Mideast nations will someday be able to quickly transport vast numbers of Chinese, Iranian, Russian and Central Asian soldiers, tanks, etc. into the Mideast to attack the Israelis (as well as the Sunni Moslem nations and any American and NATO forces in the Mideast). Since Zechariah 14 prophesies the armies of the “kings of the east” will reach Jerusalem before God intervenes, it is likely that any American, NATO and allied Arab forces will be conducting a fighting retreat as they are pushed westward toward (and into) Israeli territory. This is supported by the prophecy in Revelation 16:14-16 which foretells this age-ending battle will also involve the region of Megiddo (Har Megiddo or “Armageddon”) in Israeli territory.

The building of this massive Chinese-Iranian railroad network is another indicator that the time of American forces being in Afghanistan are numbered. If they are not withdrawn from their very isolated and exposed position in Central Asia before the prophesied age-ending war occurs, they will be chewed to bits when they are simultaneously attacked not by Taliban irregulars, but by the combined armies of Russia, China and Iran. From the Israeli vantage point, this railroad is a prophetic declaration that the means is being built to move vast numbers of Asian soldiers from the eastern, Gog-Magog alliance into a position to attack the Israelis at the end of this age and fulfill Zechariah 14′s prophecy. We are moving deeper into the latter days, and God is relentlessly shaping global events to fulfill all his end-time prophecies in the years ahead of us. Given all that is occurring to fulfill biblical prophecies or prepare the way for their fulfillment, I wonder how many years we have left. The world is clueless to the fact that the nations are all acting out a Divine script that was set down in biblical prophecies millennia ago, but readers of this blog have a ringside seat into what is happening.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/09/07/china-build-railway-iran/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/china-business/7985812/China-to-build-2bn-railway-for-Iran.html

That is quite an array of promises, but the link below notes that “what good is it?” if Iran launches a nuclear first strike againat Israel’s tiny nation and destroys it. What good is an excellent second strike capacity if there is no Israeli nation left to save? Also, if Obama actually tried to transfer F-22 Raptors to the Israelis from America’s already small inventory of them and transferred boomer and attack nuclear subs from the US Navy to the Israeli Navy, I think there would be “hell to pay” with the US Congress and Pentagon over any such offer.

Also, if the Israeli nation was attacked or destroyed in an Iranian first strike, does anyone think NATO would actually go to war against Iran to save the Israelis? Not likely. NATO nations are planning on disarming their militaries and are losing the ability to defend themselves. A NATO “guarantee” is getting less meaningful with each passing year.

Oddly, if this report is true, this puts President Obama in the role of trying to protect Iran from an Israeli strike—a position that I cannot see any previous American President taking. If the American voters were aware of this effort by Obama to protect Iran against an Israeli strike while robbing the US military of some of its own major assets, millions of voters might start asking an embarrassing question: Whose side is Obama on?

Supporters of the Israelis need not fear the Israeli nation will be destroyed. God promises in Zechariah 12:1-7 that he will not permit that to happen.

http://www.debka.com/article/8990/

The link states that the attack vs. the Japanese oil tanker was perpetrated by “a Saudi terrorist who operates out of Iran under the orders of the Revolutionary Guards.” If this is correct, it means that Iran ordered this attack. It also states that this attack was an Iranian warning to the USA that Iran can shut down Persian Gulf oil shipments if there is a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.

While Americans are preoccupied with sports, celebrity gossip and all kinds of fluff stories about nothing of much importance, the Mideast is still sliding inexorably toward war. The first attack against an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf has now already occurred, and the Israelis soon afterwards stocked up their oil reserves to have enough to fight a prolonged war if a Mideast War breaks out. Were you told about this on any mainstream media outlet?

It is still not certain if another major Mideast war will occur (in addition to the Iraqi War that is winding down and the Afghan War that Obama is ramping up). Matthew 24:6 warned of “wars and rumors of wars” in the latter days before the return of Jesus Christ. There have been “rumors of war” for several years now concerning the Iranian nuclear weapons program. It has not yet become an actual “war,” but logic dictates that the Israelis cannot allow Iran to have nuclear weapons when Iran has declared its intent to “wipe the Israelis off the map.” This situation is like a smoldering fire close to a lot of tinder. It wouldn’t take much to ignite it.

My thanks to an alert reader who sent me this link.

http://www.debka.com/article/8997/

This is openly threatening language from China toward its neighbors. The article below also mentions President Obama’s weakness in “accommodating” Chinese demands about where such naval maneuvers can be conducted. Obama likely doesn’t comprehend that each time he acts weakly and submits to Chinese demands, he is “losing face” all over Asia (and the world). Obama’s weakness as a leader is clearly emboldening China to act more like a bully toward its neighbors. If Obama had told China that the US Navy will conduct exercises in international waters anywhere it wants and ignored Chinese grumblings, Obama would have demonstrated resolve, but he was unable to do so. Obama’s weakness as a national leader gives China more ammunition to intimidate its neighbors. Unless Obama finds his backbone soon, he may risk losing the confidence of America’s allies and nations (like Vietnam) who are at least considering joining an anti-Chinese alliance.

Did any readers see reports in the mainstream media reporting about Obama’s weakness in dealing with China? I surely didn’t see a single such report. America badly needs strong leadership at this time of unprecedented national peril. Unfortunately we don’t have a strong leader, and we also have a weak, very unpopular Congress. It’s time for a major housecleaning in the American Congressional elections this November! Isaiah 3:2-5 warns that when nations disobey God, God will take away strong, mature leaders from those nations and replace them with weak, childish ones. America has been steadily abandoning God and his laws over the last few decades, and we now have the kind of leadership God promised that disobedient nations would have.

Let’s hope lots of Americans are praying II Chronicles 7:14. We badly need Divine help to return America to its past strength and national character.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/the-china-post/frank-ching/2010/08/25/270009/China-warns.htm

The link below notes that it is “inconceivable” that Gen. Ivanov would not have been accompanied by bodyguards in any swimming outing. Reports indicate he “went missing from a private, secretive engagement from which his aides and guards were banished to wait outside, not swimming alone.” This report may infer that Gen. Ivanov was caught in a “honey trap,” a sting in which he thought he was going to enjoy a romantic encounter with someone, but instead was lured into  trap. Such “honey traps” are used by many intelligence agencies. Gen. Ivanov would surely have made enemies during his duties in suppressing the Islamic Chechen revolt in the Russian Caucasus region. It is entirely possible that, given the revenge motive of suppressed Chechen groups, Gen. Ivanov may have been murdered and his body dumped in the water as the article indicates. However, the report leaves some major gaps in this story.

To begin with, Gen. Ivanov’s body was never positively identified. The body claimed to be his was “too decomposed for identification,” and was identified only via a “cross around its neck.” It would have been very easy to take Gen. Ivanov’s cross and hang it around the neck of a badly decomposed corpse and allow it to be “found” in a plausible location to indicate the general had died. The fact that this corpse was not positively identified to be the body of Gen. Ivanov allows for two possibilities. The first one is that he was not murdered but was kidnapped in a “honey trap” and is now undergoing interrogation by an unknown foreign intelligence agency to divulge all he knows about Russian intelligence agencies, their agents’ names, their missions, their passwords, their plans, etc. This would be extremely damaging to Russian intelligence operations and extremely helpful to whatever agency was interrogating him. If Russian GRU deep-cover agents suddenly start dying of unfortunate “accidents” around the world, then it is likely that Gen. Ivanov was kidnapped and critical information is being extracted from him. The second alternative is that he defected to the West and arranged the circumstances of his disappearance to make it look like he had died.  If this alternative is the true explanation for what happened, it is possible that Gen. Ivanov was a deep-cover agent for the CIA or other western intelligence agency for many years and it was becoming too dangerous for him to continue in that role so he had to hastily arrange a plausible “exit” and be transitioned into a new identity somewhere far away. If this is the case, then he is willingly divulging a wealth of information very damaging to Russian interests. If he was a western deep-cover agent, it is even possible that the Russian FSB (the old KGB) found out about it and it was the FSB which arranged his death or disappearance. It is even possible that he is now a double-agent that ostensibly defected to the West, but did so under GRU/FSB controls to give the West false and misleading information.

Those of us who depend on media reports will not be able to know the truth about what happened. However, I believe that there are a few people in select intelligence agencies in the world that do know exactly what happened. This incident reveals that an extremely deadly game is being played behind the scenes as the Mideast slides toward a possible major war and the Gog-Magog alliance prepares for the world war at the end of this age that it will eventually start (as Ezekiel 38-39 prophesies).

I have one last question. The report states that the body presumed to be that of Gen. Ivanov was too decomposed for identification. I’m no CSI investigator, but I would assume that his DNA (if it was his body) would have been recoverable from inside his teeth, on the hair of the decomposed body, in the fingernails and toenails, inside the bone marrow, etc. There seems to have been a distinct lack of interest in doing a thorough DNA investigation to see if that decomposed corpse really was that of Gen. Ivanov. That speaks volumes all by itself.

http://www.debka.com/article/8999/

The link also notes that the Japanese Navy now has “helicopter carriers” and is considering the formation of a Japanese Marine Corps, patterned, I assume, after the US Marine Corps. As the article notes, the exercises are clearly aimed at discouraging Chinese military expansionism in the region. Since the exercises will include a region extending almost to Taiwan, these exercises may also carry a hint to China that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be opposed by both Japan and the United States.

The Ryuku Islands include the island of Okinawa where fierce fighting took place in World War II between American and Japanese forces. That the USA and Japan are now solid allies and cooperating in that region to counter China’s rapidly-growing military power shows how much international geopolitics can change in just a couple generations. Japan is now a very trusted and valuable ally of the western nations and its fellow democracies. Those who wish to learn more about Japan’s role in latter-day prophecy are invited to read my article, Japan‘s Role in Biblical Prophecy. As you will see, the critically-important, latter-day prophecy in Ezekiel 38-39 strongly infers that the USA and Japan will be allies during the latter-days and in the age-ending World War III which is prophesied in those chapters.

Let’s hope this naval exercise takes place as planned and as scheduled. In a previous blog post, it was noted that when China growled about the location of the recent South Korean-American naval exercises, the Obama administration weakly changed the naval exercise plans to appease China. Appeasement never works. It simply emboldens the militaristic nation which has been appeased. Another remarkable event was described in my August 11th blog post: a first-ever, “friendly” naval exercise between the US and Vietnamese navies. That exercise was prompted by joint concerns in the USA and Vietnam about China’s growing militarism. There is an interesting dynamic going on here. The more aggressively China remilitarizes and acts, the more it forces all other nations in the region into an anti-Chinese alliance. The wisdom of the axiom, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” applies in Asia as well as the Mideast.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/LH31Dh01.html

China states that its refusal to ship these rare metals is due to its sudden concern for the environment. Anyone who believes this statement is also likely shopping for ocean-side land in Nebraska. China clearly had a long-term national policy to drive the rest of the world’s rare-earth mining operations out of business via predatory pricing. That policy succeeded and now China is using its control of strategic metals to either deprive the West of these vital items or compel the West to make concessions to obtain any of China’s supplies of these metals. Either way, the West loses. Western corporations who thought they were getting a good deal by buying rare metals at cheap prices from China for years are now suddenly without a supply of these vital items, and the link below states it may take many years for the West to restart its rare-earth metals production. The American corporations and the American policy makers who allowed America and its globalist businesses to become so dependent on Chinese goodwill are now realizing the Chinese dragon has manipulated the greed of globalist corporations to lure the West into a strategic trap.

Despite “angry complaints” from around the world, including a formal protest by Japan’s Foreign Minister, China has said that “it will not back down” on its new policy, which is tantamount to a declaration of a trade war against the West. Japan apparently at least saw this Chinese “double-cross” coming as it “has been stockpiling” these rare metals. I would not be surprised if the endlessly-gullible governmental and corporate leaders of the rest of the West were so completely duped by the blandishments of their Chinese suppliers that they have not been stockpiling anything. The Chinese refusal to sell these rare metals to the rest of the world also means the production of such consumer products as plasma TVs, iPads, BlackBerrys, wind turbines and hybrid engines is now endangered. Have you heard anything about this critically-important development yet on the mainstream media?

While not emphasized in the link below, the military implications of this Chinese domination of strategic metals is glaringly obvious. The production of many western military weaponry is jeopardized by the Chinese refusal to ship these rare metals to the West. Previous blogs have discussed the “secret” invisibility projects of the USA, UK and other western nations. There are, no doubt, other secret “black projects” which are now at risk of shutting down due to China’s action. This Chinese action, if continued, will place the Gog-Magog alliance prophesied in Ezekiel 38-39 in a position of tremendous advantage over the USA, NATO and their allies. Russia and Iran, allies of China in the prophesied Gog-Magog alliance will likely get all the rare metals they need as these nations build up their militaries to launch their surprise attack against the West in a future year. It makes perfect sense for China to cut off strategic metals to the nations that it intends to attack in the future. From the strategic viewpoint of the Gog-Magog alliance, this cut-off of rare metals is a very logical step to take as they prepare for the new world war which Ezekiel 38-39 prophesies is certain to occur. Western strategic planners can give up any hope of reversing China’s direction. God has “hardened the hearts” of Russia, China and Iran into eventually attacking the nations of the modern tribes of Israel (and all their allies) in NATO and the western alliance so this event will occur (my books, audio messages and my home page article on The USA in Prophecy all make these identifications easy to see). Ezekiel 38:10 prophesies this attack will begin at exactly the moment that God puts it into their hearts to launch it. The only thing the West can do is face reality and reopen its rare metals mines, reindustrialize the manufacturing capacity of the West (which would also jump-start the western economies) and make military preparations to meet this future attack.

China (and Russia) know what they are doing and they are implementing a war plan which I believe was conceived long ago to dupe and weaken the West militarily, economically and monetarily. Personally, I think this plan was conceived just before the “arranged” fall of the USSR to deceive the West into thinking there was no longer a threat from Russia and China. As this (and many previous) blogs have documented, the threat from Russia and China has never been greater than it is today. Russia and China have expertly maneuvered the Western nations into the position of great weakness which is exactly what they had planned for them. The Western world’s leaders and “wise men” still are so blind to the growing danger now facing them that I fear their heads are firmly placed in a location where the sun never shines.

If any readers have not yet read my article, What Ezekiel 38-39 Reveals about a Future World War III, I strongly urge you to do so soon. This prophecy has been so accurate in prophesying what has come to pass thus far in our modern world that it can only be because the Creator God who made everything we see (and everything we don’t see) is guiding world events to make sure his prophecies are fulfilled. He said in Isaiah 41:21-26 that he would do so and he challenges false gods and readers of that prophecy to watch his ability to fulfill biblical prophecies as proof of his reality and sovereignty. Since Ezekiel 38-39 has been “right on target” to date, you might as well read the aforementioned article to see how the future will unfold so you can know what will occur in our future. Our future has a very good ending to read about, but things are going to get very, very bad before God steps in to impose his prophesied positive climax to our current age.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/7970872/Backlash-over-China-curb-on-metal-exports.html

A British Navy Commander is cited as stating that the Russian submarine fleet is “playing [similar games] with the Americans and French in the North Atlantic.” This means the Russians are attempting to obtain acoustic signature recordings for each American, British and French submarine armed with nuclear-tipped missiles. The British Navy reportedly has noted that Russian “contacts” with British submarines has reached its highest number “since 1987,” which was during the Cold War. In other words, Russia is now behaving as aggressively as the USSR did during the peak of the Cold War years.

No doubt, western war-planners are seeing all this and wondering if the renewed aggressiveness of Russia and the rapid militarization of Iran and China means that these nations are preparing for a future war with the USA, NATO nations and their allies. As readers of this blog know, the Bible prophesies in Ezekiel 38-39 that it is not a matter of if Russia, China and Iran their allies intend to attack the USA, NATO and their allies in the future, it is a matter of when this attack will occur. If readers wish to review a detailed analysis of this critically-important latter-day prophecy, you can do so by reading my article, What Ezekiel 38-39 Reveal about a Future World War III, available for free at the “Articles” link at this website’s homepage.

A recent blog reported that China is nearly ready to deploy a new class of ballistic missiles specifically designed to attack and sink US aircraft carriers in the opening phase of a future world war. Both Russia and China (and likely Iran) all have supersonic cruise missiles designed to attack and sink US aircraft carriers and other American/western surface ships. If Russian and Chinese submarines are able to obtain the acoustic signatures of each NATO submarine equipped with nuclear missiles, it means one more vital asset of the strategic power of the USA and NATO is vulnerable to destruction in the opening phase of a world war. If these major assets were destroyed by the “Gog Magog” alliance at the beginning of the future age-ending World War III, it would make Russian-Chinese war planners less reluctant to start the war because they would be more confident that they would only sustain ”acceptable losses” from what the USA and NATO could use to counter-attack. If Russia, China and/or Iran used cruise missiles equipped with tactical nuclear warheads to strike major US military bases at Guam, Pearl Harbor, Diego Garcia, etc. at the start of the prophesied Ezekiel 38-39 war, Russian and Chinese war-planners could well think that they could successfully take out so much of the American/NATO counterstrike capacity that launching a new world war would result in their victory and global domination.  Thankfully, Ezekiel 39:3 prophesies that God will make sure that an unspecified portion of the Gog-Magog’s alliance’s missile-launchers and missiles (“bows and arrows” in ancient terminology for ancient long-distance weapons that are launched into the air toward a distant target) will not work successfully. This could result from Divine intervention or via God allowing the American and NATO nations to invent and deploy successful anti-missile defenses that will shoot down the attacking missiles of the Gog-Magog alliance.

PS. To any US military officials reading this blog, please be sure that upgraded anti-missile defenses are not only placed on US warships, but also at all key US military bases such as Guam, Pearl Harbor, Diego Garcia and all “stateside” bases as well. When the Gog-Magog attack begins, you can expect all key US and NATO military assets and bases to be attacked simultaneously and without warning so those defenses need to always be on “active” readiness status. That Russia is trying very hard to obtain the acoustic signatures of NATO “boomer” submarines indicates that Russia is doing all it can to prepare to launch the future “surprise attack” that they are planning vs. the USA and the West (which would be no surprise at all if American/NATO war-planners heeded God’s advance warning to them in Ezekiel 38-39). If they do not heed that advance warning now, they will wish they had done so when the Gog-Magog attack begins in a future year.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/7969017/Russian-subs-stalk-Trident-in-echo-of-Cold-War.html

The first link reports that the Sunni Arab states of the Mideast, including Saudi Arabia, are urgently pushing the USA to launch a preemptive strike against Iran to stop it from becoming a nuclear power. However, former UN Ambassador, John Bolton, opines that it may already be too late to stop the activation of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear facility, its first known operational nuclear facility.  As my August 19th blog related, I think that there is a strong possibility that the above-ground Bushehr plant, built by the Iranians in a location that is very easy to attack, may not actually be a part of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. It may be a “decoy” plant designed to attract an Israeli and/or American attack when that plant is really designed only for civilian electrical generation.

If that is the case, any attack on it will allow Iran to call in international investigators to see it had no weapons capacity and claim that Iran is the victim of American/Israeli aggression. The real Iranian nuclear weapons program is going on in the nuclear facilities at Qom and perhaps ten other hidden locations (also discussed in my August 19th blog) which are buried deep underground or underneath mountains. It may be impossible to determine how far along Iran’s plutonium enrichment efforts have advanced at those secret plants,and it may also be impossible to disable those underground nuclear plants without the use of tactical nuclear weaponry. It may be possible to disable them with successive waves of “bunker buster” bombs, but even that is problematic. Iran has sited its nuclear facilities with great foresight and skill, and I suspect they had considerable help from Chinese and North Korean engineers who helped them locate their secret nuclear facilities deep underground where American reconnaissance satellites cannot see them. However, the fact that the Sunni Arab nations are pushing for an attack indicates that they are growing steadily more fearful of Iran’s nuclear status. If the Bushehr plant is a decoy and it is becoming fully functional in a nuclear capacity, it infers that Iran’s real nuclear weapons plants may also be coming on line as well.

The second link describes efforts by Saudi Arabia and the USA to detach Syria from its long-time alliance with Iran. This effort also involves the internal politics of Lebanon and Iraq, and it is very murky in its details. It is assumed that Hezbollah will submit to Syria’s control if Syria detaches from its alliance with Iran; however, that is by no means certain. Hezbollah is sworn to destroy Israel as is Iran, so Hezbollah may remain loyal to Iran and see Syria as a traitor if it switches sides. Indeed, the second link hints that Assad, Syria’s leader, is “playing a dangerous game” in these machinations. If he does switch sides, he may find himself personally targeted for elimination by a vengeful Iran which has spent much time and money strengthening Syria to be its ally. Syria’s position is also greatly complicated by Turkey’s recent approachment toward Iran. If Turkey joins Iran in an alliance, Syria is almost certain to stay in Iran’s orbit. Otherwise, Syria could find itself attacked and dismembered by a simultaneous attack by Iran, Hezbollah and Turkey.

If Syria can be drawn away from its alliance with Iran, it will want concessions from the West. The concession it will demand is the restoration of the Golan Heights to Syrian control. Israel would have to be crazy to submit to such a demand no matter what pressures the Obama administration puts on it. I’ve stood at the base of the Golan Heights and looked up at them from northern Israeli territory, and I realize how strategic these Heights really are to Israeli security. The only way that I could see any Israeli government returning the Golan Heights to Syria would be if two conditions were acknowledged by all parties. These conditions would be (A) no one will object to the immediate use of Israeli nuclear weapons against Damascus and Syria if it attacks Israel in the future, and (B) the consent of all parties that the Israelis will be given the right to build a Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Those two conditions might pacify the resistance of the Israeli political right-wing and religious parties to such a concession to Syria.

There are a number of biblical possibilities in such a scenario. It seems evident that some kind of agreement or treaty will be necessary to create a situation where the daily sacrifices at a Third Temple site are begun in order for them to be later stopped by a beast power. Daniel 8:11-14 contains a prophecy about the stopping of the daily sacrifices, and while verses 1-10 argue for a ancient fulfillment of this prophecy, verse 17, 19, and 23 clearly state that this prophecy will have a latter-day fulfillment as well. Ominously, Isaiah 17 contains a prophecy that Damascus will become “a ruinous heap” (verse 1), and verses 4 and 7 indicate that this will occur in the latter days. Damascus could be turned into a “ruinous heap” by the Israelis if the Syrians betray a future agreement, but Damascus could also be turned into a “ruinous heap” by a vengeful and betrayed Iran (how hard would it be to have Iranian and/or Hezbollah suicide bombers ignite a small nuke in Damascus if Syria betrays Iran?). Syria is really in the hot seat in current Mideast politics. If I owned property in Damascus, I’d sell it….soon.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/139207

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5920256,00.html

The first link reports that the IAEA has discovered that Egypt has conducted a “variety of nuclear experiments for more than 20 years” without disclosing this fact to the IAEA. Reportedly, Egypt has been experimenting with uranium experiments for “20 years or more,” its plutonium experiments are “much [more] recent.” It is plutonium which is the key to making nuclear weapons, so the fact that Egypt is working with plutonium experiments argues that a nuclear weapons program is the only reason for such experiments. One can hardly blame Egypt. Seeing the Iranian Shiites working at a rapid rate to build Shiite nuclear weapons, Sunni Arab nations such as Egypt can hardly be faulted for wanting to build nuclear weapons to deter Iranian (Persian) imperialist dreams. The first link below indicates as much. The second link reports that “Cairo is now building ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.” That Egypt is already building ballistic missiles to carry nuclear warheads strongly infers that Egypt expects to have nuclear weapons to place on those missiles reasonably soon. Egypt and Israel are so close to each other that Egypt doesn’t need ballistic missiles to strike Israeli targets if Egypt considered Israel a threat to Egypt (short-range missiles would suffice). That Egypt is building ballistic missiles (long range weapons) for its nuclear warheads indicate that it regards Iran as its likely enemy. The second link also reports that Egypt has had plutonium-extraction or plutonium-production agreements with such nations as France, Germany, Argentina, Pakistan and Iraq in the past, and that it declined Chinese help because of an American-Canadian offer of help.

A previous blog at this website documented that Saudi Arabia may already be a nuclear power itself. That blog reported that Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program was significantly financed by Saudi money, and that Saudi Arabia can lay a claim to a percentage of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal when it wishes to obtain them. If Iran declares it has nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia would have every reason to quickly claim its share of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.

The world is becoming a steadily more dangerous place. As more nations build nuclear weapons, the likelihood grows that they will be used in open warfare. I Timothy 3:1 warned that “perilous times” would come in the latter days. In Matthew 24:22, Jesus Christ prophesied that the dangers would grow so great that unless he intervened in world events with his Second Coming, “there should no flesh be left alive.” If you wish to consider the various ways that “all flesh” could be wiped out on earth as mankind devises ever more destructive weaponry and technologies, I invite you to read my article, Are We Living in the Biblical Latter Days?, available at the articles link at this website.

My thanks to a reader for tipping me off to this report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7181847/

http://www.wisconsinproject.org/countries/egypt/nuke.html