Germany and Poland Expanding Their Armies; US Deploys Armored Units to Baltics

It appears that some NATO nations are beginning to wake up regarding the military danger posed by a re-militarizing and aggressive Russia. The “alarm clock” that has woken them up is obviously the Russian seizure of the Crimea from the Ukraine, its support of pro-Russian rebels in the Eastern Ukraine and Russia’s aggressive military maneuvers around the world (first link). Some European nations, especially those closest to Russia’s borders, are taking action to beef up their military forces.

Germany has reversed its longstanding disarmament policy and is recalling 100 main battle tanks into active service (second link). Maybe Germany thinks the Fulda Gap is starting to look more vulnerable to a Russian attack [Only readers old enough to remember the Cold War likely understand my “Fulda Gap” reference]. Germany, Poland and the Baltic States are the NATO nations most threatened by Russia’s strongly-sent signal that it is willing to use its Kaliningrad enclave on the northern coast of Europe for military purposes (third link).

What many readers may find surprising is that the Polish armed forces are as large as they are. As the fourth link reports, Poland has over twice as many active-duty tanks in service as any other European nation in NATO, and they are obtaining more. They have many armored vehicles and are investing large sums of money to buy more modern weaponry. Poland remembers being divided up between Russia and Germany in World War II, and it never wants to repeat the situation at the beginning of World War II when Poland was caught with an outnumbered and outmoded military force. After decades behind the Iron Curtain, Poland also is willing to fight to never be under Russian dominion again. Poland opted to keep in active service its older Soviet-era tanks, and I think Poland made a wise choice. Even older tanks can serve as excellent mobile artillery vehicles. Poland is also setting out to build an anti-missile system similar to the one the USA was committed to building in Europe before Obama became president and cancelled the project. The fourth link points out that Poland’s military expenditures are actually greater than reported because the stated figure does not include military procurement plans.

The most nervous nations about the Russian warlike behavior are, obviously, the Baltic NATO nations. To help assuage their fears, the USA announced last fall its intention to deploy US troops, modern tanks and armored vehicles to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia (fifth link). The arrival in Latvia of sizable numbers of US main battle tanks and armored units is shown and discussed in the last link.

After the Berlin Wall fell and Russia became somewhat of a laughingstock on the world scene under Boris Yeltsin, the USA and the NATO nations went to sleep and assumed the Russian bear had gone into permanent hibernation. NATO nations disarmed and defanged their military forces to shockingly-low levels. Years went by. Then two decades went by. NATO continued to disarm. Then, under Vladimir Putin’s leadership, the Russian bear has come out of hibernation and it is hungry to gobble up and recapture lost territory, power and respect. It has annexed part of the Ukraine already and will likely annex more before the Ukrainian crisis is over. NATO nations, at least the ones closest to Russia, are beginning to wake up and realize they have a hungry and very large bear as a neighboring nation.

As long-time readers know, this was all prophesied in the Bible to occur. Ezekiel 38-39, written circa 2500 years ago, prophesy that in the latter days, Russia, China, Iran and other nations will form a military alliance and attack an unsuspecting alliance led by the modern nations of the ten tribes of Israel (the “house of Israel”). Those nations are easily-identifiable as the USA, the UK, many NATO nations, etc. The target nations of the Gog-Magog alliance of Ezekiel 38-39 are surely going to be the NATO nations and what we call the “western world.” The Gog-Magog nations are prophesied to make a grab for global domination as this latter-day period of time draws to an end. Biblical prophecy is being fulfilled steadily. In Isaiah 41:21-26, God declared to everyone that they should look at his ability to fulfill his prophecies as proof of his existence and sovereignty.

Let’s review just some of the Bible’s prophecies about the latter-days that have already come true.

Zephaniah 2:1-9 prophesied the Jews (“Judah”) would establish a new Jewish nation in the Old Promised Land in the latter days, and that it would specifically include the Mediterranean seacoast of the old Promised Land and the city of Ashkelon. Check a world atlas. The Israeli nation, formed in 1948, includes the Mediterranean seacoast of the old Promised Land and the city of Ashkelon. This prophecy was fulfilled.
Daniel 12:1-4 prophesied that “many would run to and fro” in the “time of the end.” In other words, rapid transportation would be available to the masses. The invention of the railroad, the internal combustion engine, superhighways and passenger aircraft have fulfilled this prophecy.
Daniel 21:1-4 also prophesied that “knowledge will be increased” at the “time of the end.” The Hebrew word translated “increased” in Daniel 12:4 is the same one used in Genesis 7:17 to describe how the waters “increased” on the surface of the earth during the Deluge of Noah’s time. In other words, it was an exponential increase and it “covered the entire planet.” The modern knowledge explosion has increased exponentially as time has progressed and it has been a global phenomenon.
Genesis 48:14-Genesis 49:1 prophecy that the Israelite brother/”birthright” tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim would become a single great nation and a “multitude” of nations. These “brother” nations are the USA and the British nations. Both are Anglo-Saxon brother peoples and they bear on them the name of Isaac as prophesied in Genesis 21:12 and 48:16. They were once called the “Saka” or “Sacae” nations in Asia, and the Romans later called them the “Saxons” as they migrated into Europe after the fall of the Parthian and Scythian empires. All these names preserve the ancient name of Isaac.

There are more proofs that we are living in the latter days than those listed above. They can be examined in my article, Are We Living in the Biblical “Latter Days?”.

Since so many of God’s prophecies about the latter days in the Bible are coming to pass or already have come to pass, we can be sure he will implement the remaining ones as well–including the one in Ezekiel 38-39 that Russia, China, Iran and other nations will attack the modern western nations in a surprise manner at the very end of our age. Given that Russia, China and Iran have formed their prophesied alliance and are militarizing quickly, one wonders how many years are left before the latter days come to an end and Jesus Christ climaxes them with his return (Revelation 19:11-20:4).

Germany and Poland Expanding Their Armies; US Deploys Armored Units to Baltics

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