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A Kingdom Divided: Sunni Hamas Loses Shiite Funding From Iran For Backing Syrian Rebels

06/01/2013 1 comment

I wonder if Hamas will blame the Jews for this, too …

Daniel 2:41, “Whereas you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; yet the strength of the iron shall be in it, just as you saw the iron mixed with ceramic clay.”

By Robert Tait, Gulf News – “Gaza City: Iran has cut up to £15 million (Dh83.7 million) a month in funding for Hamas as punishment for the movement backing the uprising in Syria, the Palestinian Islamist group’s leaders have admitted.

The two once-close allies have also ceased military cooperation, effectively ending a warm relationship in which Tehran provided weapons, technical know-how and military training to Hamas fighters.

The rupture has been caused by Hamas’ refusal to toe the Iranian line by supporting President Bashar Al Assad, whose Alawite regime has a loose religious relationship to Iran’s ruling theocracy. Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, has sided with its Sunni co-religionists who are trying to unseat Al Assad, in common with other mainly Sunni countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Gazi Hamad, Hamas’ deputy foreign minister, frankly described relations with Iran as ‘bad’. Asked about Iranian funding, he said: ‘I can say it is not like the past. I cannot give you the exact amount. For supporting the Syrian revolution, we lost very much.

‘I cannot deny that since 2006, Iran supported Hamas with money and many [other] things. But the situation is not like the past.’ He added: ‘I cannot say there is military cooperation.’

While Hamas officials have previously said they would not retaliate on Iran’s behalf if Israel attacked the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities — citing disagreements over Syria — they have previously been coy about funding from a country that is Shiite and non-Arab.

Iran gave Hamas an estimated £13-15 million a month after its victory in the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections — enough to cover its governing budget, said Dr Adnan Abu Amer, assistant professor of political science at Gaza City’s Ummah University.

Tehran still sends a ‘tiny amount’ to maintain ties and keep its support of the Palestinian cause alive, he said.

But relations are all but severed.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War

Central African Republic: Islamic Militants Armed With ‘Hit List’ Of Pastors And Churches Launch ‘Reign Of Terror’ Against Christians

06/01/2013 Leave a comment

By BosNewsLife – “Islamic militants have launched a ‘reign of terror’ against Christians in Central African Republic after Seleka rebels took control of the country in a March 24 coup, rights activists said.

Armed with a ‘hit list’ of pastors and places of worship, Seleka rebels systematically looted church property, even seizing money from collection plates, according to Barnabas Fund, a Christian aid and advocacy group working in the region.

The reports, monitored by BosNewsLife Saturday, June 1, come after last month’s report released by the Human Rights Watch group cited ‘severe violations’ committed by Seleka rebels against civilians including rape, pillage and execution.

Among those killed was a church leader after the rebels fired upon a funeral procession on the Ngaragba Bridge in the capital Bangui on April 13, rights investigators said…

‘As a result, many Christians have fled into the countryside: more than 200,000 people were displaced while nearly 50,000 others crossed CAR’s borders into neighboring nations,’ Barnabas Fund explained.

In a sign of further tensions, the new Seleka-backed government of Central African Republic issued an international arrest warrant Friday, March 31, against deposed former president Francois Bozize, accusing him of ‘crimes against humanity and incitement to genocide’, the state prosecutor said.

Thousands of fighters from the Seleka rebel coalition, angered by what they claimed was Bozize’s ‘refusal’ to honor an earlier peace deal, marched into the capital Bangui on March 24, forcing him to flee to neighboring Cameroon.” Read more.

Flashback: Islam In Africa: ‘An Invisible Genocide Where Sadistic Killers Slaughter And Execute Thousands Of Christians’ – “The UN does nothing, the world is silent, and most Western citizens, who know little about Africa, do not know it is happening. The goal is creating a big African-Islamic continent. Christians must be killed or expelled. Fom Nigeria to Sudan, it is raging, the ‘Odium Fidei’, the war of religion. A genocide epitomized not by the images of Sydney Pollack’s ‘Out of Africa’, which presents a continent that is rich and attractive, but by the Nigerian village of Dogo Nahawa, where Islamists, armed with machetes, killed 300 Christians, mostly women and children.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags:

Evil: Six-Year Old Christian Boy In Egypt Murdered And Dumped In Sewer By Muslim Kidnapper

06/01/2013 3 comments

When disobedient or less-than-perfect Muslim children are tortured and killed in a heartbeat by their own “peace-loving” teachers and parents, killing the children of infidel pagan Christians will be given no second thought. And the fact that the infallible prophet of Islam shrugged off the killing of enemy children means that we can likely expect little more than a slap on the wrist from Egypt’s Islamic authorities …

Hadith, Bukhari 52:256, “The Prophet [Mohammed] … was asked whether it was permissible to attack the pagan warriors at night with the probability of exposing their women and children to danger. The Prophet replied, ‘They [the women and children] are from them (i.e. pagans).'”

By Raymond Ibrahim, Jihad Watch – “A six-year-old Coptic Christian boy was abducted in Egypt earlier this week, held for ransom, and then, after his family paid his ransom, was still murdered by his Muslim abductor—apparently because he feared being exposed. Cyril Yusuf Sa’d, the boy, was kidnapped by Ahmed Abdel Moneim Abdel-Salam, who demanded 30,000 pounds. But after receiving the money from the Christian boy’s family, instead of releasing his captive he killed him, and threw his body in the sewer system of his home.

According to the report, the boy’s ‘family is in tatters after paying 30,000 pounds to the abductor, who still killed the innocent child and threw his body into the toilet of his home, where the body, swollen and moldy, was exhumed.’

Abducting and holding for ransom Christian children is on the rise on Egypt. In previous weeks two other Coptic boys—including an altar boy—were seized from right in front of their churches, as the war of attrition on the nation’s indigenous Christians continues.” Source – Jihad Watch.

Flashback Egypt:

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags:

The Calm Before The Jihadi Storm, ‘Why Are American Politicians Not Blowing The Whistle On Obama’s Suicidal Policies?’

06/01/2013 10 comments
Once limited to Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, thanks to U.S. policies, has metastasized around the world, and is in the consolidation/training phase for the new jihad.

Once limited to Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, thanks to U.S. policies, has metastasized around the world, and is in the consolidation/training phase for the new jihad.

By Raymond Ibrahim – “On this Memorial Day, it’s important to remember that the very same U.S. policies that created al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in the 1980s—leading to the horrific attacks of 9/11—are today allowing al-Qaeda to metastasize all around the Muslim world.  As in the 80s, these new terrorist cells are quietly gathering strength now, and are sure to deliver future terror strikes that will make 9/11 seem like child’s play.

To understand this dire prediction, we must first examine the United States’ history  of empowering Islamic jihadis—only to be attacked by those same jihadis many years later—and the chronic shortsightedness of American policymakers, whose policies are based on their brief tenure, not America’s long-term wellbeing.

In the 1980s, the U.S. supported Afghani rebels—among them the jihadis—to repel the Soviets.  Osama bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri, and countless foreign jihadis journeyed to Afghanistan to form a base of training and planning—the first prerequisite of the jihad, as delineated in Sayyid Qutb’s Milestones.

Al-Qaeda—which tellingly means ‘the base’—was born.

The U.S. supported al-Qaeda, they defeated the Soviets, shook hands with Reagan, Afghanistan became ruled by the Taliban, and for many years all seemed well.

But it wasn’t.  For over a decade al-Qaeda, unfettered in Afghanistan, trained and plotted.  Then came the strikes of 9/11, which were portrayed by the talking heads as a great and unexpected surprise: ‘What happened? Who knew?  Why do they hate us?’

Had al-Qaeda not secured a base of operations, its namesake, 9/11 would not have occurred.

But if Reagan helped create the first al-Qaeda cell in relatively unimportant Afghanistan, Obama is helping to create numerous, more emboldened, al-Qaeda cells in some of the most important Islamic nations.

He is doing this by helping get rid of Arab autocrats who were effective at suppressing jihadis (even if for selfish reasons), while empowering some of the most radical jihadis who were formerly imprisoned or in hiding.

And all in the name of  the ‘Arab Spring’ and ‘democracy.’

In Egypt, Obama threw Mubarak, America’s chief Mideast ally for three decades, under the bus, and cozied up to Read more…

Categories: Man-Made Disasters, Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War

‘Turkish Summer’? Fiercest Anti-Government Protests In Years Erupt In Istanbul, Scores Wounded After Police Attempt To Disperse Demonstrators

05/31/2013 3 comments

First it was the “Arab Spring”. Now it’s the “Turkish Summer”. Tip of the hat to Kurt J for the link, who also points out that even though every Arab Spring protest initially began with elements of liberalism and the hope of true democratic freedom, the end result was the ousting of one dictatorship being replaced by another that was much worse. Turkey will get tough to douse the flames of protests, but too much force will only add fuel to the fire. And if recent history is any indicator, any potential removal of Erdogan and the current government may only result in another that is even more Islamist than the one it replaces …

By Ayla Jean Yackley, Reuters –  “ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish police fired tear gas and water cannon on Friday at demonstrators in central Istanbul, wounding scores of people and prompting rallies in other cities in the fiercest anti-government protests for years.

Thousands of demonstrators massed on streets surrounding Istanbul’s central Taksim Square, long a venue for political unrest, while protests erupted in the capital Ankara and the Aegean coastal city of Izmir.

Broken glass and rocks were strewn across a main shopping street near Taksim. Primary school children ran crying from the clouds of tear gas while tourists caught by surprise scurried to get back to luxury hotels lining the square.

The unrest reflects growing disquiet at the authoritarianism of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Riot police clashed with tens of thousands of May Day protesters in Istanbul this month. There have also been protests against the government’s stance on the conflict in neighboring Syria, a tightening of restrictions on alcohol sales and warnings against public displays of affection.

‘We do not have a government, we have Tayyip Erdogan … Even AK Party supporters are saying they have lost their mind, they are not listening to us,’ said Koray Caliskan, a political scientist at Bosphorus University who attended the protest.

‘This is the beginning of a summer of discontent.’

The protest at Taksim’s Gezi Park started late on Monday after trees were torn up under a government redevelopment plan but has widened into a broader demonstration against Erdogan’s administration. Friday’s violence erupted after a dawn police raid on demonstrators who had been camped out for days.

‘This isn’t just about trees anymore, it’s about all of the pressure we’re under from this government. We’re fed up, we don’t like the direction the country is headed in,’ said 18-year-old student Mert Burge, who came to support the protesters after reading on Twitter about the police use of tear gas.

‘We will stay here tonight and sleep on the street if we have to,’ he said.” Read more.

Categories: Anything Else, Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War

‘Religious Cleansing’: More Than 100,000 Christians Are Violently Killed Every Year, And The Numbers Are Increasing

05/30/2013 1 comment

Revelation 14:12, “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

By Cristina Corbin, Fox News – “A staggering 100,000 Christians are killed annually because of their faith, according to the Vatican — and several human rights groups claim such anti-Christian violence is on the rise in countries like Pakistan, Nigeria and Egypt.

‘Credible research has reached the shocking conclusion that an estimate of more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed because of some relation to their faith every year,’ Vatican spokesman Monsieur Silvano Maria Tomassi said Tuesday in a radio address to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

‘Other Christians and other believers are subjected to forced displacement, to the destruction of their places of worship, to rape and to the abduction of their leaders, as it recently happened in the case of Bishops Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yaziji, in Aleppo [Syria],’ Tomassi said.

While several human rights groups could not comment specifically on the Vatican’s number, organizations, like Persecution.Org, said the persecutions of Christians have been on the rise in places like Africa and the Middle East over the last decade.

‘Two-hundred million Christians currently live under persecution. It’s absolutely on the rise,’ Jeff King, the group’s president, told FoxNews.com.

‘It’s easing in the old Communist world and it’s rising in the Islamic world,’ King said, noting in particular countries like Egypt, Pakistan and Nigeria. King said that the first major killing spree in recent years happened between 1998 and 2003, when he claims 10,000 Christians were murdered in Indonesia alone during those years.” Read more.

Flashback: Muslim Group: ‘Christianity Should Be Destroyed And Wiped From The Face Of The Earth’, It Is ‘Evil’ and ‘Demonic’ – “A Muslim group has released its plan to ‘wipe Christianity from the face of the earth,’ Islamize the West and establish an Islamic system of world government – placing those who resist ‘under a police state.’… ‘Islamic Power has returned upon the face of the earth and the Revived Global Caliphate has set eyes on the West to once and for all rid the world of Christianity and there is nothing you can do about it,’ al-Mohammedi said. He makes his objective clear.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Bloody’: Christian Persecution is ‘Coursing Through Muslim-Majority Nations from One End of the Globe to the Other’ – “We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm…” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags:

Canadian Foreign Minister: Canada Will Not Help Europe Or America Arm Syrian Rebels

05/29/2013 1 comment

A wise position to take …

By JESSICA MURPHY, Sun News – “OTTAWA – Canada is breaking ranks with its European Union allies over the decision to allow member countries to arm Syrian rebels.

On Tuesday, the EU failed to renew its Syrian arms embargo, freeing countries to funnel arms into the war-torn Mideast nation – an endeavour supported by both France and the UK.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said Canada won’t follow suit and instead supports a political solution to the civil war in Syria, now entering its third year.

But he shrugged off the disagreement.

‘Sovereign governments make their own decisions,’ he said. ‘In Europe, we see a group of committed allies that are normally like-minded. On occasion, we are not. There’s nothing wrong with honest differences of opinion.'” Read more.

Flashback: Canada To Syrian Rebels: Until You Renounce Islamic Extremism And Embrace Minorities, We Will Never Recognize You – “Canada told the Syrian opposition Tuesday it must reject extremism and embrace minorities before Ottawa will recognize its legitimacy as a successor to President Bashar Al-Assad, according to a federal official… ‘He outlined the importance of rejecting extremism, the inclusion of minorities, and the importance of the role of women in a post-Assad era,’ said the official, who did not want to be named.” Read more.

Flashback: Iranian Gov’t Threatens Canada After Canadian PM Closes Iranian Embassy, Expels All Diplomats, Cuts All Ties – “Iran accused Canada on Saturday of ‘hostile behavior’ under Israeli and British influence after Ottawa cut diplomatic relations, and it raised the prospect of swift retaliation. Canada said on Friday that it was closing its embassy in Tehran and gave Iranian diplomats five days to leave the country, branding the Islamic Republic as the ‘most significant threat to global peace and security’.” Read more.

Flashback: Officials: Canada A Refuge For Persecuted Egyptian Christians – “Christians in Egypt will increasingly see Canada as their chance to escape from a country whose president belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, immigration officials warn. ‘The (permanent resident application) volume continues to trend upwards and the number of applications submitted may accelerate, given the election of a new, Islamic government in Egypt,’ a Canadian immigration program officer said in documents obtained by immigration lawyer Richard Kurland through Access to Information requests.” Read more.

Flashback: Canadian Prime Minister: ‘Islamic Militancy’ Poses Greatest Security Threat to Canada – “Prime Minister Stephen Harper sees Islamic terrorism as the greatest threat to Canada’s security, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Tuesday. In an exclusive interview that is to air in its entirety Thursday, the Conservative prime minister told the CBC he believes Canada is safer now than it was when al-Qaida terrorist cells attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. However, he said, ‘the major threat is still Islamicism.’” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War

What Is The War Of Gog-Magog?

05/29/2013 53 comments

By ICA

Ezekiel 38:1-3a, “And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog …”

Recommended: Gog As Antichrist: A Historical Survey
Recommended: Gog Of Magog: Does ‘Rosh’ Mean ‘Russia’ or ‘Chief’? Understanding The Hebrew Text Gives Us The Answer …

When it comes to the war described by the Prophet Ezekiel in the 38th and 39th chapters of his book — often referred to as the War of Gog-Magog — there often seems to be a circle of Bible prophecy teachers that keep repeating the same general theories over and over in an effort to impose a specific preconceived idea or timeline into the battle. Instead of allowing the full counsel of Scripture to provide the timing of this war for us, Gog-Magog is characterized as a war that will happen either just before or immediately after the start of “Daniel’s 70th week.” All too often, students of Biblical eschatology who study the positions of a particular author or teacher may then refer to a couple of others who say essentially the same thing for “inquisitive” reinforcement. These students are subsequently conditioned to conclude that these authors and teachers must be correct because they have “all” come to the same conclusion from the text, one that is further strengthened in the student’s mind when the very same teachers also echo similar rebuttals outlining why any opposing position cannot be correct. But as the Bereans in the Book of Acts were called noble because they searched the Scriptures daily to see if what they were being taught was so, we too also need to mimic the Berean example.

Instead of repeating the common misconception outlined above, authors and teachers such as Joel Richardson (read his position here) and Dave Hunt & T. A. McMahon from The Berean Call radio ministry (read their position here) have presented serious, if not devastating, challenges to the more “mainstream” position of Evangelical Christians by offering compelling reasons why Ezekiel’s Gog-Magog war does not describe a “pre-Armageddon” battle. Upon a much closer and careful examination of Ezekiel’s text, it becomes increasingly clear that we can ascertain — simply by comparing Scripture with Scripture — why Gog-Magog is a battle that will, without a doubt, culminate in the war of all wars itself: Armageddon.

What Is Gog, And Who Is Gog?

To understand why, however, we first need to determine what Gog is, and who Gog is, from a Biblical perspective. Ezekiel refers to Gog as “the chief prince” of Meshech and Tubal three times (38:2, 38:3 and 39:1). The Hebrew word for chief is rosh, which also means the head (like the Jewish New Year “Rosh Hashanah“, which means “Head of the Year”), and the word for prince is nasiy which also means captain or leader. According to the text, Gog is a very important leading figure of some sort whom the Lord tells Ezekiel to prophecy against.

Another significant clue regarding the identity of Gog is given for us again a few verses later. In Ezekiel 38:17, God identifies Gog as the one whom the prophets foretold that the Lord would bring up against Israel in the last days to reveal Himself to the nations and to make His holy name known in the midst of His people (cf 39:7). To drive home this point, here are a number of different translations of Ezekiel 38:17:

KJV: “Thus saith the Lord GOD; [Art] thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days [many] years that I would bring thee against them?”

NLT: “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: You are the one I was talking about long ago, when I announced through Israel’s prophets that in future days I would bring you against my people.”

DBY: “Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Art thou not he of whom I have spoken in old time through my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days, for [many] years, that I would bring thee against them?”

LXX: “Thus saith the Lord God, to Gog; Thou art he concerning whom I spoke in former times, by the hand of my servants the prophets of Israel, in those days and years, that I would bring thee up against them.”

The Message: “A Message of God, the Master: Years ago when I spoke through my servants, the prophets of Israel, wasn’t it you I was talking about? Year after year they prophesied that I would bring you against them. And when the day comes, Gog, you will attack that land of Israel.”

CEV: “The LORD said to Gog: Long ago, I had my prophets warn the people of Israel that someday I would send an enemy to attack them. You, Gog, are that enemy, and that day is coming.”

NCV: “‘This is what the Lord God says: You are the one about whom I spoke in past days. I spoke through my servants, the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for many years that I would bring you against them.”

TNIV: “‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: You are the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel. At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them.”

We’ve already identified what Gog is, which is a very important leader. To determine who Gog is, what must not be lost here is the fact that all other prophets only spoke of one figure similarly elsewhere that would come up against Israel in the last days, and that figure is the one whom we would now identify as Antichrist. If the Lord refers to Gog as the one whom the prophets spoke of previously that would come up against Israel in the last days, which He does, then there is therefore only one possible conclusion that can be drawn: Gog is somehow referring directly to Antichrist.

Similarities Between The Battle of Gog-Magog and Armageddon

If Gog is synonymous with Antichrist, then we should be able to correlate events surrounding the battle of Gog-Magog with events surrounding the battle of Armageddon. Naturally, however, when two or more witnesses describe the same event, they will sometimes express certain aspects of the event differently, or emphasize and delineate specific details over others. And the same is true with Biblical prophets. When the sum of all details are considered, however, there are too many astounding similarities between the battle of Gog-Magog and the battle of Armageddon to ignore, and any “differences” that some try to point out between Gog-Magog and Armageddon are easily resolved once the whole of Scripture is compared hermeneutically using not just the book of Revelation, but Isaiah, Daniel, Joel and Zechariah as well. In a nutshell:

Notice the three last points emphasized above. Ezekiel 39:7 and 39:22 both say that God’s name will be known in the midst of Israel and that Israel will know their God from that day forward. The only way that Israel can know God is if they know their true Messiah. Galatians 5:4 makes it clear that those who simply try to be justified by the Law are estranged/separated from Christ (and therefore God), so if Israel is to truly know the Lord their God “from that day forward” they must recognize Jesus (Yeshua) as their Messiah (Ha-Mashiach). Contextually, Ezekiel 39:29 tells us that the Lord pours out His spirit upon the house of Israel and Zechariah 12:10 gives us the timing regarding when this will happen: After the Second Coming of Christ. Ezekiel 39:7 reinforces Zechariah’s timing by showing us that Christ is now physically present in Israel:

Ezekiel 39:29, “Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.”

Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for [his] only [son], and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for [his] firstborn.”

Ezekiel 39:7, “So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not [let them] pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I [am] the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.”

If that weren’t enough, God Himself declares in Ezekiel 39:8, “Behold, it is come, and it is done … this [is] the day whereof I have spoken.” He has revealed Himself to Israel and to the nations. How can God say “It is done” when, according to the pop-eschatology position of many Western prophecy teachers today, it is not done until about seven years later at Armageddon? Moreover, if God had declared that He spoke of any “pre-Armageddon” battle before, where is it mentioned in Scripture? The only day in the eschaton that the Lord and the prophets spoke of previously is the Day of the Lord — Armageddon. The view that many of today’s teachers support, however, suggests that all of the Magog nations that Christ destroys — nations that the text tells us in no uncertain terms will know from that point forward that the God of Israel is God (Ezekiel 38:16, 23; 39:7, 21, 23) — suddenly and conveniently all develop a case of collective amnesia to yet again form another coalition in order to yet again gather against Jerusalem, only to be destroyed yet again by Christ a few short years later. Such a position is a highly tenuous, to say the least.

Of course, there’s even more that could be said, but for the sake of brevity I’ll refer to Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible, which is also a good reference for this particular topic as well. Although I do not agree with everything provided in many reference Bibles (nor should we), I will acknowledge that Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible does provide a well-researched analysis comparing the battle of Gog-Magog and the battle of Armageddon by listing the following fourteen proofs why Armageddon is referred to in Ezekiel 38 and 39:

  1. Not one statement in these two chapters (Ez: 38-39) mention a war in Israel before Armageddon [or after].
  2. The battle of Armageddon is the only war predicted by the prophets that could possibly be referred to in these chapters (Ezek. 38:17). Armageddon is mentioned many times by Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and other prophets before the days of Ezekiel (Isa. 1:25-31; 3:25-26; 13:1-16; 24:21; 63:1-6; Jer. 25:30-33; 30:11,20-24; Joel 2-3; Oba. 1:15-21; Mic. 1:3-4; 2:12-13; 5:5-15; etc.).
  3. The destruction of Gog and his armies (Ezek. 38:18-23; 39:1-6,17-20) compares with similar statements about Armageddon in Joel 3; Zech. 14; Rev. 19:11-21.
  4. Gog will not fall upon the open field until Armageddon (Ezek. 39:3-5; Rev. 19:11-21).
  5. The great supper for the fowls and beasts will only be at Armageddon (Ezek. 39:4,17-20 with Mt. 24:27-28; Rev. 19:17-21).
  6. The presence of God (as pictured in Ezek. 38:18-21; 39:1-6,17-24) will not be until Armageddon (Isa. 63:1-6; Zech. 14:1-5; Rev. 19:11-21).
  7. The supernatural destruction of Gog and his armies (as described in Ezek. 38:21-23) will not be until Armageddon (Isa. 63:1-6; Joel 2-3; Zech. 14; Rev. 19:11-21).
  8. God will not magnify and sanctify Himself and set His glory among the heathen (as stated in Ezek. 38:23; 39:21-24) until He comes at the second coming of Christ — at Armageddon (Zech. 14:1-21; Mt. 24:29-31; Rev. 19:11-21).
  9. Gog will not bring the many armies of the nations into Israel to be destroyed until the time of the second coming of Christ, at Armageddon, as referred to in Ezek. 38:18-23; 39:1-7 and proved in Zech. 14:1-5; Rev. 16:13-16; 19:11-21.
  10. The great earthquake of Ezek. 38:20 will not take place until the seventh vial and the second coming (Zech. 14:1-5; Rev. 16:17-21; 19:11-21).
  11. God’s presence will not destroy Gog and his army until the second coming, at Armageddon (Ezek. 38:20; 39:2-7 with Zech. 14:1-5; Rev. 19:11-21).
  12. Gog and his army cannot be destroyed in a war in Israel before the second coming, at Armageddon, to fulfill Ezek. 38:18-23; 39:1-7,17-20, and then be destroyed again at Armageddon to fulfill Isa. 63; Joel 2-3; Zech. 14. We must therefore recognize all these passages as referring to the same destruction — at Armageddon (Rev. 19:11-21).
  13. The burial of Gog and all his armies destroyed in the fulfillment of Ezek. 38-39 will be at the second coming of Christ (Ezek. 39:11-16 with Dan. 7:11; 2Th. 2:8-12; Rev. 19:11-21).
  14. It is at the second coming of Christ that God’s glory will be set among the heathen and Israel will be completely gathered and blessed (Ezek. 39:21-29; Zech. 14; Mt. 24:29-31; Rom. 11:24-29; Rev. 19:11-21).

The Identity of Gog – An Alternative Explanation

Ezekiel 39:4, 11, “You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who [are] with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and [to] the beasts of the field to be devoured… I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude…”

If all of that wasn’t enough to chew on, here is one more item worthy of further consideration. Although Gog sounds like a person and is spoken of in anthropomorphic / personified terms as being given over to ravenous birds and animals (Ezekial 39:4) who will be buried in Israel (39:11), let us not ignore the possibility that Ezekiel may not be describing a man, but rather the leading spiritual entity behind Antichrist or the political-religious system that exercises authority over this region, similar to how Daniel describes the spiritual forces exercising authority over Iran and Greece as “the prince of Persia (Iran)” and “the prince of Javan (Grecia)” in Daniel 10:20. Ezekiel calls Gog “the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal” in 38:2, 38:3 and 39:1, which is the region north of Israel in modern day Turkey. Incidentally, in Revelation 2:13 Jesus says that the region of modern day Turkey (which is where Gog is “the chief prince” of) is “where Satan’s throne is” and “where Satan dwells.” It is therefore conceivable that Gog could simply be referring to Satan himself, which would help to explain why we suddenly read of another Gog-Magog battle immediately after Satan is released following his 1,000 years of captivity in Revelation 20:7-8.

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There is obviously much more going on behind the curtain of this physical world than meets the eye. Since the casting down of Satan is also described in physical terms by the prophet Isaiah whereby Satan is “brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit” (Isaiah 14:15) even though Satan is non-corporeal, as is his being bound by “chains” and being thrown down into the abyss (Revelation 20:1-3), the “chief prince” being given over to the animals and buried in the land of Israel at the first battle of Gog-Magog could simply be referring to the physical destruction of the armies of the surrounding Islamic nations (cf. 38:5-6) that he brings against Israel through deceptive means. Knowing that Satan is also referred to elsewhere as the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2), the “prince of this world” (John 12:31) and the “prince of demons” (Matthew 12:24) who “deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9), to be called the “chief prince” who leads nations to wage war against Israel is entirely consistent with the titles and tasks of the adversary described elsewhere throughout the Biblical texts.

Furthermore, although we have generally understood Antichrist in terms of a man, we should not dismiss nor discount the possibility that Antichrist may not be a man per se at all, but rather the Islamic “system” itself that we see manifest today. Just as the Church (Ekklesia) is the Body of Christ, Satan’s counterfeit of the Church — the Ummah of Islam — would be the “Body of Antichrist” that is given its power and authority by Satan himself (cf Revelation 13:2-4). Although Antichrist could be a literal man who will soon be revealed, the “embodiment” of the religious-political-militant system of Islam (the multitude of a man, Mohammed) that is given its power by “the chief prince” or spiritual force who exercises authority over Meshech and Tubal may be what is truly in view here, even though it is often referred to anthropomorphically as a “man” in Scripture much like the Church (the multitude of the Lamb, Messiah) is referred to as “one new man” in Ephesians 2:15. Either way, Gog is Antichrist.

In Conclusion – One Battle, Different Perspectives

Without any doubt in my mind, the battle of Gog-Magog and the battle of Armageddon are essentially separate descriptions of the same event. More specifically, the Gog-Magog description as outlined by the prophet Ezekiel provides is a broader overview of a conflict that simply leads up to and ends at Armageddon, not simply “Armageddon” itself per se when the armies of the surrounding Islamic nations gather themselves in the “valley of decision” in a final effort to destroy Israel once and for all. It is a broader view of a conflict that comes to a definitive conclusion at Armageddon when Christ Himself destroys the surrounding armies directly, enemies who will have already been fighting against Israel and waging wars for quite some time — months, perhaps a few short years. Ezekiel 38-39 describes this extended campaign, providing us with a broader wide-angle view of a conflict that could last for a good portion of Antichrist’s persecution of Israel and her children, and coming to a climactic end with the Seventh Trumpet and the return of Yeshua Ha-Mashiach, Jesus Christ, in power and great glory, whose presence will be made known all throughout Israel. And the earth.

Revelation 6:15-17, “And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”

Originally Posted 3/16/2011, Revised 6/1/2013
Categories: Radical Islam, Theology and Eschatology, Wars and Rumors of War Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Islam’s Rule Of Numbers: Islamic Beheadings Are Not Uncommon In The West, Including The U.S.

05/28/2013 2 comments

By Raymond Ibrahim, Fox News – “In London last week, two Muslim men shouting jihad’s ancient war-cry, ‘Allahu Akbar’ beheaded a British soldier with a cleaver—in a busy intersection and in broad daylight.  They boasted of their crime in front of passersby and asked to be videotaped.

As surreal as this event may seem, Islamic beheadings are not uncommon in the West, including the U.S.

In 2011, a Pakistani-American who helped develop ‘Bridges TV’—a station ‘designed to counter negative stereotypes of Muslims’—beheaded his wife.

In Germany in 2012, another Muslim man beheaded his wife in front of their six children—again while hollering ‘Allahu Akbar.’

Beheading non-Muslim ‘infidels’ in the Islamic world is especially commonplace:

In Yemen a ‘sorceress’ was beheaded by the ‘Supporters of Sharia’;

In Indonesia, three Christian girls on their way to school were beheaded; in Syria last Christmas, U.S.-supported rebels beheaded a Christian man and fed his body to the dogs;

In Africa—Somalia, Tanzania, Mali—Christians are regularly decapitated.  (For a comprehensive picture of Christian suffering under Islam, see my new book, ‘Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians.’)

Most recently, a disturbing video surfaced from ‘liberated’ Libya of a machete-wielding masked man hacking at the head of a captive—again, to cries of ‘Allahu Akbar!’

But the greater lesson of the London beheading concerns its audacity—done in broad daylight with the attackers boasting in front of cameras, as often happens in the Islamic world.

It reflects what I call ‘Islam’s Rule of Numbers,’ a rule that expresses itself with remarkable consistency:  The more Muslims grow in numbers, the more Islamic phenomena intrinsic to the Muslim world—in this case, brazen violence against ‘infidels’—appear.” Read more.

Flashback: Islamic Butchery Manifests In America With Muslim Immigrants, Muslim Man Beheads Two Christians In New Jersey – “Americans must ask themselves if Muslim-style ‘multiculturalism’ fits into the United States of America.  Can our country tolerate beheadings, be-handings, female genital mutilation, arranged marriages of 12 year old girls and murders of gays?  Before 1990, no American ever experienced the barbaric ritual of beheading a person… This week, the New York Daily News reported Islamic violence in Buena Vista, New Jersey: ‘Cops arrested Muslim Yusuf Ibrahim, 28, of Jersey City on Sunday after detectives found the bodies of the two men, aged 25 and 27, behind a home in Buena Vista Township. Their severed heads and hands were discovered at a separate burial site.” Read more.

Flashback: Obama Administration Paves The Way For Sharia Law In America – “The most terrifying danger Americans face from a second Barack Obama term isn’t the economy, which is scary enough. The most harrowing prospect is the Obama Administration’s passivity in the face of attempts to introduce aspects of sharia law into our legal system. Now there is strong and open evidence of the Obama administration collaborating with Islamist activists to ensure the path toward sharia law is accelerated.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags:

US-Backed Syrian Rebels Reportedly Massacre Christian Village, Including Women And Children

05/28/2013 9 comments

This is reported to have happened just one day before learning that Senator John McCain slipped across the Turkish border to meet with the very same rebel force in Syria. Yes, the same rebel fighters that Barack Obama is now preparing to arm with more lethal weapons …

By Ryan Keller, Examiner – “Members of the Free Syrian Army reportedly attacked the Christian-dominated al-Duvair village in Reef on the outskirts of Homs on Monday, where they massacred its citizens, including women and children, before the Syrian Army interfered.

This reported attack comes shortly after intense fighting in the city of al-Qusseir over the weekend, in which Bashar Al-Assad’s forces inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels.

Assad’s forces launched an offensive in April in an effort to cut off supply lines to the rebels by taking the city and its surrounding areas from the rebel groups that had been entrenched there since last year. Two weeks ago, the Syrian forces reached the center of the city

While the sources describing Monday’s massacre are supportive of Assad, it’s possible that it occurred since the rebel groups fighting the Assad regime are composed mainly of members of al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda affiliated groups and have committed war crimes and atrocities in the past.

Jabhat al-Nusra, the branch of al-Qaeda that fought and killed American and allied troops in Iraq, have positioned themselves in Syria and control the rebel movement.

The U.S. and other Western governments that are backing the FSA have acknowledged the presence of jihadists but insist that they’re only a small part of the rebel movement. However, al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups have been at the front of the rebel movement since day one of the Syrian war that began two years ago. According to German intelligence, 95 percent of the rebels aren’t even Syrian.” Read more.

Flashback: Horror In Syria: ‘Free Syrian Army’ Rebels Executing Soldiers Were Reportedly Executing Christians – “Reports from Syria indicate members of the Free Syrian Army have started executing Christians while claiming they’re shooting Syrian soldiers. A video of a Nov. 1 attack in which black-clad Syrian rebels reportedly killed 28 men has been posted on Youtube.com. An Agence France-Presse story on the attack identified the victims as Syrian soldiers. But Religious Freedom Coalition President William Murray said two of the victims were associated with his cooperating organization in Syria, which distributes aid. The victims were not soldiers, he said, but civilians from the same neighborhood, ‘so they were all probably Christians.’” Read more.

Flashback: Syrian Rebels Pledge Their Allegiance To Al-Qaeda – “The leader of the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group fighting in Syria, has pledged allegiance to the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani said the group’s behaviour in Syria would not change as a result. Al-Nusra claims to have carried out many suicide bombings and guerrilla attacks against state targets… Debates among Western leaders over whether to arm Syria’s rebels have often raised the concern of weapons ending up in the hands of groups such as al-Nusra.” Read more.

Flashback: Syria: Obama Moving Toward Sending Lethal Weapons To Rebels While ‘Nowhere In Rebel-Controlled Syria Is There A Secular Fighting Force To Speak Of’ – “In Syria’s largest city, Aleppo, rebels aligned with Al Qaeda control the power plant, run the bakeries and head a court that applies Islamic law. Elsewhere, they have seized government oil fields, put employees back to work and now profit from the crude they produce. Across Syria, rebel-held areas are dotted with Islamic courts staffed by lawyers and clerics, and by fighting brigades led by extremists. Even the Supreme Military Council, the umbrella rebel organization whose formation the West had hoped would sideline radical groups, is stocked with commanders who want to infuse Islamic law into a future Syrian government. Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War Tags:

Expert: Islam Taking Over, Europe Soon To Be Unrecognizable As Muslim Demographics Lead To ‘Abysmal’ Change

05/28/2013 1 comment

By Roi Mandel, ynet – “The murder of a soldier in London, the stabbing of a soldier in Paris and the violent outbreak in Sweden – Europe’s alarm clock has been ringing once again over the past week. The negative birthrate compared to the increase in Muslims, the heavy unemployment and the social-religious isolation of European immigrants are all back on the agenda.

‘Europe has lost its will to live as Europe,’ said Mideast expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar to Ynet. ‘It is gathered into museums, into history. If the leaders will not put an end to immigration, we will soon be hearing the death throes of the continent as we know it.’

Even if it is somewhat demagogic to attempt to bind the three events from the past few days in different European sites under ‘Islamic extremism,’ and even if the rage sparks in the weaker classes of immigrants, it is hard to ignore the basic facts. Behind these events are African immigrants from Islamic countries.

Dr. Zvika Libman studies the effects of the Muslim minority in Europe in light of the radical Islam on European countries. When he sees the reality, he said, there is no alternative interpretation for the events. ‘There is no doubt that the unemployment and the economic hardships lead to rioting, as happened in France. And yes, there is a disadvantage compared to the European bourgeois, but this is not solely bitterness due to the economic situation – because there is unemployment among youngsters who are not Muslim, like in Spain for example.

The Muslims have a fertile ground of mosques that awaken them, preach to them that they are deprived, that they don’t belong, that they’re not wanted and that the only solution is a country with an Arab majority. This is the starting point for these riots.’

According to Dr. Libman, Sweden is an example of the situation in Europe.” Read more.

Categories: Man-Made Disasters, Radical Islam, Wars and Rumors of War

‘A Tragedy Beyond Description’: Syrian Christians ‘Exhausted’ From Islamic Persecution, Desperate Plight ‘Getting Bigger Day By Day’

05/27/2013 2 comments

Daniel 7:25a, “And he shall speak [great] words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws …”

Christian Today – “A Syrian Christian leader has spoken of the desperate plight of the church in the war-torn country.

Dr Mary Mikhael, of the National Evangelical Synod of Syria, said churches were being targeted in the conflict and that many Christians were being displaced.

As refugees, they lack adequate shelter, medicine, food supplies and ‘their human dignity’, she said.

Dr Mikhael was addressing commissioners at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland meeting in Edinburgh this week.

She said there was no Arab Spring for the people of Syria but ‘only a stormy dark winter’.

In particular, she expressed concern that there would soon be no Christian presence in the country. ‘The tragedy is getting bigger day by day … Now the big question is about our future.’

Syrian churches are stepping in to help meet the needs of displaced people but she warned that they are ‘exhausted’.

‘Pray with us, be in solidarity with our church, help us bring hope to Syria,’ she said.

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Right Reverend Lorna Hood paused proceedings to give commissioners a moment to pray about the situation.

She prayed: ‘Help us to stand beside them, to offer not only our prayers but all we can do as a Church to support them, to be with them and somehow through the power of your Spirit, the power of your love and your peace, bring once again peace and an end of strife and hardship to that land through Christ our Lord, Amen.’

Former Moderator, the Very Reverend Professor Iain Torrance said the situation in Syria was a ‘tragedy that is beyond description’.” Read more.

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