THE HOLY BIBLE CONTINUES TO DISPLAY ITS RELEVANCE TO TODAY’S NEWS
As I read yesterday’s (Wednesday 22nd November) Telegraph report it kept speaking to me of chapter 38 in the Book of Ezekiel. That’s where the Lord told that Old Testament prophet about a future international alliance that would come against His people.

As outlined in Update #2, Ezekiel 38 and 39 describe an alliance known as ‘the Gog and Magog’ coalition that will eventually invade the land the Holy One of Israel gave to His people. Most Bible scholars regard the various people named as forming that group as coming from the land between and north of the Black and Caspian Seas. ie modern Russia.
The prophet received a word from the Lord to ‘set his face’ against Gog, a leader of those nations north of Israel and which include Persia/Iran. And in coming into battle he and those nations would be used for God’s own purpose for this almighty battle:
“So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel. I will not let them profane My name anymore – Then the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.” (Ezekiel 38:7 NKJV)
Let’s check the pertinent points of Middle East correspondent Raf Sanchez report, emphases mine. His opening gives the game away!!
‘Syria’s Bashar al-Assad has thanked Vladimir Putin and the Russian military for helping to save his country as the Russian president prepared to host the leaders of Iran and Turkey for high-level talks on ending the war in Syria. Mr Assad made a secret visit to Socchi (Black Sea resort) on Monday…(where he) met Mr Putin for 3 hours to discuss a potential political settlement for Syria’s future…
‘Mr Putin ordered Russian forces to intervene in Syria on Mr Assad’s behalf in late 2015…(and) with their Iranian allies have swung the tide of war decisively in Mr Assad’s favour.
‘The Kremlin said the two men had worked to “prepare the groundwork for possible understandings” that might be reached during today’s (22nd) summit between Mr Putin, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
‘ Iran and Russia supported the Assad regime throughout the war whilst Turkey has backed the opposition. The three countries have acted as guarantors of local deals in Syria and Mr Putin hopes they will be able to agree on a comprehensive pact to end the fighting.
Mr Putin has placed himself centre-stage in talks over Syria’s future. As well as hosting the Turkish and Iranian leaders, he spoke to Donald Trump by phone…briefing him on the talks with Mr Assad.
‘The Geneva talks (with Syrian opposition) have collapsed several times…observers agree it’s more likely major decisions will be made by Russia, Iran and Turkey.’
SO, WHO’s IN CHARGE? Clearly the Russian leader is! Although often disagreeing with each other, the leaders of Iran and Turkey kowtow to him.
The above Reuters’ photo of Assad and Putin speaks volumes to those who read body language.
MEANWHILE ON ISRAELI-SYRIAN BORDER
Previous posts on Gog/Magog referred to the Iranian strategy of getting a strong swathe of influence westwards from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean by means of proxy-terrorist, regular military and diplomatic activities. In view of their declared ambition of attacking and capturing Jerusalem, Iran’s military presence in the Golan and within 10 miles of Israel is totally unacceptable to the Israeli government.
Several bulletin point headlines in Middle-East Update #2 highlight those deep issues. Note the reference to a special ‘eschatological’ brigade in the Golan. One whose aim is undoubtedly to prepare the ground for the Shiite Mahdi to appear (with Jesus in tow!) – obviously a blasphemous counterfeit of Christian theology. (Read more on this in third section of Iran and the Nuclear ‘Fix’.)
Moreover, Monday’s long telephone conversation between Putin and PM Netanyahu ended up with them at odds over removing Iran/Hizballah from the Golan border (Debka). It would appear Donald Trump has quietly withdrawn the US from involvement on this front. Having close Christian input, details of the Ezekiel 38 Gog-Magog prophecy will have been brought to his attention.
Next, we’ll consider Joel Rosenberg’s ‘take’ on this week’s news…(click to read)
NB: In view of the increasing relevance of Old Testament prophecy to current world events I’ve set up a new tag: OT-UPDATE. Click thereon to read a multitude of posts on news of, and developments towards, the fulfillment of Bible prophecies.
Further Reading:
- Tracking Bible Prophecy – The Gog and Magog War
- The Watchman – The Debate of the Gog Magog Battle
- Koinonia House – The Treacherous Trio of Ezekiel 38 – Part 1 (Turkey) – Part 2 (Iran) – Part 3 (Russia).
With the background from updates
This is first of three overviews of events in the Middle-East before leading into a consideration of how they relate to the ‘Four Signposts’ approach to Bible prophecy. We will look more closely at Jordan and dip into reports on Saudi Arabian involvement in the Israel-Palestine peace process and with Iran.
I wondered if Joel Rosenberg’s report of visiting Jordan accurately paints the picture in view of strong discrimination against those who become Christians (secret police watch ex-Muslims). I’m grateful to friends who’ve been there allowing me to share their response to my
From his desk as an accredited correspondent in the White House, William Koenig gives an exceptionally extensive round-up of the week’s Middle-Eastern news in his
Won’t you pause to ponder and praise the Lord with me? Let’s look back briefly and consider how the prophetic has a place in diplomatic circles.
‘On the anniversary of this century’s ‘day of infamy’ for New York, I noted another event seemed to connect into the collapse of the Twin Towers – as well as possibly being of God, or was it simply coincidence? Lightning from a severe thunderstorm in Mecca struck a tall crane, which collapsed into the Grand Mosque thereby killing and injuring hundreds.
1st Nov >
2nd Nov >
8th Nov > 



So we’re not only back to the Bible but also to what grabbed my attention in mid-1980s of Iran rehearsing (with its Sunni enemy troops!) the storming of Jerusalem whilst I was reading about it as a non-Christian in the secular book 

‘Thanks for taking time to go into details as I’d hoped on Monday to have been able to update readers on Trump by using material in Saturday’s
Yesterday’s encouraging op-ed in the Telegraph broadsheet on the 

On Friday Joel Rosenberg in Jerusalem blogged about FoxNews.com publishing that morning a new column of his on the massive
‘Iran, Syria and Hizballah sharpened their responses to the large-scale Israeli military war game against a potential Hizballah invasion… An Iranian military buildup indeed appears to be taking place on Syria’s borders with Jordan and Israel, in response to Israel’s mock thrust into Lebanon. But they are moving in on areas outside the de-escalation zones which are manned by Russian officers. Their tactic therefore is to entrench themselves in other parts of the southeastern Syria so that Russian, Iranian, Syrian and Hizballah forces form a continuous, impermeable line along Syria’s borders with Israel and Jordan.’ (12 Sept – 




UPDATED: (Central Israel) — Today marks 69 years since the dramatic rebirth of the modern State of Israel in May of 1948. Israelis are joyfully celebrating independence, security and growing prosperity, but not everyone is happy. Sadly, there are many people in this region and around the world who despise Israel and seek her isolation, demise, and even annihilation.
A month after launching this blog in late November 2011, I introduced my first readers to accredited Christian journalist and ‘Watcher in The White House’, William Koenig in