Is the Middle East about to go apocalyptic?

By Bill Salus

While world leaders met in Copenhagen for the United Nations 2009 Climate Change Conference, Damascus, Syria hosted a war tribunal with high level delegations from Iran and the Hezbollah. Concurrently, about five-hundred prophetically minded Christian’s fellowshipped at the annual 2009 Pre-Trib Rapture conference in Dallas, hosted by Dr. Tim Lahaye and Dr. Thomas Ice.

Among the eschatologists in attendance were, Dr. David Reagan, Dr. Mark Hitchcock, Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Jimmy DeYoung, Jimmy DeYoung Jr., Dr. Chuck Missler, Bill Koenig, Pastor Chuck Smith, Dr. Ed Hindson, Dr. Randall Price, Mike Gendron, Dr. Thomas Horn, Al Gist, Don McGee, Terry James, Todd Strandberg, Gary Fisher, Phillip Goodman,Wilfred Hahn, Jerry Robinson, Nathan Jones, Don Perkins, Daymond Duck, Gordon Peterson, Don Mercer, Ray Gano, Mike Hile, yours truly and many more.

The revived Roman Empire, trend toward Globalism, coming Mideast War, absence of America in Bible prophecy, and soon return of Jesus Christ weighed heavy on our hearts and minds at the conference. Although not all Christians worldwide agree as to when or whether Jesus Christ comes to take millions of believers out of this world, many of them are troubled by the rapidly developing dangerous events in the Middle East.

On December 2, 2009 Iranian president Ahmadinejad declared “The Zionist regime (Israel) and its (western) backers cannot do a damn thing to stop Iran's nuclear work". Just a few days later according to Debkafile, Iran successfully simulated the detonation of a nuclear warhead in laboratory conditions. This is an alarming development because detonation is one of the most difficult challenges in the development of a nuclear weapon.

In addition to the above Debkafile issued an article on December 10, 2009 Damascus conference entitled “If attacked, Iran wants Syria to hit back at Israel. Damascus hedges.” The article suggested that the largest Iranian delegation ever witnessed in Syrian history recently arrived in Damascus to form a strategic partnership between Iran and Syria against Israel. According to the article, Iran expects an Israeli attack within one month and wants Syria to commit to joint military action against Israel. It appears they plan to pressure Syria into a YES WE WILL ENLIST answer! (Article postsript: Iran and Syria confirmed a military pact on 12/11/09. Click here to read article / video below.)



Iran's defense minister Ahmad Vahidi headed the Iranian delegation in Damascus and he stated, "The countdown for war is coming close to its end." "We must get our strategic partnership in shape ahead of time." He went on to pinpoint “chemical, microbiological and banned nuclear weapons" as strategic retaliatory Israeli targets. Syrian and Iranian military officials purportedly proposed that Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorist organizations start heating up Israel's borders in the coming days to draw the attention from the world's focus on the Iranian and Syrian nuclear programs. (article postsript: Hamas vows to unite with Iran if Israel attacks. Click here to read article.)

Additionally, Hassan Nasrallah the Secretary General of Hezbollah, brought a delegation from Lebanon to participate in this important Damascus meeting. Hassan Nasrallah had previously advocated this type of antagonistic behavior toward Israel on September 18, 2009, when he declared Hezbollah can presently wipe out one-half of Israel’s army and that Israel should be wiped off of the map.

It appears as though things are about to go ballistic in the Middle East. Should a war break out between Israel and the parties listed above, it could segue into a sequence of events foretold in the Bible. Three Mideast centered prophecies are strongly bleeping on the prophetic radar presently. They are Isaiah 17:1, Psalm 83, and Ezekiel 38 & 39. These three major prophecies have a myriad of subset prophecies, like Ezekiel 25:14, 37:10, Obadiah 1:18, Jeremiah 49:1-27 and many more that seem interconnected. These three prophecies were alluded to frequently among the attendees at the Pre-Trib conference.

While attending on December 8, 2009 I visited with Bill Koenig, a respected eschatologist and white house correspondent. He said that Syria supposedly has the most advanced scuds in the world. Additionally, we discussed the possibility that Saddam Hussein may have smuggled many of his chemical warheads into Syria before the 2003 U.S. led invasion of Iraq. I commented to Bill Koenig that; “Should any chemicals penetrate into Israeli soil, I suspect Israel might attack Damascus and ultimately bring about the fulfillment of Isaiah 17:1”. (Isaiah 17:1 alludes to the final destruction of Damascus)

Also we discussed the upcoming massive civilian defense drill potentially scheduled for the middle of January 2010 in Israel. Several people at the conference had heard about this drill, which is being performed in preparation for a potential multi-front war with Hezbollah, Syria, Hamas, and perhaps Iran. This exercise is intended to prepare Israelis for an attack of a chemical and biological nature. Also Koenig concurred that gas masks are going to be re-distributed on a wide scale in Israel in January 2010, seemingly for such a scenario.

Regarding chemical warfare, the Kuwaiti Daily reported in the summer of 2008 that chemical components enabling the production of mustard gas made their way through Iran and Syria into Hezbollah's hands. There is legitimate concern that deadly chemicals may already be mounted within many of Hezbollah’s rocket warheads. Koenig believes that there are presently 50,000 rockets in Hezbollah's arsenal. In the 34 day conflict between Hezbollah and Israel during the summer of 2006, Hezbollah launched approximately 4000 rockets into many parts of Northern Israel. This proved to be an embarrassing wakeup call to Israeli Defense Forces and their leadership.

Recently in a televised speech on Al Quds day this past September Hezbollah Secretary General, Hassan Nasrallah, discouraged all Arab allegiance with Israel and encouraged a multi-front war instead. He said "the next Mideast war will change the maps", inferring that in the aftermath new maps would be drawn without the nation of Israel upon them. Undoubtedly, Hezbollah defiance is due to their success in 2006 and their abundant arsenal amassed presently in 2009.

In my estimation this coming war will be unlike any other Mideast war throughout the entirety of history. I had dinner with Jimmy DeYoung, the widely respected end time’s expert, on December 7, 2009 and he, like most everyone else I spoke with at the conference about the subject, believes that Israel will pre-empt a strike against Iran's nuclear sites in the near future. "They have to", he said. The possible, albeit speculative, scenario I am suggesting to prepare for is as follows:

1. Israeli Pre-empted strike against Iran's nuclear sites.
2. Iran and / or proxies (Hezbollah, Syria, Hamas) retaliate.
3. Israel uses Scalar Technology against Damascus
4. Damascus ceases to be a city (Isaiah 17:1 fulfilled)
5. Arab League calls an emergency meeting intended to draw a line in the sand between Israel and the Arabs
6. Jordan and Egypt are pressured to break fragile peace treaties with Israel and confederate with other Arabs. (Jordan and Egypt are enlisted members of Psalm 83)
7. Saudi Arabia, also enlisted in Psalm 83, joins in for survival and economic, religious, and geo-political purposes
8. Psalm 83 commences...
On a side note; Arab Nationalism is at an all time high especially in light of the Iranian nuclear threat. Additionally the Palestinian Refugee Plight is climaxing presently and, if the scenario I'm suggesting occurs, it could come full front and center in the midst of this major conflict.
I believe these refugees are the "tents of Edom" in Psalm 83:6.
9. Israel recognizes Arab military intentions and launches further preemptive strikes on its Arab neighbors and strikes religious sites in Saudi Arabia and overtakes the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. (Jimmy DeYoung informed me that the priestly garb is presently being prepared for about 28,000 Levites. DeYoung declared, They are saying in Israel today; "When the dome comes down, the priestly garments come out"! )
10. The Psalm 83 war ends, separation wall comes down, and construction of third Jewish temple begins.
11. The I.D.F. become and exceedingly great army in fulfillment of Ezekiel 37:10.

It may not happen exactly in this way; however, the above scenario is not that far fetched and I encourage people to prepare for the above or some varying scenario possibilities. The prophecies that are about to be fulfilled leading up to Ezekiel 38 are world changing and then the world will probably witness the Gog of Magog invasion. The sign posts are all up and pointing toward the nearby coming of the seven-year tribulation period ending with the campaign of Armageddon, shortly after the above type scenario occurs.

Therefore, Christians worldwide should look up for our redemption draws extremely near.