Impending Mideast War

I’m guessing that when President Obama breaks himself away from his domestic agenda to deal with foreign policy that he genuinely wants to see peace in the Mideast. But it is amazing how actions by rulers with a materialistic world view end up with exactly what they are trying to avoid.

After Israel approved 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, President Obama diverted JDAM kits for turning bunker buster bombs into smart bombs from Israel to the US Air Force base on Diego Garcia. I’m sure this is intended to punish Israel for building in Jerusalem by discouraging them from attacking Iran. But all this does is signal to Israel that they are on their own regarding Iran so their first strike has to be effective. There were already questions that conventional bunker buster smart bombs would be effective, so this only makes it more likely that Israel will employ tactical nuclear weapons to take out Iran’s hardened targets.

Given the existential nature of the threat Iran’s nuclear weapons program represents for Israel, using nuclear weapons against it is justified. And the world will ostracize Israel for attacking Iran whether they use conventional weapons or nukes. This is all the more reason for making sure the first strike will not require a second.

There is speculation that the reason Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently visited President Obama was to notify him about Israel’s single-strike plan. This conjecture is reinforced by the White House stepping up efforts on getting sanctions imposed on Iran by the world community of nations in weeks rather than months. All that sanctions will do is give the nations participated in it the perception of the moral high ground; it gives them cover that they did all they could to avoid a war. Iran has sufficient support from other nations that universal sanctions will not happen and thus will not be effective. Israel knows this and will not risk waiting for the world to come around to realizing this as well.

So Israel will attack Iran in a single, multiple target strike with tactical nuclear weapons. We don’t know when but I’d expect it to happen this year, probably by summer. The world will be outraged and I expect this will likely precipitate the Ezekiel 38 nations to mass for an attack on Israel. What will the outcome be? Israel will prevail. Zechariah 12:6 says, “In that day I will make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place—Jerusalem” (NKJ).

Any time nuclear weapons are used, even for a limited tactical objective, there is high risk of escalation. And it is very likely that the Ezekiel 38-39 war which includes a nuclear exchange will be the result. Ezekiel 38:22 describes how God will devastate those who attack Israel, “I will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” I’m sure this defensive action is what will cause the world’s longest continuously inhabited city, Damascus to become “be a ruinous heap” (Isaiah 17:1). And the devastation will not be limited to the massing soldiers: “I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in security in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 39:6).

This war will set the stage for the Antichrist to come on the scene to clean things up. If this scenario is plausible, the Rapture must happen in conjunction with the Ezekiel 38 war. And I think that a nuclear exchange would be a likely time for the Rapture to occur. Who will miss a few millions Christians when the world has lost millions more from a nuclear war? 2 Thessalonians 2:11 reinforces the idea that God will time the Rapture in such a way that people will not give it the significance it deserves.

Developments in the Mideast bear watching… “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28)