Other Items 2013

Iran’s Death Throes – From an Unexpected Source

And Obama Explained

Abstracted from Middle East Forum, November 13, 2013

Dying civilizations are the most dangerous, and Iran is dying from an unexpected source. Its total fertility rate (TFR, the number of children per female) currently stands at just 1.6 children per female. That is equivalent to the TFR of Western Europe, and is a disastrous decline of Iran from seven children per female in the 1980s.

This article from David Goldman, Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum. notes that many commentators (most eloquently Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal) draw a parallel between the appeasement of Hitler at Munich by Lord Chamberlain in 1938 and the parallel appeasement of Iran at Geneva recently.

But there is another, more eerie parallel: Iran is stating the same motive as Hitler for wishing to annihilate the State of Israel – and again, the world is indifferent and disinterested about the prospect of another Holocaust. The author calls it “the dead’s envy for the living.”

At this moment there is in Iran a “youth bulge;” but it will turn into an elderly dependent problem worse than Europe’s in the next generation, and the country will collapse. For this reason, states the author, “war is likely, if not entirely inevitable.”

We know that to be a verity by dint of familiarity with God’s holy word. Why must it be?

The reason for this is the Elderly Dependent Ratio in Iran in 2010 was 7.4 – a projection of the UNO.

There are seven elderly dependents for every 93 workers (male and female) today, but in a generation there it will become necessary for every TWO workers to support one elderly person. That is a death sentence which is predictable and inevitable; and at this point in time, it is almost impossible to reverse. Of course, the reason for this is, that an elderly and dependent population will heavily burden Iran’s public health infrastructure and social security networks.

How could Iran avoid this fate? It is said that this could be done if Iran broke out and established a Shi’ite zone of power. Its theocracy puts forth the same panic about its population decline as Hitler did about the fate of the Aryan nation in 1938. But unlike Hitler, there was little to support his maniacal drive toward power, whereas Iran’s national death is well-founded on facts.

Why has Iran’s fertility rate dropped so precipitously? Because, like most Muslim countries, it jumped from infancy to senescence without passing through adulthood. Strangely, Iran’s thrust toward the education of women is probably responsible for this rapid, almost catastrophic decline in birth rate. The same phenomenon is observed in other Arab states with well educated female populations, such as Tunisia, Algeria, and Turkey.

Iran’s universities have competent demographers who have warned against the drop in childbirths for some time, but now there is virtual panic. Iran’s leaders are living with the certain knowledge that their society has but one generation left before it collapses. To compensate for its frustration, Iran lashes out against enemies real and imagined. It will not go gently into this inevitable darkness. So ... it lashes out against its worst imagined enemy – the Jews.

The scenario is irrational. Iran has no common border with Israel. No Iranian soldier has killed an Israeli since Israel was founded, as far as anyone knows. But that does not prevent the fear of the Jews as a palpable object of hatred in the minds of Iran’s ruling class.

Part of this difficulty for Iran stems from the fact that it is a “supercessionist religion,” meaning that it seriously claims that the Jewish and Christian Scriptures perverted the original prophecy of Islam, and that Mohammed restored the true religion through the Koran. To them, Mohammed is the “seal of the prophets,” and the final and definitive exponent of God’s word, replacing the falsified (in their minds) version of Christians and Jews.

This view entirely ignores the glaring fact that Islam only was invented THOUSANDS of years after Judahism, and HUNDREDS of years after Christianity!

The hatred is mostly founded, then, on the “chosen” nature of the Jews – chosen by God, which their scriptures attest. As such, the Jews must be deposed and destroyed by the late-comers, just to prove their superiority.

In Iran’s case, it is very difficult for their self-proclaimed holy men to patiently await the collapse of Judaism and Christianity while they stare into the inescapable abyss of oblivion in one generation. As the writer of this article states, “This is a culture inherently incapable of reflection on its own deficiencies, one that has nourished itself for 1,200 years on morbid rancour against the Sunni Muslim majority and more recently against the West. Patience in this case is a poison.

“Israel thus faces a new Hitler and the threat of a new Holocaust. There is no way to portray the situation in a less alarming light. That is one parallel to 1938; another is the response of the world's powers to the emergence of this monster [that is, their ignore-ance of its threats].”

The Intricate Details of this End Time Scenario; Mr. Obama’s Integral Part in It

And now Mr. Goldberg offers a complex commentary upon this Iranian dilemma that is best served by my quoting him verbatim. You may find this a “dry” discussion, but please think about it; it does have deep meaning and I commend it to your consideration: it gives a perfectly rational answer to the irrational notions of the U. S. president ... with no excuses for Barack Obama implied.

It partially explains why Israel, when the final showdown comes, shall be without a friend or confederate – against literally everyone else!

He writes these words. Italics mine for emphasis ...

“As Franz Rosenzweig observed, once the Gentile nations embraced Christianity, they abandoned their ancient fatalism regarding the inevitable extinction of their tribe. It is the God of Israel who first offers ­eternal life to humankind, and Christianity extended Israel's promise to all. But the nations that adhered to Christendom as tribes rather than as individuals never forswore their love for their own ethnicity [he is speaking of “national” religions, here, such as the German Lutheran Church].

“On the ­contrary, they longed for eternal life in their own ­Gentile skin rather than in the Kingdom of God promised by Jesus Christ. After Christianity taught them [about] the election of Israel, the Gentiles coveted election for themselves and desired their own people to be the chosen people. That set ethnocentric nationalism in conflict both with the Jews—the descendents of Abraham in the flesh—and with the Church, which holds itself to be the new People of God.

“As Rosenzweig put it, ‘Precisely through Christianity, the idea of Election has gone out amongst the individual nations, and along with it a concomitant claim upon eternity. It is not that the case that such a claim upon eternity conditioned the entire life of these peoples; one hardly can speak of this. The idea of Election, upon which such a claim [upon eternity] uniquely can be based, becomes conscious for the peoples only in certain exalted moments, and in any case is more of a festive costume than their workaday dress.

“’Still, there sleeps upon the foundation of one's love for one's own people the presentiment that someday in the distant future it no longer will be, and this gives this love a sweetly painful gravity.’

“The European elite cannot distinguish its own past parody of Israel's election from the self-understanding of the Jewish people as a blessing to all nations by virtue of its unique national life. Israeli nationalism only brings to mind Europe's failed nationalisms and their horrendous denouement in the world wars of the past century. Europe is enervated, exhausted by past wars, aging, hedonistic and cynical. It is not surprising that the nations of Europe once again would avert their eyes to the threat of another Holocaust.

“What explains, though, the Obama administration's obsession with a compromise at any cost with the Tehran regime? I have not changed my view of what an Asian leader privately called ‘America's NGO president’ since I profiled Barack Obama in February 2008:

“America is not the embodiment of hope, but the abandonment of one kind of hope in return for another. America is the spirit of creative destruction, selecting immigrants willing to turn their back on the tragedy of their own failing culture in return for a new start. Its creative success is so enormous that its global influence hastens the decline of other cultures. For those on the destruction side of the trade, America is a monster. Between half and nine-tenths of the world's 6,700 spoken languages will become extinct in the next century, and the anguish of dying peoples rises up in a global cry of despair. Some of those who listen to this cry become anthropologists, the curators of soon-to-be extinct cultures; anthropologists who really identify with their subjects marry them. Obama's mother, the University of Hawaii anthropologist Ann Dunham, did so twice.

“Obama's most revealing disclosure, perhaps, came in his autobiography, Dreams of My Father, as he recounts his thoughts while visiting Chicago's public housing as a young community organizer:

“And yet for all that poverty [that he had observed in the Indonesian marketplace], there remained in their lives a discernible order, a tapestry of trading routes and middlemen, bribes to pay and customs to observe, the habits of a generation played out every day beneath the bargaining and the noise and the swirling dust. It was the absence of such coherence that made a place like [the Chicago housing projects] so desperate.

“He deeply identifies with the fragile, unraveling cultures of the Third World against the depredations of the globalizing Metropole. So, I suspect, does his mentor and chief advisor, the Iranian-born Valerie Jarrett, and most of his inner circle. This goes beyond the famous declaration of Jimmy Carter's advisor Hamilton Jordan—"the Palestinians are the n****ers of the Middle East"— and Carter's own mainline-Protestant reverence for the "holy men" of Iran's 1979 Iranian revolution. It goes beyond the post-colonial theory of liberal academia. For Obama, it is matter of personal experience. His father and stepfather were Third World Muslims, his mother was an anthropologist who dedicated her life to protecting the traditional culture of Indonesia against the scourge of globalization, and four years of his childhood were spent at an Indonesian school. The same point has been made by Dinesh d'Souza, among others.

“Obama's commitment to rapprochement with Iran arises from deep personal identification with the supposed victims of imperialism. That is incongruous, to be sure. Persia spent most of [its] history as one of the nastier imperial powers, and its present rulers are no less ambitious in their pursuit of a pocket empire in the Shi'ite world. The roots of his policy transcend rationality. Israel can present all the evidence in the world of Iran's plans to build nuclear weapons and delivery systems, and the Iranians can cut the Geneva accord into confetti. Obama will remain unmoved. His heart, like his late mother's, beats for the putatively oppressed peoples of the so-called Third World.

“No factor of this sort was present in 1938: Neville Chamberlain did not sympathize with Hitler. He simply feared him and needed time to rearm, as the Wall Street Journal's Mr Stephens observes. If Lord Halifax rather than Chamberlain had been Prime Minister then, the parallel to Obama would be stronger.”

He concludes: “I do not know how Israel will respond. There are too many unknowns in the shifting political equation of the Middle East to solve that equation. But the facts on the ground support the Israeli view that the Geneva accord puts the Jewish State at existential risk.”

[David P. Goldman is Senior Fellow at the London Center for Policy Research and Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.] 

 Abstracted by H E Lafferty, code 12M. ~2000 words.

Al Qaeda, Itself a Freestanding Mistake, Makes Another Error

Abstracted from Reports, by H.E. Lafferty

We have recently been investigating the consistent reports of an independent Al-Qaeda State currently arising out of Iraq and Syria – a movement which we believe could easily emerge as a renascent “Assyria,” even if it does not so name itself.

This new movement is “The Islamic State of Iraq and the Shams” (ISIS) – a virulent, obtrusive, unusually offensive offshoot of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, bent on control of Syria first, then intending to eliminate Israel. That is precisely the avowed goal of Assyria as foretold in Micah 5 – a long-misunderstood End Time prophecy by many.

Just what is the meaning of “the Shams?” Here is a quotation from Wikipedia, which explains it:

The name Syria derives from the ancient Greek name for Syrians, Σύριοι Syrioi, which the Greeks applied without distinction to various Assyrian people. Modern scholarship confirms the Greek word traces back to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, ultimately derived from the Akkadian Aššur. Syria was known to Arabian Arabs as Shām, which comes from the root SH-ʔ-M, meaning "sublime" and "victorious."

Therefore, Al Sham is an ancient name for Assyria!

For the first time, Al Qaeda – after a quarter-century of terrorism against Israel – has now laid before the world in printed form a detailed blueprint for Israel’s destruction. It is said to be chilling in its content (it is available in Arabic only, so far).

The 32-page booklet has been disclosed by DebkaFile. It was written by Abu Al Khattib Al Maqdasi, whose thesis is “that the Jewish State is Condemned; that Israel’s destruction will come from the East.”

The publication is filled with maps and documents, photographs and references, all highlighting Al Qaeda’s next step, after establishing control of Syria, as being the elimination of the State of Israel!

We referred in an earlier article to the boast by ISIS chief Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi’s recent progress toward founding an Al Qaeda state in Iraq and Syria, a product which answers to ancient Assyria.

That disclosure came in November. The Debka article was entitled, “Al-Qaeda-Iraq Presses Forward for First Jihadist State Spanning Mid East Borders.”

Now, six weeks later, this new booklet appears, laying out their detailed plan for Israel’s destruction.

We reported earlier that numerous Al Qaeda fighters were being pulled out of Syria, leaving another branch of that organization to fight Syria (the other wing is known as Jabhat Al-Nusra) for the time being.

But in the longer term, the two branches plan to re-unite to fight against Israel.

The Al Qaeda author is reported to misrepresent the Biblical account of ancient Israel, distorting it to fit his agenda – details which we will not comment upon here, as we have known for years that the Arabic view of Israel’s history is extremely distorted and unsustainable (in plainer words, lies).

His claim is that Israel has only ever been defeated by armies from Iraq and its forerunners. He conveniently overlooks the conquest of the Twelve Tribes in Canaan by Egypt in the era of the Judges, Napoleon’s conquest of Palestine from Egypt, as well as the British in 1917 – all from the south.

The jihadist group, he claims, has an historic opportunity to establish an Islamic state in Iraq – and in Syria by annexation, both included for strategic depth.

Strategic depth is necessary for the safety of any state. He claims that Israel’s lack of strategic depth makes it especially vulnerable to attack. This depth would be decreased if Israel indeed cedes the West Bank to the “Palestinians.” His theory is that Israel’s ability to secure (or not to secure) its eastern border has governed its destiny to date; so the ISIS master plan concentrates on Israel’s eastern flank as its weakest point.

In this he discounts the failure of Jordan and Iraq (both toward the east) to conquer Israel in 1948, 1967, and 1973 – in every instance suffering abject defeat.

In addition, the writer of this booklet treats the “Palestinians” with contempt, believing them incapable of grasping Al Qaeda’s worldview or even its strategic thinking. Even the Salafis of the Gaza Strip (Hamas) and Israeli Arab extremists are deemed as ineligible for the ruling elite of their future!

So Al Qaeda’s intended overthrow of Israel after it has defeated Iraq and the Levantine powers, is set in stone: it intends to use Iraq and Syria (Assyria) as a springboard into Jordan and then into Israel.

It will rely on simultaneous terrorist attacks creating many civilian casualties, strikes on military strongholds, suicide bombings, hostage-taking and executions of prisoners.

It strongly feels its opportunity is greater than ever before because of the weapons ISIS shall acquire from Syria – Scud missiles and chemical weapons, both of which can cause extensive damage and ruin.

Again, we must point out that these pagan interlopers have no clue as to their real future in this conflict. The judgment of the Almighty certainly awaits them – a destiny which cannot be avoided or deferred. Micah 5:5 gives this picture: And this Man (of Bethlehem – verse 2) shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces … Verse 6 continues with these words: And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian.

But that event requires the personal return of the LORD to the earth.

How long, O Lord?

We can but persevere – to “occupy till He come.” <HEL MD/USA code 12M> ~925 words.

Is the Pope an Exorcist? He Surely Is!

H Edward Lafferty

A news article several weeks ago in an entirely copyrighted Internet news magazine so I won’t even mention its name; it posed the question: Is the Pope an Exorcist?

 Our answer, well documented and grounded in fact, is, Yes!

 By definition, EVER bishop of the Church is a qualified exorcist … whatever they deem that to be! [see papal websites for proof of this].

 The pope is the Bishop of Rome – that is THE Bishop of Rome. He claims to sit in the chair of St. Peter, so in that sense is “Peter the Roman,” in eerie fulfillment of “St. Malachy’s” prophecy of many years ago. Maybe that seems a stretch, but it does apply! He was born in Romulus, Italy.

 Observers noted that Pope Francis, early in his papacy, working the vast crowds who had come to see him, placed his hands on the head of a young man who was attending Mass in St. Peter’s Square. The man is said to have taken several deep, labored breaths and then collapsed forward in his wheel chair as the pope prayed over him.

 Why should it be thought unusual that the pope should do this? He believes firmly in a personal devil who, he would attest, can hurt men and infest their lives with malevolence and grave harm. The papal practice of exorcism is supposed to remove that influence and free the person from “demonic possession.”

 We know the belief in exorcism to be medieval nonsense of the first water; but no matter, the pope believes it and upholds that dogma – and teaches it throughout his Church. Instances recorded in scripture of a procedure which may seem similar to exorcism (and from which it mistakenly took its name and practice) are actually the removal from individuals of mental illness, epilepsy, or some other DISEASE such as blindness.

 These maladies are caused by human pathogens or by inborn errors of metabolism – not by a two-horned, forked-tail, Devil who dwells in lakes of fire! We can freely voice this opinion at the moment, of course. But in the near future, such utterances may be strictly forbidden if the government has its way in controlling the Internet.

 This belief in a supernatural Devil or Satan is one very sobering reason for the Lord Jesus Himself to have commanded, Come out of her (Romanism) My people, that ye be not partaker of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Revelation 18: 4.   

                           <HEL MD/USA code 6M> ~425 words.

Iran’s New President Hassan Rouhani

H. Edward Lafferty

The Evil One, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is trying very hard to reconfigure Iran in the eyes of the world as moving in a “moderate” direction. This is believed to be true because only he could finally approve the candidacy of any Iranian in the recent presidential elections. This means that a man of his choosing did win the election. That man is Hassan Rouhani.

It appears that the Western news media are wholly convinced that this is so: that Rouhani IS a moderate, and will lead Iran in a departure from its former course.

Nothing could be farther from the truth! He probably was not even “elected” in the generally accepted sense. He is certainly no “reformer.” He intends to toe the line handed him by his master, the Supreme leader. Israeli sources tell  us that Rouhani is a dangerous Radical Shia Muslim whose dedication to Iran’s nuclear development and weaponology is deep and hardened.

Commenting on this man, Joel Rosenburg, in his weblog (blog) reports the assessment of Rouhani by a top Iranian Christian leader. Consider these comments by Rosenburg: He says …

* Hassan Rouhani was endorsed by the only Iranian leader ever to publicly call for Israel to be destroyed by nuclear weapons. 

* Iran’s Hassan Rowhani rules out halt to uranium enrichment programme (London Telegraph) 

* A “Pragmatic” Mullah? (Wall Street Journal) -- ”[Rouhani] chaired Iran’s National Security Council between 1989 and 2005, meaning he was at the top table when Iran masterminded the 1994 bombing of the Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires, killing 85 people, and of the Khobar Towers in 1996, killing 19 U.S. airmen. He would also have been intimately familiar with the secret construction of Iran’s illicit nuclear facilities in Arak, Natanz and Isfahan, which weren’t publicly exposed until 2002.” Rouhani also “called on the regime’s basij militia to suppress the student protests of July 1999 ‘mercilessly and monumentally.’ More than a dozen students were killed in those protests, more than 1,000 were arrested, hundreds were tortured, and 70 simply ‘disappeared.’” 

* Rohani once approved of hiding Iran atomic work (Reuters) – a very detailed and disturbing article.

Do these facts indicate even a modicum of “moderation” in his view of Iran’s position in the world – in the direction that he wishes to take the Iranian Republic in the years ahead? We believe not; precisely the opposite!

These notions are entirely in agreement with God’s word concerning Persia (Iran), who in Ezekiel 38 and 39 is numbered chief among the aggressors of the newly expanded and consolidated State of Israel – to be better known as the Kingdom of God – beginning at Mount Zion, and occupying at that time all the strategic land-bridge between the Nile and the Euphrates Rivers. We are here addressing the Abrahamic Land Grant as specified quite clearly in Genesis 12;7: Gen 13:15, 17; Gen 15:7, 18; Gen 17:8; Gen 24:7; Gen 26:3; Gen 28:4; Gen 35:12; Gen 50:24; Leviticus 23: 10; Numbers 14:8, 23; Num 27:12; Num 32:7,11; Num 33:53, and on and on – repeating multiple times the great inheritance He has promised to Abraham and his Seed (Christ – and those who are His, as Galatians 3: 29).  

These promises exhaustively preclude any Islamic presence in God’s Land AT ALL. They indicate clearly the cleansing of the Land for Christ’s kingdom’s first (chief) domain – dedicated to the exclusive habitation of the Hebrew people restored to it from every corner of the earth, and as world headquarters for the elect of Christ – the Redeemed Saints of that aion – Who shall be dispersed to the nether regions of earth to bring to it the good news (the Gospel) of the kingdom of God then developing over the entire face of the globe: Habakkuk 2: 14; Psalm 22: 27; Psalm 67: 1, 2; Psalm 72: 19; Psalm 86: 9; Psalm 98: 1-3; Isaiah 6: 3; Isaiah 11: 9; Zechariah 14: 8, 9; Revelation 11: 19; Revelation 15: 4.

So pervasive in that day is His word and will that no yet mortal individual in the entire earth shall evade a qualified education in matters of salvation, as the Thousand Years – the Seventh Millennium – progresses toward its End Time when death and suffering themselves suffer their end, and the earth is finally purified of all sin and evil, and effectively returned to the pristine qualities of Eden, the Garden of the Lord. No more threats of Islam or false Christianity – nor of paganism of any other sort – but endless, peaceful, productive, eternally-satisfying life forevermore.

  <HEL MD/USA  code 6M>  ~770 words.

More Heavenly Signs

Harold Lafferty

 We have recently written about the overwhelming significance of Blood Red Lunar Eclipses which have occurred on significant dates as Jewish Tetrads beginning in 1492, and continuing in 1948, 1967, and 2014 – the last one yet ahead of us in time. There are two additional sets of solar eclipses which we want to bring to your attention.

 Two Sets of Solar Eclipses on Jewish Feast Days

Firstly, during the upcoming lunar eclipse occurrences there will occur two Solar Eclipses as well. By the chart below, one sees that their occurrences are  scheduled on Jewish feast days – a most unusual occurrence by astronomical standards.

These will occur on 20 March, 2015 – Rosh Hoshana (Jewish New Year),  AFTER the first two blood red lunar eclipses, and then on 13 September, 2015 – The Feast of Trumpets BETWEEN the next two blood red lunar eclipses.

 As stated in our last article, we believe these unusual, almost unique, “signs” are drawing our attention to an important event connected with the Jewish people – for it is around them that the entire Plan of God revolves. Whatever happens to Israel signifies an advance toward the Kingdom of God, in our opinion. We make that statement bolstered by the confidence that the last three Jewish Tetrads have had immense significance to the Plan of God for His people.

You may wonder why we stress the Jewish people in this consideration.

One reason is because of the timing of these events around specific landmark occurrences in Jewish historical progress.

Another is because the Jewish people have always been the principle interest of their Father, Who refers to them as My Son, as in Hosea 11: 1 - When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

He is dear to his Father’s heart, and occurrences involving Israel are a sure indicator of the advance of His purpose. Lest we Gentile believers vaunt ourselves above our true significance, we must remember that we are “grafted into” the Good Olive Tree – which is Israel – and that His Plan with His Son is our best and most vital connection with our adopted Father. In other words, although supremely important to Him, WE are not the primary consideration – but are entirely secondary to His concerns with His Son, Israel.

There is Another Series of Solar Eclipses Which Seem Significant

It has been observed that the scheduled Blood Red Lunar Eclipses of 2014 and 2015 occur at the end of a seven year period of time beginning in 2008.

It is important to realize that solar eclipses seem to indicated Gentile upheavals, while lunar eclipses seem to involve Jewish cataclysmic events.

Here are three reasons for this conclusion …

On August 1, 2008, which was Av 1, 2008, or Rosh HaShanah, the Feast of Trumpets, there was a SOLAR eclipse. On that day the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 777 points to signal the beginning of the global financial meltdown which followed. A Gentile event!

On July 22, 2009, which was Av 1, 2009, or Rosh HaShanah, the Feast of Trumpets, there was yet another SOLAR eclipse! It was as if to confirm the veracity of the solar eclipse of the previous year. The financial difficulties of the world continued to worsen.

On September 9, 2010, which was Av 1, 2010, or Rosh HaShanah, the Feast of Trumpets, there was yet ANOTHER SOLAR eclipse. In the scriptures, three separate repetitions mean great significance; the Almighty is saying to those who watch, “Pay attention! Something significant is on its way!”

As already noted, Rosh HaShanah in 2008 was the beginning of a seven-year cycle of years. It was a sabbath of hardship and economic disaster for the Gentile world. Interestingly, in Israel, entirely against the world-trend, the economy forged ahead to reach new highs of achievement during all this Gentile chaos!

So is all this significant to us?

We believe so. And if there are any doubts about that, ponder on this fact: the seventh Rosh HaShanah from 2008 will be Rosh HaShanah, 2015. Reference to the chart above quickly shows that ON THAT DATE another Solar Eclipse will occur. This solar eclipse will culminate the seven year cycle during the High Holy Days of 2015! The date is Av 1, or September 13, 2015!

What significant event will that date bring?

We cannot be sure of its significance. But we do feel that there will BE significance of high intensity and quality to the world and to Israel, as that solar eclipse (Gentilian import) is sandwiched between two lunar eclipses (Jewish import).

For your information, here is a list of the next five occurrences of Rosh HaShanah – through 2017.

  Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, falls on the Hebrew calendar

dates of 1 and 2 Tishrei (or Av). Here are the coinciding secular

dates for the upcoming years:

2013:   September 4 (at sundown) - 6

2014:   September 24 (at sundown) - 26

2015:   September 13 (at sundown) - 15

2016:   October 2 (at sundown) - 4

2017:   September 20 (at sundown) – 22

Any speculation that we might make about these entirely unique eclipses – freely visible signs in the heavens, open to all eyes – would be just that: speculation. But we did want to alert you to their inevitability – and to prompt you to think on these things!

In our own simple mental processes, the “next big thing” shall be the Second Coming of Christ. Is THAT the importance – the signal – of this highly improbable series of eclipses?

We sincerely hope so – if that be His will.      <HEL MD/USA  code 5M>  ~930 words.

Israeli Air Strikes on Syria

Harold Lafferty 

Israel is finally actively moving into action in the Syrian civil war to protect its own interests, as Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu promised it would. It seems no one took Israel seriously when it drew “red lines” in the Syrian dirt, but now they see just how serious the Jewish State really is.

Israel is rightly concerned that weapons of mass destruction will fall into the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon (and Hezbollah fighters now in Syria) and be used against Israel.

On the other hand, President Obama’s “red line” has been crossed in Syria by the proven use of chemical weapons but he is dragging his feet, saying he has to determine which side used the weapons, whether they actually did use them, and exactly who is to blame. His “red lines” seem to mean little to Syria – and have meant nothing to Iran in its march toward nuclear explosives. Accordingly, Israel did not “consult” Washington before it struck its targets in Syria last weekend.

The Israeli action occurred on two consecutive evenings – May 2 and 3. The attacks of those two nights were directed against advanced weapons imported into Syria from Iran and bound for the Hezbollah strongholds of south Lebanon. The air strikes hit Iranian-supplied Fateh-110 missiles – weapons which have a range of approximately 200 miles and are programmable for precise hits. They were being held near Damascus and were destroyed following up-front warnings from Israel that it would act decisively to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hezbollah or jihadists inside Syria or Lebanon. Israel does not consider the older style Scud and other missiles as being very dangerous as they are inaccurate and ineffective for the most part.

Israel has typically neither confirmed nor denied its involvement in the strikes.

Israel has made it clear to the Syrian regime that its aim is not to depose Bashar Al-Assad, president of Syria; that its interests lie in preventing Syria’s most lethal weapons from falling into the wrong hands and being used against Israel.

To back up Israel’s position, it has moved two Iron Dome missile defense systems to the north of the country to protect the cites of Haifa and S’fed and the northern Galilee. It has also increased its troop levels in the border with Syria, adding to its threat level on yet another front.

Israeli officials say they do not expect Syria to retaliate against Israel, but rather to have its proxies in countries around the world reign terror on Israeli interests (consulates, embassies, businesses) around the world. Iran would be more than happy to assist in this effort. Higher alert against terrorism is being instituted by Israel in every country with an Iranian embassy.

Ben Caspit, writing in Al-Monitor’s Israel Pulse reported concerning Syria’s chemical weapons, that, ”According to assessments, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah does not want chemical weapons, as he knows they will only spell trouble for him because Israel would never tolerate weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Hezbollah’s leader. However, Israel’s highest ranking defense officials have made it clear that Israel would also stop “game-changing” weapons from making their way to Hezbollah. And not only chemical weapons. The Israeli airstrikes, according to Western Intelligence sources, around Damascus over the weekend were proof that Israel means business.

“As far as Israel is concerned, three types of Syrian weapons constitute casus belli, game changers, the types Israel will never allow to flow to Hezbollah. And that's without addressing the issue of chemical weapons. According to experienced military sources, these (firstly) are high precision, lethal Yakhont missiles that are able to strike ships or marine platforms from a distance of 300 km or farther. Missiles such as these would put the gas excavations in Israel's economic waters within strike range. The second type are SA17 anti-aircraft missiles, which are considered game changers in terms of the Israeli air force's freedom of operation. The third are the weapons (that) hit Damascus in recent days.

“And that’s exactly what happened.”

In the meantime, Damascus – where the Israeli attacks took place – is being ripped to pieces by rebel attacks on government strongholds in the city. The streets are filled with rubble in many sectors, and much of the population has fled with the scantiest of possessions. To date, the Syrian civil war has created an estimated one million refugees and over seventy thousand dead Syrians. This is far and away the most serious military action seen by the Syrian people in centuries and surpasses the dismantlement of the Ottoman interests there during World War One.

In order to emphasize the near proximity of all this destruction to Israel, one needs to understand that today one may visit the Israeli-held Golan Heights, bordering on No Man’s Land between Israel and Syria in that place (with the former city of Al-Quenitra in its midst) and actually see the towers of the southwestern suburbs of Damascus in the distance.

Here is a proximity map of the Golan. No Man’s Land is the gray area bounded on the east by a solid black line within Syria further to the east. Damascus City is located just off the map at the upper right corner. An Israeli listening post is located in a high hill just west of Al-Quenitra – an area open to tourism from which No Man’s Land may be readily viewed. It bristles with antennae, radar, lasers, optical devices, and microwave sensors. It has been said that Israelis in this listening post can detect individual conversations in Damascus utilizing the Doppler Effect of voice waves on window panes in the city, and that specific conversations may be heard and recorded! One Israeli even told me that Mossad can hear conversations between Bashar Al-Assad and his wife in the palace at Damascus (??).

The Golan Heights (Wikipedia) 

We always strive to make a meaningful scriptural connection of such events as these, if they apply – and this one does apply. Isaiah 17 surveys the entire Syrian nation over centuries of time. It begins with narrative that is surely applicable to the Syrian invasion in c. 741 BC by Assyrian forces which drove south through the region and took captive the Ten Tribes of Israel – the Samaritan kingdom – as described in verse 4:  And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall wax lean.

It waxed so lean, in actual fact, that the people have never returned from their Diaspora among the nations of the earth! This poetic language describes the conquest of the Ten Tribes by Assyria of that day, and has nothing to do with modern circumstances. In other clear words, Israel shall NEVER AGAIN “wax thin” regardless of contrary views by some observers.

But the chapter ends with notes about the End Time destiny of Syria, to which we have referred on numerous past occasions – for these events reveal the utter end of Syria as a power and a people: speaking of Syria and its capital, Damascus - Isa 17:12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters! 13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind. 14  And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

We soberly realize that the nations of the earth are now witnessing the “trouble” – the seething wrath of the Almighty being targeted upon the “militants” and other interlopers of the Syrian nation – the pagan worshippers of Allah, haters of Israel, ignorant of the God of Israel in Whom ONLY is salvation.

Syria is deeply involved in the initial throes of this struggle. It may yet have some distance to go; we cannot forecast the length of time needed to overthrow and destroy Syria – or even whether it will go to the end-point of destruction at this time in current events.

But we are assured that this destiny is named upon Syria, and that it SHALL occur just as written … and before the morning (of the glorious kingdom of Messiah) he (Syria) is not.

However, the picture is not as gloomy as it might appear! The blessed prophetical destiny of Syria is irrevocably defined by this passage: Isaiah 19:23  In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. 24  In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: 25  Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.

This description is validated, surely, by the necessity for all the land from the Nile to the Euphrates to be identified as Israel, and Israel alone, in that day of God’s kingdom on earth. It shall occupy ALL the Abrahamic Land Grant, which today comprises much or all of these named countries – from Cairo on the Nile to Carchemish on the Euphrates (where Assyria was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon), and east to the Persian Gulf (and Indian Ocean?).

<HEL MD/USA  code5M>  ~1600 words.

Signs in the Sun and the Moon 

Harold Lafferty 

The prophet Joel is remembered to have prophesied that The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come. Joel 2: 31. 

There is only one (natural) way in which the sun may be “turned into darkness,” and that is by a total solar eclipse – a condition in which the moon is directly superposed over the disc of the sun, as viewed from earth, blocking out all the sun’s light to the earth except its corona. 

In this case the moon is passing between the earth and the sun; the moon’s diameter is such that when this happens, the entire sun is blocked from view from the earth with only the corona of the sun being visible. 

So the darkness of the sun necessitates also the darkness of the moon. Joel’s first phrase above is therefore descriptive of a complete solar eclipse. 

The second phrase, “and the moon into blood,” is the opposite condition: it is a complete LUNAR eclipse. This occurs when the earth is between the sun and the moon, and the earth’s shadow precisely covers the entire lunar disc. When this happens, the moon often darkens to an eerie dull red color caused by the light of the sun’s corona passing around the earth and dimly lighting the moon’s surface, termed a “blood moon.” 

In Mark’s gospel account, Jesus referred to this prophecy of Joel in these words: Mark 13:24 - But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, 25 And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. 26 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 

What phenomenon is being described by Joel and by Jesus? 

Is it not a total solar eclipse? 

Consider this illustration of a solar eclipse and think about it for a moment. We see both the moon, and the sun’s corona, in this photograph. The sun is darkened, and the moon is not reflecting the sun’s light as it normally does, for it is entirely backlighted by the sun. So both the sun and the moon are “darkened” in this unique phenomenon. 

A total solar eclipse of the sun 

But Joel’s prophecy contained another stipulation: that the moon should be “turned into blood.” As explained above, this is the opposite of a solar eclipse, and often is seen during a lunar eclipse. Here is an illustration of that phenomenon: 

A total eclipse of the moon – a “blood moon” 

In Revelation 6:12, the Apostle John saw this terrifying scene: And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 

These are the words of Jesus Christ to John, and describe conditions relevant to His second coming. Note that he says that there will not only be solar eclipses but also lunar ones: the dark sun and the blood moon. 

The US Space Agency, NASA, has posted in its web site a chart of lunar and solar eclipses for many hundreds of years in the past as well as those predicted for the future. 

We know the lunar-solar, astral mechanics of our Father to be eerily accurate and meaningful. And we know that He has told us in Luke 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; thus we are assured that we shall behold in the sun and the moon some unusual “signs and wonders” during a time of severe distress of nations – surely an accurate description of OUR TIME, and unmistakably the era of His return to the earth. 

His implication is that He shall unmistakably place these signs there for our observation and wonder – as herald of important events in prophetic fulfillment – for both “signs and seasons.” Genesis 1: 14. 

 Lunar and Solar Eclipses are Fairly Common, But… 

Lunar and solar eclipses occur at frequent intervals as observed from somewhere on earth. But to have a series of them observed from one location on earth is unusual – say, from Jerusalem, especially if there are two blood red moons followed by a solar eclipse, then two more blood red moons! And further, to have them occur on specific Jewish festivals. These events occurring by random chance is extremely rare and unlikely … impossible except by divine arrangement in our opinion. 

To what am I referring? 

Well … to several solar-lunar eclipse combinations which have been extremely unusual as to time of appearance, mode of occurrence, and being closely allied to some momentous event connected with the Jewish people and with Israel! We refer specifically to four such “tetrads” which occurred on Jewish Feast Days in those significant years – the term “Jewish tetrad” referring to four blood moons occurring on Feast days, sometimes bisected by a total solar eclipse. 

Consider these observations … 

A Bible student named Mark Biltz of Bonney Lake, Washington, has been studying these events and is responsible for these remarkable observations. They are indeed noteworthy! 

He compares these unique signs to the Feast of Trumpets. The ancient Jews could not forecast the exact date of its beginning because that depended upon the appearance of the new moon as viewed from Jerusalem. When the new moon appeared, watch fires were lighted in the Holy City which were observed by watchers on distant mountains. When they saw the flame of the Jerusalem fire they knew that the Rabbis had seen the new moon, and that the festival had begun. Those distant watchers then lighted their own fires to signal points further away; thus it was that the news of the feast spread to all Israel in a short time the very evening of its official beginning. 

At the last trumpet, the dead in Christ shall rise, and be gathered along with the living in Christ to the presence of the returned Christ. Note carefully, a trumpet (shofar) shall awaken the dead in Christ. I Corinthians 15: 52 

The comparison to the Feast of Trumpets is valid. Observation of significant tetrads on specific feast days near certain dates can mark them as extremely important harbingers of progress in God’s plan. 

Several such tetrads have occurred during the 20th century, but only two have occurred near significant events in Israel, and on specific feast days! None of these occurred during the 19th, 18th, 17th or 16th centuries! 

This brings us to the 15th century, and specifically 1492 – a remarkable year in the world’s history, and year of the expulsion of all Jews from Spain. But that year marked another unique historical event … 

Christopher Columbus departed from Spain and subsequently discovered the continents of the Western Hemisphere – vast stretches of rich and verdant lands which offered refuge from religious persecution to Europe’s Jews, and many others, who were being hounded and persecuted by the established Church, forcibly “converted” to “Christianity,” or else murdered in some heinous manner: burned at the stake, stretched on the rack, hanged, drowned, slashed to pieces with knives, disemboweled, stabbed, dragged behind horses, boiled in water, or frozen to death – their homes and possessions confiscated by the Church, and their properties taken by religious orders. Refuge in the Americas also became available to all “hereticks” and others of disrepute in Europe – victims of the Roman Inquisitor.  

The four blood moons of this FIRST Jewish tetrad (it is “Jewish” when four consecutive blood moons occur on four consecutive Jewish feast days) occurred on these dates: 

April 2, 1493 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Passover 

Sept. 25, 1493 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Sukkot (Tabernacles) 

March 22, 1494 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Passover 

Sept. 15, 1494 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Sukkot 

Our realization that these eclipses (blood moons) occurred on these specific feast days becomes even more singular when we realize that this unique occurrence did not recur for 456 years; no eclipses occurred on feast days in the 16th, 17th, 18th or 19th centuries. 

Then it happened again! 

And that SECOND Jewish tetrad was when Israel became a nation again in its own place – in Israel. The War of Independence that began on May 14, 1948 stretched until the truce agreement of August, 1949. 

This Jewish tetrad occurred on these dates: 

April 13, 1949 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Passover 

October 7, 1949 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Sukkot 

April 2, 1950 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Passover 

Sept.26, 1950 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Sukkot 

The THIRD such sequence began the very year that Israel gained control of Jerusalem for the first time in over 2000 years, and led to the declaration of Jerusalem as its eternal capital. 

April 24, 1967 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Passover 

Oct. 18, 1967 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Sukkot 

April 13, 1968 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Passover 

October 6, 1968 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Sukkot 

It was a spectacular demonstration in the magnificent celestial blackboard of the Father’s will being done. That event of the capture of the Old City and Temple Mount by the Jews marked the fulfillment to the very day, according to the best calculations, of the Prophecy of the 2300 Days of Daniel 8 – the end of the Sanctuary Cycle! 

We must surely recognize that the latter two Jewish tetrads marked the two most important events in the re-establishment and consolidation of the State of Israel, leading steadily to the Second Coming of the Saviour. The establishment of Israel as a nation marked the budding of the fig tree; the capture of Old Jerusalem by Israel marked the end of the Sanctuary Cycle … to the very day! 

The Next Jewish Tetrad 

So when is the next occurrence of a Jewish tetrad? – the FOURTH such event? And what extremely significant event does it portend? 

We cannot possibly know for certain. 

We must admit, however, that since no significant events remain to be fulfilled before the Lord’s appearance on the earth in our opinion, it may be the terminal event of this age! 

Within this short time frame – or perhaps, as above, even slightly after the anticipated event – could they signal His return to the earth? 

The dates of the next and final Jewish tetrad (for ages to come) are now known to be beginning on April 15, 2014, in this matrix: 

April 15, 2014 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Passover 

October 8, 2014 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Sukkot 

April 4, 2015 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Passover 

Sept. 28, 2015 Total lunar eclipse Feast of Sukkot 

And there are NO MORE Jewish tetrads (lunar eclipses on feast days) for at least the next 500 years, established by NASA’s orbital experts. 

How improbable is that? 

The people of God have been assured that, Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope (Romans 15: 4). 

One of the foundational “writings” is that concerning the FOURTH day of creation, of which this is noted by Moses, in Genesis 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 

Our Father expects His servants to scrutinize these easily-observable, celestial objects, and to attach importance to the events which they portend – exhorting them carefully to watch for unique patterns and events which are shown in them, silent in the heavens, clearly visible to all men, but subtly significant to the faithful Watchers. 

Another Pattern 

We are certain you must have noticed another pattern in the total lunar eclipses on Jewish feast days: they occurred ONLY on Passover and on Tabernacles – not on any other of the numerous feast days. The odds against that happening are surely trillions to one. The odds against the entire set of four (sixteen, actually!) occurring in this manner are said to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 x 10 to 160 - which is estimated to be far greater than the number of atoms in the universe!! 

Solar Eclipses at Unique Times 

So far we have considered only the appearances of lunar eclipses. But solar eclipses also can be meaningful if they occur on certain dates which are significant. 

Consider these facts: 

There will be two significant SOLAR eclipses in the coming months: 

One will occur on the first day of the Religious Hebrew year, and the next 

One will occur on the high holy day of Rosh Hashanah, the first day of the seventh Hebrew month, the beginning of the Civil year! 

Both of these take place in the 2014-2015 years of the Gregorian calendar of the Gentiles. 

But there is yet an additional feature of these two specific solar eclipses: each of them is followed in two weeks by a LUNAR eclipse! And there are no more of these occurrences for the rest of the century! 

Please recall this: God promised that Abraham’s seed would outnumber the stars of the heavens (Exodus 32: 13) and be as the grains of sand of the sea (Genesis 32: 12). Remarkably similar numbers, aren’t they? Both immense, and incomprehensible – and illustrative of the abundance, the profusion, the vast and immense wealth of God’s grace and glory freely given to those who love Him and serve Him! 

And both of them are sure of fulfillment!! 

For your additional edification, here is a NASA illustration (left to right) of the waxing (oncoming) stages of a lunar eclipse in the top series, a partial eclipse (center), and the waning (fading) stages of it. The bottom row of images depict the waxing stages of a solar eclipse, a total solar eclipse, and the waning stages of the same. 

<HEL MD/USA March, 2013> 2400 words… 

Batchwiper – a Subtle Trojan Infiltrator

Abstract of Reports by H E Lafferty

Although not a danger to most worldwide users of Windows XP and Windows 7 operating systems, Batchwiper is targeting those cyber systems in Iran. It has been labeled a Trojan by security experts because it behaves like the secreted Greek soldiers contained in the gift-horse of Troy, patiently awaiting the proper time to attack.

      The new virus is said to be similar to the “malware” that appeared immediately prior to Iran’s discovery of Stuxnet – an agent which caused massive breakdown of gas centrifuges used to concentrate uranium. Like that agent, it may be far more potent than it at first appears. Late last year Iranian engineers discovered the malware which, they said “creates files on desktop and laptop computers, and simply wipes out disk partitions and user profile directories without being recognized by anti-virus software,” a clear reflection of its stealthy character.

 The designation of “Trojan” is appropriate because it simply lurks on an infected hard drive for some predetermined time, silently waiting to go into operation at a specific trigger point and destroys its target data – thus “Batchwiper.” It effectively destroys all information on drives D: through I: of infected computers with no possibility of recovery of those files. These are typically data and storage drives in Windows systems. It goes into operation on specified dates at pre-set intervals of time.

Although Iranian scientists do not know how it is spread, they suspect it is moving by either emails or USB data drives, or both. Once resident upon a system, it sets up a batch file which opens and begins operation when the computer’s internal clock reaches a specific date. In the file lists it appears as a legitimate process file so goes unnoticed by anyone until its deadly processes begin.

Earlier infective programs include Stuxnet, Flame, and Gauss which have attacked Iran’s nuclear operations and are thought to have done great damage (though not admitted by Iran). Batchwiper appears to have no relationship to these earlier viruses, and appears simple enough to have been written by “a hacker-kid.” But looks can be extremely deceiving, masking much more serious operations going on inside a system to cause far more damage.

The earlier Stuxnet worm is apparently still at work against the Iranian facilities. In an early March report, researchers reported that ongoing studies of Stuxnet continues to discover new in-built techniques for destruction.

It now appears that the first version of Stuxnet became active as early as 2005 and entered Iran’s enrichment facilities at least two times. Iran suspects that the most recent (?) version is still lying in wait to attack these facilities yet again sometime in the future.

Whoever installed Stuxnet probably already knows the extent of damage actually caused to Iran’s nuclear program as well as what is still to come, for the virus has a “call home” feature which prompts it to report to its master of its progress in foreign facilities in some detail.

It is widely thought that the U. S. and Israel are responsible for these sophisticated malware programs, because their creation requires thousands of lines of programming and cost perhaps hundreds of thousands of dollars.     <HEL MD/USA  code4M>

Jacob's Time of Trouble

Edgar E. Taylor

From The Testimony, August, 1942

Just a year ago I wrote: "It is not an exaggeration to say that Stalin has surprised the world. Into the eighth week (of the Nazi attack on Russia) he is still absorbing the shock of the tremendous, desperate, organised drives of the Germans. But even now none can forecast the outcome.  It remains almost an impossibility to estimate the reserve forces each side has at its disposal. What is certain is that there are hundreds of square miles of earth bathed in blood, one vast graveyard . . . cities, towns and villages a tumbled mass of charred buildings."

Those words are more terribly, intensely true to-day. In the same article I also anticipated "evil spreading from nation to nation." In due course Japan and then the United States were involved in the holocaust (not the Nazi Holocaust but the crucible of hot warfare – Ed.).

To-day the military leaders of the Allied nations are computing not whether, but when, Japan will attack Russia. The question may be answered by the time these lines are being read. Retribution in part overtook the German armies in the horrors of the Russian winter and the Russian counter-drive, which only just failed to cripple the Nazi fighting power.

The Divine "Thus far and no farther" still holds good. The war's true purpose is not yet achieved.

It is only when we go to the prophets of the Lord God of Hosts that we can even begin to understand the awful drama of our times. And when we do go with reverence to God's Word we must surely be amazed—amazed to the extent of speechless wonder—at the burning phrases and sentences we read.

Twice at least, the prophet Jeremiah utters words which have their fullest meaning only for to-day. 

Indeed, he himself says so: "In the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly." (Jer. 23:20) "In the latter days ye shall consider it." (Jer 30:24)

What is it we shall consider, and consider perfectly?  First of all, we are told in both the chapters quoted that "a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury;" the anger of the Lord shall not return until he has performed the thoughts of his heart.

It is a continuing whirlwind, emphasises the prophet, falling with pain upon the head of the wicked. Of the central burden around which all these terrors revolve, we are left in no doubt. "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble.”

There we have the real key to the solution of to-day's problem of torture and prolonged agony. We can so easily miss it among the confusion of voices concerning a Second Front, the Atlantic Charter, Post-War settlement, etc. Even the final outcome of the Nazi-Soviet blood-bath is a minor issue compared with the major miracle we hope to be privileged to witness. Let not these things be hidden from our hearts.

 Here is an example of how we may so easily be side-tracked. Only a few weeks ago the newspaper headline was: "Nazis Occupy Kerch." On another page the ''Military Correspondent" endeavoured to explain the significance of the German onslaught on this little peninsula. But in a few days the crisis had turned to Voronezsh or somewhere,  and we heard no more of Kerch. A paragraph from the "Zionist Review," however, reveals to the world something more which makes the words of Jeremiah (Jer 30:7) burn like hot iron into our very souls :— 

"An eye-witness report of the Nazi massacre of 5,000 civilian Jews in the city of Kerch, in the Crimea, was brought to Kuibyshev by a Jewish fisherman, Joseph Weingarten, who succeeded in escaping from the city. He was taken for dead by the Nazis after being machine-gunned together with hundreds of other Kerch Jews in a ditch eight kilometres from the city, which was covered with sand by the executioners after the mass-slaughter.

He regained consciousness,  however, after nightfall, and crawled out of the mass-grave, stealing into the town through the darkness.  For thirteen days he was hidden, but finally succeeded in reaching the Russian army's lines, where he was given medical treatment. He told the gruesome story of how the Nazis rounded up Jews in Kerch every day, herded them into trucks, and transported them to their death under the pretext that they were being sent to work in the fields."

There we have the real story of Kerch.

How many scores of times such a tragedy must be multiplied to obtain even an approximate idea of Jewish agony today, one cannot say. In the important town of Vitebsk —  an historic city in the annals of the Russian Revolution —  24,000 Jews remained after the evacuation by the Russians.  All of them except eleven were massacred by the incoming  Germans in such conditions of brutality that many of them prayed the Nazis to kill them outright so as to spare them the agony of torture and hunger. In occupied Europe thousands of Jews are deported to Poland, knowing that that journey is just one stage; presently they are forcibly entrained elsewhere, and that is a journey to their death. 

Jeremiah, as we have seen, associates Jacob's time of trouble specifically with the latter days.

Further, he makes it plain that only in the latter days will the full significance of that time of trouble be understood. Then, it shall be understood perfectly. We would seem to be reaching• the point of the development of God's purpose of which he wrote.

At the moment we are scarcely conscious of the horrors overwhelming the children of Israel. Mighty events are to come. For when it is "even Jacob's time of trouble,  he shall be saved out of it."

The thirtieth chapter (of Jeremiah) has a stirring message for to-day. The whirlwind of the Lord is to accomplish its purpose, which is to redeem the remnant of Jacob, who shall enjoy a wonderful restoration. The yoke of the oppressor is to be broken. The doom of Germany is inherent in these words: "All they that devour thee shall be devoured ; and all thine adversaries, every one of them,  shall go into captivity”.

Persecution, torture, and the brutal attempt at the entire elimination of the Jews continues to be a main feature of the continuing advances of the Nazi hordes. It will not succeed, but it will go on until Jacob's time of trouble is accomplished. At what point in the sufferings of the Jews God will intervene we can only guess, but we have the prophet's assurance that if all nations of the world are destroyed by this whirlwind, God's people shall remain. For they are to be the political core of God's Kingdom.

Since the foregoing notes were written, Parliament has announced a decision which may well prove a turning• point in this war and in history. On Thursday, August 6 (1942), the Secretary of State for War (Sir J. Grigg) announced at the end of a debate that a Palestine Regiment of the British Army is to be created at once. It will consist of separate Jewish and Arab infantry battalions for general service in the Middle East. Normally the regiment will be employed in Palestine or adjacent countries for the defence of Palestine. The existing Palestinian companies of The Buffs will be incorporate and it is hoped to obtain at least 10,000 additional recruits.

This is by way of a postscript. There is not time to analyse the debate in the House of Commons. Suffice it to say that the request for the Palestinian Regiment did not go  unchallenged by some Members. The one outstanding point is the fact that at long last a move has been made toward the recognition of a position in Palestine which is conformable with the Divine purpose. #

 <From The Testimony,  August 1942: "WATCHMAN."— Edited by EDGAR E. TAYLOR, 53 Tollers Lane, Old Coulsdon, Surrey, UK>

Editor’s Note: The italicized portions and underlining (the emphasis) in the above article is mine. As the contributor of this article remarked, “Someone back then was awake” to the great tribulation which was beginning to be wrought on God’s People!   <HEL  MD/USA  code5M>

The Jokshani Arabs, Sheba and Dedan

Harold Lafferty

There are only three references in the Bible mentioning Jokshan, the father of two key prophetic peoples among the distant far-eastern Arabic tribes. These are Sheba and Dedan. These peoples (along with the merchants of Tarshish – the merchants of the earth) are mentioned in Ezekiel 38:13 as querying the approaching Gogian host, saying, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

Much has been made of this brief reference in later interpretations of the Gogian prophecy. The statement has been enlarged to suppose that the forces of Sheba, Dedan and Great Britain (the supposed identity of the Merchants of Tarshish) are destined to stand as a peripheral line of resistance to the Gogian host as it [supposedly] makes its way through the land of Israel driving the Jews into Egypt – an eventuality which this writer outrightly denies as being probable, or even possible according to God’s word.

Close scrutiny of the sole, exhaustive account of the Gogian affair in Ezekiel 38 and 39 reveal no such success of the Gogian forces, a notion which depended upon many other complex, unlikely assumptions as to Gog’s success – and upon dubious accounts of connected events which are not tenable.

The chapters indicate clearly the complete destruction of the Gogian hordes on the mountains of Israel and their burial in the Valley of Hamon-gog, indicated as the deep valley of the Yarmouk River now separating Syria and Jordan, east of the Sea of Galilee, but at that time “in Israel” due to the expansion of Israel which is forecasted to be accomplished during the earlier war with the nearby Islamic foes (the Proximal Islamic States) – a conflagration which shall clear the Abrahamic Land Grant of all the foreigners who now desire that land, and Jerusalem as their capital city!

In this narrative, Gog does not even approach Jerusalem – indeed gets no further than Gilead in our opinion, where the force is utterly destroyed by the Lord’s supernatural application of natural elements, including every man’s sword against his brother, as in Ezekiel 38:21.

In our view, this interrogatory, Art thou come to take a spoil? … must be taken as stated – as a mere question of intent to the Gogian host, which subsequently proves not to be threatening Sheba, Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish directly.

This assumption may be sustained partially in noting that these entities have no further part in the narrative of Ezekiel 38 and 39, and are not mentioned as being conquered – or even threatened further.

Here are all the Biblical references to both Jokshan and Sheba and Dedan in context …

Jokshan:  

Gen_25:2  And she (Keturah) bare him (Abraham) Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah.

Gen_25:3  And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.

1Ch_1:32  Now the sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine: she bare Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan; Sheba, and Dedan.

Sheba and Dedan  (grouped together):

Gen_10:7  And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.

Gen_25:3  And Jokshan begat Sheba, and Dedan. And the sons of Dedan were Asshurim, and Letushim, and Leummim.

1Ch_1:9  And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabta, and Raamah, and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. [This verse is a direct quotation of Genesis 10:7 relating to the settlement of the lands by various peoples.]

1Ch_1:32  Now the sons of Keturah, Abraham's concubine: she bare Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah. And the sons of Jokshan; Sheba, and Dedan.

Eze_38:13  Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?

Some Background Information

Several years ago, the late Graham Bacon of Australia, then a flight officer employed by Quantas, the Australian national airline, told of meeting some Arab fishermen on the wharf at Bahrain who told him that they were Jokshani Arabs, who consider themselves superior to the descendants of Esau and Ishmael. They hold the “lower class” Arabs of the west in great disdain, and largely do not agree with them in the matter of modern day Israel and its validity.

These peoples are descended directly from Abraham through Keturah, not from either  Rebecca’s son Esau, Abraham’s grandson, or the sons of Lot - Moab or Ammon - the other progenitors of these mixed peoples, the Arabs.

Thus their inheritance was given them early by Abraham and they were sent into the east to live (Genesis 25: 6) far from Isaac, the son of his inheritance. There these Jokshanis have remained and thrived in the End Time on the vast resources of petroleum lying below their lands. These necessarily will be worried by the influx of hordes of Gogian invaders approaching the northwestern regions of their lands, and naturally make an inquiry as to Gog’s intent – specifically has Gog declared war upon them?

The answer is obviously No!

Gog is interested in the far greater “spoils” of Israel: its vast holdings of gas- and oil-producing lands only lately discovered, its economic wealth, its intellectual prowess, its agricultural plenty, its key position as a warm water outlet to the world’s seas and oceans, and as the strategic, keystone landmass connecting Africa and Asia.

The posture of Sheba, Dedan and the Merchants at that time is decidedly as observers, not as combatants. They are not indicated as a resistive force to Gog in any way. And neither shall the Tarshish nations – the merchants of the earth – for there is no following narrative indicating any degree of association in a struggle with the Gogian host.

Indeed, Israel shall not require any assistance, for our considered view is that the People of God are already at that future time governed by the King of Kings, their Messiah, the Christ of the Second Advent, Who shall suffer no harm whatever to come to His people.

    <HEL MD/USA 4M> 1050 words.

Israel’s Oil and Gas Bonanza

H E Lafferty

For nearly an hundred years the desolate sands of Arabia and the Middle East have poured forth black gold – petroleum deposits by the millions of tons – and created a trove of wealth previously unknown in human history.

All this is on the verge of change.

The liquid petroleum deposits of the Arab oil cartel are rapidly being depleted. The older wells are much less likely to retain their output. And their heavier, more viscous product is much more costly to refine                          

But there is a new development now building – one which was not clearly foreseen even as late as last century. It is the principle of “fracking” petroleum deposits which are not liquid in their natural form. It is a technique in which rock formations containing oil are fractured in some manner so as to remove the oil deposits. The process began in some ways to be developed when the vast tar sands of Canada began to be explored, although the processes of extraction are different. At first the tar sands presented an insoluble problem for engineers – how efficiently to separate the sand from its adherent oil and water.

As time progressed, however, systems were designed which made the process simpler and more workable.

Meanwhile, vast petroleum resources of another kind were being closely considered. These are shale oil deposits. It is now realized that the world-wide deposits of shale oil are far greater than the liquid deposits of oil. But they are more difficult to extract; therefore more costly.

It has been often said that Moses turned the wrong direction when bringing the Israelites out of Egypt – that he should have gone east rather than west; for it was in the east that the vast oceans of petroleum were later discovered. For years oil explorers drilled in Israeli lands and found almost no oil ... or gas.

The advances in fracking, however, opened a new door to Israel’s fortunes. And new techniques of deep well-drilling have even led to discovery of liquid petroleum and natural gas in great abundance mostly in the coastal waters of Israel, but also to some extent on the country’s land mass as well.

But the most spectacular find to date has been the far-reaching deposits of oil shale in Israel. The largest of these known geologic structures is the Shfela Basin, southwest of Jerusalem. It surrounds the Valley of Elah where David slew Goliath in a war with the Philistines (1Samuel 17:2, 19).

It alone is estimated to contain 250 billion barrels of oil, rivalling the entire estimated liquid oil resources of Saudi Arabia – about 260 billion barrels of crude oil! The difference is that Arabia’s wells are aging and their product deteriorating as to desirability and refinability.

Enter one brilliant scientist, Dr. Harold Vinegar, for many years chief of physical science at Royal Dutch Shell Oil in Texas. Retiring a few years ago, Dr. Vinegar and his family made aliyah to Israel – a long-held dream of his family – and he began to work with Israeli scientists on a “fracking” technique which he had developed during his research at Shell. It involved the new technique of horizontal oil well-drilling and the insertion of heating rods into the holes in order to heat the surrounding rocks to around 700 degrees, to make them yield their absorbed oil. The resultant product is a high-quality crude oil, easily refinable, and costing around $40 per barrel. This cost makes oil from shale attractive as long as conventional crude prices hover above that price – now around $100 a barrel, and likely to remain at that price or above for a long time. 

Time magazine featured an article in its April 30th issue (2013), “Tapping the Promised Land: Can Israel Be an Energy Giant?” Interviews with executives of Israel Energy Initiatives, Dr. Vinegar’s company, reveals some startling prospects. One opinion quoted in the article is this: “We think that within a decade we can get 50,000 to 100,000 barrels a day,” says Relik Shafir, IEI chief executive officer.

He is referring to “kerogen,” the name given to the crude oil extracted from rocks of any type. This is an effort to differentiate it from “shale oil,” which is entirely different. “Shale oil” is contained in rocks as well but in tiny amounts which must be loosened before being harvested; it is also known as “tight oil.”

Thus “kerogen” is a better term for Israel’s oil – the organic matter embedded in any sort of rock near the earth’s surface. The location is important, for were it buried much deeper the pressure would express the oil into pools as liquid petroleum.

Oil shales are usually shallow deposits, thus easily recovered by the method of horizontal drilling. In this process a well is sunk vertically to the depth of the oil-bearing shale, then the bit is turned horizontally, allowing drilling of hundreds of channels within even shallow strata, for hundreds of meters in any direction! Thusly, the above ground “footprint” of the operation may be contained in a small area of land.

When these holes are drilled, stainless steel cables are inserted into them, then heated to around 700 degrees. This process heats all the rock surrounding the shafts and the oil content begins to seep out and become pumpable. When brought to the surface the oil is “sweet (low sulphur), very light, super-high quality,” according to Vinegar.

And, incidentally, the product of this process yields other commodities as well; they are two other quite valuable resources: water ... and natural gas!

All This, and Why Now?

We wonder why this development has come about at this particular time. For years other companies have exerted their most diligent efforts to find oil in Israel. Up until 1986, 440 wells had been drilled in Israel, each one essentially a dry hole.

One feature of the Time article is that this dearth of oil reserves drove the Jewish State in other directions – impelling Israelis “to develop alternatives – from miraculous desert agriculture to the armaments industry that spawned the ‘start-up nation,’ including an electric-car enterprise, Better Place, marketed in part as a comeuppance to Arab oil.”

Israeli officials are absolutely ecstatic as they prepare to test the theories and techniques of fracking in the Shfela Basin.

The beginning of the brighter prospects for Israel came in the wake of the discovery of natural gas about 50 miles off Haifa in the Mediterranean Sea in 2009. Named the Tamar Gas Field, it came online in March of this year, causing great acclaim throughout Israel. This gas alone will raise Israel’s Gross Domestic Product by a full percentage point, according to the Bank of Israel. Add to Tamar a second gas find about 80 miles west from Haifa, called Leviathan, Israel can easily convert into an energy exporter without taking anything away from the kerogen discovery! This is a marvellously fortuitous find, says Harold Vinegar, because this newly discovered natural gas will provide the power to heat the subterranean kerogen fields ... until the gas that is released as a by-product of the kerogen harvest is re-purposed for the same task! Then the process will become self-sustaining! Talk about timing! (all Divine, of course!). 

There are other significant implications in this discovery. Although environmental concerns are foremost in most minds, Israel’s high court has been informed that, although the Mountain Aquifer, which lies under the kerogen, and supplies most of Israel’s potable water, is protected by some 200 meters (nearly 500 feet) of impermeable rock above the aquifer. And a similar layer lies above the kerogen, most surely protecting the surface environment from any noxious emissions – which is the remaining concern! Therefore, the oil shale is locked in a tightly contained chamber up until it is harvested, and during the process of recovery.

And there is more good news! As the Time article relates, “The kerogen formation that geologist Bartov first confirmed in 2009 extends beyond Israel. It runs across the few miles east to the Palestinian West Bank – Vinegar flourished a sample from there, darker than the chalky Israeli sample – and into Jordan, where the known kerogen formation is as large as all of Israel itself. Shell is working with King Abdullah II to develop it, in a country that has almost no mineral resources. Egypt has potential as well.”

What is the implication for Israel in the prophetic vista of things?

It is this: the vast deposits of kerogen in Jordan and the “West Bank” are both destined to become the property of Israel in the near future. It will occur when the Messiah appears to clear the interlopers from His Land, and take their possessions for His kingdom! It is inconceivable and beyond visualization the riches that are to accrue to the Kingdom of Messiah!  Truly shall the riches of the Gentiles flow unto the Lord in superabundance (Isaiah 60:16; 61: 6; Zechariah 14: 14).

One More Important Facet

One other important facet of all this is the sure establishment of the chief impetus of the Gogian host to try to conquer Israel, as depicted in Ezekiel 38 and 39. They are specifically tasked to gain “a spoil and a prey” in God’s land (Ezekiel 38: 12).

Up until 2009, Israel’s prosperity had achieved remarkable proportions. But its accomplishments were mostly military and intellectual – scientific methods of agriculture, new medical breakthroughs, economic progress. Now, in light of these new petroleum discoveries, there are hard assets which would be a prize for any conquering nation or people. Russia’s natural resources hold over Europe is being progressively broken by these new developments in Israel and the Levant. It is reasonable that her desire for this “spoil” would become heightened if she were approached by Persia (Iran) and the other, distal Islamic states (all those named in Ezekiel 38 are such except Gog himself) to fight alongside them against the (unrealized) Messiah of Israel – and especially if sanctioned by the nations of the earth (embodied in the United Nations Organization), as Gog doubtless shall be in that day!

<HEL MD/USA 5M> 1700 words.