In the news...

Early this week the news seems centered on the "Rumor of war" aspect of prophecy:


"Russia 'simulates' nuclear attack on Poland". Needless to say, this action by Russia "provoked outrage" in Poland, by conducting these war games. Not coincidentally, Russia choose the 70th anniversary of the previous Soviet invasion of Poland. Russia has become very bold over the past year.

"The new northern tier". In this Jerusalem Post article, we see further consolidation of the "two rising powers" in the Middle East, Turkey and Iran. As mentioned previously, Turkey is pulling away from the U.S. and moving towards the axis of Russia and Iran, exactly as we would predict from Ezekiel's prophecy in chapters 38 and 39 - involving the invasion of Israel known as "Gog-MaGog". Turkey's alliances with Iran and Russia seem to make the news on a weekly basis now; a very interesting development.

Additionally, we also see that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is making an "official visit" to Turkey (link here).

In more news from Jerusalem, we see the following:
"Israeli's Prepare for War with Iran. This article provides a nice summary of the current situation in Israel, as the people there anticipate war with Iran. The bottom line, which seems obvious, is that either Israel strikes first (in which case there will be war, at a minimum, with Hezbollah and Hamas as directed from Iran) or Israel does not strike first, and Iran completes their quest for nuclear weapons, and the assumption is that they will use such weapons.

It is interesting that Jesus mentioned warfare as a noteworthy aspect of this last generation. That is certainly the case, as this has been the first generation that produced two world wars - not to mention the capability, for the first time in human history, to destroy the entire world via warfare.

But Jesus also stated that there would be "rumors of war". Indeed that also defines our generation - the constant, ongoing threat of war. Its hard to recall a time that threats of war were not present in multiple parts of the world. Today we see the threats of war breaking out almost everywhere (not including the active wars): North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, Iran/Russian alliance and Israel, Russia and Georgia, China and Taiwan, U.S. and Iran, and on and on it goes.

The most dramatic and epic of any of these rumors will play out as described in Ezekiel 38-39 when God makes His presence known. The rumors circulating around this war can be found almost daily as Iran pursues both the alliances needed for this invasion (primarily Russia and Turkey), and the weaponry to destroy Israel. The Israeli citizens and government can see the threat coming from Iran and are taking the steps to prepare. They've been there before.

Rumors of war: a daily part of life in these last days.