Friday, January 28, 2011

"I Will Set Egyptians Against Egyptians"

By Bill Salus

These are the days when the Bible is its own best commentary. Imagine Isaiah the prophet standing on the streets of Cairo today speaking in front of a mainstream news camera declaring:

The burden against Egypt. Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, And will come into Egypt; The idols of Egypt will totter at His presence, And the heart of Egypt will melt in its midst. “I will set Egyptians against Egyptians; Everyone will fight against his brother, And everyone against his neighbor, City against city, kingdom against kingdom. The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst; I will destroy their counsel, And they will consult the idols and the charmers, The mediums and the sorcerers. And the Egyptians I will give Into the hand of a cruel master, And a fierce king will rule over them,” Says the Lord, the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 19:1-4, nkjv)

Like a swift moving cloud, Isaiah predicts the rapid deterioration of events in Egypt. Civil unrest causes Egyptians to fight against each other. This fighting spreads from household to household and grows into a kingdom war. Probably quoting Isaiah 19:2, Christ warned kingdoms would rise against each other in Matthew 24:7. Unlike nation coming against nation, which alludes to world wars, “kingdom against kingdom” refers to regional conflicts. Christ taught these prophecies would come upon the world like birth pains. Like a woman about to deliver her newborn, these events are foretold to come with increased frequency and intensity each building upon the other.

Rumors of regional kingdom wars presently abound in the Middle East. Egypt and Saudi Arabia reportedly conducted joint military exercises in 2010 preparing for a possible confrontation with Iran. Iran represents the Persian kingdom and Egypt and Saudi Arabia the Arab kingdom. Additionally, the apocalyptically minded president Ahmadinejad of Iran has threatened on several occasions to wipe Israel, representing the Jewish kingdom, off of the map.

Psalm 83 predicts the Arab kingdom will someday rise against the Jewish kingdom to banish the name of Israel forever. Both Egypt and Saudi Arabia along with eight other Arab populations join the Arab kingdom in this pending prophetic war.

Isaiah’s prognosis for Egypt worsens as you read the rest of his chapter nineteen. Isaiah 19:5-12 tells us unprecedented religious and economic strife plagues the nation according to the purposes of the Lord. Apparently, this disastrous condition befalls Egypt because of its future involvement in Psalm 83 since we read in Isaiah 19:16-18 that Israel will take over five cities in Egypt and cause Hebrew to be the spoken language inside their city limits. One of these cities will be called “the City of Destruction,” implying the I.D.F. destroys this city.

In that day Egypt will be like women, and will be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which He waves over it. And the land of Judah will be a terror to Egypt; everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts which He has determined against it. In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan and swear by the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction. (Isaiah 19:16-18, nkjv)

Will the civil strife developing in Egypt cause the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak, who supposedly has cancer and turns 83 on May 4, 2011? Many expected his son Gamal Mubarak to be his replacement; however, Gamal and his family have reportedly fled to the U.K. for safety. If the Mubarak government is overthrown will the Muslim Brotherhood fill his office with one of its own fulfilling Isaiah 19:4? The Muslim Brotherhood, presently banned in Egypt, hates Israel and supports Jihad against the Jewish State. Hamas, also participating against Israel in Psalm 83, is their political arm inside of the Gaza. Hamas, like the Muslim Brotherhood, calls for the destruction of Israel.

Will the present protests inside Egypt metastasize into the fulfillment of Isaiah 19? If so will the coming cruel leader be the one who leads Egypt into the Psalm 83:6-8 confederacy? All of this is unknown but entirely possible. One thing is for certain; the Middle East appears to be on the verge of going apocalyptic.

January 2011 has seen the governments of Lebanon, Tunisia, and Egypt become severely challenged. The government of Jordan is expected to be next. Lebanon, Egypt, and Jordan are involved in Psalm 83 and Tunisia appears to take part in the Ezekiel 38 & 39 prophecy. It appears high time Christians familiarize themselves with the prophecies of Isaiah 19, Isaiah 17, Jeremiah 49, Psalm 83, and Ezekiel 38 & 39. These are a few of the world changing prophecies stage setting on the prophetic horizon.
Related read: Dr. Lawrence of India

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Iran Plays the Political Hezbollah and Iraq Cards in 2011

By Bill Salus

January 5, 2011 King Abdullah II of Jordan called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and urged him to remove the obstacles blocking Mideast peace. However, the King marginally addressed the peace process and mainly pressed for answers on what Jerusalem and Amman can do to curb Iran’s advancing domination of Iraq in the face of America’s inaction.

For over six years King Abdullah II has been warning about Iran’s move to form a Shiite Crescent in the Fertile Crescent. America’s troop pullout of Iraq in 2010 provided the window of opportunity Tehran was looking for and counting upon.

Abdullah's conversation with Netanyahu was not the only Iraqi related event of concern on January 5th. Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr came out of self-imposed exile in Iran and reentered Iraq. Reportedly he plans on reuniting with, and greatly influencing, his clansmen to lock arms with Iran and Ahmadinejad’s expanded Shia plans for the Middle East.

Sadr is good friends with Hezbollah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, who recently caused the collapse of the Lebanese government by removing 11 of its 30 cabinet members. It is commonly understood that these two pro-Iranian anti-Israeli influential Muslim leaders have been in cahoots with each other over the past few years.

The January 5th story worsens for the Jordanian monarch as Iran's new acting foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, also visited Iraq on that same day. It was his first trip to an Arab state since taking the job last month. Iran hopes Salehi, who speaks fluent Arabic and was born in Iraq, will be a bridge to neighboring Arab states, with which Tehran has strained ties.

Additionally, Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, who appears to already be in Iran’s back pocket, plans to work with Muqtada al-Sadr to form a pro-Iranian government in Iraq. With Saddam Hussein and the U.S. out of the way, Iran can now attempt to finish the job they were unable to do after eight years of fighting through 1980 – 1988.

Will 2011 be the year Hezbollah seizes total control of Lebanon and Iraq becomes an additional proxy state of Iran? Will this force Israel into another war to the north with Hezbollah? There is a reason the Saudis are obtaining two nuclear weapons from Pakistan and Israel two more dolphin class submarines from Germany. Keep your eye on the Middle East. The fact war was averted in 2010 makes it overdue in 2011.

For more information about Iran's push to form a Shia Crescent in the Middle East read "Iranistan"

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Hezbollah Collapses Lebanon Government

Vol: 112 Issue: 13 - Thursday, January 13, 2011
By Jack Kinsella

(Jack Kinsella and Bill Salus met in Phoenix on Januarly 11, 2012. The following day Hezbollah made a political move destined to collapse the Lebanese Government. Below are a few excerpts written subsequently by Jack Kinsella in his Omega Letter Intelligence Digest)

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Hezbollah Collapses Lebanon Government
The government of Lebanon collapsed overnight following Hezbollah’s withdrawal from the country’s fragile unity coalition government.

President Michel Suleiman asked Saad Hariri to stay on as caretaker prime minister after the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah and its allies resigned Wednesday and brought down Hariri's government.



The crisis was the climax of tensions that have been simmering for months over the U.N. tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Hariri's father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The tribunal is widely expected to indict members of Hezbollah soon, which many fear could rekindle violence in the tiny nation plagued for decades by war and civil strife.

Business tycoon and Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, nicknamed “Mr. Lebanon” was assassinated in Beirut on Valentine’s Day, 2005 by a car bomb blast so massive that it killed twenty-two other individuals as well.

A UN fact-finding mission was dispatched to Lebanon to investigate the killing, prompting Hezbollah to stage a million-strong pro-Syria demonstration in response.

Five years later, the UN is preparing to hand down indictments against members of Hezbollah and possibly Syrian officials. Hezbollah claims the tribunal is really an Israeli-US plot aimed at discrediting Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah.

Hezbollah demanded that the tribunal dissolved and the Lebanese share of its funding withdrawn, and has called for a number of witnesses that they describe as "fake" to instead face the Lebanese justice system.

A court spokesman, Crispin Thorold, said that the contents of the indictments will remain confidential until confirmed by the pretrial judge, which could take "at least six to 10 weeks" from the time the indictments are submitted. That may now come as soon as Monday.

In the first stages of the UN inquiry, Syria, which had had several thousand troops in Lebanon, was accused of the Hariri assassination. Rafik Hariri was, after all, a man Damascus had difficulty ruling.

More recently, under the investigation’s third chief prosecutor, Canadian Daniel Bellemare, blame is falling on Hezbollah, which is what prompted Hezbollah to quit the coalition and force the government collapse.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrapped up a four-nation tour of US allies in the Persian Gulf with unusually blunt remarks to a regional development conference in the Qatari capital of Doha.

Clinton was asked why Arab leaders should listen to her criticism when the US “can’t even get Israel to make peace with the Palestinians.” To her credit, Clinton responded by reminding her critic that:

“When the Israelis pulled out of Lebanon, they got Hezbollah and 40,000 rockets and when they pulled out of Gaza they got Hamas and 20,000 rockets.”

Clinton characterized the Hezbollah withdrawal “as a transparent effort...to subvert justice and undermine Lebanon's stability and progress".

The Jerusalem Post said in an editorial that;

“It is important to understand why Nasrallah is so concerned with the findings of the Hague-based tribunal: If Hezbollah is found guilty, as expected, of assassinating Hariri it would contradict the image it has tried to create over the years as being the defender of Lebanon.

If it was defending Lebanon, why did it assassinate the country’s former prime minister?

The problem for Hezbollah is that toppling the Lebanese government does not ensure that this “defender” image will be retained. What it is trying to do instead is force the current Prime Minister Saad Hariri to denounce the tribunal’s findings and clear Hezbollah's name.

The problem for Lebanon is that Hezbollah’s militia, ordered disbanded under the terms of UN Resolution 1701, has instead become more powerful than the existing Lebanese Army.

Assessment:

"While I, (Jack Kinsella) was in Phoenix (shooting a TV show for Jewish Voice TV), I had the pleasure of spending several hours with Bill Salus (also taping a TV show on Mideast events), author of “Isralestine” which explores the connection between the prophecies of Psalms 83, Isaiah 17, Jeremiah 49 and Obadiah and the Lebanon War of 2006.

We discussed the impending collapse and where things could go from here. It seems probable that the next step will be war. If this is the war Salus is anticipating, when the smoke clears, much of the Arab Middle East will be a radioactive wasteland.

Perhaps that will be the event that brings about the false peace covenant that results in Israel becoming the “land of unwalled villages” described in Ezekiel 38 at the time of the Gog-Magog invasion?

I was tremendously impressed with the ministry of Jewish Voice Ministries when I was there a couple of years ago; having made a second trip only cemented that impression.

Over the years, I have been greatly blessed over the course of my own ministry to rub shoulders with some of the giants of the faith.

The first prophecy conference at which I was a featured speaker included such luminary Christian leaders as Dr. John Walvoord, Hal Lindsey, Chuck Missler, Dave Hunt and Jack Van Impe. Since then, I've been blessed to rub shoulders with many, many more.

While I have met many giants, there are only a few men I would term “great” men of faith. Rabbi Jonathan Bernis, (pictured at right with an Ethiopian child), is a man of such genuine, certifiable greatness.

Bernis had only recently returned from an outreach to the Bene Manache in Mizoram, India.

A passage in a JVMI blog of the outreach posted by a dentist volunteer explains what they were up against.

“The conditions for us Westerners were tough—sleeping in tents on hard floors; cold washes with a pitcher and bucket for a shower; reconstituted, freeze-dried food; bus rides that went on forever over bumpy, twisty roads. Let’s not forget the 48 hours of travel to get there. And did I mention all the need medically and dentally? It was overwhelming.

The dental need in every child that I say was incomprehensible for a Western trained dentist. All children older than 18 months had all or nearly all of their teeth rotted out beyond recognition.”

JVMI was able to bring medical and dental treatment for – get this – THIRTY THOUSAND people, most of whom had never ever seen a doctor or dentist. THIRTY THOUSAND! And that was just this past year.

When I was there last, they had just returned from Ethiopia where they had treated similarly large crowds of people to whom medical care was as common as moon rocks.

The JVMI volunteers are not just treating diseased bodies – they are treating diseased souls as well.

Here are some typical statistics for JVMI’s most recent Ethiopian (2010) outreach from their website:

9,750 treated
918 salvations
354 healings
1,731 pairs of glasses
67 eye surgeries
5 babies delivered

After the taping, Jonathan took Bill Salus and me out for a late dinner and conversation. Later, I taped an interview with Bill for his (Prophecy Update) radio program.

Maranatha!
Jack Kinsella