Apocalyptic Hope
from David Dolan
Received April 18, 2003
Greetings from Jerusalem. Below is my promised political and prophetic assessment of the war in nearby Iraq. Wherever you are located in the world, I hope it informs and blesses you. Please feel free to reprint it or post it, but do include my tag at the bottom as well. I send my assessment to you on this special Friday, when many Christians around the world recall the death of Jesus, or Yeshua in Hebrew, on a Roman execution stake here in Jerusalem nearly 2,000 years ago. Actually, most local Arab Christians, who are members of the Greek Orthodox church, will only mark Good Friday next week. Meanwhile many Israelis are enjoying long holiday weekends as Passover week continues. It is an extremely warm day today, with temperatures expected to soar into the mid-90s along the coast (mid 30s Celsius). However, more rain is predicted in the Galilee region tomorrow as the latest "sharav" comes to an end. May the Living King of Israel bless you all this special weekend.
Fall of Saddam Hussein
An earthquake has struck the Middle East. One of the most ruthless dictators of recent decades, Saddam Hussein, has been militarily overthrown by the world’s reigning superpower, assisted by Great Britain and several other countries. The troubled region will be profoundly changed by this action, and possibly the world.
What
are the political and prophetic implications of Saddam’s
downfall, if any? Can we discern already what they might
be, or is it too soon to tell? Have certain biblical
scriptures been fulfilled by Saddam’s ouster, as some have
already maintained? Is an era of unprecedented Middle East
peace and concurrent prosperity dawning, as Shimon Peres and
others claim? Will Israel be quickly linked with her former
enemies in a “highway of holiness,” as others are
saying?
I think
it is a bit too soon to say with any certainty what the lasting
outcome will be from the long overdue toppling of Saddam from his
dictatorial pedestal (which could have occurred in 1991 with far
less international upheaval). However, political trends,
historic precedents, and of course, futuristic biblical
prophecies might help guide us toward some correct answers, even
at this early stage.
AN
AMERICAN WORLD?
Many
American political analysts, along with a few Israelis and
others, believe that Saddam’s ouster heralds a new era of
international peace and stability in which the powerful United
States will basically rule the world with justice, backed by
military force when necessary. Watching how the brutal
dictator was quickly crushed by America’s overwhelming
military machine—made irresistible by unprecedented and
unmatchable technological prowess—tyrants everywhere will
now run for cover. Syria, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and other
autocratic states will bend their knees before the unstoppable
mega-power, and democratic freedoms will spread to all parts of
the globe.
Given
the amazing display of military might and precision that the
world has just witnessed in the Middle East, this is certainly a
plausible scenario. But is it a likely one? I
don’t think so. History reveals that all great
empires, from ancient Egypt and Babylon forward, experienced
periods where they were virtually irresistible. However,
that condition doesn’t usually last very long. The
ruling empire is always eventually curtailed by a combination of
pride in its astounding accomplishments and internal rot, which
is then followed by political implosion and military defeat.
Is
America’s century or so reign on top of the world order
nearing an end, or does the swift victory in Iraq signal that it
will become even stronger in the coming decades? Nobody but
the Sovereign Lord can say for sure. But to predict, as
some are in the wake of the war in Iraq, that Washington will
just endlessly grow stronger and stronger, and that its style of
government will now prevail all over the globe, is going too far,
in my opinion.
Despite
being the home of a relatively large number of professing
Christians, America has hardly become the Kingdom of God on
earth. It is still by far the largest purveyor of pornography of
any single country on the planet, and a nation with relatively
high murder, divorce, and abortion rates. It may currently
have a professing Christian as president, but that does not alter
the unpleasant facts just noted.
In the
aftermath of the swift allied victory in Iraq, it might be
tempting for some American Christians to forget that George W.
Bush—who persisted in tackling the notorious Butcher of
Baghdad in the face of widespread world opposition—only made
it into office by the skin of his teeth. If fact, a
majority of US voters chose the former vice president over the
governor of Texas. It took weeks of battling over hanging
chads before Bush’s slight majority in Florida was declared
enough to give him victory in the national “electoral
college” vote.
ONE
WORLD GOVERNMENT
As the
American leader doggedly pursues his post 9/11 fight against
worldwide terrorism, a real international Sea Change could indeed
be taking place, as some insist. The US-UK lightning
victory in Iraq might well portend an era of unprecedented world
freedom and democracy that stretches into the distant future.
However,
there are important indications around the globe that such an era
may already be behind us—the post-Soviet 90s when American
culture and financial power reigned supreme. Several other
governments besides the one in Washington possess weapons of
tremendous mass destruction, better known as nuclear warheads,
not to mention powerful missiles to deliver them and major air
and ground forces to back them up. Such was not the case
with Iraq, which was basically gutted in the 1991 Gulf War.
The
nuclear nations include at least two Communist countries, North
Korea and China, along with the often-chaotic and largely
fundamentalist Islamic country of Pakistan. Another important
nuclear power, Russia, has not fully moved away from its
traditional hostility towards the United States, as the
Kremlin’s secret aid to Saddam’s threatened regime has
recently confirmed. Although far closer to America than the
nations listed above, France is also not overeager to see
Washington unilaterally rule the world, as the pre-war
trans-Atlantic spats amply demonstrated.
TURNING POINT
It would only take one or two
of the worlds untold thousands of
nuclear missiles, aimed at the
“right places” like New York and Washington, to
severely alter America’s current superpower standing (or
even smaller nuclear devices smuggled into US cities). A series
of major natural disasters like earthquakes
and hurricanes, and/or an economic collapse,
could rapidly weaken America’s powerful standing as well. In
fact, it might only take an especially virulent
virus to affect America’s
unprecedented power, not to mention to alter the current world
order. One should shudder a little when international health
experts officially dub a frightening new respiratory disease as
both “Severe” and “Acute” (the first two
words of SARS).
It is certainly quite possible that a
Christian-influenced United States will continue to grow in
stature and strength in the coming years, and bring more
political and economic stability to the wider world in the
process. Being an American Christian, I wouldn’t mind
if that were the case at all. However, Washington’s
many enemies—including anyone that might feel threatened by
its relatively enlightened actions and policies—can hardly
be expected to just roll over and play dead. In my opinion,
this is especially true of giant China and its allies, especially
increasingly threatening North Korea.
A pacific response from “Old Europe” to growing
American power and influence is also not at all guaranteed. While
sharing the same basic political and economic values, the rapidly
expanding European Union (which will have over 400 million people
in it when eight central European nations, plus Cyprus and Malta,
join the union in May 2004) can be expected to challenge the
current superpower at every convenient opportunity.
THE EURO
Indeed,
one of the subtle factors behind the conflict in oil-rich Iraq
might be the quiet, but fierce battle for supremacy between the reigning world reserve currency, the American Dollar (and its
sister currency, the British Pound), and the rapidly up and
coming European Euro. A decision by Saudi Arabia, Iraq,
Iran and other oil powers (including Russia) to dump the US
greenback in favor of the new EU currency would have tremendous
and far-reaching consequences for the world’s existing
economic order, to say the least.
MIDEAST
HIGHWAY
Another
proposition making the rounds in the wake of Saddam’s ouster
is this sanguine one: The short conflict will help fulfill a
biblical prophecy found in Isaiah 19, verses 23-25: "In
that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The
Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The
Egyptians and the Assyrians will worship together. In that day
Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a
blessing on the earth. The Lord Almighty will bless them, saying,
"Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and
Israel my inheritance."
Some
are teaching that Saddam’s toppling will open the door for
the soon fulfillment of that stirring prophecy. They
foresee an imminent peace treaty between Israel and a
Western-backed democratic Iraqi government, in the fashion of the
Camp David peace accord between Egypt and Israel that was
negotiated at the presidential retreat in the late 1970s.
While
this might be the case, I seriously doubt that such a supine
scenario will unfold in the coming months. It is certainly
correct that the ancient Assyrian empire was centered in
today’s Iraq, with its capital, Nineveh, near today’s
northern city of Mosul. And it is also true that
Isaiah’s prophecy is clearly a futuristic one that looks
forward to the Messianic era, when peace will reign in the Middle
East and around the globe.
However,
that is precisely the reason I think it is quite premature to say
the recent war in Iraq portends the soon fulfillment of
Isaiah’s oracle. It is a messianic prophecy that will
not be fulfilled in total until the time when Messiah reigns as
King of Kings from His glorious throne in Jerusalem. Its
central feature is that the Assyrians and Egyptians will worship
together with the Israelis, implying that they share the same
faith in the God of Israel. That is hardly the case today.
Most Egyptians and Iraqis are practicing Muslims who shun Judaism
and Christianity.
According
to the preceding verses of Isaiah 19, the highway linking the
three areas is established after a period of severe
judgment upon Egypt, which other scriptures indicate will be
fulfilled as the final, apocalyptic battle of Armageddon rages in
the region (Daniel 11:42).
There
are two other reasons why I am dubious about the suggestion that
a peace treaty between Iraq and Israel is on the horizon—one
that will produce a “friendship” highway stretching
from Iraq though Israel, ending in Egypt. While that may
sound pleasantly plausible to someone watching from abroad, any
Israeli can tell you that no two-way street currently exists
between Egypt and Israel.
If
anything, relations between the two Mideast neighbors are just as
cold as they were in the days before the peace accord was signed
under Jimmy Carter’s tutelage. Egyptian Muslim
fundamentalists, backed by army leaders, quickly assassinated
Anwar Sadat for daring to end the state of war with the hated
“Zionist entity.” Ever since that sad day in
October 1981 (which I vividly recall since I was living on an
Israeli kibbutz at the time), peaceful relations have limped
along at best, and been virtually non-existent in reality.
A
casual read of the Egyptian press, a visit to a Cairo mosque (as
I have made), or a review of the average government speech will
prove that most Egyptians are not currently interested in walking
along any gilded highway toward Israel! In fact, actual
tourism to the biblical holy land is almost nil, partly due to
heavy government pressure on the Egyptian public to stay away. So
if the Iraqis pick up the peace baton in the coming days, they
will end up running the highway relay through Jerusalem by
themselves!
WAR
BEFORE PEACE ?
Assyria
is listed in Psalm 83 as one of a number of regional Arab powers
that “conspire together” to “wipe Israel out as a
nation.” As
I pointed out in my book Israel in Crisis, most biblical
scholars say that the apparent prophecy was never fulfilled in
ancient times. While Iraq did support the 1948 and 1967
Arab attacks upon Israel, those wars do not seem to have
exhausted all the details listed in the psalm. Therefore, I
suspect that its unfolding still lies ahead, and will in fact
probably be one of the next major “prophetic” events to
occur in this turbulent region. If so, that obviously
implies that Iraq is not likely to sign a peace accord with
Israel anytime soon.
As
wonderful as it was to watch Saddam fall from power, it must be
kept in mind that Iraq is still a mostly-Muslim country with
longstanding animosity towards Israel. It was not only the
tyrannical Baathist regime that fomented hatred of the nearby
Jewish State, but also the many mosques that dot the land, along
with broadcast messages from Islamic religious leaders (several
prominent Iraqi Islamic leaders are continuing to denounce Israel
in the wake of the war). The majority of Iraqis are of the Shiite
wing of Islam, which has become increasingly anti-Zionist since
fundamentalist Shiites seized Iran in 1979 and established the
radical Lebanese Hizbullah militia in the early 1980s.
Many
Iraqis feel that they are close kin to the Palestinians, and visa
versa. This is another reason why whatever government emerges in
Baghdad is not likely to quickly sign a peace accord with Israel,
at least not before a final Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement
is achieved. Since that does not seem likely anytime soon
(or even at all, since the highly explosive issue of Jerusalem
would have to be resolved as part of any final accord), it is
probable that Iraq will not rush to formally recognize the
long-demonized Jewish State.
DESTRUCTION
OF DAMASCUS
Another
futuristic prophecy delivered by the great Isaiah,
recorded in chapter 17, concerns the destruction of the Syrian
capital city, Damascus, and the end of sovereign rule from the
city. While the ancient city has been conquered, and even
destroyed, several times in history, it has never been entirely
abandoned, as the prophecy states will occur one day (with only
animals wandering amid its ruins after its destruction). Certainly
Damascus is a great capital city today, with around two million
residents living within its metropolitan boundaries.
The
prophecy implies that the great city—which was an important
early Islamic center—is destroyed by Israel, although this
in not clearly stated. Isaiah reveals that Israel’s
“fatness will become lean” at the time when Damascus is
destroyed, hinting that some sort of severe military exchange
will take place between the neighboring countries at the time of
the prophecy’s fulfillment. I am among many who
suspect it might involve nuclear weapons, since Damascus is
apparently uninhabitable for humans after its fall—possibly
due to lingering radiation.
Again,
nobody but the Lord can say for sure exactly how or when this
prophecy will be fulfilled. However, I firmly believe that
it will unfold on the world stage at some point in history, and
probably sooner than later if recent events are any guide. No
lasting peace treaty will be possible between the Palestinians
and Israel as long as the radical Baathist regime rules Syria.
Of course, the regime could be removed by other methods than a
war with Israel, or it may modify its extremist policies and
support for various terrorist groups due to strong pressure from
the United States and other world powers.
END OF
DAYS
There
are many signs that the biblically prophesied end of this age,
and beginning of the long awaited messianic era of universal
peace and light, is fast approaching. They are far more
than I could even begin to detail in this missive. The
world could experience several more decades, or even centuries,
of the human "progress" and economic expansion that
characterized the last decades of the 20th century.
However, one sign of the imminence of the “end of days” stands out like a warning beacon on a moonless night at sea—the Jewish people are continuing to return to their ancient homeland at the center of the world. As I detailed in Israel in Crisis, I believe that Psalm 102 and several other scriptures foretell that the Jewish ingathering, and the concurrent rebuilding of Jerusalem, will be completed in a relatively short period of time, in fact in “one generation.”
As I
detailed in my book, a generation in the Bible can range anywhere
from 40 to around 100 years, but is normally about the average
life of a person, some 70 years. Israel is about to
celebrate its 55th birthday (on May 7th according to the
Hebrew calendar), and the 36th anniversary of the conquest of
Jerusalem's Old City and Temple Mount.
If my interpretation is correct, than the world is nearing its climactic final days. According to the apocalyptic scriptures, they will feature much global upheaval, an unprecedented one-world government that will last but a few years under the reign of the ultimate dictator, the “antichrist,” and many other things too numerous to spell out here.
Does Saddam's dramatic fall from his lofty
pedestal of power signal greater Mideast and international
stability ahead, or additional regional and/or world
upheaval? No human can say for sure. But the long
overdue demise of the tyrant who tried to resurrect ancient
Babylon (even if only as a tourist attraction) is surely
significant in many ways. Stay tuned, while you keep
looking up------for one way or the other : our redemption is
drawing near!
DAVID DOLAN
Jerusalem
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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