The arms race in the Middle East is now officially out of control.  As if tensions in that region were not high enough, there are now reports that Hezbollah is stockpiling chemical and biological weapons near Israel’s border, that Syria is about to start receiving MiGs from Russia and that Iran has developed systems that can now intercept stealth cruise missiles.

In a region where it seems like war is almost always ready to erupt, this is really, really bad news.

According to DEBKA, European intelligence sources have recently indicated that Hezbollah has received and is stockpiling a supply of chemical shells and short-range missiles with chemical warheads.  These types of shells and warheads can do much, much more damage to a civilian population than the rockets that were fired into Israel during previous conflicts.

When you couple this news with the previous report that Hezbollah has stockpiled over 40,000 rockets near the border of Israel, this all becomes very ominous. 

Not only that, but according to DEBKA’s sources,  Hezbollah is about to receive biological weapons as well.  The amount of devastation that a terrorist organization can achieve with just a few of those is mind blowing. 

One of DEBKA’s sources describes the new Hezbollah as “bad guys with good strategic vision.”

If that wasn’t bad enough, a Russian newspaper is reporting that Russia has agreed to sell advanced MiG fighter jets to Syria but has not yet begun delivering the planes.

If this is true, and there is no reason to believe that it is not, then this would totally change the air superiority equation in the Middle East.  Up until now, the Israeli air force has always been vastly superior to the Syrians, but this would equal things up significantly.

One Israeli defense official put it this way in the Jerusalem Post: “If Syria gets new MiG-31s, this will pose a definite threat to our air force.”

Not only that, but there are several troubling reports about Iran’s military buildup.

Firstly, Iran is now claiming that it has developed weapons systems that are able to intercept stealth cruise missiles.  If this is true (and they are prone to exaggeration) then this substantially upgrades Iran’s defensive capabilities.

Secondly, DEBKA is reporting that Iran is now closer then ever to being able to produce a nuclear bomb.  According to DEBKA, Iran will have stockpiled enough high-grade enriched uranium for two nuclear bombs by February 2010.

Will Israel wait that long to strike?

Only time will tell.

Lastly, there are now rumors that the cargo ship that was hijacked and subsequently disappeared in the Arctic Sea was carrying S-300 missiles bound for Iran.

S-300 missiles are Russia’s most advanced anti-aircraft weapon, and if they had gotten to Russia it would have seriously made it much more difficult for Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities.  Thus there are rumors that seem to be very persistent that Israel may have been involved in the disappearance of the Russian cargo ship.

In fact, one anonymous source told a U.K. newspaper that in the event of a strike on Iran’s nuclear installations, S-300 missiles would likely increase Israeli casualties by up to 50 percent.

So what does all this mean?

It means that both sides are getting ready for something.  A major war in the Middle East is closer now than it has been in ages, and if something is not done this seething cauldron of tension is likely to boil over.

Let’s hope that does not happen any time soon.

Has the United States now decided to that they are going to allow Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear program?  If new remarks from Vice President Joe Biden are to be taken seriously, then that indeed appears to be the case.

In a stunning new interview with ABC’s George Stephanoupolos, vice president Joe Biden stated the following: “Look, Israel can determine for itself — it’s a sovereign nation — what’s in their interest and what they decide to do relative to Iran and anyone else.”

In response, Stephanoupolos asked whether Israel can do what they want whether or not the U.S. agrees with that course of action.

Joe Biden’s response?

“Whether we agree or not.”

Subsequently, Biden also added this: 

“And so there are separate issues. If the Netanyahu government decides to take a course of action different than the one being pursued now, that is their sovereign right to do that. That is not our choice. ”

Stephanopoulos sought to clarify this point by asking this question:

“But just to be clear here, if the Israelis decide Iran is an existential threat, they have to take out the nuclear program, militarily the United States will not stand in the way?”

In response, Biden answered this way:

“Look, we cannot dictate to another sovereign nation what they can and cannot do.

This was the very first time that an Obama administration official has publicly left the door open for an Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear sites.

In addition, there are now reports circulating in the mainstream media that Saudi Arabia has agreed to turn a blind eye to Israeli warplanes flying over their territory in a raid on Iran’s nuclear sites.

Officially, these reports are being denied, but they are very intriguing.

You see, Saudi Arabia would not be too thrilled with Iran getting their hands on nuclear weapons.  Saudi Arabia is a Sunni Muslim nation, while Iran is the largest Shiite Muslim nation in the world.  There is a long history of violence between Sunnis and Shiites.  While both sects of Islam believe in Islamic world dominance, both are also deeply committed to seeing their own particular “brand” of Islam triumph in the end.

Therefore, Saudi Arabia has a vested interest in making sure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons.

So, it appears that everything is starting to line up for an Israeli military strike on Iran’s nuclear program.

The truth is that Israel never intended to let Iran acquire nuclear weapons.

Nor should they.

Let us just hope that when they do strike that it will not spark a larger war.

There is a new push to make the Temple Mount in Jerusalem a site that is shared by Jews, Muslims and Christians, and where a rebuilt Jewish Temple can stand side by side with the Islamic Dome of the Rock that stands there now.

Does that sound absolutely crazy and unrealistic?

Perhaps.

But there are scholars and organizations that are actually promoting this idea and working on plans to bring it to fruition.

A recent article that was published in the leading journal of religious law in Israel has sparked a great deal of debate in the Jewish community about the possibility of sharing the Temple Mount.  The article in “Tehumin” discussed the potential for making the Temple Mount into “God’s Holy Mountain” – a “house of prayer” for all people (Isaiah 56:7).

Of course, to many Jews and Christians such a concept would be a blatant abomination, but there are religious authorities in Israel that are taking this idea very seriously.

The article in Tehumin envisioned a scenario where a “holy revelation” is given to an “authentic prophet” that would authorize that the Temple be rebuilt in peaceful proximity to the Dome of the Rock and nearby Christian shrines.

The article also seems to think that such a scenario would be in keeping with the words of the famous 12th Century Jewish sage Maimonides that Christianity and Islam are part of God’s ultimate plan “to direct the entire world to worship God together.”

As unlikely a scenario as this may seem right now, the truth is that this sets the stage for the Antichrist to come on the scene as “an authentic prophet” in the future with a peace plan that would propose just such a thing.

Yoav Frankel, the director of the project promoting a vision of “God’s Holy Mountain” acknowledges the skepticism that many have regarding the project but at the same time expresses a great deal of long-term optimism:

“We offer this vision for a long and deep discussion, and of course want to continue with a parallel research from other religions.”

There is even a website for the project promoting a vision of “God’s Holy Mountain”:

www.godsholymountain.org

The website depicts a harmonious future for the Temple Mount where Muslims, Christians and Jews mingle between the Dome of the Rock and a rebuilt Jewish Temple.

The project is headed by Jewish members of the Interfaith Encounter Association, and they are actively encouraging all three faiths to consider a new theological outlook which would allow for all three religions to worship there.

However, with tensions increasing seemingly with each new day in the Middle East right now, such a scenario for the Temple Mount is not likely to come to fruition any time soon.

But many Bible prophecy teachers have believed for a long time that just such a scenario some day will come to pass.  After the next great war involving Israel, many on both sides will be crying out for peace.

In such an environment, the Antichrist may just be able to convince both the Muslims and the Jews that a shared Temple Mount would be a great symbol of peace.

But as students of Bible prophecy we know how that would turn out.

For the first time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly endorsed an independent Palestinian state. Netanyahu’s speech at Bar-Ilan University on June 14th in Ramat Gan, Israel was billed as a major foreign policy event, but most analysts did not anticipate how stunning this speech would turn out to be.

For many Jews, to hear Benjamin Netanyahu publicly call for a Palestinian state is absolutely shocking. This is how Netanyahu described how he sees the peace process playing out: “In my vision, there are two free peoples living side by side each with each other, each with its own flag and national anthem.”

Netanyahu did place conditions on a future Palestinian state, however.  He said that any future Palestinian state would have to be unarmed and would have to officially recognize Israel.

Netanyahu’s speech was widely seen around the world as his response to the intense pressure that the Obama administration has been putting on him.  His speech struck a defiant tone in that regard, as he refused to heed Obama’s call for an immediate freeze of construction on lands Palestinians claim for their future state.

In addition, Netanyahu also clearly said that Jerusalem must remain under Israeli sovereignty.

This goes directly against what Barack Obama has been promising to the Palestinians.

U.S. President Barack Obama has been promising the Palestinians a capital inside the city of Jerusalem and has expressed his desire that the holy sites be taken away from Israel and be put directly under international jurisdiction.

WorldNetDaily recently reported that President Obama told Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a recent meeting that he foresees the creation of a strong Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Abbas’ top political adviser, Nimer Hamad, reportedly told this to WorldNetDaily: “Abu Mazen (Abbas) heard from Obama and his administration in a very categorical way that a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital is in the American national and security interest.”

It is in America’s national interest for the Palestinians to have a capital in the city of Jerusalem?

Are we all suddenly in an episode of the Twilight Zone?

Talk about a really, really, really, really bad idea.

How does anyone come up with an idea that bad?

But giving the Palestinians a capital in Jerusalem is not the end of Obama’s plans for the holy land.

There are also reports that Obama desires for the holy sites in Jerusalem to come under international jurisdiction.

And what is Israel supposed to get for all of this?

Peace guarantees that the Islamic terrorists will break within 6 months?

Both Netanyahu and Obama are quite foolish to try to give away the land of Israel.

The truth is that God gets really, really, really angry when people start trying to give away parts of Israel, and He seems to get even angrier when people mess around with the city of Jerusalem.

On a sister blog, we recently put together a comprehensive article that documents many of the natural disasters that have hit the United States when the U.S. has tried to give away pieces of the land of Israel over the past couple of decades.

But has the government learned anything from these warnings?

Not at all.

The U.S. government seems more determined than ever to carve up the land of Israel and to take the holy sites away from the jurisdiction of Israel.

The truth is that God will not bless the U.S. if it continues these kinds of policies.

It has been said that if the U.S. ends up being successful in dividing the land of Israel that God will divide the United States.

After so many thousands of years of seeing what happens when you mess with Israel, you would think that we all would have learned something.

But the reality is that politicians will continue to mock and ignore God and will try to do what they think is best.  Unfortunately their foolishness will only bring disaster on all of us.

The preparations for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem are heating up! The Temple Institute has announced the creation of two golden censors known as the Bezichin which will be used in the service of the Temple by the priests once the Temple has been rebuilt.

This is very exciting for those of us who are looking forward to the return of Yahshua the Messiah. The fact that the preparations for the rebuilding of the Temple are taking place is yet another sign that we are living in the last days.

The Scriptures tell us that the Jewish Temple will be rebuilt and that the anti-Messiah will desecrate it in the last days. The anti-Messiah will do something so evil in this rebuilt Temple that the Scriptures refer to it as “the abomination of desolation” (Matthew 24:15).

For hundreds of years, scholars mocked and said that the Temple would never be rebuilt in Jerusalem. But the truth is that the Word of God is true and nothing man can do can stop it from being fulfilled.

The following is a little bit of background on the bezichin from the Temple Institute website…..

The two golden bezichin – frankincense vessels, referred to in the above passage from Exodus, as “spoons,” are an essential element of the golden show bread table and the service of the showbread. These two bezichin were used to contain the two handfuls of frankincense that the priests were instructed to place upon the showbread table beneath the twelves loaves of lechem hapanim – showbread. The twelve loaves were replaced every Shabbat and the loaves that were removed were eaten by the outgoing shift of priests in the Chamber of the Hearth, located along the Temple Courtyard. New loaves were set in their place simultaneously, and with them the two bezichin of fresh frankincense. Our sages tell us that the showbread never grew stale, that it remained hot and fresh, and that even a morsel of the bread was filling and satisfying the priests that ate it.

The Temple Institute has also produced a short little YouTube video on these vessels that we have embedded below for you…..

The reality is that we are living in the last days and the signs are all around us.

Praise God that we get the privilege of living in such extraordinary times!

Pope Benedict’s recent visit to Israel has made a lot of people there really, really angry. Why? Because he walked into a Palestinian refugee camp and openly called for a Palestinian state.

During his visit to the Palestinian refugee camp, Pope Benedict stated, “It is understandable that Palestinians feel frustrated,” and that “their legitimate aspirations for permanent homes, for an independent Palestinian state, remain unfilled.”

Wow.

I guess there is no guessing where Pope Benedict stands on this issue.

During a speech in “Manger Square” in Bethlehem, right in front of “the Church of the Nativity”, Pope Benedict encouraged the Palestinians to keep the “flame of hope” alive for a “sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with its neighbors, within internationally recognized borders.”

Does anyone still not understand why many Jews are furious?

Of course the Pope is not nearly the only major political leader who is pushing for a Palestinian state.

U.S. President Barack Obama has also been very open regarding his goal to see an independent Palestinian state created.

In fact, there were reports that Barack Obama held a secret meeting with Palestinian leadership last summer even before he became president during which he expressed his desire to divide up the land of Israel and the city of Jerusalem.

According to WorldNetDaily, Barack Obama told the Palestinian leadership during a trip to that region in July that he supports a Palestinian state and a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem, but he asked them to keep his remarks secret, according to a Lebanese newspaper.

So Barack Obama wants to divide up the land of Israel and give the Palestinians a capital in east Jerusalem?

As if the U.S. didn’t have enough problems…..

Don’t all of these politicians realize what they are doing?

God does not bless those who try to divide the land of Israel.

In fact, world leaders continue to operate under the delusion that they can find a solution to all of this conflict by dividing up the land of Israel.

In Genesis 12:3, God warns that those who curse Israel will be cursed when he promised this to Abraham:

“I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

In the book of Joel, God warns specifically against dividing the land of Israel.

Joel 3:1-2 states, “…I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of my people and my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; and they have divided up my land.”

Bill Koenig, the author of “Israel: The Blessing or the Curse”, has said this:

“We know for a fact that God gave this land, through the Abrahamic covenant, He gave the land of Israel to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants, and this land is God’s land.”

In the Scriptures, we are warned that the city of Jerusalem would one day become a huge stumbling stone for the nations in Zechariah 12:3…..

“On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.”

Is that not what has happened?

The truth is that God gave that land to Israel long ago, and now that He has started to bring His people back to the land, anyone who tries to give it away is going to be under a curse.

So is there any evidence of a curse on those who try to divide the land of Israel today?

Yes.

Consider these examples…..

#1) On April 30, 2003, America was positioned to be the catalyst for the so-called “solution” to the Middle East crisis. As Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas was sworn in, the “Road Map” peace plan was set in motion.

The very next day began the worst month of tornadoes in United States history – more than 500 in a single month. Under normal conditions, 1,000 tornadoes hit the United States each year, but in just eight days that May, 375 twisters ripped across the heartland of America.

#2) May 9, 2003, President Bush addressed students at the University of South Carolina. Bush called on the Palestinians to embrace the roadmap to peace, and Bush expressed his desire to see the flag of Palestine raised over a free nation.

Hours later, tornadoes returned and Oklahoma City again became the target for deadly twisters, reducing many businesses and homes to splinters and bricks. The tornadoesof May devastated the Midwest with the third worst property damage in American history.

#3) On October 30, 1991, in a meeting scheduled by George H.W. Bush, Israelis and Palestinians discussed ways to achieve peace in the Middle East. Opening talks focused on trading parts of Israel for a peace agreement.

That same day, thousands of miles away, a powerful storm was brewing off of the coast of Nova Scotia. On October 31st, what would be known as “The Perfect Storm” smashed into New England, pummeling the President’s Kennebunkport, Maine home with waves 30 feet high. It was a storm so rare that the weather patterns required to create it only happen about once every 100 years.

#4) On August 23rd, 1992, Middle East peace talks resumed in Washington, D.C. with hope that there would be a great breakthrough.  These talks focused on surrendering the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria in exchange for peace. Hundreds of miles south of there at the same time, Florida was the target for one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. Hurricane Andrew ripped through the state with an eye more than 30 miles wide and winds up to 178 miles per hour leaving behind a 32 billion dollar disaster.

#5) Between August 16th and 30th, 2005, Ariel Sharon expelled 9,480 Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank.

On January 4th, 2006, Sharon had a stroke, and he fell into a coma and is now in a persistent vegetative state.

#6) The U.S. had strongly pressured Sharon to evacuate those settlers from Gaza.

On August 29th, 2005 the storm that would become Hurricane Katrina formed, and it devastated New Orleans and the surrounding areas to such an extent that they still have not recovered. That devastating storm caused at least 200 billion dollars in damage.

#7) In June of 2001, George W. Bush sent CIA director George Tenet to Israel in an attempt to implement the Mitchell Plan.  The Mitchell plan called for, among other things, the cessation of new building in the Jewish settlements.

On the same day that Tenet met with Israeli and Palestinian officials, tropical storm Allison formed in the Gulf of Mexico and moved over Texas, the President’s home state, and dropped over 28 inches of rain over the Houston area alone, causing over $4 billion dollars in damage. The storm then moved to Florida and up the east coast causing damage as far as Pennsylvania. The meteorologists called Allison the “worst tropical storm in history”.

There are many more examples of this phenomenon here:

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1055/1055_01.asp?wpc=1055_01.asp&wpp=b

So are you convinced yet?

Do you still think that all of these things are just coincidences?

The truth is that you DO NOT mess with the land of Israel.

God has really big plans for that land in these last days.

Popes and politicians will continue to do their best to divide the land and negotiate it away, but God’s purposes will ultimately be fulfilled.

There will be ups and downs, wars and conflicts, treaties and agreements, but no matter what happens, we know that there is no stopping the Word of God.

God’s purposes for Israel will stand.