Weekly World Watch: Developments in Russia and Middle East

1. Weekly World Watch Andy Walton’s February 3 - 9, 2019 “If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.” (Ezekiel 33:6, New International Version) PRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE To skip the introductory slides and go straight to this weeks developments click here.

2. What is a Weekly World Watch? The idea is simple. It is to look at current events and compare them to events spoken of in the Bible. . I hope to build up a picture of God’s hand working in the affairs of this world. God is bringing about a day when all nations will be gathered to Jerusalem to battle. At that time God will send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, back to this earth. Jesus will then establish God’s kingdom on earth. This kingdom will last for ever. This is our hope and the reason we watch. The following six themes will appear repeatedly in WWW: • Israel: The continuing conflict in the Middle East and focus on Jerusalem. • Europe: Its developing union, both political and religious. • Russia: Its return to anti-Western ways as Bible prophecy’s “king of the north.” • The UK and the US: Bible prophecy’s “king of the south.” • Moral standards in decline and violence on the increase. • Increasing natural disasters: including earthquake, famine etc WWW presentations in PowerPoint can be ordered as audio/visual CDs by clicking here. Move your mouse to place the cursor on the blue link and click.

3. BIBLE QUOTE What is in a Weekly World Watch? Each WWW looks at a few key developments that have happened during the past week. It is in no way meant to be exhaustive – just a look at those events I saw as significant from a Biblical point of view. Every WWW event slide has the following format. To reveal each block of text just left click your mouse or press the space bar. You control when it appears. News Photo This is straight from a news report that caught my eye because it looked significant from a Biblical perspective, usually that of prophecy. HEADLINE The source of the headline and the date are included. This is the reporter’s description of the event. It is always a direct quotation from the news report and reflects the understanding of the reporter and editors. EVENT This is my comment on why the event is interesting to a Bible student. The intention of the WWW is to offer brief Biblical perspectives without going into detail. If more detail is desired, please e-mail me: (andy@weeklyworldwatch.co.uk). Please note that these are personal thoughts and the aim is purely to stimulate Bible study. COMMENT This is normally one verse which backs up why the event that has occurred is interesting from a Biblical perspective. Please read in its context. Unless stated otherwise, all quotes are from the King James Version.(Book, chapter, and verse)

4. This Week’s Developments February 3 - 9, 2019 • Russia plans new missile systems after pullout • Israel must stop Syria strikes, Moscow says • US Gulf visit before release of Middle East peace plan • West Bank settlers report surge in population growth • Tusk: Special place in hell for Brexiteers without a plan • Australia: January was hottest month on record To print any of the event slides that follow, click the picture on the upper right PRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE

5. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will be darkened, and the stars no longer shine. The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder from Jerusalem; the earth and the heavens will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel. Russia plans new missile systems after pullout BBC, February 5, 2019 Russia says it is planning to develop new missile systems after both Russia and the US suspended their involvement in an arms control pact. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty banned both countries from using short- and medium-range missiles. Last week, US President Donald Trump announced the US would leave the pact, which it has long accused the Russians of violating. Russia then did the same. The moves have raised concerns about a new arms race. The INF was signed in 1987, during the Cold War, to ease a crisis in which US and Soviet missiles were placed within range of European capitals. On Tuesday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the aim was to create new land-based missiles within the next two years. Ground-launched missiles were banned under the INF, but not sea- or air-launched ones, which Russia already possesses. EVENT COMMENT Both Moscow and Washington are accusing each other of violating the nuclear treaty that was signed back in 1987. Trump pulled out of the treaty last week and Putin followed suit the next day. On Tuesday this week Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered work to begin on developing new missile systems. Shoigu, is a close Putin ally. He said he wanted the “work completed by the end of next year so the new systems were ready by 2021”. It certainly looks like a new arms race has begun. Over 2800 years ago a man called Joel (a prophet of God) was inspired by God himself to write down words concerning events that we are witnessing NOW. He tells us about a great northern army that would invade Israel like locusts. He tells us that gentile nations would prepare for war. And after that war God will dwell in Jerusalem…. BIBLE QUOTE (Joel 3:14-16 NIV)

6. At that time evil thoughts will come to your mind, and you will devise a wicked scheme. 11 You will say, ‘Israel is an unprotected land filled with unwalled villages! I will march against her and destroy these people who live in such confidence! Israel must stop Syria strikes, Moscow says Haaretz, February 8, 2018 Israel must stop conducting air strikes in Syria, Moscow said Friday, according to Russian news outlet Sputnik News. "With regard to the latest Israeli attacks, we said that such arbitrary attacks on sovereign Syrian territory should be stopped and excluded," Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said, Sputnik reported. "Any strikes destabilise the situation even more. No one should conduct actions in Syria that go beyond the scope of antiterrorist objectives.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 21 in Moscow following brief talks that took place at the Paris Peace Forum in November, as well as a series of phone calls between the two leaders. The meeting comes after tensions between the two countries rose in recent weeks following Israeli airstrikes on Damascus Airport last month. Twenty-one people were killed in the extensive strike, according to a war watchdog. At least 12 of them were members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. EVENT This is an almost identical headline from last week. The reason being is that Russia has repeated this week the same warning to Israel. Russia has said again that Israel must stop conducting airstrikes in Syria. There is now increasing tension between Russia and Israel and something could easily go wrong from here on in. In fact of course something already has gone wrong. A Russian spy plane was shot down and Russia blames Israel for that loss. The Bible says that the leader of Russia, Gog, (currently Putin) will think an evil thought and decide to invade Israel. We can see how Putin himself might one day think this… following the destruction of Damascus… COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Ezekiel 38:10-11 NLT)

7. US Gulf visit before release of Middle East peace plan Middle East Eye, February 7, 2019 White House senior adviser Jared Kushner will travel to at least five Arab countries in late February to brief diplomats on the economic portion of a long-awaited US peace proposal for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, US officials familiar with the trip told Reuters. Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, along with US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, plan to make stops in Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar on their week-long trip, two senior White House officials said on Thursday. Kushner and Greenblatt, joined by State Department envoy Brian Hook and Kushner aide Avi Berkowitz, will not brief the diplomats on the "political component" of the peace plan, which covers all core issues of the decades-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, the officials said. Instead, they will gauge the level of support for the economic part of the plan, which is expected to include a combination of aid and investment to help the Palestinian people, the officials said. EVENT A lot of work is going on behind the scenes by the Trump administration to put together a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. But as with all worldly peace plans the main driver is money! Money talks and opinions can be changed with cash and economic benefits. This is of course where Trump’s thought process begins. This month Trump’s son in law will visit Gulf Arab states showing them what they will receive if they back the peace process. When these countries have been won over with money then Trump can launch his plan. Whatever that is. It is interesting that Kushner is visiting the Gulf Arab states. These are the very nations mentioned in Ezekiel 38 as being allied to the UK and the US when Russia invades. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE Sheba, and Dedan, [Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar] 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? (Ezekiel 38:13)

8. West Bank settlers report surge in population growth The Times of Israel, February 6, 2019 EVENT A West Bank settler group on Tuesday said the number of people living in Israeli settlements surged at a much faster rate than the overall Israeli population last year and predicted even more rapid growth thanks to the policies of the Trump administration. Baruch Gordon, director of West Bank Jewish Population Stats, said the White House has created a much friendlier environment for the settlers, clearing the way for a surge in construction in the coming years. "It's just simply opened up. There's no longer this cloud looming over it," Gordon said. The latest data shows the population in Jewish settlements of the West Bank grew to 449,508 as of January 1, up 3.3 percent from 435,159 people a year earlier. In comparison, Israel's overall population grew 1.9 percent last year to 8.907 million people, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. Two-thirds of the settler population are religious Jews. COMMENT The Mountains of Israel are the very heart of Biblical Israel, and contain the cities of Hebron, Shechem, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. The Mountains of Israel run like a spine through Israel and are completely encompassed by what the world now calls the “West Bank”. The Bible speaks of God scattering his people around the world (as punishment) but then one day bringing them back to the “mountains of Israel”. Think of these words in Ezekiel 36:8 when you read the article above…”But ye, O mountains of Israel, ye shall shoot forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel; for they are at hand to come. For, behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you, and ye shall be tilled and sown: And I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded:”  BIBLE QUOTE …in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.  (Ezekiel 38:8)

9. Tusk: Special place in hell for Brexiteers without a plan BBC, February 6, 2019 EVENT European Council President Donald Tusk has spoken of a "special place in hell" for "those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan of how to carry it out safely". He was speaking after talks with Irish leader Leo Varadkar in Brussels. Brexit-backing MPs reacted with anger to the comments, accusing Mr Tusk of "arrogance". Downing Street said it was a question for Mr Tusk "whether he considers the use of that kind of language helpful". The prime minister's official spokesman said: "We had a robust and lively referendum campaign in this country. In what was the largest democratic exercise in our history, people voted to leave the EU.” He added that everyone should now focus on delivering that. As the UK gets ever closer to the divorce date of the 29th March the acrimony between the two sides gets ever stronger. No divorces are straightforward and without tension and difficulties. But this is a divorce on a national scale. Britain leaving the EU. As with a married couple getting divorced no one really wins financially. It hurts both sides. This is the case with Brexit. Financially it will hurt the EU and the UK. Not only is there the economics but there is also the politics. Hard borders or no borders with Ireland and Northern Ireland. Donald Tusk (unelected president of the European Council) stirred things up this week by basically saying that those who want Brexit will end up in hell! Britain has rejected the EU project – the dream of removing national identity and becoming one superpower. The exit of the UK from the EU may be the catalyst for a group of nations in Europe to give up their power and become ”one nation”…. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: This is the resurrected Holy Roman Empire – coming soon! (Revelation 17:12-14)

10. Australia: January was hottest month on record BBC, February 2, 2018 EVENT Australia recorded its hottest month ever in January, with average temperatures exceeding 30C (86F) for the first time. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the extreme heat was "unprecedented" during the country's summer period. At least five January days were among the 10 warmest on record, with daily national temperature highs of 40C.The heat has caused wildfire deaths, bushfires and a rise in hospital admissions. Several wildlife species have also suffered, with reports of mass deaths of wild horses, native bats and fish in drought-affected areas. The new record surpasses conditions recorded in 2013, previously considered the nation's worst heatwave. A large swathe of the state of New South Wales bore the brunt of the fortnight of extreme heat, with temperatures also soaring in parts of Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and the Northern Territory. COMMENT And it’s not just Australia heating up….NASA and NOAA released their analysis of the global climate in 2018 on Wednesday, revealing that 2018 was the fourth-hottest year on record. The other four in the top five all happened in the past five years. Out of the climate and weather disasters that struck the United States in 2018, 14 carried damage tallies of more than $1 billion. The total economic hit was $91 billion, making it the fourth most-expensive year. The world is not in good shape. As the population expands and mankind’s insatiable appetite for more brings greater pollution and destruction we see the physical earth groaning. At the same time man’s godlessness and wickedness is also increasing. Only the return of Jesus can sort out both issues. That day is coming soon… But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  BIBLE QUOTE (2 Peter 3:7-8)

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