November 8 - 21, 2009

1. Weekly World Watch Andy Walton’s November 8 - 21, 2009 “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) 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). 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 November 8 - 21, 2009 • Palestinians 'to ask' UN to endorse independence • US, Israel act to stop Abbas quitting • US dismayed by Israel's new settlements in Jerusalem • Lebanese army chief calls for high alert on border • Van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton given top EU jobs • Cern Large Hadron Collider restarts after 14 months To print any of the event slides that follow, click the picture on the upper right

5. I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. Palestinians 'to ask' UN to endorse independence Daily Telegraph, November 15, 2009 Palestinian officials said yesterday that they were preparing to ask the United Nations to endorse an independent state without Israel's consent because they were losing faith in the peace talks. The Palestinians are upset over continued Israeli expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and are disappointed with the US failure to put pressure on Israel to halt the construction. The lack of progress has led Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to threaten to quit politics. The US, Israel's closest ally, would likely veto any initiative at the United Nations, and Israel controls the areas where the Palestinians want to establish their homeland. Nonetheless, the move reflected growing Palestinian frustration with the deadlock in peace efforts. EVENT As reported in the last WWW, the peace process is really hitting the buffers. President Obama has over promised, not delivered and has succeeded in seriously upsetting the Palestinians and the Israelis. Mr Abbas the Palestinian president has said he is stepping down and now has declared he will go to the United Nations to ask them to back an independent Palestinian State. Nimr Hamad, an adviser to Mr Abbas said “We are going to have to prepare for this well and to hold political and diplomatic talks. There is no point in rushing just so that we collide with an American veto.” The Palestinians hope that the USA might abstain in the vote. Mr Erekat said that he did not think the US would exercise its veto. In Joel 3 we read of God’s land being parted by the nations of the world. It is because of this that God gathers them for judgement to his land. We may not have long to wait! COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Joel 3:2)

6. For it is a day of trouble, and of treading down, and of perplexity by the Lord GOD of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls, and of crying to the mountains. US, Israel act to stop Abbas quitting for fear of alternatives Hardliner Abu Maher Ghneim in line to succeed Abbas Debkafile, November 17, 2009 The Obama administration and Netanyahu government are bending over backwards to dissuade Mahmoud Abbas from going through with his decision to retire from public life both as chairman of the Palestinian Authority and head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which he now says is final, DEBKAfile's Washington and Jerusalem sources report. In closed meetings Monday, Nov. 16, the Palestinian leader tried to impress on visiting US senators that he was serious about quitting in the coming weeks. Asked what would happen after he was gone, Abbas said he doesn't want to know. US and American intelligence experts see Abbas being succeeded by his new deputy, Abu Maher Ghneim, who acted for 38 years as head of the Palestinian terrorist groups' manpower and finances from his self-appointed exile in Tunis. Earlier this year, prime minster Binyamin Netanyahu and defence minister Ehud Barak authorized his entry to the West Bank for the Fatah convention, at Washington's behest, although they were warned that the newcomer to Ramallah was a died-in-the wool rejectionist of peace diplomacy. He even opted to stay in Tunis to defy Yasser Arafat on the 1993 Oslo accords. Now both the Americans and Israelis rue their decision, dismayed at the possibility of Abu Ghneim stepping into Abbas' shoes. EVENT The likely successor to Mr Abbas is someone that will not be a partner for peace. He was born in Jerusalem in 1937. He helped found the terrorist organisation the PLO. He received military training from China and has spent much of his life fighting Israel. No wonder Israel wants Mr Abbas to stay on. He has been offered over a hundred million dollars to do so but to no avail! Money cannot solve this perplexing problem. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Isaiah 22:5)

7. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, … US 'dismayed' by Israel's new settlements in Jerusalem Daily Telegraph, November 18, 2009 The White House has said it is dismayed by Israel's decision to build new settler homes in Jerusalem saying it makes it harder to kick-start the peace talks. Israel has angered its US allies by approving the construction of 900 more homes in a settlement in East Jerusalem, even as President Nicolas Sarkozy pushed for a peace summit. "We are dismayed at the Jerusalem planning committee's decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. "At a time when we are working to relaunch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed." The move, despite demands for a freeze by the Palestinians, also undermined Nicolas Sarkozy, just as the French president arrived in Saudi Arabia to push for a Middle East peace conference. It lessens still further the chance of any meaningful negotiations between the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Mahmoud Abbas, the beleaguered president of the Palestinian Authority. EVENT We are DISMAYED say American officials. (Dismayed means a sense of dread and apprehension.) Why are they DISMAYED? What is causing this sense of foreboding? Well it is because Israel would like to build houses in JERUSALEM! The very city that God has given to his people. It can be claimed by no other nation. We can surely see how the nations of the world are becoming increasingly focussed on this city and are trying their best to divide it. It will bring the final judgements of God. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Zechariah 14:2)

8. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon Lebanese army chief calls for high alert on border with Israel Jerusalem Post, November 21, 2009 Lebanese Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwaji instructed his troops to raise the level of alert along the border with Israel in preparation for an attack planned by "the Israeli enemy", London-based Alquds Alarabi reported on Saturday. In a statement published ahead of Lebanon's independence day, which will take place on Sunday, the Lebanese military chief called for "greater vigilance" on the border "to counter the planned attacks by the Israeli enemy against the homeland." All the available options must be used to address Israel's violations of the country's sovereignty "land, sea and air," Kahwaji said. He asked the army to stand by the Lebanese people "to support their steadfastness on their land" and stressed Lebanon's right to the "liberation of its land still under occupation in the Sheba Farms, and the villages of Shuba and Ghajar." EVENT This was reported today in the Jerusalem Post. The tension on the border between Israel and Lebanon has been increasing in recent weeks. There was a rocket fired from Lebanon into Israel a few weeks ago. We also reported about a ship bound for Lebanon that was captured by Israel. It had over 300 tonnes of weapons that was bound for Hezbollah based in Tyre. Israel’s army chief of staff Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi said last Tuesday that Lebanon’s Shiite resistance group Hezbollah has rockets capable of reaching major Israeli cities. He said the Hassan Nasrallah’s group had tens of thousands of rockets, including some with a range of more than 300 kilometres (116 miles). This would put the cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem within range, as well as the Jewish state’s secretive and undeclared nuclear reactor at Dimona. The Bible tells us that Lebanon will be brought low when the day of the Lord arrives. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Isaiah 2:12)

9. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder Van Rompuy and Baroness Ashton given top EU jobs Daily Telegraph, November 20, 2009 A little-known Belgian federalist and a Labour peer who has never held elected office were on Thursday night chosen as the European Union's new president and foreign minister. EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday night appointed Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian prime minister, as the first President of the European Council. Baroness Ashton, Britain's European Commissioner, will be the union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs. The two jobs were created by the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which will take force next month. EU leaders made the appointments over a dinner of wild mushrooms and sea bass in Brussels last night. The surprise combination emerged after Gordon Brown ended Tony Blair's hopes of becoming president, abandoning his support for his predecessor and proposing Lady Ashton for the foreign job instead. The Prime Minister's switch surprised European leaders, not least because of Lady Ashton's lack of diplomatic experience. EVENT Europe is only weeks away from becoming in Biblical terms a beast (an empire). The person who will take the new post of president of Europe is little known Herman Van Rompuv. He will have a staff of 60 people - a cabinet of 22, 10 body guards and 28 support staff. His total office budget will be £22.3 million. A huge new £280m state of the art building is also being built for him called Résidence Palace. He is a Catholic with strong views that Brussels should have increasing powers. We move ever closer to the final picture of the beast and woman in Revelation 17. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Revelation 17:8)

10. Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: Cern Large Hadron Collider restarts after 14 months BBConline, November 21, 2009 The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment has re-started after a 14-month hiatus while the machine was being repaired. Engineers have made two stable proton beams circulate in opposite directions around the machine, which is in a tunnel beneath the French-Swiss border. The team may try to increase the £6bn ($10bn) collider's energy to record-breaking levels this weekend. The LHC is being used to smash together beams of protons in a bid to shed light on the nature of the Universe. It is the world's largest machine and is housed in a 27km-long circular tunnel. During the experiment, scientists will search for signs of the Higgs boson, a sub-atomic particle that is crucial to our current understanding of physics. Although it is predicted to exist, scientists have never found it. EVENT The LHC broke down 14 months ago but it has been restarted today. Within a week (possibly) they will begin to crash particles together. What is this – the largest and most expensive machine ever created by man - supposed to do? It is supposed to find out what makes everything hang together and what gives everything mass. It is to find the missing so-called “God particle”. The official LHC website says “Ninety-six percent of our Universe is missing! Much of the missing matter is stuff researchers have called ‘dark matter’. Can the LHC find out what it is made of?” We know the power that they cannot see. We know what gives everything mass. We also know that its source. The power is the Holy Spirit – the source is God. One day mankind will understand this – we don’t need a machine – we need the Bible. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Isaiah 42:5)

11. Weekly World Watch The end of this week’s WWW will be e-mailed to you each week. Please forward the e-mail addresses of others who may be interested. I will include them in the list of recipients. Comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome. E-MAIL ANDY Click here (Move the mouse until the cursor appears.) To watch again, click here.