Israel at War - Prophecy of the End Times - Part 2

Blessings to Israel presents deserting the times, a program committed to encouraging you to view current events through the lens of the Bible.

Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, please join us for today's program. Now, the irony of all of this is the United States of America to the Biden administration just gave six billion dollars to Iran. What a bad move that is.

What a bad move it is to give any money to this nation that sponsors terrorism around the world. But here's where it gets interesting for students of Bible prophecy. The Bible tells us in the end times that Israel would be scattered and regathered.

This has happened. You want to talk about signs of the times. The super sign of the last days and really the sign that sets the prophetic clock ticking is the regathering of the nation Israel into their homeland. On the heels of the Holocaust, who would have ever thought that these Jewish people who lost six million of their people to the Nazis would somehow regather in their homeland, but it happened. Against all odds. And on May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation.

I'm proud to say the United States was the first nation to acknowledge that. But God said she'll be regathered. And then the Lord said she would come under attack and specifically in Ezekiel 37 and 38. The Bible speaks of the regathering of Israel and then it speaks of a large force from her north attacking her. Welcome to discerning the times.

My name is Brian Thomas. So great to be with you. And this week we are continuing our look at the events that are going on in the nation of Israel. As unfortunately, Israel, the Jewish people have a long, long history of attacks and it is continuing and escalating as we approach what I truly believe are things that are pointing to the return of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

So we're going to look more into that once again this week. But before we do, I want to remind you, as we do always, that your eternal state is far more important than your current state. If you have never received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I urge you to come to him on today. Otherwise, your eternity will be spent in the lake of fire separated from our almighty Lord. So please receive the gift that Jesus Christ gave to us at Calvary by dying for our sins and come to him on today.

All right. So we're going to pull in now my co-host, Dr. Bruce Logan. Doc, so great to be with you once again, and we're going to continue to look at all the things that are happening in Israel and give some biblical perspective as to how we as believers should approach what is taking place.

Yes, looking forward to continuing our discussion from the previous episode. This is a necessary topic that has to be addressed, especially if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. We need to have discernment and a biblical perspective, a biblical world view, things that the media is not going to tell you believers we need to be cognizant of. Exactly.

That was Pastor Greg Laurie from the opening clip, and he addressed his church in that way on the Sunday following the attack. But I'm hearing from more and more and more people that they are saying, well, their pastor didn't say a word about it on the following Sunday. And that is very troubling. But as you said, we don't get joy out of talking about things like this because it is just heart wrenching what has taken place. But the reality of things is that we cannot always just focus on the feel good things.

We have to talk about everything. But when we look at it with the right perspective and that is what we're going to do today and how we're going to end the program with the fact that there is going to be a great joy. There is a great hope that is tied to what we see taking place. And we have to keep that in our minds. But as we talked on last week and then we heard Greg Laurie in that opening clip, our government gave six billion dollars to Iran.

Now, they've been trying to walk it back, Doc, since it's been made public. And they're saying, well, that money is still in the bank and it hasn't been actually used. But, you know, it doesn't take a Ph.D. or anything like that to get to understand that if you have money in the bank, then you know, you have that that reserve there.

So you can use money that you already, you know, have sitting by to give towards some other action. And what we are seeing is that many think that Iran has supplied Hamas, this terrorist group with the funds to to train and to get weapons and to carry out these attacks. And I do believe that is the case. And Donald Trump, he said it last month in September. And whether you like him or not, the man spoke prophetically because he said when that deal happened, he spoke of how bad it was. And he said, buckle up. Some very bad things are about to happen. And, Doc, that's exactly what took place, a terror attack. And now we have more hostages than we did even before when that six billion dollars was done in order to free hostages. Well, first of all, we have to take a step back and let's kind of like get some perspective, because one of the things that we listen to on the Greg Laurie clip was that this was a well-rehearsed, planned, well-funded, coordinated attack that had to have been planned for months, if not years. Because notice what's there. The attack was from land and from the sea and from the air all at the same coordinated time.

Okay? Or was it that they used paragliders coming from the sky? They came from the sea and it was coordinated, specifically coordinated. And this had to have been planned, it had to have been funded. And it had to have been planned, some would say months. I'm thinking it had to have been years ahead. Because we know that the 9-11 attack, for example, that had been planned for seven years prior to the actual event taking place. And so I'm not saying that this was that long in the planning stage, but the point I'm trying to get at is that there was something behind this. There was a spirit, a movement, there was a plot behind this that was far-reaching, and it involved partly the money that our government sent to Iran. And so the question has to be, why? Why are you sending money to Iran? Why are, I should say, our politicians advocating just open, unfettered borders? I'm watching videos of illegal aliens being housed and bussed and housed in other cities, Chicago, Baltimore, New York. And all of those people that voted for that, okay, now they're complaining.

And it's hard sometimes, and I know this is a little bit different topic, but sometimes you kind of want to not feel bad for them because you guys voted for this. This is the reason why we need to be discerning as believers. But getting back to what we're talking about here in Israel, this was planned. This was orchestrated. This was a demonic scenario that had far-reaching implications to it.

Yeah, absolutely. And keep in mind, folks, when it comes to Iran, we have to remember the Bible speaks of Iran. That is Persia. That is when the Bible talks about Persia, it is talking about Iran or some say Iran. But they changed the name from Persia to Iran in 1935, and the Bible speaks of an end times war involving Persia. And so that's talking about the same nation. But as we heard Greg Laurie say, when the Bible says when the Jews will be gathered back into the land again, that day will come. And that is, again, why I harp on the replacement theologians, how they can say that the church is taking the place of Israel, because the Bible clearly says God is going to bring them back into the land that was fulfilled in 1948.

That is not just some coincidence. That is what the Bible said would take place. And then, as Greg Laurie said, there would be an attack from the north.

So people are asking questions and a lot of them are looking at Ezekiel and they're saying, could this be the beginning of the Ezekiel war of chapters 38 and 39 of Ezekiel? So let's listen to a little bit more Greg Laurie as he addresses that question of who is Magog. That force is identified as Magog.

Who is Magog? Listen, no one can say with absolute certainty. But many Bible students and prophecy teachers believe it's modern day Russia.

I think you can make a very good case for that. You get on a map of the Middle East and look to the north of Israel, you will find Russia. Why would Russia ever want to invade Israel? Well, there's another thing the Bible says about Magog, if she is indeed Russia, and that one of her allies that will march with her is Persia.

Persia is the ancient name for modern Iran. So the Bible predicted hundreds of years ago that this large force from the north of Israel would attack her after she was regathered and one of the allies that would attack Israel with Mother Russia or Magog, whoever it is, would be Iran or Persia. And it's only recently that the Iranians and the Russians have developed a special connection.

And you see, Doc, this is why a lot of us who follow Bible prophecy are really looking at this and asking the question, is this fulfillment of what the Bible talks about? As we see this alliance going on, we keep hearing about Iran, as you said, has funded this. Is Iran behind it? There's been talk of Hezbollah coming from the north, entering into Israel, which Iran also supports. They back Hezbollah, which is another terrorist group.

And before I go forward, let me also point out something else, because you mentioned how a lot of the mainstream media will not speak on this from a biblical perspective as we are. And another thing you won't hear them say is that Hamas is an Islamic group. They are Sunni Muslims. And you won't hear that oftentimes because, well, they want to say what's politically correct. They don't want to get into anything that's going to make a certain religion look bad.

But that is the reality of it. These are Sunni Muslims. They are carrying out what they believe their religion tells them to do. But people, again, are looking at this and they're saying, OK, if Iran is behind all of this, could Russia get involved?

Could that be rash that the Bible speaks of? So people are sort of looking down the road to say, is this the beginning of something even more major that the Bible speaks of? But what are your thoughts?

Well, first of all, it makes a very, very great point, just for the perspective of the listeners. I just thought I would just run, just give a little bit perspective of who we're talking about when we talk about Gog and Magog. Now, historically speaking, Magog was a grandson of Noah. And, of course, we know that Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

And so Magog was the son of Japheth or the grandson of Noah. And their descendants settled in the north of Israel or northern Europe, which is the area that is now known as parts of Russia. And just to kind of give the listeners a little bit more of a perspective, if you look at a map, if you look at Google Maps and you look at Moscow and then counterimpose it with Jerusalem, it's almost literally due north. And so with that just little background there, most scholars believe that almost for certain we're talking about Russia. And then the Scripture also tells us in Ezekiel that you'll be coming from the north. Another passage says, I will put a hook in your jaw and bring you down from your northern part. So it's clearly that whoever we're talking about, when the Bible talks about Gog and Magog, it's clearly speaking about somebody who is currently geographically north of Israel. And that is almost certainly going to be Russia.

Now, get back to the question where some of the people are asking, is this current attack part of that? I would say, in just my opinion, I would say because of the component of the specifics of the attack coming directly from the north, I would say that directly it would not be the Gog and Magog battle, but you make an interesting point because could it be, or a question that we could be asking is, could it be an indirect with Russia and Iran forming a coalition? So could it be something that would be indirect, that would be a prelude to soften the groundwork, for an example, for God placing that hook in the jaw of Russia and bringing them down from the north to the south? It could be very well a possibility, but just for those who are interested in learning more about Bible prophecy, the truth of the matter is that when we talk about Gog and Magog, we're talking about Russia, or most scholars believe that we're talking about Russia, which is due north of Jerusalem. But as you said about Iran, the indirect part of it, because there's a lot of things that's going to happen indirectly that's going to lead to the main event. The things that, like I call, when I teach Bible prophecy, I use the term prophetic milestones and prophetic stepping stones. A prophetic milestone is a major fulfillment of a prophetic event, but stepping stones, prophetic stepping stones will be little smaller stages of fulfillment that will bring about the major milestone. Because when you study Bible prophecy, nothing ever happens in a vacuum, nothing ever happens just all of a sudden. But everything is built upon, or what I call, progressively established in history and in Bible prophecy when the ultimate fulfillment occurs. So that's just something also to keep in mind.

Yeah, that was a great perspective, absolutely. So let's go back to Greg Lawrence, he talks a little bit more about the Russia-Iran alliance. Not once in the past 2,500 years has Russia formed a military alliance with Persia-Iran, but they have now signed billion dollar deals to some missiles to Iran, and the Iranians have helped the Russians, providing them with drones, weaponized drones to use in the Ukraine war, you probably heard about that. And Prime Minister Netanyahu said of this, Iran and Russia are very disturbing to us. Iran supplying Russia with drones, Russia helping Iran with nuclear weapons, the only way to stop Iran is with a credible military threat. So how do you stop something like this? Literally there are hostages from Israel, old women, little children, young women, and soldiers as well, because these civilians were actually targeted in this attack.

How do you deal with this? It's very tricky. Let's just say for the sake of a point that Israel decided to strike out at Iran, specifically, because they're funding all of this. What would that produce?

And I mean, we know what that would produce, you know, you're talking about all out war. But he makes a great point, because when you look at these terrorists, these people have been deceived by Satan. These men, they believe that their commitment to Allah and to become a martyr would mean they will go to heaven and receive 72, let's see, is it blue-eyed virgins or black-eyed virgins? I think it's blue-eyed virgins is what they believe.

So they will receive 72 blue-eyed virgins in heaven. And it's just a deception. So when you're dealing with people like that who are willing to die for their cause, how do you negotiate with them, Doc?

I mean, what do you do? I mean, really, you can't negotiate with people like that. That's a very major question.

And it brings about a point that I've been wanting to get to since we started these discussions. And that is what should be Israel's response? And I'm a firm believer that the Hamas knows that in a full out war, they can't win. But I believe that their intention from the outset is to, they want Israel to respond. They want to have mass civilian Palestinian casualties. This is what they want. This is their endgame.

And why would you say that would be their endgame? Well, first of all, we do know that they're using human shields. They're launching some of those missiles from like hospitals and from schools and from daycares and where the response has to be human shields.

I heard just yesterday that Jerusalem was literally sending out flyers and audio warnings telling where the strikes are going to come and trying to warn civilians to get out of the way. Whereas the Palestinians and Hamas will not let them go. And so they want to have mass civilian casualties.

And why do they want that? Because they're going to show those casualties on CNN. They're going to show those casualties on YouTube and TikTok and Facebook Live in order to gain the sympathy of the world. So even though Israel must respond, you have no choice. You can say, well, should they respond? I mean, should they just, you know, say, come to the peace table? They have to respond because if they do not respond, you're opening up the door for these types of attacks to continue to happen.

So, I mean, it's like no ifs, ands, or buts. They have to respond. And they have to respond, you know, with a vengeance. And what that is going to do, and you got to keep in mind, too, that these terrorists, they want to be martyred.

You mentioned about the 72 virgins. This is their endgame. This is what they want. In their mind, they want to be blown up. They want to be killed because they want those 72 virgins.

But also, they want the media sympathy. They want the world sympathy because Israel is the bad guy in all of this. That's another thing that we have not addressed, that Israel is the bad guy. Israel is the villain. Israel, I was listening to, I believe it was somebody on MSNBC, and I could only listen to for like a minute.

And I had to turn it off because it was just despicable what they were saying. But they were blaming Israel for the attack. They were blaming Israel for Israeli babies being missheaded. It was all Israel's fault.

It was like mind numbing some of the things that they were saying. And so what they want, they want the Palestinians to have mass civilian casualties, which is going to happen because they're using human shields and Israel has to respond. And so it's going to be a win-win for the Palestinians, at least in their perspective.

But again, Israel, in reality, they need to respond in such a way as to discourage any such attack from ever happening again. Mm hmm. Yeah, I agree with you. Totally. Yeah. I think they're trying to- Which, by the way, I'm sorry, but is exactly what they want. Yeah.

Yeah. They're trying to spark a great uprising in that area to create mass war. And I agree with you totally. But as I said in the beginning, there is a joyous side to all of this. As hard as it is to really think of that or to see that at this point, there is a joyous end to all of this.

And that is where Greg Laurie is going to end his statement and where we're going to wrap things up today. Well, it could produce a conflict we read about in Ezekiel, where suddenly, because the Bible says that Magog will come against her will. The Bible describes hooks in her jaws pulling her forward, almost as though Magog is coming in reluctantly along with her ally Persia or Iran. I'm not saying this is going to lead to the Ezekiel 37, 38 scenario, but I'm saying it's very interesting. If you get up in the morning and read this headline, Russia attacks Israel, fasten your seatbelt. You're seeing Bible prophecy fulfilled in your lifetime in real time before your very eyes. So what should we do in light of all of this? Jesus said, when you see these things begin to happen, freak out because you're dead in the water.

Well, He didn't say that, did He? He said, when you see these things begin to happen, look up because your redemption is drawing near. That's what we need to be doing, looking up. And, Doc, that's what it's all about for us as believers in Christ. We need to be looking up because Jesus said these were the things that would precede His coming to the earth. And again, we don't know the day or the hour, but the Bible says we could know the season.

And it just breaks my heart when you see so many churches that will not talk about these issues. But for us, we should be excited and looking forward to our Lord's coming. No, we're not excited and feel good about all these atrocities that we see taking place right now in the land of Israel and even in other places of the world. But we should keep things in perspective and know that Jesus is coming again, and that is what we should be looking forward to.

Yes, I concur 100%. We as believers, we must be looking forward to the return of our Lord, which I believe could happen within our lifetime. And I believe that, and of course, I don't want anybody to get it twisted. I'm not setting the date and giving the time.

We know that Jesus said no one knows the time nor the hour. I always have to preface that. You can never just assume that people will assume that. You have to preface the statement because we'll get taken out of context very quickly. But with that being said, when you consider not only this recent attack, but all the other correlating things that are happening around the world all at one time, this rapid move toward globalism, the decay of Western culture, the advancement of the LBGT movement, the decline of churches. I mean, church attendance around the United States has been declining just rapidly. And when you add all these different things, the World Economic Forum activity, all of these different things that are happening in our world right now, the attack on Christianity that's happening in the world right now, especially in the United States, the open border policy that we currently have. When you add all of these things, and then we can just go on and just name things, the great apostasy that's occurring in our culture. When you add all of this and then look at what just happened over the weekend and just add it all together, it lets us know, especially keeping in mind, too, that this is the key that believers who are listening who really want to be into Bible prophecy, just if you don't get anything else that we say, get this, make a note of this, that Israel, the nation of Israel, is the epicenter for all Bible prophecy, the epicenter. Everything is going to, everything is happening, is going to focus back on Israel. That is an important little point to keep in mind.

And in fact, Greg Laurie mentioned that he touched on it in his conversation when he talked about the return of Israel to the land and so forth. So that kind of gives us an indication. But I want to just close right there and hopefully the believers will get something out of this discussion. Amen. Amen.

Yeah. Israel is definitely God's prophetic time clock, so we need to keep our eyes on the nation of Israel. Well, folks, that's going to do it for this week. But I want to thank you for tuning in. Please, again, remember to continue to pray for those in Israel, continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. And please come back and join us next week as we continue to discern the times by viewing life through the lens of the Bible. Thank you for tuning in to Discerning the Times. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to view current events through the lens of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God. Discerning the Times is presented by Blessings to Israel.