Disrupting the New World Order

Demonic deception and delusion abound.

Can we turn it around, or is it too late? This is Understanding the Times Radio with Jan Markell. This hour Jan is joined by White House News correspondent Bill Koenig to talk frankly about what the New Year could bring to America. In November, 22 years ago, Bill began publishing Koenig's Watch, a weekly summary of important news from the Middle East.

That chronicle eventually became Watch.org. In January, 18 years ago, Koenig moved his news service to our nation's capital and he began reporting on the White House. Bill has been a longtime friend of this ministry. He joins Jan often to discuss the events surrounding Washington politics in the Middle East. To begin today's discussion, here is Jan and Bill. Switch gears and ask about the divided Congress, sir, because Democrats retook the House obviously, or they're retaking the House. Republicans are gearing up for an anticipated some hurdles on issues from taxes to trade. The President and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi both spoke out yesterday on plans for bipartisanship.

Listen to this, I gotta get your reaction. I give her a great deal of credit for what she's done and what she's accomplished. Hopefully we can all work together next year to continue delivering for the American people. We as Democrats are here to strengthen the institution in which we serve and not to have it be a rubber stamp for President Trump. We believe that we have a responsibility to seek common ground where we can, where we cannot. We must stand our ground.

And welcome to the program. You know, we look at news, views and truths from a biblical perspective, helping you become a watchman on the wall. And that little clip will kind of perhaps set the stage for some of the conversation for this next hour. The Bible talks about nations having distress with perplexity in the last days. That's Luke 21. That's actually a direct reference to the tribulation, but tribulation signs are casting a huge shadow today. And it's not just America that's having distress with perplexity and is in political turmoil. The European Union is in disarray. Will it be Brexit or not? And who will be the next EU leader? Emmanuel Macron, whose own country is falling apart. Israel is embroiled in conflict on every side, even our nation to the north, Canada, as Christians and conservatives in a fight for their life.

And I've left out so much more as it concerns perilous times and distress with perplexity of nations referenced in Luke 21. So I try to bring on Bill Koenig to this program a couple of times a year. He's been in the White House press corps almost 20 years.

I think he began about the time I started in radio, and he's been a speaker at numerous conferences this ministry has hosted. And here's where we're headed for the hour. We'll discuss what we feel will be some important issues in the new year. How will they affect you?

How do they play into God's end time clock and calendar? Well, and a whole lot more. Bill Koenig, welcome back to the program. Thanks, Jan. Always a pleasure to be with you.

Thank you. Now, Bill, you call what's going on in Washington demonic disruption, and you say it's going to get far worse in the new year. And we're going to reference at least the constant investigations. I mean, trying to embarrass the president's whole family. I mean, the far left will probably now pile on now that they have the House. Maxine Waters, Gerald Nadler, Representative Schiff, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer. And you say an endless attack on the president is about to begin to demoralize and to discredit him.

And this is likely the demonic disruption you're talking about, correct? Yes, Jan. You know, when I look at these news events on a daily basis, and especially when you see the level of tension and animosity here in Washington, D.C., and then you kind of say, OK, what's the big problem here between the political parties? I think the number one thing is the conservative Republicans are pro-life, pro-marriage, man and wife. And we stand strong against anything that's immoral as far as our beliefs, whether it's having to do with birth control, being forced on people that don't want it through health care programs, whether it's international debate, when it has to do with trade or rumors of war and kingdoms against kingdoms. But back here in the United States, the Democratic Party historically has been proud of their role in making abortion legal.

They pride themselves with same sex marriage and the LGBT agenda. And when you hear the testimony during Senate testimonies for members of the Republican administration, those three things were the big question, even Supreme Court nominees, administrative nominees. So I think distinctively, it is a battle between good and evil from our perspective.

And we're also living in a time, like to point out, Isaiah 520, when good is considered evil and evil is considered good. Well, Bill, let me just interject here, because it seems to me that I named some names here. They're the heavy lifters of the far left Democrat Party, and it seems like they don't care if they take the country down literally as long as they can destroy Donald Trump, which to me is almost demonic. And I can't wrap my brain around this because you literally want to destroy a country just to take down somebody you can't stand who you think maybe won that election illegally or whatever, this endless investigation going on that's turned absolutely nauseating. So how do people understand this?

They don't care if they destroy this country. Well, in a real sense, that the first two years of President Trump's time in office is this obsession with destroying this president or presidency and eliminating him and any kind of involvement he's having, whether it's having to do with excessive regulation, whether it has to do with, you know, his strong stand with Israel, you know, as far as some of the domestic issues, you know, not accepting the global warming consensus of the Paris Accord, a lot of these things. But there is an obsession, Jan, that I felt that their determination to destroy him was so profound that they would do everything they could to do that, even if it brought the country down at the same time.

And that's huge and significant. And it's definitely a battle between good and evil. And I'm not sitting here and you aren't either sitting here saying that Trump is everything we want him to be.

No, of course not. At the same time, we see it for what it is. I think those most angry might be the world's globalists. And in America and in Washington, we've got globalists who are both on the Republican side and the Democrat side. For that matter, Paul Ryan is a globalist.

He's stepping down now, but he wants a one world government. That's more demonic delusion, this one world business. But nonetheless, these people have been upset since November 2016. They can't understand how it happened.

Let me just move here quickly here to Judge Kavanaugh, because I think that was one of the biggest Washington stories of 2018 and could be sort of an example of what the 2019 is going to look like. More mean spiritedness. Again, you call this demonic disruption.

I call it demonic delusion. We're going to see more mean spiritedness, more contentiousness, more slander. I say men given over to a reprobate mind because the Progressive Party wants government as God, wants nothing to do with the God of the universe. I mean, they're going to be attacking the president's family. They're even angry that people are staying at the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C. when they come to do White House business. So they're going to go after everything.

Am I right? Oh, absolutely. We already have attorney generals of New York. You know, she is this new one. She's fixated on reviewing and evaluating every bit of business that Donald Trump has done in New York. Every bit of business looking into his nonprofit charities. They are going to look at everything Trump slash children, sons, daughters, son-in-laws have been involved with in New York.

She's obsessed with that. Then you have a New Jersey attorney general's office right now is looking at some of the complaints of some of the employees that worked at one of Trump's properties there in New Jersey. And then you have the attorney general of Maryland along with the top legal person here in the District of Columbia that is going to look into the people that have been staying at the Trump Hotel.

The fact that he's been able to benefit while being in office economically because these are people that do business in the United States, do business with Trump. They're going to look into that. You know, in a shift there in Congress wants to see Trump's financial records, his income tax returns.

They are relentless, Jan, to decipher this and to make his life miserable. Bill, let me play a one minute clip here and get your response. This is MSNBC and it's a number of people who are expressing their dissatisfaction with a lot of things. And the last sentence of this little clip really troubles me.

Chris Matthews. I keep coming back to the big political earthquake in Washington, D.C., that tomorrow morning Democrats will be figuring out how to run these committees. That, you know, we have had a Trump presidency which has been, you know, norm busting and has debased the dialogue and, you know, most people with kids don't let them turn on the TV when there's political talk on.

All of that is unchanged. What changes is that there is now, Democrats will control all the committees that can investigate the other half of sort of the scandal that is the Trump presidency and that's the rampant corruption. The rampant corruption at the agencies.

This is the kinds of stories that you make time for but a lot of us don't. Almost at every agency there's been some sort of ethics scandal and it gets scant media coverage and it has no oversight in Congress. That all changes tomorrow. Another thing is the control that the House has over all fiscal matters.

Everything has to originate in the House. The President cannot have a new tax bill without Nancy Pelosi's approval, which is unlikely. Can't change the entitlement questions about Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid. Can't do any of that stuff that Mitch McConnell was talking about a few weeks ago. All is under the control now of Nancy Pelosi. Again, you know, it's toxicity being expressed here on this panel. This is what you hear on any of these networks, CNN, MSNBC, Nightly News and all of that. And in fact, that's true and for that matter, I'm not sure we're even going to get a wall on the southern border because that takes money and Nancy Pelosi has to approve those kinds of things. And again, is this just gridlock, gridlock, gridlock ahead here for the new year?

Oh, yes. Beyond anything we could even comprehend. We sat here right now and wrote it down on a sheet of paper with the way that we thought it would play out. We probably wouldn't even be close to what's coming.

And that's what's so difficult for us. This Trump derangement syndrome is so toxic. That's a perfect word that you used. And they don't care. They don't care of the consequence. They don't care what this does to the country. When you start thinking that Trump administration is going to have to start answering to Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Elijah Cummings, Nadler. I mean, these people cannot contain themselves at this point and they're angst against President Trump and his administration. And the other thing that's so lethal in this is a majority of our media, 85 to 90 percent of our media, is totally in the tank of the leftist agenda in lockstep with the Democratic Party. This combination is so lethal and so dangerous and so divisive, we're going to need God's help. I don't see 2019 being much of a positive year.

It's going to be really bad. You're listening to Understanding the Times Radio. Jan Markell here talking to Bill Koenig, who's in Washington, D.C. You can learn more at his website, watch.org, watch.org. You might want to look into his e-newsletter, which is weekly, Koenig's Eye View from the White House. He summarizes the weekly news usually every Friday. And Bill, you said to me that you fear a constitutional crisis.

Can you just take a minute or two to unpack that? What kind of a constitutional crisis are you concerned about? Well, I'm not an attorney, Jan. There could be some precise things that an attorney could come up with as far as oversight, things that the committees can take on having to do with administration departments, having to do with, you know, almost anything. What they look for is just anything.

I mean, little, small, little insignificant things. I mean, here we have almost 18 million spent on the Russian collusion thing. And we've had only a few people serve any time at all. And they were not direct, I mean, really true associates of the Trump administration. And this has been the most disruptive political slash legal thing that we've seen in our lifetime. And getting ready to be much worse from a constitutional crisis. And the way I look at it, I mean, obviously, the House can impeach a president based on a simple majority. So if 51% of the House desires to impeach the president on something, then it goes to the Senate for the trial. And two-thirds of the senators must approve the impeachment. Fortunately, the Republicans, this is in 53. Not going to happen. Yeah, you don't see it happening unless something was really extreme that would force them to make that decision.

But I don't see that coming. So what happens is you can't get anything done. You know, it takes a House, a Senate, and a president to get anything through legislatively. You know, that's going to be a mess. Your opening clip, you know, kind words by President Trump, kind words by Nancy Pelosi. And then when they finish that, the talk behind the scenes or later in the newspaper, later in tweets, it's not so kind.

Right. But, you know, President Trump works well in chaos and disruption. He almost seems to kind of favor that because for some reason he gets his adrenaline going. And then comes some, you know, crazy tweets and things that a lot of people even on the right don't appreciate and can look a little bit silly at times. But at the same time, Bill Koenig and you being in the media yourself know how effective this Twitter issue is. He's reaching millions. With a click of a mouse, he's reaching millions through his tweeting. It's just amazing.

You didn't have that privilege 15, 20 years ago, nor did I. No, absolutely. I think it's 45 to 50 million. It might even be more than that.

I've looked at it a couple times. I mean, it's enormous. We have 330 million people in America and you got 45, 50 million people receiving tweets. Not that they all read it, but I mean, that's a tremendous audience. Some of us have said, you know, I wish you'd just stop his tweets at six in the evening and start again the next morning at 6 a.m. Some of the most lethal radical tweets are at night and, you know, there's no filter. And also during Shabbat when his son-in-law, you know, his Jewish son-in-law is at the synagogue because I understand that he oversees some of the tweets. But, you know, the bottom line here, oh, my gosh, Jan, I mean, just the behavior.

You did sound bites of the people I just mentioned. They're going to be head of these committees and what they've said about Trump, what some of these attorney generals have said about Trump. And then we get into the one world order. For us, we understand what one world order is, and it's a world order that's not a biblical world order. And they have their own incentives and they have their own agenda. And Trump has been disruptive to that one world order.

That's been very problematic on the international stage. One world order is setting up the kingdom for the Antichrist. I mean, let's be blunt here.

That's what it is. You know, it's going to fall into place eventually. You know, that's where the Bible speaks of these days. Then we continue to watch that with great interest. And we'll touch on the Middle East here shortly, but, you know, Trump has a very significant biblical and prophetic role. Most people don't realize that, but for us that understand eschatology, that understand Israel, we understand that Jerusalem is God's time clock. We understand that, Jan. But I remind people, especially Christians, evangelicals mostly, God has a very specific prophetic role in President Trump. And for me, that's going to be interesting to see how that plays out in the year ahead. Bill, I'd like to talk about that in my second segment. I have to take just a real short break here.

And when I come back, I'd like to head right there. Well, how will he be speeding up eschatology, speeding up this end time scenario that's playing out even as we speak? He's disruptor in chief. I don't say that in a despairing way. We've already said he's disrupting the globalists, and that's really a good thing. But how is he setting the stage for the last of the last days?

We're going to talk about that as soon as I get back, so don't go away. We are dedicated to enhancing your understanding of the end times. We do that once a week here on this radio station and online around the clock.

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At 763-559-4444. Coming up, more conversation with White House news correspondent Bill Koenig. Well, Russia has a very, very significant role in the Gog Magog alignment of countries. Russia, Iran, Turkey, Sudan, Libya, former Soviet Union countries in the Caucasian mountains that are Islamic. And, you know, he has a very significant role right now. And part of the reason Russia has such a significant role is because they have a lot of nuclear weapons. They've also been a major player in the Middle East throughout the years, and they are doing everything they can to reestablish that role.

They're in Syria, with Saudi Arabia, with Egypt. They have a relationship, obviously, with Iran, and, you know, he's going to have a lot of influence. And every time there's a problem in Syria with Iran, Netanyahu jumps on his plane and goes to Russia and meets with Putin. And, obviously, when Iran tries to move missiles into Syria, Israel strikes. A couple weeks ago, one of the Russian planes was taken down. So, obviously, a very significant role. Ariel Sharon was the one that really pushed that relationship, the importance of an Israel-Russia relationship, and then Netanyahu has kept that going. Which, obviously, concerns a lot of us because of what the scriptures say about Russia's final day role.

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That's Box 1452, Maple Grove, Minnesota, 55311, proclaiming both the news and the good news this year. Teaching Bible prophecy would be one of the greatest things that a church could do to its congregants because, one, it gives them the hope of Christ's soon coming. Secondly, it motivates them to get the job done. That is, to get out there and tell their friends and their family and their co-workers that Jesus Christ is coming.

And then, thirdly, it brings people great, great confidence. Confidence in knowing that God's Word never fails. It will never fail because what God has said in the past has been confirmed by his prophetic fulfillment. Study Bible prophecy and get excited about the future. And I've got two Orthodox Jewish friends that are at the White House, and when something major happens in Israel or the Middle East, they go, Where's that in the Tanakh or the Old Testament?

And I say, Well, look at this. Look at that scripture. Look at Ezekiel 38 and 39. Look at Jeremiah 49. Look at Isaiah 17, 1.

One day that city, Damascus, is not going to exist as a city any longer. We've made the most of being in a difficult place. I know the Lord planted us there. So it's easier for Claudia and I to be there despite the challenges of being in the swamp, when we know that God has us there for his particular purpose at this time. This hour on Understanding the Times, Jan's talking with Bill Koenig from Washington, D.C. Let's rejoin their conversation.

They want to do things. You know, I keep hearing about investigations, fatigue, like from the time, almost from the time I announced I was going to run. They've been giving us this investigation fatigue.

It's been a long time. They got nothing. Zero. You know why?

Because there is nothing. But they can play that game, but we can play it better because we have a thing called the United States Senate. And a lot of very questionable things were done between leaks of classified information and many other elements that should not have taken place. And all you're going to do is end up in back and forth and back and forth.

And two years is going to go up and we won't have done a thing. OK, welcome back. And we're going to continue my discussion for the hour with Bill Koenig. He's served in the White House press corps for a long time. Bill, what year did you start? Was that 01? Yeah, 2001, Jan.

Almost 18 years. We've been talking a little bit about the contention going on in our nation's capital. And that then translates to a nation in conflict. Well, sort of a constant conflict, constant chaos. I pull it out of Luke 21. There it talks about nations having distress with perplexity. While that may be a tribulation reference, again, as I said in my intro, the tribulation is casting a huge shadow today.

Because I believe we're very, very late in the eschatological clock. And my guest for the hour, Bill Koenig, would agree. You can learn more at his website, watch, w a t c h, watch dot org. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Koenig's Eye View from the White House. And Bill, as I went out of segment number one, I said, I want to talk about how President Donald Trump is sort of speeding up the end time.

Oh, panorama of things. And as I said, I consider him sort of a disruptor in chief. But he brought Europe together as he's not one of them. He's not a globalist. So the EU is circling the wagons and they're kind of sticking together over there. He's hastened an alignment in the Middle East, the alignment of Gog Magog. He's hastened the alignment of Russia, Turkey and Iran. He put sanctions on all of them and brought them together. He's thrust Iran onto the global stage, center stage.

We're talking about a deal of the century and we'll get to that in a few minutes here. That could be coming into the Middle East. And you say that his dealing with Vladimir Putin is of huge end time significance.

Tell me why you think that is such of end time importance. Well, Russia has a very, very significant role in the Gog Magog alignment of countries. Russia, Iran, Turkey, Sudan, Libya, former Soviet Union countries in the Caucasian mountains that are Islamic. And, you know, he has a very significant role right now. And part of the reason Russia has such a significant role is because they have a lot of nuclear weapons. They've also been a major player in the Middle East throughout the years and they are doing everything they can to reestablish that role. They're in Syria, with Saudi Arabia, with Egypt. They have a relationship, obviously, with Iran.

And, you know, he's going to have a lot of influence. And every time there's a problem in Syria with Iran, Netanyahu jumps on his plane and goes to Russia and meets with Putin. And, obviously, when Iran tries to move missiles into Syria, Israel strikes. A few weeks ago, one of the Russian planes was taken down.

So, obviously, a very significant role. Ariel Sharon was the one that really pushed that relationship, the importance of an Israel-Russia relationship. And then Netanyahu has kept that going, which, obviously, concerns a lot of us because of what the scriptures say about Russia's final-day role. So, with President Trump, I mean, there are some strong sanctions against Russia. They're continuing those strong sanctions. There's a possibility that those sanctions will be tightened. One thing that is happening over the last two years, we're seeing more and more of Russia's ultimate plan of disrupting and dividing America through the political system.

And they have been quite effective in this process, and we're going to hear a lot more about that next year going forward. So, the big players right now internationally, really, when it comes to, you know, leaders, obviously, Trump and Putin. I want to talk about leaders for a minute.

Talking to Bill Koenig this hour, Jan Markell here, Understanding the Times Radio. I want to talk about leaders for a moment. You and I talked on the phone recently, and we were citing some interesting, charismatic world leaders. I know many sort of are on Antichrist watch now. Quite frankly, that's a topic a little bit irrelevant for the church because the church isn't here when that man comes on the scene. Nonetheless, you know, we're to be discerning the times.

And I think looking at some individuals, at least seeing what their qualifications are for an in-time role. And I'm intrigued, have been intrigued, with people like you called Jared Kushner a soft-spoken genius. We talked about Barack Obama. We talked about Tony Blair, Emmanuel Macron, whose country is falling apart and his position as Prime Minister is falling apart. I think those who might be anticipating a Muslim Antichrist might be looking at the young man, Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. We've got Pope Francis. Is he an apocalyptic person?

Personally, I think a pope will play an apocalyptic role. And again, I go back to what you called Jared Kushner a soft-spoken genius. All I'm saying is there's some interesting players on the chess board right now, and I think you would agree.

Without a doubt. I think it's incredibly fascinating. As a matter of fact, a lot about the genius, that really came from Nikki Haley. I mentioned he's very soft-spoken, and Nikki Haley emphasized that when she made the announcement she was leaving her UN role, that he is.

And obviously, he's very smart. The genius of him, from the perspective of watching Israel in the Middle East, is the fact that he was able to develop a close relationship with bin Salman from Saudi Arabia. The fact that they brought 55 Muslim leaders in from around the world to meet with President Trump personally. In May of last year, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where Trump had the opportunity to speak with them and say, you know, if you stop funding the terrorism, you've got a great friend.

If you don't, you've got a great enemy. And that's what he told them. And I have a friend that's with one of the major media organizations in the Middle East, and he said, Bill, I never thought I would see this. He told me this a couple months ago. The Arab leaders, the Muslim leaders, love Trump.

And I said, what do you mean? He said, he's a strong leader. He's a business-type guy.

They like doing deals. But more so than anything else, he's taking on Iran, standing up against them. The people that he's put in place, like Pompeo and Mattis and Nikki Haley and John Bolton, are serious about business. They see the number one threat in the Middle East is Iran. But he said, Bill, it is remarkable how much the Sunni Arab leaders really like Trump, because he's going to back what he says he's going to do. I'm going to add a part B to what you've just said, and that is Sunni Arab leaders are willing to cooperate a little bit anyway with Israel.

And there's an intriguing verse in Ezekiel 38, 13 talks about Sheba and Dedan. That's Saudi Arabia. This is the context is the Gog Magog invasion, and Saudi Arabia is not getting involved, but it's protesting. I never thought I'd live to see the day that Saudi Arabia would be protesting an invasion of Israel.

But you are right. The new alignment of Sunni nations, more moderate Arab nations aligning with America and Israel. And by the way, these more moderate Arab leaders, they've been meeting with evangelicals. They had a recent meeting. Joel Rosenberg, Michelle Bachman and others met with some of these Arab leaders in four different countries. Yeah, four different countries and had very productive meetings. I'm shocked. I never thought I'd see the day.

And I say that more and more these days. Yeah, they met with Al Sisi, a good friend of Michelle, with Rosenberg and Tony Perkins and others, General Boykin. They met with Al Sisi in Egypt. They met with King Abdullah there in Jordan. They met with the leader there in the United Arab Emirates and also met with Prince Salman there in Saudi Arabia. You know, a lot of that had to do with the plight of Christians in the Middle East. I know they took a fair amount of heat from some people. Why do you even meet with these folks? You know, they wanted to put a face to Christianity and also show that they were very concerned about the plight of Christians throughout the Middle East. And these leaders were all willing to listen to them, and they had their opinions.

And it's been two or three hour meetings, I understand. So that's pretty remarkable. What's interesting, Jan, is the fact that Obama was after legacy. He and Kerry, they pushed the Iran nuke deal. And the Sunnis didn't trust Obama and his agenda.

Basically, he was trying to get out of the Middle East. And because of this, the Sunni Arab countries turned to Israel. I had a friend in the Israeli press office in Israel who said, Who would ever think that we, Israel, would have a close defensive and intelligence relationship today with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates? We already had a decent relationship with Jordan. But who would have ever thought?

Well, it's because Obama and his Middle East efforts and attempt of a legacy in the Iran nuke deal that forced the Sunni Arab countries to develop a closer relationship with Israel. And then here comes Kushner and Trump to push it even further. Well, Bill, I want to take this a step further. I'm going to play a clip here. It's only two minutes. And we hear a lot today about President Trump being compared to King Cyrus. And this little two minute clip, I think, is going to expound on that.

And then I want to talk about at least for a minute or two, because I think it's kind of interesting development here in the last one to two years before the 2016 presidential election. Some evangelical Christians began comparing Donald Trump to King Cyrus, the biblical king who's credited with allowing Jews to return to Jerusalem from exile in the Babylonian Empire. The idea behind the comparison is that a non believing leader can be used by God to enact policies that help advance the interest of believers.

In this case, Christians and Jews. And today we're joined by Israeli author Gil Troy. He is an historian who has written this upcoming book, The Zionist Ideas, Visions for the Jewish Homeland, Then, Now and Tomorrow. Welcome, Mr. Troy. We appreciate your time today. Pleasure to be with you.

Thank you. Let's talk a little bit more about the King Cyrus comparison, because it's not just a small segment of evangelical Christians who are making this comparison. Prime Minister Netanyahu actually did the same thing recently and in honoring Trump for declaring Jerusalem Israel's capital, Netanyahu likened him to Harry Truman, Lord Balfour and Cyrus the Great.

What do you make of all this? You know, those of us lucky enough to visit Jerusalem know that we don't count in decades. We don't count in centuries.

We count in millennia. You're swimming in history. And so when you see someone do something good for the Jewish people, you put them in historical context. And Harry Truman, after he recognized the state of Israel within 11 minutes of its founding in 1948, was thanked.

And he said, I am Cyrus, because he was going back to the Persian King. And so it's not surprising that we would look at Donald Trump, say he did something good for the Jewish people. He did something good for the American people. He did something good for the world.

And say, you're part of that historical chain. Do you believe that President Trump deserves the same recognition as President Truman and Lord Balfour? I actually think that Harry Truman and Lord Balfour did greater things. And it's not a criticism of Donald Trump. Harry Truman was being told, do not recognize the state of Israel. Lord Balfour was there at a time when there was no notion even of a state. And Donald Trump was basically acknowledging something very obvious. How is it that there's only one country in the world that's not allowed to pick its capital? So while I give Donald Trump tremendous credit, I feel like if we lived in a normal world, if we lived in a fair world, it wouldn't be such a heroic act.

But maybe that's the heroism. Bill Koenig, as we speak, it's possible that the so-called deal of the century, perhaps made by the art of the deal maker, Donald Trump, and of course Jared Kushner would be the kind of brains behind this deal of the century, along with President Trump, could be on the table literally any day. Your thoughts on this? I mean, first of all, they're going to tell the Palestinians take it or leave it.

I can guarantee you they'll leave it and it'll be a dead end. But give me your thoughts. I want to note here on that gentleman's comment, that's a great clip, Jan. Yeah, I thought so. What happened is Trump was under enormous pressure not to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. You had former secretaries of state. You had John Kerry blasting the decision, saying if you ever do this, this will set the whole Middle East on fire.

Yes, absolutely. And then you had other Middle East leaders, King Abdullah, President Sisi, others in the Middle East saying the same thing. Erdogan from Turkey, same thing. Ninety percent of the State Department said this will be a horrible mistake. This will be a spark that will set the Middle East on fire. None of that happened. And, you know, we heard Clinton, we heard George W. Bush, we heard Obama promise to move that embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

They didn't do it. Every six months, the Jerusalem resolution passed in 95. Every six months, the president would just have to decide is now the time to move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This was a congressional resolution. And every six months they said, nope, this wouldn't be good for the peace process, this wouldn't be good because of terrorism, and they wouldn't do it.

So this was courageous. And now, you know, Kushner, who was very involved in the new NAFTA deal, who's been involved very much in this bipartisan prison reform agreement that just was passed and signed, is very substantial. And now Kushner is going to move forward with the deal of the century, and that's what it's been built for. This is a peace deal between the United States, Israel, and the Sunni Arab countries that's going to call for a comprehensive deal where the relations would be normalized between the Sunni Arab countries and Israel and that they see the benefit of intelligence and all the other things that would be benefited from that relationship. And then the Palestinians would have to cooperate. The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, and that's going to be the clench in the whole thing, but they're already getting people ready. The Arab leaders, Abdullah and others, but especially Kushner, are saying, you know, not all sides are going to be happy with what we're going to come through with this plan, but we are hopeful that we will get the sides to agree to this comprehensive deal of the century. Do you think they will, Bill Koenig? I do not. I do not see this happening.

I just see it as an exercise in futility. Well, as most of them have been. Yeah, they have been.

Not most, but all of them have. Yeah, I think the same thing. You know, there was a couple months ago that Prince Salman said that Israel has the right to have their own state here.

It should be recognized. And the rumor was that he basically told Abbas there with the Palestinians, you better accept this deal, better consider Abu Dis as the capital, not necessarily East Jerusalem. And so he was really trying to put some pressure on the Palestinians because I think they have an attitude. I've heard this from other Middle Eastern diplomats and leaders is they're tired of the Palestinians affecting a relationship that they could have with Israel.

And a lot of that had to do with an economical component. Here's Nikki Haley. And I'm reading now. The outgoing U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, called on Israelis and Palestinians to back a U.S. peace plan to be unveiled early 2019. Far more thoughtful, she said, and creative than any that have come before. And then the article in the Times of Israel, without revealing details of the plan drawn up by U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, Haley said it was far longer than past proposals and included elements that would have previously been unthinkable. Bill, are you OK with the new U.N. ambassador? She's done a good job as a spokesperson there at the State Department. She's strong. She's pro-Israel, which I think is extremely important, especially trying to fill the shoes of Nikki Haley. So I'm favorable. There'll be some comments about her experience, but I think she'll do a really good job. And Mike Pompeo would be a great man to work for.

So I'm hopeful that she'll get approved and do a good job. In my last segment, what I'd like to do is look at some prominent last day's stories. We've just left 2018. This airing now is my first program here in the new year, talking to Bill Koenig for the entire hour here this first weekend of the new year. But I'd like to look back at some prominent stories in the world of Bible prophecy in the past year and discuss them with Bill for kind of a short segment that's coming up. So don't go away.

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Please stay with us for Jan's final segment coming right up. I have watched the tide of our times deteriorate for decades. Some say we are in the time period known as the beginning of sorrows, but that actually comes later in God's clock and calendar.

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Visit our Web site, Olive Tree Views dot org, Olive Tree Views dot org. We have books and DVDs that are uplifting and that will remind you that the king is coming soon and the darkness will turn to dawn. If you want to stay up to date, also check our daily headlines posted hourly every day. The sons of Issachar in First Chronicles 12 were men who understood the times. God wants us to be in the know, up to date and looking at events that cause us to await his return.

Hello, everyone. This is Bill Salus, the founder of Prophecy Depot Ministries. And I've been honored to be a guest on Jan Markell's radio show, and I listen to it on a frequent basis. She covers so many different diverse topics, not only prophecy, but dealing with the signs of our times and the political things that are going on with excellent guests. I've seen her show grow from several hundred radio stations up to I think it's 830 some now, if not more, because people are interested in this show.

I highly encourage you to listen to Jan Markell on a frequent basis. As I mentioned, the greater the pressure on Israel to divide their land, the greater the corresponding catastrophe. And this has happened for 26 years. You know, this is his land. But you know, based on the scripture and the word, how important Jerusalem is. And Pastor W.A. Criswell, the first Baptist pastor in Dallas, used to always say, if you want to know where we stand prophetically, watch what they're attempting to doing with the city of Jerusalem.

And now for the conclusion of today's Understanding the Times broadcast featuring Bill Koenig, once again, Jan Markell. We addressed Palestine and said it is a so-called state. Is that language productive in achieving the president? It's accurate. But the president recommitted to, the president in New York City, as you know, recommitted his goal to achieving a two-state solution. That's right. So is using that sort of language productive in his goal?

Yeah, sure, of course. It's not a state now. It does not meet the customary international law test of statehood.

It doesn't control defined boundaries. It doesn't fulfill the normal functions of government. There are a whole host of reasons why it's not a state. It could become a state, as the president said. But that requires diplomatic negotiations with Israel and others. So calling it the so-called state of Palestine defines exactly what it has been, a position that the United States government has pursued uniformly since 1988, when the Palestinian Authority declared itself to be the state of Palestine. We don't recognize it as a state of Palestine.

We have consistently, across Democratic and Republican administrations, opposed the admission of Palestine to the United Nations as a state because it's not a state. And that was a very accurate, very honest opinion by John Bolton. A quick comment here. Just remember, please, that this programming is posted to my website, OliveTreeViews.org, OliveTreeViews.org, every Saturday.

And if you just want to have it downloaded to your device, you can get the OnePlace.com mobile app, OnePlace.com mobile app, and that will be downloaded every Saturday as well. Please look into both my print and e-newsletter. We talk about these issues we're talking about this hour. They're all talked about in my print and e-newsletter.

Again, OliveTreeViews.org, OliveTreeViews.org. I want to wrap up my conversation with Bill Koenig, who served in the White House Press Corps. I began my radio career in 2001, and he began serving in the White House Press Corps in 01. And he's been at numerous conferences that I've hosted. And at those conferences, we talk about a lot of things, including prominent things going on that have an eschatological significance and importance to the last days. Bill, I just want to cite a few things that I see so prominent in 2018.

Number one, the Gog-Magog alignment, Russia, Turkey, Iran. Number two, I think, as it concerns end time issues, the intrusiveness of big tech, which is paving the way for the Antichrist. Number three, I think, is the rise of Romans 1 mentality in 2 Timothy 3. The me, myself, and I, the lawlessness, the love of money, the brutality, the demonic hatred of righteousness, of conservatism, of Christians. I think number four would be the rise of the hatred of God.

The government must be God these days. Number five, I cite as the rise of witchcraft, new age, and paganism. And number six would be the rise of strong delusion, particularly in the church, not giving heed to sound doctrine. The next one, I think, would be, quite frankly, I think this is the story of 2018, is the young man, the missionary, who gave his life for an unreached tribe in India because he wanted to reach one of the last groups of unreached people on the planet. And that's kind of an end time thing as well. And obviously, one of the major things in 2018, we've already dealt with it, Israel's 70th anniversary and moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Anything of those bullet points stand out to you? They're all very significant, Jan, and, you know, as we have talked over the years, I continue to look at Jerusalem as God's time clock, many of us do. Zechariah 12, those scriptures in Zechariah 12, Jerusalem will become a burdensome stone, Zechariah 12-3, and eventually the nations of the world will come against Jerusalem, Zechariah 12-9, leading up to Zechariah 13 and 14. This remains one of my great interests because of the significance of the state of Israel, the fact that they have a very extensive problem in Syria, in Lebanon, with Iran. And, I mean, that war could start tomorrow.

And some days we are so close that it kind of ebbs for a bit. But we are at a very key time right now with that. You know, I like to call President Trump's team of advisors that know the Middle East the dream team. Vice President Pence, Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, James Mattis, John Bolton, Nikki Haley, while she's been at the UN.

This is a formidable team that fully understands the number one threat to Israel, to the Middle East, and to the international community is Iran, and they must be dealt with. And we have an administration that's determined to do that. The other things, as you mentioned, are all very significant, too. I think the political disruption here in America, this is another area that I'm very concerned about going into 2019. The significance of what could happen, the divisiveness, the lack of civility, the lawlessness, of great concern. The other thing is the international business relationships with the EU and China, especially the negotiations with the United States and China. We're getting ready to have those get going again here in January. And, you know, that's going to be very significant going forward.

And then obviously the relationship with the United States, President Trump and Putin, President Trump and Erdogan, they're in Turkey, and President Trump and its relationship with the family, the Saudi family, bin Salman, his father. You know, these are all very significant along the lines edifying what you've just said, Jen. We have a very big year coming.

They all are, but this one seems to have a lot of things beginning to come together, a lot of potential triggers it could spin these things off to. Well, how can my audience pray here for the new year? For one thing, as you and I talked the other day, I mean, we're concerned that if things, you know, spiral out of control badly enough, someone's going to end up, you know, killed, assassinated, more than one. I mean, we could have a tragedy.

We could have another 9-11, for that matter. But how can my audience pray to kind of rein in some of this lawlessness and chaos that we've talked about here for almost an hour? Well, I think the main thing, Jen, is to continue to acknowledge the fact that God is sovereign. That we are watching events transpire that have been written about in the Bible thousands of years ago by the Jewish prophets and by Jesus. We are living in one of the most exciting times in biblical history.

We have a handbook, the Bible, in our hands that we can follow to better understand these days that we're living in. Let me put it this way, to look at the role of U.S. presidents, the prophetic role. We can go all the way back to Harry Truman and then the other presidents that were involved in the peace process dealing with Russia, Reagan, Jimmy Carter's role with the peace process, George Herbert Walker Bush, time of president, starting the Madrid Land for Peace Conference, his son coming up with the two-state plan, Obama doing the Iran nuke deal that helped lead to Trump and his relationship with the Sunni Arabs. It's going to take on Iran.

It's going to take on Russia. Our American presidents continue to have a very significant prophetic role. You alluded to the fact of our 45th president and King Cyrus in Isaiah 45, very significant. But going forward, we need to continue to pray for our leadership here in Washington, D.C., in our country, especially President Trump, Vice President Pence, his cabinet, their security, their wisdom, their discernment in a very difficult period of time. Continue to pray for Christian leaders.

It's becoming more and more difficult for them to be vocal and forthright about their faith. We have a battle between good and evil, as Isaiah 5-20 speaks of here in America. We are living in an unprecedented time for us, and only God knows how this is going to play out, but we need to continue to pray. First of all, have our own peace of mind and be at peace.

At the same time, not to forget to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with friends, family, whoever the Lord puts in front of us, because this is the other purpose of prophetic scripture, Jan, is pointing to our Lord's eventual return. Amen. And Bill, something happened in late December, kind of troubling. That is, President Trump pulled U.S. troops out of Syria. I know the President's perception is that ISIS is defeated.

I think they're weakened, but they're far from defeated. And that concerns me. He apparently, perhaps, caved to Turkey's Erdogan, not sure, but pulling U.S. troops out of Syria. Yeah, that was problematic. It was very interesting.

Your first reaction goes, oh, no, no, please don't do this. You know, by having 2,000 troops there in that north and northeast part of Syria has been able to kind of calm things with Iran. To the certain extent of being able to keep an eye on them, being close to the action, dealing with ISIS was a very strategic position.

Even some of our diplomats here, former diplomats here in Washington, D.C., Dennis Ross on the left, and we had conservatives on the right that are saying that we need to keep those troops there. And the Erdogan saying, we're not going to allow this. The problem is, part of our coalition there were the Kurdish members of the PKK, which are more of the radical Kurdish. We love Kurds. Kurds are wonderful people.

Fantastic people. Well-liked by Israel, well-liked by people here in Washington, and that was very problematic because of the Kurds being thrown under the bus once again. But more than anything else, Jan, what's significant about this, and the more I thought about this, OK, number one, this is a sudden departure.

That's a bad move. Did Erdogan influence him? Did The Washington Post article talk about the risk of us being there to influence President Trump? Very possible. But at the same time, maybe we're moving our troops out of there at a time when things with Israel, the United States, in dealing with some of these threats of Iran in Syria and Lebanon and Iraq might go to a different level, and it might be safer to have them out of there.

So I don't know. Initially, I was concerned because we've seen the benefit of having our troops there. Absolutely. We do.

But obviously, it's a very significant, significant issue. And folks, you can keep up on all this kind of information at Bill's website, watch.org, or sign up for his e-newsletter, Koenig's iView from the White House. Bill, thank you all for sharing today.

I got to go out of my program. Let me just say this going out of the program, because the new year is upon us, and let's use our time wisely by contending for the faith and being a watchman on the wall. And perhaps this is the year that, well, maybe a trumpet will sound and an archangel shouts announcing that the King of Kings has returned. And will you be ready? That's the ultimate question.

And that's the ultimate question of this hour. You will be ready if you name Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Do it today.

No one is promised tomorrow. I want to thank you for listening. We will talk to you next week. We will talk to you next week. Next week we will be airing Pastor J.D.

Farag's 2018 conference message on Jerusalem. The Scriptures are not silent when it comes to the nature of God. We know the name is the nature. And as such, there are many names that are attributed to God. However, one such name is El Shaddai. Of this, one commentator wrote, It is generally accepted that Job is the oldest book in the Bible. It is commonly accepted that Job lived, and this is interesting, during the patriarchal age and possibly even predated Abraham. For Job, a common name for God was El Shaddai. Pastor Mark Martin, he's the pastor of Calvary Chapel Phoenix in Arizona. He explains it this way. The Hebrew letter Shin is used by the Jews as the abbreviation for the name El Shaddai.

The Old City of Jerusalem resembles the shape of the sheen, which means that God Almighty literally put His name in and upon Jerusalem, exactly as He said. Thank you for joining us for Understanding the Times Radio with Jan Markell. We're reaching the world to report current events through the lens of Scripture. This broadcast costs you nothing to listen.

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