INTRODUCTION TO THE RETURN TO BATTLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pv5MvxbC5I
So, did you spend the week pursuing "the bright elusive butterfly of love" or did you pursue a seemingly elusive God only to stop to catch your breathe and have him catch you and enfold you in the wings of His Spirit and lift you to fly beside Him for a time? To be ready to fly forever.
I don't know why God keeps leading me back to the End Times. It is what saved me and it is what repowers me, every time.
Okay, maybe I do know.
(This was unintended but God opened the door to it early with the events of the day so...)
Pertinent news:
An examination of the President "working." See the whole article for a deeper perspective.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/big-price-to-pay-inside-trumps-decision-to-bomb-syria/2018/04/14/752bdd9a-3ff9-11e8-8d53-eba0ed2371cc_story.html?utm_term=.38a42a23d3b8
Washington Post
By Philip Rucker,, Missy Ryan,, Josh Dawsey and Anne Gearan April 14 at 7:37 PM
From the moment White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly first informed him late on the night of April 7 that dozens of people in a leafy suburb of Damascus had died choking and foaming at the mouth from another suspected gas attack, President Trump was determined to strike back in Syria.
For him, the only question was how.
This was a sudden change of tune for a president who only a few days earlier had said he wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria’s intractable war and, as he put it at an event in Ohio, “let other people take care of it now.”
But the images of last weekend’s atrocities haunted Trump, White House officials said, triggering six straight days of tense deliberations with his newly reorganized national security team — as well as coalition partners from France and the United Kingdom — over military options to retaliate against the alleged perpetrator he derided as “Animal Assad.”
The result was 105 missiles raining down on three of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons facilities Friday night. The morning after, Trump tweeted — perhaps fatefully, considering President George W. Bush’s premature declaration of victory in Iraq — “Mission Accomplished!”
Even with Trump’s jubilant response to the strikes, several advisers close to the president said they had no indication there was a long-term strategy for the region — and he seems essentially in the same position now as he was after last April’s attack on Syria.
The missile strikes Friday night came at an especially traumatic moment. The commander in chief was increasingly agitated over the past week as legal and personal crises converged around him, exhibiting flashes of raw anger, letting off steam on Twitter and sometimes seeming distracted from his war planning.
...
As the military brass put together the final details on the Syria strike plan, for instance, Trump was following the New York court proceedings involving his personal lawyer Michael Cohen and was fixated on media coverage of fired FBI director James B. Comey’s new memoir. The book paints a scathing portrait of the president’s conduct in office and character, and Trump was personally involved Friday in drafting the scorching statement attacking Comey that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders read from her podium Friday, according to a senior administration official.
...
The absence of a clear strategy in Syria complicated the discussions. Trump had campaigned as a noninterventionist and vowed to withdraw from Middle East entanglements that he decried as "costing American lives and treasure."
And yet to Trump’s national security team, action of some kind seemed to be a requirement, as officials said they listened to the president deride his predecessor, Barack Obama, for sometimes discussing possible military action and then not delivering it. At a White House dinner last Tuesday, Trump opined that the problems in Syria were caused “because Obama did not enforce his red lines,” according to one attendee, Alan Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law School professor.
Trump was insistent that the strikes impair the production of chemical weapons in Syria, and hoped that would prevent Assad from launching future attacks on his population, according to White House officials. He wanted to inflict more damage than the largely symbolic air assault he ordered in 2017 on a Syrian airfield, which Assad’s forces quickly repaired. After the attack, military officials took pains to present Friday’s operation as larger than the last time, emphasizing that the number of munitions used was roughly double.
John Hudson and Jenna Johnson in Lima, Peru, contributed to this report.
And from the comments section:
mib77
"This statement is directed to the GENOCIDE President of Russia and his side-kick; al-Assad. Gross men; running their countries into the ground. Putin and al-Assad are deviants that deserve a gas chamber for their horrific crimes; not less than the Holocaust crimes; maybe worse."
It seems Trump can come up with only one act anyone ever approves and bombing chemical facilities is it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/briefing/korea-volcano-cuba-your-friday-briefing.html?&moduleDetail=top-news-1&action=click&contentCollection=undefined®ion=Footer&module=TopNews&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article
Meanwhile, Washington announced a new policy that could vastly expand armed drone sales, a day after Mr. Trump promised to slash the red tape around weapons sales.
From the BBC:
Other reactions:
It seems to me comparisons to the Holocaust may be correct if excessive. The intent is there, but they haven't quite got the systematic slaughter down just yet. This is one of the warm-up acts for the Antichrist.
Please note this is all a part of Putin trying to seize control of the oil and the oil routes from the Middle East and part of China's attempt to develop it's new Silk Road and connect pipelines to that oil and save themselves the battle with Putin over oil. Putin simply does not want to fight a war on two fronts, Asia and Europe, when the oil crunch comes in twenty years as everyone says it will. His love for Mother Russia and his desire to secure a place for himself in history as restoring her glory drive him to the action of supporting even a blood thirsty ruler for Moscow's eventual benefit. Nor does he want to fight a battle with both the Kurds and the Jews when he sweeps down from Syria. He must have a secure rear before he goes for the Suez.
Meanwhile, England and France both see this coming and have obviously put pressure and cajoling to work to raise Trump's temper and conscience over the gas attack. They seek to put a wedge in the bromance between Trump and Putin. Tehy might borrow an old broadway tune from The Music Man:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI_Oe-jtgdI
"You got trouble, right here in Syria
That trouble with a capitol T
And that rhymes with P
And that stands for...Putin
Which might bring you a smile as you consider the rumbling of World End.
No doubt Trump's more hawkish advisors likely sang backup. And, as always, he got a chance to take a cheap shot at Obama, too.
But let's pursue the reasons for the "alliance"retaliation by revisiting the chemical attack:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/04/what-really-happened-in-the-syria-chemical-attack.html
What Really Happened in the Douma Chemical Attack?
By
Margaret Hartmann
...
Eyewitness reports, photos, and videos of limp children and people struggling to breathe make it apparent that an atrocity occurred in Douma (though Syria and its allies claim it’s all a hoax). But tragically, Syrians have been subjected to horrors throughout their country’s seven-year civil war, and in the world of international relations, the nature of the chemical weapons allegedly used by Bashar al-Assad’s forces last weekend matters. The State Department said the victims’ injuries appear to be “consistent with an asphyxiation agent and of a nerve agent of some type.” However, so far no one has said definitively that the attack was different from the chlorine attacks on Syrians that the international community regularly ignores. Here’s what we know:
Syria Has a Long History of Using Chemical Weapons
Syria began developing its chemical weapons program in the 1970s with help from the Soviet Union in Egypt, and was believed to have one of the largest stockpiles in the world. Syria only admitted this in 2012, though its foreign ministry claimed the weapons were only for responding to “external aggression.”
The Syrian government denies ever using chemical weapons during its civil war, and says it got rid of all its stockpiles in 2013, when it ratified the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention banning the production, storage, and use of chemical weapons.
That move was what resulted from the Assad regime crossing President Obama’s “red line” by using sarin to kill an estimated 1,429 people in the Damascus suburbs in 2013. Obama considered a military response, but the situation was resolved when the U.S. and Russia brokered a deal to have Syria destroy its chemical weapons.
Why Syria Wasn’t Fully Disarmed of Chemical Weapons
Inspectors seized and destroyed 1,300 metric tons of banned materials after Syria signed the Chemical Weapons Convention. That limited Assad’s capabilities, but as Wired explains, completely disarming him isn’t really possible.
Producing sarin, a nerve agent developed by Nazi Germany, isn’t tremendously difficult and doesn’t require a large facility. A small amount can do massive damage, so it wouldn’t be too hard to hide it from inspectors. International monitors have the right to inspect any facility in Syria on short notice, but that’s physically and politically tricky in the middle of a civil war. Russia and China have repeatedly blocked efforts to hold Syria accountable for its chemical weapons use in the United Nations.
Another complication: chlorine isn’t banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention, as it has many legitimate uses. Using the substance as a chemical weapon isn’t allowed, of course, but there have been dozens of reports of Assad’s forces using it in opposition-held areas since 2013.
The Difference Between Using Chlorine and a Nerve Agent
As the U.N. focused on eliminating Syria’s banned chemical weapons, Assad’s forces shifted to using cruder chlorine bombs, according to Reuters. Sarin has no smell or taste, and causes death through asphyxiation. When inhaled, chlorine turns to hydrochloric acid in the lungs, which can cause drowning from fluid buildup. While chlorine works more slowly and is less efficient than sarin, both can kill.
U.S. officials have avoided saying explicitly whether chlorine attacks — which have become a regular occurrence — should be treated differently from sarin attacks. But that’s been the attitude among many leaders and diplomats, according to Tobias Schneider, an independent analyst who has tracked the reported chlorine attacks. “Even though officials have been loath to admit it, the prohibition against chemical weapons use in Syria has in the past been understood to only pertain to highly lethal nerve agents such as sarin but not the easily produced and far less deadly chlorine,” he told the Post.
...
Alastair W.M. Hay, a professor of toxicology at Leeds University, said the images of dozens of bodies with foam at the mouth but no other injuries were more consistent with nerve agent exposure than a chlorine attack. “That’s suggestive of something that was very toxic, and people have pretty much died where they were when they inhaled the agent,” he said. “They’ve just dropped dead.”
“Chlorine victims usually manage to get out to somewhere they can get treatment,” Hay added, while viewing video of casualties who died in a basement apartment. “Nerve agent kills pretty instantly.”
Other videos from the scene show large yellow cylinders characteristic of a chlorine attack, with no obvious signs of modification to carry a nerve agent.
“We’re looking at the possibility that there were separate canisters inside the cylinder,” one regional official told The Guardian. “[The contents] cannot be mixed, because that would be volatile and unstable, but they can be combined. That’s a working theory – that they were in the same cylinder but kept separately. The point of detonation dispersed them together. We’ve seen this happen elsewhere in the country, but it didn’t cause a death toll like this. We’re in this situation because those poor people were trapped in a basement where they had no chance.”
...
What It Will Take to Get Answers
The window for getting a decisive answer on what happened in Douma may have already closed. After Saturday’s attack, the city’s remaining rebels surrendered, and Russian troops moved in. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said it had accepted the Syrian government’s invitation to come and investigate, and would travel to Douma “soon.” However, since the Russians were already on the site, many doubt that any meaningful evidence will remain.
The Financial Times reported that journalists were having difficulty contacting sources on the ground, and Syrian activists accused the government of purposely cutting communication lines.
By this point, many of the medical workers and activists who were on hand in the aftermath of the attack have dispersed. Dr. Ahmad Tarakji, president of the Syrian American Medical Society, noted that with Assad’s forces heading back in, many locals are too afraid to talk. “You are witnessing the transition of the town,” he said. “You can’t speak against the government.”
These horrors reflect what awaits in some coming Tribulation battles
Meanwhile we have Putin responding:
Reuters - Sunday, April 15, 2018
MOSCOW/DAMASCUS, April 15 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Sunday that further Western attacks on Syria would bring chaos to world affairs, as Washington prepared to increase pressure on Russia with new economic sanctions.
"Vladimir Putin, in particular, stressed that if such actions committed in violation of the
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, told CBS' "Face the Nation" program that the United States would announce new economic sanctions on Monday aimed at companies "that were dealing with equipment" related to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's alleged chemical weapons use.
Which leads us to discuss Damascus in the End times Prophecies, You may have seen some of this when it first got in the news in the Syrian civil war, but it should be even fresher on your mind now.
You will realize some of this has gone before in this blog. But the new commentator with it begs presentation.
Isaiah 17
New International Version (NIV)
A Prophecy Against Damascus
17 A prophecy against Damascus:
“See, Damascus will no longer be a city
but will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of Aroer will be deserted
and left to flocks, which will lie down,
with no one to make them afraid.
3 The fortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
and royal power from Damascus;
the remnant of Aram will be
like the glory of the Israelites,”
declares the Lord Almighty.
4 “In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;
the fat of his body will waste away.
5 It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain,
gathering the grain in their arms—
as when someone gleans heads of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
6 Yet some gleanings will remain,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,
four or five on the fruitful boughs,”
declares the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 In that day people will look to their Maker
and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
8 They will not look to the altars,
the work of their hands,
and they will have no regard for the Asherah poles[a]
and the incense altars their fingers have made.
9 In that day their strong cities, which they left because of the Israelites, will be like places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth. And all will be desolation.
10 You have forgotten God your Savior;
you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
and plant imported vines,
11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest will be as nothing
in the day of disease and incurable pain.
12 Woe to the many nations that rage—
they rage like the raging sea!
Woe to the peoples who roar—
they roar like the roaring of great waters!
13 Although the peoples roar like the roar of surging waters,
when he rebukes them they flee far away,
driven before the wind like chaff on the hills,
like tumbleweed before a gale.
14 In the evening, sudden terror!
Before the morning, they are gone!
This is the portion of those who loot us,
the lot of those who plunder us.
Footnotes:
Isaiah 17:8 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah
New International Version (NIV)
An analysis:
http://www.bibleprophecyaswritten.com/signsoftheendtime/damascusdestroyedwhen.html
A Prophecy at the Edge of History
Isaiah 17:1 makes this statement,
The oracle concerning Damascus. "Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city, And it will become a fallen ruin.
There is SURE fulfillment in Bible prophecy. But the timing of the fulfillment is often debatable. When will Damascus (Syria’s capital) be removed from being a city? Some say it has already happened.
There are certain oracles against Damascus, but they are all BCE [fulfilled in Old Testament times], and I’m not sure they have anything to do with what’s going on there now…
Dr. Daniel Block, professor of Old Testament, Wheaton College.
Isaiah predicted the destruction of [Damascus]... along with the... northern kingdom of Israel... [fulfilled respectively in 732 & 722 BC]... God has the ability to predict future events... But those prophecies that were completely fulfilled in the past don’t need to be fulfilled a second time.
Dr. Charles Dyer, professor at Moody Bible Institute
Yet because of the mega-crisis in Syria since 2013 (Damascus, Aleppo, etc), the prophecy of Isaiah 17 about the destruction of Damascus has risen to the forefront of prophetic speculation.
TIME MAGAZINE
“Some Evangelicals See Biblical Prophecy In Syrian Crisis” , TIME, Aug. 29, 2013
USA TODAY
“Some See Biblical Visions Of Doom In Syria Trouble”, USA TODAY, Sep 9, 2013
Let’s examine some facts about the now famous Isaiah 17 Damascus-prophecy.
1. FACT: Damascus will “become a fallen ruin.”
"Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city, And it will become a fallen ruin.”
When we track Hebrew cognate phrases for a city in “ruin”, we discover that the same fate was prophesied of none other than Jerusalem!
"And I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, A haunt of jackals; And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."
Jeremiah 9:11
Therefore, on account of you, Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins ... Micah 3:12 (see also Jer. 7.34; 25.18; 44.6; Lam. 1.7; 2.13)
The prophecies about Jerusalem becoming a city in “ruin” were fulfilled when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in the 6th century BC. But Jerusalem did not remain a “heap of ruins.” It was rebuilt, destroyed again in 70 AD by the Romans, and rebuilt again and remains today. Therefore, one cannot infer from Isaiah 17:1 that when Damascus becomes “a fallen ruin” it is permanent.
2. FACT: Isaiah 17:2 uses the phrase "The cities of Aroer are forsaken... “. But the Septuagint differs on Isaiah 17:2, replacing that phrase with “[Damascus will be] abandoned forever”.
Damascus still stands today as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Damascus has not been “abandoned forever.” Therefore, the Septuagint version, if correct, would require a yet future fulfillment for the Damascus prophecy. The Septuagint is a 3rd century BC Jewish translation of the Old Testament Hebrew into Greek. It became the commonly used Old Testament Bible during the New Testament period.
...the Septuagint is an actual translation from the Hebrew [Masoretic Text] into the Greek. It is the first translation of the Old Testament known. It was the Bible of Jesus and the apostles, the version from which most Old Testament quotations in the New Testament come, and the Bible of the early church…
The Origin Of The Bible, Philip Wesley Comfort, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, IL, 1992, p. 294-95. 134/294-95
But is the Septuagint correct in its rendering of Isaiah 17:2?
1. The Septuagint is a wonderful witness to the original Hebrew (Masoretic) text of the Old Testament since it agrees in the vast majority of places. But which is to be preferred when they are at variance?
Although there are numerous textual variations between the Septuagint and the Hebrew text [Masoretic], the great majority of these are minor...Yet even when the Septuagint differs and offers a better reading, nonetheless it never replaces the Hebrew as the standard form of the text. Because it is a translation, the Septuagint always remains secondary...
How We Got The Bible, Neil R. Lightfoot, Baker Books, Grand Rapids, 1963, p. 149 1609/149
2. The original Hebrew text, then, is preferred when it is at variance with the Greek text of the Septuagint. This is especially the case with the Book of Isaiah.
[Of the Old Testament books translated in the Septuagint]...the book of Isaiah appears to be the very worst.
The Septuagint With Apocrypha: Greek And English; Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA, 1986; originally Samuel Bagster & Sons, Ltd., London, 1851, p. Introduction, iii. (561/iii)
Since the Hebrew text in Isaiah 17:2 does not mention the phrase “[Damascus will be] abandoned forever”, it is best not to rely on the Septuagint at that point to answer the question before us,
“When Will Damascus Be Destroyed?”
3. FACT: Damascus was indeed destroyed by the same series of Assyrian invasions that ended with the Assyrian forces themselves destroyed by the Angel of the Lord as they besieged Jerusalem. Both events seem to be prophesied in Isaiah 17:1 and 14.
DAMASCUS: Isaiah 17:1—”The oracle concerning Damascus. ‘Behold, Damascus is about to be removed from being a city, And it will become a fallen ruin.’”
Fulfillment: “Under Ahaz [Damascus] was taken by Tiglath-pileser, (2 Kings 16:7, 8, 9) the kingdom of Damascus brought to an end, and the city itself destroyed, the inhabitants being carried captive into Assyria. (2 Kings 16:9; comp. Isai 7:8 and Amos 1:5) Afterwards it passed successively under the dominion of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Macedonians, Romans and Saracens, and was at last captured by the Turks in 1516 A.D.”
Smith’s Bible Dictionary, revised & updated, Hendrickson Publishers, 2000, p.134.
Tiglath-pileser was to leave Damascus a heap of ruins in 732 BC.
Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Moody Press, 1962, p.623
The Assyrian King’s Testimony of the Destruction of Damascus—“I took 800 people together with their property, their cattle (and) their sheep as spoil. I took 750 captives of the cities of Kurussa (and) Sama (as well as) 550 captives from the city of Metuna as spoil. I destroyed 591 cities from the 16 districts of Damascus like ruins from the Flood.”
(Annals of Tiglath-pileser) Brent A. Strawn, Sarah C. Melville, Kyle Greenwood, and Scott Noegelm “Neo-Assyrian and Syro-Palestinian Texts II,” Ancient Near East: Historical Sources in Translation (Blackwell Sourcebooks in Ancient History), ed. Mark W. Chavalas (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005), 333. - See more at: http://americanvision.org/9371/isaiah-17-damascus-bible-prophecy-has-been-fulfilled/#sthash.aGCjJs9N.XRDyo7UC.dpuf
JERUSALEM: Isaiah 17:14— “At evening time, behold, there is terror! Before morning they are no more. Such will be the portion of those who plunder us, And the lot of those who pillage us.”
Fulfillment: Isaiah 37:36—”Then the angel of the LORD went out, and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, all of these were dead.”
This event occurred in 701 BC.
Damascus, therefore, became a “fallen ruin” in the Assyrian conquest of 732 BC.
Damascus was destroyed by the Assyrians in 732 BC, and by many empires since.
But was this only a PARTIAL fulfillment of Isaiah 17:1? There are many examples in Bible prophecy of DOUBLE REFERENCE fulfillment...sometimes realized in an EARLY fulfillment, and then a future or LATER fulfillment.
Is there more to come with the Destruction Of Damascus?
4. FACT: The “IN THAT DAY” statement of Isaiah 17:7 is evidence that there will be an ‘END TIME’ destruction of Damascus, making the ULTIMATE fulfillment of the Isaiah 17:1 prophecy still FUTURE.
“In that day man will have regard for his Maker, And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel. Isaiah 17:7
This statement in Isaiah 17:7 has an ultimate and conclusive sense that there is a FUTURE “day” when momentous events will cause Israel and the Nations to “look to the Holy One of Israel” in faith. It is in that conclusive-day that Damascus “will become a fallen ruin” in final fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah 17:1. Other “in that day” prophecies in Isaiah support that conclusion. Note that…
1.These Isaiah “in that day” prophecies (below) are CLIMACTIC verses. That is, they ALL have a clear Tribulation and/or Second Coming context.
2. These Isaiah “in that day” prophecies ALL have the same outcome—Israel and the Nations look to the Holy One of Israel. Here are those Isaiah prophecies. Compare them with our Isaiah 17:7 verse. above.
Isa. 2:11 The proud look of man will be abased, And the loftiness of man will be humbled, And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
Isa. 2:17 And the pride of man will be humbled, And the loftiness of men will be abased, And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.
Isa. 12:1 Then you will say on that day, "I will give thanks to Thee, O LORD; For although Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, And Thou dost comfort me.
Isa. 12:4 And in that day you will say, "Give thanks to the LORD, call on His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples; Make [them] remember that His name is exalted."
Isa. 19:18 In that day five cities in the land of Egypt will be speaking the language of Canaan and swearing [allegiance] to the LORD of hosts; one will be called the City of Destruction.
Isa. 19:19 In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD near its border.
Isa. 25:9 And it will be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation."
Isa. 27:13 It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem. (Isa 28:5)
All of the above prophecies of Isaiah speak of “in that day” as a conclusive-day when mankind will acknowledge the Lord. Isaiah 17:7 sets the ULTIMATE, CLIMACTIC AND CONCLUSIVE Destruction of Damascus (17:1) in that same context.
There is only one “day” when mankind will acknowledge “his Maker” and “look to the Holy One of Israel.” That “day” is when believing remnants of both Israel and the Nations arise during the Tribulation and at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Man can only honor God if he honors the Son of God (John 5:23; 1 John 2:23). That is not the situation with Israel or Damascus today.
Therefore, Damascus will be destroyed sometime during “that day”— the “day” of the final Tribulation wars that begin with the Magog invasion of Israel (Eze. 38-39) and end with the defeat of the nations at Armageddon and the Return of Christ. During the Tribulation period a remnant of mankind will arise and believe in their “Maker”, the “Holy One of Israel”—Jesus Christ.
BELOW: There is an EARLY fulfillment and a LATE fulfillment
to the Isaiah 17 prophecy of the Destruction Of Damascus.
5. FACT: Damascus will exist as a city during the Millennium?
The boundaries of the “New Holy Land” during the Millennium are given in Ezekiel chapters 47-48. Damascus is specifically named four (4) times in those chapters as being one of a number of landmarks which form the boundaries of Millennial Israel. (Eze. 47:16-18; 48:1)
Since Damascus will be destroyed during the Tribulation period, how can it exist in the Millennium?
The answer is found in the Bible’s teaching that the old creation will be transformed into a new creation when Christ reigns over the earth.
1. Just as the old sin-tainted earth of unbelievers is judged and renewed (transformed) into the New Earth of believers...
2. ...so too is the old sin-tainted Damascus of unbelievers destroyed and re-birthed (transformed} into the New Damascus of believers in the Millennium. The old gives way to the new!
Please notice we don't agree on the order of the battles, I will pursue that next time but let me say, that disagreement is understandable. God really doesn't seem too interested in opening the Tribulation up to His people. He want's His People, Jews and Christians, to know IT IS coming. He wants all those lost to know the fear of it and those who wandered off to know to return before it's too late. To know the places of destruction, the depth of the destruction and the One who causes it.
To find the key for whom God has cleared a path.
Mt 16:19 "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven..."
(NKJV)
Some things that bear watching from an end times thinker:
• Rohingya camps in Bangladesh have flooded, raising fears before the monsoon season. Nearly one million people arrived there fleeing violence in Myanmar. [Agence France-Presse]
Global warming
• Marriage to a U.S. citizen used to be a virtual guarantee of legal residency. That is no longer the case under the Trump administration. [The New York Times]
Government controlling individual choices
• A volcano in northern Japan erupted for the first time in 250 years, prompting the meteorological agency to raise the alert level to 3 out of 5. [Asahi Shimbun]
More volcanoes and earthquakes, increasing.
• Australia’s banking commission has uncovered disturbing stories of financial advisers charging fees to dead clients. [The Guardian]
Monetary system collapsing and readying the way for the AC.
https://vimeo.com/209938854#
