Nearing Midnight: Abraham's Assurance and the Ayatollahs

Nearing Midnight: Abraham's Assurance and the Ayatollahs - Terry James - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/

 

Some years ago I wrote the following:

 

Israel is the one nation in human history that the Creator of all things chose to be "a people unto himself": "For thou [art] an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that [are] upon the face of the earth" (Deuteronomy 7:6).

 

Jehovah made promises to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that are staggering in their implications. He promised to bless those who bless the nation that would spring from the loins of these men, and warned about His curse for those who cursed those people. God said to Abraham, "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:1-3).

 

Certainly, this promise can easily be verified as coming true throughout recorded history. The modern record, as a matter of fact, is contemporary proof of the veracity of the Almighty and His prophetic promises. Historians-except those blinded by the great deceiver, Lucifer-concede, sometime reluctantly, that Israel's history in ancient times was a record of greatness. David and Solomon's exploits and accomplishments are legendary, but built upon archaeological facts. Israel has achieved greatness among the nations of this earthly sphere.

 

My words of those earlier times have continued to prove true, because the facts involved come directly from God's Word. Israel remains an amazing fulfillment of the stage being set for the ultimate accomplishment of prophecy yet future.

 

We've looked many times at recent examples of such stage-setting. The nations of Russia, Iran, Turkey, and others are preparing for their fateful plunge southward over "the mountains of Israel." It will be the attack Ezekiel the prophet said would come from the military coalition he called Gog and Magog.

 

Those nations are in constant, interactive ferment north of Jerusalem. Every day there are reports of this intermingling. Sometimes they are against each other, as when Turkey threatens Russia's client state, Syria. Sometimes Russia and Turkey can be seen hugging, like when Russia's Vladimir Putin recently met with Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as they continue to plan how best to divide their aggression in some sort of semi-orderly fashion.

 

Persia (Iran) is right in the middle of the fermentation taking place. One day-post Rapture, I'm convinced-these three (Russia, Iran, and Turkey) will determine to take Israel's riches-the riches that God promised His chosen nation long ago.

 

It is with this as prologue that I want to think a moment on a recent news item, with regard to God's promises to Abraham all those millennia ago.

 

To me, the current headlines could not be clearer. The veracity of God's blessings to the old patriarch is being proven right before our twenty-first-century eyes.

 

While in Israel the coronavirus outbreak is stil, somehow under control, Iran is rapidly becoming a devastated country as a result of the COVID-19 virus and the Islamist regime is hiding the unprecedented disaster while doing not enough to contain the crisis.

 

Officially the regime says that 3.500 people were infected with the COVID-19 virus while the official death toll is now 107.

 

"This disease is a widespread disease. It has reached almost all our provinces and in one sense it's a global disease," Iran's President Hassan Rouhani admitted during a cabinet meeting in Tehran while reaffirming the official data about the corona outbreak.

 

If we take a look at information coming from non-government sources inside and outside Iran, we will understand Rouhani's words were an understatement.

 

First of all, Iranian lawmakers such as Abdul Karim Hosseinzadeh revealed that in the holy Shiite city of Qom and Rasht another Iranian city the situation is so bad that streets are full of dead bodies.

 

"Corpses in Qom are piling up," Hosseinzadeh wrote on his Twitter account.

 

The Iranian MP warned that if the regime doesn't take appropriate action such as quarantining cities Iran will have the highest death toll in the world. (Yochanan Visser, "Iran Attempting to Hide the Disaster It Faces as the COVID-19 Virus Spreads Out of Control within the Islamic Republic," Israel National News, May 3, 2020)

 

I'm aware that we must be cautious of appending to current issues and events God's holy, prophetic Word through "newspaper exegesis." However, it is proper and even expected to examine whether certain issues and events taking place harbor prophetic truth.

 

The Ayatollahs of Iran have for years cursed Israel in the vilest terms. They lead in chants, "Death to Israel!" They call Jews the worst names of degradation they can conjure.

 

We must consider whether the Lord's promises recorded in Genesis 12 are being proven true in today's headlines with regard to the coronavirus.