Situation between Russia and Ukraine, plus the Middle East, heating up
(Image from Pixabay)
The situations in Russia, Ukraine, and the Middle East are concerning many. Here are some reports:
Iran rejects Western calls to refrain from attack on Israel
13 August 2024
Iran has dismissed calls from the UK and other Western countries to refrain from retaliation against Israel for the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month.
Amid a flurry of international diplomacy to de-escalate tensions, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to “stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack” in a rare telephone conversation on Monday.
But Mr Pezeshkian said retaliation was a “way to stop crime” and Iran’s “legal right”, according to Iranian state media.
Israel, which did not say it was involved in Haniyeh’s assassination, has meanwhile put its military on its highest alert level.
August 13, 2024
Iran’s threatened retaliatory strike on Israel over the assassination of Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh drew major world powers on Tuesday into a high-wire act of diplomacy.
Halting or limiting an Iranian strike in some eyes could bolster a monthslong effort to reach a cease-fire in a war that’s devastated the Gaza Strip and killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s health ministry. It could also free the Israeli hostages who remain captive there since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and began the conflict.
Failure to do so could see Iran launch a complex drone-and-missile attack in tandem with Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia, now separately aggrieved over Israel’s killing of one of its top commanders, straining the ability of Israel’s missile defenses and its allies to defend against the assault. Widespread losses could push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-line government into its own direct attack on Iran — and drag the wider Middle East into a regional war. …
The United States, Israel’s main backer, has called repeatedly on Iran not to retaliate. It also has backed efforts mediated by Egypt and Qatar to reach a cease-fire in the wider war. However, it’s also prepared militarily in the Mideast in case things do escalate.
The U.S. military has instructed the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group to sail more quickly to the area. America also has ordered the USS Georgia guided missile submarine into the Mideast, while the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier strike group has been in the Gulf of Oman. …
It’s not just Western powers that have been involved in recent weeks. Russian officials under President Vladimir Putin have engaged in discussions with Iran. The secretary of Russia’s national security council, Sergei Shoigu, visited Tehran and described the assassination of Haniyeh as “tragic” and something that was “impossible to bypass” in talks with Iran’s government.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov separately said Moscow was “calling on everybody to refrain from escalating the situation from turning into a disaster for all regional players,” according to the state-run Tass news agency. …
Putin also hosted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday in Moscow.
Then there’s China, which has tried quietly to assert more influence in the Mideast without devoting the same amount of military power as the United States. https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-war-diplomacy-analysis-0542e5c1367517421f4ef59fb9aed712
August 13, 2024
“Russia brought war to others. Now it is coming home,” President Zelenskyy said in a video posted on the social media platform Telegram.
In his nightly televised address, Zelenskyy described the incursion as a national security issue, saying Russian forces had launched numerous strikes from Kursk on Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, which borders Kursk.
Ukrainian army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Monday in a video posted on Zelenskyy’s Telegram channel that Kyiv controls about 1,000 square kilometers of the Kursk region. …
President Putin described the Ukrainian incursion as a “provocation” and ordered the military to drive the Ukrainian forces out of Russia.
Putin said the incursion is an attempt to divert attention from Moscow’s offensive in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and eventually gain a better negotiating position to end the 2½-year war.
Putin said that Kyiv, in attacking southwest Russia, may have sought to destabilize Russian life but had failed. He said the number of volunteers to join the Russian military has increased and vowed that Russia would achieve its military goals.
The Ukrainian incursion marks the largest attack on Russian soil since World War II.
Washington, Kyiv’s top supporter, responded with stern warnings to Moscow over its use of Iranian munitions in the over two-year-long conflict, but said little when asked whether Ukrainian forces might be using U.S.-supplied weapons to hit Russia.
“We’re continuing to speak to our Ukrainian counterparts about these operations,” John Kirby, White House national security adviser, said …
“Putin now has something in hand,” said Leon Aron, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “He now has evidence that Ukrainians who are armed – and, he claims, trained and egged on – by the West are now attacking Russia itself. So, here he is, and the real question is, having climbed up that tree, how he’s going to come down on this, how he’s going to explain to the Russians that this happened, and he has done nothing. So, I’m thinking that, yes, I think it is going to be [a] pretty dangerous few days.”
Ukraine’s progress on Russian territory “is challenging the operational and strategic assumptions” of the Kremlin’s forces, according to an assessment late Sunday by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
It described the Russian forces responding to the incursion as “hastily assembled and disparate.” https://www.voanews.com/a/more-russians-are-urged-to-flee-ukraine-s-cross-border-attack-as-the-kremlin-scrambles-to-respond-/7738934.html
Related to some of what is going on, Michael Snyder posted the following:
Things Just Got Even More “Interesting” In The Middle East And In Ukraine
August 12, 2024
Most people don’t seem to realize this yet, but we have entered a time of global war. While millions in the western world are partying, an apocalyptic all-out war is threatening to erupt in the Middle East and Ukraine has launched a surprise invasion of Russia. Needless to say, seeing Ukrainian troops come pouring across Russia’s lightly defended border in the Kursk region came as quite a shock to Vladimir Putin and his generals. The Ukrainians have decided to take things to the next level, and the Russians are beyond angry. Meanwhile, Israel is bracing for a “large scale” Iranian attack at any time…
Many were hoping that cooler heads had prevailed in Iran.
Sadly, it appears that an attack is still coming, and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant is warning that Iran and Hezbollah “are threatening to harm us in a way they haven’t done in the past”.
That sounds rather ominous.
If there is an attack, it will almost certainly be more substantial than what we witnessed last time around.
For the moment, however, the Iranians seem to be enjoying keeping everyone in suspense…
If all-out war erupts, it could become a prime target for either the Iranians or Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has taken an unexpected turn.
The Ukrainians have been slowly but surely losing ground in eastern Ukraine, and so they decided to do something dramatic to change the momentum of the war.
Nobody expected the Ukrainians to invade Russian territory, and so the Russians were completely surprised when that actually happened…
Ukraine’s shock incursion across the Russian border into Kursk Oblast may force important strategic decisions on Moscow as President Vladimir Putin’s troops are taken as prisoners of war and supply lines are threatened. The Ukrainian attack took Russian forces by surprise, according to one U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, Ukraine’s cross-border gambit has allowed Kyiv to seize the battlefield initiative, long held by Russian forces who were able to dictate the time and place of fighting and force Ukrainian troops to expend manpower and equipment on defensive operations.
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of the importance of removing these Ukrainian forces from Russian territory during a televised appearance…
President Vladimir Putin ordered his army on Monday to “dislodge” Ukrainian troops who have entered Russian territory as authorities said more than 120,000 people had been evacuated away from the fighting.
Kyiv launched a surprise offensive into Russia’s western Kursk region last Tuesday, capturing more than two dozen settlements in the most significant cross-border attack on Russian soil since World War II.
“One of the obvious goals of the enemy is to sow discord, strife, intimidate people, destroy the unity and cohesion of Russian society,” Putin told a televised meeting with government officials.
The Ukrainians will not be able to hold Russian territory for long. https://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/things-just-got-even-more-interesting-in-the-middle-east-and-in-ukraine/
Here is part of number 7 from my article 24 items to prophetically watch in 2024:
7. Strife and the Red Horse of War
Notice the following:
3 When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.” 4 Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. (Revelation 6:3-4)
Somewhat paralleling the ride of the second horseman of Revelation 6:3-4, Jesus warned about wars and disturbances:
6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. (Matthew 24:6-7a)
“Nation … against nation” is literally “ethnos … against ethnos” in the original Greek. ..
Consider that the opening of the second seal (Revelation 6:3-4) is to result in less peace on the Earth. …
Around the world people are AFRAID. The feeling of normalcy is gone for many around the globe. Consider that the travel restrictions are basically because of fear (and often politics). The media and government officials are saying everything will not go back to how it was and that we need to accept what they have called “the new normal.” Speculatively, could this be related to the opening of the second seal?
Not since World War II have we seen anything affect the entire planet so much. I have had a kind of gnawing feeling that perhaps the second seal was opened the late Spring or early Summer of 2020 (if not in the Fall of 2019) that perhaps we needed to better reconsider the opening of the second seal as possible.
Now in addition to COVID, we have had Russia’s ‘special military operation’ into Ukraine which has devastated Ukraine, killed many Russians, and take the facade of peace off in Europe. Then there is the Hamas-Israel war–that is one to watch as it is likely that we will see a regional war in the Middle East before we see a peace deal consistent with prophecies such as in Daniel 9:26-27. …
People are afraid or at least uneasy to a degree we have not seen around the world anytime in the 21st century.
Barnes Notes on the Bible states:
The power given to him that sat on the horse: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another. This would seem to indicate that the condition immediately preceding this was a condition of tranquility, and that this was now disturbed by some cause producing discord and bloodshed. This idea is confirmed by the original words – τὴν εἰρήνην tēn eirēnēn – “the peace”; that is, the previously existing peace. When peace in general is referred to, the word is used without the article: Matthew 10:34, “Think not that I am come to send peace – βαλεῖν εἰρήνην balein eirēnēn – upon the earth.”
So, this rider is not just a rider of war, but taking away THE peace.
The old WCG taught about the time of the red horse:
John was not speaking about the fall of Jerusalem. That war was already some twenty years behind him. John was referring to future events that would bring 6000 years of human history crashing to a cataclysmic close. … John is referring to a time yet ahead of us when “peaceful coexistence” will be a thing of the past. …
It’s no wonder that Jeremiah, in referring to these tumultuous times, stated: “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble …” (Jer. 30:7). (Ritter G. 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse – The Red Horse – War, pp. 48, 52; see also Ritter R. The War that could end it all. Good News, December 1975)
We expect to see more wars, rumors of war, and civil unrest.
WATCH IRAN AND ISRAEL as we are close to the time that Isaiah 22:5-11 is about to be fulfilled. Here is what the Bible says:
5 For it is a day of trouble and treading down and perplexity By the Lord God of hosts In the Valley of Vision — Breaking down the walls And of crying to the mountain.
6 Elam bore the quiver With chariots of men and horsemen, And Kir uncovered the shield. 7 It shall come to pass that your choicest valleys Shall be full of chariots, And the horsemen shall set themselves in array at the gate. 8 He removed the protection of Judah. You looked in that day to the armor of the House of the Forest; 9 You also saw the damage to the city of David, That it was great; And you gathered together the waters of the lower pool. 10 You numbered the houses of Jerusalem, And the houses you broke down To fortify the wall.
11 You also made a reservoir between the two walls For the water of the old pool. But you did not look to its Maker, Nor did you have respect for Him who fashioned it long ago. (Isaiah 22:5-11)
Iran (Elam), Syria (Kir), and Israel (Judah) are to be engaged in major conflict.
One day, the situation between China and Taiwan will change. One day, those in Taiwan will cooperate militarily with China.
One day, North and South Korea will cooperate militarily–though there could be a major war first.
The Russia-Ukraine and Hamas-Israel conflicts are not the last conflicts we will see.
Related to conflicts and the coming third world war, the Continuing Church of God (CCOG) put together the following video on our Bible News Prophecy YouTube channel:
WWIII or 2nd Horseman of the Apocalypse?
With the conflicts in the Middle East, Russia-Ukraine, and tensions between China and Taiwan, are we on the eve of destruction? Michael Snyder believes that World War Three has begun. Has it? What are the beginning of sorrows that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24:4-8? Should they trouble Christians? What about what happens afterwards according to Jesus in Matthew 24:9-14? Will the Philadelphian Christians be instructing “many” per Daniel 11:33 while being subject to persecution? Will the faithful be getting their “fifteen minutes of fame,” as the late Andy Warhol put it, and succeed in fulfilling Matthew 24:14 related to proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God to the world as a witness? Did the late Herbert W. Armstrong teach that the Great Tribulation was the start of what could be called WWIII? Did he also teach that may involve nuclear weapons hitting cities in the UK, USA, and Canada? Will the Philadelphian Christians flee before the start of WWIII? What about terrorism and the predominantly Islamic nations of the Middle East and North Africa? Biblically, do we expect Armageddon, and a WWIV or WWV? Will there be a confederation including Russia, China, and others that will attack the coming European King of the North Beast power? How can we know the timing of what could be called WWIII, WWIV, and WWV? Is any of this related to a temporary peace deal as mentioned in Daniel 9:26-27? What does the Bible say about the ride of the second horseman of the Apocalypse? What should a Christian do according to Jesus? Steve Dupuie and Dr. Thiel address these matters.
Here is a link to our video: WWIII or 2nd Horseman of the Apocalypse?
Although, according to Jesus, the time of sorrows is not one to trouble Christians, notice something else that He did say:
34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. 35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:34-36)
Worse things are coming, and Jesus stated what He said He wanted all of His people to be doing. So, watch and get ready.
Some items of possibly related interest may include:
War III: Steps in Progress Are there surprising actions going on now that are leading to WWIII? Might a nuclear attack be expected? Does the Bible promise protection to all or only some Christians? How can you be part of those that will be protected? A related video would be Is World War III About to Begin? Can You Escape?
There is a Place of Safety for the Philadelphians. Why it May Be Near Petra This article discusses a biblical ‘place of safety,’ Zephaniah 2 to ‘gather together,’ and includes quotes from the Bible and Herbert W. Armstrong on fleeing to a place–thus, there is a biblically supported alternative to the rapture theory. Two sermon-length videos of related interest are available Physical Protection During the Great Tribulation and Might Petra be the Place of Safety? Here are two related items in the Spanish language: Hay un lugar de seguridad para los Filadelfinos. ¿Puede ser Petra? and Existe un Lugar de Seguridad.
Iran in Prophecy Is Iran in Bible prophecy? If so, what does the Bible teach? What names, other than Persia, may be used to describe Iran? There are also two related videos: Iran In Prophecy and Iran and Israel Conflict.
Russia and Ukraine: Their Origins and Prophesied Future Russia in prophecy. Where do the Russians come from? What about those in the Ukraine? What is prophesied for Russia and its allies? What will they do to the Europeans that supported the Beast in the end? There is also a video sermon available: Russia in the Bible and in Prophecy as are two video sermonettes Russia, Ukraine, Babylonian Europe, and Prophecy and Ukraine in Prophecy?
Is Russia the King of the North? Some claim it is. But what does the Bible teach? Here is a link to a video, also titled Is Russia the King of the North?
Ezekiel 38: For Russia & Iran in Our Day? Is Ezekiel 38 about to be fulfilled? Are we close to the battle with Gog and Magog? Four related videos are available: Ezekiel 38 Gog and Magog War: Is it Soon?, Ezekiel 38: For Russia, Ukraine, & Iran Now?, Russia, Iran, Syria, & the Bible (Code), and Gog, Magog, Vladimir Putin, and Ezekiel 38?
24 items to prophetically watch in 2024 Much is happening. Dr. Thiel points to 24 items to watch (cf. Mark 13:37) in this article. Here is a link to a related video: 24 Items to Prophetically Watch in 2024. Here is a link to related video in the Spanish language titled 24 Cosas a tener en cuenta en 2024: https://youtu.be/6f7oqEhjhbg
The Gospel of the Kingdom of God This free online pdf booklet has answers many questions people have about the Gospel of the Kingdom of God and explains why it is the solution to the issues the world is facing. It is available inover 1,000 languages at ccog.org. Here are links to four kingdom-related sermons: The Fantastic Gospel of the Kingdom of God!, The World’s False Gospel, The Gospel of the Kingdom: From the New and Old Testaments, and The Kingdom of God is the Solution.
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse What do each of the four horseman of the Apocalypse represent? Have they began their ride? Did Jesus discuss the any of this? Might their rides coincide with the “beginning of sorrows? Do they start their ride prior to the Great Tribulation? Did Nostradamus or any other ‘private prophets’ write predictions that may mislead people so that they may not understand the truth of one or more of the four horseman? There is also a related YouTube video titled Sorrows and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Here are links to shorter videos: These Signs of the 4 Horsemen Have Begun and Biological Weapons and the 4th Horseman of the Apocalypse.
Is God Calling You? This booklet discusses topics including calling, election, and selection. If God is calling you, how will you respond? Here is are links to related sermons: Christian Election: Is God Calling YOU? and Predestination and Your Selection; here is a message in Spanish: Me Está Llamando Dios Hoy? A short animation is also available: Is God Calling You?
Christian Repentance Do you know what repentance is? Is it really necessary for salvation? Two related sermons about this are also available: Real Repentance and Real Christian Repentance.
About Baptism Should you be baptized? Could baptism be necessary for salvation? Who should baptize and how should it be done? Here is a link to a related sermon: Let’s Talk About Baptism and Baptism, Infants, Fire, & the Second Death.
Lost Tribes and Prophecies: What will happen to Australia, the British Isles, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the United States of America? Where did those people come from? Can you totally rely on DNA? Do you really know what will happen to Europe and the English-speaking peoples? What about the peoples of Africa, Asia, South America, and the islands? This free online book provides scriptural, scientific, historical references, and commentary to address those matters. Here are links to related sermons: Lost tribes, the Bible, and DNA; Lost tribes, prophecies, and identifications; 11 Tribes, 144,000, and Multitudes; Israel, Jeremiah, Tea Tephi, and British Royalty; Gentile European Beast; Royal Succession, Samaria, and Prophecies; Asia, Islands, Latin America, Africa, and Armageddon; When Will the End of the Age Come?; Rise of the Prophesied King of the North; Christian Persecution from the Beast; WWIII and the Coming New World Order; and Woes, WWIV, and the Good News of the Kingdom of God.
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