Madness

By Jim Fletcher

I was in New York recently and had dinner with a well-known author who understands geopolitics inside-and-out. Amazing insights into not only domestic American politics, but also a deep understanding of the Middle East. His comments were riveting.

We were joined by another highly placed commentator who has his pulse on the Middle East as well. He also has unique contacts in Israel that feed him information.

(Here I will include an aside: still another dinner companion has direct knowledge of the slide in support for Israel among Christian leaders. He told me about two that really surprised me; these people are now pro Palestinian. Perhaps in the future I will write about this in detail, perhaps in a book, but for now just know that this impacts America's future support for Israel.)

The author believes that Saudi Arabia will at least in private give Israel its support in hitting Iran's nuclear facilities. Sooner rather than later. He acknowledged that the House of Saud has funded the most violent forms of Islam for decades, but that they have a pragmatic side, too. In other words, they know that the U.S. and Israel are all that stand in the way of them and a sweeping Islamic caliphate from the Black Sea to the Gulf. They do not want to see a nuclear Iran!

The commentator believes that Turkey is the key to the whole thing. He believes that the Ottoman Empire will be revived, led of course by those same Turks, and that they can unite the Sunnis and Shiites, who are constantly in a state of civil war with each other. The unifying factor?

An Islamic hammer in the Middle East would change world politics. Sharia law and the establishment of a new caliphate would make Muslim eyes glisten worldwide, from Indonesia to Egypt. And the commentator says that Turkey has no problem with a nuclear Iran, since that would add another weapon to the Muslim arsenal.

The author also had interesting things to say, when asked about America's support of Israel, particularly regarding military equipment and support. He was dismissive.

"Increasingly, the American military is dependent on Israel's military," he said calmly.

Wow! He meant that Israeli technology is so advanced that it is helping the U.S., especially as we fight in that region. He described amazing technological advances the Israelis are making.

What this all means to me is that Israel, increasingly threatened and squeezed, will rely on herself for the coming apocalypse. And doesn't Turkish/Ottoman ascendancy make sense in the light of, say, Ezekiel 38-39, and Psalm 83?

We already know from last week that Israel's navy intercepted an arms shipment from Iran to Lebanon's Hizbollah terrorists. There are also similar shipments coming through Yemen, increasingly an Al Qaida base.

War is coming. Change is coming. Just remember in these troubled times, God is in control and His plans cannot be thwarted. We shiver when we hear these reports, and when we watch the news and discuss it all in light of the Bible. We are human; this life can be difficult.

But it appears that the things our brethren hoped for are coming into focus.

And in all this madness, we are finding, as individuals I am quite sure, that our faith is sustained by God, whom we discover in the Bible. In our personal lives and in the hotbed of international news, God is sustaining us. He has sustained His people for 4,000 years, and nothing can wrest them from His grip.

As we look east and see war clouds gathering, let us pray that we will not falter in our faith, and that we will love our God and take refuge in His safe arms.

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