Is President George Bush
Mentioned in Bible Prophecy?
Who Is the End-Time Cyrus the Great?
A little known Bible prophecy found
in the book of Isaiah explodes onto
the world scene with the shock of a
bunker-buster bomb! The
British led coalition’s conquest of
modern Iraq, the remnant of ancient
and British troops in the war on
in fear and trepidation. Will it lead to a smashing climax to the
present
Middle-Eastern stalemate of the
Palestinian problem? Will it also lead
to the rebuilding of the
amazing and profound insight into an
incredible Biblical prophecy!
William F. Dankenbring
In the pages of the prophet Isaiah, a most remarkable
prophecy is found which has never been understood before. Most commentators and Biblical scholars
assume it had its only fulfillment in the days of ancient
Isaiah was
inspired to write, “Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, and He who formed you
from the womb: ‘I am the LORD, who makes
all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the
earth by Myself; who frustrates the signs of the babblers, and drives diviners
mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolishness; who confirms
the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers; who says to Jerusalem, “You shall be
inhabited,” to the cities of Judah, “You shall be built,” and I will raise up
her waste places; who says to the deep, “Be dry! And I will dry up your rivers”; who says
of Cyrus, “He is MY SHEPHERD, and he shall perform all My pleasure, saying to
Who was
this ancient king Cyrus, and why would the God of Israel call him His very own
“Shepherd”? Does this ancient prophecy
also have a modern AGE END fulfillment?
Isaiah
goes on, in the next chapter, “Thus says the LORD to His anointed, to CYRUS,
whose right hand I have held – To subdue nations before him and loose the armor
of kings, to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be
shut. I will go before you and make
the crooked places straight [Targum, “I will trample down the walls”]; I will
break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and
hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, who called you
by your name, and the God of Israel. For
Jacob My servant’s sake, and
This
prophecy was uttered about 712 B.C. It
is a most remarkable prophecy which is DUAL in nature. Let’s notice what happened in ancient times
in fulfillment of this astonishingly plain and direct prophecy.
Cyrus the Great
Cyrus was
the son of a Persian nobleman named Cambyses and Mandane, the daughter of king
Astyages of Media. Herodotus relates
that Astyages had a terrible dream. He
dreamed that from his daughter a stream of water would flow forth which would
fill his capital and flood the whole of
A second dream caused him further
panic. He had a vision that a vine grew
from the womb of his daughter and overshadowed all of
Later, the secret became
known. Astyages, in a fit of anger,
punished Harpagus for not having carried out his will to destroy Cyrus as a
baby. He called Harpagus to a royal
banquet, secretly killed his 12-year old
son, cut him into pieces, and boiled his flesh in a pot, and served the flesh
to his own father, Harpagus, minus the head, hands, and feet. Harpagus never forgot this atrocity. Later, when Astyages had appointed Harpagus
as the commander of his army, he betrayed the king and plotted to give his
kingdom to Cyrus. He convinced Cyrus to
rebel against his grandfather, and gave Astyages army into the hands of Cyrus
without a fight. Astyages’ treachery
came back on him with a vengeance.
Who was this Astyages?
Cyrus
– An Ephraimite?
Nabonidus
calls Astyages the king of the Mana or “Nomads,” whom the Assyrian texts
identify with the Gimirra or Cimmerians (Hastings
Bible Dictionary, vol.1, p.541,
“Cyrus”). As Yair Davidy has pointed
out, and others, the Gymiri, Cimmerians, are the ancestors of the Celts, and
were descended from the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel! The name Gymri comes from the Hebrew name
Omri, or Khimri, the founder of the dynasty of Omri in the northern kingdom of
Thus
Cyrus the Great was very likely descended from the royal tribe of Ephraim, as
were his royal forbears in the northern Kingdom of
Cyrus came to the throne circa 559
B.C. In 549 he conquered his mother’s
father, Astyages, the king of Media, his overlord, and founded the Persian
(Achaemenid) empire. His conquests were
numerous and brilliant. He conquered
Croesus and his
A few years later he was
threatening
The First Fall of
The
Says the Critical-Experimental
Commentary, “In the revelry in Babylon on the night of its capture, the
inner gates leading from the streets to the river were left open, for there
were walls along each side of the Euphrates with gates, which, had they been
kept shut, would have hemmed the invading hosts in the bed of the river, where
the Babylonians could have easily destroyed them. Also, the gates of the palace were left
open, so that there was access to every part of the city” (vol. II, p.706).
Having diverted the waters of the
“But, as
it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise and so took the city.
Owing to the vast size of the place,
the inhabitants of the central parts. . . long
after the outer parts were taken,
knew nothing of what had chanced, but as they
were engaged in a festival,
continued dancing and reveling until they learnt the
capture but too certainly. Such, then, were the circumstances of the
first taking
of
God prophesied the gates of
The
A Humane King
The first century Jewish historian
Josephus tells us why Cyrus favored the Jewish people and allowed those who
were thus disposed to return to their homeland and rebuild Jerusalem. In Antiquities of the Jews he notes
that:
“[God]
stirred up the mind of Cyrus, and made him write this throughout all
Asia: -- ‘Thus saith Cyrus the King:
-- Since God Almighty hath appointed
me to be king of the habitable
earth, I believe that he is that God which the
nation of Israelites worship; for
indeed he foretold my name by the prophets,
and that I should build him a house
at Jerusalem, in the country of Judea.’
“This was known to Cyrus by his
reading the book which Isaiah left behind
him of his prophecies; for this
prophet said that God had spoken thus to him
in a secret vision: -- ‘My will is, that Cyrus, whom I have
appointed to be
king over many and great nations,
send back my people to their own land,
and build my temple.’ This was foretold by Isaiah one hundred and
forty
years before the temple was
demolished. Accordingly, when Cyrus read
this, and admired the divine power,
an earnest desire and ambition seized
upon him to fulfill what was so
written; so he called for the most eminent
Jews that were in Babylon, and said
to them, that he gave them leave to go
back to their own country, and to
rebuild their city Jerusalem, and the temple
of God, for that he would be their
assistant, and that he would write to the
rulers and governors that were in
the neighborhood of their country of Judea,
that they should contribute to them
gold and silver for the building of the
temple, and, besides that, beasts
for their sacrifices” (XI, 1, 1-2).
No doubt, the prophecies of Isaiah
140 years previously had made a deep impression on the mind of king Cyrus.
The Cyrus
cylinder tells how Cyrus captured Babylon without a battle, and remedied the
evils done by previous Assyrian and Babylonian rulers by sending prisoners in
Babylonia back to their original homelands and aiding in the restoration of
temples of the gods of various nations.
It is of baked clay, 25 cm in length, and dates from 536 B.C. It was discovered in the 19th
century by Hormuzd Rassam and is in remarkable agreement with the royal edict
found in the Bible. Cyrus reversed the
inhumane policies of the Assyrian and Babylonian conquerors.
Cyrus was
a sympathetic ruler. When he conquered
Babylon, he issued a decree, found in the book of Chronicles. We read:
“Now in
the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the LORD
by
the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit
of
Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout
all his
kingdom,
and also put it in writing, saying:
‘Thus says Cyrus king of Persia:
All
the kingdoms of the earth the LORD God of heaven has given me. And
He
has commanded me to BUILD HIM A HOUSE AT JERUSALEM which
is
in Judah. Who is among you of all his
people? May the LORD his God
be
with him, and let him go up!” (II Chron.36:22-23).
The same edict is repeated in Ezra
1:1-4. Cyrus himself brought out the
articles of the house of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had stolen and placed
in the temple of his gods, and presented them to the Jews for the new Temple of
God which they were commanded by his edict to rebuild. Imagine, if you can, a “Gentile” king, giving
orders for the Jewish people, to rebuild God’s House! Without his encouragement and authority, they
may never have done it! They would
likely have come up with every excuse in the book not to do it – “it is too
dangerous,” “there is too much opposition,”
“Now is not the right time,” “let’s put it off,” “the time isn’t right,”
“The Messiah will rebuilt it when He comes,” etc. But with the encouragement of Cyrus, the Jews
took action, and laid the foundation of the Temple in 520 B.C., and finished it
in 515 B.C.
The Historical
Importance
The edict
of Cyrus to rebuild the Temple was “in fact the beginning of Judaism; and the
great changes by which the nation was transformed into a church are clearly
marked” (Peloubet’s Bible Dictionary, p.133). The fall of Babylon also marks the beginning
of European life, the starting point of Grecian art, and of the Roman
Constitution. It is a “singular
coincidence” says the Critical-Experimental Commentary by Jamieson,
Fausset and Brown, that these epochal events “synchronize with the triumph of
the Arian race in the East” – that is, Cyrus’ conquest of Babylon (vo.2,
p.705).
Cyrus was
a “great humane ruler” who held an important position in Biblical
prophecy. While the Jews sang of him as
a deliverer and the anointed of the Lord, Cyrus claimed to be commissioned by
the god Marduk His inscription on the
Cyrus clay cylinder “contains the amazing story of triumphs of one who plainly
saw himself as a man of destiny” (Unger’s Bible Dictionary, p.233). Says the Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th
edition, “Cyrus must have been a great warrior and statesman. Nor is his character without nobility. He
excels in the humanity with which he treated the vanquished” (“Cyrus,” vol.7,
p.708).
Type and Anti-type –
Duality of Prophecy
Biblical
prophecy is a mysterious, arcane subject where it is easy for a person to make
a misstep. The apostle Peter warns us,
“And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well
to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day
dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” Peter thus showed the importance of Biblical
prophecy – it is sure, and it is accurate, and it is very important for us to
understand, if we are to grasp the unfolding events of the future.
However,
Peter went on with a clarion warning. He
declared, “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy came about by the
prophet’s own interpretation. For
prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as
they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (II Pet.1:19-21, NIV).
In other
words, prophecy is not just somebody’s
person “opinion” of what is to happen in the future. It is not based on somebody’s own personal
“interpretation.” The words of Biblical
prophecy are divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit of God! Even so, the understanding of them is also
revealed to a person by that same Holy Spirit of God. It is not a mere ‘guessing game,” or based on
conjecture or clever ideas of men. The
interpretation and understanding of prophecy must also be based on God’s Word,
and the revelation of His Holy Spirit.
Only then can it be trusted.
The New
King James Version has this passage more clearly explained: “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of
Scripture is of any PRIVATE INTERPRETATION, for prophecy never came by the will
of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” (I
Pet.1:20-21).
One of the
most basic and essential keys to unraveling the mysteries of Biblical prophecy
is the “duality” principle. That is, in
the case of many prophecies, there was a prior, ancient fulfillment, and that
was a type or figure of a latter days, END-time fulfillment, which is to occur
during the END of the age, just prior to the return of the Messiah!
Consider. There was the first man, Adam, and a second
Adam, who was the Messiah (I Cor.15:45-47).
There was war in heaven in ancient times (Isa.14:12-14), and there is
similar war in heaven prophesied for the end of the age (Rev.12:7-9). Satan was cast out of heaven in ancient times
(Luke 10:18), and will be cast out once again at the end of the age
(Rev.12:9). There was an original
wicked prince who persecuted God’s people and established an “abomination” in
God’s Temple – Antiochus Epiphanes, in 164-167 B.C., prophesied by Daniel
(Dan.8:11-2; 11:31; 12:11), and there will be an end-time fulfillment of this
prophecy (Matt.24:15; Mark 13:14). There
was an ancient captivity and punishment of Israel and Judah for their sins,
when both nations were invaded and led into captivity (II Kings 17; Jeremiah
25), and there will likewise by an end-time fulfillment of punishment and
captivity, because of sins (Matt.24:16-21; Mark 13:19; Luke 21:20-24).
Similarly,
in Isaiah we read the words, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen!”
(Isa.21:9). Again, in Revelation we also
read: “And another angel followed,
saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has
made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication”
(Rev.14:8). The fact that Babylon in
each instance is said to have fallen TWICE is indicative of the duality of her
fall! She fell in ancient times, to
Cyrus the Great, in 539 B.C. Modern Iraq
“Babylon” fell to George W. Bush and the American-British led coalition of the
willing just before Passover, 2003! (And
in another sense, the modern world “Babylon” system itself will fall, in the
not too distant future, at the coming of the Messiah!).
Duality and the
Rebuilding of the Temple of God
We also
know that God led His people to rebuild His House after the first Temple was
destroyed by King Nebuchadnezzar, and He inspired Zerubbabel and Joshua his
servants to do it, with the help of all the people, after king Cyrus of Persia
commissioned them to do so. Even so, a
latter-days, end-time Temple will also be REBUILT on its Holy Place, by the
end-time servants of God, together with the Jewish people and supported by
believing Christian people around the world.
We read in
the book of Haggai the prophet, that God warned the Jewish people to consider
their ways and told them to “build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it
and be glorified” (Haggai 1:7-8). “Then
Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high
priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD
their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the LORD their God had
sent him; and the people feared the presence of the LORD. . . So the LORD
stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah,
and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit
of all the remnant of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the
LORD of hosts, their God . . .” (Haggai 1:12-14).
Was this
message just for that time? Not at
all! Notice! When that Temple was being built, God sent
another message, speaking of a Temple of God being rebuilt during the end of
days, of which that Temple was a type, or figure – a forerunner. God said, “For thus says the LORD of
hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while)
I will shake heaven and earth (compare Luke 21:25-27; Matt.24:29-30), the sea
and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire
of all nations, and I will fill this temple [the LATTER DAYS Temple!] with
glory says the LORD of hosts” (Haggai 2:6-7).
The apostle Paul applied this passage to the END of days, in writing to
the Hebrews, when he quoted Haggai, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the
earth, but also heaven.’ Now this, ‘Yet
once more,’ indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as
of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain”
(Heb.12:27).
Thus there
was a former fulfillment of this prophecy, and there will be a latter-day
fulfillment in OUR TIME!
Since
Almighty God stirred up the spirit of the leaders of His people to rebuild His
House during the days of king Cyrus, Zerubbabel, and Joshua, He will stir up
the spirit of His people ONCE AGAIN, during OUR age, to REBUILD HIS HOUSE!
What great
“king” or world ruler today will fulfill the role of the great KING who will
lead the way to rebuild God’s House?
What great world conqueror, world ruler, who is LIKE CYRUS – a man who
is a humanitarian, who is benevolent, and God-fearing, who BELIEVES IN GOD and
is not afraid to mention God in his public addresses and speeches?
Let’s look
at the evidence.
American Empire
Bestriding
the world as a great Colossus, today, is the United States of America. This present time has been called “The
American Century.” Especially since the
terrorist attack of 9-11, the Presidency of George W. Bush has become more
focused and driven to protect the American people, and the world, from the
growing threat of terrorist hatred and atrocities.
Wrote
James M. Banner, Jr., a historian in Washington, D.C., “Not since the Spanish
and British empires has a nation so bestrode the world as the United States
does today. The collapse of the Soviet
Union, the superiority of American arms and the strength of the American
economy have created a new American imperium” (“The Wellspring of American
Empire,” Los Angeles Times, April 30, 2003).
The
reality of this statement has become palpably evident in the conduct of
America’s new war on terrorism.
First, the
United States led a coalition into Afghanistan, to subdue the terrorist haven
and bases of the Taliban and al Qaeda, located there. Many commentators, remembering how the Soviet
Union met its match with the guerrilla fighters in Afghanistan, prophesied out
of their own hearts that the U.S. would become bogged down, humiliated, and
enter a quagmire. A columnist for the New York Times predicted terrible
disaster. But their predictions were notoriously and hilariously
wrong-headed. Nothing of the kind
happened. The war was a brilliant
success, and American firepower and overwhelming force quickly routed the
Taliban and sent the remnants of al Qaeda scurrying for cover.
But this was only the
beginning.
The Iraq War and
“Operation Iraqi Freedom”
Ever since
the Gulf War, in 1991, Saddam Hussein began rebuilding the army and military
forces of Iraq, and began fomenting terrorism around the world. Clandestinely, his government participated in
terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, in 1993, and again in 2001,
according to published reports. The
connection was clear to those who viewed the evidence of contacts between Iraqi
intelligence officers and al Qaeda operatives.
Saddam hated the United States for its actions in repelling his forces
from Kuwait in 1991, and ever since then he began building up his program of
developing weapons of mass destruction.
President
George W. Bush in his “State of the
Union” address in 2002 warned the world that the United States would go after
the forces of terrorism, wherever they were located, as well as those nations
who supported terrorism and harbored terrorists. The world has learned that he meant exactly
what he said.
So, after
months and years of planning, when the United Nations refused to act on the
problem posed by Iraq, the United States and the “coalition of the willing”
took the initiative and began “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”
The end
came quickly. After a few nervous
moments in the first two weeks, things began to settle down as American forces
raced virtually nonstop to their objectives.
When Baghdad was reached, it seemed as if most of the Iraqi military
forces seemed to melt away. As the military
entered Baghdad, the entire regime seemed to melt into the woodwork, and disappear
from view.
This
wasn’t the way it was supposed to end.
Saddam Hussein had the biggest army in the Middle East. His defiant attitude toward the U.S. had
inspired legions of Arabs throughout the region. Everybody predicted his troops would make one
final bloody stand in the streets and buildings of Baghdad. But it never happened. The U.S. army rolled through the city,
meeting only pockets of fierce fighting.
For all practical purposes, the war was over.
Writes
Samson Krupnick, from Israel, “The Three Week War called Operation Iraqi
Freedom was a sensational combination of ‘scientific warfare’ designed to
pinpoint objectives, striking vital areas and military forces, while exercising
great care in avoiding civilian populations.
The entire world was impressed by this operation which placed the United
States, Britain, and its entire 49 nation coalition in a position to proceed
further in its war on terror and against such nations as Syria and Iran which
are threats to world peace and tranquility.”
Krupnick
continues, “Operation Iraqi Freedom cost 127 killed and some 450 wounded, an
amazingly small casualty list considering the wide scale of the operation and
the many varied combat and supply units involved. It reminds us of the sensation of the Six Day
War of June, 1967 when Israel defeated the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian
armies within 6 days. Casualties were
290 dead and some 3000 wounded, also a relatively small casualty list for so
widespread an operation” (“Israel As I See It –Peace Can Be Elusive,” Root
& Branch, www.rb..org.il).
The Jerusalem
Post in an article entitled “America’s Passover Gift,” declared of the
Iraqi war: “After three weeks of
intensive fighting, the American military offensive against Saddam Hussein’s
regime in Iraq has more or less ended.
The military operation can be compared to smashing down pieces on a
chess board by a violent hand and rearranging them according to a new guiding
logic.”
The
author, Caroline B. Glick, quotes Major Rod Coffey, resident military
strategist of the 2-7 Mechanized Infantry Battalion of the US army’s 3rd
infantry division’s first brigade, as saying:
“What we did here on an operational level has never been done
before. We showed that if your objective
is to destroy a regime, you do not have to engage at every location. . . . We
did not get bogged down. We moved
straight to our objective” (Jerusalem Post, April 25, 2003).
A Sea-change in the
World Order
Now that
the war is over, think tanks and political experts are assessing its meaning
and long-term significance. Was this an
epohal event, or just one more ripple in the bubble of time?
The
American military used “brute force” and never stopped moving. Says Glick, “On a larger scale, the focus,
discipline and success of the US ground offenses in Iraq has sent a clear
message to terror-supporting regimes throughout the region and the world.” The message?
“If you support terrorism even tangentially, we will destroy you,” said
Major Coffey.
In another
Jerusalem Post article, Mordecai Nisan wrote, “The conquest and
liberation of Iraq by the United States is of extraordinary moment in the
annals of Middle Eastern and Arab history.
A line of memory and resemblance is drawn from Napoleon Bonapart’s
French conquest of Egypt in 1798, through General Allenby’s British capture of
Syria in 1918, through to Bush’s American victory in Iraq in 2003” (“Looking
back and ahead,” April 25, 2003).
Says Nisan of George Bush,
“Questions linger, but one compelling conclusion can be drawn. George Bush has checked the fall of the West
– dhimmi-like submissive to Islam though it is in Europe – while forging the
national mettle of America for the ongoing challenges ahead. He has demonstrated clarity of vision and
morality of purpose. This is a legacy
that his great country offers to like-minded believing souls for the future.”
No doubt
about it, the Iraqi war will go down in history as a marvel of successful
planning, brilliance, and execution.
Despite the early warnings of nay-sayers, and pessimists, despite a
horrendous sandstorm, and badgering attacks by militant Fedayeen in pick up
trucks on supply lines, the outcome was never really in doubt. The “shock and awe” of the war was probably
that it was over so quickly – in spite of predictions of Saddam making Baghdad
into a modern equivalent of Stalingrad during World War II, where a million
Nazi soldiers met their Maker. Instead,
Saddam himself and his minions quickly fled the country, fleeing for safety
from the American juggernaut. Where
Saddam is hiding today is the subject of much speculation. But one thing is for sure – he is no longer
calling the shots in Iraq!
A New Period of History
– a New Era
Says U.S.
News & World Report magazine,
“In 1990,
with war in Iraq looming, President George Bush proclaimed a ‘new
world
order.’ It was a brief, if sparkling,
moment – the promise of enduring
international
concord spawned by the end of the Cold War and a shared resolve
to
resist Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. But
the hope
never materialized.
“More
than 12 years later, that president’s son has concluded another war against
Iraq, and
the muscular display of American power may at last usher in a new world order –
though certainly not the one envisioned by
his father. Coming just a year
and a half after the rout of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the military triumph
in Iraq crystallizes the central fact of this young century – the United States
stands as a colossus, unparalleled in history and increasingly unwilling to
have its power constrained by the views of others. This, after all, was a war of choice – the
nation’s first ‘preventive’ war. The
demonstration of American technological
mastery
and might – demolishing the Iraqi military in a matter of just days – brings
with it unintended consequences. If this
is America’s moment, it is a moment of both promise and peril.
“The
wreckage of this second Iraq war lies not only on the hot and sandy battle-
fields
of Iraq but in the battered alliances and smoldering anti-Americanism left
in
its slipstream. The post-Cold War era
now seems an outdated description for
the
shifting techtonic plates. Former
Secretary of State Henry Kissinger calls the
Iraq
experience ‘a defining juncture’ in U.S. foreign policy. ‘This is a new period of history,’ agrees
Secretary of State Colin Powell” (“Power and Peril,” by Thomas Omestad, U.S. News & World
Report, May 5, 2003).
Says
Omestad, “Whatever this new era is called – so far, it has no agreed-upon
catchphrase – there is an unmistakable feeling in Washington that Big Change is
unfolding, of a sort Americans haven’t seen for more than half a century.”
Perhaps
the most signal corollary damage from the war is its effect on the United
Nations. The Weekly Standard captured
the feeling with a cover praising the collapse of Iraqi diplomacy at the United
Nations with the caption, “Present at the Destruction.” Ceretainly, the United Nations appears in
desperate need of major overhaul, as it abdicated its responsibilities and was
unable to deal with the Iraqi crisis and the threat of weapons of mass
destruction in terrorist-supporting states.
The world
is standing on the threshold of a new epoch.
Change is most certainly in the wind.
A new world empire has arisen.
Just as in the days when ancient Babylon fell to the Medes and
Persians, so modern Babylon has fallen to the combined forces of the Americans
and British and their allies. Just as
that ancient war was a transfiguration of the world scene, and the beginning of
the Persian Empire, so this modern war was also a transforming event, forever
changing the world outlook and future.
Where do
we go from here?
A New Look at the
Changed World Landscape
Clearly,
the United States has stunned the world by its ability to remove a brutal dictator
like Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to shift the entire balance of power
in the Middle East. Germany, France, and
Russia, who opposed the war vehemently, have been quieted, and have begun
seeking to repair the damage to relations between them and the United States.
The fact
is, a major change has taken place in the world dynamic. There has been a significant “changing of the
guard.” The United States has achieved a
nearly bloodless coup over its biggest European rivals, and, for the time being,
now seems to own the playing field, and is the one calling the shots.
The war in
Iraq was also a tremendous coup for American intelligence. For years the U.S. has been waging a secret
war in Iraq, and was able to make deals with senior Iraqi commanders under the
table. They were offered a choice –
refuse to fight, and save their lives and future prospects – or fight and
die. The divisions did not surrender
outright – they just melted into the populace and blended in with
civilians. In other words, many of
Saddam’s soldiers betrayed him. They
were given an offer they could not refuse.
The fall
of Saddam Hussein is equivalent to a massive geopolitical earthquake in the
Middle East. It will have repercussions
for a long time to come. Writes Dr. Joe
Duarte in The Secret War, “To use a sports analogy, the U.S.
intelligence community, and President Bush as its current Commander in Chief,
may have won a decade’s worth of Super Bowls, while France, Germany, and to
some degree Russia, as well as the U.N. have fallen off the bench.”
Duarte
says, “When the major European powers and Russia all rose in aggressive
opposition to the war in Iraq, it became obvious that they had something to
hide . . . And while it became known that France, Germany, and Russia all had
major economic ties to Hussein, it is now possible that intelligence finds may
reveal that there was much more than money involved. Thus, it is now that the opposition must be
truly quaking in its boots.
“The
bottom line? The U.S. may have pulled off one of the most
successful sting operations at the highest levels of government in the history
of the world. And the repercussions have
just begun to be felt” (“The Secret War,” Dr. Joe Duarte, April 24, 2003,
www.financialsense.com).
Debka.com
has pointed out that intelligence documents show that Syria was a full partner
with Iraq in the development of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. In fact, the programs should be called
“Iraqi-Syrian” undertakings. Says Debka,
“Well before the UN inspectors came on the scene last year, the Syrian
president Bashar Assad took it upon himself to conceal the banned weapons, one
by one, as they came off the production line.
Syria’s support for Iraq in the UN Security Council and the attacks
leveled by foreign minister Farouk a-Sharah against Washington, for venturing
to accuse Iraq of concealing weapons of mass destruction, were staged to
misdirect attention from the biggest political, intelligence and military fraud
perpetrated since the Cold War ended.”
Damascus
not only provided a safe haven and escape hatch for fleeing Iraqi political,
military, scientific and intelligence personnel, but also transported tanker
truck loads of WMD weapons to the Be’acha Valley in Lebanon, where they were
buried in huge pits up to 100 feet in depth and covered up.
Says Dr.
Joe Duarte, “The Arab world is reeling, and seems to be waiting for the next
shoe to drop, or the next country to be invaded. The French are starting to backpedal and look
for ways to enter the post war commercial bonanza. The Germans are still not sure what to do and
will likely be largely ignored, cementing what could be Schroeder’s
demise. And Russia finds itself in a
messy web of spying, counterspying, and trial balloons as it searches for a way
to keep the U.S. as an ally while not upsetting the chances for a Putin
re-election in upcoming elections. . . .
“As a
result, the United States is in the driver’s seat, and is taking full advantage
of the situation on the many open and equally important fronts of the post war
political battle” (Joe Duarte, op. cit.).
America
has already begun pulling troops out of Saudi Arabia, which could be bad news
for that country. American troops are
also leaving bases in Germany, to be re-located in Eastern European
nations. The whole geopolitical
landscape is being restructured.
Meanwhile,
Tony Blair has started lobbying for the position as President of a United
Europe, a position he would like to create, define, and occupy, after leaving
office as Prime Minister of Britain. The
position does not yet exist, but Blair told an audience at the UE summit in
Athens, that an enlarged 25-member European Union needs a more powerful voice
on the world stage and should have a
full-time EU president, responsible to the member governments, and giving
overall “strategic direction.”
Conservative British groups are not
amused or happy with Blair’s new ambition and view it as a sell-out and
betrayal of the British people.
What does it all mean? And where are we headed from here?
President George Bush in Prophecy
Clearly,
the Middle East is undergoing a revolutionary restructuring. The whole landscape is being altered. The cause of this massive tectonic upheaval
and change is the president of the United States, George W. Bush.
George
Bush, the leader of the most powerful nation in
history, is an avowed born-again conservative, evangelical
Christian. Many of his closest advisers
are also strong Christians. Tony Blair
also declares himself to be a Christian.
Even the head of a third ally, John Howard of Australia, is considered
by the Australian press as being unusually religious and committed to Christian
and family values.
Meanwhile,
Israel has just formed its first mostly secular government coalition, meaning
new important religious freedoms for the Israeli people, including the freedom
to chose one’s religion and faith, thus opening the doors for more Christians
in Israel, as well as Christian-believing Jews.
Interestingly,
as well, Saddam Hussein saw himself as the inline successor of ancient king
Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He has been
rebuilding the old city of Babylon as a tourist center. Ancient Nebuchadnezzar saw himself as a
“god,” and commissioned a statue of himself to be erected and worshipped by the
people (Daniel 3). Similarly, Hussein
has erected huge monuments and statues of himself throughout Iraq, and has
sought to promote pan-Arab unity and to re-create a modern Babylonian Empire,
in the footsteps of Nebuchadnezzar. He
also saw himself as a modern descendant of the Arab leader and military genius
Saladin of the Middle Ages who fought against the Crusaders. He has also claimed to be the literal
descendant of Muhammad, the founder of Islam.
Now the
‘coalition of the willing” – largely a “Christian coalition” led by President
George Bush – has toppled from power the modern Babylonian dictator. The war was phenomenal and seemingly
miraculous in its brevity and totality.
Why Stunning Victory
Over Iraq?
Why has God Almighty given the
allies such a great, breathtaking victory and amazing triumph?
The
answer – prophecy must be fulfilled!
The stage is set. The time is ripe. The time for the REBUILDING OF THE HOUE OF
GOD – THE TEMPLE – HAS COME! And
Almighty God has opened the door, and prepared the way, and provided the
world’s leaders the grand opportunity to BUILD GOD’S HOUSE – as a “house for
prayer for all nations”!
God
declares through Isaiah the prophet:
“Also
the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the
LORD,
to serve Him, and to love the name of the LORD,
to
be His servants – everyone who keeps from defiling the
Sabbath,
and holds fast My covenant – even them I will
bring
to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My
house
of prayer. Their burnt offerings and
their sacrifices
will
be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called
A
HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL NATIONS” Isa.57:7).
The time
has come for God’s House to be rebuilt on its ancient foundations!
God says
to our generation, as He did to that of Haggai the prophet, Zechariah the
prophet, and Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest, “ ‘Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and
BUILD THE TEMPLE [literally, “House”], that I may take pleasure in it and be
glorified,’ says the LORD. ‘You looked
for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it
away. Why?’ says the LORD of hosts.
‘Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own
house. Therefore the heavens above you
withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. For I called for a drought on the land and
the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the
ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands’”
(Haggai 1:7-11).
Will we
obey the voice of God?
Will we
listen to the words of the Most High?
Will
George W. Bush, the President of the muscular United States, fulfill his role
today as the modern day Cyrus the Great, and DO GOD’S BIDDING? If he does, and fulfills God’s commandment,
the Great God who gave him outstanding victory and triumph over evil in the war
against Iraq – then God in heaven will bless his presidency and his endeavors
for the American people and the world.
In that case, the “W.” in his middle initial stands for “Wonderful” –
and he will indeed be blessed for fulfilling God’s commandment and
commissioning the rebuilding of God’s House.
The time
has come. The modern day Cyrus the Great
has appeared on the scene. Once again
God has led the American and British armies – modern day Ephraim and Manasseh –
to incredible victory over the forces of tyranny and evil.
It is time
to pay our dues. It is time to pay our
respects. It is time to bring the Lord
an “offering” – and to REBUILD HIS HOUSE!
God
says: “I will shake heaven and earth,
and will overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I will destroy the strength of the
Gentile kingdoms. I will overthrow the
chariots [battle tanks] and those who ride in them; the horses and their riders
shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.
“ ‘In that
day,’ says the LORD of hosts, I will take you, Zerubbabel My servant, the son
of Shealtiel,’ says the LORD, ‘and will make you like a signet ring; for I have
chosen you,’ says the LORD of hosts” (Haggai 2:21-23).
Restraining the Powers
of Evil
The time
has come. For a temporary space of time,
God is withholding the forces of evil, and restraining the powers of
darkness. We have a golden opportunity –
a shining open window of heaven to do the humanly impossible – to rebuild God’s
House which has lain dormant and destroyed for nearly two thousand years.
George
Bush and American power, is for the moment, restraining the powers of darkness
and the mystery of iniquity, before they can become full blown and dominant in
the earth. As God declares, “And now you
know what is restraining, that he might be revealed in his own time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at
work [secretly, clandestinely]; only he who now restrains will do so until
he is taken out of the way” (II Thess.2:7). For a golden moment, the forces of evil have
been restrained. The Iraqi war was a
tremendous blow to the forces of darkness, the powers of terrorism, and the evil
plots and conspiracies of European powers against the state of Israel and the
influence of the United States. This
period of relative calm and tranquility will not last forever. It may only last for a few years.
Therefore,
the time to strike is when the iron is hot.
The time to rebuild God’s house is when the opportunity avails
itself! That time has indeed come!
American
primacy has meshed with President Bush’s instinct to see the world in terms of
good and evil. The evil forces have been
at least temporarily routed. It is time
to install the good and make way for the Temple of God, in preparation for the
coming of the long-awaited Messiah, Son of David!
Washington
“hawks” believe now is the time to “transform the global system, to unchain
U.S. power from the old strictures.
‘We’ve shaken the kaleidoscope, and when we look back into it, we’ll see
that the pieces have all moved,’ says Richard Perle, a top adviser on the
Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board” (“Power and Peril,” U.S. News & World
Report, May 6, 2003).
“BUILD MY HOUSE”
If we expect to receive God’s continued blessings upon our nation, and individually, we must obey the will of God, who says to His people at this unique juncture in history: “GO UP . . . AND BUILD THE TEMPLE” (Haggai 1:8, NKJV). “Go up . . . and REBUILD the House” (Jewish Tanakh translation).
How long must God’s people, Jewish and Christian alike, shed tears, and cry, and mourn, and wait for the House of the Living God to be restored to its proper place? The prophet Malachi wrote, “And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming, says the LORD of hosts” (Malachi 3:1, NKJV). The return of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is dependent upon and waiting for the rebuilding of the House of God.
The fact that this applies to our generation is evident from Haggai 2:6-7, where God says, “For thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory.’”
How important is the House of God? Almighty God said to king Solomon, after the dedication of the original Temple, on the Temple Mount –
“I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself
as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no
rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence
among
My people, if My people who are called by My name will
humble themselves, and pray and seek My face,
and turn from
their wicked ways, then I will hear from
heaven, and will forgive
their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My
ears
attentive to prayer made in this place.
For now I have chosen
and
sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and
My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually” (II Chron.7:12-16).
Our nation has an awesome opportunity. Never has the time been so favorable, until now, with a new paradigm in the Middle East. Our President is a man of strong faith and belief in God. We have before us an incredible opportunity to help bring true peace to the Middle East, and to fulfill the Word of God, as He charges us to do.
God says, in Isaiah, “For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Isaiah 56:7).
The Temple of God lies in ruins on top of the Temple Mount. In its ancient place stands a building called the “Dome of the Rock,” which was originally built to be a synagogue by an Arab ruler. The Dome of the Rock was built in 691CE for the Jews as their “last house” of prayer by their ally Abd el-Malik, the Umayyad ruler of Damascus, who also controlled the land of Israel in those days. The Jews who built the house believed that their redemption had already come. The Dome of the Rock, then, was originally a Jewish building. It is not oriented toward Mecca, as all legitimate mosques are. It was later converted to a “mosque” by succeeding Arab rulers.
The Dome of the Rock therefore really belongs to the Israelis, as it was built for their ancestors. It is the location, the holy place where the Shatiyah stone of Israel is located. It is the site of the original Temple of God, and no other edifice belongs there. For the building of another religion to be located there is a sacrilege, a transgression of the law of God.
The first Temple of God was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. The second Temple was razed to the ground by the Romans in 70 A.D. Since that time, the Temple site has been desolate, barren, and waste. Should it not at this time in history be restored to its rightful owner, the descendants of Israel, for the worship of the God of Israel?
The time has come to rebuild the House of God on the sacred Temple Mount. If we expect to receive God’s continued blessings upon our nation, and individually, we must obey the will of God, who says to His people at this unique juncture in history: “GO UP . . . AND BUILD THE TEMPLE” (Haggai 1:8, NKJV). “Go up . . . and REBUILD the House” (Jewish Tanakh translation).
What better way to transform the
world system, and unchain the power of good, than to rebuild the House of God,
as a place of prayer for all nations!
There is a
new paradigm in the world. Former CIA
Director James Woolsey calls the new era “World War IV.” He says the Third World War was the Cold
War. The war against Iraq, he says, was
but the opening round in a continuing campaign
and war on terrorists and their state sponsors, which will be measured
in “decades.”
The mood
among American officials is confident, but not proud. The U.S. wants to jump-start the peace
process in the Middle East, and messages delivered by American leaders are now
having the desired effect. Syria is
beginning to come to terms with its own support of terrorism, and delivering
into American hands many of the escaped leaders of Saddam’s Iraq. The Iranians are considering a new
relationship with Uncle Sam. Even North
Korea, long blowing smoke and making vindictive threats toward the United
States, is scaling down the rhetoric and agreeing to multi-lateral discussions
on its nuclear weapons program.
Says one
senior U.S. official, by means of the war on Iraq, “We put the fear of God into
them.” Dictators in Damascus, Tehran,
and Pyongyang, are beginning to feel a bit nervous. There is a new “cop” in town. Some nations may look on the United States,
and George Bush, as a “cowboy,” but as George Bush has said, even cowboys
sometimes have posses.
The key to peace in the Middle East
is to root out tyranny and terrorism, which go hand in hand with religious
hatred and bigotry. The Muslims have
their Mecca. The other religions have
their shrines and holy places. But for
nearly two thousand years, the Jews have been without their sanctuary at their
most holy site – the Temple of God. On
the road to peace, there must be something in the agreement for everybody. More than mere promises of “security” are
needed. It’s time the Temple Mount were
given back to its original possessors – the people of Israel.
We have a historic opportunity
before us. Let’s get about our Father’s
business, and rebuild His House and not squander this God-given
opportunity!
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