The Middle East continues to fester with hatred as the coming of our Savior draws ever closer, and there are both wars and rumors of wars just as the Lord Jesus said there would be in Matthew, chapter 24, and Luke, chapter 21. The bloody turmoil grows continually worse as Iraq is now in a civil war. We are continually seeing news headlines such as: “Savage slaughter in Iraq; thirty beheaded bodies found.”  This senseless war has been and remains the passion of President George W. Bush and his oil-obsessed co-conspirators. We have now learned from a mainstream British newspaper that President Bush fully intends to start a nuclear war with Iran! Seymour Hersh, an investigative writer with close ties to the Pentagon, reported to the London Daily Telegraph that President Bush refers to Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the leader of Iran, as the “new Hitler.” Hersh also reported that even though U.S. military chiefs at the Pentagon have urged President Bush to not use nuclear weapons against Iran, President Bush is determined to do so!

In Iraq a mysterious new building project is underway. It is a new United States Embassy, and it’s like none other that was ever built. It is a fortress-like compound rising beside the Tigris River, and it is the same size as the Vatican City. It has its own defense force and power and water plants, and it consists of twenty-one buildings. All of this is being built on 104 acres of land and will serve as the United States power center in the Middle East. The complex will have 5,500 employees. This Embassy Baghdad is ten times larger than any other modern United States Embassy, and the Bush Administration induced the interim Iraqi Government to transfer ownership of this tract of land to the United States. A large contingent of U.S. Marines will be stationed at the embassy to protect it. It should also be noted that this complex is six times larger than the United Nations’ complex in New York City, and the cost is one billion dollars to build it. The complex is far more elaborate than any palace the king of Babylon could have imagined. The swimming pool, gym, commissary, food court, and the American Club are facilities that are second to none.

The Bush Administration has now unveiled a new blueprint for a nuclear bomb manufacturing facility, and a plan to build 125 nuclear bombs per year. The elaborate new facility will also be able to design and produce a nuclear bomb within four hours if necessary. The cost of the new bomb-producing facility is 25,000,000,000 dollars.

On March 30th, 2006, the U.S. military announced that it intends to detonate a seven hundred ton bomb in a test that will send a mushroom cloud over Las Vegas, Nevada. The test is to take place during the first week of June at the Nevada test range. And the Russians have been notified. The military also said that they are making sure that Las Vegas understands.  Don’t worry Las Vegas, what could possibly go wrong?

As Iran watches all of this activity by the United States, the reaction has been stern and definite. Iranian President Mahmoud Madinejad has publicly vowed that the West will suffer more than his country.  He also specifically threatened the United States with harm and pain if his country is attacked. Madinejad’s exact words were, “But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if that is the path that the U.S. wishes to choose, let the ball roll.”  It should also be noted that both Russia and China issued statements of opposition to any sanctions against Iran. This happened on March 31st, 2006, at a meeting in Berlin, Germany.  And apparently, France seems to know that something is going on as Jacques Chirac announced a nuclear upgrade in his country. France now has nuclear bombs that can be fired at a high altitude to create an electromagnetic ompulsion to destroy an enemy’s computer and communications systems.

In Iran, two hundred Iranians volunteered for martyrdom missions against the United States and Britain. As they chanted, “Death to America”, the two hundred signed a document called Registration form for martyrdom-seeking operations. One masked volunteer named Ali told reporters, “We will give a good lesson to those who dare to attack our country.” Ali said he remained masked so he would not be recognized when traveling abroad to harm American and British interests.

Iran has also been engaging in “war games” in the Persian Gulf under the command of Rear-Admiral Mostafa Safari.  The Iranians have successfully tested their Fajr-3 missile, which can avoid radar and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads. They have also successfully tested a new torpedo called the hoot or whale, which has radar-evading technology and moves through water at 223 miles per hour and is too fast to evade. It is powerful enough to completely destroy the largest submarines.  Iran is also testing an electromagnetic pulse weapon that could be detonated over the United States at an altitude of 60 to 500 kilometers and would knock out electrical power and circuit boards nation-wide and thus make the United States’ domestic communications inoperative. This could be accomplished with a single bomb.

As I consider all of this trouble with Iran and the whole volatile situation in the Middle East, I am reminded of many Scripture verses. One example is Revelation 8:10-11 which reads as follows: “And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.”

In the above verses, we read of a star falling from heaven that poisons one-third of the waters. The word for star in the original Greek is aster, and it is used in conjunction with the word stronnumi from which we get the word astronomy. The word stronnumi literally means to strew or scatter. The Greek word for wormwood means bitterness or calamity. Taking this one step further, the Hebrew word for star is kohawb and is used in conjunction with kawvaw, which means to penetrate, blister, or burn. The word kohawb is also used in conjunction with the Hebrew word kab bone, which means to pile up. With all of that in mind, we must take into consideration that the primary medium range ballistic missile developed and tested by the Iranians is called the Shabab-3, which means shooting star. We are made to wonder in the light of Bible prophecy, if this Iranian shooting star with a nuclear warhead could come down from the sky causing penetration, blistering and burning, and a great pile-up of debris, which is strewn and scattered, thus causing calamity while making the waters bitter and poisonous with radioactivity. Time will tell and only God can help us.

SOURCE: Last Trumpet Ministries