October 25 - 31, 2009

“If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because

of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.”

(Ezekiel 33:6, New International Version)

Weekly World Watch

Andy Walton’s

To skip the introductory slides and go straight to this weeks developments click here.

What is a Weekly World Watch?

• Israel: The continuing conflict in the Middle East and focus on Jerusalem.

• Europe: Its developing union, both political and religious.

• Russia: Its return to anti-Western ways as Bible prophecy’s “king of the north.”

• The UK and the US: Bible prophecy’s “king of the south.”

• Moral standards in decline and violence on the increase.

WWW presentations in PowerPoint can be ordered as audio/visual CDs by clicking here. Move your mouse to place the cursor on the blue link and click.

The idea is simple. It is to look at current events and compare them to events spoken of in the Bible. .

I hope to build up a picture of God’s hand working in the affairs of this world. God is bringing about a day when all nations will be gathered to Jerusalem to battle. At that time God will send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, back to this earth. Jesus will then establish God’s kingdom on earth.

This kingdom will last for ever. This is our hope and the reason we watch.

• Increasing natural disasters: including earthquake, famine etc

The following six themes will appear repeatedly in WWW:

HEADLINE

EVENT

COMMENT

News Photo

The source of the headline and the date are included.

Each WWW looks at a few key developments that have happened during the past week. It is in no way meant to be exhaustive – just a look at those events I saw as significant from a Biblical point of view.

What is in a Weekly World Watch?

BIBLEQUOTE

This is normally one verse which backs up why the event that has occurred is interesting from a Biblical perspective. Please read in its context. Unless stated otherwise, all quotes are from the King James Version. (Book, chapter, and verse)

This is straight from a news report that caught my eye because it looked significant from a Biblical perspective, usually that of prophecy.

Every WWW event slide has the following format. To reveal each block of text just left click your mouse or press the space bar. You control when it appears.

This is the reporter’s description of the event. It is always a direct quotation from the news report and reflects the understanding of the reporter and editors.

This is my comment on why the event is interesting to a Bible student. The intention of the WWW is to offer brief Biblical perspectives without going into detail. If more detail is desired, please e-mail me: (andy@weeklyworldwatch.co.uk).

This Week’s Developments

To print any of the event slides that follow, click the picture on the upper right

• Lisbon Treaty likely to be ratified by end of year

• Iran claims victory in nuclear battle with the West

• Iran and Israel in 'race to confrontation'

• Hopes of restarting peace process look like a mirage

• Obama's fury at Baghdad bloodbath

October 25 - 31, 2009

• Russia attacks Britain on eve of David Miliband visit

Lisbon Treaty likely to be ratified by end of year

This treaty is hugely significant if it does get ratified. For the first time Europe will exist as a legal entity. At the moment Europe exists as 27 different countries. When/if the treaty is ratified Europe will exist as its own personality. It means a president of Europe could sign other treaties on behalf of Europe. This is why Europe will have its own foreign minister and is looking at setting up embassies around the world.Revelation 17 is talking about Europe. It describes it as a beast coming out of a bottomless pit. It describes 10 kings who do not receive a kingdom as yet giving their power and strength to the beast. These kings make war on Christ when he returns.

Jan Fischer, the Czech prime minister, said on Thursday his country would ratify the European Union's Lisbon Treaty by the year's end if the text gets a go-ahead from top judges next week. The treaty cleared a major hurdle Thursday as the EU agreed on an exemption to it as a final condition by eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus, the last EU leader holding out on signing the text."I would like to assure you that if the constitutional court on November 3 rules the Lisbon Treaty is in line with the Czech constitution, there will be nothing to prevent a fast completion of the ratification," said Mr Fischer."The Czech Republic will (then) ratify the treaty so that it could take effect by the end of the year," he told reporters in Brussels.The Czech Republic is the only EU country that has not endorsed the treaty, which is designed to streamline governance in the 27-nation bloc and which must be ratified by all member countries to take effect.

Daily Telegraph, October 30, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

BIBLEQUOTE

(Revelation 17:12)

Iran claims victory in nuclear battle with the West

Iran knows that America does not want conflict. With no real threat from America, Iran can call the shots. The UN-backed plan demanded that Iran ship most of its uranium outside its borders to be further enriched in Russia and turned into fuel rods in France for use in a research reactor. That process could take up to a year. Iran’s response this week is to send just small amounts to Russia. This would leave it with enough to make a nuclear weapon. America has not yet responded to this counter offer. We do know that Iran will be involved in attacking Israel from Ezekiel 38. We also read that in the latter days, Elam (modern Iran), will have its fortunes restored.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has proclaimed victory in his battle with the West, claiming he has compelled the US and its allies to 'co-operate' with Iran's nuclear programme. As Iran's nuclear negotiator handed in the country's response to a proposed deal to process its enriched uranium stocks abroad, Mr Ahmadinejad hailed a change in Western policy from "confrontation to co-operation"."We welcome fuel exchange, nuclear co-operation, building of power plants and reactors and we are ready to co-operate," he said in a speech shown live on state television. But he said he would not retreat "one iota" in his demand that the country continue with its nuclear programme, understood by most observers to mean its policy of enriching uranium.Western governments have yet to make explicit comments on whether they will accept the Iranian response to the deal, thrashed out at the International Atomic Energy Agency last week.

Daily Telegraph, October 29, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the LORD. Bring again the captivity = restore the fortunes

BIBLEQUOTE (Jeremiah 49:39)

Iran and Israel in 'race to confrontation'

Iran's nuclear ambitions have started a "race to confrontation" with Israel and the world's leading powers must break the deadlock before the Jewish state "reacts", according to France's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner. Bernard Kouchner stressed the urgency of reaching agreement with Iran over its nuclear programme and removing the risk of a pre-emptive strike by Israel.During an official visit to Lebanon's capital, Beirut, the minister told The Daily Telegraph that time was running out."They [the Israelis] will not tolerate an Iranian bomb. We know that, all of us. So that is an additional risk and that is why we must decrease the tension and solve the problem. Hopefully we are going to stop this race to a confrontation," said Mr Kouchner."There is the time that Israel will offer us before reacting, because Israel will react as soon as they know clearly that there is a threat."

Daily Telegraph, October 26, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come. Prince of Greece became Selucid king of the north which in the last days = Russia.

BIBLEQUOTE

(Daniel 10:20)

Time is running out according to the French foreign minister.Iran HAS started a race to confrontation with Israel. Daniel 10 has some interesting dialogue between Daniel and an angel. The angel says,“Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.” The vision given by the angel is detailed in chapter 11. But at the end of chapter 10 he says “now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.”We know that after a war with Persia, the Greek empire did arise. Perhaps in a similar way we will see war with Iran leading to the rising of the new Greek power – Russia.

Hopes of restarting peace process look like a mirage

The US is desperate to stop relations between Israel and the Palestinians worsening, writes Con Coughlin .When thousands of Israelis this weekend attend the annual ceremony to mark the assassination in 1995 of Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister who died attempting to make peace with the Palestinians, they will be shown a pre-recorded message from Barack Obama, urging them to re-engage with the peace process. At the same time, they will be reminded of just how far relations between Israelis and Palestinians have deteriorated since those heady days in 1993 when Mr Rabin signed the Oslo Accords with Yasser Arafat on the White House lawn, in front of a beaming Bill Clinton.Yitzhak Rabin lost his life trying, as he used to say, to "give peace a chance". One fears that unless Mrs Clinton can find a way to break the impasse, many more lives are going to be lost.

Daily Telegraph, October 30, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

BIBLEQUOTE (Joel 2:20)

Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated on the 4th November 1995. He had been instrumental in signing accords with the Palestinians which paved the way for the withdrawal of Israel from all Palestinian cities and territories. On September 28 th 1995 he signed an agreement with Yasser Arafat at the White House. He said “we are yielding for the sake of peace.” A month later he was assassinated. We jump forward to August

2005.……Ariel Sharon evicted Jews from the Gaza Strip. He then setup a new party called

Kadima which had the sole aim of dividing Israel in two. He was planning (as Rabin did) to redraw the map of Israel. Just months before the general election Sharon suffered a brain haemorrhage and went into a coma. This was in January 2006. He remains in a coma to this day! Peace will never come to Israel by dividing their land.This is why the current peace process based on this premise looks like a mirage.

Obama's fury at Baghdad bloodbath

We began with a war in Iraq – ancient Babylon. We see the violence continue…The world is now moving towards conflict with Iran – ancient Persia.This future conflict will bring the “prince of Grecia” on to the scene.We know from Daniel 8 that from the “prince of Grecia” comes a horn that grows in power. It is a horn (a king) that comes out of one of the four horns that spring up when the “great horn” is broken. To interpret…. Alexander the Great (the great horn) died suddenly (was broken). His Greek empire was divided and ruled by his 4 generals. One of these generals was called Seleucus. It was out of this empire (Seleucid) that the first kings of the north came. Russia is the latter day prince of Grecia & king of the north.

US President Barack Obama has led international condemnation of Sunday's double suicide bomb attack in Baghdad that killed at least 132 people.Mr Obama branded the attacks - the worst in more than two years in Iraq - "hateful and destructive".UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband said they were a "terrible reminder of the threat from violent extremism". The blasts hit the ministry of justice and a provincial government office near the heavily fortified Green Zone. More than 520 people were also injured when the two car bombs exploded in quick succession at 1030 (0730 GMT) as people headed to work during the rush hour.The White House said President Obama had spoken to Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki and President Jalal Talabani to pledge his support. Mr Obama said in a statement: "I strongly condemn these outrageous attacks on the Iraqi people, and send my deepest condolences to those who have lost loved ones.

BBConline, October 26, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, …. And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes

BIBLEQUOTE (Daniel 8:22,23)

Russia attacks Britain on eve of David Miliband visit

Russia has launched a withering attack on Britain's foreign policy on the eve of the first visit to Moscow by a British foreign secretary in more than five years. The Russian ambassador to London hit out as David Miliband was due to arrive in the country for what is expected to be a tense trip.In uncompromising comments that set a grim mood ahead of the visit, Yuri Fedotov criticised Britain for adopting "anti-Russian measures". Relations between London and Moscow have appeared to be on an inexorable downward spiral in recent years and culminated in an alleged four-letter word tirade directed at Mr Miliband by Sergei Lavrov, his Russian counterpart.Analysts believe the two sides will therefore set their bilateral disagreements aside and focus on issues such as Iran, Afghanistan and the Middle East instead.

Daily Telegraph, October 30, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.

BIBLEQUOTE

(Daniel 11:40)

The king of the north was once based in Syria and has now moved to Russia.We know this for certain by comparing Daniel 11:40 to the end (which speaks of the latter day king of the north) and Ezekiel 38. They are undoubtedly speaking of the same events. Ezekiel 38 identifies the latter day king of the north as a Russian leader.The king of the south was once based in Egypt. But just the king of the north's territory has moved and changed – so has the king of the south’s territory changed as well.The new king of the south according to Ezekiel 38 is Tarshish (Britain) and her young lions (USA, Australia), based in Sheba and Dedan (Saudi Arabia). Therefore in the article above we are reading about the antagonism that exists between the latter day king of the north and the latter day king of the south. Interesting that Syria is onside with Russia and Egypt is onside with America and UK. The powers still line up.

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Weekly World Watch

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