Israel At The Cross Roads Again; Could The Rapture Be Far Behind?

23 Killed In Fierce Gaza Strip Battle
Cape Argus Fri, 07 Jul 2006 5:03 AM PDT
Israeli forces confronted armed Palestinians in northern Gaza today after a bloody day of clashes in which militants with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades faced Israeli tanks and attack helicopters.

EU Hails "Good Start" To Iran Nuclear Talks
Reuters via Yahoo! News Fri, 07 Jul 2006 2:39 AM PDT
The European Union said talks with Iran late on Thursday on a package of incentives to end a nuclear standoff were constructive and laid the basis for a fuller response by Tehran at a second meeting due next week.

Fatah Accuses Israel Of Thwarting Peace Plan Agreed By Palestinian Factions
AngolaPress Fri, 07 Jul 2006 4:21 AM PDT
RAMALLAH, 07/07 - Palestinian Fatah movement led by President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday accused Israel of thwarting a peace plan agreed by Palestinian factions and powers, including the ruling Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

N. Korea Missile Aimed At Area Off Hawaii
TOKYO (Reuters) - A North Korean missile launched on Wednesday was aimed at an area of the ocean close to Hawaii, a Japanese newspaper reported on Friday.

Experts estimated the Taepodong-2 ballistic missile to have a range of up to 6,000 km, putting Alaska within its reach. Wednesday's launch apparently failed shortly after take-off and the missile landed in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan, a few hundred kilometres from the launch pad.

New York Tunnel Bomb Plot Uncovered
The newspaper, quoting unidentified counterterrorism sources, said the investigation involved what officials considered a "serious plot" to detonate enough explosives inside the landmark...

Comments
A recent article by Worldnetdaily.com titled 10 million females illegally aborted in India puts a spotlight on a problem that has plagued the Far East for decades...over population.   China has been fighting this problem through birth control and forced abortions since the government's strict one-child family policy was introduced in 1980.  Apparently, India has adopted a similar policy known as 'sex-selective abortion' that has claimed the life of some ten million females over the past twenty years.

"The future is frightening. Over the next five years we could see more than a million fetuses eliminated every year," said researcher Sabu George."At this pace we'll soon have no girls born in the country. We don't know where it will stop."  http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=50947

This is a relatively new problem for India while China has been desperately trying to fix their population imbalance for a number of years.  Chinese officials say they are committed to bringing the sex ratio back to international standards but years of gender bias has compound the problem.  "Experts have warned that if the problem is not corrected soon, China will face dire social problems, with millions of men unable to find wives. The imbalance will also aggravate the problem of an aging population in the future." http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39475

That's the world secular view.  From a prophetic view I see the day coming when China, and possibly India, will march from the east to the west and one of the reasons may be to conquer lands for the purpose of taking wives.  

Another theory is that a male dominated Chinese population raises the possibility of a future war.  "The lopsided sex ratio has recently led some researchers to speculate that China's growing male population poses a threat to internal stability, raising the likelihood of a military campaign."  http://www.bowdoin.edu/news/archives/sociology/000040.shtml

Certainly, this is speculation but all indications lead to a very serious population problem in the near future.

Switching to North Korea.  A lot of people see the North Korean missile crisis as an attempt for them to get the world focus back on them.  Kind of a 'look at me I'm a danger to the world too" ploy to get the international community to offer them a sweet deal for not going nuclear.  Problem is...I don't think it's an act.  This government might just be about ready to explode.

In their latest launch, according to U.S. and Japanese military experts, the failed rocket was projected to hit somewhere near an area off Hawaii.  

"Data from U.S. and Japanese Aegis radar-equipped destroyers and surveillance aircraft on the missile's angle of take-off and altitude indicated that it was heading for waters near Hawaii, the Sankei Shimbun reported, citing multiple sources in the United States and Japan.

North Korea may have targeted Hawaii to show the United States that it was capable of landing a missile there, or because it is home to the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific fleet, the paper said.

An alternative explanation might be that a missile could accidentally hit land if fired towards Alaska, the report said."  http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060707/3/2mty8.html

I don't, however, believe they will be a real and present danger to the world until the tribulation period, but their day is most certainly coming.

Israel continues its assault on Gaza and sources say that the war has now reached populated areas where troops are conducting house to house searches.  In total, over 40 militants have been killed since the operation began and Israeli leaders have warned that it could be a long war. 

Israeli leaders say that they have know desire to reoccupy Gaza but have two simple goals - "winning freedom for the soldier held hostage by Hamas militants and halting the firing of rockets at Israeli towns and a city." http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=55&fArticleId=3328502

Even though I don't see this as a long lasting war, you have to keep in the back of your mind that every war may be a precursor to the rapture of the church and the rise of the antichrist.  Someone's going to have to stop the bleeding before it turns into a regional war.  Could he be the one?

Back in the late 1990's I wrote that it was possible that Israel could be embroiled in a Middle East war just before the rapture...and not necessarily the one described in Ezekiel 38 & 39.  I don't think anyone has a real idea on how the antichrist will come to international prominence, but calming this storm and bringing peace to the region would be a good start.  That would definitely change my forecast of this war from indirect to playing a major part in Bible prophecy. 

One thing we must all come to realize is that one day Jesus is going to rapture the church and then the antichrist will come.  What will follow, the Bible says, is a time of horror that no man has ever encountered.

Are you ready to meet the Lord?  If not your time is running out!

Pastor Malone