Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has been the champion of the Shi'ite branch of Islam. Since that time their
leadership has harbored a deep hatred for the United States, whom they call "The Great Satan," and Israel, "The Little Satan."
Even though they have immense supplies of oil, they have claimed to need nuclear power as well. It is now admitted by the International
Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nation's nuclear watchdog, that their goal is the development of nuclear weapons. At the
beginning of 2012 experts believe that it will take only a year or less for them to become a deadly threat to Israel, the Middle East,
and United States.
Iran figures prominently in Bible prophecy because they are the direct descendants of the Persians, who are mentioned in
Ezekiel 38 as key allies of Magog, a powerful nation in the North that many prophecy scholars have tentatively identified as
Russia. Together with other nations, these allies will engage Israel in a future war against Israel. See
The War of Gog and Magog.
Notice: Sources often remove their news links after a period of time. Some of them move older stories to a
subscription-only section. Even if the story is no longer on line, our summary will still be available on this page.
Names translated from other languages may have different spelling, depending on the source. For example
Gadhafi may be translated "Gaddafi," etc.
Feb. 22, 2012 - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) official Herman Nackaerts said that his team went to Iran "in a constructive
spirit," but they "could not find a way forward" in attempts to persuade Iran to talk about their suspicion that their country was developing
nuclear arms. The team has returned to Vienna and a statement was issued that acknowledged the talks had failed.
Feb. 21, 2012 - To prepare for a possible military strike by Israel against Iran's nuclear sites, defensive drills will be
conducted by Iran to counter "all possible threats, especially to public, important and nuclear centers".
"The exercises aim to reinforce the integrated abilities of the country's anti-air defences," said a statement from the Katem-ol-Anbia
military air base, quoted by the official Irna news agency.
Feb. 20, 2012 - While analysts say that an Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities are likely, Iran's Foreign Minister,
Ali Akbar Salehi, insists that their nuclar program is only for peaceful purposes. He said that Tehran was prepared for any "worse-case scenario"
in order to defend its nuclear aspirations.
Feb. 16, 2011 - Joel C. Rosenberg, best-selling author and authority on Middle East affairs, told a Pastor's Conference in
Jacksonville that Iran and Israel will soon be thrown into a war. He said this developing threat will one of the most
dangerous moments in the history of Israel, the Middle East, and the church.
Rosenberg acknowledged that many pastors feel that prophecy has become "sensationalized" today, causing people to not take it seriously anymore.
But he said that pastors should not shy away from the facts or ignore biblical prophecy.
"Prophecy is an intercept from the mind of an all-knowing and all-seeing and all-powerful God," he said. "It is meant to
inspire, motivate and encourage. It will lead to repentance, holiness, and prayer and fasting."
Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich was in the audience.
Feb. 15, 2012 - In an elaborate televised ceremony, Iran unveiled the latest achievements in its nuclear development program:
use of their own nuclear fuel and installation of new and better centrifuges. A video showed their President Ahmadinejad inspecting
the process of installing domestically-made nuclear fuel rods in a reactor.
The government unveiled the "new generation" of faster, more efficient uranium enrichment centrifuges at its Natanz facility ...
The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Fereydoon Abbasi Davani, said they were three times more efficient than their existing capacity.
Feb. 14, 2012 - According to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin Israel has placed under-cover ships in the Arabian Sea, near the
mouth of the Gulf of Oman. In that position they may be used for the vital "C4ISR" functions (Command, Control,
Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance).
This would give the Israelis the capability of not only intelligence-gathering on Iranian communications of its missile and air defense
activities but also to coordinate attacks employing jet fighters, missiles and missile-carrying submarines.
Feb. 13, 2012 - Vice Admiral Mark Fox, commander of the U.S. 5th Fleet, says that Iran has submarines and fast attack craft, some
with large warheads attached that could cause considerable damage in a suicide attack. They also have a large inventory of mines that they could
use to stop traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
[He] told reporters at the naval force's Bahrain headquarters that the Navy has "built a wide
range of potential options to give the president" and is "ready today" to confront any hostile action by Tehran.
Source: YNet News
<
a href=http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/02/11/iran-to-make-major-nuclear-announcement-within-days-ahmadinejad-says/>
Iran to make major nuclear announcement within days, Ahmadinejad says
Feb. 11, 2012 - At a rally commemorating the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
said that Iran will soon unveil "big new" nuclear achievements.
Within the next few days the world will witness the inauguration of several big new achievements in the nuclear field,"
Ahmadinejad told the crowd in Tehran's famous Azadi, or Freedom, square.
Feb. 9, 2012 - A document that represents the bellief of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is now circulating on the Internet.
The document, written by strategy specialist Alireza Forghani, outlined the reasons why, "In the name of Allah, Iran must
attack Israel by 2014."
The document calls Israel "cancerous tumor for the Middle East." It says that even though Israel has not yet struck Iran, its occupation
of Palestinian lands already justifies an attack. It called for the destruction of Israel before the opportunity to do so will be lost, and
claimed that it would be a "defensive jihad" - or the protecting of Islam against aggressors "who want to gain domination over the Muslims
and kill them."
Feb. 7, 2012 - Harvard University Professor Niall Ferguson told Newsweek that Israel must attack Iran now.
Prof. Ferguson maintains that whether he likes it or not, President Barack Obama will come to Israel’s defense if it attacks
Iran in an attempt to slow down its nuclear development, if not destroy its nuclear facilities altogether.
The U.S. already has two U.S. aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf (CVN 72 Abraham Lincoln and CVN 70 Carl Vinson) and another one
(CVN 77 George H.W. Bush) is on its way.
Feb. 4, 2012 - Confusing and contradictory reports abound about Israel's possible plans to attack Iranian nuclear installations
before it is too late to stop their development of nuclear weapons. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that he believes
Israel will most likely strike Iran in a few months. But Ken Pollack, a former White House and CIA official opined that the increasing
dire warnings from Israel's leaders were misleading.
"If Israel has a good military option, they just take it, they don't talk about it, they don't give warnings...So the fact that
they are talking about it, to me, is one tip-off that they don't have a good military option."
Jan. 3, 2012 - On the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, called Israel a
"cancer" and offered assistance to any nation or group that will confront them. He said Iran has helped Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas
in the Palestinian communities.
His remarks were partly a response to news that U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had said that he feared a possible Israeli strike as
early as April.
Source: NewsMax
Iran warns world of coming great event
- Khamenei believes that the coming of the last Islamic Messiah, the Shiites’ 12th Imam Mahdi, is near. Some of the Revolutionary Guards are called “Soldiers of Imam Mahdi”
- WND
Feb. 2, 2012 - Major General Aviv Kochavi, Israel's Director of Military Intelligence, said that Iran has over four tons of enriched
materials and nearly 100kg of 20% enriched uranium -- enough for four bombs. He added, "We have conclusive evidence that they are after nuclear
weapons."
Feb. 1, 2012 - CIA chief David Petraeus told a Senate committee that he had met with Isral's Mossad chief Tamir Pardo, who said that
Israel considers Iran an existential threat and has growing concerns about their nuclear ambitions.
At the same meeting Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate panel,
"Iran's technical advancement, particularly in uranium enrichment, strengthens our assessment that Iran has the scientific, technical,
and industrial capacity to eventually produce nuclear weapons... Iran would likely choose missile delivery as its preferred
method of delivering a nuclear weapon."
Jan. 25, 2012 - In Iran four Revolutionary Guard commanders died mysteriously of heart attacks and strokes over the past four days.
The deaths were reported by a website run by an Iranian opposition organization, and the implication is, in the light of
recent assassinations of nuclear scientists, that the men might have been murdered.
Jan. 25, 2012 - Select fighters being described as 'Soldiers of Imam Mahdi'
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has reportedly called for preparation for a possible war with the United States, and
the need to execute Iranian dissidents. He evidently believes that the Mahdi, the 12th Imam is on earth now, and that he will be revealed
when the world is in chaos. Some believe that the Mahdi facilitated the victory of Hezbollah over Israel in 2006.
Jan. 25, 2012 - The commander of the Israel Defense Forces is planning to retire, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is
advancing the candidacy of his military secretary, Maj Gen Yihanan Locker, a pro-war officer, for the position.
Mr Netanyahu, supported by Ehud Barak, his defence minister, is widely known to lead a camp favouring military action against Iran but
he has run into persistent opposition from senior military and intelligence commanders who question whether unilateral air strikes would
be effective.
Jan. 23, 2012 - Today the European Union intensified pressure on Iran by adopting an oil embargo against them and freezing
the assets of Iran's central bank.
Diplomats said the measures, approved in Brussels by the EU's 27 foreign ministers, include an immediate embargo on new contracts
for crude oil and petroleum products. Existing contracts with Iran will be allowed to run until July.
Jan. 22, 2011 - Through three different channels President Obama sent a letter to Iran's Foreign Ministry saying that that
the U.S. recognizes Iran's right to peaceful nuclear technology. Iranian legislator Hossein Ebrahimi revealed that Obama said he was against
sanctions against Iran's Central Bank, but he could do nothing to avert the motion as it was unanimously passed by US Congress.
The Iranian legislator described such positions as “passive” and noted that the US and the world have come to a “definite conclusion” that
Iran is a “powerful” country that will not surrender to “bullying and hegemony.”
Jan. 20, 2012 - Riad Kahwaji, chief executive officer of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said that the
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) forces were superior to Iran’s military. He added that it would be suicidal for Iran to block the Strait of Hormuz.
GCC officials said the alliance was preparing for any Iranian attack,
including one by nuclear weapons.
Jan. 17, 2012 - The recent assassinations of four Iranian nuclear scientists has been in the headlines,
but the revenge killing of Eli Ollaz, an Israeli scientist, was not highly publicized.
Now a previously unknown group, Brigades of Martyr General Hassan Tehrani Moghadam, has claimed credit for the killing of
Ollaz in December in his home in Tel Aviv.
The group took its name from General Moghadam who was considered the father of the Iranian missile program. He was killed last November in the
explosion of the Iranian Alghadir missile base.
Jan. 16, 2012 - Austere Challenge 12, the biggest war games exercise the US and Israel have ever conducted, has been moved
from this spring to the last quarter of the year. The reason given was "budgetary constraints" but observers think the real reason is
disagreemnt between the US and Israel about the escalating tension with Iran.
Nothing was said about the 9,000 US troops who landed in Israeli earlier this month for a lengthy stay. Neither was the forthcoming
visit by Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff, Thursday mentioned.
Jan. 14, 2012 - Stephen Hadley, who served as President George W. Bush’s chief foreign policy adviser, warned that
the United States and Iran may end up in a military conflict because of the tensions that are building now.
Referring to Iran’s provocative and bellicose threats about military attacks on U.S. carriers and the Strait of Hormuz,
Hadley said, “I think it is a very high risk that we will have that kind of confrontation."
Jan. 11, 2012 - Another nuclear scientist has been killed by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Iran. The mysterious event
took place in the capital city of Tehran. The victim was Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, "an oil professor at Tehran's technical university
and nuclear scientist."
A city official blamed Israel for the attack, similar to attacks on nuclear scientists just over a year ago.
Jan. 10, 2012 - Dennis Ross, who served two years on Obama’s National Security, said,
Obama has “made it very clear” that he regards a nuclear-armed Iran as so great a threat to international security that “the Iranians
should never think that there’s a reluctance to use the force” to stop them.
A day earlier Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that a decision by Iran to develop nuclear weapon would cross a
red line, precipitating a US strike. In addition, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the same audience that
he has is planning and positioning assets to be ready if ordered to take military action.
Jan. 8, ,2012 - Iran sends a political signal that it will not agree with pressure to stop enriching uranium. Instead, they will move
their uranium enrichment facility in the "near future" to a location deep inside a mountain.
Iran has said for months that it is preparing to move its highest-grade uranium refinement work to Fordow, a facility near the Shi'ite Muslim
holy city of Qom in central Iran, from its main enrichment plant at Natanz.
Iran still claims that its nuclear program is only for the purpose of generating power and for medical purposes. Western powers believe that
Iran also wants to produce nuclear weapons.
Jan. 5, 2012 - The US is sending troops to Israel to conduct the largest-ever joint missile drill by the two countries, and perhaps
to prepare for the possibility of war with Iran. Last year's UN report on Iran's nuclear program developments and threats from Iran to close
the Strait of Homuz might cause an all-out war to occur sooner than thought.
Without much media attention, thousands of American troops are being deployed to Israel, and Iranian officials believe that this is the
latest and most blatant warning that the US will soon be attacking Tehran.
Pages 141-142
- The Aggressors of the War of Gog and Magog - Ezekiel 38:1-4
According to Ezekiel, an alliance of enemies will attack Israel in the End Times. The leader will be Gog of the
land of Magog, who is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. He is assisted by Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer, Beth T
ogarmah, and other nations. Most of these names are listed in the genealogies of Genesis 10. Gog is not listed in
Genesis 10, but he is evidently the head of the land of Magog, who is mentioned as a son of Japheth, one of Noah's
sons. It is known that Japheth traveled north from Mt. Ararat after the flood.
Hesoid, a Greek writer of the 7th century BC, and contemporary of Ezekiel, identified Magog with the Scythians and
southern Russia. Flavius Josephus, a 1st century Jewish historian said that Magogians were called "Scythians" by
the Greeks. Philo, a 1st century Greek identified Magog with southern Russia.Commentators from the turn of this
century and before have generally identified Gog and Magog with Russia even though, at the time, they could not
explain why Russia would turn against God's people. They conjectured that perhaps the time would come when there
would be animosity between Russia and Israel. Rosh ("head", "chief") sounds like Russia. Meshech sounds like
Moscow or Mushkovi, the old name for Russia. Tubal sounds like Tobolsk.
- The Target: Israel - Ezekiel 38:2-12
This is the only time in history that this could be said of Israel, that they were brought back from many nations.
It is true that they were brought back from Babylon and Persia in the Old Testament, but it is only since the
Zionist movement, which began in the late 1800's, that Jewish people have returned from nations all over the world.
They had been scattered abroad even in New Testament times. On the Day of Pentecost, for example, the various
languages spoken by the Apostles, when the Holy Spirit came upon them, represented the many lands where they had
settled. But they had not returned to stay. This really never happened until the amazing events that led to the
rebirth of Israel in 1948. What thoughts would come into Russia's mind to make them want to attack Israel? A
consideration of Russia's instability and the plans of some of their leaders for expansion throughout the
Mediterranean area is given below. Israel has always been a key land bridge between Russia's allies and is
presently an enemy of some of those allies. Any number of scenarios in the always-volatile Middle East politics
could lead to a Russian attack in the future.
- Russia's Allies - Ezekiel 38:5-6
Persia is now known as Iran, and there is an amazingly close relationship now between Russia and Iran. Cush is
Ethiopia, Put is Libya, Gomer and Beth Togarmah may well be Turkey and/or other Islamic nations like those once
part of the Soviet Union.
It is interesting that Mizraim, the forefather of Egypt is apparently missing from this lineup. This, of course,
fits the current world scene, with Egypt being the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel.
- Israel's Allies - Ezekiel 38:13
Israel's allies appear to be few and feeble. Some of Saudi Arabia was populated by Sheba and Dedan. The merchants
of Tarshish could be England and English colonies. In that case, The United States could even be included since we
were once an English colony. These allies ask why Russia and its allies are coming, but do not appear to deter them.
- The Outcome - Ezekiel 38:22
The quick end of this future war will be with God's judgment. It could be God's personal power, raining literal
fire and brimstone, as in the days of Sodom, or it could be God using nation against nation, as he often did in
the Old Testament, to precipitate a nuclear exchange.
And with pestilence and with blood I shall enter into judgment with him; and I shall rain on him, and on his
troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
- Ezekiel 38:22 (NIV)
The next chapter of Ezekiel continues to give details of this great conflict. Again, it is a scene of utter
destruction.
"And I shall strike your bow from your left hand, and dash down your arrows from your right hand. 4 "You shall
fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops, and the peoples who are with you; I shall give you as
food to every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field. 5 "You will fall on the open field; for it is I who
have spoken," declares the Lord GOD. 6 "And I shall send fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the coastlands in
safety; and they will know that I am the LORD." - Ezekiel 39:3-6 (NIV)
