2011 In Review

Documentation for every aspect of this report may be found on the corresponding topic pages in Prophecy Central and Apologetics Central.

Scripture quotations are from the New International Version. Hypertext links to Scriptures are to the King James Version in the Blue Letter Bible.

5 - WARS AND RUMORS OF WAR

According to Matthew 24:6, "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come."

Wars have always been a big factor in world history. Even so, Jesus predicted that in these End Times military conflict will increase. In his Olivet Discourse he identified four phases of the future: "The Beginning of Birth Pains," "The Tribulation," "The Great Tribulation," and "After the Tribulation."

According to many Prophecy scholars we are living in the first phase: "The Beginning of Birth Pains." Jesus said there would be certain signs accompanying this period of time. One of them is "wars and rumors of war." Perhaps he was referring to the two terrible world wars, the development of nuclear weapons, and the many smaller conflicts.

Actually, these last six of the top ten prophecy stories are all war-related. This one is about the awful extent of general warfare in the world. The rest of the stories are about specific major conflicts. All of these have prophetic implications.

GlobalSecurity.com lists 42 current wars, most of which the average person knows nothing. Twenty of them are considered major conflicts. Some have been going on for more than half of a century.

It would take a thick book to give all the details about military activity in the world during 2011. We will just give a summary of some of the major movements.

US Military buildup - World Police

Unfortunately, the United States has assumed the role of "world police force." Many conflicts that do not affect us directly still draw us in to protect our allies or even economic interests. These wars are extremely costly, both in terms of finances and, even worse, in terms of the lives of young American soldiers.

In addition, the FBI has determined that there is virtually a 100% chance that our country will be hit with a weapon of mass destruction at some point. Dr. Vahid Majidi, the FBI's assistant director in charge of the FBI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, says that when such an attack does take place, it will most likely employ chemical, biological, or radiological weapons rather than a nuclear device.

Three years ago a special Congressional commission warned the House Armed Services Committee that the U.S. is in danger of a catastrophic nuclear attack. Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and terrorists either have, or will soon have the ability to deliver and detonate one nuclear bomb at high altitude (25 to 250 miles above the Earth). The immediate effect of such an explosion would be the disruption of, and damage to, electronic systems and electrical infrastructure. Other related services would fail as a result.

This year The Department of Energy and the states of Maryland and Florida held emergency response exercises to determine their readiness if national electric power grid should fail.

In October the military said that "Ray Guns" are actually being developed. They look like radar devices and are called active electronically scanned arrays (AESA). When acting as a normal radar, an AESA broadcasts its microwaves over a wide area. At the touch of a button, however, all of its energy can be focused onto a single point. If that point coincides with an incoming missile or aircraft, the target's electronics will be zapped.

In November the Pentagon announced its new "bunker-busting bomb." The 30,000-pound "massive ordinance penetrator" (MOP) is made by Boeing for the B-2 and B-52 bombers. "It gives us a far greater capability to reach and destroy an enemy's weapons of mass destruction that are located in well protected underground facilities." Pentagon Spokesman Capt. John Kirby said. The new bomb may be 10 times as powerful as the ones formerly used for this purpose.

China's Military Buildup

The dramatic growth of China in our generation is often ignored in prophetic calculations. China is not a traditional foe of Israel, and had not been considered a major threat to the End Times world empire until recently. It is the most populous nation on Earth, and recently has made a huge impact on world affairs.

China is involved in a massive military build-up that threatens Taiwan, South Korea, and other Asian countries. It will also be a participant in the Battle of Armageddon, as one of the "Kings of the East" that will cross the dried-up Euphrates River to join the campaign (Revelation 16:12).

About a year ago China announced "initial operational capability" for its Dong Feng 21D "aircraft carrier killer" missile.

In January China introduced its new stealth fighter that could pose a significant threat to American air superiority. It is likely that they copied US technology to produce the plane.

In July it was discovered that China is apparently developing electromagnetic pulse weapons (EMP) for use against U.S. aircraft carriers in future conflicts over Taiwan. The arms are part of China's so-called "assassin's mace" arsenal of weapons that allow a technologically inferior China to defeat U.S. military forces.

By August China was able to deploy their first aircraft carrier. The 990 ft. carrier is a refitted former Soviet warship. It will take years to fully deploy the ship's military capabilities.

Also in August, as the Palestinians were asking the United Nations to grant them statehood, Chinese President Hu Jintao surprised the U.S. by telling Mahmoud Abbas that they will support the move. He wrote to Abbas that China has, "always supported the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to establish an independent state."

Toward the end of the year, Sir Max Hastings, a British journalist, editor, historian and author, wrote an article entitled, "Will World War III Be between the U.S. and China?" He recalled the tensions between the two superpowers during the Korean War, ending with a peace agreement and the armistice line that still divides the two Koreas today. Since then the U.S. has maintained strategic dominance over the Indo-Pacific region, but China has become an economic powerhouse, and is now building a military force that could lead to conflict again.

China also appears to be extremely active in the area of cyber war that is discussed below.

North Korea

North Korea was identified as far back as George W. Bush's presidency as part of an evil axis - North Korea- Iran- and Iraq. There has still been animosity between the two Koreas since 1953. North Korea developed nuclear warfare capabilities in 2006, and has apparently helped Iran and Syria in their nuclear ambitions.

In February former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he was worried about the threat from an electromagnetic pulse attack from countries such as Iran and North Korea.

In November it was revealed that North Korea is apparently building its first road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile. They already have large stationary missiles, but the new weapons are mobile and easy to hide. Their missiles could reach the U.S., but we apparently do not have an adequate missile defense system to guard against such an attack.

On Dec. 19th North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has died of a heart attack and one of his sons, Kim Jong-un was confirmed as his successor. This development ads even more uncertainty to the future of this unstable regime.

Multinational talks aimed at disarming North Korea have been deadlocked for months.

Problems with Pakistan

Pakistan is also a nuclear nation - the only Islamic country so far to have this capability. They have been a fragile partner with the U.S. in the War on Terror and an impediment to our relationship with India.

Assassination of Bin Laden

In May United States Navy SEALs successfully carried out a surprise attack against Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad near a military base. Bin Laden's body was buried at sea before others could enshrine it somewhere on land. Pakistan was shocked and embarrassed by the feat. They also wanted to see Bin Laden brought to justice, but felt violated by the surprise attack. They allowed the Chinese to inspect a broken stealth helicopter that was left at the site.

Support to Afghanistan Halted

In November NATO forces accidentally struck a military checkpoint at a crossing point between Pakistan and Afghanistan, killing 24 Pakistani soldiers. The immediate response by angry Pakistani leadership was to close both roads into Afghanistan, cutting off NATO supply lines and leaving convoys of supplies stranded inside Pakistan. They also ordered the U.S. to "vacate" an air base used for suspected drone attacks.

Cyber Warfare

At the end of last year the mysterious "Stuxnet computer worm" apparently incapacitated one-fifth of Iran's centrifuges, setting back their nuclear timetable by several years. In January Meir Dagan, - Israel's retiring chief of the Mossad intelligence agency, all but admitted that the virus was developed by U.S. and Israeli experts. It was the first case of a computer virus being able to affect a specific target in this way.

By midyear the United States suffered a number of major cyber-attacks. In July hackers from an unknown source stole thousands of sensitive files from the Pentagon's "most sensitive systems," forcing the government to begin development of a defensive plan that would treat cyberspace in a similar manner to land, air, and sea.

In August, the world's most extensive case of cyber-espionage occurred, attacking some 72 networks -- 49 of them in the U.S. -- were infiltrated, resulting in a massive loss of information. Some of the networks affected were the United Nations secretariat, a U.S. Energy Department lab, some dozen U.S. defense firms and a U.K. defense contractor. Analysts believe that the attacks came from China.

A November incident apparently originating in Russia took control of a water control station in Illinois and cycled a pump until it burned out. The intruders could evidentially have caused much more damage if they had wanted to.

In December a group of hackers in China breached the computer network of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, gaining access to everything stored on its systems, including information about its three million members.

Future Wars

There will be other wars in the future, including the war of the Second Seal (Revelation 6:3-4), the Beast's campaign to rule the world (Revelation 13:5-8), the Battle of Armageddon(Revelation 19:11-21), and Satan's Last Stand (Revelation 20:7-10) after the Thousand Year Reign of Christ.