Dear Christian Media Friends,

The war clouds over the Middle East continue to gather - even as various diplomatic initiatives mask the very real fact that we are about to see an all out conflagration involving Israel and Iran.

While the mainline media has practically ignored the huge deployment of military assets in the region, the American military machine is rapidly positioning nuclear weaponry in close proximity to Iran. For instance, last week, the US Navy quietly deployed a new class of SSGN nuclear submarines to a base in the Indian Ocean. This locale, which is formally British territory, positions US Navy missiles on vessels that are in direct proximity to the Straits of Hormuz, the entrance to the Gulf, as well as the foot of the Red Sea.

This capability could be used to close off all maritime traffic to Iran in the event of all out war. Meanwhile, Iran has just purchased a Russian made air defense and anti-tank system, which was designed to shoot down American made missiles - and these would include the very systems just now deployed by the US Navy in the waters adjacent to Iranian territory. The Russian Pantsyr 1 is a radar command-guided two-stage surface to air missile system, which is believed to have a 70% success rate against all missiles. 

World Net Daily has reported that a Russian military General, Colonel Yury Solovyov, commander of Russia's Air Defense Forces Special Command, recently told the Novosti news agency that with this new missile system, "Iran's air defense system is strong enough to repel a US strike."

Terrorist Funding And Arming Increased

Meanwhile, the Iranian financed Hezbollah militia that successfully engaged Israel last year in Lebanon is rapidly re-arming in open defiance of the UN cease-fire they agreed to last year.  Hezbollah is funded by Iran and Syria, and the pace of weapons smuggling across the Syrian border has prompted repeated complaints to the UN by Israel.

Other reports from the troubled Middle East have indicated that Iran has sharply increased secretive funding to multiple militarized groups such as Hamas and even Fatah - groups which are preparing to wage war internally in the state of Israel.  In fact, it looks as though the Persian state has been on a virtual spending spree in anticipation of an ultimate confrontation with the American-Israeli-British axis that is pressuring the Islamic state into abandoning its nuclear development program.

For instance, the Jerusalem Post has just reported that US military officials are worried that Iran has already taken delivery of another Russian package of armaments - and these are missiles capable of being fitted with nuclear warheads.  These are said to be FFM-22 missiles, which have a design specification indicating they can reach a speed of Mach 2. The Post noted the FFM-22's were evidently designed to be "fitted with tactical nuclear warheads."

At the same time, the former Soviet state of Azerbaijan has agreed to allow the American led military alliance NATO to use two of its military bases and an airport for the alliance's purposes. The nation of Azerbaijan, which is just to the North of Iran, claimed the arrangement was for "a supply route to Afghanistan," but it's obvious the deal will open up a Northern front from which troops, tanks, and combat elements can roll into Iran from the North.

Even as the Winds of War were fiercely blowing from the Northern Command of America (see the King of the North passages in Daniel 11), the Southern Confederate of Iran, Hugo Chavez, the dictator of the South American state of Venezuela, called upon the world to stop the US "aggression." Speaking on his television propaganda program from Caracas, Chavez said "The empire is moving aircraft carriers and has been moving troops on Iran."

Gog And Magog

Many Christians have heard of the infamous end times invasion of Israel found in Ezekiel 38 - the notorious "Gog and Magog" attack -- but the overwhelming majority have been indoctrinated into a faulty identification of what is actually about to happen.    

In that amazing prophetic panorama, we see a confederation of nations moving on Israel that inaugurates a devastating war. This odd collection of national names is said to be defeated as the Lord intervenes and crushes the invaders from the North:

Due to an inaccurate place-name identification, for many decades the church has been taught that this mysterious "Gog" is Russia. The problem is, this confederation of nations will be completely obliterated, whereas the Russian "bear" (see Daniel 7) survives in multiple prophetic texts to form a key component of the Antichrist government that will be placed in Jerusalem.

For the last 15 years, we have pointed out the name Gog has no cognate to the Cyrillic alphabet used by Russia, whereas the language of the former Soviet state of Georgia has a direct connection to the name Gog. Those following our work have long been aware the capital of the trans-Caucasian state of Georgia during the era of the Soviet Union was Mtzkheta - the "Meshech" that Ezekiel says is associated with the aggressor military power seen in the prophecy.

Furthermore, when the Soviet Union collapsed, Georgia reverted the name of the capital city to its original Georgian name - which was Tblisi. This is the "Tubal" that is also seen in Ezekiel.  Those familiar with the political scene are well aware that Georgia has been hostile to Russia for many years now, and has welcomed American military deployments on their soil for many years.

A look at any world map will show that Georgia is directly North of the land of Israel - and the prophecy states "thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee...." (Ezekiel 38:15). Few observers have recognized the American-Georgian power structure has been subtly exposed as developing, equipping, and sheltering a shadowy Islamic militia based on Georgian soil.  It's instructive to note how Ezekiel says this mysterious "Gog" is to assemble a great military force, and is then instructed to

"Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them." (Ezekiel 38:7)

The Triple Cross In Prophecy

Although many have long studied this Ezekelian prophetic passage, most have failed to notice there is a key verse that hints at a complicated plan involving a Double Cross - or in this case a Triple Cross. The prophet tells us the huge wartime military deployment is already underway, and then

"It shall come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,

To understand this amazing prophecy, we need to superimpose the prophetic imagery found in the book of Esther as an overlay. There we see a secretive plot hatched by Haman the Agagite, to finance the destruction of the Jews through the agency of the Gentile king Ahasuerus. As the descendant of Agag (once again, notice the similarity to the place-name Gog), Haman is an Amalekite, whose lineage has been traced through archeological research to Arabia.

In the story of Esther (Hadassah was the queen's Jewish name), the Gentile king double-crosses Haman and spares the Jews, whose military action then eradicates Haman's entire lineage. This prophetic picture places America as Ahasuerus, Saudi Arabia as Haman, the paymaster of the plot to double-cross Israel, and Esther as the Christian presence that thwarts the hideous plan to move against Israel.

Using the book of Esther as a blueprint, we see America has a secretive deal with the Arabs (represented by the wealthy house of Saud) to move into the Middle East under the cover of defending Israel against Iran. The Saudis view Iran as a rival in the Islamic world, so the attack on Iran fits their agenda. The scheme then calls for a double cross of Israel. However, the prophecy indicates that Gog (read George Bush) will then change sides and opportunistically seize the great wealth (read oil reserves) found in the land of Saudi Arabia.

It's worth noting this sudden shift in Gog's target is consistent with the text, for Israel has just built a gigantic wall to seal off the Palestinians, whereas the text tells us the "great spoil" is found in a "land of unwalled villages." Furthermore, when the Arabians find themselves abruptly betrayed by their former associate, the prophet says

The name Sheba has been traced to Saba - an ancient land on the Arabian peninsula, which was a possession of ancient Egypt. In short, the text even tells us the Arabians will speak directly to the invader, and recognize that he has betrayed them in order to seize the great wealth they possess. Seeing that all these things are about to come to pass (probably this summer), the Bible asks us