A War in heaven and on earth is Not a far distance Event
Humans Of Earth Will Battle and Stars Will Battle in Heaven
Bashar Assad will eventually be betrayed by his chosen Allies
And a Man of Sin Will Eventually Rise to Power in Greater Syria!
May 18, 2011
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
REVELATION 12:4 – And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before
the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Syrian President Bashar Assad has mingled his dynasty with Iran, Hizbullah, North Korea, Hamas, and a multiplicity of radical Islamic terrorist groups that are, have been in, or pass through Syria at will. A person who jumps in a pit of venomo us
snakes will eventually be bitten by them. Assad jumped in such a pit with both feet more than seven years ago.
One third of “the stars of heaven” (the angels of God) made a bad permanent choice in the distant past when they followed that old serpent Satan, the great red dragon, the Devil. Once they made the choice there was no way back to God. There is now no way back for Assad from the pit he chose to be his residence.
REVELATION 12:1 – And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
There can be no legitimate question as to who the “woman” in this Scripture represents – she is positively identified in the Old Testament as the nation of Israel. It is from this nation that God has chosen His remnant, and God will select a remnant of 144,000 sealed Israelites to be carried unharmed up to the blowing of the seventh trumpet.
First of all, let us examine the symbols of this verse. Here is a woman clothed with the sun, standing on the moon, with a crown of twelve stars on her head. The sun is the Patriarch Jacob, the moon represents his wives that gave birth to his twelve sons, and the twelve stars are the twelve sons from which the nation of Israel descended. The woman represents the nation of Israel, and this interpretation is not based on opinion. God revealed the key to this verse to Joseph long before John wrote it.
Genesis 37:9-11 – And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. [10] And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? [11] And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
Here, in Joseph’s dream, are the same set of symbols, the sun, moon, and eleven stars, with Joseph himself being number twelve. Jacob, his wives, and Joseph’s eleven brothers are made to bow down before Joseph at some future time. This was to be fulfilled when all of Jacob’s large family came down to Egypt where Joseph had been made second in command to Pharaoh.
God only uses this set of symbols twice in his Word, and the first interprets the second. The woman literally represents all the descendants of the twelve sons of Israel – what we identify today as the nation of Israel.
REVELATION 12:2 – And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Over nineteen hundred years ago the nation of Israel gave birth to the flesh and blood Son of God – the sinless man, Christ Jesus, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt. God chose a virgin of the tribe of Israel as the one who would bear His Child in her womb, the blessed virgin Mary.
Luke 1:30,31 – And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. [31] And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus.
REVELATION 12:3,4 – And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. [4] And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Continuing with the exposition of the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation, we find that a bit of Satan’s past history is revealed. We are informed that when Satan fell by sin about one-third of the angels (stars) chose to follow his leadership. By the pulling power of his tail, much like some officials ride into public office on the political coattails of a stronger candidate, one-third of the angels exercised their free will and chose to follow Satan, rather than God. They are forever sealed in their free will choice, just as my soul is sealed in its free will choice to trust in Jesus until my body is redeemed at the rapture.
Ephesians 4:30 – And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. The prophet Isaiah graphically portrays the ancient fall of the beautiful angel Lucifer.
Isaiah 14:12 – How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
Since Lucifer’s fall he has a new name – Satan. Lucifer means “shining one,” while Satan means “the hater, accuser, or the adversary.” One primary goal existed in Satan’s plan after his fall – to prevent the birth of an heir who could legitimately take away his earthly spiritual and material kingdom. Verse four presents a picture of fallen Lucifer as a dragon, standing before the woman Israel, determined to kill the heir as soon as he was born.
REVELATION 12:5 – And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. The woman Israel is symbolized as the earthly wife of God. So here is the picture presented in verse five – Satan’s greatest fear is realized – the symbolized wife of God gives birth to God’s Son through a direct descendant of Israel, the virgin Mary, who has all the correct genealogical credentials from Seth to Heli via Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, David, and Zerubbabel. Beginning with Herod, Satan attempted to destroy the Son both spiritually and physically. Finally, he thought he had destroyed him physically on the cross, but God completely turned the tables on Satan, and openly revealed the great mystery of all the ages to all the world – the great mystery of Christ crucified for all the sins of all who would believe he alone was the total price for completed salvation, and that he alone, with no additional requirements from the recipients, was the provider by His one time sacrifice for all sins.
I Corinthians 1:17,18 + 2:2,5 – For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. [18] For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. [2] For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. [5] That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
God shocked Satan! He took Israel’s sinless “man child” of verse five, and “her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.” God resurrected His child, Jesus Christ, and He is in heaven today as the eternal Son of God. He was “caught up unto God, and to his throne” more than 2000 years ago in prophetic years of 360 days, and He is still there. Very soon, the woman of chapter twelve is going to have to flee for her life during the Great Tribulation Period. If God had not provided a place of safety for her in the Negev wilderness, she would be utterly destroyed.
REVELATION 12:6 – And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
BEGIN EXCERPTS FROM SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE 161C
Special Prophecy Update Number 161C
March 5, 2004
Syria Makes a Very Bad Choice
I have always believed and taught that the most likely part of the old Roman Empire, which would foster the rise of the Antichrist, would be Syria. Syria has been hanging suspended between two choices: (1) Turn toward the United States in order to avoid sanctions, and to gain support from the western world in a war on terror, or, (2) Turn toward Iran to make an alliance and continue to give support to all the terrorist groups. On February 28 Syria apparently made its choice. The Iranian Defense Minister, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, came to Damascus and signed a new military pact with the Syrian Defense Minister, General Mustufa Tias. I believe this is a clear sign that President Assad has made his choice to put his trust in an Iran-Syria Axis to protect his administration from a coup by terrorist groups in his own country. President Assad has been active recently in communications with Washington to see what they would give him in the way of security if he should choose to give up sponsoring the many terrorist group offices in Syria, and Hizbollah in Lebanon. Really, he did not have much of a choice. Had he turned pro-west and resisted the terrorist groups, his regime would have been overthrown in a matter of weeks. Syria’s new military pact with Iran likely contains an Iranian promise to invest in additional long range Scud-C missiles, now in mass production at Syria’s underground missile facility near Hamah.
The United States and Europe wanted Syria to follow Libya’s lead, but Bashar Assad was really in no political position to do so without being overthrown by the terrorist elements in his own country. There were four things the United States wanted Syria to give up.
(1) Scrap your long-range missile program.
(2) Scrap your WMD program.
(3) Drive all the terrorist groups out of Syria.
(4) Stop supporting Hizbollah in Lebanon.
I feel confident it was a choice Bashar Assad simply could not make.
Iran and Syria are of the same mind on these four issues. Had Syria chosen to do those four things, it would have cut Iran’s flow of weaponry and the movement of terrorists to Hizbollah. Syria was left without any military backup with the fall of Iraq, so Assad has chosen to shore up and expand its existing ties with Iran, and create new military ties with them for a joint defense against the west. The strong showing by the radical Shiite hardliners in Iran’s elections last month was a strong element that Assad considered in making his choice. Iranian Shiites will continue to have a direct pipeline via Damascus airport for massive shipments of military hardware to the large Hizbollah terrorist army, which it has supported in southern Lebanon for years, as have the Syrians.
During Ahmadinejad’s visit Syria expressed support for Iran’s nuclear right to have nuclear weapons.
Syria and Iran also demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign occupation forces from Iraq.
Begin Excerpt from MEMRI
Middle East Media Research Institute
Inquiry & Analysis Series Report
May 13, 2011
The Resistance Camp Abandons Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and His Regime
By: B. Chernitsky*
Introduction
The continuing unrest in Syria that began on March 15, 2011, has undermined Syria’s relations with its traditional allies and intensified tensions between it and its opponents. The international criticism of the Syrian regime’s treatment of the protesters was echoed by elements from the resistance camp, such as Al-Jazeera and other media in Qatar. Even elements in Iran criticized Syria’s suppression of the unrest, despite that fact that the Iranian regime employs similar methods to suppress its own opposition.
The London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, whose editor, ‘Abd Al-Bari ‘Atwan, has consistently supported the resistance, published numerous articles condemning the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. Turkey, which in recent years has tightened its relations with Syria and Iran, was also harsh in its criticism of the Syrian regime, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the suppression of protesters in Syria was beginning to resemble Saddam Hussein’ s brutality again
st the Kurds in Halabja in 1988 and the violence in Hama, Syria, in 1982. On the other hand, Hamas, which has the backing of the Syrian regime, is continuing to officially support it, though reports in the Arab press indicate that there is some tension between the two sides.
At the same time, the unrest in Syria has widened the rift between Syria and its opponents in the moderate Arab camp, particularly Lebanon’s March 14 Forces, which have been accused of active involvement in organizing protests in Syria. Syria and its supporters have made similar accusations against “the Palestinians” – meaning the PLO – as well as the Jordanians and the Saudis.
Saudi Arabia, which belongs to the moderate Arab camp, and which, in an historic move in January 2009, reconciled with Syria in an attempt to pry it away from the resistance camp, has refrained from officially criticizing the Syrian regime, while the Saudi media have limited their coverage of events there. However, the London-based Saudi dailies, particularly Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, which is owned by Prince Salman bin ‘Abd Al-‘Aziz, have taken a clear and unprecedentedly harsh anti-Syria line.
Qatar – From Staunch Ally to Harsh Critic
When the Syrian unrest first began, the Qatari media largely refrained from taking any position on the matter, but as the Syrian regime’s violent suppression of the protests escalated, Qatari editorials began condemning Syria’s actions and calling on the regime there to quickly implement fundamental reforms. Al-Jazeera also expanded its coverage of the events, and some of its analysts, hosts, and correspondents harshly criticized the Syrian regime. Prominent among these was International Union of Muslim Scholars head Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, host of the channel’s “Sharia and Life” show, who expressed support for the protesters and called for the removal of the Ba’th regime there. Other senior Al-Jazeera staffers criticizing the Syrian regime were former Israeli MP and senior analyst ‘Azmi Bishara and Israel/Palestinian bureau chief Walid Al-‘Omari.
The Syrian media, for its part, reported on Assad’s anger at Qatar’s emir following a meeting between Assad and the emir’s emissary, Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem, in which the latter had not expressed support for the Syrian regime. It was also reported that Assad had said no further meetings would be held between the two countries until Qatar apologized for Sheikh Al-Qaradhawi’s statements. Pro-Syrian Lebanese newspapers stated that Qatar, formerly affiliated with the resistance camp, had switched sides and was now working against the Syrian regime.
Qatari Editorials: Syria’s Continued Oppression Will Lead to a Regime Change
In an editorial, the Qatari daily Al-Arab explained that the Syrian people had chosen freedom, and that the Syrian regime must realize that it could not eradicate its own people but could only eradicate the oppressive regime itself: “At first, the Ba’th regime believed that it was disconnected from everything that was happening around it in the Arab world, a mistake made previously by Hosni Mubarak’s regime in Egypt and Al-Qadhafi’s regime in Libya. Furthermore, [it] had pinned its hopes [for survival] on its years of oppression and maltreatment of the Syrian people, and on ongoing media [brainwashing] and ideological terrorism about conspiracies against the [Syrian] resistance regime… But reality has refuted the false claims of the Damascus regime, and the Syrian people has proven that its liberty is more [important] than anything…
“Bashar Al-Assad and his regime had a real opportunity to end the protests that started in Der’a, had they descended from their ivory tower and listened to the people, and had they used a modern approach in handling them, instead of an outmoded one [like the one used by] the regime of Assad senior when it killed some 40,000 residents of Hama and exiled twice that many in 1982.
All the people wanted was the fulfillment of the promise of reform that Assad junior made in 2000 and nothing more… The Syrian regime must know that oppressing peoples will not eradicate them or erase their footprint.
The one who is eradicated is always the oppressor of the people – and nothing remains of him but curses.”
The Qatari daily Al-Sharq wrote in an editorial that the era of the dictatorial regimes had passed from the world, regardless of whether such regimes belong to the moderate Arab camp or the resistance camp: “The security approach in dealing with protests will only spark popular revolution, and will give [the protesters] yet more reasons to continue in the path that will lead only to regime change.
“Many lessons can be learned from the recent events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen… [namely,] that the time of rule by security apparatuses, totalitarianism, dictatorship, and the single-party [regime] is over, [and] the only way to deal with the people is to listen to their familiar demands and to comply with them in the best and fastest way possible.
These revolutions by the Arab peoples that are sweeping through the region from East to West will not skip over regimes, be they ‘moderate’ or ‘resistance’ [regimes]…”
Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi: The Ba’th Party Should Not Rule Syria
International Union of Muslim Scholars head Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi expressed support for the Syrian people’s protests against the Assad regime, as he had previously supported the protests in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. In his Friday sermon of March 25, 2011, Al-Qaradhawi called the measures declared by Assad insufficient and added that the Ba’th party should no longer rule Syria. He said that Assad himself was a prisoner of the Alawi community, and that this was the reason for his failure to institute changes:
“…Syria cannot be left out of the history of the Arab nation. Some have said that Syria is safe from these revolutions. How can it possibly be safe from these revolutions? Is it not part of the nation? Is it not part of the law of Allah… In fact, it is even more in need of a revolution than other countries…
“Now they are trying to downplay the crime… The Ba’th Party has come to an end throughout the Arab world. All these ancient parties are a thing of the past – the RCD in Tunisia, the NDP in Egypt… These parties are over and done with. The constitutional courts annulled them…
“How come the Higher National Committee of the Ba’th Party still rules Syria? Who the hell is the Committee of the Arab Ba’th Party? Is Syria an estate that you inherited from your father or gr andfather, so that you could steer the political activity
and control the emergency law? These people are backward – they live in a different age from us.
We live in the era of the Arab revolutions…
“The problem of Dr. Bashar Al-Assad is that although he is intellectual, open-minded, and young, and could have done a lot, he is held prisoner by his entourage and by the [Alawi] sect. He cannot get rid of them. He sees with their eyes and hears with their ears…”
Following this sermon, Assad advisor Buthayna Sha’ban called Al-Qaradhawi’s statements tantamount to “calling for civil strife [fitna].” The Syrian daily Al-Watan wrote that while Syrians once enjoyed Fridays, they now feared for their lives and the lives of their children because of Al-Qaradhawi’s inciting sermons, which led to fitna and killing.[18] The Damascus University law faculty even filed a lawsuit against Al-Qaradhawi for his incitement against Syria.[19] In his sermon the following Friday, Al-Qaradhawi mocked the lawsuit and further criticized the Syrian regime: “I will never fear those who sue me, and I will continue to tell the truth. They are judging me for harming the country’s good name, but a country whose name is harmed by a word is… a very weak country…
“This is a time of change, and those who do not change will by trampled by [the people]. These regimes have enslaved the people… and when they asked for freedom, they were shot at… The Muslim countries today are backward due to repression and persecution…”
In another sermon, Al-Qaradhawi referred to Syrian Religious Endowment Minister Muhammad ‘Abd Al-Sattar as “a stupid fool” for claiming that Al-Qaradhawi was interfering with Syria’s internal affairs. He added that the Koran and the Sunna grant the International Union of Muslim Scholars the authority to interfere in Syria’s affairs, as well as in the affairs of any country that oppresses its people.
Al-Jazeera TV Israel/Palestinian Bureau Chief: Assad Is Obsolete
Walid Al-‘Omari, the Al-Jazeera Israel/Palestinian bureau chief, wrote in the Jerusalem daily Al-Quds that Assad was acting like an outmoded ruler, and that he seems to have missed the chance to salvage his regime by implementing reforms: “…Apparently, the Syrian president does not yet realize that the era of perpetual [autocracy] is over, and that the [era of the] single [ruling] party and autocrat is inappropriate for the new age and the new Arab – who, before anything else, longs for freedom and dignity.
“The young Assad has preferred to act like an old and obsolete ruler… instead of confidently leading the revolution of young people in the ‘Arab Spring.’ The young Assad does not realize that he cannot base his handling of the protests in Syria [on the claim that they are a foreign] conspiracy, without presenting solutions to the basic demands for freedom and dignity…
“There are many signs that [Assad] has missed the chance to save himself and his land through real reforms that would satisfy the aspirations of the people – who, following his first speech [after the unrest began], called to him, ‘The people want regime reform!’ and who, following his second speech, called, ‘The people want to topple the regime!’ How different these two demands are!”
Begin Excerpt from Ha’aretz
Lebanon is sitting on a Hezbollah powder keg
The Lebanese missile crisis, with missiles continually increasing in number and quality, has developed gradually and has been repeatedly ignored by Israel’s leaders.
By Moshe Arens
May 17, 2011
The riots in Syria have focused attention in Israel on our neighbors to the north – Syria and Lebanon – and especially on Hezbollah, which has deployed around 50,000 rockets in Lebanon that can reach every corner of Israel and threaten its entire civilian population. If these rockets are launched they could cause incalculable damage.
This constant threat hanging over Israel’s civilian population decisively affects Israel’s strategic position; it’s a tiebre
aker. For many years, a fundamental element of Israel’s defense doctrine was that the civilian population’s safety would be assured in time of war.
With the deployment of these rockets in Lebanon, this has ceased to be the case.
U.S. President John F. Kennedy faced a similar situation in September 1962, when American U-2 reconnaissance planes discovered that Soviet ballistic missiles had been deployed in Cuba.
It was clear to Kennedy that the strategic balance between the United States and Soviet Union would be substantially altered if Soviet missiles were pointed at the United States from Cuba. In what has come to be known as the Cuban missile crisis, U.S. threats to act forcefully resolved the crisis, and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev ordered the missiles shipped back to the Soviet Union.
The Lebanese missile crisis, with missiles continually increasing in number and quality, has developed gradually and has been repeatedly ignored by Israel’s leaders. But now this intolerable situation must be faced. It’s a threat that will have to be removed. The threat to Israel’s civilian population has grown, and the missiles are an escalation of the terror war against Israel. There is a great danger to Israel.
This situation should also be of concern to the Lebanese people. Israeli military action to destroy Hezbollah’s missiles – something that seems bound to happen sooner or later – would bring considerable destruction to Lebanon. In other words, as long as these rockets are in Hezbollah’s h ands,
all Lebanon is sitting on a powder keg. Hezbollah, while posing as Lebanon’s defender, is actually creating a grave danger for that country and its people.
Saad Hariri, the Lebanese prime minister who was recently deposed by Hezbollah’s political maneuvers, said last week in Beirut that “Hezbollah’s weapons have become a national problem that needs a national solution.”
Obviously, he was voicing the concern that Hezbollah is using its weapons to bolster its political position in Lebanon and to murder its political opponents. In this way it is subverting the Lebanese political system.
But he should realize that the danger of these weapons goes far beyond that. Since the rockets are a danger to Israel’s civilian population and must be removed, they create a physical danger for Lebanon and the Lebanese people. It is important that the people of Lebanon understand this and bring about the removal of the rockets deployed by Hezbollah all over Lebanon.
To this end, Lebanon needs international political support. One might expect the UN Security Council to pass the necessary resolution to achieve this. But Lebanon, controlled by Hezbollah, is now a member of the Security Council. Hopefully, U.S. President Barack Obama is giving thought to this explosive situation.
This story is by: Moshe Arens
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