Hey Peg!
Less than 5 hours to go until Passover begins.Could this really be it? Passover is 7 days long, so this may be a long week.
 
I have been reading John Hagee's Jeruslaem Countdown, and he confirms everything I have seen before in the Ezekiel prophecies. It lines up perfectly. As I stated, the Gog-Magog war cannot begin until the trib begins. What we are seeing now is a major preliminary stage-setting by God Almighty leading the world up to this epic event. Nothing like what God will do has happened since He judged Egypt and used Moses to deliver the Jews to the Promised Land. But what I don't like about this type pattern of dispensation is the fact that God judged Egypt first, and then led the Jews to safety.
As I long suspected, the people who live in the faraway coastlands depicted in Ezekiel 39:6 are most likely thye US and the western hemisphere in general. And Hagee agrees. England's national symbol is the Lion, and us being national descendants of this lion makes us one of her young lions as depicted in the Ezekiel prophecy. Being duped into tolerance, as well as spread thin militarily, it is not hard to imagine the US sitting idly by, asking Russia and her Arab alliance what they are up to, as also the EU, Saudi Arabia and the UAE will do, especially if the Lord tallys further and allows the Democrats to take the white House in 2008. And due to our lack of concern and intervention, we as a godless, liberal society curse Israel and bring about our own destruction shortly thereafter. Most of our population resides along our coastlands, and from Ezekiel's point of view, we indeed are far away and (think) we live in security being geographically isolated from the East.
 
So here is my updated assessment on the situation at hand:
 
Confirmed by Ezekiel, we shall not see this Gog-Magog war, being we are raptured away prior to the onset of the Tribulation Period. But we will likely see some major hardships nonetheless. Again, we see the absence of syria and Jordan. In all consideration, it strongly seems to me that the foretold destruction od Damascus and Jordan occurs first. I myself cannot imagine Syria also sitting idly by during this epic assault on the northern mountains of Israel without racing to jump on the bandwagon. It seems Israel and maybe even the US will first strike these areas for some reason. This may be what causes Russia to gather the alliance, as the US stays home and buries her head in her polluted sand. A military alliance of this size would take months to organize logistically. Perhaps the Bush Adminstration joins Iran in fierce strikes (possibly even nuclear) against Syria and Jordan and then a period of relative calm ensues. Shortly thereafter, the Democrats take the White House (or Bush is impeached) and do nothing to heed this massive multinational gathering against Israel, being the God and Jew/Christian haters they have become in our nation.
 
And ultimately,  as 5/6 of Russia's armed forces perish on the mountains of Israel, God allows the dying Bear to deal a deathblow to the severely diseased Eagle as well, judging our nation which has abused God's blessing, and fulfilling the promise of Ezekiel 39:6
 
In death and destiny of either side of eternity, they shall indeed know He is the Lord.
 
And thankfully for us, it appears we will know also, since we will see Him Face to face in the days, months, or (doubtfully) the years ahead.
 
May it be this week, even in a few short hours! But if not, may it be soon!
 
In His expectation,
Jim.