By Hal Lindsey
The Hal Lindsey Report



You would think after a half-century of studying Bible prophecy, teaching it, writing about it, and producing a weekly television program on the subject for the last 15 years, nothing would surprise me. Not so. I am continually amazed by how precisely the predictions of the ancient prophets are unfolding in the news.

How's this for prophetic precision? Last week, Iran's Fars news service reported that Syrian president Bashar al-Assad threatened to unleash a missile attack on Tel Aviv if NATO or Turkey dared interfere in Syria's affairs.

Bashar al-AssadThis wasn't an off-the-cuff, rash remark made in a fit of anger. He's issued this threat before. On August 9th, Assad told the Turkish Foreign Minister that "it would take only six hours for Syria to devastate Tel Aviv and ignite the Middle East."

Now, as ominous as that sounds, it's not the part of the story that raises the red flag for prophecy watchers. Middle Eastern hotheads have been threatening to wipe out Israel for decades.

Here's the critical part. Debkafile.com reports that after the first threat, Israel sent Syria a warning. In part, the message said, "If a single missile explodes in Tel Aviv, Damascus will be the first to pay the price.."

That raises the goosebumps, doesn't it?

This is the exact scenario foretold by the prophet Isaiah thousands of years ago. He said that a showdown would take place between Syria and Israel, like two gunfighters facing off in the dusty street of an old western town, complete with the townspeople clearing out to hide in the saloon and the stores. According to Isaiah, the rest of the world "will flee far away, and be chased like chaff in the mountains before the wind, or like the whirling dust before a gale."

Then Syria will draw, but before it can clear leather, Israel will strike and Damascus will cease to exist. Here's how Isaiah described it: "And at evening time, behold, there is terror! Before morning they are no more."

Isaiah predicted that Damascus, the oldest continually inhabited city in the world - which has never been destroyed - will disappear in one night. Before today, that would not have been even technically possible. With nuclear weapons, it won't take an evening.

And now the threat has been publicly made and the counter-threat has been delivered. I'm not saying when this will happen, but once an embattled dictator publicly suggests the possibility, I believe the chances of someone choosing that option increase considerably. And the possibility has to be considered that one of Syria's allies (Iran? Hezbollah? Hamas?) may actually be the one to pull the trigger.

Need I say it again? Get ready! Christ's coming cannot be far away.