Buildup to Sudden Destruction
Rumors of war in the Middle East continue and grow by the day. We have heard of such Armageddon-like conflict that is coming for most of a decade. It’s almost like the little boy who cried “wolf,” but not quite.
Anyone with any sense of the potential for conflagration in that volatile region that could bring worldwide war knows that the breaking point has now about been reached. Iran’s nuclear weapon development project–or the fear that their nuclear program is for developing weapons of mass destruction—is, of course, the primary reason for the tensions involved.
Three observable factors are on the stepped-up agenda of potential war consideration: 1) Israel is in a top-alert configuration, talking more or less openly about its most advanced defensive capabilities; 2) Iran is expressing fear of imminent attack from Israel, and is hustling to protect its nuclear program; 3) The Israeli prime minister and his military have a strong sense that they must depend only on their own resolve, not that of their one-time staunch, superpower ally to defend the Jewish state.
Regarding point 1, the following news report indicates Israel’s concern for its threatened citizenry.
According to an unidentified official, new intelligence obtained by Israel, the United States, and other Western states shows that Iran's development of a nuclear weapon is progressing far beyond the scope reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
…Tehran has made significant progress towards assembling a nuclear warhead for a Shahab-3 missile, which has a range of nearly 1,000 miles, putting the whole of Israel, including the Dimona nuclear reactor in the southern Negev desert, within the Islamic republic's range…
Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, issued a public warning that Tehran must not be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb. "Every threat against the home front is dwarfed by one threat. Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon," he told ministers at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. (Mark Weiss, "Israel Demands Nuclear Ultimatum for Iran," 8/13/12, Telegraph)
To punctuate the urgency, Israel’s home front command, in a test run of alerting the populace, issued thousands of text messages to alert people when rockets are launched on specific areas of the country. Apparently, the test is ongoing, with the text messages being given in Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Russian.
Israel’s increased national defense preparations were further reported:
As testing began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had chalked up "a significant improvement" in its home front defence capabilities, mentioning its highly-vaunted anti-missile systems such as Iron Dome and Arrow 2.
"There has been a significant improvement in our level of defence capacity on the home front: with Iron Dome, with the Arrow, in terms of protection and shelters, in advanced warning systems and in other areas," he said. ("Israel Tests SMS Missile Alerts as Iran Chatter Grows," 8/12, AFP-Sun)
On point 2, reports grow about Iran’s fears of attack by Israel, thus convincing them to deeply shelter its nuclear program at a quickening pace:
Iran is disturbed by threats emanating from Israel to strike its nuclear sites and takes such threats seriously, a senior Iran expert told The Jerusalem Post. The past few days have been dominated by media headlines on a possible Israeli strike, with several reports claiming that a strike is imminent and could come within weeks. Iran has been busy fortifying its air defenses and moving parts of the uranium enrichment program to underground sites to make them immune to an Israeli strike. (Yaakov Lappin, "Talk of Military Strike ‘Makes Tehran Nervous,'" 8/13/12, Post/Reuters)
Regarding point 3, Israel’s growing distrust for the American presidential administration’s support is surfacing by the day. While Israel’s government and military has presented evidence time after time that its most threatening enemy, Iran, is driving for a nuclear bomb, the U.S. intelligence services, obviously controlled by the Obama administration, say only that they suspect that the Iranian regime–although that regime has declared that it is committed to removing Israel from the earth--is seeking a weapons capability but that no decision has been taken on actually making one.
Such naivete at best and willful disregard for the facts at worst is itself heightening the danger of all-out war in the Middle East, in my opinion. The buildup to such conflict continues apace–and increases by the hour. It is obvious–to this observer, at least—that only the staying hand of God is holding back the inevitable. I am convinced that when the inevitable comes–the massive devastation that will involve the whole world—it will be the sudden destruction that will follow immediately the Rapture of the Church, as indicated by Jesus’ own Words: “But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” (Luke 17:29-30).
--Terry