EUROPE ON THE BRINK: WORLD NEWS UPDATE

• 1/27/2022

I NORMALLY SPEND some extra time in prayer at the beginning of each new year, which is also my “re-birthday,” marking the day I accepted the Father’s free gift of eternal life in His son Yeshua, the Lamb of God, on January 4th, 1974. This year, I sensed the Lord’s Holy Spirit showing me that 2022 would be very much like another year that ended with a two, 1942 (the current Jewish year also ends with a two, 5782). That was the year World War Two ramped up into a full global conflagration following the American entrance into the fray on December 7th, 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Of course, the war actually began three years earlier when Adolph Hitler invaded Poland in September, 1939. He took over Norway in 1940, and soon afterwards Nazi forces seized control over Paris while stepping up attacks upon England and other European countries.

IT WAS AMERICA’S long delayed entrance into the war that quickly morphed it into a worldwide conflict. No part of the planet remained untouched by the growing bloodshed, which would ultimately leave an estimated 80 million people dead worldwide. I suspect we could see something akin to that horrible scenario in the not too distant future, although obviously God alone knows for sure. But as was the case with World War Two, I believe the next major conflict actually began over ten years ago when the mis-named “Arab Spring” anti-government revolts began to mushroom all over the turbulent Middle East. In particular, Russia and Iran’s military interventions in the Syrian “civil war” mid-decade were a major step forward to all-out world conflict. More on this a bit later.

JOE BIDEN’S DREADFUL ill begotten surrender in Afghanistan last August (which led by default to a full NATO retreat as well) was bound to inspire leaders of the Axis of Evil to take ever more nefarious actions such as we’ve seen in subsequent months. First and foremost is Russia’s threatened invasion of neighboring Ukraine, which world leaders say could get fully underway at any moment. Meanwhile North Korea’s dictator began testing ballistic missiles once again earlier this month, with six missiles fired by January 27th. China is stepping up military threats and actions against Taiwan and India. Earlier this week, the Communist regime staged its largest military flyover near Taiwan (the Pentagon said 39 aircraft took part). Iran is expanding its war moves in the tense Middle East, mainly via its Houthi puppet forces in Yemen that have launched recent drone strikes on the United Arab Emirates after seizing a UAE ship in the Red Sea. Israeli leaders noted that their southern port city of Eilat is about the same distance from Yemen as the targets struck in the UAE.

IN ANOTHER MAJOR SIGN of more trouble up ahead, the Kremlin announced last weekend that it is now conducting joint military patrols with the Russian-equipped Syrian Air Force, some of them near Israel’s strategic Golan Heights. Israeli analysts say the move probably spells the end of IDF action against Iranian and Hezbollah forces operating in Syria. Russia has also announced that it sent “special forces” earlier this week to guard the Syrian Mediterranean port of Latakia after Israel launched two separate strikes earlier this month against Iranian ammunition dumps and other military equipment positioned there. Next door to the government-run port is the Kremlin’s largest Mediterranean air force base, called Hmeymim. So despite the winter weather, the atmosphere is definitely heating up in the roiling Middle East, as it is in Europe and elsewhere.

AS WE WATCH AND WAIT, we see all the elements in place for another truly global conflict ranging from East Asia and the Pacific through north and south Asia, the Middle East and Europe. If fighting breaks out in all those regions in the coming months or years, it would also probably spread to two other members of the Communist–Shiite Islamic Axis of Evil, Cuba and Venezuela. Several current conflicts in parts of Africa would probably escalate as well, especially one currently raging near the strategic Horn of Africa area which abuts the narrow southern entrance to the Red Sea. Indirect warfare has been escalating in recent years between Israel and Iran, some cyber and some actual. Both Washington and Moscow have participated in this so-called “shadow war” over the past five years. International conflicts has been noticeably growing over the past decade, even though at a much lower level than is likely this year.

RUSSIA, CHINA, NORTH KOREA AND IRAN have all been massively stepping up their war preparations in recent years. As the Communist regime in North Korea ramps up its missile testing, China is building new nuclear weapons silos in the north-central part of the huge country and beefing up its naval and air forces. Vladimir Putin has been pouring increasing amounts of his burgeoning oil revenues into his land and missile forces as well, and beefing up its international military bases, especially in the Middle East. Iran continues to build up all branches of its armed forces while strengthening ties with its heavily-armed surrogate forces in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, the Gaza Strip, war-torn Yemen, and most recently, in Ethiopia across the narrow entrance to the Red Sea from Yemen.

I STRONGLY SUSPECT that the extremist Shiite mullahs ruling in Tehran have refrained from attacking “the Zionist entity” until now because they know a much wider global conflict is brewing. This was probably the main topic when the new Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, met in mid January with Putin at the Russian dictator’s invitation. The rogue Iranian regime will obviously not have to worry so much about Israel’s allies rushing in to help defend the world’s only Jewish state if the US, Canada, France, the UK and other NATO member states, along with Australia and India, are preoccupied with fighting in other parts of the planet. This is the main reason that Israeli government and military leaders are closely watching the dire situation along Ukraine’s northern and eastern borders, along with the threat of conflict in Taiwan and the Korean peninsula. Any hot wars in these areas would leave Jerusalem’s main allies far less likely or able to assist Israel in a full war with Iran, and leaders from both adversaries know it.

AMERICA’S FADING LIGHT

SINCE THE COLLAPSE of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the United States has been widely recognized as the world’s sole remaining superpower. Some American officials unwisely termed Russia a mere “regional power” in the years following the rapid collapse, which undoubtedly further served to goad ex-KGB agent Putin to begin reassembling the fallen Soviet empire. Currently Belarus is the only firm member of this new Russian club, but it is a crucial ally since it’s strategically positioned between Ukraine to the south and the three small Baltic States to the north, actually bordering two of them, Lithuania and Latvia. Of course, Russia itself shares a common border with Estonia and Latvia, meaning a Russian military invasion can literally take place simultaneously from all directions, including from the Baltic Sea which forms the Western borders of all three endangered states.

IF PUTIN TAKES OVER UKRAINE, he will then quickly turn his attention to retaking the Baltic states despite the fact that they are all now NATO members. Many military analysts say he can rapidly conquer them using his substantial military forces now stationed along his border with Latvia and Lithuania, in Belarus and in his small, but heavily militarized Russian enclave state of Kaliningrad, due south of Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. According to NATO’s Article Five rule (an attack on one is an attack on all), this would automatically trigger a major military response. The main question is how the United States and Europe’s largest country, Germany, would respond, with many analysts predicting a fairly tepid reaction from both of them. After all, many Western analysts and politicians opposed allowing the three Baltic states into the alliance, with a few openly stating that successfully defending them against Russian aggression would be nearly impossible.

HOWEVER IF PUTIN later invaded Poland from the east–which he would dearly love to see under Russian domination once again–as Hitler did in 1939 from the west, it would certainly trigger a massive NATO response, especially from all European NATO nations including Germany. A key element to the reaction would undoubtedly be the United States, meaning reducing Washington’s global power, if not curtailing it altogether, must be a high Kremlin priority at present–a priority clearly shared by Iran, Syria and North Korea, and increasingly also by the Chinese Communist dictatorship. So even the “minor invasion” spoken of by Joe Biden (to the chagrin of his aides) at his recent press conference will probably be enough to cut loose Putin and his comrades to at least launch major cyber attacks upon America, some of them against the superpower’s vital, yet underprotected, electrical grids.

AT THE SAME TIME, Russia, China and Iran would probably quietly urge a North Korean nuclear attack upon American cities and military bases, as dictator Kim Jong-un has vowed to do many times over the past decade. Military analysts say that the nuclear-armed Communist regime now operates several submarines that can probably fire nuclear missiles at West Coast cities and bases, at the very least. Such an attack would essentially be “covert” in that it would be hard to prove without a doubt that Kim was behind it, unless he takes open “credit” for it. Both Russia and China would quickly claim it wasn’t them. The North Korean dictator also has several satellites that fly every day and night over North America—possibly equipped with weapons that could carry out a massive EMP attack upon the continental United States. .

AS I’VE WRITTEN BEFORE, five years ago this coming August the Lord showed me that some sort of “attack” would be coming out of Asia. It would adversely affect (turned out to be infect!!) the United States, and cause sorrow and economic disruption all over the globe. At the time, President Trump was going nose to nose with “Rocket Man” who was busy testing his missiles as he is doing once again today. So I assumed at the time that some sort of attack would come from North Korea, as Kim was already threatening to do (even producing videos that year showing NY and DC under nuclear bombardment).

OF COURSE, IT TURNED OUT that China, not North Korea, would be the agent for the worldwide disruption, which the Lord showed me to prepare for (so I already had plenty of TP when the store shelves were cleared out in 2020!). Although I only alluded to it in one of my earlier postings, I told friends in April of that year that the University of Washington’s projections of 60,000 overall US deaths from Covid before it was all over was undoubtedly a gross underestimate. While I know that some have actually died from other conditions, with Covid more or less on the side, many others like my late brother were healthy and fit when they caught the virus that killed him (he was retired and walked some six miles every day and ate well). I STRONGLY SENSED IN PRAYER that 2022 is going to be a very rough year. In the showdown with Putin, and probably Iran, it certainly doesn’t help that many current Western leaders are seemingly hapless (Joe Biden comes to mind, as does UK PM Boris Johnson), or unpopular (like Biden, Johnson and the short French President Macron and Canadian PM Trudeau) or just installed in office (new German Chancellor Olaf Scholz). Although it has somehow survived since last Spring, Israel’s broad coalition government is very brittle. Sadly, Western democracies do not have a leader like Winston Churchill to guide them into battle, while Putin, Ayatollah Khomeini, his ally the Syrian dictator Assad, and the Kim and Castro families–basically remain entrenched forever!

ONE FINAL PROPHETIC NOTE: I do not see any war in Europe this year as leading to the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s Gog and Magog invasion of Israel. China for one is not ready to send any of its growing military forces to the Middle East at present (as Revelation reveals will take place as part of the final Mideast battle), focusing instead on taking back Taiwan and parts of northeast India. As I’ve written before, I think a war that starts in Europe could easily spread to the tense Middle East, possibly leading to the fulfillment of Isaiah 17 in which Damascus is destroyed while Israel remains a sovereign state, but greatly weakened. The Russian strongman would certainly support his allies Syria and Iran in any showdown with Israel, but I don’t think the stage is set for Ezekiel’s massive entime war to unfold now, although the growing alliance between Russia, Iran and China is indeed part of the same coalition of countries that Ezekiel tells us will join together in a massive invasion of Israel just before the Lord returns. I’ve written much more about this topic, and many others, in my 2001 book “Israel in Crisis” which I see is available on Amazon for ten bucks.

I EXPECT WE WILL HAVE many opportunities to “cry out to the Lord” during the year ahead and beyond. It is extraordinary to have a personal relationship with our Creator-God, which all of us have who have recognized Yeshua as the Messiah King. He will rule the earth from Jerusalem when these last days are over, so His story has a great ending! This certain hope becomes more precious to me every year I live, and especially in these turbulent, dark days. If you don’t have a personal relationship with the Lord, and thus God’s Holy Spirit is not dwelling within you, I urge you to seek out someone who can help you get to know Him. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father but through Him!