Weekly Prophecy Review

News from around the world...

• Prophecy may be hazardous to your health. The pastor of an Ohio church was killed by one of his parishioners over differences in theology. According to the Associated Press, a man quietly listened to the pastors's message on the Book of the Revelation before drawing a gun and shooting him several times.

• An Orthodox Jewish court is considering whether to excommunicate Monica Lewinski. The group says Lewinski has brought shame on the Jews. Under Jewish law, other Jews are forbidden to talk to, marry, or have any business dealings with an excommunicated member.

• The Pentagon announced Israel will be allowed to purchase $5 billion worth of fighter planes from the U.S. this next year. The order is expected to contain 60 F-16s and 30 f-15s. Israel is already receiving 25 F-15s for this year.

• Following the murders of two Christians last month, the State Security forces in Egypt did not see fit to arrest the three Muslims who were identified as the killers. Rather, they arrested hundreds of Christians! According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, some of those detained were tortured by electric shock, beaten , and hung upside down. It was only after efforts by Western human rights organizations that the Christians were finally released. Anyone for tourism to Egypt? NOT.

News from Israel...

• Speaking of Egypt, the Chief of Staff during the Yom Kippur War, General Gemasi, is predicting another war with Israel. According to Gemasi, it will occur because of the "stubborn refusal" of Netanyahu to withdraw from the Golan Heights and his unwillingness to negotiate the status of Jerusalem.

• A number of Christian communities are sponsoring Israeli settlers on the West Bank. Groups such as Christian Friends of Israel Committees (CFIC) have supported at least 30 new settlements in the past five years. Said one settlement official, "Most Christian groups agree that handing land over to the Palestinians is wrong."

• On October 5th, 5000 Christians gathered in Jerusalem to support Netanyahu's hard line stance in negotiations with the Palestinians. He told evangelicals at the Feast of Tabernacles conference that "Our claim to the land is based on the greatest and most incontrovertible documents in creation - the Holy Bible."

News that might actually have something to do with prophecy...

Israel's Cabinet digs in its heels

Just days before the scheduled peace summit in Washington, members of Netanyahu's Cabinet strongly oppose the U.S.-brokered plan for a withdrawal from 13% of the West Bank. In fact, it is being reported they will not authorize ANY pullback deal until the Palestinians fulfill a series of demands. Chief among those demands are disarming of militants and annulling sections of the PLO charter (This was supposed to have been done as part of the 1993 Oslo Agreement!).

In order to placate these "hard-liners," Netanyahu recently appointed former General, Areil Sharon, as his foreign Minister. A long-time hawk, Sharon has vowed he would never shake hands with "that murderer, Arafat." Interestingly, one of Sharon's chief duties will be handling the upcoming "permanent status" negotiations with the Palestinians.

The appointment of Sharon is being greeted with mixed emotions in the right-wing camp. Some are hoping he will be the one to extricate Israel from the morass of Oslo. Others feel that, despite his hawkish reputation, he will probably still end up supervising the dismantling of the West Bank. The Labor party, however, had an entirely different take on the appointment. They felt it was made merely to allow Netanyahu to survive politically, and that it is, therefore, "a sure recipe for a continued impasse and for the hastened advent of violence."

Does all this bring us closer to the kind of confrontations which will culminate in Armageddon? Only time will tell. But it would seem we have entered the days Ezekiel spoke about—when the Palestinians [read Edom] seek to appropriate God's land for themselves.

"Surely in the fire of My jealousy I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom [Palestinians], who appropriated My land for themselves as a possession with wholehearted joy and with scorn of soul, to drive it out for a prey" (Ezekiel 35:5).

Till He returns...