Newly Updated: Damascus A Heap Of Ruins
[Ed. note: The circumstances in the Middle East (West Asia) have changed dramatically in the past 13 years or so since this article was first published, then edited, and content updated over that time. We now have a new war in the Middle East that is rapidly escalating. Will it remain a major regional conflict, or become a world war? The US has been, and continues the massive build up of its military presence in the Middle East, including Jordan, and in Cypress, with at least two carrier strike groups and at least one known nuclear sub in the region, despite the decline of the US unipolar hegemony challenged by Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the growing list of other nations around the world. In light of the emergence of BRICS 11 and the SCO, the Global South, threatening the US dollar as the world's reserve currency and survival of Western central banks, is this a "now or never" time for the US to start a war in order to preserve its perceived global financial dominance? From all appearances, both prophetic and geopolitical, the answer is yes. [See Last Days Prophecy And Secular West Asia/Middle East Events Have Reached Nexus, World War 3 Is Here, The Russia (North)–China (East) Led Strategic Partnership Playing Out Asymmetrically In Military, Financial, And Institutional Battlefields, And The Fight Is An Existential One The UK, US Led Rules-Based Order, Dan. 11:44, 45; and Video: US Hegemon Goal, Set Fire To West Asia/Middle East To Thwart BRICS Led By Russia And China].
Besides Russia's military presence in Syria, it has stepped in to help Iraq fight against domestic terrorism. Also Russia and Iran have agreed to further strengthen their ties while US leaders are planning for war with Iran. Recall Iran was on the list of seven countries to be overthrown during US president's George Bush time in office. [Essential Watch Video, Daniel 11 Prophecy In Current Events]. Iran is a key pillar in the US strategy for Middle East dominance that was lost in the 1979 deposition of the US proxy Shah. Also financially, Iran is not a member of the West's central banking system. And Russia has issued its first direct warning to the US. China (Beijing) and Syria (Damascus) have just launched a strategic partnership to "jointly defend international fairness and justice." Now, China has sent warships to the region as well, most recently in February 2024. Zionist Israel has bombed the Damascus airport twice in a month. However, Russia has stepped in and offered use of its military air base in Khmeimim, Latakia Governorate, Syria.
We are on a fast track to Daniel's prophesied "And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation." As a result, in reading through this article, current day events have been interspersed with the description of events that occurred previously. The intent is to provide some perspective relative to the recent past leading up to where we are today, and where prophetic events are headed.
There is an end-times prophecy in the Book of Isaiah that needs to be heeded. It says Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins. [17:1]. And from Zionist Isreal's attack on the Iranian embassy there, Damascus may be the tipping point as well. It has been prompting a lot of discussion on the part of pastors and evangelists as well as Muslim clerics. With the international dynamics of "covid" and its siblings, the penultimate war in Ukraine, and the significant shift in East versus West geopolitics, the ever present threat of regional war centered in Syria, and with Iran, Iraq, the Saudis and Zionist Israel, who is now co-habiting the Pentagon's Central Command (CENTCOM), and with the presence of Turkiye [Turkey], the Kurds, the Zionist driven NATO/UK/US military's violation of international law, Russia, and now the emerging new power from the east, China, Damascus is destined to become a heap of ruins. [Dan. 11:44, 45; see The Tipping Point For The Raging, Fearful, Out-Of-Control Imperialist Zionist West Staring Into The Abyss Of Moral, Political, And Financial Collapse; Iran-China Agreement].
However, there is a Catch-22 with Syria for the Western nations, including the globalist World Economic Forum's plans for their "Great Reset," and the old banking cabal families. [The Banking Cartel Families]. Keep in mind, Zionism was not created until the late 1890s by the atheist Theodor Herzl. It was and is a political movement, not religious. The express intent of these banking families is to establish a greater Middle East state controlling the vast economic resources of the region, primarily oil and gas. Their Trojan Horse tactic, the Zionist excuse, was to claim that the Jews needed their homeland, the "Promised Land," returned to them. [The Yinon Plan, map, the territory shown far exceeds the homeland boundaries of ancient Judah].
"In November 1917, the then British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote to Zionist supporter and wealthy banker Lord Walter Rothschild [see painting; John 8:44] stating, “His Majesty’s Government view[s] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” [Lawrence Of Arabia, Zionism And Palestine, 1937, Sir Ronald Storrs, p.41ff; also video, for our current Middle East war context, essential watch, All Wars Are Bankers' Wars; Western Duplicity Covers Zionist State Terrorism And Genocide].
Zionists, despite their appearances and claims, are not Jews or descendants of Jacob/Israel's son Judah, but rather are descended from Jacob/Israel's brother Esau/Edom. [See The Blind Man's Elephant, The Genesis Birthright, p. 185ff]. This can be a bit confusing when researching and reading about Jews (religious) and Zionists (political) when we are not aware of the fundamental differences between the two. "The most successful (political) Zionist ploy has been to equate itself with (religious) Judaism and to hijack and hide behind Judaic aspects starting with sacred emblems." [See Zionism Starts ... link below]. This is the case with the comment notes in the painting link above. Of note, in Hebrew 'ĕḏōm means red. In German, roth is derived from rot meaning red. Rothschild is Redschild. Our current situation's ancient roots go back to when Esau sold his birthright to Jacob and his name changed to Edom. [See Gen. 25:31-34; Gen. 27:38-41; also Rev. 3:9; Heb. 12:16, 17; Rom. 9:13; see the Feature article, Obadiah And The Prophetic Parable Of The Tares; Num. 20:14-21].
This plan is using the Jews descended from Judah as their religious proxy to attain Zionist political objectives. Herzl's aim was to capitalize on Jewish calamity and persecution, and the resulting sympathy, albeit falsely placed, in the Christian West as an advantage for furthering Zionist atheistic political ideology, [think WW2, concentration camps and the establishment of Zionist Israel in Palestine in 1948]. It's the same modus operandi for the current war, creating Jewish sympathy while the West, especially ignorant Christian evangelicals, unwittingly conflating Zionists (political) with Jews (religious), helps Zionists attain their goals, which are contrary to the best interests of the Christian West, i.e., the House of Israel, UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy et al. [For current example, see Yellow Star, "... demeaning the memory of the Holocaust whose constant, cynical invocation is used to silence criticism of barbaric (Zionist) Israeli crimes and even to evoke illusionary justification for the cold, calculated genocide of the Palestinian people."
This is the impetus driving secular events by the Zionist government today, and their Zionist allies in the Western governments led by the US. For them, a two state solution is a no fly zone for implementing the Yinon plan. Nevertheless, keep in mind, the Gaza war is the raison d'etre, the excuse for the US to makes its move to gain dominion over the greater Middle East. Keep in mind, current US president Biden stated quite clearly, "I am a Zionist." [See Zionism Starts Where Judaism Is Destroyed ... "Zionism has never had any qualms about the loss of Jewish lives so long as that loss furthered the cause of Zionism." Also Zionist Israel's False Flags, 2001-2023].
Therefore, this prophecy is not just about Damascus in our time, but also is welded to us, the nations of the collective West. We are pulled into Syria and the Middle East by a prophetic string soaked in blood, and the greed for control of the oil and gas beneath the desert sands. [Israel's War For Gaza Gas, Part Of The Overall Plan]. Therefore, the destiny of Damascus and Biblical Ephraim, Great Britain, Manasseh, the US and by extension the rest of the House of Israel, i.e., all the indigenous Western Christian nations, i.e., Biblical Jacob, are fused together in the Biblical record's prophecies. [Isa. 17:3, 4; see the Feature article, Is The US And Great Britain In End-Times Bible Prophecy?].
The ramifications of the West's actions with Russian sanctions, the Ukraine war, and their economic/financial blowback, ramped up warmongering with China has been a major tipping point in world geopolitics. [The Geopolitics Of Prophecy]. The collective's West's failure is pushing them to a final gasp war in Zionist Israel, Syria, with a revived focus on Iran, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East, which are magnified regarding Isaiah's prophecy about us as well. Yet, the myriad of articles that have been written concerning this Damascus prophecy skip right over Ephraim, as if we're not mentioned at all. [For an excellent secular overview, read Russia, And The West's Collective Failure].
Ephraim is the kingly line of the House of Israel, nee Joseph [see Genesis 48, 49, Manasseh, his brother, is the US in prophecy, 1 Chr. 5:1; see the Feature article, Paul Was An Apostle To The House Of Israel, Not The Gentiles], all the same nations of the House of Israel to whom Christ was only sent as he made clear in the first century. [See Mat. 15:24. This was known in Syria too. See Mat. 4:23-25; also Damascus Within Millennial Israel's Border After Return Of Christ]. As Damascus Syria goes, so goes the nations of the UK, the US, the rest of the Western Europe and Judah, the Jews. [Hosea 5]. Therefore, Isaiah's prophecy has great implications for us, the Christian nations, and those in the West who seek to create a new world order.
We need to remember, "This decision is by the decree of the watchers, and the sentence by the word of the holy ones, in order that the living may know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He will, and sets over it the lowest of men." [Dan. 4:17].
What does this mean? Well, it tells us that this partially fulfilled prophecy will have another manifestation. But this time, both the Christian nations of the House of Israel, and Middle Eastern countries, in particular Syria, specifically Damascus, are bonded together in its fulfillment. [Dan. 11:40-43]. The previous iteration affected Ephraim [the House of Israel], but not the existence of Damascus, as we'll read below. It is a pertinent prophetic history lesson for the children of the House of Israel, from which we may learn that our LORD's word was true for our ancestors millennia ago, and is true for us today. As pointed out, it is after this prophecy is fulfilled that once again, a second time, our Lord will save the remnant of the House of Israel who survive "the time of trouble never since there was a nation." [Again, see Isa. 11:11]. According to Jewish history, only 20% or so of all those of Israel left Egypt with Moses. Therefore, only a remnant of Israel would have been recovered the first time.
Prophecies can, and do have dual fulfillments. This Biblical principle is well understood by rabbis and Jewish clerics, but not so much by Christian theologians, who tend to see prophecies as one dimensional, one time only events. [See the Sneakers article, The Context Of Prophecy for examples]. A Biblical prophecy will occur again although in a different manifestation as in the recovery of the remnant of Israel mentioned above. The observance of holy days by Israel in the Old Testament commemorating prior events also were prophetic arrows pointing to events that Christ fulfilled, and will fulfill for all twelve nations of Biblical Israel as part of God's plan, led by Ephraim. [See the Feature article, Three Temple Ages Make A Plan].
"Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." [Mat. 5:17]. The Law and the Prophets are two of the three divisions of the Old Testament. If we understood the duality principle of prophecy, we would know exactly where we are in God's plan for us today. [For details, see The Hijacked Elephant, a PDF book on our Home page; also the Feature article, The Tale Of Two Covenants]. So while we have had a historical fulfillment of this prophecy in Isaiah, excepting Damascus ceasing to be a city, we will have one more fulfillment as well. Other Biblical prophecies corroborate Isaiah.
In addition to the Biblical prophecies concerning Damascus and Ephraim, there are Muslim clerics who believe that what is taking place in Syria, and with Damascus and the West is a prelude to apocalyptic prophetic events, albeit from a different perspective. "If the scenario sounds familiar to an anxious world watching Syria's devastating civil war [an invasion by Saudi/Qatar hired guns to overthrow Assad, sponsored by the US deep state; see Traitors Within], it resonates even more with Sunni [Saudi] and Shi'ite [Syria/Iran/Iraq] fighters on the frontlines - who believe it was all foretold in 7th century prophecies.
"From the first outbreak of the crisis in the southern city of Deraa to apocalyptic forecasts of a Middle East soaked in blood, many combatants on both sides of the conflict say its path was set 1,400 years ago in the sayings of the Prophet Mohammad and his followers. Among those many thousands of sayings, or hadith, are accounts which refer to the confrontation of two huge Islamic armies in Syria, a great battle near Damascus, and intervention from the north and west of the country." [See Islam Prophecy and Damascus]. Of course, from Syria's point of view today rather than the seventh century, when the Roman Empire occupied the territory north and west of Damascus, we see Turkey/NATO Europe, Russia in the north along with the US in the west. For Christian context, read the Feature article, Is The US And Great Britain In End-times Bible Prophecy? While the current geo-political focus by the US-Zionist alignment is on Iran, prophetically it all relates to Damascus and the nations of the House of Israel in the end.
A caveat to readers. Events in Syria have jumped about, and likely will continue to do so. Today, after Assad's overwhelming 2021 victory at the polls, and despite President Obama's decree "Assad Must Go," there appears to be somewhat of a rapprochement among the Arab nations regarding Syria. However, we must not lose sight of the terminal prophetic event in which Damascus becomes a heap of ruins after invasion of the Middle East by the West led by the US and UK. And a look at recent events show the US is escalating tensions in Syria, sending in warships, fighter aircraft and military troops to the Persian Gulf. And as of early October 2023, we are seeing the Palestinians at war with Zionist Israel, and the arrival of two US carrier strike groups.
As this article has been around for more than a decade, and updated with key events, it is nearly impossible to keep it a running dialogue of ever-changing events in and related to Syria. The Newslink section is better suited to this task. Please, check the Newslink section for current event updates in Syria and the related players.
Nevertheless, the events of the past years do give us context for where we are headed prophetically. So, while we have had a bit of a lull from previous hot war events in Syria [until the new war ignited in Zionist Israel], and with the focus on Ukraine with Russia. Syria is the second nation to recognize the republics of the Donbas as independent from Ukraine. These events serve a purpose to assemble all the participants together in Syria for the major war to take place, which includes the illegal US military base in eastern Syria. And currently, Turkey continues to stir the pot particularly in the Idlib region of Syria. [For example, Turkish-Backed Terrorists In Syria].
In the Biblical record's prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 17, we read, “The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city. It shall be a ruinous heap. The cities of Aroer are vacated: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid. The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim [see Dan. 11:45], and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, says the LORD of hosts [armies].” [Isa. 17:1-3]. The remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel means that they will suffer the same destructive fate. Keep in mind, the US today has somewhere between 800 and 1000 military bases, i.e., fortresses, worldwide, including those with nuclear weapons, in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain.
As the professed Christian people of the US, UK [including Canada, Australia, and New Zealand] and Western European nations are not looking forward to their destruction, i.e., the events of 'The Apocalypse,' the Saudi Wahabi ISIS [or whatever mutation or name they have adopted or splintered into of late] or the Turkish armed terrorists are wanting to initiate it. Pro-Zionist Western media supports these terrorists over the elected popular government of Syria's Assad. These Western war mongering, so-called journalists, who pander Marxist ideology for a paycheck, are sitting in air conditioned tv production studios or in lofty publishing offices totally ignorant of the fact that they are cheering on their own ultimate demise. It's not unlike pushing the humanity threatening experimental covid injections. [Video: 700 Million Vaxxed Expected To Die By 2028]. Floating on the same porcelain sea as the "deplorables," when the toilet gets flushed, they go with it. Anchors aweigh anyone? [Western Media Grossly Distorts Syrian Events; Elites Will Go Down With The Ship If These Experimental Injections Continue].
In an article written by Graeme Wood for The Atlantic magazine, he wrote "The Islamic State has attached great importance to the Syrian city of Dabiq, [about 217 mi/349 km north of Damascus] near Aleppo. [Hence the intense fighting between the Syrian Army and ISIS in the Aleppo countryside in mid-2017]. It named its propaganda magazine after the town, and celebrated madly when (at great cost) it conquered Dabiq’s strategically unimportant plains. It is here, the Prophet reportedly said, that the armies of Rome1 will set up their camp. The armies of Islam will meet them, and Dabiq will be Rome’s Waterloo or its Antietam [" ... the fortress shall disappear from Ephraim"] ... The Islamic State’s propagandists drool with anticipation of this event, and constantly imply that it will come soon. The state’s magazine quotes Zarqawi as saying, 'The spark has been lit here in Iraq, and its heat will continue to intensify … until it burns the crusader armies in Dabiq.' Now that it has taken Dabiq, the Islamic State awaits the arrival of an enemy army there, whose defeat will initiate the countdown to the apocalypse." [See Map Dabiq; also the March 2015 issue, The Atlantic, What ISIS Really Wants].
This is exactly what the Biblical record's prophesy in Isaiah says too minus the reference to Dabiq. And while the apparent defeat of ISIS/Daesh et al in Syria may appear to set this prophecy aside, although its various manifestations keep popping up when convenient, there are other factors in play that make it very relevant for us. [A 20 Year Retro Look At Syria; see the Feature article, The Princes Of A Plundered House].
Before we get to what lies on our horizon, let’s take a look at the historical and how it was that this prophecy came to be, for the kingdom of Damascus and the fortress of Ephraim, and its cities of Aroer.
Isaiah’s chapter seven provides us the lead-up to the events preceding chapter 17. “In the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, king of Judah, Rezin the king of Syria and Pekah, the son of Remaliah, the king of Israel came [from the north] to Jerusalem to wage war against it, but could not yet mount an attack against it. When the house of David was told [meaning those of Judah, the Jews], ‘Syria is in league with Ephraim [the kingdom of Israel, led by what today is the UK and US],’ the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
“And the LORD said to Isaiah, ‘Go out to meet Ahaz, you and Shear-jashub [Heb., meaning a remnant shall return] your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer's Field. And say to him, 'Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, at the fierce anger of Rezin and Syria and the son of Remaliah.
“Because Syria [Aram], Ephraim [the House of Israel], and the son of Remaliah [the king of Israel], have taken evil counsel against you, saying, ‘Let us go up against Judah and terrorize it, and let us conquer it for ourselves, and set up the son of Tabeal as king in the midst of it,’ thus says the Lord GOD: 'It shall not stand, neither shall it shall come to pass. For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people. And the head of Ephraim is Samaria [the capital city of the kingdom of Israel], and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you will not believe this [have faith, the conviction of the truth], you will not be established at all.'" [Isa. 7:5-9]. These are the events that led to Isaiah’s prophecy in chapter 17. [See the updated Feature article, Little Horn: First Century Antichrist].
There are three key players in Isaiah’s chapter seven. Ahaz was king of the House of Judah, the Jews or as it is sometimes referred to, the house of David. Pekah, from the nation of Ephraim, was the king of the House of Israel, which includes ten nations of Israel. Israel, in addition to being called Ephraim, also was referred to as Samaria, and the house of Joseph. [1 Kng. 11:28-32]. On maps depicting that time, these two are referred to separately as the kingdom, or the House of Israel, and the kingdom, or the House of Judah, which lies south of the House of Israel. [See Kingdoms map; notice the land of the Jews, Judea, did not extend past the north end of the Dead Sea. Any alleged historical claim today by Zionist Israel to the land beyond this geographical point is Biblically invalid].
Our frequent readers know that all Israel, after the reign of Solomon, was split into the House of Judah and the House of Israel. It remains this way today, and will until Christ's return. From this point forward in this article, the Jews, who are those descended from Judah, are referred to as Judah, who was one of Israel’s sons. The Zionist's of Israel today are descendants of Esau/Edom, and therefore, not of Israel in any way, shape or form, despite any proclamations on their part. [Rev. 3:9]. Ten of Israel’s other sons became the House of Israel, or Israel, in the Biblical record after the time of Solomon, the same people to whom Christ said he was only sent at his first coming. The reason why Christ needed to redeem the House of Israel is directly related to these events. [See the Feature article, And It's Still A Mystery]. Israel's other son Levi became the priesthood for all Israel, including both the Houses of Judah and Israel. [See Deu. 18:1, 2; 1 Kng. 12:20].
The third key player, Rezin, was the king of Aram or Syria, which is just to the north of the land of the House of Israel. About 735 BCE, Damascus, Tyre and Ephraim [the House of Israel] attempted to get Judah to join them in a war against the Assyrians. But King Ahaz of Judah turned down their request. Therefore, Damascus [Aram, Syria] and Israel teamed up to fight Judah. Ahaz in turn went to Assyria for help. Ahaz appealed to the king of Assyria, Tiglath-pilaser III [744-727 BCE], for help against Damascus and the House of Israel who were going to war against Judah. [See 2 Kng. 16:7-9]. Tiglath-pilaser was only too happy to oblige Judah. He defeated both Damascus and Israel. History scholars refer to this war as the Syro-Ephraimitic War, 734-732 BCE.
The entire book of Hosea, the first of the Assyrian period prophets, is about Ephraim, the House of Israel’s whoredom in the sight of God [Hos. 2:2], read chapter 5:1-9, “Ephraim shall be desolate … ” and chapter ten, which is about the House of Israel and the land of Samaria and her inhabitants after the divorce from God and the subsequent Assyrian captivity. Hosea wrote this prophetic book about 790 BCE, well before the fortress disappeared from Ephraim, beginning in the 730’s BCE. A note here about Hosea. While this prophecy applied to Ephraim and Israel in the 700s BCE, it also applies today as it includes Judah, Hosea 5:5, which the prophecy didn't apply to about 2800 years ago. This is an example of the duality of prophecy we mentioned at the top of the article.
The historical significance of “the fortress will disappear from Ephraim” was that Israel, not Judah the Jews, were taken into captivity, made slaves by the Assyrians, removed from their land, and scattered throughout the Assyrian empire. Other prophecies, especially in Ezekiel, tell us a similar fate awaits the House of Israel today [Video: UK In Decay, UK-Ephraim, US-Manasseh, Sons Of Joseph, Germany-Benjamin, Sons Of Jacob/Israel And Rachel] along with Damascus becoming a heap of ruins. The Christian nations refer to this as the "Apocalypse." [See the Feature article, And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor]. In Jeremiah three, we are told the House of Israel corrupted the word of God, and was divorced from God because they were idolatrous. They were cast out of the covenant relationship. And as we are told in Isaiah 7, “ … within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.”
Initially, Tiglath-pilaser III didn’t remove everyone from the land of the House of Israel or Samaria, although that was the end result. It took place in successive stages over 65 years exactly as it reads in Isaiah 7. “In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pilaser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abelbethmaachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria.” [2 Kng. 15:29]. This is why Christ began his ministry of redemption of the lost sheep of the House of Israel in the north of the kingdom of Israel, Galilee. [See Mat. 4:14-16, Isa. 9:1, 2; also the Feature article, Galilee Of The Gentiles].
The second stage of captivity came during the reign of Hoshea. “Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria [the capital city], and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria [Israel's capital city], and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.” [2 Kng. 17:5, 6].
The third and final phase of captivity removed the last remnant of Ephraim, the House of Israel from their land sixty-five years after Tiglath-pilaser defeated them. “And the king of Assyria [Esar-haddon] brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Ava, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria [the country] instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.” [2 Kng. 17:24]. When Christ spoke to the Samaritan woman in Matthew 15, she was a descendant of the gentile people brought into the lands by Esar-haddon that previously belonged to the House of Israel.
This is the reason why Christ sent out the apostles in the first century telling them, “Go not into the way of the gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans [these were the descendants of those from Babylon, Cuthah, et al who had occupied cities of Israel for about 700 years by then]. But only go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” [Mat. 10:5, 6]. The cities of Samaria, prior to the Assyrian captivity, belonged to and were occupied by the children of the House of Israel. But by the year 666 BCE or so, they had been completely removed. In their place, the Assyrians brought gentiles into those cities. After seven centuries of residency by these gentiles in Samaria, Christ told his apostles to stay clear and only go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel who had returned, and were to be found in the land. The good news of redemption only was meant for the House of Ephraim/Israel in the Christian age. This was common knowledge among Christians in the first century. [See the Feature articles, The Good News Colour Revolution, What Exactly Is The Gospel? and What About Everyone Else?].
The prophecy of Isaiah 17 also mentions the cities of Aroer. They were cities built in the area east of the Jordan River by the nation Gad, one of the nations of the House of Israel. [See Num. 32:34; 2 Sam 24:5]. Aroer was about 13 miles/21km east of the Dead Sea on the north bank of the Arnon River in the western region of the current day Madaba Governorate, Jordan. Aroer is known as Ara’ir today.
While Gad built these cities, Aroer lay in the southernmost region of the lands of Israel given to their brother, Reuben. Reuben was the first-born son of Israel [See Gen. 49:3, 4], but was supplanted by Ephraim concerning the birthright. [See 1 Chr. 5:1].
When the children of Israel left Egypt, and wandered in the wilderness for forty years, Moses led them to the River Jordan and to the land promised to Abraham. Moses did not take them over the River Jordan into that land, but Joshua did. Joshua, the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek name Jesus, was a descendant of Joseph and Ephraim. [See the Feature article, The Three Times In God's Plan]. However, when the children of Israel were on the east side of the River Jordan, the children of Reuben and Gad, who had an abundance of cattle, meaning goats and sheep, petitioned Moses to give them the land east of the River Jordan because "they saw it was good for grazing."
“So Moses gave to the children of Gad, to the children of Reuben, and to half the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph, the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites and the kingdom of Og king of Bashan, the land with its cities within the borders, the cities of the surrounding country.
“And the children of Gad built Dibon and Ataroth and Aroer, Atroth and Shophan and Jazer and Jogbehah, Beth Nimrah and Beth Haran, fortified cities, and folds for sheep.” [Num. 32:33-36].
At the time of the Assyrian captivity, the cities farthest south and east in the kingdom of Israel were those of Aroer. So from Damascus in the north all the way to the cities on the east side of the Jordan River, Aroer in the south, it appears that Isaiah is making the point that the removal of Ephraim, the kingdom of Israel from their lands by Assyria was to be a thorough undertaking. “The cities of Aroer are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid.”
As we've noted, the prophecy of Isaiah 17 also states, “ … the fortress will disappear from Ephraim ….” This refers, in a dual fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, to the nations of the House of Israel, both then and now. Fortress here is the Hebrew mibtsar meaning a fortification, a stronghold. It is a place safe from the violence of one's enemies. The US and Canada have benefited from this for the first two world wars. Not so for the coming fulfillment of these prophetic events. And currently, both the US and Canada are being destroyed from within. Therefore, aside from the literal application, the larger prophetic scope tells us that the protection today afforded to all the nations of the House of Israel by the hand of God is ceasing. [See Rev. 13:5-8].
And as we’ve just read, the first time this prophecy was fulfilled, the House of Israel was divorced from God, taken captive by the Assyrians and removed from their land primarily due to their idolatry with trees. [Jer. 3:6]. They lost their kingdom as did Damascus. However, as the city of Damascus didn’t cease to be a city, or become a heap of ruins, “ … the fortress will disappear from Ephraim …” has implications for us in these end-times. As Islam sees it, "... the Islamic State awaits the arrival of an enemy army there [Dabiq], whose defeat will initiate the countdown to the apocalypse." These events fit the sequence in Biblical prophecy. [See the Feature article, Our Corrupted Compass].
As we read at the top of the article, the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy is for Ephraim today. Specifically then, who is Ephraim? Ephraim is, present tense, the head, or the kingly line of the nations of the House of Israel since ancient times. Today, Ephraim is Great Britain including the Commonwealth countries of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. The US is his brother, Manasseh, and the Western European Christian countries are the other nations of the House of Israel. [See the Sneakers article, This Old House, and Genesis chapter 49 for a complete list]. For those of you new to our site, read the Feature articles in the sections The Prophecies, The Covenants and The Gospel to help you get up to speed about who’s who, especially the Feature article, Is The US And Great Britain In End-times Bible Prophecy? as we mentioned above.
The fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy regarding Damascus and Ephraim is a reference to these nations, who are the House of Israel that Christ was only sent to in the first century. Going back more than a decade now, most governments of the nations of Ephraim supported “the rebels," i.e., those who later obtained the more "politically acceptable" label as the "moderate rebels,” [See US Support Rebels], who initially were financed by Qatar, and then joined by Saudi Arabia, to the tune of billions of dollars according to the Financial Times. Sunni Qatar's, and Saudi Arabia's hired rebel factions in Syria, including al-Qaeda/ISIS/Daesh/al-Nusra et al, with an influx of weapons from Libya, captured from Libyan weapons depots by ISIS, including chemical weapons, which the CIA stockpiled a large cache of in Jordan, not including the huge arms sales to Saudi Arabia by the US and UK [which seems a bit odd as the US government alleged that most of those involved in the heinous 9/11 attacks were Saudis, see US, Saudis, 9/11, Syria And Related Shenanigans], are seeking to overthrow the current government of Bashar al-Assad, without success to date. Assad referred to the West's supported rebels, moderate or otherwise, as “armed terrorists.” If similar foreign groups operated on US and UK soil, that's what the governments would call them too. And they wouldn't call it a civil war, either. [For a recent update, see Damascus & ISIS].
These so-called rebels/moderate rebels/armed terrorists have been the casus belli steering Damascus on its current course of potentially becoming a heap of ruins.2 Yet, according to reports in Asia Times Online at the time [secular sentiment remains largely the same today, Assad Popularity], discounting the undecided, only 10% of Syria’s population favored the invading rebel cause, while 70% supported the government. This made Qatar's and Saudi Arabia's Western allies pledge to "protect the Syrian people" a bit dubious and rather precarious, especially as the sword of Damascus steel, prophetically, cuts both ways. So, should Biden initiate this big oil war, after losing another war, Ukraine, and pushed by those allied with Zionist Israel, that results in Damascus becoming a heap of ruins, so too will fall the US, UK and Western Europe according to the Biblical prophecies.
When this happens, it will open the prophetic door to the establishment of Babylon the Great with its capital city in Jerusalem. Despite the then US SecState's Pompeo announcement on 12/6, 2018 that the US will head up the new world order, the Biblical prophecies tell us it will be a descendant of Edom ruling over the sixth empire of Revelation 17, "one is." Edom is using the birthright resources of his brothers, Ephraim and Manasseh, to achieve his goals, while gaining dominion over us. [New World Order Proclaimed]. And it was on 12/6 2017 that US president Trump announced Jerusalem is the capital of Zionist Israel. [Jerusalem Zionist Israel's Capital]. And now that Trump had assassinated the popular Iranian Quds Force leader on the way to the funeral of Iraqis killed by US airstrikes in Iraq, we are closer to the prophetic events tied into Damascus. It appears that Donald Trump, an end-times president of the House of Israel's nation of Manasseh, plunged his hands into the blood of the Middle East, circumstances set in motion by the unilateral US withdrawal from the JCPOA at the behest of Zionist Israel. Time will tell what effect this has on future Middle East events as the countries there have long memories regarding US aggression.
As events in Syria and neighboring Iran have been escalated by US-Zionist Israel, it is important for us to remember that the secular catalyst of the soi-disant rebellion is none other than that old villain of Middle East conflict politics … oil and gas. Following the money in the Middle East means following the oil and gas pipelines and the control thereof. Oil and gas flow out one end, money, power and profit the other. It's somewhat ironic that the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic are affecting near future events that will greatly impact the US. [Past 70 Years, Oil War And The Petrodollar; China's Presence In Middle East Oil & Gas Industry A Threat To US Dollar Hegemony].
Gulf Arab oil and gas producing countries, primarily Qatar and Saudi Arabia, plus Turkey and its allies, the euphemistically named Friends of Syria at the time, which should have been named Friends of Our Self-Interests and Pocketbooks, include Egypt, Jordan and the Western nations of the House of Israel in opposition to President Bashar al-Assad, looked upon Syria as a strategic and economic threat to their pipeline for bringing their oil and gas to the West, especially as Russia is now the key player in combating the terrorists in Syria, with assistance from Iran, and the growing strategic and financial support of China. And it may be that Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany should have mollified present day attempts for pipelines through Syria into Europe, instead it has raised the stakes with its cancellation and subsequent sabotage, Western sanctions on Russian gas and oil, and the Ukraine SMO by Russia. The key players are all warming up for the Middle East finale.
Hence, the unchanged, and unhinged, US foreign policy towards Iran, and with Russia, who now will not be bringing energy to the EU via Germany through its Nord Stream 2 pipeline, due to the fruitless sanctions by the US, and the EU, and a bit of "sailboat" sabotage. This is another demonstration of the US animosity towards Russia, although the US establishment has a never-ending supply of reasons including the fact that Russia exists, period. [See US Wants Dominance Of Energy To EU]. Turkiye [aka Turkey], always putting its own self-interests first, also uses this as an opportunity to attack the Kurds in Syria and Iraq. But in the latest machinations, the Biden administration refuses to pull out of this oil-rich Syrian territory. [See Pepe Escobar's, Why Qatar Wants To Invade Syria. Also, Syria War Strategy and Rebel Chem Weapons]. While daily events tend to bubble to the surface and swirl around, changing frequently, the general direction still points us to Damascus.
It just so happened that in 2012 the oil and gas producing countries of Iran and Iraq put together a $10 billion deal with al-Assad [the preliminary agreement was signed in July 2011, Pipeline Deal; the original deal has been proposed again, New 2019 Iran Pipeline Link To Syria] to run their own gas pipeline to and through Syria. The expected export point for this gas would be Tartus, which is the Syrian port city that currently hosts the Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea. The latest quest to move oil and gas from Iran to the Med is by rail. [Transnational Railway].
However, at this point in time in the summer of 2023, there are geopolitical dynamics in play that appear to be changing the landscape leading to the Middle East war, and Damascus becoming a heap of ruins. Ukraine has been a "crowbar" that has pried open Pandora's Box. We are seeing a major shift from West to East. The nations of the West are beginning their prophetic fall from grace as talk of a nuclear war percolates from the unthinkable into the spoken in news reports both East and West, especially as the UK has dumped depleted uranium shells in Ukraine along with the US cluster bombs.
Russia has emerged, in early 2022 with its February SMO in Ukraine, out of its global stage cocoon, along with the emergence of the Fair World Order BRICS and the SCO nations of China, India, Iran, with other member states waiting in the wings. This has lead to a dramatic shifting in the Global South away from the US and it's Western ally nations.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other members of OPEC, along with Russia, OPEC+, are looking to shift control of the world's oil supply away from the US. In a rather ironic move, spurred on by the inept Biden administration, and past US plunders and blunders, long-time US allies Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others are moving with haste towards the East and Russia's camp. Putin has coupled this with his proposal to Turkiye's Erdogan to make Turkiye the oil and gas hub for the region. The sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, coupled with the suicidal sanctions the EU and the US have placed on Russia, which has acted like throwing gas on a fire, has accelerated us into this geopoilitical juxtaposition where Russia is in a position to influence the flow, and pricing, of Middle East oil, not the US as they had intended when they began their proxy war on Syria. All these events have lead to Russia's economy moving up from the 10th and 11th place in the world a few years ago to being the 5th biggest eceonomy behind China, the US, India, and Japan.
Remember, it was the US desire to control and bring Middle East oil in pipelines up through Iran, Iraq or Syria, then to Turkiye to bring oil to Europe. This would ensure the US position as the world's unipolar hegemon, keeping the monopoly money petrodollar as the world's reserve currency. Yet four wars later, involving Iran, Iraq, Syria and now Ukraine have resulted in the opposite for the US. Imagine Saudi Arabian, UAE et al oil flowing through pipelines running through Syria to Turkiye, all masterminded and facilitated by the resource rich and militarily superior Russia? In addition to all the other financial pressures on the US and the West, this would doom the petrodollar and relegate the US to backwater status at best, the prophetic "fortress departing from Ephraim" notwithstanding.
If Russia emerges victorious in Ukraine, pretty much a given, and the US backs off or is put off Taiwan and China, after the major fail of Afghanistan, and facing the prospect of being tossed out of the Middle East, backed into this corner, what would be the most likely scenario to take place? In one last gasp at holding on to its position in the world, while falling apart domestically, the living by the sword MIC [military-industrial complex] US/UK will throw all that is has into the Middle East. This is the prophetic war we read about in Daniel, chapter 11.
"At the time of the end, the king of the South [historically Egypt] shall attack him [the collective West led by the US and UK]; and the king of the North [historically Damascus from the geographic perspective of Jerusalem] shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter the countries, overwhelm them, and pass through. He shall also enter the Glorious Land [Israel], and many shall be overthrown; but these shall escape from his hand: Edom [see chapter 6, p. 185ff, The Blind Man's Elephant], Moab, and the prominent people of Ammon [Jordan]. He shall stretch out his hand against the countries, and the land of Egypt shall not escape." [Dan. 11:40-42].
In the recent retaliatory attack by Iran on Zionist Israel, April 2024, it was the "prominent people," the rulers including Abdullah II, the king in Amman, Jordan's capital, that shot down Iranian drones "over Jordan by The Little King’s military – the Arab street will never forget his treachery." [Iran's Retaliation and Jordan's Fall From Grace In The Muslim World].
"He shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; also the Libyans and Ethiopians shall follow at his heels. But news from the east [China] and the north [Russia] shall trouble him; therefore he shall go out with great fury to destroy and annihilate many. And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas [the Dead Sea and the Med] and the glorious holy mountain [Jerusalem]; yet he [prophetically the House of Israel, the collective West] shall come to his end, and no one will help him." [Dan. 11:43-45]. This neatly ties into the prophecy in Zechariah, "But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate." Ask yourself what would make the land of the House of Israel so desolate in a war that no one would pass through it or would return to it? [9 0f 10 Americans Die Just From Fallout].
With this in our near future, it's probably wise to get our personal houses in order. [Medvedev Warns Zionist Israel About Arms To Ukraine; see the Sneakers article, As It Was In The Beginning, So It Is At The End; and the Feature article, And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor].
The point made in this paragraph is something, from the secular perspective, we should always remember. It’s no coincidence that the seeds of the Syrian "rebellion" were sown along with plans for the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline.3 It was the first domino to fall challenging the West's hegemony over Middle Eastern oil. For nearly the past 120 years, the West has viewed the Middle East's oil as their own. This colonial mindest continues today as the US is illegally occupying the oil fields in eastern Syria, stealing their oil. As Great Britain's Winston Churchill stated about Persia's [Iran] oil just after the turn of the 20th century, “Fortune brought us a prize from fairyland beyond our wildest dreams.”
Once Assad signed his name to the agreement, Sunni Qatar and Saudi Arabia sent to "Syria's fairyland" its hired guns, aka al-Qaeda, aka ISIS aka Daesh et al, supported by its lead from behind US [US In Syria, i.e., Edom4, see the Feature article, Is That You, Big Brother?] allies to get rid of the Assad government. And now with the apparent defeat of its Sunni terrorists, the US and allies have nested in the oil rich Kurdish region in order to partition Syria, though quixotic "Sultanate Turkey" is making moves into this area, and Idlib at present. The overthrow of governments is the same modus operandi the US has followed since the CIA Iran coup in 1953. [Iran Coup; Libya Coup]. And Iran remains firmly in the sights of Zionist US and Israel's foreign policy. [See Zionist Greater Israel Plan]. But as noted above, Saudi Arabia, OPEC and Turkey are now moving away from the West. Such are the turbulent dynamics of the Middle East.
Adding to the urgency of this foreign pipeline uprising was that Iran was expected to exceed Qatar’s gas production by 2016 according to its government officials, something the US could not tolerate. As the tide turned in Syria against the US, the Trump administration pulled out of the JCPOA, and has started an economic war with Iran. By the middle of 2020, military events escalated on the part of the US, though they remain simmering just below the surface in mid-2021 with Biden as president. [A 2022 Lookback At Syria].
And as geopolitics would have it, there are two straws in this Iran/Qatar milkshake. The world’s largest known gas reserve, the South Pars/North Dome Gas-Condensate field, is shared between two nations … Iran and Qatar. Perhaps Russia's big picture plan for Middle East will entice all these players to cooperate. Initially, both the Chinese and French signed on to develop Iran's South Pars milkshake straw. But the French pulled out over US sanctions. China now has a about an 80% stake in the development of this energy field. And China has a 25 year trade and military cooperation deal with Iran as well. Question is, will China's military move in at some point to protect its investment? And will Qatar and Iran work together for a new geopolitical alignment favorable to both, but not the US and the West? [China South Pars; also see Pipeline Wars; 2017: Trump And Pipelines; Qatar Crisis: Natural Gas Pipelines].
Though Russia's diplomacy in the Middle East has altered the current day outlook, Iran, Iraq and Syria form an unbroken geographic Shia barrier between Sunni Qatar and Saudi Arabia’s sought after pipeline routes to the Western markets of Europe through Turkey. [Middle East Pipeline Wars In 4 Maps]. This is one reason why the Kurdish area of Syria has been a hot spot of contention. The breaking up of this geographic barrier is one believable, not to mention suspicious, reason why in the aftermath of 9/11 the US, with its fake claim of WMD, invaded Iraq rather than the alleged 9/11 perpetrators, the US BFF Saudi Arabia. It's always about the oil and the petrodollar. [Saddam Dumped The Petrodollar; also Condi Rice 2017: Iraq Wasn't About Democracy; George Bush 2003: Iraq Democracy, Freedom, which sounds exactly like Trump's former SecState Pompey-o, only applied towards China].
But in an unexpected twist, not only has China brokered a reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, US actions in the Middle East have brought the Sunnis and the Shias together, when not that long ago they were on opposite sides of the fence. So it's not just Russia and China that US policies have driven together. Expect more of this sort of reaction from other nations and factions around the world too. Saudi Arabia has reached out to Hezbollah to establish formal ties. The US has labeled Hezbollah a violent terrorist group.
Political cover stories [lies] come out the chute like a hare on fire. Their purpose is to hide the greed behind the military actions. Controlling Iraq's oil market and the land route for a pipeline from the confederate oil producing Arab countries, opens the flow of oil to the West, not to mention blocking Iran's access to the Med. It also had the potential bonus prize of Iraq’s vast oil reserves. [See Trump's Taking Iraq Oil].
However, the 2003 Bush-Cheney-Rice-Rumsfeld-Powell ghostbuster gambit backfired. It is China with its Silk Road initiatives, and now its "Goldie Yuan," China's gold back currency for oil trade, which buys about half of all the oil Iraq produces, and is looking for more. The China-Iran deal of 2020 is a result. China has been the chief beneficiary of the gratuitous loss of human life and the trillions of US taxpayer dollars spent on the travesty to exorcise Iraq of its terrifying “mushroom cloud” phantom, WMD. And Trump's gambit with the assassination of Iran's top general, Soleimani, set up the region for a lot more turmoil and chaos, if not outright war. As noted above, countries in the Middle East have long memories when it comes to US aggression.
As a side note, the US leaders, deep state and corporate media went berserk about the fabricated story of Saddam's alleged WMD, and the visions of "mushroom clouds over America" according to fearmonger Condoleezza Rice. That was the cover story [i.e., lie] for public consumption. It really was selling his oil for euros rather than dollars. [Oil For Euros]. Yet, when Trump visits Putin, who has more than enough confirmed nukes to wipe out all life in the US many times over, these same folks aren't concerned in the least about a nuclear WW3. Rather their berserk reaction is that former President Trump was treasonous for wanting to normalize relations with Russia to prevent WMD from raining down on the USA. This appears to indicate that the deep state doesn't feel Russia's policies are a real military threat to the US, but Putin is a needed convenient diversionary bogeyman for the military industrial complex schemes in the Middle East. Well, at least, until Russia's dominance in the Ukraine war upset the apple cart. Added to this is the emerging Fair World Order, BRICS+, the SCO et al, led by Russia and China making real inroads into the petrodollar's reserve currency dominance. And dominance means control of the energy resources of the Middle East. This ties in very neatly with Biblical prophecy.
In terms of Isaiah's prophecy, there is the added benefit for the one worlders, the Zionists destabilizing the "Christian" US and Western European societies, not just with the woke, transgender agenda, but through the influx of displaced non-Christian refugees-terrorists as we've witnessed in recent years in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Spain and other European countries, not to mention the Marxist societal attacks on everything white. [See Refugee Trojan Horse; US’s War, China’s Oil; Swedish Culture Losing To Refugees]. Currently, there are 3 EU countries refusing to accept these Trojan horses, Hungary in particular. However, they were facing legal threats from the Soros globalists within the EU. [See Trojan Horses; Globalist Media Sinks To New Lows Of Indoctrination]. And now, of course, we have a new spectre, fake pandemics whose real intent is financial harm to countries while these globalist billionaires gain more control over the surviving depopulated masses. And despite talk of Russia using nukes, maybe their next scaredemic will be a bio-terrorist attack, a la 9/11, allegedly from Russia or China, and perhaps Iran too. All options are on the table now.
Despite the obvious lack of evidence, clumsy efforts to hastily pin the use of chemical weapons on the Assad government [the second time in April 2017, and the latest, April 2018], allegedly in Douma as prodigiously propagated by Western media, internal whistleblowers at the OPCW have discredited the official OPCW "scientific" evidence supporting the US political propaganda, [the False Flag Gas Attack, and 40 TONS Of Chem Weapons Supplied To Terrorists By US, Allies] in order to justify overt US intervention. [See Turkey Supplied Sarin Gas Materials To ISIS, and Evidence US/UK Made Chem Weapons Used In Syria].
It is rather like the Western kangaroo court antics regarding the Malaysia airliner shot down in Ukraine, and the absurd accusation that it was Assad, not Turkey, buying ISIS oil sucked from Syrian soil, [see Oil]. The latest absurd story is that Russia sabotaged it's own Nord Stream pipelines. However, these machinations are nothing more than a trite variation of the failed Bush-Cheney gambit by the "Friends of Syria" governments viz a viz the rebel factions, only this time around "chemical weapons" became the manufactured apparition of justification. As US SecState Pompey-o cheerfully proclaimed, "We lie, we cheat, we steal." Wag the dog.
However, it appeared former President Trump tired of these diversionary approaches for grabbing the oil and getting rid of Iran, Iraq and Syria for more direct means. Nevertheless, one thing doesn't change. Follow the oil pipelines. Governments always act in their own apparent self-interests, now excepting Germany in particular, EU in general, or with the US, in Zionist Israel's interests. [President Biden Kneels Before Zionist Israeli President]. Only the tactics and propaganda change, not the goal. Although, running after this ill-fated secular goal has the potential to produce the larger, more impactful prophetic results for the UK, US and Western Christian nations of the House of Israel of which Isaiah wrote.
What machinations lie ahead? Toward the end of 2015, after a year of alleged airstrikes by the "mightiest military in the history of the world" US, which more likely was a PR cover story, pipsqueaks ISIS/ISIL/Daesh/al-Qaeda/al-Nusra were stronger than in the previous year. This is evidence of the neocon West's normal duplicity by saying one thing in the mass media and doing another. [See US Feudal Hegemony]. Now we have witnessed the US's big three targets, Russia, Iran, as well as Chinese military advisors in Syria at the invitation of Assad, to eliminate the threat from ISIS et al. The two sides are lining up as the prophecies indicate. The success of Syrian forces against the terrorist rebels, coupled with the arrived at countrywide ceasefire [and a new area ceasefire in the southwest of Syria, July 2017], despite continuance of daily battles and direct intervention by the US, and the ongoing Astana plenary sessions by the parties, the climactic battle involving Damascus looms in the not so distant future.
There is an interesting quote from Sir George Clerk, a senior British Foreign Office official, and later minister to Czechoslovakia, in the book The Silk Roads, in which he says, "If we do not make relatively small sacrifices, and alter our policy, in Persia [Iran] now, we shall both endanger our friendship with Russia and in a comparatively near future ... a situation where our very existence as an Empire will be at stake." He wrote this in 1914. And the British Empire is long gone. Here we are more than one hundred years later in virtually the same situation with essentially all the same players, with the American Empire at stake, including all the Biblical nations of Israel today. Our LORD's warning to us is true.
Regardless of various tactics and the ever changing metrics, one fact remains clear. Syria and the Christian nations destinies of Ephraim are intertwined. Ironically, the people, and the elected leaders of the US, UK and Germany, Israel's sons with Rachel in Genesis [Gen. 35:24], [the Obama-Cameron-Merkel trio, replaced by the Trump-May-Merkel trio,then the Trump-Johnson-Merkel trio, now Biden taking the place of Trump, Merkel out with Scholtz in place, and Johnson/Truss out too, and Sunak in, it's difficult to keep up, but you get the idea ... the puppets change, but the controlling masters don't], who believe they are oh so clever, are clueless that they are, in fact, scheming our collective demise. Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital is the first domino to fall leading to Babylon the Great's Jerusalem, now followed by the second, the announcement of the US as leader of the rules based world order, like it or not, on behalf of Zionist Israel. [See the Feature article, Why Do We Believe The Lies?]. ISIS, and the Wahabists, however, appear to be fully cognizant of what is taking place. According to Isaiah's prophecy, the actions by all sides are on track leading to the advent of Babylon the Great. [Note: As events in the world involving Syria, and the other nations of the Middle East, are changing so rapidly, please read related articles for events, which are posted daily, in our Newslink section; also US-China: It's All About Iran-Iraq-Syria At Behest Of Zionist Israel].
From the secular perspective, it’s not just about the Arab countries south of Syria that makes Syria so vital. Conflict politics involving oil, gas and pipelines have a history in the region, which extends from Syria on the Med to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan on the eastern side of the Caspian Sea. Pepe Escobar has dubbed this vast strategic arena as “Pipelineistan.” Oil lust, therefore, just happens to be the secular means driving all the involved Western parties to their prophesied end. For the Wahabis and other Islam devotees, it is more theological in nature.
In an article that appeared in the British newspaper The Guardian in February 2001, it stated, “In November 1998, Bill Richardson, then US energy secretary, spelled out his policy on the extraction and transport of Caspian oil. "This is about America's energy security," he explained.5 It's also about preventing strategic inroads by those who don't share our values. We're trying to move these newly independent countries toward the West. We would like to see them reliant on Western commercial and political interests rather than going another way. [This would be Russia, China primarily]. We've made a substantial political investment in the Caspian, and it's very important to us that both the pipeline map and the politics come out right." And might makes right, right!? However, events in this geographic region appear to favor the Eurasian countries. [The Zangezur Corridor]. Add to this Germany's Merkel, who proposed the pipeline to Putin, has backed the Nord Stream 2 to completion, which had the desperate US threatening to pull its troops out of Germany. They won't. And now Biden has thrown in the towel trying to stop the pipeline. Instead, the US coerced Germany not to certify its use. Then, the Nord Stream pipelines mysteriously got blown up, and the collective West is silent in public as to who did it, though every country in the world knows, even the US. [Video: Biden On Pipeline].
A real nightmare for the US et al and its Gulf Arab allies is imagining the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline route scenario, but with Iran as a nuclear power, de facto or not, whose independent central bank stops using US petrodollars and switches to a yet to be determined international currency separate from the US dollar, while moving closer to Russia, China and the rest of the SCO. Iran is now a member of the SCO with plenty of others wanting to get in including Turkiye.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, previously the Shanghai Five, see SCO, is a political, economic and military organization founded in 2001. [See Central Bank And Nuclear Sanctions; also the Feature article, Isaiah 63: Big Brother]. And Iran has made it known that if the US pulls out of the nuke agreement [now a done deal], then Iran will work with China to develop its nuclear program. No word if this is part of the 25 year deal with China. This firmly would put China into the Syrian war mix, along with the South Pars oil and gas investment, as Iran has stepped up its enrichment program, which greatly complicates the regional geopolitical dynamic and takes brinkmanship to a whole new level. This may have been more of a reason for Trump's China trade war even more than the US inability to compete with China on an even playing field. And added to the China mix is the Wuhan lab-biowar scenario now in the lap of Biden, who has questionable personal/family relations with China.
While the US dreams of Iran regime change, Iran now has full membership in the SCO, approved in September 2021, and has applied to become a member of BRICS, so they will not need nukes of their own. As SCO members Russia, China, India, and Pakistan [a reason for the US backed coup of Imran Khan's govenment?] have plenty to go around, some could be placed in Iran, a non-nuclear weapon country, a la Russian nukes in Belarus, justifying this using the same rationale as the US does with its nukes in Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, UK, "non-nuclear" countries. That definitely will put some poo-poo in the knickers of NATO, CENTCOM and Zionist Israel generals. [US Nukes In Europe]. The web they weave gets more intricate with each passing day.
In November 2012, the Norwegian awarded Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, then US President Obama canceled American participation in a Middle East nuclear weapons-free zone conference scheduled for Finland in December, effectively killing the conference which was supported by Iran, Egypt, the Sunni Arab states, the non-aligned UN member states and the European parliament. A US State Department [aka Zionist Israel] spokesperson said the US would not participate in a conference in which a regional state [read the only nuclear weapon state of the Levant, Zionist Israel] would be subject to pressure or isolation. Meanwhile, the US president had no compunction about the “nuke” sanctions aimed at pressuring and isolating the regional non-nuclear weapon state of Iran. These hypocritical decisions politically benefited Zionist Israel, not the US. A six nation deal, the JCPOA, with Britain, France, Russia, China, the US and Germany was reached with Iran in 2015. [Iran Nuke Deal Facts]. However, President Trump's unilateral thoughts about not honoring the agreement have come to fruition. Again, it is a political benefit to Zionist Israel, but not for the greater, or even lesser, US interests in the Middle East. For the West, the benefit is still about the oil, complicated by the embarrassment of the Iranians, remembering past US interference and aggression, taking back control of their oil from the US in 1979.
There was another, more ominous, event on the horizon as Trump announced plans to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv, Zionist Israel's modern capital, to Jerusalem, which is now a done deal. The official date was the 70th anniversary of the state of Israel in May 2018. Obviously, this move has been welcomed by Zionist Israel's Netanyahu. In 1995, the AIPAC's US Congress passed a law requiring the US to recognize Israel as the sole legitimate state, and to move its embassy to Jerusalem. However, every US president has signed a waiver (King's X?) to this law every six months since 1995. So, safely after the June 1, 2017 waiver signing deadline, the US Senate voted on a resolution, 90-0, on June 9, 2017 to have the president honor the 1995 law.6 It was much ado about nothing as President Trump had signed the waiver of the law on June 1.
But, what proved significant here was that the Zionist, globalist-owned mainstream corporate mass media had been giving the 1995 US congressional law recognizing the state of Israel as the sole legitimate entity over Jerusalem, and the moving of the US Embassy, prominent coverage since Trump's 2016 election. Under previous presidents of Clinton, Bush and Obama, hardly a peep. The sudden media attention had the feel of priming the pump by the politicians and Zionists for taking this action sooner rather than later, which Trump did on December 6, 2017. And a month before the scheduled May move, Zionist mouthpiece Trump challenged Russia, China and Iran too with his second false flag missile attack. One of these times, it may well be more than a few vacated buildings that are attacked by the US whoever is president. The Soleimani assassination by the Trump administration was just that. How far will the US push? So, keep a watchful eye on this pivotal point of prophecy because it is not going away despite being out of sight. [See US Jerusalem Move; One More Step On The Way To Jerusalem and Jews Creeping Into Muslim's Temple Mount].
Jerusalem is not the official capital of Israel, despite US presidential proclamations, but rather it is administered under a UN resolution for Jews, Christians and Muslims ... for the time being. The unilateral move to change this by the US may end by blowing up the entire Middle East [Trump's "Peace", i.e., War Plan], which is another step towards the war that we read about in Isaiah and in Daniel's chapter 11. The point to consider: are the tidings out of the north and east, Russia-China, with the SCO, economic warnings from them to the Zionist-led US? It's shaping up this way so far with the central banker's weakening petrodollar's hegemony hanging in the balance.
One US Admiral thinks so. "Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, under the cover of “strategic deterrence”, the head of the US STRATCOM, Admiral Charles Richard, casually let it slip that “there is a real possibility that a regional crisis with Russia or China could escalate quickly to a conflict involving nuclear weapons, if they perceived a conventional loss would threaten the regime or state. So the blame for the next – and final – war is already apportioned to the “destabilizing” behavior of Russia and China. It’s assumed they will be “losing” – and then, in a fit of rage, will go nuclear. The Pentagon will be no more than a victim; after all, claims Mr. STRATCOM, we are not “stuck in the Cold War.” [Pepe Escobar, The Duran].
One problem, however, is the the US and the West do not have, at this time, a viable defense against Russia's hypersonic nuclear missiles. Despite this admiral's outlook, the outcome for the US and Western Europe is not good according to the prophecies. "But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate." [Zec. 7:14, Heb, šāmēm desolate, stunned]. This would be an apt description in the aftermath of a nuclear war that leaves your land desolate. This prophecy was written by Zechariah, c. 520 BCE, well after the House of Israel was removed from their land by the Assyrians beginning about 200 years prior. This refers to our modern day land of the House of Israel.
Eventually, the answer to our question about Damascus becoming a heap of ruins, and the fortress departing from Ephraim is yes because the Jerusalem move is a significant prophetic step in that direction by all the Biblical players involved.
As noted above, added to this step, on December 6, 2018, a year to the day after Trump okayed the US embassy move to Jerusalem in December 6, 2017, the US-Zionist SecState announced that the world must cave in to its new world Zionist-US order. [New World Order]. Left unsaid, this includes a new domestic military-political system for the US as well, led by Northcom. [Northcom; also see US Government Plot To Destabilize US]. The Central Command will become operational in the Middle East, for the time being, though, its official HQ remains in Tampa, Florida. The US can't compete and achieve its goals in a multi-lateral world we are told. Russia and China have gotten too strong economically. And they are threatening the hegemony of the US dollar. And Russia's move as a major player to control oil flow and prices is not unnoticed. So, the bully thug approach is brought out, not unlike Hitler's prior to WW2. However, as we are witnessing, Russia and China are not going to roll over. Yet, an all-out war with them would destroy the entire planet. The Zionist led US, therefore, will settle for the prophetic Middle East war as written in the book of Daniel with the prophetic fallout devastating the people of the House of Israel.
Remember, prophetically, the Beast, Babylon the Great's headquarters will be in Jerusalem. [See the Sneakers article, Beware The Sackbut ... And 666!]. And God's use of Edom extends to punish all the nations of Israel, although they will rule over the religions of the children of Abraham, Judaism, Christianity and Islam as written in Daniel 7:24. Time will tell if either of these, or a combination thereof, is the catalyst or a result of the prophetic scenario we are told of in Isaiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.
When the Beast, Babylon the Great's hegemon from Jerusalem has become a fait accompli, the "fortress will depart" from the US, UK and the Western nations. They will no longer exist and function as we know them today. [Rev. 17:17]. Such are the increasingly shifting, turbulent and duplicitous geopolitical games being played in “Pipelineistan” that currently swirl about, leading to Damascus becoming a heap of ruins.
The other aggravating factor is religious as we noted. Iran’s leadership, and Iraq’s current Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani and Syria’s al-Assad are Shi’a Muslims. On the other hand, the decision makers and money suppliers of Saudi Arabia are Sunni Muslims. However, China has brokered a rapprochement. As noted, it's another twist in the geopolitical events in the Middle East, one which gives the US and the collective West another reason to focus on the oil rich Middle East.
By way of recap, the war in Syria may have cooled down in the media temporarily [fall 2015] with the agreement to destroy Syria's chemical weapons, the war in Syria heated up dramatically, the summer of 2017 and into the spring of 2018, with Russia's involvement for ridding ISIS at the behest of Assad, the US illegally setting up its own no go zones on Syrian soil, to say nothing of Turkey's aggressive provocateur actions regarding the US allies in eastern Syria, the Kurds, and the French joining in as well. The question in summer 2019, could Trump talk someone into replacing US troops in Syria? But in early 2020, the Pentagon said the US will not leave Iraq. All this US talk of troop stay/go is a day to day endeavor, although there was some talk of US leaving Syria's oil fields, they're staying. Recently, there have been attacks on US troops there. And the relatively new development of US/UK warships in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, has been added to the mix as the Iranian, Chinese and Russian warships hold joint drills for the first time. Syria is a bit like crossing from one train car to another during a journey, but the train continues towards its destination.
We need to watch the events unfolding daily in Syria, Iran, and Zionist Israel even more closely now as the US goals in Syria are not going to change, thereby dropping Ephraim into the same prophetic pot as Damascus. It remains to be seen what President Biden will do in Syria, and just as importantly with Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Zionist Israel. [Trump Hard Line On Iran]. Although reports about Biden's recent key warmongering cabinet members indicate it will not be business as usual in the Middle East. China and Russia are the key threat to the Zionist/Edom's quest for a new rules based order. [The Saudi-Israeli Link To Syria's War]. Stay tuned because none of this is going away. It's only going to escalate, zig and zag, experiencing peaks and valleys along the way. More and more, however, the gravitas of Middle East events will draw all the key players closer to critical mass resulting in the fulfilling of Isaiah's prophecy. Now, it's just a matter of when, and when seems closer than ever, if not already here.
The first written mention of Damascus was by the Egyptians, referred to as Ta-ms-qu in 15th century BCE. By 1000 BCE, Aramaeans called it Dimashqu. Aram is the ancient name for Syria. And by the time of the Biblical prophecies of Isaiah concerning Israel and Assyria, the 8th century BCE, it was in Hebrew, Dammeseq. By the way, the ancient Assyrian Empire included as part of its territory portions of modern day Iran, Iraq and Syria, with its capital city, Nineveh, about 710 BCE, situated along the Tigris River, which is in Iraq.
We should point out that Damascus, astride the Barada River, or Abana as it was known millennia ago, has been a lived-in city for the better part of 3500 years, even after defeat and occupation by the Assyrians as well as the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Ottomans and the French after the defeat of the Ottomans in WW1 under the terms of the secretive Sykes-Picot agreement. There is no record of Damascus having ceased being a city since it came into existence, much less having been reduced to a pile of rubble. To say this is significant in terms of Isaiah's prophecy and the dynamic events in and around Syria today is a huge understatement.
According to Ross Burns, in his excellent book tracking Damascus from its origin in the Bronze Age all the way through to the end of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the Assyrians, early 8th century BCE, destroyed 591 towns of Syria, but not Damascus. While its residents were taken into captivity, and the kingdom of Syria [Aramea] essentially was destroyed as Isaiah said, Burns notes, “Damascus remained, however, the chief city of Syria, even under Assyrian rule." About 1350 years after Damascus transitioned from Aramean to Assyrian dominion, "Damascus was the first major city brought into the Arab sphere." [Damascus: A History, p. 19, 108, Ross Burns, 2004]. This was about forty years or so after Muhammad moved from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE, which marked the official beginning of Islam.
Nearly 1250 years prior to the beginning of Islam, in the year 626 BCE, or thereabouts, the prophet Jeremiah prophesied concerning Damascus. “Damascus has become feeble, she turned to flee, and panic has gripped her; anguish and pain have seized her, pain like that of a woman in labor. Why is the city of praise not deserted, the city of joy? Therefore, her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, says the LORD of hosts.” [Jer. 49:24-26]. That day has yet to be fulfilled.
From the historical perspective, despite all the wars, conquests, captivities, all the sustained imperial and political changes involving Damascus and its environs over the millennia, it is quite remarkable that Damascus never ceased being an inhabited city. Jerusalem, by comparison, was made desolate, a barren uninhabited area from 70 CE until 136 CE or so when the Romans, after a few years of fighting with the Jews, the Bar Kokhba revolt [see Fall of Jerusalem], built the Roman city, Aelia capitalina, on its site. Jews were barred from the new city upon penalty of death except on the day of Atonement, and then they had to be out of town by sunset just like in the old cowboy movies. Emperor Hadrian dispensed with the name Judea and gave the new province a Latin name, Syria Palaestina.
It was the Arabs, not the Jews, who took Aelia capitalina [on the site of what was Jerusalem] away from the Roman Empire in 638 CE. And the "temple" walls of Jerusalem today were built by Suleiman the Magnificent between 1537 to 1541. [See Jerusalem Walls]. They do not date back to the first century Herodian [Edomite] temple as is commonly purported today by Zionist Israel, which is promulgated to give credence to Zionist political claims on the land of ancient Israel. [Zionist's Greater Israel Plan; also see Mat. 24:1, 2]. So, the Roman city was not named Jerusalem, ironically, until it was conquered by the Arabs. While Jerusalem suffered destruction, non-existence and ignominy for several hundred years, Damascus remained an inhabited city, the heap of ruins prophecy yet to be fulfilled.
Given the state of affairs in Syria, however, time will tell if our contemporary oil and pipeline inspired events associated with Damascus and Ephraim are the harbinger of Isaiah’s prophecy. While the timing of events indicates a fulfilling of Isaiah’s 17 prophecy, Damascus, and Ephraim, the US, England and the Commonwealth, and the Christian nations of Europe, are wedded together in its eventual prophetic outcome. To understand the fulfillment of this prophecy for the House of Israel, we need to comprehend what happened the first time. As we’ve seen, it was the most calamitous event in the history of Israel to that point. God divorced the House of Israel for being idolatrous. They were removed from their homes and lands, then scattered about the Assyrian Empire. A similar destiny awaits the children of the House of Israel in the near future. [See The Feature article, And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor].
Imagine that government troops in full military gear barge into your house and put you and your family members in shackles. Anyone who resists is killed on the spot. With nothing but the clothes on your back, they lead you out your front door to waiting trucks. You see the same thing is happening to all your neighbors. As you are being loaded into the trucks, you see non-House of Israel foreigners moving in to your house. They have been given all your possessions to be their own. In return, you will be sent to foreign lands to become slave laborers. Your country as you knew it no longer exists. And on top of all this, you are cut off from the covenant relationship and protection of God. This was the lot of our ancestors. They became the lost sheep of the House of Israel.
Yet something worse lies in store today for the House of Israel. “ … and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation ….” [Dan.12:1]. The very near future iteration of “the fortress will disappear from Ephraim,” according to the prophecies, the time of Jacob's or Israel's troubles [Jer. 30:4-7], the "Apocalypse," will be as it was for our ancestors in the kingdom of Israel millennia ago. Not only will our LORD's protection of our nations cease, but he will set his hand deliberately against us. For Isaiah also prophesied, “ … therefore He [Christ] was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.” [Isa. 63:10; see the Feature article, Christ Against Christians].
The context here in Isaiah 63 is Edom in the end times, specifically what we refer to as the Apocalypse. [See the Feature article, Isaiah 63: Big Brother]. Zionist Edom is the sixth head of the Beast, 666, and Israel's older brother, “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints [Houses of Israel and Judah] and to overcome them ….” [Rev. 13:7]. In case we think this is solely a reference to the way distant future, it’s not.
Emerging on our horizon are the prophetic events regarding the sixth empire, the Lawless One. [2 Ths. 2:9; see the Feature article, Why Do We Believe The Lies?]. We need to objectively ask ourselves, which nation of the world constantly and unwaveringly ignores international law, unilaterally starts wars, pulls out of treaties as they please, violates the sovereignty of other nations, especially oil rich Middle Eastern countries, and its people act as if they are salubrious sheep grazing in tall green grass? Which group of nations are operating in Syria without the invitation of the democratically elected Syrian government? These are rather interesting, and prophetically relevant questions.
To wit, “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns ….” [Rev. 13:1].7 Head six is Babylon the Great. The ten horns are the nations of Biblical Israel that have national identities today according to Genesis 49. Notice the apostle John in the book of Revelation did not say, "I stood on the shore of the sea," where we expect to find sea sand. The Greek word in Rev. 13:1 for sand is ammos. The shore of the sea, or the beach is aigialos. The bottom of the sea is sand too. And, if the ocean water were to drain away, it would leave behind the sand of the former sea. And if you were to stand there, you would be standing on the sand of the sea rather than the sea shore.
It is interesting that the desert sands of the Middle East were once part of the ancient Tethys Sea. And it is known that oil forms under ancient seas. And it is the lust for, and control of the sea of oil and gas under that sand, "a prize from fairyland beyond our wildest dreams," by the Western nations, the theological "sand of the sea," led by those controlling the US/UK that drives our secular current events, the events of these prophecies, which will give rise to the Beast of Babylon the Great with its HQ in Jerusalem.
Revelation 13:1 may be a bit more literal than we thought it to be when the apostle John said, "I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea." Our current geopolitical events make it very clear that the Middle East wars that will give rise to the Beast are not about sea water or sand. It's all about who controls the sea of oil under that sand. [Tethys Sea; Oil Formation; see the Sneakers article, Daniel Dreamed About Us, and the Feature article, The War Dispatches]. When we look at present-day events and Biblical prophecies, they are coalescing, shrink-wrapping around the House of Israel, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Damascus as Isaiah 17 says. [US: No Normalization For Syria].
One other factor to consider is that when the petrodollar monopoly is broken, that is, it no longer is the primary currency for the buying and selling of oil worldwide, especially Middle Eastern oil, it puts the Zionist Edomite controlled central banking system in great jeopardy, and pushes the US dollar and economy to the cliff's crumbling edge. Russia's oil and gas for rubles is moving events in this direction as Saudi Arabia has begun selling its oil in currencies other than the US dollar.
The US is the world's largest debtor nation in history. And that debt is growing at an alarming rate, now about $32 trillion, helped along significantly by the trillions of dollars "covid" bailout. But as long as the petrodollar is in play and the British with the US Wall Street central banker's control the flow of capital through its corrupt central banking system, it can be held together, although the Ukraine blood sucking war is not helping. [With The Weakening Of The Petrodollar, Bank Of England Chief Pushes For New Synthetic Currency].
But the twin Achilles Heels of the US are its reliance on the petrodollar, and its millstone debt. If all this is threatened, it is possible the US and allies would have no choice but to start a war as its ability to impose meaningful economic sanctions would be nullified as we've seen with the Russia sanctions blowback on the West. The only other stick it has is its military, arguably not the world's strongest [US Loses To Russia-China In Simulated War Games], not including the nukes of Russia and China. This sets up both the Damascus and Jerusalem prophecies for the end-times. [See China's Yuan Can Break The Petrodollar and Trade War And The Petrodollar].
The people of the nations of Ephraim, the House of Israel, taking the path that leads us through the wide gate and the broad way, have made Christ our enemy. [America: From From God-fearing Republic To Lawless Empire]. And while we know the sequence of these events in Revelation, we aren’t given a timeline. The only reference we have is that the sixth empire will have dominion for 42 months or three and a half years just prior to Christ’s return. [Rev. 13:5; see the Feature articles, Obadiah And The Parable Of The Tares and Revelation 17: Big Brother, The Beast Of Babylon, and for an in-depth look, chapter six, The Blind Man’s Elephant now a complimentary PDF at the bottom of our Home page].
Moses had some words of wisdom regarding the birthright for the children of Ephraim before they crossed the River Jordan. They are equally valid for us today. “I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land. Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden. [See the updated Feature article, Easter, Babylon And The Antichrist]. For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
“After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and arousing his anger [they did], I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. [At this point ...] You will not live there long but certainly will be destroyed. The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you. [See Mat. 24:22]. There you will worship man-made gods of wood [like Christmas trees] and stone [statues of Roman church Saints, etc.], which cannot see or hear or eat or smell. [See the Sneakers articles, Birthdays Of The Gods and Beware The Sackbut ... And 666!].
“But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in tribulation and all these things have happened to you, in the latter days you will return to the LORD your God and shall obey his voice. For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.” [Deu. 4:29-31; also see the Feature article, Why Was Jesus Jewish, But Not Moses?].
The House of Israel was redeemed, returned to our LORD, in the first century, the beginning of the latter or last days, the Christian age. [See the Feature article, The Little Horn: First Century Antichrist]. But as we have followed after idols and false prophets again in the intervening centuries, duped into thinking we're a bunch of gentiles [see the Feature article, Moving Forward], we shall suffer a time not seen since there was a nation upon the Earth. We have trashed under foot our LORD and Savior's sacrifice for us despite our meaningless lip service. And the time of "paying the piper" for our rebellious and idol worshiping days is very near to crashing down upon us. We are foolish to believe otherwise. [See the Sneakers article, A Life And Death Pickle Of A Predicament].
As we live in the last days, Moses prophetic warning, while it happened to our ancestors of the House of Israel under the law covenant, the second time around it applies to us under the Abrahamic covenant, “Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you.” Yet, we have carelessly forgotten our covenant with God because we’ve lost track of our Biblical ancestry. We think we’re gentiles. Nevertheless, this does not change the validity of the prophecies written to and for us in the Biblical record. And while we may have forgotten our covenant relationship with God, to our own detriment, the LORD our God will not “forget the covenant with our ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.”
It happened in the first century when Christ redeemed the House of Israel seven centuries after the Assyrian captivity, and seven centuries before the rise of Islam. Seven centuries later marked the emergence of the identifiable nations of the House of Israel mentioned in Genesis 49. And now seven centuries later, we are at the door step of the worst time since there was a nation.
And for the estranged nations of Ephraim, the meager remnant who survive the tribulation of the sixth image of the Beast, 666, our LORD will remember his covenant again. It's just that the price our nations will pay by the hand of our Lord against us is staggering, though completely unnecessary had we paid heed to the truth of the word of God. [Jer. 8, 9. 11-15; Rom. 9:27; Eze. 24:13, 14, also see Exd. 6:5-7, 1 Cor. 10:1-4, Jer. 23:1-4, also Psa. 105].
The events in Isaiah’s chapter 17 prophecy echo Moses’ warning to us too. It may be that the transpiring daily events affecting Damascus are the tipping point for the House of Israel in the last days. We have our ancestor’s history laid out before us in the pages of the Biblical record. We have history books that also bear witness to these past events. What we are being told is that the events of Isaiah, Daniel, Revelation and the other prophecies are not myth or fable as atheists like to claim. They were real events, and they are real events again. We must not forget, God rules in the kingdom of men. [Dan. 4:17]. "But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? And they returned and said, 'Like as the LORD of hosts [Heb., ṣāḇā' Heaven's army] thought to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so has he dealt with us.'" [Zec. 1:6].
Isaiah’s prophecy is telling us that what once happened to our forefathers of the House of Israel, “the fortress will disappear from Ephraim,” is happening again because it seems likely we won’t turn from the culpable traditions we choose to keep, which has led us to the consumer altar of false gods and away from the LORD our God. Not only does "the fortress will disappear" apply in a physical sense, [see Invasion Of The Fortress], but it does spiritually too. "And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Think of all the pandemic and NWO lies that are believed today. [2 Ths. 2:11, 12; again see the updated Feature article, Why Do We Believe The Lies?].
And if Damascus ceasing to be a city, becoming a heap of ruins is our marker by which to gauge this, then the events currently unfolding in Damascus, Zionist Israel and the Greater Middle East demand our watching. Damascus could well prove to be an oil and gas tar baby8 with which Ephraim has become entangled. If so, inevitably it will be a self-defeating, Catch-22 undertaking. For Isaiah prophesied, when Damascus falls into ruin, so too falls Ephraim. And with this, the Beast of Babylon the Great in Revelation 13 will have risen from the sea of the Christian nations, setting up its seat of government in Jerusalem. [See the Feature article, Back To Square One].
While the nations of Ephraim, the House of Israel, are in an ever worsening prophetic situation, individually it’s not too late for us to get right with our Savior provided we change from our errant ways and seek the LORD our God with a true and pure heart, returning to the truth, the teachings delivered to our House of Israel forefathers in the first century by our Savior, the apostles and our prophets. But we need to act before our Lord closes this door. [See Luke 13:25-30, and the Feature article, Christianity Is Not A Surrogate For Christ]. As the apostle Paul wrote to us, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another … For whatever was written in the Old Testament was written for us to learn, so that through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope,” which is our Lord Jesus Christ. [Col. 3:12-17 … Rom. 15:4, 1 Tim. 1:1].
1 " ... the armies of Rome will set up their camp." Muhammad, 570-632 CE, made this prophecy when the Roman Empire's capital city was Constantinople, beginning in 330 CE. [See Map]. And Syria, along with Damascus were part of the Eastern Roman Empire in the seventh century when Muhammad made his prediction. As we read in the Book of Daniel, chapters two and seven, Rome was the fourth head of the Beast, which also is mentioned in Revelation. Fast forwarding from the time of Muhammad to present, the head of the Beast today is the sixth iteration, which we know as the prophetic Babylon the Great. So from Muhammad's perspective, when talking about Rome, he was talking about one of the heads of the great image with seven heads and ten horns. [See Rev. 12:1-3, Rev. 13:1, Rev. 17:3, 7]. As we all know, however, the Roman Empire has vanished from the face of the Earth. [See Dan. 2:35].
While the reference made by Muhammad concerning Rome, the fourth head was applicable in the early seventh century, it needs to be updated and replaced by Zionist Edom, the sixth head. The reference by Muhammad should read, "the armies of Zionist Edom will set up their camp," which are the indigenous Christian nations over which Edom has gained dominion. They will be defeated as Isaiah's prophecy says. Therefore, in the end, the fortress will depart from the the children of Israel. Subsequently, Edom will set up its capital in Jerusalem as Babylon the Great, the sixth head of the Beast, subduing three kings, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, descendants of Abraham. [Dan. 7:24, 25, Dan. 11:40-45; Rev. 11:1, 2; Rev. 13:5; also the Feature articles, Is The US [And UK] In End-times Bible Prophecy? and And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor].
Edom, Jacob/Israel's brother, and Ishmael's half brother, has gained near total dominion over his brother Israel in these last days as the Genesis prophecy says. [See Gen. 27:39-42]. And while to the outside world looking in, it appears that the US and UK are spearheading the events in Syria and the Middle East, followed by the other brothers of the House of Israel, the Christian Western European "poodle" nations, it is the shadow government of Edom who is driving the social, economic, military and political policies of the West. Edom is the wolf in the lost sheep of Israel's clothing. [See Mat. 7:15, also the Feature article, Obadiah And The Prophetic Parable Of The Tares].
2 Qatar hosts the Afghan Taliban. Qatar also paid for the houses the Taliban officials live in according to BBC News Asia. US talks with the Taliban are taking place in Qatar. If Qatar can expedite a US withdrawal from Afghanistan, then more of the US money, material and manpower is available to focus on Syria, thereby facilitating Qatar's gas pipeline goals. With Middle East oil and gas, it's not about good guys and bad guys. It's about expediency. Governments always act in their own apparent self-interests. And now we have another complication with Qatar and the Saudis. [See Qatar-Saudi Conflict; Qatar To Leave OPEC].
3 The same thing happened in Libya. "Then in February [2011], immediately after Gaddafi's hint of nationalization of Libya's oil resources, there was an uprising by rebels who wanted to overthrow him and on March 17 the UN Security Council established a "no-fly zone" in Libya "to take all necessary measures to protect civilians under threat of attack in the country." The insurgents were supported by the US, Britain and 12 of their 26 NATO allies (notably not Germany or Turkey), three Arab nations (not including Saudi Arabia), and Sweden which has abandoned honorable neutrality and became a NATO country in all but name. Brazil, China, Germany, India and Russia excluded themselves from the Resolution, advocating peaceful resolution of Libya's internal conflict and warning against "unintended consequences of armed intervention." [For more evidence of the West's duplicity, read Syria Just Like Libya].
4 For a secular look at Biblical Edom's end goal and methods [lives by the sword of war, Gen. 27:40] used to attain it, please read Joseph Plummer's Tragedy And Hope 101. It is based on historian Carroll Quigley's epic research work, Tragedy & Hope, that lays bare the skillful manipulation of the political system and mass media that runs contrary to our "school-taught" notions of democracy, and the discovery that our so-called free republic is anything but that. What Quigley published in 1966 reads like a modern-day prophet concerning the current state and direction of our Western societies, including our educational and political institutions. While Quigley's unabridged version runs about 1500 pages, Plummer's digest runs about 200 pages and provides us with a crystal clear look at what we don't see and hear about in the mass media. Rather than simplistically marveling that a magician pulled a rabbit out of an empty hat [mass media version], you are given the keys to the tricks of their trade. Read it, and you'll never see the world the same again. [Edom Methodology].
5 The US exists in an energy bubble, akin to a real estate bubble, like 2008. With a little less than 5% of the world's population, the US uses an inflated proportion, now 20% in 2017, of the world's energy supplies according to the IEA/OECD. This 4:1 ratio applied to China would mean that China would use 95% of the world's energy supplies. India would use 90% of the energy supply. Combined, these three countries alone, out of the 200 or so in the world, would use 210% of the world's energy. But even reducing use of the world's energy supply by 5% equates to a reduction of 20-25% of the energy available in the US. This would have major social, political and economic implications for the US. A further reduction by 5% would mean the US loses 40% of its energy. If this happens, it would threaten the existence of the US as we know it today. This helps explain the current motivation behind the US drive to maintain the "American way of life" at least for the elite <1%. However, it is unrealistic to believe that the US consumption ratio is sustainable over the long-term given the growing demand by China and the rest of the world. This is why consumer China, and low-cost oil producer Russia are a threat to the US. Plus, the US fracking for oil is extremely costly, not to mention hugely impactful on the environment, and the US cannot compete with Russia and Saudi Arabia when oil prices are low. This is why Trump is leaning on Saudi Arabia to cut back production in order to drive prices up.
Rather than the destructive fracking, if the US were to embark on a serious renewable energy program, a la sending a man to the moon, this would greatly reduce the US reliance on foreign oil, would allow for a more peaceful foreign policy and prosperous nation. Yet, the oil wars are merely a means to the prophetic end as the true underlying cause of all our current turmoil is the fact that Ephraim, the House of Israel does not have a love of the truth of the word of God. Christ has turned to be our enemy. Therefore, the prophecy of Isaiah will stand as written.
6 "The [US Senate] resolution notes that for 3,000 years, there has been a continuous Jewish presence in Jerusalem, and it has been Judaism’s holiest city and the focal point of Jewish religious devotion." [US Senate Okays Move To Jerusalem]. This is intentionally a clear and ignorant misrepresentation of the facts. It's a Zionist propaganda lie intended to mislead a gullible, ignorant public. [See Zionist's "Jewish" State]. First, less than 3000 years ago, about 597-586 BCE depending on who's counting, all the Jews were removed from Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar for a period of 70 years of captivity due to their idolatry before they were allowed to return. [See Ezra 2:1]. And Solomon's temple was turned into rubble. Therefore, as to Jerusalem being "the focal point of Jewish religious devotion," well, this was hardly the case. And it appears the Jews missed the mark for quite some time, too, before the Babylonian captivity.
"Therefore, thus says the LORD God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance [the House of Judah, as the House of Israel had been divorced about 150 years earlier, hence stretching the line of Samaria over Jerusalem which lay south of the House of Israel's border], and deliver them into the hand of their enemies [the Babylonians]; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies; because they have done evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day. Moreover Manasseh [a king of Judah, though, ironically, the namesake in the last days of the US in the Genesis 48, 49 prophecies] shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing evil in the sight of the LORD." [2 Kings 21:12-16]. So much for the US Senate alleged continuous religious fidelity by the Jews to the word of God.
Then in 70 CE, the city of Jerusalem, ruled over by the Edomite Herods since 37 BCE by proclamation of the Roman Senate, was totally and completely obliterated. Seems like those of Edom have a way of influencing Senates, then and now. Also remember, Jerusalem was the capital of the Roman province, then called Judea, under Edomite rule and was not the capital of the nations of Israel. And of further note, 37 BCE was a time between the end of the Roman Republic, 44 BCE, and the formation of the Roman Empire in 27 BCE.
As the first century historian Josephus wrote, “The Romans, though it was a terrible struggle to collect the timber, raised their platforms in twenty-one days. As described before, the whole area was stripped in a circle round the city to a distance of ten miles. The countryside, like the city, was a pitiful sight. For where there once had been a lovely vista of woods and parks, there was nothing but desert and stumps of trees. No one, not even a foreigner who had seen the Old Judea and the glorious suburbs of the city, and now set eyes on her present desolation, could have helped sighing and groaning at so terrible a change. Every trace of beauty had been blotted out by war. And nobody who had known it in the past, and came upon it suddenly, would have recognized the place. For when he was on site [of Jerusalem], he still would have been looking for the city.” Books of the History of the Jewish War Against the Romans, Flavius Josephus, c. 75-78 CE.
The area remained barren, not one stone upon another, until c.135 CE when the Romans built a ROMAN city on the scoured site, naming it Aelia capitalina, in honour of the Roman emperor. The region became known as Syria Palaestina. And except for the one Day of Atonement a year, Jews were not allowed into the Roman city under penalty of death. Aelia capitalina remained a Roman city until 638 CE when taken, not by the Jews, but by Islamic Arabs. So for a period of 568 years, there was no Jerusalem for Jews to have a presence in. It didn't exist. To put this 568 year period into perspective, this is more than twice as long as the US has been in existence. And the "holy walls" of Jerusalem were built by Suleiman the Magnificent between 1537 to 1541 as mentioned above. They are not a remnant left over from the Herodian or second temple in the first century as the deliberate common apocryphal myth would have us believe. All war is deceit. [See the Feature article, The War Dispatches].
And it wasn't until the 1948 UN mandate, after the Islamic Ottoman Empire, and the after British Palestine Mandate, that the Jews, a nation again for the first time in more than 2500 years, had any sort of shared quasi-legal claim to Jerusalem. So for those of "the synagogue of Satan who claim to be Jews and are not " [Edom, Zionists, Rev. 3:9] claiming eternal "ownership" of Jerusalem due to the alleged 3000 years of continuous presence in Jerusalem, well, it's pure poppycock. [Again, see Zionism Starts Where Judaism Is Destroyed; Getting Jews To Convert To Zionism]. Control and occupation over Jerusalem [Zion] in this end time is sought after by Israel's brother, the Edomite wolf in sheep's clothing, Babylon the Great. Do the prophetic math on this US Senate resolution and law. [Edom Methodology].
The claim that the current day city of Jerusalem belongs to Israel due to 3000 years of continuous presence is a Zionist lie. Remember, the Jews are only one of the 12 nations of Israel. Jerusalem will not be the capital of Israel until Christ's return when both the Houses of Israel and Judah are one kingdom again as written of by the prophet Ezekiel. [Eze. 37:15-28]. The last time Jerusalem was capital of all the nations of Israel was c. 931 BCE at the end of Solomon's rule when Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The Zionists want Jerusalem for their capital, Babylon the Great and are using those descended from Judah as cover. They are wolves in sheep's clothing for sure. [Orthodox Jews Oppose Zionism Because It's An Anti-Jewish Philosophy].
Those of Israel descended from Judah were out of Jerusalem for 70 years due to their Babylonian captivity. "Now the rest of the people left in the city [Jerusalem], and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away." [2 Kings 25:11]. Some Jews in the land of Judah, not in Jerusalem, remained behind, but were under Babylonian authority, the 1st head of the Beast.
Then "Jerusalem," after its total destruction in 70 CE, lay barren until the area became a Roman city, then an Eastern Roman Empire [Byzantine] city, then an Islamic Ottoman city [the 5th head of the Beast], and then a British Mandate city until 1948. So for about two-thirds of this alleged 3000 years the Jews have been on the outside looking in. And this does not include the fact that from the return of the Jews to Jerusalem under Cyrus, the city itself was under the successive sovereignty, not of Israel, but of the Persian, Greek and Roman empires, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th heads of the Beast, until utterly destroyed in 70 CE. Edom's Babylon the Great is the sixth head of the Beast.
The key point to take away from this is that Jerusalem has not been the capital of the sovereign Biblical kingdom of Israel since 931 BCE, and won't be again until Christ reunites both the House of Judah and the House of Israel as one kingdom at his return. [Heb. 8:8]. Until then, from this point forward, Jerusalem will be under the auspices of Edom, the sixth head of the Beast exactly as written in the Biblical record's prophecies. [See Rev. 17:5; also Revelation 17: Big Brother].
If this is the legal precedent and senile argument put forth by the US Senate, i.e., AIPAC-bots, for the nation state of Israel to claim ownership of Jerusalem, then it appears that the US Congress will have to acquiesce to the native American Indian population, as they can lay claim to all the land of the United States based on their continuous presence for 10,000 years. [See US Indian Nations].
7 The seven heads of the Beast are the Babylonians, Persians, Greek, Roman, Ottoman [five are fallen, Rev. 17:10], Zionist Edom/Babylon the Great [one is] and Gog-Magog [and one is not yet come] empires. The ten horns are the ten nations of Israel in the last days in Genesis 49. [See the Feature article, Ten Horns, Ten Nations]. In other words, this is the continuation of the prophetic Biblical story from Genesis to Revelation.
8 A tar baby is a difficult problem or situation that is only made worse by attempts to extricate oneself with the implication of it being an unforeseen trap.
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"But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: and he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the Beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appoints over it whomsoever he will.