Iran, Israel & the End Times

But I wanted to talk to you a little bit before we jump in, uh, if we jump in, about what's happening in the Middle East. Obviously, there's been a lot that has been said out there, uh, in the news, and one of the questions that comes up immediately is, is this the Ezekiel 38 war? No. Could it lead to it? Absolutely. Will it lead to it? Probably. And the reason I say that is because the players that are all involved in the Ezekiel war scenario are involved in what's happening right now to some degree.

Now, we've had a lot of, uh, information that's being pumped out there. You know, misinformation, of course, is going to rise, uh, in times such as these. There was, uh, AI-generated, uh, pictures of the USS Abraham Lincoln or the, I'm sorry, the Gerald Ford getting attacked and near sinking and all this that didn't happen. Uh, we did lose three soldiers. We have had, uh, six who've been severely wounded. No real identification as to, uh, what took place, which I think is smart because we don't have a president who runs his mouth about what our plans are to the international community, and therefore we have a bit of an advantage over previous administrations.

Now, what we have in the Ezekiel war scenario is the introduction of a character named Gog. You'll find him a second time in Revelation chapter 20, after Satan is released for a short time to go out and deceive the nations, and Gog and Magog are mentioned there once again. Now, some people have different interpretations of who Gog is. I personally believe that because of the mention a thousand years apart of his existence, that is probably an angelic being, most likely one who is assigned to the harassment of Israel. We know that the messenger angel for the nation of Israel is Gabriel. We know that the warring angel for the nation of Israel is Mika El, Michael. His name means "Who is like God?" And he is the one that's going to fight against Satan in Revelation 12. And he and his angels are going to throw Satan and his horde out of heaven down to the earth permanently. So we do have a biblical precedent, including in Daniel 10, for there being angels assigned to certain nations of the world. When this man prayed, when Daniel prayed in Daniel 10, his answer was held up by one of the, uh, princes of Persia, one who was assigned to, uh, that particular nation as a deceiver and one who would lead the charge into, uh, leading people astray. So again, we have an Old Testament precedent of an angelic being being assigned to, uh, either the harassment of, or the protection of, or communication to a specific nation. I believe that's who Gog is. That's why we can find him alive and functioning a thousand years apart.

Now, we do know that there are nations named in Ezekiel chapter 38 that are going to be participants in the invasion from the north with a hook in their jaw, put there by God as they are drawn down to invade, uh, the nation of Israel. Now, once again, watching what's happening in the world, we have communication happening already, military involvement happening already between the five nations that are named there. Now, excuse me, for many, many years, uh, C.I. Scoffield popularized the idea that Magog is Russia. Magog is not Russia. Magog is, by definition, the region between the mountainous region between Cappadocia, which is in Turkey, and Media, which is the domain of the Kurds in northern Iran currently. So it is basically an overlap of two countries. Magog includes a portion of Turkey that spans into north-western Iran.

Now, we're told in Ezekiel 38 that Gog, chief prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. Those two are representative. Meshech and Tubal are representative of the nation of Turkey, as is Gomer and Beth Togarmah. Now, we have some ancient names, Cush and Put, that are mentioned in the Old King James, and these are in reference to Libya and Sudan. Now, some Bibles will use the term, term Ethiopia. Now, in antiquity, Ethiopia represented the region directly south of Egypt, which is now home to the north Sudan country. Now, Russia has been working on building a port on the Red Sea in cooperation with Sudan for some time, some three years, which obviously would put them in rather, uh, close proximity to the nation of Israel. They have, for the last few years, been, they refurbished all the airports in Libya, and Russia is openly landing aircraft in Libya continually over these last two or three years. So there's a connection between Russia. There's a connection between Russia and obviously, uh, Iran. Who was the first to condemn the attacks on Iran? Russia. They condemned it. Turkey condemned it. They are the other nation that is primary in this invasion, and of course, Iran, and the group of five is rounded out by Libya and Sudan, who are all participants in the Ezekiel war scenario.

Now, there's other nations that are named, and they are protesting nations. They are Sheba and Dan. And Sheba and Dan are basically Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf states. Now, it's interesting that what we're seeing happening right now is that the Arab Gulf states are currently under attack by Iran. Now, there's two motivating factors behind that. The first is their cooperation with the US, their willingness to sign up for the Abraham Accords. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, other nations have been, uh, either considering that or actively signed on to that. So that's one of the motivating factors for Iran's attack. And, uh, let me, I want to pull this up real quick. I get the numbers right. Thus far, outside of Israel, uh, Iran has attacked Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, as well as Qatar, Bahrain, and the UAE. They have launched 137 missiles and 209 drones just at the United Arab Emirates alone.

Now, there's another factor that's involved in this, and that is who is going to control the world under a global caliphate when the Muslims take over. Now, that is their goal. That is why the mass immigration we've been watching around the world has been taking place. And they make no bones about it. They make no bones about it in the United States. "We are here to take over. We are here to, uh, force upon this nation not the Constitution of the United States, but rather Sharia law." That is their motivation. And you see that's happening in Michigan. Dearborn, Michigan is already exploding right now with protests calling for a global infada and for Muslims to rise up all over the world. Now, we've got 100,000 living in Minnesota, uh, Muslims, and we've already seen what they did, uh, in recent years, and just exploding that particular area, burning down entire blocks. So, you know, we've got some situations here in the United States that are matters of concern and things we need to keep an eye out for.

Now, in considering these things, we have to remember that there are two factions of Islam. There is Shia Islam, and Shia means followers of Ali. Ali was the nephew of Muhammad. And the Shia Muslims believe that it has to be a blood relative who is the head of Islam. And then you've got the Sunnis, which is the majority of Muslims in the world. 85% of the 1.8 billion Muslims in the world are Sunni, and what they believe is the most qualified person ought to head up, uh, the, the Muslim religion. Now, these two factions have been fighting all the way since the inception of Islam and the creation of Islam and the authorship of the Quran.

Now, most of the nations that Iran has been attacking are predominantly Sunni Muslims. That's why the Saudis have sided with Israel. It's not because they love the Jews. It's because they hate the Iranians. The Iranians are Shia. The Saudis, the birthplace of Islam, are Sunni. And so, they both are vying for the position of global caliphate and having a khalif who is the head over all of Islam in the whole world.

Now, for some of the young people who are here today, I know there's been a lot of things said on, on college campuses and things that are simply inaccurate. And that is, you know, one of the things we hear today is that Islam is a religion of, uh, peace. In the last 25 years, there have been 66,550 terrorist attacks in our world. In the last 25 years, there have been 66,550 terrorist attacks in our world. Did that land? You guys hear that? You know how many were committed by Muslims? 65,000. 98% of all terrorism in the world is initiated by Muslims.

Now, we have to understand something about Islam. Islam is not simply a religion. It's a political system. That's what Sharia law is all about. They want to enforce that in parts of our country. They didn't come here to live out the American dream. They came here to establish a foothold in the United States of America. We've already seen what's happening in Europe. We've already seen what's happening in many of these countries around the world where there's so much unrest and the other things that, uh, we've been following, uh, throughout these more recent years. And the reality is, one of the spearheads of this particular movement is Iran. Now, Iran has been well described as the world's greatest sponsor of terror. They have proxies that they are using to attack the nation of Israel and other nations. Hamas is an Iranian proxy. Hezbollah is an Iranian proxy. They are the greatest financier of terrorism in the world today.

Now, one of the reasons for the motivation of what is going on right now, even though we have this coalition of forces that are all in cooperation together, uh, kind of off the page, so to speak, but the reality is is that in Iran, and the reason that our government has responded is not because we have an Israel-first president. We have a president who says, "Somebody that is killing their own people because they disagree with them needs to go." That's exactly the motivation behind it. I know from someone who has many, many family members in Iran, that the Ayatollah Khamenei has killed 43,600 people between the ages of 13 and 40. He's wiping out an entire generation, basically. Now, I think decent people would say something has to be done. And I think we recognize the revelation of Revelation. Romans, I'm sure we're all thinking about Revelation right about now. But Romans 13 says that human government has the responsibility to punish evil. Is killing tens of thousands of your own people evil? So, something had to be done, right? And nobody else was going to step up. And so our president did step up. He stepped up in cooperation with, uh, the administration there in Israel. And now we are watching, uh, things unfold that many around the world have been considering, uh, the development of, who study and teach Bible prophecy that is. And now we're watching these things happen right before our eyes.

Now, one of the things I wanted to point out, and I do have a message for today, and we might just get to it at some point in time. You guys want to hear more? We've heard about the Iranians now shutting down the Strait of Hormuz. Now, 20% of the world's oil supply makes its way through that narrow portion of the sea. Now, therefore, this could have, and when supply goes down, prices go down. Prices go where? Prices go up. Now, the reason I wanted to mention that is because if they can put a chokehold on 20% of the, the world's oil supply, they can drive prices up. Now, that's not their motivation. Their motivation is to create chaos.

Now, I'm sure some of you have seen how many remember Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Remember him? He was a former president. Uh, there's a current president who, by the way, his nickname was "the Butcher." So if anybody's thinking this guy's a moderate, which they try to label him as, he's not a moderate. He slaughtered his own people, just like Ali Khamenei. Now, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saw himself as kind of a John the Baptist type character. Now, in Shia Islam, they have an eschatology that there is a, someone who is known as the Hidden Imam, or the 12th Imam. He's also known as the Mahdi. And the Mahdi cannot reappear until the world is within an apocalypse, and he comes back and settles and brings peace to the world. So, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saw his role as initiating this chaos in the world in order for the 12th Imam to come back. Now, this is specific to Shia Islam.

Now, some of you probably aren't aware, but the Muslims believe that Jesus is coming again. Did you know that? They believe in the second coming of Jesus. What's he coming back for? To rule? No, he's coming back to tell the Jews and the Christians that they're wrong. They believe he's going to marry, he's going to die, and he's going to be buried beside Muhammad. Now, that's not what my Bible says. My Bible says he's coming back to rule the nations with a rod of iron.

Now, the reason I think it's important to recognize this particular component of the Strait of Hormuz is because the motivation, and this is something I've kind of toiled with in all my years of dealing with Bible prophecy, and that is, why are four of the five nations of a shared ideology, and they represent the vast majority of radical Islam? Those four nations: Turkey, extremist Iran, extremist Sudan, and extremist Libya, extremists. So where's Russia fit in? They're not a Muslim nation. So why are they part of this invasion from the north?

Well, I really found it to be interesting what happened with Venezuela and the removal of Maduro, because that highlighted what the actual motivation of the Ezekiel war is, based on the protest of the Saudis and the UAE, Sheba and Dan. When they say, "Is this invasion economically motivated? Have you come to take booty? Have you come to take plunder?" And one of the things that is, uh, of interest regarding especially Russia, is that 60% of their gross domestic product is energy-related products, whether it's natural gas or petroleum-based products. That is what feeds their military. That is what feeds their economy. Okay.

Now, when you've got Israel with a trillion, uh, cubic foot natural gas field off the coast of Haifa, the Leviathan gas field, when you've got the participation of Egypt in liquefying that natural gas so it could be shipped into European markets, now you've got competition that Russia doesn't want. Now, you've got competition for the petroleum products that are going to be shipped, uh, by other nations. You know, you've got all these oil-producing nations in the Middle East. And it's always been interesting that up until recently, the only nation that was basically resource-poor as far as, uh, energy-related products was Israel. And now they're finding these huge natural gas fields. Now they're finding oil in the Golan Heights. And again, when you're trying to feed your economy, when you're trying to feed your war machine based on your gross domestic product, and somebody comes in and undercuts you with a cheaper product, and when you've got the Strait of Hormuz that has now cut off supplies and trying to drive the price up, and you've got Israel who has a far cheaper production cost in getting their product to market, and even out of the ground or out of the seafloor, if you will, that's going to be problematic for those other four nations. And therefore, the reason for the invasion is economic in nature. I always looked at it as ideological, thinking, okay, you got four radical Muslim nations.

Now, we do know that in the end, should this evolve into the full-scale invasion of Israel by the five nations that are named there, we do know what's going to happen. Who's going to win? God's gonna win. He's going to bring down flooding, rain, hail. These, these are, uh, the typical weapons of God when he fights, as he fights in the day of battle, as Zechariah says. So, in watching these things happen and watching the world move toward these things, I think it's important to remember that we already know the end of the story. We know who's going to invade Israel.

By the way, for those who may be wondering, well, if Gog is mentioned in Ezekiel 38, 39, and then again in Revelation 20, doesn't that mean the Ezekiel war is Revelation 20? No, not at all. And we know that for this reason, because at the end of the Ezekiel war in chapter 39, they burn the weapons for seven months or burn the weapons for seven years, and they bury the dead for seven months. Five nations are named. And in Revelation 20, where Gog is mentioned, it is the whole world that comes against Israel, and the Lord fights and ends that battle, consumes him with fire. And there's no mention of an aftermath. The next thing after Revelation 20 is the Great White Throne Judgment. There's no burning weapons. There's no burying the dead. There's none of those things. So in Ezekiel 38, 39, you've got five combatants, a specified battle theater within the nation of Israel. And in Revelation chapter 20, even though you have the mention of Gog, you have a worldwide issue led by Satan against the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and he destroys them. And there's no aftermath. There is simply the end of the millennial reign of Christ on earth, followed by the Great White Throne Judgment.

So, one of the things I wanted to mention, how many times have I said that? Like 25. One of the things I wanted to mention that I think is important for us is how the Ezekiel war comes to an end. It is the wrath of God, right? It is the wrath of God on these invading nations that brings this to an end. Do we have an appointment with wrath? No, we have to be gone before God is going to initiate his wrath on the earth, because the church is not appointed to it.

Now, the possible, and I would even go as far to say the probable set of events chronologically is that I believe the Ezekiel war could happen during the church age. We could see the invasion of Israel. Now, why the US is not mentioned? I hope it's the rapture. But I think the basic thing we need to recognize is China's not mentioned either. India is not mentioned. Two of the most populated nations in the world aren't even mentioned in this scenario, because it's Israel against their ancient enemies is what is basically happening. So, I believe that this is the chronology of events. I believe the Ezekiel war could start while we're still here. But I believe we have to be taken to the Father's house before it ends. Why? Because it ends with God's wrath. Hello. It ends with God's wrath, and we're not going to see any of that.

Now, the other thing I think that is important about this scenario is, if you think about this, God wipes out completely radical Islam. Wipes it out completely. Now, again, there's going to be, is Muslims still all over the world? Most of them moderate, most of them not extremist. But the reality is, if you think about this, if God wipes out radical Islam just like that, what's the rest of the Muslim community going to say when a guy proposes building the third temple on the Temple Mount? You think anybody's going to balk at that? No. Having seen what the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has done to radical Islam, they're going to want to cooperate right away with the Antichrist in getting that temple built that he's going to later, uh, call for worship of himself from.

So again, potential chronology: start of the Ezekiel war, rapture of the church, end of the Ezekiel war, rise of the Antichrist, building of the third temple. And again, it makes sense because I, I, it doesn't make sense to say that the rapture begins the tribulation. I mean, if a billion people disappear from all over the earth, there's going to be chaos. And it's going to take some time to reorganize. And if during that time, the Ezekiel war comes to an end, it'd be the perfect time for a guy to rise up and say, "You know what? I've got a plan. I've got a way we can settle all this stuff and, uh, let's just let the Jews have their temple." The Bible talks about leaving off the outer court in Revelation because it's been given over to the nations, which is where the Dome of the Rock Mosque, uh, currently sits. The Jews know exactly where the Holy of Holies was. Matter of fact, on the Temple Mount, there's a little gazebo there that the Jews won't walk over when they are allowed, uh, to go up on the Temple Mount because they believe that's where the most holy place was. Couple layers down, uh, during the Solomonic and Herodian temple eras. So, you know, watching all these things, I think should be a motivation for all of us to recognize that time is running out. The church is not going to be here much longer. I believe I've said that before, I think, once or twice. I believe it more today than ever before.

Now, here's something else that I'd like to mention. Uh, how many, some of you weren't around when the Gulf War happened, when Iraq invaded Kuwait? Many of you, I know remember that. But you know, there's something interesting that happened. Uh, when Iraq invaded Kuwait and all the things that followed happened, the churches, all of them, at least the ones that taught the whole Bible, were packed. I remember at our home church, people, which had a sanctuary that seated some 2,300, 2,400 people, the front, like before our, uh, stage here, was full of people sitting on the floor. All the aisles were full of people sitting on the floor. And I remember thinking back then that if nothing materializes from this, people are going to go their way and say, "Where's the promise of his coming? I've been hearing this forever and ever," and forgetting, as Peter said, that the earth was judged by God in the form of a global flood because of the wickedness of man.

Now, I think that's a lot of what we're seeing today. Most of the church today is anti-Semitic. Most of the church today does not believe that modern Israel is the Israel of the Bible. Now, there's some major problems with that, don't you think? Does God change? Does the Bible call the Messiah the Holy One of Israel? So, did he vacate that title? So, doesn't there have to be an Israel for him to be the Holy One of Israel? Absolutely.

One of my main questions is, if modern Israel isn't biblical Israel, then why is everything prophesied about Israel happening to modern Israel? Everything's happening. Why is there an Ezekiel coalition that's formed if modern Israel isn't biblical Israel? Why is Zechariah 12:3 continuing to develop right now where the whole world is going to find Israel to be a burdensome stone? Isn't that generally the attitude of the world today that Israel is the problem? I mean, look how fast after October 7th, the world turned against the Jews. Here they are invaded by these crazy, demonic Hamas members. And not only are their hostages taken, over 250 taken, but 1,200 Israelis are slaughtered mercilessly in the most heinous ways that you could imagine. And what happens? The world turns on the Jews in a week. It's all on them. They caused this. If they weren't oppressing the Palestinians, by the way, who are living within the boundaries of biblical Israel, there's no Palestine. It's Israel. The Gaza Strip is part of Israel. And by the way, just for the historical record, the word Palestinian is the Latinized form of the word Philistine. And because of Hadrian, the Roman emperor in 136 AD, his tiring of the rebellion of the Jews, he killed thousands of Jews, he made it illegal for two Jews to be found walking together. And he named the land of Israel after the ancient enemies of Israel, the Philistines, which by the way means invaders or immigrants. He changed the name of Israel to Palestina, which is a Latin form of Philistine.

Now, oh shoot, his name just escaped me. The one that wore the checkerboard on his head, 1967. Got to remember, I'm deaf. You have to say it loud. Yes. He's the one that adopted the name Palestinian. And you know, for those who who like to say, "From the river to the sea, Palestine must be free." I think it's rather sad that many who are interviewed, what river? Well, I don't know. What sea? Well, I don't know. Well, the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is the land of Israel. So they're walking around unknowingly chanting for the death of the Jews and basically the elimination of the nation of Israel. So we have to be careful about many of the things that we see out there, uh, in social media land and elsewhere, because God defined the borders of the nation of Israel all the way up into Turkey and all the way down into Egypt. Those are the borders of the land of Israel that God gave them. They've never occupied anywhere even remotely close to that. But the reality is, the Gaza Strip is part of Israel. And there is no West Bank. It's Judea and Samaria. And Judea and Samaria are definitely part of the nation of Israel. You guys hear? And therefore, we need to make sure we're on the right side of things. And you know, today it seems as though opinion and feelings are more important than God's word and facts. And the reality is, God gave that land to the Jews. And if you read through where the Abrahamic covenant begins back in Genesis 12:3, and you get up into verse or chapter 17 and beyond, what you see then is a defining of, "I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you." Abraham, who through, uh, the suggestion of his wife, because they were childless, brought about a child into the world through Sarah's handmaid, whose name was Hagar. And Hagar gave birth to a child. And if you read the text carefully, what you'll see is that the child was born on Sarah's knees. Now, this was a way that surrogacy was practiced back in the day. If the child was born onto the mother's knees or the other woman's knees, that was her child, and the other person was a surrogate. Well, Abraham, having received this promise from God, said, "Oh, that Ishmael would live before you." And God said very clearly, "No, no, it's not Ishmael. Your wife is going to have a child. And that is the line through which all the nations of the earth will be blessed." And later, we're told not only about Abram having his name changed to Abraham from "high father" to "father of a multitude," but then we're told that he has a son named laughter, Isaac. And then that son Isaac has a son named Jacob. And then Jacob in turn has how many sons? 12 sons. And they are the heads of what tribes? The tribes of Israel. So the Bible makes it very clear that the unconditional everlasting covenant with the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob includes the land we now know as Israel. So it doesn't matter what the international community says or feels. It matters what God says. And if God said he gave it to them, he gave it to them. As a matter of fact, he later inspired the prophet Amos to say that when he brings them back into the land, they will never be uprooted again. Nobody's going to push the Jews out of the land of Israel. They're back for a purpose. And that purpose is the 70th week of Daniel. You see, that's one of the many other problems with denying that modern Israel is biblical Israel. If modern Israel is not biblical Israel, if God has cast them off forever for all the things that they have done, then that means Daniel was wrong, and there aren't 70 weeks, there's only 69. 69 have been fulfilled. 70 have not. So the 70th is still hanging out there. We know it as the Great Tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble, the great and terrible day of the Lord. That hasn't happened. There's no historic parallel anywhere that we can look back on and say that was fulfilled. And, uh, I didn't have any intention of talking this long about it, but here we are.

Now, for those who say all of that happened in 70 AD, I say, bologna. Bologna did not happen in 70 AD. All of Revelation did not happen in 70 AD. Where did you see 200 million demons come up from the ground in 70 AD? Where did you see the sting that lasted for five months on men, and it was so severe that they wished that they were dead? Where did you see the four horsemen of the apocalypse in 70 AD? You didn't see any of those things in 70 AD. And if you're going to say, "Well, that's because they're figurative." My question is, of what? What are 200 million demons figurative of? What is a quarter of the earth's population dying from the four horsemen of the apocalypse? What's that figurative of? What are the great hailstones of Revelation chapter 16, weighing somewhere between one and 200 pounds each? What's that figurative of? Nobody has any answers. I don't either, because it's not figurative. It's literal. It's going to happen. And therefore, I think that we should keep our eyes on what's happening in the Middle East. Recognize that people, people groups named thousands of years ago are now in the news every day.

Now, I know, I don't know if you've heard, but the Iranians have now replaced Ali Khamenei. There's a new Ayatollah in Iran, temporary. Not too sure I'd want that job after what's happened recently, but yet they have. And they said the, the president, the Butcher, said that he is going to carry out the will of our Great Leader who was martyred by the evil Zionists and their proxy, Israel. So things aren't over. We're going to see, uh, a continuation of things happen in these coming days. And, uh, wow, is it, it's after 10 o'clock. Um, well, let me just ask this. Anybody have any questions? Why did, why did I talk so long about this? Because it's important. Does anybody have any questions? If Dave's gonna hand you a mic. So, who is the new Ayatollah? Who is the new Ayatollah? Uh, Ali something or another. I, I, he's, he's Ali something. I, hang on. I can get you his name. His Ayatollah Ali. Jeez, this guy on Telegram throws stuff up like every 30 seconds. I don't know. And if you follow Amir, I hope you do. Pastor Barry, is somebody out there? Oh, here we go. Ayatollah Alireza Arafi. He, here's, this is interesting. He was the former head of the Iranian seminaries. He worked for the Supreme Leader. So again, he's like-minded. And but that, that is his name. And, uh, there's his picture. You see that back there? Right. So, anything else? Yeah. Hang on. Dave's gonna. You guys know I can't hear doodly. Why did I, why are they bombing Dubai? Like the hotels and stuff. Why are they bombing the other countries? Like in Dubai, they were, there's a hotel, like one of the great, the tallest one ever. They're bombing that one. They're throwing missiles into it. Oh, the Burj. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's a symbol of decadence in their minds. You have to remember the Shia are extremely orthodox in their beliefs. They, you know, they, they, I mean, if you think about where all this, these protests began to develop in Iran, it was a couple of years ago. It was 2023 or maybe 2022 when, um, a young 22-year-old girl, Mahsa Amini, uh, had a portion of her hair showing under her hijab, and she was arrested by the modesty police and beaten to death in their custody. And this is what really stirred up these more, uh, recent, uh, protests. And they've kind of risen and fallen, uh, made some of it recently on the heels of a promise by our president that help is on the way. But the many thousands have died since he made that declaration because it emboldened them. And, uh, you know, the reason that they are looking at, you know, places like Dubai and the UAE, because of their Westernized culture. Many of them do not have the, the mandatory hijab or even the mandatory burqa. And, you know, if you go to, uh, you know, even like Dubai, you know, the, it's got the most expensive hotel room in the world. It is everything that Islam, uh, stands against, at least in their mind. So that's why they're targeting them, as well as their agreements with US interests and participation in some of the things, allowing, you know, like there's a US air base in Saudi Arabia. So that's why they're attacking these others. It's not, not just that, but you've got also the Shia-Sunni, uh, issue as well. Uh, Mike, uh, Huckabee talked to Tucker Carlson. Who? Tucker Carlson. Never heard of him. Okay. I wish. And he put forward the map of Israel's expanded territory from the Nile River to the Euphrates. Yeah. Which is in the future. I think it was a, a bad idea to put that forward, but I believe it's true. And when's that going to happen? Well, the Bible does give the geographic markers. You know, the headquarters toward the, of the Euphrates is in Turkey. And of course, we all know where the Nile is and the down in Egypt. And this is probably the, uh, the borders of the nation of Israel during the millennium. Jesus is not going to settle for a part of the nation of Israel. Israel is going to be how God gave it to them, uh, in its, its borders and, and links. So, I think that's a millennial issue that, that's going to happen, you know, uh, and, you know, of course, Tucker turned that around, being the stellar individual that he is. Yes. Okay. Okay, I'm being a little bit vulnerable here because it's kind of an unpopular thing, but I get the whole land. I get that it's biblical. I get that modern-day Israel is like ancient Israel. But even in ancient Israel, the Sadducees and the Pharisees were not good, and they were not doing what God wanted them to do. How do we know that modern-day Israel, that the government of Israel, is not rebelling and that they're doing exactly what God is supposed to do? Because aren't two-thirds going to perish? That would only leave one-third left. And how do we know that they're doing God's will? Well, that's not the issue. It's not the issue of them doing God's will. The issue is God's name. If you go back to Ezekiel chapter 36, 20-22, he said, "I'm not bringing you back for your sake because every day you were outside of the land of Israel, my name was being profaned among the nations." He said, "I'm not bringing you back for your sake. I'm bringing you back for my name's sake." He's bringing them back in unbelief. He's bringing them back in disobedience. It is not the government of Israel that he brought back. It's the children of Israel that he brought back. And so he's doing this because he made promises to the fathers, and they have to be fulfilled for God's integrity to remain intact. So it's got nothing to do with the government. It's got nothing to do with the government's decisions. The Israeli government is like any government. It makes mistakes, and they don't have to be in obedience for God to bring them back. He's bringing them back for his name's sake. And that's why they're there, uh, today. And yes, sadly, two-thirds of the Jews, according to Zechariah 12-14, which is a record of the tribulation, two-thirds of the Jews are going to die. And one-third he's going to bring through the fires of the tribulation, refine them, and then re, uh, Zechariah 12:10 is going to be fulfilled. Then they will look upon the one whom they pierced and mourn for him as one mourns for an only son. And that's going to be the fulfillment of Romans chapter 11. And thus, all Israel will be saved. God is going to supernaturally protect the one-third of the Jews throughout the tribulation. The others are going to die either at the hands of his wrath or the hands of the Antichrist. Uh, and they're going to die in their unbelief, their finalized rejection of the Messiah. But that one-third is going to recognize, man, our fathers blew it. Jesus of Nazareth is indeed the Messiah of David. Uh, time of the Gentiles that Paul refers to in 11:25, that refers to the church. I'm sorry. The time of the Gentiles, there's two quotes in the Bible. The time of the Gentiles from Isaiah. No, the time of the Gentiles actually started after the Babylonian captivity. And so it's not strictly the church age, but I do believe that the time, there are those who, who believe the time of the Gentiles ends at the end of the tribulation. Personally, I believe because Daniel chapter 9 says that the 70th week of Daniel is just like the other 69. It is carved out for Daniel's people and the holy city. So I believe the time of the Gentiles ends at the rapture of the church. I believe it's the end of the church age, and therefore God is going to turn his attention solely on the nation of Israel, even though there will be people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people who are saved during the, uh, the tribulation period. It's a numberless multitude that no man can count. But the church age is over. It started before the church began, but I believe it ends with the church's removal. So, we've talked in the past, um, you had brought up the economic portion with the invasion of the five countries since we've invaded, or not invaded, but since we took care of Venezuela. Drill, baby, drill. Damn it. Hold the mic closer. I can't hear it. So, we talked about the, um, energy stuff, you know, some of the stuff I'm involved with with Venezuela now back on the market, hopefully soon. Drill, baby, drill. And you had mentioned that with the, the Ezekiel war will be based off possibly with oil, economic. Do you think that that may be why we may not have to be, or may not be involved because we've taken care, or we're economically more sound because of what has happened? Do you think that might be what could throw us out? I like that. And yeah, I, I think it's possible. You know, I, I, it seems to be the default interpretation is that America collapses, you know, and that's why we're not involved in this whole scenario. And, you know, again, I, I think the weakness in that is that there's other major world players that aren't mentioned either. They just are silent, you know, during this whole invasion. And I think, you know, we've, we've, we're under an administration that's made it pretty clear where we stand in regards to the nation of Israel, but that administration is going to end in a couple of years. So what happens after that is anybody's guess. You know, we could simply, if we keep going the direction we were going, and it's really, really interesting if you read, um, you know, the thousand-plus pages of Edward Gibbon's, uh, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I know everybody's done that. What you'll find are similarities. Remember, Rome was never conquered. Rome imploded. And the reason it imploded was free bread to the masses, sports becoming more and more violent, the breakdown of the family unit, the disparaging of religion, and it just basically wiped the greatest empire the world had seen up to that, that time, uh, off the map. They just simply imploded. So, you know, we are seriously moving down that particular road. So I think, you know, if something doesn't happen, uh, after this election that keeps us going in a positive direction, then we're going to see everything else, uh, that the, that particular, uh, group, I'll just say, wants to see happen. Barry, not necessarily related to the events taking place this weekend, but in the Bible, when the Euphrates River dries up and there's an army from the kings of the East of, I think, 200 million, since there are a couple of countries in the East that have a few billion, um, your thoughts? Yeah, it's interesting because this is a, a mingling of two different prophecies. You know, the Euphrates River dries up in Revelation chapter 16. The Euphrates River is mentioned in Revelation chapter 9 with this 200 million horde, but they're not the same thing. Chapter 9 has no mention of the kings of the East. The kings of the East are strictly recorded in Revelation chapter 16. And the interesting thing about that is, you know, people like to say, and, and, you know, there was a lot of talk about, well, you know, China is the only nation in the world that can feed or field an army of 200 million. China's never had an army of 200 million. Their current army is less than three million. And the other thing about that, with the necessity of the Euphrates River drying up to make way for the kings of the East, China's 3,500 miles from the Euphrates River. And you think somebody's going to march 3,500 miles? That'd take the whole tribulation to get there. So what we have to understand about Revelation chapter 16 is that the kings of the East is a reference to the ancient enemies of Israel. That whole area is Mesopotamia. It's where all of the, the Assyrians and the Babylonians and Greece and all the other countries that have conquered, uh, the world are, uh, geographically located. So, you know, the, the, the 200 million army with the mention of the four angels who've been, you know, basically tied up there until they release them, uh, upon the world, has nothing to do with Revelation 16 when the Euphrates River dries up to make way for the kings of the East. That's going to be a ground invasion. I mean, if you think about it today, we don't need rivers to dry up to invade another country, right? Just launch the plane, send the aircraft carrier, send the helicopters out, or whatever. So, you know, yeah, there's going to be this demon horde numbering some 200 million that comes up and, uh, torments people and all the other things. And then you've got Revelation 16 where the river dries up, and that way the armies, the foot soldiers can cross over on dry land. Okay. My question is, in Trump's speech in his news conference, uh, instructing the world and the Iranian people that after the bombing stops, take back your country. In lieu of this, what do you think Trump is going to do? I mean, and the people, I can't think that it's the people's will that a new Khamenei will come up and oppress them again. So in lieu of that, do you think President Trump will support this Khamenei, or they're going to overtake that guy too? Well, you know, one, we have to remember that the entire Iranian population is not Persian. Only 52% of them are Persian. So you've got multiple factions in there. And that's one of the concerns about simply taking out a regime and then not having a plan to replace it. Now, the, the grandson or son of the, uh, former Shah, you know, he is, can't think of his first name. His last name is Pahlavi. And so Reza. Yeah. So he's, you know, pretty much standing up as I can, I'll do, I'll take the job and come back home. But, you know, I think that would be a better outcome than what they have. But no, you know, Trump's an interesting character. He's, uh, yeah, boy, that's an understatement. You know, he, he, he's never really been overly concerned about regime change, per se. You know, because he's got a different perspective on religion than we do. You know, he doesn't necessarily, I don't think, see all that Islam actually is and is doing to the world. I think he just, yeah, if that's what they want to believe, I'm fine with that. But you can't be killing people. You can't be killing your own people. That's been his motivation. That was his motivation with Maduro. Maduro killing people, not just in his own country, oppressing them, but he's killing people all over the world, including in the United States. So, you know, that, that's the big dilemma right now is who's going to take over. And, you know, he has said, Netanyahu has called for the Iranian people, stand up, take your country back. Well, somebody's got to lead the charge, you know, and there, I don't think everybody necessarily recognizes what that means because they still have the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, you know, who are sold out to Khamenei mainly because of the life that they enjoyed while the vast majority of people lived in poverty. You know, the unemployment rate in Iran is some 45%. And, you know, so people just want to live. Iranian people. It's kind of interesting. Our next-door neighbors are Persian. And, uh, single mom two doors down are Persian. And I don't know where they are. They're not in their homes these past couple of days. They might have been up in LA celebrating, but.

They had stickers on their cars, you know, "Free Iran" and all that stuff. And you know, I think, you know, I don't know that Trump has one thing I will say about him. Um, he's not so foolish as to tell our plans in advance to our enemies. So I don't know if he's got a plan or a man or whatever in place he hasn't said. So you know, that that's really the biggie out of all questions. What's next?

Yeah. Uh, yeah. I guess just the the I maybe if you could tie a bow on this for everybody in the room and maybe everybody listening online. Um, should we be scared? Like there's a lot of scary things going on outside of the country, inside of the country, the borders, all the things happening. Um, you as our pastor, could you maybe put us in a mindset when we leave this room or when we go offline, what we should be, what's our attitude coming away from all this stuff that you've been talking about this morning?

Well, I think one thing that that we all need to recognize is that we need to be living with a greater situational awareness. We need to know what's going on around us. And I, you know, anybody else got pet peeves out there? Yeah, I've got some pet peeves. And and one of them, and I don't mean this as a slight or slam or anything, but I I got to tell you, it drives me nuts to see women sitting in their car digging through their purse. You too. Do you know why? Because that's how you get robbed. Vast majority of robberies that are taking place person-to-person capacity are happening in gas stations. Why? Because there's somebody with no situational awareness whatsoever. So, we got to have our heads on a swivel right now. We got to be watching around us.

It was a huge Persian community. As a matter of fact, the largest Persian community outside of Iran is in Southern California. That's where many of them fled to after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. So, you know, the first thing when Eric asked the question, the first thing that came to mind was 2 Timothy 1:7. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. And you know, I also think it's important, I think we all recognize that God allows Christians to die, right? Yes. And I think recently because we're at the anniversary of the 12 uh who were on the shores of the Red Sea that were executed by was it uh wasn't Al Qaeda? ISIS. Yeah. You know, so these wouldn't deny Jesus and confess Muhammad or Islam and they died for that. So God allows hard stuff. But I think one of the things we always have to remember is that going to heaven is always a reward. It's never punishment. It's never a failure on God's part. If you get to heaven, believe me, you're going to be glad to be there.

Now, I don't think we should try and arrange the meeting. I think we need to be careful. I think we need to watch out, have situational awareness, you know, don't do things that could put us in a a jeopardized situation. Know, you know, we've Terry and I have had and aren't you glad we have the Holy Spirit because God gave us discernment through the presence of the Holy Spirit. And you know, we Terry and I over the years, don't want to say it's happened a bunch of times, maybe half dozen times or so, we've been walking down the street and we'll walk by somebody and we'll both go. Do you feel that? You know, there's somebody and and well, you know who else has discernment? Louie. Louis got huge discernment, man. Sometimes he freaks me out when I I walk him at 5:30 in the morning. It's dark and uh he freezes and starts staring at something. I don't see anything. My mind always goes back to Balam's donkey. Is he seeing something and I can't? What's Anyway, listen, we have discernment. We can discern the spirits of what's going on around us, you know, and I think a lot of what has been happening, we've been groomed that if you look at any particular group or uh any type of uh apparel and have a caution, well, you're a racist and you're a bigot. Well, you know, I don't think that's true. I think we need to recognize there's a group that wants to see us destroyed and bring about the end of Western culture and that's a reality. And you know it's not anything about Arabs because Arabs make up a small percentage of the Islamic community. You know what the biggest Islamic country in the world is? Indonesia. Indonesia. There's 300 million Muslims. So again, you know, it's not about, you know, this person, that person. I think we just have to recognize, you know, we live in a time that's dangerous. So, we have to be smart. We have to have situational awareness in everything that we're involved in. Don't sit in a car, you know? I mean, the guys like Mike and and Jim that do our uh uh Girls on Guard, when you come out of the store, you have your keys in your hand. You walk to the car and get in. I mean, that's just good situational awareness. So, I think we just need to be real practical and um you know, I hope and I've told you this before. I'm not afraid of dying, but I have concerns about the method. I don't you know, just I want to go in the rapture. That that's really my position, and I'm sure most of you do, too. But we live in perilous times. Let's just be smart.

Amen. In very practical ways. Recognize what's happening around us. Amen.