January 25 – 31, 2009

“If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because

of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.”

(Ezekiel 33:6, New International Version)

Weekly World Watch

Andy Walton’s

To skip the introductory slides and go straight to this weeks developments click here.

What is a Weekly World Watch?

• Israel: The continuing conflict in the Middle East and focus on Jerusalem.

• Europe: Its developing union, both political and religious.

• Russia: Its return to anti-Western ways as Bible prophecy’s “king of the north.”

• The UK and the US: Bible prophecy’s “king of the south.”

• Moral standards in decline and violence on the increase.

WWW presentations in PowerPoint can be ordered as audio/visual CDs by clicking here. Move your mouse to place the cursor on the blue link and click.

The idea is simple. It is to look at current events and compare them to events spoken of in the Bible. .

I hope to build up a picture of God’s hand working in the affairs of this world. God is bringing about a day when all nations will be gathered to Jerusalem to battle. At that time God will send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, back to this earth. Jesus will then establish God’s kingdom on earth.

This kingdom will last for ever. This is our hope and the reason we watch.

• Increasing natural disasters: including earthquake, famine etc

The following six themes will appear repeatedly in WWW:

HEADLINE

EVENT

COMMENT

News Photo

The source of the headline and the date are included.

Each WWW looks at a few key developments that have happened during the past week. It is in no way meant to be exhaustive – just a look at those events I saw as significant from a Biblical point of view.

What is in a Weekly World Watch?

BIBLEQUOTE

This is normally one verse which backs up why the event that has occurred is interesting from a Biblical perspective. Please read in its context. Unless stated otherwise, all quotes are from the King James Version. (Book, chapter, and verse)

This is straight from a news report that caught my eye because it looked significant from a Biblical perspective, usually that of prophecy.

Every WWW event slide has the following format. To reveal each block of text just left click your mouse or press the space bar. You control when it appears.

This is the reporter’s description of the event. It is always a direct quotation from the news report and reflects the understanding of the reporter and editors.

This is my comment on why the event is interesting to a Bible student. The intention of the WWW is to offer brief Biblical perspectives without going into detail. If more detail is desired, please e-mail me: (andy@weeklyworldwatch.co.uk).

This Week’s Developments

To print any of the event slides that follow, click the picture on the upper right

• Huge gas reserves discovered off Haifa (repeat from last week)

• Israeli chief rabbinate cuts ties with Vatican

• Russia defence spending soars

• French strike over economic crisis

• Gaza ceasefire too fragile to acclaim end of warfare

January 25 – 31, 2009

• Obama to internationalize Jerusalem

Huge gas reserves discovered off Haifa

This could be very significant indeed. For a long time now we have wondered what the spoil might be that Russia wants to take when it invades Israel. The Bible says clearly that Gog has an evil thought to invade Israel and TAKE A SPOIL. Some have thought that perhaps Israel would strike oil. However this gas find off the coast of Israel would be just as significant as an oil find. Russia is very interested in gas. In fact Russian production of natural gas is the largest in the whole world. This gas find is huge. It could be one of the largest in the world. Surely Russia would see this as a SPOIL.

Three massive gas reservoirs have been discovered 80 km off the Haifa coast, Noble Energy Inc. announced on Sunday. Charles D. Davidson, Noble Energy's chairman, president and CEO, said in an announcement that his company was "extremely excited by the results. This is one of the most significant prospects that we have ever tested and appears to be the largest discovery in the company's history." Speaking on Army Radio Sunday morning, an exhilarated Yitzhak Tshuva, owner of the Delek Group Ltd, one of the owners of the well, called the discovery "one of the biggest in the world," promising that the find would present a historic land mark in the economic independence of Israel. "I have no doubt that this is a holiday for the State of Israel. We will no longer be dependent [on foreign sources] for our gas, and will even export. We are dealing with inconceivably huge quantities; Israel now has a solution for the future generations," Tshuva added. An ecstatic Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said before the weekly cabinet meeting that the discovery was a "historic" one and could "change the face of Israeli industry.“ Click here to go to full article and video.

Jerusalem Post, January 18, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

and thou shalt think an evil thought:…. And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil

BIBLEQUOTE

(Ezekiel 38:10-12)

Israeli chief rabbinate cuts ties with Vatican

In an interview broadcast on Swedish television last week, Bishop Williamson said: "There were no gas chambers." He also stated that he did not believe six million had died, and the number was between 200,000 and 300,000. It is hard to underestimate the harm this has done to Jewish / Catholic relations. Many now doubt that the Pope’s planned trip to Israel later in the year will go ahead. If it does it will be with great controversy. Tomorrow (Sunday) is Holocaust Memorial Day which remembers the 6 million Jews that were killed in the 2nd World War. There will be one further holocaust. The Bible says that two thirds living in Israel will be killed in a great war centred on Israel. It also says that the Vatican will be involved in making war against Christ and the saints.

Israel's highest Jewish body has broken off relations with the Vatican over Pope Benedict XVI's decision to rehabilitate a British bishop who questioned the scale of the Holocaust.The chief rabbinate announced it was severing ties indefinitely, sending a letter to the Holy See expressing "sorrow and pain" at the decision. Bishop Richard Williamson's excommunication was lifted along with three other bishops from the ultraconservative Society of Saint Pius X which opposes the liberal reforms introduced by the Catholic Church in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council. Benedict, who was elected Pope four years ago, has strained ties with Judaism by condoning the use of the old Tridentine mass in Latin, which includes a Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews to Catholicism.

Daily Telegraph, January 28, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

BIBLEQUOTE

(Zechariah 13:8)

Bishop Richard Williamson

Russia defence spending soars

On Monday Russia announced plans to start building a naval base in Georgia'sbreakaway Abkhazia region this year. This will deepen concerns about Russia’smilitary presence in the region and heighten tensions with Georgia.Russia is pushing for a new "treaty on European security" to govern East-Westrelations, arguing that Nato is a Cold War relic. NATO official met earlier this month todiscuss the growing list of what they see as belligerent Russian actions:1. Russia’s seizure of territory in Georgia. 2. Russia’s use of gas as a political tool

3. Russia’s abandonment of democracy.There have been reports this week that Russia has suspended its plans to retaliateagainst the proposed US missile shield in Poland by placing its own missile inKaliningrad. This is because Obama’s “tone” is more conciliatory. However, with Biblein hand we know Russia has been “turned back” and will continue to prepare for war.

Russia's defence budget has risen by 34 per cent since last year and its armed forces are being completely overhauled, according to the most authoritative survey of global military trends. The Kremlin is transforming its army into an entirely professional force as part of the most ambitious military modernisation since the Cold War.Russia's official defence budget will be £27 billion this year, compared with £20 billion in 2008, according to "The Military Balance", an annual study compiled by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). This increase one of the largest in peacetime history will leave the Kremlin's defence budget almost double the level of 2006

Daily Telegraph, January 27, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.

BIBLEQUOTE

(Ezekiel 38:7)

French strike over economic crisis

Similar (but far smaller) actions are starting to occur in the UK. There is growing industrial unrest over imported labour affecting oil and energy plants. Hundreds of UK workers have gone on "sympathy strikes" to support a walkout by energy workers in Lincolnshire angry at the use of foreign workers.Note in the article above that the word “fears” and “discontent” are mentioned.These will only continue to grow and worsen. Not my words but the International Monetary Fund. Global economic confidence has plumbed the lowest depths on record. The past 5 quarters have seen 40% of the world’s wealth destroyed. This was quoted at this weeks World Economic Forum!Surely this week in France and elsewhere we have seen the beginnings of “the sea and waves roaring” and “men’s hearts failing them for fear”. This is the beginning because plainly it is going to get much worse. Mammon will be shown for what it is.WORTHLESS. The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn when they cannot sell.

Hundreds of thousands of French workers staged a nationwide strike on Thursday to try to force President Nicolas Sarkozy and business leaders to do more to protect jobs and wages during the economic crisis. Public transport was snarled in many cities, scores of flights were cancelled, and schools, banks, hospitals, the post office, law courts and state broadcasters were also expected to be hit by the protest.The strike aims to highlight fears of growing unemployment, discontent over Mr. Sarkozy's reluctance to help consumers and resentment towards bankers blamed for the economic slump.

Reuters January 29, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more Babylon is more than just false religion. It is the false systems of man.

BIBLEQUOTE

(Revelation 18:11)

Gaza ceasefire too fragile to acclaim end of warfare

An Israeli soldier was killed and three others injured, one seriously, Tuesday, Jan. 27, by a large roadside bomb detonated from Gaza against a routine Israeli military patrol near the Kissufim crossing.Eight hours later, an Israeli air strike killed a Hamas operative involved in the attack riding a motorbike near Khan Younis. Defence minister Ehud Barak warned Israel would respond to the Palestinians' unacceptable breach of the ceasefire.Our sources say Hamas initiated the clash for the benefit of US president Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell the day before he arrives for his first visit to the region.

Debkafile, January 27, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased.

BIBLEQUOTE (Jeremiah 30:14)

Hamas is down but not out. The war has paused but not stopped. We have seen this week a gradual deterioration on the ground. A large bomb killed an Israeli solider. Israel responded with air strikes.Hamas has fired several rockets at Israel. There are reports as I type this of another rocket attack exploding near the city of Ashkelon.US President Barack Obama has sent his Middle East envoy George Mitchell to the region to "vigorously" pursue Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.He has arrived in Jordan after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. He has no plans to meet leaders of Hamas.The tensions remain high between Israel and other Muslim countries. Turkey's prime minister stormed off the stage at the World Economic Forum in Davos after a heated debate on Gaza with Israel's president. Turkey a Muslim country has been friendly with Israel but recent events have begun to turn Turkey against Israel. See the verse below.

Obama to internationalize Jerusalem

Likud party chairman and Knesset Opposition leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu warned at the Jerusalem Conference Wednesday that the Obama administration and leftist Israeli politicians will try to internationalize holy sites in Jerusalem -- and he vowed to fight the move.Former prime minister Netanyahu, who will likely return to his old leadership role after the February 10 Israel elections, repeatedly emphasized the Likud’s loyalty to the concept of a united Jerusalem.“We have demonstrated in the past, and will continue to demonstrate our commitment to a complete, undivided Jerusalem,” Netanyahu assured a packed hall at the Jerusalem Regency Hotel, where he opened the final day of the Jerusalem Conference. “What would have happened had we not built all those neighbourhoods” around the central part of the capital after the Six-Day War, Netanyahu asked. “Jerusalem would have been choked.” Moreover, he said, transferring sovereignty over those areas to the Palestinian Authority is not an option.

Israel National News, January 28, 2009

EVENT

COMMENT

And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

BIBLEQUOTE

(Zechariah 12:3)

Jerusalem we know will be on the world’s agenda at the time the nations of the world are gathered together against it.It is interesting that the “probable” next prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is speaking of Obama’s desire to internationalise Jerusalem. Apparently, dividing the capital, or resurrecting the spectre of internationalizing the holy city, is at the recommendation of the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. This should not surprise us. It was her husband Bill Clinton who tried to divide Jerusalem in July 2000. He very nearly succeeded in doing so. But he failed and the Al Aqsa Intifada began. As God says in the verse below – those who try to move / alter Jerusalem will not survive.

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Weekly World Watch

The end of this week’s