13 Dec, 2004  

Peace Train Gets Back on Track  

  Egypt surprised the world by gaining an understanding with Israel, the Palestinians, the United States and Europe for a comprehensive settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.   This proposal is not just more pie-in-the-sky optimism. It includes a rather comprehensive plan that calls for a peace conference in Washington D.C. next July.

In a show of how attitudes have changed, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had rare praise for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, saying he was the best chance for the Palestinians to reach peace.  

  Egypt's peace plan is likely a direct result of the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat last month. In a recent Update, I noted that Arafat had been a huge obstacle to reaching any type of peace accord. I also declared his removal the year’s top prophecy-related event.  

  The plan calls for the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza and it would have Egyptian border troops be responsible for security of the Egyptian-Palestinian border and the Palestinian side of the border with Israel.  

  The Egyptians would essentially act as a buffer between the Palestinians and the Israelis. With all the terrorist attacks that have originated from Gaza, this plan would be very appealing to the Israelis.   

  Before there can be any high-level talks or a buffer zone, there first needs to be an agreement on a cease-fire between Palestinian terrorist groups and the Israeli military. While Egypt was talking of a truce, Hamas set off a bomb that killed a soldier and triggered Israeli retaliation that killed four Palestinian gunmen.  

  The peace process started in the late 1970s when Egypt and Israel agreed to settle their differences on various issues.   Because this process has been in motion for so long, I believe strongly that it will lead to the peace that the Antichrist will someday sponsor.   

  Daniel described the Antichrist as man of amazing personality and power: “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time” (Dan. 7:25).  

  Speaking further about him, Daniel said: “And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up. And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practice, and shall destroy the holy people. And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand” (Dan. 8:23-25).  

  Because the rapture is predicted to occur at an unknown hour, the final peace pact will have come after the rapture. As we look at world headlines and see the stage being set, we need to realize the nearness of these events makes the likelihood of the removal of the Church all the more urgent.
-- Todd

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Pre-Trib Briefing

Dallas in December has become a ritual for about 175 or so people who arrive from across the US and the world. Todd and I are two of them. This year's annual get-together was marked by the absence of one of  raptureready's partners in crime.

I was asked the question so many times that it was almost the same as Todd being there. "Where's Todd?" I heard it about a dozen times in the first hour after I arrived. "It just doesn't seem the same without Todd. He always seems to be everywhere at once" was the synthesized observation of the many voices that directed at me their inquiries about our fearless leader.

Todd makes us all feel like stars with his ubiquitous flash shots while we engage in our various cabals during breaks. He's a one-man paparazzi, and most don't know quite what to do if his camera isn't bursting its light in our faces while we move about in the Harvey Hotel at one end of a DFW runway.

So, we were forced to carry on without him --without the feeling of being in the whirlwind vortex he creates as he goes about being everywhere at once. Duty calls, and he couldn't quite move quickly enough to be both in Florida and among us. We missed him. Postman Dan and Andy of Wales represented the website well, and I was glad they were there, engaging in conversations at every turn while I stumbled about the conference clutter. Other raptureready family members were there, too, but I don't recall whom.

Tim LaHaye's Pre-Trib Research Center study group's annual meetings are always very productive for me. I, like many people who are members, or the extra 200 or so who attend as guests, gather as much for the fellowship and deal-making as for the tremendous information the group's research endeavors produce.

I want to share with you, in this week's column, some of the intriguing intelligence we garnered from Todd's and my many friends and colleagues, who presented papers and/or extemporaneously briefed us on things happening around the world that might relate to prophecy yet future.

This year's Pre-Trib  Study Group centered around the most profound signal of where we stand today on God's prophetic timeline: the modern nation of Israel. The principal question the presenters addressed involved examination of whether present-day Israel is in the promised land for the final time--for the wrap-up of human history. Or, might Israel be destroyed, and its people scattered like in previous diasporas throughout the history of the Jews?

As always, the curricula split between two camps in presentation style. One was highly scholarly and academic, delivered by reading each word of the paper while those of us who can see -and, that excludes yours truly, of course-- read along on the large screen. The other, dealing with current issues and events overlaid by the prophetic Word of God, was delivered less formally, the speakers referring only occasionally to notes. The former style of presentation, while interesting, takes second place to the latter, so far as I'm personally concerned. And when it comes to matters involving Israel, in particular, the current issues and events are profound in their implications these days.

As stated above, the primary focus was on the modern state of Israel. The slant of all the presentations was toward examining whether the nation can survive, or could be dismantled, and the Jews who are its citizens again be scattered into the world of nations.

Because of limited space for our weekly updates, I'll very briefly hit the highlights as I recall them.

Israel and the "Roadmap to Peace"

Dr. David Hocking and several other speakers pretty much reached consensus that the "Roadmap to Peace," while interesting in its tenets and timing, is most likely not the final product that will constitute the "covenant made with death and hell" spoken of by Isaiah in Isaiah Chapter 28 and by Daniel the prophet in Daniel 9:27. The present effort, however -an effort actually formulated within the European Union-could well be part of an equation that will produce that covenant that Antichrist, as the emerging great world leader out of the EU, will guarantee.

One fascinating thing brought out by Dr. Hocking and others who are very close to the developments because they either live in Israel or are there 50 percent or more of their time is the fact that the one-time hard-liner, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, seems to be mellowing his stance in considering the possibilities for peace. Even Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt, has stated that Sharon is the right man for the peace process at this time. The consensus is that Arafat's death is key to the new tone. Even the Islamics are moderating their adamant demands, saying now that the former concessions they demanded might be set aside for the moment, so the peace process can gain impetus.

Iran and the Growing Crisis

Chuck Missler, an expert on weapons development, deployment, and technologies such as delivery systems for nuclear warheads, and Dr. Jimmy DeYoung, an authority on Israeli interactions with its Islamic neighbors, gave grim assessments for the Middle East because of Iran's continuing nuclear arms development. It is unbelievable, they conclude, that the UN takes the Iranian leadership at its word, apparently naively inferring that when Iran says it will now stop producing enriched uranium, and will instead concentrate on nuclear technology applied to electric energy production, it can be trusted. Yet Iran is proven to have purchased missiles and related technology know-how from China, and nuclear, weapons-grade materials from Russia. Again, the UN looks the other way.

Israel doesn't, and, according to Missler and DeYoung, critical mass has about been reached, when Israel will be faced with a now-or-never choice to destroy Iran's capability. Trouble is, Iran uses facilities to do its nuclear arms development beneath buildings occupied by civilians.

The hope is that because the cry for peace is so loud and growing, even China -for economic stability and growth reasons-will pressure Iran to come clean regarding the extent of its nuclear program. Otherwise, Israel will make certain it comes clean in its own very capable way.

Terrorism

Missler, along with other major speakers in the know about current issues and events at the meetings, agreed that 2005 could well be a year when a thermonuclear device is exploded -perhaps in a coastal city, either in the US or another western nation. The consensus is -based upon some quite unique intelligence-- that the terrorist planners have deliberately held off producing a major attack of that magnitude, awaiting the outcome of the American presidential election. Most of the Pre-Trib speakers don't agree with media punditry and administration sources who say that efforts undertaken by Homeland Security and other such agencies have prevented a catastrophic event undertaken by Osama bin Laden or someone other. They do agree, however, that security steps have been influential in postponing attacks to some extent.

On a side note: The fact that Russia is deploying a new class of ICBMs, and China is moving swiftly forward with development of nuclear subs with highly advanced thermonuclear tipped missiles, is increasingly puzzling and of concern to America's military planners.  The Chinese and the Russians talk global economic development and cooperation, but they plan for Armageddon?.It is perplexing. But isn't that how the KJV presents Jesus' words about end-time earth, so far as the nations are concerned (Matthew Chapter 24)?

We could go over numerous other issues and events that were discussed in-depth at the Pre-Trib meetings. But, alas, space has run out for now.

I would like to report on the following at great length, but will limit it to this bulleted itinerary listing of topics covered while in Dallas.

* The Temple Mount and the ongoing build-up to an explosive situation

* The international hatred for Israel -particularly growing in Europe

* The euro's growth -the dollar's decline, and how that might fit in, prophetically

* The debate about the Ark of the Covenant -there was some flashing back and forth between Dr. Randall Price and Dr. Jimmy DeYoung about whether it has been found

* Arafat's strange conversation with Page Patterson (banquet speaker Monday night, and president of Southwest Seminary) about Jesus, and who He is

* The oil of Asher, and the "spoils and goods" that will bring on the Gog-Magog attack

The primary things I took from the meetings this year, if I may boil it down to one or two things, is that the core spiritual braintrust of the Pre-Trib Research Center think-tank agrees that modern Israel will never be removed from the land again and that the Jews are back in the land and returning in great numbers for the wrap-up of human history as presented in God's prophetic Word. God is still on the throne, and Christ is prepared at any moment to step onto the clouds of Heaven, and shout, "Come up hither!"
    --Terry