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The Beast and the Harlot--A Rocky Relationship

Last September America was sending its warships and aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf as a show of strength for the benefit of Iran. At the time, Iran was also conducting military exercises, and it appears now that the military buildup in the Persian Gulf was just a message meant to browbeat Iran.

At the moment, only the Boxer Expeditionary Group yet remains in the Persian Gulf. So the threat of war seems to have subsided.

Likewise, the political climate in Washington has changed with the recent elections sweeping Republicans out of power. The people have sent a clear message to the President that they are not happy with his Middle East foreign policy, particularly with the war in Iraq. This was made doubly clear when Donald Rumsfeld, D.T. ("Doctor of Torture") resigned under pressure the day after the election. With the President's ratings near all-time lows near 30%, it is clear that only his hard-core evangelical constituency remains to support him.

It is well known that the Republicans and Democrats each have about 30-35% of the population as their hard-core support base. The rest are the so-called "swing votes." That means President Bush has lost essentially all of the swing votes. This has swept many Republicans out of office, and now the President is finally trying to present an olive leaf to his opposition, hoping that they will cooperate with him.

On Dec. 6 the Iraq Study Group released their report on the war in Iraq, giving 79 recommendations, most of which go against the Bush Doctrine. While this report is not binding upon the President, he ignores it only at his own peril. Of particular interest is the conclusion that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the root of the Iraq problem, which I have said all along. Since it was a bi-partisan report made up of many people of prestige, it will be a fifth gospel to many people.

Change is in the wind, and though the President wishes he could "stay the course," even he knows better than to continue saying those words. Change is inevitable, and once it begins, the momentum of change will be irreversible and only increase in velocity. We have turned a major historic corner, and each day that passes, the danger of our attacking Iran or Syria subsides.

Americans always tire of no-win wars. We seem to love wars that we can win and hate wars that we don't win. Others have figured this out and know that guerrilla wars are the way to defeat us without ever having to win a single battle. They can win in the same way that Hezbollah "won" the recent war in Lebanon. All the Iraqi insurgents have to do is to stay alive and kill more innocent civilians. Instead of the killers being blamed, they can blame those responsible for giving the people peace and security.

Of course, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but welcome to the real world.

The recent Israeli debacle in Lebanon also is contributing to the shift in the tide of history. First, they are now widely perceived to have lost the war against Hezbollah. The Lebanese war only weakened the legitimate government of Lebanon. In the world of relative strengths, this meant that the Israelis strengthened the power and influence of Hezbollah. The current demonstrations in Beirut, where a third of the country has turned out to support Hezbollah, is clear evidence that the current government of Lebanon has been tremendously weakened.

Did the Israelis make a mistake? or was this all part of the plan? I do not know how smart they are. Like I wrote months ago, it is hard to believe that they are that stupid. They already made the same "mistake" in the Palestinian territory in 2002 when they effectively destroyed its police force and government. That alone established Hamas as the only real power broker in Palestine, and so last January we saw Hamas win the elections.

Now the same Israeli policy has empowered Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Israelis destroyed the infrastructure of the nation and Lebanon's government was shown to be helpless to stop the Israeli invasion. The Lebanese government was held responsible for the peace and security of the people--or lack of it--and to rebuild all that the Israelis had destroyed. They were bankrupt and could do nothing, so Hezbollah stepped in and saved the day. This made them very popular.

Are the Israelis deliberately trying to radicalize their neighbors? Or are they just plain stupid? I have some confidence in their intelligence, so it is my opinion that all of this is a deliberate but hidden basis of their foreign policy. Its purpose is to scare Americans with the threat of terrorism, which also makes Americans identify with the Israelis and drives a wedge between us and all others.

I have no doubt that there are some in high circles who want an all-out war, so that they can take more land to form "Greater Israel" that includes Lebanon, Syria, much of Iraq, and all of Jordan and the Sinai (Egypt). This is what the two blue stripes mean on the Israeli flag. They represent the Nile and the Euphrates--the borders of "Greater Israel."

In the process, they have dragged America into their scheme, mostly by appealing to evangelicals who in turn have become Christian Zionists sharing the same goal of "Greater Israel." Christian Zionists, too, want a cataclysmic war--Armageddon--in order to force the return of Christ to save the Jews from extinction. Each wants war for a different reason, but together they form the new War Party Alliance.

Yet recent polls show that the most hated nation on the face of the earth is "Israel," and America is in second place. I am reminded of Jacob's complaint to his bloodthirsty sons, Levi and Simeon, in Gen. 34:30, "You have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land."

Christian Zionists seem proud of their stench, thinking that God will bless them for supporting the Zionists in their warmongering ways. They think they are hated for doing what is right. But they are blindly helping to fulfill prophecies that they never intended to fulfill. Rev. 17:16 says,

"And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast [system of Babylon], these will hate the harlot [old Jerusalem, the false bride] and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire."

Christian Zionism is helping to make the Israeli state hateful to the Babylonian system that currently rules the world. Polls show that this prophecy is now coming to pass. And America is hated as well because of our foreign policy that is based upon the Jews being God's chosen, and that the idea of being "chosen" means they can do injustice to whomsoever they please with immunity from divine prosecution.

The historic change that has occurred toward the end of 2006 shows that the harlot is now hated and is about to be "eaten" and "burned up" by the beast system of the world. What event will set the spark to the tinder? I do not know. When will it happen? Probably sooner than later. But given the shift in recent months, it will take a major event (like 9-11) to force us into any further war in the Middle East. Each day that passes means that a greater and greater stimulus would be needed to kick America into another Middle Eastern war.

It is my hope and prayer that America will be too war-weary to defend Israeli interests any longer. We need to stop fighting their wars for them, even if this means that they will "go nuclear." If they want a suicidal cataclysmic war, let them do it without us, and then the fulfillment of prophecy will surprise nearly everyone.