Dear Brethren,
As we draw closer to the very endtime we see
through the eyes of the media the mammoth problems that are facing the
United States and the UK. And whatever adversely affects these two nations
will have a fallout impact on the other nations of Israel.
Most people have no real grasp of what is really taking place because they
are listening to the media who do not report the news and the trends from it
as it has been taking place and soon to become a reality that will affect
all of us in ways that most of the younger generations have no concept of
what is now facing us and what they will have to endure.
There is a great deal of news regarding the approaching energy crisis. It
is being said by some that the cost of a barrel of oil will continue to rise
until this country may be having to pay double for a gallon of gasoline of
what the cost is now.
Beyond the accelerating cost of gasoline there
is also the possibility of even being able to find a gasoline station
selling gasoline except on certain days. This was experienced back in 1974.
There also exists the possibility that we are
heading for gasoline rationing once again. Those of us who are older
remember when rationing was experienced on gasoline, tires, and some food
products such as sugar during World War II?
This country as well as other nations are at
the mercy of the Arab nations from whom much of the oil supply is pumped and
shipped.
An Ancient Prophecy —
It is interesting to read and think about an
ancient prophecy in regard to the energy crisis being experienced in our
time. It goes back all the way to Abraham and his sons, Isaac and Ishmael,
and the sons of Isaac, Jacob and Esau.
Abraham was blessed by God with great
blessings that would be passed on through his descendants (Genesis, chapters
12 through 49). Some years later, Isaac, one of his two sons, blessed his
son, Jacob, with those great and abundant blessings that would in time be
experienced in our time by being passed on through his son, Joseph, and
later to his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.
Those blessings have come to pass with the
nations of England and America, the house of Joseph (for a greater
understanding, please read the early writing of the United States and
Britain in Prophecy by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong that will soon be found on
our website).
Jacob received those blessings through deceiving his father into thinking he
was blessing his twin brother, Esau. A short time later Esau returned from
his hunting trip and learned that Jacob had received the blessing he was
expecting to receive. Isaac could not undo what he had done.
Esau then cried out in anguish asking if his
father yet had a blessing to give him. He didn’t. However Isaac laid his
hands on Esau and spoke of a prophecy that would be fulfilled in time to
come. (One can read of the first fulfillment in II Kings 8:20-22.)
The last fulfillment is the one that we are
now seeing taking place with the energy crisis upon us now at this time.
Read it:
“See, away from the fatness of the
earth, shall your home be, and away from the dew of heaven on high. By the
sword you shall live, and you shall SERVE your brother (Jacob); but when you
BREAK LOOSE, YOU SHALL BREAK HIS YOKE THAT IS UPON YOUR NECK” (Genesis
27:39-40, NRSV).
Not only has Esau and Ishmael (son of Abraham
by his concubine wife, Hagar), BROKEN the yoke through the vast abundant
wealth of oil in their desert lands that has been on their neck, but they
now have their hand on the neck of the house of Jacob through – “OIL
POWER!’
OPEC is now in the driver’s seat and dictates
as to the amount of oil they will pump to the United States and Britain, as
well as any other nation, along with the price they place on each barrel.
It is by this ancient prophecy we can understand why we witness the energy
crisis as well as to also realize this can lead to some very tough times
ahead of us. One must realize that by their hand being in control the
impact of the energy crisis can come to be so bad as to affect the food we
eat as well as in so many other areas.
It takes fuel to run the tractors that farm
the land and the many big trucks and trains that transports the food
supplies we have that makes possible its distribution throughout all of the
cities and even to the small grocery stores in all of the country-sides.
Realizing the enormous population we have in this country, and in Britain,
as well as other nations of Israel, those tractors have to be operated to
make possible the food crops, and the trucks have to continue to fill the
highways on a daily basis to make possible the food we eat.
Hardly anyone grasps the precarious situation we face that is from the
powerful hand of Esau and Ishmael on the neck of Jacob.
The articles below should add to our
understanding of the POWER of the Arab Nations:
Iran Threat : Attack By West Risks All
'Middle East Oil' SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE. COM Thursday, March 3, 2005
Iran has warned that Gulf Arab oil would be
endangered by any U.S. attack on the Islamic republic.
In the first such threat, a leading Iranian
official raised the prospect of Iranian retaliation against Middle East oil
exports. The official said such Gulf oil states as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia
could be threatened, Middle East Newsline reported.
"An attack on Iran will be tantamount to
endangering Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and – in a word – the entire Middle East
oil," Iranian Expediency Council secretary Mohsen Rezai said on Tuesday.
About 40 percent of the world's crude oil
shipments passes through the two-mile wide channel of the strategic Straits
of Hormuz. Iranian forces are deployed at the head of the channel. Oman and
the United Arab Emirates are located on the other side.
Teheran could easily block the Straits of
Hormuz and use its missiles to strike tankers and GCC oil facilities,
according to the new edition of Geostrategy-Direct.com. Within weeks, the
rest of the world would be starving for oil and the global economy could be
in danger.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration
projects that oil tanker traffic through the Straits of Hormuz will rise to
about 60 percent of global oil exports by 2025.
Rezai, a former commander of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps and a candidate for president, told the Fars News
Agency that any Western attack on Iran would send oil prices rocketing to
$70 per barrel.
He said such a significant increase in oil
prices would also be sparked by international sanctions on Teheran.
Iran : U.N. Action Would Harm Mideast
Stability Tehran says efforts to block enrichment 'playing with fire'
MSNBC NEWS Raheb Homavandi / Reuter
Secretary of Iran's Supreme National
Security Council and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rohani warned on
Saturday Iran would return to making nuclear fuel if it was sent to the U.N.
Secretary Council, at a conference in Tehran.
The Associated Press
Updated: 11:59 a.m. ET March 5, 2005
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran said Saturday it will
never agree to a permanent halt on enriching uranium and warned that a more
unstable Middle East would result from a U.S.-backed effort to haul Tehran
before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
Any effort by Washington to bring Tehran’s
suspended uranium enrichment program under Security Council scrutiny is a
dangerous path, warned Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Hasan Rowhani.
Speaking during a two-day international
conference on nuclear technology, Rowhani said Iran will halt negotiations
and resume uranium enrichment “without any hesitation” if European
negotiators insist Iran make its temporary suspension of uranium enrichment
permanent.
Iran says U.S., Europeans 'playing with
fire'“Americans and Europeans will be the first to lose in that case,” he
told more than 50 nuclear scientists and experts attending the Tehran
conference. “It will cause problems for regional energy and for the European
economy.
“And it will cause additional problems for
America. Therefore, no one will benefit from this. It’s playing with fire.”
Iran suspended its uranium enrichment
activities last year to create confidence in its negotiations and avoid
Security Council referral. But Tehran says the voluntary freeze depends on
progress in ongoing talks with the European Union.
Rowhani said Tehran will call off the talks
entirely if it sees no signs of progress by the time a committee of Iranian
and European negotiators meets March 17-18.
“If there is no tangible progress, we won’t
continue the talks,” he said.
Britain, France and Germany are trying to
secure an Iranian commitment to scrap enrichment plans in exchange for
economic aid, technical support and backing for Tehran’s efforts to join
mainstream international organizations.
Iran has suspended enrichment-related
activities during those talks, which both sides have said were difficult,
but insists the freeze will be brief.
Washington accuses Tehran of covertly trying
to build a nuclear bomb, which Iran denies.
Hard line will fail, Tehran insists
Rowhani suggested that if EU negotiators
succumb to U.S. pressure for a harder line, the negotiations will fail.
Europe’s prowess as an intermediary in international crises will suffer, he
said.
“If there is no U.S. pressure, we will reach a
compromise with Europeans in the near future,” Rowhani said. “Europeans are
not seeking a permanent halt to our peaceful nuclear program and denying the
Iranian nation of its rights.”
Bush has recently expressed support for the
European efforts. But documents circulated among board members of the U.N.’s
nuclear watchdog agency last week indicated Washington would try to increase
pressure on Tehran by the next agency board meeting in June should the
European talks fail.
Iran Says : To Make Atomic Fuel If
Sent To UN Council
Sat Mar 5, 2005 06:51 AM ET
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday it
would return to making nuclear fuel and that the Middle East would become
even more unstable if the Islamic Republic was sent to the U.N. Security
Council over its atomic program.
U.S. officials said on Friday they were still
looking to haul Iran before the council for possible sanctions, but have not
yet been assured of EU backing for this move should European attempts to
broker an atomic deal fail.
Washington argues that Tehran is making fuel
for atomic warheads. Iran insists it intends to use enriched uranium only in
power stations.
"If the Americans succeed in referring Iran's
case to the Security Council, Iran will immediately suspend all its
voluntary confidence-building measures," Iran's chief nuclear negotiator
Hassan Rohani told a conference.
Iran agreed last year to suspend making
nuclear fuel for a few months while it held talks with Britain, France and
Germany. The EU states are encouraging Iran to drop its fuel program in
return for economic incentives.
"Parliamentarians may even come up with a
harder decision," Rohani added.
Many conservative parliamentarians have called
for Iran to pull out of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
In the shorter term they have threatened that
Iran will not ratify the Additional Protocol to the NPT, which permits snap
U.N. inspections of nuclear sites.
REGIONAL INSTABILITY
"The security and stability of the region
would become a problem," said the mid-ranking cleric who is
secretary-general of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
"This would be a particular problem for the
United States because it has a lot of troops and equipment in region and is
in fact our imposed neighbor."
Iran often complains that it feels besieged by
the United States, which has troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and has
conducted military exercises in the Caspian Sea.
But Rohani still held out hope that talks with
Europeans could pay dividends, saying Iran had given the Europeans "an
objective guarantee" that it was not seeking arms.
"The ball is in the Europeans' court right
now," he said, adding Iran would make the terms of its guarantee public if
the Europeans rejected it.
He said any European position asking for an
end to the fuel cycle -- enriching uranium to make nuclear fuel -- as an
objective guarantee, was unacceptable.
"My feeling is that Berlin and Paris have
accepted the middle of the road approach," he continued.
Iran-EU talks continue in Geneva next week
Another Sober Writing --
Please note another very sober writing from a writer named
Ken regarding our very real problem with the need of oil:
“I have been reading an exceptionally
interesting book entitled "Crossing the Rubicon - The decline of the
American empire at the end of the age of oil" by Michael C. Ruppert.
“The book covers a number of avenues that show
the depths to which our government officials have sunk in their actions and
to hide facts and truth and information from the public.
“At any rate one of the main focuses of the
book is the precarious situation we are in regarding oil. I copied in a
chart that gives a good visual picture of where we are and what we have to
look forward to. As you will see from the chart we have passed the point
where we have enough oil to meet demand. We are currently in a slow slide
which will accelerate dramatically after 2012. I guess we should all be
forewarned of what lies ahead.” Ken
Meanwhile in Israel —
We have been cautioned numerous times by Mr.
Herbert W. Armstrong to KEEP OUR EYES on Jerusalem. Though we have been
seeing the ups and downs with the continuos flareups between the Israelis
and the Palestinians nothing major has yet happened to indicate any great
change as of this time.
However there seems to be a very BIG PROBLEM
building within the nation of Israel itself with their own people turning
against each other. Recent writings indicate they may very well be on the
verge of civil war.
Think about the following articles:
"And to think that most of the world considers
Ariel Sharon to be intransigent and inflexible, as well as a right wing
reactionary!
"I have heard rumors of late of a civil war
brewing in Israel.
"After reading this statement, reading between
the lines, one could come to the conclusion it is not a rumor, and may soon
be a reality. John
The Sanhedrińs Declaration Concerning
the Disengagement
17:08 Mar 08, '05 / 27 Adar 5765
The reestablished Sanhedrin has concluded
extensive deliberations on the disengagement plan, rejecting it as a
contradiction to the Torah of Israel.
The current format of the Sanhedrin is the
renewal of the historic Sanhedrin, Judaism's highest legal-religious
tribunal during Holy Temple times. The 71-man assembly convened in one of
the Holy Temple chambers, and existed from several decades before the Common
Era until roughly 425 C.E. The renewed body was launched last year in
Tiberias, and convenes in Jerusalem.
Following an intensive study and debate on the
issue and its halakhic [Jewish legal implications, the Sanhedrin drafted a
declaration Monday, stating interalia:
* The disengagement plan, involving the
uprooting of Jewish communities in Gaza and Samaria and the abandonment of
these areas to a foreign entity, is in direct contradiction to the Torah of
Israel, and is null and void. Future governments of Israel will have to
re-conquer the areas in question.
* The decision to implement the uprooting will
cause large numbers of Jews to transgress many of the Torah's commandments.
* The Government of Israel and the Knesset, in
their present form and power structure, are institutions that have no
authority according to Jewish Law to render decisions that contradict the
Torah of Israel.
* No Jew is permitted to cooperate with the
program of uprooting, in any way whatsoever.
* Any Jew – including a soldier or policeman –
who supports the uprooting, whether directly or indirectly, whether by
voting in its favor, or by giving counsel, or by supplying vehicles or
materials, and certainly anyone who actively participates in the uprooting,
thus transgresses a large number of Torah commandments, such as not standing
idly by one's neighbor's blood (Lev. 19,17).
* The uprooting of the residents of the Gaza
Strip and Samaria is a crime and an injustice to the residents, and places
many other communities – in fact, all citizens of the State of Israel – in
mortal danger.
* By this declaration, the Sanhedrin, as the
link of continuity of the Torah received by Moses at Sinai, hereby expresses
the stance of Israel's Torah... The Sanhedrin, as the representative of the
Jewish people throughout history, hereby affirms that the Jewish people --
regardless of this or that government – does not relinquish, and is not
entitled to relinquish, so much as the span of a solitary man's foot of the
Land of Israel according to its Biblical boundaries, for it is G-d's land.
POLICE COMMANDER SON REFUSES TO FOLLOW
ORDERS: The son of the police commander in charge of carrying out
the relocation of Jewish citizens from the 21 Jewish communities of Gaza,
Rafi Bar-Lev told WORLDNETDAILY that he thinks the relocation plan is wrong
and he will refuse orders if his unit is called to participate in the
withdrawal. Although such sentiments are not uncommon throughout the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF), Bar-Lev's joining the refusal movement is particularly
significant as he is the son of Uri Bar-Lev, the head of the police
department's southern district, a position that requires overseeing the
removal of Jews from their homes in Gaza. Bar Lev [the son] is currently
serving in the 51st Golani Brigade, an elite IDF unit posted in the Shomron,
near the four Jewish towns slated for evacuation from that region as part of
the relocation plan. Four other soldiers on duty with Bar Lev at the time of
his interview with WND also said they disagree with the withdrawal and would
certainly refuse orders to be a part of it as well. [Arutz Sheva]
....................................................................
Great Changes through the Threat
of Civil War? —
It will not be long before we will see big
changes in the Jerusalem area that will have a real bearing on Bible
prophecy. Will these changes be brought about by a civil war? I do not
know.
On the other hand if the politicians see they
are in no-win situation possibly the changes will come about through the
Politicians acquiescing to the Sanhedrian.
In Conclusion --
Brethren, the problems touched on here are
only a few of many other problems that are also posing serious problems for
all of us.
Your brother in Christ
Don Billingsley
