March 18 - 24, 2012

“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

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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 rightPRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE

• Tens of thousands in Syria call for fall of regime

• Russian anti-terror troops arrive in Syria

• Israel mourns as victims of shooting attack buried

• Israel warns neighbours over march to Jerusalem

• Russia issues new warnings over US missile defence

March 18 - 24, 2012

• Earthquake of 7.6 magnitude shakes Mexico City

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Tens of thousands in Syria call for fall of regime

Tens of thousands of Syrians braved tear gas and gunfire to protest across the country Friday, vowing to storm the capital Damascus to oust President Bashar Assad as the European Union ramped up pressure on the regime by imposing sanctions on his wife and other close relatives. Security forces deployed in many cities to disperse protests, but opposition groups reported fewer protester deaths than in past weeks. Activists said more than 20 people were killed nationwide in army attacks on opposition areas or clashes with armed rebels. International condemnation and high-level diplomacy have failed to stop the year-old Syria crisis, which the U.N. says has killed more than 8,000 people, many of them civilian protesters. Friday's sanctions bring to 13 the sets imposed by the EU to try to compel the regime to halt its violent crackdown on dissent. The U.S. and others have also imposed sanctions. Previous measures were aimed at Syrian companies and Assad himself.

Associated Press, March 24, 2012

EVENT

COMMENT

Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail. How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy! Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, Who brings this destruction on Damascus? Possibly Israel. At that time Israel will see Messiah!

BIBLEQUOTE

The pressure is building everyday in Syria. It will explode in ways only the Bible predicts. Damascus is mentioned many times in the Old Testament. In the New Testament it is mentioned almost entirely around one event. Saul was travelling to Damascus to capture and kill true believers. (Acts 9:2). On the way to Damascus a bright light shone from heaven and Saul heard the voice of Jesus and was converted. Saul could be symbolic of the faithless Jewish people who believe that invading Syria will bring their safety. The bright light and intervention of Christ could be symbolic of the return of Jesus (Luke 17:24) and the faithless Jews turning to their true Messiah as Saul did (Zechariah 12:10). Ananias who helps convert Saul could be symbolic of Elijah. (Malachi 4:5). Then the word of the Lord will go forth from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3)

(Jeremiah 49:24-26)

Russian anti-terror troops arrive in Syria

A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was "a bomb" certain to have serious repercussions. Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad's strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government's violent crackdown on the country's uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council's attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war. Now the Russian Black Sea fleet's Iman tanker has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-terror squad from the Russian Marines aboard according to the Interfax news agency. The Assad government has insisted it is fighting a terrorist insurgency.

ABC news, March 19, 2012

EVENT

COMMENT

And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. There will be a push against Russia (the king of the north). The word push is a military provocation

BIBLEQUOTE

(Daniel 11:40)

There are two apparently contradictory and highly significant things that have happened this week in relation to Russia and Syria. Firstly as reported above Russia has sent military units to Syria. It is supposed that these units are there to try and help Assad finally quash the year long uprising.The second thing is that the U.N. Security Council, including Russia and China, has agreed to a statement on Syria that backs U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's bid to end violence. Western envoys said Russian backing for the U.N. statement would be a diplomatic blow for Moscow's ally Assad. So why would Russia send a military unit at the same time as weakening support for Assad? The answer could be that if the nations around Syria see Russian military on Syrian soil they would think twice about invading if the Assad regime crumbled. It shows Russia’s keen interest in the region….

Israel mourns as victims of shooting attack buried

Crowds of weeping mourners have gathered at a Jerusalem cemetery as the funerals for three French-Israeli children and a teacher who were gunned down at a Jewish school in France got under way.Among the 2,000 or so people at the sprawling Givat Shaul cemetery on the western outskirts of Jerusalem were Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, and some 50 relatives and family friends, who arrived in Israel shortly after dawn in a plane carrying the remains of the dead. Four coffins containing the bodies of 30-year-old teacher Jonathan Sandler, his sons Arieh, 5, and Gabriel, 4, and seven-year-old Miriam Monsonego, were flown from Toulouse to Paris on Tuesday before continuing to Israel, where the two bereaved families had asked that their loved ones be buried.

Daily Telegraph, March 21, 2012

EVENT

COMMENT

Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end: Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue theeThis speaks of judgements against the Edomites (Arab nation) who perpetually hate Israel

BIBLEQUOTE

(Ezekiel 35:5-6)

The motorcyclist gunman attacked the Jewish Ozar Hatorah school in France on Monday and murdered a teacher, Yonathan Sandler, 30, his sons Arieh, 3 and Gavriel, 6 and the principal’s daughter, Miriam Monstango, aged 8. The killer dressed in black continued shooting 9mm and 11.43mm pistols at children inside the school yard before escaping. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, linked the attack on the school to anti-Israel "propaganda". "We must fight this extraordinary propaganda against Israel and Jews everywhere, against innocents, which leads these people to perpetrate such barbaric acts," he said. This may have been one man but there is a much bigger movement of hate for the Jews behind him. The killer was trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan.This is an ancient perpetual hatred that God will remove..

Israel warns neighbors over march to Jerusalem

As activists are planning to lead a Global March to Jerusalem next Friday, Israel has warned neighbouring countries that it would force- fully respond to attempted breaches of its borders. The Global March to Jerusalem initiative aims at getting over one million Arabs and their supporters to attempt to infiltrate Israel’s borders on March 30th. A spokesman for the march said last week the initiative “demands freedom for Palestine and its capital Jerusalem.” Diplomatic sources told the London-based Asharq Alawsat newspaper that Israel has sent messages to the governments of Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority regarding the planned march. The report said that in the messages Israel made it clear that anyone who will come near its borders would be considered an infiltrator and the IDF will act against him with full force.

Israel National News, March 23, 2012

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.

We wait to see what happens next Friday. But here we have a planned “Global March to Jerusalem”. This is surely a prelude to the day when “all nations will be gathered to Jerusalem to battle”. Notice how Israel has threatened to use force and has warned the governments in the nations that surround it. So who is behind this march on Jerusalem? Well a number of reports say it is Iran that is the main bankroller of the Global March against Israel’s borders. Iran claims to have rounded up Islamist delegations from five continents to support the Palestinians. On Feb. 26, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proclaimed the launching of the Global March to Jerusalem an expression of Iran’s policy for strengthening “resistance operations” against Israel and guarding Palestinian interests. The war for Jerusalem is coming….

BIBLEQUOTE (Zechariah 12:3)

Russia issues new warnings over US missile defence

A United States-led NATO missile defence plan Washington says is aimed at deflecting potential Iranian threats will break existing nuclear parity with Russia and prompt it to retaliate, President Dmitry Medvedev warned Friday. Moscow has rejected Washington's claim the plan is solely to deal with any Iranian threat, and voiced fears it will eventually become powerful enough to undermine Russia's nuclear deterrent. "No one has explained to me why we should believe that the new missile defence system in Europe isn't directed against us," Medvedev said in a speech at a security conference, adding that the shield will "break the nuclear parity.“ Speaking at Friday's conference, he reaffirmed that Russia isn't "shutting the door to dialogue," but warned that "the time is running out." "It's in our mutual interests to quickly reach mutually acceptable agreements," he said.

Associated Press, March 23, 2012

EVENT

COMMENT

Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

Russia is warning America that it will not tolerate the proposed missile defence system that will be placed in Europe. It would in effect be able to shoot down Russian missiles. This would then change the very delicate balance that the world has created of “Mutually Assured Destruction” (MAD!). In other words America could fire a nuclear missile at Russia without being guaranteed that it too would be devastated by a similar response. The missile shield would tip the balance in America’s favour. At a Defence Ministry meeting Tuesday, President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia was already preparing a range of countermeasures to defeat NATO missile defence, including forward deployments of tactical nuclear missiles in Russia's Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad. The king of the north (Russia) and the king of the south (America) are manoeuvring and preparing (though they don’t realise it) for the final conflict….

BIBLEQUOTE

(Joel 3:9)

Earthquake of 7.6 magnitude shakes Mexico City

A powerful earthquake that shook Mexico from its massive capital to its resort-studded southern coast damaged hundreds of homes and sent thousands of panicked people fleeing from swaying office buildings, yet apparently didn't cause a single death.As of early Wednesday, there were still no reports of deaths from Tuesday's magnitude-7.4 quake centred near the border between the southern states of Oaxaca and Guerrero, even after 10 aftershocks. Interior Secretary Alejandro Poire said Tuesday night that nine people were injured in Oaxaca and two in Mexico City.A magnitude 6.1 earthquake, the biggest in the country for 15 years, rattled Far North South Australia yesterday. The earthquake's epicentre was recorded at shallow depth near Ernabella, 415km north west of Coober Pedy and about 320km south west of Alice Springs, just before 8pm yesterday. Geoscience Australia reported the quake could have been felt by people up to 500km away.

Associated Press, March 21, 2012

EVENT

COMMENT

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.There can only be one time of trouble such as never was.It is a time still in the future. The final judgement of the world.

The earth is quaking. Jesus tells us in the gospel of Luke that we should expect to see earthquakes in divers places. The Greek words for “divers places” is once translated in Acts 27:2 as “by the coasts”. We see the earth and the whole of creation groaning and in travail like a woman about to give birth. We see the contractions getting stronger and more powerful. We see the pain increasing. But all of this will lead finally to the “push”. The final time of extreme pain which the Bible calls “the time of trouble such as never was”. In labour this equates to the final push called the “active phase”. The body switches gears when the cervix is dilated and is incredibly intense. It is a much shorter period of time than the first stage of labour. The final active phase may soon begin...

BIBLEQUOTE

(Matthew 24:21-22)

EVENT

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Weekly World Watch

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