Rumors of War

Beijing: Military drills near North Korea border not targeting regime - UPI.com
UPI reports: "China's defense ministry ruled out a military option in dealing with the "North Korea problem" on Thursday, following Pyongyang's launch of what it claimed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile. [...] 'The exercises are being conducted according to an annual plan,' Wu said. 'The exercises are not aimed at a particular country or party.' [...] Song Tao, a recent Chinese envoy to Pyongyang, was turned down for a meeting with leader Kim Jong Un, a North Korean move that may have not been well received in China."

Comment: This reporter has a gift for understatement. Let's consider for a moment the new national spirit in China. After decades of patient building programs in both the military and economic spheres China is now ready to enter a self-described new era of national pride and patriotism. They have an ambitious young leader who just consolidated power at the latest party congress and he is selling a narrative of national assertiveness, prestige and great power status. The mere idea that their client state is snubbing their representative must be infuriating. I scoffed at the notion that China had an interest in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis but now I'm no longer sure. It could well be that that fundamentals have not changed - China still sees North Korea as a strategic buffer - but the "optics" have definitely changed. China has no national interest in maintaining a client state that does not know its place. While I don't believe China will ever support Korean unification, I now see a way forward for China to act against Kim and install a more compliant puppet regime. Let's continue to watch these developments.

Covenant With Many

White House: Reports of Israel embassy move are 'premature' - UPI.com
UPI reports: "The White House dismissed rumors this week that a Trump administration plan is imminent to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. [...] President Donald Trump has until this weekend to decide whether to sign a waiver suspending for six months a 1995 law that mandates moving the embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported. Every president, including Trump in June, has signed the waiver every six months since the law passed. [...] Jordan's King Abdullah II, who was in Washington as the reports came out, urged Trump to promote a two-state solution, warning officials that a lack of peace talks could promote extremism and terrorism in the region."

Comment: I always think it's amusing that reporters think the Palestinians have any leverage. They will walk away, really? They will start sulking and decide they don't want peace after all? Maybe if they get really angry they might start firing off rockets at Israel from Gaza. Oh wait...don't they do that already? If the Palestinians really wanted peace with Israel couldn't they just unilaterally accept any of the four or five peace deals already put before them? They could do that right? What a diplomatic coup that would be! Israel would be forced to accept a peace plan they already proposed. This could happen...but it won't. The Palestinians hold all the cards for peace. They could choose to unilaterally disarm and adopt Gandhi-inspired civil disobedience. A democratic society like Israel would be totally flummoxed by that and would no doubt cave within weeks. But again, that will never happen. Many people have started to wake up to the fact that the Palestinians don't really want peace with Israel, they want peace without Israel.

Rumors of War

Five years in North Korea's quest for nuclear missiles - UPI.com
UPI reports: "North Korea has engaged in more missile provocations during the first months of U.S. President Donald Trump's term in office than in President Barack Obama's first four-year term. Pyongyang also conducted its sixth nuclear test on Sept. 3 in direct defiance of warnings from the United States and the international community. Recent developments indicate North Korea is uninterested in denuclearization."

Rumors of War

Pentagon: North Korea fires intercontinental ballistic missile - UPI.com
UPI reports: "An initial assessment indicates that North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile Tuesday, the Pentagon said. 'The U.S. Department of Defense detected and tracked a single North Korea missile launch today at about 1:17 p.m. EST,' Pentagon spokesman Col. Robert Manning said in a statement. 'Initial assessment indicates that this missile was an intercontinental ballistic missile.' If confirmed, it would be North Korea's third ICBM launch following two in July."

Comment:  It seems like the North Korean dictator is determined to provoke a reaction from President Trump. That seems like a bad idea. The chances of a miscalculation are very high.

Mark of the Beast

Bitcoin near $10K -- now seven times more valuable than gold - UPI.com
UPI reports: "The virtual currency bitcoin hit a new high of $9,700 on Monday -- making it worth seven times more than an ounce of gold. After starting the year with a value of just $1,000, the currency's value has skyrocketed 860 percent this year. Its value was listed at $8,000 just last week. The latest gains could be fueled by expectations of big investors, such as hedge funds and asset managers, pouring money into the currency."

Comment: I'm starting to follow Bitcoin news after being a bit late to the party. I looked into this a bit and it does appear that the underlying technology may be a potential platform to host a universal currency. The usual caveat applies:  I'm just following trends and don't know what the MOTB will turn out to be.

Doomed Damascus - Gog Alliance

Vladimir Putin welcomes surprise visit by Bashar al-Assad in prelude to peace talks - UPI.com
UPI reports: "Assad showed up for an unscheduled visit with Putin in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi Monday, where the Kremlin leader is set to hold peace talks with Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday. Kremlin officials are meeting in Sochi to talk about various defense issues. Syria's civil war has raged for six years, killed hundreds of thousands and displaced more than 6 million civilians. Russia and Iran have sided with Assad in the conflict, which has run concurrently with efforts to defeat the Islamic State terror group in the north African nation."

Comment: Aside from the amusing insight shared by the reporter that Syria is in Africa (seriously, look at a map before you report on a country), it's noteworthy that Russia, Turkey and Iran - future members of the Gog Alliance - are meeting to decide the fate of Syria. It's kind of nice that they bothered to invite Assad.

False Christs - Wickedness Increases

For many, Charles Manson cult killings ended era of love - AP
The AP reports: "In summer 1969, a scruffy ex-convict with a magnetic hold on young women sent some of his disciples into the night to carry out a series of gruesome killings in Los Angeles. In so doing, Charles Manson became the leering face of evil on front pages across America and rewrote the history of an era. [...] At a former movie ranch outside Los Angeles, he and his devotees — many of them young runaways who likened him to Jesus Christ — lived commune-style, using drugs and taking part in orgies. [...] Why he ordered the killing of strangers remained a mystery."

Comment: An example of pure evil and the seductive power of evil. 

War

Iraqi army takes Islamic State's last stronghold, Rawa - UPI.com
UPI reports: "The Iraqi army said Friday it's retaken the town of Rawa, the last Islamic State stronghold in the country.[...]  With support from local militias and airstrikes by a U.S.-led coalition, forces entered Rawa Friday to little resistance, Iraqi commanders said. Friday afternoon the Iraqi army announced it had 'liberated Rawa completely.' [...] The Islamic State, which controlled one-third of Iraqi territory three years ago, is now reduced to a small part of Syria as its primary domain. It used to have Mosul, Fallujah and Tikrit as Iraqi strongholds."

Comment: The end of the Islamic State is near. One question, when all of the fighting is over in Syria, will all the foreign fighters peacefully depart? 

Gospel Preached to All Nations

Museum of the Bible, built by Hobby Lobby owner, opens in DC - AP
The AP reports: "The $500 million museum includes pieces from the family’s collection from the Dead Sea Scrolls, towering bronze gates inscribed with text from the Gutenberg Bible and a soundscape of the 10 plagues, enhanced by smog and a glowing red light to symbolize the Nile turned to blood. It is an ambitious attempt to appeal simultaneously to people of deep faith and no faith, and to stand out amid the impressive constellation of museums in Washington. The Bible exhibits are so extensive that administrators say it would take days to see everything."

Comment: This is an excellent article to point out to your liberal friends who scoff at the idea of media bias. Sure, we all accept there is bias in news media platforms, after all, no one watches MSNBC and expects a conservative slant or watches Fox News and expects a liberal slant or tunes in to CNN and expects to hear good things about President Trump. We have become accustomed to biased news presented on television. But bias in the legacy news media is often harder to pin down and that's especially true when it comes to what they used to call the "newswire" services, outlets like the Associated Press and Reuters news services. These kinds of services come closest to old school "just the facts" reporting. Yet, when you look closely there are examples of embedded cultural bias like the well documented bias educated Eastern liberals have towards organized religion.

Like a lawyer deposing a witness we are first given the facts of the case, a new museum has opened, but then the credibility of the witness is slowly attacked so that in the end, you start to suspect their motives. There is something fishy going on here.

So, this is where we are in America in the 21st Century. We live in a time when a wealthy celebrity (not naming names) can use his fortune to support a newfangled religion like Scientology but if a Christian entrepreneur uses his fortune to support his Christian faith it's presented as something sketchy. If you read between the lines of this article closely you see that the facts are presented clearly, that this is a privately funded museum that is going to great pains to present a book and not proselytize, that's clear, but the adept reader will note the underlying assumption that if they did attempt to do that it would somehow be bad.

Here we are in the West, what was once quaintly called Christendom, and it's as if the reporter has discovered a new religion that is being pushed on the people by an eccentric millionaire and she is doing a public service by warning us of this strange and possibly dangerous religion. Don't be hoodwinked by the snake-oil salesman, the reporter seems to caution, there is definitely some scary religious evangelism going on here. Beware!

Rumors of War - Persia - Doomed Damascus

Israel fears Syria buffer will put Iran close to frontier - AP
The AP reports: "The official map included in a preliminary agreement that seeks to establish buffer zones in southwest Syria indicates that Iran-backed forces could deploy within several miles (kilometers) of the Israeli frontier — setting the stage for potential conflict between the bitter enemies. [...] Israeli leaders have repeatedly warned that they oppose a permanent military presence by Iran or its allies in postwar Syria. Officials have pushed for assurances from the international community that any Iranian-backed forces remain far from Israel’s border."

Comment: It's my understanding that Netanyahu went to Russia to tell Putin that a permanent Iranian presence in Syria was an Israeli red line. I think most observers understand that for Israel, a red line means action will be taken if the line is crossed.  This is a situation with great prophetic importance and deserves careful attention. 

Earthquakes

Quake in South Korea left 1,500 homeless, dozens injured - AP
The AP reports: "A 5.4 magnitude earthquake that was South Korea’s second-strongest in decades damaged infrastructure, injured dozens of people and left about 1,500 homeless, officials said Thursday. No deaths have been reported since the quake rattled the southeastern coastal region around the port city of Pohang on Wednesday afternoon. As of Thursday morning, 1,536 people had been forced to evacuate their homes and 57 people were injured, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said in a statement."

Comment: The ring of fire seems to be getting very active lately.

Wickedness Increases

Gunman targets people at random in California town, kills 4 - AP
AP reports: "A gunman driving stolen vehicles and choosing his targets at random opened fire 'without provocation' in a tiny, rural Northern California town Tuesday, killing four people and wounding at least 10 others, including a student at an elementary school, before police shot him dead, authorities said."

Comment: Now that wicked people know that they can simply take out their rage and anger upon the world with random violence, no place is safe. 

Rumors of War - Persia - Doomed Damascus

Iran building permanent military base in Syria - claim - BBC News
BBC News reports: "Iran is establishing a permanent military base inside Syria, a Western intelligence source has told the BBC. The Iranian military is said to have established a compound at a site used by the Syrian army outside El-Kiswah, 14 km (8 miles) south of Damascus. The report comes amid growing tensions over Iranian influence in Syria and across the region. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu recently warned that Iran wanted to establish itself militarily in Syria. 'Israel will not let that happen,' he said."

Comment: The proxy war currently ongoing between Saudi Arabia and Iran is one thing, and not to minimize it, but the prospect of getting Israel involved in fighting Iranian forces in Syria is like a prophetic tripwire. Things could happen very quickly. This is a situation that deserves careful attention. 

Earthquake

Powerful earthquake on Iran-Iraq border kills more than 140 - AP
AP reports: "A powerful earthquake shook the Iran-Iraq border late Sunday, killing more than 140 people and injuring 860 in the mountainous region of Iran alone, state media there said. The Baghdad government did not immediately give word on damage or casualties in that country. The 7.3-magnitude quake was centered 19 miles (31 kilometers) outside the eastern Iraqi city of Halabja, according to the most recent measurements from the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck at a depth of 23.2 kilometers (14.4 miles), a shallow depth that can have broader damage. Magnitude 7 earthquakes on their own are capable of widespread, heavy damage. The quake was felt as far west as the Mediterranean coast."

Comment: This is a very large earthquake, it's fortunate that it did not hit a major metropolitan area or the loss of life would have been much higher.

Persecution

British Kidnapped Missionary Dies, 3 Others Released by Armed Gang in Nigeria - Christian Post
The Christian Post reports: "A British Christian missionary has reportedly died while being held captive for three weeks in Nigeria by kidnappers. Three other missionaries held hostage were allowed to go free. The Telegraph reported on Monday that David Donovan, his wife, Shirley, and Alanna Carson have been flown back home to Britain after they were released by an armed gang in Nigeria's southern Delta region where they were held. The survivors are mourning their colleague, 57-year-old Ian Squire, who died while in captivity."

Comment: This is a tragic ending to this kidnapping story we noted a few weeks ago. Please join me in praying for the family and friends of Ian Squire and giving thanks for the safe return of his three fellow missionaries.

Rumors of War - Persia

Israel says downed Syrian spy drone over Golan Heights - Reuters
Reuters reports: "Israel shot down a Syrian spy drone over the Golan Heights on Saturday, the Israeli military said. [...] Israel fears an eventual Assad victory could leave Iran with a permanent garrison in Syria, extending a threat posed from neighboring Lebanon by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and has been lobbying Russia and the United States for reassurances that Iranian and Hezbollah forces will not be allowed to deploy near its border or set up bases within Syria."

Comment:  More evidence for those who fear an eventual confrontation between Israel and Russia and Iran in and around Syria.

Famine

Rebel-held Sanaa braces for 'famine' as blockade tightens - AFP
AFP and Yahoo News report: "Residents of Yemen's rebel-held capital said Thursday rising food and fuel prices were making life increasingly difficult because of a Saudi-led blockade that the UN warned could bring the world's worst famine in decades."

Comment: I know some will argue that this is not a true famine. This is a man-made famine caused by war. But, whether famine is caused by climate, crop failure or from war, do we really think that starving people care about the distinction? Throughout most of recorded history war, famine and pestilence have gone hand in hand.

Rumors of War - Persia

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait warn citizens to leave Lebanon immediately - UPI.com
UPI reports: "The foreign ministries of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are warning their citizens in Lebanon to leave the country as soon as possible. [...] Kuwait's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a similar measure later in the day. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait also advised their citizens against traveling to Lebanon. Bahrain issued a similar warning on Sunday, urging its citizens to 'exercise caution' in leaving Lebanon. The warnings come amid rising tensions in the Middle East."

Comment: It does appear the the Saudi vs. Iran proxy war may become hot in Lebanon. Israel remains cautiously on the sidelines for now. Stay tuned.

Wickedness Increases

Video shows Texas church shooter methodically firing at victims - UPI.com
UPI reports: "Video of Sunday's service at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, shows the shooter methodically executing the victims, law enforcement officials said. State and federal investigators reviewed gruesome footage from the shooting which showed Devin Patrick Kelley walking through the pews as he fired at the victims for about 7 minutes, the official told ABC News. Kelley walked through every pew, crossing the main aisle several times as he quickly fired at the victims, which included small children, stopping only to reload."

Comment: This is just so evil and wicked, what more really is there to say? Praying for the victims families, their friends and the community.

Rumors of War - Kings of the East

Moon, Trump agree to build up deterrence, urge North Korea to give up nukes - UPI.com UPI reports: "The presidents of South Korea and the United States agreed Tuesday to completely remove the limit on the payload of South Korean ballistic missiles and discuss Seoul's introduction of nuclear-powered submarines and other advanced weapons, Seoul officials said. [...] the discussion included Seoul's development or acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines. Nuclear-powered submarines are considered asymmetrical assets that can intercept North Korea's submarine-launched ballistic missiles, but are currently prohibited under a nuclear pact between Seoul and Washington."

Comment: People like to say that China has the power to end the Korean nuclear crisis. I'm not entirely sure that's true. Young Kim has not shown the respect his father and grandfather had for China, either as a neighbor or a patron. Still, I'm sure that if there is one thing that China would seek to avoid is the continuation of a crisis that will increasingly turn South Korea into a formidable military threat. It is certainly in the interest of China to end this crisis if inaction means a nuclear-armed South Korea.