thetrumpet--2020-03-09--Will the Trump Peace Plan Bring Peace to Israel?

On January 28 , United States President Donald Trump unveiled his peace plan for the Middle East .
It was 180 pages and covered an enormous number of specifics .
President Trump called it “ the most detailed proposal ever put forward ” and “ the deal of the century.
” It received support from Israel : President Trump announced it at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side .
But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas responded , “ We say a thousand times : No , no and no to the deal of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plan will bring peace ?
I don ’ t suppose many people do .
The Bible tells us to beware when you are hearing a lot about peace .
The Prophet Jeremiah wrote of false prophets “ saying , Peace , peace ; when there is no peace ” ( Jeremiah 6:14 ; 8:11 ) .
Isaiah the prophet foretold of a time when “ the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly ” ( Isaiah 33:7 ) .
Diplomats run around talking about peace , peace , peace—but we never have lasting peace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
When they keep talking about peace , you know we are about to have war—war like you have never seen !
Did you know that Jerusalem means “ city of peace ” ?
You would almost think that is a sick joke .
There has been no lasting peace in that city .
In fact , Jerusalem has flowed with rivers of blood !
Why do man ’ s peace plans always fail ?
There is a reason—a cause we need to understand .
Jerusalem provides a stunning example of this reason @ @ @ @ @ @ @ efforts have centered around this city .
For years , many nations have labored to bring it peace and have failed .
We desperately need to understand this fundamental point .
If ever there was a time we need to be concerned about how to bring peace to this world , surely it is now .
The number one problem the world faces today is human survival !
Many nations are acquiring nuclear weapons and honing their nuclear power !
We are facing a nuclear war that stupefies the imagination !
Isaiah said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know not ” ( Isaiah 59:8 ) .
There is a way of peace—but mankind does not know that way !
Man keeps trying to somehow generate some kind of peace , but never can .
This is a deadly dangerous issue .
If we are to avoid great suffering , we must understand how to have peace .
We need peace not only in nations , but in our own homes .
How do you have peace in a home ?
There is a way , and you can absolutely prove it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jerusalem , “ city of peace , ” is prophetic , telling us that we will have peace—in spite of man , not because of him .
For almost 30 years , the United States and Britain have pressured the Jews to accept a peace process that has repeatedly failed .
Clearly America and Britain , like the rest of mankind , do not know the way to peace .
The “ former prophets ” include the biblical books of Joshua , Judges , Samuel and Kings .
These books were written by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prophecy , contain forecasts intended primarily for this end time .
Notice this stunning statement in the prophetic book of Kings .
When God decided to strip the kingdom of Israel away from Solomon for his terrible sins , He said : “ Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom ; but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant ’ s sake , and for Jerusalem ’ s sake which I have chosen ” ( 1 Kings 11:13 ) .
God has chosen Jerusalem .
He has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jerusalem .
This has everything to do with our having peace in this world !
When the modern State of Israel came into being in 1948 , the Arabs immediately attacked .
The Jews had no real army .
Within three weeks , they were losing the war .
Then the Arabs strangely agreed to a temporary United Nations-sponsored truce .
This is just what Israel needed to rearm and train its weary troops—many of them civilians who carried guns .
Soon after , the Arabs started attacking again .
This time the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the war .
It was a miracle from God .
The Jews experienced many miracles in the following years .
The Six-Day War in 1967 was a major clash between the Jewish nation and Egypt , Jordan and Syria .
In that short but intense conflict , the Jews captured all of the Sinai , the Suez Canal , East Jerusalem , the West Bank and the Golan Heights—in six days !
Study that history and you will see they were aided by miracles .
In late 1973 , the Arabs attacked again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ holiday of Yom Kippur .
With much aid from the Americans , the Jews won the war in three weeks—another miraculous deliverance .
At some point , however , the Jews decided to stop looking to God for help .
They decided , prodded by America and Britain , to seek security by negotiating with the very people who wanted to destroy them .
In 1993 , Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat made a pact in which Israel gave up land for promises of peace .
Arafat , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ peace process , was the number one terrorist in the Middle East !
Does it make sense that you could somehow achieve peace by making a deal with a famed terrorist ?
There is no logic in that !
Even as Arafat talked about peace to the Israelis and to the world , in private he would often tell people of his plan to take over Israel and destroy the Jews completely !
That was always his ambition !
Yet somehow we thought that simply handing him land would soften him or convince @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reasoning shows terrible weakness and only encourages an enemy who thinks like that .
Swapping land for peace has never brought peace .
Since the start of that peace process , the Jews have given up Gaza , Jericho , Bethlehem and the other parts of the West Bank to the Arabs .
Think about that : Arabs attacked the Jews on multiple occasions with a goal to annihilate every one of them !
Where in history can you find a war where the victors later gave the land back to the aggressors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ map ?
President Trump ’ s plan differs in one critical area from the previous attempts to bring peace such as the Oslo Accords and the uniliteral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 .
In those cases , Israel was encouraged to give up land for the promise of peace .
As Israeli commentator Ruthie Blum put it , Trump ’ s plan is “ peace for peace.
” In it , a Palestinian state would only be established if Palestinians renounce funding and glorifying of terrorism , stop paying salaries for convicted terrorists @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other proofs that they no longer want to destroy the Jewish state .
The plan gives the Palestinian Authority four years to enact these and other reforms .
As soon as they do , they ’ ll receive a state .
In the end , this plan still aims to create a Palestinian state not just next to Israel , but right in Israel ’ s midst .
The Palestinians could get it even if they only pretend , in the short term , to make these concessions .
To think that giving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to abandon plans to destroy Israel is delusional !
To convince Israel to even consider such a deal , the United States is supporting Israel ’ s claim over 30 percent of the West Bank almost immediately .
This includes much of East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley , a critical area on Israel ’ s eastern flank that borders Jordan .
Many in Israel support the deal because they will receive recognition of these territories right away , whereas the Palestinian state is conditioned on the PA enacting reforms that most Israelis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ever agree to anyway .
At worst , in four years Israel will be right where it is now , except with more of the West Bank declared as sovereign Israeli territory .
By this logic , many Israelis accept the deal because they are banking on Palestinians rejecting it as they have so many times before .
But what if they are wrong ?
What if the Palestinians do start negotiating the Trump deal ?
Some signs suggest that Arab support for Palestinian rejection of the peace process is waning .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mahmoud Abbas went to the UN Security Council hoping to see a consensus vote condemning the peace plan .
But the Palestinians realized their motion lacked enough support , and the vote didn ’ t even happen .
It was a shock to the Palestinians .
One member of the delegation said , “ The sense is that we are coming back with our tails between our legs.
” He said they received a “ cold shoulder ” from Arab states , including the Gulf emirates , Egypt and Saudi Arabia .
Unlike @ @ @ @ @ @ @ world seems to be pressuring the Palestinians to negotiate with President Trump .
If Palestinian leaders give in , Israel will feel obligated to go along with the process .
This will prove to be disastrous .
Peace will not be gained by giving up land to the Palestinians !
Never !
People often forget that Israelis have already withdrawn from over 80 percent of the land they won in the Six-Day War .
Yet the Trump peace plan includes a map that shows a lot of Israeli territory becoming a new Palestinian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ solution in which Israel gives up claim to 70 percent of the West Bank .
This area is the heartland of biblical history—the lands of Abraham , Isaac and Jacob !
What does God think about it when Israel gives up land He gave them through miraculous victories ?
If implemented , this plan puts a Palestinian state on the doorstep of Jerusalem and surrounding almost every Jewish settlement in the West Bank .
It doesn ’ t create two states side by side with one continuous border : It is a series @ @ @ @ @ @ @ islands of Jewish communities in the West Bank , each surrounded by a historically hostile people .
David Ha ’ ivri lives in one of those Jewish communities inside the West Bank .
On February 3 , he spoke out about what this deal does to his and other West Bank communities .
“ President Trump says that in his plan , no Israelis or Palestinians will be forced to leave their homes .
However , it also lists 15 Israeli towns that would become isolated enclaves deep within the proposed Palestinian state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Telegraphic Agency .
“ Some mistakenly take some consolation in the thought that the plan lists only 15 small towns to be isolated and cut off from Israel .
A closer look at the Trump map reveals that another 40 larger Israeli towns , including my own , share a very similar fate .
They will find themselves like isolated outposts connected to the rest of Israel by very narrow corridors , surrounded by Palestinian-controlled space.
” Such an arrangement wouldn ’ t bring peace .
It would actually create a dangerous wound @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are a deadly delusion !
We ought to see by now that they won ’ t work !
Every time we have tried giving land for peace , or negotiating with terrorists to bring peace , it has only brought more war !
The book of Hosea was written as prophecy for the end time .
The nation called Israel today is really biblical Judah .
Hosea includes specific prophecies about Judah .
“ When Ephraim saw his sickness , and Judah saw his wound , then went Ephraim to the Assyrian , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could he not heal you , nor cure you of your wound ” ( Hosea 5:13 ) .
Studying this verse in the original Hebrew reveals that both Ephraim ( Britain ) and Judah go to Assyria ( the prophetic term for modern-day Germany—to prove this , request our free booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire ) .
Why go to Germany ?
And what is Judah ’ s “ wound ” ?
Strong ’ s Concordance defines that word , “ in the sense of binding up : a bandage , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lexicon defines it , “ the pressing together , binding up of a wound ; here used figuratively of a remedy applied to the wounds of the state.
” In other words , the remedy is the wound !
Another word for wound appears in Obadiah 7 : “ All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border : the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee , and prevailed against thee ; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee : there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ Lexicon defines this “ wound ” as “ falsehood ; hence , fraud , insidious dealing … net , or snare.
” It has the same root word as the word used in Hosea 5:13 .
In Obadiah the wound is directly related to being deceived by a peace pact !
Wound in Hosea means bandage .
It ’ s as if a bandage is hopelessly applied to an open , running sore .
From the beginning of the peace process , the Jews have looked to men , often their enemies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the unseen wound .
So little trust in God—so much trust in their enemies !
The real wound is spiritual : a lack of faith in God .
The Jews keep trying to heal themselves by making peace pacts .
They were strong when they trusted God .
The Israelis will finally see that their peace agreement with the Palestinians has failed .
They really only see the effect of their wound , not the cause .
That is why they turn to Germany for another peace pact , placing their trust in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they will fail to trust God .
This will lead to the worst disaster in the Jews ’ long history of suffering .
That is where this peace plan is leading .
Where Is Their Faith ?
Something is terribly wrong with man ’ s reasoning .
“ The way of peace they know not.
” Men are trying to work the problem out themselves and are even looking to their enemies to make a peace pact with !
But how much are they looking to God ?
The truth is , nobody @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a nation apart from God !
God must be involved if you are to have real peace .
You will never have peace any other way .
These leaders seem to have more faith in their enemies than in God !
How much faith do we have in the all-powerful God who could instantly bring us peace if we would look to Him ?
That shows you what the real problem is !
How insulted must God be when men trust somebody like the top terrorist in the Middle East rather than trusting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ human mind is “ deceitful above all things , and desperately wicked.
” That is human nature , and we can never have peace as long as we have human nature .
Man must be rid of human nature before we can ever have peace !
Iran has created a presence and influence in Gaza , Lebanon and Syria .
It has surrounded the Jews , and it hates the Jews more than anybody in the Middle East .
Yet today , Israel is proffering a peace pact with , essentially , an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ !
Anybody should be able to understand that .
But when you look at Bible prophecy , the danger involved becomes even more exceedingly clear .
Zechariah 14:2 says that in the end time , half of Jerusalem will be captured by the Arabs : “ For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle ; and the city shall be taken , and the houses rifled , and the women ravished ; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity , and the residue of the people shall not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Yes , the efforts to make peace with the Palestinians are prophesied to fail catastrophically !
This peace agreement could encourage the Arabs to make a grab for half of Jerusalem .
Zechariah shows they will end up taking it by force !
I explain this prophecy in Chapter 3 of Jerusalem in Prophecy , and it is a crucial end-time prophecy to understand .
But notice : In this context God says that all nations will be gathered “ against Jerusalem to battle.
” Many other prophecies provide detail about this climactic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all their militaries , are going to gather in Armageddon before marching on Jerusalem !
And what will happen then ?
“ Then shall the Lord go forth , and fight against those nations , as when he fought in the day of battle ” ( verse 3 ) .
Jesus Christ is going to return personally to fight them !
Revelation 14:18-20 show that this battle will be so fierce , the blood of these armies will be flowing deep enough that for 200 miles in the Valley of Jehoshaphat , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it will rise to the level of the horses ’ bridles !
This clash in Jerusalem will be the decisive battle in the bloodiest war in human history .
Many prophecies show that the death toll will be horrific all over the Earth .
The Bible warns soberly that the horrors of World War ii—with Germany ’ s extermination camps , Russia ’ s gulags and other nightmares including nuclear bombs incinerating whole cities—were only a rehearsal for the Tribulation to come !
Why such butchery and warfare ?
Because this is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get man ’ s attention !
We have to recognize and acknowledge what a disaster results when we try to solve our problems on our own , without God !
And this is what is going to bring peace to this world !
Despite the lack of peace in Israel today , numerous prophecies tell us that God will give us peace !
Leviticus 26:6 says that if you turn to God , “ I will give peace in the land , ” nobody will “ make you afraid , ” and “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ land.
” This is what God says if you will do what He says !
What a promise !
Zechariah 1:17 says that God “ shall yet choose Jerusalem.
” And He is going to cause the whole world to look to Jerusalem !
He will bring peace to all mankind in just a few years .
“ And many people shall go and say , Come ye , and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord , to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we will walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law , and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem ” ( Isaiah 2:3 ) .
Clearly this hasn ’ t happened yet !
It is a prophecy that is about to be fulfilled .
Isaiah 66:10 and 12 say , “ Rejoice ye with Jerusalem , and be glad with her , all ye that love her : rejoice for joy with her , all ye that mourn for her … .
For thus saith the Lord @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to her like a river ….
” Instead of a river of blood , there will be a river of peace flowing from Jerusalem !
God is going to bring the wonderful peace and joy man has sought for 6,000 years but has never been able to find because he hasn ’ t looked to God .
Watch Jerusalem !
So much is going to be happening there !
Events are serious and sobering , yet at the same time , they are filled with the hope of God !
What hope God @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a vision this is !
How does that compare with President Trump ’ s peace plan ?
Henry Kissinger once said there is no other choice than the peace process .
That is terribly wrong !
That is not a choice of life .
Moses wrote that there are two ways before us : life and death .
Choose life !
( Deuteronomy 30:19 ) .
Man is choosing the wrong way .
We are choosing the way that God is not involved in .
God is telling us what we should be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ His instructions .
That needs to change and change quickly .
More than a hundred scriptures tell you how to bring peace !
We need faith in God .
We could save ourselves so much suffering if we would listen to God today and turn to Him !
God says , “ [ T ] urn ye , turn ye … for why will ye die , O house of Israel ?
” ( Ezekiel 33:11 ) .
He wants you to choose life—choose His way and trust Him .
When you do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ individual life , and in your nation .
And very soon , He is going to give peace to this whole world !

On January 28, United States President Donald Trump unveiled his peace plan for the Middle East. It was 180 pages and covered an enormous number of specifics. President Trump called it “the most detailed proposal ever put forward” and “the deal of the century.” It received support from Israel: President Trump announced it at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his side. But Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas responded, “We say a thousand times: No, no and no to the deal of the century.”
Does anybody really think this plan will bring peace? I don’t suppose many people do.
The Bible tells us to beware when you are hearing a lot about peace. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote of false prophets “saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14; 8:11). Isaiah the prophet foretold of a time when “the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly” (Isaiah 33:7).
Diplomats run around talking about peace, peace, peace—but we never have lasting peace. This has been true throughout history.
When they keep talking about peace, you know we are about to have war—war like you have never seen!
Did you know that Jerusalem means “city of peace”? You would almost think that is a sick joke. There has been no lasting peace in that city. In fact, Jerusalem has flowed with rivers of blood!
Why do man’s peace plans always fail? There is a reason—a cause we need to understand. Jerusalem provides a stunning example of this reason. Many of the most arduous peace efforts have centered around this city. For years, many nations have labored to bring it peace and have failed.
We desperately need to understand this fundamental point. If ever there was a time we need to be concerned about how to bring peace to this world, surely it is now. The number one problem the world faces today is human survival! Many nations are acquiring nuclear weapons and honing their nuclear power! We are facing a nuclear war that stupefies the imagination!
Isaiah said, “The way of peace they know not” (Isaiah 59:8). There is a way of peace—but mankind does not know that way! Man keeps trying to somehow generate some kind of peace, but never can.
This is a deadly dangerous issue. If we are to avoid great suffering, we must understand how to have peace. We need peace not only in nations, but in our own homes. How do you have peace in a home?
There is a way, and you can absolutely prove it. In fact, even the name Jerusalem, “city of peace,” is prophetic, telling us that we will have peace—in spite of man, not because of him.
‘Peace’ Process
For almost 30 years, the United States and Britain have pressured the Jews to accept a peace process that has repeatedly failed. Clearly America and Britain, like the rest of mankind, do not know the way to peace.
The “former prophets” include the biblical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings. These books were written by prophets and, like virtually all biblical prophecy, contain forecasts intended primarily for this end time.
Notice this stunning statement in the prophetic book of Kings. When God decided to strip the kingdom of Israel away from Solomon for his terrible sins, He said: “Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen” (1 Kings 11:13). God has chosen Jerusalem. He has chosen no other city in the world—only Jerusalem.
Why do man’s peace plans always fail? There is a reason—a cause we need to understand. Jerusalem provides a stunning example of this reason.
This has everything to do with our having peace in this world!
When the modern State of Israel came into being in 1948, the Arabs immediately attacked. The Jews had no real army. Within three weeks, they were losing the war. Then the Arabs strangely agreed to a temporary United Nations-sponsored truce. This is just what Israel needed to rearm and train its weary troops—many of them civilians who carried guns. Soon after, the Arabs started attacking again. This time the Jews were well prepared and quickly won the war. It was a miracle from God.
The Jews experienced many miracles in the following years. The Six-Day War in 1967 was a major clash between the Jewish nation and Egypt, Jordan and Syria. In that short but intense conflict, the Jews captured all of the Sinai, the Suez Canal, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights—in six days! Study that history and you will see they were aided by miracles.
In late 1973, the Arabs attacked again, this time on the solemn Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. With much aid from the Americans, the Jews won the war in three weeks—another miraculous deliverance.
At some point, however, the Jews decided to stop looking to God for help. They decided, prodded by America and Britain, to seek security by negotiating with the very people who wanted to destroy them.
In the end, this plan still aims to create a Palestinian state not just next to Israel, but right in Israel’s midst. The Palestinians could get it even if they only pretend to make these concessions.
In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat made a pact in which Israel gave up land for promises of peace. Arafat, before he led the Palestinians in the peace process, was the number one terrorist in the Middle East! Does it make sense that you could somehow achieve peace by making a deal with a famed terrorist? There is no logic in that!
Even as Arafat talked about peace to the Israelis and to the world, in private he would often tell people of his plan to take over Israel and destroy the Jews completely! That was always his ambition! Yet somehow we thought that simply handing him land would soften him or convince him to abandon that goal. Such reasoning shows terrible weakness and only encourages an enemy who thinks like that. Swapping land for peace has never brought peace.
The Dangerous Trump Plan
Since the start of that peace process, the Jews have given up Gaza, Jericho, Bethlehem and the other parts of the West Bank to the Arabs. Think about that: Arabs attacked the Jews on multiple occasions with a goal to annihilate every one of them! Where in history can you find a war where the victors later gave the land back to the aggressors who tried to wipe them off the map?
President Trump’s plan differs in one critical area from the previous attempts to bring peace such as the Oslo Accords and the uniliteral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005. In those cases, Israel was encouraged to give up land for the promise of peace. As Israeli commentator Ruthie Blum put it, Trump’s plan is “peace for peace.” In it, a Palestinian state would only be established if Palestinians renounce funding and glorifying of terrorism, stop paying salaries for convicted terrorists sitting in Israeli prisons, and show other proofs that they no longer want to destroy the Jewish state. The plan gives the Palestinian Authority four years to enact these and other reforms. As soon as they do, they’ll receive a state.
In the end, this plan still aims to create a Palestinian state not just next to Israel, but right in Israel’s midst. The Palestinians could get it even if they only pretend, in the short term, to make these concessions.
To think that giving the Palestinians a state will inspire them to abandon plans to destroy Israel is delusional!
To convince Israel to even consider such a deal, the United States is supporting Israel’s claim over 30 percent of the West Bank almost immediately. This includes much of East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, a critical area on Israel’s eastern flank that borders Jordan. Many in Israel support the deal because they will receive recognition of these territories right away, whereas the Palestinian state is conditioned on the PA enacting reforms that most Israelis don’t believe Palestinian leaders would ever agree to anyway. At worst, in four years Israel will be right where it is now, except with more of the West Bank declared as sovereign Israeli territory.
By this logic, many Israelis accept the deal because they are banking on Palestinians rejecting it as they have so many times before.
But what if they are wrong? What if the Palestinians do start negotiating the Trump deal?
PA President Abbas examines President Trump’s proposed peace plan map. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Some signs suggest that Arab support for Palestinian rejection of the peace process is waning. In February, a Palestinian delegation led by Mahmoud Abbas went to the UN Security Council hoping to see a consensus vote condemning the peace plan. But the Palestinians realized their motion lacked enough support, and the vote didn’t even happen. It was a shock to the Palestinians. One member of the delegation said, “The sense is that we are coming back with our tails between our legs.” He said they received a “cold shoulder” from Arab states, including the Gulf emirates, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
Unlike with other peace initiatives, the Arab world seems to be pressuring the Palestinians to negotiate with President Trump. If Palestinian leaders give in, Israel will feel obligated to go along with the process. This will prove to be disastrous.
Peace will not be gained by giving up land to the Palestinians! Never!
People often forget that Israelis have already withdrawn from over 80 percent of the land they won in the Six-Day War. Yet the Trump peace plan includes a map that shows a lot of Israeli territory becoming a new Palestinian state. This plan is a two-state solution in which Israel gives up claim to 70 percent of the West Bank. This area is the heartland of biblical history—the lands of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! What does God think about it when Israel gives up land He gave them through miraculous victories?
If implemented, this plan puts a Palestinian state on the doorstep of Jerusalem and surrounding almost every Jewish settlement in the West Bank. It doesn’t create two states side by side with one continuous border: It is a series of roads, tunnels and overpasses connecting islands of Jewish communities in the West Bank, each surrounded by a historically hostile people.
David Ha’ivri lives in one of those Jewish communities inside the West Bank. On February 3, he spoke out about what this deal does to his and other West Bank communities. “President Trump says that in his plan, no Israelis or Palestinians will be forced to leave their homes. However, it also lists 15 Israeli towns that would become isolated enclaves deep within the proposed Palestinian state,” he wrote for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “Some mistakenly take some consolation in the thought that the plan lists only 15 small towns to be isolated and cut off from Israel. A closer look at the Trump map reveals that another 40 larger Israeli towns, including my own, share a very similar fate. They will find themselves like isolated outposts connected to the rest of Israel by very narrow corridors, surrounded by Palestinian-controlled space.”
Such an arrangement wouldn’t bring peace. It would actually create a dangerous wound for the Jews!
These peace plans are a deadly delusion! We ought to see by now that they won’t work! Every time we have tried giving land for peace, or negotiating with terrorists to bring peace, it has only brought more war!
History proves that—and so does Bible prophecy.
Judah’s Wound
The book of Hosea was written as prophecy for the end time. The nation called Israel today is really biblical Judah. Hosea includes specific prophecies about Judah.
“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound” (Hosea 5:13). Studying this verse in the original Hebrew reveals that both Ephraim (Britain) and Judah go to Assyria (the prophetic term for modern-day Germany—to prove this, request our free booklet Germany and the Holy Roman Empire).
Why go to Germany? And what is Judah’s “wound”? Strong’s Concordance defines that word, “in the sense of binding up: a bandage, i.e. remedy.” Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines it, “the pressing together, binding up of a wound; here used figuratively of a remedy applied to the wounds of the state.” In other words, the remedy is the wound!
Another word for wound appears in Obadiah 7: “All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.” Gesenius’ Lexicon defines this “wound” as “falsehood; hence, fraud, insidious dealing … net, or snare.” It has the same root word as the word used in Hosea 5:13. In Obadiah the wound is directly related to being deceived by a peace pact!
Wound in Hosea means bandage. It’s as if a bandage is hopelessly applied to an open, running sore. From the beginning of the peace process, the Jews have looked to men, often their enemies, for help—not God. That is the unseen wound.
So little trust in God—so much trust in their enemies!
The real wound is spiritual: a lack of faith in God. The Jews keep trying to heal themselves by making peace pacts. They were strong when they trusted God.
The Israelis will finally see that their peace agreement with the Palestinians has failed. They really only see the effect of their wound, not the cause. That is why they turn to Germany for another peace pact, placing their trust in an even greater enemy! Once again they will fail to trust God. This will lead to the worst disaster in the Jews’ long history of suffering.
That is where this peace plan is leading.
Where Is Their Faith?
Something is terribly wrong with man’s reasoning. “The way of peace they know not.” Men are trying to work the problem out themselves and are even looking to their enemies to make a peace pact with! But how much are they looking to God?
The truth is, nobody can bring peace in a family or a nation apart from God! God must be involved if you are to have real peace. You will never have peace any other way.
These leaders seem to have more faith in their enemies than in God! How much faith do we have in the all-powerful God who could instantly bring us peace if we would look to Him? That shows you what the real problem is!
How insulted must God be when men trust somebody like the top terrorist in the Middle East rather than trusting in Him?
Jeremiah 17:9 says the human mind is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” That is human nature, and we can never have peace as long as we have human nature. Man must be rid of human nature before we can ever have peace!
Iran has created a presence and influence in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. It has surrounded the Jews, and it hates the Jews more than anybody in the Middle East. Yet today, Israel is proffering a peace pact with, essentially, an Iranian proxy! That will never work!
Anybody should be able to understand that. But when you look at Bible prophecy, the danger involved becomes even more exceedingly clear.
Zechariah 14:2 says that in the end time, half of Jerusalem will be captured by the Arabs: “For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.”
Palestinians in the West Bank protest the U.S. peace plan. Abbas Momani/AFP/Getty Images
Yes, the efforts to make peace with the Palestinians are prophesied to fail catastrophically!
This peace agreement could encourage the Arabs to make a grab for half of Jerusalem. Zechariah shows they will end up taking it by force!
I explain this prophecy in Chapter 3 of Jerusalem in Prophecy, and it is a crucial end-time prophecy to understand. But notice: In this context God says that all nations will be gathered “against Jerusalem to battle.” Many other prophecies provide detail about this climactic battle. All these nations, with all their militaries, are going to gather in Armageddon before marching on Jerusalem! And what will happen then?
“Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle” (verse 3). Jesus Christ is going to return personally to fight them! Revelation 14:18-20 show that this battle will be so fierce, the blood of these armies will be flowing deep enough that for 200 miles in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, at the foot of the Mount of Olives, it will rise to the level of the horses’ bridles!
Efforts to make peace with the Palestinians are prophesied to fail catastrophically.
This clash in Jerusalem will be the decisive battle in the bloodiest war in human history. Many prophecies show that the death toll will be horrific all over the Earth. The Bible warns soberly that the horrors of World War ii—with Germany’s extermination camps, Russia’s gulags and other nightmares including nuclear bombs incinerating whole cities—were only a rehearsal for the Tribulation to come!
Why such butchery and warfare? Because this is what it will take for God to get man’s attention! We have to recognize and acknowledge what a disaster results when we try to solve our problems on our own, without God!
And this is what is going to bring peace to this world!
Peace Is Coming
Despite the lack of peace in Israel today, numerous prophecies tell us that God will give us peace!
Leviticus 26:6 says that if you turn to God, “I will give peace in the land,” nobody will “make you afraid,” and “neither shall the sword go through your land.” This is what God says if you will do what He says! What a promise!
Zechariah 1:17 says that God “shall yet choose Jerusalem.” And He is going to cause the whole world to look to Jerusalem! He will bring peace to all mankind in just a few years.
“And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:3). Clearly this hasn’t happened yet! It is a prophecy that is about to be fulfilled.
Isaiah 66:10 and 12 say, “Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her …. For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river ….” Instead of a river of blood, there will be a river of peace flowing from Jerusalem! God is going to bring the wonderful peace and joy man has sought for 6,000 years but has never been able to find because he hasn’t looked to God.
Watch Jerusalem! So much is going to be happening there! Events are serious and sobering, yet at the same time, they are filled with the hope of God!
What hope God gives through His peace plan. What a vision this is! How does that compare with President Trump’s peace plan?
Henry Kissinger once said there is no other choice than the peace process. That is terribly wrong! That is not a choice of life.
Moses wrote that there are two ways before us: life and death. Choose life! (Deuteronomy 30:19). Man is choosing the wrong way. We are choosing the way that God is not involved in. God is telling us what we should be doing, but we are not following His instructions. That needs to change and change quickly.
More than a hundred scriptures tell you how to bring peace! We need faith in God. We could save ourselves so much suffering if we would listen to God today and turn to Him! God says, “[T]urn ye, turn ye … for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11). He wants you to choose life—choose His way and trust Him. When you do, He will give peace in your individual life, and in your nation. And very soon, He is going to give peace to this whole world!


thetrumpet--2020-03-09--Rheinmetall Benefits from “Supercycle” in the Arms Industry

Compensating for slumps in the automotive markets , defense earnings are soaring .
Rheinmetall , based in Düsseldorf , Germany , witnessed a stark rise in demands in its armaments division but a decrease in its automotive division in 2019 .
However , the group ’ s defense sector compensated for far more than the loss in its automotive sector .
Rheinmetall ’ s significantly higher profitability of armaments gives us an ominous prelude of where our world is heading .
“ Rheinmetall has had another record year , ” Rheinmetall AG ’ s chief executive officer , Armin Papperger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sales reached a new high and generated an operating result of over €500 million ( us $ 561 million ) .
The group ’ s operating free cash flow also increased to over €300 million ( $ 336 million ) , and its order backlog grew for the first time to nearly €11 billion ( $ 12.3 billion ) .
“ We are also well positioned for the future in key markets , ” Papperger continued .
“ In our role as an international system provider for armed forces , we are benefiting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ business gifted to us by the pressing backlog in military procurement.
” The supercycle that is causing Rheinmetall to rejoice is causing others great concern .
The world is rapidly arming again .
Rheinmetall is benefiting from the massive military upgrades in Germany and other Western nations .
The budget for Germany ’ s Bundeswehr is rising to $ 50.6 billion this year—almost 40 percent more than in 2014 .
In 2020 , the combined military budgets of the European states is expected to exceed $ 300 billion .
“ Among other things @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Arab states against Iran , ” German-Foreign-Policy.com noted , “ but above all from the arming of the Western world against Russia and China.
” Germany ’ s economy just barely avoided a recession last year .
The uncertainty over Brexit , the trade war between the United States and China , as well as U.S. tariffs and sanctions against Russia and Iran have left Germany ’ s economy on unstable footing .
Its economy flourished for decades while the world experienced relative peace .
But with rising uncertainties around the globe , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ might to refocus on Europe ’ s military buildup .
Following the 1923 global economic crisis , the German industry suffered major setbacks—until Adolf Hitler gave new orders to fuel the German war machine .
He turned the civil industry ’ s attention toward producing weapons to facilitate rearmament .
We are now seeing a similar trend .
Today , Germany ’ s industry is not only in position to fuel the nation ’ s own military ambitions but also those of all of Europe .
If you combine the strength of its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Germany could soon be mass-producing tanks and other military vehicles instead of cars , ” we explained in “ Forging a Superpower , ” from the April 2019 Trumpet issue .
Rheinmetall today operates in 21 countries and is the 10th-largest weapons manufacturer in Europe .
During World War ii , Rheinmetall was Adolf Hitler ’ s second-largest arms supplier .
How is it that this same manufacturer is arming Germany again today ?
Allied forces met in 1945 in Potsdam , Germany , and resolved that Germany should undergo a “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elimination or control of all German industry that could be used for military production.
” British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt said at the time : “ It is our inflexible purpose to destroy German militarism and Nazism ….
” There is a reason why these leaders were concerned that Germany would start yet another war .
“ In 1996 , a shocking World War ii intelligence document was made public , ” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in Germany ’ s Conquest of the Balkans .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1944 meeting between top German industrialists , reveals a secret postwar plan to restore the Nazis to power.
” Rheinmetall was at that meeting .
The participating companies at the time pledged to “ prepare themselves to finance the Nazi Party , which would be forced to go underground.
” Many of these companies entered the civil industry after World War ii and later reentered the arms industry .
“ When the U.S. declassified this document , ” Mr .
Flurry writes , “ it received only sparse news coverage .
Yet even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the press is the fact that the U.S. government did not make it public until 1996—over 50 years later !
” Today , Rheinmetall is rejoicing that its sales in its defense subsidiary are compensating its losses in the automotive sector .
Few realize that the only purpose for its automotive sector was to enable the company to endure times of peace .
In a public address given May 9 , 1945 , during the inaugural session of the United Nations , the late Herbert W. Armstrong warned : We don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ start of World War ii , they have considered the possibility of losing this second round , as they did the first—and they have carefully , methodically planned , in such eventuality , the third round—World War iii !
Hitler has lost .
This round of war , in Europe , is over .
And the Nazis have now gone underground .
In France and Norway they learned how effectively an organized underground can hamper occupation and control of a country .
Paris was liberated by the French underground—and Allied armies .
Now @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They plan to come back and to win on the third try .
Mr. Armstrong ’ s forecast was informed by the prophecy in Revelation 17:8 : “ The beast that thou sawest was , and is not ; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit , and go into perdition : and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder , whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world , when they behold the beast that was , and is not , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other Bible prophecies , Mr. Armstrong understood that Germany would eventually dominate Europe and start another world war .
While everyone prophesied Germany ’ s doom in 1945 , Mr. Armstrong prophesied about its unparalleled revival .
Now 75 years later , we are witnessing how absolutely accurate his warning was .
God revealed these prophecies to Mr. Armstrong decades before their fulfillment for a reason .
God , in His mercy , is giving nations and individuals a chance to heed the warning and be spared from the suffering .
Sadly , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ God ’ s message .
In Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast ?
Mr. Armstrong gave the explicit details of these prophecies we are seeing come to pass .
Mr. Armstrong explained that these prophecies lead to Jesus Christ ’ s return and the end of all suffering .
But before then , mankind has to learn that his ways lead to destruction ( Proverbs 14:12 ) .
Request a free copy of Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast ?
and learn this lesson today .

Rheinmetall, based in Düsseldorf, Germany, witnessed a stark rise in demands in its armaments division but a decrease in its automotive division in 2019. However, the group’s defense sector compensated for far more than the loss in its automotive sector. Rheinmetall’s significantly higher profitability of armaments gives us an ominous prelude of where our world is heading.
“Rheinmetall has had another record year,” Rheinmetall AG’s chief executive officer, Armin Papperger, noted. In fiscal 2019, sales reached a new high and generated an operating result of over €500 million (us$561 million). The group’s operating free cash flow also increased to over €300 million ($336 million), and its order backlog grew for the first time to nearly €11 billion ($12.3 billion).
“We are also well positioned for the future in key markets,” Papperger continued. “In our role as an international system provider for armed forces, we are benefiting from the supercycle in the defense technology business gifted to us by the pressing backlog in military procurement.”
The supercycle that is causing Rheinmetall to rejoice is causing others great concern. The world is rapidly arming again.
Rheinmetall is benefiting from the massive military upgrades in Germany and other Western nations.
The budget for Germany’s Bundeswehr is rising to $50.6 billion this year—almost 40 percent more than in 2014. In 2020, the combined military budgets of the European states is expected to exceed $300 billion. “Among other things, Rheinmetall benefits from the arming of Arab states against Iran,” German-Foreign-Policy.com noted, “but above all from the arming of the Western world against Russia and China.”
Germany’s economy just barely avoided a recession last year. The uncertainty over Brexit, the trade war between the United States and China, as well as U.S. tariffs and sanctions against Russia and Iran have left Germany’s economy on unstable footing.
Its economy flourished for decades while the world experienced relative peace. But with rising uncertainties around the globe, we can expect Germany’s industrial might to refocus on Europe’s military buildup.
Following the 1923 global economic crisis, the German industry suffered major setbacks—until Adolf Hitler gave new orders to fuel the German war machine. He turned the civil industry’s attention toward producing weapons to facilitate rearmament.
We are now seeing a similar trend.
Today, Germany’s industry is not only in position to fuel the nation’s own military ambitions but also those of all of Europe.
If you combine the strength of its arms industry with its civil industry, “Germany could soon be mass-producing tanks and other military vehicles instead of cars,” we explained in “Forging a Superpower,” from the April 2019 Trumpet issue.
Rheinmetall today operates in 21 countries and is the 10th-largest weapons manufacturer in Europe. During World War ii, Rheinmetall was Adolf Hitler’s second-largest arms supplier.
How is it that this same manufacturer is arming Germany again today?
Germany’s Demilitarization Failed
Allied forces met in 1945 in Potsdam, Germany, and resolved that Germany should undergo a “complete disarmament and demilitarization … and the elimination or control of all German industry that could be used for military production.”
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt said at the time: “It is our inflexible purpose to destroy German militarism and Nazism ….”
There is a reason why these leaders were concerned that Germany would start yet another war.
“In 1996, a shocking World War ii intelligence document was made public,” Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry writes in Germany’s Conquest of the Balkans. “The document, detailing an August 1944 meeting between top German industrialists, reveals a secret postwar plan to restore the Nazis to power.” Rheinmetall was at that meeting. The participating companies at the time pledged to “prepare themselves to finance the Nazi Party, which would be forced to go underground.”
Many of these companies entered the civil industry after World War ii and later reentered the arms industry. “When the U.S. declassified this document,” Mr. Flurry writes, “it received only sparse news coverage. Yet even more disturbing than the deep stupor of the press is the fact that the U.S. government did not make it public until 1996—over 50 years later!”
Today, Rheinmetall is rejoicing that its sales in its defense subsidiary are compensating its losses in the automotive sector. Few realize that the only purpose for its automotive sector was to enable the company to endure times of peace. In a public address given May 9, 1945, during the inaugural session of the United Nations, the late Herbert W. Armstrong warned:
We don’t understand German thoroughness. From the very start of World War ii, they have considered the possibility of losing this second round, as they did the first—and they have carefully, methodically planned, in such eventuality, the third round—World War iii! Hitler has lost. This round of war, in Europe, is over. And the Nazis have now gone underground. In France and Norway they learned how effectively an organized underground can hamper occupation and control of a country. Paris was liberated by the French underground—and Allied armies. Now a Nazi underground is methodically planned. They plan to come back and to win on the third try.
Mr. Armstrong’s forecast was informed by the prophecy in Revelation 17:8: “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.” Based on this and other Bible prophecies, Mr. Armstrong understood that Germany would eventually dominate Europe and start another world war. While everyone prophesied Germany’s doom in 1945, Mr. Armstrong prophesied about its unparalleled revival.
Now 75 years later, we are witnessing how absolutely accurate his warning was. God revealed these prophecies to Mr. Armstrong decades before their fulfillment for a reason. God, in His mercy, is giving nations and individuals a chance to heed the warning and be spared from the suffering. Sadly, few people today are paying attention to God’s message.
In Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast? Mr. Armstrong gave the explicit details of these prophecies we are seeing come to pass. Mr. Armstrong explained that these prophecies lead to Jesus Christ’s return and the end of all suffering. But before then, mankind has to learn that his ways lead to destruction (Proverbs 14:12). Request a free copy of Who or What Is the Prophetic Beast? and learn this lesson today.


thetrumpet--2020-03-09--Echoes of the 1930s

Echoes of the 1930s

Events in Germany that led to Hitler ’ s rise are happening again .
Germany has been shaken by an event with dramatic parallels with the 1930s .
In the late 1920s , the Nazi Party was small .
In 1928 , it won only 2.6 percent of the vote , hardly a force to be reckoned with .
But the following year , in local elections in the German state of Thuringia , the Nazis won 11.3 percent .
It wasn ’ t huge , but it was enough to make them kingmakers .
Neither the mainstream-right parties nor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ govern .
So the state went into coalition with the Nazis .
Adolf Hitler ’ s friend Wilhelm Frick became the state ’ s interior minister .
The dam had burst .
Less than a year later , Germany ’ s main right-wing party—the German National People ’ s Party ( dnvp ) worked with the Nazis to form a government in the state of Baunschweig .
And by the end of 1932 , the coalition was repeated at the national level , with Adolf Hitler as chancellor .
After the Nazis took @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that killed 60 million people , far-right parties were kept firmly out of coalition negotiations for 75 years .
That is , until February 5 of this year .
Last October , the same state , Thuringia , held elections .
Once again , neither the mainstream right nor the mainstream left received enough votes to govern alone .
After months of coalition negotiations , once again , the mainstream right decided to compromise by asking the far right to help them form a government .
No wonder many Germans fear they ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 1930s .
“ Democracies don ’ t die overnight , ” warned Spiegel Online .
“ They don ’ t flourish one day and then get uprooted by a coup d ’ etat the next .
They decay gradually , until the ground is fertile for an authoritarian seizure of power .
“ [ W ] hat happened in Thuringia must be seen as a warning shot , a harbinger ” ( February 7 ) .
Is German democracy on the way out ?
Thuringia is not the only parallel with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Germany and across Europe is the same .
Here is the pattern : An economic crisis hits , causing people to lose faith in the established parties .
The mainstream consensus proves itself incapable , so a few people start to support more extreme parties .
This shift in support means mainstream parties can ’ t win a majority of votes .
The mainstream right , for example , must either form a coalition with an extreme party or reach out to its opponent on the mainstream left .
Now the death spiral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The two sides fundamentally disagree and can not take bold action .
They compromise with each other and form an unsatisfying centrist government .
This causes more voters to reject the mainstream left and mainstream right and to vote for more extremist parties .
When extreme parties are brought into the government , they are normalized , given legitimacy .
Voters grow likelier to vote for them .
Either way , when the mainstream parties struggle , the fringe parties thrive .
This simply kicks the death spiral up a notch .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ stable coalitions .
Governing becomes even less effective .
Problems get worse .
Support for the extreme parties grows .
This pattern played out in the 1930s , and it is playing out in Germany today .
In the ’ 30s , the spiral drove more and more voters toward the Nazis .
By mid-1932 , the dnvp decided that they had to work with Hitler , and offered him the post of vice-chancellor .
Hitler refused , convinced he was powerful enough to demand the top job .
This refusal led to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
So German President Hindenburg invited Hitler to become chancellor .
Frick , who had risen to power in Thuringia , now became the federal interior minister .
Hindenburg and the mainstream right believed they could “ tame ” Hitler .
Instead , they empowered him .
Once in position as chancellor , Hitler grabbed absolute power .
It is easy to see these parallels in Thuringia .
In its October election , extreme parties gained most of the vote .
Die Linke ( The Left ) , successor to East Germany ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with 31 percent .
The Alternative für Deutschland won second with 23 percent .
For any coalition to hold a majority in the state legislature , it must include one of these two parties .
The Alternative für Deutschland started in protest of the 2008 financial crisis .
All the mainstream parties had roughly the same economic policy .
The AfD was founded by economists to put forward an alternative path .
Then the migrant crisis hit Germany .
Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed a million migrants into Germany , with little debate or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ branded as racist by the mainstream media .
So the AfD began offering an alternative view on migration as well .
This began a rightward shift that went far beyond merely concerns with migration .
Björn Höcke , the leader of the AfD in the state of Thuringia , for example , wants a complete rewrite of German history .
“ German history is handled as rotten and made to look ridiculous , ” he once told a rally .
He wants a “ 180-degree reversal ” on how Germany remembers World War @ @ @ @ @ @ @ memorial in Berlin is a “ monument of shame ” and should be removed .
“ The AfD is the last revolutionary , the last peaceful chance for our fatherland , ” he said .
He has even brought up “ Lebensraum ” ( living space ) and talked about Germany ’ s “ thousand-year future , ” clear allusions to Adolf Hitler ’ s expansionism and vision of a “ thousand-year Reich.
” Concerned about the direction of their party , the original founders of the AfD left or were kicked out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as radical as Höcke .
Some view him as more of a hindrance than a help ; his extreme rhetoric makes it harder for the party to pick up more moderate voters , they complain .
Nevertheless , he is still tolerated , and even promoted , as one of the senior leaders in the party .
With anti-Semitism surging worldwide , Jewish leaders are especially worried that politicians like Höcke are winning so many votes once again .
Charlotte Knobloch , former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shows that our whole political system is coming apart at the seams.
” She said she was worried that so many supported a party that has “ downplayed the horrors of the Nazi era , who are openly nationalistic and have spread messages of hate against minorities , including the Jewish community.
” Christoph Heubner , vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee , sounded a similar warning , saying , “ For survivors of German concentration camps , this massive increase in votes for the AfD in Thuringia is another menacing signal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ consolidating in Germany.
” “ The last time we saw something of this kind in Germany was in the Weimar Republic where political life was polarized between the Communists and the National Socialists , ” political scientist and commentator Werner Patzelt told the Local .
“ This is quite uncommon ” ( Oct. 28 , 2019 ) .
Some support the AfD due to legitimate concerns about migration .
But it is not just their polling figures that parallel the 1930s .
Their rhetoric does too .
Fringe parties are rising all across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 9 general election , Sinn Fein—formerly the political wing of the ira terrorist group—tied for first place .
Historically , Ireland ’ s mainstream parties have refused to work with them .
Now they are stuck with a choice : form an unwieldy coalition or work with a group that has killed more civilians than al Qaeda did on 9/11 .
Spain has held four inconclusive elections in the last four years .
It currently has a coalition minority government , which is perhaps the most unstable arrangement possible .
Meanwhile , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Spain ’ s legislature for the first time in its democratic history .
In the November elections , Vox won third with 15 percent of the seats .
In 2010 and 2011 , Belgium set a new world record for the longest period any developed country has been without a government : 589 days .
Now the Belgians are going for a new record .
Their last elections were on May 26 , 2019 , and they still don ’ t have a coalition .
Italian politics is dominated by parties that either @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crisis or were considered too extreme for government .
In Sweden ’ s most recent election , its main left-wing party experienced its worst result since 2011 , and the far-right Sweden Democrats are now , by some polls , the nation ’ s most popular party .
Eastern Europe is full of governments that are right wing , if not far-right , and most of these did well .
In Hungary , Viktor Orbán ’ s Fidesz won 52 percent of the vote , one of the only parties in Europe to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the right-wing Law and Justice party garnered 45 percent of the vote .
In country after country , European politics are entering the same death spiral that many of them suffered in the 1930s .
During that fateful decade , the rise of the extreme parties didn ’ t happen only in Germany .
The rise of extreme parties gummed up French politics .
France had five governments between May 1932 and January 1934 .
In Austria , the death spiral empowered the Heimwehr—a far-right group similar to the Nazis but opposed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Nazi Sudeten German Party came from nowhere to win more votes than any other party .
In Romania , the Iron Guard rose to become the third-most popular party , winning 15 percent of the vote in the 1937 elections , after having been banned in the 1935 elections .
Other extreme parties , like the National-Christian Defense League in France , rose steadily after the 1929 stock market crash .
France ’ s far-right Croix-de-Feu league grew from 500 members in 1928 to 400,000 in 1935 .
After it was banned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ French Social Party , which grew to become one of France ’ s largest right-wing parties .
Votes for extreme parties in many other countries also jumped .
For all these people , a vote for the fringe wasn ’ t just a vote for a different political party .
It was a vote for a different system .
They didn ’ t want their current constitution or system of government .
They were convinced their nation needed something different .
Many of the people voting for fringe groups today believe the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an all-time low , according to a Cambridge study published in January .
The report states , “ Europe ’ s average level of satisfaction masks a large and growing divide within the Continent , between a ‘ zone of despair ’ across France and southern Europe , and a ‘ zone of complacency ’ across Western Germany , Scandinavia and the Netherlands.
” The Cambridge study traces the origin of this dissatisfaction to the economic crisis—just as was the case in the 1930s .
It states , “ It is likely that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the crisis has brought forward a broader sense of political discontent that is tied to economic sovereignty , national pride , and anger over the use of public resources.
” In country after country , voters believe the political system no longer works for them .
So they want someone different from the norm , someone outside the established parties .
The way Europe has worked for decades isn ’ t working , they feel .
They want something new .
Compromising With the Right In the 1930s , the mainstream-right parties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ compromising with the right and moving to further to the right themselves .
In 1931 , Hugenberg ’ s manifesto called for the end of the Treaty of Versailles , the establishment of conscription , the reconquest of Germany ’ s colonies , a reduction in the number of Jews in public life , and stronger links with German communities outside of Germany .
Politically , the difference between Hugenberg and Hitler was simply a matter of degree .
In France , far-right leagues succeeded in organizing violent protests .
The more prominent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
These were among those that would make up the Vichy regime that cooperated with Hitler after he conquered their nation .
In Romania , the king attempted to create a royal dictatorship to prevent Nazi-like parties from taking power in his country .
In Hungary , the regent was forced to accept a far-right , anti-Semitic government .
Some in Germany are trying to respond to Thuringia the same way .
Germany ’ s mainstream-right party is divided on the subject , but a substantial faction wants to shift the party to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ faction , and a top contender to be Germany ’ s next chancellor , is Friedrich Merz .
Foreign Policy explained , “ Friedrich Merz would tack hard to the right , pushing the cdu toward the AfD in an attempt to recapture voters that have fled to the populist right in past elections ” ( February 11 ) .
It even speculated that Merz could bring the AfD into a coalition , taking the same course the mainstream right took in the 1930s .
Former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg strongly endorsed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on January 17 : “ For me , there is only one politician in the [ Christian Democratic ] Union left , who I consider perfectly suitable for this task and who I would vote for : Friedrich Merz.
” Recent events in Thuringia did not follow completely in the footsteps of the 1930s , however .
The state leader elected with the help of the AfD lasted in office only one day .
The outcry across the country forced him to step down .
Nor was he the only casualty .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer , Chancellor Merkel ’ s hand-picked successor .
Kramp-Karrenbauer came under attack for not stopping the deal with the far right .
She was party leader—had she lost control of her own party ?
She was also accused of not speaking out forcefully enough against the AfD .
Party members were already disappointed with her tenure as party leader .
So she announced she would not stand as a candidate for Germany ’ s chancellor , and that she would resign as party leader , to be replaced in the summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the response to the Thuringia coalition in the 1930s .
That history screams a warning so strong that Germany could not ignore it .
The nation had to do something .
So history from the ’ 30s is repeating itself , but not in exactly the same way .
The 1930s history remains a powerful warning for the future .
Bible prophecy gives us an even more clear and specific warning .
And that prophecy tells us there will be some major similarities—as well as some key differences from what has gone before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system that rises and falls seven times .
Verse 8 describes a beast , symbolic of a major world power , that “ was , and is not , and yet is.
” This beast exists , then vanishes—only to then “ ascend out of the bottomless pit.
” You could say it comes out of nowhere—from “ underground.
” This chapter describes it as having seven heads : It rises seven times .
Verses 1-2 tell us it is led by a woman , the biblical symbol for a church .
Where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , led by a church , that repeatedly rises and falls ?
This passage can only be referring to the Holy Roman Empire in Europe , a series of empires that have all attempted to resurrect the Roman Empire , and that have all been dominated by the Catholic Church .
This power has risen and fallen six times so far .
Revelation 17 says that when this power fully ascends , “ the people who belong to this world … will be amazed at the reappearance of this beast ” ( verse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They believe this beast is dead , but then it comes back one more time .
We are seeing that beast power rise in Europe one more time .
Because this is the same beast that rose in the 1930s , there are some critical parallels .
But the seventh and final resurrection of this empire is unique .
The book of Daniel has a series of prophecies describing the rise of the man who will lead this empire .
Daniel wrote his prophetic book for the end time ( Daniel 12:9 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happened ; they were prophecy for him , but now history for us .
But even these historical events are types of what is still ahead of us .
Daniel 8:23 describes the rise of “ a king of fierce countenance , and understanding dark sentences.
” Verse 25 says he will be defeated after he stands up “ against the Prince of princes , ” revealing the time frame for this fierce king ’ s reign : He will come to power in the very end time , right before Jesus Christ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also describes the beast power and its leader fighting Jesus Christ .
The Daniel 8 man leads the beast described in the book of Revelation .
Another passage in the same prophetic book—Daniel 11:21-31—tells us how this man will come to power .
Most Bible commentaries correctly say this passage refers to Antiochus Epiphanes , who reigned around 175 to 164 b.c .
These verses forecast exactly what Antiochus ended up doing .
They prophesied that he would “ pollute the sanctuary of strength , and shall take away the daily sacrifice , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ maketh desolate ” ( verse 31 ) .
Antiochus infamously assaulted and slaughtered the Jews and attacked the Jewish religion .
He attempted to stamp out Jewish worship at the temple and set up a pagan statue to Jupiter Olympius in front of the altar .
In Matthew 24:15 , Jesus Christ clearly refers to this verse , making explicit reference to “ the abomination of desolation , spoken of by Daniel the prophet.
” But He talks about it not as something that had already happened , but as something that will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prophecy was entirely fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes nearly two centuries earlier , why did Christ tell His disciples to watch for this event ?
This prophecy had an ancient fulfillment , but it will also have a modern one .
Like many other prophecies , it is dual .
This refers both to the ancient Antiochus and to a modern Antiochus .
Daniel 11:21 prophesies that the European people “ shall not give ” this Antiochus “ the honour of the kingdom : but he shall come in peaceably , and obtain the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fausset and Brown Commentary says that “ the nation shall not , by a public act , confer the kingdom on him , but he shall obtain it by artifice , ‘ flattering.
’ ” Barnes ’ Notes on the Old and New Testaments states , “ [ I ] n other words , it should not be conferred on him by any law or act of the nation , or in any regular succession or claim.
” Look at Germany right now .
In your lifetime , have Germans ever been more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ see that they are sliding down the same path as the 1930s .
They see that they are beset by potential crises , with another episode of the migrant crisis or the euro crisis likely to break out at any time .
Yet at the helm are two lame ducks .
With Germans desperate for a strong leader , and none on the horizon , circumstances are almost perfect for someone to come into power in an unorthodox way .
What happens if there is some kind of crisis between now and summer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ step down ?
If politics as usual can not give the already-restless Germans the leader they need , what can they do ?
In the Trumpet ’ s January cover article , editor in chief Gerald Flurry showed just how many specifics the Bible gives us about this coming strongman .
He explained that this strongman “ will somehow manipulate the political system to effectively hijack Germany and , by extension , Europe.
” “ Knowing that such political intrigue will occur makes the bureaucratic turmoil in Berlin important to watch , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shaky , the need for strong leadership is clear—but the path to achieve it is unknown.
” Daniel 8:23 says this leader is known for “ understanding dark sentences.
” The expression “ dark sentences ” means that he operates “ at a higher social level.
” Gesenius ’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines this phrase as “ twisted , involved , subtlety , fraud , enigma.
” “ This is revealing insight , ” wrote Mr .
Flurry .
“ The prophesied strongman operates on a high social level ; he is capable of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He is brilliant and sophisticated , and he has intellectual depth and power .
The context shows he enjoys notoriety and fame for it.
” “ This prophesied leader may well exploit this frustration and confusion by rallying a coalition behind him and vaunting himself to power , ” he continued .
“ This would take a lot of intelligence and calculation ; it would require unusual skill to deceive people in high places with flattery .
But the prophesied Daniel 8 man will do it magnificently .
Adolf Hitler was a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was not as adept at deceiving people as this coming strongman will be !
This leader will come as an angel of light.
” The stage is perfectly set for the rise of this man .
Europe is treading the same path that led to a dictator before , and it will get a dictator once again .
But the Bible records one other important difference between this time and the 1930s .
When Hitler was defeated , his empire went underground , to rise again later .
This time , the empire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says that this strongman will “ stand up against the Prince of princes.
” He will try to fight Jesus Christ when He returns , “ but he shall be broken without hand.
” This whole system , that has caused wars for hundreds of years , will be destroyed forever .
And it will never be resurrected again .

Events in Germany that led to Hitler’s rise are happening again.
Germany has been shaken by an event with dramatic parallels with the 1930s.
In the late 1920s, the Nazi Party was small. In 1928, it won only 2.6 percent of the vote, hardly a force to be reckoned with. But the following year, in local elections in the German state of Thuringia, the Nazis won 11.3 percent. It wasn’t huge, but it was enough to make them kingmakers. Neither the mainstream-right parties nor the mainstream-left parties had enough votes to govern.
So the state went into coalition with the Nazis. Adolf Hitler’s friend Wilhelm Frick became the state’s interior minister.
The dam had burst. Less than a year later, Germany’s main right-wing party—the German National People’s Party (dnvp) worked with the Nazis to form a government in the state of Baunschweig. And by the end of 1932, the coalition was repeated at the national level, with Adolf Hitler as chancellor.
The rest is history.
After the Nazis took over Germany and started a world war that killed 60 million people, far-right parties were kept firmly out of coalition negotiations for 75 years. That is, until February 5 of this year.
Last October, the same state, Thuringia, held elections. Once again, neither the mainstream right nor the mainstream left received enough votes to govern alone. After months of coalition negotiations, once again, the mainstream right decided to compromise by asking the far right to help them form a government.
No wonder many Germans fear they’re walking down the same path as the 1930s.
“Democracies don’t die overnight,” warned Spiegel Online. “They don’t flourish one day and then get uprooted by a coup d’etat the next. They decay gradually, until the ground is fertile for an authoritarian seizure of power.
“[W]hat happened in Thuringia must be seen as a warning shot, a harbinger” (February 7).
Is German democracy on the way out?
Political Death Spiral
Thuringia is not the only parallel with the 1930s. The whole political dynamic in Germany and across Europe is the same.
Here is the pattern: An economic crisis hits, causing people to lose faith in the established parties. The mainstream consensus proves itself incapable, so a few people start to support more extreme parties.
This shift in support means mainstream parties can’t win a majority of votes. The mainstream right, for example, must either form a coalition with an extreme party or reach out to its opponent on the mainstream left.
Now the death spiral kicks in. A left-right coalition struggles. The two sides fundamentally disagree and cannot take bold action. They compromise with each other and form an unsatisfying centrist government. This causes more voters to reject the mainstream left and mainstream right and to vote for more extremist parties.
When extreme parties are brought into the government, they are normalized, given legitimacy. Voters grow likelier to vote for them. Either way, when the mainstream parties struggle, the fringe parties thrive.
This simply kicks the death spiral up a notch. It is now even harder to form stable coalitions. Governing becomes even less effective. Problems get worse. Support for the extreme parties grows.
This pattern played out in the 1930s, and it is playing out in Germany today.
In the ’30s, the spiral drove more and more voters toward the Nazis. By mid-1932, the dnvp decided that they had to work with Hitler, and offered him the post of vice-chancellor. Hitler refused, convinced he was powerful enough to demand the top job. This refusal led to another election, which the Nazis won. So German President Hindenburg invited Hitler to become chancellor. Frick, who had risen to power in Thuringia, now became the federal interior minister.
Hindenburg and the mainstream right believed they could “tame” Hitler. Instead, they empowered him. Once in position as chancellor, Hitler grabbed absolute power.
It is easy to see these parallels in Thuringia. In its October election, extreme parties gained most of the vote. Die Linke (The Left), successor to East Germany’s brutal Communist Party, won first with 31 percent. The Alternative für Deutschland won second with 23 percent. For any coalition to hold a majority in the state legislature, it must include one of these two parties.
New Right-Wing Party
The Alternative für Deutschland started in protest of the 2008 financial crisis. All the mainstream parties had roughly the same economic policy. The AfD was founded by economists to put forward an alternative path.
Then the migrant crisis hit Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed a million migrants into Germany, with little debate or discussion. Those who had concerns were branded as racist by the mainstream media. So the AfD began offering an alternative view on migration as well.
This began a rightward shift that went far beyond merely concerns with migration. Björn Höcke, the leader of the AfD in the state of Thuringia, for example, wants a complete rewrite of German history. “German history is handled as rotten and made to look ridiculous,” he once told a rally. He wants a “180-degree reversal” on how Germany remembers World War ii.
To Höcke, the Holocaust memorial in Berlin is a “monument of shame” and should be removed. “The AfD is the last revolutionary, the last peaceful chance for our fatherland,” he said. He has even brought up “Lebensraum” (living space) and talked about Germany’s “thousand-year future,” clear allusions to Adolf Hitler’s expansionism and vision of a “thousand-year Reich.”
Concerned about the direction of their party, the original founders of the AfD left or were kicked out.
Not everyone in the party is as radical as Höcke. Some view him as more of a hindrance than a help; his extreme rhetoric makes it harder for the party to pick up more moderate voters, they complain. Nevertheless, he is still tolerated, and even promoted, as one of the senior leaders in the party.
With anti-Semitism surging worldwide, Jewish leaders are especially worried that politicians like Höcke are winning so many votes once again.
Charlotte Knobloch, former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said the AfD’s success “shows that our whole political system is coming apart at the seams.” She said she was worried that so many supported a party that has “downplayed the horrors of the Nazi era, who are openly nationalistic and have spread messages of hate against minorities, including the Jewish community.”
When extreme parties are brought into the government, they are normalized, given legitimacy. Voters grow likelier to vote for them. Either way, when mainstream parties struggle, fringe parties thrive.
Christoph Heubner, vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee, sounded a similar warning, saying, “For survivors of German concentration camps, this massive increase in votes for the AfD in Thuringia is another menacing signal that right-wing extremist attitudes and tendencies are consolidating in Germany.”
“The last time we saw something of this kind in Germany was in the Weimar Republic where political life was polarized between the Communists and the National Socialists,” political scientist and commentator Werner Patzelt told the Local. “This is quite uncommon” (Oct. 28, 2019).
Some support the AfD due to legitimate concerns about migration. But it is not just their polling figures that parallel the 1930s. Their rhetoric does too.
Continent in Crisis
Fringe parties are rising all across Europe.
In Ireland’s February 9 general election, Sinn Fein—formerly the political wing of the ira terrorist group—tied for first place. Historically, Ireland’s mainstream parties have refused to work with them. Now they are stuck with a choice: form an unwieldy coalition or work with a group that has killed more civilians than al Qaeda did on 9/11.
Spain has held four inconclusive elections in the last four years. It currently has a coalition minority government, which is perhaps the most unstable arrangement possible. Meanwhile, a far-right party, Vox, has entered Spain’s legislature for the first time in its democratic history. In the November elections, Vox won third with 15 percent of the seats.
In 2010 and 2011, Belgium set a new world record for the longest period any developed country has been without a government: 589 days. Now the Belgians are going for a new record. Their last elections were on May 26, 2019, and they still don’t have a coalition.
Italian politics is dominated by parties that either did not exist before the 2008 financial crisis or were considered too extreme for government. In Sweden’s most recent election, its main left-wing party experienced its worst result since 2011, and the far-right Sweden Democrats are now, by some polls, the nation’s most popular party.
Eastern Europe is full of governments that are right wing, if not far-right, and most of these did well. In Hungary, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz won 52 percent of the vote, one of the only parties in Europe to win a majority. In Poland, the right-wing Law and Justice party garnered 45 percent of the vote.
In country after country, European politics are entering the same death spiral that many of them suffered in the 1930s.
During that fateful decade, the rise of the extreme parties didn’t happen only in Germany. The rise of extreme parties gummed up French politics. France had five governments between May 1932 and January 1934. In Austria, the death spiral empowered the Heimwehr—a far-right group similar to the Nazis but opposed to unification with Germany. In Czechoslovakia, the Nazi Sudeten German Party came from nowhere to win more votes than any other party. In Romania, the Iron Guard rose to become the third-most popular party, winning 15 percent of the vote in the 1937 elections, after having been banned in the 1935 elections. Other extreme parties, like the National-Christian Defense League in France, rose steadily after the 1929 stock market crash. France’s far-right Croix-de-Feu league grew from 500 members in 1928 to 400,000 in 1935. After it was banned in 1936, its leader started the French Social Party, which grew to become one of France’s largest right-wing parties. Votes for extreme parties in many other countries also jumped.
For all these people, a vote for the fringe wasn’t just a vote for a different political party. It was a vote for a different system. They didn’t want their current constitution or system of government. They were convinced their nation needed something different.
Many of the people voting for fringe groups today believe the same thing. Satisfaction with democracy is at an all-time low, according to a Cambridge study published in January. The report states, “Europe’s average level of satisfaction masks a large and growing divide within the Continent, between a ‘zone of despair’ across France and southern Europe, and a ‘zone of complacency’ across Western Germany, Scandinavia and the Netherlands.”
The Cambridge study traces the origin of this dissatisfaction to the economic crisis—just as was the case in the 1930s. It states, “It is likely that, beyond personal feelings of economic dissatisfaction, the crisis has brought forward a broader sense of political discontent that is tied to economic sovereignty, national pride, and anger over the use of public resources.”
In country after country, voters believe the political system no longer works for them. So they want someone different from the norm, someone outside the established parties. The way Europe has worked for decades isn’t working, they feel. They want something new.
Compromising With the Right
In the 1930s, the mainstream-right parties dealt with this rise in extremism by compromising with the right and moving further to the right themselves.
In 1931, Hugenberg’s manifesto called for the end of the Treaty of Versailles, the establishment of conscription, the reconquest of Germany’s colonies, a reduction in the number of Jews in public life, and stronger links with German communities outside of Germany. Politically, the difference between Hugenberg and Hitler was simply a matter of degree.
In France, far-right leagues succeeded in organizing violent protests. The more prominent right-wing parties responded by shifting their direction. These were among those that would make up the Vichy regime that cooperated with Hitler after he conquered their nation. In Romania, the king attempted to create a royal dictatorship to prevent Nazi-like parties from taking power in his country. In Hungary, the regent was forced to accept a far-right, anti-Semitic government.
The 1930s history remains a powerful warning for the future. Bible prophecy gives us an even clearer warning. And that prophecy tells us there will be some major similarities—as well as some key differences.
Some in Germany are trying to respond to Thuringia the same way. Germany’s mainstream-right party is divided on the subject, but a substantial faction wants to shift the party to the right.
One leader of this faction, and a top contender to be Germany’s next chancellor, is Friedrich Merz. Foreign Policy explained, “Friedrich Merz would tack hard to the right, pushing the cdu toward the AfD in an attempt to recapture voters that have fled to the populist right in past elections” (February 11). It even speculated that Merz could bring the AfD into a coalition, taking the same course the mainstream right took in the 1930s.
Former Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg strongly endorsed Merz, telling the German Press Agency on January 17: “For me, there is only one politician in the [Christian Democratic] Union left, who I consider perfectly suitable for this task and who I would vote for: Friedrich Merz.”
Break With the Past
Recent events in Thuringia did not follow completely in the footsteps of the 1930s, however. The state leader elected with the help of the AfD lasted in office only one day. The outcry across the country forced him to step down.
Nor was he the only casualty. The fallout was so great it brought down Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, Chancellor Merkel’s hand-picked successor.
Kramp-Karrenbauer came under attack for not stopping the deal with the far right. She was party leader—had she lost control of her own party? She was also accused of not speaking out forcefully enough against the AfD. Party members were already disappointed with her tenure as party leader. So she announced she would not stand as a candidate for Germany’s chancellor, and that she would resign as party leader, to be replaced in the summer.
This backlash was much stronger than the response to the Thuringia coalition in the 1930s. That history screams a warning so strong that Germany could not ignore it. The nation had to do something. So history from the ’30s is repeating itself, but not in exactly the same way.
The 1930s history remains a powerful warning for the future. Bible prophecy gives us an even more clear and specific warning. And that prophecy tells us there will be some major similarities—as well as some key differences from what has gone before.
Revelation 17 warns of a political system that rises and falls seven times. Verse 8 describes a beast, symbolic of a major world power, that “was, and is not, and yet is.” This beast exists, then vanishes—only to then “ascend out of the bottomless pit.” You could say it comes out of nowhere—from “underground.”
This chapter describes it as having seven heads: It rises seven times. Verses 1-2 tell us it is led by a woman, the biblical symbol for a church.
Where in the world is there an empire, led by a church, that repeatedly rises and falls? This passage can only be referring to the Holy Roman Empire in Europe, a series of empires that have all attempted to resurrect the Roman Empire, and that have all been dominated by the Catholic Church.
This power has risen and fallen six times so far. Revelation 17 says that when this power fully ascends, “the people who belong to this world … will be amazed at the reappearance of this beast” (verse 8; New Living Translation). They believe this beast is dead, but then it comes back one more time.
We are seeing that beast power rise in Europe one more time.
Because this is the same beast that rose in the 1930s, there are some critical parallels. But the seventh and final resurrection of this empire is unique. The book of Daniel has a series of prophecies describing the rise of the man who will lead this empire.
A Coming Strongman
Daniel wrote his prophetic book for the end time (Daniel 12:9). It prophesies events that have now happened; they were prophecy for him, but now history for us. But even these historical events are types of what is still ahead of us.
Daniel 8:23 describes the rise of “a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences.” Verse 25 says he will be defeated after he stands up “against the Prince of princes,” revealing the time frame for this fierce king’s reign: He will come to power in the very end time, right before Jesus Christ’s Second Coming. Revelation 17 also describes the beast power and its leader fighting Jesus Christ. The Daniel 8 man leads the beast described in the book of Revelation.
Another passage in the same prophetic book—Daniel 11:21-31—tells us how this man will come to power.
Most Bible commentaries correctly say this passage refers to Antiochus Epiphanes, who reigned around 175 to 164 b.c. These verses forecast exactly what Antiochus ended up doing. They prophesied that he would “pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate” (verse 31). Antiochus infamously assaulted and slaughtered the Jews and attacked the Jewish religion. He attempted to stamp out Jewish worship at the temple and set up a pagan statue to Jupiter Olympius in front of the altar.
In Matthew 24:15, Jesus Christ clearly refers to this verse, making explicit reference to “the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet.” But He talks about it not as something that had already happened, but as something that will happen in the future.
If this prophecy was entirely fulfilled by Antiochus Epiphanes nearly two centuries earlier, why did Christ tell His disciples to watch for this event? This prophecy had an ancient fulfillment, but it will also have a modern one. Like many other prophecies, it is dual. This refers both to the ancient Antiochus and to a modern Antiochus.
Daniel 11:21 prophesies that the European people “shall not give” this Antiochus “the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.” The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown Commentary says that “the nation shall not, by a public act, confer the kingdom on him, but he shall obtain it by artifice, ‘flattering.’” Barnes’ Notes on the Old and New Testaments states, “[I]n other words, it should not be conferred on him by any law or act of the nation, or in any regular succession or claim.”
Look at Germany right now. In your lifetime, have Germans ever been more worried about their political situation? They see that they are sliding down the same path as the 1930s. They see that they are beset by potential crises, with another episode of the migrant crisis or the euro crisis likely to break out at any time. Yet at the helm are two lame ducks.
With Germans desperate for a strong leader, and none on the horizon, circumstances are almost perfect for someone to come into power in an unorthodox way. What happens if there is some kind of crisis between now and summer, and Ms. Merkel is forced to step down? If politics as usual cannot give the already-restless Germans the leader they need, what can they do?
In the Trumpet’s January cover article, editor in chief Gerald Flurry showed just how many specifics the Bible gives us about this coming strongman. He explained that this strongman “will somehow manipulate the political system to effectively hijack Germany and, by extension, Europe.”
“Knowing that such political intrigue will occur makes the bureaucratic turmoil in Berlin important to watch,” he wrote. “The government is shaky, the need for strong leadership is clear—but the path to achieve it is unknown.”
Daniel 8:23 says this leader is known for “understanding dark sentences.” The expression “dark sentences” means that he operates “at a higher social level.” Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon defines this phrase as “twisted, involved, subtlety, fraud, enigma.”
“This is revealing insight,” wrote Mr. Flurry. “The prophesied strongman operates on a high social level; he is capable of understanding and solving complex issues and questions. He is brilliant and sophisticated, and he has intellectual depth and power. The context shows he enjoys notoriety and fame for it.”
“This prophesied leader may well exploit this frustration and confusion by rallying a coalition behind him and vaunting himself to power,” he continued. “This would take a lot of intelligence and calculation; it would require unusual skill to deceive people in high places with flattery. But the prophesied Daniel 8 man will do it magnificently. Adolf Hitler was a man of mental strength, but he was not as adept at deceiving people as this coming strongman will be! This leader will come as an angel of light.”
The stage is perfectly set for the rise of this man. Europe is treading the same path that led to a dictator before, and it will get a dictator once again.
But the Bible records one other important difference between this time and the 1930s. When Hitler was defeated, his empire went underground, to rise again later. This time, the empire will not go underground. Daniel 8:25 says that this strongman will “stand up against the Prince of princes.” He will try to fight Jesus Christ when He returns, “but he shall be broken without hand.”
This whole system, that has caused wars for hundreds of years, will be destroyed forever. And it will never be resurrected again.