Transcript Weekly World Watch

Andy Walton’s
Weekly World Watch
January 1 - 10, 2015
“If the watchman sees the sword coming and
does not blow the trumpet to warn the people
and the sword comes and takes the life of one
of them, that man will be taken away because
of his sin, but I will hold the watchman
accountable for his blood.”
(Ezekiel 33:6, New International Version)
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What is a Weekly World Watch?
The idea is simple. It is to look at current events and compare them to
events spoken of in the Bible. .
I hope to build up a picture of God’s hand working in the affairs of this world.
God is bringing about a day when all nations will be gathered to Jerusalem
to battle. At that time God will send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, back to
this earth. Jesus will then establish God’s kingdom on earth.
This kingdom will last for ever. This is our hope and the reason we watch.
The following six themes will appear repeatedly in WWW:
• Israel: The continuing conflict in the Middle East and focus on Jerusalem.
• Europe: Its developing union, both political and religious.
• Russia: Its return to anti-Western ways as Bible prophecy’s “king of the
north.”
• The UK and the US: Bible prophecy’s “king of the south.”
• Moral standards in decline and violence on the increase.
• Increasing natural disasters: including earthquake, famine etc
WWW presentations in PowerPoint can be ordered as audio/visual CDs by clicking here.
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What is in a Weekly World Watch?
Each WWW looks at a few key developments that have happened during the
past week. It is in no way meant to be exhaustive – just a look at those events
I saw as significant from a Biblical point of view.
Every WWW event slide has the following format. To reveal each block of text
just left click your mouse or press the space bar. You control when it appears.
HEADLINE
This is straight from a news report that caught my
eye because it looked significant from a Biblical
perspective, usually that of prophecy.
The source of the headline and the date are included.
EVENT
News
Photo
This is the reporter’s description of the event. It is always a direct
quotation from the news report and reflects the understanding of the
reporter and editors.
This is my comment on why the event is interesting to a Bible student.
COMMENT The intention of the WWW is to offer brief Biblical perspectives without
going into detail. If more detail is desired, please e-mail me:
([email protected]). Please note that these are personal
thoughts and the aim is purely to stimulate Bible study.
This is normally one verse which backs up why the event that has occurred
BIBLE
is interesting from a Biblical perspective. Please read in its context.
QUOTE
Unless stated otherwise, all quotes are from the King James Version.
(Book, chapter, and verse)
This Week’s Developments
January 1 - 10, 2015
• A new year dawns, the world awaits Putin’s next move
• Russia 'has deteriorated significantly’ in 2014
• UN: Palestinians will join International Criminal Court
• Syria conflict: 76,000 die in deadliest year
• Attack on Jewish market leaves sense of dread
• 2014 was the hottest year on record
To print any of the event slides that follow, click the picture on the upper right
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As a new year dawns, the world awaits Putin’s
next move
Daily Telegraph, January 1, 2015
EVENT
Putin is a dangerous leader who will have to decide early in 2015 whether to scale
back his ambitions. President Putin has steered Russia into economic crisis with
remarkable speed. At the start of 2014, Russia seemed set to enjoy another year of
healthy growth; by November, the country was officially in recession. Falling oil prices,
Western sanctions and Mr Putin’s own mismanagement all explain the sudden plunge.
Academics will argue over which factor has proved the most damaging; what matters is
that Mr Putin has courted disaster by confronting the entire Western world.
Mr Putin also mounted a shadowy invasion of Ukraine, sending thousands of Russian
troops over the border. All this claimed about 5,000 lives and forced 500,000 refugees
to flee their homes. With this record, how will Mr Putin react to Russia’s spiralling
economic crisis? That will, perhaps, be the vital question for 2015.
COMMENT This is indeed the vital question for 2015. What will Putin do next? Russia is isolated
from the western world. It is still embroiled in a proxy war with Ukraine. It has massive
economic issues due to sanctions and the drop in oil price.
With Bible in hand we are told two clear things about Gog (Putin). Firstly God puts
hooks in his jaws to bring him down to take a spoil from Israel. He is literally unable to
resist the “pull” of the riches (quite possibly the recent gas finds Israel has made) he
sees there. So there is a pull by God using the spoil. But we also read of a push in
Daniel 11 v 40. The push is from the king of the south ie America and Britain. The push
is a provocation – possible a military provocation. We are seeing this happen as well.
America is pushing Russia into a corner with sanctions and possibly helping drive down
the oil price. 2015 may well see Putin make more moves – SOUTH…
BIBLE
QUOTE
And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army,
horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with
bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
(Ezekiel 38:2)
Russia 'has deteriorated significantly' as Fitch cuts
credit rating
Daily Telegraph, January 9, 2015
EVENT
COMMENT
BIBLE
QUOTE
Fitch has downgraded Russia's credit rating and painted a horrific picture of a
struggling economy rocked by a collapsing rouble, falling oil prices, high inflation and
declining international reserves. The ratings agency cut the country to BBB- from BBB
with a negative outlook, meaning further downgrades are possible. But it was the
language Fitch used in its reasoning that was most shocking. Russia's economic
outlook "has deteriorated significantly" in just six months, Fitch stated. Gross
Domestic Product will shrink 4pc this year, the agency added, far worse than the
1.5pc contraction it previously expected. "Growth may not return until 2017," Fitch
said.
Western sanctions, imposed after President Vladimir Putin's took Russia into
neighbouring Ukraine, "continue to weigh on the economy" but the plunging oil price is
causing just as much, if not more, damage to one of the world's energy giants.
The real pressure on Russia is coming from falling oil prices. They are now 50%
cheaper than just 6 months ago! Russia needs oil to be $105 a barrel to break even. It
is now $50 a barrel. There are those who think it could drop to $45 and below.
But what is totally amazing are these words published in 1849 – yes over 150 years
ago – by brother John Thomas….“Let the Russian treasury be as empty as it is said to
be, and its expenditure exceed its revenue by double the alleged deficit, it will only
operate as a pressure from within, causing her autocrat to enter into the countries, and
to overflow and pass over, and to enrich himself with the spoil of those he is destined to
subdue.” How did this man know that Russia would be in such a dire financial situation
at the time of the end? Well he put two and two together using the Bible. Russia wants
a spoil- therefore Russia must be desperate for it. Russia must be financially weak…
It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt
think an evil thought: And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to
them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars
(Ezekiel 38:10-12)
nor gates, To take a spoil,
Palestinians will join the International Criminal
Court in April, UN confirms
Daily Telegraph, January 7, 2015
EVENT
The Palestinians will join the International Criminal Court (ICC) on April 1, the United
Nations confirmed on Wednesday, opening the way for potential war crimes complaints
against Israel. The announcement by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general, will lead
to a new phase of intense legal and diplomatic confrontation. Mahmoud Abbas, the
Palestinian leader, began the process of joining the court at the end of last year after
the UN security council rejected a resolution asking for a deadline to a final peace
agreement and Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories. He hopes that the move,
which has transformed his relationship with Israel from strained to openly hostile, will
put pressure on Israel to broker a deal. But Israel, which fears its soldiers and officials
will be pursued through the court, responded by ordering a halt to £83 million of monthly
tax revenues that Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority.
COMMENT The International Criminal Court was established in Rome in 1998 and came into being
in 2002. The court looks at genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. In effect
only states that are signed up can use the court. Palestine is not a state so cannot use
it. But the UN announced this week that Palestine will join the ICC in April. America has
responded saying that this cannot happen. Israel has responded by freezing
Palestinians funds. The reason the Palestinians want to join the ICC is twofold. Firstly it
is yet another step towards all nations recognising them as a state. Secondly they want
to prosecute Israel for war crimes. American officials called this application the “nuclear
option”. The Bible says that Israel enemies will rise up, they will be confederate against
Israel and work to destroy them. This is a step in this prophesied direction…
BIBLE
QUOTE
lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head. They have
taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said,
Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in
remembrance.
(Psalm 83:2-4)
Syria conflict: 76,000 die in deadliest year
BBC, January 1, 2015
EVENT
The year 2014 was the deadliest year yet in Syria's
four-year conflict, with over 76,000 killed, activists say. The UK-based Syrian
Observatory for Human Rights said 17,790 of the dead were civilians, including 3,501
children. Meanwhile more than 15,000 died in conflicts in Iraq in 2014, making it that
country's worst year since 2007. Much of the violence comes as a result of advances
by Islamic State and other militants groups in the two countries. US-led air strikes
against Islamic State (IS) militants, fighting between government troops and rebels in
Syria, and sectarian violence in Iraq have also accounted for large numbers of deaths.
The air strikes continued on Thursday, with 17 against IS targets near the Syrian cities
of Raqqa, Kobane and Deir al-Zour and 12 near the Iraqi cities of Falluja, Mosul and
Sinjar. Meanwhile Syrian President Bashar al-Assad marked the new year with a visit
to front-line troops in the Damascus suburb of Jobar.
COMMENT The total number of deaths since the Syrian conflict began in 2011 is said to be more
BIBLE
QUOTE
than 200,000. It is a shocking number of people and the death and destruction
continues every single day. There are millions of Syrian refugees in Lebanon and
Jordan and in those countries things are reaching a head.
On the same day that the figures were published for Syria the Iraq government
published deaths in its country. It said 15,538 people had died and more than 22,000
were injured during the course of the year. So in 2014 around 100,000 people have
been killed in those two nations alone. The Bible speaks of cataclysmic destruction
coming on both Syria and Iraq in the last days. These two nations have far more
trouble to come. Damascus will cease to be a city and Babylon (Iraq) will become like
Sodom.
And
Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldea's’ excellency, shall be as when God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
(Isaiah 13:19)
The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a
(Isaiah 17:1)
ruinous heap.
Attack on Jewish market leaves sense of dread
USA Today, January 9, 2015
EVENT
COMMENT
BIBLE
QUOTE
Friday's deadly hostage taking at a Jewish supermarket after a countrywide terrorist
manhunt left a familiar sense of dread in the Paris Jewish community. "We have been
warning the French authorities for years — there have been many attacks on French
Jews by Islamists," said Marc Lissak, a French national of the Jewish faith in Paris. "But
they didn't want to take this poison of extremism seriously or admit to the Islamist
threat.” Anti-Semitic attacks in France have been on the rise, and observers who keep
track of the incidents and attitudes toward Jews say they indicate a growing problem in
French society. "Violence against Jewish individuals and institutions in the last five
years has all been generated from the Muslim population," said Michael Salberg,
director of international affairs at the Anti-Defamation League, a New York-based group
that tracks and counters anti-Semitism around the world.
France is home to around half a million Jews and five million Muslims—the largest in
Europe for both religions. Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians in the Middle
East often spill over onto the streets of France. Last year, synagogues were attacked
and Jewish-owned shops were set on fire during the conflict in the Gaza Strip. More
Jews are retuning to Israel from France than from any other country. Well over 5000
have returned in 2014. This is even more than Ukraine, Russia and America.
The horrifying attacks by two Muslims this week in France did not take long to become
attacks against Jews. We know with Bible in hand that another holocaust is coming. A
time when many Jews will be killed in Israel. The world as whole is turning against
Israel. All nations one day will be gathered against Jerusalem to battle….
Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge
all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the
press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of
decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
(Joel 3:12-14)
2014 was the hottest year on record
Daily Mail, January 8, 2015
EVENT
The Japan Meteorological Association (JMA) has become the latest organisation to
claim that 2014 was the hottest on record. They say it was 0.27°C warmer than the
average from 1981 to 2010, and 0.63°C warmer than the 20th century average without the help of an El Niño weather event. And according to their data, ten of the
hottest years on record have come since 1998. The JMA joins Nasa and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) in the US, and the UK Met Office, as
one of four major global temperature 'keepers' to reveal 2014 was the hottest ever.
All four make their readings separately to one another - and they have all individually
come to the same conclusion that last year was the hottest since records began in the
late 19th century. Experts say the rate at which it is warming is alarmingly quick, and
heavily suggests the emission of CO2 by humans is causing manmade global warming
COMMENT The Secretary-General of the WMO (World Meteorological Organisation), Michel
Jarraud, said the data for 2014 was "consistent with what we expect from a changing
climate. Record-breaking heat combined with torrential rainfall and floods destroyed
livelihoods and ruined lives. What is particularly unusual and alarming this year are the
high temperatures of vast areas of the ocean surface, including in the northern
hemisphere.”
So not only do we see the world in turmoil in the nations, with violence and death but
we also see the physical world in turmoil with heat, storm and flood.
We long so much that all this will soon come to an end when Jesus finally intervenes by
returning to this earth. Only he can restore the world and the kingdom to Israel…
BIBLE
QUOTE
A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is
delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the
world.
(John 16:21)
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