This week, much to the consternation of the rest of the western world, President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the six-nation nuclear deal with Iran, and affirmed that he was going to institute some of the toughest economic sanctions yet against the Iranian nation.

He also threatened Iranian leaders with “severe consequences” should they restart their nuclear weapons program.

Almost simultaneously, as if on cue, Israel began an aerial bombing campaign against Iranian military targets in the Quneitra province south of Damascus, Syria.

This aerial bombing attack triggered a counter-attack consisting of a barrage of some 20 rockets and artillery from Iranian positions near Syria’s southern border, directly into Israel-held land in the Golan Heights.

Israeli government spokesman now says they consider the barrage a “direct attack” on their nation by Iran, rather than a defensive attack.  As the UK Sun put it:

“Iran has directly attacked Israel for the first time as it launched missiles in the annexed Golan Heights region, Israel’s army has claimed.

 

An Israeli air defence (IDF) spokesman said “about 20 rockets” were fired by Iranian Quds Force at the Jewish state’s defensive line in the area – which has been occupied by Israel since 1967.

 

… Tuesday’s attacks represent an immediate escalation in tensions in the region after US President Donald Trump walked away from the 2015 nuclear agreement Barack Obama struck with Iran.”

 

Israeli Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus later stated, “The IDF sees this Iranian attack on Israel with severity. This event is not over.”

Simultaneously to all of this, the weekly British magazine, New Statesman, featured a provocative cover article for their May 11-17 issue, which you can see in the image above.  The glaring headline reads:

Israel vs Iran:  the Coming War

While this week’s issue of the New Statesman has not yet been released, its editors released the cover photo in advance, I assume so they can say they “predicted” the expected war in advance, should it indeed happen now.

So Is Daniel Chapter 8 About to Be Fulfilled?

So does this mean the long-awaited fulfillment of Daniel chapter 8 is about to take place, in which Iran, symbolized by a ram, is attacked and completely defeated by a military power symbolized as a “he goat” in the final days of this flesh earth age?

Well, as the old saying goes, “Keep your powder dry.”  We’ve been here too many times in the past to make a conclusive statement like that.  War with Iran has been predicted for the past decade, at the very least.

But…we’re supposed to be watchmen of God (Ezekiel 33).  Therefore it’s our job to stay on the watch and report what’s happening.  And dramatic events precisely like this are the stuff war is made of.

As you’ve seen in the past few weeks, Israel is definitely pressing for war with Iran.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Israeli Knesset for greater war powers, and was given virtual carte blanche to attack Iran without waiting for Knesset approval, in any situation deemed to be “extreme.”

Would today’s counter-attack on Israel by Iran qualify as “extreme”?  Well, we’ll have to watch and see how Israel interprets it.  After all, it’s Israel that gets to define what they mean by the word “extreme.”

It’s also interesting to note that shortly before the approval for greater war powers was granted to Netanyahu, Pentagon Chief James Mattis had told reporters in the U.S. that direct conflict between Israeli and Iranian forces is now “very likely.”

And in one report out of Israel, from Haaretz.com, the Israeli Energy Minister stated that Israel would even assassinate Syria’s president Assad if he continued to allow Iran to operate out of Syria.

So we have all of the makings of a war in motion.  The question is:  Now, or later?

And the answer is:  It doesn’t matter.  It’s going to happen — today, tomorrow or a year from now — because it’s written.  So you should be ready for it, and for all of the remaining prophetic events of the end days, to begin playing out.

And you should be ready right now, just in case.   Don’t wait until after the attack on Iran to get your affairs in order and start preparing for the antichrist.  After all, once Iran’s defeat is complete, the Scripture in Daniel chapter 8 describes the following events as taking place directly afterwards:

1.)  The he goat — which we can only assume at this point is going to be Israel — “waxed very great” and became “strong” (translated from the Hebrew word atsam meaning a bone cruncher).  [Daniel 8:8]

2.)  Once becoming strong, the great horn on the he goat’s head, representing its power structure, gets broken (i.e., burst, destroyed, broken into pieces).  This is most likely to take place through the delivery of the deadly wound of Revelation chapter 13, which we know from previous studies happens at Jerusalem.  [Daniel 8:8]

3.)  Once the power structure (i.e., “horn”) of the he goat is broken into pieces, the Scripture tells us that “four notable ones” come up in place of that former power structure.  These are the “four beasts” described in Daniel 7:3-7, which represent the four stages of one-worldism taking place very quickly.  [Daniel 8:8]

4.)  These “four notable ones” arise “towards the four winds of heaven,” meaning this is the point at which the four winds that usher in the final events of this flesh earth age begin to blow.  This is confirmed again in Daniel 7:2.  So at this point the sealing of God’s elect described in Revelation chapter 7 is over with, and the four winds that were held back until the elect are sealed in their foreheads with the truth of God’s Word are now no longer being held back.  [Daniel 8:8]

5.)  Out of the “four notable ones” of Daniel 8:8 comes forth “a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land.”  We know from Daniel 7:8 and 7:25 that this “little horn” is Satan himself, in his role as the false savior of the world, having been cast down to this earth with his fallen angels in Revelation 12:7-9.  [Daniel 8:9]

In short, the defeat of Iran by the “he goat” of Daniel chapter 8 directly presages the deadly wound at Jerusalem…the beginning of the four winds of Revelation chapter 7 and Daniel chapter 7…the ushering in of Satan’s one-world system…and finally the arrival onto the scene of the antichrist himself.

To learn more about the events of the end of this age, including the war on Iran and the deadly wound of the great book of Revelation, see the Bible study, The 4 Winds and the Deadly Wound.

Regards in Christ,

 

Steve Barwick

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