On Friday, January 23, Knight Ridder reported that when President Bush claimed in his State of the Union address that "the people of Iraq are free," he was fresh from discussing the prospect, based on an oral report from CIA officers, that Iraq may be heading into civil war.  Responding to a press briefing question from NBC's Jim Miklaszewski, the Commanding General of the 4th Infantry acknowledged that "we have to be aware of that potential."

On the day after Bush called for extending the USA Patriot Act in his State of the Union address, the Los Angeles City Council become the 237th - and largest - local government to adopt what the ACLU calls a "pro-civil liberties resolution," urging a narrowing of the act.

U.S. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is considering plans to target Syria via Lebanon, reports Jane's Intelligence Digest.  By sending special forces into Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, the U.S. would be deliberately risking a confrontation with Syrian forces, says Jane's.

Do you feel better now?

Oh yes, and this:

Halliburton has fired two employees of its Kellogg Brown & Root subsidiary, that allegedly demanded and received up to $6 million in kickbacks from a Kuwaiti company for awarding work supplying U.S. troops. The revelation comes less than a week after Halliburton was awarded a new $1.2 billion contract to boost oil production in southern Iraq.

 

And so it goes.

 

My friend Rick Brown says he doesn't feel better about all this.  Of the several items above one in particular caught his eye.  He wonders about us sending special forces into Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.  He says how he feels of course "depends on how close the Bekaa Valley is to Armageddon."

 

Well, that got me thinking.  So I looked up a few things.

 

The Bekaa Valley in Syria is actually the right place.

 

To review:

 

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.  For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God almighty....  And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.  Rev.16: 13-14, 16

 

According to Great Trumpet Publications -

 

The present war against the false religions of earth is incurring the united opposition of the sectarian world.  Multitudes of its deceived professors are rising in opposition to the known truths.  All counterfeit religions are uniting in confederation to the truth.  This is going on in the spiritual realm and it effects the political realm.  The scriptures teach that the devil is the prince of the power of the air. (Ephesians 2:2).  The minister in Rev. 16:17, poured out his vial into the AIR, after the three unclean spirits were revealed, showing that this battle is in the spiritual 'air' or the atmosphere!

 

Yeah, but where?  Just in the air?  Over what area?

 

The Syria-Israel border is most likely.  The fortress city of Megiddo appears in the New Testament as Armageddon, location of the millennial battle between the forces of good and evil.  This inspired James Michener's The Source.

 

I recommend: Iraq, World Events and Armageddon: Understanding Bible Prophecy

Tribulation.Com - Bible Prophecy

 

Here is "Point Nine" of eighteen that proves this really is the end of days.

 

Iraq is near, but is NOT the site of Armageddon.  World armies gather at Armageddon (the Valley of Megiddo, located in Northern Israel, about 25 miles southwest of the Golan Heights) on their way to destroy the Nation of Israel at Bozrah ("Petra") in Jordan.  Armageddon is not a battle between nations per se, but a battle between the Antichrist's armies and Israel as they try to destroy her (Rev. 16:16; Zech. 12:1-3, 9, 11).  Christ returns to save Israel from the Antichrist's armies (Zech. 14) 1,260 days after the Antichrist sets up an idol to himself in a wing of Israel's rebuilt temple in Jerusalem (yes, it WILL be rebuilt). 

 

Israel was reborn as a nation (Ezekiel 37) in 1948.  Israel regathers from all nations (1897 - Present) (Zech. 8:7; Ezek. 36:24; Ps. 107:3; Isa. 43:5-6, 49:8, 12, 19; Jer. 16:15).  United Nations was founded 1947.  Antichrist will rule nations united under one authority (Rev. 13:3-4, 7-8); possibly the U.N. Northern armies (apparently Russian) come against Israel (Ezek.38-39).

 

The Dead Sea Scrolls, which prove the authenticity of the Old Testament, were found in caves near the Dead Sea in 1947 by an Arab youth, one year before Israel was reborn as a nation in 1948.  For more information please visit this site: Bozrah the Sheep Pen of the Messiah.

 

Got it?  Yes, the Bekaa Valley is actually the Valley of Megiddo - Megiddo is at the northern end. 

 

This is it.  The end of everything.

 

Rick reviewed all this and added: "That's good.  The sooner the better.  I have a dentist appointment in early February."

 

And I was scheduled for jury duty on the 2nd.  Cool. 

 

No February, no jury duty.