Bible Prophecy Sanctify War! Joel 3:9

What a frightful world it is with the emergence of the Islamic State and its crucifixions, beheadings and slaughter. The ISIS, as it is known (or sometimes IS or ISIL) has the Western nations cowering and powerless as they dither in the face of a terror state that is threatening the whole human civilisation. As one newspaper article put it on August 11, "Western leaders, as a whole, remain in denial about what is occurring in Muslem countries because it exposes their past analysis as catastrophically naive."

The expansion of ISIS.

A world that has stood by and watched Israel suffer at the hands of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iranian backed terror organisations, urging "restraint" and diplomacy, must now decide what to do as the point of the Islamic sword turns in its own direction. The Islamic State is expanding as it captures swathes of territory from Syria and Iraq. U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron used tough language to condemn the atrocities committed by ISIS, and particularly the beheading of the American journalist James Foley - but what are they going to do about it?

The Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu pointed out that Israel and the Western world are facing the same enemy:

"We face the same Islamist network and we have to fight it together... Hamas is ISIS, ISIS is Hamas. You saw the gruesome beheading of James Foley. We see the gruesome murder and execution of three teenagers which Hamas has just admitted that they did. These are both branches of the same poisonous tree. The free world, the democracies have to stand together against this terrorism. That's the only way we'll roll them back. Ultimately that's the only way we'll defeat them."

The Islamic State is succeeding because, as one report expressed it:

"The Islamic State is confronted by probably the most incompetent and ill-equipped Western leaders of modern times. For two months, this barbaric group has been rolling forward, but Washington just dithered.

"Barack Obama and David Cameron do not dare, even now, tell the truth about what Islamic State (or IS) are, or what motivates them. Obama and Cameron talk of averting 'genocide'. But genocide is, by definition, the destruction of a racial or national group.

"Islamic State isn't remotely interested in that. It is interested in religion - its own extreme brand of Sunni Islam - and it has for months now been engaging in forced conversions, killings, plunder and expulsion of all those it considers infidels."

So if this fanatical Islamic State is not challenged by the Western leaders, who - if anyone - will come to the rescue?

A Reuters report (August 12) stated that "the Vatican called on Muslim religious leaders to take a clear and courageous stance and condemn unspeakable criminal acts by Islamic State." Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are the main Arab nations who are opposed to the Islamic terror State, and this reveals a major division that is occurring in the Arab (Islamic) world. It is a division that students of Bible prophecy have anticipated over many years - a northern power block and a southern power block in the Middle East.

We have no special revelation as to the immediate outworking of events and can only say that the inspired Scriptures remain our one source of information. We must pray for understanding of these as we diligently study the words of the Prophets and Apostles. From the Scriptures of Truth it is clear that two opposing power-blocks must be developed. In Ezekiel chapter 38 these are the forces of the Russian Gog and his allies in the north, and a protesting group in the south, identified as "Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof."

Sheba and Dedan is approximately the territory of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, while the merchants of Tarshish and the world's main trading nations (including the United States, Britain, India, and those countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand which are allied). These are the nations who are now trembling at the sight of the growing islamic State, and do not know what to do in order to arrest its progress. But while the Western nations are thinking it over Israel is being targeted by a stream of rockets fired from Hamas-controlled Gaza. Israel is the only country to fight off the Islamic threat, for as we are seeing, Syria and Iraq are caving in to the bloodthirsty demands of the extremist Sunni form of Islam.

The West, and Russia too, has the power and the means to eradicate both Hamas and the Islamic State, but they refuse to recognise that this is a religious war - a "holy war" - against Israel and against the so-called "Christian" nations. As pointed out earlier, the Vatican has called for "a clear and courageous" condemnation of the "unspeakable criminal acts" of the Islamic State. Could this be the beginning of a new and modern form of the Crusades? Western countries with a large Moslem population (the result of Multi-culturism and the misguided concept of creating a world-community) dare not now begin to advance the ticking bomb in their midst.

It appears from Scripture that a harsh and terrible response will have to be applied sooner or later - and the power to do this will be the Russian Gog. As one writer put it:

"The war to be initiated is the setting in of an overwhelming inundation that will submerge them under one of the most terrible and scorching despotisms that ever wrung the heart of nations."

But we also know from Scripture that a revolution must take place in some of those Arab nations which lie in the south. The time will come when as Isaiah 60 tells us, Midian and Sheba will show forth the praises of the Lord.

"All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory... Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the LORD thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee."

So there must come a fundamental ideological change in these countries - that is in Arabia and the countries to the south of Israel. We also know from Ezekiel 38:11-13 that a state of peace and prosperity in Israel must be achieved before Gog invades the Land. What could bring this about? Such a condition can only be brought about in Israel and the south by divine intervention. This is evidence of the work of Christ and his raised sanctified ones when they are back in the earth, but not yet visible to the world. The group of Arabian nations in the south, as well as the trading nations referred to, must be brought into submission and instructed if they are to show forth (manifest) the praises of the Lord.

There is to be a great deal involved so as to bring this about, yet the Scriptures require it and so it will be. This requires mush in depth study to appreciate and must await other occasions.