Weekly World Watch - May 23-29, 2010

1. Weekly World Watch Andy Walton’s May 23 - 29, 2010 “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) To skip the introductory slides and go straight to this weeks developments click here.

2. 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. Move your mouse to place the cursor on the blue link and click.

3. BIBLE QUOTE 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. News Photo This is straight from a news report that caught my eye because it looked significant from a Biblical perspective, usually that of prophecy. HEADLINE The source of the headline and the date are included. 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. EVENT This is my comment on why the event is interesting to a Bible student. The intention of the WWW is to offer brief Biblical perspectives without going into detail. If more detail is desired, please e-mail me: (andy@weeklyworldwatch.co.uk). COMMENT This is normally one verse which backs up why the event that has occurred is interesting from a Biblical perspective. Please read in its context. Unless stated otherwise, all quotes are from the King James Version.(Book, chapter, and verse)

4. This Week’s Developments May 23 - 29, 2010 • South Korea stages show of military force • Russia plans big naval exercise off North Korea • U.S yields to Arab demand to pressure Israel on nukes • Is Europe heading for a meltdown? • Gulf oil spill hits Day 40 with no end in sight • Thousands flee volcanos in Ecuador and Guatemala To print any of the event slides that follow, click the picture on the upper right

5. Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. South Korea stages show of military force Daily Telegraph, May 27, 2010 South Korea staged a show of military force, conducting anti-submarine warfare exercises off its western coast as tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang continued to rise. A squadron of 10 warships, including a 3,500-tonne destroyer, fired shells and laid depth-charges in a live-firing exercise aimed at deterring further aggression from North Korea which stands accused of torpedoing a South Korea warship last March. The South's flexing of its military muscles came in defiance of North Korean denials and bellicose threats to return to "all-out war" if Seoul seeks to punish it for the sinking of the Cheonan with the loss of 46 lives. Relations between the two Koreas, now at their lowest ebb for a decade, deteriorated further with the announcement from Pyongyang that it was cancelling a series of military safeguard agreements aimed at preventing confrontations along the country's disputed sea borders. EVENT COMMENT On the 26th March we reported in the Weekly World Watch of a South Korean navy ship that had been sunk with 46 lives lost. We also reported that it came on the exact same day that America and Russia announced the reduction of nuclear weapons and promised that the world would now be safer. On that very day North Korea accused America of trying to topple the Pyongyang regime and said it was ready to launch nuclear attacks. Hours later the South Korean ship was sunk! All this has more to do with the Middle East war tensions than may be first imagined. Iran and North Korea have worked closely together in the development of their clandestine nuclear weapons programs. The two rogue powers often pursue the same diplomatic tactics for fobbing off international pressures. Iran is watching developments. War is being prepared…. BIBLE QUOTE (Joel 3:9)

6. And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. Russia plans big naval exercise off North Korea Reuters, May 27, 2010 Russia will hold large-scale naval exercises near North Korea next month that were planned before the current stand-off on the Korean peninsula, naval officials said on Thursday. Tensions between the two Koreas are at their highest level in years, a week after international investigators accused the North of torpedoing a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors. Moscow, which maintains ties with North Korea, has issued repeated calls for calm and restraint from both sides to prevent tension from bubbling over into armed conflict. The Kremlin says it wants more information about the accusations that a North Korea torpedo sank the warship. A flotilla of warships will set off for the Sea of Japan from Vladivostok, the home port of Russia's Pacific fleet, its spokesman Roman Martov said. Vladivostok is in the Primorsky Krai, the only Russian region that borders North Korea. For the first time, other fleets of Russia's navy will also join in the war games. The Black Sea fleet's flagship Moskva missile cruiser, dubbed "the aircraft carrier killer" in the Russian media, will take part alongside the heavy nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great, flagship of the Northern fleet. EVENT COMMENT NORTH Korea emerged in 1948 amid the chaos following the end of World War II. It is one of the few countries still under communist rule. It has close ties to China and Russia. South Korea was also created in 1948 but was supported by America. SOUTH Korea is now a major world economy and a democracy. Two world ideologies collide on the Korean peninsula. Two world powers also collide here as well. America and Russia. The king of the SOUTH and the king of the NORTH. BIBLE QUOTE (Daniel 11:40)

7. And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; U.S yields to Arab demand to pressure Israel on nukes Haartez, May 28, 2010 Israel was singled out but Iran was not! 189 signatories of Non-Proliferation Treaty back a declaration proposing a 2012 conference to discuss banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. The United States on Friday accepted Arab demands to pressure Israel over its atomic program as part of a pact among NPT members to aim for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons. The 28-page Final Declaration was approved by consensus on the last day of the month long conference, convened every five years to review and advance the objectives of the 40-year-old NPT. The creation of a WMD-free zone would eventually force Israel to declare and abandon its atomic bombs. U.S. officials say such a zone could not be created without Mideast peace. Israel, which like nuclear-armed India and Pakistan never signed the NPT, is presumed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal but neither confirms nor denies its existence. The creation of such a zone could ultimately force Israel to sign the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and abandon any nuclear weapons it has. But U.S. officials say this could not happen until there was peace in the region. EVENT This declaration was really an attempt to get Israel to give up its undeclared nuclear weapons. The unanimously agreed document said that Israel should sign the NPT. Barack Obama backed the deal but said he was "strongly opposed" to Israel being singled out. But note that Obama (despite opposing it) still signed the document. Once more the whole world IS singling out Israel. The world believes that Israel is the cause of all its problems. The world despises Israel. The world does not understand “THE HOPE OF ISRAEL”. The world does not understand “SALVATION IS OF THE JEWS”. The world does not understand that God’s plan is centred on Israel. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Deuteronomy 28:64,65)

8. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book Is Europe heading for a meltdown? Daily Telegraph, May 27, 2010 This financial crisis is worse than the sub-prime crash of 2008 because the sums are so much bigger and it is governments that are in dire straits. Mervyn King, the Bank of England Governor, summed it up best: "Dealing with a banking crisis was difficult enough," he said the other week, "but at least there were public-sector balance sheets on to which the problems could be moved. Once you move into sovereign debt, there is no answer; there's no backstop.“ In other words, were this a computer game, the politicians would be down to their last life. Any mistake now and it really is Game Over. The European financial crisis may look and smell rather different to the American banking crisis of a couple of years ago, but strip away the details the breakdown of the euro, the crumbling of the Spanish banking system to take just two and what you are left with is the next leg of a global financial crisis. The single currency can survive but only if its members agree to more political union. EVENT We can see God’s hand working in bringing about total financial collapse as prophesied in the Bible. Stage 1 was mankind over borrowing, over lending and corruption. Stage 2 was the collapse of the banking system because of these things. Stage 3 was for the governments to step in and bail out the banks. Stage 4 is the financial collapse of the governments. Stage 5 the time of trouble such as never was. Stage 6 the return of Christ and judgement. Stage 7 the establishment of the kingdom. The world trusts in mammon and has rejected God. God is slowly but surely removing all the monetary supports that exist. Mankind will be humbled and brought low. The kingdom of God ruled by Christ will then begin to mend the broken kingdom of men. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Daniel 12:1)

9. thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. Gulf oil spill hits Day 40 with no end in sight Reuters, May 29, 2010 The worst oil spill in US history hits its 40th day on Saturday with Gulf residents clinging to one tenuous hope: that BP's complicated "top kill" operation will plug the gushing well. Beleaguered Louisiana residents heard from president Barack Obama and BP CEO Tony Hayward on separate visits to the Gulf coast on Friday as they tried to get a handle on a crisis damaging the credibility of both the government and BP. Obama, facing criticism that he responded too slowly to the environmental catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, assured Louisianians during his five-hour visit that they "will not be left behind" and that the "buck stops" with him. Hayward, on a visit to the site of the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and unleashed the oil, said the energy giant needed up to two more days to determine if the top kill will stop the underwater gusher once and for all. The top kill, however, is a tricky maneuver that involves injecting heavy fluids, material and cement into the well to stifle the flow. It has never been done at this depth, one mile under below sea level. EVENT Even using the most conservative estimate, the oil leak has grown to nearly 19 million gallons over the past five weeks, surpassing the size of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, which at about 11 million gallons had been the nation's worst spill. Under the highest Gulf spill estimate, nearly 39 million gallons may have leaked. The US president is inextricably linked with this disaster. He had been promoting more deep oil wells as a priority for his administration. Many are saying his response has been very weak and he failed to grasp the enormity of the situation. Obama, the so called ‘saviour of the world’ only a few months ago is helpless in dealing with this crisis. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Revelation 11:18)

10. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. Thousands flee volcanos in Ecuador and Guatemala BBConline, May 29, 2010 Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes as two volcanos erupted in Guatemala and Ecuador. In Guatemala, the Pacaya volcano began spewing lava, rocks and debris on Thursday, killing at least two people and injuring more than 50 others. In Ecuador, the Tungurahua volcano forced the evacuation of seven villages and shut the airport and schools in Guayaquil, the country's largest city. There is no suggestion the upsurge in volcanic activity is related. In Guatemala, at least 1,700 people have fled the eruption, some 30km (19 miles) south of the capital city. President Alvaro Colom has declared a state of emergency in Escuintla region, Guatemala City and areas surrounding the capital. The volcano has covered parts of Guatemala City in ash - up to 7cm (2.7in) thick in some areas - forcing the closure of the country's main international airport. Seismologists have warned of more eruptions "in the coming days" EVENT Two more volcano’s have begun erupting this week causing evacuations and deaths. The last major eruption of the Guatemala volcano was between 1916 -1918. This was of course during the period of the First World War. The war to end all wars. Here we are 90 years later with the Third World War at hand and once more we have a major eruption. The volcano has not gone away – nor has the prospect of global conflict. We have seen the signs this week that conflict is close. Surely we are living in the very last days. With fearful sights and great signs from heaven. The labour pains are coming thick and fast. The whole of creation is groaning. And we do to. We groan within ourselves waiting for our redemption. It IS coming…. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Romans 8:22,23)

11. Weekly World Watch The end of this week’s WWW will be e-mailed to you each week. Please forward the e-mail addresses of others who may be interested. I will include them in the list of recipients. Comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome. E-MAIL ANDY Click here (Move the mouse until the cursor appears.) To watch again, click here.