September 3 - 9, 2017

1. Weekly World Watch Andy Walton’s September 3 - 9, 2017 “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) PRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE 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). Please note that these are personal thoughts and the aim is purely to stimulate Bible study. 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 September 3 - 9, 2017 • Hurricanes Irma, Jose, Katia are ‘unparalleled’ • Mexico hit by 'strongest earthquake in a century' • Sun unleashes strongest solar flare of past decade • Israel strikes deep in Syria, said to hit military facility • ‘If Iran expands in Syria we will bomb Assad’s palace’ • Israel holds largest military drill in 20 years ‘simulating war’ To print any of the event slides that follow, click the picture on the upper right PRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE

5. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; • Hurricanes Irma, Jose, Katia are ‘unparalleled’ The Independent, September 8, 2017 The Atlantic Ocean is a mess of hurricanes right now. First it was Irma – a Category 5 hurricane that is being called one of the most powerful storms in history – then came Jose, and then Katia. The appearance of three strong hurricanes in the Atlantic basin which all threaten land is “unparalleled” in modern times, a tropical storms expert has said. Three hurricanes are now prowling through the Atlantic, threatening life and property in their path. Multiple hurricanes making landfall in the US in a single season isn’t a normal occurrence. If Irma makes landfall in the US as a Category 4 or 5 hurricane, it will mark the first time in recorded history that America has been hit by two storms of that severity in one year. This is just the second time in recorded history (since satellite-tracking began 40 years ago) that a storm has maintained 185 mph winds for more than 34 hours. EVENT “Texans wading through water that covers prized possessions. Floridians fleeing a hurricane that is wider than their state. Forecasts of apocalyptic wind and waves. Wildfires filling the west coast with smoke. An earthquake rocks Mexico. Buildings collapse. Tsunamis threaten. How can this all be happening? How should we respond? And, most of all, where is God? Scripture has answers. Jesus said, “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.” (Lk. 21:25, NIV) Natural disasters may surprise us, but they do not surprise God. Increasing frequency of natural calamities are like the birth pangs of pregnancy—indications of an impending delivery.”These are not my words but word for word quoted in Fox News Opinion this week! COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Luke 21:25)

6. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. • Sun unleashes strongest solar flare of past decade Scientific American, September 6, 2017 Early this morning (Sept. 6), the sun released two powerful solar flares—the second was the most powerful in more than a decade. At 5:10 a.m. EDT (0910 GMT), an X-class solar flare—the most powerful sun-storm category—blasted from a large sunspot on the sun's surface. That flare was the strongest since 2015, at X2.2, but it was dwarfed just 3 hours later, at 8:02 a.m. EDT (1202 GMT), by an X9.3 flare, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC). The last X9 flare occurred in 2006 (coming in at X9.0). According to SWPC, the flares resulted in radio blackouts: high-frequency radio experienced a "wide area of blackouts, loss of contact for up to an hour over [the] sunlit side of Earth," and low frequency communication, used in navigation, was degraded for an hour. The surge of activity might seem surprising, as the sun is approaching its solar minimum, with the lowest levels of activity in its 11-year cycle. EVENT COMMENT The sun goes through 11-year cycles of solar activity. What scientists call a solar maximum is the time in the cycle when the sun is putting out the most energy. That’s when we tend to see the most sunspots, solar flares and associated solar storms. We’re heading into the bottom of solar minimum, when the sun tends to have fewer sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections—large expulsions of plasma, electrons and ions, and magnetic fields. But despite where we are in the sun’s cycle, activity on the sun has dramatically picked up over the past few days which has surprised the scientists. But it should not surprise us. Jesus said there would be signs in the sun… All the signs seem to converging together at the moment. BIBLE QUOTE (Isaiah 24:23)

7. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. • Mexico hit by 'strongest earthquake in a century' ABC News, September 9, 2017 At least 60 people were killed after a magnitude-8.1 earthquake rocked Mexico late Thursday night, levelling buildings in southern Mexico, triggering tsunami warnings in several countries and causing people to flee into the street. Buildings swayed and lights went out in Mexico City, some 650 miles from the epicentre. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto called it the strongest quake the country has seen in a century. The U.S. Geological Survey measured it at 8.1 magnitude, though initial reports said 8.2. Pena Nieto said in a series of tweets on Friday that more than 200 people had been injured and more than 260 aftershocks had hit the country since the initial quake, the most powerful of which was measured at magnitude 6.1. Hundreds of buildings collapsed, power was cut at least briefly to more than 1.8 million people and authorities closed schools Friday in at least 11 states to check them for safety. EVENT President Enrique Peña Nieto said the earthquake -- felt by about 50 million people across the country -- was the strongest Mexico has experienced in 100 years. A tsunami was also confirmed for Mexico, with the largest wave measuring one metre, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre. And so this week we have the coming together of key elements of Luke 21. Jesus said “there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;”. We have had signs in the sun, the total eclipse as well last week, hurricanes (the most powerful storms) causing the sea and waves to roar. Surely we must take note of these things. They are not a coincidence but God telling us our redemption draws near! COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Luke 21:28)

8. The fortified towns of northern Israel will also be destroyed, and the royal power of Damascus will end. All that remains of Syria will share the fate of Israel’s departed glory,” declares the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. • Israel strikes deep in Syria, said to hit military facility ABC News , September 7, 2017 Israeli warplanes struck a military position near the Mediterranean coast in western Syria Thursday, killing two soldiers, the Syrian army said, in a stronghold of President Bashar Assad that is also heavily protected by the Russians and Iranians. The airstrike targeted a facility near the town of Masyaf, in Hama province, described by some as a missile producing factory, amid Israeli outrage over Iran's growing influence in the war-torn country. Other reports suggested the facility was tied to Syria's chemical weapons program. In a statement, the Syrian army said the Israeli warplanes fired several missiles from Lebanese air space, and warned of the "dangerous repercussions of such hostile acts on the security and stability of the region.” "We will do everything to prevent the existence of a Shiite corridor from Iran to Damascus," said Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who declined commenting directly on the strike in an interview with Israel's 100FM Radio Thursday. He said Israel isn't "looking for adventures, and we don't want to be dragged into this fight or another." EVENT COMMENT Thursday's air raid was seen as a message to both Russia and Iran that Israel can strike anywhere in Syria. It was also a rare instance of Israel striking a Syrian government facility rather than an arms shipment and harked back to an Israeli airstrike that destroyed a suspected, partially constructed nuclear reactor in the eastern city of Deir el-Zour exactly 10 years ago. The airstrike is the furthest north since Russia joined the war in September 2015. The Bible is clear that there is conflict at some point between Israel and Syria. It is only when Syria is completely destroyed that Russia assumes the mantle of the king of the north. Syria was the ancient king of the north. BIBLE QUOTE (Isaiah 17:3 NLT)

9. ‘If Iran expands in Syria we will bomb Assad’s palace’ Jerusalem Post, August 28, 2017 EVENT A senior Israeli official warned the Russian government that if Iran continues to extend its reach in Syria, Israel will bomb Syrian President Bashar Assad's palace in Damascus, according to reports in Arab media. Israel also warned that if serious changes do not happen in the region, Israel will make sure the ceasefire deal, reached by the United States and Russia in Astana, Kazakhstan, will be nullified. A senior Israeli source told the Al-Jadida newspaper that no understanding was reached between the Israelis and the Russians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did, however, make it clear to Putin that its concerns must be met or Israel will be forced to act. The warnings occurred in a meeting between Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. This is a very interesting and very specific threat from Israel. If Iran extends its influence in Syria, Israel will bomb Assad’s palace. The reason this is interesting is because of what the Bible says will happen to the palace in Damascus! In Jeremiah 49 we read of the destruction of Damascus. We read that all the men of war in Damascus will be killed on one single day. And on that day we read in verse 27 “And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.” Benhadad is a title given to any ruler of Damascus. Assad is the current ruler. Therefore God is saying that the very palaces of the ruler of Damascus will be consumed / destroyed. This is exactly what Israel threatened to do last week. What would destroy the men of war, Damascus and the palace of Assad in one day? We don’t know – but God might use Israel’s weapons to bring this about. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the Lord of hosts. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad. (Jeremiah 49:26-27)

10. Israel holds largest military drill in 20 years ‘simulating war’ with Hezbollah The Independent, September 5, 2017 EVENT The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has deployed thousands of air, sea and land personnel to the Lebanese border for its biggest military drill in almost two decades, a show of strength designed to intimidate Hezbollah and Iran even as their power grows in neighbouring Syria. Beginning Monday night, soldiers and reservists are simulating a 10-day-long war with the Lebanese militant group to prepare for “preserving the current stability in the northern sector”, a military official said, as well as “scenarios we’ll be facing in the next confrontation with Hezbollah”. The ‘Or Hadagan’ or ‘Light of the Grain’ drill - which has taken 18 months to plan - will utilise fighter planes, ships, submarines, drones, cyber and canine units and Israel’s missile defence system. Two field hospitals and trucks and helicopters for evacuating casualties will also be set up. When Israel conducts military drills it always names them. Unlike other nations that make up random code names for their exercises Israel gives them specific meaning. They are supposed to send a sort of coded message to their adversaries. So why does Israel call this enormous drill - the “Light of the Grain”? It comes from a famous Israeli song called “Over Our Field”. Here are some of the words.. “Evening has descended over our field, Darkness - over plowed field and garden; And in the furrow the sprout is tender, The grain is yet starting to grow. Who will protect the little children of our field? Our bread, who will guard? The wing of the night - a watch for the morning, The dream - a dream of a threshold to the light.” The IDF are saying we will protect the little children (the grain starting to grow) – we will bring you to the light. However Isaiah 17 says that the IDF will fail in northern Israel – see the verse below COMMENT “In that day [when Damascus is destroyed] the glory of Jacob [Israel] will fade; the fat of his body will waste away. It will be as when reapers harvest the standing grain, gathering the grain in their arms— as when someone gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. Yet some gleanings will remain, When the conflict with Syria comes Israel will be greatly weakened BIBLE QUOTE (Isaiah 17:4-6 NIV)

11. Weekly World Watch YouTube Videos

12. Weekly World Watch The end of this week’s WWW will be e-mailed to you each week. If you think others may find the WWW helpful please direct them to the website www.weeklyworldwatch.co.uk They can register on the site PLEASE NOTE: The Weekly World Watch is written and sent by myself – it is my take on events and I accept that on occasions I will miss significant events and also misinterpret them as well. However I will endeavour to be faithful to the scriptures and hope that it will be of benefit to both of us. To watch again please click the green arrow To watch again, click here.