The Rise of the Ezekiel 38 Nations/Program 3

Introduction

Ankerberg: Welcome to our program. I’m John Ankerberg, and my guest today is Dr. Jimmy DeYoung. He’s a journalist, and he’s been covering the Middle East for many, many years. He’s just returned from Israel, and we’re asking him to give us an update on the nations in the Middle East, the situations that are taking place there now.

For those of you that are Bible prophecy students, we’re also asking him to give us an update on the nations in Daniel 11 and in Ezekiel 38. Why? Because God says there’s nations that are going to be players in the end times, and it specifically says the time of the end, the end times, the last days, that these nations are going to be involved. And what do we see? These players are in the newspapers every day right now, and they’re affecting the world.

Last week we started with Syria. A lot of Americans don’t have Syria on their radar. We know that they’ve killed 9,000 people in the streets. We only lost 3,000 at 9/11; 2,300 at Pearl Harbor; they’ve lost 9,000 in a couple months. The government has just mowed them down. The world doesn’t know what to do. We have players like Russia, Iran and China that are backing the Assad regime, giving them billions of dollars in weapons, protection. Russia’s even thinking of establishing a no-fly zone.

And here’s what the UN General Secretary said about Syria. “It’s an extremely dangerous situation, a conflict that could have global repercussions. The Syrian crisis could have global fallout.” What it goes on to say is they could pull the entire world into war. The New York Times says Assad has no intention of stepping down. Now, something might happen to him, but right now he’s being propped up by his friends, and they’ve got a financial stake. And Russia’s even talking about doing a no-fly zone, so that Israel would be put into a box in terms of Iran as well as Syria. So things are happening. And, lo and behold, the Bible talks about these things.

Now, that was Syria last week, and, Jimmy, you can comment, if you want, we’re also going to turn our attention to the second player in Daniel 11, which is Egypt. The king of the South is Egypt; the king of the North is Syria. These verses specifically talk about these two nations. And what we want to do right now, Jimmy, is since you were with us the last time, a lot has happened in Egypt. And let’s just go through some of the things in your mind that have struck you about what has changed in one year about Egypt?

DeYoung: Well, before I just get to Egypt, let’s take off from Syria. Syria is now in what could well be a civil war. That is probably some of the concern for the United States, European Union, United Nations, that if indeed Russia and/or China keep supplying Syria with the weapons and keep everybody else from going in and trying to bring resolution to this situation in Syria, that indeed it could break into a civil war. Bashar Assad, like his father in the 80’s, has dealt with the opposition by killing them. In fact, the opposition to Bashar Assad has been focused on Homs, Syria, and in the 80’s Hafez al-Assad, the father of Bashar Assad, actually went in there and killed 10,000 of the Syrian people, took a bulldozer, bulldozed them into the ground, and built buildings on top of these corpses there in the ground. That’s the kind of situation it is in Syria.

Now, let me just step back then again for about 15-20 years ago, when I first moved to the Middle East, and the first conflict between Iraq and Israel was taking place with the Iraqi’s firing SCUDs into Israel, back in 1991. During that time Syria and Egypt put together and signed a military agreement called the Damascus Accord. And what that was all talking about, they were watching, hoping, that Iraq would take out Israel. But Syria and Egypt would also meet with the Secretaries of State, James Baker during that time, or Lawrence Eagleburger, and they would be briefed on what the Americans were doing way back in ‘91.

I simply lay that foundation to say, there has been a connection between Syria and Egypt, militarily, on throughout these years. Bashar Assad, Hosni Mubarak, are two good friends.

Now we go to Egypt. And the Arab Spring jumps over the border from Tunisia into Egypt, in Cairo, in Alexandria, revolution in the street, the Muslim Brotherhood not involved, standing on the sideline. Though they’re the most organized military and/or political operation in Egypt, they stood on the sidelines and watched. What happened then, when the revolution brought down Hosni Mubarak, there was a power vacuum, and rushing into that power vacuum, the Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood came in; they started organizing. They put the political apparatus together. And then there was a call, of course, the military-controlled Egyptian government called for an election of the legislative bodies. The lower house, the upper house that would lead legislation, presented and voted upon and/or passed by the Islamist element that was not in the revolutionary overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, but came into the power vacuum that was created.

In their elections, the first of the year, in those elections, the Islamists, not only the Muslim Brotherhood, but the Salafis as well, who are a bit farther to the right radically of what the Muslim Brotherhood are being—we ought to talk about the Muslim Brotherhood and who they are in just a moment—but they have come to power. An average of about 75% of the legislative body is Islamist there in Egypt. In addition to that, they’re rewriting the constitution. And, of course, the legislative body put together the committee to rewrite the constitution, and the majority of that committee is made up of Islamists as well. And where they want to take Egypt as it relates to the Islamic faith and also its neighbor, Israel, is very, very concerning, especially as it lines up with Bible prophecy.

Ankerberg: Yeah, when they got the majority in the upper house and the lower house, okay, here are a couple of decisions they made. First of all, they expelled Israel’s ambassador to Egypt. Then they signaled that the Camp David Accords would be a thing of the past. Then they went on to say that they are thinking of running a member for the presidency of Egypt from the Muslim Brotherhood. And then they said that, not only would Israel not be a part of their treaty, but they would now become the number one enemy of Egypt. So, all of this has happened just in the 12 months since we’ve been together the last time, and we’ve watched it in the news. Now, tell us a little bit about the Muslim Brotherhood.

DeYoung: The Muslim Brotherhood dates back to the 20’s, 1920, when it was first formed. And its whole purpose, it was an Islamic fundamentalist organization, a terroristic organization, that indeed wanted to control the entire Middle East. They have a couple of graduates that we might make note of. First graduate of any renown was a man named Yasser Arafat. He was living then with his family, living there in Cairo, Egypt. They took him under their wing. They trained him, and, of course, we know of his Islamic fundamentalist terrorist activities when he came into Israel. The second one of renown that we might want to think about was the man who led the attack on Anwar Sadat. He’s the man who signed the peace treaty, the Camp David Accords, with Menachem Begin there at Camp David in Maryland, here in the United States. But he, this man I’m talking about, is Dr. al-Zawahiri. He was a medical doctor. He formed a team. They assassinated Anwar Sadat. That took out the leadership of the country. That brought Hosni Mubarak to power.

But al-Zawahiri got involved with another terrorist in the Middle East named Osama bin Laden. He was the number two man in al-Qaeda. And with the taking out of Osama bin Laden by the Navy SEALS, al-Zawahiri came to power and is now the leader of this al-Qaeda terroristic element, not only in Egypt but across the entire Middle East.

And in addition to that, let me just remind you of a couple other things. First of all, the opposition up there in Syria really is not that organized. The Muslim Brotherhood has moved in to take over leadership of that. And they stood on the sidelines with Libya, and when Gaddafi was taken out, the Muslim Brotherhood moved in there, and then, of course, the Muslim Brotherhood is playing a key role trying to bring down King Abdullah in Jordan. So the Muslim Brotherhood tentacles are reaching throughout the entire Middle East. But their first project has to be taking over the control of the government of Egypt.

Ankerberg: Alright, we’re going to take a break. When we come back, I want to tell the people what the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood has declared about mastership of the world and reestablishing the Caliphate, okay. This is going on right now. Stick with us. I’ll give you the quote when we come right back.

Ankerberg: Alright, we’re back. We’re talking with Dr. Jimmy DeYoung. We’re talking about events in the Middle East. The Bible says in the end times the events of the Middle East are going to pull the whole world into conflict. The question is, how close are we to that? And what we want to talk about now is, why do we have these problems, and where does the Bible come in? It’s naming some of the key players. We’ve talked about Syria. We’re talking about Egypt right now. And, as you know, in the last few months, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist organization, the radicals of the fundamentalists, have taken control in the majority of both the upper house and the lower house in the parliament of Egypt.

Now, here is a statement that just came out from the Washington Post from the actual supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, in the parliament. He said this, “The Brotherhood is getting closer to achieving its greatest goal as envisioned by its founder, Imam Hassan al-Banna. This will be accomplished by establishing a righteous and fair ruling system based on Islamic sharia law with all its institutions and associations, including a government evolving into a rightly guided caliphate and mastership of the world.” What does that mean, Jimmy?

DeYoung: That means that they have an eschatology as well. They want to have a worldwide kingdom. Allah will be the head of it. Everybody will be governed by Islamic law, the sharia; and in addition to that, all the world has to convert to Islam or they’ll be taken out. You’re either a Muslim or you’re a dead person.

You know, it’s interesting that that’s his plan, because that is backed up by what Hamas wants to do. Hamas, which is in the Gaza Strip. I forgot to mention in the graduates from the Muslim Brotherhood’s school of terrorism and fundamental activities, was the blind sheikh Yassin, who about 25 years ago established Hamas there in the Gaza Strip. He came from Egypt, went into the Gaza Strip. Hamas has as their stated, documented goal, the Caliphate, the worldwide domination, under sharia, under Allah. And this is where they want to go. And when you were talking in the first segment about the fact that they want to get rid of that peace treaty, the Camp David Accords, which has been in place since 1979, and it’s now on the edge of being totally done away with by the Muslim Brotherhood. During the time that all of the activity was going on there in the square in Cairo, the Muslim Brotherhood was using the social media. They were using the social media Facebook and Twitter for the purpose of, you know, inciting all the activities there in the square.

But, in addition to that, they were putting out information to the Islamic world: When we come to power, we will negate that peace treaty, the Camp David Accords, between Israel and Egypt. And, in addition to that, we will also attack Israel. We’re going to rid the Middle East of this enemy of all the Islamic people. That’s what they were saying before they came to power in the legislative bodies of Egypt, the lower and the upper house. Now that they’re considering running a man for president who comes out of the Muslim Brotherhood, that would take complete control of the government; that would rule the military in Egypt; and they could move ahead with the plans they’re already telling everybody else they’re going to follow through on.

Ankerberg: Alright, take me back to the Bible. Daniel 11 says you’re going to have Syria and Egypt attacking Israel, and you believe this is at the very front of the tribulation period. And this actually sparks the Ezekiel 38 war, which comes immediately after that. What draws these two together right now, that they would be the first ones to lead the pack and come against Israel?

DeYoung: The revolution, the overthrow of what we would consider—and what Israel has considered—moderate Arab leaders. No matter what you think about Hosni Mubarak or Bashar Assad, they have not, in the last some 30 years, threatened to attack Israel. Oh, there’s been skirmishes back and forth. Diplomatically, you know, Syria would love to have back the Golan Heights, so there’s been talk about what they might do militarily. They started to develop a nuclear plant to develop a weapon of mass destruction. The F-16’s from the Israeli Air Force went in and took that out. There’s a connection between Syria and also North Korea and the development of that nuclear plant. Russia’s partnership with Syria. But Russia’s had a partnership and they’ve offered, they offered Hosni Mubarak, before he was taken out, the same technology and technicians so that Egypt could become nuclear as well as Iran has. And we’ll talk about that, I’m sure, in another broadcast.

But all of these things are focusing in: take out these moderate leaders and then fill that void with a radical Islamist, which we’ve seen happen right there in Egypt. And if indeed Bashar Assad is taken out, since the Muslim Brotherhood has put their tentacles in there, the Muslim Brotherhood will come to power in Syria as well, I do believe. And if you take out King Abdullah of Jordan, you have every nation that encircles Israel, and they could go in and take them out. And the Islamic fundamentalists want to do that.

But the Bible says that’s going to be the case. In fact, in Joel 2:3 it says the largest militia ever formed on the face of the earth will come in to take out Jerusalem and all of Israel. There’s only one peoples in this earth who could form the greatest, the largest military militia that has ever been in power any place in the world, and that’s the Islamic world: 1.5 billion people. That’s their ultimate goal. And the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood would say we want a worldwide Caliphate. We want everybody. And this is a festering sore right in the heart of this Islamic world: Israel, the Jewish nation, prospering. And this is in the face of Allah. So they have to make that move to get rid of this festering sore right there in their heart.

Ankerberg: It was interesting. In reading the newspaper articles and all the reports that are coming out of the Middle East and Russia and the Arab world and from China, all over the place, is that the Turkish president, Erdogan, is making suggestions that they create these safe zones in Syria, alright. The United Nations is afraid that, if they do that, Bashar al-Assad will then strike back. This will bring the world into war. He won’t let that happen. They’re afraid that if that happens, that the Muslim Brotherhood that’s underneath in Syria—and they’re using different names, because they know that the Muslim Brotherhood has a bad name across the world, so they used organizations that are doing the same thing under different names—they’re afraid that they could be resurrected in Syria. That would come over into Jordan. They would have Hamas in Lebanon. They would have a conglomerate at the top of Israel. They’d have Egypt at the south. You’d have a stranglehold. They’d have a real easy pathway, they believe, into Israel.

DeYoung: Well, that is what the Bible says is going to happen. You’re talking about Tayyip Erdogan. You know, he’s playing both sides against the other. He’s had some of the opposition come across the Turkish border. They are joining in relationship with the Kurds. And, of course, Tayyip Erdogan has an ongoing battle with the Kurds. In fact, he is sending his military Air Force into northern Iraq to wipe out some of the Kurds there. But, at the same time, just recently he met with Medvedev, the president of Russia. But at the, also he went to Tehran, Iran, and met with both President Ahmadinejad and the superior leader. The Supreme Leader of all of Iran is the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They are collaborating in Tehran. Erdogan made this statement, “The West has no right to object to the domestic nuclear program Iran’s involved in.” He’s playing politics. He’s not,… you mentioned, I think it was on this broadcast, you talked about the fact that, indeed, the president of the United States, Obama, has suggested to Prime Minister Netanyahu, you know, end up the problems that you’ve been having with....

Ankerberg: With Turkey.

DeYoung: …with Turkey. And I don’t think that’s going to be the case, because Tiyyip Erdogan has another agenda other than associating with the Israelis in an attack against Syria.

Ankerberg: We’re going to talk more about Turkey and the Ezekiel 38 coalition here coming up. For people that are wondering why we’ve got these pillars up here in this broadcast, place the events that we’re talking about. They haven’t happened yet. The Bible says that they’re going to be in this time period called the tribulation, where Israel is attacked. That is not here, but we’re coming close to it. We’ve got the rapture; we’ve got the midpoint of the tribulation; we’ve got the second coming here. Talk about where we’re at in terms of these pillars.

DeYoung: And quickly, the three pillars. The first one would be the rapture of the church, the next event on God’s calendar of activities. No prophecies have to be fulfilled before that happens. The space between the first and second pillar, the seven year tribulation period; the second pillar, the second coming. Then that space would be the 1,000 year theocratic kingdom of Jesus Christ; the great white throne judgment, the judgment casting all lost people into the lake of fire; then eternity future.

Now, the rapture has to take place before this battle that we’re talking about, before Syria and/or Egypt make a move, and then that Ezekiel 38 coalition come together as well. It has to happen within the first 6 months. We’ve talked about Ezekiel 38. We’ll see that chapter 38, verses 8 and 11 talking about the Jewish people dwelling safely in the land; they’ll only do that after the Antichrist has confirmed a peace treaty between Israel and her neighbors. And that’s what starts the clock ticking on that seven year period of time. After that, these nations attack.

Ankerberg: Alright, folks, we’re getting started, and next week we’re going to turn to point number two, which is, after Syria and Egypt attack, this sparks the coalition of Ezekiel 38. And the point we’re going to try to show you next week is, this coalition over here is already forming. And the world thinks that one of these partners over here is the main problem in the world, talking about Iran. So we’re going to talk about Russia, Iran, the coalition of nations, next week. I hope that you’ll join us then.