by Graham Bacon
In the last few months (prior to November 2008), the world has experienced at least three major history making events, all inter-related with Bible prophecy. These three events are the world’s financial collapse, the election of a new and different USA president, and the collapse of Israel’s government.

The election of Barack Obama as president of the USA signals a turning point in world history and the place of USA in it. It signals the end of the Kennedy-Nixon-Reagan-Clinton-2xBush era of superpower muscle, world policeman, we-know-it-all arrogance, bully boy diplomacy. We are now entering an era of the reduction of American influence, end to the war in Iraq and a return to more isolationist policies. These effects will be the influence of Obama and his administration.

Two major reasons emerge. US behaviour has been bordering on reckless and it can no longer afford to continue in it. No nation can afford a war at a cost of a billion dollars a week. Which brings us to the financial collapse. Together, both of these feature in Bible prophecy. The current financial crisis was triggered in the USA by totally irresponsible financiers and has its biggest effects in the USA economy, but reflects the utterly immoral practices round the world. Irrational oil prices, artificial food shortages, cartels, rebel armies, terrorists, civil wars, mafias, gambling, drugs, corruption, money laundering are some of the world’s evils out of control. Sooner or later, the basics of civilisation disintegrate, this time under the enormous weight of artificially created money sloshing round the world. It’s all gone up in smoke.

In Isaiah 63:1, future Israel is in grave danger from Edom, the Palestinians. The returned Jesus apparently is passing through Israel on his way to Jerusalem. “I looked but there was no one to help and I wondered that there was no one to uphold. Therefore my own arm brought salvation … I have trodden down the peoples in my anger” Isa 63:5-6. Where are Israel’s supporters? USA? UK? UN? Europe? Whoever? All gone. And this ’supernatural’ observer wonders.

For more than five years the Gospel Publicity League has stated that the most likely reason why the USA will abandon Israel, as Isaiah 63 indicates, is because the USA will not be able to afford it. We were anticipating a financial crisis. How right we were. And because we could read the Bible signs.

All the other Israeli friends, UK, UN, Europe, are fair weather supporters. They will disappear at the slightest Middle East trouble. Supply of oil will be a weapon as in 1940.

Jeremiah 30 is part of a series of Israel restoration passages. “Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, and no one shall make him afraid. For I am with you,’ says the LORD, ‘to save you…There is no one to plead your cause, that you may be bound up; you have no healing medicines. All your lovers have forgotten you” Jer 30:10-14. The return of Israel in 1948 is here connected with its eventual abandonment by its supporters but with the promise of final peace.
Israeli commentator Hillel Fendel wrote, “Though the Prime Minister and other Knesset members welcomed Obama’s win warmly, some expressed the fear that Obama might lead policies that would leave Israel isolated. MK Aryeh Eldad (National Union) said, “We must be very concerned about Obama’s victory.” They have good Bible reasons to be concerned.
Probably there are several reasons why prophecies about the isolation and endangerment of Israel will work out but this financial crash and the reduction of a global US presence through a new US president are some of them. These influences have already had effect.

ISRAEL - PRESENT AND FUTURE
The Israeli government that nearly lost last year’s war in Lebanon, and has recently been plagued by corruption, has finally fallen. New elections are scheduled for next February. Recent Israeli Prime Ministers and governments have behaved disgracefully. They have been an embarrassment to Christian believers who try to support them on Biblically based principles.

Does the Christian Bible not say, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” Genesis 12:3. Yet those who want to follow this precept are repelled by the behaviour of God’s people. “I do not do this [the elevation of Israel] for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name’s sake” Ezekiel 36:22. God knew how unprincipled they would become but God made promises to their forefathers. In spite of their bad behaviour he will save them.

A frustrating factor is that, except for Israel’s faithlessness, Jesus would probably be here again by now. But Israel has to be reduced to desperation survival before it will accept Jesus as its Messiah. Israel will not be reduced to vanishing point - it grows bigger and more talented every year - but it is increasingly surrounded by determined enemies who pose a growing threat.

In September, in an interview with Yediot Ahronot, outgoing Prime Minister Olmert said, “Israel will have to leave much of the West Bank, including eastern Jerusalem, and give the Palestinians a state in an area equal to the size of the entire West Bank and Gaza. Olmert also said peace with Syria required a pullout from the Golan Heights.” He wanted to give parts of the Holy Land away to the Palestinians, that were won in a hard fought 1967 war. He was ignorant of Israel’s heritage and destiny. The Bible prophet Obadiah 1:17-19 says exactly the opposite to Olmert. It is to be hoped that a new Israeli government next February will have a better understanding of God’s purpose with Israel.

The current financial crash by itself has changed the world. James wrote of what was coming, following Jesus’ day and relevant to all the money crises since then, “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the just” [James 5:1-6]. So what’s new?

Three major world events over a period of several weeks, all related to Bible prophecy have changed the course of world history. A new and uncertain era has arrived with less wealth, a reduced USA and a chastened Israel. Jesus may return tonight but how long will Israel take to make Jerusalem a fit place for the headquarters of the Kingdom? One year or twenty?