January 13 - 19, 2019

1. Weekly World Watch Andy Walton’s January 13 - 19, 2019 “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 January 13 - 19, 2019 • Russia to Israel: No more air strikes on Damascus • Israeli General: Israel’s invisible war in Syria • Trump threatens to 'devastate' Turkish economy • Qatar, US strengthen bilateral & defence ties • Trump to rapidly expand U.S. missile defenses • Australia swelters through record-breaking heatwave To print any of the event slides that follow, click the picture on the upper right PRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE

5. “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: At that time evil thoughts will come to your [Gog’s] mind, and you will devise a wicked scheme. You will say, ‘Israel is an unprotected land filled with unwalled villages! I will march against her and destroy these people who live in such confidence! Russia to Israel: No more air strikes on Damascus airport Israel International News, January 18, 2019 Russia has sent a message to Israel that it would not tolerate further air strikes in the vicinity of the Damascus International Airport, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported on Friday. According to the report, which cited Russian sources, Moscow has told Jerusalem that it intends to renovate the Damascus International Airport, and that further attacks by Israel will not be welcomed. The Russians say that the air strikes are causing airlines from the region that want to resume operations in Syria to reconsider their decision. This week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu broke with his country’s long-standing policy of not publicly accepting responsibility for airstrikes in Syria, and acknowledged that Israel’s air force had attacked Iranian weapons depots at the Damascus International Airport over the past few days. "Only in the past 36 hours the air force attacked storehouses of Iran with Iranian weapons at the Damascus international airport," Netanyahu revealed. EVENT Russia is increasingly turning against Israel as tensions mount between Israel and Syria. Israel is determined to remove Iran out of Syria and if that means attacking Damascus airport then they will do so. But with a capital city airport under fairly frequent attack means that normal flights between Syria and other nations cannot fully resume. This in turn means that Syria cannot get back to anything like normality. This in turn frustrates Russia who want Assad in power and secure with Russia continuing to dominate events. Russia’s demand to Israel this week is showing how close we could be to events unravelling further over Syria. The Bible says that Russia will invade Israel one day. We see the antagonism building between these two nations… COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Ezekiel 38:10)

6. With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you [Israel] — the tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Byblos, Ammon and Amalek, Philistia, with the people of Tyre. Even Assyria has joined them to reinforce Lot’s descendants. Israeli General: Israel’s invisible war in Syria The Times, January 12, 2018 Israel’s military chief has for the first time spoken in detail about the war being waged in the shadows between his country and Iran. Israel has been in direct conflict with Iran for the past two years on Syrian soil, according to Lieutenant-General Gadi Eisenkot, who planned, initiated and directed the covert operations. "In January 2017 we began attacking the infrastructure the Iranians were building in Syria,” Eisenkot told The Sunday Times in an interview in his 14th-floor office in Tel Aviv. “The critical mass was from mid-2017,” he added. “We began attacking systematically a number of times each week. Without making any statements. Beneath the radar.”Eisenkot, 58, who is retiring this week as Israel’s military commander after 40 years as a soldier and officer, said that Israel’s main enemy in this hidden war had been Iran’s Revolutionary Guards — notably their expeditionary Quds Force in Syria. “We carried out thousands of attacks without taking responsibility and without asking for credit,” he says. In 2018 alone, Israel dropped 2,000 bombs on Iranian targets in Syria, he said. EVENT At the same time Russia demands that Israel halts attacks on Damascus we have Israel’s IDF chief explaining in a lot of detail how Israel has been targeting their enemies in Syria. He explained that “Iran planned by the end of 2018 to have up to 100,000 Shi’ite fighters in Syria. They built intelligence bases on the Golan Heights [along Israel’s border] . They even brought in civilians to begin a process of indoctrination in schools and population centres.” Psalm 83 says that Assyria helps the enemies of Israel that want Israel destroyed. Assyria could be a reference to Iran. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Psalm 83:5-8 NIV)

7. Trump threatens to 'devastate' Turkish economy over Syrian Kurds BBC, January 14, 2019 US President Donald Trump has threatened to "devastate Turkey economically" if it attacks Kurdish forces in Syria following a planned pullout of US troops. In two tweets on Sunday, Mr Trump said that he did not want the Kurds to provoke Turkey either. US forces have fought alongside a Kurdish militia in northern Syria against the Islamic State (IS) group. Turkey, however, regards the People's Protection Units (YPG) as terrorists. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken angrily about American support for the group and vowed to crush it. Turkey's foreign minister has said the country "will not be deterred by any threat". Mr Trump's comments on Sunday followed further criticism of his abrupt decision to withdraw US forces from Syria. A senior figure in Saudi Arabia's royal family, Prince Turki al-Faisal, told the BBC it would have a "negative impact" that would benefit Iran, Russia and Syria's President Assad. EVENT It was not long ago that Turkey was an ally of America. This has totally changed now. Turkey and America are on different sides in the Syrian conflict. America backs the Kurds who are fighting against Assad. But Turkey sees the Kurds as terrorists who want to carve Turkey up. When Trump announced he was pulling US troops out of Syria, Turkey took this as the green light to invade northern Syria and remove the Kurdish threat. Trump has threatened to devastate Turkey’s economy if it does so. Turkey has responded by saying they will do what they need to do and denounced Trump’s twitter diplomacy. Turkey is part of the alliance of nations that joins forces with Russia and descends into Israel as an ally of Russia. Togarmah and Gomer were both parts of what we now call Turkey when Ezekiel wrote 2500 years ago. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. (Ezekiel 38:5-6)

8. Qatar, US strengthen bilateral & defence ties The Times of Israel, January 11, 2019 EVENT U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday an ongoing boycott of Qatar by four of America’s allies in the Middle East “has dragged on too long,” though he gave no sign of any coming breakthrough in the dispute. Stopping off in the small, energy-rich nation as part of a Mideast tour, America's top diplomat made a repeated point to say that "great things" were happening between Qatar and the United States. "We're all more powerful when we're working together," Pompeo said at a news conference. "Disputes between countries that have a shared objective are never helpful. "Pompeo said he signed a memorandum of understanding with Qatar regarding the expansion and renovation of al-Udeid Air Base, which hosts the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command and some 10,000 American troops. From Qatar, Pompeo travels to Saudi Arabia on his Mideast tour.. COMMENT Back in 1996, Qatar built Al Udeid Air Base at the cost of more than $1 billion. It was a secret project between Qatar and the US to build an America forward HQ in the Gulf. It now houses the Qatari Air Force, U.S. Air Force and Britain's Royal Air Force. About 11,000 US servicemen are stationed there – along with 100 warplanes. In total the US has 40,000 men in the Gulf region in Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. This week the US Secretary of State has been touring the Gulf - doing deals and trying to shore up Trump’s position. The US and the Gulf states have a common enemy – Iran. The Bible says that Sheba and Dedan (Gulf States including Qatar) would be allied to Tarshish (UK) and the young lions (US). This is exactly what we have seen develop. Together they form the King of the South in Daniel 11 verse 40. It has come together as God said BIBLE QUOTE Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil? (Ezekiel 38:13)

9. Trump to rapidly expand U.S. missile defenses Free Beacon, January 17, 2019 EVENT President Trump announced a major shift in U.S. defense strategy on Thursday, ordering the Pentagon to rapidly expand current missile defenses and build new interceptors, space sensors, and advanced technology to neutralize foreign missiles at multiple stages of attack. The president announced during a speech at the Pentagon that missile defenses, currently limited to countering North Korean long-range missiles and future Iranian missiles, will no longer be constrained to rogue states. American missile defense systems will be expanded and new capabilities added that for the first time will prepare to counter much larger and increasingly advanced missile threats from Russia and China. "Our goal is simple: To be sure we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States, anywhere, any time, and any place," Trump said. Both China and Russia, the president noted, are fielding more missiles, both current ballistic missiles, and newer, more lethal cruise and hypersonic missiles. Hypersonic missiles travel faster than five times the speed of sound and can evade missile defenses. COMMENT The world is gearing up for a war like no other – ARMAGEDDON. This isn't some fictional Hollywood idea – it is a real conflict that comes at the time of the end – centred on Israel and Jerusalem. It is a war that will form part of the time of trouble such as never was. It is a conflagration so great that if God did not intervene by sending his Son back to the earth – no flesh would survive. Everything would be destroyed. All the evidence from a prophecy point of view says that this conflict could begin literally at any time. The gentiles are truly preparing for war… BIBLE QUOTE Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.,,, Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. (Revelation 16:16 + 18 NIV)

10. Australia swelters through record-breaking heatwave BBC, January 18, 2018 EVENT Australia has just sweltered through at least five of its 10 warmest days on record, authorities estimate. An extreme heatwave has afflicted the nation since Saturday, causing wildlife deaths, bushfires and a rise in hospital admissions. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology said preliminary readings showed daily national temperature highs of 40C (104F).The town of Noona in New South Wales hit a night-time temperature of 35.9C.It was the highest minimum temperature ever recorded anywhere in Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) said. Temperatures on Friday will soar above 42C in "broad areas", the Bureau predicted. Forecasters have compared conditions to the nation's worst heatwave in 2013, where the mercury soared to 39C for seven consecutive days. The hottest day on record for Australia is 7 January 2013, when the national average maximum temperature was 40.3C. COMMENT The world is heating up. Over population and man’s insatiable appetite for more is creating unprecedented CO2 levels and pollution. This is causing global warming which is leading to drought which is leading to inferno’s around the world. The Bible says that the first worldwide judgement was with water (at the time of Noah). The second judgement of the world will be with fire (at the time of the end.) We need to be on God’s side when judgement comes – we need to prepare now! God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed. BIBLE QUOTE (2 Peter 3:5-7)

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.