Weekly World Watch: August 27 - September 2, 2017

1. Weekly World Watch Andy Walton’s August 27 – September 2, 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 August 27 – September 2, 2017 • Iran building missile factories in Syria and Lebanon • Russian-Syrian airborne radar covers all of Israel • Israeli PM says no withdrawal from settlements • Putin warns Korea on verge of 'large-scale conflict' • UK secures dry-dock in the Middle East • Harvey to be costliest natural disaster in U.S. history 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 no more a pricking brier unto the house of Israel, nor any grieving thorn of all that are round about them, that despised them; and they shall know that I am the Lord GOD. The briers are removed first. This is detailed in Zechariah 12. Then after this Russia descends. This is detailed in Zechariah 14. • Iran building missile factories in Syria and Lebanon BBC, August 28, 2017 Israel's prime minister has said Iran is building sites in Syria and Lebanon to produce precision-guided missiles. Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of turning Syria into a "base of military entrenchment as part of its declared goal to eradicate Israel". Iran's forces are supporting President Bashar al-Assad in Syria's war and it backs Lebanon's Hezbollah movement. Mr Netanyahu's comments came as he held talks with UN Secretary General António Guterres in Jerusalem. Mr Guterres is on his first visit to the region since taking office in January. Mr Netanyahu gave no details about the sites Iran was allegedly building to manufacture missiles, but he warned "this is something Israel cannot accept”. Two weeks ago, the Israeli satellite imagery company ImageSat International published photographs it said appeared to confirm a report by a Syrian pro-opposition newspaper that a missile factory was under construction in Syria. EVENT We have reported over the last 3 weeks how there is growing alarm in Israel over Iran’s role in Syria. Now the rebel factions are falling Iran is strengthening its position and moving ever closer to Israel’s borders. Last week Netanyahu visited Putin and in very tense terms told him that Israel would not allow Iran to develop missiles in Syria. This week Netanyahu saw the UN Secretary General, who is visiting Israel , and told him the same thing – Israel cannot accept Iran in Syria. The BBC had this headline recently…Is a new Middle East War on Israel’s horizon? With Bible in hand we know there is war coming. It is an initial war between Israel and her surrounding neighbours. A group of people who want to see Israel’s destruction. Israel will remove these pricking briers but into the void will come Russia etc. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Ezekiel 28:24)

6. “On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a flame that sets a woodpile ablaze or like a burning torch among sheaves of grain. They will burn up all the neighbouring nations right and left, while the people living in Jerusalem remain secure. • Russian-Syrian airborne radar covers all of Israel Debkafile, August 2302017 The Russian air force has recently deployed to Syria four of its most highly advanced early warning and control aircraft, the Beriev A-50 SRDLO (“Mainstay”), which is rated the most sophisticated AWACS in operation. Several A-50s were spotted flying over Syria in recent months, but they all turned around and headed back to Russia. Four are now installed in the hangars of the Russian Khmeimim Air Base in Syria’s Latakia province. The plane’s Shmei-M radar is capable of pinpointing targets across a distance of 600km. While in flight, it covers all parts of Israel and can detect every aerial and military movement. The Russian and Syrian air defences will no longer need to swap information in the event of a US or Israeli air or missile attack over Syria before coordinating their operations. This development limits the freedom enjoyed hitherto by the US and Israeli air and naval forces over Syria. EVENT On April 4th, President Donald Trump ordered a Tomahawk cruise missile attack in reprisal for the Syrian army’s used of poison chemicals against civilians. That massive assault knocked out Syria’s Sharyat air base and a large part of its air force. But America would find it hard now to repeat that action. Russia’s new airborne radar is now in place and they are able to shoot down incoming missiles. Likewise Israel who on the 17th May conducted an airstrike on Hezbollah near Damascus would now be up against Russian defences. This is why Israel has warned Putin they WILL still take action to defend themselves. We can easily see firstly how war could come between Syria and Israel and Hezbollah etc. But also how Russia might be impacted and even impacted by the initial inner ring war. That war might be coming soon. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Zechariah 12:6 NLT)

7. After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. • Israeli PM says no withdrawal from settlements Washington Post, August 29, 2017 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow to never evacuate Jewish settlements from occupied land drew outrage Tuesday from Palestinians and complicated matters for the Trump administration’s would-be peace envoys as they try to restart talks. The Palestinians called on the White House to intervene, and visiting U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres challenged Netanyahu’s comments, reiterating the international community’s opposition to Israeli settlements. Well over 100 settlements dot the West Bank and a string of U.S.-led peace plans over the past two decades have called for evacuating at least some of them to make way for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Netanyahu’s hard-line religious and nationalist base opposes such a move. Netanyahu appears to have been emboldened by the election of President Donald Trump, who, unlike a string of predecessors, has not endorsed the idea of a two-state solution. EVENT COMMENT Netanyahu spoke at a ceremony Monday night in Barkan, a settlement in the northern West Bank. “There is a momentum of development in Judea and Samaria,” he said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name. “We have returned here for eternity,” Netanyahu added. “There will be no more uprooting of settlements in the land of Israel. Settlements will not be uprooted.” While Netanyahu has made similar pledges before, the timing — with the U.N. chief in town — gave it added significance and raised tensions further with the Palestinians. We know that Israel will occupy the so-called West Bank at the time of the end because when Russia finally descends into Israel they come to the mountains of Israel. The mountains of Israel run through the West Bank. BIBLE QUOTE (Ezekiel 38:8)

8. 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. • Putin warns Korea on verge of 'large-scale conflict' Reuters, September 1, 2017 President Vladimir Putin warned on Friday that the standoff between North Korea and the United States was close to spilling into a large-scale conflict and said it was a mistake to try to pressure Pyongyang into halting its nuclear missile program. Putin, due to attend a summit of the BRICS nations in China next week, said the only way to de-escalate tensions was via talks, and Sergei Lavrov, his foreign minister, said Washington not Pyongyang should take the initiative on that. “It is essential to resolve the region’s problems through direct dialogue involving all sides without advancing any preconditions (for such talks),” Putin, whose country shares a border with North Korea, wrote on the Kremlin’s web site. “Provocations, pressure, and bellicose and offensive rhetoric is the road to nowhere.” The Russian leader, whose nuclear-capable bombers recently overflew the Korean Peninsula in a show of force, said the situation had deteriorated so badly that it was now “balanced on the verge of a large-scale conflict.” EVENT North Korea conducted a missile test early Tuesday morning that flew over Japan. The trajectory triggered satellite-activated emergency alarms to the Japanese public, warning people in the northern Tohoku region to take cover because of a possible impact from a North Korean missile. Only last week Trump announced that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was “starting to respect us.” Clearly he isn’t! And so another step is taken towards a conflict which could see tens of thousands killed. If it does begin it would stretch the US who can only fight two simultaneous wars. Russia is clearly going to blame the US if conflict begins. This could bring even greater tensions between the king of the north and king of the south. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE (Joel 3:9-10)

9. UK secures dry-dock in the Middle East UK Defence Journal, August 29, 2017 EVENT During a two day visit to Oman, the Defence Secretary signed an agreement securing UK use of facilities at Duqm, ahead of the completion of the UK Joint Logistics Support Base at the port, giving Britain a strategically important and permanent maritime base east of Suez for the new carriers. The Duqm Port complex provides significant opportunity to the defence, security and prosperity agendas for both the UK and Oman. It has dry dock capability able to accommodate submarines and Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. According to a press release: “From Duqm, HMS Queen Elizabeth will be able to project influence across an important region. She will fulfil multiple roles from providing air power anywhere at any time, to supporting allies or delivering humanitarian aid and the port itself provides Britain with a hub from which to tackle issues such as the fight against Daesh.” Britain is stepping up its support for the Arab Gulf region and therefore enhance its ability to conduct military interventions in the Middle East. Britain has a long-standing but largely unnoticed special relationship with Oman, the secretive, oil-rich Gulf state run by a despot installed in a British coup as long ago as 1970. The British government announced in March this year that it is developing a large new military base - described as a ‘strategic port’ - at the Duqm Port complex in central Oman. This will house the two 65,000-tonne aircraft carriers being built for the Royal Navy. All this is interesting because the Bible says that Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish join forces to counteract the Russian invasion of Israel. Dedan is the exact area of Oman! Tarshish we know is Britain. We see the nations lining up precisely as prophesied. COMMENT 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)

10. Harvey to be costliest natural disaster in U.S. history Bloomberg, August 29, 2017 EVENT With Hurricane Harvey continuing to wreak havoc along the Gulf Coast, its full economic impact is still unclear. Risk-modelling company RMS estimates $70 billion to $90 billion in losses from wind, storm surge and flood damage, most of it in the Houston metropolitan area. That would make the storm among the world’s most costly catastrophes since at least 1970. The Houston that was battered by Hurricane Harvey is an economic powerhouse whose influence reaches far beyond its region, leading many to worry about when its economy be able to stand up again. Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm, calculates that economic damage from Hurricane Harvey could shave between 0.3 and 1.2 percentage points off the nation's economic growth in the July-September quarter. Before the storm, the economy had been expected to grow at an annual rate of about 3 percent from July through September. The destruction of Hurricane Harvey is enormous. Accuweather estimate this could be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history with a potential price tag of $190 billion. This is equal to the combined cost of Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, and represents a 1% economic hit to the gross national product. The hurricane battered Houston is a US economic powerhouse. Houston produces the plastic used in everything from sports cars to baby bottles and is part of a low-lying coastal region that supplies nearly a third of U.S. oil-refining capacity. As darkness fell on America last week with the eclipse we now see stormy wind wiping billions off US wealth. We know that God uses stormy wind to fulfil his plan. We know that the US will be in a weakened state at the time of the end. Events like this weaken a nation as it destroys wealth. COMMENT Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word: BIBLE QUOTE (Psalm 148:8)

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.