Andy Walton’s Weekly World Watch

1. May 11 - 17 2008 Andy Walton’sWeekly World Watch “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

2. What is this world watch all about? I decided each week to look at key events that had happened in that week and look at them with the Bible in hand. I hope to build up a picture of Gods hand working in the affairs of this world bringing about that day when all nations will be gathered to Jerusalem to battle which will be brought to end when the Lord Jesus Christ physically returns from heaven to set up Gods kingdom. The key areas which will crop up time and again will be • Israel – Middle East the growing conflict • Europe – the developing union / political and religious • Russia – continued turning back to anti west ways • The development of King of South – US & UK • Declining moral standards and increasing violence. A number of Bible Presentations have been produced and can be ordered by . The presentations are audio / visual powerpoint CD’s. Move your mouse around to get the arrow and click the green link. Clicking here

3. Weekly Developments These are just a few of the events that have caught my eye in the previous week. It is in no way meant to be exhaustive – just a look at those events I saw as significant from a Bible viewpoint. Headlines These are always headlines printed in the newspaper – the date is always given and which paper. Normally the Daily Telegraph. (DT) Event This is usually the newspapers take on the events that have happened. It will always be a direct quote from the newspaper. Comment This is my take on why it is interesting from a Bible point of view. The idea of this weekly world watch is to give a quick Biblical perspective without going into detail. If more detail is needed please email me. Bible Quote 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.

4. Weekly Developments May 11 - 17 2008 • 5 million homeless in quake • Bush praises close US-Israel ties • Abbas pledge on 'catastrophe' day • Bin Laden marks Israel anniversary • Ashkelon Attack • Mankind is the Earth’s biggest threat TO PRINT ANY ONE OF THE FOLLOWING SLIDES JUST CLICK ON THE PICTURE ON EACH SLIDE

5. 5 million homeless in quake Headline 'Five million' homeless in quake Headline BBConline May 16 2008 Event Almost five million people have been left homeless by Monday's devastating earthquake in China's south-western Sichuan Province, officials say. They said the extent of the problem only became clear when communications were restored. So far, 22,069 deaths have been confirmed and thousands remain missing. It is feared up to 50,000 may be dead. Comment Last week we reported the devastating cyclone that hit Burma. We also reported on a volcano that had lain dormant for thousands of years bursting back into life. Lurching from these events last week we come racing headlong into this week with a devastating earthquake in China measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. Perhaps our senses can be dulled when we have so many news reports of so many disasters. These events though are signs to us of the nearness of Christ’s return to this earth. Jesus himself said that there would be great earthquakes in “divers places”. The phrase “divers places” means an area that is marked out from surrounding space. It is normally a place that is inhabited i.e. a city or village or district. We have seen how this earthquake struck the towns and villages of the Sichuan province of China. So why is it that the earth is physically groaning at this time? Why is it a sign that Jesus gives that he is about to return? Well we read in many places that world will be in travail (labour) as when a woman gives birth to a child. The labour pains are coming faster and more painful. But eventually it will lead to the symbolic birth of the Son of God. Read John 16:17-21. We have to go through this pain to get to the joy of seeing Jesus return. When he is back we will not remember this anguish. Bible Quote Luke 21 11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

6. Bush praises close US-Israel ties Headline Bush praises close US-Israel ties Headline BBConline May 14 2008 Event President George W Bush has underlined the close ties between the US and Israel during a visit coinciding with the country's 60th anniversary. Speaking in Jerusalem, he praised Israel as a model for democracy. Mr Bush has also said he believes Israel and the Palestinians can strike a peace deal by the end of the year. Before he spoke, several people were injured when a rocket fired from Gaza hit the city of Ashkelon. They include a mother and daughter. Earlier in the day, four people were killed in Israeli military operations in Gaza. Comment Correspondents describe President Bush's eyes welling with emotion as he received a standing ovation. He went on to say “We gather to mark a momentous occasion. Sixty years ago in Tel Aviv, David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israel's independence, founded on the "natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate." What followed was more than the establishment of a new country. It was the redemption of an ancient promise given to Abraham and Moses and David -- a homeland for the chosen people Eretz Yisrael.” President Bush was right on this point. The establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 WAS the redemption of an ancient promise given by God himself. The promise was that He would regather Israel to the land. See the verse below. Could it be clearer?? Where President Bush is wrong is that he does not truly believe what God says. He believes that the road to peace is for there to be TWO states in the land of Israel. Palestinian and Israeli. This godless idea will bring all nations to war against Israel. Even as he spoke a missile struck a shopping centre and wounded 100 Jews. Bible Quote Ezekiel 11 17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.

7. Headline Abbas pledge on 'catastrophe' day Headline BBConline May 15 2008 Event Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says he is determined to end Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, labelling it "mankind's shame". Mr Abbas also said his hands were extended in peace, as Palestinians mark the "catastrophe" of Israel's creation. More than 700,000 Palestinians were displaced in the war that followed Israel's establishment in 1948. US President George W Bush, who is visiting the country, told MPs that Washington was Israel's closest ally. As Palestinians recalled the "Nakba" (catastrophe) 60 years ago, Mr Abbas said in a televised speech: "It is time for this occupation to leave our land and blood.” Comment It is amazing that no other people, no other power, has ever created an independent state in the land of Israel – apart from the Jews. When it was not a Jewish state, the land of Israel was merely an administrative unit of empires: Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Ottomans etc. It is also amazing that in recent history the Egyptians who ruled Gaza between 1949 and 1967 could have created a Palestinian state but did not. The Jordanians, who ruled the “West Bank” during the same years, could have created a Palestinian state, but did not. Instead the Egyptians and the Jordanian persecuted the Palestinians! The only country that has ever offered the Palestinians a state – is Israel! There are many similarities between modern Palestinians and ancient Philistines. They live in the same place. “Palestinian” comes from the Latin word for Philistine! God has said the Jews should NOT make a covenant (agreement) with these people. Bible Quote Exodus 23 31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red sea even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the desert unto the river: for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand; …… 32 Thou shalt make no covenant with them Abbas pledge on 'catastrophe' day

8. Headline Bin Laden marks Israel anniversary with combat vow Headline Reuters May 16 2008 Event Osama bin Laden vowed in an audio tape to mark Israel's 60th anniversary to continue to fight the Jewish state and its allies in the West. The al Qaeda leader, who has placed growing emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, said it was at the heart of the Muslim battle with the West and an inspiration to the 19 bombers who carried out the attacks on U.S. cities on September 11, 2001. "We will continue, God permitting, the fight against the Israelis and their allies ... and will not give up a single inch of Palestine as long as there is one true Muslim on Earth," he said in the message, posted on an Islamist website on Friday. Comment Back in the year 2000, President Clinton (with just months left in office) decided to try to end the Israeli Palestinian conflict. In the July he invited Yasser Arafat and the then Prime Minister of Israel, Ehud Barak to Camp David. They discussed how to divide up the land and Jerusalem. Barak offered Arafat East Jerusalem and 97% of the West Bank. Arafat refused and returned home a hero for not accepting anything less than 100%. Just weeks later the Palestinian Intifada broke out. And from that time on we entered (as the Whitehouse calls it) the “Age of terror”. Terror in America, Spain, Bali, UK, Israel etc Here we are 7/8 years later with another president with just months left in office. What is he trying to do? Divide Israel and Jerusalem. What does Osama Bin Laden say? We will launch more terror on Israel and its allies. Every time someone tries to split God’s land and his city great trouble comes. This next time might be the final time of trouble such as never was… Bible Quote Daniel 12 1… and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, ……….. 2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, Bin Laden marks Israel anniversary

9. Headline Ashkelon Attack Launched From Jewish Town Headline IsraelNationalNews May 15 2008 Event The Iranian-supplied Grad-type rocket fired at an Ashkelon mall Wednesday was launched from the former Gaza Jewish fishing village of Dugit, which was evacuated and destroyed by Israel in the 2005 Disengagement for the stated purpose of strengthening Israel's security. Hamas-affiliated Popular Resistance Committees Spokesman Muhammad Abdel-Al told World Net Daily Wednesday that the attack, which wounded dozens, including children, was launched from Dugit, located along the coast in northern Gaza. Dugit’s residents, mostly secular Jews who made a living fishing in the Mediterranean, left reluctantly, but without a struggle in 2005, when then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced his diplomatic plan to unilaterally withdraw the IDF from Gaza and destroy all the Jewish towns there. More than 9,000 residents were evicted from their homes in the operation. At the time, residents and other opponents of the plan warned that the communities would be used as terrorist training camps and staging grounds for terrorist attacks. Comment In 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon implemented his Disengagement Plan in which Israel demolished 21 Jewish towns in Gaza and 4 in northern Samaria, forcefully expelled the Jewish residents, and handed the Gaza area over to the Palestinian Authority. Since then these very areas have become terrorist training grounds. Withdrawal from the land has NOT bought peace – it has brought destruction. In fact on the 4th January 2006 Ariel Sharon was visited by an official cartographer called Otniel Schneller. By 3pm on that day Sharon had agreed what the final borders of Israel should be including the division of Jerusalem. 2 hours later after the meeting Sharon suffered a stroke and went into a coma. He remains in a coma to this day. Bible Quote Zechariah 12 3 And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces Ashkelon Attack

10. Headline Mankind is the Earth’s biggest threat Headline Daily Telegraph May 15 2008 Event Global warming is causing significant changes to the Earth's natural systems and it is highly unlikely that any force but man-made climate change can be blamed . Researchers who analysed 30,000 academic studies dating back to 1970 said man was responsible for changes that ranged from the loss of ice sheets to the collapse in numbers of many species of wildlife. "Humans are influencing climate through increasing greenhouse gas emissions, and the warming world is causing impacts on physical and biological systems," said Cynthia Rosenzweig, at the Nasa Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The effects on living things include the earlier appearance of leaves on trees and plants; the movement of animals and birds to more northerly latitudes and to higher altitudes in the northern hemisphere; rapid advances in flowering time and earlier egg-laying in Britain; and changes in bird migrations in Europe, North America and Australia. Comment The study's conclusions go further than the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which concluded last year that man-made climate change was "likely" to have had a discernible effect on the planet. The verse below in Revelation speaks of the time when the nations are angry, when God’s wrath comes, when the dead are judged and the saints are rewarded. But it also speaks of those being destroyed who destroy the earth. We see mankind with his weapons of war destroying the earth and also by the way he chooses to live. Let us not forget - the earth will one day be filled with God’s glory. Bible Quote Revelation 11 18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. Mankind is the Earth’s biggest threat

11. THE END WORLD WATCH WILL BE EMAILED TO YOU EACH WEEK. PLEASE LET ME KNOW OF ANY OTHER PEOPLE WHO MAY BE INTERESTED. PLEASE SEND ME THEIR EMAIL ADDRESS AND I WILL PUT THEM ON THE REGULAR WEEKLY EMAIL ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENTS OR COMMENTS WELCOME. www.weeklyworldwatch.co.uk To watch again click here