The 20 Most Important Events of the 2010s
The 20 Most Important Events of the 2010s
Another decade is now history. Let’s look at the 20 most important events of the last 10 years, according to how they fulfilled biblical prophecy. From every region of the world, these events include wars, political events, new alliances, economic trends, changes in weather, social and moral developments, spiritual changes and more. They dramatically advanced end-time prophecies, and they reveal how close we are to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
20. The Explosion in Demonic Influence
Supposedly we live in an age of science and reason, yet paradoxically there has been a boom in interest in demons, magic, possession, supernatural powers, witchcraft, vampires and zombies. It is taking over television, movies, books and other entertainment.
There has also been a rise in emotional and mental instability and illness, more people taking mind-altering drugs, both legal and illegal—and an upsurge in ghoulish and evil crimes—people butchering family members—unimaginable barbarity—like scenes out of a horror movie—as well as mass shootings.
The Bible shows the connection among all these trends: They all illustrate the growing influence of the evil spirit realm in our world. Revelation 12 reveals that Satan and his demons were cast down in this end time, and that their wrath grows as their time gets shorter. The past decade has shown a lot of evidence of this trend.
19. U.S. Spending Its Strength in Vain
The United States has been waging a war on terrorism for two decades. The nation has spent $6 trillion fighting in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan. More than 53,000 soldiers have been wounded; 7,000 soldiers have been killed. There are no signs that America will ever bring these wars to a successful conclusion. The nations America is fighting in are now more dangerous and unstable than when the war on terrorism began.
A prophecy in Leviticus 26 shows that the nation’s strength will be “spent in vain” if its people despise God’s laws. This prophecy is being fulfilled.
18. China Takes Over South China Sea
In 2013, China began an initiative in the South China Sea that has proved to be one of the most important developments of the decade. The Chinese selected seven coral reefs in disputed parts of the sea that were partly or fully submerged, and began transforming them. They used fleets of dredgers to grind sand from the seafloor and pump it atop the reefs. They added rocks and paved over it all, transforming the reefs into 3,200 acres worth of artificial islands.
But the Chinese weren’t finished. They then set to work militarizing these islands. Today, what used to be submerged reefs are military bases, which—alongside China’s mushrooming naval might—greatly boost Beijing’s control over the South China Sea.
This is fulfilling a prophecy recorded in Deuteronomy 28:52, in which God warns the nations of Israel—meaning the modern-day U.S. and Britain—that if they reject Him, He will hand control of the world’s sea gates to their enemies. Thanks largely to China’s man-made islands and naval might, it is gaining control of the South China Sea and the gates that allow access to it. It is happening in places that not long ago were under U.S. or British control, which shows that this prophecy in Deuteronomy is being fulfilled.
17. The ‘Merkel Doctrine’—Germany Selling Arms to Arab Nations
On Monday, June 27, 2011, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a historic decision, approving the delivery of more than 200 of Germany’s most modern tank—the Leopard 2A7+ model—to Saudi Arabia. This was the first time Germany supplied heavy arms to an Arab government.
It wouldn’t be the last. Dubbed “the Merkel Doctrine” by German newsmagazines like Der Speigel, a massive surge in exports to so-called moderate Arab states across North Africa and the Middle East has been overseen by the German government. Over the past decade, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, Algeria, Qatar and others have all received German armaments. This has helped Germany to become the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter.
But these armaments aren’t just about making money. Germany is hedging its bets for the future as well. Based on a prophecy in Psalm 83, we have long forecast that Germany will soon ally with many of the Arab states it is now arming. Bible prophecy also shows that Germany’s strategic placement of its limited troop deployments around North Africa and the Middle East is beginning to surround one nation that didn’t receive German arms: Iran.
- “Why the Trumpet Watches an Alliance Between Arab Nations and Europe”
- Germany’s Secret Strategy to Destroy Iran
16. A New Pope Turns the World Against America and Israel
When Pope Francis was elected in 2013, he became the world’s first Jesuit pope and the world’s first Latin American pope. His papacy has been characterized by his attacks on free-market capitalism and the nations that promote it—namely America and Israel.
In 2014, Pope Francis condemned an Israeli separation wall in Bethlehem. In 2015, he helped the Obama administration lift a U.S. embargo on Communist Cuba. In 2016, he condemned plans to build a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border as un-Christian. And throughout his papacy, he has condemned free-market global capitalism at a “new tyranny.”
A prophecy in Isaiah 47 shows that a church with influence over many nations will enslave the people of Israel in the end time. The Catholic Church is actively fomenting resentment against the United States.
15. The Militarization of Japan
After Japan’s defeat in World War ii, the nation was forced into a state of pacifism and made dependent on the U.S. for security. But in 1971, Herbert W. Armstrong said Japan would return to militarism. “… Japan has become so powerful economically that it could build a military force of very great power … rapidly,” he wrote.
In the years that followed, Japan indeed boosted its military might. And in the last decade, the trend accelerated. The March 2011 earthquake spurred the most momentous Japanese military operations since the end of World War ii. In 2014, Japan “reinterpreted” its constitutional ban on collective self-defense, enabling it to use its military in ways that would have been unthinkable a few years earlier. Japan wasted no time using the new leeway. It sent soldiers to hotspots abroad with mandates none of their countrymen had had for decades: They could use force. Meanwhile, Japan increased its defense budget to record numbers, and continued developing more and more of the world’s most cutting-edge weaponry.
Mr. Armstrong accurately foretold Japan’s return to militarism because his analysis was based on the Bible. Scripture shows that in the final world war, one of the main players will be a mighty Asian bloc. Ezekiel 38 lists ancient names for the people of modern Japan, saying they will be part of this Asian military colossus. Japan’s return to militarism brings this prophecy closer to fulfillment.
14. The Mainstreaming of Man-made Climate Change Theory
This past decade brought some horrific natural disasters. It started in January 2010 with an earthquake in Haiti that killed some 316,000 people. It included the 2011 tsunami in Japan, the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico in 2017. News reports often commented on destruction being record-breaking, unprecedented, “once in a generation” or even “once in a thousand years,” and said it was “of biblical proportions.” Droughts, wildfires, floods, hurricanes, heat waves, cyclones, blizzards and other calamities have been increasing and are never far out of the headlines.
Over the decade, the response to these disasters has grown increasingly vehement and emotional—and that is, to blame all these problems, and many more, on a single cause: man-made climate change. Despite many flaws in the science, despite prominent examples of data being deceitfully used to force faulty conclusions, through intellectual bullying it has become virtual consensus that reducing carbon emissions is the only way to save humanity.
More and more world leaders and national administrations are proposing and implementing sweeping reforms that will injure economies, cripple private enterprise, and place far more power in the hands of governments. Environmental alarmism has become a pretext for implementing leftist economic policy.
The Bible prophesies that climatic and natural disasters will increase in the end time. Jesus Christ listed “earthquakes in diverse places” as a specific sign of His imminent return. Many scriptures describe how God uses droughts, floods and storms like hurricanes and tornadoes to correct mankind, to turn us from our sin.
So these increasing disasters this past decade signal the urgency of the time. But mankind is ignoring God’s correction, pursuing a false cause with religious fervor, and doubling down on the moral and spiritual sins for which God is sending these curses.
13. Strongman Politics in Europe
This was the decade when European politics fell apart. When countries from Belgium to Sweden, from Spain to Germany spent months struggling to form governments. Behind this is the rise of extreme parties on the far right and far left. And behind this is a massive popular dissatisfaction with the status quo. This decade saw a devastating financial crisis in Europe. It witnessed a migrant crisis sweep Europe. It saw terrorism hit the Continent: 138 people killed in Paris in November 2015; 87 killed in a truck attack in Nice, July 2016; 12 killed in an attack on the Berlin Christmas market, December 2016.
On a 2009 Key of David program, Mr. Flurry said: “A strongman is going to be brought on the scene in Europe, so says your Bible. Will an attack by al Qaeda provoke that?” The rise of a strongman in Germany is one of the key prophecies we are watching, and one yet to be fulfilled. But all these crises have already prompted the rise of strongman politics in other European countries.
Hungary and Poland are ruled by strongman-type leaders. The rise of Sebastian Kurz in Austria is a critical part of this trend: He conforms to exactly the kind of strongman leader we have been looking for.
European nations are becoming “distrustful of America and thinking more and more about uniting themselves into a united states of Europe,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in March 1950. To do that, though, they needed a “new supreme leader.” In 1954, he wrote: “All Europe is actually ready—just waiting for the confidence-inspiring leader.”
“If a real crisis develops, will the Germans call for a new führer?” Mr. Flurry asked in our December 1991 issue. “Your Bible says that is going to happen! That crisis will probably be triggered by an economic collapse in the U.S.”
Now we have seen crises. We have seen the appetite for a strong leader on display. And we have seen stronger leaders arise in European countries. This is a fulfilled prophecy that is certain to intensify in the time ahead.
12. The Arab Spring
Before this past decade began, autocrats ruled much of the Middle East and North Africa. While far from a perfect situation, this strongman rule prevented the rise of radical Islamic forces inside their country.
However, the Bible says in Daniel 11:40-45 that in the latter days, these nations—from Libya to Egypt to Ethiopia to Yemen—will give way to radical Islamic rule: the rule of the masses behind a leader of Islamic holy war, or in biblical terms, “the king of the south.” As the Trumpet has said for 25 years, this king will come from Iran.
Standing in the way of that prophecy were these strongmen. Then, in 2010 and 2011, starting in Tunisia, spreading to Libya and Egypt, and then jumping across to Syria and Yemen, mass movements of people rose up against their overlords. This “Arab Spring” gave hope that democracy would replace autocracy in the Middle East and North Africa region. But where some saw hope, we saw a dangerous trend toward Islamic rule.
In Libya, the decades-long rule of Muammar Qadhafi was ended with the help of Western powers. The result is that Libya is still an ungoverned space where jihadis vie for power. In Yemen, gone is the long-term rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh, ousted from the Yemeni capital of Sanaa by Houthis, a Shiite sect that answers directly to Iran. Now the Houthis reign supreme in western Yemen, making Iran the gatekeeper to the critical Red Sea passageway.
In Egypt, the change was brief, though telling. In 1994 Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry wrote, “The radical Islamic movement, led by Iran, is very strong in Egypt and Algeria. This religion will probably take control of both countries very soon.” He mentioned that the Muslim Brotherhood, an almost 100-year-old institution that believes in the supremacy of Islam, would head that revival. In 2011, after strongman Hosni Mubarak stepped down, Egyptians voted in what many considered to be Egypt’s only free election in its 5,000-year history—and they elected the Muslim Brotherhood. Ties with Iran surged. While the Muslim Brotherhood has since been ousted in a military coup, recently released secret cables show that Iran’s relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood continues.
These events have turned North Africa into a largely ungoverned space crawling with jihadis, ripe for Iran’s leadership to corral the masses—just as prophecy foretold.
11. The Development of a ‘Mart of Nations’
Trade war is all over the headlines. China and America are imposing tariffs on each other. America is threatening sanctions against European energy companies. China is creating a vast, Asian-wide trade network.
These developments were prophesied. Isaiah 23 describes a “mart of nations” in which merchants “pass over the seas” and great waters—in other words, a massive overseas trade network. Included are Tyre (prophetic language for a modern-day European financial center), Chittim (signifying modern-day China) and Tarshish (the inhabitants of the isle, Japan).
Gerald Flurry first spoke about this in 2009, and the story has since leaped into the headlines. In 2009, Germany was exporting $51 billion worth of goods to China. By 2018, it was $110 billion. China has become Germany’s top trade partner. The German and Chinese cabinets meet together every year. Meanwhile, an EU-Japan trade deal entered force last February, creating the world’s largest free-trade area. This is about to be eclipsed though: The EU and the Latin American bloc mercosur have signed a deal to create an even bigger one. All this time, China has been militarizing the South China Sea, creating a new sea gate in a region that is home to one third of the world’s maritime commerce. Its navy has grown to include 10 nuclear and 50 conventional submarines, two aircraft carriers and 30 destroyers, and nearly a hundred frigates and corvettes.
In his booklet Isaiah’s End-Time Vision, Mr. Flurry warned, “With a German-led Europe (the king of the north) possessing great maritime power, North America will be surrounded on the east by Europe and the south by Latin America. The Bible contains many prophecies of that European power attacking America—and many other prophecies of America being besieged. That is where China and the giants of Asia enter the picture …. Should Europe, the resurrected Holy Roman Empire, find a way to take advantage—even for a moment—of key resources and strategic holdings of China, Russia and Japan, it would have more than enough power to besiege the Anglo-Saxon nations and enslave them.”
So much of the power to do that is in place already. The rapid development of this prophesied “mart of nations” is a dramatic example of fulfilled prophecy.
- “Trade Wars Have Begun”
- “America Is Being Besieged Economically”
- “Building Toward a World Catastrophe,” from Isaiah’s End-Time Vision
10. President Obama Casting Truth to the Ground
Barack Obama was elected president of the United States in 2008 on a pledge to fundamentally transform the nation. During eight years in office, President Obama laid the foundation for nationalizing the health-care industry by signing the Affordable Care Act, he made it easier for illegal immigrants to remain in America by signing an executive order, and he took several steps enabling the legalization of same-sex “marriage.”
The Obama administration also routinely accused local police officers of racism and actively supported protest movements like Black Lives Matter. The class and race hatreds his administration stirred up are still with us, manifesting themselves in protests and riots against the police and the Trump administration.
These transformative actions all trace back to lawlessness. For eight years, the most important office in the U.S. government was occupied by a man who undermined the law of the land rather than upholding it. As a result, America is much different than it was on Inauguration Day 2009.
Many of the Obama administration’s reforms succeeded because the president pretended his views were less radical than they were. Given this adeptness at deceit, Gerald Flurry in his booklet America Under Attack identified him as a type of the ancient Seleucid emperor Antiochus Epiphanes. Antiochus obtained rule through lies before betraying the people of ancient Judah, slaughtering them and desecrating the temple in Jerusalem with an idol bearing his likeness.
A prophecy in Daniel 8 reveals that the devil would use an Antiochus figure to cast truth to the ground in the end time. Barack Obama used deceit to transform America, casting down constitutional principles and Christian morals.
9. Russia Allying With China
When the 2010s began, Russia and China were already somewhat close. But throughout those 10 years, they brought their ties to a level of geopolitical intimacy that has astounded analysts worldwide. The main turning point came in early 2014, when Vladimir Putin’s Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. President Obama said Putin’s land grab violated “basic principles … recognized around the world.” He said the nations were “united” in seeing the move as dangerous and illegal.
But China stepped in and proved Mr. Obama wrong. The Chinese publicly supported Russia. And while the U.S. and most of the Western world tried to punish Russia with economic isolation, China did the opposite, deepening Russia-China ties. Graham Allison of the Harvard Kennedy School wrote, “At every point the United States and Western Europeans imposed pain [on Russia], China has offered comfort.”
This decision by China set ties between the two countries on the fast track. They intensified their cooperation in international affairs and politics, bestriding the global stage in near-perfect lockstep. Whether with policies on the Middle East, Africa, the Korean Peninsula or most anywhere else, Russia and China began operating in tandem.
They also began to profoundly strengthen their trade ties. By 2018, mutual Russia-China trade had hit an astounding $100 billion. Volumes for 2019 are on pace to be higher still, particularly with the Power of Siberia gas pipeline having just come online and now pumping trillions of cubic feet of Russian gas into China each year.
In military matters—the most significant aspect of the relationship—Russia and China have formed ties so close that they have forged an alliance in all but name. When the 2010s began, they had held just a handful of military exercises. During the 2010s, they staged more than 20 more sets of drills, some with hundreds of thousands of soldiers involved. These are two nuclear-armed nations practicing to make war together!
The Trumpet closely watches the deepening ties between Russia and China because the Bible prophesies of an Asian confederation that will form in the end time with these two nations at its core. This Asian bloc is referred to in Revelation 16:12 as “the kings of the east.” Scriptures show that this bloc will play a major role in a nuclear World War iii.
8. The Takeover of Transgenderism
Society’s moral decline has occurred over decades, with premarital sex, adultery, divorce and other such trends growing more and more common. Well before this past decade, homosexuality was gaining public acceptance. Homosexual acts were effectively legalized nationwide back in 2003 with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas.
But this past decade saw a rush forward in sexual deviancy, both popularly and legally. In March 2013, the Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, effectively giving same-sex unions the same legal status as traditional marriage. Soon, legal challenges began punishing private business owners like bakeries and flower shops for exercising their personal conscience and failing to endorse and promote same-sex unions. We are finishing the decade with a prominent Democrat Party candidate for president who calls himself a Christian, quotes the Bible, and proudly campaigns alongside his gay “husband.”
But the mainstreaming of this transformative new sexual morality went far beyond same-sex “marriage.” Anti-discrimination laws based not only on sexual orientation, but also on “gender identity” have proliferated. This punishes anything perceived as different treatment because of behavior perceived as not stereotypically male or female. In the past decade, transgenderism has rapidly moved from the far fringe to the mainstream. Activists have succeeded in efforts to open public toilet facilities and locker rooms to people of the opposite biological sex. People are losing jobs for refusing to celebrate gender dysphoria. Incarcerated men who identify as women have been transferred to women’s prisons. And biological men have been taking over women’s sports, dominating weightlifting, cycling, wrestling, running, soccer and other competitions as they compete against female athletes.
And this revolution is only beginning, since activists are implementing public school curricula for even our youngest children that indoctrinate them to embrace such confusion.
Bible prophecy describes the moral and spiritual climate that will prevail in society in the end time: including rampant sexual promiscuity, licentiousness and homosexuality. Jesus Christ described how it would be as it was in Sodom and Gomorrah, cities infamous for their immorality. And He warned that we in the end time would suffer the same fire-and-brimstone fate.
Many other scriptures describe the sins of Sodom—but it seems that in our frenzy to embrace the lunacy of gender confusion, modern society is going well beyond the perversions that even Sodom committed. And the reality is that civilization cannot survive this kind of corruption, absurdity and lawlessness. Prophecy is plain that God’s judgment is coming swiftly.
7. The Iran Nuclear Deal
Since President Trump has reinstated financial sanctions on the Iranian regime, it would be easy to overlook the Iranian nuclear deal as not having much of an effect anymore. However, when this deal was struck in 2016, Gerald Flurry called it the worst foreign-policy blunder in American history. These last four years have proved that statement correct.
While President Trump’s sanctions have slowed Iran’s economy, there has been no slackening in its march toward acquiring a nuclear weapon. And having received $150 billion in cash in the nuclear deal, Iran has used that money to fund its terrorist proxies: Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite militias in Iraq, Houthis in Yemen, and Palestinian groups. It has also spent the cash to research, test and equip its missile arsenal, which is the largest in the Middle East. It has developed smart technology that enables these missiles to hit within 10 meters of any chosen target. This development in itself is a game-changer for Israel, with some likening it to having a cumulative effect of a nuclear weapon. Iran has also improved its ballistic missile technology, which was allowed under the nuclear deal, to the point that it can now carry a nuclear weapon as far as southern Europe—something it couldn’t do four years ago.
And though it claims to still abide by the nuclear deal, Iran has now moved within seven months of having enough nuclear material to produce a nuclear warhead. Some argue that even if it acquires all the matériel and the delivery system, Iran still lacks the know-how to create the weapon itself. However, several tests in recent years in North Korea—a long-standing partner with Iran in its nuclear program—have proved that nation’s ability to produce a nuclear weapon. North Korea has shared other technology with Iran and could share this as well.
These are the fruits of the Iran nuclear deal four years ago, and they have made the world a far more dangerous place. As we have long noted, the policy of mutually assured destruction does not impact Iran’s calculus. According to the mullahs’ own end-of-days scenario, they don’t have to win the nuclear war. They just have to start one. And Bible prophecy is clear not only that World War iii will, in fact, be a broadly devastating nuclear war, but also that Iran will be a primary trigger for it. The Iran nuclear deal hastened the fulfillment of these chilling prophecies.
6. Germany Uses the Financial Crisis to Dominate Europe
So many of the headlines from this decade could have come right from Herbert Armstrong’s Plain Truth newsmagazine years ago. Daily Mail, Aug. 17, 2011: “Where Hitler failed by military means to conquer Europe, modern Germans are succeeding through trade and financial discipline. Welcome to the Fourth Reich.” Financial Times, May 8, 2012: “This is not a monetary union. It is far more like an empire.” Germany’s Der Spiegel, March 2015: “An empire is in play, at least in the economic realm. The eurozone is clearly ruled by Germany ….”
This empire was created on the back of the euro crisis. The new European currency was simply unworkable. The conglomeration of European nations using it was just too different to share a single economic policy and a common currency. Many, including German leaders, saw that a crisis was inevitable.
In 2008 the crisis hit in Greece. During the 2010s we saw it shake country after country—Greece, Cyprus, Portugal and, to a lesser extent, Spain. In each instance, Germany grabbed more power. Only Germany had the funds to step in and bail out these stricken countries—and each time it did, it demanded more control.
German taxpayers were also victimized. They didn’t want their tax euros being used by the elites to buy themselves power over Europe. But it happened anyway. And now Germany dominates Europe more clearly than ever.
In 1954, Mr. Armstrong wrote: “Nothing can prevent Germany from completely dominating Europe. Soon there will be the prophesied United Europe, the resurrected Roman Empire with Germans in complete domination. It’s prophesied!” In 1956, he wrote that the Germans “plan to head and dominate a united states of Europe.” Now even Germany’s own Der Spiegel is talking about a German-led European empire.
- “Did the Holy Roman Empire Plan the Greek Crisis?”
- “Look Who Rules Europe!”
- “Why Germany Conquered Cyprus”
5. The Prince of Rosh Invades Ukraine
In early November 2013, Gerald Flurry recorded a Key of David episode examining the role of Russia and its leader in Bible prophecy. He highlighted Revelation 9:16, which describes an Asian force of 200 million soldiers fighting in World War iii. He also discussed Ezekiel 38:2, which says this massive Asian force will be led by “the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal” (New King James Version). Mr. Flurry explained that Meshech and Tubal are early names corresponding to modern Russian cities, and Rosh is a variation of an ancient name for Russia. Mr. Flurry then made a bold, specific forecast: President Vladimir Putin will be this “prince of Russia” who leads the end-time Asian force. He said we should watch for Putin to start expanding Russia’s control over Ukraine and the nations in its periphery.
Later that November, Ukraine descended into chaos after its president said he would align the country more closely with Russia. In the ensuing months, protests grew increasingly violent. Putin secretly sent troops into the country and ended up annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. He literally redrew the borders of Europe. Mr. Flurry wrote, “The fact that one man—one man—is responsible for this huge geopolitical shift is deeply significant.”
Putin continued wielding his power to prevent Georgia, Ukraine and other former Soviet countries from developing closer ties with Europe. He also tightened his grip over Russia. And he deftly maneuvered to deepen his influence over China, India, Japan and many other Asian nations. Putin pushed the U.S. out of Russia’s periphery by persuading Kyrgyzstan to oust the Americans from Manas Air Base—Washington’s last military base in Central Asia. And he got Russia deeply involved in the Middle East, sidelining America, helping the brutal Syrian regime to retain power, and aiding Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons.
President Putin also spent much of the decade modernizing Russia’s military and developing numerous state-of-the-art weapons systems, including virtually unstoppable hypersonic nuclear missiles. These make Russia’s military far more lethal.
The 2010s showed the world that Vladimir Putin is not just a judo master, a kgb wunderkind, and the wealthiest man in the world. They showed that he is also the savior of modern Russia—the man responsible for returning the vast nation to great-power status. He is the trailblazer for the modern global return to authoritarianism, the most cunning strongman on the scene, and the world leader better equipped than any other to stand up to the United States. Putin is the prophesied “prince of Rosh” that God inspired the Prophet Ezekiel to write about thousands of years ago, and whom Mr. Flurry identified before much of the evidence had yet appeared.
4. Iran Conquers Iraq
On Tuesday, a mass protest stormed Baghdad’s central green zone, a highly sensitive area holding international embassies. The protesters, clad in military fatigues and Shiite insignia, charged the United States Embassy and set the reception area on fire. They were protesting a U.S. air strike two days earlier that targeted members of Kataib Hezbollah—an official part of the Iraqi security establishment known as the Popular Mobilization Forces and, more significantly, an Iranian military proxy in Iraq with much American blood on its hands.
Elsewhere in Baghdad these days are other protests—not anti-U.S., but anti-Iran. For two months, Iraqis have been proving themselves willing to die in their efforts to remove Iranian interference in their nation. So far, 500 anti-Iranian protesters have been killed.
These two simultaneous demonstrations highlight the battle for Iraqi hearts that has been waged by the United States and Iran for the past 20 years.
But for Iran, the fight for Iraq has gone on much longer. Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has set out to conquer Iraq by war, subterfuge, infiltration or any other means. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force has overseen this 40-year project. A popular slogan during Iran’s war on Iraq in the early 1980s was, “The path to Jerusalem runs through Karbala”—the location of Shiite holy places just south of Baghdad. Though the Iran-Iraq War ended without victor, Iran has never relinquished this ambition.
The largest roadblock to Iran’s victory over Iraq was America’s invasion of Iraq in 2003. After the U.S. removed dictator Saddam Husain, hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops were stationed right next door to Iran; Iranian leaders worried they would be next. But as time wore on, they recognized that the U.S. had no appetite for another war. They simply had to wait, and meanwhile, to train Iraqi Shiite militias to pick at American and coalition forces. Eventually, the Americans would leave.
In 2011, they did just that—and hastily. Before long, the notoriously wicked jihadi organization the Islamic State raced to fill the power vacuum left behind in Iraqi territory. Iran responded by directing the very same Shiite Iraqi forces that had fought against America to now fight against the Islamic State—and what’s more, to do so alongside U.S. air support. Mr. Flurry wrote about the folly of this situation in the January 2018 Trumpet: “Iran now looks like an effective and useful partner in the war against terrorism. America has helped to make Iran appear to be the savior in Iraq and Syria!” Today the Islamic State is gone from Iraq, but these Shiite militias that answer to Iran have unchecked power in both Iraq’s military and its politics.
Now consider what Mr. Flurry wrote in 2003 right after America invaded: “It may seem shocking, given the U.S. presence in the region right now, but prophecy indicates that, in pursuit of its goal, Iran will probably take over Iraq.” Has that happened? The blood of 500 protesters on Iraq’s streets testify that it has.
3. Brexit
This may be the clearest, most specific fulfilled prophecy of the decade. For decades we have watched for it. From the earliest days of his work in the 1930s, Herbert W. Armstrong forecast the advent of a united European power. In 1956 he wrote, “Probably Germany will lead and dominate the coming United States of Europe, but Britain will be no part of it.” Even when Britain joined the European Community in 1973, Mr. Armstrong held to this bold prophecy. “Britain is going to look back on Monday, Jan. 1, 1973, in all probability, as a most tragically historic date—a date fraught with ominous potentialities!” he wrote. “For that date marked the United Kingdom’s entry into the European Community.” In 1978, with Britain firmly embedded in the European Economic Community, Mr. Armstrong described a “soon-coming resurrected ‘Holy Roman Empire’—a sort of soon-coming ‘United States of Europe’—a union of 10 nations to rise up out of or following the Common Market of today. … Britain will not be in that empire soon to come.”
Why these unflinching forecasts? The Bible shows that the British people are descendants of the Israelite tribe of Ephraim. There is abundant proof that the British are modern-day Israelites—a book’s worth, in fact. We would like to offer you a copy of that book—The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Mr. Armstrong—free of charge.
God prophesied that after Ephraim and Manasseh received their promised wealth and power, if they did not turn to the God who blessed them, He would remove those blessings and punish these nations with war and captivity. Many scriptures describe the German-led Europe that God said would punish Britain.
If God would use a German-led European superstate to punish Britain, Britain would have to be outside that superstate. Hence Mr. Armstrong’s forecast that Britain would go.
And so it did. On June 23, 2016, Britain shocked the world by voting for Brexit. And this last month, Britain again stunned observers by voting in an overwhelmingly pro-Brexit government. This government immediately approved a law to get Britain out, and the nation will officially leave the EU on January 31, thus realizing Mr. Armstrong’s Bible-based prophecy.
2. The Election of President Trump
On Nov. 8, 2016, the American people elected Donald J. Trump as president of the United States. For millions of Americans, this was a full-throated protest against the Obama administration, against socialized medicine, against open borders, against government regulation and intrusion, and against bowing and kowtowing to foreign governments.
Upon assuming office, President Trump immediately started signing executive orders undoing much of President Obama’s legacy. His administration also started exposing much of the corruption in the previous administration, such as the fbi’s use of Russian propaganda to illegally spy on the Trump campaign and rig the 2016 presidential election.
President Trump has also strongly supported Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, bolstering efforts to separate Britain from the European Union and offering the United Kingdom a strong alternative trade partner. Together, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are leading an Anglo-American-Israeli resurgence on the world scene.
A prophecy in 2 Kings 14 shows that God would temporarily save Israel from destruction in the end time using a type of the ancient Israelite King Jeroboam ii. Another prophecy in Amos 7 shows that this end-time Jeroboam would have a strong religious following, described as “the king’s chapel.” America’s resurgence under President Trump, and his being championed by some 30 million evangelical Christians, provide distinct evidence that President Trump is the prophesied end-time Jeroboam.
But it is vital to remember that the reason God is using Mr. Trump to save America temporarily is to give people time to repent of their sins. Without repentance, America’s economic and racial problems will come roaring back to destroy the nation in a devastating civil war. This will weaken America to the point that it can be invaded by a European superstate. America’s resurgence is not an excuse to get complacent; it is a last chance to repent before Great Tribulation!
- “Saving America From the Radical Left—Temporarily”
- “Can President Trump Get Control of His Own Divided Government?”
1. The New Throne of David
The Bible says that when Jesus Christ returns, He will become King of kings, and Lord of Lords. He will take His place on a throne. In fact, Luke 1:32-33 say that God is going to give Him “the throne of his father David, and he shall reign … for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
That is the event that all of these other events listed above are pointing to. These other prophecies are signs of how close we are to the time when God will fulfill this promise and Jesus Christ will establish His government on this Earth.
The throne of David, on which Jesus Christ will sit, was established by God about 3,000 years ago, with King David of Israel. God preserved that throne through the descendants of David for generations. Even when the kingdom of Judah was destroyed and made captive, God ensured that the throne would continue, as He transplanted it to the British Isles through a female descendant of David. It remained there for many more centuries, first in Ireland, then in Scotland, then in Britain, after three prophesied “overturns” of that throne.
But the prophecy of these overturns, in Ezekiel 21:27, says that after this, “it shall be no more.” Several specific prophecies show that just before Christ returns, there will be a change in the throne of David!
That change happened in January 2017. The royal family of Britain no longer inhabits the throne of David, as they have for generations. That throne has been replaced by a new throne of David, which God has given to His Church—one of the last, most important steps in preparation for Christ’s return.
This is a subject you have to really study to understand, and our editor in chief, Gerald Flurry has written a book about it, called The New Throne of David. Out of all the events we have discussed that show just how close we are to the end of this present age and to the beginning of a new age that will come when Jesus Christ returns, the new throne of David tops the list.
