Shock and Awe

Baghdad’s night skies burning with mushroom clouds. Guerrilla firefights in the desert. Brutalized American pows. Now these and many other images are seared into our minds. The American-led campaign on Iraq has provided us an unmatched sweep of press coverage, a profusion of information about each development in the war.

But among all the frantic and breaking news, woefully absent is the real understanding—the comprehension of the grand perspective. To gain the broad view, we must compare current facts with biblical prophecy—the infallible preview of the major events that will precede the end of this age, provided us by Almighty God.

The world is witnessing a titanic transformation in the global balance of power, a tidal shift it does not yet grasp. For those with the eyes to see, the prelude to conflict in Iraq exposed many aspects of this shift, and foreshadowed an unfolding reality filled with far more shock and awe than America’s radical military plan.

In this special feature we will look at some of the most dramatic, prophetic implications of the events leading up to the war. And in articles to come we will forecast what the landscape of the Middle East will look like once the Iraq campaign comes to a close and beyond—a future that will leave all the world stunned with shock and awe.