Iranian President Ahmadinejad and Russian President Medvedev meet at summit in Central Asia.

>> Learn more about the “Wake Up Call” simulcast event that Anne Graham Lotz and Joel are teaching at on Sunday, September 11th — a call to prayer, fasting and repentance in light of Bible prophecy and current events — please get your family and church involved today.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met Wednesday with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Central Asian and Far East Asian leaders at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit held in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana. The SCO, formed in 2001, is widely seen a rival to NATO. There, Ahmadinejad delivered a blistering speech against the “slavers and  colonizers” of the West, called for a new world order, including the building of an anti-Western military and political alliance.

“I believe together we can reform the way the world is managed,” Ahmadinejad declared, according to a report by Agence France Presse. “We can restore the tranquillity of the world.”  He reportedly then addressed the leaders of Russia and Asia, asking: “Have any of us used an atomic bomb against the defenceless citizens of any other country? Have any of our countries played a part in the creation of 9/11 under whose pretext Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded and more than one million people have been killed or wounded?”

An Associated Press report quotes Ahmadinejad as calling on Russia, China and Central Asian countries “to form a united front against the West.” He also asked, “Which one of our countries (has played a role) in the black era of slavery, or in the destruction of hundreds of millions of human beings?”

Ahmadinejad did not attend the SCO’s summit in 2010. But he did attend the 2009 summit in Moscow. As I noted at the time: “Currently, Iran has ‘observer’ status in the SCO, but has requested full member status. The SCO alliance is evocative of the eastern-portion of the biblical alliance foretold in Ezekiel 38-39 that will come against Israel and seek to destroy the Jewish people in what the Bible calls the “last days” of history. When one considers how closely Russia and Iran are currently growing to the western portion of the prophetic alliance — Sudan, Libya and Algeria, for example — it’s not hard to envision these prophecies coming true in our lifetime, or even in the next few years. That said, I believe it is currently too soon to draw any conclusions. There are many intriguing trends and developments, but it remains far from clear that we’re seeing Bible prophecy come to pass. That said, we cannot rule out the possibility. Events in the region are both unprecedented and riveting. All the more reason for followers of Jesus Christ to ‘get ready and be prepared’ for whatever lies ahead.”

• To learn more about the prophecies of Ezekiel 38-39 and the biblical “War of Gog and Magog,” please click here for Part One.
• Part Two.
• Part Three.
• To watch the messages from the 2011 Epicenter Conference in Jerusalem online for free — or to purchase a set of the DVDs — please visit www.epicenterconference.com.
• To participate in the “Wake Up Call” event with Anne Graham Lotz and Joel C. Rosenberg, please click here.
• To learn more about — or financially contribute to — the work of The Joshua Fund to bless Israel and her neighbors, please visit www.joshuafund.net.