(Jerusalem, Israel) — My friend Reza Kahlili published this fascinating and sobering article this week and I commend it to your attention. Reza used to be an officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Then he became a double agent for the CIA. Now he is an American citizen who is using his contacts and sources in Iran to gather information to expose the evil regime in Tehran and bring them down before they acquire nuclear weapons and try to usher in the reign of the Twelfth Imam. 

Excerpts:

• Iran’s supreme leader, for the first time, is telling his nation that it must prepare for war and “the end of times” as it continues to develop nuclear weapons. State-owned media outlets, in a coordinated effort, all ran a similar story Friday highlighting Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s message on the coming of the last Islamic messiah. 
• Until now, the Iranian media would mostly quote clerics from seminaries on the issue of the last Islamic messiah to avoid the regime being labeled messianic. However, the wide publication of Khamenei’s statements on a need to prepare for the end of times as it confronts the West over its illicit nuclear program is alarming to Western leaders.
• “The issue of Imam Mahdi is of utmost importance, and his reappearance has been clearly stated in our holy religion of Islam,” Khamenei said. We must study and remind ourselves of the end of times and Imam Mahdi’s era. … We must prepare the environment for the coming so that the great leader will come.”
• Shiite theology holds that great wars must engulf the Earth, during which one-third of the world’s population will die in the fighting and another third from hunger, lawlessness and havoc. Israel is to be destroyed, and only then will the 12th imam, Mahdi, reappear and kill all the infidels, raising the flag of Islam in all corners of the world….

If you’d like to listen to or watch the sermon I gave on Sunday at the King of Kings Assembly in Jerusalem, please click here.

One of the most remarkable examples in the Bible of God shaking a man to get him to stop, repent, and get back to the important mission of serving the Lord is found in the Old Testament book of Jonah. Much of the narrative of that book is focused on a key biblical city in northern Iraq.

I’ve had the opportunity to travel into northern Iraq four times in recent years to preach the gospel, teach the Word of God, assist with humanitarian relief efforts, and strengthen the local believers. In the spring of 2010, I was invited to bring a team of pastors and staff from The Joshua Fund, the nonprofit organization Lynn and I created to bless Israel and her neighbors, to conduct a pastors’ conference in northern Iraq, near the province of Nineveh. We have a son named Jonah, and he really wanted to go with me so he could see Nineveh. Lynn and I weren’t so sure about that, but we prayed about it and felt God’s peace, so Jonah came with me. But as we were flying in, a big storm came up and prevented our flight from landing in northern Iraq. We were diverted back to Amman, Jordan. There, I texted Lynn and told her what had happened and said Jonah and I were disappointed and weren’t sure what was going to happen next. She texted back to say, “Don’t worry. This would be the first time in history that a Jonah wanted to go to Nineveh and God prevented him from going. I think God is going to actually let you and Jonah get to Nineveh after all.” She was right.

In the Bible, the Lord gave the prophet Jonah a mission: to take a warning of judgment and the urgency of repentance to the people of Nineveh (in what was then Assyria and is now northern Iraq), lest they face God’s wrath and implode. Jonah, however, refused to obey. Instead, he tried to run away from the Lord by boarding a ship that was heading for Tarshish, in modern-day southern Spain. What happened? God began to shake Jonah’s world. Let’s pick up the story in Jonah 1:4-6. “The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep. So the captain approached him and said, “How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.”

You probably know the rest of the story. Jonah was tossed overboard by the ship’s crew, was saved from drowning by being swallowed by a huge fish, and three days later was belched up onshore, shaken to his core but essentially unharmed. From there he hightailed it to Nineveh and carried out God’s instructions. He could have avoided a lot of pain and hardship if he had just obeyed God to begin with, but eventually he repented and did as God had told him. And because of his words, the people of Nineveh—one of the most notoriously evil cities of the day—repented as well.

The story turns out well, but not without a whole lot of shaking going on. Jonah—a man of God, a prophet of God, a teacher of God’s Word—was on the run from God. He was asleep to God’s voice and resistant to God’s will. How convicting is this: that a pagan ship captain had to shake a teacher of God’s Word and wake him up and beg him to pray for his salvation?

What about you? What mission has God given you? Are you obeying, or are you on the run from the Lord and asleep to his voice?

Note: This article is excerpted from Implosion: Can America Recover From Its Economic & Spiritual Challenges In Time?

I’ve been invited to address The Family Leadership Summit to be held in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, August 11th and I’m honored to accept. Indeed, I look forward to participating in this important event to talk about the research and analysis I did for my new book, Implosion: Can America Recover From Its Economic & Spiritual Challenges In Time? This event will be a critical forum to talk about the urgent need to rescue our imploding families and seek the Lord for a sweeping spiritual revival to save America before it’s too late. Also speaking at the Summit will be former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, and Iowa Rep. Steve King. It will be held at Point of Grace Church. Please register now and join us.

UPDATED: On Sunday evening, July 8th, I had the honor of preaching at King of Kings Assembly, a wonderful church in Jerusalem. I spoke on the future of Israel, Egypt, and the U.S. in the light of Bible prophecy. The specific title of the message was, “Isaiah 31: Do Not Trust In Egypt.” Here are my notes:

ISAIAH 31: “DO NOT TRUST IN EGYPT”

• Mohammed Morsi. Until recently, most people had never heard the name. Now this senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood is the newly elected President of Egypt.
• The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the original Radical Islamic organizations in the Middle East, founded in Egypt in the 1920s and driven by the belief that “Islam is the answer and jihad is the way.” Morsi believes in destroying Israel and conquering all infidels. He believes in imposing Shariah law upon the people of Egypt, preparing for an Islamic kingdom or “caliphate” and uniting with other Muslims throughout the region to defeat Christianity and Judaism.
• The rise of Morsi to power — and the election of Muslim Brotherhood members to a majority of the Egyptian parliament — is a 90 year dream and goal of the Radical Muslims and could come to represent the Sunni Arab equivalent of the Islamic Revolution led by Shia Persians in Iran in 1979.
• The rise of Morsi and the Brotherhood poses a new and serious threat to Israel on its southern flank. Egypt is not likely to be in a position to pose a strategic, existential threat to Israel in the near term. But the new Radical Islamic government in Cairo could allow a new wave of terrorist attacks from Egyptian soil (primarily from the Sinai desert).
• The new regime is a significant departure from the Mubarak regime which while authoritarian wasn’t not made up of militant Islamists. Indeed, the Mubarak regime was quietly allied with Israel, the Saudis and the emirs in the Gulf in strong opposition to Iran getting nuclear weapons. Now, Morsi could theoretically make common cause with the mullahs in Iran and other rising Islamists in the region.
• The Prime Minister of Israel and his senior advisors are now having to dramatically rethink Israeli security strategy in the light of the fact that they can no longer count on a secure border with Egypt.
• In this context, let’s begin by reading Isaiah 31.
• This a key passage in Scripture relating to Israel and Egypt.
• Let’s specifically consider verses 1 through 3. “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses,and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord! Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster and does not retract His words, but will arise against the house of evildoers and against the help of the workers of iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit; so the Lord will stretch out His hand, and he who helps will stumble and he who is helped will fall, and all of them will come to an end together.”
• Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help. 
• To better understand Isaiah 31, it’s worth studying Isaiah 30, as well.
• Again, consider the first three verses of the chapter. “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the Lord, “Who execute a plan, but not Mine and make an alliance, but not of My Spirit in order to add sin to sin; who proceed down to Egypt without consulting Me, to take refuge in the safety of Pharaoh and to seek shelter in the shadow of Egypt. “Therefore the safety of Pharaoh will be your shame and the shelter in the shadow of Egypt, your humiliation…..”
• To be clear, God loves Egypt and Israel. God loves the people of Egypt and the people of Israel and all the people of the epicenter, just as He loves all the people of the world (see John 3:16).
• But throughout the Bible we find a long and complicated history between Israel and Egypt.
• There were times that God used Egypt to be a blessing to the nation of Israel. But there also times when the people of Israel leaned too much on Egypt, relied too heavily on Egypt, trusted too much in power and prosperity of Egypt. There were times that the nation of Israel trusted in Egypt more than in the Lord. And that was wrong.
• In Genesis 12, the Lord sovereignly chooses Abram, a Hebrew, and calls Abram to follow Him, and serve Him. The Lord promises to take Abram “to the land which I will show you” (Israel), and make Abram a “great nation,” and bless Abram, and “make your name great,” and make Abram and his descendants a blessing to “all the families of the earth.” And the Abram believed the Lord, and followed the Lord, and the Lord kept his unconditional covenant to Abram and his family.
• But in Genesis 12 we also learn that there was a famine in the land of Canaan “so Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there.” (12:10).
• Note that the text does not say Abram prayed about whether he should go to Egypt.
• Note that the text does not say the Lord told Abram to go to Egypt.
• Abram just went, and lied along the way, and sinned and disobeyed the Lord.
• This was the first of numerous examples of the Hebrew people’s complicated relationship with Egypt.
• In Genesis 16 we learn that Abram and Sarah had a maid from Egypt named Hagar, whom Abram sleeps with and has a child.
• In Genesis 37 through 47 we learn the story of Joseph, who was forced to go to Egypt, and was mistreated there, but then rises to become effectively the Prime Minister of Egypt and helps save the people of Israel and the people of Egypt and the region. Not a positive story initially, though the Lord was very merciful. Indeed, in Genesis 46:3, the Lord told Jacob to go to Egypt and not to be afraid.
• The book of Exodus, of course, tells us the drama of the 400+ year slavery of the Jews in Egypt, and the dramatic Passover and escape of the Jews.
• In 1 Kings 3:1 we learn the story of King Solomon who is so wise, and so in love with the Lord, but he forms an alliance with Egypt by marrying an Egyptian woman even though the Lord made clear repeatedly that the Israelites were not supposed to marry foreign women lest they end up following foreign gods. Yet Solomon did so anyway.
• In Jeremiah 42 through 46 we read the story of the Hebrew prophet Jeremiah warning leaders of Israel not to go down to Egypt to find refuge from the Babylonians lest they suffer and be destroyed. Yet the leaders of Israel did not listen to the word of the Lord. A truly tragic story.
• In Matthew chapter 2 we learn the story of the Lord telling Joseph and Mary to take Jesus to Egypt for protection. Joseph and Mary only went to Egypt because the Lord told them. They didn’t hide in Egypt of their own accord. Their trust was wholly in the Lord, and the Lord directed them to Egypt as a blessing.
• So clearly, there are times the Lord used Egypt to be a blessing, and other times the people of Israel trusted too much in Egypt, and didn’t truly trust the Lord.
• The Hebrew prophet Isaiah made it clear to the people of Israel: “The Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it; He will pass over and rescue it.” (31:5)
• What’s more, Isaiah urged Israel to repent and turn back to fully trusting in the God of Israel — to rely on Him, to depend on Him, to trust in Him, to hope in Him, to lean on Him for peace and security and provision, not on anyone or anything else.
• “Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel.” (31:6)
• What does all this mean for us today? A few thoughts:
• First, the Lord does not want modern Israel to lean on, rely, trust in Egypt for security. I’m grateful for the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Israel and Egypt and for the three decades of peace it has provided on Israel’s southern border. But this is coming to an end and Israelis need to come to grips with the concept of a Radical Islamic regime to its south.
• Second, the Lord is going to begin to wean Israel off of dependance upon the United States. America has, in a sense, become a modern day “Egypt” for Israel. Israelis have come to lean on, rely upon, trust in U.S. military, intelligence, diplomatic and financial assistance to provide security for the Jewish State. But prophetically we know this will come to an end. In Ezekiel 38-39 during the “War of Gog and Magog,” the Bible indicates that not a single nation will come to Israel’s defense when the Russian-Iranian alliance comes against Israel in “the last days.” What’s more, the Hebrew prophet Daniel and the Book of Revelation tells us that during the Tribulation the Antichrist will invade and conquer Israel (“the beautiful land”) and no nation will come to Israel defense. Thus, we know that we are heading for a day when Israel will be all alone in the world. That means the U.S. will eventually abandon or turn against Israel. This is a sad and painful truth, but it is true nonetheless.
• Third, the reason the Lord will allow the U.S. and other nations to abandon Israel and/or turn against her is to create a situation in which Israelis find themselves all alone. The Lord God wants all Israelis to repent, to return to faith and trust in Him, not in the U.S., or Egypt, or any other power. The Lord wants Israelis to realize that their only hope for peace, security,  and eternal salvation is in God the Father and Jesus the Messiah.
• Fourth, those of us who are Americans should continue to pray for our government to stand by Israel and bless Israel. We need to continue to do all we can to encourage Washington to never abandon or turn against Israel. In Genesis 12:1-3, we learn that God will bless those who bless Abram’s descendants, and He will curse those who curse them. Given America’s many troubles, challenges and sins — given how close we are to implosion — we dare not abandon or turn against Israel now. To do so could be the last straw. So we must press forward prayerfully and politically to urge America to be a strong ally to Israel and the Jewish people. But we must recognize that there will come a day when despite our best efforts, the Lord will allow America to go the wrong way.
• Fifth, we must pray for all the people of Israel to turn to their Messiah, the Lord Jesus, and seek Him while He may be found. We need to pray that every Jewish heart (and Muslim and Hindu and Buddhist, and agnostic heart, etc) will be opened by the Holy Spirit to the fact that Yeshua (Jesus) is the way, the truth and the life, and no one can come to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). Let us not be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and then also to the Gentile (Romans 1:16). The Lord is jealous for His people. He wants them to return to Him, to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. He wants them to trust in Him, not in Egypt, America or anyone or anything else.
• Sixth, let us also pray for the Lord to bless the Palestinians and all the Arab and Persian neighbors and enemies of Israel, that they too would hear the Gospel and turn to Jesus Christ for salvation. God surely loves them and we must love them, too.
• Seventh, let us also pray for the Jewish and Arab believers who live in Israel and throughout the epicenter that the Lord would strengthen them, encourage them, teach them His Word, give them His boldness, and open doors for them to love and serve their neighbors, share the Gospel, make disciples, train new pastors, and plant new congregations. Jesus is building His church, and we are called to come to His side and do our part.

Finally, here’s a question for you, wherever you live: In whom are you trusting for your hope, peace and eternal security? May you turn wholly and completely to the Lord Jesus Christ today, to the Word of God found in the Bible, and seek Him with all your heart.

Hope these notes are helpful. Soon, I’ll post a link to the video message. God bless you.

Last month, I had dinner with a group of Protestant and Catholic Christian leaders just outside of Washington, D.C. I was asked to briefly explain the research and analysis I had done while writing Implosion and share my conclusions with the group. I tried to summarize the book with this question: “Is America facing a ‘Jonah’ moment, or a ‘Nahum’ moment?” As we approach the July 4th holiday and the celebration of the founding of our dear country, let me explain.

>> UPDATE: New poll finds number of Americans who see U.S. as last best hope of the world dropping sharply

In the Old Testament book of Jonah, the Hebrew prophet was sent by the Lord to the wicked city of Ninevah — the capital of the Assyrian empire — in order to preach a message of imminent judgment. I asked the leaders to set aside for a moment the fact that Jonah didn’t want to obey the Lord and preach this messsage, and thus fled on a ship headed in the other direction. The point I wanted to make that night was that when Jonah finally did obey the Lord and did start preaching in Ninevah, he didn’t call the people to repentance. Rather, Jonah declared, “Forty days and Ninevah will be overthrown.” (Jonah 3:4) However, even though Jonah never called the people to plead to the One True God of Israel to have mercy on their souls and on their city, even though Jonah never called on the people to beg for forgiveness and turn away from their wickedness, that is, in fact, exactly what the Ninevites did.

The text says: “Then the people of Ninevah believed in God; and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them. When the word reached the king of Ninevah, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, ‘In Ninevah by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we shall not perish?'” (Jonah 3:5-9)

Sure enough, the Lord heard the earnest prayers of the people — and their king — as they repented, and He relented. “When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.” The promised judgment did not come. The people and their city were spared from God’s wrath. What an extraordinary moment. The pagan people heard the word of the Lord and it burned in their hearts. They believed God’s word, pleaded for mercy, and the Lord gave them mercy, even though He had never indicated that He would do so.

But this was not the only time the word of the Lord came to the people of Ninevah.

About 100 years or so later, the next generation of Ninevites had abandoned the Lord and fallen back into tremendous evil, violence, bloodshed, lies, sorcery and other wickedness. In the Old Testament book of Nahum, we read that the Lord again spoke to the people of Ninevah, this time through a different Hebrew prophet, this one named Nahum. Yet this time the people of Ninevah did not repent. They did not listen to God’s word. They did not plead for mercy. They did not turn from their wicked ways and start praying, fasting and begging God for mercy. And thus, mercy did not come. Instead, the judgment of God came upon the people, and in 612 B.C. the city of Ninevah was utterly destroyed.

Today we as Americans — especially those here in the capital, but all of us really — must confront this question: Is America in a “Jonah” moment, or a “Nahum” moment? That is, will we hear the word of the Lord that we have strayed far from the teachings of the Bible and allowed our land to become polluted with abortions and pornography and violence and wickedness of all kinds? Will we admit how far we are from God’s plan and purpose for our lives? Will we confess that our hearts are far from Jesus Christ and plead with the Lord for His mercy and grace and forgiveness? Will we fast and pray and earnestly seek God’s face, and implore Christ to give us a Third Great Awakening? Or will we ignore the word of the Lord and continue in our sins and watch our nation continue to decline, or even implode?

Twice in American history we have seen sweeping spiritual revivals known as the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening, respectively. Millions of Americans repented of their sins during those seasons, became devout followers of Jesus Christ, began to read the Bible voraciously and to obey the word of the Lord. Nowhere in Scripture, however, has America been promised a spiritual revival in the 21st century, much less one that would be so sweeping, so game-changing that it would qualify as a Third Great Awakening. But who knows? Perhaps the Lord will show us tremendous mercy and forgiveness if we all humble ourselves and pray, and seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways? However, if we don’t repent and turn back to the Lord Jesus Christ, we may very well consign ourselves to suffer the fate of the Ninevites during the time of Nahum.

These are sobering thoughts, I realize. But these are perilous times. As I note in Implosion: Can America Recover From Its Economic & Spiritual Challenges In Time? I believe time is running out. May we choose wisely, before it’s too late.

• “Will America experience another Third Great Awakening?” — listen to Joel’s recent sermon online
• My Spiritual Journey: a video of me speaking at a recent conference how I came to faith in Jesus Christ.
• A simple, concise explanation of the Gospel
• Help The Joshua Fund care for the poor and needy in Israel, teach the Word of God in the epicenter, educate and mobilize Christians around the world to bless poor and needy Israelis, train pastors and ministry leaders in Egypt, strengthen the believers in Syria, and prepare for a possible major new war in the epicenter — please prayerfully consider a generous, tax deductible financial contribution to The Joshua Fund.
• Follow Joel on Twitter — @jcrflashtraffic

HEADLINES TO TRACK:

• Iran threatens Israel; new EU sanctions take force
• Israel’s Emergence As Energy Superpower Making Waves
• Ancient synagogue and mosaic unearthed in Galilee
• Mofaz threatens to quite Israeli govt