UPDATE:

• As strike on Syria looms, Israelis scramble for gas masks: Citizens fear chemical retaliation in light of assessments US preparing to attack the Assad regime (Times of Israel, 8/26)
• CNN video report about alleged chemical weapons attacks  in Syria (8/23)
• ITN news video report about alleged chemical weapons attacks (8/23)
• French TV 21
• Video of Syrian father weeping because his two children are dead
• Israeli intelligence minister: It is ‘crystal clear’ Assad used chemical weapons on mass scale (Jerusalem Post, 8/26)
• Kerry Accuses Syria of Chemical Weapons Attack — “Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the use of chemical weapons in attacks on civilians in Syria last week was undeniable and that the Obama administration would hold the Syrian government accountable for a “moral obscenity” that had shocked the world’s conscience.” (NYT, 8/26)
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ORIGINAL POST: (Washington, D.C.) — President Obama appears to be on the verge of ordering U.S. military intervention in Syria.  The British are preparing to help. The Obama administration believes there is “very little doubt” that the Assad regime used chemical weapons recently to commit massacres inside the civil war-torn country of Syria. UK Prime Minister David Cameron agrees, as does the French government.

U.S. warships are en route and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says the Pentagon is prepared for “all contingencies.”

Serious questions must be asked first.

• Is genocide underway in Syria? Over 100,000 people have been killed with no end in sight.
• Are we absolutely certain that chemical weapons been used, and are we certain it was the Assad regime who used them?
• If the evidence is conclusive that chemical weapons were used, can the world really turn a blind eye? How can the U.S. and the British not try to stop the use of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, and stop what may already have become genocide, after going to war in Iraq to stop even the potential of WMD being developed and used against civilians?
• Yet if the West does take military action to hit the Assad regime, won’t that help al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood rebels trying to bring down the Assad regime and impose and even more Radical Islamic Sunni regime?
• Wouldn’t the President need Congressional authorization for military action in Syria?
• And if the West is going to use military action in Syria, what about Iran which is developing nuclear weapons?

People are also emailing and Tweeting me with these questions:

• “Are we heading towards catastrophic — even apocalyptic — events in Damascus?”
• “Is it possible we will see the fulfillment of Bible prophecies such as Isaiah 17 and Jeremiah 49 that foretell the utter destruction and annihilation of the city of Damascus in the End Times?”

I will respond to these questions soon. For the moment, one thing is clear: Darkness is descending on the Middle East.

We must pray for calm, for stability, for peace. We must also pray for God to have mercy on all the people of Syria, as well as the people of Egypt, who are also suffering terribly. We must do all we can to share the Good News with the people of Syria and Egypt, before it is too late.

At the same time, we must do all we can to help the Syrian refugees. We must find ways to feed them, to clothe them, to care for them, to love them with the love of our Savior. They are suffering so badly. Lord, show us how.

Here are the latest developments:

“Royal Navy vessels are being readied to take part in a possible series of cruise missile strikes, alongside the United States, as military commanders finalise a list of potential targets,” reports the UK Telegraph. “Government sources said talks between the Prime Minister and international leaders, including Barack Obama, would continue, but that any military action that was agreed could begin within the next week.”