Is Bible prophecy unfolding before our eyes?

Christians and Jews from as far away as India and Jerusalem traveled half way around the world to Eden Prairie, Minn., for the 15th annual "Understanding the Times" conference on Oct. 5 and 6.

Hosted by Minnesota-based Olive Trees Ministries, the event attracted 6,000 attendees who realize we are not living in normal times. And that Israel and the Jewish people are once again in the crosshairs of worldwide hatred, the same kind of anti-semitism that killed more than six million Jews in the 1940s.

According to the WND World article published on Oct. 9, Headlines backing up millennia-old prophecies, one of the speakers at the conference, Mark Hitchcock, believes we are seeing one prophecy in particular unfold, saying "today’s news reports indicate a new alliance is developing of nations that haven’t regularly gotten along with each other in the last, oh, few thousand years. And their common foe would be Israel."

Prophecy

This coming war is known to those who watch prophecy as the "Gog-Magog war" and/or the "Ezekiel War."  The prophecy is found in Ezekiel 38 and it describes an unlikely alliance of nations that go to war with Israel after its reconstitution, which came to pass on May 14, 1948.

This new alliance includes Russia, China, Iran and Turkey as well as the  majority of Islamic nations. If you're paying any attention to the headlines, these alliances seem to be forming right before our eyes.

Think about that. Nations that have never been allies are now forming friendships, which makes this shift in geopolitics over the past few years even more interesting.

All of that said, it's easy to brush Biblical prophecy off by thinking to yourself, "Well, people throughout time have thought we were living in the last days."

But what makes today different is that Israel is a nation again and, according to the Bible, Israel must exist in order for the "last days" scenario to run its course.  In fact, Ezekiel 37, known as the prophecy of the "Dry Bones," says that Israel would once again be a nation -- and this was predicted 2,500 years ago. Pretty amazing, huh?

In the book of Ezekiel, God said he would put "hooks" in Israel's enemies' jaws to draw them to war. These "hooks" could be the natural gas and oil fields that Israel discovered in 2010. Prior to that, the land wasn't all that appealing to those outside the Muslim world.

Ezekiel 38:4,5: "And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horesmen, all of great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia (modern-day Iran), Ethiopia and Libya with them; all of the with shield and helmet."

Also note, this war is not to be confused with the War of Armageddon, which comes at the end of the 7-year tribulation. The Ezekiel war, most End Time experts believe, will prompt a peace treaty between Israel and the World community (referred to as the Confirmation of the Covenant in the Bible), which will divide Jerusalem and mark the beginning of the tribulation.

Judgements

Another speaker at the "Signs of the Times" conference in Eden Prairie was Bill Koenig, well known author and journalist and member of the White House Press Corps.

“These are not normal times,” he said in the WND article. “We’ve crossed the tipping point. All major areas of prophecy are in play.”

According to WND, Koenig wrote a book that researched and documented disasters that corresponded with efforts to pressure Israel into dividing its land. He told the crowd that he has gotten the book, “Eye to Eye: Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel,” into the hands of many prominent national leaders, yet actions against Israel seem to persist.

Koenig also discussed other rebellions against God by America including the repeal of the longstanding military policy of "Don't Ask Don't Tell. “In those days America, and Washington, D.C., saw 322 heat records tied or broken,” he said in the article, adding,  “The heat index reached 129 degrees in Washington, D.C.”

Koenig also warned about the impact of radical Islam, questioning why Obama defends Islam while remaining silent about the rampant persecution and death of Christians currently taking place in the Middle East.

America similar to Nazi Germany leading up to the Holocaust?

Senior pastor at Moody Bible Church in Chicago, Erwin Lutzer, seems to think so.

From the economy, to the indoctrination at the American universities, to the media propaganda -- like in Nazi Germany -- Lutzer said, "Facts become irrelevant. Language and euphemisms are created, and there is a tendency to demonize any opposition, or to call an opposing view hate speech. When God is separated from government, judgment follows.”

Lutzer also talked about his forthcoming book, “The Cross in the Shadow of the Crescent: An Informed Response to Islam’s War on Christianity,” which will be available in January.

To read the full WND World article about the "Signs of the Times" conference, click here: http://www.wnd.com/2012/10/headlines-backing-up-millennia-old-prophecies/?cat_orig=world