Rice: Democracy will come to Middle East By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
PARIS - Nearly a year after she was ridiculed for calling a war in Lebanon "the birth pangs of a new Middle East," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is insisting democracy will come to the region whatever the setbacks. On Sunday (June 24), she acknowledged the bad news coming from Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories."Democracy is hard, and I see it as especially hard when there are determined enemies who try and strangle it," Rice said when asked about the "birth pangs" remark during a news conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
Matthew 24:6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
8All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Ezekiel 38: 21 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man's sword will be against his brother.
22 I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. 23 And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.'
Ezekiel 39: 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will show myself holy through them in the sight of many nations.
28 Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind.
29 I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD."
It has often been stated that the goal of the Bush Administration has been to establish democracy in the theocratic strongholds of the Middle East. Think of the transformation of Japan after WW2, and then extend that into all nations, the development of a global democratic matrix.
Iraq has shown us that democratization there is no piece of cake. So it is interesting to hear Condoleeza Rice using the figure "birth pangs." Jesus used this illustration to picture the time of His return and the end of the age. The end of what age? The age He was innaugurating: what we now might call "the Church Age," or the "times of the Gentiles."
During these nearly 2,000 years, the Jewish people have been in exile from their land, and suffered in other nations, as their prophet Ezekiel had predicted. Also, as Ezekiel said, they would be brought back, and the nations, particularly in the north, would wind up coming down against them. But the times leading up to this global war would be characterized by "birth pangs" in the Middle East. Perhaps that is exactly what we are seeing now, in a world troubled by terrorism and the upheaval of wars in this region.
2 comments:
Al, this is mind blowing. I am going to copy what i just emailed you on one of Clives emails. Your analysis is right on Brother.
I was just reading Romans 11,12,13,14,1,5,16. Paul really believe the Jew, Israel proper, the 12 tribes, will come back and recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Messiah. Our pastor has been teaching out of Zechariah , Eze. 38 and Rev 20. and last night was looking at the end time scriptures about Gog and magog. I noticed as we were looking at the players in all that . Gog the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal and all these player mentioned in Eze 38 are around Iran and Iraq. All will eventually attack Israel. Now here is my observation on this as I was listening to our Pastor put the present day names on these ancient nations. Where is America and the Church in all this? I of course do not believe that God would take the Hope of the world out of the world when his plan is to save the world. Christ in us is the Hope of Glory and the whole earth shall be full of the glory of the Lord from the east to the west. Any way here is the tie in. Maybe Israel and Jerusalem when Mentioned in the latter day, day of the Lord, end time context is the Grafted together Church, Jew and gentile? Maybe the battle is in the heavens or in Spiritual palaces and the Church becomes Life from the Dead when Jew and Gentile are one in Christ. What a Army of the Lord that would be. The Jew with all of their Brilliance and Blessing and Promise coupled with a 2000 year old body of Christ in a end time war both in the heavens and on the earth. Then God would just do as he has done for Israel in the past, supernaturally destroy the works of the devil. A Jew Witness coupled with a Gentile witness destroying sickness, sin, and the destruction of the earth by working the works of Christ as well as working the works of science, medicine, engineering and so on. Fill a Jew with the Holy Ghost and Life from the dead is not a dream. This all came to me as I listened to our pastor last night but it all ties into this thread. God bless ya
ps can you get rid of the word verifcation to post. it takes me to long.
Sorry about that. I'll see if I can do anything. It does it when I answer too. I don't know if it is because some of the posts are so long or if we hit on something controversial awhile back, like discussing the Protocols.
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