Epicenter

I think the question at the forefront of my mind is.... How many people in the world are aware and take seriously the prophecies of Ezekiel 38 and 39? Up until a few weeks ago (and even now only have a sliver of understanding), not much of what is happening in the Middle East and Russia was even on my radar. Sure, I know there's the "War on Terror" and being located right next to Fort Lewis, a US Army Base - I hear of the troops leaving and returning overseas. But for the most part, I have lived most of my life in a pretty little bubble unaware of the world events right outside my happy Christian life / church doors. My heart in this moment is not to criticize the church or even lump everyone in one spot of blindness; I know there are many intelligent and informed Christians who are not only on their knees in intercession, but are also tangibly influencing society. I feel like my first response is to ask for forgiveness from fellow Christians for not pursuing education on these world events. My naivety has only increased the appropriate accsations towards Christians as being uninformed and uneducated. Secondly, I find it also necessary to repent on behalf of the "Church of America" as a whole for the same blindness. I sense it is God's grace waking up the church during this season of the 2008 Presidential Election for the United States. I see him provoking the church to be in a spot with a keen mind regarding the state of our nation... But I still feel a lot of slumber in the church with regards to national and international issues. And for that I again ask for forgiveness and realize that only through my own initiation and taking personal ownership of becoming educated and then taking personal action will I be walking in repentance...

So back to my original question... (Thank you for letting me diverge.) I may be the only one in complete darkness about end-times prophecy, but have any of you read and seriously considered the implications of Ezekiel 38 and 39 in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible? Like I said, up until a few weeks ago when I read the news about NATO cooling off relations with Russia due to it's invasion of Georgia, I hadn't thought much about Russia... Or much about the rest of the world outside of my comfy US borders. But something stirred in my heart when I read these articles. For some reason I was provoked to read about The Cold War. Please keep in mind that I've never been a historical guru - Most of it becomes a big pile of dates and key people whose names become like spaghetti code in my more prominent logical mind... Anyway, I read a few articles and the history of The Cold War on Wikipedia... About this time, I also had a conversation with a good friend about a book I was reading this summer called, Jesus For President. Shane Claiborne's emphasizes peace and loving our enemies based on references to scripture. She proposed to me that 1) there is real evil in our world and 2) we cannot merely negotiate with this evil. Evil must be dealt with and overcome. My thoughts felt jumbled and both sides made "sense". When I looked at the scriptures Shane referred to, the pursuit of peace made sense. However, thinking of evil in light of Spiritual Warfare the idea of compromising and negotiating with the enemy - over anything - like my heart for example, sounds ridiculous! There is no way, I am going to let the enemy have territory that the Lord has redeemed as his own. Anyway... Moving on, my friend suggested I read this book called Epicenter by Joel Rosenberg. She said it would bring insight into what is happening in the Middle East...

I started reading it several weeks ago but only yesterday while snuggled up in bed with touches of the cold and flew did I get past the first couple chapters and into some of the meat of the book. I was shocked. I had never perceived the current events that litter the news in light of the prophecy in Ezekiel 38 and 39. In summary if you haven't read much about these two chapters, there is a leader Gog who rises out of a major northern country Magog and aligns itself with several other countries to target and invade Israel. Joel is a fictional author who has a line of connections to Middle Eastern leaders and international/national affluent political figures. He began writing these novels corresponding to the current political/international events and shocked the world as these events slowly evolved into reality. There are so many details that go into the prophecy and I encourage you to pick up his book... And check out some of the headlines that have crossed the pages of newspapers over the past 60 years. It really is stunning. Like Joel encourages, "to truly understand the significance of global events and trends, one must analyze them through a third lens as well: the lens of Scripture. Only then can the full picture become clearer." (The other two being politics and economics).

So I guess the purpose of my blog is to provoke your thoughts. Or maybe you've already been provoked? What's your response? Have you formulated any opinions? I am sure there are many who are opposed to Joel's biblical perspective and to be honest (and may frankly think this perspective is nuts), but I've not read any of their arguments yet... I guess I'm more interested in knowing if there are other believers out there who have explored this worldview and how it's affected your understanding and pursuit of understanding of the current Middle Eastern scene...

I'd love to hear your thoughts...