This Month we will highlight three separate incidents which, taken in isolation, indicate little, but taken as a whole, point to the startling accuracy of God’s prophecies concerning the latter days.
Iran purchasing nuclear reactors
It was announced March 5, 1998, that Russia would sell nuclear reactors to Iran As reported in the New York Times, March 6, 1998 “Georgy Kaurov, a spokesman for Russia’s Atomic Energy Ministry, said in an interview that an ‘agreement m principle’ concerning future reactor sales had been reached in recent talks in Tehran between Iranian officials and Vladimir Bulgak, a Russian deputy prime minister” As can be expected, the political ramifications of the reactor sales outweigh the immediate implications for security m the volatile Middle East.
Russia obtains much-needed hard currency and Iran obtains additional electrical energy With transactions of this nature, one government has to assure the other the reactors will be used for civilian purposes only The New York Times reports “The Russians insist the reactors would be used for civilian purposes and would be subject to international inspections But American officials say the reactors would enable Iran to develop the expertise it needed to launch a clandestine weapons program and could be used by Tehran to mask the illicit purchase of nuclear technology”
In order to alleviate the worried Americans, the Russians provided assurances that the nuclear program with Iran would not be expanded The New York Times continues “Officials say that Clinton also received a private assurance from President Boris Yeltsin that Russia would not expand its nuclear cooperation” However these assurances provided by the Russian president do not include this comprehensive sale to Iran, which includes several additional reactors to be built over the next several years.
The main threat of this purchase is that Iran can now procure nuclear supplies, including nuclear fuel, from several sources This will allow them to expand their nuclear weapons program almost at will The nuclear program combined with Iran’s recent submarine and weapons purchases (February, 1998) will afford Iran the opportunity of becoming a formidable foe in the Middle East Thus, as prophecy indicates, Russia and Iran remain allies under improbable circumstances.
Russia and Ukraine
Over the past few months, it has been interesting to note that Russia and Ukraine have started to go their separate ways, taking divergent political paths Although this development is not necessary for God’s prophecies to be fulfilled, it is interesting to notice that the political boundaries are now starting to mirror the religious boundaries The Ukraine is primarily Catholic and the Russian republic is primarily Orthodox.
The New York Times reported, March 6, 1998 “The United States signed an agreement in Kiev under which Ukraine would withdraw from the Russian program to build a reactor at Bushehr, ban” The article indicated that Ukraine’s state-owned turbine manufacturing facility would not provide turbines for the Russian project Interestingly, in spite of the fact that Israel is not geographically associated with Ukraine, they formally publicized the pledge that the turbine firm would not be participating in the nuclear program Israel remains sensitive to the threat from the north even though Russia may seem weakened by comparison to her former power.
Former Yugoslavia
One of the most fascinating aspects of scriptural prophecy is Nebuchadnezzar’s image in Daniel As most Bible students are aware, this image (depicting successive world empires) is divided at the legs, never to be joined together again until our Master returns The Roman Empire, covered by the thigh and leg portion of the image, was divided into two unique areas, the eastern portion be-mg ruled from Constantinople and the western portion from Rome Today, these two areas are differentiated by their respective religious organizations The Roman Catholic Church is the dominant church in the western portion and the Orthodox church dominates religion in the east The area that encompassed the former Yugoslavia marked the division line between east and west Currently the situation in this region reflects the perpetual division indicated m scripture.
The New York Times reported March 10, 1998, that the situation in this area has sunk to new depths by noting, “The bodies of 51 ethnic Albanians, their lower torsos wrapped m white sheets, lay stretched out m two rows on the cement floor of an old garage on Monday as a steady rain pelted the tiled roof The bodies, a few burned beyond recognition, included 25 women and small children Most bore the small, dark, red holes of bullet wounds The skulls of some of them were shattered, and one was decapitated” The release of the bodies brings the number of ethnic Albanians known to have been killed in the fighting in the last week to at least 77, and dozens more remain missing
Pointing to the kingdom
As we look at these three separate events we realize that the hand of God is inexorably, zealously at work, not only in the Middle East but around the world Let us pray that the “stone cut out of the mountain without hands” will quickly return and “break in pieces” the image (kingdom of men) as recorded in the book of Daniel, “and the stone (Christ) that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth” (Dan 2:34-35, 44-45).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One