WWIII part 3: The Middle East

At least I’m not the only one calling it World War Three anymore. I’m starting to see WWIII headlines across major media outlets.

There are so many bad things happening now, all at once, we might get ‘news-fatigue’ and fail to see the signs of the times.

The U.S. and the U.K. have attacked more than 60 different targets in the country of Yemen, to Israel’s south. The targets were said to be support sites for the Houthi rebels in their attacks on American and other shipping in the Red Sea. Nearly all the targets contained ammunition, drones, and missiles supplied to the Houthis by Iran.

Who are the Houthis, and what are they doing in Yemen?

The Houthis are Shia Muslims. (Islam is split into two major factions – Shia and Sunni. They don’t get along, but they are united in hatred of Israel.) Houthi rebels overthrew the (Sunni) Yemeni government in 2014, with the help of Shia-led Iran. Sunni-run countries like Saudi Arabia have been trying to reinstate the proper government of Yemen ever since, so far to no avail.

By attacking the Houthis on Yemeni soil, the U.S. and U.K. and their allies (the biblical 'King of the South') are attacking Iran by proxy. Iran is allied with the 'king of the north', Russia.

Meanwhile, South Africa has formally brought charges against Israel in the U.N. for war crimes associated with their attacks on Hamas-led Gaza. Turkey has backed South Africa’s charges. 

As Hamas attacks Israel from the west, Hezbollah is launching drones and firing rockets and guided missiles into Israel from Lebanon to Israel’s north. Israel retaliates in kind, firing at Hezbollah targets within Lebanon They have killed hundreds of Hezbollah, in addition to thousands of Lebanese civilians and the tens of thousands they have killed in Gaza. (The actual government of Lebanon doesn’t approve of Hezbollah, but claims it can’t stop them and isn’t responsible for them.)

Like the Houthis, Hezbollah is backed by Iran. Unlike the Houthis, the Hezbollah threat is vast – they are believed to have 150,000 missiles aimed at Israel.

Powerful as Israel is, they are unlikely to be able to succeed against Hamas, Houthis, and Hezbollah without help. The U.S. has 40,000 troops deployed to Israel. They had to recall an aircraft carrier from the Mediterranean after its mission had been extended twice due to the Ukraine war and other threats. With the new troubles, they moved a different aircraft carrier into the Red Sea. Iran claims they, too, have moved their carrier to the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, the war between Russia and Ukraine may have left the headlines, but it has not gone away. The ‘clay and iron’ problem in the U.S. government has delayed funding for Ukraine and hindered funding for Israel. Once-neutral Sweden has vowed to increase military spending, is urging its citizens to start preparing for war, and is encouraging its youth to volunteer for military service.

And on the other side of the world from all of that, Venezuela has decided to move its border and grab about half of the country of its neighbor Guyana, after gold and oil were discovered there. That should be a local squabble except that Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America, has asked the U.K. for help. And Britain responded that they will “ensure Guyana’s territorial integrity” no matter what. They now have a British warship standing off the coast. Venezuela in turn accused the British of destabilizing the area. The U.S. has made the same pledge. 

And Russia recently moved warships into the area to show their support for Venezuela.

So, for those of you keeping score at home:

The King of the North - Russia and its allies, including Iran and Venezuela - is shoving against the King of the South - America, Britain, Israel, and their allies. However it works out, perhaps we’ll hear ‘Peace and Security!’ when it’s over. (Daniel 2:43; Daniel 11:40; 1 Thessalonians 5:3)

 You can read Part One of this series by clicking here. You can read Part Two here.

Your polite comments are welcome. 

 

 Bill K. Underwood is the author of several novels and one non-fiction self-help book, all available at Amazon.com. You can help support this page by purchasing one of his books.

 

 

 

World War Three? Part Two: Israel and Hamas

In Part One of this series, I speculated that we might be seeing the start of World War Three. Recent events seem to be building the case for that likelihood.

The Russia/Ukraine war shows no sign of stopping. In the nearly two years since it began, Belarus has made clear that they are firmly on Russia’s side. Despite efforts by the majority of U.N. members to choke off aid to Russia, some countries have given either tacit approval or active aid to Russia’s aggression, including:

• China
• India
• Iran
• North Korea
• Syria
• Myanmar
• Eritrea
• Mali
• Nicaragua

In October, 2023, China hosted Russian leader Putin at an economic meeting that was also attended by Hungary’s president, Viktor Orban. Orban shook Putin’s hand and expressed his eagerness to “expand contacts.” He said, “Hungary never wanted to confront Russia.”  

On the other side of the hostilities, Finland joined NATO in April, 2023, taking their stand against Russia after decades of neutrality. In October, Finland accused Russia of sabotaging an undersea pipeline and telecommunications cable, possibly as a retaliatory move.

Sweden, after a long-standing policy of neutrality, also applied to join NATO in May, 2022, allying themselves against Russia. They, too, reported damage to an undersea cable. They haven’t yet blamed Russia, but the implication is there.

Russia seems to have a split personality: They have a strong anti-extremist policy which they have used against Islamic organizations within Russia (which they have weirdly applied to decidedly non-extremists, like Jehovah’s Witnesses). But they have also always kept an open mind toward Islamic governments outside Russia. They trade, for example, for military drones from Iran. Iran doesn’t need Russia’s oil, but they do import billions of dollars worth of other goods from them.

Russia also has strong diplomatic ties to Israel. Until now, Israel has not joined most of the World in sanctioning Russia for its attacks on Ukraine. A significant portion of Israelis hail from Russia, and a Russian speaker can navigate quite comfortably in Israel.

Just as nations chose up sides in 2022 between Russia and Ukraine, they are now having to choose between Israel and Hamas. (To read my column on the origin of the modern-day state of Israel, click here.)

Hamas is described as an Islamic extremist group or terrorist organization, depending on who’s doing the describing. They disagreed with the peace treaty worked out between Israel and Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian organization back in Bill Clinton’s day. Hamas maintains, as the pre-Arafat Palestinians did, that Israel has no right to exist and should be exterminated. They began ‘poking the bear’ with small attacks against Israelis in the early 2000s. From 2007 on, Israel has walled off the densely populated, tiny Palestinian metropolis known as the Gaza Strip, turning it into a virtual outdoor prison. Anyone entering or leaving Gaza had to be cleared either through a gate east to Israel or a gate south to Egypt. 

On October 7, 2023, Hamas fired an estimated 2,200 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel. Where did they get the rockets? Some say they were manufactured in Iran; Iran denies it. Just as the Mexican drug cartels dug under the southern border of the United States, Hamas dug tunnels under the border with Egypt to bring in rockets and other contraband from - somewhere. They also seem to have learned how to make rockets themselves.

Coordinated with the rocket attacks, they also launched ground attacks against the checkpoints into Israel and began killing random Israelis in villages and kibbutz’s outside the Strip, grabbing hundreds of hostages and dragging them back inside.  They took hostage many other non-Palestinians who were already within the Gaza Strip.

With the open war between Israel and Hamas, unsurprisingly the United States and most of NATO have come to the aid of or expressed support for Israel. Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen, Qatar, and Lebanon have all expressed their support for Hamas, as have the terror groups Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad and others.

True Christians are strictly neutral as to world politics. But that doesn’t mean we are uninterested. We are saddened by the harm, stress, and loss of life in all countries affected by war. But these stressful conditions reaffirm that we are, absolutely, seeing the signs the Bible told us to watch for.

Only two major signs remain unfulfilled.

The next one calls for a significant cry of ‘Peace and Security!’ As we’ve discussed in previous columns, that cry could come in several different ways: 1. A dramatic end to a very large scale war, such as happened at the end of World War Two; 2. A change in the U.N.'s methods or ability to regulate international relations; 3. A shift in the human condition - such as a technological 'miracle' or a significant economic change - that causes the populace to begin saying that they personally are feeling more peaceful and secure than they ever have.

Personally, I’ve always expected the latter. I even speculated about it in my novel Resurrection Day. But if the fulfillment requires the declaration of peace at the end of a major war, then the current crises could escalate to exactly that climax.

 You can read Part One by clicking here. You can read Part Three here.

Your polite comments are welcome. 

 

 Bill K. Underwood is the author of several novels and one non-fiction self-help book, all available at Amazon.com. You can help support this site by purchasing a book.

 

Are we witnessing the beginning of World War Three?

 

My whole life, "World War Three" has always been shorthand for total nuclear annihilation. It became an expression, like hell freezing over, or when pigs fly. 

For most of us common folk, it wasn’t a reality. It didn’t have any literal meaning. The theory was that, once one nuclear missile was launched, all of them, in every country that had them, would be launched, leading to total global annihilation. We learned expressions like “nuclear winter,” and “mutually assured destruction.” Surely no one would actually do that, we reasoned. The way we dealt with that unimaginable threat was to move it, in our minds, to the level of a nightmare, fantasy, and finally to several Hollywood storylines, which only went to prove that it was unthinkable. 

There surely would never actually be a World War Three, right? And when the Berlin Wall fell, we told ourselves, ‘See? Nothing to worry about.’

Albert Einstein famously said, “I don’t know what weapons will be used in World War 3, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones.”

But what if Einstein was wrong?

The problem with making WWIII the ultimate bogeyman is that it minimizes the millions of lives lost and the massive destruction that has happened over and over again since the end of WWII in places like Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Panama, Grenada, the Falkland Islands, Kenya, Cyprus, Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Congo... ‘At least it wasn’t World War Three, right?’

Winston Churchill and other notables have said, ‘Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.’ Putin and I are the same age, so I know he remembers Winston Churchill. But neither of us was alive back when Hitler was more than just ink on the pages of a history book.

World War I wasn’t called that while it was going on. Initially, it was simply called “the July Crisis.” But then other players joined. Russia threw its weight behind Serbia, prompting Germany to back Austria-Hungary, which caused Britain and France to join the Serbs and Russians against the Germans. By the end of 1914, it was being called the World War. You can read a column I wrote about the first World War, and the Church's involvement in it, here.

When Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, no one immediately announced WWII. A week later, when Time magazine used the term ‘World War II’, it was in a speculative sense, similar to the way I used the term World War III in my headline. But it caught on.

So far in the current crisis, Putin has thrown a significant military attack at Ukraine, killing thousands, similar to how Hitler threw his “blitzkrieg” (lightning attack) at Poland. Ukraine’s president Zelensky has warned that if Ukraine falls, Putin will push into Poland, Moldova, Finland, Sweden and Norway, as well as points south. Turkey must know it is a desirable target as well because of its control of access into and out of the Black Sea. Talking heads have opined that Putin won’t resort to nukes unless he feels that an enemy invasion onto Russian soil threatens Russia’s “soul”, its identity as a nation. And it’s not World War Three unless it goes nuclear, right? Right?

The majority of the world’s governments have strongly condemned the attack on Ukraine. They are sending money and weapons to Ukraine, freezing Russian assets, squeezing off shipments of goods into Russia, and refusing to buy goods from Russia. As I noted in my previous column, Russia was voted out of the Human Rights council at the U.N., and some nations have called for Russia's removal from the Security Council. On the other hand, Russia does have some allies in Belarus, Armenia, Iran and Syria, who might back Putin's push into other countries.

 At what point would we start calling it World War Three?

If you’ve read this column before, you know the focus is, not simply world events, but how those world events fulfill Bible prophecy. Does the current situation have anything to do with Bible prophecy?

Jesus foretold as part of his sign of “the last days” that people would see wars. ‘So what,’ you may say. ‘There have always been wars.’ True. But notice how he worded it in Matthew 24:6. “You will continually hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end of the age.” (Amplified Bible)

There were wars in Jesus’ day. He knew there would continue to be wars until the ‘end of the age.’ That’s why he gave a multi-part sign. But note how he continued: “For nation shall be roused up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in diverse places.” (Luke 21:10,11, Haweis NT) These have been dubbed ‘the Big Four’ features of the sign of the last days: war, famine, pestilences (like the pandemic) and earthquakes. 

The huge war between England and France in the late 1700s/early 1800s had many believing they were seeing the Big Four. that conflict between Wellington and Napoleon drew in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, America and other countries. Accompanying the war was famine as farmers became soldiers and fields were left uncultivated, and soldiers stripped the foodstuffs from the countries they ravaged. Pestilence rose in the form of widespread diseases among the soldiers in the camps on both sides, which quickly spread to nearby civilians. There was even an earthquake in Crete that killed 2,000 people. 

But Bible scholars knew something was still missing.

In Matthew 24:14 Jesus added one more detail to watch for: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end of the age will come.” John Calvin who lived in a turbulent time in the 1500s wrote that “to this day not even the slightest report concerning Christ has reached the Antipodes [what came to be called Australia] and other very distant nations.” Matthew Poole, a Bible commentator who wrote in the late 1600’s, recognized that ‘all nations’ meant the entire earth.  “Though the Holy Scriptures, and ecclesiastical historians, give us a somewhat large account of the gospel being preached in Europe, Asia, and in Africa, yet we have little account from any of them of its being preached in America.” In 1706, Matthew Henry wrote, “The gospel shall be preached, and that work carried on ...so that all nations, first or last, shall have either the enjoyment, or the refusal, of the gospel.” In the mid-1850s commentator Campbell Morgan wrote: “Some claim that this has already been done, and that therefore the end of the age is necessarily close at hand. This conclusion is open to grave doubt.”

Is there still ‘grave doubt’? In the century-and-a-half since Morgan’s time, the good news has literally reached every nation. The Bible is the most widely translated book in the world, by a huge margin. The most widely translated website on the internet is jw.org, whose entire mission is the preaching of the good news of the kingdom.  

Another reason to give thought to World War Three: serious students of the Bible are watching for the fulfillment of Paul’s words at 1 Thessalonians 5:3. “For when they shall say: Peace and tranquility; then sudden destruction will come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.”

The greatest cry of peace in recent history was the end of World War 2. And that obviously was not the fulfillment of 1 Thessalonians 5:3, since the end didn't happen afterward... Perhaps because Matthew 24:14 had yet to be fulfilled. But that is no longer the case.

If this war in Ukraine grows into World War Three, could the announcement of the war's end be the expected cry of peace?

Time will tell. Click here to go to Part Two.

Bill K. Underwood is the author of several books, all available at Amazon.com. You can support this site by purchasing a book.