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Protests in Iran, threats from North Korea, are we in the last days?

 

Over the past week, protests in Iran have grown because many feel the Iranian election was rigged. The odd thing is, I knew the election would be rigged way before it happened. Am I some kind of psychic or Iranian expert? No, I’m just someone who reads about that part of the world and how it works. We should remember though that in any situation there is more than meets the eye. News is now coming out of Iran that there were election irregularities and just yesterday there was official word in Iran that there were more votes cast than there were eligible voters. Now we don’t know what the means, because Iran might come out and say that that was because of foreign interference. However, it seems that more and more people in Iran, including some of the religious leaders in that country are coming down on the side of the protesters.

 

Iran may be about to undergo another revolution that almost no one predicted. Of course it could just be that another Tiananmen Square style crackdown is coming and Iran will continue the direction it has been going. Even if there was a coup in Iran, that doesn’t signal that Iran is headed for a better direction necessarily. Whoever comes to power next may still favor building nukes or even be more direct about it.

 

One thing I don’t understand, if I could see the Iranian elections would probably be rigged, wouldn’t most people and certainly the leaders in Iran know this? Maybe just the average citizen was blind to the truth and now some religious leaders see that the future is to hop on the protester bandwagon, so that they can continue in power in any future government. It could also be that the average Iranian saw that President Obama and the West would do nothing to help them remove their oppressive dictatorship and saw now as the time to move on their own.

 

Now consider the situation in North Korea. That regime seems to keep raising the stakes in its war of words against the United States and the world. North Korea has supposedly tested two nuclear bombs and is said to be working on a third test. North Korea seems to be testing a lot of missiles also and now may be planning on firing one towards Hawaii on the fourth of July. Many experts have said that it is all talk from North Korea and they won’t really do anything to provoke us. They could be wrong. The United States has done nothing to show it won’t tolerate North Korea’s actions. North Korea may actually feel threatened but emboldened enough that they will launch an attack against South Korea or the United States or both. I admit it doesn’t seem likely. Maybe President Obama will call on North Korea’s bluffs and we will see that North Korea is a paper tiger and the regime will crumble.

 

With the world in the turmoil that it has been in for the last few years, many Christians have considered that maybe we are in the last days. There have certainly been a number of popular books about the end times, including the twelve book Left Behind series and several books by Joel Rosenberg. In one of Rosenberg’s books, he said that although it may seem like the end is near it has seemed like that before and God “kicked the can down the road” so to speak and the impending trouble dissipated and the world continued. Rosenberg also said that could happen again with our current geopolitical situation and troubles. Of course God is in control. He could be intervening in our world to give us more time to turn to Him. The Bible says “The lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” This is indeed good news for sinful mankind. Of course no one knows the thoughts of God and we can only guess to the direction the world is heading. We should be watchmen on the wall and we should pay attention to what is happening so that we will not be completely blindsided but be prepared for whatever is coming. I think we are on the cusp of some major changes. At this point it is hard to tell which direction the world will go. The Bible also tells us in Ephesians “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” So let us remember that in this world there is a spiritual battle taking place and that that battle is more important than the ones we see with our eyes. Watch and pray.