WILL IRAN AND ISRAEL TRIGGER DOOMSDAY?

Okay, here we go! I have to deal with this one. It’s the 400-pound gorilla usurping my couch.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, a classy guy and an incredibly astute one, told reporter David Ignatius recently that there is a strong possibility that Israel may attack Iran this coming April, May or June.

Why would Israel attack Iran? Well, Iran has vowed to wipe Israel off the map and is reported developing nuclear capabilities that might just help the Iranians do that. As all of us old enough to recall the Seven Days War know, Israelis can kick ass and take names. They have their backs to the sea and almost all of the Mideast ready to pounce on them like feral cats on a hapless – or in this case, not so hapless – mouse. 

So, naturally, Donald L. Brake, Sr., writing in the ultra-conservative Washington Times, asks “Does the Bible say anything about Iran and a nuclear attack on Israel?”

“Persia was one of the greatest empires of the ancient world,” Brake explains. “The Persians flourished and dominated the geo-political landscape from 539-331BC. The Bible records the fall of the Babylonian Empire to the Persians. This set the stage for the return of the Hebrew people to Jerusalem about 538-445BC following their seventy-year Babylonian captivity (606-536 BC).”

Brake builds a biblical framework here, going on and on about Armageddon, end of days, predictions and prophesies, etc., etc.

“While there is no evidence from Scripture that Iran will strike a nuclear blow to Israel or the US, Scripture implies that the end times conditions are present in the 21st century. Israel has been brought back into the ‘promised land’ and is a sovereign state. Jerusalem remains the center of prophecy and modern controversy. An Iranian nuclear attack on Israel would set the world on a course closely related to biblical descriptions of the events of the end times.”

Did you get that? “While there is no evidence from Scripture that Iran will strike a nuclear blow to Israel or the US…” However, if Iran does attack, it “would set the world on a course closely related to biblical descriptions of the events of the end times.”

I tell you, this stuff gets weird. Brake goes on at some length about prophesies of Ezekiel, Zech and, of course, Revelations. The thing of which I always remind myself is that many of the biblical “prophets” received prophesies after cutting open a dead goat and reading them in its entrails.

I may have fallen off a turnip truck, but I didn’t fall off of it last night.