A Demonic Revolution

On November 4, 1979, the U.S. Embassy in Tehran would be overrun by fanatical Muslims. This happened despite the Carter Administration’s support for the deposing of the secular Shah of Iran, who was ousted in favor of the religious cleric and extremist, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in the Iranian Revolution, which established Iran as theocratic and radical Islamic state.

A March 1979 referendum gave the Iranian people only two basic choices for which to vote: Yes, they wished an Islamic Republic; or no, they did not wish an Islamic Republic. Overwhelmingly, the people voted yes, although few Iranians knew what Khomeini meant by “Islamic Republic.” The new constitution drawn up by Khomeini’s emerging Islamic Republican Party was vastly different from that proposed by the moderates. The core of the resulting document endowed Khomeini as the ruler of Iran for life, or velayat-e faqih (guardianship of the jurisprudence.) The rule of law, of course, was Islam.

By summer’s end in 1979, Khomeini’s true vision began to be revealed. Far from establishing the enlightened, democratic government anticipated by some U.S. State Department employees, Khomeini, now the supreme leader of Iran, created a medieval Islamic totalitarian state controlled by the mullahs and ayatollahs. It was defined by intolerance, censorship, revenge, tyranny, vile torture, and executions. Khomeini’s murderous attacks against the Shah’s former officials had spread to include ethnic and religious cleansing.

Rule by “scapegoat” seemed to be the order of the day under Khomeini. When his government or authority was challenged, he looked for someone to blame. His first target were the Kurds in Northern Iran. They were avowed enemies of the Ayatollah and his Islamic Republic, and open season was declared against the Kurdish population.
Khomeini soon found an enemy to unite his people—the “Great Satan,” the United States of America. In an illegal act of war, he unleashed his forces on the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, capturing diplomats and security officials stationed there. For more than a year, the hostages were held, facing the threat of execution as spies at any moment. A failed military attempt to rescue them and the lingering crisis helped prevent the reelection of Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Empowered by his assault on the Shah and the success of his Islamic Revolution, Khomeini set forth to spread his particular brand of Arab nationalism throughout the Middle East. Next on his list was Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime in Iraq. Khomeini’s tactic of engaging the people had worked in Iran; why would it not work again in Iraq? The Ayatollah had begun to exhort the Iraqi people to rebel against Hussein’s government. Iranian terrorists had attacked principal Iraqi leaders. In response, Saddam Hussein invaded Iran.

Khomeini saw the Iraq invasion as the perfect vehicle to bring the Ba’athist regime to its knees. He was forced to repair relations with other Persian Gulf states, reach out to the Europeans, and even contemplate talks with the dreaded “Great Satan.” It was a setback to his hopes of uniting the Arab world under the banner of his Islamic revolution. His only real success was the export of Hezbollah to Lebanon, and even that was tied more to the destruction of Israel than to a globe-encircling Arab state. Khomeini firmly believed Israel was simply a diversion instituted by the West to keep Muslims from uniting as one.

Lured by the turmoil in Iran, seduced by visions of power, and backed by other Persian Gulf regimes, Hussein was determined to conquer his equally oil-rich neighbor. Like so many others, Hussein may have thought the chaotic take-over in Iran, the execution of so many of the military hierarchy, and Khomeini’s lack of experience in conducting warfare, would open the door to a swift and decisive victory for the Iraqis. He was as wrong as those who thought Khomeini was only interested in spiritual matters. Khomeini rallied the troops in Iran and somehow produced an effective war machine to repel the Iraqis.

It seemed that nearly the entire world sided with Saddam Hussein against Iran. In Iraq’s corner were Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which infused Iraq’s coffers with billions in loans and grants. Support came primarily from the Gulf States that viewed Iran as the greater danger. Also involved in furnishing arms and other war materiel to Hussein were Egypt, Jordan, the United States, France, the USSR, and the PLO. Iran’s backing came from Syria, North Korea, Libya, and China…mostly in the form of missiles.
It took two long years of death and destruction before the UN Security Council stepped in to seek troop withdrawals. It would be another five years before questions of chemical warfare used by Hussein against Iran’s troops and civilian population would arise.

Khomeini’s newly-instituted “Government of God” failed to draw the majority of the Arab world to his side; in reality, the opposite was true: Iran became abhorrent and friendless, especially in the Gulf region, and squandered its most productive resource—oil revenues—by slowing oil production. At the same time, Saddam Hussein was taking advantage of the chaotic situation in Iran to bolster his relationship with the U.S. There are those who believe the U.S. may have subtly encouraged the Iran-Iraq conflict because of what it surmised to be the benefits of such an encounter. Khomeini, who had shunned both Washington and Tel Aviv, was suddenly faced with the dilemma of how to hold off an invasion by Saddam Hussein without much-needed spare parts and arms from both the U.S. and Israel.

After eight long and bloody years, on August 20, 1988, an embittered Khomeini agreed to the UN Security Council Resolution for an immediate ceasefire. In the aftermath, nothing was resolved between the two nations. Besides the horrific loss of human life, the toll to achieve this impasse was a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars and the disruption and wreckage of the oil fields in both countries. One major outcome of the war, however, was to produce a growing alliance between Iran and Syria and a slackening of the relationship between Khomeini and Arafat’s PLO.

TERROR’S PAYMASTERS

A precedent was set with Iran under President Jimmy Carter which still proves true today. The U.S. (and the rest of the civilized world) appears to cower behind a group of allies that are powerless to implement any viable restrictions on the former Persian Empire. The world is once again being challenged by a new generation of leaders who were trained in Khomeini’s madrasas (Islamic schools).

The reach of the mullahs who effectively rule in Tehran is not restricted to Iran. In a treatise by Israeli General (Ret.) Moshe Yaalon, he writes, “According to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Iran’s Syrian partners, the Second Lebanon War [August 2006] was launched by Hezbollah—Iran’s proxy—as a hostile probe of U.S. reflexes via the engagement of Israel, which for Iran and Syria is a direct extension of Washington in the Middle East.”

It is apparent that Tehran wishes to neutralize America’s influence in the Middle East as a major step in the plan to defeat Western civilization. This was on bitter display during the Second Iraq War when Iranian explosives and military experts wrought the deaths of numerous American troops in IED explosions, suicide bombings, and more. Iran is the greatest source of funding for terrorism in the modern world.

We have seen the result of that funding over the last 15 months as the nation of Israel has been under constant attack from both Hamas and Hezbollah. Every Jewish man, woman, and child killed by terrorist guns, rockets, mortars, knives, drones, and missiles is dead because of Iran. Even though Israel has had some success weakening Hezbollah and Hamas and removing their leadership, there is still a grave threat.

It is obvious to me that Iran has a long-term plan to take control of the Middle East by using proxies: Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, along with Shiite groups in Iraq and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Unless the Western world takes this threat seriously, things will rapidly get much worse.

Tragically, one of the final acts of the Obama Administration was to send a plane loaded with hundreds of millions of dollars of untraceable cash to the mullahs of Tehran. This payment, supposedly part of a settlement of a legal dispute dating back almost 40 years, was a massive windfall for Iran. The declining price of oil combined with economic sanctions leveled because of their illegal nuclear program had put a serious crimp on Iran’s economy. But this cash infusion gave them the resources to both continue their nuclear progress and increase their funding of terrorism. They have used the four years since President Trump left office to further both of those evil goals.

One of the most disturbing facets of the extremely radical version of Islam that rules in Tehran is the belief that an apocalypse must occur before the Mahdi returns. So, regardless of the suicidal nature of such an action, the leaders of Iran believe they have a divine mission to bring about this apocalypse by triggering an international war through a nuclear attack on Israel. There is no higher status than that of martyr in the Iranian version of Shi’ite Islam. A religious fascination with suicide fundamentally changes the definition of the behavior which rests at the center of all calculations—that the risk of mutually assured destruction will deter a head of state from initiating a nuclear war. Ironically, a suicidal leader motivated by religious mysticism might actually be attracted to a nuclear war. And if not, the threat of Iran arming one of their terrorist proxies with nuclear weapons they hope might not be traced back to them looms dark as the centrifuges continue to spin.

IRAN’S NUCLEAR
WEAPONS PROGRAM

I was speaking to one of Israel’s top nuclear scientists following a high-level briefing on the security situation facing the Jewish state, and he told me something I haven’t been able to forget: “Mike, Iran is a screwdriver turn away from having a nuclear bomb.”

Though the Western world has done a lot of talking about stopping Iran’s nuclear program, there are more centrifuges spinning today across the Islamic republic than there were at the beginning of the talking, and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium has continued to grow rapidly. No serious observer doubts that Iran already has enough nuclear material to make atomic bombs, and there have been disturbing reports that they are partnering with North Korea and Russia to improve their missile capacity as well.

This is a serious threat…to Israel…to the Middle East…to America…and to the rest of the world.

Powerful demonic spirits are at work in the world, and they have blinded the minds of world leaders to the evil Iran is doing…and the even greater evil they are plotting. It is a proven fact that Iran is the leading sponsor of terrorism in the world. I was in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1983, when a Hezbollah terrorist, armed and trained by Iran blew up the barracks killing more than 240 American Marines that I had preached the Gospel to just the day before.

Over half of the U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq were killed by IEDs provided by Iran or by terrorist groups that they armed and trained. Iran has given Hamas and Hezbollah tens of thousands of rockets and missiles to fire against Israel. Iran is working on nuclear weapons—and they are terrifyingly close to achieving that goal—to allow them to become the dominant force in the Middle East and force the other nations, including Israel, to bow to their will or else.

Iran has repeatedly violated the UN and international treaties and restrictions on their nuclear weapons program. They have bought and sold weapons of murderous warfare in defiance of international law. They are working on an illegal nuclear weapons program and the ballistic missiles necessary to launch nuclear warheads across the world. Iran has lied, cheated, and broken every promise made. Unless they are stopped, they will continue until their evil work is done.

America’s Leaders supported the Jewish people long before there was a modern state of Israel. Since the founding of the Jewish state, most of our presidents have been staunch supporters of Israel. Here is some of what our nation’s leaders had to say about Israel.

John Adams felt strongly about the influence of the Jews on western nations, writing: “I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe, or pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.”

President Woodrow Wilson
felt strongly that the ancient Hebrews set the standard for the unfolding United States of America: “Recalling the previous experiences of the colonists in applying the Mosaic Code to the order of their internal lives, it is not to be wondered that the various passages in the Bible … [were] held up before the pioneer Americans the Hebrew Commonwealth as a model government.… In the spirit and essence of our constitution, the influence of the Hebrew Commonwealth was paramount in that it was not only the highest authority for the principle, ‘that rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to God,’ but also because it was in itself a divine precedent for a pure democracy.”

Calvin Coolidge, believing the Jewish faith to predominately be the faith of liberty, praised the vast contributions of the Jews to the American Revolution. Among those he honored was Haym Salomon, born in Poland, and made a prisoner by British forces in New York. After escaping, he set up in business in Philadelphia. He negotiated with Robert Morris [the superintendent for finance in the Thirteen Colonies] all the loans raised in France and Holland, pledged his personal faith and fortune for enormous amounts, and personally advanced large sums to such men as James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Baron Steuben, General St. Clair and many other patriot leaders, who testified that without his aid they could not have carried on in the cause.

President Teddy Roosevelt
praised the contributions of Jews to the American nation: “I am glad to be able to say, in addressing you on this occasion, that while the Jews of the United States, who now number more than one million, have remained loyal to their faith and their race traditions, they have become indissolubly incorporated in the great army of American citizenship, prepared to make all sacrifice for the country, either in war or peace, and striving for the perpetuation of good government and for the maintenance of the principles embodied in our constitution. They are honestly distinguished by their industry, their obedience to law, and their devotion to the national welfare.”

At the end of the Second World War, Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president, openly declared his support in favor of the Jewish people: “This is the time for action. Today—not tomorrow—we must do all that is humanly possible to provide a haven and place of safety for all those who can be grasped from the hands of the Nazi butchers. This is not a Jewish problem, it is an American problem—and we must and we will face it squarely and honorably.” Truman strongly supported the rebirth of Israel. He later said: “One of the proudest days of my life occurred at 6:11 p.m. on Friday, May 14, when I was able to announce recognition of the new State of Israel by the government of the United States. In view of the long friendship of the American people for the Zionist ideal, it was particularly appropriate that our government should be the first to recognize the new state.”

President Ronald Reagan, in a great show of support for the Jewish people once said: “Since the foundation of the State of Israel, the United States has stood by her and helped her to pursue security, peace, and economic growth. Our friendship is based on historic moral and strategic ties, as well as our shared dedication to democracy. The people of Israel and America are historic partners in the global quest for human dignity and freedom. We will always remain at each other’s side.”

Thomas Jefferson received a letter from Mordecai Manuel Noah on the occasion of the dedication of a building at the Mill Street Synagogue in New York City—the oldest synagogue in America, having been founded in 1730. In response Jefferson wrote a reply expressing his sympathy at the persecution Jewish people had faced, and highlighting the vital importance of religious freedom. Jefferson said, “Sir, I thank you for the discourse on the consecration of the Synagogue in your city, with which you have been pleased to favor me. I have read it with pleasure and instruction, having learnt from it some valuable facts in Jewish history which I did not know before. Your sect by its sufferings has furnished a remarkable proof of the universal spirit of religious intolerance in every sect, disclaimed by all while feeble, and practiced by all when in power. Our laws have applied the only antidote to this vice, protecting our religious, as they do our civil rights, by putting all on an equal footing. But more remains to be done, for although we are free by the law, we are not so in practice; public opinion erects itself into an Inquisition, and exercises its office with as much fanaticism as fans the flames of an auto-da-fé [public penance prescribed for condemned heretics].”

Genesis 12:3

 For Individuals and Nations

The promise God made to Abraham so long ago in Genesis 12:3 is still in full effect.  It is eternal and unchanging.  It is just as true now as it was then.  The Word declares, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem; they shall prosper that love thee” (Psalm 122:6).  Many Believers have written to me because they are worried about living in a world that has been shaken.  I have good news for you!  The Lord is your refuge.  It doesn’t matter how great the storms, God will protect His people.

The power of God is not dependent on who wins an election or who controls a government.  All human power is subject to His control.  The blessing of God, both for individuals and for nations, comes to those who obey His Word…and the decision to bless or curse Israel is the pivot point of life.

When we bless what God wants to have blessed, we are positioned to see Him work in great and mighty ways.  Deuteronomy 28:8 says: “The Lord shall command a blessing upon you….”  The passage goes on to describe the amazing blessing that God has for you.  This blessing rains down on every part of your life — your health, your family, your finances, and so much more.  God wants to bless everything you touch!

 We see in the life of Abraham the impact of that kind of blessing.  God told Abraham that blessings would overflow him…and they did!  Abraham was living in a fruitful place, and Lot complained.  Abraham gave Lot that fruitful spot and went to a dry, barren land.  Even in that place, God blessed him and turned it into an oasis so great that his crops and herds multiplied.  Abraham became the wealthiest man in the East.

There is a commanded blessing for those who bless God’s Chosen People.  That is true for individuals, for families, for churches and even for nations.  And there is a judgment for all those who harm the Jewish people.  The Hebrew word in Genesis 12:3 for cursing literally means to visit with heavy blows.

I don’t want to live in a country under God’s curse.  I don’t want my children and grandchildren to suffer in a land receiving heavy blows.  I want God’s blessing instead.  And to do that, we must bless Israel and the Jewish people.

I have experienced God’s blessing time and time again…not because I’m something special, but because I have dedicated my life to blessing and defending the Jewish people.  The Genesis 12:3 blessing is not just for a few, but for any individual or nation that meets God’s condition.

What Is Our Nation’s Future?

“He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.  Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore” (Isaiah 2:4).

For more than four decades, I have watched Islamic terrorism heading, like a whirlwind, toward our shores. America is plunging headfirst into a lake of fire, and many are not fully aware of it. The hour is too late to tiptoe through the tulips. After 9/11, there was a brief period of introspection and evaluation, but that largely vanished without any major national changes taking place.  Now more than 23 years later, as we see prophetic events unfolding in the Middle East and around the world, it has become time to shout this message from the housetops: If America is to be saved, saintly, moral, God-fearing Americans must wake up, and wake up now!

According to the ancient prophet Ezekiel: The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword against a land, and the people of the land choose one of their men and make him their watchman, and he sees the sword coming against the land and blows the trumpet to warn the people, then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not heed the warning and the sword comes and takes their life, their blood will be on their own head. Since they heard the sound of the trumpet but did not heed the warning, their blood will be on their own head. If they had heeded the warning, they would have saved themselves. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood’” (Ezekiel 33:1–6).

The sad news is that preachers in America are, by and large, not crying out. I hear hardened, secular commentators, ungodly politicians, and abrasive talk show hosts crying out in support of the Liberal Left agenda, but Christians too often remain complacent, their voices silent. I fear that America is receiving perhaps its final call to repentance. God is now judging this nation in the same way He has judged every nation that has rejected His call and challenged His prophetic plan.

Jesus warned: “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building” (Luke 17:26–28).

The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah enjoyed the same prosperity as Noah’s society. Ezekiel wrote:

“This was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness” (Ezekiel 16:49).  They had no idea that the good times were God’s final mercy call before destruction. God judged Sodom, yet Sodom had no Bible. America is the Bible capital of the world, with an abundance of churches. If anyone should know what is going on, we should.

I am no prophet, but I challenge you to search the ancient Scriptures, and to look up the words judgment, nations, and curses. You will surely see that God is not a respecter of nations; that mighty America is in big trouble. King Josiah was only 18 years old when God stirred his heart over something the king had read in the Scriptures. Suddenly, the young ruler saw that his nation had offended Almighty God and was heading toward destruction. He cried out, “God’s wrath is being stored up against us” (see 2 Kings 22:11–13). Josiah truly repented and led his nation back to God.

For those who say, “America is immune; it will not happen here. There are too many godly people in America,” I say, “Remember Israel!” Down through the ages, God allowed Jerusalem and the temple to be destroyed again and again. There is a prophetic line drawn over which a nation may not cross; when it does, God says, “Enough!”

It’s hard to believe that anyone could deny that the events of September 11 were a curse. I can assure you, every family that experienced the pain of that devastating day felt wretched as they lost loved ones. That day of infamy was certainly not a blessing! The fanatics who carried out that attack were religious to the extreme, but I can assure you, there is nothing peaceful about their brand of religion.  Where are those who weep for America, who grieve for her sins of arrogance? Millions of Christians have closed their eyes to what is happening in the land of the Bible. Even some preachers are telling jokes in the pulpit, and mocking those who are weeping over the attempt by some of America’s leaders to stick their fingers in the apple of God’s eye. 

Read the words of Zechariah concerning the nations that touch Israel.  “On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves. . . .Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the Lord Almighty is their God.’ On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will consume all the surrounding peoples right and left, but Jerusalem will remain intact in her place. . . .On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son” (Zechariah 12:3, 5–6, 9–10).

What happens when a nation is cursed? God’s hand of protection is lifted, the powers of hell given free reign. God forgive anyone who does not see the warning signs! Even today’s weather patterns seem to bear out these forewarnings. There is not a person living who can recall such days of hurricanes with disastrous floods and at the same time tinder-dry forests that have caused the ignition of countless fires of devastating proportions.  At the same time, our winters have grown colder than any seen in modern times, while the wicked heat of the summer takes a rising toll each year. The warnings of this country’s falling away from God’s protection and guidance seem to be everywhere we look.

Many of us have long loved the wonderful promise found in 2 Chronicles 7:14. It is an extremely hope-giving scripture, but its context is in the midst of a warning for Solomon. Look for a moment at the entire passage: “Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king’s house; and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the Lord and in his own house.  Then the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: ‘I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. . . .‘But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.  And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house?’ Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord  God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them” (2 Chronicles 7: 11–14, 19–22).

Solomon was being warned. And given our condition today, this is valuable advice. America has idols worse than any manmade stone edifice Solomon could have erected: idols of relativism and greed.

With them we have made the laws and compassion of God seem meaningless. We have turned our backs on Him by accepting as normal such abominations. God said if we did that, we would be given over to the reprobate minds that perform such acts. (See Romans 1:21–32.) If that is the case, how can anyone be surprised that we are reaping the harvest of consequences that grow from the seeds of the rebellion we have sown?