Before I became a Market Analyst for the company I worked for, I was in Sales and Customer Service. Just prior to being taken over by a much larger competitor we operated like a small well-oiled machine. The company which took us over recognized these traits and offered my boss the privilege of being the Australian Sales Manager for a number of their products. That was a major pat on the back for us.
My boss insisted on high ethics of proficiency in sales, customer service conduct and timely reporting. For the most part everyone adhered to those standards, which is why we had a valued reputation in the market place, even though our prices weren’t always competitive.
However, there was one employee who sometimes dropped the ball in certain areas. M was a nice guy who always meant well. But he tended to submit his forecasts later than the due-by date. This was a huge problem for budget and production planning. He was also late at returning customer calls and nearly always arrived way too late for important sales meetings.
Because this behavior was regular enough to be expected we would often touch base with M well before a meeting or before a report needed to be submitted. The response was inevitable and familiar, “Everything is under control.” But we knew it wasn’t. It became a standing joke.
These incidents weren’t game breakers for the company. Yet the same cannot be true of the White House Administration’s insistence that everything is under control regarding the Iranian Nuclear Deal.
Go back to the beginning of this administration and recall its promise of Hope and Change. Recall the high expectations of the Arab Spring? The ousting of Egypt’s Mubarak along with the ascendancy of the Muslim Brotherhood echoed the feeling that it was all good. Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was overthrown and summarily executed. A new era had begun.
Mr. Obama began inviting Muslim Brotherhood members into his New House while he and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani were exchanging “love letters.” Mr. Obama even flirted with Iranian ally Vladimir Putin, using Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as a proxy. Putin took this to be a head nod to expanding his Russian Empire, because he proceeded to do just that.
All through this the White House declared that Al-Qaeda had been beaten. It proudly asserted that we’d won the war on terrorism and everything was under control. Meanwhile the Muslim Brotherhood wasn’t so nice after all and Syria descended into chaos. Then we saw the rapid rise of the Islamic State and a new level of savagery and evil which saw the slaughter of Christians, gays and dissenting Muslims.
During the ongoing Syrian crisis Mr. Obama talked about Damascus crossing the red line of chemical warfare. Putin offered his services to rid the region of the chemicals. The White House was pleased. Yet three years later the issue of chemical weapons is still not resolved with recent news begging more questions as to whether Assad used them on rebels, or the other way around.
This brings us to the Iranian Nuclear Deal. Can it be true that the Iranians will supply their own material to the UN to be tested? According to The New York Times:
“To the most strident opponents of President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, the suspicious behavior at a military base about 12 miles southeast of Tehran has become a rallying call to defeat the accord, especially as it now appears that Iranian officials may be allowed to take their own environmental samples at the site and turn them over to inspectors.”
Of course, there are always two sides to any story. Unfortunately, reading further, one is left unconvinced that the White House has the Iranian deal under control.
On the issue of trusting the enemy of an ally, immediately following the Nuclear Deal, we learn that Ayatollah Khamenei has published a 416 page book about his favorite interest –destroying Israel and outsmarting the US. Aaron Bandler writes:
‘Khamenei doesn’t advocate for an all-out war against Israel. Instead, he wants to create “Israel fatigue” by having low-scale warfare waged against Israel by its terror proxies- such as Hamas and Hezbollah- and wants to recruit terrorists in the West Bank to attack Israel.’
Isn’t that just business as usual?
Freeing up $150 Billion in assets goes a long way in helping Iran do just that. Despite (and probably because of) growing world economic tensions, Iranian ally Russia has also been playing naval games with China in the Sea of Japan. Is it true that they also plan to take down the American dollar? We are seeing pre World War 2 global conditions. Is another world war looming?
It isn’t only Iran which harbors anti-Israel venom. We’ve seen anti-Israel Christian activists and churches spread the same poison. In recent news, English frontrunner to the Labour Party leadership Jeremy Corbyn bemoaned the silencing of pro-Palestinian activist Anglican priest Stephen Sizer. Sizer was banned from using public media by his church for making controversial remarks linking Israel to 9-11.
European anti-Semitism has spread to Spain. Soeren Kern has asked if Spain is fuelling the BDS war against Israel. He notes a number of problematic incidents and writes:
“Spain’s center-right government under Mariano Rajoy continues to pursue policies that are antagonistic towards Israel — policies that are virtually unchanged from the government of former Socialist Prime Minister of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – policies that largely coincide with the objectives of the BDS movement.”
Anti-Semitism in the UK and France has prompted many Jews to relocate to Israel. Will the same thing occur with Spain? Isn’t it an irony that Jews are fleeing to a nation under siege?
Our most prominent Christian leaders are besotted by social, gender-sexual, economic and environmental issues. That is, when they’re not demonizing Israel. Pluralism and Ecumenism are chic. Tolerance to diversity is the new religion being championed by self-described Christian ministers. The Bible is an archaic book which doesn’t speak to today’s social issues (let alone prophecy), other than to provide the odd handy homily.
The most visible world religious figure is inviting environmental experts to help combat global warming. He has a ready word against the evils of capitalism and has warned that the world needs a new global economic strategy. The gospel seems to be an afterthought, if ever mentioned by these religious leaders.
No doubt everything is under control as far as the devil is concerned.
What we can observe around us is enough to warn that the world is quickly spiraling out of control. In spite of all this we have God’s assurance that He knows the end from the beginning. He has warned us beforehand (Isaiah 46:10).
Things are going to get far worse. Israel will experience its worst time in history just before the Lord returns. Jews and Christians will continue to be marginalized. The latter especially when they remain faithful to God’s word.
But while the world is out of control, God isn’t. All these events we are seeing are according to His Sovereign Plan. These will culminate with the ushering in of the Millennial Kingdom.
And remember that the Lord can return for His church at any time.
So let’s get busy.
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