COMOSPROPHECIES

Not long ago, after several story lines in my novels seemed to come true — including the notion of radical Islamic kamikazes attacking an American city, a war with Iraq over weapons of mass destruction, the death of Yasser Arafat and an American President pushing for democracy in the Middle East — an article in U.S. News & World Report described me as a “modern Nostradamus.” The New York Daily News described my political thrillers as “eerily prophetic,” while other commentators have called my plots “ripped from tomorrow’s headlines.”

The truth is I am not a psychic, or a prophet, and I don’t call 900-numbers in the middle of the night to get story ideas. But I do believe that a careful study of the Scriptures as well as of political and economic trend lines can give us a very real sense of what the future will hold.

The following are four headlines I believe we will read in the not-too-distant future.

Future Headline #1:U.N. DEMANDS THAT ISRAEL GIVE UP HER NUCLEAR ARSENAL
The U.S. and Europe are currently pressuring Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions, and pressuring Russia to stop selling Iran nuclear technology and fuel. It is the right thing to do, as nuclear armed radical Islamic mullahs would pose an existential threat to the U.S. and the rest of the free world. But watch for Iran to mount an aggressive counter-punch soon. In a bid to turn the attention away from their own dangerous behavior, expect Tehran to urge the U.N. to pressure Israel to give up the two hundred or so nuclear warheads the Jewish State is believed to possess.

Such a case will be echoed by non-nuclear Arab states with reasonably good ties to the West, such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and I believe they will quickly find strong support among major European powers. France, Germany and Russia would likely be among those who join an international effort to pressure Israel to disarm, and Great Britain might join in as well.

What would the U.S. do? Would the White House stand behind Israel’s right to self defense, or agree that Israel should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) along with among every other country on the face of the planet? It depends on the President and the mood of the country. Such a scenario is a key component of my next novel, The Ezekiel Option, launching at the end of June. But it is not fiction. I believe it is a headline that will written all too soon.

Future Headline #2: WEALTH POURS INTO IRAQ AS OIL INDUSTRY BOOMS
Today’s headlines out of Iraq are filled with car bombs and suicide bombers and snipers and violence of all kinds. But it will not always be so. The country we know today as Iraq was long known in the Bible as the country of Babylon or Babylonia. The Hebrew Prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah as well as the Apostle John who wrote the Book of Revelation make it clear that in the last days before the return of Jesus Christ, Babylon will be the most powerful country in the world and the home base of the Anti-Christ. Rather than be consumed by violence, Iraq will be an exporter of violence.

That being the case, we can expect the current strife to come to an end before long so that a “new Babylon” can emerge. As Iraq is increasingly pacified, its oil industry will be able to bloom. Millions of barrels of Iraqi oil will begin to flood the markets each day. That will drive global oil and gas prices down, and cause hundreds of billions of dollars in new petrodollars to flood into Iraqi coffers, making Iraq one of the wealthiest countries on the face of the earth.

I wrote about such a scenario in novel, The Last Days. I develop it even further in The Ezekiel Option. But again, it is not fiction. In April I was speaking at a conference of CEOs and business leaders and met the V.P. of a major oil company who told me this is exactly the scenario his company believes will play itself out: pacification followed by the explosive growth of the Iraqi oil industry, aided and capitalized by Western oil companies. Already, his company (among many others) is positioning itself for the new era of Iraqi oil just over the horizon.

Future Headline #3: IRAQIS TO REBUILD ANCIENT BABYLON AS COMMERCIAL EPICENTER
Earlier this spring, Tim LaHaye, Jerry Jenkins and I looked into the possibility of going to the ancient city of Babylon, some fifty miles south of Baghdad. We would love to see what Saddam did to begin the process of rebuilding that once and future global capital, and perhaps create a DVD tour of the city, before the Anti-Christ makes it impossible for Christians to visit there. Unfortunately, for now, it is just too dangerous to go to Babylon. But I believe the doors will open soon.

As oil wealth pours into a newly peaceful Iraq, watch for the newly democratic government in Baghdad to become ambitious. With the blessings of the U.S. and the U.N. — grateful that Iraq is increasingly able to stand on its own feet and no longer needing huge numbers of U.S. troops and billions of dollars in global humanitarian and reconstruction aid — watch for Iraq to position itself as the region’s commercial epicenter. Government and business leaders will be eager to invest in new building projects to draw capital, companies and tourists to this historic cradle of civilization.

To that end, watch particularly for the Iraqi government to invest billions into rebuilding the ancient city of Babylon into the wealthiest and most powerful and influential city in the Middle East, and eventually in the world. Revelation 18 describe the end times Babylon as a “great city” by whom many will become “rich by her wealth.” She will be an international exporter of “gold and silver and precious stones” as well as “bronze and iron and marble…incense and perfume” and even “slaves and human lives.” Much of the growth of Babylon will occur after the Rapture and during the Tribulation, at the direction of the Anti-Christ. But it is not unreasonable to think that Babylon could emerge as a major commercial center sooner, depending on how soon the Rapture happens.

Future Headline #4: JEWS TURNING TO JESUS AS MESSIAH IN RECORD NUMBERS
As an evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish background, this is one of the headlines to which I am most looking forward. Indeed, it is a story God is already writing, though the mainstream media has not caught on to it yet.

When I was born in April of 1967, there were only about two hundred known Jewish believers in Messiah Jesus worldwide. After the Six Day War in June of 1967, the numbers began to accelerate dramatically. Today, there are almost two hundred Jewish believers in Jesus just in the congregation my wife attend, McLean Bible Church outside of Washington, D.C. Our pastor, Lon Solomon, is Jewish on the board of Jews for Jesus. Conservative estimates put the current number of Jewish believers worldwide at about 60,000. Other estimates say the real number is north of 100,000. A Jerusalem Post headline last month noted that there are now more than 10,000 Jewish believers just in Israel alone, double the number used by evangelical Jewish leaders just a few years ago.

What’s more, Revelation 14 tells us that in the last days there will be 144,000 Jewish “witnesses” or super-evangelists on the order of Billy Graham and Luis Palau spreading out all over the globe to win Jews and Gentiles to Christ. Jesus Himself told the Jewish people in Matthew 23:39, “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’” In other words, as the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ approach, we can expect huge numbers of Jews to turn to Jesus and to be excited about His coming. It has already begun to happen, and this exciting trend will only accelerate.

Joel C. Rosenberg is the New York Times best-selling author of The Last Jihad (about the demise of Saddam Hussein) and The Last Days (about the demise of Yasser Arafat). His next novel, The Ezekiel Option, comes out June 27 from Tyndale. An evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish background, his grandparents escaped from Russia. Joel has served as a senior advisor to Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky.