I am making a detour from the main theme of the Spring Festivals today to answer some questions that are being voiced in and outside our community as to what we can now expect following the second sarin gas attack in Syria and the Trump administration's expensive cruise missile attack on a Syrian Air Force base. What's going on? Has Trump abandoned his election mandate and joined the élites which he so forcefully opposed at the beginning? Is he a clever fraud, a buffoon or simply a well-meaning dupe who got out of his depth? And who, if anybody, should we be supporting?

I could say a lot of things but I want to keep this brief. Firstly, I don't trust any high-ranking politicians any more and I absolutely do not trust anything government tells me unless it says it is going to tax me more or kill me - then I will believe it. As far as Trump is concerned, Yahweh has only told me one thing in a vision in January, and that is that Trump has no control - he is a prisoner of the establishment, 'Deep State', globalists, élites or whatever you want to call them. As to what is actually going on behind the scenes, we are unlikely ever to know the truth - the whole system is so saturated with lies and deceptions that I doubt any one person knows completely what's going on. Nor do we need to. Trump is no more America's or the world's saviour than Obama, the Bushes and Clinton were before him. Yah'shua (Jesus) alone saves.

I have no reason to modify anything I have said in the past about the political establishment or the war machine of the globalists. Collapse and war are coming at any time. As I write Trump is threatening North Korea with nuclear war and though he has now said there will not be any more American attacks on Syria, I don't believe a word of it. He has already demonstrated himself to be a liar like all the rest and we know the current Syria Operation was planned decades ago.

I think the more important place to look right now is Germany and the EU. You will perhaps recall that after the vision on Trump I was shown a vision of the River Elbe which very roughly divides western Europe from eastern. The unelected leader of the EU and arch-federalist, Jean-Claude Juncker, has already announced that a United States of Europe will be created in the next nine months, before Britain has extricated herself following Brexit. And as you know, the EU is showing its totalitarian tendencies more and more, and is making Britain's exit as hard and as costly as it possibly can. It has also threatened to send in troops to Catalonia if it now atempts to secede from Spain. If Marine Le Pen wins the French national elections and does a Frexit, the EU will almost certainly collapse.

There are so many potential flashpoints around the world now and without revelation it is impossible to know how this will all play out. Frankly I am now little interested. My calling was to warn people to be prepared to survive the coming tribulation, I have done that, and we must simply bolt down the hatches and get ready to ride out the storm. I repeat, all that we will ever get out of the political establishments of our countries is lies so why even bother listening to them anymore? Has Sweden halted mass migration as the Prime Minister has announced? I doubt it. Merckel said something similar one day and then reversed her position the next. They know that they, their political parties and the establishment they represent, are threatened with the loss of power owing to the meteoric ascent of anti-establishment populist parties. In Sweden, the populist Sweden Democrats have arisen out of obscurity to become the most popular party in the country, commanding nearly a third of the country's popular support, and outpolling the ruling Social Democrats. The leaders of the establishments will lie to win lost votes - they always have and always will.

Yahweh had to remind me the other day of something He told me in 1990 which I was beginning to forget:

"...to be a part of a political party is to be a part of the world with its hypocrisy, lying, deceit, greed, selfishness and perversions" (Olive Branch 280:20)

The system is so unredeemable now that Chag haMatzah could never be applied to it. Not only has the leaven of sin completely leavened the Babylonian lump but it is baked to a crust by the heat of its evil deeds. Only judgment awaits it and its controllers. My advice, if you are involved, would be to get out of state politics altogether. To join it is to become an accessory to its crimes and imminent judgments. We are commanded to flee from Babylon, not try to change it from within.

A last word about Damascus, if I may. Evangelicals and Messianics are obsessed with a scripture that prophesies the destruction of Damascus and claw around looking for evidence that it is about to be fulfilled in our day:

"Damascus shall be a city no longer, she shall be but a heap of ruins" (Is.17:1, NEB).

With an Anglo-American army secretly shipped to Jordan on Syria's southernmost border, Damascus is literally only up the road. Many Zionist believers, anxious for the ruination of this city, seem to have an hysterical blood-lust to see it wiped out. Worse (because they should know better), none of these pop exegetes is reading this prophecy in its proper context. Let's read on:

"For ever desolate, flocks shall have her for their own, and lie there undisturbed. No longer shall Ephraim boast a fortified city, or Damascus a kingdom; the remnant of Aram and the glory of Israel, their fate is one. This is the very Davar (Word) of Yahweh of Hosts (Armies).

"ON THAT DAY Jacob's weight shall dwindle and the fat on his limbs waste away, as when the harvester gathers the standing corn and reaps the ears in armfuls, or as when a man gleans the ears in the Vale of Rephaim, or as when one beats an olive tree and only gleanings are left on it, two or three berries on the top of a branch, four or five on the boughs of the fruiting tree. This is the very Davar (Word) of Yahweh-Elohim of Israel" (Is.17:2-6, NEB).

And so the prophecy goes on with two more "on that day" sections, indicating concurrent events. Please notice that the Judgment and Destruction of Damascus occurs at the same time as the Judgment of Ephraim, the northern Ten Tribes in the land of Israel. There is an historical context here and it is not the 21st century and that context is the Syro-Ephraimite war "in the days of Ahaz son of Jothan son of Uzziah king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram (Syria) and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel..." (Is.7:1a, NEB) when the later two formed an alliance and "went up to attack Jerusalem" (v.1b, NEB). This occurred in the year 735 BC when Rezin of Damascus and Pekah of Israel (northern tribes) organised an anti-Assyrian coalition who attacked Ahaz of Judah to try and force him to join them against Assyria. Ahaz responded by allying himself with the Assyrians! Isaiah predicted that the alliance would be unsuccessful (Is.7:1-8:18). DAMASCUS WAS DESTROYED BY THE ASSYRIANS IN 732 BC as were many of the cities of Aram's ally, Israel.

The result, as also prophecied by Isaiah, was that only a remnant of Aram (Syria) survived the Assyrian onslaught. It also marked the terminal decline of the Ten Tribes, "the glory of Jacob", leading finally to Assyrian deportation.

So long as Messianics and Evangelicals get their prophetic eschatology wrong and ignore context they will keep on coming up with all sorts of fanciful and false conclusions about scriptures such as this. They see the words 'Israel', 'Syria' and 'Damascus' in use today and assume, without any warranty, that these were the same nations described 3,000 years ago. The Republic of Israel in the Middle East has nothing to do with Biblical Israel! It is a restoration of Edom that falsely uses the name of 'Israel'. (See the series, Jacob's Trouble for more information on this vitally important subject). And when this Edomite 'Israeli' state is destroyed, it will cause millions of Christian and Messianic Zionists to have a crisis of faith. Indeed, if this prophecy about Damascus did apply to modern Damascus then by the same token it would have to apply to Israel...which of course it can't because there aren't separate Israelite and Judahite states in the Middle East today.

Those who want to see Damascus 'destroyed' because of bad exegesis of Bible prophecy are not only believing in lies but also - and with far more serious spiritual implications - courting the spirit of murder. They are walking in the way of Cain. Remember, it is the satanic élites who want Syria and Iran destroyed! No believer in the Master Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) should want any nation destroyed because every true believer should have the heart of Abraham who pleaded for the cities of the plains that Yahweh would stay the hand of His judgment against them! There are hundreds of thousands of believers in Damascus, Syria and Iran - only a murderer would want them nuked. Do not be deceived by the spirit of Babylon - repent! Rather, ask Yahweh to save those amomgst the élites who would be saved and pass judgment on the rest. Then I would encourage you to pray for Damascus and for all those nations the cabals want destroyed in order to increase their worldwide power and dominion.

There is no doubt that great destruction awaits most of the cities of Babylon in the future that might possibly include Damascus. It's also possible that the Isaiah prophecy has a futuristic layer to it as well. However, as it stands, it is pointing to an event that happened long ago.

Pray for life and salvation, not death and destruction. We should none of us ever want the death of innocents. The Saviour came to save, not destroy. We should desire the same.