This past week, the world has been gripped with the election in the United States. At this point, it would seem that Donald Trump has lost the election and Joe Biden is set to be the next president of the United States. At the time of recording, Trump has yet to concede. Allegations of voter fraud are being contested in the courts, and the battle is not quite over. 

The nations are raging and roaring, as Isaiah describes:

“But the wicked are like the troubled sea, When it cannot rest, Whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” (Isaiah 57:20–21)

As Bible believers, intensely interested in the fulfilment of Bible Prophecy, a change in president and policy is of great interest. What does the Father have in store? We are confident of the fact:

“This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.” (Daniel 4:17)

Trump’s pro-Israel stance has brought about many ground-breaking initiatives that have furthered the fulfilment of the prophetic word. Should Trump lose the Presidency, it will bring the next play the next phase of God’s plan. 

We must remember that it is the Lord Jesus Christ that is in charge of world affairs through the work of the angels:

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:18)

He is the one who has been loosing the seven seals of the book of Revelation (5:5) and putting into motion the Trumpet and Vial judgements contained within them. 

The Most High Rules, but not always the way we would choose.

This is why we do not involve ourselves in the politics of this world. Although we watch with great enthusiasm, we do not engage in the political process, leaving that to the angels to administer. A perfect example of this would be the 1945 election in the United Kingdom. The wartime coalition government was dissolved, and an election called—wartime Prime Minister Churchill lost by a stunning defeat. Churchill’s interest in the Jews of Palestine was well known. He had authored the 1922 “White Paper” in favour of Jewish immigration. Historian Martin Gilbert, in his book ‘Israel a History’ recounted Churchill’s statement before the Peel Commission on Palestine:

“he declared that the Jewish right to immigration ought not to be curtained by the ‘economic absorptive capacity of Palestine... He also spoke of ‘the good faith of England to the jews’. The British government had certainly committed itself, Churchill said, ‘to the idea that someday, somehow, far off in the future, subjective to justice and economic convenience, there might well be a great Jewish State there, numbered by millions, far exceeding the present inhabitants of the country...’”

Churchill had called the 1939 “White Paper” of Neville Chamberlain’s government a “mortal blow” to the Zionist hopes. 

Clement Attlee would defeat Winston Churchill in the 1945 Election
Churchill was a supporter of the State of Israel, Attlee was not.

Churchills defeat in 1945 appeared to be a shocking setback to the idea of an Israeli state. When Ernest Bevin became Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and continued support for the White Paper and restricting Jewish immigration, well after the horrors of the holocaust were revealed, things looked bleak. Martin Gilbert relates:

“Bevin and Shinwell went on to warn of the grave risks involved in offending the Arabs’ by appearing to encourage Jewish settlement and to endorse the Jewish aspirations for a separate State’. Bevin favoured a plan put forward by the Arab States for a ‘unitary’ State in Palestine.”

According to Bruce Hoffman in his book ‘Inside Terrorism’:

“The Manchester Guardian argued that “British firmness” inside Palestine had brought about more terrorism and worsened the situation in the country, the opposite effect that the government had intended.”

The King David Hotel bombed in 1946 

Bevin’s unfriendly attitude to the desperate plight of the Jews fomented rebellion in Palestine, and outlawed groups such as the Irgun and the Stern Gang which had mobilized against the British following the White Paper now increased the pressure, bombing the King David Hotel in 1946.

 This and other attacks like it caused Britain to despair of the Mandate of Palestine, which it gave over to the United Nations. The United Nations eventually voted to recognize a Jewish State in Palestine in 1947. 

It was the hard-hearted policies of a hostile British government under Clement Attlee and Earnest Bevan that pushed the Jews of Palestine to form a Jewish state. The Bible had required a Jewish state in Palestine, which was to be called Israel - exactly what David Bengurion would announce on May 14, 1948. 

God tells us through Ezekiel when Gog comes up it is “against my people of Israel.” (Ezekiel 39:16). They are an entity in the land, “gathered out of many peoples.” The prophet had doomed to failure the anti-refugee policy of the 1939 White Paper, but how it would be defeated was enigmatic at first. The champion of Israel in the wartime British Government would have to be removed to bring it about. 

The Obama Dilemma

When Obama became president, it seemed as if Israel was in dire straits. Obama’s policies were openly hostile toward Israel. During a speech in Cairo on June 4, 2009, Obama promised a “new beginning” claiming he sought “a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect” with the Arab world. Obama’s roadmap for peace included the nuclear deal with Iran and a freeze to building in all Israeli settlements.  

The open hostility Israel experienced from the Obama administration was unparalleled in recent history. America, the defender of Israel, had left her high and dry. One was reminded of the words of Rabshaka, reprimanding the King of Israel for putting trust in Egypt (as he supposed they were):

Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me? Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him. (2 Kings 18:20–21)

Hezekiah’s trust was not in Egypt, but rather in the God of heaven. 

Israel has placed an inordinate amount of trust in America, instead of their God, and God may be placing Biden in power to teach a powerful lesson:

Put not your trust in princes, Nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. (Psalm 146:3)

It is a lesson for us too that Trump is a tool that God has used for the a purpose, but he is the doer of it. Remember the words of Christ to Pilate:

Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin. (John 19:10–11)

The Obama Effect and the Abraham Accords

The effect of Obama’s policies in the Middle East was to forge closer ties between former enemies. Security agreements were developed between Israel and its Arab neighbours to counter the Iranian threat left unanswered by America. The unofficial agreements paved the way for the Abraham accords, formalizing the connections between Israel and many of its Arab cousins to the south. Interestingly, the head of the Mossad represented Israel at many of the meetings that brought the Abraham accords to fruition. 

The Angels Working Amidst the Nations

Insite to how angels work amidst the nations is seen in Chronicles, Ezra, Isaiah and Daniel when it comes to the character of Cyrus. God had identified him at the time of Isaiah:

I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: From the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: And he shall come upon princes as upon morter, And as the potter treadeth clay. Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? And beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? Yea, there is none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth, Yea, there is none that heareth your words. (Isaiah 41:25–26)

The prophecy of a deliverer coming from the north who would tread the nations like the clay and bring deliverance was proof that God “declared the end from the beginning.” Isaiah would give more detail later in his prophecy, calling the king by name, and describing how the rivers of Babylon would be dried up before him:

That confirmeth the word of his servant, And performeth the counsel of his messengers; That saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; And to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built, And I will raise up the decayed places thereof: That saith to the deep, Be dry, And I will dry up thy rivers: That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, And shall perform all my pleasure: Even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; And to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid. (Isaiah 44:26–28 )

The prophecy is clear that a future King, Cyrus, would give the decree for Jerusalem to be built and the foundations of the temple to be laid. The prophet goes on to describe how God would open the gates of Babylon before Cyrus to enable him to conquer:

Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, Whose right hand I have holden, To subdue nations before him; And I will loose the loins of kings, To open before him the two leaved gates; And the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, And make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, And cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, And hidden riches of secret places, That thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. (Isaiah 45:1–4)

This was all done for Israel’s sake. God called this king, and named him, two hundred years before he would fulfil the prophecy. 

Cyrus would take Babylon, and give the proclamation for the Jews to return as we read at the end of II Chronicles and the beginning of Ezra:

Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up. (2 Chronicles 36:22–23)

Daniel would have been introduced to Cyrus and his uncle Darius when they took the city together. Darius was brother to Cyrus mother, was king of the Medes. Cyrus mother had married the king of the Persians. Cyrus put his Uncle in charge of Babylon while he continued conquest of the empire as we read in Daniel 6:31 (RSV):

And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

As they jointly reorganized the empire, Daniel was put in charge:

It pleased Darius to set over the kingdom an hundred and twenty princes, which should be over the whole kingdom; And over these three presidents; of whom Daniel was first: that the princes might give accounts unto them, and the king should have no damage. Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. (Daniel 6:1–3 )

 This leads to the story of Daniel and the lions den. Our point is that Daniel would have met Cyrus, and it would appear read to him Isaiah’s prophecy. How else would he know that “the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.” That charge is found in the prophecy of Isaiah. His role was to tread the nations, “as the potter treadeth clay”. 

God had called it and would bring it to pass, but those he chooses do not always cooperate. It would appear that Cyrus has strayed from the mission during the third year of his reign (Daniel 10:1), as Gabriel would explain to Daniel:

“I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.” (Daniel 10:12–13)

Gabriel had been struggling with Cyrus, and need to get Michael’s assistance. After explaining the vision to Daniel, he would return to working with Cyrus and his successors:

“...now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.” (Daniel 10:20)

This fascinating insight helps us understand how the Angels of the Most High work with the kings of the earth. It also helps us understand the present situation. Sometimes God raises adversaries to get things done, as he did when bringing the hard-hearted Pharoah to power during the days of Moses, a very different man from his predecessor during the days of Joseph. 

What we Know?

God has revealed the outcome but not necessarily each step required to achieve that objective, as Moses stated:

“The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (Deuteronomy 29:29)

Israel will experience peace and security, “dwelling without walls and having neither bars nor gates” (Ezekiel 38:8). It may be because they are abandoned by America and are forced to work with their Arab cousins, but it will come. 

America will become unable or unwilling to defend Israel or Egypt at the time of the end. It will impotently say to Gog, “Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?” (Ezekiel 38:13). The policies of the next president may bring America into such a position, and it may lose its perceived “greatness” (as the world views it). It may be diminished further on the world arena in preparation for its future impotence. 

American and its Young Lion brothers will remain in the Middle East, answering to the King of the South. He will prevent the Gogian host from overflowing into Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states. Daniel 11:41. 

What comes Next?

Sometimes he brings adversaries on the scene to provoke his children to action. 

Biden’s Presidency, (if he is confirmed), may bring about a return to Obama style policies. He is, after all, a Catholic of a liberal persuasion, the second Catholic to potentially become President of the USA. According to Archbishop Viganò in his interview on September 14, 2020:

“I believe that in the history of the United States there has never been an Administration with so many Catholics at the top: Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. All three of them ostentatiously profess to be Catholic, pro-abortion and in favour of homosexual marriage and gender ideology…”

Archbishop Viganò clearly stated Biden’s policies line up with the Pope and the Second Vatican Council:

“All the premises that were laid down in a nutshell with Vatican II and the student revolution are now consistently proposed by Vatican leaders on the ecclesial front, and by government leaders on the globalist political front. Therefore, it should come as no surprise if the priorities of Bergoglio’s (Pope Francis) political program coincide with Joe Biden’s priorities. Migration, environmentalism, Malthusian ecologism, gender ideology, the dissolution of the family and globalism are common to the deep state and deep church agenda.”

So we can expect him to spout the same things as the Vatican, according to the August 17th edition of American Magazine, a Catholic publication:

An Irish Catholic educated by nuns in parochial schools, Joe Biden is quick to invoke the church’s social teaching on the stump. 

Biden himself wrote in his own book Promises to Keep: On Life in Politics:

“I’m as much a cultural Catholic as I am a theological Catholic, My idea of self, of family, of community, of the wider world comes straight from my religion. It’s not so much the Bible, the beatitudes, the Ten Commandments, the sacraments, or the prayers I learned. It’s the culture.”

In his own words, he does not owe his ideas to the Bible, but the culture of Catholicism. The American Magazine reported:

“Biden’s personal connection to the faith remains a highly visible part of his political persona. He carries a rosary at all times, fingering it during moments of anxiety or crisis. Earlier this year, rival Pete Buttigieg noticed Biden holding a rosary backstage before a primary debate....

But it’s the nuns and rank-and-file Catholics, not popes, whom Biden most often relies on for religious counsel, once telling Campbell that it is “nuns and Jesuits who keep me Catholic.”

It was no surprise when, according to CTV News, the Pope called to congratulate him:

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, a lifelong Roman Catholic, spoke to Pope Francis on Thursday, despite U.S. President Donald Trump refusing to concede. Trump claims -- without evidence -- that the election was stolen from him through massive but unspecified acts of fraud.

Biden’s transition team said in a statement that the president-elect thanked Francis for “extending blessings and congratulations and noted his appreciation.” He also saluted the pontiff’s “leadership in promoting peace, reconciliation, and the common bonds of humanity around the world.”

Potential Policies

With a Catholic President, ideologically aligned with the Pope, and in his own words, guided by the Jesuits, we can expect an anti-Israel slate of policies. It isn’t just the president that directs policy, but the Democratic mechanism behind him which has proven anti-Israel in action, though not always in word. 

The threat of renewing the Iran deal looms large. The idea of a two-state solution will come to the forefront, and the Palestinians will be re-invigorated according to Biden in a statement Tuesday to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency back in May:

“A priority now for the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace should be resuming our dialogue with the Palestinians and pressing Israel not to take actions that make a two-state solution impossible,” Biden said. “I will re-open the U.S. consulate in East Jerusalem, find a way to re-open the PLO’s diplomatic mission in Washington, and resume the decades-long economic and security assistance efforts to the Palestinians that the Trump Administration stopped.”

Without surprise, his view on annexation was made clear last August when he spoke to the Council on Foreign Relations:

“Israeli leaders should stop the expansion of West Bank settlements and talk of annexation that would make two states impossible to achieve.”

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, in April of 2020:

“Biden has separately said he would not reverse President Donald Trump’s decision in 2018 to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.”

A Caution from the Almighty:

While Biden may be contemplating his policies, God’s policy is clear, and Biden should be aware of it. It was published over three thousand years ago in God’s promise to Abraham:

“I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)

If, as the American Presidents love to request, that “God Bless America” they had best heed the words of Genesis. 

Having said all this, the Battle for the Presidency hasn’t ended quite yet. 

This has been Jonathan Bowen joining you. Tune in next week for another edition of The Bible in the News.