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Russia & US agree on Chemical Weapons Resolution
Russia’s Rise at America’s Expense
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Saturday, September 14, 2013
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The world media spotlight continues to be focused on Syria with Russia and America announcing they have reached an agreement on Syrias chemical weapons.
As reported last week, having stood idly by while the Syrian civil war claimed the lives of over 100,000 people, an uproar has arisen over the use of Chemical weapons which violate the Geneva Convention. Chemical weapons do not kill people nicely, and therefore the world has had to speak out. However, when America threatened action, an even greater uproar has been made by nations around the world, including the Vatican. Russia has rushed in with a solution that will deal with Chemical weapons and leave the murderous regime entact.
Russia & US agree on Chemical Weapons Resolution
The Ottawa Citizen reported under the following headline US, Russia reach agreement on framework to secure Syria chemical weapons:
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reached agreement Saturday on a framework for Syria to destroy all of its chemical weapons, and said they would seek a U.N. Security Council resolution that could authorize sanctions short of military action if Syrian President Bashar Assad's government fails to comply.
"The world will now expect the Assad regime to live up to its public commitment," Kerry told a packed news conference in the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva. "There can be no games, no room for avoidance, or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime."
The deal calls for international inspectors to be on the ground in Syria by November and to complete their initial work by the end of that month. All of Syria's chemical weapons stocks, material and equipment would have to be destroyed or removed by mid-2014.
The agreement came after three days of intense negotiations. The Washington Post reported:
Syria, which is not a party to the Geneva talks, denied until this week that it had chemical weapons. Under Russian pressure, Assad agreed to acknowledge the stockpiles and join the international weapons ban.
What this effectively does is protect Syria, a Russian friend and ally, from western military intervention and places it under Russias watch. This is in keeping with the words of Ezekiel 38:7 where we read:
Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them. (Ezekiel 38:7)
Strongs defines this as to observe, to guard over, to watch, a place of confinement. Gesenius adds, to place in custody. Russia has placed Syria under its custody, protected from the West.
Russias Rise at Americas Expense
The Russian initiative has greatly weakened the United States role in international affairs. The Washington Post reported the back down approach:
Washington and London have now backed off the use-of-force provision, and a revised French draft being circulated at the U.N. Security Council has weakened it. Instead, the draft calls for continuous review of Syrias compliance..and, if Syria does not comply fully, to impose further measures that are unspecified.
A New York Times headline read, As Obama Pauses Action, Putin Takes Center Stage. The article stated:
Suddenly Mr. Putin has eclipsed Mr. Obama as the world leader driving the agenda in the Syria crisis. He is offering a potential, if still highly uncertain, alternative to what he has vocally criticized as Americas militarism and reasserted Russian interests in a region where it had been marginalized since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Although circumstances could shift yet again, Mr. Putin appears to have achieved several objectives, largely at Washingtons expense. He has handed a diplomatic lifeline to his longtime ally in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad, who not long ago appeared at risk of losing power and who President Obama twice said must step down. He has stopped Mr. Obama from going around the United Nations Security Council, where Russia holds a veto, to assert American priorities unilaterally.
The Washington Times under the headline Putin offers Obama face-saving lifeline in push for Syria to surrender chemical weapons suggested that Putin has also bailed Obama out of a political crisis too. Another article stated:
The speed with which Obama embraced the idea hinted at the depth of his political isolation -- as support fast ebbs for military action in Congress, and with his credibility as a world statesman in doubt.
American President Obama has been weakly vacillating, not really wanting to act, but having painted himself into a corner with his red line speech on chemical weapons. Obama has lacked the backbone or resolve to be a man of his word. His indecisiveness has cost America the initiative in the region. Any hopes of the American cavalry coming to the rescue have gone up on a puff of hot air. The cost to American strategic position is enormous.
The words of Rab-shakeh to Hezekiah regarding relying on Egypt as an ally are brought to mind:
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 18:21)
So is Obama, President of America. What kind of support is he able to give? How much should Israel rely on assurances America has given? Those who trust in him will be pierced through.
This is, of course, the picture painted by scripture in the time of the end. The western nations, which for the past 60 years have been the worlds policemen, are reduced to a feeble protest when Gog makes its final move in Ezekiel 38. We read their protest in verse 13:
Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, 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)
Yet there is no decisive action to do anything about this great invasion which will take place. We read of no counter-offensive whatsoever in the scriptures. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who will save the day.
Putins Move to Constrain America
Putin is not hiding anything about his real agenda. He addressed the American people in A Plea for Caution From Russia in the New York Times (ironically on September 11th). He wrote:
Relations between us have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization the United Nations was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again
No one wants the United Nations to suffer the fate of the League of Nations, which collapsed because it lacked real leverage. This is possible if influential countries bypass the United Nations and take military action without Security Council authorization.
The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from many countries and major political and religious leaders, including the pope, will result in more innocent victims and escalation, potentially spreading the conflict far beyond Syrias borders. A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. It could undermine multilateral efforts to resolve the Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and further destabilize the Middle East and North Africa. It could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance
From the outset, Russia has advocated peaceful dialogue enabling Syrians to develop a compromise plan for their own future. We are not protecting the Syrian government, but international law. We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in todays complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not
It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States
The world reacts by asking: if you cannot count on international law, then you must find other ways to ensure your security
We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and political settlement.
A new opportunity to avoid military action has emerged in the past few days. The United States, Russia and all members of the international community must take advantage of the Syrian governments willingness to place its chemical arsenal under international control for subsequent destruction
There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lords blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.
So Putins goal is the containment of America and the advancement of the will of all nations Putin doesnt want America to be the worlds policeman anymore. Putin wants America to be shackled by the will of the United Nations. (Remember, the UN is a body that made 65 resolutions against Israel between 1955 to 1992, without one resolution against the Palestinians. More recently, in 2012 there were 21 resolutions against Israel, 4 for the rest of the world.) This is the body that Putin would like to put control into the hands of
What is also of great interest is Putins reference to Christianity and faith, showing a revival at the highest level of Christianity in the formerly atheistic-communist Russia.
Following Putins letter, Dimitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Centre, was interviewed, and stated the following:
The larger goal, the really big goal is forcing the United States back into the U.N. Security Council-centered international system
I think Putin is basically saying something that a lot of people will find objectionable that the United States has been soaring above international law and its time for the country to return inside the framework of international law as codified by the United Nations charter, especially with the Security Council
Putins goal is to weaken the USA role in the world and assert Russias role in international affairs. It wants the UN to be the watch dog, and all nations to be under its control. This is in keeping with a prophetic picture painted by the Bible. The invasion of Israel will be an international effort led by Russia. It is described by the prophets:
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; And the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; And half of the city shall go forth into captivity, And the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. (Zechariah 14:2)
For, behold, in those days, and in that time, When I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations, And will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, And will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. (Joel 3:12)
At the head of this conglomeration is Gog:
And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, (RV) Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. (Ezekiel 38:36)
This is a European confederacy joined by Persia (Iran, Ethiopia an Libya). It is led by Russia.
Russia is equates with the symbol of the Dragon in Revelation 16 and there we find it using the doctrines of the French Revolution to draw all nations down:
And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast (Europe), and out of the mouth of the false prophet (Papacy). For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. (Revelation 16:1316)
Putin referred to equality in his speech. We can expect more of this rhetoric as Revelation informs us that it will be the frog spirit doctrines of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity coming out of Russia, Europe and the Papacy that will draw the nations into an invasion of Israel.
As the alliances described in the Bible continue to slide into place, as Western power wanes, Russian influence and protection grows, and preparations are being made for the gathering of the nations to Armageddon we need to heed the words of the Lord sandwiched between the gathering of the nations and the battle itself:
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. (Revelation 16:15).
The world events around us are a call to action to examine ourselves, and purge the leaven out of our lives, being prepared, being spiritually clothed, being awake, being ready to meet our Lord when he comes. Come back next week and continue to watch with us on the Bible in the News.