We focus on Bible prophecy each week for about five-minutes, calling it a “Prophecy Update.”

We are futurists. We interpret the unfulfilled prophetic portions of the Book of the Revelation and the Book of Daniel, and all other unfulfilled prophecies, as yet future events in a literal, physical, apocalyptic, and global context.

The prophet Isaiah wrote,

Isaiah 17:1  The burden against Damascus. “Behold, Damascus will cease from being a city, And it will be a ruinous heap.”

Damascus has been destroyed several times throughout its history. Students of Bible prophecy have interpreted this to mean there will be one, final destruction of Damascus in the Last Days and then that city will cease to exist.

You’d therefore expect turmoil in Syria. That’s an understatement. There’s been a civil war in Syria for the last seven years, with different groups trying to seize control of the country. More than half a million people are dead. There are an estimated 6.6million refugees.

There’s been a stunning new development. Turkey has launched military operations in Syria. According to CNBC (and others),

Turkey has launched a military operation in northern Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday, days after the Trump administration announced its decision to pull U.S. troops out of the area.

Erdogan wrote on Twitter, according to that site’s translation feature, “Our aim is to destroy the terror corridor which is trying to be established on our southern border and to bring peace, and peace to the region.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/09/turkish-president-erdogan-confirms-military-operation-in-northern-syria-has-begun.html

Erdogan has made public his claims to be the head of a new Islamic Empire; a Caliphate. A Turkish journalist wrote:

… having been voted in as president in 2015 and brought the country to an executive presidential system last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has earned the title of Caliph. The title was originally bestowed on the successors to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, and caliphs were considered the rightful leaders of the Muslim people. Over centuries the title has been claimed by political leaders of Muslim territories, sometimes in parallel to one another. The title was claimed by Ottoman Sultan Murad I in 1517 and held by his successors until after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century.

A 2018 article in a Turkish paper described the regime’s desire to form an “Army of Islam” to attack and destroy the State of Israel. The article calls on the 57 member nations of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) throughout the Muslim world to join forces against the Israeli “occupiers” who would then be vastly outnumbered and unable to defend their country.

It isn’t unreasonable to think that he might invade Israel. There are unfulfilled prophecies in Ezekiel about a coalition of nations invading Israel in the Last Days; Turkey is among them.

I’m not saying this is coming to pass. I am saying that it is exactly what you’d expect from reading the Bible.

Jesus promised He’d return to rapture His church – which entails the resurrection of the dead in Christ of the Church Age, then the translation from earth to Heaven of all living believers.

It is presented in the Bible as an imminent (any-moment) event.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, get ready, stay ready, and keep looking up. Ready or not, Jesus is coming!