While they are saying peace and security

Here is some Middle East news. Things are deteriorating so rapidly over there it is breathtaking.

1. Jordan's King Abdullah dissolves Parliament, calls early elections
"The royal decree follows Abdullah II's pledge to bring in political reforms aimed at avoiding anti-government unrest in the wake of the Arab Spring. Jordanians have been pressing for a greater say in how their country is run and demanding corruption be tackled. Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood said in July its political party, the Islamic Action Front, would boycott the polls. The group has called for the monarch's powers to be curtailed, and for an overhaul of the parliamentary system in which the prime minister is appointed by the king rather than elected. It has said it would boycott polls until such measures were introduced."

The King may look stable but no situation in the ME is stable right now. This editorial in the UK Guardian asks, "Is Jordan heading for chaos?" The answer is yes. Yes it is. No nation will survive the chaos that is coming, and the chaos will begin in and around Israel.

Iran is not stable, either. Iran's rial currency plunges in value, causing riots.

2. Iran's currency plunges, protests in streets, clashes with police
"DUBAI (Reuters) - Riot police clashed with demonstrators and arrested money changers in Tehran on Wednesday in disturbances over the collapse of the Iranian currency, which has lost 40 percent of its value against the dollar in a week, witnesses said."

Lost 40%!!!??? Imagine if the dollar had lost 40% of its value in one week!

This next one merits an uh-oh.

3. Another mortar has fallen into Turkish territory, and Turkey is even more incensed now. Turkey is a member of NATO. NATO nations are allied by treaty and must come to each other's defense if attacked. The Lebanon Daily Star reports this afternoon, "Israel says Syrian mortar strike was attack on NATO. Says attack on one NATO member attack on all"

"PARIS: Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor said on Thursday a deadly Syrian mortar strike on a Turkish town had to be considered an attack on a member of the NATO alliance. Israel is technically at war with Damascus and occupies the Golan Heights that it seized in the 1967 war and later annexed, but it has generally taken a cautious line on the uprising in its Arab neighbour. "One has to say that according to the NATO treaty, it was an attack on a member of NATO, and that means France," Meridor told reporters during a visit to Paris, referring to France's membership of NATO. Syria and Israel have not exchanged fire in three decades, and a parliamentary briefing in July by the Israeli armed forces chief about the risk of "uncontrollable deterioration" in Syria were interpreted by local media as a caution against opening a new fighting front with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad."

3a. The UN scrambles to defuse Syria-Turkey tensions
"UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was "alarmed by escalating tensions" between Syria and Turkey and warned that the risk of the 18-month-long Syrian conflict embroiling the entire region was growing, his spokesman said on Thursday. "The Secretary-General is alarmed by escalating tensions along the Syrian-Turkish border," Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters. "As the situation inside Syria deteriorates yet further ... the risks of regional conflict and the threat to international peace and security are also increasing."

Speaking of peace and security, there is this headline from today too:

Turkey seeks 'peace and security,' not war with Syria

And the UN speeches last week were full of references to peace and security.

"The world is in need of a new order of trustworthy leaders offering peace and lasting security." Iran's President Ahmadinejad, UN Speech, 9/2012

"Jordan's King Abdullah said in his region of the Middle East, new opportunities are needed, especially for youth, to "fill the universal desire and basic human right to live in freedom, dignity and peace. ... Abdullah also spoke of the Palestinians' need for dignity and safety. UN Speech, 9/2012

Prophecy says, "While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape." (1 Thessalonians 5:3).

While they are saying...

Now it should be noted that the context of the verse is of the Day of the LORD, which means the Tribulation leading up to the actual moment of Jesus's reappearance, coming in glory. But the problem of false prophets who tout peace around the next corner is as old as the hills. God told Jeremiah to say,

"They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace." (Jeremiah 6:14)

The wicked false prophets were telling the people that peace was coming, and that no trouble was on the horizon. They dressed the bleeding wound lightly. That wound was the Israelites' separation from God. They were faithless, and the false prophets were capitalizing on their penchant for listening to the easy cure rather than the hard one. There are always people eager to hear an easy message being preached, and in that day, 'peace, peace' was the most favored one.

It is like that today, with so many false prophets and false teachers. The message most favored in the American church these days is "prosperity, prosperity." The false ones preach an easy message to tickle the ears, and they find many willing listeners to heap up to themselves as eager followers to their false message. (2 Tim 4:3).

In the Tribulation, though there will be catastrophic wars, destructive natural disasters, and an economy and government gone wild, the false prophesiers will be saying "peace and safety is just around the corner!" As always, there will be eager people willing to listen to the false message and who refuse the hard cure: humble repentance.

In this day, just prior to the coming Tribulation, they are saying "peace and security!" with increasing fervor. (Imagine how many people will be saying it then, and how often, if it is so frequent now!)

The verse right before the one in Jeremiah 6 where they were saying "peace, peace", is this. I believe it to be apt today. It closes out chapter 5:

"An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?" (Jeremiah 5:30-31).

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