Current Events & Trends: Avoid involvement in the Middle East?
Bloomberg Businessweek published an article by Peter Beinart, a Daily Beast columnist and university professor, that originally appeared online with the title "Obama Should Give Peace a Chance With Iran" (Sept. 19, 2013).
Its later print title was "The Middle East Is Burning: Let's Stay Out of the Fire" (Sept. 23-29). This piece reflects much of present American thinking and sounds good on the surface. After all, as he points out, "the military is exhausted. The American public is polarized. The government is in debt." Witness the recent congressional budget impasse between the Democrats and the Republicans.
America's leaders don't seem to fully grasp that, like it or not, the nation is already deeply involved in the Middle East. It has been in Iraq twice in the last three decades. And it is now encouraging a revival of the so-called Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The Bible and secular history have shown us that no nation can involve itself in Middle Eastern affairs without getting its proverbial fingers badly burnt. This region remains at the center of world tensions and will remain so until Jesus Christ rules over all nations in the age to come.
The city of Jerusalem is a major focal point of Bible prophecy—along with the all the surrounding region of the Middle East. Zechariah 12:3 makes it clear that God "will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will be surely be cut in pieces." Nations will gather at Armageddon in northern Israel to battle and will end up fighting Jesus Christ at His coming. (To understand more, read the article "Armageddon: The End of the World?".)
The present approach to negotiations with Iran can cut both ways. America is looking for a way out of this ongoing nuclear dilemma. Focusing on the friendly diplomatic gestures of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani overlooks the fact that ultimate responsibility for national policy rests with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This Bloomberg article acknowledges the possibility that "Iran's leaders will never help broker a Syrian peace pact that ushers Assad out of power, or accept the kind of tough international oversight necessary to keep the country from getting a nuclear weapon."
If meaningful negotiations do in fact occur without panning out, returning Iran to radical hostility against the West, things could very well turn out worse than ever before. For help in gaining a proper historic and prophetic overview, please read the Bible study aid The Middle East in Bible Prophecy. (Source: Bloomberg Businessweek.)
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Jerold Aust
Jerold Aust has served in the ministry for 52 years, as a public speaker for 58 years, a published writer for 38 years, and is employed by UCG’s Media and Communications Services. He is a Senior Writer, interviewer, and editor for Beyond Today Magazine and has taught Speech Communication for UCG’s ministerial online program and the Book of Revelation for ABC.
Jerold holds a BA in theology from Ambassador College, Pasadena (1968), an MA in Communication from California State University, Fullerton (1995), a distance-learning Ph.D (2006), and a Famous Writers School diploma in non-fiction writing (1973). Additionally, he studied post-grad communication at University of Southern California (1995), radio, TV, voice-overs, and Public Relations at Fullerton College (1995-1996), and graduate communication at Wichita State University (1978). Jerold has taught communication at the University of South Alabama (7 years) and ABC (17 years). His published works include, Ronald Reagan’s Rhetoric: Metaphor as Persuasion and EZSpeakers: Public Speaking Made Easy in 7 Steps. Jerold's overarching goal is to share with humankind its incredible destiny!
John Ross Schroeder
John died on March 8, 2014, in Oxford, England, four days after suffering cardiac arrest while returning home from a press event in London. John was 77 and still going strong.
Some of John's work for The Good News appeared under his byline, but much didn't. He wrote more than a thousand articles over the years, but also wrote the Questions and Answers section of the magazine, compiled our Letters From Our Readers, and wrote many of the items in the Current Events and Trends section. He also contributed greatly to a number of our study guides and Bible Study Course lessons. His writing has touched the lives of literally millions of people over the years.
John traveled widely over the years as an accredited journalist, especially in Europe. His knowledge of European and Middle East history added a great deal to his articles on history and Bible prophecy.
In his later years he also pastored congregations in Northern Ireland and East Sussex, and that experience added another dimension to his writing. He and his wife Jan were an effective team in our British Isles office near their home.
John was a humble servant who dedicated his life to sharing the gospel—the good news—of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God to all the world, and his work was known to readers in nearly every country of the world.
