News and Prophecy Staff

Regular readers of this News and Prophecy and students of the Scriptures are aware that as the end of the age approaches, we will see far more troubling events. There will be more false prophets, wars, catastrophic weather, major geopolitical shifts, and the Israelite-descended nations will experience unique problems and suffering due to their outright rejection of God.  Without Christ’s own revelation, these escalating events will cause some to become paralyzed with fear and worry.

Germany is calling for a new European treaty by the end of the year to clear the way for more European integration and a new legal foundation for the Union.  “Germany would like to see… a legal basis that would give the European Court of Justice the jurisdiction to monitor the budgets of member states and to punish deficit offenders” (Der Spiegel, August 27, 2012).

The U.S. has recently been hit hard by severe weather.  “Nearly 75 percent of the country’s corn and soya bean-growing regions have been hit by extreme drought”—although the total damage will not be known until the October harvest (Deutsche Welle, August 28, 2012).  Last year, severe storms in the U.S., “caused an economic loss of about $46 billion” (about $25 billion was insured).  Insured losses were more than double the 2010 record (ibid.).

The resource-based Australian economy has greatly benefited from massive iron ore exports which have supported China’s economic boom.  “China takes 25% of Australia’s exports and iron ore accounts for 60% of all the goods Australia sells to China.  One reason Australia avoided recession during the global downturn of 2008-09 was that it had a well-run banking system.

In response to the growing threat of an Israeli military attack, Iran is planning a massive defense drill in October, involving their air defenses, army and revolutionary guard (Reuters, September 1, 2012).  “Today our systems are prepared in a serious way for modern air threats,” noted Iran’s air defense commander (ibid.).  An Iranian naval commander said that Iran now sees Israel and the U.S.