“A picture paints a thousand words”
It has been said; “A picture paints a thousand words.” There was a picture on a well-known media online website two days ago showing Hassan Rouhani and Recep Tayyip Erdogan holding hands and grinning profusely while Vladimir Putin looked on as he stood alongside the two of them. The headline and sub header read; “Idlib: Turkey’s ceasefire call rejected by Russia, Iran. Tehran summit on fate of Syria’s Idlib ends without agreement as Turkish ceasefire push is rejected by Russia and Iran.” Part of the article went on to say; “The leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey have been unable to find common ground at a high-stakes summit on the fate of Syria’s last rebel stronghold, where the Syrian government is threatening a large-scale military offensive. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Friday hosted his Russian and Turkish counterparts – Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan – amid growing international warnings over a looming humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib, a province hosting more than three million people, half of whom are internally displaced. Iran and Russia are major allies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey backs certain rebel groups, including some in Idlib, who are seeking his removal.”
The bigger picture
What can we make of these three meeting together? What do we make of this situation? We need to look at the bigger picture overall. Historically, Turkey and Russia have a long and bloody history of wars between the two of them. Putin is from a Russian Christian Orthodox background and Erdogan from a Sufi/Sunni background. They are ‘poles apart.’ While these two men seem to be exhibiting some form of ‘civility’ there is still an undercurrent of mistrust. The photo says it all.
Is Putin ‘their Patsy?’
Putin may go to the negotiating table thinking Rouhini is ‘on side’ but traditionally Putin is not Muslim and has been seen ‘hobnobbing’ with the Russian orthodox Priests in Russia. Is in fact Putin their ‘patsy?’ Rouhini is Shiite Muslim. However, Putin is not a Christian by Biblical definition as his own government still persecutes Bible-believing Christians who believe that the Lord Jesus is the head of the faithful Church and not the State. Added to this Erdogan has clearly shown and spoken of his desire to see Islam become a global power with himself as the first caliph of a revived Turkish Ottoman Empire. There is no way he will ever permit Biblical Christianity to flourish in a revived Turkish Ottoman Empire. In fact wherever he reigns supreme he will most definitely turn Churches into mosques as he has done in Turkey.
Polital expediency
Political expediency may be the name of the game for these three ‘henchmen’ doing the devil’s work for him but in the course of time Russia may well find itself at war with Turkey but this time the stakes will be very high and much higher than at any other time in history because of nuclear capabilities of these nations and others. Of course one thing Putin, Erdogan and Rouhani all have in common is their designs concerning Israel. Putin only backs Syria because it is economically viable for Russia to supply weaponry to the Assad regime.
Rouhani and Assad
Rouhani only backs Assad because he wants access to attack Israel on its Northern border separating Israel from Syria but he needs to be ‘in bed’ with Assad to do this. Rouhani does not really care about Assad as he sees Assad as a means to an end, namely the wholesale destruction of Israel with missiles launches and silos established on Syrian soil just over Israel’s Northern border. It is also in Rouhani’s interests to keep Russia ‘on side’ for now as the last thing the Iranian regime needs is a war with Russia.
The Caliphate
Putin himself may well have his sights on Israel’s massive underground natural gas reserves and time will tell on that score. As for Erdogan he has his sights set much wider on a global Islamic caliphate with himself as the Supreme caliph of the Islamic world. He knows that the whole of the Muslim world is waiting for the Mahdi of Islam to be revealed who will lead the armies of Islam on a bloody and global Jihadist rampage to establish Islam and Koranic law in every nation if that were possible.
Putin ‘out in the cold’
I am persuaded that Erdogan and Rouhini have already made plans secretly to take Israel in a pincer attack. The Sunni crescent led by Erdogan and the Shiite crescent led by Iran is the goal of these two men. This pincer attack would cut Israel off on all sides. As for Putin he is ‘out in the cold’ as far as Rouhini and Erdogan are concerned, after all he is not a Muslim and outwardly Russia is still an Orthodox Christian country even though there are many Muslims living there. The Southern Turkic speaking states that were once part of the Soviet empire are already Islamic and would join in the global jihad for Islam when the Mahdi is revealed. We know from scripture that Turkey and Iran will be among the Islamic nations that attack Israel and lay siege to Jerusalem. (Ezekiel 38:5-6)
Taqqyia
If the picture of the three leaders does indeed “paint a thousand words” then behind the cameras Putin will not be grinning like a Cheshire cat at all. As for Erdogan and Rouhini they have everything to laugh about because as far as they are concerned they will use any means possible including Putin if they can including political expediency and taqqyia to mask their true intentions for a revived global caliphate. This caliphate of global proportions would see the whole Islamic world yield their allegiance to the Islamic caliph who most likely will turn out to be the Antichrist himself.
For the sake of the elect
For those of us who love and follow the Lord Jesus we need to realise that troubled times are coming upon the world including the time of great trouble unequalled in past history and never to be equalled again. (Matthew 24:21-22) God Himself will cut these days short for the sake of his elect, being faithful believers in Israel and in the Gentile nations. This will happen suddenly and without warning at the Second Coming of Jesus the Messiah. (1 Thessalonians 5:1-3)
“A smile on their dial?”
When He does return His faithful saints will go to meet Him in the air and return with Him to earth to fight Israel’s enemies and ultimately to co-reign with Him on earth in their glorified bodies! We are also told in the prophet Zechariah that when He returns that “Judah will also fight at Jerusalem.” (Zechariah 14:14) Rouhini and Erdogan may now have “a smile on their dial” due to their malevolent and dark desires now, but at the end their persecution of the saints and their disdain for Israel and desecration of Jerusalem will be amply rewarded according to their wicked deeds.
Weighed and found wanting!
When they stand before the ultimate Judge to give an account to Him for the way they have treated His people, the look on their faces will be sheer terror! As for Rouhini, Erdogan and for Putin most likely the writing will be well and truly on the wall because they will have been weighed in God’s balancing scales and God Himself will pronounce the sentence; “Weighed and found wanting!”
