Sunday, February 11, 2024 was a significant day for Iran. First, the day marked the 45th anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Associated Press reported that thousands of Iranians took to the streets that were decorated with Iranian flags, balloons, and banners.
Iranians also chanted familiar slogans, slogans that have been frequently recited since the Iranian regime took control in 1979. What were those slogans? “Death to America” and Death to Israel.” As those traditional slogans were shouted, United States and Israeli flags were also burned. Then the celebration intensified as the crowd watched a paratrooper jump from a plane while displaying a Palestinian flag.
Many high-ranking Iranian officials joined the celebration in Tehran, including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi. During his speech which was broadcasted to the nation via Iranian state television, Raisi called upon the United Nations to “expel the Zionist regime” and to stop Israel’s bombing of Gaza.
Second, later that same day, the former head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, was interviewed by Iranian state television and said, “We have all the (pieces) of nuclear science and technology. Let me give an example. What does a car need? It needs a chassis, it needs an engine, it needs a steering wheel, it needs a gearbox. Have you made a gearbox? I say yes. . .” (Associate Press).
By the way, Salehi’s comments on Sunday served to reinforce what he said the day before when he boasted, “We have it in our hands.”
Salehi’s comments prompted a warning earlier today from Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency. While speaking at the World Governments Summit in Dubai, Grossi sounded the alarm regarding Salehi’s admission and Iran’s lack of transparency. Grossi said that Iran is “presenting a face which is not entirely transparent when it comes to its nuclear activities. Of course this increases dangers. There’s loose talk about nuclear weapons more and more, including in Iran recently. A very high official said, in fact, ‘we have everything, it’s disassembled’” (Associated Press).
When it comes to Iran producing weapon-grade uranium, David Albright, a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq, recently said that Iran “would only need about a week to produce enough for its first nuclear weapon. It could have enough weapon-grade uranium for six weapons in one month, and after five months of producing weapon-grade uranium, it could have enough for twelve.” Albright also warned that “Western intelligence agencies may have less than two months to respond.”
Why should this matter to citizens of the United States, Israel, and their western allies? Because Iran is not only the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism, it is committed to the destruction of the United States and Israel; Sunday’s banners, slogans, and placards say it all.
And it appears that Israel’s war against Hamas has served to intensify and expedite Iran’s timeline for attempting to make it death slogans a reality.
On the evening of October 7, 2023, after Hamas terrorists murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, raped women and young girls, beheaded and burned infants alive in front of their parents, and took roughly 240 people hostage, the Iranian regime hosted massive street parties in Tehran, provided free sweets and lemonade along with a fireworks display, as the Iranians chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” Less than a month later, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameni, declared, “The situation between America and Iran is this: When you chant ‘Death to America!’ it is not just a slogan – it is a policy. . . . “If it were not for America’s support, if it were not for the support of U.S. weapons, the corrupt and artificial Zionist regime [Israel] would have been destroyed in the first week. It would have collapsed. The Americans are behind this.”
Question: Why are these developments important when it comes to understanding the events of the latter days?
Answer: The prophetic stage is being set for the return of Jesus Christ at the end of the Great Tribulation.
One event that will precede the Great Tribulation is the Battle of Gog and Magog (Ezekiel 38-39). During the Battle of Gog and Magog, there will be an alliance of nations against Israel. According to the book of Ezekiel, “Persia,” modern-day Iran, will be part of an alliance that will attack Israel “in the latter years” (Ezek. 38:5, 8). These nations will “devise an evil plan” against Israel and with overwhelming force “come like a storm. . . like a cloud covering the land” (Ezek. 38:9-10).
But in response to this great opposition, God will come to Israel’s rescue and pour out His “blazing wrath” upon her foes in order to deliver Israel from certain destruction through a series of cataclysmic judgments (Ezek. 38:18-23). This divine deliverance will be in keeping with God’s promise to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse” (Gen. 12:3).
So, it appears that the stage is being set for the events prophesied by the prophet Ezekiel 2,600 years ago. And through it all, God will reveal Himself to Israel and the many nations so that they will know that He is the Lord (Ezek. 38:23).
Will you please join in praying for Israel and for the leaders of the United States?
by Dr. Matthew Dodd | February 13, 2024