{"id":214,"date":"2011-08-25T17:00:39","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T21:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/?p=214"},"modified":"2011-08-25T17:00:39","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T21:00:39","slug":"damascus-in-the-cross-hairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/08\/damascus-in-the-cross-hairs.html","title":{"rendered":"Damascus in the Cross-hairs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Just one of the fascinating characteristics of Bible prophecy is its proximity to reality. Many don&#8217;t think of it that way, but I do. Bible prophecy is not some esoteric nonsense.<\/p>\n<p>I was reminded of this today after reading that former Vice President Dick Cheney urged President Bush to bomb a nuclear reactor in Syria in June, 2007. <\/p>\n<p>During a cabinet meeting, Cheney laid-out his reasons for doing so, and Bush looked around the table for a show of hands from those who agreed with the vp. No hands went up.<\/p>\n<p>Three months later, the Israelis (apparently) bombed the site, concluding that there was an existential threat, due to Syrian hostility.<\/p>\n<p>The whole affair calls to mind the famous prophecy of Isaiah 17, which I&#8217;ve discussed before. In this chapter, it is predicted that Damascus will be obliterated, never to be inhabited again. <\/p>\n<p>Since the ancient city has never endured such a scenario, it must be yet future. Of course, plenty of more liberal teachers and students view it as anything but real future history, but it is an interesting passage.<\/p>\n<p>For me and my house, we will consider it future history. Cheney&#8217;s little account lends credibility to the view that the home of Bashar Assad\u2014currently killing his own citizens\u2014will vanish one day without a trace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just one of the fascinating characteristics of Bible prophecy is its proximity to reality. Many don&#8217;t think of it that way, but I do. Bible prophecy is not some esoteric nonsense. I was reminded of this today after reading that former Vice President Dick Cheney urged President Bush to bomb a nuclear reactor in Syria&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Damascus in the Cross-hairs - Is it the End of the World?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/08\/damascus-in-the-cross-hairs.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Damascus in the Cross-hairs - Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just one of the fascinating characteristics of Bible prophecy is its proximity to reality. Many don&#8217;t think of it that way, but I do. Bible prophecy is not some esoteric nonsense. I was reminded of this today after reading that former Vice President Dick Cheney urged President Bush to bomb a nuclear reactor in Syria&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/08\/damascus-in-the-cross-hairs.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-25T21:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Fletcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Damascus in the Cross-hairs - Is it the End of the World?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2011\/08\/damascus-in-the-cross-hairs.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Damascus in the Cross-hairs - Is it the End of the World?","og_description":"Just one of the fascinating characteristics of Bible prophecy is its proximity to reality. 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