{"id":427,"date":"2012-02-18T21:03:22","date_gmt":"2012-02-19T02:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/?p=427"},"modified":"2012-02-18T21:03:22","modified_gmt":"2012-02-19T02:03:22","slug":"serious-about-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html","title":{"rendered":"Serious About Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.\u201d (Isaiah 17:1)<\/p>\n

As the unrest\/murder in Syria reaches catastrophic proportions, I am reminded of the famous prophecy of Isaiah 17, which says that one day, Damascus will be destroyed. <\/p>\n

Since the city is very ancient\u2014and the world\u2019s oldest continuously inhabited city\u2014this must be an event far into the future from the prophet. In fact, I believe it is a prophecy meant for our day.<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve written before, the idea that Bible prophecy is real, and relevant to our lives is considered to be absurd by most.<\/p>\n

Note, though, that doesn\u2019t make the prophecy wrong.<\/p>\n

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has proven to be as ruthless as his father. Thousands of citizens have been killed in uprisings sparked by the \u201cArab Spring\u201d of last year. The question for our discussion, however, is, \u201cWhat could spark the Isaiah 17 scenario?\u201d<\/p>\n

Middle East dictators are notorious for diverting attention from their own domestic troubles by targeting Israel, either with propaganda or in outright attacks.<\/p>\n

The Israelis will not allow neighbors with lethal intentions to carry those intentions out. It is possible (this is only a speculation) that if Assad tried to divert attention and \u201cunite\u201d his people, by attacking Israel, the Israelis would respond with withering attacks. <\/p>\n

Despite the fact that Bible prophecy has been marginalized in our culture, there are good reasons to believe it is true and plausible.<\/p>\n

The end of Isaiah 17 offers a compelling look at what might transpire:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.\u201d (Isaiah 17:14).<\/p>\n

Damascus will disappear overnight. For some reason.<\/p>\n

Syria bears watching.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Syria, 2012<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.\u201d (Isaiah 17:1) As the unrest\/murder in Syria reaches catastrophic proportions, I am reminded of the famous prophecy of Isaiah 17, which says that one day, Damascus will be destroyed. Since the city is very ancient\u2014and…<\/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-427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSerious About Syria - 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\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Serious About Syria - Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cThe burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.\u201d (Isaiah 17:1) As the unrest\/murder in Syria reaches catastrophic proportions, I am reminded of the famous prophecy of Isaiah 17, which says that one day, Damascus will be destroyed. Since the city is very ancient\u2014and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Is it the End of the World?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-19T02:03:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2012\/02\/syrian-unrest1-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Fletcher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Serious About Syria - 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\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Serious About Syria - Is it the End of the World?","og_description":"\u201cThe burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.\u201d (Isaiah 17:1) As the unrest\/murder in Syria reaches catastrophic proportions, I am reminded of the famous prophecy of Isaiah 17, which says that one day, Damascus will be destroyed. Since the city is very ancient\u2014and…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html","og_site_name":"Is it the End of the World?","article_published_time":"2012-02-19T02:03:22+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2012\/02\/syrian-unrest1-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Jim Fletcher","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html","name":"Serious About Syria - Is it the End of the World?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2012\/02\/syrian-unrest1-300x225.jpg","datePublished":"2012-02-19T02:03:22+00:00","dateModified":"2012-02-19T02:03:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2012\/02\/syrian-unrest1-300x225.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/isittheendoftheworld\/files\/2012\/02\/syrian-unrest1-300x225.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/2012\/02\/serious-about-syria.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Serious About Syria"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/","name":"Is it the End of the World?","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Jim Fletcher","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/#\/schema\/person\/e4febb70ba13f920c6255f1d7aaf0c96","name":"Jim Fletcher","description":"Blogger and researcher Jim Fletcher has worked in the book publishing industry for 15 years, and is now director of the apologetics group Prophecy Matters. His new book, \"Truth Wins,\" provides important analysis of Rob Bell and his Emergent friends.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/author\/jfletcher"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/392"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/isittheendoftheworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}