Plus: 15,000 Christians fleeing from Mosul, Iraq; and the Taliban murders a Christian aid worker in Kabul

By Joel C. Rosenberg

(Washington, D.C., October 21, 2008) — How much time do we have before war between Iran and Israel breaks out? Could it happen between the U.S. elections on November 4th and the inauguration on January 20th? A number of top U.S. and Israeli officials and analysts fear the answer could be yes.

Last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad again vowed to wipe Israel and “these germs of corruption off the face of the Earth.” Israeli officials believe time is running out before Iran gets the Bomb. What’s more, they know full well that President Bush – widely considered the most pro-Israel commander-in-chief in U.S. history – is leaving office very soon. One question, then, is whether Israel might launch a pre-emptive war against Iran’s nuclear weapons program before a new American President steps in.

Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee, this week actually guaranteed a major international crisis would erupt within the next six months if running mate Barack Obama is elected. “Mark my words – it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy,” Biden told supporters in Seattle on Sunday. “The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America….Watch. We’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

Is Ahmadinejad and his regime preparing to launch such a crisis? They are certainly ratcheting up their anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli rhetoric. “The Zionists are crooks,” Ahmadinejad said recently. “A small handful of Zionists, with a very intricate organization, have taken over the power centers of the world….Jewishness is a great lie. They have no religion whatsoever. They are a handful of lying, power-greedy people who have no religion, who only want to take over all the peoples and countries, and to trample the rights of the peoples….I’ve heard that one of them [Prime Minister Ehud Olmert] recently said that the idea of Greater Israel is dead. I would like to declare that the idea of ’smaller Israel’ is also dead. The very notion of Israel is dead, but they are lagging behind the times. Just as the idea of Greater Israel died 30 years ago, and they did not realize this, and have continued to perpetrate crimes for 30 years…Today, I say to them: The idea of smaller Israel is dead.” Ahmadinejad added that if the Jews do not end their support for Israel and Zionism, “the strong arm of the [Muslim] peoples will wipe these germs of corruption off the face of the Earth.”

In other news from the epicenter, “Libya may agree to buy more than $2 billion worth of Russian weapons during a visit by Muammar Gaddafi to Moscow this month, Interfax news agency reported on Monday.” The Israeli media immediately picked up on the reports. Given Libya’s historic enmiity towards Israel, there is a very real concern that should Libya receive billions of dollars of advanced new weaponry from Moscow, those arms could eventually be turned against the Jewish State. There are also prophetic implications. The “War of Gog and Magog” described in Ezekiel 38-39 involves a military alliance between Russia, Iran, Libya and a group of other Middle Eastern countries that surround and seek to destroy Israel in “the last days” after Israel has been reborn as a country and Jews have returned en masse to the Holy Land. A development worth watching closely.
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IRAN THREATENS THE JEWS OF ISRAEL, AL-QAEDA ATTACKS CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ, AND THE TALIBAN MURDERS A CHRISTIAN IN AFGHANISTAN: The latest prayer requests from the epicenter

This weekend, I will brief The Joshua Fund’s board of directors on the latest geo-political developments in Israel and the epicenter. Our staff will brief the board on TJF’s latest projects to bless those who are poor and needy in Israel today, and pre-position supplies ahead of the next war. We will also spend several days in prayer for the peace of Jerusalem and for the Lord to bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus.

Here are a few of the specific prayer requests we’ll be focusing on. Would you join us in lifting these needs before the Lord?

1. First and foremost, let us continue to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the entire region.

2. While we pray for peace, let us also pray that the Church would be prepared for the next war — prepared with food, water, medical equipment, and other relief supplies.

3. Please pray specifically for the leadership of The Joshua Fund to make wise decisions in acquiring a warehouse and stocking it with the right supplies, and pray that we can move quickly, not knowing how much time we have before the next war.

4. Please pray for evangelical pastors, ministry leaders and believers to answer God’s call to bless the people of Israel physically, spiritually and emotionally, and to do so sensitively and humbly — with a willingness to learn from and walk alongside those men and women who already live and serve there.

5. Please pray for righteous and courageous national leaders to emerge in Israel.

6. Please pray for God to change the hearts of the leaders of Iran, or to put new leaders in office there, so there will be peace, not war.

7. Please pray for the next American President and the new leaders in Congress to stand bravely for the defense, support and blessing of Israel, while also showing love and compassion to Israel’s neighbors.

8. Please pray that the evangelical Church around the world would be prepared to stand with Israel with unconditional love, even if our commitment begins to cost us personally.

9. Please pray for the believers in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza to have the grace, courage, wisdom and strength to be a shining light for the Lord, to love their neighbors, to love their enemies, and to a beautiful model of peace and reconciliation to all who live in that region.

10. Please pray for the pastors in Israel and the Palestinian territories to proclaim the “good news to the poor” as the Prophet Isaiah instructed, and to teach the Word of God in their congregations verse by verse, chapter by chapter, book by book, so that people really know the Bible inside and out and are motivated to obey God’s Word more than ever before.

11. Please be praying for courage, protection and wisdom for Christians in the Iraqi city of Mosul (ancient Ninevah), where violence and persecution has worsened dramatically in recent weeks. “More than 15,000 Iraqi Christians, or 2,500 families, have been driven out of Mosul over the past two weeks,” reports the Christian Post. “The number skyrocketed from last week’s estimate of some 3,000 Christians that fled the northern Iraq city, which is said to be the last urban stronghold of Al-Qaeda. Officials in Mosul also reported that some 13 Iraqi Christians have been killed in the past four weeks and at least three Assyrian Christian homes were bombed on Saturday alone, according to the Assyrian International News Agency.” Please also pray for comfort for those affected by the violence, and for God’s peace and tranquility to descend on that city and the entire country of Iraq.

12. Please also be praying for courage, protection and wisdom for Christians in Afghanistan. A Christian aid worker was just murdered in the capital city of Kabul, only a week or so after Jeremy Grafman and I visited there. Excerpts from the AP story: “Taliban gunmen killed a Christian aid worker in Kabul on Monday, and the militant group said it targeted the woman because she was spreading her religion. The dual South African-British national worked with handicapped Afghans and was killed in the western part of Kabul as she was walking to work around 8 a.m., officials said. The gunmen, who were on a motorbike, shot the woman in the body and leg with a pistol, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the slaying. ‘This woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan,’ militant spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press. ‘Our (leaders) issued a decree to kill this woman. This morning our people killed he in Kabul.’ The woman’s aid group SERVE – Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises – identified her as Gayle Williams, 34, in a statement on its Web site. ‘She was a person who always loved the Afghans and was dedicated to serving those who are disabled,’ it said….SERVE Afghanistan’s purpose is to express God’s love and bring hope by serving the people of Afghanistan, especially the needy, as we seek to address personal, social and environmental needs,’ the web site says….Last year a group of 23 South Korean aid workers from a church group were taken hostage in southern Afghanistan. Two were killed and the rest were released. In 2001, eight international aid workers, including two Americans, were imprisoned and charged with preaching Christianity. The eight were freed by Afghan mujahedeen fighters attacking the Taliban after the U.S.-led invasion.” Please also pray for comfort for the family and friends of Ms. Williams. Please also pray for God’s peace and tranquility to descend on Kabul and the entire country of Afghanistan.

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The Joshua Fund continues working to bless Israelis and Palestinians who are poor and needy, as well as those who could soon be victims of war and terrorism. We continue to help believers in Israel stockpile 400 tons of food in a warehouse in the North ahead of the coming war. We are continuing to work on securing a TJF warehouse in Jerusalem and hope to have an update on this shortly.

As always, The Joshua Fund will continue to do our best to keep you up-to-date on the kinds of projects we are doing, brief you on how those projects are proceeding. We will also let you know about the kinds of projects we are developing for the future. In no way do we want to pressure anyone to give financially. We fully believe the Lord will provide for the needs of the people we seek to serve. But if you or others wish to help, we welcome your support, and all financial gifts are tax-deductible.

To contribute to the on-going work of The Joshua Fund please make your check payable to “The Joshua Fund” and send to:

The Joshua Fund
18950 Base Camp Road
Monument, Colorado 80132-8009

Thanks so much and may the Lord richly bless you and your family as you bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus — especially at critical moment in history of the epicenter.
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To get the latest prayer requests and updates from Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan and other epicenter countries, please visit The Joshua Fund’s weblog