IT IS NEARLY impossible to pick up any nationally syndicated newspaper today or watch any national morning news broadcast without hearing about the escalating unrest and impending conflict in the Middle East. Many of these news stories deal with the conflict between Israel and Iran and the looming threat of Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.
This book was first written in the spring and summer of 2005. Now, as we are preparing this revision in late 2006, America and the nations of the world are staggering beneath the realization that Iran, a rogue Islamic terrorist state, has officially joined the nuclear club.
Many view Iran’s developing nuclear capabilities as a threat to the world’s security as well as to the fragile strategic balance in the Middle East. Despite Iran’s protest that its nuclear development program is only for the purpose of civilian power generation, its persistent attempts to acquire nuclear weapons tell a different story. In addition, its evil leaders have publicly declared that they will use violence—any kind and any degree of violence possible—to reach Islam’s highest goal: a successful holy war (jihad) against the United States, the big Satan, and Israel, the small Satan. To reach that goal, Iran continues to seek the support of terrorist organizations in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine—including the support of Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network of terror.1
So what does all this mean to you? To me? To Israel? To America? With this book I hope to make you aware of just how important this escalating conflict is to the world. The rise of terrorism in our world and the emerging crisis in the Middle East between Israel and Iran are part of a much bigger picture—that of God’s plan for the future of Israel and the entire world. We are going to discover we are facing a countdown in the Middle East—the Jerusalem Countdown, a battle such as the world has never seen or will ever see again. It is a countdown that will usher in the end of this world.