The ‘Timely’ Death of Iran’s President Raisi: A Prophetical Consideration
May 22, 2024
Host: Hon. Sam Rohrer
Guest: Bill Salus
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on 5/22/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning this dialogue.
Sam Rohrer: Hello and welcome to this Wednesday edition of Stand In the Gap Today, and it’s also our bimonthly emphasis on Israel prophecy and the Middle East today. Bill Salus, founder of Prophecy Depot Ministries, and they have their website at prophecydepot.com. Bill is joining me again for a most relevant consideration of a major event that just occurred in the Middle East. So stay tuned with us as we’re going to walk through a consideration of this event. And here’s what it is. Well, it’s the unanticipated death of Iranian President Raisi. Now you’d say, well, I know you’ve heard about it. Well, there’s more to it than perhaps meets the eye because with this prominent death and the death of other key Iranian government and military officials as well, speculation frankly is running quite high in some quarters as to the exact cause and whether it was, well, some say pilot error, others say unfortunate whether conditions, some have raised the idea of sabotage and if sabotage, then who?
Sam Rohrer: Well, some that has been thrown out there would be the US via the CIA or the UK via MI6, their intelligence arm, or Israel via the Mossad. Everybody’s staying pretty close to the vest on why Some are just saying it was an old helicopter and they didn’t maintain it. Well, well tell you what, maybe who knows, but one potential not mentioned and one cause. I’m going to say that the ungodly of our age will not even remotely consider is a possible act of God, the providential hand of God, and perhaps a component of biblical prophecy. But for the God-fearing and the alert student of God’s word and biblical prophecy, anytime I’m going to submit, anytime any biblically identified nation appears in headline news or anything related to Israel, the Jews and Jerusalem or anything which even remotely connects to prophesied end times events touching on any of these identified nations or Israel and Jerusalem, the God-fearing person must back up and consider very carefully at what we’re seeing unfold. So today, in the interest of bringing a careful consideration of this circumstance in the mountains of Iran, when the entire Middle East continues to move toward even greater war, and when this event whether coincidental or intentional could be the spark to enlarged war, I’ve chosen this title to frame consideration, the Timely Death of Iran’s President rei, A Prophetical Consideration. And with that, Bill Salus, thanks for being back with me.
Bill Salus: Hey, Sam, it’s great to be with you again.
Sam Rohrer: Bill, in the program, we’re going to end up focusing on the Prophetical consideration where that’s your focus is so well established in a matter of this death here of the President and you refer to it as the Elam prophecy, the Elam prophecy found in Jeremiah 49 38. But before we go there, let’s just discuss the details as we know it from a human perspective in regard to what happened there. According to reports, there were eight people, I believe, on board this helicopter who lost their lives. Can you identify the most notable persons who were killed that makes this crash in these deaths? I would say significant.
Bill Salus: Yeah. Well, Raisi of course, we know is one of the key figures. I’m going to have a little trouble with some of the names here, but the other guy that was real key was former Minister Hussein Amir Badal, and he was a point man for Hezbollah and Hamas as part of the proxies. So some have suggested that the two of the main three people leading Iran, number one of course being Ayatollah Khomeini, the other two and three people were taken out in this helicopter. There were also other leaders, the governor of Iran’s East Asia Province, a senior cleric from Tabriz, a revolutionary guard official and three crew members. Now, of course, initially we don’t know exactly what the problem was. There was a convoy of three helicopters. We know this one went down. Well, it’s hard to find out what happened with the other two.
Bill Salus: I find that interesting, but you don’t hear much about that. But initially, some of the hardliners in Iran started saying, well, this is due to America’s sanctions. We weren’t able to get the parts we needed for this belt to do 12 helicopter. And I’m thinking to them, well, you can point the finger on America, but maybe you should point the finger on perhaps this was an act of God. I mean, in other words, you guys are trying to wipe his people off the map, bombed Israel with 320 missiles in April 13th, and he poked the apple of God’s eye. He poked God in the eye because Israel’s the apple of his eye. So I think we’ll take some time today, Sam, and see if we can make some connections here, potentially prophetic and symbolic or spiritual. Okay.
Sam Rohrer: Absolutely. And I look forward to doing that to stay with this ladies and gentlemen for that. But let’s go here in the last couple minutes, President Ibrahim Raisi, 63 years old next to the Aah himself, who from a religious Islamic perspective has made it clear that Israel, the little Satan America, the great Satan, must either be totally destroyed or brought into total subjection, big statements. You’ve hinted at its significance biblically, but what else can you share about President’s view toward Israel, America and the God of the Bible?
Bill Salus: Yes, absolutely. He has called for the extinction of Israel on a couple of occasions, and April of 18th of 2023, he said that Iran would destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa if Israel were to attack it. Most of them people recognize this guy as the butcher of Tehran. He got that name because he signed off on thousands of executions in the 1980s when the Iranians were fighting with Iraq in that eight year war of attrition. And then actually in 1988, when Raisi said to a committee before, which he was one of the sitting members, he said, we’ve got all these political prisoners, thousands of them that we need to deal with. And so he got the name the hanging Judge because literally about 5,000 of these political prisoners were just taken out and hung and executed. He has also endorsed the April 13th attack on Israel, one of the strong endorsers of the 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles, one 20 ballistic missiles also.
Bill Salus: And that gal who Maza Amini, I think was her name in September, 2022, the 22-year-old gal who was arrested by the morality police for not wearing her headdress, sparked all those protests. He was in charge of all that. And ultimately by December they said about 476 to 500 people had been killed because of their protesting, because of this morality situation. Could you imagine that if the college campuses, they’re protesting Israel, et cetera, the Palestinian cause, and all of a sudden 476 people die in two months get killed. I mean, it’s a whole different standard over there.
Sam Rohrer: Well, it is a whole different standard and ladies and gentlemen, we could share a whole lot more about that. But President Raisi, who just lost his life in a helicopter crash in Iran, no matter how you’d describe it, and very evil man, a bad guy, and so are the two others at least that were with him on that helicopter. They all are very pronounced in their hatred for America. They hatred for the God of the Bible and certainly their hatred for Israel and the Jews. And with that, we’re going to go into the next second state with us because we’re going to make an Old Testament connection now to Rice. If you’re just joining us today, my special guest today is Bill Salus, founder of Prophecy Depot Ministries. He’s an author, researcher, if you’re into anything prophetical or following what’s spoken about at Prophecy Seminars and all that generally, bill is a part of those, his website, prophecy depot.com, and our focus today that I’ve entitled to focus the timely death of Iran’s president rei, a Prophetical consideration, and we talked about that and getting into in the last segment.
Sam Rohrer: So we’re going to move on right now with this aspect of it. Think about this with me. I was thinking about this and how to look at this circumstance, but our Western thought America, our American thought in particular, it’s based on a whole different concept of looking at the history of the world here. A new world was begun. It was called the New World logically to some extent, I think the deep history and the roots to the past that dominated old Europe and Asia in the Middle East with structures that you can literally find that are thousands of years old and civilizations and cultures still reflective of nations from long ago, it never existed here in America or at least it didn’t become any kind of a permanent part of our thinking. To the contrary here, new was better, older was bad technology and inventions were forever new and the old was just thrown out, including I think a knowledge and an appreciation for the past.
Sam Rohrer: Sadly, I think the modern American approach to life generally, I’m going to say except in the thinking perhaps of some remnant believers who have a bigger more God-centered macro view of life. Even the truth of scripture I think is old for many and worthy of little consideration. We know that because it’s basically thrown out in most cases. But such thinking, I think it’s dangerous and it is the respect for the old, but forever new prophecy that helps to illuminate, I think the present events that appear new but in reality have really old and deep roots. So Bill that perspective set it up. Let’s begin to look now at the Middle East events, what we’re talking about there, Iran, specifically the death of President Rei and his cohorts, but from a prophetical perspective that move us toward the consideration that his death though unexpected may just in fact be perhaps divinely timely. Now, you’ve drawn a parallel between Raisi and the old character of Haman. Would you share this connection?
Bill Salus: Absolutely. There may be some parallels there. The hanging Judge Raisi, we talked about, that was one of the titles he got for signing off on the execution of 5,000 dissidents back in 1988. It’s interesting, Sam, as we get into this question, we don’t know the cause just yet of the death of Raisi and the significant other leaders in the helicopter crash. Israel, of course, is known for assassinations. They did some in 2010, and of course in the last couple of years they’ve been assassinating leaders and Hezbollah leaders, Iranian leaders generals and things like that in Syria, et cetera. But we do know this, whether Israel had its hands on this or not, the God of Israel, we’re told in Daniel 9 20 21, that blessed be the God forever ever from wisdom and might are his. And he changes the times and seasons, and he removes kings and raises up kings and gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
Bill Salus: And what we’re seeing here is removal of two of the three top leaders of Iran right now at a critical time in history where they want to wipe Israel off the map and have the weaponry to pretty much do that at this point. And of course the proxy reach throughout the Middle East to do that as well. What’s interesting to me that if you look back at the time of Rin Esther, chapter three, around 4 83 to 4 73 bc there was another hanging judge, we’ll call it, and that was Prime Minister Haman. Now, remember that the parallels here, Raisi became the second in command, probably the successor to Aya Khomeini and Prime Minister Haman at the time became the second in command to King Ahasuerus. He said that he was seated above all the princes who were with him. Now, this Esther’s uncle, I believe was Mordecai.
Bill Salus: Well, everybody was paying homage and bowing down to Haman. Mordecai would not do that because he worshiped his God, the God of the Jews. So when Haman saw that Mordecai did not pay homage to him, him was filled with wrath and ultimately that wrath manifested into he wanted to destroy all Jews. There’s another parallel race. He wants wife Israel to map and commit Jewish genocide as well. So he wanted to destroy all the Jews that were in the shares as kingdom, which made primarily was Persia. And he basically got a decree put together convincing ushers that the laws of the Jews were not copacetic with the laws of ushers and therefore we need to get rid of these basically in a one day annihilation of all the Jewish people. And of course, I invite your listeners to read Esther chapter three. It’s an incredible amount of events that happened there.
Bill Salus: Esther was unbelievably in this prophecy lifted up by the Lord. But the process that says here that Haman was enraged and hid a blind hatred of the Jews, he said even though he was invited to this big banquet, Esther was going to throw, he said, all he can think about is this Mordecai, this Jews sitting at the gate. He had this hatred that would not go away. Ultimately what happened was the king found out that this was a deceitful plan, and he instructed Haman to be hung in the gallows, very gallows that Haman had built to hang Mordecai on. He thought that would be the case, and it turns out everything flipped on him. Now, the reason that’s possibly significant, there’s some parallels there about this thing, but the curse and curse for kind and Genesis chapter 12, verse three comes in to mention here, there’s actually a policy that we might be looking at here, foreign policy of Gods and Genesis chapter 12.
Sam Rohrer: Okay? And go ahead and build that out as well and work it together here in the final part, in this segment because there’s not only a principle blessing, cursing principle at work, which is universal. So it could apply here. And there’s another part about this whole thing that you’ve talked about. I want you to expand and just work these two together. And that’s the fact that Israel is there and it’s there for God’s purposes, and he’s not going to let anybody stand in a way and steal his glory. So work these things together, please.
Bill Salus: Right? So the policy that we have to look at here establish 4,000 years ago in Genesis chapter 12, verse three. God said, oh, bless those who bless Abraham. I’ll curse those who curse him that extrapolates on through to the Jewish people today. And we find that there’s a curse for curse in kind. In other words, if however, someone wants to just kill the Jews or commit genocide of the Jews, likewise that will happen to them. So for instance, we look at Pharaoh who tried to kill the firstborn of the Jews. What happened, of course, the plague was Pharaoh’s firstborn or killed. Pharaoh got the Jews to Hebrews to the Red Sea. He was going to destroy them at the Red Sea. But what happened, the Red Sea parted and Pharaoh’s armies went in there and the Red Seas convergent on Pharaoh, his armies, and they were killed in that like manner.
Bill Salus: We’re going to find this again in the future where the Arab states want to destroy Israel militarily. They tried that numerous occasions, three Ward 48, 67 and 73. But we’re going to find out prophetically that these Israeli defense forces, their army will actually destroy the Arab states as well in a victory. And that would be Inso 83. So we have this curse for curse and kind. Now we look at in April 13th, endorsed by Raisi was 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles fired at Israel, which could have done a serious amount of damage. 99% of them fortunately were intercepted. The arrows we’ll say were intercepted. So those missiles were going toward Israel to wipe Israel off the map. And what happens is Raisi joint gets on a helicopter, which turns out to be pretty much a deadly missile for him because it crashes and kills him.
Bill Salus: So through the air he was sending missiles to destroy Israel and through the air he was destroyed himself in a crash. I don’t know that that’s a parallel we can make, but I find it very fascinating. And when it comes to the problem with why Raisi would have to go is because he wanted to wipe Israel off the map along with Khomeini, et cetera. And we find out in Ezekiel 39 verse seven that God is finding to make his holy name known in the midst of his people, Israel, it says they shall not prophecy it anymore in the nation shall know that he’s the holy one in Israel. Now that Ezekiel 30 and 39 prophecy is huge. I invite your listeners to read it. If they’re not familiar with it, it’s very self-explanatory, but God is going to stop a Russian, Turkish, Iranian led invasion into Israel…in the latter days.
Bill Salus: We see this as stage setting right now, and God is then supernaturally with fire, hailstone great earthquakes, flooding rains is going to stop that supernaturally, not these Israeli defense forces, not the American forces. And then it says, when I do that, the world will know I’m the only one of Israel, make his whole name known through his people of Israel. Now here comes this Iranian regime that wants to wipe Israel off the map and that would make God’s prophecy. So there’s no way that’s going to be the case. In addition to that, we’ll talk in the last segment here or the next segment about the prophecy that I think we should also be watching regarding Iran as well.
Sam Rohrer: Okay, Bill? So that sets it up here really well because those principles that you just mentioned, the fact that God’s greater plan of redemption that is manifest through Israel for all of these years is all about the glory of God. And as you said, they’re in Ezekiel 39, there has to be Israel in place and they’re there, and it’s for the purposes of glorifying God. So there has to be an Israel and nobody’s going to wipe them off the map. And if you curse Israel, God will curse you. So you’ve made that connection about more of a parallel, both blessing and cursing to Israel, which is very, very significant. So ladies and gentlemen, as we look at headline news like what’s happening today, again, without an appreciation of scripture and biblical prophecy, this kind of filter through which we examine the events of the day would not be possible.
Sam Rohrer: But if we don’t look at it this way, we’re not looking at it God’s way because this is what God’s word says. But when we do look at it this way, it really does make it come to life. And I hope that it is for you as we just consider these few things here today relative to these headline news there regarding Israel. We come back now, we’re going to talk about this prophecy that’s in scripture from Jeremiah, the Elam prophecy. Well, one of the remarkable aspects of biblical prophecy, at least to me anyways, is how God works with nations and descendants of people from which nations come. And he goes way back long ago, for instance, God made a covenant with Abraham and his descendants forever. That’s what the scripture says, your descendants forever for a land of a people and the city. Alright? Now that’s the Abraham at Covenant.
Sam Rohrer: We’re aware of that. But when you think about it to Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob and their early family at that point in time, what did they really know? Well, they knew there was a promise of big things to come, but they were very clearly unable to imagine and envision at all just what that would mean and what it would look like in years to come. They had no idea what things would be like for instance, today or down through the ages to the Jews and Gentile nations of today, an hour day. There is, I’m going to say very little appreciation of knowledge of that old promise that God made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because that was a long time ago, and for most people it’s no longer in effect. It seems that way anyway, and it’s just as hard for people alive today to imagine that there is a God who made a promise thousands of years ago and that that same God is at work in our current generation with us alive today, being the recipients of God’s providential working in the lives of them and the nations and the leaders of the world, which the Bible talks about and where as Bill mentioned in the last segment, God very clearly says, I raise up and I take down because it’s all for my purpose.
Sam Rohrer: Well, it’s in this principle that if not considered makes understanding. I think the events of today in the Middle East with Israel and the adjacent nations, without this knowledge, it’s all happenstance or coincidental when in reality it is far from that. It’s an outworking, precise outworking of God’s prophetic plan. It changes it all around when you look at it that way. So Bill, in the first segment I mentioned that there’s a Prophetical passage, Jeremiah 49 38, that speaks directly to the incident involving the death of top Iranian officials. That brings to bear because we know we’re in the end times that causes you to say this prophecy of Elam. So tell us about it and why it may very well apply to today.
Bill Salus: Absolutely. Iran is the subject of dual end times prophecies when we just talked about was in Ezekiel 38 in the prior segment. The other one is in Jeremiah chapter 49, verses 34 through 39. Now, Ezekiel talks about Iran as Persia and Jeremiah, his contemporary prior to Ezekiel writing that speaks about Elam in a prophecy. Now, when you look at a modern day map of Iran, ELAM hugs the western sort of southwestern part by the Persian Gulf of Iran, and Persia comprises the rest and the prophecy, which could find prophetic application here maybe with, I mean we don’t want to stretch too far, but it’s related to Reese’s sudden death. It says in Jeremiah 49 verse 38, I will establish my sovereignty over Elam. I will destroy from there the kings and their leaders says the Lord. Now we raise the, of course being the president of Iran is the president of both these territories, which are now modern day Iran, ELAM and Persia.
Bill Salus: So perhaps we see that God may be at work here in preparation for this prophecy. Now it’s interesting, he did endorse the sending over those 320 missiles at Israel on April 13th. And that area that those missiles came out of, which is where they’ve got underground missile silos, portable rocket launchers, ICBMs, et cetera, is Elam. It’s the closest part toward Israel and toward the west of Iran. And so it may be, I think the part of the prophecy will actually be a disaster in that area. Now, prophecy does talk about the Lord getting fiercely angry with Iran. I’m going to summarize this for the listeners. And he says he’s going to destroy from the other kings and the princes, which we just read because they want to launch something lethal somewhere. This is why he’s angry with them primarily. And it says he’s going to break the bow of Elam at the foremost of their might.
Bill Salus: Now, the bow would be the missile launching capabilities which are stationed in this Elam territory. Now we saw the arrows, we say the missiles that were shot at Israel, they were intercepted. Those would be considered the arrows, but the bow itself has yet to be broken. And we find out just recently in May 19th that Raphael Gross, the IAE head nuclear inspector who’s not really been able to monitor Iran’s nuclear enrichment program for quite some time. He says Iran has never been closer to achieving a nuclear bomb course. He told the press after his visit to Iran and system that it may be a matter of weeks and not months away. Now, many of us, believe me, Ron already has at least three to five explosive ready nuclear weapons and they would be in that Elam area there because that’s, again, as they get launched out, that would be the area from which they come.
Bill Salus: It says that when this disaster happens, the Lord’s going to create this disaster because of this fierce anger. He says, I will scatter the indigenous population to all the nations of the world to be like a humanitarian crisis, a worldwide dispersion. And it says that Iran or Elam will be dismayed before their enemies when this happens, and those who seek their life. Now, this would be a menu of enemies, Israel, the international community, the Arabs in general, et cetera. So I’m watching this process very closely. We may see that if the leaders are being destroyed, maybe the bow will soon be broken and the disaster would hence forth come forward. So we’ll have to see, I don’t know, I don’t want to make more of this than we should, but it really could be a telltale sign that this prophecy is about to become fulfilled because they cannot have Iran wipe Israel off the map. You know that Israel is now saying that they expect this war waging with Hamas and the proxies of Iran to go on until 2016, and that they expect a major confrontation to the north of as well by September. And of course if they’re giving it until 2016, they’re also talking about taking out Iran’s nuclear facilities. Okay,
Sam Rohrer: Now Bill, you’re saying 2016, you don’t mean that. What do you mean? It’s 2016?
Bill Salus: No, 2026.
Sam Rohrer: 2026. Okay, alright.
Bill Salus: 2026. Okay. Alright, so two more years.
Sam Rohrer: Okay, that would make sense. So that’s basically what you’re saying is a long engagement. Alright, that’ll just set up for another question I have because again, looking at what scripture says, a fulfillment of prophecy, that portion from Jeremiah is a point of prophecy. God says this is going to happen. Could that be what we’re seeing now? The answer is yes. But sometimes Bill, as we’ve talked about before, sometimes prophecy is not actually confirmed until you can actually kind of look back and you say, yeah, alright, that was it. So looking ahead as we should, it could be, but the pieces do fit. Now here’s another piece to me ties into this lengthy engagement that Israel finds that they’re in with their neighbors. Just this morning I was listening to some news reports, credible, that actually is talking about the invasion there. And Rafah, we know that’s in the world’s attention.
Sam Rohrer: Rafah sits right there in the edge of Egypt underground. They are finding increasing amounts of tunnels that continue to dig these guys out like rats. But these are tunnels that go way into the Sinai, into Egypt. And it raises the question, the ease of conclusion as far as I’m concerned that Egypt has been involved in those tunnels and helping to set up Hamas. And right now, and here’s what the discussion is, that this peace treaty that’s been underway that’s basically kept a peace more or less between Egypt and Israel for many, many years. I actually heard the word this morning is on the verge of potentially being scrapped. Now that would be interesting. Any comments on what might be happening there?
Bill Salus: Well, the peace trees of Egypt and Jordan are extremely fragile. They will be voided out due to prophecies that have yet to find fulfillment. We can talk about Egypt and Isaiah 19 and Jordan and Jeremiah chapter 49. Both those countries are saying at this point in time that if the Palestinians come into their lands, the refugees being created by this home war, they will look closely at ripping up those treaties. And we know that according to Isaiah 19, that there’s going to be a judgment upon Egypt Isaiah 19 verses one through 18. And when it happens, it happens quickly, we’re told and the whole economy goes down the tubes. Everyone who makes wages is troubled to soul. They’re given bad leadership. The seas dry up the textile industry, the whole economy goes south. But we don’t find out why until we get down to verses 16 and it says in that day, Egypt will be like a woman and be afraid and fear because of the waving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he waves over it.
Bill Salus: And the land of Judah will be a charity Egypt and everyone who makes mention of it will be afraid in himself because of the council of the Lord. So somehow they get involved. Of course, Judah is that area down in the southern part of Israel and for the most part, and they’re involved in a confrontation. Another one. This is not fulfilled in 48, 67 and 73 where ultimately it says after it’s done, Isaiah v 1918 says, in that day when this destruction happens, five cities in the land of Egypt will speak to the language of Canaan and swear by the Lord of hosts. One will be called a city of destruction. So five cities are going to ultimately speak to the language of Canaan, which would be Hebrew. So to me, I’m not shocked to hear this sort of rhetoric coming out. Ultimately, a lot of the Egyptians can’t stand Israel. And so I would say we should be watching for this prophecy as well.
Sam Rohrer: Bill. It’s amazing, isn’t it ladies and gentlemen. I hope that you are, I would say more than intrigued, intriguing or being sensational is not our purpose, but this is remarkable. I’m going to put it in that sense. When you consider that where we are living today and what we’re seeing unfold really truly comes alive when we look at it through the lens of scripture, we come back, we’re going to complete this Elam prophecy and make some applications.
Sam Rohrer: Well, thanks for being with us today. We’re going into our final segment now, and it’s a real pleasure to have all of you joining us on this program. So many of you do regularly, some do it live because the program is carried live here from noon to one eastern time on about 50 stations across the country. And then there are close to 500 or so that will be later during the course of the day into the evening depending upon time zones and the networks that carry the program. But it’s a privilege to have whenever you are listening. And it’s also a wonderful thing when we hear from listeners and we’ve had a number of just fantastic letters from listeners across the country who share that they listen every day and that this is a part of what they have become used to counting on for identifying those things in the news as an example that are of most importance in hearing a reliably biblical perspective on that.
Sam Rohrer: So that’s why we’re here and that’s why I ask you regularly pray for us, be a partner in prayer because we need it. And also if you’ve never done so, consider partnering with us financially because that is also a reality of life and it requires financial assistance in order for this program and our efforts to continue to go forward. So I just put that before you as we walk into the final segment here and make some application built in the end making connections between biblical prophecy and history and modern events, which we did today, and what you do regularly in efforts on prophecy and applying scripture to what we see for many people. It is generally and genuinely, I’m going to say interesting. And that’s how they say it. It’s very interesting. On the other hand, I look at it and I say, for many people it only remains interesting as in something new because people are always after something new on something to tickle their ears perhaps. But that is not what we’re interested in and I know that’s not what you’re about because if what we talk about and identify from scripture doesn’t actually change our life and the way we live so that it’s obvious to others who view our lives, then there’s something that’s missing. So in a practical sense, let me ask you for your perspective on this. What are some individual life impacts that should result from considering kind of information that we’ve shared today?
Bill Salus: Well, I think the important thing here is we’re living in the prophetic times of the end times. Of course, we’ve got the secular worldview with its censored, fake news and censored social media, et cetera. But what we’re trying to let people know about is there’s a biblical narrative. And even on top of that, a prophetic perspective, God gave this generation all the information they need to know to prepare for what’s coming. And it’s not God’s fault if the pastors and pulpits are not getting that information disseminated out like they should be. But God wants people to know what’s coming because ancient predictions, they’re about to come off their prophetic parchments and pound down on the pavement and they will pack a global economic punch and affect people worldwide. All the signs are converging that tells us we’re living deep into the end times. There’s no weapon that hasn’t been formed, no technology that has not been fashioned, a national relationship that has not been formed.
Bill Salus: For instance like Russia, Turkey and Iran are coming together at a pace that leads us to think Ezekiel 38, which they’re members of, will be coming forward. So we’re seeing all these things happen. At the very least, we should be telling people that God of the Bible knows what’s coming. He knows the future, and through that he authenticates his sovereignty and therefore you should use these as tools to evangelize. I mean, headlines have come out these days. Basically you can take that headline and say, you know what? That country’s involved in Bible prophesies like we’ve been doing today, make parallels like we did with Ray and Haman, et cetera, and you’re going to be able to witness more because we don’t have a lot of time left on this until God’s going to send Jesus Christ to get us out of here. And when we’re gone and in heaven, glory for us, great for us, but the loved ones who get left behind, we’ll no longer be able to witness to them apart from the materials that get left behind. So we need to redeem this time right now, Sam, because God has given us a silver platter, prophetic marshals, to start to witness through the events going on, especially in the Middle East and the biometric technologies, the economic bitcoins and all these sort of things that are all out there and can be used to evangelize for the end times.
Sam Rohrer: Alright, bill, and you could go so much deeper on it, but thanks for doing that part. Now. If you could speak to those who are listening, who may be pastors, may be adult Sunday school teachers in their churches or in a position where they are able to share with others, why should they in those positions not shy away from speaking and preaching about biblical prophecy?
Bill Salus: Well, it’s extremely important to me, especially now since so much of it is stage setting at this point in time, they need to, if they’re not comfortable with teaching Bible prophecy, there are certainly people like myself and others who will be glad to come to their church and speak to their congregations, et cetera. But a lot of the pastors are pretty familiar with Bible prophecy. There’s lots of good commentaries out there that they can read through to make sure they’re clear on what they’re understanding. But for some reason they don’t particularly want to teach it because they’re concerned it’s going to scare people away. But that’s not what we should be doing right now. We should be preaching prophecy in love. It’s interesting, but we need to make it more than interesting. We need to let people know that it is a tool to evangelize with and a thing to prepare for.
Bill Salus: Because for instance, if Iran is attacked, they’re going to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. And about a quarter of the world’s oil is going to be cut off immediately and that’s going to be cut off for a period of time until it can be reopened. And the only way to get that reopened is to take out that oil, those missiles are in that these long territory we talked about earlier because Iran will be using them to defend that move. So basically that would have a global impact economically on people. So we need to let people know, Hey listen, you need to prepare for what’s coming. God knows what’s coming. He’s the loving God who wants you to know the infinite beginning. He’s giving it to us because he loves us and he wants us to know what’s coming.
Sam Rohrer: Alright, bill and I think again, could go much deeper than that, but that is excellent as well. Ladies and gentlemen, just a thought that I have through my mind that has run that concerns all of this is that for me personally, I find a great interest in the matter of prophecy. One of the decisions that we made on this program years ago when we first started it was to commit every other Wednesday as much as possible. And then we’ve tried to hold to that a focus on Israel, the Middle East and prophecy, which is exactly what we’re doing today. That was a decision that we made because of everything that was happening in the news. But it was more so because 30% of scripture deals with biblical prophecy. And when we understand what God said and that part that has been fulfilled already should give us extraordinary confidence in these days of uncertainty to know that what he said will yet happen will absolutely happen with certainty.
Sam Rohrer: So prophecy should undergird our confidence, the way we live, the way we think, and should increase our motivation to share the gospel because the God of the Bible is at work and the Lord’s return is right around the corner. How do we know that? Because he said it. Should we not live different as a result of it? Answer is yes, and hopefully you are and you will. Bill Salus, thank you so much for being with us today. Again, Bill’s website, prophecy depot.com again, and for us, this program and all in this series we do every other Wednesday on Prophecy, Israel Middle East can be found on our website at Stand in the Gap radio.com.
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