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tr ibes of the house of Judah- the
Jews. Jacob's son Joseph had the
birthrigh t promise
(1
Chronicles
5: 1)- the promise of national
blessing, immense wealth a nd
power (Genesis 49:22-26). Today
the modero decendants of Jo–
seph- Isaac's grandson a nd
Esau 's nephew-are the Anglo–
Saxon natíons, the
United States
and
Britain!
Obadiah ' s prophecy revea ls
that Edom (modero Turkey) will
turn against bis brother J acob-–
against America a nd Bri tain, and
a lso agaínst the J ews of the mod–
ern-day sta te of Israel in Pa les–
tine. Turkey will actively cooper–
a te with Jacob's enemy! That
enemy is prophesied as a fina l
short-l ived restoration of the an–
cient Roman Empire as
1O
na–
t ions or groups of nat ions in
Europe.
It
will be headed by a
dictator called in prophetic lan–
guage " the Beast" (see Revela–
tion 17: 12-14) .
Now notice part of Obadia h's
prophecy:
"For thy violence against thy
brother Jacob ... thou sha lt be
cut off forever. In the day that
thou stoodest on the other side, in
the day that the stra ngers carried
away captive his [J acob's] forces,
a nd foreigners entered his [J a–
cob's] gates, and cast lots upon
J erusalem , even thou wast as one
of them" (Obadiah 10,11).
Turkey will be
" as
one of
them." Turkey, a Moslem na tion,
will not be a n integral part of the
_ religious-political union compris–
ing the restored Roman Empi re,
but most probably will be linked
with it by a milita ry pact or
a llia nce.
God declares further: ..Bu t
thou shouldest not have looked on
[or gloated over] the day of thy
bro ther in the d ay that he
beca me a stra nger ; ne ith e r
shouldest thou have rejoiced over
the chi ldren of Judah [the J ews
in Pa lestine today] in the day of
their destruction ... " (verse
12) .
America, Britain and the J ews
are to suffer crushing national
defeat- and Turkey wi ll rejoice!
32
That ís t he plain message of
Obadíah!
Now no ti ce an interesting
statement in verse 14: "Neither
shouldest thou [Edom] have
stood in the crossway, to cut off
those of bis that did escape; . . . "
The crossway is cer tainly a refer–
ence to Turkey's pivotal cross–
roads posi tion between Europe
and Asia . Or, more specifica lly,
to the giant bridge now spanning
the Bosporus, a literal crossway
between European a nd Asiatic
Turkey. This Bosporus Bridge
was completed in 1973.
Prophecy Marches On
When will all these events occur?
The time element of Obadiah's
prophecy is clearly defined: " For
the day of the Lord is near upon
all the heathen ... " (verse 15).
These are clearly prophecies
for the
end-time- for
the time
Jesus Christ called the "Great
Tribulation" (Matthew 24:21)
a nd the " Day of the Lord ." The
" Day of the Lord," the time of
God's "superna tural intervention
in world affairs, culmina tes in
Christ's second coming (compa re
Matthew 24:29 with J oel 2:3 1).
Those cl imactic times lie
just
ahead!
Now see how these astounding
prophecíes wiU develop to fulfill–
ment.
Turkey's Strategic Posltion
Turkey is of prima ry concern to
the 15-member NATO a llia nce
today. As the important south–
eastern anchor of N ATO, Turkey
is a vital ba rrier between the
Sovie t Union and the Middle
East. Its future stabi lity ís even
more crítical in the wake of the
Soviet move into Afghanístan,
and con tínued turmoil in Iran,
which ' borders Turkey on the
east.
Turkey is also the only NATO
country in thís part of the world
dírectly borderíng on the Soviet
Union. Turkey's extensíve land
mass is twíce the size of the state
of California.
Turkey sits astride one of the
world's most st r ategic sea
gates- the Bosporus-Dardanelles
waterway, the narrow outlet from
the Black Sea into the Mediterra–
nean. And the country líes pre–
cariously clase to the flash points
of the vola tile Middle East. Little
wonder that developments within
Turkey's borders a re beíng close–
ly moní tored by both East a nd
West. The stakes are hígh for
both sides.
Turks Suspicious
Consíder Turkey's uncertain po–
siti an in the wake of recent
upheavals in southwest Asía .
Turkey was stunned by last
year's Soviet occupation of Af–
ghanistan. Fears of a Soviet thrust
into neighboring Iran make Anka–
ra even more nervous. Many wor–
ried Turkish polit icians are urging
their government to take increased
precautions a long their 380-mile
frontier with the Soviet Union.
And with good reason.
Currently, the Soviets have 14
divisions posted on their border
with lra n a nd Turkey in the a rea
between the Black and Caspian
Seas. Eleven of those dívisions
are motorized infantry, two a re
a r ti ll ery and one is ai rbor ne.
They stand poised for action ata
moment's notíce.
Russia and Turkey share a
centuries- long history of confron–
tation a nd war.
[t
was not until
1923 t ha t Kemal Atatürk–
whose revolt in that year had
founded the Turkísh Republic on
the ashes of the Ottoma n Em–
pire- signed a treaty of friend–
sh ip and nonagg ression wi th
Vlad imír Lenín.
Following World War
11,
how–
ever, the Kreml ín denounced the
pact. Stalin dema nded territorial
concessions in eastern Turkey.
More importantly, Moscow in–
sisted on a Soviet base on the
Darda nelles, part of the narrow
passageway which provides the
Soviet navy with its sole exit from
tbe Black Sea into the Mediterra–
nean and the world's oceans.
As a result of Soviet pressures,
Turkey inched its way into the
Western camp. In 1952, Ankara
became a member of the NATO
The
PLAIN TRUTH