Visions of Jerusalem

He was right about peace in Jerusalem

The Middle East—especially the Holy City—is a focal point in both history and prophecy. Mr. Armstrong foresaw how important it would be in end-time events.

How could anyone predict what will happen in a region as unpredictable as the Middle East? For centuries—even millenniums—this region has been chaotic with change. Empires have crumbled, boundaries drawn and redrawn, governments toppled, and whole populations dispossessed. Isn’t it crazy to claim to foresee what lies down the road for this chaotic region?

Yet for nine decades, first the Plain Truth and now the Trumpet have done just that—with astonishing accuracy. For decades, writers of both publications reported on, analyzed and warned about what would—and will—happen in the volatile Middle East.

We have done this by using the Bible as our guide. Regarding the Middle East, the Bible is clear on certain facts of prophecy. Herbert W. Armstrong was emphatic in pointing these out—some of which have already occurred. On other points, he and other writers based their assessments and projections on the principles laid out in prophecy. Many of these were also quite accurate. Time is bringing the specifics into clearer focus. Events that the Trumpet has reported on since our first issue in 1990 have brought more detail to our understanding of how prophecy will play out in the Middle East.

Mr. Armstrong had a close relationship with the State of Israel. He personally met six of Israel’s prime ministers and three of its presidents. Ambassador College, of which Mr. Armstrong was chancellor, sponsored archaeological digs in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the country. Mr. Armstrong was even involved in the Arab-Israeli peace process through his friendship with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

Based on the Bible’s prophecies, he also had a lot to say about Israel’s future. Unlike most biblical peoples, the Jewish people never lost their identity. And Mr. Armstrong understood that prophecies pertaining to Judah are intended for our time.

Uniting Jerusalem

From the beginning to the end of the Bible, Jerusalem plays an important role as “the city of God” and the city God has chosen (Psalm 46:4; Zechariah 3:2). But the Bible does not merely refer to Jerusalem of old. Jerusalem still exists as a city today. God inspired a third of His Bible to be comprised of prophecy, most of it relating to our modern day. Therefore, it would be logical that God would have prophecies about Jerusalem for our day, and that He would have a man on the scene to explain those prophecies while they were being fulfilled.

After World War ii, the Jews in the Holy Land—their numbers recently increased by Holocaust refugees—declared the independence of Israel in 1948. Israel’s Arab neighbors refused to recognize the Jewish state and invaded. The Jews pushed back the Arab armies but captured only half of Jerusalem—the modern half developed by the British—while Jordan captured the historic city along with what is today called the West Bank.

Mr. Armstrong didn’t expect East Jerusalem to remain Jordanian.

A prophecy in Zechariah 12:2 reads, “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.” The jps Tanakh Bible renders the latter part of that verse, “And upon Judah also shall it fall to be in the siege against Jerusalem.”

In May 1963, the Plain Truth made this interesting statement: “Old Jerusalem is today almost entirely in the hands of the kingdom of Jordan. But this prophecy unveils a struggle for the possession of Jerusalem by Judah—the Jews.” Also, Zechariah 14:2 indicates that half of Jerusalem will be conquered by non-Jewish forces just before Jesus Christ returns; that means the Jews will have to control the whole city prior to that time. Based on these and other scriptures, Mr. Armstrong and the Plain Truth staff taught in the early 1960s that the Jews were prophesied to take over the entire Old City of Jerusalem.

On May 1, 1967, Mr. Armstrong, on his return trip from Amman and Jerusalem, spoke to an assembly at the Ambassador College campus in England. “Any day, now, you may expect the Israelis of the country that calls itself ‘Israel’ to flood over with a military invasion into the Jordanian half of the divided city of Jerusalem,” he said. “… Once the Israelis do take over the Jordan sector of Jerusalem, instantly the United Nations and the major individual powers—the United States, ussr, Britain, France—probably will stop further occupation of Arab countries by the Jews. … But the Jews will undoubtedly be allowed to hold the Old City of Jerusalem” (emphasis added throughout).

Just five weeks later, the Middle East erupted into war, just as Mr. Armstrong prophesied. Israel went on the attack and for six days expanded its frontiers in virtually every direction—also taking over Jerusalem. It was a stunning defeat for the neighboring Arab countries, with the war ending in a ceasefire.

However, it was not to be a permanent peace.

The July 1967 Plain Truth reported, “Here on the spot in Jerusalem, a few days after the ceasefire, no one worries about another war. Israelis are exuberant, confident, proud.” Notice the statement that followed: “The air is filled with tense excitement—the Jews expect great events to occur soon. And indeed they will … but not the way the world expects!”

While the Jews anticipated a more stable future on the heels of their victory, Mr. Armstrong and the Plain Truth foretold the opposite.

Family Division

For decades, diplomats, policymakers and others have framed Israel’s conflict with the Palestinian Arabs as primarily one of settling geographic boundaries or one of ideology. Mr. Armstrong pointed to a different cause: family division.

Abraham’s son Ishmael, ancestor of the Arab peoples, was rejected from inheriting God’s birthright gift of national blessings, including control of the Holy Land. God instead gave the blessings to Abraham’s other son, Isaac. Isaac’s son Israel in turn inherited the promise. The Jews trace their ancestry to Judah, one of Israel’s 12 sons. The Jews have always regarded the Holy Land as their ancestral homeland.

God promised to make Ishmael into “a great nation” (Genesis 17:20). Since exploding as a world power in the early Middle Ages, the Arabs subjugated and settled most of the Middle East, including the Holy Land. The Palestinian Arabs are at least in part descended from those original Ishmaelite settlers.

Both peoples claim heritage from Abraham. This family division is the root cause of the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

“So the biblical record shows that the promise was denied to the sons of Ishmael, or the Arab race, but was given to Isaac,” Mr. Armstrong said in a 1980 World Tomorrow program. He continued: “[T]here’s been an embroilment of hatred between the Arab people descending from Ishmael and the people that we think of as Jews today descended from Israel, who [was] also a son of Isaac, the son of Abraham. And that’s the way it came on down to our time today. The entire Middle East embroilment has stemmed, believe it or not, over a jealousy of two women over one man.”

Mr. Armstrong also understood that world problems were caused primarily by human nature—not borders or demographics. Much of the thinking behind modern international relations studies looks on human nature as being naturally good. But the Bible describes human nature as “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). This nature became man’s nature when Adam and Eve chose to follow Satan’s way in the Garden of Eden.

“Human nature entered into [the world] and, of course, we’re not going to have peace,” Mr. Armstrong said in a 1983 speech. “I may be an ambassador for world peace—I do what I can. But we’re not going to have peace in the world, there’s no need of kidding ourselves, until human nature is changed and until the spirit and attitude of love instead of hate and competition, of cooperation and give enters in instead of get and competition and strife and self-motive.”

He didn’t expect any humanly devised agreement to bring peace to the region. “How can peace be achieved in the Middle East tinderbox?” the June 1973 Plain Truth asked. “The outside powers cannot bring it about. Arabs cannot accomplish it. The Israelis are not able to achieve a solution. The truth is, no human authority or power has the ability or the wisdom to ‘cut through’ the Gordian knot of the Middle East problem!”

“At the moment … the West Bank is a simmering caldron threatening to boil over,” the October-November 1979 Plain Truth stated. “Any early progress toward a Palestinian settlement—despite approaching deadlines—looks extremely dim. The gulf between the parties remains wide and deep. …

“What are the prospects? Despite the peacemaking efforts which continue in the region, Bible prophecy indicates that the future of the Middle East holds war, not peace.”

Much has changed on the ground in the Holy Land since 1979. How have these predictions played out?

Peace, Peace—When There Is No Peace

Mr. Armstrong died in 1986. The following year saw the start of the so-called First Intifada, a phrase from the Arabic word for uprising. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza took part in a violent uprising against Israeli forces that lasted until 1993. The Palestinian Liberation Organization, then the main Palestinian political-terror institution, voted to proclaim an independent state of Palestine in 1988.

Yet at the end of 1988, there were hopes for peace. Amid the violence, plo chairman Yasser Arafat stated he was ready to start “land for peace” negotiations with Israel. Yitzhak Rabin became Israel’s prime minister in 1992. He and Arafat started a process that culminated in the Oslo i and ii Accords, signed in 1993 and 1995. The outcome of these agreements was the creation of the Palestinian Authority (PA), a government with limited authority on domestic issues over part of the Palestinian lands. The PA was supposed to be the foundation of a government over an independent state of Palestine, with control over disputed areas like East Jerusalem to be settled in future negotiations.

The Oslo Accords were controversial. In late 1995, an Israeli right-wing extremist assassinated Prime Minister Rabin for his role in making the Accords happen. Rabin’s own people didn’t approve of his peacemaking.

Mr. Armstrong in 1982 had an opportunity to meet Arafat. In September of that year, Arafat famously met Pope John Paul ii in the Vatican. Around the same time, Mr. Armstrong wrote in a September 17 co-worker letter: “Although my aides told me Arafat had invited me to a meeting with him, I refused to see him or to allow one of my aides to see him in my stead.” Mr. Armstrong in the letter called Arafat a “terrorist leader” and didn’t want to have anything to do with him.

Mr. Armstrong met with many world leaders throughout his long life, including many dictators like China’s Deng Xiaoping and Romania’s Nicolae Ceasescu. He also met with many leaders in the Arab world who had a history of warring with Israel, like Egypt’s Anwar Sadat and Jordan’s King Hussein. In those cases, even if the leaders had an unsavory past, usually they were approaching Mr. Armstrong with an open mind and a genuine desire to learn what he had to say about world peace. Mr. Armstrong knew a man of Arafat’s caliber would not be a man for peace. Time would prove his judgment was correct.

Mr. Armstrong’s warnings about false hope in humanly devised solutions proved prescient. Arafat stated openly that he had no intention of following through with the accords. Between the signing of Oslo i and Oslo ii, on May 10, 1994, Arafat spoke at a mosque in Johannesburg, South Africa. “In my eyes,” he said, “this agreement has no more value than the one signed by the Prophet Mohammed with the Quraysh tribe,” referencing a deceitful peace deal the founder of Islam forged with the original inhabitants of Mecca, only to later go to war against them and conquer the city.

In a meeting with Arab diplomats on January 30, 1996, Arafat clarified what he meant: “We intend to destroy Israel and to establish a pure Palestinian state. … We will make the life of the Jews miserable and take everything from them. … I don’t need any Jews.”

Astonishingly, his comments didn’t deter the Israelis from trying to make peace. At the 2000 Camp David Summit, Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Arafat a Palestinian state comprised of 95 percent of the West Bank, 100 percent of the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and more. Arafat rejected it.

According to Suha Arafat, Yasser’s widow, soon after this summit he told her his plan to start the Second Intifada. “They want me to betray the Palestinian cause,” he reportedly said. “They want me to give up on our principles, and I will not do so.” The Second Intifada started on September 28, 2000, and lasted until 2005, claiming over 1,000 Israeli lives. It was supposedly in response to Israeli politician Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount that day. But Israeli and Palestinian sources have since corroborated that the intifada was premeditated and coordinated, with Arafat pulling the strings.

Sharon and the right-wing Likud party took the prime ministership in 2001 on a mandate to be tougher on security. But in 2005, he led a unilateral withdrawal of the military and settlements from the Gaza Strip, handing complete authority to the PA.

The PA is dominated by the secular-socialist Fatah terror group, led first by Arafat and then, from 2004, his successor, Mahmoud Abbas. But Islamist terror group Hamas gained power and influence, and in 2007, it warred with Fatah over control of Gaza. Hamas won the war and turned Gaza into a jihadist, totalitarian enclave.

Despite all this, the Israeli government, under multiple prime ministers, continued to push for a peace settlement. In 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered independence to over 90 percent of Palestinian territory, with Jerusalem as a shared capital. In 2009, reelected Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the resumption of negotiations if the Palestinians would take their security obligations seriously. In 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a plan endorsed by Netanyahu where Israel would retain control of West Bank settlements in exchange for land in undisputed Israeli territory.

The Palestinians have rejected every single peace plan. Meanwhile, Hamas in Gaza became an Iranian puppet regime, and it launched the deadliest terrorist attack in Israel’s history on October 7, 2023.

The Bible prophesies that war, not peace, is the future of the Middle East until Christ returns. Mr. Armstrong clearly saw that. He knew pieces of paper signed in the Israel-Palestinian peace process would not lead to lasting peace. In the four decades since Mr. Armstrong died, this prediction has proved to be true. Other prophecies show that Jerusalem’s worst violence is yet to come.

Eyes on Jerusalem

Mr. Armstrong forecast a rising “beast” power in Europe that would wreak havoc on the world. The destruction this Catholic, German-dominated empire will cause will not be random. Its leaders have specific geographic targets. Revelation 11:2 reveals their most-sought prize: “the holy city [Jerusalem] shall they tread under foot forty and two months.” A prophecy in Daniel 11:41 states the same: “He [the leader of this European empire] shall also invade the fair land of Palestine …” (Moffatt translation). Verse 45 states: “And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain ….” This means Europe’s emperor will, right before Christ’s Second Coming, establish his capital in Jerusalem.

Based on scriptures like these, Mr. Armstrong and the Plain Truth watched for Europe and the Catholic Church to take increasing interest in the Middle East.

As far back as 1955, when communism was spreading its tentacles into the region, Mr. Armstrong wrote: “The 11th chapter of Daniel shows … the city of Jerusalem will finally be captured by a revival of the power of fascism in Europe—not by a Communist invasion of Palestine!” (Plain Truth, November-December 1955). While many were concerned about the dangers of communism spreading into the Holy Land, Mr. Armstrong knew the real threat lay elsewhere. He continued, “It will be a fascist revival of a church and state union—a United States of Europe—that will attempt to establish the palace and capital there ….”

It is Europe the Plain Truth warned about—specifically that the Middle East will be the arena in which it first reveals itself as a brutal imperialist power.

German-led Europe is Daniel’s prophesied “king of the north.” Other biblical passages tell of “the abomination of desolation,” referring to armies surrounding Jerusalem (see Matthew 24:15 in conjunction with Luke 21:20). Harmonizing various biblical passages, we can see that these will be European armies.

The clash between the “king of the north” and the “king of the south” described in Daniel 11:40 will most certainly have a religious component, Mr. Armstrong explained. “Meanwhile, the Roman Catholic Church has entered the picture,” the May 1963 Plain Truth reported. “During the first sessions of the Second Vatican Council, the question of peace in the Middle East came under discussion. A tentative suggestion was the reestablishment, under papal jurisdiction, of the kingdom of Jerusalem.

“In the Middle Ages, the Crusaders established in Palestine a Catholic kingdom of Jerusalem. Then, it was to recover Palestine from the Mohammedan ‘infidel.’ Today, it would be established—so goes the suggestion—to keep the peace in the Middle East.”

“Speaking in modern language,” the July 1963 Plain Truth stated, “… when you, yes you, yourself, see a revived, remilitarized Germany, at the head of a united states of Europe—the coming third power bloc of the world in central Europe—marching into Palestine [the State of Israel]—then you had better realize the abomination of desolation is beginning!”

Europe moving into the land of Israel like this would be a major geopolitical turning point. But well before this invasion, we would likely see Europe setting the stage. The Plain Truth watched for it.

Moves on the Ground

The Plain Truth predicted that chaos in the Middle East and Africa would pressure Europe to get involved. “[T]his prophecy [in Daniel 11] awaits fulfillment in entirety in our lifetime, with the prophesied final restoration of the Roman Empire in Europe,” the November-December 1982 issue stated. “This empire will see its vital interests threatened by instability and economic pressures from the Arab world and the region around the Horn of Africa (Daniel 11:40-45). It will, at that time, storm into this region and neighboring parts of northeast Africa to protect its concerns.”

What are these concerns? Oil will be a major one. The Trumpet still stands behind this statement from the February 1966 Plain Truth: “Before the mounting crisis in the Middle East is over, all major nations of the Earth will be embroiled [speaking of man’s final battle against Jesus Christ, commonly known as the battle of Armageddon; Zechariah 14:1-2; Revelation 16:16]. Why will they be there? One major reason is oil. Western Europe’s economy is absolutely dependent upon these reserves. So is that of Japan. Any major disruption of this oil supply—such as an all-out Arab-Israel war—would bring intervention.”

The Catholic Church meanwhile has an especially acute interest in the Middle East because of its religious sites. Time and again, even before Israel became a state, it has pushed for Jerusalem to become a political entity separate from either a Jewish or Arab state but under Vatican influence. The Vatican did not establish diplomatic relations with the State of Israel until 1993.

But the Vatican’s role as a well-respected and seemingly neutral mediator, combined with the Catholic Church’s centuries-old presence in the Holy Land, gives it clout as an entity Israel can potentially work with in stabilizing the region. The May 1974 Plain Truth wrote: “Early in the life of modern Israel, the Vatican issued papal encyclicals saying that the status of Jerusalem must ensure the safety and protection of the holy places. Direct Vatican administration of religious sites in Jerusalem can be a highly visible step toward a Mideast settlement—a step which does not necessarily trample on the interests of either Arab or Israeli. It would provide the symbolic presence of a religious power, as well as a representation of the outside world’s interest.”

Allies

Germany and the Vatican will not be alone in their invasion of the Middle East. A prophecy in Psalm 83 details a confederation of Middle Eastern peoples who unite so “that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” (verse 4). The parties in the alliance are listed: “[t]he tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre; Assur also is joined with them …” (verses 6-8). Neither biblical nor secular history records such an alliance, neither in composition nor in purpose. The alliance has yet to happen. This is a prophecy for our day.

The May 1965 Plain Truth commented: “A very remarkable prophecy is found in the 83rd psalm. It speaks of a number of nations who will be ‘confederate against’ God and His chosen people, Israel. It mentions the people of ‘Edom’ (modern-day Turkey), ‘Assur’ (the father of the people of Assyria—the modern-day Germanic tribes) and peoples of ‘Moab,’ the ‘Hagarenes,’ ‘Gebal,’ ‘Ammon,’ ‘Amalek,’ the ‘Philistines,’ the ‘inhabitants of Tyre’ and ‘the children of Lot.’ Most of these names refer unmistakably to Arab peoples dwelling in the Middle East today.

“The kingdom of Jordan, as an example, is primarily comprised of the descendants of ‘Lot’ through his sons, Moab and Ammon. The capital of Jordan is Amman—named after Lot’s son, Ammon. Verse 8 says, ‘Assur [the modern-day Germanic peoples] also is joined with them: they have holpen [helped] the children of Lot.’ …

“More and more we see anti-American and anti-British feeling displayed by continentals—by the Germans, the French, the Italians, the Spaniards and others. Ultimately these continental countries will unite and will come to terms with the Arab nations while this continental union of nations invades and conquers the Anglo-Saxon peoples of America, Britain and her Commonwealth ….”

The Plain Truth speculated that one way Europe could get involved in the Middle East is through peacekeeping missions. The January 1983 issue, in the wake of increasing violence in Lebanon, said: “One detects, for the first time, a genuine unified European desire to act in the Middle East. … Further down the road, the Europeans might also insist on the right to move into the West Bank area to enforce a homeland for the Palestinians. Such a military presence will eventually be sent to the vicinity of Jerusalem itself (Luke 21:20).”

To summarize: Mr. Armstrong and the Plain Truth were watching for Europe and the Catholic Church to set their sights on the Holy Land in an effort to secure geopolitical interests and protect holy sites. He expected Europe to make alliances with Arab nations, use them to facilitate its entry into the region, and increase its presence in the region through peacekeepers.

Look how far these forecasts have progressed since Mr. Armstrong died in 1986!

Desert Storms

When al Qaeda attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, America began its “war on terror.” But it was not alone; it led a coalition of nations. It invaded Afghanistan as part of a mission with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which includes Germany. Between 2002 and 2021, Germany sent over 150,000 troops to fight the Taliban and was at one point the second-biggest contributor of soldiers.

France, meanwhile, led Operation Barkhane between 2014 and 2022, sending thousands of soldiers to fight Islamic terrorism in the West African countries of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

Both missions have since concluded. But both Germany and France continue to make large contributions to peacekeeping missions in the area.

Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, set the Middle East on fire. Europe quickly got involved. Mere days after the Hamas attack, Germany deployed its Special Forces Command (ksk) to nearby Cyprus. The German government announced it is “ready for a cold start and prepared for all options,” suggesting that special forces were getting ready to intervene in the conflict itself.

Within a month, the Houthis, a Yemeni Islamist group, began targeting Western shipping in the Red Sea. This hurt Europe especially. Europe relies on the passage of Persian Gulf oil through the Red Sea and Suez Canal; otherwise, ships must sail around South Africa, adding weeks to their journey. In February 2024, the EU approved Operation Aspides to protect merchant shipping and fight the Houthis. Germany, France, Italy, Greece and Sweden signed up. At the time of writing, the U.S. and associates in their own mission have borne the brunt of combating the Houthis. The fact that Germany and other EU countries would send their own mission apart from the U.S. shows not only their concern about events in the Middle East but also how Europe increasingly sees its interests as separate from those of the U.S.—and the West at large.

Another country to watch is Lebanon. The terrorist group Hezbollah was the de facto governing authority in this country for years. Starting in 2023, after Hamas started its war with Israel, its fellow Iranian proxy Hezbollah began a near continuous bombardment of northern Israel. In the fall of 2024, Israel invaded Lebanon and had tremendous success in neutralizing Hezbollah. Lebanon had lacked a functioning head of state since 2022, but after Hezbollah’s defeat and humiliation, anti-Hezbollah forces in the Lebanese Parliament were able to elect Joseph Aoun, former head of the military, as president. Aoun approved Nawaf Salam, former head of the International Court of Justice in the Hague, as Lebanon’s new prime minister in February 2025. The month before, French President Emmanuel Macron made his first visit to Lebanon in four years.

Lebanon under Hezbollah was, for years, part of Iran’s proxy empire to attack the West. But with Hezbollah gone, Lebanon is acquiring a pro-European government. And Europe is ready to move in.

Syria is an even bigger example of the emerging formation of the Psalm 83 alliance. Germany was instrumental in ousting Syrian President Bashar Assad and installing the new government in December 2024. We explain this in more detail in “Reviving the Ottoman Empire.”

Church and State

From a prophetic perspective, the Catholic Church’s moves into the Middle East are especially important to track. When Pope Francis visited the region in May 2014, he didn’t fly directly to Israel. He went first to Jordan, then spent most of the next day in the West Bank—visiting the Palestinians first.

In an unscheduled move, he stopped at a section of Israel’s security wall in Bethlehem, covered in graffiti comparing it to the Warsaw Ghetto. Near the spraypainted words “Free Palestine,” he touched the wall and prayed, with cameras capturing the moment. He deliberately directed the world’s attention to that image. That fence was built to stop terrorists from entering Israel to murder Jews—yet the pope’s photo op equated the Jews with Nazis and signaled support for a Palestinian state.

After Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, the Vatican’s response was also telling. Pope Francis expressed sorrow for “what is happening in Israel,” but didn’t condemn Hamas. Days later, he briefly acknowledged Israel’s right to defend itself, then shifted focus to the “total siege facing Palestinians in Gaza, where there have also been many innocent victims.” He later spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden and Iran’s president, pledging aid for Gaza and support for Palestinian statehood. The pope responded to the horrific murders—mass rape, executions, even the decapitation of babies—with little sympathy for the victims. In fact, he made Israel appear more guilty than the terrorists. The pope’s response to those murders was deeply troubling!

In his autobiography Hope, Francis wrote that “according to some experts,” Gaza may be the site of genocide and “should be carefully investigated.” At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was under an International Criminal Court (icc) investigation for genocide. Two days after the book’s release, the icc issued its warrant. Francis effectively endorsed the decision—and may have influenced it.

Whether through support for Palestinians or the icc, Pope Francis actively attacked the State of Israel—all while posing as a peacemaker.

The Future

We have seen Germany, Europe and the Vatican increasingly take an interest in the Middle East. We have seen Europe jump into action when its supply of oil was threatened. We have seen Europe endorse regime change in the Arab world. And we have seen the Vatican push itself as a peacemaker in the region at Israel’s expense. These are the kinds of policies Herbert W. Armstrong and the Plain Truth were watching for. They are happening right now!

But Europe and the Catholic Church have yet to reach their goals. We can expect even bigger intervention very soon. When that happens, know that Herbert W. Armstrong predicted it decades ago—and know that these fulfilled predictions are active proofs of the living infallibility of the Bible.

On top of that, the same Bible that prophesies of Jerusalem’s trouble also prophesies of Jerusalem’s subsequent peace in the Kingdom of God. “Rejoice ye with Jerusalem,” the Prophet Isaiah wrote, “and be glad with her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn for her … For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream …” (Isaiah 66:10, 12).

“God Almighty chose Jerusalem as His city,” Mr. Armstrong wrote in a February 1979 Good News article. “Then, because of the sins of the nations of Israel and Judah, God finally hid His face from Jerusalem—but He ‘… shall yet choose Jerusalem’ (Zechariah 1:17) and ‘… shall choose Jerusalem again’ (Zechariah 2:12). At Christ’s soon coming, Jerusalem shall become the capital of the world, with Christ’s throne ruling all nations from Jerusalem.”

This reality is almost here. As Mr. Armstrong’s prophecies about the Middle East continue to be fulfilled, the closer we get to God’s supernatural intervention in world affairs to bring peace to Jerusalem and all mankind! The continuing cycles of violence around Jerusalem are a sign that Jerusalem’s greatest days are yet to come!