Sid Roth - War in Middle East
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth here. Welcome to my world where it's naturally supernatural. You know, in the early '70s when I became a believer in the Messiah there were books on End Time Bible prophecy and people were reading them, and they were so excited. Well guess what? That generation now, there's a new generation and they need to get just as excited. But this new generation has something more going for it than when I first became a believer in the Messiah, and that is End Time Bible prophecy is happening so quickly that we've got to get this show live. When I say live, I mean, live, live, because news is happening so quickly in End Time Bible prophecy.
Now my guest got a hold of a hidden element in End Time events. It's a war that most people have missed and it's about ready to happen. Can you picture telling your neighbor that doesn't know the Messiah yet what's going to happen and next week it's in the headlines? You're going hear it right now. What I want to know, Bill Salus, is why does a nightclub musician get so interested in God? I mean, you tell me that at this point you can't put a Bible down because you're studying these things. You have almost a compulsion to do it. What caused you to make that switch?
Bill: Well it was a process of sojourning, going through some healing crises and things that the Lord navigated me to a church one day, through quite a process where someone was teaching Bible prophecy, the Book of Revelation of all. And it just captivated my attention. And when I get into something, Sid, I really get into it. I become obsessed with it. I was a businessman at the time after being a musician, and I realized that the Lord knows the end from the beginning. Only the Lord knows that. As a matter of fact, he says that in Isaiah 46, "Only He is God to know the end from the beginning, and only He can do that".
Sid Roth: So what fascinates you so much about Bible prophecy now? As you said, it's almost a compulsion.
Bill: Well it is because I'm watching it unfold on the news, and I try to be very careful about reading the scriptures and not doing news to Jesus, as we call it. But it's so glaring right now. The current events that are going on in the world right now connect into the prophecies of the Bible, especially with Israel. The super sign of Israel becoming a nation in 1948, God has big plans for little Israel, and we're seeing it unfold in light of the Arab Spring, in light of the deposition of certain Arab leaders and all things going on. Sid, Bible prophecy right now is for our time, and I'm concerned that we need to get this message out that there are prophecies about to happen soon and sequentially through world-changing events.
Sid Roth: And most people don't comprehend this, that these predictions were written thousands of years ago and they read like today's newspaper. For instance, at 9-11, you got a jolt. What happened to you?
Bill: Well I had been studying the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Bible. For some reason I was drawn toward that. And when I saw that happen, of course, the world, the country had questions. Does the Bible speak about this? Is this Armageddon? And I'll be honest with you, I was a little saddened to hear that there weren't a lot of answers coming out that I could really sink my teeth into, except one pastor came out and said, you should be watching this Russian-Iranian invasion of Ezekiel 38. And to me, I thought, well that's a great answer, but that's not what happened.
Sid Roth: What did Russia have to do with what happened in 9-11? Nothing.
Bill: This was about terrorism, the ugly byproduct of the Arab-Israeli conflict, of which the Bible speaks volumes about, and tells us what to follow. And so I dove in from that point forward into just studying every possible connecting prophecy, actually to a psalm that I found, Psalm 83, that talks about an Arab-Israeli war, a climatic concluding Arab-Israeli war.
Sid Roth: Now tell me what nations are involved in Psalm 83.
Bill: Well we go by, 3000 years ago, the psalm, and of course, he didn't have back that Jordan, Hezbollah and Palestinians. Who he was referenced in the vernacular of his time would Lebanon, to the north of Israel and of course, you have the Hezbollah there without about 50,000-plus rockets. You've got Syria. You've got Jordan. You've got Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and of course, the Muslim Brotherhood are inside of Egypt on the rise. You've got the Hamas and there seems to be the first participant mentioned is the Palestinians, the Palestinian refugees known as the Tents of Edom, listed first in that confederacy of nations. They come together, they form a gravity council. They say they want to cut the Nation of Israel off, that Israel can be remembered no more.
Sid Roth: So you're telling me that this Psalm 83 war is not Ezekiel 38-39. It is a different war. Is that what you're saying?
Bill: I do believe that, Sid. I actually do, and there's various reasons for that. One is you got different population groups. None of the groups I just mentioned are involved in Ezekiel 38 and 39. Ezekiel speaks of an outer group of nations that don't even share common borders with Israel: Russia, Iran, Libya, Ethiopia, Turkey, just to name a few of them. Those are not the nations I just listed for your audience. These are the nations of Psalm 83. Also, Russia's motivation to put their coalition together is for plunder and great booty. The Psalm 83 motivation is to take the passages of God for themselves. They want another Arab state. They want Palestine. They want the Promised Land. Also, Russia is defeated by God divinely. The Lord defeats Russia through fire and brimstone, and an earthquake. But it's the Israeli defense forces, as I point out in my teaching, that is instrumental as the tool to stop the Arab advance against them.
Sid Roth: Well you know what's so amazing to me? While Bill is getting this revelation on the Psalm 83 war, in Ireland, a supernatural thing event occurs. Tell me about it briefly.
Bill: Well that was amazing, Sid, absolutely. It happened right in the middle of that war that Hezbollah and Israel were conducting in the summer of 2006. It started July, went on into August. And on July 26th of 2006, in the midst of that war, an Irish construction worker was digging a project in Irish bog soil. Now that's muddy bog soil. And he was digging in there on a project and he found some antiquities and parchments that had been buried for almost a thousand years, maybe even 1200 years, and it was a bunch of the books of psalms. And they were really fragmented and dilapidated, and they're in a museum right now. But one psalm was unblemished. It was open in place. Guess what that was, Sid? That was Psalm 83. It's the only place in the Bible, actually, out of 1189 chapters, out of 31,300-plus verses in the Bible where you will find Hezbollah and Israel pinned against each other in a war. In happened to be exposed and revealed. It could have been found in the sixth century, the seventh century. But it was found in the middle of the heart of that 34-day conflict.
Sid Roth: Well that's amazing. But what's even more amazing to me, Bill, is how does something sit in mud for all these generations and not be totally decomposed?
Bill: Well and this was no archeological dig with toothbrushes. This was excavations and bulldozers. The odds of this psalm remaining intact over those years under those conditions, in the mud, I mean, it may as well have been floating out in the ocean. I mean, that's how remarkable that is.
Sid Roth: This Psalm 83 war is eminent and we'll explain why. I mean, it could happen as you're listening to us right now. Don't go away.
Sid Roth: So few people realize that there is a war before the big Ezekiel war we read about. It's different than that war, and it's called the Psalm 83 war. Now Bill, you spent 11 years researching this. Why?
Bill: Well to be honest with you, it was very hard to find any prophetic commentaries of Psalm 83. Most of the commentaries were traditional, talking about it being a predatory prayer of lament. And so I thought, no, this is a prophecy with a legitimate confederacy, a contemporary confederacy that comes together with a very explicit purpose. If you read Psalm 83, that's exactly what it says. And so I was fascinated by this. But I had to dig deep into what the other prophets had to say. In my teaching, I write about Psalm 83 and the prophets, because there's a lot said about it. There's over a hundred verses that I had found that speaks about Psalm 83. Ezekiel 38 and 39, one of the most descriptive prophecies in the Bible is only 52 passages. But Psalm 83 has a lot more passages involved with the very populations I mentioned earlier, Sid. And I do believe that this war, we could wake up one morning real soon, in light of what's going on in the Middle East.
Sid Roth: Okay. Tell me why you say that this war is eminent any second now.
Bill: Well because I've been watching, we should have been watching ever since Israel became a nation in 1948. The attitude that is embraced in Psalm 83 with the Arab populations...
Sid Roth: But wait a second. This is an ancient hatred. This is not some Johnny come lately hatred between Jews and Arabs.
Bill: And that's why the international community cannot resolve this conflict. They don't understand the roots of it. Long ago when Abraham was promised the Abrahamic Covenant, the Promised Land, the Chosen People, those around him, the patriarchs, the matriarchs, you had Hagar, you had Ismael and all those Old Bible Testament characters that coveted the rich contents of the Abrahamic Covenant, and they harbored a hatred. The Bible calls it an ancient hatred. It shows a couple of places in Scripture. And when you put the words together, the Hebrew words together, it's a hatred that stems from way back, long ago, perpetuated throughout time with no end in sight. It's cancerous, Sid. It requires a surgical removal. That's why you can't put peace together, Arab-Israeli peace.
Sid Roth: All right. What do you see that causes you to believe this war is eminent?
Bill: The enemies listed that I just told you about in Psalm 83 that have been really warring against Israel in 1948, '67 and '73, they are armed and dangerous. They have never been more united as a force, especially in light of the Arab Spring, Sid. All the leaders are in place right now.
Sid Roth: This could not have happened without the Arab Spring.
Bill: I concur. You had, even though Mubarak of Egypt was a dictator and Muammar Gaddafi had all kinds of problems in Libya, and you can list all the other leaders that were deposed or assassinated, but they were keeping the peace with Israel. But look who's left behind: Ahmadinejad in Iran, Hassan, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Bashar Assad of Syria. Now the Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Morsi. That Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is a big deal, Sid. They were repressed for 40 years, and they now want to unite the Arabs, and they want to march towards Jerusalem. Remember, the Hamas terrorist organization, United States terrorist organization, they say that about Hamas, they were founded by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987. And they have a charter that was founded in 1988.
Sid Roth: But why is the Muslim Brotherhood so dangerous?
Bill: Because they're very calculated. They're not like Al-Qaeda that wants everything right now. They're going to approach this, not only from a terror perspective or a war perspective, but politically as well. If you look at what Muhammad Morsi is doing in Egypt now, he's the consummate politician.
Sid Roth: Why are they so welcome in the White House with the hatred they have? I mean, they'll never orchestrate a permanent peace, never.
Bill: Well President Obama's foreign policy was to be of engagement, to reach out and talk to these places. And the Arab Spring, when it came forward, the liberal pundits thought it was the youth bulge in the Middle East driven by the social networks of Facebook and YouTube, and Twitter, and that all these Arabs over there wanted to do was to get life, liberty and a pursuit of happiness. And they were sent outside of 17th century Islam into the present century media. But that's not what happened. Right now you've got a revolution in Syria. You've got a bunch of protests continuing going on in Egypt and you've got a leadership over there right now, the Muslim Brotherhood, that has been waiting for four decades to come into power right now.
Sid Roth: It's been planning and calculating.
Bill: This is their opportunity, and they're going to take full advantage of it, and they're going to move swiftly, in my opinion.
Sid Roth: Okay. Tell me the fate of a few nations, as outlined in the Bible, in this Psalm 83 war. Tell me a couple of nations and what's going to happen to them.
Bill: Absolutely. And the Bible is very descriptive about that. For instance, Jordan, we're told in Jeremiah 49, Verses 1-6, there's going to be an alarm of war in Jordan and Jordan is in Psalm 83, and they're going to be defeated by the Israeli defense forces, and it goes on and says, "And Israel will take over possession". Remember, Jordan is within the Promised Land that was given to Abraham. Isaiah 19:18 says that "Five cities in the land of Egypt will speak the language of Canaan". That's Hebrew, Sid.
Sid Roth: In Egypt.
Bill: In Egypt. Obadiah talks descriptively about, in Obadiah 1, Verses 19 and 20, about the West Bank and the Gaza, and southern parts of Lebanon coming into Israeli possession. Very descriptive. And in my teaching I point all these scriptures out.
Sid Roth: What about Iran? What's going to happen there?
Bill: Well Iran is very interesting. It's hard to find them in Psalm 83.
Sid Roth: Now I'll tell you what. You tune in next week. No, I'm just teasing. Please tell me. I got you.
Bill: Okay. Iran, you don't have to look very far to find out their future. They are in the Bible in two different occasions, the most prominent one is in Ezekiel 38, Iran is listed in the Agog and Magog invasion with Russia under the banner of Persia. When Ezekiel wrote about 2500 years ago, his contemporary, Jeremiah, wrote about Iran also. He wrote about Elam, E-L-A-M, which is the Bashar nuclear plant is by the Persian Gulf over there right now. So modern day Iran on a map was comprised of ancient Elam and ancient Persia. They both had specific prophecies. Ezekiel did not list Iran, Elam, in his. He spoke about Persia. And Jeremiah did not speak about Persia. He spoke about Elam. Very interesting prophecies. I wish we had time to share them with you. But it looks like Jeremiah's prophecy might even be so accurate of dealing with a potential strike upon Iran's nuclear plan.
Sid Roth: So the bottom line is, from your study of Bible prophecy, do you see nuclear bombs going off in Iran?
Bill: I think it's possible. That Jeremiah 49 prophecy seems to talk about Iran gets "...struck at the foremost of its might, from whence from Heaven are drawn together and there's a desertion into the nations of the world," that could be the result of nuclear fallout. I do think nuclear weapons will come into play very soon, Sid. Israel has them and Damascus, we're told in Isaiah 17, the capital of Syria, "will someday cease to be a city. It will be a ruined sea".
Sid Roth: What about the United States? I want to find out what God has shown Bill, from scripture, about the future of the United States. Don't go away.
Sid Roth: Hello. Sid Roth here. I am fascinated. This has literally been a hidden area until now. It was almost like were talking about the Irish Dead Sea Scrolls, affectionately called that, where they dug up Psalm 83. It's been waiting for this moment to be revealed so that we would not be caught by surprise. Tell me about the United States of America. What is revealed from Scripture about this country?
Bill: That's a very important question, Sid. Right now it's on the minds of many Americans. We're very concerned about the direction of this country. And you know, all those countries I spoke to you about in terrorists populations in the previous sessions, they're all in the Bible. So we can figure out where Iran is and Egypt, and that sort of thing. But where is America in the Bible? See, that's the question. We have to, I'm not going to guess what's going to America's future. I want to know what the Bible says about America's future.
Sid Roth: Me, too. How about you? You want to know America's future? We want to know.
Bill: In my teachings, I present the various arguments where the people believe America could be in the Bible. I personally think we are in the Bible. I think we're the Merchants of Tarshish and the young lions in Ezekiel 38. But in my studies, Sid, what I find in America, and I'm a radio host as well. I've interviewed people who have written books on this subject. I'm friends with Jonathan Cahn, who's written a book about the harbingers, concerns about this country. And they're all suggesting that the superpower status of America, what we once were, we don't show up in Bible prophecy.
It's hard to find us because something happens to us as a country. And I believe that what we have a very big responsibility to Israel right now. The two predominant things that we were called to be a nation for was to be a safe haven for the Jewish people and we were. There's over five million Jewish people living in this country right now. We were also to be a beacon of Christianity to the world and preach the Gospel out there. But our call to be a safe haven to the Jewish people also meant to be the reestablishment of the Jewish state, to help them become a nation again. God knew, in 1948, when America was superpower status, that he was going to re-gather the Jews into the Nation of Israel. Harry S. Truman was one of the most pro-Israel leaders at the time. We have a responsibility to Israel.
But unfortunately, the last two to three decades we have been asking Israel to trade land for peace, the very thing in Joel 3:2, where God says He judges the nations, one of the reasons for dividing up God's land. That's God's land. And the Arabs want Israel to recede to its 1967 borders, make Israel indefensible, and this is a real problem that's coming to a climatic conclusion now. America, I look at the example of Great Britain. The sun used to never set on the British Empire. And when the Belfour Declaration came out after World War I, Israel, the Jews were supposed to be able to come into the Land of Israel, what was today modern day Jordan. And Great Britain, they were given a green light to do that and they didn't do it. And now you look 70 years later, the sun always sets on the British Empire, Sid. We have an accountability to Israel. We did not become a superpower nation...
Sid Roth: So we could have the same fate as Great Britain for the same reason.
Bill: The sun is setting on our superpower status right now. And we have an obligation to Israel to help the Jewish people survive, because the Lord has big plans for little Israel right now. And we have been given a superpower status for a reason. And we're starting to see our superpower status slip away. The God of money has left this country in 2007. The economy is hoping to recover. The Arab Spring is a nightmare over there. We don't know what to do. It's very problematic. I'm very concerned for my grandchildren. I'm very concerned for the younger generation, Sid. We're watching it happen. And when Psalm 83 happens, I think it triggers the one event that others built upon. Remember Jesus said, in the End Times, he likened it to birth pangs. He said, it will be like birth pangs. In other words, when the End Times start to happen, like a woman about to give birth, her contractions become more frequent and they become more intense, and you cannot stop them.
Sid Roth: Now I have observed something. I have seen that Israel never starts war. But they always finish the war and they win, and they normally have more land. Will we have, I say we, because I'm Israeli as well as American. Will Israel have more land as a result of these wars coming up?
Bill: I do believe so. I teach this, and this is the point. The Israeli defense forces exist today to fulfill Bible prophecy, and I point out the scriptures where it says that. They are the tool that is used to defeat the Psalm 83 Arab confederacy. And in the aftermath, under the precedent of the historical precedent, when Israelis win wars they take land. Joshua did it. King David did it.
Sid Roth: How much more land eventually will Israel have?
Bill: Israel will ultimately get what was told in Genesis 15:18, the land from the river of Egypt, which is the Nile to the River Euphrates, which is of course modern day Iraq. They have expanded since it became a nation in 1967. They almost tripled their size. They're going to expand into Jordan and into part of Egypt, I believe, after Psalm 83. Ultimately, when Jesus returns, and that's what we need to be watching for, because all this is pointing to his real soon return, he's going to give them all that land that was promised to Abraham 4000 years ago.
Sid Roth: You know what I'm reminded of, as Bill was sharing this right now, my wife, Joyce, my wife was raised Southern Baptist, became an Agnostic when she went to college, and converted Orthodox Judaism when we got married. And I was involved in pioneering one of the first Messianic Jewish congregations in America. And she heard prophecy for the first time in her life. She heard that the Jewish people would always be preserved as a people. We would lose our homeland. We would lose our temple. We'd be scattered to the four corners of the earth. Every country we'd go to would eventually turn on us. Israel would be a modern day nation. The Jews would be preserved supernaturally. And she said, I've got to believe that Jesus is Messiah. And as you study the predictions written thousands of years ago that are coming true to the decimal point, you will say, I believe Jesus is the Messiah.