Author and prophecy expert Todd Hampson is closely monitoring the events unfolding in the Middle East, noting how some perceive Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran as potentially having prophetic significance.
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“I wasn’t surprised that it happened, but … I didn’t know if it was going to happen today or two weeks from now,” Hampson told CBN News. “I was blown away at how they went all in and … you can tell … this is their one shot to eradicate the nuclear program and they’re doing everything they can to do it.”
The “Prophecy Pros Podcast” host said those who study Bible prophecy know these events could have “huge implications.” Iran has made no secret of its quest to see Israel wiped off the map and Israel seems intent on using its operation Rising Lion to stop the Islamic Republic’s growing nuclear program.
When asked what motivates Iran’s hatred for Israel, Hampson said he believes “it’s all spiritual.”
“It’s all demonically led at the root,” he said, noting how Scripture also prophecies Israel will one day come back into the land — something he and many other prophecy experts believe happened in 1948 when Israel was re-established.
Hampson continued, “I believe it’s demonically led. From a human perspective, it’s an ideological thing. They’re radical Islamic [adherents]. They have a clock that is counting down to the destruction of Israel — that’s in their capital city. I mean, who does that?”
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The author said that anytime a group seeks to “destroy all the Jewish people,” the Israeli people believe they must be taken at their word, citing the Holocaust and other such moments throughout history.
On the prophecy front, there’s no doubt some people are looking at Ezekiel 38-39 and pondering whether the events prophesied in those chapters could somehow be tied to what’s happening in the Middle East right now, particularly the portion of the text that warns of an Iranian-led invasion.
“But [prophecy] specifically says, I think it’s three times, it will be in the last days,” he said. “It also says that it will be at a time when Israel is living at peace and dwelling in safety.”
Hampson continued, “It gives you these specific countries that were going to partner together, and those countries have never teamed up in all of history to come against Israel, and when you look at the ancient names of those countries and their modern-day counterparts … the three big hitters are Turkey, Iran, and Russia that will lead a coalition of a few other nations.”
While it’s unclear how, if at all, the current battle relates to this prophesied chaos, Hampson said that events in the past few decades may be setting the stage for biblical fulfillment at some point in the future.
“We’re not seeing fulfilled prophecy, but we’re seeing the stage so clearly being set for this prophecy of the end times,” he said.
Ultimately, Hampson said there are debates and differences of opinion regarding prophetic timelines and what is to come. He offered some theories about what might happen and why it matters.
But one piece of already-fulfilled prophecy, he believes, can be seen in Ezekiel 37: the creation of modern-day Israel.
“Not only Ezekiel, but Daniel said, at least by the midpoint of the future tribulation period, there had to be a nation of Israel with people in the land in control of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount,” Hampson said. “Jesus affirmed this himself. So take Jesus at his word, Matthew 24. He affirmed the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, meaning Israel has to be a nation. Israel has to be in control of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and have a temple there.”
He said Israel’s very existence as a nation is “proof of a literal interpretation method,” adding that “every Old Testament prophet except for Jonah predicted Israel would be a nation again.”
Watch Hampson explain.
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