Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. (Ezekiel 38:7-9)
Since Ataturk totally reformed Turkey after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the stated foreign policy of Turkey was “Peace at home and peace Abroad”. Turkey would not be involved as an aggressor in foreign wars. (As a NATO Ally , yes Turkey was a partisan for the West in the Cold War, but the former Ottoman aggression was gone).
It would have seemed inconceivable that modern Turkey would ever lead a coalition such as that described by the Prophet Ezekiel 25 centuries ago, to invade and plunder the Holy Land.
But Turkey has changed as dramatically sine 2016, as she did when Ataturk took over and commenced his radical reforms.
Five times over the 90 some years of the reformed Turkey, there were serious attempts by Islamists to overthrow the Turkish Secular government and to re-Islamize Turkey, and five times the Army stepped in and performed it’s constitutional duty to maintain the secularity of Turkey, by putting down the rebellion and turning the nation back to the secular leadership.
But in 2015-16, there was a coup attempt, against Erdogan, in which some Generals were involved, and which Erdogan was able to survive. In the subsequent purge of Military , Police and Judiciary, Erdogan was able to purge up to 200,000 positions and further implement his Islamist agenda.
In 2017 Erdogan secured a narrow victory in a referendum that vastly expanded his powers to govern.He became a virtual Sultan.
In 2018 Turkey sent troops into Idlib province in Syria, in order to destroy the Kurdish population, and to create for itself a buffer zone. Furthermore, Turkey has been a known sanctuary and supporter of ISIS.
In 2019 the US withdrew it’s small troop presence in NW Syria, further emboldening Turkih agresssion against the Kurds in Syria.
Turkey has since entered into conflicts with Iraq, over the liberation of Mosul, as well as conflicts with Greece, Cypress, and is currently in a proxy war with Egypt in Libya.
Erdogan has frequently been criticizing the Lausanne treaty, (the post World War One treaty which set the current boundaries of Turkey, and with the Sykes Picot Treaty, which carved up the Ottoman Empire).
The clouds are churning and roiling and I hear thunder and lightening. It is near time for the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38 and the final world conflict.
I pray my readers and hearers will not merely have a detached interest in these prophecies. Instead may you see that God in his mercy has shown us these things that we might get right with Him while there is still time. “Whoever calls upon the name of the LORD will be saved!”
Pastor Bill Randles Blog 