JACK SMITH ON THE TIMESCALE BEFORE THE TRIBULATION BEGINS?

 

How long do we have before the Tribulation begins?

 

Underneath the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount

I find myself frequently stating that we are either on the precipice of the end-time’s tribulation period (the 7-year period preceding the return of Christ) or we have already taken our first steps into it. A recent article (November 7, 2012) by Middle East Forum entitled, “The Huge Impact of Israel’s Energy Reserves,” made me ever more certain of this.  In a telephone conference with Lawrence Solomon, Executive Director of the Public Policy Institute, Energy Probe Research Foundation in Toronto, the Forum reports:

Mr. Solomon projected that within the next one to two decades, the Muslim nations will lose their oil weapon and diplomatic clout due to a new emerging energy order. Recent discoveries of plentiful global resources of shale oil and shale gas reserves, in combination with technological advances in “fracking,” the hydraulic fracturing technique used to obtain the oil and gas from shale’s permeable geologic formations, will enable many countries to be less dependent on energy imports.¹ (Emphasis supplied).

The point of the article is summarized in the quote, but the background the article provides is equally enlightening. According to the article, until the Arab nations employed “oil as a sword” in 1973 following the Yom Kippur War, their influence in the world was miniscule (in spite of the Saudis being the world’s #1 owner of proven oil and gas reserves), and all but ignored, as the stuff of brutal dictatorships. Mr Solomon is quoted:

The first oil crisis initiated by OPEC after the 1973 Yom Kippur War [Ocotober, 1973] led to Israel’s international isolation when the Saudi “oil weapon” was used to punish any country supporting the Jewish state. Before the oil embargo, Israel had been admired in the West, oil was cheap, and the Arab countries were recognized as belligerent military dictatorships. Once the Arabs threatened the West with their oil weapon, the western media and the left turned against Israel. Within a year, the PLO’s Yasser Arafat was invited to speak at the UN. The following year the UN General Assembly branded Zionism as racism. (Emphasis supplied)

According to Solomon, this was an abrupt change in Israel’s status, particularly as it related to many African countries. The Arabs were apparently able to place a wedge between Israel and Africa, even to the point of the formation of an anti-Isral African-Arab-non-aligned voting bloc at the UN (presently at 54 members!).

To read more of this splendid article, please go to:

http://www.jacksmithprophecy.org/?p=2080