1 PRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUEWeekly World Watch Andy Walton’s August , 2017 “If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes the life of one of them, that man will be taken away because of his sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.” (Ezekiel 33:6, New International Version) PRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE To skip the introductory slides and go straight to this weeks developments click here. 1

2 What is a Weekly World Watch?The idea is simple. It is to look at current events and compare them to events spoken of in the Bible. . I hope to build up a picture of God’s hand working in the affairs of this world. God is bringing about a day when all nations will be gathered to Jerusalem to battle. At that time God will send His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, back to this earth. Jesus will then establish God’s kingdom on earth. This kingdom will last for ever. This is our hope and the reason we watch. The following six themes will appear repeatedly in WWW: Israel: The continuing conflict in the Middle East and focus on Jerusalem. Europe: Its developing union, both political and religious. Russia: Its return to anti-Western ways as Bible prophecy’s “king of the north.” The UK and the US: Bible prophecy’s “king of the south.” Moral standards in decline and violence on the increase. Increasing natural disasters: including earthquake, famine etc WWW presentations in PowerPoint can be ordered as audio/visual CDs by clicking here. Move your mouse to place the cursor on the blue link and click. 2

3 What is in a Weekly World Watch?Each WWW looks at a few key developments that have happened during the past week. It is in no way meant to be exhaustive – just a look at those events I saw as significant from a Biblical point of view. Every WWW event slide has the following format. To reveal each block of text just left click your mouse or press the space bar. You control when it appears. News Photo This is straight from a news report that caught my eye because it looked significant from a Biblical perspective, usually that of prophecy. HEADLINE The source of the headline and the date are included. EVENT This is the reporter’s description of the event. It is always a direct quotation from the news report and reflects the understanding of the reporter and editors. This is my comment on why the event is interesting to a Bible student. The intention of the WWW is to offer brief Biblical perspectives without going into detail. If more detail is desired, please me: Please note that these are personal thoughts and the aim is purely to stimulate Bible study. COMMENT BIBLE QUOTE This is normally one verse which backs up why the event that has occurred is interesting from a Biblical perspective. Please read in its context. Unless stated otherwise, all quotes are from the King James Version (Book, chapter, and verse) 3

4 This Week’s DevelopmentsAugust , 2017 Trump warns North Korea - US is ‘locked and loaded’ Russia's Lavrov warns of conflict over North Korea Russia’s biggest war game in Europe since cold war Israel’s getting a new wall, this one with a twist Great American Solar Eclipse – August 21st 2017 Asteroid size of house will shave past Earth in October To print any of the event slides that follow, click the picture on the upper right PRESS SPACE BAR TO CONTINUE 4

5 Trump warns North Korea - US is ‘locked and loaded’BBC, August 11, 2017 EVENT Mr Trump and North Korea have been exchanging hostile rhetoric, with the US president threatening to rain "fire and fury" on the North. Tuesday: "North Korea, best not make any more threats to the United States," Mr Trump tells reporters. "They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen" Wednesday: Mr Trump boasts that the US nuclear arsenal is "more powerful than ever" Thursday: He says that his "fire and fury" warning maybe "wasn't tough enough". Asked what would be tougher than fire and fury, he replies, "you'll see" Friday: The US president warns that military solutions are "locked and loaded" should North Korea "act unwisely”. "North Korea better get their act together or they are going to be in trouble like few nations have ever been in trouble." Kim Jong-un's regime had earlier dismissed Mr Trump's warning as "nonsense." COMMENT This week has seen some pretty astounding statements coming out from President Trump. Talk of fire and fury like the world has never seen before, nuclear weapons, trouble like few nations have seen. “It’s hard to think of a president using more extreme language during crisis like this before,” said Michael Beschloss, a presidential historian. “Presidents usually try to use language that is even more moderate than what they may be feeling in private, because they’ve always been worried that their language might escalate a crisis.” The Bible talks about using inappropriate language and the trouble it can cause. James (the half brother of Jesus) said that the tongue even though it is a small part of the body can boast great things. He goes on to say that it can set on fire the course of nature itself. Trump’s own tongue threatens to set the world on fire. BIBLE QUOTE the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire. And among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a flame of fire. It is a whole world of wickedness, corrupting your entire body. It can set your whole life [AV says the course of nature] on fire, for it is set on fire of hell. (James 3:5-6 NLT) 5

6 Russia's Lavrov warns of conflict over North KoreaReuters, August 12, 2017 EVENT Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday the risks of a military conflict over North Korea's nuclear programme are very high, and Moscow is deeply worried by the mutual threats being traded by Washington and Pyongyang. "Unfortunately, the rhetoric in Washington and Pyongyang is now starting to go over the top," Lavrov said. "We still hope and believe that common sense will prevail.” Asked at a forum for Russian students about the risks of the standoff escalating into armed conflict, he said: "The risks are very high, especially taking into account the rhetoric.” "Direct threats of using force are heard ... The talk (in Washington) is that there must be a preventive strike made on North Korea, while Pyongyang is threatening to carry out a missile strike on the US base in Guam. These (threats) continue non-stop, and they worry us a lot.” "I won't get into guessing what happens 'if'. We will do whatever we can to prevent this. COMMENT Many nations are concerned about Trump’s language in relation to North Korea. Russia warned on Friday that this type of talk deeply worries Moscow and that it carries the risk of conflict. China's President Xi Jinping has urged Donald Trump and North Korea to avoid "words and actions" that worsen tensions, state media said today. The world is rightly concerned about a possible war. Experts predict that if there was conflict in North Korea over 30,000 people would be killed in the first HOUR as the north poured missiles into South Korea. If this war did NOT go nuclear predictions are 1 million people could be killed in total. The Bible does not say anything about a war in Korea as it focuses on events that involve Israel. However it does talk about the gentiles preparing for war and the weak (North Korea) saying they are strong…. BIBLE QUOTE Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. (Joel 3:9-10) 6

7 Russia’s biggest war game in Europe since the cold warThe Economist, August 10, 2017 EVENT September will be an edgy time for NATO’s front-line member states. For a week in the middle of the month, Russia will be running what is being described as the biggest military exercise in Europe since the end of the cold war. The build-up is already under way. Zapad (“West”) exercises take place every four years and date from Soviet times, when they were used to test new weapons and tactics. Zapad 2017 is expected to involve at least 100,000 Russian troops. It will extend across the country’s Western Military District and Belarus, which has a border with three NATO members. By next week, most of the advance elements of the forces taking part in the exercise will have arrived. The rest, expected a fortnight later, will include the First Guards Tank Army, a famous unit from the second world war that was reformed in It packs a mighty offensive punch. All this unfolds against the backdrop of a relationship with the West more tense and adversarial than at any time in 30 years. COMMENT Not only do does the world have the tensions out in the east but also on the faultline between east and west. This faultline runs along nations like Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania. These nations used to be under Russian dominion but they have switched and moved under the EU’s dominion. As the EU faultline with Russia has moved ever further east Russia has grown increasingly agitated. Some of these nations were once part of the USSR and so it is a reminder that their influence has diminished. Hence Putin called the collapse of the USSR the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th Century. Hence why he took back Crimea. These war games on the faultline show the division first described in a dream to Nebuchadnezzar in the two iron legs! BIBLE QUOTE Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible. This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. (Daniel 2:31-33) 7

8 Israel’s getting a new wall, this one with a twistThe New York Times, August 10, 2017 EVENT Israel is building another wall to protect itself from its enemies. But rather than a major eyesore, much of this one will be invisible. In the coming months, military officials say, the army will be accelerating construction of a subterranean barrier around the Gaza Strip, designed to cut off tunnels running beneath the border into Israel like the ones Hamas militants used to ambush Israeli military posts during the summer-long war of Challenged by hostile forces on most of its fronts, Israel is already pretty much walled in. Aboveground fences and sections of concrete wall run along and through parts of the West Bank, a legacy of Palestinian suicide bombings during the second intifada. Formidable steel fences also stretch along the northern frontiers with Lebanon and Syria, the southern borders with Jordan and the Egyptian Sinai, and around Gaza, the isolated Palestinian coastal enclave controlled for the past decade by Hamas, the Islamic militant group. COMMENT Israel's army has announced this week construction details of a new underground wall to run along the country's border with Gaza. The $800 million barrier will stretch across the country’s 40-mile frontier with the territory, measuring 19 feet high, but also delving 131 feet underground, principally to counter the threat of attack tunnels dug by Hamas, the Islamist militant group that has controlled Gaza since Work is scheduled to begin on the wall in October and it is expected to take two years to complete. Ezekiel 13 talks about leaders promising peace by building a wall. But God says he will rend it with a stormy wind and destroy it with great hailstones. These word of hailstone is only mentioned in one other place – Ezekiel 38:22… when Gog is destroyed! BIBLE QUOTE they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall,…Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. So will I break down the wall. This new wall may spark conflict with Hamas (Ezekiel 13:10-13) 8

9 Great American Solar Eclipse – August 21st 2017Newsweek, August 11, 2017 EVENT On Monday, August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will be visible in totality within a band across the entire contiguous United States; it will only be visible in other countries as a partial eclipse. The last time a total solar eclipse was visible across the entire contiguous United States was during the June 8, 1918 eclipse, 99 years ago. The August 2017 eclipse will be the first with a path of totality crossing the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the U.S. since Also, its path of totality makes landfall exclusively within the United States, making it the first such eclipse since the country's independence in The path of totality will touch 14 states, though a partial eclipse will be visible in many more states. The event will begin on the Oregon coast as a partial eclipse at 9:06 a.m. PDT on August 21, and will end later that day as a partial eclipse along the South Carolina coast at about 4:06 p.m. COMMENT In Genesis chapter 1 we are told that on day 4 God created the Sun, Moon and stars. They did NOT exist before Day 4. The light that lit the world from day 1 until day 4 was light created by God. God does not need a small candle like the sun to generate light. When the sun was created his supernatural light was withdrawn and the sun took over. All this is symbolic of God’s plan – his glory which was seen in the tabernacle (and temple) was withdrawn and then the “Sun of Righteousness” was born and Jesus “took over”. We are also told that the sun, moon and stars were given for SIGNS and seasons. Surely the greatest of natural signs with the sun and moon is the total eclipse. Never before since America was created has an eclipse exclusively travelled across that country. Could this darkness be a warning of darkness to come for that nation? BIBLE QUOTE And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: (Genesis 1:14-16) 9

10 Asteroid size of house will shave past Earth in OctoberDaily Telegraph, August 11, 2017 EVENT An asteroid the size of a house 'will shave' past the Earth in October, inside the Moon's orbit, astronomers have revealed. It is expected to pass the Earth at a distance of some 44,000 kilometres (27,300 miles). The rock will just be an eighth of the distance from the Earth to the Moon - far enough to just miss our geostationary satellites orbiting at about 36,000 kilometres, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). "It will not hit the Earth," said Detlef Koschny of ESA's. The asteroid, dubbed TC4, first flitted past our planet in October then at about double the distance before disappearing. It is about metres (49-98 feet) long. Scientists expected the asteroid to return for a near-Earth rendezvous this year, but did not know how far. Now, the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile has managed to track down the rock and determine its distance. "It's damn close," said Rolf Densing, who heads the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. "The farthest satellites are 36,000 kilometres out, so this is indeed a close miss," he said, adding it was nothing to lose sleep over. COMMENT This is yet another sign in the heavens. Jesus said there would be signs in the sun, moon and stars; and on the earth distress of nations with perplexity. The signs in the sun, moon and stars are both physical and symbolic. We are seeing physical signs in the heavens but what of the symbolic? The sun is symbolic of leaders of the world. Jesus Christ is the true Sun – the light of the world. But current world leaders are going dark (godless). The moon is symbolic of the “church”. It is supposed to reflect the light of Christ into the world as it has no natural light of its own. It too goes dark at the end. BIBLE QUOTE The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executed his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? (Joel 2:10-11) 10

11 Weekly World Watch YouTube Videos

12 Weekly World Watch WWW will be e-mailed to you each week.The end of this week’s WWW will be ed to you each week. If you think others may find the WWW helpful please direct them to the website They can register on the site PLEASE NOTE: The Weekly World Watch is written and sent by myself – it is my take on events and I accept that on occasions I will miss significant events and also misinterpret them as well. However I will endeavour to be faithful to the scriptures and hope that it will be of benefit to both of us. To watch again please click the green arrow To watch again, click here.