You have lived through the most amazing war in centuries,
and the beginning fulfillment of DYNAMIC BIBLE PROPHECIES for our day!
Read this eyewitness report of the Mideast crisis,
and KNOW IN ADVANCE the explosive events soon to SHAKE THE WORLD from the Holy Land.
Jerusalem, Israel
"LONG LIVE Israel!" shout jubilant Israelis, as they celebrate victory, inspect captured territory, and worship at the Wailing Wall.
"Jihad" (holy war) cry angered Arabs, as Nasser plans a massive comeback, a revenge attack, a new "death-to-Israel" onslaught — A HOLY WAR!
But here on the spot in Jerusalem, a few days after cease-fire, no one worries about another war. Israelis are exuberant, confident, and proud. The intoxication of conquest runs high as business booms with thousands of Jews flowing into Jerusalem for pilgrimages or tourism.
Life struggles to return to normal, while conquered holy sites draw big crowds and exorbitant taxi fares. Roads are cleared of burned tanks and trucks, the dead are buried. The air is filled with tense excitement — the Jews expect GREAT EVENTS to occur soon.
And indeed they will . . . but not the way the world expects!
Moslems wait, expecting a new VICTORIOUS WAR — possible within six months, depending on foreign aid — according to the Jerusalem Post.
Professing Christians rejoice, expecting WORLD PEACE. Some were carelessly assuming that this war is the fulfillment of Luke's prophecy: "And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24).
But wait a minute!
The Bible proves, and international events show, that Luke's prophecy is not yet fulfilled. This article will prove that other political and prophetic events must occur before the "times of the Gentiles" are over. First, look at the present world situation.
Another War Promised
"THE BATTLE IS CONTINUING. . . Cities on the line of fire are READY FOR THE NEXT ROUND" (from the Egyptian weekly magazine, al-Mussawar, as reported in the Jerusalem Post, June 22, 1967). This warning of new hostilities came almost immediately after the grudgingly accepted cease-fire, as Nasser appointed Abdul M. Abulnour (former Vice-Premier) as chief of the "Popular Resistance" movement. "Popular Resistance," though pitiful at present, is no joke, and arms build-up is already going on — this time not at Gaza, but on the west bank of the Suez.
Of course, help for any new war (or even defense, for that matter) must come from outside — from the USSR, the "big brother bear." And come it will. The Soviets have already agreed to bear the expense of lost Soviet-supplied equipment. Even while thunderous mine and shell blasts ring in our ears (from detonations by Israeli clean-up crews), top Soviet military advisors are already in Cairo, inspecting the shambles of USSR aid to Egypt! The London Times reported the ardent Cairo reception given Soviet Union President Podgorny. He was met by Marshal Matviev Zakharov, Chief of Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces, an earlier arrival.
"How much damage? How much loss? How did Russian equipment perform under fire? Was the Arab defeat due more to manpower and leadership, or faulty Russian equipment? More important, how much new war material is needed now to protect Russian interests in the Mideast?" All these questions and more the unhappy Russians and the embarrassed Egyptians are asking themselves. The implication of these questions spell more war in the Mediterranean. Already, 150 more MIG 21 fighters are believed to have arrived in Egypt! Cargo craft have landed in Cairo, and shiploads of Soviet tanks arrived in Alexandria at the same time, reports the London Times, June 22.
Now Saudi Arabia publicly announces the Moslem countries will "sooner or later UNDERTAKE A [jihad] HOLY WAR." Of course! As an American correspondent in Jerusalem's King David Hotel told us, "Why do they talk of another war? Simple. What else can the Arabs hang on to . . . what else do they have?" In other words, human pride demands something to salve open wounds of defeat. But pride is not the only thing behind Arab war talk. 'If it were, there might be no new war.
The Arab nations have powerful support from sources other than wounded pride and Russia. To you, the outside observer, Arabian hopes of conquest may now seem futile. But not to Arab militarists who have the powerful ally of history. In the 7th century, Arab Moslems conquered Palestine, and centuries later successfully recaptured it from the Christian Crusaders. "Why not again?" they think. Historically, last week's war is not a permanent defeat — only "another stage in the continuing battle," to the Arabs.
Moreover, history and wounded pride have a third powerful supporter, a vehement ally — postwar revenge.
Agony of Aftermath
Revenge will be sparked and fed by a long agonizing aftermath, of which we saw the beginning. Burned villages, hundreds of thousands of refugees, conquered peoples living inside new boundaries, reparations, internationally important religious capitals — all combine to promote tension, conflict, desire for revenge.
To see the certainty of impending war, let's recall some well-known and also some little-known facts about this recent "little blitzkrieg."
Everyone asks: "Who started it all?" A most interesting answer is the story claiming an armed (but not attacking) Egyptian patrol entered Israel's territory (supposedly on reconnaissance for a later attack), and nervous Israelis answered this intrusion with an attack which chased the Arab patrol back into Egyptian territory. This version answers several questions, principally how both sides could have some truth in saying the other side started the war.
However, what the Atlantic Edition of Time, June 23, page 20, reports is possibly correct: Arab threats were so clear and strong that a secret Israeli prewar meeting was called discussing "whether to launch a 'preemptive' attack before the gathering Arab armies struck. The hawks, led by Defense-Minister-hero Moshe Dayan, carried the day. Their weighty argument was that Arab countries have claimed a "state of war" with Israel for 19 years, and were clearly massing for their own proposed strike when hostilities erupted.
From here on, best sources available to us at this writing generally agree. Israeli planes did the unexpected in the gray dawn of war, Monday, June 5. Instead of attacking across Sinai toward Suez (as Egyptian defenses expected), they shot westward, out over the Mediterranean, turned sharply south and swooped in low over the Nile's mouths — thus avoiding both radar and anti-aircraft defenses. A brilliant maneuver!
In the first lightning-like three hours, the Jews had destroyed some 300-odd UAR planes; and a total of exactly 410 by nightfall! Then Israel's air intelligence over the desert, air cover over tank and troop thrusts, and air bombardment power over the Arabic capitals was virtually unchallenged. Israeli paratroopers, landing north of Sharm el Sheikh (the key to the Strait of Tiran and the Gulf of Aqaba), found they were beaten to the punch by their own patrol boats from Eilat (the blockaded port), only to discover the Egyptians had left before either paratroopers or gunboats could arrive!
Israel gained by capturing good, usable armored equipment on almost every front.
As always, the war had its heroes, tragedies and its freak situations: the badly wounded Egyptian who climbed into an Israeli ambulance and promptly hand-grenade himself, the truck and several medics to oblivion; the obliging Arab-speaking Israeli who kindly guided five unsuspecting Egyptian planes into a safe landing and capture at a Sinai airport. The dead who died without a mark on their bodies — victims of concussion. Egyptians — trying to retreat across the Suez — shot by fellow Egyptians on the home shore. A whole village evacuated so as not to allow citizens to see the pitiful ragtag of a defeated army. Good and bad on both sides. Either way, Arabs feel cause for REVENGE!
All in all, you and I lived through a six-day conflict as dramatic in action and as sweeping in its consequences as any in the past 2,000 years!! And this startling emergence of Israel as the dominant power in the Mideast is only the beginning.
World news sources do not understand fully what they have reported. In some cases, they neglected the truly significant events in order to relate facts of no great consequence. From the really important events of this war will spring history-making, hair-raising, yes even cataclysmic changes destined to SHAKE THIS WORLD!
Do you personally see what the war means?? Do you know what will happen next?
Coming Events Foretold
You, the PLAIN TRUTH reader, will be informed of what will happen, of future events as they are made plain by current events and revealed Bible prophecies. But remember this: The PLAIN TRUTH is not taking sides — in this or any other war. We are not supported by any political party or pressure group. Our job is to inform you, WARN YOU IN ADVANCE of the startling consequences man is bringing on himself by rebelling against God!
If you are able to receive it, here is the message.
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FIRST, Israel will very likely give back some territory. That is, Israel will use conquered land she does not really desire in order to bargain for benefits she dearly wants.
Israel must bargain for recognition. If she can only get the Arabs to join her at the peace table, she has attained recognition already. She must bargain for free passage through the Strait of Tiran — where the Gulf of Aqaba joins the Red Sea. And she probably will try for some embargo or control (by bigger powers) on arms shipments to the Middle East. The only question is what land to keep for sentiment or security, what to trade for politics and profit.
Look at the problem this way. Sinai, in spite of its air bases and control over the critical Strait of Tiran, is a desert wilderness — basically non-producing, unprofitable, filled with unpredictable Bedouins. If Israel can achieve a Big-Power guarantee for free passage through the Strait of Tiran, why keep Sinai? Gaza, thoroughly conquered in fact, but not in spirit, is an economic sinkhole. Israel could keep this area (with its fifth column of Palestine Liberation Army) to extend its coastline and control the main road to Suez, or could just as well trade it for concessions. Captured Syrian territory is essential to Israel in only one area: the rocky heights just above Israel's northeast border. The rest would be almost impossible to keep — Syrians are not likely to become Jewish proselytes! West Jordan? That's another matter. No country likes to be only 10 miles wide as Israel was (between Tul Karim, Jordan and Natanya, Israel). A little more breadth there, for easy breathing at her geographical waistline would be logical to the Israelis, if not to the rest of the world.
And Jerusalem? That's a delicate matter. Certainly the massed and poised Arab troops gave the Israelis much concern. But because of its religious value to Judaism, and its prophetic necessity for Bible fulfillment, Old Jerusalem had to be taken, one way or another. Will the Old City be kept, returned, or shared?
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SECOND, Jews will definitely not give up the Old City. The Jr Hakodish as Hebrew speakers call the Holy City (El Kuds to the Arabs) is essential to Judaism — a religion thousands of years old. "Israel to keep reunited Jerusalem, Eban states," according to Jerusalem Post headline. Jews by the hundreds and thousands, from home and abroad, are flocking to the Wailing Wall — yes, even the conquering General Moshe Dayan who is not especially religious. They kiss the ground as we saw in person, cry, literally wail, fall prostrate, touch the sacred stones of Herod's Temple, and pray at the holiest site of all Judaism. That moving sight should convince us that the Jews will not easily give up Jerusalem again.
But listen to Bible prophecy. Read Zechariah, chapters 12-14. Notice especially chapter 14, verse 14: "And Judah [the Jews] also shall fight at Jerusalem . . ." These prophecies for the latter days —our time now — require the Jews to be in Jerusalem. Furthermore, Daniel shows that sacrifices to God in His Temple will be restored just before the final world war culminates in the Return of Christ. The Temple will have to be built in Jerusalem's Old City.
General Shlomo Goren, Chief Rabbi of Israeli Armed Forces said: "On our blood we took an oath that we will never give it [the Old City] up, we will never leave this place. The Wailing Wall belongs to us. The holy place was our place first, our place and our God's place. From here we do not move. Never . . . never" (emphasis ours). Therefore, the way is open for further fulfillment of Bible prophecy.
THIRD, Germany — believe it or not — will eventually be in Palestine, patrolling, policing — or on some other political excuse — occupying Jewish soil. Ezekiel 23, your own Bible, proves it. For further information write for our amazing free booklet, 1975 in Prophecy.
The United Nations have already proved ineffective at peace-keeping in the Middle East. Is it significant that Mr. George Brown, British Foreign Minister has appealed "at once for the dispatch of a special representative [of the U.N.] whose standing should be unchallenged, to the area [Jerusalem]." The International Herald Tribune headlined June 21 "U.S. asks Mideast Negotiations with Appropriate 3rd-Party Aid."
Another War Prophesied
FOURTH, Germany's eventual presence in Palestine will lead to a final nuclear holocaust — WORLD WAR III.
But before that terrifying catastrophe occurs, the Arabs will have at least a chance at jihad (Holy War). They will make further efforts to reconquer Palestine — and eventually bring on themselves swift defeat at the hands of Neo-Nazi Germany.
Listen to this late communiqué which arrived just as we were concluding this article. "Arabs again urged to wage Holy War . . . 'All Moslems are committing a grave sin by not declaring Holy War to save Jerusalem and Palestine,' said Egypt's highest Moslem religious leader, (Mufti or Jeddah) Sheikh Abdullah Al Qalqili" (Al Destour, from Amman 30 June, 1967).
An amazingly determined attitude, wouldn't you agree?
And those leaders mean business!
Can you now begin to see how world news and Bible prophecy are dovetailing, combining to form a true picture? You can be forewarned, if you begin studying your own Bible. Write for our Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course, which makes the Bible plain.
Explosive Events Ahead
But there is yet much more to happen within the next few years. Jerusalem will continue to be the focal point of the Middle East until the Temple is built and sacrifices renewed! Then imagination-defying events will occur, and disaster will come to the cherished dreams of Israelis and Arabs.
Continue to watch the pages of The PLAIN TRUTH and keep abreast of the significance of these startling events.