Birth Pangs

Dr. Michael L. Ford

26 April 2008

"For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape."

1Thessalonians 5:2&3 

            Perhaps Condoleezza Rice does not interest you, but I have found her a fascinating mystery since she was brought into the limelight by the current administration. One of the things I know about her is that Jimmy Carter played a key role in moving her alliance from the Democrat Party to the Republican. So it occurs to me we might share a mutual disgust for the little apostate liberal of a bad joke on the Trilateralists.

            She is the only child of Presbyterian minister. And, I have read she describes her religion as Presbyterian, but I am not sure how deep her religious roots reach or her Christian knowledge extends, but some common errors in Presbyterian ideas could keep her from recognizing important realities about what is going on in the world even if her knowledge was more than superficial. Her support for the Roadmap for Peace in Israel certainly brings her knowledge of biblical prophecy into question.

There is no doubt she is a smart woman. Anyone who can speak four languages, Russian, German, French, and Spanish in addition to English is pretty smart. She handles French well enough to write technical papers in the tongue, and I imagine she is equally accomplished in other languages. But that does not mean she knows the relevance of what she says all the time.

            This brings me to a Special Briefing on Travel to the Middle East and Europe made by Condoleezza Rice on the 21^st of July in 2006 during the recent conflict in Lebanon. During that briefing she said “What we're seeing here, in a sense, is the growing - the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do we have to be certain that we're pushing forward to the new Middle East not going back to the old one.” Part of the mystery about her for me is does she have any idea of the real import of what she said and how it coincides with Bible prophecy?