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The first time in the 9 years that The A-O Report has covered a new year, this year was devoid of a look ahead for the new year and what to expect based upon current trends.

Going into 2010, the trends seemed to lead nowhere or towards oblivion. Geo-politically, the Middle East was and is trending towards some sort of military clash, most likely by mid-year, but perhaps sooner. The data for this was actually somewhat mixed, for the most part because we’ve seen such indications for the past 3 years, since the 2006 Summer War. With each New Year’s start we’d note the trend pointed towards either conflict between Israel and Iran or Israel and her neighbors or both.

This year was no exception, other than the intensity of such reports coming against “preace-nik” rhetoric of the White House and indications that the Obama White House would do everything possible to prevent Israel from launching any pre-emptive military action against Iran. This left us concluding that the “Mideast Trend” was too clouded to be able to discern any trend direction.

Without a trend direction for the Middle East, all other trends become clouded also. Why? Because, the future is predicated upon what happens to Israel and Jerusalem.
What happens to Israel and Jerusalem, from a prophetic perspective in the ‘End Times”
can have a direct bearing upon all other aspect of human life on Earth. This includes not only geo-politics worldwide, but also on economic, health, education, science, and even the weather.

So, until we could get a better understanding or see a lifting of the fog surrounding the trends for Israel and Jerusalem, we were really at a loss to make other trend projections.
There seemed to be a sense that 2010 could well be the pivotal year or turning point for fulfillment of Biblical Prophecy in a larger sense because of the seeming trending implications for Israel leading to a major war in the region with the potential to become a global war and or even more so – the possibility that we would see The Magog invasion of Israel and the fulfillment of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39 as a possible prelude to kick-off the destruction of Babylon, the rise of the Antichrist and the start of the Tribulation Period as well as the Rapture of the Church.

At the moment, it seems 2010 is shaping up to be a year of absolute chaos. We see trends for war between Israel and her neighbors that will shake every facet of human activity.

In the event of war, we see all other societal trends being thoroughly disrupted. How so?

In the event of war, Iran will most likely shut off the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. This will have immense consequences for the world’s economy. Oil prices will skyrocket into the stratosphere and become so expensive that world’s economies will collapse. No one will be able to afford gasoline and in fact, gasoline may be hard to find. Shortages of oil will impact on the ability to manufacture electricity, heat homes, manufacture goods and to transport goods or people anywhere.

It will dramatically affect the ability of farmers to grow crops or bring them to market. It will affect the ability for farmers to raise and sell livestock for meat. Food products could be difficult to find and almost unaffordable for purchase. The same could be said for all other manufactured goods as well as major human services including health services, transportation services, even law enforcement services.

A major war in which Iran could successfully close off 40% of the world’s oil to the world simply makes all trend predictions meaningless. We see, the trends for such a war reaching a level of what seems to such a certainty that it seems meaningless to make such trends forecasts.

There are also trend indicators along economic lines that point to the potential for a total meltdown of the world’s financial system with major crisis points developing with the change of each quarter of the year. 2010 could be a meltdown year for the world’s economy, regardless of what goes on in the Middle East.

Additionally, we’re seeing tell-tale indications that even if the economy sputters along and there is no war in the Middle East, the weather trends and farming conditions are such that we could see chaos developing over food shortages by the end of the year, depending on the weather and final harvest outcomes. There are indications that much of the US Department of Agriculture’s official reports have been falsified to reflect a status quo of optimism. We know that the government has admitted that 15% of last year’s corn crop remains on the ground, unharvested and is now a waste, yet USDA reports include that 15% as part of the harvested crop and has failed to write it off as unusable. Similar indications point to shortfalls for soybeans, wheat, citrus, vegetables and other crops.

So, the world’s food stocks are vulnerable to major shortages in 2010 and beyond unless the world’s weather is exceedingly cooperative in the northern hemisphere this year. The weather in the southern hemisphere continues to cause havoc with agriculture down under in South America and Australia. Much of the food situation depends on harvest outcomes in America, Canada, parts of Europe and Russia. America’s harvest though, will be the key factor. It is far beyond our abilities at The A-O Report to predict or extend trends on weather, so we can’t really provide a trend forecast on this sector either.

So, with the current factors in geo-politics, economics and agricultural weather, we’ve reached a point where trend forecasts are essentially meaningless and of no real value because there are indications that all trends will crack up and collapse. This is unlike any year, we’ve ever encountered. You might say, that the trends point towards great potential calamity and chaos in 2010 leaving no real sense of where things will go once chaos or calamity is encountered.

Whether or not the year 2010 actually witnesses such a war, or economic collapse or agricultural chaos, the likelihood for something in at least one of those areas is so significant that this year we see no reason to project any trends given the greater potential for chaos. Even if we make it through the year without a major war in the Mideast or an economic collapse or manage get through the year with decent crop harvests, such problems will most likely remain in 2011 and even into 2012. In fact, the potentials may grow even more precarious with each succeeding year.

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It seems that the situation in the Middle East is moving towards war. More than likely, the outbreak of war will involve either Israel’s neighbors launching a pre-emptive attack on Israel or Israel launching a pre-emptive attack on her neighbors. We’ve picked up substantial intelligence reports indicating that Iran wants its proxy forces of Hezbollah and Hamas to launch pre-emptive military action before Israel can launch its own attacks either on Iran’s nuclear facilities or against Hezbollah and Hamas prior to a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Our intelligence contacts in the region and around the world all point to one side or the other starting something, most likely in the first half of this year. More specifically, we’ve been hearing intelligence reports via the “Arab” street that Hezbollah is planning to launch an invasion of northern Israel perhaps as soon as mid-March or some time thereafter.

Conversely, we’re also picking up reports that Israel is planning pre-emptive action against Hezbollah, Syria and Hamas sometime in May or June during the “dry” season when Israeli armored units will not get mired down in muddy conditions. According to what we’re hearing, Israeli planners intend to launch an all-out, no-holds-barred lightning invasion of Lebanon that will take a few days to achieve total encirclement and then the destruction of Hezbollah forces while threatening to take out Damascus, Syria. Once Israel’s neighbors are subdued, Iran’s nuclear facilities will be targeted.

Whether or not such military action develops or not, remains an unknown. Yet, given the recent developments in the region: especially with the U.S. rushing defensive anti-missile defenses to the region, the indications are such that an outbreak of hostilities seems very likely at some point, sooner or later.

There is the distinct possibility that a war could easily suck Turkey into the conflict, and perhaps all other nations mentioned in Ezekiel’s Magog prophecies. It is theoretically possible that any conflict this year could evolve into the fulfillment of the Magog prophecies of Ezekiel 38 and 39. If so, other prophetic fulfillments could precede or follow such an event.

It is theoretically possible (from scripture) that the Rapture of the Church could take place before the Magog invasion. It is also theoretical that the first judgment on Babylon-America could unfold prior to the Magog Invasion and in fact trigger such an attack and of course the rise of the Antichrist comes at the time of Babylon’s first judgment.

Will all of this happen in 2010? We don’t know and this website is not making any predictions. We only mention that some or all of this is theoretically possible in ways we’ve not seen in years past. If we manage to get through this year without a clash, the pressures will likely grow even greater for something to bust open next year or the following year in 2012.

With all of this in mind, it behooves those of us who are Believers in Jesus Christ to be watchful, on alert and be of like mind with other believers and witnessing whenever possible to others the message of salvation by grace through faith alone not by human effort. It does seem certain to us, that – time is short – and there is still much work to do while there is still time left.

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Should military action break out in the Middle East this year, The A-O Report will provide ongoing coverage. If we get advance indications of military action, we'll move into a "YELLOW ALERT" phase with increased news coverage and articles postings as needed on a daily basis throughout both the YELLOW ALERT and actual war coverage. Our war coverage will come under the RED ALERT program in which we'll post all available information as immediately as possible on a daily if not hourly basis.  _

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