Looking back on 2012, we will see that the signs indicating the approaching Second Coming of Christ continued to accelerate during the year of 2012.

World War III

Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.

Revelation 9:13-16
We know three things for certain about the Sixth Trumpet War from this prophecy: 1) The war will kill one-third of the human race. 2) It will begin from the area of the Euphrates River. 3) An army of 200 million soldiers will participate in this war.

Four nations house the Euphrates River: Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. The prophesied war will begin from one or more of these nations.

Between the civil war raging in Syria and the dispute over Iran’s ongoing nuclear enrichment, the Euphrates River Basin has been the number one focus of the world’s attention throughout 2012.

Iran
The United Nations, led by the United States, has levied four levels of economic sanctions against the nation of Iran because it has refused to stop its nuclear enrichment program.

Both Israel and the United States have said that they would not allow Iranians to develop nuclear weapons, even if military action were required to stop them.

Most observers believed Israel would attack Iran’s nuclear facilities in the spring of 2012 before Iran was able to move its enrichment facilities underground. However, the United States urged Israel to wait, giving diplomacy a chance. Israel, not wanting to alienate her number one ally, waited.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu focused almost his entire speech on the Iranian threat at the UN on September 27, 2012. His graph, showing Iran’s progress toward obtaining enough nuclear fuel to build a nuclear bomb, was reproduced on the front pages of publications around the world. Netanyahu’s graph depicted the red line when it would become too late to stop Iran’s drive toward possessing nuclear weapons.

During all this time of stalling and debate, Iran continued to enrich uranium and to move its enrichment facilities underground. It was reported that the critical enrichment facilities would be completely moved before the US presidential elections on November 6, 2012. Most Middle East observers believed Israel would launch its attack against Iran’s nuclear production capabilities before Iran became immune from an Israeli strike. However, President Obama did not want an Israeli attack against Iran and a possible full-blown war immediately before the presidential elections.

It is not known what President Obama promised in order to forestall Israel’s attack against Iran, but the strike never occurred. In his speech at the UN, Obama did promise that Iran would never be allowed to build a nuclear bomb or to possess the means of building a nuclear bomb.

Iran Reaches Immunity from Israeli Attack
In October of 2012, Iran moved the last of its centrifuges into the underground facility at Fordo. The event that Israel said she would never allow to happen had, in fact, happened. The possibility of an Israeli air strike against Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility had now been taken away. Israel’s choices were narrowed to a ground invasion of Iran, the use of nuclear bombs in a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the US conducting an attack on Iran, or accepting Iran as a nuclear power.

At press time, President Obama continues to insist that there is still time for diplomacy to work with Iran. The latest statement from the Obama administration was that Iran must begin to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by March 2013. However, so many deadlines have been set and broken that no one has faith in them any longer. Meanwhile, Israel’s options continue to shrink, and the fear in Israel grows that Iran will suddenly announce that she now possesses a nuclear bomb.

Attack on Iran in 2013?
Many political observers and even some government officials have expressed the opinion that the US will attack Iran sometime in the first half of 2013, if diplomatic efforts fail. Iran’s leaders have stated repeatedly that, if the US or Israel attacks Iran, it will trigger World War III. That leaves every person on earth with the disturbing question, “In the year 2013, will the conflict with Iran erupt into the Sixth Trumpet War that will ultimately wipe out one-third of the human race?”

Syria

If Iran does not serve as the flashpoint for the prophesied Euphrates River War, the expanding conflict in Syria certainly could. Since the demonstrations against the Bashar Assad government began in 2011, in excess of 40,000 Syrians have been killed. The West desperately wants to replace the Assad regime with a government that will be subservient to the UN.

Both Hillary Clinton and President Obama have stated emphatically that Bashar Assad must leave power. However, a UN resolution calling for Assad to step down was vetoed by Russia and China. Since President Obama is a firm believer in global governance, he has been unwilling to lead an invasion that the UN would not approve. However, the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey have supplied money and military equipment to assist the rebels in their war against Assad. Russia, in the meantime, has continued to insist that the Syrian conflict is an internal matter and that outside forces must not interfere.

Chemical Weapons

It has been known for many years that Syria possesses a large stockpile of chemical and biological weapons. President Obama has warned Assad against using those weapons in the Syrian conflict. He has stated this would be a red line for the US. Assad has stated that he would never use these weapons against his own people, but would feel free to use them if external forces invaded Syria.

Around the first of December, satellite reports indicated that the Syrian government had begun the process of activating its chemical weapons. It appeared this was happening because Assad’s hold on power was slipping from his grasp. Again, the US warned that the use of these weapons against the people of Syria was a red line that Assad should not cross.

As the conflict increased in intensity, Turkey requested that NATO move anti-missile defenses into Turkey along its Syrian border. NATO moved quickly to fulfill this request.

General Hassan Firouzabadi, the Iranian armed forces chief, said the planned deployment of NATO Patriot missiles along Turkey’s border with Syria “could lead to a world war.” Firouzabadi said Iran wanted its neighbor Turkey to feel secure but called for NATO not to deploy the Patriots in its easternmost member state, which also borders Iran. “Each one of these Patriots is a black mark on the world map, and is meant to cause a world war,” he said. “They are making plans for a world war, and this is very dangerous for the future of humanity and for the future of Europe itself.”

Firouzabaki’s remarks were accentuated a few days later when it became known that Russia had sent a dozen mobile batteries, each carrying a pair of Iskander missiles, that were fixed into position opposite Turkey and another dozen, opposite Jordan and Israel. The West and Israel have no answer for the Iskander’s hypersonic speed of more than 1.3 miles per second with a 280 mile-range and a 1,500-pound warhead, which destroys targets with pinpoint accuracy. It is also nuclear-capable.

The thing that makes the Syrian conflict so dangerous is the potential of drawing the major powers into conflict. The US has 12,000 troops poised along Syria’s southern border with Jordan and 400 troops manning the Patriot missiles in Turkey, while Russia maintains its deep-water naval base in Tartus, Syria, with several hundred Russian marines on the ground there. Additionally, Russian specialists accompany the new Iskander missiles just installed in Syria.

Complicating the situation even further, Iran has several thousand of its elite troops in Syria fighting alongside Assad’s forces. In addition, Iraq is serving as a corridor for the shipping of military equipment into Syria. As we can see, this means all four Euphrates River powers have been drawn into the Syrian conflict.

Do all these factors indicate that we are on the brink of the Euphrates River War spoken of in Revelation 9? The possibility seems very strong. If the conflict in Syria or in Iran erupts into full-blown war, the possibility of one-third of mankind being annihilated in 2013 becomes very real.