On July 14, 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement was signed between Iran and the P5+1 nations and the European Union. The P5+1 nations include the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council—United States, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China—plus Germany. The agreement became effective on October 18, 2015, during the same general time frame that saw the end of the Jewish Shemitah year and the occurrence of the last two blood moons of the tetrad series which occurred over the last two years. Is the timing of the Iran Nuclear Deal just a coincidence or is its concurrence with these other events signaling a major step forward in the unfolding of End Times prophecy?

There is no doubt that Iran is predicted to be an important nation in the Last Days. The nation is clearly foretold to be an evil adversary of Israel at the end as well as one of the key participants that will start World War III in the early days of the Great Tribulation. Their hatred toward Jews and Christians, and anyone else that doesn’t share their Islamic philosophy, drives them to fund global terrorism and build up their military to extreme levels—including the development of nuclear weapons. Iran’s stated vision is to bring about the end of days by destroying Israel and conquering the world for Islam. In this perverted view of the end, they say that only then will their Islamic messiah Mahdi come to rule over a worldwide Muslim Caliphate. Adam Berkowitz, writing for Breaking Israel News, said that Iran believes that the “time before the arrival of the Mahdi will also see a great war in Syria and Iraq that will destroy both countries, accompanied by a great fire and ‘redness in the sky’.” It is no coincidence that in End Times prophecy these same nations are now the central focus of much conflict in the Middle East; however it is not the Koran or the followers of Islam that have the truth of prophecy—for Mohammad got his ideas from the Bible and then corrupted them; it is Biblical prophecy alone that contains the Word of God, and it is the only source of truth that reveals what is about to happen.

Today the nation of Iran exists in the same general region in the Middle East as the heart of the Persian Empire centuries ago. In fact, Iran and Persia are basically synonymous, with the descendants of the Persians making up the majority of the population of modern Iran. Until relatively recently in history Iran even called itself Persia. The nation actually changed its name in 1935 to reflect the historical term used by the Persians to describe their people, which was ērān. The reason this knowledge is significant is that the Persian Empire was predicted by the prophet Daniel to be the second of four successive future empires that would detrimentally affect the people of Israel from his time until the Last Days: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and the Roman Empire (Dan. 2:26-45; Dan. 7:2-14).

In addition, the prophet Ezekiel predicted that in the Last Days Persia would still be a major enemy and threat to Israel. He prophesied that Persia would be aligned at the end of the age with an extremely powerful and evil empire to the north of Israel as these nations launch a combined attack (along with other axis nations in the Middle East) upon the reborn land of the Jews (Ezekiel 38-39). In the sections on World War III and particularly in the section entitled The Attack of Russia, we saw that this northern power which was prophesied by Ezekiel perfectly correlated with the modern nation of Russia.

Ezekiel prophesied that Russia along with a number of key allies will descend and attack throughout the Middle East and ultimately go up against the nation of Israel. This conflict will result in a massive World War, which will culminate in the complete defeat and destruction of the Russian Alliance. Unfortunately, however, this war will also cause the deaths of at least one-fourth of the world’s population, both from the direct effects of the military battles within the Middle East and from an ensuing global nuclear exchange between Russia and the West (Rev. 6:8; Rev. 8:7-12).

These End Times prophecies dealing with Russia and Iran have been basically understood for decades, but the alliances in the Middle East described by Ezekiel had not fallen into place until very recently. Iran had been a staunch ally of the United States up until the Islamic Revolution, which culminated in the formation of the Islamic Republic on 1 April 1979. On November 4th of that same year, Iran took 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage and held them for 444 days. From that point on, Iran became an enemy of the U.S and the West. In addition, although the Soviet Union was the first nation to recognize the new government in Iran, the Islamic Republic did not immediately fall into the camp of the Soviets. After the fall of the Shah, Iran considered Russia to be incompatible with Islamic principles, because the Soviet’s represented a mainly godless and atheistic government. So even after Iran became an enemy of the West, they did not become an ally of Russia.

In addition, with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989 and the severe economic conditions that Russia experienced after the breakup, they pulled away even further from supporting their other Arab allies in the region. Prior to that time, every major Arab-Israeli war had been financed by Russian aid to the Arabs through tremendous military support supplied to almost any enemy of Israel. After the Soviet Union broke apart, however, the most Russia could do was to indirectly support terrorist groups and foment anti-Israel sentiment. In fact, no full-scale Arab-Israeli wars occurred after 1989, because Russia was essentially no longer able to finance them or supply military equipment. In the last few years, however, this all changed. With the recent upheavals and revolutions taking place throughout the Middle East, and also with Obama’s almost complete withdrawal of the U.S. from the region, the influence of Russia has suddenly grown again in a dramatic way. With Putin now in charge of Russia and wanting to restore his country’s former power and glory, they are once again sending significant military aid to the enemies of Israel.

Historically, Russia has not been as active in supporting Iran as they have been in supporting the other enemies of Israel in the Middle East. But very recently they have become a major trading partner and a provider of military aid directly to Iran. Today, the very same countries that Russia is supporting in the Middle East correlate precisely to the exact regions that Ezekiel predicted to be allied with the future northern power in their attack upon Israel. All of these regimes are certainly anti-Israeli, but they have also become vigorously anti-West and particularly anti-U.S. In recent years, Russia has supplied Iran with ballistic missiles and even helped them build nuclear power plants and aided in setting up centrifuge facilities to enrich uranium. On April 13, 2015, Russia even announced that they were going to supply Iran with their S300 missile defense system. All of this has facilitated Iran’s nuclear program and helped tremendously in building their military capability.

Russia is now the primary supporter and ally of Iran (along with additional aid from China and North Korea). The effect of this aid has been to set up one of the most dangerous enemies of Israel with the potential to get the most powerful weapons in the world. The Iranian Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has stated that the goal of Iran is to destroy the nations of Israel and the United States, whom he calls the Little Satan and the Great Satan. The Nuclear deal reached with the P5+1 group does nothing to quell the nuclear option from Iran’s goals. In fact, it opens up over $150 billion in financial aid from the U.S. and renewed trade with the rest of the world to further strengthen their military ambitions. The military alliances that Ezekiel predicted are for the first time falling into place to be ready for the attack of Gog and Magog and the final battles of the End Times. We have waited decades to see this alignment occur, because we knew it had to fall in place to fulfill Biblical prophecy.

It is also interesting that the major nations of the United Nations’ Security Council along with the European Union reached this deal with Iran, even though it does little to eliminate the nuclear threat. What this deal really does is that it helps to establish Iran as a powerful ally of Russia and potent enemy of Israel, just as Ezekiel predicted.

Jesus also prophesied that the world at the End Times would be as it was in the days of Noah; the people of the world will march forward in the Last Days toward the end without realizing that they are about to be snared in its trap (Matthew 24:37-39). The P5+1 nations are proud of their deal with Iran, but little do they know that it finally sets up the alliances necessary to fulfill the Bible prophecies concerning World War III and Armageddon!