COMING SOON: WHAT DID WE LEARN? WHAT SHOULD WE HAVE LEARNED?

The United States, Israel, and the Middle East

There are books you write.

And then there are books that begin teaching you while you are writing them.

My upcoming book, The United States, Israel, and the Middle East: What Did We Learn? What Should We Have Learned?, has unexpectedly become that kind of book for me.

As I have walked through thousands of years of biblical and world history—from Abraham and ancient Persia to the rebirth of Israel, America's recognition of the Jewish state, the wars of 1967 and 1973, the Iranian Revolution, and now Iran's growing influence throughout the Middle East—I have repeatedly found myself asking:

Why haven't we learned?

We have the history.

We have the records.

We have the documents.

We know what happened.

We know what decisions were made.

We know which assumptions proved wrong.

We know what followed.

Yet generation after generation, humanity seems determined to repeat many of the same mistakes.

George Santayana famously warned:

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Perhaps our problem is not that we have forgotten all of history.

Perhaps our greater problem is that we have remembered the facts without learning the lessons.

HISTORY IS NOT DEAD

That has become increasingly clear as this book has developed.

History is not merely a collection of names, dates, wars, presidents, kings, treaties, and fallen empires.

History is yesterday explaining today.

Consider what we have already encountered.

Ancient Persia once helped the Jewish people return home.

Modern Iran once maintained a working relationship with Israel.

The United States recognized Israel in 1948, but recognition did not instantly produce the strategic partnership we know today.

America opposed Israel during the Suez Crisis.

The Six-Day War transformed the region in 1967.

The Yom Kippur War of 1973 brought a Middle Eastern conflict directly into American homes through an oil embargo, gasoline shortages, and economic consequences.

Then came 1979.

The Shah fell.

Ayatollah Khomeini returned.

The Islamic Republic emerged.

America lost one of its most important regional allies.

Israel lost an important regional partner.

And Iran began a transformation whose consequences are still unfolding before us.

Does any of that sound irrelevant to today's headlines?

Hardly.

THIS WEEK: IRAN'S LONG REACH

This week's progress has brought the manuscript through:

Chapter 17 — Iran's Long Reach: How Tehran Learned to Fight Without Sending an Army

This chapter asks a deceptively simple question:

How can Iran threaten Israel when the two countries do not even share a border?

The answer takes us across the Middle East.

Lebanon.

Syria.

Iraq.

Gaza.

Yemen.

Iran learned that influence can sometimes travel farther than armies.

Through relationships with governments, political movements, militias, and armed organizations, Tehran gradually developed the ability to exert pressure far beyond Iran's own borders.

Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Relationships inside Syria and Iraq.

Support for Palestinian armed organizations.

The Houthis in Yemen.

Different peoples.

Different histories.

Different relationships with Tehran.

They should not all be carelessly lumped together as though Iran simply pushes a button and everyone responds.

But taken together, they reveal something important:

Iran developed reach.

And suddenly the hundreds of miles separating Tehran from Jerusalem became much less comforting.

THE MAP DIDN'T CHANGE

Iran did not move closer to Israel.

Israel did not move closer to Iran.

The geography remained essentially where it was.

The strategy changed.

Missiles travel.

Drones travel.

Weapons travel.

Money travels.

Technology travels.

Ideology travels.

Influence travels.

And sometimes a nation can create enormous pressure without moving a single conventional army across its own border.

That is one of the realities readers will encounter as this book moves closer to the world we are living in right now.

AND HERE COMES THE BIGGER QUESTION

While writing these chapters, something has been gnawing at me.

I kept seeing patterns.

Governments mistaking silence for stability.

Leaders underestimating resentment.

Nations assuming today's ally will remain tomorrow's ally.

Powerful countries making decisions whose unintended consequences appear years—or decades—later.

Military strength being confused with political wisdom.

Historical grievances being ignored until they explode.

Ideologies being underestimated.

Warnings being interpreted through assumptions rather than assumptions being tested against the warnings.

Then I would look at today's world.

And sometimes I wanted to ask:

Haven't we seen this movie before?

Different actors.

Different technology.

Different administrations.

Different flags.

But human nature?

Remarkably familiar.

My Grandmama used to tell me:

“Ain't nothing worse than an educated fool.”

The older I become, the more wisdom I hear in those words.

Education can give us information.

It cannot guarantee wisdom.

A nation can possess universities, intelligence agencies, military academies, historians, economists, diplomats, satellites, computers, and mountains of classified information...

and still make a foolish decision.

Knowing history is not enough.

We must learn from it.

THAT IS WHY THE SUBTITLE MATTERS

When this project began, I did not fully appreciate where the journey would take us.

Now I do.

What Did We Learn?

And perhaps the more uncomfortable question:

What Should We Have Learned?

Those questions are becoming the heartbeat of this book.

Not:

Which political party was always right?

Not:

Which nation was always wrong?

Not:

How can we force every headline into a Bible verse?

And certainly not:

How can we make prophecy say something Scripture never said?

Instead, we are asking:

What happened?

Why did it happen?

What happened next?

What did people believe at the time?

What assumptions were wrong?

What consequences followed?

What does Scripture actually say?

What remains uncertain?

And what should we learn before history presents the examination again?

WE ARE NOT AT PROPHECY YET

Some readers may already be wondering:

Pastor, when are you getting to Ezekiel?

I know.

Persia is on the page.

Iran is confronting Israel.

Nations are moving.

Missiles are flying.

The temptation is enormous to open Ezekiel 38 and start connecting dots.

Not yet.

That is intentional.

Before we ask whether today's events correspond with biblical prophecy, we need to understand enough history to recognize the difference between:

PROPHECY — what Scripture explicitly establishes.

POSSIBILITY — what may reasonably fit Scripture but cannot yet be stated with certainty.

SPECULATION — what may sound convincing but lacks sufficient biblical support.

The Bible does not need sensationalism to make it powerful.

And prophecy does not need our help to come true.

WHERE WE ARE HEADED NEXT

The next chapter brings three words together:

Bomb.

Missile.

Strait.

Iran's nuclear program.

Ballistic missiles.

Israel's security fears.

America's involvement.

And the Strait of Hormuz—a narrow passage capable of affecting economies thousands of miles away.

The pieces we have been carefully placing on the board are beginning to move toward one another.

Soon we will reach the biblical and prophetic portions of this journey.

Daniel.

Ezekiel.

Jerusalem.

Gog and Magog.

Persia.

Wars and rumors of wars.

The nations.

Technology.

Economic control.

Armageddon.

The return of Jesus Christ.

But we will not rush there.

We are going to earn those pages.

Scripture first.

History honestly.

Possibilities carefully.

Speculation clearly identified.

And Jesus Christ at the center.

PERHAPS HISTORY IS TRYING TO TELL US SOMETHING

This book is increasingly becoming more than a study of the United States, Israel, Iran, and the Middle East.

It is becoming a mirror.

Because after examining what previous generations did, eventually we have to stop pointing backward and ask:

What are we doing?

What assumptions are we making?

What warnings are we ignoring?

What hatred are we allowing to grow?

What consequences are we creating for people who have not even been born yet?

What will historians write about us?

And if the Lord tarries, will another generation look back at our decisions and ask:

“How could they not see what was happening?”

Perhaps they will.

Unless we learn.

That is why I am writing this book.

And increasingly, it is why I cannot wait to place it into your hands.

COMING SOON

The United States, Israel, and the Middle East

What Did We Learn? What Should We Have Learned?

History brought us here.

Scripture tells us where history is ultimately going.

The question remaining is deeply personal:

What will we learn before we get there?

---

Pilgrim Outreach Ministries International
Your Feet to the Nations

🌎 Ministry: pomitaly.homestead.com
📚 Bookstore: thewilltosucceed.homestead.com
📰 Ministry Blog: joybells49.blogspot.com

Knowledge and Wisdom in Book Form

@BibleGateway @YouVersion @Israel @StateDept @UN @USNavy @USArmy @USAirForce @USMC @USCENTCOM @Jerusalem_Post @TimesofIsrael @CBNNews @ChristianityToday @BillyGraham @Franklin_Graham @DecisionMagazine

#ComingSoon #NewBook #ChristianBooks #BiblicalHistory #BibleProphecy #Israel #Iran #MiddleEast #UnitedStates #WorldHistory #LearnFromHistory #HistoryMatters #BibleStudy #ChristianAuthor #Geopolitics #Prophecy #Ezekiel #Jerusalem #JesusChrist #EndTimes #ChristianLiving #Faith #Wisdom #PilgrimOutreachMinistries #YourFeetToTheNations