Dictators feed on weakness. Hitler did so when Neville Chamberlain brought home to England the document he excitedly waved to the crowd and cameras, declaring: “We have peace in our time.” Stalin did it when he began the purges of the 1930s, eventually murdering at a minimum 30 million of his fellow Russians while the political and military leaders around him did nothing out of fear of what he would next do to them.

Fear, then, is the key to weakness. Franklin D. Roosevelt had it right when he pronounced, “We have nothing to fear but fear, itself” during the time of the Great Depression and the lead-up to World War 2. Fear-engendered weakness is the bane of mankind, and there is only one who can deal with it effectively.

Jesus said: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim 1:7). Tragically, the diplomatic world, as all other entities of the humanistic kind, will never take this truth into account in dealing with international crises, or any other kind of crisis. Satan is the chief ruler of the darkness of this world, and he more often than not blinds the minds of men and women to the truth that God, alone, has the answers to the problems festering and bubbling upon Planet Earth.

Thus it is with no great wonder that we observe the goings-on in diplomatic circles, while they attempt to deal with the likes of the young North Korean dictator and his possibly lighting off nukes in this fearful world. For the “international community” to have done otherwise than come up with absolutely toothless sanctions against North Korean regimes surprised no one. That they did formulate such an impotent action certainly didn’t surprise the Iranian Mullahs, who, no doubt, carefully viewed the matter at the time of the “sanctions” with much pleasure.

The Iranian dictators, you see, like all other tyrants, feed on fear and fear-mongering. They are of their father, the devil, and that father of lies–Satan—knows that fear sucks the life from humanity, replacing it with a vacuum, a void into which dictators and demons always rush to fill. Make no mistake, the King of Persia, against whom Daniel the prophet and the messenger who brought him prophetic truth from God struggled, is alive and well in the Middle East. That demonic force’s fellow minions strike fear into the rest of the world, making Paul’s forewarning more true than ever in our day: “For we struggle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12).

Bible prophecy predicts a time when the world’s diplomats will show their weak-spined impotence. It will be at the most fear-filled moment in history for the nation Israel. We who study current issues and events through the magnifying glass of God’s prophetic Word believe that future time of Israel’s greatest danger will involve many of the devilish antagonists that are Israel’s avowed enemies today. And the assault will include some who today pretend to be the friends of efforts for world peace.

When the force comes like a great juggernaut toward Israel, the Neville Chamberlains of the time will protest. And, that is all they will do, in taking action against the blood-lusting force of evil. God’s Prophetic Word reports this future attack, and the diplomatic protest this way: “And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?” (Ezek. 38:11-13).

This apparently unstoppable force will, thankfully, be stopped. We believe the force to be led by the nation Russia, leading its confederates –including Persia (Iran, today) and many other of Israel’s enemies, to wipe that Jewish state from the map, then take the spoils of war. The intended spoils, no doubt, will mainly be the vast oil fields of the whole region. God, himself, the Ezekiel 38 and 39 Gog-Magog prophecy says, will destroy all but one-sixth of these forces.

Actions by the diplomats today, in dealing with the North Koreans, and next, the Iranians, is a foreshadow of things to come. They are not only setting the stage for the future leader called “Gog” to think his “evil thought,” and bring his coalition against Israel. The diplomatic actions in this regard, by the UN, and even the Obama Administration, in my view, are paving the road for Antichrist to one day take the opportunity to feed on the fears of the people of earth. The people left behind, following the Rapture of the Church, will, for the most part accept the peace made with death and hell (Isa. 28:15, 18). They will take the path of least resistance, and it will mean hell on earth for a God-rejecting world.

Jesus is the answer for escape out of such a future. He offers freedom from fear, and eternal life with God the Father.