As per world history, civilization started in Mesopotamia, which means ‘between the two rivers’. Those rivers are Euphrates and Tigris and hence the area is modern Iraq and Iran.
That harmonizes well with the Biblical Record. In the Bible the area is called “Shinar”. In Chapter 2 of the First Book of the Bible called “Genesis” in English, Verse 10 states about a river that flowed out of the ‘Garden of Eden’ and divided into 4 branches. The rest of the Verses give their names and two are Tigris [also called Hiddekel] and Euphrates. We do not know what happened to the other two ‘Pishon and Gihon’. The ancient empires such as Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Achaemenid or Medo\Persian all started in the Middle East and even Greece has ties there.
With the rise of the Roman Empire, the West came into prominence and ‘Western Influence’ has impacted most of the world since then. Initially that influence was within ‘Religious and Philosophical’ spheres. Though Socrates was a Greek from Athens, he is recognized as one of the main contributors towards ‘Western Philosophy’.
Socrates and his famous pupil Plato, along with his pupil Aristotle, who was the teacher of Alexander the Great, are generally considered to be the greatest contributors towards ‘Western Philosophies and the Educational System’.
CHRIST Ministered in Israel and on the ‘Day of Pentecost’ Peter, a Jewish Fisherman from Galilee, Preached in Jerusalem, but a ‘Westernized Version of Christianity’ has spread throughout most parts of the world. The other ‘Branch of Christianity’ is Greek Based and is generally called ‘Greek Orthodox’.
Thus the “Original Jewish Aspect” was mostly eliminated. A good example being the phrase ‘Day of Pentecost’, which is Greek based. Jewish People have been Celebrating that FEAST since the time of Moses, as GOD Told him to write down HIS {GOD’S} FEASTS in Leviticus [3rd Book in the Bible] Chapter 23. That was about 1400 years BEFORE Peter Preached that day in Jerusalem and the Biblical\Jewish Name even today is “FEAST OF WEEKS”, as it has to be Celebrated 7 WEEKS after another Great FEAST “Passover”. But MOST Christians are NOT aware of or conscious of that aspect.
As the FOCUS of the WORLD MEDIA returned to the Middle East in the last century, “Completing the Circle”, it would be interesting as well as advantageous to look at “What Happened” in the Middle East, from the beginning of the last century.
Ottoman Turkish Empire controlled practically whole of the Middle East from 1517 onwards. With the beginning of the First World War in 1914, the ‘Situation of the world’ that existed until then, BEGAN to change.
By the end of 1915 it became apparent that the ‘Allied Forces’ (England, France and Russia) could win the war against Germany and its Allies. The Ottoman Turkish Empire had allied itself with Germany.
So England and France with the consent of Russia and Italy also giving tacit support, wanted to draw up a PLAN in order “To partition the Ottoman Empire into ‘spheres of their own’ influences”.
A ‘Secret Treaty’ was planned towards the end of 1915 and the British diplomat Mark Sykes was sent to Beirut, Lebanon, where he met up with the French counterpart Francois Georges-Picot and the discussions began on Tuesday the 23rd of November. Six weeks later, on Monday the 3rd of January 1916, the ‘Final Draft’ was initialed by the two of them, with the British Government ratifying it on the 9th and the French on the 16th of May 1916, which was even BEFORE the war ended and the Treaty came to be known as “Sykes – Picot Agreement”.
It is said that upon returning to London, Mark Sykes was asked by Winston Churchill, who was the Home Secretary then, “What have you two decided upon?” and Sykes had replied saying, “We have decided to draw a line from the ‘e’ of Acre (the port on the Mediterranean) to the final ‘k’ of Kirkuk”. That latter city became well known, when ISIS captured the area some years back. Churchill had asked whether they had taken into consideration the ”Religious and Tribal differences”, as most of the Middle East had ‘Sheikdoms’ from the ancient past. But the answer is not known, most probably because there was no answer, as they might not even have considered it.
What was called the ‘British Empire’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), comprising of the Armies of Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand, under the British General Edmund Allenby started out from Cairo in October 1917 and conquered Beersheba in the southern Israel and the Port City Jaffa. Moving on from there, General Allenby entered Jerusalem through the Jaffa Gate on the 11th of December. Proceeding from there he occupied the Jordan Valley during the summer of 1918 and went on to defeat the Ottoman Turkish army and also to capture Damascus.
Sir Edmund Allenby
After WWI, the ‘Sykes-Picot Agreement’ got implemented and the modern countries in the Middle East came into existence, with the following countries receiving ‘Independence’ mainly from Britain and others from France, whilst some of them came into existence with new ‘Geographical Demarcations’:-
Egypt in 1922; Turkey in 1923; Lebanon in 1930 (Received independence from France though only in 1943) and Iraq received its independence from Britain in 1932. It is said that was because King Faisal of the Saudi Kingdom convinced the British to do so.
In 1937 Syria [Biblical Aram], which was also known as ‘Levant’ was recognized, though they received their independence from the French only in 1945.
After WW II ended on 2nd September 1945, ‘The Emirate of Trans Jordan’ was established with the Hashemite Emir Abdulla I, the great-grand father of the present King Abdulla as its leader, in 1921 and became a British Protectorate. After gaining its independence in 1946 it came to be known as “The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan”.
With regard to Israel, many proposals were put forward like the “The Balfour Declaration”, but nothing practical was done by the British, who had control of it. But as it became ‘too hot’ for the British to manage they handed the ‘issue’ over to the UN.
Consequently the ‘Motion’ called “Resolution 181” was passed on Saturday the 29th of November 1947 to “Re-establish the State of Israel”, which was declared as such, on Friday the 14th of May 1948, by the First Prime Minister of Modern Israel David Ben Gurion, standing under a photo of Theodore Herzl, from the then capital Tel Aviv.
The most interesting point is that ALL these things WERE PREDICTED practically 2000 years BACK, BY CHRIST HIMSELF.
The Gospel of Luke Records that CHRIST stated the following in Chapter 21, Verse 29 to 31:-
“And HE spoke to them a Parable; Behold [Look at] the Fig Tree and all the trees. When you SEE them shoot forth [putting out leaves], you know that summer is near”. “Similarly when you SEE these things come to pass, KNOW that The Kingdom of GOD is NEAR”.
Throughout Scriptures “Fig Tree” symbolizes the ‘Nation of Israel’, as most would know. ‘All the trees’ apparently are the surrounding nations, as they seemed to ‘disappear’ during the Ottoman Turkish Rule and ‘Reappear’ after that empire ceased, as detailed above, just like normal trees lose their leaves during the season called ‘autumn or fall’ and shoot out the leaves in ‘spring’, the season before ‘summer’, as THE ABOVE QUOTES OF CHRIST INDICATE.
Now the question is “WHAT Would Happen NEXT?”
At the conclusion of the article in the ‘other section’ it was stated, “The scenario in the Middle East would change”. HOW THAT ‘WOULD HAPPEN?’ will be covered in ‘THAT Section’.