When news came that Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf had begun touring the Middle East peddling his own peace initiative, I didn't pay much attention. Yet as the reports of his official visits began to mount Read about it here, I began taking notice. I realized there might be something more going on.

The idea that came to me was the Western and moderate Arab leaders may feel they need a Muslim to carry foreword their peace scheme in the Muslim Middle East. But, even so, what was Musharraf proposing? Well, now we may know. Musharraf apparently is telling his fellow Muslim states, in order to establish the UN's "comprehensive" peace -- as called for in UN Resolution 1701, the time has come to recognize Israel Read about it here.

Friends, I've been reporting the Middle East peace process since I began my newspaper columns in 1991. What we're seeing today is unprecedented in the history of the Israeli/Arab struggle. In my last commentary, I said it was time to wake up and smell the biblical roses. I was speaking to unbelievers. Today, I'm saying it to the church.

What many don't realize is God sometimes gives us what we want, even when it's contrary to His will. In the book of Psalm we read:

So they [children of Israel] ate and were well filled, and their desire He gave to them. Before they had satisfied their desire, while their food was in their mouths, the anger of God rose against them and killed some of their stoutest ones, and subdued the choice men of Israel (Psalm 78:29-31 New American Standard Bible).

God allows us Christians to have the teachers we want too. Paul tells Timothy:

For the time will come when they [professing Christians] will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires ( 2 Timothy 4:3). 

Hal Lindsey's, The Late Great Planet Earth, became a global, number one best seller. When I read it, I remember thinking the time wasn't right for the things to happen that Hal wrote about. My reasoning was, the Bible suggests the end time events will happen when God's people aren't watching. And at the time, Hal seemed to have the whole world watching.

My book, Recommendation 666, records events happening in Europe and the Middle East almost exactly as Hal's book foresaw. And instead of being a number one best seller, I posted it for free to get more people to read it. But, if the events that I've been reporting are the fulfillment of the prophecies, this would be the very situation that I was expecting.

Friends, if the Arab world is preparing to recognize Israel, it may be time for us Christians to smell the biblical roses.