Mahmoud Abbas, the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, held a private meeting with Pope Benedict at the Vatican and gave the Pope a passport to enter Bethlehem on his upcoming trip to Israel. The Meeting between was the first meeting between the two men.
In the twenty minute meeting between Abbas and Benedict the two discussed the Middle East peace process and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the Pope stressing the need to integrate all components of the Palestinian people into the peace process. A reference to extremist elements like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. The Palestinian leader briefing journalists after his meeting with the Pope, stated that Pope Benedict with his symbolic weight can carry out a decisive role for peace in the Middle East.
Jimmy's Prophetic Prospective on the News
Pope Benedict discussing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas at the Vatican in Rome, has an interesting significance for the End Times scenario found in Bible prophecy. In 1982, the late Pope John Paul held the first of many meetings with the late Yasser Arafat, a meeting that sparked protest in Israel and across the Jewish world.
John Paul consistently championed rights for the Palestinian people. It is strange to see such a revered religious leader meeting with a known terrorist leader and to some extent encouraging his cause. However, it is not so strange when one adds to the equation the prophetic scenario that can be found in God's Word for the End Times for these two entities, the Vatican and the Palestinians.
Bible prophecy says a religious leader from Rome will come into the Middle East to help with the peace process, which is the event that starts the seven year Tribulation Period, a time of judgment on earth that follows the Rapture of the Church, Daniel 9:27, 11:40-45, First Thessalonians 2:4, Revelation 17.
A meeting at the Vatican in Rome between Pope Benedict and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas does indeed help set the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled.
