The Whirlwind of the Lord, by Wilfred Marks, Jr.: Question has been asked by many concerning the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Particularly, if it has any bearing on Bible prophecy. We believe it does and will try to offer some views to that end.
First: One wondered just who are the people involved in the conflict. To answer that will first require a brief history of that region.
Like the Middle East, the Balkan region is a crossroads between different races and cultures. For those of us who accept the message concerning the identity of modern-day Israel with the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Celtic and kindred peoples, it is plain to see that the area of Eastern Europe is directly in the path that the House of Israel would have taken during their migrations following the Assyhrian Captivity.
In 721 B.C., the Assyrian empire carried the House of Israel (as well as most of the House of Judah) into captivity. In so doing, Israel was deported from Palestine to the area north of the Caspian Sea (referred to as Arsareth in 2 Esdras 13:46). From that area, they migrated over the course of centuries through Europe to where (nationally) they became concentrated in the British Isles, Germany, and other European countries...
Pockets of people descended from Israel are scattered in many nations throughout Western Europe and Eastern Europe in places like the Balkans, as well as areas of European Russia; most notably the Ukraine.
But in crossroads areas like the Balkans, different invaders brought diffferent customs and religions which have been imposed upon that region. For instance, the area of Kosovo is termed to be mostly Muslim. But, in fact, the people in Kosovo (unlike the Arab population of the Middle East) became Muslim not so much by choice but as the result of invasion.
The majorityh of strife in the Balkans stems from the split of the Roman Empire between the Western Empire with its capital in Rome, and the Eastern Empire which became known as the Byzantine Empire. The Eastern Empire was founded in 324 A.D., when the Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, made the city of Byzantinium his new capital and changed the city s name to Constantinople (now modern-day Istanbul in Turkey).
The Eastern (Byzantine) Empire survived the fall of the Western (Roman) Empire. Rome, however, was revived under the power of the papacy. But from the 8th century on, a growing division between the Roman Catholic Churcha nd the Eastern Orthodox Church based in Constantinople was taking place. The split became permanent after what is called the Great Schism in 1054 A.D.
In 1202 A.D., Pope Innocent III authorized the Fourth Crusade during which Constantinople was captured (April 13, 1204) and pillaged. The crusaders had traveled through the Balkans on their way to Constantinople, but not before attacking the city of Zara in the province of Dalmatia (present day Croatia).
In 1261 the Greeks recaptured Constantinople and the Eastern Empire recovered until 1452 when the Ottoman Turkish Empire captured the city and pressed north into the Balkans establishing Islam as the new religion. Thus, in the Balkas you have three religions in play: Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam; each with different provinces within the Balkans favoring one or another religion as different empires held sway.
The name Yugoslavia (first adopted in 1929) means land of the south Slavs. The Slavs were originally Asian and migrated to portions of Eastern Europe long before the Houjse of Israel began moving through that region as the Slavic languages are found in Europe before 1000 B.C. In Primogenesis by Mr. Howard Rand, we are told concerning the descendants of Noah s son Japheth: The descendents of Japeth spread out and inhabited the coasts and isles of the sea. (Tarshish was one of Japheth s dscendents). This would include the coast of Europe; also Rhodes, Cyprus, Armenia and north and south of both the Caspian and Black Seas. The Hebrew race eventually came into contact with the descenents of Japheth after the fall of the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah; particularly the House of Israel as they migrated across central and southern Europe. (Howard Rand, Primogenesis, p. 665, Plate 3)
So perhaps there is a connecton between the descendants of Japheth and the ancient Slavic people. At any rate, the Slavic peoples living in Eastern Europe were conquered by the Huns in the late 4th century A.D. When the Hun Empire dissolved after Attila s death in 453 A.D., many of the Slavic peoples, now free, began to migrate into the Balkans in the 6th century A.D., where they began to evolve into a grouping of different kingdoms.
The Croatian kingdom became established in the 10th century and was(and is) strongly Roman Catholic. In 1089 A.D., it became part of Hungary and after 1527 was ruled by the Habsburgs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Closely associated with Croatia is Slovenia. It became strongly attached to the Holy Roman Empire and became ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs in the 13th century until World War I.
The next major group are the Serbs. Also a Slavic people,they settled the area in the 7th century and fell under the influence of the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire. Serbia s rulers converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and thus Serbia and Russia both are Orthodox Catholic.
The Serbs then became absorbed into the Ottoman Empire until breaking free in 1829. For 500 years Turkish/Islamic rule affected Serbia, yet the Serbs were still able to retain some degree of self-rule.
The next major territory is Bosnia and Hercegovina (usually just called Bosnia). The Austro-Hungarian Empire first held sway; then, during the Ottoman rule, Bosnia s rulers became Muslim, while the peasantry remained Christian.
Like the smaller province of Kosovo where the present crisis is centered, Bosnia is a mixed bag of Slavic peoples divided up between allegiance to Croatia and the Roman Catholic Church; to Serbia and the Eastern Orthodox Chruch; as well as to Islam.
In Bosnia there is a larger Croat population, but in Kosovo there is a larger ethnic-Albanian population which is Islamic in religion. This is because Kosovo (like Albania on its southeast border) is further south than the other Yugoslav provinces and was more greatly affected by the Islamic Ottoman Empire.
It has been these mixed bag provinces in the former Yugoslavia where the major problems have occurred. It was in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo where the Archduke of Austria was assassinated on June 28, 1914 (by the Jews -WM), thus leading to World War I. (The real reason for World War I was the Germans were planning on building a railroad from the Middle East to Germany and this the Jews could not have, as it would interfere with thier control of trade in both areas -WM)
During World War I, Croatia being part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Bosnia being mostly Islamic fought on the side of the Axis powers. It was the Serbs who fought against Germany. They did the same in World War II when Hitler tried to overrun the Balkans. During that time, the Croatian regime collaborated with the Nazis and many atrocities were committed against the Serbs.
It was the Serbs who led the opposition against Hitler and tied up a considerable amount of German troops in the Balkins during World War II. The Special Office Brief for January 14,1995 commented: The Bosnian Serbs had the unequivocal support of all Western Liberals before 1914 and between 1914 and 1918. They had it again during theWcond World War in particular aginst the Croats who were enthusiastic Nazis.
Suddenly in 1992 the Bosnian Serbs lost favor with Western Liberals who discovered quite a passion for Moslems and Coats. Quite why no one knows.
This Office advises it to be dangerous to take sides. It could easily lead to a Third World War just as intervention of Russia in 1914 led to the first and that to the second.
No conceivable Atlantic power strategic interest is involved in the Balkans and no humanitarian cause is served by feeding the parties in conflict. It merely prolongs it. Incidentially, certian interests (Jewish interests -WM) make a good deal of money out of so-called humanitarian exercises. It is a highly profitable business.
Of course, following World War II, Yugoslavia became Communist. The Yugoslavian Communist Party (LCY) was led by Serbian Josip Broz (Tito). Yet, despite being in Russia s Communist bloc territory, Tito was able to keep Yugoslavia independent from Soviet Russia s iron rule.
With Tito s death in 1980, the Yugoslav prvinces over which the LCY had been ruling from Belgrade began to break apart along their old religious divisions. First Croatia and Slovenia began to separate. When the Servian Communist leader, Slobodan Milosevic, opposed, Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence in June 1001 and were recognized as independent nations in January 1992 by the European Union.
Croatia s Serbian minority (backed by the Serbian-led Yugoslav army) opposed the separation, and the present Civil War began.
Bosnia and Hercegovina also declared independence on March 1, 1992, but since Bosnia has more of a mix of Muslim Slavs, Croatians and Serbian-Orthodox Slavs, thta region (like Kosovo) has degenerated into a complex and bitter conflict as Serbia wishes to retain control within those areas.